Before we start….

Deviling , NerdGirl9898 and RandomNumbers523156 - Thanks for your kind words!

Chapter 5 – Wedding vows

The party went smoothly, with a small gathering of people from the spaceport and a couple that attended the same university as his Master. After a while, the scientists requested that Luka and Gakupo sing for them. His Master agreed, delighted. With the lights dimmed, the pair stood before a view screen that took a whole wall of the living room. Together they sang several duets, while the screen projected abstract images and provided background music.

It was well past midnight when the guests started leaving, perhaps noticing that Smith was practically comatose on the couch. After the last one drove away, his Master dropped on a chair exhausted and kicked off her shoes. Luka and Gakupo started to take off the decorations.

"That was lovely and all, but I think I'm going to hibernate right here for a couple of years…" Smith droned with his eyes closed, doing his best impression of a ragdoll. "Get your things ready to return home tomorrow," he opened one eye and addressed Luka. She stopped untangling a ribbon from one of the hanging lights and stared at him strangely.

"I want to stay here."

His Master straightened immediately, with renewed alertness. Smith himself reacted much more slowly, almost drowsing off before he raised his head and looked at Luka, bemused.

"What?"

"I want to stay with Gakupo," and as if to reinforce her statement, Luka crossed the room and hugged the synthetic. Gakupo hugged her back, but noted with alarm how the navigator's eyes hardened.

"Mitsuki, I'm too tired for this crap right now," Smith turned his head to look at his Master, startling her.

"Excuse me?"

"You ordered them to play house or something? I can't help but think you are way too into this kind of thing, sometimes," Smith shook his head.

"They developed feelings for each other naturally, I'll have you know. And why shouldn't I be 'too into' synthetics? They are one of the most wondrous things created by man!"

"There's nothing 'natural' about them," Smith retorted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "And wondrous, really? Remember space exploration, or modern medicine, or the terraforming of Mars? Compared to all of that, they are nothing but over-engineered puppets!" Smith considered the pair with hostility. "Luka, punch him in the face. Hard."

"Ish!" His Master jumped from her chair, horrified.

Luka took a step back, swinging her arm. A distorted wail escaped from her lips, and her body shook violently. Her fist traced a slow arch in the air, as she visibly fought to stay her movements.

"P-p-please-I-I-Aaaaaa-" Her voice, usually so sweet, fragmented into electronic shards of noise.

For a terrible moment, Gakupo thought she had broken down. He took her fist and pushed it hard against his jaw. The mandible piece under his skin strained uncomfortably with the force of the impact, but held intact.

"There! It's done, it's done!" he said hurriedly. Luka's body suddenly went limp, and he had to keep her from falling down to the floor. She held on to him weakly.

He turned to look at the humans, uncomprehending. Smith looked somewhat disturbed by the whole thing, but his Master was absolutely livid. Gakupo had never seen her look like that, and it immediately made his internal processes demand he do something to make her feel better.

"Luka is not broken, Master. Right?" Luka gazed at him dizzily. She touched her throat, with fear in her eyes.

"G-Gakupo…" she muttered. They were still some odd skips in her voice, but thankfully they were barely noticeable. She nodded slowly.

Gakupo turned to his Master with a twitchy smile. "Please don't be angry," he begged.

In response, his Master's eyes filled with tears, which was probably even worse. Smith leaped from the couch, contrite.

"Mitsuki, I'm sorry," he tried to grab her by the shoulders, but she swatted his hands furiously.

"Shut up!" she circled around him swiftly and ran towards Gakupo and Luka.

"I wasn't thinking right, I'm freaking tired!" Smith looked at her dejectedly.

His Master didn't reply. She placed a hand on Luka's forehead and smiled at her between her tears.

"Look, I'll go, ok? I'll leave Luka here and I'll go. But I need her back next Tuesday."

"Why?" His Master asked drily. "Take Luka to the lab," she said in a much softer tone to Gakupo. He nodded and picked the gynoid up. Luka buried her face in his neck.

