After I finished clearing up whatever I could in my mind space I figured it was time to go and greet the sun.

I woke up again to see a bunch of legs on my eye.

Now, I don't like things on my face and while I'm fine with spiders, I really don't like it when they touch me.

Or when they surprise me.

Naturally, I screamed at the top of my lungs and wiped the damn thing off before jumping up onto the table.

I looked back down at it to try and get some details about the thing. I mean honestly, alien spiders sound pretty cool when they aren't on my face.

I hope alien centipedes don't exist though. Those little shits are creepy no matter what size they are. Seriously, if I find one I'm going to cry.

Centipedes are the worst, they have so many legs and they show up out of nowhere. It's like they're the bastard offspring of lightning and a demon's testicle. Plus their bites hurt and it really sucks to wake up at night and find THREE inches of horror scuttling around in the bathroom almost faster than the eye can follow. Then it takes forever to clean and seal the room so then can never show again but they do anyway an- Oh god, just imagining them is enough to give me the willies.

No No. Stop thinking about them. I shook my head violently to get rid of the awful feeling of legs crawling.

Okay. Okay. It's all good. I'm good.

What was I doing? Oh yeah! Alien spider!

My attention returned to the spider and I noticed that it's legs wasn't moving despite the fact that it was sliding across the floor.

Come to think of it, nothing else was moving either.

…

Did I just get pranked?

"Pfft. Hehehe." I felt my lips twitch in amusement. I tried to stop it. I have to stay calm and dignified or else no one was going to take me seriously. But I just got pranked. They got me pretty good. I'll give them that.

Unless it was sticking some sort of bug in my eye. In which case the aliens are total creeps.

I made a mental note to go through my eye the next time I went to a bathroom.

I hopped off the table and promptly fell on my face for the second time in the dream.

Man, these legs are definitely going to take some getting used to. Oh well.

Still, minor fumble aside, I grabbed the fake spider and put it in an inventory pocket that I found during my time in my mind space. Having a partially complete list of what I can do is very handy. My tiny gut space will be pretty useful if I have to carry pencils packets of gummy bears or other small stuff. I'm not really sure how it works.

I mean, I kinda glow if I open the compartment of my stomach. I can see a smaller panel inside which I'm guessing is for repairs and stuff. But how am I me?

Ack. NO. Stop thinking about it!

I refuse to think about that. It made me a bit nauseous if I thought about it for too long.

But at least I could now say that I reached deep within myself to find what I needed.

Of course, I have nothing now, aside from the spider and this weird card with three interlocking circles on it, but hopefully I'll find something nice I can keep as a secret.

I started heading toward the door, wondering exactly what I was going to do once I left the room. I mean, what was there for me TO do?

The door opened just as I got close to it. Automatic I guess. Cool.

It totally would've sucked to be stuck in a room because I couldn't turn a knob.

I walked outside, not noticing that someone was coming in and I crashed into his knee.

Oh. It's the salarian from before. "Hi Mr. Zisal! Right?" It would be really rude to address someone by the wrong name. Plus, I really don't want to anger anyone who is in a position to kill me. Or you know, leave me in pieces.

The salarian grinned at me. "Ah. Yes. Do call me Sepin though. It's less formal. How are you feeling? We were worried when you collapsed."

Is Sepin ever not smiling? Or is that the default expression for Salarians? Maybe he's just really pissed off at me or something. Didn't I snap at him before?

"I can assure you that smiling IS a sign of positive emotions amongst salarians. I am happy you are well. You seems to be holding up given the strange circumstances you have found yourself in. Not everyone can hold it together after finding themselves in a new body."

My ears pinned themselves to my head and I felt myself get warm. I definitely did not mean to say that out loud.

Plus I doubted that my circumstances were normal.

So I dodged his question. "What's going to happen to me?"

"We are currently compiling the relevant information to send to the council. They will decide your fate." Answered Sepin. "In the meantime, you are to be kept under surveillance."

Oh great. I have a bunch of strangers that are going to decide if I live or die.

