Roxas' first trip to the hospital for a Panguin attack, he was eight years old. Blood becoming sludge in his veins, his heart refused to pump and went on strike. He was clinically dead for a minute and had burns on his chest for weeks from the defibrillator causing him to still be shy when taking his shirt off for fear someone might see the faint, faint scars. To him, the question of humanity, a body, and a soul were always festering beneath the surface. The idea that an AI like Xion would want even the broken sack of flesh he occupied puzzled him when he was so engaged by the thought dying. It didn't rule his existence; he lived. The thoughts of immortality still remained stagnant growing rank in some corners of his brain, though.

But Xion focused on the fact that humans were alive and that she was eternal. Eternal was nothing without a connection. Those connections that everyone seemed to thrash and grasp for in some violent mental struggle; they were like prisoners carving out their escape with shards of metal. They couldn't leave this planet until they had dug their way through existence. And existence was something she lacked with her metal frame and computer code thoughts. Something she craved.

Roxas, when he saw Xion for the first time, had to take a deep breath almost to inhale her complexity. All he saw was her infinity. With video camera eyes tracking his movements hooked to up to a hardware head, the blond felt almost dizzy. Ten fingers, ten toes. A hard solid frame that could last forever. She was covered in a soft flexible fake skin that must have cost some major bucks. He could only assume that she had microphones in her ears to receive sound and a speaker to act as her voice box. What he was looking at was almost not an AI, but a girl. She wasn't perfect. One could still tell that she was an AI, but it was a darn good attempt. Her head was covered with a soft black wig as she sat upon the bed, "You didn't tell me there'd be company today, Axel." /uncomfortable/ /panic/ She rubbed her hands together anxiously giving this new boy that was so very blond a once over. "Is he a friend?"

Considering this, Axel smiled, "I guess so. He's new. I think you can trust him, though. This is Roxas, and he'd like to talk to you. He's interested in AI as well." Ducking out of the conversation, he grabbed one of his more ratty t-shirts and headed to the bathroom to change into it. When he had come back, the blond was crouched before the robot.

"Wow," Roxas whispered enamored by everything about her, "You're- Did Axel do all of this?" He asked her directly which was nice change. Sometimes people forgot that Level 4 and up could clearly recognize when you were talking about them. Some adults –cough- his mom- cough- were a bit slow to all the major changes to technology (even though she worked on them and had no excuse).

"Yeah, he worked on the frame work, and I helped with some more of my programming." She beamed, "And you're…" She ran a diagnostics on the blond, "Oh, you have-" Her head whipped to make eye contact with Axel. [Facial display 22: Serious face/panic]

Roxas cleared his throat, bringing her attention back to him, "Yeah, I know. I'm a bit icky on the inside." He laughed, "So how long have you had a body like this? Do you like it? Mind if I check out some of your parts. I won't do anything you don't want me to. Just say stop if it bugs you." He wondered if Axel had made her anatomically correct, and if so, that was a bit creepy. Too creepy for him, no matter how cool and smart the redhead already seemed to be.

A little wary, Xion nodded, "Yeah, I really like being able to walk around and see outside. I've been in my current state for about…oh, I'd say four months. Axel is saving up for my next upgrade." She giggled a bit when Roxas' fingertips brushed the underside of her foot.

Looking up a bit shocked, he blinked rapidly trying to process what this meant, "You felt that?" She had nerves? Or something at least like them? The sensation of touch in a robot seemed unfathomable to the blond.

"Yeah, she can 'feel' that. I hooked her up, so she has receptors on most of the main places of the body. Lips, eyes, ears, hands, knees and elbows, feet and shins. The usual places you bang in the dark." The redhead winked. His voice was that of a strong leader to the two who had followed him into this world he had seemingly created.

"Your hair is beautiful." Xion whispered to Roxas as he continued to look at her hands and feet, giggling a bit when he blushed some, "Namine had hair just like that. I think it's nice, but I like Axel's color the best for human males. It's so different. The genetics that come with it are so rare. The same with his green eyes." Roxas was rare, but Axel was rarer. Even a robot could appreciate the beautiful anomaly that was Axel's genetics.

Nodding a bit at her words, he bit the inside of his cheek, "Mind if I look at your coding?" The question was in the gray of being rude or polite. Depending on the programmer, they'd absolutely refuse, but Axel was cool like that. He had no problem sharing a piece of genius, so all could enjoy.

"Help yourself, my password is Phase0ut." Roxas turned in the computer chair and gave the redhead a judgmental look. "What? I was ten, and I've never gotten around to changing it. Sue me." He laughed watching the blond quickly plug in the code onto the keys. "It's under Xion, so just- Oh, you found it." While Roxas fiddled with that, he went and sat beside Xion, so the two could discuss how their days had gone.

"Your mom wants you to enter me in the AI competition again. She said we could do really well, and no one else will have anything like you." Xion puffed up her cheeks with air, "It could be fun. We'd get to travel! I've never been out to the city." She pointed out hoping this would persuade the other.

The redhead shifted uncomfortably, keeping a close eye on Roxas, "I don't know. I don't feel safe going to the city anymore because of what happened last time."

"What happened last time?" The blond asked his blue eyes still fixed on the screen.

Xion started to speak, "Well, Axel doesn't really like to tell the story, but-"

"No, it's fine, Xion. I've got it." Taking a deep breath, he bit his lip, "I guess if we're going to tell a story, it'd best to start with the beginning."

Layla as Beta~ Review at your leisure :)