After weeks of planning and searching, they had finally done it. They had found the blueprints for AL-AN's new body. Robin frowned as she studied the PDA. Strangely, her displeasure... displeased him.

You dislike my species' form, he said, feeling irrationally wounded by her disapproval.

"No!" she insisted as her head shot up. He sensed blood rushing to her cheeks as she blushed. "I was just wondering where the female version is. There is a female version, isn't there?"

Her question only succeeding in confusing him further.

Female version? He scanned his data banks. Oh, are humans one of the primitive species who still attempt to distinguish between the sexes? He tried not to let his disappointment seep into his words, but Robin's indignation suggested that he had failed.

"Would you stop calling us primitive?!"

It was not a new argument between them, AL-AN trying to convince Robin her human body was inferior and her repaying the effort with anger. Perhaps she believed he was insulting her? This was not the case. AL-AN only noted the many obvious flaws in her human form so that, when they were finally able synthesise a new body for him, she would be willing to craft one for herself as well.

AL-AN had grown very… fond of Robin during their time together. More than fond. It would not matter to him if she were to construct his body if her feeble human body were to be irreparably damaged in the process. He would not occupy the fabricated body in such a case. Instead, AL-AN would choose to follow Robin into whatever oblivion she drove herself. He would not wish to live another lifetime without her in it.

His species had a word for the phenomenon where a person bonded so wholly and completely with another that their consciousnesses, their futures, became inseparable.

Love.

It was AL-AN's greatest hope that Robin might one day return his feelings. That they could truly transcend the self in the way his people intended – a task that would be impossible if she were dead.

Yet the more AL-AN tried to protect Robin from herself, the more reckless her behaviour became. As the search for the final components of AL-AN's body intensified, so, seemingly, did Robin's insistence on proving humans were tougher than he believed. It started with little things like waiting until the last minute to release her air bladder, nearly blacking out as she broke the surface. Eventually, it escalated to the point of attempting unnecessary vehicle repairs while a Shadow Leviathan stalked the waters nearby.

By the time they had the blueprints and necessary ingredients to synthesise his new body, AL-AN was half-mad with worry for Robin. He vowed to save her from herself, no matter the cost.

A task that would be easier to accomplish with a body of his own.

The moment of transference should have brought him joy. He was whole again! Except... he didn't feel whole. He felt as though part of him were still missing.

Robin.

Yes, his missed the brush of her mind against his.

He consoled himself with the knowledge that it would return when she had an Architect body of her own to inhabit. They would be part of the same semi-hive mind when that finally happened, able to touch one another's thoughts at will. And, if she were ever to return his feelings, that connection would allow them to become one in ways no human could understand.

The only obstacle remaining was Robin herself.

"The device remains at full power," he told her. "I could forge a stronger, more durable body for you," he offered. He had made the suggestion before, of course, but now that they were in the Fabrication Chamber, it was real in a way that would be difficult to refuse.

And yet refuse she did.

"Human bodies are strong," Robin argued, as expected. "And by taking away the threat of death, you also take away part of what it means to be alive."

Nothing they hadn't dissected a dozen times before.

"I am not trying to minimalize the human experience," AL-AN countered. "I am simply offering you a better option."

"You don't know that!" Robin snapped. "You don't know what it's like to be human!"

AL-AN approached the angry woman slowly. Deliberately. He towered her. "Neither do you understand what it is like to be an Architect. At least allow me the opportunity to show you what you're missing before you reject me a final time."

For a creature who had waited over a thousand years alone on an ocean planet, AL-AN had a surprising amount of difficultly remaining patient as Robin deliberated. She chewed her bottom lip a moment.

"How?" she asked.

Yes. AL-AN rejoiced. If she was willing to let him try, there was a chance her mind was not yet decided. Now all that remained was to decide it for her...

He took another step closer, bringing his hard, titanium-coated body so close he could feel the heat her body radiated. His own temperature was much lower, closer to the cool Arctic air outside the base. She shivered at his proximity.

"First, we will need to remove this," he told her, reaching for the zipper at the back of her wetsuit. She did nothing to stop him as he slid it down and shoved the rubberized material over her shoulders, exposing her bare flesh to the base's cool, recycled air. The way Robin's flesh reacted to the cool air, rising in tiny bumps fascinated him. He gently trailed a finger along her arm, earning a sharp intake of breath from her.

"What are these?" he asked. Instantly concerned, he scanned the room for infectious organisms but found none.

"Goosebumps," she replied. "Humans get them when they're cold. Or excited."

"Are you cold?" He immediately reached out with his mind, using the base's controls to increase its temperature.

