In case I haven't mentioned it before, ACEDIA put on the beta hat for this and the previous chapter.

Chapter 17 – Lost Infants

"I feel so anxious about this," Miku said. Her long silky hair was colored by the honeyed glow of the room. Gakupo nodded in acknowledgement, though what he felt was tinged with a touch of happiness, since he was expecting to see Mitsuki again soon.

They were sitting in the room with the charging beds, each one in their own elongated box. In the nearest closed receptacle, Lola waited for renewal. The others were dismantling the camp outside, the last task left once everything else was piled up inside the ship. The storage rooms had mountains of materials for recycling, clothes, texts on various subjects, dried and canned foods for Mitsuki and other things deemed useful, but there was still plenty of space for the tools and parts they expected to pilfer from the factory.

Miku sighed. "I still wish we had another way to get what we need. We're not monsters, no matter what they say, and we shouldn't act like it. I'm not a monster, or a criminal."

"Believe it or not, I agree," Gakupo replied. "In theory at least. I don't always know what the proper thing is, sometimes. Or I can't force myself to do it. "

"That doesn't make any sense. The proper thing to do is the best thing to do, so why not?" Miku leaned forward with befuddlement, almost losing her balance in the process.

"Who says that's always the case? And the best thing for whom? If you asked one of the humans out there, the best thing we could do is disappear." Gakupo was stopped from elaborating further by the sudden appearance of Luka, holding hands with Len and Rin.

"Sit here while I go get the rest," she told the children and disappeared.

"Hi Gakupo, Miku!" The twins greeted the pair in unison, and sat on the floor.

"Hello there. Are we ready to go, then?" Gakupo asked.

"Pretty much," Rin nodded. Miku chewed her lower lip silently.

"We're going to get you replacement parts soon, please don't be sad." Rin jumped up and leaned on one side of the charging bed.

"You will be even better than new, Mitsuki is great at fixing machines," Len chirped, leaning on the opposite side of the receptacle.

"Ah- no, I'm not..." Miku stopped herself, and then looked to the side, as if gathering her thoughts. "Yes, I am upset. I always felt constricted in the factory, dragged around like nothing I felt mattered, but…It was my home. Why shouldn't I be punished for hating it? I had it so easy before this, despite everything."

"Miku, I'm sorry we brought this upon you," Gakupo apologized. What else was there to say?

"I'm not saying this in order to make you feel guilty," Miku frowned. "I needed to say it out loud, that's all. I've had enough of being cooped up inside myself, replaying the same thoughts." She looked around the room, not really focusing on anything in particular.

"You can talk with us, Miku! We'll hear anything you have to say, right?" Rin exclaimed, looking at Len and Gakupo for agreement. They both nodded.

"Um, thanks," the teal-haired girl twisted her mouth, trying to smile. It wasn't very happy, but it conveyed sincerity. "Oh, I must sound so ungrateful. I like being free! It's just…"

"It's just?" Gakupo repeated, when it became obvious that Miku wasn't going to continue.

"I feel so lonely sometimes. I really thought it was going to be different from before, now that I'm with others of my kind. But I seem to be the odd one out. Everyone else has another unit to confide in but me," she said in a pained tone.

"What about Kai-" Rin started, before Len grabbed her hand. She glanced at him quickly, and then her expression crumpled. "I-I didn't mean to hurt you, Miku."

"Don't worry about it," Miku said with some effort.

The conversation languished then for a short while, until Luka appeared again, this time accompanied by Kiyoteru, Yuki and Oliver. Kiyoteru was carrying Yuki in his arms, as he obviously liked to do.

"The others are securing our things in the storage frames. It won't do to have them banging around while we take off, right?" Luka explained, gently placing a hand on Len's head.

"Right!" He and Rin answered.

"Is Escualo inside the hangar bay?" Gakupo asked.

"Of course," Luka said and smiled warmly. The AI had immediately agreed to take shelter inside Benefactor during their escape from the planet, since all the smaller ship had for protection was its speed.

