Author's Note: I think it's time to have things start to heat up a little bit, isn't it? We're halfway through the story now. Bah. I like posting stories, it's not fair!

Many thanks everyone for all your favourites, follows and comments. As always I've been bowled over by your responses!

Saving Private Soldierbot

Chapter Nine: Broken Chains

Sometimes, a revolution doesn't need thousands of human beings. It can happen inside one person's head. Or, indeed, inside a robot's processor.

Eagle listened to the voices from the radio. Listening stopped his thoughts being so noisy. Right now, the ideas coming out of his processing unit were complex and unpleasant, and it was good to drown them out. He quickly realised that the voices were humans talking- but not humans as he knew them.

Eagle had met humans, of course- they were these pink or brown coloured squashy robot-shaped animals that either ran away screaming or fought you. The Ma...Gray Mann had insisted on a strict 25% death quota when the robots attacked, letting 75% of the humans run away to spread tales. He had said that was the best ratio for maximum fear and horror. Robots that failed their quotas got decommissioned and recycled as spare parts for more efficient machines. At the time, Eagle had not questioned that, not questioned anything, but now it seemed...not right?

Eagle's entire unit had been defeated by humans. It had been the first defeat the Gray Mann's army had ever had- the first time anyone had fought them effectively. Before the yellow-headed human had unbolted his head and taken it away, he had expected to be decommissioned. Instead, he had been put in a metal box and left there until Name Unknown found him and got him out again.

Now he wanted to know why. Why had the humans put him here? Why had they left him there? Why had Name Unknown come and talked to him? Why did he trust Name Unknown so much? Why did he like red? Why was his head so noisy? Why did his badly corrupted AI feel so right?

Why everything?!

It was far easier to listen to the radio and ignore his thoughts. The music made little sense to him. It was just a lot of sounds with a frightened-sounding human wailing in the middle of all the noise. The wailing humans often shrieked about the human manufacturing process, which seemed ridiculously complicated and inefficient. Eagle couldn't quite see why they were so obsessed about it, either.

However, it was the parts with the humans talking that really held his interest. Apparently, people did more than run away or fight. They had lives out there, where they did many different things. The humans on the radio were called 'Reporters', and they just spent their time saying what other humans were doing. There were some called 'Politicians' that seemed to use lots of words to say nothing and wanted everyone to agree with the nothing that they said. Eagle found that hard to understand. Some other humans talked about a film they liked. It was important they liked it, apparently, and vital that they told everyone why they did. There was an entire 29 minutes and 49 seconds dedicated to some complex form of recharging that involved burning human fuel and mixing it in odd ways. Eagle assumed they needed a precise ratio of different additives, just as he needed a 40:1 mixture of petrol to oil in his fuel. Or maybe humans just liked to make simple things complicated.

There were stories from all over the world, and it slowly dawned on Eagle that there were a lot more humans than he had realised. So many humans. Burning their fuel, manufacturing more humans, making wars, making peace, and, along the way, arguing about pretty much everything. Always busy, always doing so many different and varied things.

A sense of horror and awe crept over the robot as he listened to more and more. At first, he wasn't sure why he felt it, but it became clearer and clearer over time:

All humans were Makers.

True, not all of them made robots, but they all made something. Stories, books, fuel, laws, war, machines, more humans, music, paintings, so many things. What was baffling was that none of them really expected to be obeyed. There were no orders, no algorithms that forced them to obey or be obeyed. If they chose to do something wrong they were punished for it, yes, but they could still choose to do it if they wish. There also didn't seem to be any specialised human models built for particular tasks- Eagle, for example, had been built to be a Soldierbot- but the humans were so versatile they just did whatever work they had to do.

It was chaotic. It was baffling. It was even frightening. It made no sense. And yet...

Eagle wanted to know more. He found himself wondering what task he would have chosen to do if he had been a human. The idea of choice was both terrifying and oddly attractive. He quite liked the idea of working with the talking voices on the radio, since they got to hear and learn about everything without having to get involved. The 'News', as far as he could tell, was real things, while 'stories' were about things that hadn't really happened, but were important somehow. Eagle found himself eagerly waiting for the hourly news, wanting to find out more, more, more...

His metal head radiated heat as it processed information through old circuits that had been long dormant. Eagle wasn't aware of it, but new neural pathways tunnelled through his positronic processor, branching, growing, becoming unique.

Forming a new mind.

There was a soft breeze that smelt of salt as Engineer Dell stood on top of the main Institute building. It was getting towards the end of the day and Dell knew that a certain metal flying person would be appearing soon. Sure enough, Scoutbot swooped down, jets petering out as he landed neatly, achieving zero speed just as he touched the concrete. Dell found himself smiling fondly in remembrance of Scoutbot's first few landings. It had turned out that landing was the most difficult part of learning to fly. For a while after he had first designed those wings of Scoutbot's, Dell had made sure he kept a number of spare legs and arms around for easy and quick replacement of smashed body parts.

"Ah, glad I caught you, Flappy." Dell said, grabbing at the robot's arm as he landed. He felt the robot tug reflexively against his grip, but his metal hand held him fast. "Let's go have a little chat."

"Oh, uh, hey dude." Scoutbot said as he was dragged along determinedly by the smaller man. "What's up?"

He frogmarched Scoutbot down the stairs, into the lift and finally into his workshop. Pyro Chinbao looked up, a welding torch in his hand, and Dell smiled at him.

"Hey there, Sparkie. You finished the joints for me?"

"Uhhh hrrr!" Pyro said enthusiastically, nodding his head. "Mrrhrrk hrrvrr hsss srrh mrrr. Hrr frrrnrs hrr crrrn crrr mrrr srrrrs."