Robin shook her head. "No, not really."

So, she was... excited?

That encouraged AL-AN to continue. When the wetsuit caught on her rounded hips, she assisted him by shrugging the clingy material over her hips and down her long legs. Then, she stood before him, naked.

She may be just a human, AL-AN thought, but her form was as close to perfection as one could get.

Robin gave him a cheeky grin. "Like what you see, Architect?"

He did. Very much.

Do something, he scolded himself, before you miss your opportunity.

"Did you know that what you call 'Architect' bodies have ten thousand minute sensors under their metal flesh?" He ran a palm down her side, from shoulder to hip, to emphasise the difference between their fleshes. Then, his hand dipped lower.

As AL-AN slipped one thick finger between the surprisingly hot folds of Robin's sex, a fine tremor rippled through his new body. What he hadn't mentioned – couldn't mention, if he wanted to make his point – was that Architects had twice as many nerve endings as they did sensors. Robin's heat had set every single one of his on fire.

She whimpered quietly, writhing against his hand as he worked her. He struggled to keep his own arousal at bay.

The purpose of this exercise is to prove a point, he reminded himself harshly. It is not to enjoy her impossibly soft body…

Then she moaned, "Al…" and he nearly forgot which planet he was on.

"These sensors," he all but panted, "are so advanced an Architect could bring a human body to the brink of sexual climax…" he worked to do just that, beyond pleased at how readily her body reacted to his ministrations… "only to walk away at the last second."

Except that wasn't how it happened.

AL-AN released Robin with the intention of walking away but, as he turned, her knees buckled. His biomechanical sensors responded instantly, calculating the rate of Robin's fall, her distance to the ground, and the likelihood of injury. He was not far from Robin, but his back was to her. Even with his advanced speed, there was a 7% chance he wouldn't make it before she hit the ground and a 0.8% chance she would sprain her wrist.

It was more of a risk than he was willing to take.

A pair of phase-arms burst from his back. They stretched and caught Robin 2.4 seconds before she would have hit the floor. He lifted her effortlessly over his head, bringing her face level with his. Her feet dangled well above the floor.

"It would appear your knees have gone... weak," he commented wrly.

"Don't you try to blame my species for that!" she said. "That only happens when the other person is very good at what they're doing – and that's, like, almost never."

AL-AN's pride swelled. He was very good, was he?

Which suggested that the human men Robin had been with (who, ALAN realised in that instant, he had a sudden and deep dislike of) were not.

"Nice arms," Robin said with sideways glance.

"Phase-arms," he explained. "They are just one of the simple tools available to Architects."

"Handy," she quipped.

AL-AN acknowledged her attempt at humour with a tilt of his head. He was still learning to recognise Robin's jokes, but the way one corner of her mouth quirked up into a crooked smile helped. She found her jokes amusing, even if he did not.

"Architect bodies have many tools at their disposal," he informed her. "Would you care to see them?"

There was a slight nervous hesitancy to her, "Um, sure."

A quick rush of sensation rippled through AL-AN as his phase-penis was released. Its arrival made the appendage brush against Robin's thigh and sent hot bolts of desire darting through him.

Hmm, he mused, perhaps human men are, in some ways blessed, after all...

Robin stared down at his phase-penis with a gasp. "Whoa."

"This modification was made for you," he told Robin. "Does it meet your requirements?"

Robin's cheeks brightened in a way that enflamed his ego the same way her casual movements against his phase-penis enflamed his ardour. "Uh, AL-AN... human penises aren't usually so... large."

He followed her gaze down. "It is perfectly proportionate," he pointed out.

"Yeah, it is..."

AL-AN tried to gauge Robin's reaction. Her pulse had risen, and her lips were slightly parted. Her eyes had dilated a fraction. She was aroused.

She was not the only one.

It was increasingly difficult to remember that he had crafted the phase-penis for a reason, one that was not pleasure – his or Robin's. He had to convince Robin to accept an Architect body before she got herself killed. Even if that meant testing her limits. She had tested her physical limits many times on 4546B. Now, it was time for AL-AN to test… other limits.

She intentionally slid one leg against his already erect phase-penis, forcing to him to supress a shiver of longing.

Perhaps he would be testing both their limits.

"I see that you approve," he said. "I intend to give you every inch of what you desire, Robin, but as I understand it, human males are incapable of creating lubricant to ease entry for their mates' comfort."

"Yeah, yeah," Robin said dismissively. "Human men suck, I get it." He'd made no progress convincing her that an Architect (specifically, him) would be a better partner than a human male.

