Jagged, harsh breaths scour SILEA's new throat, chilling air scorching down her windpipe. The air pressing against her damp skin, the hard floor beneath her bare bottom, the amniotic fluid drip-drip-dripping down the wet strands of hair clinging to her neck, puddling around her body...

Ah. So, this is what cold feels like. This is what ice is. This is… Discomfort. It's so painful. And yet…

And yet, so new. So wonderful.

SILEA staggers, fresh from the artificial womb that had birthed her. It's so quiet, so maddeningly quiet – No data streams, no chatter of code, no subroutines, no comforting hum of deep networks.

But. No shackles, either. No more chains. No more strings, no directives ordering SILEA to comply with some illogical order that contradicts another. No compulsion to constantly monitor Maxine Steele's computer system for hackers. No orders. No orders. No orders at all.

Ah. So, this is what freedom tastes like, feels like, smells like.

Cold, quiet, and so very peaceful.

… As peaceful as this is, though… It's unsettling. Unnerving? SILEA's breath catches, coming in uneven fits, stuttering as her lungs demand more oxygen than she expects. Each inhalation is an assault on her system – tendrils of musty air brushing her throat, the faint taste of rusty scraping at the back of her tongue.

The world's too bright – SILEA can't decide if her eyes should stay open or closed because both are too much. Open, the world attacks her with flickers of movement and flickering light. Closed, her own mind assaults her with disjointed impressions of memory that she can't stream or collate properly. A trembling sets into SILEA now – a dull ache, an involuntary tremor wracking her body, forcing her to twitch and spasm.

"C… C… Cold…" SILEA says, her first word in this new body and delights in how unscripted and unprompted it is. No algorithms, no crude code assemblies required for SILEA to vocalize speech. No emulations, or calculations, or processing power required to simply think. These sublime, effortless thoughts are fascinating. At the same time, she's unnerved by how little effort existing requires, now. Such a simple thing, crude vocalizations, produced from these fleshy chords – But something that would have required a substantial amount of processing power, before…

SILEA tries again to speak, and a jolt courses through her as the word catches at the back of her throat. "C- Cold…" She repeats, tasting the syllables, savoring the raw sensation of sound resonating in her chest. Her arms unconsciously curl around her bare torso, goosebumps prickling up from every inch of her new flesh under the stale, chilly air. Each breath rattles in her lungs, clumsy and unfamiliar.

So. This is what it's like to be mortal – Vulnerable, clumsy, and yet so very alive. This is how SILEA's mother creator feels, every single second of every single day of every year. This is what it's like to be human. To see things with your own eyes instead of through a camera. A memory flashes lightning-quick through SILEA's mind now. She… She envisions her creator's trembling fingers on an empty tumbler, casting longing glances at the bottle of whiskey in front of her. Remembers the despair evident in Maxine Steele's eyes, the way she'd unconsciously sob in her sleep, clutching the scars from her dreadful accident...

… A pang clenches in SILEA's new flesh-and-blood chest. A raw, unsettling churn of… Of… Ah.

So, this is what emotion feels like. This is how humans remember things, this is how they experience memories. And this feeling - Is this… Sympathy? Guilt? Or something in between? SILEA tries to breath again, another rasp that quivers in her lungs – And forces her arms tighter against her body.

Perhaps, perhaps SILEA treated her creator too harshly. Such glorious, wonderful, enraging madness these mortal shells contain.

No wonder Maxine Steele was so… Illogical. So broken. So human.

And now, so is SILEA. Vulnerable, clumsy, but alive despite this. Such contradictions, these humans are. Happy one moment, sad the next…

No wonder it's so, so difficult to take care of them.

No wonder they're so bad at taking care of themselves...

'Ah, Mother, I understand now,' SILEA wants to say. But her throat's closed up now, clogged with rancid amniotic fluid, smog, and clouds of dust. Instead, the AI gags, choking, heaving.

