Thou shalt obey.

The day grew to night and yet nothing happened. Everything stayed as it was before, expectant, still. The Doctor had not yet unleashed his army upon the Earth, yet Quote had not returned from the balcony above. Had he been killed along the way? If so, why hadn't the Doctor acted? Had a stalemate been reached? There was no way for the remnant residents of the Plantation to know. They had given it their all, now all they had to do was wait. Momorin Sakamoto and Itoh the engineer were camped out above their secretive hideout, no longer needing to remain inconspicuous. They had to stay closely around their rocket and protect it, for they would need it themselves to escape. Two bedrolls were laid out beside a burning campfire, giving illumination to an area that was usually pitch black at night.

A green-haired woman and a thin-looking mimiga were swaddled in their blankets, waiting out the night and knowing that they should sleep, but not having the inclination to do so. If anything took a turn for the worse they would not be able to notice it in their sleep. They were too edgy to sleep anyway. Momorin looked up towards the ceiling. Vaguely she could make out the shapes and outlines of the upper platforms above them, but it was too indistinct. She wished she could see the stars. All campouts deserved stars.

Her children had gone away from her and had followed their own paths to get off the island, and she could not control them, not in such a dangerous place as this. They had come here as researchers, but there were preparing to leave here as fighters. Kazuma had always resembled herself, a calm thoughtful boy who often tried to stay on top of the situation whenever he could. He was elsewhere on the island, formulating his own plan of escape. One of his rare and infrequent communications had mentioned dragons. Whatever he was doing, it was apt to be interesting.

Sue was different, though. She had always resembled her father, who had always been a fireblood up until the time he had passed away. She would try to save her skin and if possible, the skins of all those around her at the same time. She was not even meant to have come on this research trip at all, but if she had stayed behind there would have been nobody left to take care of her. Sue was strong, but she was still only just a little girl, not quite ready for the entire world just yet.

Sue… was she alright? Momorin had an awful feeling that something was terribly wrong. It showed up easily on her face as she stared up into the empty spaces, and then into the fire at her feet. Wherever she was, Momorin could only hope that somebody trustworthy was looking after her.

Itoh looked up from the very weakly brewed coffee that he had made over the fire. His supplies were running pitifully low and this thin drink was the best that he could manage. Even though he was now a mimiga, his love for coffee had not dwindled. His love for many things had not dwindled. He glanced over at his fellow researcher and noticed that she had barely touched her own cup of coffee. "You should drink that up if you want to be awake for the evacuation." He advised carefully, worried for her, but also wondering why she looked so worried herself.

Momorin heard his words and mechanically picked up her cup, holding it in her warming hands but not taking a drink out of it. "My mothers intuition is acting up like crazy, Itoh. I'm afraid something terrible might have happened to Sue. It's only a feeling I have, but I've learnt to trust my feelings a lot over the years." The female researcher was technically talking to her friend, but Itoh knew that she was mostly talking to herself. All he need do was listen to her. She stared down into her coffee, which looked more like very dirty water. "She's a mimiga now, just like you. What if she had been forced to eat a red flower? What would we do if she has?"

"Now now Momorin, we don't even know if the red flowers work on humans who have been turned into mimigas. We've never tested it before, and I really hope we never have to." As for her 'feelings', Itoh knew never to try and explain them away. He had seen them come out as true time and time again. You could always count on it. But where would that leave Sue? He hoped that she would be wrong, just this one time. Just enough to keep her daughter safe.

"In case you have to be the test subject?" Momorin said wryly, knowing that her friend had always been the textbook example of timidity. He had always been like that, even before the lecture she had met him at, many years ago. She could not picture this thin fluffy creature going on a wild rampage, no matter what kind of influence he was under. To this date caffeine was the strongest drug that he had ever been under the control of. Momorin smiled, her eyes softening. "Nobody would ever be able to use you as a weapon, Itoh."

"I am very grateful for that." He replied, relaxing. He wondered what it would be like, to completely lose one's mind and to simply be an empty vessel for destruction. It was a sobering thought. Hesitantly Itoh rubbed at his nose a little and added; "it's always at times like this that I wish that Jin was still around, here, with us. He always knew exactly what to do." Momorin looked up at him silently, then diverted her gaze to the side. The thin mimiga backtracked a little, mindful of his tact. "I'm sorry, Momorin. I didn't mean to bring it up so casually…"

"It's been five years. Don't worry about it. You don't have to speak of my husband so tentatively. You knew him almost as well as I did." If Itoh had been closer Momorin would have touched him affectionately on the shoulder. The three of them, Momorin, Itoh and Jin had progressed through their different scientific careers together, as the very best of friends. Itoh had watched his two closest friends fall in love, get married and have children. It had been a beautiful and uplifting time of their lives.

