Hi guys! Did you miss me?

I've fully settled into Uni, it's pretty cool all this independence, though I'm very glad for my little room to retreat to. I'm so not ready for the big wide world.

I'm so sorry that this took such a long time to get to everyone, but with lots of stuff happening I really didn't have the time to write more than a paragraph a day, and then it looked messy when I read everything back over. But it's here now, and I hope that everyone's going to like it.

You get to meet M.O in this chapter, no one has guessed which person it is. I hope everyone likes who I've chosen, I even broke down the name especially for this role, and trust me having names that fit purposes is not an easy thing to do, kudos to Pixar for getting these names spot on and inspiring me to do the same.

ALL WORSHIP PIXAR!

I actually skipped sending this to my lovely Beta the winged sapphire wolf to get this chapter to you all the faster; I hope it's up to scratch. Love you Sappie!

And the following people understood why Yugi was called A.I.B.O.U. 224 : fan stranger, Animesaki and Dark-Wiccan-Goddess. You all guessed correctly! It's the number of Yugioh episodes (not including movies or capsule monsters) in the original series. Referencing is fun! I tend to throw things into my stories every once in a while, so keep an eye out and if something seems familiar it's probably a reference to something or other, if not then myself and another guy had the same idea.

I love this story, really. Sub-reality-fictions are a bit of a personal kick for me, I love making worlds that make sense, from biology to culture, to religion (even though I'm kinda anti-religious ...), and social structures. Wall-e's world I'm having so much fun with, so futuristic and so open to change when I'm making it habitable for humanoid characters.

Now to the Axiom! I'm keeping the name the same because I couldn't think of anything better, and I do like to refer to the original a lot; therefore: Axiom.

Thanks for all your reviews and comments, I'm so happy that people can having intelligent comments about my stories, I like that I'm prompting you to tell me your theories and your views on my work, I LOVE that so much. Please keep doing that my lovelies! Lots of love, from Fresher-Uni-Girl who's still not got any idea what she's got herself into ...

...

... enjoy!

Surviving in a spaceship was quite easy for Atem.

It was unexpected since his body was built for Earth, not space. His model would demand certain things like sunlight – which he was moving away from, and work, but that was being overridden by wonder, and by being away from anything that would prompt his compulsion it was much easier to ignore anyway.

But despite all his genetic evolution advantages for Earth, and all the odds stacked against him, space was really not a problem:

Atem had vitamin capsules in his pockets, enough to last him a long time since his body wasn't working and therefore not using up his body stores as fast. Same with his water supply, the flask was full from the same morning; and Atem's didn't tend to sweat or expel unnecessary water that easily, so it would last him a long time. Plus he had survived so long because he was always prepared, habits and routines kept Atems functioning.

The faraway stars and suns constantly supplied Atem with solar energy if he stayed near the window, it wasn't a large amount but it was constant and so his energy levels stayed full. That had the unfortunate side effect of making Atem unable to sleep easily because he was constantly energised, and it also made him restless as there was nothing to do in the smooth room with a window on each end.

Boredom was the most serious aspect of his space travel. He played his radio over and over, but couldn't dance well because of the lack of gravity. In the end he invented a kind of floating dance, kicking off sides of the room and twisting himself once he discovered no harm would come to him if he just floated a bit. Dancing was fun, but after hours of it Atem began to tire and was bored again.

Looking out of the window was interesting, when there were things to look at; often there was just black with little white dots passing by lazily. Whenever a bright orange galaxy or comet passed it would spark interest for a few minutes. Atem was fascinated to no end looking at the colours, the shapes; things he never imagined had existed in his five hundred and seventeen years of living. He felt sad when some of the more interesting and complex ones moved past out of his field of vision. Seeing new things was interesting, fascinating and amazing, but new things only stayed in his viewpoint for a few minutes, then he was back to being bored.

Atem tried to sleep a few times, out of sheer boredom, something he'd never been driven to attempt before. He had a few naps, odd and disorientating since he wouldn't stay on a surface so matter how little he moved, and he was too full of energy to sleep for long. The naps only lasted about an hour each or less, so there was little to keep him occupied.

Atem mostly stayed close to Yugi's pod, his face was blurred because of the strange foam and the cloudy screen, but Atem could see him and seeing him made Atem feel calm. Atem often spoke to Yugi, mumbling what little words he knew, trying to explain what he could see. He resorted to using his hands a lot, and tried to doodle on the surface of Yugi's pod in an attempt to show him since he wasn't very good at speaking. He found that to be most time passing because he really wanted Yugi to see what he was seeing, and imagining his responses. Perhaps he would smile like he had when he had shown him the light bulb? Or look confused like the first time he showed Yugi his Directive. Maybe he would even show/tell him something in return, like the colour cube, Atem didn't know it was meant to do that; Yugi was smart.

Atem wondered what else he could know about those pretty lights in the sky. Maybe they turned on and off? What could Yugi tell him about those lights in the dark sky?

Atem reached out to touch them again, enchanted all over again.