Disturbingly enough, I wasn't really sure if I wanted either choice, or both.

I mean, it's not like I'm losing much. I might wake up. But at the same time, I kind of want to see this new world I've found myself in.

I'm sure it must've shown on my face, because Sepin began talking again, trying to comfort me I guess. "Do not worry. So long as you have someone with you, you can go where you please."

"Okay. Sure." I nodded in agreement. That's not so bad. It's not like I wanted to do much more than window shop and maybe find something to do. Maybe aliens still crocheted or drew. If that doesn't work out then I could as least read a book or something."Is there anything you need me to do?"

"Basic information mostly." The salarian nodded and pulled out a thick stack of papers and handed them to me. "We just need you to fill out as much information as you can. I understand that your memory is damaged so take your time over the next few weeks to fill it out as it comes back to you."

I nodded and took the paper from him-

-and promptly dropped all of it when I fell on my face for the third time.

Standing up to take a stack of paper without workable fingers and weird legs was probably not the wisest thing I've done in my life.

It took me a moment to right myself while Sepin gathered the stack and placed them on the table. The two of us stared at each other awkwardly before he put the stack on the table and ran off to grab something.

I figured I may as well get started filling out the forms so I hopped up onto the table again and started going through them. Sepin was probably going to write while I spoke but if I knew the questions I could at least cut down on thinking time.

Most of the questions were fairly concise so I just grabbed the pen without thinking and started writing.

Species? I'm human of course. But I thought for a few moments and put down Homunculus afterward as well. After all, I'm only partially human now.

Gender? Female.

Age? Hmmmmm….. I didn't really remember. I wrote down college age since I can remember worrying about my job prospects. Ecology was going to be pretty big in the future what with global warming and all.

Name?... That one gave me pause. What should I write for my name? I knew parts of my given name. That it began with L and ended with A had three syllables and was chronically mispronounced. My last name was pretty useless for identification as it's one of the most common names in china and that was all I could remember about it.

I thoughts about it for a few moments before I made up my mind.

I had a chance to dictate what people would call me.

I put the pen to the paper and in my neatest writing, wrote down Lucia Li.

Because it was close enough to what I remembered about my actual name and there is no way anyone could possibly mispronounce it.

I mean really. How hard was it to say Lydia? Geez.

It was three syllables, from the bible, in a language that isn't known for stuff like that! It's not weird like Tchaikovsky, Siobhan, Chrysanthemum, Xander, Swarovski, or Roisin. It's not even long like some of the japanese deities I've read about, Konohanasakuya, Ukanomitama, or Ukayafukiaezu.

But somehow I always end up being called Liam, Lia, Lilanne, Laila, lily, or Lenya.

Ugh! Plus people only call my name whenever I'm in trouble so I hate hearing it spoken! It's never a good thing when someone calls me by name! EVER!

I mean really! It's amazing what a lifetime of summons will do-

"Ahem." Coughed someone from behind me. "Maybe you should finish the forms before doing anything else."

Wow. Okay.

Never again will I underestimate the power of hate and vitriol.

I had been so wrapped up in the stuff that I hadn't noticed Sepin come back with a small stool for me. He hadn't been particularly quiet about it either.

I also hadn't realized that I had been gripping the pen with a very small set of fingers that extended out from the inside of my 'front hoof' as though the hoof paw was the sleeve of a humongous fluffy sweater.

I stared wide eyed at my previously unknown audience and shrunk into myself just a little, my ears flattening themselves against my head.

I really needed to stop doing spacing out thing. What if I got lost and ended up in the boy's bathroom like last time? God that'd be embarrassing.

My eyes trailed back to the hand gripping the pen. The fingers were almost human like. They had three joints and they connected to a palm made of the same semi-flexible material the rest of me was made of. They were soft, and a little warm.

Almost like my own hand.

Oh.

I could still draw.

I could hold books on my own, crochet with a hook in one hand and string in the other.

I could still do things on my own.