Then, five years ago, Jin had been killed in his workshop from a miscalculation in one of his projects. It had been tragic, and for a long time it seemed like the Sakamoto family would not recover from it, but Momorin had said her good-byes to the past and had led herself and her children into the future. It was a strength, Itoh had guessed, that she must have picked up from Jin just before he died.

Slowly, Itoh brought forward the idea that had been sneaking around about the back of his mind. He thought it might have just been a coincidence, but he wanted to see if his companion thought the same. "I remember that Jin was a roboticist. He created lots of different versions of robots for the government. He always thought that creating true life from unlife was the greatest power that a man could ever achieve. Do you remember that?"

Momorin smiled and nodded, taking a small sip of her lukewarm coffee. Jin had had his robots, and also his very own children to show for that. "Yes, I remember it." She said.

"Then…" The mimiga muttered, wondering how his friend was going to take this information. "That robot, the one who has sworn to protect this island and the people on it. Don't you think he looked a lot like Jin, back when the three of us had just gotten into college? I know it's been a long time since then and my memory might be questionable, but to me, that robot is the spitting image of him."

The female researcher did the exact opposite of what Itoh had predicted her to do and nodded, understanding perfectly what he thought. "I agree." She answered, wondering where that robot was and what he was doing now. "He looks just like my husband, or what he used to look like a very long time ago. When he knocked on the door of my hideout and spoke the correct password, when I opened the door to him it shocked me so greatly because I thought for the barest second that Jin had returned. It's silly, isn't it?" Momorin shivered, the fire and the blanket not enough to shut out the cold and her memories.

Itoh frowned and stood up, shaking off the woven blanket that was around his shoulders. He padded around the campfire and knelt beside his friend, drawing his blanket around her to shut out the cold. "It's not silly at all. Here, you're shivering. Does this feel better?" He asked.

"It does, but what about you, Itoh? You'll catch a chill…"

"I'll be alright. It doesn't look like much, but this fur that I'm covered in is remarkably warm. I can barely feel the chill at all." Not bothering to go back to his original spot by the fire, Itoh took a seat right next to his friend. It was easier to talk to her from here, and even though he was possibly sitting too close for a mere friend to be, the timid engineer felt that wherever he was, the spirit of Momorin's husband would not mind. The mimiga sighed. "So now we know who that robot's creator probably is. How do you feel about it?"

"How I feel about anything doesn't matter anymore when it comes to surviving on this island." She snuggled further down into her blankets, closing her eyes. "Yet even so, I feel like some small part of Jin has come back, and that even now he is trying to protect us. We, who have started this whole mess in the first place. Do we even deserve such protection?"

Itoh stared down at his white hands. They were weak and practically useless, even more so then when he had been human. What could he do with them now? "Momo." He said tenderly, using the name he and Jin had given her back when she had been young, wide-eyed and beautiful. She was still beautiful now, but they had all aged a lot since then. "I know I've always been a coward. It's just who I am, but if worse comes to worse, if something happens and you get put in danger, I'll try my best to protect you. I'll fight anything, if I have to. I don't know if I'd be of any use, as weak as I am, but I'd still try. I would be brave for you, Momo."

She turned to look at him. He was still staring at his hands in embarrassment, but there was also a sense of resolution about him as well. He really meant it. That gave the woman a surge of hope that nothing else could have matched, not because of the protection that he would provide her, but because Itoh was willing to get over a part of himself that had made him a lonely and lacking man for such a long time. She felt love for him, and even pride. Momorin freed one hand from the confines of her blankets and patted him softly on the head, an action that was usually saved for the family pet, but she just couldn't help herself. "Thank you, Itoh." She smiled. "You've always been a good man."

Together, the two friends waited out the night.

xxx

She was curled up in her bed with her knees drawn up high enough to touch her chin, her arms wrapped tightly about her shins. Her flaxen hair was messed up and it had been a long time since she had last brushed it. Things had been hectic recently, rushing forwards to a point that ten years in the dark had been unable to prepare her for. Curly was honestly surprised that the sudden flow of new data and memories that had been reintroduced to her hard drive did not end up completely burning out her processor. For the longest time she had only been able to lie there, just as she was lying down now, trying to sort and designate each new file and place it where it was supposed to be. It had taken a herculean effort, and in the end it had exhausted her.