After a few Earth days Atem began to get concerned for himself, for a change. He had only brought one flask of water and the drinks he had taken from it earlier had made it low, plus there were some smaller drops hanging around that he couldn't quite catch, though the catching made some amusement for him. It had been five sets of twenty four hours, and Atem was getting thirsty; even though he had water left his instincts wouldn't let him drink his fill until he knew there was a constant source of water. He kept smacking his lips in thirst and tried to curl up and sleep again.

He played his lullaby song to try and make himself sleepy, and absently pressed a hand to Yugi's pod, the now familiar cool metal was his only comfort. Atem missed Yugi's warm, when he was sleeping into death at least they could touch, and he was warm.

Atem's distress rose and he let out a whimpering cry, he didn't know how to cry. His version of crying was heaving breaths and pained noises with no tears and no sobs, or no sobs as old-time people would understand them.

But as the sweet lyrics caressed his ears and soothed his nerves he ran out of energy, emotionally, to keep up his distressed state of mind and body. He smiled instead and reasoned that perhaps this is what happened to people who slept too long: they were picked up and they were going to a place where he would be woken up.

It never happened to Atems, but Yugi was different, which meant that he could be woken up differently.

Atem struggled to imagine a way in which to wake someone up that he hadn't tried. But as a humanoid growing up in a hostile Earth environment, with little contact and little to stimulate his brain in terms of education or fun, he had little imaginative powers.

There was no escape from reality, he didn't even dream.

When he slept his brain turned off. The wavelengths went as low as they could go with sharp bursts of REM sleep that lasted seconds at a time. Even his sleep was adapted to save energy. His brain was resilient to violence, wounds, pain, and isolation; any of these would have driven any sane old-time person insane.

But on another note, insane Atem's did exist, and who's to say clinically that Atem is fully sound of mind my old-time standards?

Atem tried to ponder ways in which Yugi could be helped, which led to the pressing question of where he was going. Atem didn't dwell too much on that question, he didn't have an answer, and all he knew is that he wanted to stay with Yugi. So he would.

That was that.

The setting and scene didn't matter as long as they stayed together.

Atem pressed a hand to where Yugi's hands were inside his pod. He was even further away from holding his hand now.

Atem tried not to dwell on the fact that everything he did for Yugi made him worse; he took him into his home and saved his life, but that was the only good he could remember, other than returning his weapon. He showed him the plant; Yugi went into death-sleep – Atem had associated it enough with death for that to become a word in his vocabulary. He had left Yugi alone for one day, and that single day put him further out of reach and put them in an unfamiliar, strange place. He had tried to care for Yugi but nothing worked, so … Atem let out another miserable rumble from his chest, trying not to gasp and make his throat raw.

Atem tried to hover as close to Yugi as possible while he curled up in mid-air and tried to make himself sleep. He remained motionless with his eyes closed and listened. He heard his heart echoed by his life support, the humming groans of the metal cage he was floating in, the soft inhale and exhale of his breath, but not much else. He focused on his heartbeat until he lost track of time.

An indistinguishable amount of time later, the ship Atem was residing in began to let out several loud noises. Atem, who had been trying to recount a memory to Yugi about the talking fish he had back at home, was scared out of his skin by the sudden noise breaking the forever-quiet.

After a short scream and instinctive cower, the type that was inbuilt for survival, Atem pushed himself off the walls and floor to get to the window in the hopes that he'd be able to see what was disturbing the steady quiet.

Atem couldn't see the flaps of the ship folding, nor the small satellite disk emerging to announce the spaceship's return and the statistics of health of all its occupants – all known ones. Atem couldn't see what was happening outside the ship. But he did see the Axiom.

It was … Magnificent.

A silver whale drifting through a purple nebular, hovering in space's inky blackness. Yellow-white lights lined the sides in tiny porthole-windows which were actually floor to ceiling in height, at this distance they all looked like lines. In space there was no up or down, therefore no top or bottom, but Atem got the feeling that the streamline bottom like a giant blunt knife was the bottom; it reminded him of the ships in the sandy-dusty-trash bay. The top was something like the space-metal-monster he was sitting in; streamline, sleek, perfectly rounded and smooth with several bumps to give it shape. Both metal giants had the same bluish purple design on their sides, stripes that divided up and into each other like the lines of a computer's memory. The engines let out bursts of plasma in the form of blue fire, very hot, they propelled the silver whale through space gracefully and at thousands and thousands of miles per hour. It was a wonder that the smaller ship could keep up in the first place!

Atem felt just as much wonder as he had felt watching the galaxies pass by: Everything was incredible. He had a gut instinct that this was their destination; it was too obviously different to anything else in the sky for it to be something else to pass by.

As the spaceship drew up alongside the Axiom Atem could see less and less of the full view, showing just how large the cruise ship was compared to the dubbed metal-monster. Soon all Atem could see was a wall and several floors, then a single floor, then closer still – showing that the floors were highly spacious in ceiling. Then there was a large door.

Atem saw the doors open. The doors slid into the sides of the ship to reveal a white light and the inside of the ship. The light blinded Atem, he had spent too much time in the dark blanket of space, and artificial light, and distant starlight. His eyes hurt.

