626 was surprised to see the Councilwoman return so soon, especially since she seemed to be carrying a pair of cardboard boxes that smelled absolutely heavenly. "Gaba ik?" He asked.

"Pizza. I take it you've never had that before?" The Councilwoman set down one box before walking over and handing the other to him. "It's from a restaurant near here that I'm quite fond of."

626 opened the box to find a circular foodstuff covered in all manner of cheese, meats, and a few veggies. It looked amazing. "Isa all for meega?"

"That one is, yes." The Councilwoman opened her own box; her pizza was considerably simpler, merely cheese and pineapple. "This one is mine."

"Okie-taka." 626 grabbed a slice and devoured it whole, before doing the same to another. It tasted, somehow, even better than it smelled or looked, and by the time he noticed the Grand Councilwoman was still working her way through her first slice he'd already finished off five.

"That good, I take it?"

"Ih." 626 nodded. "Meega need to eat slower?" He pointed at her slice. "Yuuga only ate one so far."

"Huh? Oh, well, it's fine. I suppose in polite company you need to pace yourself more, but if it's just us go ahead. Finish off the entire thing if you wish."

626 thought about it, but decided to save the last three pieces for later. He had to admit, he was kind of confused: not even two hours ago the Councilwoman'd been all stern-faced and disapproving, nearly as cold as Gantu, to the point he was starting to wonder if he'd earned himself a one-way ticket to prison. So why, all of a sudden, was she back to smiling at him? Why had she returned with delicious food? It didn't make sense. Had he done something right? And if so, what? He racked his brains trying to figure it out: maybe it was the apology he'd given her? But that seemed out of proportion with what he'd done to Ava and Higota, so…

"626? Are you alright?" 626 realized the Councilwoman was looking at him, concerned. "Does your stomach hurt? You were eating that rather quickly."

"Naga. Meega feel fine, pano…" He explained his confusion as best he could.

"Ah. I understand now." The Councilwoman moved closer to 626, surprising him; not so much that she did it, but just how fine he was with it. "So let me set something straight with you - this isn't a reward so much as it is an apology for how we've been treating you. So far we've more or less been forcing you to conform to our expectations without taking your own needs and background into account." The look on her face was the gentlest 626 had ever seen on anyone before. "You're still so young, after all, and I fear we've been getting ahead of ourselves. So, for that, I apologize."

626 still didn't understand it. "But yuuga said it's naga bootifah to hurt others!" He protested. "Meega hurt Ava and tried to hurt Higota."

"That's true, but I believe we all missed asking you a very important question: why did you attack Ava?"

626 hadn't thought about it in depth: just that, in the moment, he'd felt like he'd wanted to get away from her, and that was because… "Meega scared." He realized. "All yuuga around meega, was like…like…"

"Like when you were imprisoned?"

"Ih." 626 rubbed his eyes, realizing they were watery. "Naga want that again."

"I promise you, that won't happen." She smiled at him. "No more large groups unless you're comfortable with it."

"Naga that! Meega naga want kapu, pano meega scared meega say wrong thing, meega do wrong thing, and yuuga send meega to jail!" The words came spilling out, and he couldn't stop them, but it was the truth: he'd constantly been worried that he was one outburst away from ruining everything.

"Oh." 626 heard the Councilwoman take a deep breath. "Well, as much as I'd like to deny it…" 626 tensed up, waiting for her to confirm his fears. "I can definitely see how we'd given you that impression. But, I promise you, no more." Gently, she patted him on the head. "Let's change our mission a little, then: instead of just teaching you how to behave yourself, let's settle for teaching you how to be yourself. No strings attached - except, of course, you can't really go around knocking down buildings." She laughed, softly. "Unless you want to work in demolitions. Hurting people is still off the table, though. And, I promise you, I'll be there every step of the - oh!"

She'd leaned in to pat 626 again, but as she'd done so 626 grabbed her arm and pulled her, while at the same time springing upwards -

- and with a tight grip on her waist, 626 buried his head in her chest. His eyes had absolutely refused to dry up the entire time, and if anything they'd only gotten worse, until suddenly his face was all wet and he couldn't help but want to be even closer to her, the one being so far to actually come out and say 'you can be you' without attaching some kind of major expectation, and so he leapt. A moment later 626 registered that the Councilwoman had gotten over the initial shock, and he began to feel her hands gently pull against him, prying him loose. Meega hurting her? 626 worried. He'd tried to be gentle, but considering his strength there was always the possibility of going overboard, and as 626 felt himself be forcibly separated he worried that it had in fact been the case.

Bracing himself for a lecture, 626 instead found himself pulled upwards and pushed against the Counciwoman's shoulder. "There, there." She soothed. "You're alright. Just let it out."

So he did.

After an eternity, slowly, gently, she put 626 down on the floor. "T-taka." He said, looking back up at her, still sniffling a little. "Naga hear 'yuuga can be yuuga' before. Others just say what they want meega to be." So cute…fluffy, even…WHERE DID I GO WRONG? Jumba's words came back into his mind - even his creator had withheld affection until 626 conformed to his expectations, now that he'd thought about it. "Yuuga tienet being."

"I understand. Well, I promise you, Ava and Scheur will feel the same way as I do."

"Ih?"

"Without a doubt."

"Okie-taka." 626 smiled, relieved. Maybe things wouldn't turn out horribly after all. "Enjibida?"

"Good question." The Councilwoman tapped her fingers against her chin, thinking. "Here's an idea: I'll have them bring up a large crate of building blocks. That way you can make whatever you want, and then tear it down."

"Aga ba?"