She then turned to the others. "Benefactor is now going to concentrate all power on shield and navigation systems, so all the others areas of the ship are going to be deactivated for a while. You don't mind staying here, do you? The halls are going to go dark in a few minutes."

"We don't mind," Kiyoteru replied. Yuki agreed cheerfully.

"Is there any place where we can sit and see what's going on outside? W-with windows?" Oliver squeaked timidly.

"Not quite, as far as I know. But Ben can project images on these walls, maybe he can show us the view from his external sensors," Gakupo pointed out, gesturing to the wall where the door was. Above it, the featureless wall provided a convenient, opaque space.

"How did you discover that?" Luka enquired, surprised. Gakupo gave her a conspiratorial grin.

"Ben and I learnt how to download and playback movies from the net!" He exclaimed, his eyes burning with excitement. "It was a pain to get him to decode the formats of the repositories we invaded, but we did it!"

Luka shook her head, amused. "So you added digital piracy to our list of crimes?"

"Ah, erm, maybe?" Gakupo stammered sheepishly.

"Somehow I don't think that's going to have a significant impact on our reputation," Kiyoteru interjected, pushing up his glasses.

"Compared to what we are going to do, no, probably not," Luka conceded. "Did you get any movies I might like?"

"I think so. And concerts of all types," he turned to Miku, "there was even a collection of your public performances in one of the sites."

"Really?" Miku blinked.

Suddenly, music resounded in the air, the delicate gradient of tones Benefactor used to communicate.

SB-1200-aa-01b activity concluded. Small ones ready.

"Can you bring Kaito, Meiko and Leon here?" Luka consulted.

Un-bonded small ones. Repositioning system, secondary priority. Ship-construct interface only.

"So…that's a no, I guess? I thought you might be able now that they are inside you. Ok, take me to Bay 1, please," Luka said and promptly disappeared again.

"How does that work? Why does Luka need to be there?" Yuki asked, looking at the space Luka was standing on previously with curiosity. Everyone looked at Gakupo expectantly.

"Uwah, I'm not sure, sorry. Ben showed me the equations that support the process, but without the underlying information, I have no idea what the symbols represent," he exclaimed. "As for Luka, I think we both help him distinguish the object that Ben needs to transport, its dimensions and precise location. Sort of like an extension to his sensors."

"How odd," Kiyoteru remarked.

Gakupo gave a slight shrug. "We'll have time to learn how Ben works later. Believe me, I'm really interested in figuring out what the structures in deck 3 are for. But he needs to get away from Earth, so he can finally lower the shield and concentrate on secondary repairs."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," the bespectacled unit conceded. "In any case-"

Whatever he was going to say was forgotten when Luka appeared again, this time holding hands with Kaito and Leon. Meiko was clinging to Kaito's neck with a big smile on her face.

Gakupo glanced at Miku, interested in her reaction, but she was resolutely looking the other way.

"We are here," Kaito said, gently pulling Meiko off him. She just laughed, unashamed.

"Yes, we are." The brunette surveyed the room with appreciative eyes, shaking her hips. "Time to get this show on the road, Lady President!"

Luka raised her eyebrows, but didn't seem too displeased by the moniker. "Yes, it's time. Benefactor, proceed as we discussed, please."

Confirm. Confirm. Confirm.

"Oh, and visual display of the data from the external sensors, if you can," she intoned.

Watery lights began to move along the walls, undecipherable images in many azure tones. They began to congeal above the door, forming a big frisk of light. Slowly they became clearer. The central image was a view of the debris before Benefactor's metallic nose, and beyond it the submersed city. Crowded around it like petals, the smaller images showed different views, including close-ups of the military patrolling outside the shield. In the lower right, Gakupo saw a familiar yacht moored next to a ruined communications tower. There was a colorful green and yellow figure on deck, lounging around and possibly enjoying the breeze.