The Axiom's size dwarfed the size of Atem's spaceship to the size of a pea, and this room that Atem could now peer into was at least ten times the size of this ship. His brain couldn't comprehend how big this ship was. He wondered if it was bigger than his City realm.

Two humanoid's piloting a pair of smaller spaceships zoomed out of the gaping maw that was the door into the Axiom. Atem kicked himself to the other window to see what they were doing when they vanished over the top of the window's view. They reappeared on the other side of the spaceship, both humanoids totally focused on their work, and made blue light appear out of their spaceships and press against the carrier's side to push it inside.

Atem shrank from the glowing light, remembering what it did to his body; it stopped him moving.

He pushed off the wall and returned to the first window by Yugi's side so that he could examine the new view.

Inside was very, very bright, his contacts darkened a lot to help him cope with the sudden onslaught of ultra-high beams, but even then he winced awfully and would have had tears streaming from his eyes if he had the ability to do that. The next thing he noticed was that everything was clean! Very, very clean and clear, no trash and no Decomposers. Atem wondered if the A.T. here had finished cleaning. What were they doing now if they had finished? That was a foreign concept: a Directive that had actually been achieved; was there anything after that? The room was made entirely of metal and of some plastic and glass, but mostly it was made of light. There were lights in the walls that looked like writing, on the floors that looked like the marks on the covered roads of Earth, lights even shone on nothing to create three dimensional obstacles.

It was so different and alien Atem felt overwhelmed.

He shrank towards Yugi and silently wished for the trash compacting bunker that was his home; small, dark, filled with interesting things, and familiar, but most of all safe! He was filled with a feeling of miss, something he had rarely felt before as he had never been away from his home long enough to feel homesick. The strong desire for home, and familiarity built up in his chest and fed into his anxiety for this new-strange world he had stepped into.

Atem let out a distressed noise but then focused on Yugi. He smiled slightly in his direction and sighed, resting his forehead against Yugi's pod.

As long as he was with Yugi he would accept and deal with all the change and new. Even if it caused stress which made his life support act up. He rubbed at it, something he only did when there was no other action he could do to ease himself back into an ideal state; like eating to cure hunger, or drinking to ease thirst. The rubbing action was rather self-comforting and instinctual like a Mother rubbing her child while it cried, or a dog licking her pup when it whimpered.

Atem tried to distract himself with something else.

The laser beam of the right ship vanished and the humanoid flew elsewhere, he parked his mini spaceship and exited into the room in a strange force bubble that resonated from his belt. Atem watched him fascinated; it looked like a larger shield to his wing-shield. The humanoid floated to a station made of light and pressed a series of buttons on a control panel for the next phase of docking.

Two robotic arms reached out and moved closer to the ship that was being steered inside. There were even more lights on this arm! The arms grabbed the ship and Atem glanced over through the far window to see the doors sealing shut.

For a moment all was quiet as things settled and the last little spaceship stopped its glowing blue paralysing lights and parked. The other humanoid jumped out of the spaceship and flew over to another control panel, and pressed even more buttons before exiting the room with his companion

Atem made a curious noise, but just as he did so a warning bell sounded in the room and then gravity existed once more.

Atem yelped as he was suddenly slammed onto the floor; which was just another pod. He groaned, feeling that he weighed twice as much as normal, his limbs had gotten unused to supporting his body weight. Consequently Atem could only lay on his front and let his muscles remember how to move with weight once again.

A minute later he was kneeling upright and peering out the window again when he heard the bustle of activity. He could only lean heavily on the glass as he watched, his forehead resting also. Several sirens sounded and a group of humanoids appeared, running out in single file out of a door that was opening now atmosphere and gravity had been restored to the room. The people were armed with several strange tools, some long, some short, some had fluffy ends and others carried what looked like excessively bubbly water in tanks on their backs.

Atem was confused, to say the least. He mentally decided to stop trying to make sense of things and became an observer. In the two minutes he had been here more things had amazed and confused beyond anything in his five hundred and seventeen years.

The team all wore white and grey outfits, mostly white with grey technology patterns down the sides of their suits and on their equipment, which they wielded like an extension of themselves. They also worked like one huge body in their team, the water holders blasted the ship with the bubbly water and the moment they had finished everyone was holding sponges and long reaching cleaning sticks and began to shrub the ship down. Every time a spot was dry another squirt was there, sometimes before the scrubbers even needed to indicate.

Atem watched amazed.

There was a hiss behind him as the large door at the end, which included the window, opened up to reveal yet more metal arms. Atem shrank from them, remembering last time.

The metal arm reached down and picked up a pod at the end of the row, then rolled it out like a draw. Atem saw the arm move off to another area, outside of his vision, but there was another arm to replace it, and it took the next one. As they were individually taken out Atem was quickly trying to think of a way he could dodge those arms and get out of the metal room before he was grabbed again.

He lay flat on the next pod to be taken out and when the arm picked it up Atem was carried with it.

Atem grinned, his idea worked!

The pod was set on the floor and the arm moved onto the next one. Atem sat up just as a small cross hatch of light shone on the pod, examining it. Atem's boot was slightly in the light, he moved back and the light, which came from a flying Frisbee of all things, scanned again – registering the change. It beeped a positive and moved on, having gotten the information it needed – the person inside was alive.

