The Grand Councilwoman felt slightly ashamed of herself as she watched the camera feed from 626's room; even after all her protestations to Gantu and 626 himself that she had full confidence in the experiment's ability to do good, she still half expected to find the room utterly destroyed when she brought the feed up, and as such was somewhat surprised to see the experiment was, seemingly, fast asleep. Does this mean I don't truly trust him? Even now?

Sighing, she leaned back in her chair and rubbed a hand over her eyes. Perhaps I just need some rest.

"Are you alright, Miss Zeller?" The Grand Councilwoman looked up to see her secretary studying her, concerned.

"Yes, Ava. I'm merely tired. Today was…interesting."

"So I've heard." Ava looked at the camera feed projected above the Councilwoman's desk. "I take it that's Experiment 626? Huh… from the way Frato was talking I expected it to be a lot bigger."

"He."

"Pardon?"

"Don't refer to 626 as an 'it'. Use 'he', like you would any other sentient being."

"Oh…" Ava tugged on one of her tail feathers, a gesture the Councilwoman had long since learned meant she was embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Trust me, you're not the first and you won't be the last." The Councilwoman rolled her eyes. "You should hear the way Captain Gantu goes on about him."

The intercom button on Ava's desk beeped. Tapping it with a claw, she used the other hand to adjust the microphone on her snout. "Grand Councilwoman's Office, this is Ava speaking. What's that? Uh huh. I understand. Let me put you on hold for a moment." Tapping the intercom again, Ava turned to the Councilwoman. "Speak of the devil - Gantu wants to speak with you."

For a moment, the Councilwoman was sorely tempted to hang up on him after the way he'd acted earlier. Calm down, Cal. Remember your decorum. She inhaled, counted to five, and then exhaled. "Patch him through."

A massive screen projected into existence in front of the Councilwoman, and a second later Gantu appeared on it. "Captain," the Councilwoman said rather more curtly than intended, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well…" Gantu looked distinctly uncomfortable; a tiny, petty part of the Councilwoman enjoyed seeing it. "I was thinking about what you said earlier, and I've come to the conclusion that it would be best if I fully recused myself from the Experiment 626 affair."

You THINK? The Councilwoman thought, but she contented herself with simply replying "Oh?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be honest with you - I still think 626's existence is unnatural. When I look at it…" Gantu sighed. "When I look at it I can still feel a little bile starting to rise in my mouth. And so, I don't think I would be able to conduct myself in a manner befitting of a captain around it, something that is unfair to everyone involved, including 626 if your work on teaching it bears fruit. Therefore I am formally requesting a transfer away from Turo, in the interests of, ah, well…"

"Not doing something stupid enough to get yourself fired?" Gantu winced, but the Councilwoman didn't care; he'd still referred to 626 as an 'it', she couldn't help but notice, not to mention openly admitted he was disgusted by the experiment's presence. "Fair enough, I suppose. Who would you suggest replace you as head of security?"

"I have a list of names drawn up. Would you like me to send it to you?"

"Go ahead." Frankly the Councilwoman imagined that the individuals Gantu was putting forwards would be cut from the same cloth as him, but she supposed the captain could surprise her. "I will give you my decision by Seven O'Clock tomorrow morning. Until then, you are dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am." Gantu saluted, and then his image vanished.

"You know," Ava piped up, "I'm not sure whether to give him points for admitting he's being bigoted or subtract them for, well, still being bigoted ." Her console beeped. "Oh, the list of names has come through."

"Excellent. Give it to me." She scanned the names, being pleasantly surprised; his first pick, a First Officer in the planetary security division, had made headlines a few weeks ago for personally stripping three subordinates of their rank over a speciesist incident during daily rounds. Unfortunately they were still tied up in administrative matters over the whole affair, but the second and third names on the list were beings of similar personalities. Perhaps Gantu isn't a hopeless case after all.

A solid hour later, the Councilwoman made her decision and called up the lucky being, a corporal by the name of Irien currently stationed on Turo. An hour of conference calls between the Councilwoman, Irien's commander, Irien himself, and a very groggy Gantu later, and Irien was formally reassigned to serve as temporary head of security surrounding Experiment 626. By this time Ada was visibly nodding off, but the Councilwoman forced herself to stay awake: there was one more thing she needed to do tonight.

"What is it?" Jumba groaned as the door to his cell opened. "Don't you imbeciles understand it is past one o'clock in morn-" Jumba immediately stopped speaking when he saw his guest, and sat up as straight as he could. "Grand Councilwoman? Is there problem with 626?" He chuckled. "My Experiment didn't fly the coop, did he?"

She shook her head. "No, 626 is behaving himself, or at least, he's trying to." She watched the mingled relief and disappointment on Jumba's face for a moment before continuing. "My plan is to start working with him as soon as possible tomorrow morning, and so I would like to know anything you can tell me about who 626 is as a being: his likes, dislikes, interests, all that sort of thing."