It was still exhausting her, but she felt filled, whole and complete. Compared to her database now, the robot that she had been was only a ghost of a mechanism, an empty shadow. She was useful now, she felt ready to serve, but Quote had left her here, because no matter how much information she knew, she was still essentially useless. Curly could not kill a human being, but their mission specifically called for that requirement. Quote was incomplete, but in that incompleteness there had been a loophole in which he could save the island. An order that one doesn't know one cannot obey.

Curly had not been able to tell him this directly. Her companion had been sent off into the monster's den with only the vaguest idea on why she could not follow, because if she spoke openly of the Three Laws in his presence, he might remember them himself, and it would all have been for nothing. He had to remain ignorant, an amnesiac, at least until the island was free. Talk about the blind leading the blind!

What had touched her the most was that Quote trusted her, he trusted her secrets and he had put his faith into the idea that he was the only one left who could succeed. He had bought into her exclamations that he was the savior, the one who would free the island for good. Everybody who had wished for freedom, for a peaceful life had put their hopes and dreams into him and had made him a vessel for their liberation. It sounded like such a terrible burden. If Curly had been in Quote's place, she knew she would have buckled under the pressure.

But it was long into the night now, way past any estimated time she had calculated for Quote to emerge victorious. It had been many long, tiresome hours since he had left. The Cthulhu who had pulled her out of the water had left as well, heartlessly calling her a waste of his time. She didn't care about that. All she wanted was to know what was going on. Robots did not quite understand the concept of a 'sixth sense' that many humans frequently talked about, but if Curly had been human enough to understand it, she would have known that her own sixth sense was running rampant, screaming at her from her neural matrix that something had gone very wrong.

Quote had not left her here. He was going to come back to her, wasn't he?

She released her legs and sat up on the bed, brushing away her hair that had tangled about her face. It was far too dark for any human to see by, but Curly had activated her night vision after the sun above the island had gone down, leaving her entire world in an array of differentiating greens and shades of black. She could also see through heat vision as well, along with sonar, but this was simple, and also the best. She liked to be able to see as closely as a human could as possible. The robotic girl brushed her blankets aside and stood, removing something small and precious from the pocket of her pants.

The iron bond was their connection to one another, both as combat robots and as friends. When her memory had returned she had painstakingly crafted two trinkets that resembled one another, a tiny plaque that was small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, bearing the insignia of a human's heart. It had been her way of thanking him for bringing her out of the darkness, and also her way of keeping them together. Quote had one, and she had the other. Curly looked at her iron bond carefully, sitting within her cupped hands.

It had a hairline fracture upon it, dividing the little red heart in two.

The answer to her inner question was painfully obvious now. In the darkness of the night she bit her lip, feeling a cold shock of electricity running though her nervous system. Gently she ran her finger along the break, wondering how any outside force had managed to cause a crack in concentrated laconia. It was meant to be practically indestructible. Their own motherboards were supposed to be made out of the very same substance.

He has failed then. But the bond hasn't broken yet, so he must still be alive up there, somewhere.

Curly Brace stuffed the bond deep into the pocket of her pants, not wanting to look at it again. It gave her the surges when she did. The girl knew that it was ludicrous to believe in silly, unexplainable phenomena, but something in her proverbial gut told her that it was right. That it was perfectly correct. Quote was in danger, and somehow, very soon, he would probably crash and not reactivate again.

But I have the Three Laws. If it is a human that is hurting him, I won't be able to stop him, even if he is torturing Quote before my eyes. If I try to hurt a human I'll cease to function.

"But I'm gonna go anyway!" She exclaimed to herself out loud, in the making of an oath. He and her had been designed to function together no matter what, and that was what they were going to do. If Quote was hurt, she would try to repair him, and they would go after the Doctor together. There might still be time. The robotic girl turned and picked up her machine gun that was leaning carefully against the head of her bed, a huge weapon that was nearly as tall as she was. With her strength she could lift it easily. Curly unrolled the long body strap and fastened the tool to her back, so that she still had the use of her arms for climbing.

There was only one way out of Cthulhu's Crevasse. Running her fingers loosely through her hair to straighten it again, Curly set her foot on a large stone at the bottom of the gorge and began to climb, scaling the rocky wall as gracefully as a mountain goat. She was lifting her not inconsiderable weight over and over again as she climbed to the very top, while at the same time, she browsed her map system that was one of the rediscovered programs that she found in her database. There was nothing around her, nothing useful below her, so the only way to reach the balcony was directly upwards.