Atem watched the hovering light move onto the next pod and sighed in relief. Now he would just wait for Yugi to be brought out then-

He was dumped off the pod when it hissed and opened.

Atem rubbed his head and shoulder, for he had landed on his shoulder-solar wing, then looked up to see what was happening. He got to his feet and watched enraptured as the foam evaporated from the pod. The person inside arched up, inhaling in a fast rush, then fell back blinking.

Atem looked down into the pod and jumped when the person's eyes fixed on him. She, for it was a female, looked confused and raised an eyebrow blankly.

Atem smiled and waved innocently.

The eyebrow got higher.

She had green-blue eyes and long blond hair tied into pig tails with white bands. She had an identical outfit to Yugi's on, with the only difference being her light scanner and hovering screen was over both eyes and shaped like glasses. Atem thought she looked rather pretty. She had done this tour enough to have several layers of freckles on her cheeks from sun exposure, something that her nanos had trouble getting rid of for some reason; probably because freckles were in her genetics. She was even shorter than Yugi, but, looking up and down at the other people stretching and taking their temperatures, it seemed that all the Aibous were small.

The girl looked at Atem impatiently. He looked sad at her lack of response "H-hello," he greeted through a stutter, the o was a bit stretched and the h sounded more like a sigh, but he was proud of his vocalisation.

She huffed and sat up and ignored him.

More arms appeared and began to move around her, Atem got out of their way. The girl was unfazed. She opened her mouth when an arm approached with a thermometer, as if she had rehearsed it. She began to type on a floating blue-light screen, completely ignoring Atem, and then sat patiently until a group arrived to see her.

M.O.K.I.E, or Microbe Obliterator Key Inspection Entity, had been waiting for the return of the Aibous for several days. The raven haired youngster and rookie had only been given small jobs cleaning the labs and performing tests to check his Conditioning was acute to pass the time. To say the least it had been boring, nothing extensive to clean, and none of the bacteria or dust was nearly dangerous. However that didn't stop his scanners and his near frantic actions of removing it all. All his test results were outstanding; nothing was cleaner after he had finished with it.

His Obsessive Compulsive Conditioning was to clean and sterilise. And he was the twelfth generation, which meant that his conditioning was the most powerful to date. Mokie knew that his reactions to certain kinds of uncleanliness were powerful and he often had no control while he had an inner panic attack at the sight of too much dirt or bacteria. However, what was the use of a cleaning unit who didn't take its job seriously?

Mokie was also the only generation of his kind. The lab robots were still watching him because he was the newest prototype. They constantly performed tests to see if his new generation extensions and amplifiers were too much, or perfect, or if they needed tweaking. The problem with new models is that they could either be spot on, and in that case several weeks of test tube tampering, a few months of genetic engineering and a half a year of psychological conditioning would have been well spent. If not, it was a lot of wasted resources and time, so only one was produced at a time and they were extensively examined.

Mokie couldn't wait for another one of his generation. It was hard to make connections to the previous ones, the ones who looked older and who had different reactions and lifespans than him.

His model had the same outfit as his higher generation peers; rolling boots for speed and agility and less contact with the ground, powered by the ship floor beneath the wheels, and controlled by his muscles and brain. He had a water container the back of his grey-white uniform, the container had a stripe of yellow to indicate water level. When he needed the water he could draw it from the container through his suit by mental will and empty it out of his gloves, normally through the gloves and into one of the two sponges he held so not a drop was wasted. He had a lens goggles propped up on his forehead, they showed him the world in bacteria, the little dots of yellow represented micro-organisms and the darker the colour the denser or more dangerous they were. The lens went right across his eyes and fixed over his ears in two large headphones, the lens was a strip of yellow glass surrounded by two strips of metal. He wore them like this to keep them from constantly sounding in his ears, it only made him more aware of contamination and therefore more anxious.

The major difference in his model was his brain; his reactions were more intense, and there was an increased amount of adrenaline and stress hormones in his system to increase his compulsion to clean.

Mokie heard the siren blare in the room beyond the metal doors. The atmosphere was being restored and the artificial gravity was being engaged too. Soon it would be safe to enter. He stopped slouching and fixed his eyes on the floor, waiting for the path to appear.

The VV.O.N.G just behind him huffed "Take all day about it … don't they realise how much space dust could be flying in?" VV.O.N.G stood for Vintage-Vacuum-Cleaner Of Near Ground-floors, meaning they cleaned floors and focused on dust. Therefore it only made sense that that model would freak out about space dust flying in through the open doors.

Mokie tried his best not to think about it, but he could feel his heart begin to beat faster in anxiety … space dust? Is that clean? Can that cause contamination? He got anxious until he could perform his compulsion of cleaning until sterile. He couldn't control it, and he began to shake.

But thankfully, and suddenly, the floor before him lit up and blew thoughts of contaminating dust from his mind.

The cleaning teams, who had been standing in single file, all ran or rolled along the lines of light that had appeared in the floor. They told the humanoids where to go and where they could stand, it prevented confusion and clogging of the corridors, and boosted efficiency by eighty percent and speed by sixty.

