Webber's POV

We led the way, Winona trailing a few steps behind us as we walked. The closer we got to camp, the slower and slower our steps became. They would be mad at us for running away, especially when crippled as we were. We chewed at the inside of our cheek as we worried over it. Winona had tried a few times to ask questions, but the clipped, short answers we gave her was apparently enough for her to realize that we weren't in the mood to chat anymore.

"Webber," she finally said. We paused, frowning in the slightest. "Um... how much further? I'm not... used to this much leg exercise."

If only.

We shook ourself off and quickened our pace again. "Not much more."

"Do... do you even want to go back?"

This paused our step entirely, and Winona bumped into us as we did so. "...why do you ask that?"

She motioned to our face, and we felt a hand reach up to scratch around the scar again. "You don't seem... enthusiastic."

We looked away, instead focusing on the ground beneath our feet. "They think that we can't handle ourself," I said with a sigh. "It's tiring, constantly having to try to show strength. But we can't show weakness, or else we'll all die."

"Who said you in particular have to be serious and strong all the time, though?"

Curling up with Wilson, purring, his hand scratching around our whiskers idly.

"Everyone. The world. Ourself."

She nodded a few times, her face creasing into a scowl that she didn't seem to want to explain.

We thought that was the end of the conversation, but she continued a moment later.

"If you don't... want to go back to your camp, you don't have to, you know. Just knowing that there are other people here gives me hope. Especially people like yourself who have... well, survived for so long."

"The world has been generous to us," I said with a sarcasm she didn't seem to pick up on. "Come on. Just... don't be too..." What word to use? We grimaced. "Annoying."

"You think I'm annoying?"

"No, but..." We took a deep breath. "WX-78. He's the robot, obviously. He's very touchy and very quick to anger, but... he's trustworthy. He's protective, in a 'nobody can hurt you but me' sort of way. Wilson... he's going through something. And... he lashes out without reason sometimes." We unconsciously scratched at our eye, but at Winona's strange look, we took to scratching at the palm of our lame hand instead. "It's... best you meet them yourself."

"...alright," she said uncertainly. She didn't want to offend us, but she was also concerned now.

Well, that was probably best anyway.

…

We could only imagine what must've been going through Wilson and WX's heads when they saw us. We uncomfortably realized how much we must look like a scolded child, given our height and moping posture, so we forced our back to straighten. We were leading Winona here; she wasn't putting us in time out.

We stopped at the edge of our camp, and a long moment of silence passed between the four of us as Wilson and WX stared, uncertain and confused, at the person that we had returned with.

Winona was actually the one to break the silence.

"You must be... Wilson, right?" Winona asked the scientist. "And that makes you WX-78?" She nodded at the automaton, who gave a short nod in response. "My name is Winona. I bumped into Webber here directly before he got attacked by the Bearger." We bristled at her words, even if they were true. They were going to think that we were stupid for running off.

"Forgive my silence..." Wilson said after a moment. "But... I never expected to see another living human here."

Winona laughed a sort of stiff, uncomfortable laugh. "Yeah... I suppose it might get to you when your companions are a robot and a spider hybrid, right? Not saying there's anything wrong with that! In fact, it's rather awesome. But I can understand wanting to see another human." She stepped forward, past us, and offered a hand to Wilson. He took it, his face still a picture of confusion.

"WEBBER," WX said, piquing our attention. "CONSIDERING YOU ARE IN ONE PIECE, I CAN PROPERLY ASSUME... 'WINONA'... SAVED YOU FROM THE JAWS OF THE BEARGER?"

We opened our mouth to protest, but Winona got to it first. "On the contrary," she said, a smile forming on her lips. "I dare say this boy saved me with nothing more than his knowledge of this world. You knew the ground was hollow there, didn't you?"

Three pairs of eyes, or lack of thereof in WX's case, landed on us. We almost shrunk under it. "...not quite," I answered. "We... um... we sensed it when we were running." We fixed our gaze on Wilson. We almost enjoyed watching him squirm under it, as he often did when he saw our missing eye. "It's gone. It died in the fall."

