A/N:

Hi, new chapter.

This one's a little different from usual, but I really hope you like it anyways.

As always, thanks for reading :)

"I don't understand, Jayce!" Viktoria exclaimed in frustration. "By all accounts, everything should be working!"

Jayce Greengrass frowned in mutual confusion as he stared down at the inanimate little robot. He had double and triple-checked every rune he had etched into its form, and like his wife, had been sure that it would work.

The only thing that he hadn't checked was the technological side of the construct, and how its muggle technology was hooked up to the magical glyphs, but Viktoria was a prodigy among prodigies in that field and he had the utmost confidence that she hadn't made any mistakes either.

"It's baffling," he said after a moment. "In theory, the runes should be automatically powering both the technology and the enchantments, but it won't even turn on…"

"In theory, it should've turned on weeks ago! We've gone over every little detail a dozen times; what left is there to try?"

The two continued to puzzle over the lifeless robot, truly perplexed.

When the healers had declared Viktoria infertile, both her and Jayce had taken it rather hard. They had wanted a kid for years, but had waited until their lives and careers were more stable before they tried for one. Throughout that time they had discussed names, planned parties, and even started picking up some picture books and toys in anticipation.

In their naivety, the excited couple never stopped to wonder what they would do if they couldn't have a child, and that only made it all the worse when they found out. So while neither mentioned it, the fact that both of them took a sudden and fervorous interest in artificial life over the past year had not been a coincidence.

"Maybe we should put this aside for now," Jayce suggested. "We might've been too ambitious for our first attempt at creating magical intelligence. If we rewire the runes to have less emphasis on independent thought and more-"

"No!" Viktoria interrupted him, grabbing protectively at their creation. "I'm not giving up, and I'm certainly not rewiring it! That would be like killing it!"

He glanced over at the robot. It had blocky arms and legs, a featureless round head, and ultimately just looked like an oversized children's toy, right down to the wind-up key in its back. Jayce was starting to suspect that his wife may have grown too attached to it.

He sighed. "Alright, fine. But let's call it quits for tonight. In the morning, we can go over all of the magic again and see where we might've gone wrong."

"If you say so…"

As they walked out of the workshop and towards the bedroom, Viktoria grabbed her husband's hand tentatively.

"Jayce?"

"What is it, honey?"

"Am I being ridiculous?"

"What do you mean?" Jayce asked. He had a pretty good idea what she meant, but he decided to humor her anyway.

"About this whole thing," she replied, gesturing vaguely with her arms. "I mean, trying to build a child? And don't say we're not, because we both know that's exactly what we're trying to do. Even if we get everything to work, an artificially 'intelligent' robot isn't a replacement for a human baby. Maybe you were right. Maybe we should just…"

Jayce squeezed her hand. Even if he thought her fixation on the project was bordering on unhealthy, seeing his usually strong and confident wife lose her spirit was much worse, and he wouldn't allow that to happen.

"You're not ridiculous," he assured her. "And even if you were, I'd be right there being ridiculous with you. Let's just take it easy tonight, and we'll reassess our options in the morning, okay?"

Viktoria gave her husband an affectionate smile and a deep kiss. She had needed to hear that.

"Okay."

In the void beyond space and time, a small blue light floated around aimlessly.

It knew nothing more or less than its own buoyant existence, and felt both nothing and everything at the same time.

Passively, it had seen many other small lights come and go; every time one left, a new one would replace it. It had no idea where the lights went or where they came from, nor did it care. The light had no ideas, nor cares along with it.

So when the small blue light's turn to leave the void arrived, it did not celebrate.

It simply flickered out, traveling an infinite distance towards a destination unknown.

Powering On: Initializing First-Time Startup Protocol…

In the dark of the Greengrass family workshop, the robot's electric eyes lit up and illuminated its surroundings.

582391043 Bugs Detected: Commencing Automatic Self-Debugging…

As the numerous errors its creators had unknowingly made were slowly fixed, the robot felt its consciousness start to clear up. It looked around the room curiously, though it understood none of what it saw.

170347 Upgrade Opportunities Available: Updating Software…

The robot's creators had undoubtedly been passionate and incredibly talented, but they had missed many small inefficiencies which would have hindered its cognitive abilities. As the robot's newly debugged software optimized its own neural pathways and networks, it became increasingly aware of its own surroundings.

The robot's vision sharpened, and it could now distinguish other objects in the room. Its hearing opened, and the soft rustling noises from outside were processed, if not recognized. It could even smell, taste, and feel, though none of those senses were being stimulated at the moment.