Jumba shrugged. "I programmed 626 to wreak havoc and cause destruction. Anything else would be as new to me as is to you."

"But surely before you two were taken in by the police you two had at least some time together?"

"Not really. 626 was discovered just a few minutes after his creation. Was no time for anything , really. Honestly, you've probably spent more time with 626 than I have."

"Oh." It wasn't exactly the answer the Councilwoman was hoping for. "That is unfortunate, I suppose, but it can't be helped. I'll just have to play it by ear, then."

"Alright. I hope it goes well." Jumba looked up, hopefully. "Perhaps if 626 learns to behave himself I can have a few more years knocked off, no?"

"No." The Councilwoman resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Well-behaved or not, 626 is still the product of illegal genetic experimentation. We knocked off two years already, Dr. Jookiba; that's as far as we'll go."

"Feh. Can't blame an evil genius for trying. Could I at least have updates on how things are going?"

"That's fine. I'll have Ava send you weekly progress reports." The Councilwoman turned to leave, as their conversation seemed to be at an end.

"Grand Councilwoman?" Jumba called out as she was about to leave. "Hold on one moment. I just thought of something regarding 626."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"Well, here is thing - I designed 626 to destroy, and nothing else. No greater purpose, no passions, no anything. " He looked at her. "626 has nothing. Not even memories to look back on."

"In that case, I shall endeavor to give him some. And if he does not have a purpose, perhaps we can discover one."

"So cute…so…fluffy, even…" Jumba gazed down at 626 with an expression of disgust. "Where did I go wrong? 626 was supposed to be perfect! My unstoppable -

- Abomination!" Jumba stood up and morphed into Gantu, who withdrew a plasma cannon. "Lousy trog, you ought to be destroyed!" Before 626 could react Gantu fired, the plasma shattering the glass case and sending the experiment flying. No sooner did he land on the ground than a restraint disk slammed around his sides, a dozen armed soldiers surrounding him. They cursed him and jammed their own plasma cannons in his face, taunting him, threatening to shoot.

Enough was enough. 626 growled back at them, hoping to force the soldiers to retreat, and when that failed he progressed to snapping and biting, aiming for hands, arms, anything he could reach.

And then he was back in the Council Chamber, Captain Gantu glaring down at him. "It is the flawed product of a deranged mind. It has no place among us. Experiment 626, you are hereby condemned to life in exile on a deserted asteroid!"

The entire council began to laugh as 626 was taken away. He struggled to get free, but the restraint disk just grew tighter and tighter and -

626 awoke, gasping for breath, arms pinned against his sides, and for half a second he thought his dream had come true. But…naga feel like disk. Disk was hard and cold. Isa soft. He looked down; his limbs weren't being pinned in place by a restraint disk after all, but simply by a blanket. Somehow, in his sleep, he'd tossed and turned enough that it had gotten wound up all around him. Untangling himself, 626 tried to calm down. Naga real. Yuuga safe. Meega good.

Slightly calmed down, 626 realized he had a problem: how was he supposed to get back to sleep? He'd never gotten the chance to ask anyone, or been programmed with the knowledge, so it seemed he'd have to figure it out by himself.

Thinking back to right before he'd fallen asleep the first time, 626 remembered that he'd been comforted by the feeling of the Grand Councilwoman's hand on his head, gently patting him before she left. Maybe that was the key? Something like that? Perhaps if he focused on similar memories…

It took 626 less than a minute to discover there were no similar memories: just memories of him being forced into a glass case, of being sneered at, of being labeled an abomination just as he had been in the dream…

Naga. 626 shook his head furiously. Meega NAGA monster. Meega naga want to be monster.

Or, was he? Even as he lay in the dark 626 could feel the urge to destroy bubbling up under the surface, could hear a voice whispering in his head as to what fun it would be to tear apart the bed, shatter the refresher, rip the door off its hinges…

But if he did that, what would it get him? At best, a prison cell. At worst…

"Experiment 626, you are hereby condemned to life in exile on a desert asteroid!" Gantu's voice boomed out from the dream. Was that what they'd do to him? It made sense: both in the council room and in the holding cell Gantu had been unable to look at 626 with an expression other than pure contempt, after all.

Pushing the thought out of his mind, 626 tugged the blanket up as tight as he could and tried to force himself to sleep, force himself to ignore the part of his brain that wondered at how nice it would feel to just tear the thing in half.

Well, maybe if meega just rip this? Isa only one blanket. And besides, maybe it would be enough to let him sleep long enough to morning to arrive, at which point he could ask for more productive solutions.

Soka, Councilwoman. 626 grabbed the blanket in all four paws and tugged. The seams immediately came apart as the blanket ripped in two, the sound filling the room. For a moment 626 was elated and relieved, a sense of satisfaction and pride flowing through him at the fact he finally destroyed something.

And then he blinked, and there was only a ripped blanket.