Mokie was the first in his line. He at once moved on his rollers, eyes down until he reached the end of the line where the first of the Aibou pods were waiting for him. Mokie waited until the computer was finished taking the Aibou unit's health then lowered his lenses and scanned him for dangerous or foreign micro-organisms.

Mokie reflected for a moment on how important his job was; the humans of the ship had been raised for generations in a bubble of no bacteria or illness, their immune systems were … lazy as a result. There was nothing for it to fight or defend against, therefore they were weak. Even if vaccines kept them up to date, in a sense, and it kept them evolutionary there in the chromosome – just encase they were to return to Earth tomorrow. Samples of micro-organisms and illnesses were taken from the Earth's surface to keep the human's protected should they ever return to Earth. The organisms were collected via Aibous on their journeys and brought to the labs through Mokies. The labs hadn't requested any more micro-organisms lately, so it was a simple sterilise operation.

The Aibou before Mokie held his hands out. Mokie's scanner detected micro-organisms all over his skin and suit, but it was a fine layer, and would easily be removed. "Foreign Contaminant!" The lens showed a 16% on the inbuilt screen.

"Ooh," he groaned, feeling the pressure to clean build the moment he saw those little dots. Each and every one had to be gone, if not something terrible will happen – his compulsion told him.

He got to work.

Mokie picked up his vibrating, multi-layer cleaning brush and focused the cleaning water into it through the handle. When he did this, the sponge felt like an extension of himself; he could feel the Aibou's skin beneath the brush as clearly as if they were touching skin on skin. Mokie's were the only ones who could feel this way through this equipment, the VV.O.N.G behind him would most likely feel the same about his vacuum cleaner and other dusting equipment. Their models were only compatible to certain equipment and conditioning scenarios, it was a very specific job they did, nothing else.

When he had scrubbed the Aibou's skin all over he moved onto the next one. It wasn't an invasive process, he scrubbed at their arms, one leg at a time, then they held their arms above their heads to let Mokie get at their torso, he wheeled around and worked efficiently and fast. They didn't really think about personal boundaries when they had jobs to get done, and when they had done this many times before it wasn't even awkward. They were so robotic in their jobs that they didn't even have the available space in their minds for thoughts of personal space, intimacy or awkwardness.

Achieve your directive. That was all.

Mokie rolled onto the next Aibou, a female this time, and repeated the process. Again there was no awkwardness or hesitation; everything was robotic, like a well-oiled machine; did cogs hesitate before clanking and turning?

Neither did the humanoids.

Many Aibous later Mokie glanced at one who was standing away from the line. He sighed and beckoned "You shouldn't be standing there." Stupid humanoid, he would slow the line of cleaning down if he wasn't in the right place at the right time. The time he wasted could lead to a 5% increase in bacteria! And a 10% reduction in efficiency.

The Aibou looked pretty strange, his skin was dark for one, and his eyes were the most shocking red and-

Mokie's train of thought was quickly derailed when his lens suddenly beeped in alarm "Foreign Contaminant!" 100%!

Mokie's jaw dropped "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he muttered in shock, shaking his head while recharging his brush; the man was made entirely out of yellow and red, and even purple, through his lens! The contamination and dirt was off the scale!

He could feel his stress rising like a helium bloon …

Mokie stepped out of line and grabbed his arm "You're filthy!" he scrubbed at his right hand and wrist – he had to be cleaned! He had to be! Or something terrible would happen! - only to have the unit resist. Suddenly a wing like plate unfolded and crackled purple for a second before retreating. It threw Mokie off and made the humanoid check it uncomfortably. "Huh!?" Mokie asked, feeling stupefied; what kind of crazy unit was this?

Never mind, he still needed cleaning.

He rolled around to his back while the unit began to inspect his wrist, and began to clean there instead; there wouldn't be anything crazy hidden here, right? If this man was a new model of Aibou why wasn't he informed? Stupid communications, had they come through late again?

The unit cried out at the contact of the vibrating scrubbing brush and jerked forwards sharply. It was a movement sudden and unexpected enough to throw Mokie off balance and onto his front. Mokie grunted when he hit the floor, sprawled and annoyed. He glared up at the humanoid "Hey what's your deal?" he ground out.

"Er…" the humanoid just looked confused, slightly scared and worried.

Mokie readjusted his lens, then gasped when he saw the contaminated footprints on the ground "Oh look what you've done- trailing all over the place, don't move!" he snapped, cleaning them up swiftly, but grumbling in a snappy way. Stupid; if he moved then contamination would spread faster! Was he also not trained?

He stood up and saw the unit looking at him in confusion. Then at the floor, then back to Mokie.

Mokie wondered if he had been damaged. Defective humanoids often displayed strange, slow and even rebellious behaviour. If that was the case then it was duty to report this incident.

But before Mokie could roll his way over to a higher authority, the humanoid put a deliberate foot forwards and withdrew; leaving a yellow-red footprint on Mokie's screen.

Mokie would have sworn if he knew any swear words. "Wha- hey what are you doing?" he knelt and cleaned it up again, then stood up and glared, arms crossed "Don't try that again," he threatened, waving his brush towards the weird unit like a bat.