My vision may have blurred just a little right then. Just a little. Robots can't cry. They definitely can't sniffle. Nope.

I won't deny that I was incredibly relieved though. It's like an entire weight had been lifted off my shoulders I'm not entirely sure what I would've have done if-

Nope. Not going to think about it.

I took the opportunity to test my newly discovered hands by using the pen I was grasping to draw a chicken on my tail. The moment I set the pen down the fingers instantly retracted back into my hoof. I guess they were only for holding things rather than interaction.

Who cared! I still drew a chicken!

It was sloppy and uneven. I guess I still have to practice with it for a little while and get used to not having primary access.

But who cares!

I bounced in excitement and turned to Sepin, who had been watching my sudden and joyful discovery with great amusement and chirped. "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER! I HAVE FINGERS! Want me to draw you anything?"

I picked up the pen and went right back to doodling on myself.

"You bought all that stuff for the sole purpose of needling a robot?" Asked Garrus "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself here? She could be dangerous or crazy."

He rubbed her arm where another syntell mech had bitten him. The plates there had been crushed under the sheer pressure and while the injury as minor, he would be feeling it for weeks.

The salarian stopped monitoring the talking mech and turned to him. "Garrus. She seems to have self stabilized and according to my diagnostics, her strength settings are currently on medium-low. Plus the correct term is biosynthetic. Hmmm… I still have to find a way to shorten it" Replied Sepin. Then he gestured to nothing in particular. "At any rate, those are tools for gauging the reactions. An AI like the geth would not have screamed in terror at the sight of a fake spider on their face. In fact, they would not have been fooled by a piece of plastic on a string at all."

Garrus thought about it for a few moments before conceding. Since the mechs were definitely sentient to varying degrees, it would be wise to get a good psychological profile. Subject 843 had sapient origins discretion was an absolute necessity. "Alright I guess you have a point. How did the other subjects respond to the spider trick?"

"The reactions were highly varied. The lesser subjects took to chewing the spider, barking at it, or batting it around. The greater subjects reacted with extremes or nothing at all. Very bizarre to watch. Unfortunately, one of the units has become nonfunctional. All brain activity has ceased."

Oh that's not good. Hopefully Garrus wouldn't get in trouble for one of them dying on his watch. "Should I be worried about the others dying?"

Sepin sighed heavily for a salarian. "I'd watch the greater subjects if I were you. Just about all of them are on the decline. Rapidly I might add."

Garrus nodded in acknowledgement. "And subject 843 isn't?"

"Surprisingly no. I won't say that it's stable, but it is less likely to have a psychotic break. I highly doubt the previous attempt at ripping up its own leg will be the only occurrence though."

Well, at least he could have interesting conversations.

"I should get back to work. I have to plan out some more psychiatric assessments."

Somewhere in the distance, there was a crash, followed by loud barking.

Garrus groaned.

I can't honestly say how much time had passed since I woke up in C-Sec but I do know that once I filled out all the paperwork I was more or less free to go where ever I want.

In the headquarters that is. Apparently my existence was part of a big case and for my safety I had to stay inside. Something about a bunch of people outside wanting to kidnap me.

I'm not sure I really believe that but since I had no other information to go on I had to listen to them. Note that this is exactly why I'm not sure I believe that.

I spent most of my time either getting checkups with Sepin or helping Garrus with paperwork. The checkups led to an interesting discovery, several actually.

The first was that I was technically incomplete. The person who made me died before he could connect everything but left the instructions buried somewhere deep in my head. I'm not sure what happened when Sepic tried to dig them out, no one would tell me. But I do know that it ended with a huge blackout, a bunch of bleeding ears, and a few shattered windows.

Thinking about it for too long makes me nauseous. I'll deal with it later when I'm asleep.

The second was that I had a lens in my my forehead just above my eyes. No clue what it's actually for but it's probably something useful. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that I don't have enough experience to use it yet, like a character in a video game.

The third one was that I could change the color of my eyes by visualizing a color wheel in my head. I went with brown at first since it's my actual eye color.