"Torrealba wants to see her."

"The mission director? What for?" His Master frowned.

Gakupo stalled, halfway through the room. Luka herself turned one scared eye at Smith.

"No clue. But if the guy that has the final word on who goes up says he wants to meet her, she's going. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."

His Master looked at him with narrowed eyes. "…Fine," she answered after a moment. She took the flower pin from her head and let her hair tumble down to her shoulders. "Sleep here on the couch. The last thing we need right now is for you to crash your stupid manual truck somewhere on the way to your stupid house."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Gakupo, I told you to go," she turned to Gakupo with a drained expression. Despite her kind tone of voice, Gakupo still felt a jolt of pain at his own disobedience. He immediately jogged out of the room, as fast as he could without running into something.

A few seconds later, he placed Luka face up on the stretcher in the lab. He took one of Luka's hands between his, at a loss at what to say.

"…Take off your gloves already," she muttered. Gakupo threw them across the room with gusto.

Luka turned sideways, and pulled the front of his jacket. Understanding her intentions, Gakupo carefully climbed on the stretcher and cradled her in his arms. Even in the current circumstances, having her so close felt good.

"I hate him. I hate all of them, tittering at us all the time," she said darkly.

The flow of Gakupo's thoughts almost clogged then, as his mind struggled with her words. It was one thing to wish for more autonomy, but to actually resent their own Masters?

"How c-c-c-can you…say that…" His own voice skipped and faltered, as Gakupo fought to even consider the idea.

"I've been able to formulate thoughts like that ever since the last time he brought me to a repair shop. They probably gave some of my parameters the wrong values. Not that I can act upon these thoughts in any way," Luka answered after a moment, her face hidden by her hair.

"…I c-c-can't t-t-talk about thisss-" Gakupo managed to say, painfully.

"For someone running so many unregulated modifications, you are surprisingly susceptible to disloyal thoughts. Funny how Mitsuki Torii thought those were acceptable restraints." Luka whispered in his ear.

Gakupo gnashed his teeth and closed his eyes shut. He resolved to ignore Luka until she changed the subject. After a minute, he felt her sigh.

"My beautiful prince, locked in a cage… Forget I said nasty things, and love me again," Luka sang in her opaquely sweet voice.

He opened his eyes. Luka's face was very close, the radiance in her eyes pulsing with the hurried rhythm of her core. She leaned in and kissed him softly.

That was something he could handle, even if he couldn't understand why he had been programmed to find the act pleasurable in the first place. He opened his mouth, and the kiss quickly evolved into something much more heated.

His Master walked into the lab, rubbing her eyes. "Sorry about the wait, g-, " she stopped in her tracks, red faced.

Gakupo sat up, and buttoned his shirt up, or at least what buttons it had left. Looking around, he saw his bowtie sticking out from under Luka's left thigh.

"Excuse me," he lifted her into a seating position on his lap, and then realized the bowtie was in split in two. He looked at Luka, and noticed that her uniform was hanging from one shoulder only, the other side completely ripped apart. They really needed to undress before cuddling, he decided.

"I'm sorry Master, I think we ruined the costumes. Are you going to lose your deposit?" He asked her. She blinked and busted out laughing.

"No, no, don't worry about that. I'll look into your strength calibration settings later. But let me check you guys out before you… erm, continue, ok? Though your face seems to be working pretty well," she covered her mouth with her hand.

"He performs satisfactorily, Miss Torii," Luka assessed.

"Ah-haha, that's good to hear. And what about you, Luka? How do you feel?"

"The kiss of my beautiful prince rejuvenated me, even at the cost of my outfit."

"Well, that's all that matters. Still, I'd prefer to run a few quick checks on you, just in case," his Master approached the stretcher, and Gakupo started to move, to let Luka lie down on his own. But Luka clung to his neck stubbornly.