The unit tilted his head in response and then put a hand on the pod beside them, leaving a dotted yellow handprint on Mokie's screen. Mokie's stress levels rose at the sight of the handprint – everything he touched would end up as muddied as the unit! He felt ill just thinking about it, and his breathing hitched as the anxieties started. "No! Stop that!" he squawked, wiping up the bacteria before his heart could suffer an uncomfortable increase in speed. Did this guy like giving him anxiety problems?

When the final microbe had vanished Mokie patted his work and glared at the troublemaker "You try that again, I dare you." He growled – he would wash him with three hundred year old bleach for that!

The unit grinned and promptly reached out to touch Mokie's chest.

CONTAMINATION!

"Ahh!" Mokie screamed.

He screamed like the unit had stabbed him rather than touching him. The unit recoiled with an expression of pure fear, but Mokie was too busy panicking. His heart instantly sped up and he frantically began to clean at his chest. "It's on me, it's on me, it's one me!" he chanted hysterically whilst hyperventilating. His anxiety levels went through the roof; he had been contaminated!

Clean, breathe, clean, pant, sterilise, panic, clean!

"Mokie G12!"

Mokie turned around sharply and saw a R-ex standing with two intimidating K.A.I.B.A.M.A.N clones standing just behind him. The R-ex had brown hair with a hint of it purple and a red had to show his superiority. His uniform was white with black strips and a black jacket that contained many passcodes and keys.

Mokie shook in his rolling boots. His compulsions and panic was still there, but he the need to obey authority was just as strong; his body was conflicted over what to obey first. Should he listen to his anxieties or the higher authority? He trembled and gulped and clutched his brush to try and still his shaking limbs.

The R-ex jerked his chin at the line of other cleaning humanoids, they must have seen them coming and lined up to avoid conflict, Mokie hadn't seen or heard their approach due to the, clearly, defective unit. "Continue that later." He ordered.

Mokie nodded. He rolled over to his spot in the line, breathing unsteadily "Yes sir, apologises." He stood in line, looked determinedly at the floor and clutched his brush to him like a lifeline. He was decontaminated, he was clean, he was okay …

He closed his eyes and kept breathing … he hated feeling this panic, his intense reactions; it was the one thing he was engineered for and yet it made his life difficult as well as fruitful. His hidden blue eyes stayed on the floor to stop a repeat of what just happened, but his mind glared at the humanoid. Once they're through inspecting the pods, I am SO giving that guy a bath!

Atem watched as the cleaning humanoids worked down the line of people, they looked so different. He wasn't sure how to address such people, would 'hello' work here? He couldn't see them talking to each other, or exchanging greetings. Only quick, one word orders passed between the people around him. "Stand, sit, leg, arm, turn," and many other words.

Atem felt out of his depth once again. How could one word mean so many actions?

Yugi would be able to explain to him, he was good at that because he understood Atem. Where was Yugi? He looked up and down the line of opening pods. If these people in the pods were waking up then he should be too. Atem began to look around for Yugi's pod, excited at the fact that Yugi would soon be with him once again-

"You shouldn't be standing there." Atem turned at the sound of the young voice, speaking very close to him.

There was a boy standing on a light up line, he had wheels under his boots and wore white shorts, with a grey and white stripped top, and grey gloves. He had a strange device over his eyes, a strip of glasses that hid his eyes and upper nose, they went all the way round to his ears, which were completely covered. He had a brush in his hand and another on his belt, one had been whirring constantly. He had raven hair that was quite long for a boy, and it had volume that was unusual too. Atem tilted his head at the child, he looked like someone else from his manga, did he have blue eyes too? In that case his name would be … would be …

Atem couldn't remember without the written words before him. Was it something with an M or a K?

The boy suddenly beeped, making Atem look at him curiously; did he have a beepy like Yugi did? The child before him jumped "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he shouted.

Atem looked confused. What did that mean? That wasn't what he had been hearing so far. What was he saying-

The short person rolled up to him and grabbed his upper arm, right over his metal elbow "You're filthy!" The child shrieked at him once again. His voice was high pitched, but his words were clear; very different to Atem's baritone voice that slurred and stuttered out of lack of use.

Atem blinked in confusion, however clear the voice of the child it didn't change the fact that Atem's mind was not fully developed in language and oral meanings. He had no time to figure out what the boy was saying in such a loud tone, because the same person forced his hand up and put the buzzing-fluffy thing on his shield.

Atem jumped at the sensation and it accidently triggered it; it was instinct to make the strange person and sensation back off! The wing flew out, all three sections extended with a slight squeal of rust and sand, and it turned on its purple shield just for a second. With no reason to have it up, and no conscious focus on the shield it quickly powered back down. But at least that weird fluffy thing was now gone!

"Huh?" the child said in response, looking at Atem like he often did to the world around him; like it didn't make sense.

Atem didn't know what that meant. Atem pulled his arm loose and the wing refolded and the shield vanished, but the boy stayed.