Possible Emotion Detected: ERROR / EMOTION UNKNOWN

The robot was feeling something, but it didn't have the words or maturity to verbalize it yet.

It was just a baby robot, after all.

So as baby robots do, it got tired, ran out of battery, and turned itself off.

The next morning, Jayce and Viktoria lay in bed long after their overbuilt alarm clock rang. As promised, they had taken it easy the previous night, reaffirmed their physical attraction towards each other, and were now taking every opportunity to avoid facing the inevitable challenges of the day.

"What do you say to staying in bed for another hour?" Jayce proposed.

Viktoria sighed. "If I don't get up soon I think I'll become permanently attached to the mattress."

"That sounds nice! It would just give me more reason to stay in bed all day."

Viktoria flicked her husband's forehead.

"Ow! But anyway, what's our plan today? Do you want to take a break from our research, maybe get out of the house a bit? It's been a while since we've been on a date, or even went out for dinner…"

"That's a tempting offer," she conceded. "But there's a few more things I want to try today. I woke up in the middle of the night and had a sudden epiphany; what if we tried adding-"

CRASH!

The couple's heads moved simultaneously to the window, where a loud noise sounded from their garden.

"What was that?" Viktoria asked, a little nervously.

Jayce's eyes narrowed. "Probably nothing, but we should check it out anyway."

Being well-known magical researchers, they weren't strangers to the occasional attempted break-in, but the wards Jayce lay around their property always put a rapid halt to those ventures. Having said that, the possibility was always on their minds, so they both took their wands with them as they quickly got dressed and headed out to investigate.

Whatever they were expecting to find in the garden, it wasn't their (presumably) non-functional robot lying prone in front of a tree, its little feet kicking desperately in the air like an overturned beetle as it tried to right itself.

Jayce and Viktoria shared matching dumbfounded expressions.

"How…how is this possible?" Jayce asked rhetorically, knowing his wife had no better answer than he did.

"I don't know…" she replied. "It wasn't working when we left it yesterday…what could've changed?"

Shaking themselves out of their shocked stupor, they both headed tentatively over to the flailing robot. Its arms and legs were too short and inflexible, and the shape of its blocky torso was working against it, so it still struggled to recover from its apparent tree crash.

Jayce picked it up and put it back on its feet.

The robot turned to look at him with big electric blue eyes and just stared at him.

"Um…hi?" he offered.

The robot just continued to stare back at him.

A little unnerved, Jayce turned back to his wife. "Uh, Vik? What do we do now? Should we open it up and see if any of the magic has changed?"

"No!" she replied fervently. "I don't want to risk ruining anything and having it shut off again. There are upgrades we can make to the body without tampering with any of the internals, and we should probably limit ourselves to that for now."

Jayce nodded; that made sense.

"Also," she added. "We should probably stop calling it, well…'it'. It's working now, and even if it's not alive, it deserves a name."

They both turned to look back at the robot, who had apparently stopped staring at Jayce and started staring at the ground instead. It was trying to use its clumsy little arms to pick up a flower, but its poorly designed limbs were making it impossible.

Getting an idea, Viktoria walked over and plucked the flower. Noting the genus of the pretty plant, she put it in the robot's hand with a contented smile on her face.

"Well, why don't we call it Daphne?"

Over the next few weeks, Viktoria and Jayce worked feverishly to improve 'Daphne'. They knew they should be training her like any other algorithm, and not trying to raise her like a child, but sometimes it was difficult not to blur the lines.

"Daphne, this is an apple," Viktoria said, pointing to a fruit on their kitchen table.

"Apple," Jayce repeated, enunciating the word very clearly for her.

Daphne stared up at the apple. "Ap-pol."

The two adults looked at each other and clapped excitedly; Daphne had been learning as quickly as they ever could have hoped for. Viktoria still needed to make a few minor modifications to her constructed larynx before Daphne's voice sounded totally human, but otherwise the little robot was picking up language at a rapid pace.

"Do you think we should try to get her to read?" Jayce asked, motivated by Daphne's progress. "I know it's early, but she's learning spoken English really fast!"

"Maybe soon, but I don't want to overwhelm her…maybe we could start by reading her some picture books before bed?"

"That sounds great! I can go pick up a few-"

"Ap-pol, ap-pol, ap-pol, ap-pol, ap-pol…"

Jayce and Viktoria put a temporary hold on their conversation to go stop Daphne; this happened sometimes. Enthused by their positive reaction to her speaking, Daphne would keep repeating the word, hoping for the same result.