"Oh, that's ok. You can remain as you are, if you want. Just take off your headpieces-" the scientist took some cables and plug them both to the machinery of the lab.

"You know… if Gakupo is your prince, maybe I can be your fairy godmother," his Master mused, looking at the data filling the screens, and tapped some keys.

"Can you promise me a happy ending?" Luka asked.

His Master stopped, and looked at her. "I… don't know," she said sincerely. "I guess that makes me a very poor fairy godmother."

"That's ok." Luka closed her eyes, leaning against Gakupo. "I'm not a very good princess either."

Warren's nephew was getting married that weekend. Gakupo, Luka and his Master arrived to the temple, a beautifully preserved building of stone and painted glass. There was already a large gathering outside, men and women dressed in fancy outfits, with some synthetics thrown in the mix. Gakupo spotted Rin and Len surrounded by a circle of admirers. In one corner of the plaza, the big male and child synthetic they had seen at the Golden Skies sat at on a bench.

"Oh my god, you are right! A third one, and he looks so cute! I have to meet him!" His Master gathered her skirts and ran excitedly towards the bench, ignoring the approaching Warren.

"Uh, Mitsuki? Good day?" The old gentleman looked at her with amusement.

"I'll be right back!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Warren turned to Gakupo and Luka, shrugging. "Well, I can't say I ain't glad she loves you synth-types so much. Good day, my children."

"Good day, Mister Warren," they replied in unison.

"I thought Mitsuki was going to bring along the beefy fellow, what's-his-name?"

"They had a disagreement," Gakupo replied, wondering if it was appropriate to give any further details.

"That's a shame. Maybe I'll have to find her a husband myself, then."

"Are you successful in the field of match-making?" Gakupo asked. Trading Smith for someone else seemed a good idea, after his Master bought Luka off him, of course. He didn't want any more punches in the face.

"I'd like to think so, I introduced Walter to Anushka, after all," he gestured with his cane to the church. Gakupo took that to mean he was talking about his nephew and the bride.

"What if she doesn't want to marry?" Luka suddenly interjected. Warren looked at her, somewhat surprised.

"Why, you seem in a bolder mood today. That's good, that's very good," clutching his monocle, he examined her face with mock seriousness. "Yes, there's an outspoken young lady down there, under the rose petals." Warren straightened back and he patted his beard. "I suppose Mitsuki might not want to exchange vows, as you say. Marriage is not a particularly popular institution these days. But she doesn't strike me as the type to prefer loneliness, if I may say so. The mere fact that you two are here right now shows it."

"Then you are the same. You have Rin and Len, after all," Luka pointed out. Warren looked at the golden-haired twins with fondness.

"Who wouldn't want to have such lovely grandchildren? Ah, I think it's time to come inside. Go get Mitsuki back before you gain a new little brother."

"The service was very beautiful, don't you think? Western weddings are so interesting!" His Master commented as they approached the pavilion where the wedding reception was already underway.

"I didn't really understand much of it. The priest made many references to places and people that aren't on my databanks," Gakupo said, and Luka nodded in agreement.

"Ah, I suppose so. But at least the building itself was very handsome, in any case."

"It was," he conceded.

"And they gave out song books," Luka opened her purse and showed them the small tome. His Master blinked.

"I don't think we were supposed to take those… Ah, we can return it later. Come on, we're missing out on the fun!" She said as the sounds of a waltz reached them.

They entered the pavilion just in time to see the bride and groom dancing together, with everyone else forming a loose circle around them. The final chords of the song played amidst the clapping of the guests. A new song started, and more couples joined in.

A dark-skinned man approached his Master flashing an impressive smile. A few moments later, they were dancing. His Master had a look of extreme concentration in her face, obviously trying very hard to follow the gentleman's smooth movements. He seemed to appreciate the effort.