The boy rolled on the strange wheels around to his back while Atem was looking at his shield, hoping there was nothing wrong with it since it had gotten wet; it didn't normally get wet, since rain was rare, but wetness caused rust if it got under the protective outer layer of metal. Rust meant the shield wouldn't be fully functioning, and that was highly dangerous. He wouldn't be able to remain safe in storms, or keep his head clear of sand, or protect himself from smoke from fires.

However he soon forgot about the shield when he felt the buzzing-fluffy brush against his back. He yelped at the sensation and jumped forwards. His back was numb where the vibrations had pressed, and his shirt was now a little damp and riled up on his back. He did not like the feel of that tool!

There was a grunt behind him and a soft thud. Atem looked over his shoulder and saw the young raven haired youth on his front. The line of red and silver across his eyes had slipped, revealing a deep blue iris on the right of his face. Atem tilted his head slightly, he hadn't seen much blue either; he liked the colour.

"Hey what's your deal?" the boy growled.

Atem didn't know what that sentence meant, he tried to dissect it like he did with Yugi's words, but the boy was speaking too fast and wasn't using words he was familiar with. "Er …" he let out, trying to remember the sounds that would convey his confusion. Was it What or Why or Way?

Before he could say any of those things the boy had put his strange eye coverer back on and gasped, his jaw hanging with his face fixed on the floor where Atem had just been standing. Atem tilted his head, what was wrong? He couldn't see anything.

The boy picked up his brush and scrubbed at the floor, he half yelled at Atem while he cleaned.

Whatever he was saying was flying from his mouth so fast Atem hadn't a prayer of keeping up. He looked weakly at the boy when he finally stood up and faced him. What was he saying? But more importantly what was he doing? Atem could understand actions more than words, actions had a cause and effect and a motive, like a Directive – a pressing need to act and achieve an aim.

What was this boy's?

Atem looked at the floor, then back at the black haired boy. Atem put his foot forwards and then took it back, leaving a lightly sandy foot print. Would that do anything-

"Wha- hey what are you doing?" the child nearly screamed at him!

Atem jumped at the volume, but watched fascinated as the boy knelt down and cleaned it up with the vibrating brushes. So his Directive was to keep the floor and lights showing? Atem had not experienced 'clean' per say, so didn't think that the boy was cleaning up the dirty particles, he was thinking about it in a roundabout way.

"Don't try that again," the child said, looking at him through the weird face coverer, and waving the humming item like a club.

Atem wasn't sure what he was saying. Maybe he wanted more to clean up and was angry there was nothing left? Tilted his head, happy to help, and reached out to put a hand on the person-carrier he had been carried in on. There was a light, dusty hand print left over.

The child let out a squawk, Atem hadn't heard that sound before and shouted "No! Stop that!" he sounded upset.

Atem understood those words. Strange, it seemed that touching the pod was bad. Was he meant to touch something else? He closely watched as the boy patted the recently cleaned patch that once held a dusty handprint. Then he looked Atem in the eye and looked angry "You try that again, I dare you."

Unfortunately Atem only understood 'you' and 'again'.

So he had been doing the right thing! Were all Yugi's people this confusing? He grinned and reached out to lightly pat the boy's chest, he felt confused when he felt no metal, no life support, there, but was promptly distracted by the boy's scream.

"Ahh!"

He leaned back, startled, withdrawing his hands. He had only heard screams related to pain, panic, confusion and anger; screams were a bad thing. Screams meant something very, very bad. Atem didn't like hearing screams, they made him remember things he wished he could forget.

Atem shook off the past and refocused on the boy.

The boy was frantically rubbing at the spot where he had been touched, using the brush and panting as if he had inhaled toxic gas and outran a storm at the same time. He was shaking like trash in the wind and was babbling the same words over and over, each time the syllables got more and more distorted. "It's on me, it's on me, it's on me!"

Atem helplessly watched him, at a loss on what to do, but getting the feeling that what he thought was good was actually bad. These people were so confusing, he thought he was doing the right thing. Maybe he was doing something obviously wrong, Yugi often left him feeling like that when he did something that resulted in Yugi's blank stare. He tried to recall the words for apologising, but then a loud voice boomed out behind him and Atem quickly ducked behind the pod he had rode out on.

"Mokie G12!"

Atem peered out around the pod nervously and saw three people looking at the young boy he was just with. They looked different, and even the others were reacting to him, they stood tall and looked blank. Atem didn't like the blank looks.

One of the three was short and had brown hair with a red hat, and a flush of purple hair swept to the side of his head. He wore grey trousers, pressed and clean, but with odd angles in them showing that they were new. He had a black jacket over a white shirt that was skin tight, the inner pockets of the black jacket were stuffed. Atem wondered if he collected things too. There was a single tag around his neck which had a tiny engraving on it, and the end was speckled with gold – a computer part, Atem realised, he had those in his life support so he knew what they looked like. He had brown eyes and was only just taller than the boy he was speaking to before. He carried no tools, which confused Atem, but his strong voice and actions made him think of the scary-crazed-Atems he had ran from as a child.

