It had been a few days since she had gone "outside," and so far, not much had changed. XJ9 still went through the same schedule as she usually did, with little tests, ducky time, bottles of oil to drink, a nap, and repeat until the next day. Today had started the same as usual, and she was now playing with her duck. The test she had just finished involved her matching up cards, one would have a picture and the other one a word. She was glad that she was done with it, in all honestly the card test by far was her least favorite. She didn't like reading all that much as the letters always seemed to rattle around in head as her scanning mind figured it out.

Now that she thought about it, anything that made that processing part of mind takes over bothered her. Yet, she couldn't figure out why. No matter, she let go of the thought and focused on her duck. The bright yellow plastic was starting to fade a little where she had always held it, and sadly its squeak wasn't as loud as it used to be. It made her a little sad when she noticed these things, but she still absolutely adored it. She hugged it close to her and rubbed the top of its head gently only to stop as soon as she heard the door open.

Wakeman walked in with an excited look on her face as she walked over to her. XJ9 watched the woman quickly type something into the computer with a grin on her face. She racked her brain for any reason why the woman was so happy. This hadn't been the first time that the lady was happy when coming to see her, but she was never this happy. Looking closer at the concentrated typer, she had bags under her eyes and looked like she was ready to pass out. The lady clearly needed to take a nap, the thought made her yawn, maybe they could take one together. She would like the company and the warmth that the woman always somehow had.

"XJ9."

She turned away from her duck with a sleepy look on her face. Wakeman looked confused for a second before checking her watch.

"I suppose it is getting closer to your recharge, well no matter, we can at least get you settled in."

Now, she was the confused one as the lady shut off the computer and came closer to her.

"I have a special surprise, you XJ9! You are going to be absolutely thrilled."

Her face turned into a scowl at the woman's words. From her experience, the lady's surprises usually resulted in a new test or something that kept her from playing with her duck.

"What's with that look, young lady? You'd think you'd be a little excited for a surprise."

She ran the situation through her brain and decided it couldn't be that bad. If the surprise was a new test, it would have to wait until after her nap. The woman was very strict with nap time, something about a sleeping schedule, and adjusting, and she wouldn't be able to finish the test before then. If somehow it wasn't a test, at least she'd get something new out of it. She gave Wakeman a small tired smile, and when return one, it made hers grow bigger.

"Come along, XJ9."

She slid off the table onto her feet and only stumbled a little this time. The first time she had slipped off of it, she fallen right onto the ground, had spent fifteen minutes crying, and had latched herself onto a slightly exasperated Wakeman. It took another fifteen minutes for the woman to pry the clingy robot off of her, hey she liked cuddles what was wrong with that. Anyway, she followed the woman up the stairs to the room with the closed-off windows. She stopped believing they were there, only to be surprised when motioned to keep following. Now, this was getting interesting. They walked up the staircase that she had seen before, but had never tried to go up and down an entirely new hall. It was long with so many doors and rooms, reminding her of the strange white place with the angry little man running it. They stopped in front of a door.

"XJ9, I must admit you performed remarkably for your first try at the headquarters, and so I decided to speed up your lessons a bit."

She frowned, she knew it was going to be a new test.

"Therefore, to continue with your lessons, you'll be moving into your base of operations."

The base of what now? Wakeman opened the door and walked inside, she followed her, and her jaw dropped. She stared up through green-tinted windows at the sunny sky and the few clouds floating around up there. XJ9 had never seen such a big view before she was stunned. She had pulled her eyes away from it to look around at everything else.

The room was so different from the one she had been staying in and from the "living room" downstairs. A bed was pushed up against a wall, and the sunlight fell down on its walls from giant windows above. It was covered in the color purple along with the walls, and seemingly hundreds of monitors and machines were hiding them. All of the monitors were lit up, each displaying a new place to her.

She didn't bother with reading the labels for the area instead scanning over all of the videos as fast as she could. They were so many places she has never seen, and all of them were even different from each other. She scanners raced to identify everything it could as she couldn't decide what monitor to focus on. Her eyes darting around as she ran around to each one of them.

"XJ9, Are you listening to me?"

She screeched to a halt and about tripped over her own two feet. She hadn't even noticed the lady had been talking for the last minute or two. How could she pay attention to her, though, there were so many things that demanded her attention now. Her eyes flicked from the woman to a monitor as she bounced in place. The woman shot her a disapproving look, and she stopped bouncing.

"XJ9, please don't start."

It was too late; she hadn't meant to upset the lady, especially not after the woman had given such a pleasant surprise. She fell onto the ground as tears started pouring out of her eyes. She hadn't meant to. There was just so much to see and do, and, and...There was no excuse. The lady was upset with her now, and she'd probably take the surprise away. That thought made her cry harder, somehow.

Within seconds the woman walked over and picked her up, and she clung to her. She didn't even know why she was crying so hard. Wakeman had been upset with her before, and she had never had such a fit. Her scanners had caught up with her, and suddenly her head was filled with tons of information. Too much information, it made her head hurt, combine that with her earlier tiredness, and she found herself overwhelmed.

She sobbed and tried to curl into the lady tighter. It was too much; she wanted to sleep just sleep and let everything be okay. The lady mumbled some words to her that she couldn't make out over her sobs, but the tone of her voice was soft and comforting. She rubbed her head, and she closed her eyes. The overwhelmedness and the woman's actions reminded her of when she had first woken up. With that thought, she closed her eyes and entered sleep mode, hoping that everything would still be there when she woke up.

Author's Note- Hey everyone, sorry that it took so long to update. I hope you've all kicked off 2020 with a blast! Please leave a review. They really help. Thanks for reading.