"It what?" Wilson's eyes widened. "You killed the Bearger?"

"If it was up to me, we woulda run for the hills!" Winona boasted. "But not only did he know that the ground wasn't going to handle the Bearger's weight, but he also straight up stood against it!"

Normally, we weren't one to take praise, but we couldn't help but swell a little in pride as she spoke.

"...maybe we underestimated you, Webber," Wilson laughed. He took a step towards us, but we found ourself instinctively shying away from him and towards Winona. Something flashed in his eyes, which was quickly transferred to the rest of his face into a sort of injured expression. If WX saw any of this exchange, he didn't let on.

"ARE YOU WANTING TO STAY?"

She opened her mouth to respond... then snapped it closed. She looked beyond our two campmates and pointed. "...there's a... um... a hound? And..."

Popsicle had risen to his feet, shielding Pyrite with his body. He wasn't snarling or making any noise, but his body was stiff and aggressive. We inched towards him, flashing our gaze between the hound and Wilson.

"It's okay, boy," I called. As we did, Popsicle's body seemed to relax a bit. We glanced at Winona. "He's our pet. His name is Popsicle. The others-" we motioned towards Chester and Pyrite. "Chester came to us when we found that eye thingy in his mouth. Pyrite is... our trophy for defeating the dragonfly."

Winona's eyes widened. "You've tamed a hound? How?"

"He's just a puppy. He was even tinier when he came to us." We clicked our fingers and Popsicle trotted up, throwing looks over his shoulder to make sure Pyrite was following him. His cold fur felt nice against our hand. "He's loyal to the end." Our eyes flickered towards Wilson and back again.

We winced back as a cold finger drew over our face. Instinctively baring our teeth, we glared at WX, who now held one blood-tipped finger up. "YOU ARE INJURED."

We grimaced. "We had an argument."

Winona opened her mouth as if to defend herself, but realized a moment later that we didn't mean her.

"...I SEE."

There was something that we didn't like in his eyes- or, lack of thereof.

Instead of continuing the conversation, he threw his gaze towards Winona. "YOU. FLESHLING." We couldn't help but laugh a bit at that. It had been a long time since he had said that term. "YOU HAVE ALMOST MISSED ALL OF THE FUN, IF YOU PLAN ON STAYING HERE. CAN YOU FIGHT?"

"Fight?" Winona's eyes widened, then she shrugged. "I mean... I've worked in a factory for years. I've never been trained in fighting but I think I have the strength."

WX examined her closely, as if taking notes. Under his scrutiny, Winona only stood straighter.

"WILSON," he said without looking. "I TRUST YOU CAN GIVE HER THE TRAINING SHE NEEDS."

Wilson immediately recoiled, as if unwilling. "I-um- I mean- I can, but-"

"I WOULD, BUT I AM AFRAID I WOULD IMMEDIATELY KNOCK HER OUT. AND WEBBER IS LITTLE MORE THAN A PET, I BELIEVE."

We puffed our cheeks out in anger at the comment, but it melted a moment later when we noticed the teasing note in his voice.

"NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO GET STARTED AS ANY. WEBBER, WHETHER YOU MIND OR NOT, I NEED TO SPEAK WITH YOU IN PRIVATE."

We felt our heart sink. The last thing we wanted was WX to scold us. He had never worried about yelling at us in front of everyone, though, which really confused us. Before Wilson could even protest, the robot grabbed our arm and started pulling us away.

Immediately, a shock of terror exploded through our body, and the smallest of whimpers rose in our throat that we had to swallow down. We still ripped our arm away from him, though, staring down at our feet in hopes he didn't notice the panic response. If he did, he said nothing about it.

Once the others were out of sight, WX turned back to us, his 'eyes' narrowed. "YOU HAD AN ARGUMENT," he said. He didn't sound convinced. "I WAS NOT AWARE THAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH EACH OTHER WAS SEPARATE ENOUGH TO ARGUE LIKE THAT."

We rubbed our arm unconsciously. So that's what this was about.

"I HAVE A QUESTION."

We raised our head a little, but not enough to look at him in the face.