Although that wasn't the point he was trying to make at the moment.

"That is true," he agreed, "but I simply meant that you will need to suck." Robin's eyes widened momentarily, then she smiled. It was the kind of smile she wore right before she went diving without a Rebreather or swam too close to a Cryptosuchus.

"You're in trouble," that smile warned.

Oh, I am well aware…

He lowered Robin gently onto a step and released his hold on her. When she sank to her knees, his phase-penis was at precisely the right height for her to reach out and grasp it in one hand. Still wearing that dangerous smile, she leaned forward to take AL-AN's "tool" into her mouth.

It took a tremendous amount of willpower to keep from groaning aloud as she swallowed him. As it was, he couldn't stop the strangled "Yes…" that escaped him when she wrapped one hand around the base of his phase-penis and stroked in time with the movements of her mouth.

Robin pulled back to grin up at him. "Maybe humans don't have it so bad after all, huh?"

Convince her, he scolded himself. If you don't, you will lose her. One day, you will lose her, and it will destroy you.

Shoving thoughts of his own pleasure as far down as they would go, AL-AN made his voice hard. "Don't they?" Grabbing her long black hair in one hand, he forced her head forward again. He urged her to slide her mouth along his phase-penis several times. Then, he thrust forward until it was as deep as her throat would allow and held her there.

"Architect flesh is cutaneous," he informed her. Her throat worked and her tongue lashed, driving him mad. Still, he held her firmly in place. "Imagine being able to traverse 4546B without the need for an O2 tank." As he spoke, AL-AN monitored Robin's health. She was getting closer and closer to losing consciousness. He wanted to push her just to the edge, without actually injuring her but it was a risky game to play.

Robin slapped his hard thighs frantically. He released her only because could sense her rising panic stealing away the last of her oxygen. She slumped when AL-AN withdrew and would have fallen forward had not he held her firmly in place.

"Don't you see?" AL-AN said, pleading. "Every day you wake on his planet, you put your life in danger by remaining in that fragile body. If you would just allow me to…"

She opened her eyes to glare up at him. They were hot with emotion. Instead of arguing, as AL-AN expected, Robin took hold of his phase-penis again and, without looking away, spat on it, working moisture up and down the shaft.

"Humans are nothing if not adaptable," she told him.

With a low grumble of frustration, AL-AN lifted Robin into the air and deposited her over a fabricator control panel in a swift, smooth motion. Her arms dangled, hair brushing the floor. Her rounded rear end was high in the air, giving AL-AN easy access to her swollen, welcoming sex.

He gave her no time to object. Stepping up behind Robin, he mounted her. With his forelegs hooked over her waist, he was able to press the thick head of his phase-penis against her waiting sex.

Robin laughed. "Your plan is to prove how inferior human men are... by fucking me with a human penis? I'm not sure you've though this throu- agh!"

He entered her with more force than was necessary. The saliva on his long shaft provided adequate lubrication – but even better were the warm, fragrant juices leaking from Robin's sex. They allowed him to delve deep into her but, once there, AL-AN found he was temporarily unable to move.

Perhaps, despite their frailty, human bodies have their advantages after all…

Being inside Robin was very similar to the sensation experienced when two Architect minds joined – but so much more intense for its physicality. He was momentarily lost in sensation.

Robin twisted, trying to look over her shoulder. "You know this only works if you move, right?" It was an open challenge.

One he was more than equipped to rise to.

AL-AN begin moving against, within, Robin in long, fluid strokes. He was relentless as he pounded against her, rejoicing in the panting little gasps each thrust earned from Robin's parted lips. Leaning over her bent form, he told her, "Unlike humans, who require eight hours of sleep in a twenty-four-hour cycle, Architects require only four in forty-eight. That means Architect lovemaking can last. Twice. As. Long."

He punctuated each word with a thrust of his hips.

"And, since our bodies are of particularly sturdy construction," he continued, "we can take much more punishment than humans." To prove his point, he increased the speed and force of his thrusts.

Robin was undeterred. She tried to brace herself against the fabricator, failed, and said to the floor. Even though she was helpless to even support herself, she still said, "Harder."

AL-AN obliged – though he could no longer remember which point he was trying to make. The only thing he knew absolutely was that Robin's body was short-circuiting his brain. He could think of nothing but proving that he was better than any human man who had dared touch her.

Grasping her hips in his hand, AL-AN pressed a pair of phase-hands to her back, bracing himself as he drove into her as hard as possible without causing permanent damage. He used his phase-penis like a drill, grinding and twisting until Robin cried his name.

"AL-AN! Please!"