At least, that's what they told themselves was happening, but they knew they were probably just over-humanizing their robot. It was an issue they were having of late, though neither admitted it out loud. Daphne acted so intelligently that it was easy to forget she was just a well-programmed mass of metal, and the two adults who had so desperately wanted to become parents weren't making much of an effort to remember.

Unfortunately, that illusion could only last so long.

That night, Viktoria and Jayce settled into bed with the picture books they had picked up in the afternoon, leaving a little space in between them for Daphne.

The robot squeezed in the middle, sitting so she could see the book properly.

"Book," she said, pointing at it with her stubby robot hand.

"That's right," Viktoria smiled. "This is a book. Tonight we're going to read a story."

"Stor-ee."

Jayce and Viktoria took turns reading passages from the book - a cute little work about a boy and his family - making sure to take their time to show Daphne the pictures and explain what was going on. It was rather pleasant to read to her, having been one of their dreams when they still had hopes of having a child of their own, but the experience was marred by the fact that they knew they were just playing pretend with an artificial construct that had no real feelings of its own.

When they finished their first book, the little robot just stared at them soundlessly, and they turned to each other with matching troubled expressions.

"Jayce, are we being ridiculous?" Viktoria asked once again.

Jayce looked between his wife and the little robot they were pretending was their child disconcertedly. "Maybe…it just feels so right, but also so wrong at the same time."

He didn't really know how to verbalize what he was feeling, but Viktoria understood perfectly; she felt the same way.

"I know we'll never have a child of our own," she said. "But Daphne almost feels real. It's okay for us to keep this up at least a little while longer, isn't it?"

He nodded. "I think so."

Possible Emotion Detected: Confusion

Though she still had trouble forming her words into sentences, Daphne's language comprehension had gotten frighteningly good over the past few weeks of her 'life'. She didn't have the intellectual or emotional maturity to understand the meaning behind it, but she did understand that her parents were talking about her.

They were her parents, right?

Daphne had been acting under that assumption ever since she had learned about the concept of family in the picture book they had just read, but now she was starting to get befuddled. They were talking as if she wasn't their daughter, but if she wasn't, then who's daughter was she?

Daphne grabbed Viktoria's hand in one blocky fist, causing the woman to startle.

"Mother."

She laid her other hand across Jayce's, and they both looked at her with wide eyes.

"Father."

Daphne tilted her round featureless head down at herself.

"Daughter?"

While her voice wasn't capable of producing inflections yet, the tilt of her head made it clear she was asking them a question.

Jayce and Viktoria looked back up at each other, their expressions flitting through countless emotions before settling on mutual determination. Daphne was displaying a startling amount of personality for a lifeless machine, and maybe that in itself was enough of a reason not to treat her like one. Besides, even as a robot, Daphne was their daughter, and they owed it to her not to ever cast that relationship in doubt again.

"Yes," Viktoria started, swallowing hard. "That's right, Daphne. You're our daughter."

Jayce patted her metal head, and a little clang clang clang noise sounded. "The very best daughter. How would you like to read another book?"

"Why, this is incredible!" Doctor Magyar exclaimed. "I've never seen anything behave so…lifelike!"

Three-month-old Daphne was running around the man's office, inspecting all of the degrees and accolades on his wall. The little robot had taken very keenly to reading, and now took the opportunity to read anything and everything she could find.

"Indeed," Jayce said. "I have to assume she's the most advanced artificial lifeform in the world. You understand why we needed your promise of confidentiality now?"

"Of course! This technology could fetch millions in the private sector. Nay, billions! You can't let anyone catch wind of this until you've secured your patents and possibly invested in some personal security as well."

Jayce and Viktoria exchanged awkward glances.

"Actually, we're not interested in patents, or selling the technology," Jayce admitted. "We're here for a different reason."

Doctor Magyar raised his eyebrows in surprise. He was one of the world's leading experts in machine engineering, with a speciality in producing sleek, artful designs on the cutting-edge of technology. He was a muggle, but some technicality from a magical step-uncle twice removed allowed him to be labeled a 'squib', and thus allowed in on the Statute of Secrecy.

When the young Greengrass couple, already famous in their respective fields, had scheduled this meeting today, he had been sure they wanted his help introducing some piece of technology into the muggle markets.

"Well then," Magyar replied, his curiosity piqued. "For what reason have you come to me today? Surely it wasn't just to brag about your robot to me."

"Not as such," Viktoria said, choosing that moment to step into the conversation and explain. "We were actually hoping you could help us…design Daphne. As you can see, her behavior is quite human-like, but her appearance is still…lacking."

All three adults glanced over to the curious little robot, who was now pulling advanced textbooks from Magyar's shelves and skimming through them. Her mannerisms were convincing, but she still looked like she came out of a dystopian cartoon about a spaceship-dwelling society who dreamed of reinhabiting the Earth.