"AM I SPEAKING TO A SPIDER RIGHT NOW, OR TO A HUMAN?"

That was a question we weren't expecting. And it was a question we weren't sure how to answer. What kind of answer was he wanting?

"A human," I answered softly.

"WEBBER IS NOT YOUR NAME, IS IT?"

"... no."

He was silent for a moment. "I FEEL LIKE THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG," he said. This was enough to prompt us to finally look at him. He was gazing into the middle distance, a strange look on his face. "I SHOULD FEEL EXCITED THAT WE ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES. THERE IS ANOTHER PERSON. SOMEONE ELSE WHO HAS SURVIVED. SHE CANNOT HAVE BEEN HERE FOR LONG IF SHE HAS NO FIGHTING EXPERIENCE, BUT... SHE IS ALIVE. THAT IS GOOD, IS IT NOT?"

"I suppose."

"THEN WHY AM I NOT HAPPY?"

What kind of answer did he want? What was he even asking? We opened and closed our mouth a few times, but no words came out. WX... he was sad that there was another person.

Something clicked. "WX... are you worried that we'll start to rely on her like we did Wilson?"

"QUITE PERSONALLY, I COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT WHO YOU RELY ON."

We felt the smallest of smiles form on our face. "WX... thank you for everything that you've done for us. For me. We wouldn't be here right now without you, and nothing will change that. You denied it before but... WX, are we friends?"

He let out a short burst of garbled static- a wry laugh. "MY ANSWER REMAINS THE SAME. FORTUNATELY, YOU HAVE BECOME QUITE PERFECT CANNON FODDER, WEBBER."

We only felt our smile grow a bit. "Just this once, you can call me Tyler."

"A TERRIBLE NAME," WX proclaimed. "NO WONDER YOU GO BY WEBBER."

We laughed. It felt good to laugh. "Maybe, but you have to admit, it makes me seem a lot more normal."

"YOU ANNOY ME GREATLY. SOMEHOW, I MISSED THAT."

We let out the last of our mirth in soft chuckles, and as we did so, our eyes landed on our lame hand. We tried to turn it into a fist, but as always, our fingers barely touched the palm. Using our good hand to curl the fingers in, we look back up at WX. "Hit me."

He tipped his head, but he didn't question. We didn't expect him to. A moment later, we caught his fist with our good hand, stumbling slightly behind the force of it. Even though it was enough to knock us off balance, it clearly wasn't his best.

"Don't go easy on me. You never have before."

WX smirked, and he threw another punch. This time, we dodged it and ducked around him, fast enough to catch him off guard and throw our own punch. It didn't hit- he had the advantage of two eyes and no muscles to atrophy, unlike us, but we didn't let that damper our mood. Without prompting him again, he moved to hit us again, this time throwing in a kick as well, both of which we dodged.

"You keep aiming for my good side."

"THE LAST THING I NEED TO DO IS BRING YOU BACK INJURED."

We shook our head. "You won't hurt me. Pretend like I've never been hurt. Hit me like we are fighting, like we did back then."

We could see the conflict in his expression, which solidified our suspicion that there was more than just survival that kept him from hitting us with full force.

What did he think of us? A friend? He denied it, but who knows how true that was? Someone to be protected? He always chastised Wilson for trying to do that very thing. A sibling? Would he even have a concept of siblingship?

Finally, he seemed to get over his hesitance. The next hit he aimed at us was directed towards our right, on our blind side. However, without even the slightest bit of pause, our whiskers on that side stiffened and we dodged it. We didn't notice that he had also moved to kick us again, and the force of his kick in our abdomen expelled all of the air from our body. We stumbled back, wheezing, and we saw WX take an uncertain step back.

Before we had the opportunity to regain our breath, we forced our body to slip around the automaton and push him roughly with our shoulder. We weren't strong enough to really push him, but his guard seemed to be low enough that he did stumble, and we managed to get him to trip and hit the ground with a heavy thunk.

We grinned at him, panting, then offered a hand to help him back up. He didn't take it, instead pushing himself back and brushing the dirt off of his metal frame.