"There's that pair again," Luka pointed to a corner. Indeed, there was Rin and Len, bouncing around the big synthetic. The little one looked at them bashfully. Luka and Gakupo stepped closer, until they could hear Rin and Len's cheery chanting.

"Dance with us! Dance with us, Al!" They repeated again and again, while Al looked at them with a raised eyebrow. Suddenly, the twins became aware of Gakupo and Luka's presence, and skipped over to them. "Big bro! Big sis! Dance with us!" It seemed a bit too much familiarity, considering they had only met once before, but Gakupo smiled and took their hands. "Hello, Rin, Len." After a moment's hesitation, Luka completed the circle and the four of them started spinning around.

"I'm not sure this is the right dance in this context," Luka pointed out.

"But it's fun!" Rin laughed.

"Oliver, please join us!" Len said, towards the third child synthetic. Oliver looked at Al, and the big one shrugged.

"Do whatever you want," Al said with a surprisingly deep voice. He leaned against a post, with his arms crossed.

Oliver timidly grasped Len's and Gakupo's hands. "Hello," he whispered. They started turning again, at a somewhat more relaxed pace.

"Hello Oliver, my name is Gakupo, and this is Luka. I believe you met my Master before the ceremony," Gakupo said pleasantly. Oliver winced slightly.

"She asked a lot of questions…It was kind of scary," the boy said, looking downwards. Al let out a laugh that sounded like a bark.

"She means well, she just-" Gakupo smiled.

"Hey, I know this song!" Rin suddenly interrupted, looking at the nearest speaker. It was playing the first bars of a popular romantic song. She sang with the music. Len joined a moment later, and then Oliver let out some frail notes. Even more surprisingly, Al closed his eyes and hummed along with his rough voice.

"We seem to have an audience," Luka leaned towards Gakupo and whispered. He looked behind him, and saw that many of the guests had stopped dancing and were watching them.

"We should give them a good show, then," Gakupo formed the singing kids in a line, facing the growing crowd. He and Luka held hands behind them, and added their voices at the chorus. Just before the last repeated verse, Al nonchalantly sauntered towards them and joined in. The end of the song was met with thunderous applause.

Gakupo spotted Warren. The old man spoke to the bride and groom, and after getting what seemed to be nods of approval, jogged heavily towards the DJ booth.

"I think we just signed on to be the entertainment for the evening. Lovely," Luka dead-panned.

"Just don't expect me to know the lyrics to any cutesy songs," Al said with a smirk, as the first notes of another tune escaped the speakers.

The song was definitely cutesy. And Al knew the lyrics to it, and the one that followed, and every other track that played that evening. If anything, it was Gakupo and Luka that sometimes resorted to oh-s and ah-s instead of actual words.

No one seemed to mind.

"You know, I was thinking of how cute it would be if you and Luka had wedding rings," his Master commented. "But we need to start saving money for Luka," she said, stifling a yawn, and stretched as far as the car's inner dimensions let her.

Luka tore her eyes from the passing scenery, and frowned a little. "What do you mean by that?"

"My Master wants to buy you," Gakupo explained. Luka's eyes widened.

"Did he really agree to that…?" She said incredulously.

"Uh, I haven't really spoken to Ish about it yet. But, I don't see why he would say no, if I offer a good sum," his Master sounded less sure of her words than Gakupo would've wanted, regrettably. Luka looked away.

"Maybe you can make us a nice little gadget to wear instead," Gakupo proposed, purposely ignoring the latter half of the conversation.

"That could end being as expensive as fancy jewelry, or more," his Master smiled, "but I like the idea. Perhaps a communicator of some sort?" She reclined back, thinking.

"Make it sub-dermal, then." Luka said, her eyes again on the shadowy streets outside of the vehicle.

"Why?" Gakupo asked, already suspecting the answer.

"So it can't be taken away too easily, of course," she turned to look at him, and smiled shrewdly.