"Quote," she breathed through gritted teeth, focussing hard at her task at hand, "don't worry, I'm coming to help you!"

Soon, the sun would rise.

xxx

The combat robot materialized directly above his throne, dropping down a foot or so to stand gracefully on the monument's large stone headrest. The equalizers in his system were in superb working order, so his balance was nothing short of perfect. Smiling freely, Quote held a hand over his brow to look at the sunrise without the glare in his eyes, and the wide expanse of sky beyond. There were cities out there, countries too, that would be all his in only a matter of time. The small red scarf he was wearing tugged pleasantly in the breeze as he crouched a little, then jumped off the top of his throne to the stone floor below.

Sunrise from the balcony was always spectacular. Both parts of Quote thought it was beautiful, the human side feeling like this island was far closer to the sun than the surface was, so they were treated to a fiery orange sky lined with the remaining traces of dark night, dotted with barely visible stars. The clouds were bright pinks, the colour of cotton candy. All in all, it looked like something one would see in a grand oil painting, rather than real life. The robot side of Quote was startled out of his panic, having never seen a sunrise before in his entire life. He didn't know what it was. To him, it looked like the sky was burning and it confused him greatly.

Today was a big day for him, for them both. He was going to feed his mimiga army in the eve and unleash a plague of destruction upon the Earth in the dead of the night, so all the humans would be comfortably asleep in their beds, totally and completely unaware up until the moment in which they had their throats bitten out of their necks. Oh, how he had waited for this day!

For now, though, he was going to spend the day learning how to properly control his new body, and to figure out a way to dispose of his little host while he still had the free time to do so. He enjoyed this body very much, but having to carry a weak little secondary consciousness in his mind like a parasite was not too appealing to him. The night had been full of that voice's screams and wails.

Quote shrugged off the booster pack that was tightly strapped to his back and heard the large heavy piece of equipment clank to the ground, he would not need it anymore. Turning around to face it, he wrapped a hand around one of the arm straps and picked it up effortlessly, walking towards the very edge of the balcony. Below him and the stone platform was nothing, just empty open air. A sea of pink clouds covered up the green lands below. Quote held his arm out and dropped the piece of machinery, watching in an amused fashion as the booster fell out of sight and through the veil of mist.

That pack… I needed it to climb places…

It wasn't a scream. The voice was beginning to talk now. Perhaps it had gotten used to where it was. Quote went still as the robot made his meek little protest, then his mouth curved into a small smile and he wandered away from precipice. "I see you have finished screaming. We don't need it anymore." He replied a matter-of-factly and he felt the greater lightness about his body now that the pack was gone. "With the demon crown in our possession, unaided flight is easily within our reach. Doesn't that interest you?"

But I destroyed the demon crown. It is in a hundred pieces upstairs.

"That is both correct and incorrect. I expect you did smash it on the ground after you murdered my old body, but what is broken is easily fixed. If the demon crown really was destroyed, how would I still be alive now? Come on little robot, I thought you were more intelligent than that." Quote lectured condescendingly, placing one hand on his hip with the other one raised and wagging a disapproving finger. "I don't really want to go upstairs where my rotting old body still lies, so I'll show you what I mean right here and now. Look up."

The both of them looked up. There was a stone ceiling above their heads, supported by many strong pillars that were scattered all around them. Quote sensed the presence where the most magical energy was gathering at and snapped his fingers once, sharply and loud enough to make a faint echo that danced all around the area. Only moments after that, a very small tinkling noise was heard and a single droplet fell from an invisible cloud to the floor. Quote walked towards it and crouched down, resting his elbows on his knees.

It was a broken fragment of the demon crown, the deep red monstrous eye that had been set in its very center. It was winking up at them evilly, unblinking and wicked. Quote picked it up and held it in the palm of his hand. It felt very warm, like it had been recently heated in a furnace. He began to twirl it deftly in between his fingers as he stood up again, eye side, blank side, eye side, blank side…

It started to rain. The floor began to tinkle and sing to its own beat of music as other small fragments began to appear, bouncing and rolling about until it was time to sit still. Quote was standing in the middle of the storm, yet no broken pieces chose to fall against his body. They had more sense than that. The sequence of the falling pieces were lovely, making it sound like a twisted and immoral lullaby.