"So, if we're not friends, then why did you save me?" I asked, dodging another punch from the robot and landing one of our own. "You could've let me die."

"ANNOYING YOU MAY BE, BUT I HAVE GROWN QUITE FOND OF YOU. MUCH LIKE A PARTICULARLY ADORABLE FUNGUS."

We laughed again. "So... like a brother."

WX paused for a moment, twitching ever-so-slightly as if he were malfunctioning. "IF A BROTHER IS COMPARABLE TO A FUNGAL GROWTH, THEN BELIEVE WHATEVER YOU WANT." Despite his words, he definitely seemed flustered.

Aha.

After dodging a couple more attacks from WX and landing a couple ourself, we dropped our fighting stance and straightened up. "That's enough for now. We've not been on our feet enough for a long, drawn-out sparring session."

"YOUR REFLEXES HAVE NOT SUFFERED MUCH." He sounded impressed.

"Told you we could fight."

He almost looked like he was smiling for just a second, then his face fell. "THERE IS ANOTHER MATTER I WISH TO DISCUSS."

"Oh?"

"THE BEARGER IS SLAIN, CORRECT? WERE YOU ABLE TO COLLECT THE FUR?"

My own mirth drained from my face. "No."

"WE MUST ASK FOR THE SPIDERS' HELP IN RETRIEVING IT, THEN." He nodded a single time, as if that had settled something in his head. "UNLESS YOU ARE FOND OF THE IDEA OF BLUNDERING THROUGH THE DARK."

"I mean, Erika has already done a lot for us. The last thing we want to do is make her help us more."

He nodded again, his face creasing into the smallest of frowns. "SHE HAS WILLINGLY HELPED. NOBODY HAS FORCED HER TO."

"We're not saying they did! But... maybe this is something we should just do as a group? It might be good... bonding?" It would take a long time for any of the others to trust Winona, especially considering she had missed many of the worst things we had gone through, but we had to start somewhere.

WX sighed. "I SAID WE SHOULD ASK THEM FOR HELP SO THAT SHE CAN SEE YOU ACTING LIKE YOURSELF AGAIN. IT WAS AN ATTEMPT TO CARE."

The laughter bubbled back up in our chest. "Alright, alright, you got us there! Fine, we can go down, as long as we bring the other two as well."

"FAIR."

We tossed our head towards the direction of camp, encouraging us to go back. Without checking to make sure he was following, we started walking.

"WEBBER."

We paused, tipping our head at him. He hadn't moved, simply stared at the ground.

"MAKE ME A PROMISE."

"Huh?"

"MAKE ME A PROMISE," he repeated. "IF I PERISH AND RETURN, LIKE WILSON... AND I DO ANYTHING TO HURT YOU, DESTROY ME."

"WX..." We could feel our heart constricting in our chest. "Why would you even think that?"

His gaze settled on ours, a serious fire burning deep inside of it. "I WOULD RATHER DIE A HERO THAN LIVE TO BECOME A VILLAIN. AND IF I WERE TO WANT ANYONE TO END ME, I WOULD WANT IT TO BE YOU."

"That sounds an awful lot like something a friend would say."

To our dismay, that didn't earn any sort of positive expression.

"YOU REFUSED TO HARM WILSON. I WILL NOT STAND FOR THAT WHEN IT COMES TO MYSELF. IF I DIE, THEN I WILL DIE BY MY TERMS."

"Why are you saying this now?" We frowned. "Are you okay?"

WX stared at us for a moment, and then another moment. We started to shift under his gaze before he finally responded. "MAYBE I AM NOT."

We opened our mouth to prompt him, to understand, but he finally started forward, pushing past us roughly as if to hide his vulnerability behind rudeness once more. We gazed after him, trying to come up with anything to say, but we couldn't. Instead, we followed him, albeit a few steps behind.

WX was upset, and this was because of Winona. She hadn't done anything or meant to hurt him, but her existence here was enough to make him question things.

Was he worried that we would like her more than him?

And finally, something in our mind slid into place. No matter what WX said, no matter what he thought about us, if he didn't want our death on his hands or if he actually cared about us, he was really our best friend.

And nobody could replace him.