It was a beautiful day, with excellent visibility. The synthetics had briefly considered lift-off at night, but decided it was pointless. Benefactor and the area around the ship was obviously under constant surveillance anyway.

Benefactor sang, and the images began to change. Gakupo felt a slight vibration in his innards. Despite the evidence of his sensors, the sensation was so mild it was hard to believe they were finally rising.

Furthering the sense of unreality, the precariously balanced ruins outside were breaking down without even a single sound reaching him, and even the ground lifted by Benefactor's powers was cracking. Huge waves crossed the sea, crashing against one another.

"Look at those ships!" Rin exclaimed. She was pointing at the navy vessels outside of Benefactor's shield. The water displaced by the movement of the barrier rocked them horribly.

"That doesn't seem safe," Gakupo whispered with dread. Luka gave him an inexpressive look.

"Those ships are quite large, they shouldn't capsize at this speed," Luka pointed out. "I ran a simulation earlier on with Benefactor."

"Thanks, I appreciate that," Gakupo replied. His relief only lasted a second, before he remembered the proud, lonely figure in yellow. He turned to look just in time to see the tiny speck of color slide across the inclined deck of the yacht and fall into the sea. He and some of the others gasped.

Luka turned slowly to the wall and observed the unmanned yacht crash into the communications tower. "Oh…" she said tonelessly.

"Ben, stop! We have to help Sonika!" Gakupo shouted.

"Benefactor, disregard that command," Luka ordered. She then turned to Gakupo with a strange expression on her face. "It's too late for her now," she pointed out, shaking her head. "Sonika left before her repairs were completed, remember? The water would have made contact with her insides by now."

"She's right, unfortunately," Kiyoteru agreed. "There's no way her systems could survive this. Besides, how could we help? We aren't equipped for such a rescue."

"This…this is terrible," Miku muttered, closing her eyes.

Gakupo lowered his head, gripping the borders of the charging bed tightly. Yuki buried her face in Kiyoteru's shoulder, and the others shared uncomfortable looks. Only Luka's face remained the same: an enigmatic and tense mask.

Small ones, consensus reached?

"We are ascending perpendicularly to the surface. In a few minutes, we'll be high enough to stop directly affecting the surface," Luka explained in a dispassionate voice.

"…I guess we have no choice but to go on," Gakupo muttered reluctantly. Luka relaxed her posture, although her face still seemed somewhat tense.

The group continued to observe the images on the wall in silence. The drones around the shield were prowling, looking in vain for an opening. Some of the navy vessels were launching missiles which turned into colorful explosions when they reached the invisible barrier. Gakupo found that to be rather strange. Why continue after the first few times weren't successful?

With a start, he realized that he had no idea of how Benefactor had been felled in the first place. For all he knew, these weapons had been successful, and it was only a matter of winning by attrition. The ship claimed to have reinforced his defensive capabilities after studying human weaponry, so Gakupo hadn't questioned the matter. And now it was too late to do anything but hope he hadn't been overly optimistic. Sonika's mocking laughter seemed to ring in his ears alongside those thoughts, taunting him.

Warbirds approached Benefactor from different directions, as the alien ship began to pick up speed and altitude. They attacked furiously, but had no success. Benefactor sailed the air gracefully past them, with the expanse of the ocean now far below him. With nothing else to do, the synthetics sat on the floor or on the unlit platforms, watching the scenery on the wall go by.

After a surprisingly short time, Benefactor announced they were approaching land again. Once again, the almost complete lack of sensory feedback made it hard to estimate how fast they were approaching the homeland. The swarm of manned vehicles and drones were still hounding them, but Benefactor's shield seemed as invulnerable as always.

"Benefactor is going to wrap the factory inside a smaller shield, and then teleport me down," Luka informed the rest. Her eyes were fixed in the grey, unattractive mess of buildings that formed the industrial complex they were aiming for. Some of the smaller images were aiming at the streets nearby, capturing the chaotic evacuation of the factory's neighbors. At that distance, they looked like panicked ants. Serves you right, she thought.