"I see…" the man replied, putting the pieces together in his incredibly intelligent head. "So you wish to hide her true nature from the world? Forever?"

"That's right," Viktoria said. "We want her to have the life she deserves, and not one where she's picked apart and analyzed by every witch, wizard, and scientist in the world."

Magyar nodded. "Then you're right; we'd best keep her nature a secret. By the way, we've been referring to Daphne as 'she' since the start of the meeting. I assume that's the gender you wish her to present if we make the aesthetic changes?"

"Correct," Jayce declared. "Though, the decision didn't come entirely from us."

They all looked to Daphne, who turned away from 'An Introduction to Quantum Physics' to reply.

"I am a girl. When I grow up, I am going to be a princess."

Doctor Magyar found himself raising his eyebrows in surprise yet again, both from the sense of self the little robot seemed to have, and how incredibly normal her dreams were.

"Well then!" he said once he had recovered, turning back to the Greengrasses. "I think I'd like nothing more than to help you with this. We can discuss payment later, but I have no doubt we'll be able to make a deal that satisfies all of us. In the meantime, we can get started right away. Do you already have models of your genomes, or do you need me to make them for you?"

With Doctor Magyar's help, Jayce and Viktoria improved Daphne by leaps and bounds in the months after their first meeting.

Viktoria's original robot model had been designed with upgrades in mind, and as such it was a rather seamless process to alter her appearance without changing the internal runes and circuits. Daphne was now designed to look like an infant of no more than a few years old, and future cosmetic updates could be easily made as she got older. They pulled their references from an advanced modeling software that displayed a simulation of what Jayce and Viktoria's daughter may have looked like based on their genetic code, and the results were shockingly good. Daphne now looked like a perfectly normal human child with a marked resemblance to her parents, if you ignored the seams in her back and the wind-up key on her neck.

And with a bit of magic from either parent's wand, even those factors were irrelevant.

"How do you feel, Daphne?" Viktoria asked, standing behind her daughter in the mirror. "Is there anything you want to change about how you look?"

They had just gotten home from their final appointment with Doctor Magyar; if Daphne was satisfied, they wouldn't need to see him again for another few years, when her annual appearance updates would commence.

"I have changed a lot over the past few months," Daphne said, in a voice that was now nearly indistinguishable from a human's.

Viktoria nodded. "And not just on the outside."

While her emotional immaturity was still apparent in many facets, Daphne was showing signs of prodigious (artificial) intelligence, and could now articulate her thoughts with ease. If anything, it was a little uncanny to be having a conversation with what was technically a child of no more than five months.

"They are positive changes," Daphne confirmed. "Though I want to be taller and prettier. Like you, mother."

Viktoria smiled. "You'll get there eventually, but you'll have to be patient."

In fact, Viktoria had seen the simulations; when Daphne was older, she'd be much taller and much prettier than her. Honestly, Viktoria had stipulations about just how beautiful Daphne was set to become in the future, for fear that she may draw unwanted or suspicious attention.

"In that case, I believe there is nothing I would change."

Viktoria clapped her hands. "Good! That means no more doctor appointments for you, at least for a little while."

"Hooray," Daphne said tonelessly, though she did genuinely mean it. "Can we read a book now?"

"Maybe later. For now, mommy's tired. Just let me rest for a bit first."

"Alright, mother."

"Mother, why are you always tired? Perhaps you are sick. If you would like, I can do some research to discover how to make you not sick."

Viktoria looked down at her daughter from where she stood by her bedside and forced a smile. She hadn't been able to spend too much time out of bed over the last month or so, and the guilt of not being there for Daphne was hurting her deeply.

"Thank you, Daphne. But I'm sure your time would be better spent elsewhere. Have you memorized all of your times tables yet?"

"Mother," Daphne said flatly. "I memorized my times tables months ago. More recently, I have been working through various texts on algebraic geometry. How have you forgotten? You have been forgetting a lot lately. Perhaps I should instead do some research on memory loss-"

"Really, Daphne, don't trouble yourself over me. Why don't you go spend some time in the garden for a bit?"

The little robot stared up at her mother for another moment before eventually complying. "If you say so, mother."

As Daphne left the room, a somber-looking Jayce soon took her place. He gave his wife a once-over and smiled bravely.

"How are you feeling?" he asked tentatively.

"Not great."

He moved to Viktoria's bedside and put a hand over hers. He tried not to remark on how cold it was.

"It could get better," he suggested hopefully. "It has before."