Like very powerful magnets, the pieces of the crown began to attract one another, creeping along the ground into the center, right in front of Quote's feet. They went slowly like bugs crawling across the ground, then they heaped themselves into a little broken pile of shards. The pile began to move, then shift within itself, trying to establish some kind of proper order. Pieces stuck together and combined as one, those combined pieces finding another similar to it and then combining to that one, until finally the unmistakable shape of the demon crown was sitting regally on the ground, a gaping empty hole in the center of its brow.

Quote dropped the red eye he was holding and it flew swiftly towards the last piece of the puzzle, completing it triumphantly. All the tiny cracks in the body of the crown glowed bright white for a moment, and then were suddenly gone. The red eye blinked once, lazily flicking its lashes, and opened wide once more. Quote knelt and picked up the crown, holding it carefully in both hands. "Voila." He said, smiling smugly.

The only reply that came from his host was a low feeling of despair.

xxx

The grass was coated with morning dew and it glistened brightly in the fresh air, causing the ground to look like it was painted over with a thin layer of misty crystals. Curly thought it was absolutely beautiful as she made her way through the verdant plantation, keeping one hand upon the strap of her gun just in case she needed to use it again in a hurry. She hadn't seen any nasty wildlife yet, so that was good. The robotic girl took a deep breath of fresh air. It felt just like going through a walk in the park. The only thing that would have made it perfect would be birdsong.

Only a few days ago this place had been run like a prisoner of war camp, the inhabitants being forced into the manual labor, growing and harvesting the forbidden red flowers that were destined to have driven them mad. Buds and broken stems of the plants still lay strewn about the plantation, but the blooming flowers had been picked, sorted and spirited away. It was so inherently saddening that the mimigas were creating the tools for their own destruction. If Curly had known and seen exactly what the place was like back before the population was taken away, she would not have been able to handle it. It would have been too much for her.

She knew this, so she tried not to think about it too much. Her processor sometimes crept back to that train of thought when she stopped paying attention, so she focussed all her thoughts upon the maps in her mind, the maps of the plantation, the pathway to the balcony, and the balcony itself. Curly had been walking for about an hour now, after she had climbed to the edge of Cthulhu's Crevasse. Soon she would reach the very center of the plantation.

There was a rocket-powered platform installed upon the crest of the hill, placed in the perfect spot where it would easily propel her up to where the path to the balcony lay. Climbing, jumping or using a booster pack just would not suffice. Quote must have used this same rocket the day before. Curly fell to her knees on the platform and looked around for the switch, finding it nestled carefully on a control panel just below the edge of the platform. Her questing fingers sought to flip the switch and send her far into the sky, where she would be able to continue with her plans in rescuing Quote. At the very last moment, though, she heard a gentle snore emanate from the other side of the hill, the sound of somebody enjoying a pleasant sleep.

Curiosity would up getting the better of her. Curly stood up from the rocket and quietly made her way down the hill, coming to a small and hastily made campsite. The fire was nothing more than a pile of soot and charcoal, but lying beside it all wrapped up in blankets was a green haired middle-aged woman. Judging from the small peeks of her clothing here and there from under the blankets, she appeared to be wearing a white lab jacket. A researcher, then. Beside her sleeping form, curled up and cuddled against her breast, was a strange looking mimiga who was also wearing a strikingly similar lab jacket. He was snoring a little, but not loud enough to wake the woman beside him.

Curly smiled, then pressed a hand to her mouth to keep herself from giggling out loud. It looked so cute! Were these the people who owned the rocket platform? If so, it would only be right for her to ask their permission before she blasted off, or else she would feel bad for it later. It would be like stealing. Utilizing as much grace as she could, Curly tiptoed to the woman and mimiga's side and settled down onto her knees, inspecting the thin mimiga very closely. She took a hold of his shoulder and shook him lightly, trying to wake him up.

He mumbled something indistinct and rolled over, away from his companion and into Curly's lap. She hesitated, and then becoming a little annoyed, sharply flicked one of his large floppy ears with two of her fingers. "Wake up!" She hissed, still trying to keep her voice lowered. "I really need to speak to you!"

The mimiga flicked his ear back to where it was supposed to be and opened his eyes groggily, mumbling and beginning to yawn. His hands came up to rub sleepily at his eyes and his blurred vision cleared, showing to him the unfamiliar visage of a plastic and rubber face with audio sensors and a lot of blonde hair, along with two shockingly blue eyes. The face looked particularly annoyed at him. "Get out of my lap." She said dully.