Yeah, that didn't work out well. My /Ocular Display/ uses LCD so I creeped everyone out by walking around with seemingly black, pupilless pits for eyes. Lighting them up on purpose didn't work well either so I went with ice blue that became just a bit darker as it got closer to my eye lids.

The sharp contrast between my 'pupil', iris, and eyelids would make my stare just a little more intense and intimidating. Something which I desperately needed since no one in the station would take me seriously.

Being told to 'go away, the adults are working' gets really tiring after the 48th time it happens.

I mean I don't blame them but still.

The other Biosynthetics are frickin terrifying if they're after you.

Let me explain.

I met a bunch of others like me shortly after they let me go. Garrus insisted that I stay close to him for safety reasons as he led me down to them.

I noticed the differences between them and myself almost immediately. Where I was kept in an interrogation room, the others were in the jail cells. I was about 16 inches at shoulder height and 10 kilograms.

The ones in the cells were in a bunch of different sizes. Some were definitely much bigger, at least three time my height.

Some were really tiny. Like the size of a tea cup.

The rest were in between.

All of them were like me. Silver-white and pearly. Large, greenish LCD eyes. Hoof-like legs, and long ears on their heads. Some of them even had lenses on their heads like me. Their head shapes were all egglike although some were more pointed that others.

They were probably made from animals. Which explained all the teeth. My my grandma, what sharp teeth you have.

They also looked as stir crazy as I did, pacing back and forth, throwing themselves at the bars, screaming for no apparent reason.

"Are there any others like me? Ones that talked?" I asked Garrus.

"There used to be." He replied quietly. "They all stopped working though."

My ears immediately flattened and my head lowered. "Oh."

"We tried to save them."

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I'd really hoped that there would be someone else that I could talk to. Not many people here are willing to sympathize with something that barely higher than their knee.

Sepin was always happy to talk to me but I got the feeling that it was more about the novelty factor than actual interest.

Same with Garrus. He always looked at me like I was going to snap and attack him.

I wanted so badly to tell them off for being judgemental shits. They weren't even being subtle.

I kept quiet though. Best not to think about it.

"These guys look as stir crazy as I am." I said absentmindedly. "Maybe you should do something with them?"

Garrus blinked and replied as if the answer was obvious. "We can't until we're sure that they aren't a danger to anyone."

"The catlike ones look like they're perfectly willing to chase a laser dot."

Garrus just shrugged in response. "The risks are still to high for that."

Yeah, that was a crock of shit.

I know for a fact that he was in charge of watching them, something about blowing up a warehouse. It's amazing what you hear when no one pays attention to you.

I opened my mouth to correct him when one of the biosynthetics broke out.

It was a huge doglike one and it charged down the hall barking at the top of its lungs.

"Crap!" Garrus swore and raised his gun to shoot it. "Get back!"

Bullets glanced off the dog biosynthetic in a flash of blue. /Shield/

Remembering a friend's hyperactive german shepard I sat upright with my hoof out in front of me. "SIT!" I commanded.

The dog who looked like it it was about to jump on Garrus and make a run for it skidded on his heels until it came to a stop in front of me and plopped its rump on the ground. Its ears twitched and it looked down on me waiting for another order.

Garrus who had been about to call for backup stopped and stared at me curiously.

The dog barked again and shoved its nose into my face, twitching for something else to do.

I suspected that it would start acting up again if I didn't think of something so I went through a list of dog tricks that I knew.

"Down." The dog mech laid on the floor.

"Shake." The dog sat up and gave me a hoof-paw.

"Speak." The dog barked.

"Jump." Commanded Garrus.

"Hr?" The dog mech cocked its head in confusion, looking between the turian and myself, clearly not understanding the funny chirp caw that came from the alien. I repeated the command in english and it sprang into the air with great enthusiasm.

"I don't think It understands you." I explained when I saw the turian slump beside me.

The dog mech chose this moment to tackle Garrus and cheer him up by licking him.

"Get off me you stupid mech!" He cried "Somebody help!"