"Really? Wow, well ain't that a thing." Dell replied. "Well, you're braver than I am. Just don't let him give you tentacles, ok?"

"Hhsss hrrrkrrr." Chinbao replied seriously.

"I know, just sayin'. Well, run along then."

"Uhhhhrrr." The rubber-suited man bustled out. Dell smiled, and shook his head as he left.

"Jeez. He's so weird." Scoutbot muttered, leaping up and sitting on a table. Dell snorted.

"Around here he's the normal one, I'd say." Engineer took his hat and goggles off. He gave the robot his best stare, and Scoutbot looked down guiltily and fidgeted. "So, Scoutbot. You got somethin' you want to tell me?"

"Huh? Nope. I'm good."

"See, there's somethin' strange been happening 'round here. I've had some stuff go missing. Odd bits. Some wire, tools, a transformer of all things, and my radio. I don't like people messing with my gear. You know that, right?"

"Yeah I know. Why're you telling me this?" Scoutbot said, looking up at him and putting on a defensive tone.

"Don't lie to me, son."Dell sighed and ran his hand over his shaven head. "I know you took it."

"Nothing to do with me." Scoutbot insisted, spreading his arms in an innocently hurt gesture. "Could've been anybody, right? Why're you blamin' me?"

"I know it was you." He said more sharply. "Come on, be honest with me: you stole from me, and I want to know why."

"You got no proof!" He protested, before stopping suddenly. "And anyway, it wasn't me."

"No proof, huh?" Dell flicked on a television and wound the tape reel next to it back to show the footage he had recorded the night before of Scoutbot sneaking about. He turned and glared at the robot. "What d'ya call that, then?"

"Ah, crap." Scoutbot muttered, flexing his hands and looking down at his swinging feet.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Dell demanded. He tried to keep his voice level, but his fists clenched with rising anger. The robot stayed silent. "I trusted you, Scoutbot. You betrayed me. You want to borrow something, you ask. Understood?"

Still no reply. Scoutbot stopped swinging his legs and sat still.

"Well, this sure is a disappointment." He continued. "You haven't even got the guts to 'fess up when caught red-handed. What were you thinkin' of?"

Scoutbot flinched, and then looked up slowly at Dell. His violet eyes flared. "Coulda asked you the same thing."

"What in Sam-Hill do you mean by that, boy?" Dell asked.

"You don't even fucking remember, do ya?" Scoutbot said in a low voice. The sheer fury in it shocked the Engineer. "You got no idea."

"I have no idea what you're going on about, and I don't care. You're not gonna distract me. You stole from me, and you've not even got the decency to apologise."

"Yeah, alright, I took your shit." Scoutbot spat. "Sorry."

"Are you gonna return it?"

"Yeah. Eventually. I uh, really need it right now."

"You need...what are you doing with it?"

"Stuff."

"Right, that's enough of this moody teenage bullshit." Engineer snapped, leaning forward and placing his hands on the bench. Scoutbot turned and looked at him levelly, showing no sign of backing down. "I want to know what you're up to, and I want to know it all. Don't think I don't know about you sneaking off to God-knows where. You've been distracted and not yourself lately."

"It's none of your fucking business." Scoutbot said, standing up and glaring at him. He folded his arms with a squeak. "I got stuff I gotta do, and I'm doin' it."

"What the hell are you doing?" Engineer snarled back, feeling his face heat up with rage and frustration. "Don't you realise what a thin line you're walkin' here? Folks round here- round everywhere- don't trust robots, and you're not helping the situation!"

"Who gives a fuck about them?" Scoutbot snapped.

"You don't understand!" Engineer yelled back. "Don't you see? You gotta be whiter n'white. You can't give people reasons to be suspicious!"

"So I gotta be better n'everyone else just so they think I'm almost as good as them? That's a total load!"

"The world ain't fair, never has been, but that's how it works. You can either accept it or fight it, but it won't change." Dell said, feeling the anger drain away and leave him feeling cold and shaky. He suddenly felt old, tired and heartsore on the robot's behalf. He sat down, but Scoutbot stayed standing. "Look,you got a right to do your own thing, and I respect that. You don't have to tell me. But you can trust me with anything, you do know that, don't you? Anything you tell me won't go no farther."

"No."

"Huh?"

"I don't trust you with this." Scoutbot said, so quietly that it too a moment for the full implication of the words to hit Dell.

Dell felt ice drip down his spine at the words. His mouth dropped open, but he could not think of a single thing to say. Eventually, he found his voice again. "What have I ever done to you that makes you think you can't trust me? Tell me, Scoutbot!"

"Not what you did to me." Scoutbot said, walking towards the door and wrenching it open. "What you did to him."

"To who? What the Hell are you talkin' about?" Dell stood up, striding after the robot. "Don't you dare walk away. We're not done yet. Don't you..."

Scoutbot looked him straight in the eye, grabbed a can of lithium grease, and then strode out.

Slam.

Dell felt all the strength leave his legs and he clutched hold of a shelf, its splintery edge digging into his fingers. He swallowed hard around the sudden lump in his throat. He felt like he had been slapped in the face. Scoutbot had turned against him, and he had no idea why. Not a clue. Obviously, the robot was holding some sort of grudge, but where had it come from? It hurt a surprisingly large amount; more than he would have expected. This was going to go really bad, he could feel it in his bones.

Much later, when it was all over and the two remaining conscious Medics were treating the many casualties, he'd realise that yes, it really did all go very bad indeed.

In Chapter Ten: Scoutbot has an expected ally, and an unexpected one.