"Please?" he taunted. "Please, what? Please stop? Has your weak human body reached its limits?"

"More!"

With a savage snarl that was part frustration, part painful arousal, AL-AN withdrew from Robin. She made a sound of disappointment at his abrupt departure, but it had barely passed her lips when, moving with a speed no human could match, he brought her up and around, slamming her back down on his shaft. She cried out at the sudden movement and AL-AN felt an unexpected rush of satisfaction.

For months, he had been forced to watch helplessly as Robin risked her life in increasingly reckless endeavours. He had received rebuttal after rebuttal when he asked her to join him as an Architect – an offer few had ever received. And now, joining her in the most carnal human sense, she still challenged him. Still taunted him.

To his shame, his reaction was neither as "sage" or "scientific" as she sometimes described Architects. It was instant and brutal.

"Sensors indicate a cluster of highly sensitive nerve-endings between your legs," AL-AN commented. His phase-arms supported Robin's back, bracing her. The second pair came up to hold her hips, taking over to free his hands. The phase-arms continued to bring Robin down to meet each hard upward thrust. "Shall we see if we can locate it?"

His hand dipped between them, delving between the folds of her sex in search of that tiny nerve cluster.

"Good. Luck," Robin gasped. She scrambled for purchase, but her fingers slid right off AL-AN's smooth titanium shoulders. When that failed, she reached up to grab his phase-arms instead, trying to brace herself against the onslaught. "Human men have been looking for it for- Ah!"

Robin bucked wildly against him as AL-AN's finger found what it sought. He flicked it once roughly, making Robin's breath catch. She tried to move away from his touch, nails scratching against his phase-arms.

"Do you dislike my touch, Robin?" His words were half teasing, half fearful.

"No! I…" she moaned low as he dragged his finger across that cluster. "It's… so sensitive it's almost too much."

Almost. That was an important distinguishment.

"Do you want me to stop?"

It was the wrong thing to say. He knew by the look that crossed Robin's face that she misread his concern for her safety as another slight against her species. She hooked her legs around his waist in defiance, trapping his hand between their bodies.

AL-AN did the only thing he could do. He gave Robin what she thought she wanted, working her with his finger and his phase-penis until her whole body was twisting, jerking, and quivering against him. The movements woke a similar madness in him. He no longer cared if she acquiesced; all AL-AN wanted was to join her on the wild ride their coupling was taking her on.

There was a kind of fever in his brain, making his thoughts fuzzy. The more Robin moved along his phase-penis, the worse the fever got. Soon, he found himself sinking to his knees, desperately trying not to beg her. (For what, he didn't know.)He tried one last time to control the situation – or to increase his own pleasure, he could no longer differentiate.

"I find another fault in the physiology of human males," he said. "Why would a human female be in possession of two entrances if a human male has only penis?" As he spoke, he summoned his second phase-penis.

Robin stilled the moment AL-AN's second phase-penis appeared, nudging her anus. "Wait, AL-AN," she began. "No, that's not how it…"

He was too far gone for logic. Perhaps he was overwhelmed by the extra nerve endings the addition of his phase-penises added to his physiology. It might have been as simple as a deep-seated desire to punish Robin for every second of fear she had forced him to endure these past several months. Or maybe he was suffering from some sort of brain fever. He certainly felt as though he were dying. His body offered him a chance to end the confusion and he took it.

Leaning back on his thick, wide tail for better leverage, AL-AN lifted Robin's rear end, positioning her against his second phase-penis, and thrust.

"Ah!

"Ah…"

AL-AN could not say whose cry was whose. He was so fully entwined with Robin that his only thoughts were pleasure, his and hers – though, at that moment, they were one and the same. Sensors bombarded him with readings from Robin's body, even as his own nerve-endings overloaded with unfamiliar sensations. He felt Robin's climax approaching… but could feel her fighting it as well. She didn't want to climax. AL-AN was unable to understand why she fought it, especially since his own was fast approaching and he needed Robin to reach it with him.

"Stop. Fighting. Me." he grunted, back- and forehips moving in tandem, finger grinding against the tiny cluster of nerves at the heart of her sex. "Give. In."

And, finally, she did.

Their climaxes hit them hard. AL-AN cried out her name, gathering her close as waves of pleasure washed over him. His phase-penises pulsed, releasing loads of synthetic semen into Robin's well-used holes. Though sensors told AL-AN her climax was every bit as intense as his own, she seemed to take no pleasure in it, letting out a single choked noise before burying her face in his neck.