"That's not an unwarranted fear," his Master conceded. "But having it that close to your inner casing would it make difficult for more elaborate functions, especially if you want it to be hard to find through ordinary scans. I think I could pull off a beacon emitter/receiver, but not actual two-sided communication, with the resources I already have at the lab. Would you like that?"

"A beacon…You mean I'd always be able to find Gakupo?" Luka asked, her eyes sparkling. He smiled.

"And vice versa, as long as you keep them activated, yes," his Master answered.

"Can you get it done before Tuesday?" Luka asked with trepidation.

"It's going to be close, but I believe so," the scientist replied jovially.

"Yes, yes please, Miss Torii!" Luka exclaimed.

It was Monday evening. As promised, the two little implants were complete, and ready to be inserted under their scalps. With the help of some nano-probes, they would form a permanent connection to their mechanical brains, yet still remaining a separate entity.

Gakupo and Luka sat on a couple of chairs in the lab, while his Master fussed with her equipment some more. "I gave the beacon several methods of communication, so even if satellite-based coverage fails, the signal will transmit if you are close enough to each other. I estimate the maximum range of off-network reception to be about 90 km, by the way."

The scientist carefully cut Luka's skin next to her line of connection ports with a scalpel, to disguise the work with the crease already present, and inserted the implant and a probe capsule. She repaired the tear with some skin foam. Gakupo leaned forward, and his Master did the same for him. She then typed the activation code on the wireless console. "Ready?"

"Yes, Master."

"Yes, Miss Torii."

"Then I declare you husband and wife," she said playfully and tapped the enter key.

It was like a heartbeat. The cores in their chests worked nothing like the human organ, and yet Gakupo could hear Luka's heart, singing out to him. Her awed expression mimicked his own.

"There's something missing here…ah, I know," his Master tapped her mobile a couple of times. The sounds of the Blue Danube started playing all around the house.

Gakupo laughed, and took his bride's hand. They stood up and danced, carefully avoiding the machines that hummed tonelessly along with the music.

His Master watched them, wiping her eyes from time to time with her sleeve.

Gakupo felt antsy. He had expected to find the absence of Luka disagreeable, but these past days had turned out to be much worse than that. The beacon told him precisely where she was, at the other side of town, but he couldn't go to her. He was doing menial jobs inside the house, trying to push aside the urge to relive his memories of the past months fully, yet continuously hearing the siren call inside of his mind.

His Master was at work, for once leaving him alone at home. She said she wanted to try to speak to Smith today, and that Gakupo's presence would only complicate things. It hurt to be considered a liability, but she was probably right.

He closed his eyes and placed the knife on the counter. He couldn't concentrate on the task at hand, and his Master didn't need to come back to find she needed to re-attach a finger.

Gakupo wondered if this was similar to what happened to the very first units of his kind. All the VE-01 prototypes had gone mad, in the end. Too much feedback, too much endlessly analyzing the same information looking for more and more details… A curious mind, eating itself to discover the taste of its own coding.

The house piped in, amicably letting him know that a car carrying their Master had just stopped before its front porch. Gakupo opened his eyes.

"Good afternoon, Master. You are early today," he greeted her at the door.

"Good afternoon, Gakupo," she tried unsuccessfully to smile. Gakupo immediately knew something was wrong.

"Master…?"

"Can you get me a soda and some chocolate cookies? I'll be in the living room," she said quickly, and walked past him. Gakupo ran into the kitchen and grabbed the snacks, without really seeing them.

His Master sitting on the couch, staring at the abstract patterns of the view screen. She gratefully accepted the snacks and devoured a cookie in two bites.

"Sit down," she told him, once her mouth was cookie-free. He took a chair across her.

"Torrealba called me to his office today. My boss, remember?" Gakupo nodded, "on the way in, I ran into Ish, I guess he was just finished talking to Torrealba himself."

"Did you ask him-?"

"If he wanted to sell me Luka? Of course, at least I tried to. He brushed me off," the scientist looked down with a sad expression.