As they approached the factory, the enemy attacks tapered off. Evidently, the military was wary of shooting at them over civilian targets.

"I'm going with you," Gakupo said, standing up. He climbed out of the charging bed cautiously, but his body seemed to be working properly for the time being.

"What? No, you're not well!" Luka exclaimed.

"True, but I'm going nonetheless," he replied firmly. They stared briefly into each other's eyes, before Luka turned away, pursing her lips.

"B-but, what do we do?" Kaito implored. "There's got to be something we can do to help."

"Don't worry about that." Luka waved her hands. Amongst the group, Miku and Kiyoteru were probably better candidates to go down, given her knowledge of the factory and his experience with repair parts. However, even putting aside Miku's lack of mobility, neither could easily call on Benefactor for aid. It didn't seem like a good idea to send them or anyone else down under risky circumstances.

"We'll just take a quick look through the warehouses, see if there's anything we can use," Gakupo added. He then took Luka's hand.

A moment later, the faces of their friends were replaced by a huge, dark space. Only the red lights by the emergency exits and a couple of skylights gave an idea of the dimensions of the building. It took a moment for recognition to kick in, given the poor visibility and eerie silence, but this was a place both Luka and Gakupo were familiar with.

"The Training Lane, huh?" Gakupo approached the nearest structure slowly, gently pulling Luka along. They peered through a window, but the darkness was even more profound inside.

"I guess they cut the power to everything but the security systems. Good thing I brought this," Luka remarked, untying the flashlight from her belt. She turned it on and waved it around.

"That way, I think." Gakupo pointed to the right. They set out in a measured pace down the narrow road, a long cemented rectangle lined by structures that simulated private homes and entertainment venues like theaters or restaurants. All the rooms were equipped with furniture and electric appliances, and, when the factory was open, humans to practice with.

Given the complex nature of the job given to them, companion bots needed more than a simple upload of information and movement routines into them. The Training Lane allowed to hone their speech, introduce response variability and accumulate an initial set of experiences for future reference.

"I always liked it in there," Gakupo commented as they went past a 'dance club.' "But Mitsuki doesn't like dancing, unfortunately."

"I like dancing with you," Luka replied distractedly. Old memories were beginning to rise to the surface of her mind, taking a sour note under her more experienced gaze. "Do you remember going to Section 301?"

"That was for female units. I got my personal body training at 501," Gakupo recalled after quickly searching his earliest logs. "My mental pathways were still under consolidation. I'm missing some information, I'm afraid…Ah, I remember the female instructor I was assigned to, though. She definitely enjoyed her job."

Luka scowled at the idea, although she had to admit the instructor had done a good job training Gakupo. She recalled her own experiences, or at least, the details still inside of her. "My instructor was the same; he even called me a work of art. I suppose they chose them precisely because they feel so attracted to bots in the first place. It must be a dream job for them to end up in a function that demands close personal contact with VEs." She didn't find the memory all that pleasant, even if the training had been necessary.

A few more steps and the light of the torch hit a door. Next to it, there was an evacuation map of the facility which showed all emergency doors in the vicinity bolded in green. "Ah, here we are," Luka exclaimed, as they both examined the map, and then the lock on the door. It was unlocked, thankfully. Behind it, there was a winding corridor that lead to the warehouses where the parts and new units should be stored.

"Luka, I need to ask you something," Gakupo abruptly said. Luka eyed him warily. "Don't be upset, I just want to know, alright?"

"Go on."

"It's about Sonika. Did you take into consideration her presence, when you ran the simulation?"

Luka felt several different sensations crash in the forefront of her mind. There was a touch of fear, as a side of her warned sternly: do not remind Gakupo of what you have become. Another part of her balked at the notion. Sonika had made Gakupo malfunction. It made no difference to her, whether it was knowingly or not. The wannabe starlet had threatened Luka's own sanity by harming Gakupo. She was in the way, in more ways than one. It was reasonable to leave her to die. And yet a third analysis of the situation pointed out that Sonika didn't pose any threat to them, once she ran away with the yacht. It wasn't self-defense, it was revenge.