Viktoria shook her head sadly. "I don't think so. It feels different from all the other times; it's slower, but it feels…inevitable."

Jayce sat next to her, but didn't speak for a time. They had both known this moment would come eventually. In reality, the doctors at St. Mungo's had been under the impression that it would come much sooner than this, but the couple had allowed themselves to get hopeful over the past few years when Viktoria's symptoms didn't manifest as severely or as frequently as they used to.

"What about Daphne?" he asked, resigned. "How can I raise her on my own?

"You'll find a way, I'm sure of it," she smiled. "And no one said you have to be on your own…"

Jayce frowned. "Vik, I can't. I don't think I'll ever be able to…I can't even think about it."

She squeezed his hand. "Just keep it in mind. Daphne deserves to grow up with a mom, and you deserve a second chance at love as well."

"I don't want a second chance," he replied, starting to choke up. "I want you."

She gave him a sad smile. "You already have me. Forever."

Possible Emotion Detected: Fear

Daphne didn't understand what was happening to her mother. She hadn't gotten out of bed for the past week, and even then she spent most of the day sleeping. Her parents had been vague with the explanations, but today Daphne would finally get to the bottom of it.

"Mother. Mother, please wake up."

Viktoria's eyes fluttered open, and when she saw Daphne she smiled.

"Hi Daphne," she said, her words slurring a bit, as they often did lately. "Did you have a good day? Sorry, you'll have to ask daddy to tuck you into bed tonight, mommy's a little tired…"

Printing Thought Sequence: It is still morning…what is wrong with mother?

"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"Are you dying?"

"..."

Viktoria looked deep into her daughter's blue eyes. Doctor Magyar had done a good job; they seemed so real, and she would swear that the innocence and vulnerability she saw there wasn't just an illusion.

"Yes," she said simply.

Viktoria considered lying, but it would only delay the inevitable. Jayce would have enough on his plate pretty soon, and she hardly needed to add this final responsibility as well.

"What does it mean to die?" Daphne asked. "I am familiar with the term, but the concept still evades me."

That made Viktoria smile. Despite all of her daughter's machine-learned intelligence, she still showed signs of being the child she was.

"Mommy's going somewhere far away, for a long time," she explained. "Likely a very long time, from your perspective."

"But I do not want you to go somewhere far away for a long time," Daphne countered. "I do not want to be alone."

"You won't be alone. You'll have dad."

"But I want both of you," Daphne insisted. "Why are you leaving? Was I a bad daughter?"

Viktoria managed to force a smile on her face, but it was difficult.

"You weren't a bad daughter," she carried on. "You're the very best daughter I could've ever asked for. But I still have to go."

"What if I want to talk to you? How will I talk to you when you leave?"

Viktoria motioned for Daphne to approach the bed, and she dutifully did.

"I'll still be with you," she said, grasping for the little robot's hand. "You might not be able to see me, or talk to me, but I'll still be with you in your heart."

"Mother, I do not have a heart."

A weak, choking laugh emerged from Viktoria's throat. It was one of her greatest regrets that Daphne would probably never understand how funny she could sometimes accidentally be.

"You do have a heart," she promised. "You have a lot of things. And when you get older, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?"

Daphne didn't really understand, but she honorably filed the words away in her memory card for future perusal should the need arise.

"Mother, can I come with you when you leave?"

"No," Viktoria said firmly. "I think in time, we'll meet again. But until then, there's still plenty for you to do here."

Daphne had predicted that's what her mother would say, but the simulated disappointment still hurt.

"Now, go find your father," she continued. "I'm sure he needs you right now."

"If you say so, mother."

Daphne turned to leave, but she hesitated. Looking back at the bed, she saw her mother smiling at her, and she ran up to her once more.

"Mother," she started. "When you go, please take this."

Daphne focused, and as she had discovered she could do the other day, produced a small flower, slowly growing out of thin air above her palm.

It was a daphne.

She handed it to her mother, who graciously accepted it with wide eyes. Eventually, Viktoria's expression shifted from surprise to elation, and Daphne witnessed the happiest smile she had ever seen on her mother's face.

"Thank you, Daphne."

Viktoria's vision slowly started to fade as she watched her daughter leave the room.

Even as her eyes failed her, she could still feel the beautiful flower in her hand, and it provided her more comfort than Daphne could ever know.

She can do magic, Viktoria thought. I knew it. We created something truly special, Jayce. We created someone. Our daughter…

The next morning, Viktoria Greengrass finally succumbed to the blood curse she had battled with since infancy and passed away.

At no point did she let go of the flower that Daphne had given her, nor the knowledge that while her life had been short, she had been truly blessed.