"Well, I figure that way you can both get a destructive impulse out of your system or two, and maybe we can figure out why you find destruction to be so satisfying. After that, we can use that information to guide our further work."

"Meega understand." It was an exciting concept, being allowed to actually destroy something. "Isa naga problem?"

"Why would it be a problem?"

"Yuuga say quan naga isa bootifah."

"626, I just said 'go ahead and tear it down'. It's perfectly okay. Oh, but just so you know, we probably won't be able to get started until tomorrow: I need to run this by Dr. Scheur and get the necessary materials."

"Okie-taka. And enjibada?"

"Now, I suppose we'll just have to sit around and wait. The extra clothing should be here shortly, which is nice - that suit's got a big hole in the back, after all."

Did it? 626 supposed he shouldn't have been surprised, considering that it'd borne the full brunt of a plasma cannon blast. It was mildly annoying, he realized, someone else destroying his things. That realization came with a twinge of guilt as it it him that other beings probably felt similarly about the sort of actions he instinctively desired to carry out.

"As for after that, well, I will confess I haven't the foggiest."

"Actually, meega tired. Long day."

"Oh? Were you thinking you'd turn in early?"

"Ih. Soka."

"No problem. This is your room, after all." She stood up, looked down at him with a fond smile, and grabbed her pizza box. "Is there anything else I can get you?"

"Naga. Meega good."

"Alright, then. If you change your mind, or need something at all during the night, there's a call button on the side of your bed. Apologies for not mentioning it earlier - it kind of slipped my mind.

Shortly after the Councilwoman had left, a soldier 626 didn't recognize came by just long enough to drop off a suitcase. Inside it were four more outfits identical to the one he was currently wearing - an outfit that was going to be headed to the wastebasket as soon as he got changed - along with three soft, blueish green ones. They were so soft, in fact, that 626 wound up changing into one of them instead of the red ones.

Inside the suitcase was a little note:

Experiment 626 - apologies this took over a day to get to you. Apparently Dr. Jumba only made one extra jumpsuit, so we had to put three more on order. As for the other three outfits, I figured you'd appreciate having some nice bedclothes to change into.
-Ava Tepeu, Secretary to the Grand Councilwoman of the United Galactic Federation
P.S. Don't worry about earlier today. I'm still a little sore, but I totally get why you didn't like us all crowding around you. My little brother used to be the same way.

So Ava had forgiven him for throwing her across the room, then. 626 was glad. He folded up the note, climbed into bed, and after considering asking for a new bedsheet to replace the one he'd ripped decided to keep the one he currently had. It was still more than large enough to cover him, after all, and replacing it felt somewhat like] denying his actions in the first place. So, tying the two halves together as best he could, 626 climbed under them.

"...Huh." Captain Gantu leaned forwards in his chair.

"Captain?" The question came from his First Officer, a reliable if somewhat filterless young woman by the name of Ombit. "Is something the matter?"

"No, just…are you following the Experiment 626 affair at all?"

"A little." Ombit shrugged. "There's not much that can be said for sure at this point, though, is there?"

"Not publicly, but as it happens I have access to a little more." Just before leaving for orbit he'd had Higota set up a link between his ship and the security feed of 626's room, still not trusting 626 to actually behave itself. And, with the drama earlier in the day, Gantu had felt his fears had been confirmed. But then the Grand Councilwoman went back in with pizza, and shortly after that he saw everything change. For the second time, he watched the feed of 626 leaping up onto the Councilwoman's chest, visibly distressed, acting like, well, like a scared little kid. It went against everything he'd thought the experiment was capable of. "I'm just trying to make sense of what I'm seeing."

"Oh? Want me to take a look?"

"Go ahead."

Ombit watched the entire thing, wincing as the Councilwoman's secretary was thrown against the wall. "Ouch, that looked painful. Feel bad for her. And 626." She pointed. "You can tell he's stressed out."

"Yeah." He imagined that Higota was going to be removed from the team after the outburst, especially considering that afterwards she almost seemed to be on the verge of shooting the then-unconscious 626 as it lay on the floor. Blitznak, Higota, I was hoping you'd carry yourself with a bit more decorum. Then again, was he any different? He'd threatened to shoot 626 himself, had he not? "Say, Ombit, what do you think of 626?"

"Pardon?" Ombit blinked. "Hmm… well, it's too early to tell, but he doesn't seem like the monster you were making him out to be. Uh, all do respect, of course."

"Mm. Fair enough." Gantu switched the feed to a current view, which saw 626 gently tying a ripped blanket together. "Perhaps I was unfair to it."

" He. "

"Come again?"

"Oh, uh, forgive my] impertinence, Captain, but with all do respect, 626 seems like far less of an 'it' and more of a 'he'. Look at how he acts, and how he thinks. And, I mean, we don't call sentient robots 'it' anymore, do we? How would 626 be any different?"

"Fair point, First Officer." Gantu looked back up at the feed of 626. "I'll have to think about that." Shaking his head, Gantu sighed. "But in the meantime, put me through to the Grand Councilwoman: I need to suggest a replacement for Officer Higota. Hopefully this time one that will keep their temper a little better. Any suggestions? Unless you'd be willing to go, that is."

He'd meant it as an obvious joke, but Ombit seemed to take it seriously. "Sure, why not. Gatco can run this thing well enough for a few days, and besides - I won't lie and say I don't want to meet 626."

"Er, you know I was just - actually, never mind. Sure, sure." It's not the worst idea in history. "Just put the Councilwoman on the line, would you?"
"Affirmative, sir."

As she worked, Gantu considered: had he been too quick to jump to conclusions? Maybe I need to give it a second chance. No, scratch that. Give him a second chance.