AL-AN held Robin tightly until the last throes of passion had ebbed. He stroked her hair, loving how soft it was against his hard flesh, while he waited for one of her sarcastic quips. It never came.

The lazy, post-climactic haze infusing his senses was chased away by a cloud of concern as her silence continued. She was not the silent type. "Robin?"

"You win," she said weakly, draped over his shoulder. Something hot and wet hit his back. Sensors tested it and determined it to be very nearly the same composition as the sweat that slicked Robin's exhausted, abused body. Nearly, but not quite.

AL-AN leaned back just enough to ease Robin back onto his phase-arms. Cradling her gently, he searched Robin's face. It was streaked with moisture. "What is this?" he asked, brushing away one wet line with a finger.

Robin's voice was thick, but her eyes were hard. "Tears, AL-AN," she explained in a tired voice. "Humans cry them when they've been hurt."

"I have seen you hurt before," he said, confused. "You did not cry then."

Robin looked away. "You weren't the one hurting me then."

He could not physically recoil without dropping Robin and, even if he could, he knew her words would follow him. Even if his newly forged body expired tomorrow and he had to transfer his consciousness once again, the shame he felt would go with him. It was part of what he was now, as much as the love he felt for Robin was.

"Robin, I..."

"Leave it," she said, her voice thick. "I said you win. Humans are weak. Put me in one of your Architect bodies and be done with it." The pain in her voice suggested that, although his brutal administrations had ended, AL-AN was still somehow hurting Robin.

Slowly, as gently as possible, he lifted her, shifting as he eased her off his strange new members. As cautious as he tried to be, AL-AN still caught the wince that crossed Robin's features at the movement. His kind had encountered hundreds of species in their quest to create the perfect physique. Many had languages Architects had been able to learn, some did not. AL-AN used every language in his knowledge banks to call himself a fool.

He sat on the hard floor of the Fabrication Chamber with his forelegs crossed and rested Robin between them. He had already allowed his phase-arms to dissipate. As for his newly forged phase-penises, AL-AN dismissed them, fighting revulsion. He vowed never to call on them again if they caused Robin pain.

Logically, the was aware that it was he who had injured her, but it wasn't as though he could make himself disappear to please her.

Couldn't you?

"Well," Robin sniffed, rubbing her nose, "are you going to go make me one of those bodies or not?"

AL-AN voiced his confusion. "Robin, given how much I have hurt you, would you still choose that? The connection that exists between those of my kind is very deep."

She turned her face up to his for the first time since their brutal copulation. "AL-AN, I'm angry at you. Furious," she amended. "And I don't know how long it'll take me to forgive you. But that doesn't change the fact that I love you."

I love you.

It was everything he could have hoped for – and yet something had gone wrong. That was the only way to explain the horrible pain twisting his chest. The hearts Robin had forged him were inadequate; they were failing. But, no, there was another explanation. It was something that occured when an Architect lost their forever mate, the only love of their many lifetimes.

Heartbreak.

AL-AN was heartbroken.

"Robin, I…"

She didn't allow him to finish. Pushing herself away from him, she rose to her feet. AL-AN knew the movement must have caused her even more pain from the way her muscles tightened, and her jaw clenched, but she stood before him, staring down. "Are we doing this or not?"

AL-AN rose just as slowly, though his pain was in no way physical. He gazed at Robin a long moment before speaking. A month ago, he would have been all too happy to do what she asked. He would already be at the base's control panel, inputting her data. Not that long ago, he had actually considered forcing her to do it. Now, though…

"No."

Robin blinked. "No?"

"No," AL-AN repeated. "Perhaps one day, if your body begins to fail or if curiosity gets the better of you, we will revisit the possibility," he told her. "But, when we do, the choice will be yours, and yours alone." He brushed a damp, matted strand of hair from her face. "As it always should have been."

Moisture filled Robin's eyes again.

How easy it is to hurt humans, AL-AN despaired.

"I have hurt you again," he said aloud.

But Robin shook her head. "They're not those kinds of tears," she said. "I'll explain the difference some other time. I'm tired."

Yes, of course she was. Leaning down, AL-AN caught Robin behind the knees with one arm while supporting her back with the other. He headed toward the forcefield-protected entrance, stopping only to collect Robin's O2 tank.

"AL-AN!" she gasped as he swept her up. "What are you doing?"

He paused at the entrance. "You have dedicated many months of your life to meeting my needs," he told Robin as he slipped the Rebreather in place. "It is long past time I returned the favour."

Robin pressed her face to his chest. It was difficult to tell because the heat from those confusing tears she'd started crying again made her mask steam up, but AL-AN thought he saw her smile.