The right thing to do would've been to call the dog mech away from it. But the sight of the turian being pinned and licked on the floor was too funny to interrupt.

I couldn't help it. I swear in the name of god and his religious nuts, I honestly couldn't help it. "Pfft… HAHAHA."

I think I gave myself a stitch laughing at him, which is really something since I don't actually have organs.

Eventually when I was done laughing I decided to have mercy on Garrus and pulled out the fake spider from my inventory. "Hey dog!"

The dog stopped and looked at me. Then it saw the spider and it started wagging it's tail.

"Wanna play fetch?" I wiggled the spider.

"BARK!"

"You want it?" I wiggled it a little more until the dog was wriggling in anticipation. Then I threw it as far as I could down the hall. "FETCH!"

The dog mech dashed and caught the spider before it hit the ground and after chewing it for a moment, brought it back to me.

"I told you they were just bored." I smirked at Garrus before turning back to the dog mech.

It was panting and staring, waiting for the face spider to fly again.

I thought about throwing the spider to Garrus and watching the dog tackle him again. I guess it must've shown on my face because Garrus glowered at me from where he stood.

"I know what you're thinking." He commanded. "Don't."

Well, I was never really inclined to listening to people. Plus the sight of him on the floor was hilarious. I tossed the spider to him.

To my disappointment, the dog did not tackle him for the spider. I guess it was better trained. It just turned and stared at him.

Garrus blinked and looked to me in nervousness as the dog fixated on the spider and began leaning forward. "Uhhh… How did you say fetch?"

I told him.

He repeated it a few times to get used to the word then he turned to the dog. "Fetch!" He commanded in english as he threw the spider himself. His throw went much farther on account of him having longer arms.

The dog dashed down the hall after it and brought it back to him.

We continued tossing the spider for close to an hour before Garrus got called upstairs for work and we left it to chew on the spider.

The other officers started to take me a little more seriously when they realized that I had 'tamed' what was apparently the most aggressive mech down stairs.

That wasn't really accurate since the dog wasn't so much wild as much as it was bored and stuck in an unfamiliar place.

They clearly did not know dogs very well.

I don't either, but at least I know to exercise them. What can I say? Documentaries on police K9 units are the best! Plus dogs! They're so cute and happy!I've always wanted a dog. Of course, asthma and really really shitty allergies to practically everything under the sun kind of threw a wrench into that.

Hey come to think of it. Robots don't have allergies right? That means I might actually be able to get a dog! Maybe I can get a border collie. They're super smart and everything. Or a pomeranian with all its fluffiness, or OH A papillon. I remembered reading something about them being able to run really far if you train them up for it.

Then I realized something with a pan of sadness that I ignored.

I was probably too small to really take care of a dog. Plus where would I keep it? It's not like the interrogation room was big enough to keep one in there.

Maybe a cat then?

No that wouldn't work either. I'm allergic to those too. My eyes swell like balloons and my sinu- D'oh! Robot!

Hmm….. Maybe a black cat? Or a cow cat.

"BARK!"

"BARKBARK BARK!"

"Yap yap yap!"

Oh no.

Garrus mirrored my thoughts it seemed because he said the same thing. "Oh no."

We both turned in the direction of the barking and saw no less than seven mechs running our way.

The dog mech leading the charge had a very ratty looking black thing hanging out of its mouth.

I guess Dog was smarter than the average canine and thought it would be fun to let out its friends? I guess? Oh well. "SIT!" I bellowed.

The dog pack plowed right through everyone who didn't get out of the way and screeched to a halt right before Garrus and I.

The leader looked rather indecisive as to who should get the fake spider so it dropped it between the two of us.

I probably shouldn't be grossed out since I doubt any of the dog mechs had actual saliva, but still, the lump of black stringy bits on the ground looked kinda wet and really gross. I reached out to take it, but I couldn't make myself touch it. "Ummm..."

I spied Sepin out of the corner of my eye taking notes on the events taking place.