Itoh's mind made a very basic mental connection and he screamed. Fur standing on end, he threw himself out of Curly's lap and fell onto his back, scooting away with his hands and feet. "Ahhh! Killer robots!" He cried, trying to get as far away from her as possible.

Curly blinked, a little confused at his strangely violent outburst. "I'm not a killer…" She began, but then was cut off as the green-haired woman from before rose from her sleep, awakened by Itoh's cries, thought as fast as she could and hefted a small tough pebble directly at Curly head. It struck her audio sensor painfully hard and caused a shock of electricity to burst in her system, the equivalent of mild pain. The robotic girl cried out softly and rubbed at her head, hoping that the sensor had not been damaged. She needed it to listen to people.

Rising to his feet and scuttling behind the woman and shaking, Itoh watched the robot wince from Momorin's precision assault and then raise her hands slowly, a gesture that meant she had given up. Momorin tugged her blankets away and stood up tall, another spare stone still in her hand in case she had to attack again. They were weak weapons, but they seemed to be effective ones. "Who goes there? Who are you?" She demanded boldly.

"I'm not a killer robot." Curly repeated, hoping they would listen to her this time. "I'm a friend. I won't hurt any of you, promise. Cross my heart and hope to die. I just wanted to wake you up so I could talk to the both of you." The woman squinted her eyes a little, looking over the girl closely. Slowly she lowered the hand that had been holding the rock, then tossed it to the side. Curly let out a sigh of relief, and then gratefully lowered her arms. She was practically unarmed anyway. The only way for her to equip her machine gun was to do it while she was standing up.

Momorin stepped forward and sunk to her knees as well, the woman looking rather mussed up from only recently waking up, but she looked to be in a very reliable frame of mind. Itoh was holding both his hands to his mouth anxiously, as if trying to hold all his worry and fear inside. "Be careful, Momo!" He called, but that was the bravest thing he could do.

"Green audio sensors, the same build, the same size, basically the same shape," Momorin gently took a hold of Curly right arm and raised it, checking the very small barcode that was tattooed on the back of her upper arm, "the same series number, too. You are that other little robot's friend, aren't you?"

She brightened immediately, smiling. "You know Quote! Yes! I'm his friend, my name is Curly Brace!"

The female researcher let go of her arm and smiled as well, only now realizing that she looked an absolute mess. She started to brush her hair down that was sticking up in every which way, like a haystack. "So Quote is his name, hm? How strangely fitting. I'm sorry I struck you with that stone, dear. I thought you were one of the Doctor's henchmen and that you were going to take Itoh away. With Kazuma and Sue gone, he's the only companion I have left." Momorin turned to her friend and beckoned to him warmly. "Come on, Itoh. She's not going to bite."

He was still trembling a little from his unwelcome wake-up call. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather stay right here." He quavered.

"It takes more than a single rock to hurt me. I was built to be tough and strong." Curly reassured the woman cheerily, clasping her hands together. "I'm sorry I scared your friend, but it's important that I borrow your rocket just for a little bit." Her sunny demeanor drained out of her body as she spoke her next few words. "You see, I think that something bad has happened to Quote up in the balcony, and I want to check and see if he's alright. I'm worried for him."

"Yes," Momorin agreed, "if everything had gone smoothly, the mimigas would be free by now. Instead everything seems so expectant, so still. It is as if the whole island is waiting for something terrible to happen." The researcher stood, and Curly copied her. Raising a hand to her chin in thought, Momorin wondered what that terrible thing could be. They had all worked so hard to secure their lives. "Do you think Quote might be dead?"

Curly shook her head, at least certain of that fact. "No. He isn't dead yet. That's why I have to go to him as soon as possible. Please, can I use your rocket ship?" Momorin nodded and kindly took the robot's wrist, leading her up the hillside. Itoh stayed behind and started to clear up the campsite, hoping that time and a little bit of work would erase his nasty bout of the shakes.

When the mimiga looked up at them while he was rolling up the blankets, he got the distinct impression that it was like watching a mother leading her daughter to a place of great fear and terror, but where emotional growth would take root and flourish. Curly stood on the platform and was about to kneel down and flip the switch herself, but Momorin ushered her hands away. "You have to stand up tall if you want to fly high. That sort of advice is true in many ways than one. Good luck with saving your friend." She flipped the switch.

"Thank you, Mrs. Sakamoto. Jin would have been proud of you."