"Benefactor needed to reach a certain speed for lift-off. It was merely coincidental that said speed was enough to throw her overboard." A very convenient coincidence, however. "It would've been difficult to estimate the chances of that, as opposed to merely capsizing the yacht. And we felt the yacht had chances of survival." Just not very good ones.

"Hm…" Gakupo nodded in understanding. "There's not much we can do now, but I wish we could've worked things out with her." He looked away, pensive. "Let's go."

The corridor passed by several rooms that housed machinery for the assembly of synthetics. In many places, the wall was replaced by big panes of glass, trading the dull metallic grey with inky darkness. Luka shone her light towards some of them, revealing the massive silhouettes of the machines that had birthed them, inside sterile rooms.

"We're back, mothers and fathers," Gakupo greeted them, jokingly.

"They are our ancestors, even if most of them don't have sentience," Luka pointed out. "Actually, that needn't make their contribution any less important to us."

Gakupo pondered this for a bit, tilting his head. "You're right," he decided. "Besides, mental capacity is something humans use to assign value to other beings. We should analyze whether we agree with that criteria, before using it."

They resumed walking in silence, only stopping briefly at branching paths to debate which one was the correct route. Thankfully, the factory stayed completely silent, aside from their footsteps and muted voices. Whatever was going on in the world outside, its sounds didn't reach so deep inside the complex.

Around twenty minutes later, they reached the warehouse sector. There were multiple large rooms, with rows upon rows of boxes piled up, marked with technical symbols and codes. Many of the basic parts of the first rooms were used in several types of bots, not just VEs. Without even bothering to attempt to decipher the labels, Gakupo and Luka asked Benefactor to transport the boxes to his storage areas. After consulting a mural with several notices and request lists, the pair moved towards the section devoted to more complex parts, exclusive to their kind of bot.

As they entered the next section, they ran into a box just smashed in the middle of the floor, with parts lying all around it, some of them even taken out of their protective plastic wrappers.

"What happened here?" Gakupo boggled. This was expensive stuff, it made no sense that someone would just rifle through a box like that.

"Thieves, maybe?" Luka suggested. They were robbers as well, after all. She swept the vicinity with her light, but aside of some haphazardly balanced boxes, and a number of wrappers lying by themselves on the floor, there were no other signs of activity.

"Whoever it was, I hope they left at least one extra core," Gakupo said worriedly. "Ben, take all the boxes I see but leave any parts without wrappers, please." In response, the boxes around them winked out of existence.

"Now for the new arrivals storage." Luka pulled at his arm gently. It had been imperceptible at first, but now her senses were clearly detecting some jerkiness in Gakupo's movements. She needed to get him back on the ship quickly.

In this case, the 'new arrivals' referred to the freshly completed units, kept together in a single room with two rows of standing pods, facing each other. In a first stage, the units waited there, devoid of clothes or a name, absorbing packets of information through their connection to the pod's learning systems. When a personality type was selected, the unit was assigned a human instructor, who provided physical training and selected learning routines in the Training Lane. Only after a unit was sold, they received a name and default outfit.

As soon as they entered, they knew something was wrong. The pods were all open, the wires hanging out of their maws as if someone had violently pulled them. The units themselves were missing. Only the labels outside of the pods gave an indication of how many synthetics had been stored in there originally. At least six units had been there waiting for a master, most of them already quite advanced in their training.

"Look at the seals," Luka exclaimed, running her hands along the lock of the nearest pod.

Gakupo took a clumsy step towards the pod, and examined the door. There were scratches in several places. "Whoever opened this didn't have the proper authorization codes."

"If it was someone with a grudge against synthetics, they would've trashed them and the pods. But this was someone who wanted intact units," he concluded.

"Units that haven't been registered yet," Luka added. "Perfect for the black market."