Garrus fortunately, was much less squeamish. He reached down, picked it up and flung it down the stairs.

Once the last dog ran down he sealed the door.

Everyone looked at each other.

"Soooo…..." I began awkwardly. "That was a thing." I paused for a few moments. "What are you planning with all of them?"

"It's only been two months since the raid Lucia." Said Sepin as he scrolled through something on his Omnitool. "Not enough time to figure out what to do with everything."

Two months? Wow, It felt a lot shorter than that for me.

Then again I was probably out for a good chunk of the time.

"Why not incorporate the dogs into your K9 unit?"

I got a bunch of blank looks in response.

"You do have a K9 unit don't you?"

"Why would we spend time and money on a team of dogs?" Asked a turian I've never met. Everyone else was eyeing me warily. "There are things far more important taking up our time."

Jesus fuck on a motorbike. I slammed my hoof-hand into my face and shook my head. "On earth every police team I knew had a K9 unit. A dog and handler. The dog would be used for finding drugs, dead bodies, lost children, bombs, wildlife where it isn't supposed to be, criminals where they aren't supposed to be, taking down perps nonlethally, and in case of emergencies, digging people out from a disaster area."

That got a few looks of surprise. I don't really know why. Do they seriously not have dogs on the Citadel?

"An animal can do all of that?" Asked an Asari. I don't really know her name, I just know that this one just recently joined.

"Well, with good training, yeah. Dogs have a great sense of smell, most of them anyway. Some of the breeds were developed specifically to do certain jobs while others were more for pets and companionship." I replied. "I think the smartest dogs are the border collies. Bred specifically to herd sheep and act independently of the shepherd while being able to cooperate with him at the same time." They look fucking awesome too. Like they're wearing tuxedos.

"-look so noble and majestic-"

They're even cuter when they're puppies.

"-Why don't we have one?"

Bouncing squeaking wiggly balls of fluff and joy.

An older Turian cleared his throat from the entrance. I think his name was Jaxom. "I can actually answer that. We did have a K9 unit several years ago. They were every bit as effective at their jobs as they sounded. But they needed a certain temperament and large amounts of time to train."

"Still sounds worth it though." Muttered Garrus who looked like he was thinking of going out and stealing a dog.

"Then the gangs caught on to what we were doing and started sniping them. Nearly every single working breed on this station was killed. Eventually it was deemed too much effort to train them up so the unit was dropped." Continued Jaxom with a bit of sadness leaking into his voice. "I think there's only one team on the citadel that still managed to use dogs and that's the undercover patrol division."

Oh. Well that explained it. Doesn't excuse them for ignoring an opportunity of course, but it explained it.

"Well seeing as I just watched one of them activate its shields I think y'all are missing an opportunity." I injected into the conversation. I winced internally at the y'all. Where did that even come from? I'm not southern! Am I?

I frowned in concentration.

"That might just be the best idea I've heard in a long time." Mused Garrus. Then he seemed to sink into his chair. "I can't be the one to ask though. Still on punishment duty."

"Ask who?"

"Our boss. The Executor."

Executor, executor. Where have I heard that title before? Oh the turian in the office with light blue clan markings. "You mean the turian that looks like he's going to kill you if you don't give him coffee and sounds like a tuba?"

Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, that was not the right thing to say. I had a feeling I was about to get in trouble. "He's right behind me isn't he?"

"Correct." Answered a deep flanging, tuba-like voice. "I'd like to speak with you privately please."

AN: I got to wonder why C-Sec didn't have a canine unit. I mean dogs are great, so why wouldn't the police force have them? Then I made up my own reason and got to harass gars a little bit. I'm not used to writing him just yet so I apologize if he seems out of character.

Blaze1992- This story is something of a pet project for me. I work on it when I'm stuck with my other story Charmed. I have ideas, but I'm not entirely sure how far I'm going to take this yet. And why an animal body? You'll see. I have some hints in the first chapter as to the original nature of lucia.

Read and review! They make my day and I'd love to know if the story is making people happy. Plus it's great for inspiration.