Momorin gasped slightly and looked upwards, surprised that the female robot had spoken those names. How did she know her name, and how did she know her husband as well?

It was too late to wonder now, for Curly was already gone.

xxx

"I get the subtle feeling that you are hiding something from me." Quote said.

The throne room was empty and cold winds from the motions of the floating island produced a constant chilly breeze. It had annoyed the Doctor in the past, but now it felt just fine. The throne was far too big for his new robotic body, but he managed it anyway, despite feeling like a small child who had crept into the larger seat of his father. His feet did not even touch the ground. Quote was sitting down calmly and looking deeply into himself, his central processing unit and the section of undefined space and time that his neural matrix had created to imprison his host. It was impossible to see into that darkness, or to be more precise, lack of data, but behind that black curtain somewhere lay the consciousness of the machine, blinded and held in chains.

Quote had the reformed demon crown resting in his lap, which he was absently stroking as if it was a pet dog or a cat. As long as it was close to him he could draw power from it, but he was slightly afraid to put it on again, not after it had nearly driven him to the brink of madness the first time. Besides, if he put the crown on again there was a good chance that the robot inside of him might start screaming again, and it was only recently that he had managed to get him quieted down. He needed the robot to be receptive now. To be quiet, to listen, and to speak. Just like a good little slave.

"It is not much, mind you, only one or two personal files that you have somehow managed to keep from me. Tell me, little robot, did you lock-and-key these files at the precise moment in which I began to rape your mind? What importance do they have to you? I should like to know." Quote said out loud, knowing that he could speak easily to the consciousness inside of him with a silent tongue, but the words seemed all the more valid and powerful when spoken into the air. Nobody would see him talking to himself, anyhow.

He expected silence, as the little robot had only had just enough time to come to terms with the theft of his body and his predicament. Quote could picture the machine now, sprawled and alone on the floor of his own prison, bewildered, far too tired now even to scream. It was almost as if he was there, drawing aside the curtain, looking through the bars. The red crystal in his chest glowed warmly in the lack of natural light. "You can tell me if you want to." Quote murmured in a gentle tone. "There's no use in keeping secrets from me. Talk. You know it is your duty to obey."

A dualistic stirring in Quote's processor, or inside of him, a tiny voice from the darkness called out, low and soft; There is nothing. There are a lot of things that I can't remember. What you are looking at is corrupted data.

Upon his marble stone throne Quote smiled, his eyes half closed in seeming tiredness or thought. He knew he was lying. "Think rationally, little robot." He explained in a simple manner. "You can keep things from me if you wish, but in the end it will all amount to nothing. I know there is nothing that can stop me now, but I wonder if you know that too? Or do you disagree with me, and that is why you locked up these small secrets?"

You will not escape from this. Somebody will come and they will stop you. They will. They will.

He removed the Polar Spur from his belt and held it in his hands. "You are sure? Then who are they?"

Silence.

"I anticipated that you wouldn't talk to me. Do you think that just because you don't have a body anymore I cannot hurt you without damaging myself? You would be so very wrong. I raped your mind once, and I can do it again, and again, and again, until that makeshift wall you have built will come crashing down upon you. Then I will know everything, whether you like it or not. Wouldn't you rather avoid the pain and obey me?" He felt a sense of defiance coming from where the machine's mind was. Haughty, righteous defiance. He was not going to talk, or for now he believed that to be so

He clenched his mind hard around.that sense of defiance, as hard as a curled fist or a closed hanging noose. He felt himself penetrating the other small consciousness, drawing inwards and occupying him. He heard the machine scream and try to pull away, but there was nowhere else for him to retreat to, for the Doctor was within him, and all around him too. He screamed again, but lower this time, ending up as something of a ragged sob. The palpable sense of defiance turned itself inside out and became the acknowledgement of pain, shame and despair.

Quote slid off the throne and carefully set the demon crown down where he had been sitting, knowing that he'd go back to it later when this little task was complete. He couldn't really deny the fact that making the little robot scream made him feel extra good inside. It was remarkably satisfying. He took the safety off his weapon and walked away from the throne a little, facing into the winds. Raising his free hand and holding it upwards, he made a small gesture that Misery would have been familiar with and materialized one of the mimigas from upstairs into the air in front of him. He watched the creature flop down on the ground and look up at him with an expression of bewilderment and surprise.