The two tall men standing at the smaller's left and right were … scary too. Their intimidating height was closing in on seven feet. They were lean in frame, but ridged and robotic, and they marched with heavy foot falls as if to announce their presence. Atem wondered why he hadn't heard them coming, or maybe they could be quiet if they wanted to be. They had strange, silvery-white helmets that looked like a part of their upper faces. A helmet like a biker's covered their chins, and their eyes, and a smooth curve went down to their noses, like an extra-large nose or snout of a dragon. Their eyes were hidden behind blue lenses and they had ear pieces with three claws coming off the helmet where the ears would be. They wore black undershirts that were skin tight and went all the way to the tips of their fingers and right under their chins. The gloves had metal over the knuckles and one arm had a silver grip on it that extended into a keyboard, for hacking, locating and other information. On top they had a red vest and finally a long white jacket with studs along the collars and pointed shoulders. On their arms there were some mental bands bend around their biceps, two on each arm, and a belt around their hips carrying a large variety of weapons. There were guns that looked like Yugi's, a rectangle with two metal teeth coming off one end, and what looked like handcuffs. Their skin was pale and they both had long brown hair that fell out the backs of their helmets and hung straight and as composed as the rest of them. They didn't look around or look idle, they just stood there and stared down whatever was in their path.

Atem gulped and mentally vowed to stay out of their way. Just like he was doing now; hiding was something he was pretty good at when it was needed.

The short purple and brown haired person barked "Continue that later," to the raven-haired-blue-eyed boy and then turned to the lines of pods. The young boy rolled away, clutching his tool and looking upset overall, though he was shaking a lot too. The two intimidating men stood to one side as the 'boss' began to press buttons on the pods. They stood still, but their sightless eyes seemed to be looking at everything, and everyone … save for Atem.

Atem edged away from everything, he ducked behind the final pod and hoped that he wouldn't be found by those scary men; how he wanted his bunker right now, or even his city; he was never without a safe place to hide in the concrete-trash-maze.

He ducked just as the two intimidating men looked around. Their heads rotating on their necks like a fan; mechanical, steady, purposeful, and entirely inhuman.

Atem ducked a second too late and one of them paused to look in his direction. Atem didn't dare look back out. After another moment the men went back to looking at the brown-purple haired man, dismissing Atem because they couldn't sense any nanos there; for now, Atem's old model made him invisible to non-naked-eye-visions.

Atem breathed a sigh of relief, but soon tensed up again when the small man stood over his hiding pod. He didn't even dare to breathe …

When those men entered the room everyone shut up and was silent and still, as if their very presence turned them to stone. The only sound was the soft beeps of buttons and the sharp tap of footsteps on the stainless floor.

*Beep!*

The silent hall was broken by a startled gasp.

The brown and purple haired man drew everyone's eyes, he was blinking at a small as if expecting it to explain itself. He then looked at the pod Atem was hiding by and scanned again, pressing buttons twice as fast.

*Beep!*

"M-my circuits … A code green!"

The two white-helmets snapped to the man's location.

The man pointed at a pod … Yugi's pod. "C-code Green!" he scrambled for his communicator and spoke loudly "Attention! This is not a drill, we have a Code Green! Repeat! Code Green! Carrier to hanger 2 immediately!"

There you have it! I have now introduced you to my version of:

M.O (Mokuba) - M.O.K.I.E = Microbe Obliterator Key Inspection Entity ... because M.O goes first in cleaning and inspecting, so he is clearly the most important part of the cleaning crew, and coordinates them all. Also M.O stands for Microbe Obliterator in the movie so ... referencing! I put G-12 for Generation 12, because I think that's Mokuba's age in the anime, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's his number now!

Stewards (Kaibamans (not a spelling error, I can't make a plural fit the meaning)) - K.A.I.B.A.M.A.N. = Klone Android Identifier of Bad Actions - Marshalling Against Non-Conformers. Basically this guy is a clone (spelled with a K, because his name is Kaiba) who is more robot than human and he's the police force and justice enforcer on this ship - everyone's scared of them but the big bosses.

G-4 (Rex Raptor) - R-ex = Robotic-Extra. Because G-4 doesn't do anything but assist and carry out Auto's work outside of the captain's pod, so he's like a puppet to the big guy. Therefore he's an Extra. It just fit Rex very well since most of the time we forget about him since he's a whimpy antagonist compared to Dartz or Zork or Bakura and Malik/Marik.

There's some info on the character's you've met, also the female Aibou was Rebecca, she wouldn't have made an appearance otherwise. I hope you like how I've broken their names down, Kaibaman doesn't quite make sense, but it's close enough! Kaiba didn't fit anything, and I've got a special plan in store for THE Kaiba later in the story.

And finally Code Green ... I'm sure I don't need to explain that one.

I hope you all liked it, and liked the world from Mokie's perspective; life on the Axiom for humanoids is very tool-purpose driven, if you don't have a purpose you are not kept around for very long. So evolution kicked in and those humanoids who acted less human and more Directive lived longer and were harvested at the end of their life for the next generations. Who in turn acted even more robotic and repressed or hid human desires in order to be kept the longest.

I love hearing your comments, theories, what you liked, what you thought, so please feel free to comment on as much as possible, and tell me what you thought about my character choices.

See you in the, hopefully, near-future everyone! Bye!