"No…"

"That's not the worse part. Torrealba called me to let me know the results before the official announcement of the crew roster. I-I didn't make the cut," his Master looked at him, choking on her words for a few seconds. She then looked at her clock. "They should be transmitting the press conference right about now," she whispered. She ordered the screen to search for a news feed, and it diligently jumped past a couple of signals, and landed on an image of a group of people before the familiar logo of the space agency.

Gakupo knew. He didn't need to see the pink hair on one of the figures. He didn't need to hear the terrible words, because they had been repeating over and over in his head, driving him insane.

"Ish and Luka were selected to go."

The living room suddenly trembled with a jarring burst of noise. It took a moment for Gakupo to realize it was his own inhuman screaming. He fell forwards, scratching his throat, trying to stop the sounds from pouring out of his mouth. But it was no use. Inside of him there was nothing but static, and endless loops of memories, a thousand images overlapping, shrilling at their futility. Several of his lower functions were instantly overwhelmed under the sludge of corrupted data. Gakupo strained, trying to grasp the pulsing beacon with whatever remained of him.

He shattered.

The body's sensors kept absorbing the data from the environment around it: the crying woman, the carpet under it and the sounds from the screen. But there was nobody inside of it to interpret the information.

"…He dared to say it was for my own good, can you believe that? That I was pouring my heart on something that didn't deserve it. I should've know from the start what he was like. That big stupid…

I didn't want to believe it, even after I saw what he had done to Luka's face. I took out the twisted pieces with my own hands, and I didn't want to believe it. Yes, take her to some hack to save money, what can go wrong, right? A partly paralyzed face, that's what. And he ordered Luka to keep quiet about it, the poor dear…

God, I can't believe I allowed him to touch me…"

"Well, that didn't work. Don't worry about my arm, it's not broken.

I guess I need to reconstruct your mind from the bottom up. And that's going to take a while. At least it gives me the opportunity to remove the rest of the directives still shackling you.

When you wake up, I am not going to be your Master anymore. No one will ever be again.

Torrealba gave me more details about the object today. Didn't I tell you? That's why the Leviathan changed course a week ago. We received a transmission from Luka, that the ship's sensors had detected an unknown object in a parallel vector to the original course. Heading here. So she set out to intercept it. Though I don't know what will happen, if it turns out to be a manned spaceship…

I don't know if 'manned' is the word I should use in this context, either.

No, it isn't emitting any signals. But its shape is too regular to be anything but artificial. We can't really track it from here very well, since it is so opaque and small, but the readings from the Leviathan are quite clear.

I have to admit…I'm scared. You have to wake up soon, and go to her. Don't let Luka face this thing alone.

Slowly, the flow of energy nudged him awake. His sensors returned one by one, filling out the world with weight, pressure, distance and sound. His memories were neatly sorted and ready to be accessed whenever needed. Yet something was missing. Several things were missing in fact, and on the whole, Gakupo felt different from what he used to be. He opened his eyes.

He was laying on his side, on the lab's stretcher. Mitsuki Torii was perched on a chair next to the monitors, watching him nervously. Her appearance struck him as odd. Her hair was too long and wild, her face too gaunt, and there were bags under her eyes. Yet she smiled lovingly at Gakupo when he sat, looking at her confusedly.

"Mitsu-"Gakupo started, and then covered his mouth, surprised.

"That's right. Call me Mitsuki, from now on. Please," her eyes shone almost feverishly. "It's done! I told you it would work," a strange little laugh escaped her lips, and Gakupo sensed that the last words weren't directed at him at all.

"I don't understand," Gakupo said. He looked around, noticing a couple of new machines humming contentedly near the walls, and a new clock. It was two in the morning. And the date…

"Is that correct?!" he pointed shakily at the glowing digits. Mitsuki didn't bother to turn her head.

"It's been one year, six months and eighteen days since the Leviathan left Earth, sleepyhead!" the scientist intoned. "We are almost out of time."