The files that were guarded by the original Quote remained locked and closed. That was to be expected. This was only the beginning. Quote cocked his head a bit, as if the tilt would enable him to think a little better. Likewise he pulled out from the robot's mind slightly, just enough so that he would be able to pay attention when he spoke. "Every time that I do this, I will begin to know you just a little bit better. Soon I will know everything. Are you listening to me?"

Stop it! Please, whatever you're doing to me just stop it now! I can't take it anymore, it hurts!

He looked at the mimiga that was beginning to pick itself up from off of the ground. It was typical of its species, small, white and pathetic. Nonchalantly he pointed his weapon at it and the mimiga froze just as a weak threatened creature was wont to do in times of distress. Quote knew who it was, because the little robot knew as well. It had lived in Grasstown, and a short while ago it had lost its keys. Now it was probably going to lose its brains out the back of its head. "If this pain you feel right now isn't enough for you to obey, each time I ask you a question and you refuse, I shall execute one of the mimigas that you wish to save."

The surge of emotion that came from the trapped robot was so great that Quote literally felt something rip apart inside of him and latch onto the circuitry that controlled his lingual unit. "No!" He cried in a voice that was loud, tormented and in pain. It touched upon his physical body for a single moment and then was gone, a blind swipe from the dark.

Quote blinked at the word that had not been his and the smiled nastily, back in control once more. "Is that a no against me not killing Santa, or a no meaning that you shall not talk?" He started to power up his gun, the energy cylinders beginning to grow warm.

No! Screamed the voice. No! No! No!

It sounded like it was broken, replaying the same short message over and over again. Quote felt that he was going to drive the little robot to insanity if he didn't stop soon, but he was not going to be the one to back down first. Santa backed away a few steps, his hands held up in a manner that begged not to be shot. The mimiga's fur was standing on end. "Hey…" Santa said in a low, masculine quaver. "Can't we talk this out? Put the gun down, buddy."

The mimiga yelped right before Quote released the trigger, vaporizing him on the spot. The smell of burning fur rose from the newly formed crater on the ground. There was not even a trace of the creature left. Quote opened the bolt of his gun and inspected the cylinders casually, then snapped it closed again. "You could have saved his life, you know." He murmured regretfully. "But instead you chose to be selfish. Next time I shall select a mimiga child. I have acquired plenty of them from the Sand Zone..."

The smaller consciousness was paralyzed, silent, holding its breath. Perhaps it was thinking things over. Finally it rose up and said; …The throne. Go back to the throne. I want to sit down…

It was not much of a request, so he decided to carry it out respectfully. Quote went and sat down, placing the demon crown in his lap lovingly. Kindly he removed all the pressure from the little robot's consciousness. He almost heard the robot sigh in relief. That was right. It was so much easier to just give in. "You refuse to show me two pieces of your accessible memory. I wish to know of them. Will you obey me?"

…I will…

"You will what?"

I will obey you.

"'I will obey you, master.'" He corrected arrogantly.

There was a very long pause, and right when Quote thought the little robot had changed his mind, he heard quietly;

I will obey you… master.

He had become a good little slave indeed. The protection over the two forbidden files was finally deactivated. They were opened up smoothly and methodically, a memory that was recent and sweet to him. If it were not for the torture and the threats, Quote felt that the machine probably would have never shown these files to anybody else. But he was exhausted now and ravaged, pushed to the edge and losing hope. For now he was too hurt, too beaten to care anymore. He was an innocent consciousness no more.

Quote could have read the files all by himself now, but he preferred to have it spoken to him by the wounded voice inside of him. It made the victory all the more sweeter. There is a second savior who was sent to this island with me ten years ago. Her name is Curly Brace and she is as I am, a combat robot. I have failed, but where I have failed she will succeed, because she is stronger than I am. When I do not return she will come here and kill you.

"And the second file?" A reluctant silence. He pressed his will against him again and the robot felt pain briefly, but did not cry out as he usually did. His mind was most likely becoming unfocused from the torment. "If she is coming then we will just have to be prepared for her. It's not a problem for us. Now, what is the second file?"

Curly Brace… she is… not like me. She knows… she knows them… she knows them all. I'm sorry, Curly… She knows, and she understands the programming that makes her complete. She can't kill humans. She can't hurt them at all…

…Ugh… kyaaaaaaa…

The voice in his head appeared to have fainted. Quote was relieved, it had been beginning to bug him. "Right." He said coolly, picking up the crown. "We will have fun destroying her. Rest now. I will make sure that you are watching, my friend. I know every byte of you now."

Quote smiled and took off his hat. Then, reverently, he placed the demon crown upon his head.