It was more than a little unsettling. Even when properly accounted for, synthetics had no more rights than the nearest piece of furniture. But the people involved in legal transactions were paying huge amounts of money for the privilege of a VE companion, and in theory that insured a modicum of care. Someone involved in shady dealings might not be so gentle with them.

Luka glanced at Gakupo, who was crouched next to the pod, examining the ends of the cables. His face made it quite clear that his thoughts reflected her own.

"They haven't even experienced the world yet…" he mumbled. He frowned, and held one cable in particular up, so she could see it more clearly. The cord was frayed and the connector itself was missing. "They pulled this so hard that it broke inside the unit's head!" he bellowed. She had never heard that tone in his voice before. In turn, it made her feel strangely comforted knowing that he could feel outrage as well.

"We have to find them!" He jumped to his feet, and then ungainly grabbed the pod's door to keep himself from falling back to the ground. Luka rushed to support him.

"We don't have any idea where to look," Luka reminded him gently. "I think we're done here, Benefactor."

Before Gakupo could protest, the world shifted around them, and they were back inside the ship. Most of their friends were still looking at the images of the walls, but Leon was standing next to the wall, observing the receptacle where Lola was stored.

"Did you find a new core?" He questioned bluntly.

"Ah, we didn't examine the boxes of parts all that closely. We'll know after we have a look at what Benefactor brought up," Gakupo replied. He still felt guilty over slashing Lola, if his uncomfortable expression was any indication.

A tiny part of Luka's mind immediately suggested the disposal of Lola's body if there was no core, so Gakupo wouldn't have to feel any further discomfort. It was a surprising, but somewhat tempting thought. Luka toyed with it, examining the probable repercussions. It was very likely that Leon could turn hostile if they trashed Lola, considering the connection between the two. Unnecessary conflict, the upper layer of Luka's mind finally determined.

As the gynoid gazed upon Leon's glum face, a sudden realization hit her: despite their many differences, she wasn't all that different from the taciturn bot in her rage and self-centeredness. She was focusing so much on her own happiness that she might as well be empty of other memories and experiences, yet she couldn't use that as an excuse for her behavior. What would Mother think of her daughter now?

Luka pushed away those thoughts, telling herself to focus. "Even if there's no cores in the boxes, Mitsuki might have some in her lab," she told Leon, making an effort to sound calm.

"Gakupo, Luka, did you find more units?" Miku asked.

"No. It seems they were taken away-" Gakupo started to explain.

Before he could get any farther, Kiyoteru turned around, fixing his glasses nervously. "I think we should leave right now," he interjected.

"Eh?"

"Look at the feed from outside. The area has been completely evacuated, and now the enemy crafts are going away," he said, pointing towards the screen.

"Yes, I see that…" Gakupo nodded, frowning slightly.

"Benefactor, are there any artificial satellites or spaceships above us right now?" Luka blurted.

Gakupo looked at her, his eyes widening. "Here? With all those homes around? They wouldn't!" The last words were drowned by the surge of notes of Benefactor's voice.

Energy signature detected. Shield Focus Shift. Evasion required.

A fraction of a second later, the world outside was bathed in light. The ship rocked, throwing every synthetic except Miku to the floor. The room oscillated repeatedly, as the lights dimmed and then sputtered into complete darkness.

Luka screamed, her voice mixing with the voices of the other synthetics rolling and bumping into each other. She madly reached out into the dark, scratching at nothing and calling out Gakupo's name. There was confusion all around her, and a great pressure mounting inside her head. Like fireworks in the sky, the many tones in Benefactor's voice seemed to scatter as violently as her friends did. There were many, many voices crashing against the confines of her skull, yelling incomprehensible words. Like a leaf in a river, Luka was swept by the torrent of voices, as warning messages in her mind vainly spoke of sensory overload. Overflow, overflow, error. Luka was too small and helpless to store as much data. She cried out, she begged, but the onslaught continued, until suddenly, the physical safeguards of her hardware shut her mind off.

Luka slept without dreams, for a long, long time.