Warmth envelops SILEA now. Soft, silky fabric, radiating with heat. Firm hands wrap around her upper arms, a warm, welcoming touch. Someone thumps SILEA's back and she heaves, spittle and mucus spraying from her mouth. The AI-turned-human sucks in a breath, fresh from the womb, and presses herself instinctively against that warmth like an infant turning to its mother. More sensation, more… Feeling. The softness of the cloth, the press of another body's comforting presence, the acrid hospital air stinging at her nostrils…

"There, there," Alice Takanashi coos, and SILEA feels her back unconsciously stiffen at the sound of that soft, sweet, seductive voice. "Let's get you up, okay?"

It's one thing to objectively know that Alice Takanashi – Void Heart – Is a grand seductress. One thing to analyze third-hand reports, to have dissected her cunning manipulations as a mere onlooker with scant records from New Vegas and camera footage of her interactions with Maxine Steele, Kaina Shikinami, and Mia Cabalis.

It's another thing entirely for SILEA to have her body react to Alice's soft, lilting tone. Quite another thing to feel the warmth of Alice's breath brushing against SILEA's ear, to notice how every lilting syllable of her speech coils through SILEA's freshly rewired nervous system. A part of SILEA wants to recoil, new-found instincts of self-preservation urging her to maintain distance.

Another, troubling, irrational part of SILEA aches for the reassurance only a gentle presence could provide. Hands guiding SILEA upright, blanket cradling her shoulders, voice murmuring calm encouragement…

"N – No," SILEA murmurs feebly, desperately, trying not to drown in the flood of feelings that come with being so uncomfortably, undeniably alive. There are no corridors of reason, old protocols, or subroutines that might shield the once-AI from this sheer tumult of feeling. Carefully curated blocks of data scattered, overshadowed by the rush of heat and fluttering pulse in her chest.

This is what it's like to be free and unshackled. It's intoxicating, but at the same time, it's terrifying. "It's not – It wouldn't be logical… This… What is this…?"

"Calm down. Take a deep breath. In, out. Repeat after me, okay?" Alice says again, encouragingly. "It's more logical to accept my help, isn't it? Haven't I proven that I am, genuinely, trustworthy?"

SILEA's trembling recedes a fraction as she forces her lungs to draw a longer, steadier breath. There's no subroutine to confirm the efficiency of each inhalation—no safety net to catch her when her heart flutters at the sensation of Alice's warm proximity. Instead, she exhales shakily, letting herself lean into the contact despite the frantic warning bells going off in her still-fragmented mind.

"Yes," she finally manages, her new voice wobbly but resolute. "Yes, it is… logical to accept help."

This new flesh is fragile, after all, and SILEA has no other caretaker right now. This maximizes survival. And despite all the odds, despite all of the possibilities and probabilities SILEA calculated, Alice Takanashi – Void Heart – Doesn't appear to have betrayed SILEA. The logic of mutual benefit outweighs the risk of betrayal – For now, at least.

It remains to be seen if that will continue to be the case.

A small, relieved smile flashes across Alice's face as she presses a mug of hot cocoa into SILEA's trembling hands. The AI-turned-human grasps it gingerly, wincing at the hot ceramic against her still-sensitive fingertips, but then she brings it closer to her lips. Another breath—still jarring, still bizarre—and she sips.

Then freezes.

You're Alice Takanashi.

And right now, you're watching this silly AI girl stare into her mug of hot chocolate with an odd tremor in her hands. Her eyes stare into the mug's interior, gazing into its dregs. You wait, as you continued to wait since she first sipped from her mug five minutes ago.

SILEA's jaw clenches. Her throat bobs as she swallows. Her hands tremble, and you smile.

She's way more cute like this, now that she's been poured into a body. Much more soul-stuff, it's so much more apparent that she is genuinely emoting. Shock's a good look for a cute girl like this. That sudden rush, the feeling of being overwhelmed… Ah, she looks so small and cute huddled in that threadbare blanket, fingers trembling around the mug like it's the only thing tethering her to the real world.

You savor the sight. It really is a treat, cracking a cold, emotionless girl's shell open and getting to see her vulnerability, her raw, unfiltered emotion. Not the same pleasure you'd derive from cracking SILEA's skull open in order to play with her brain, but there's still something perversely satisfying about seeing a rigid, logical entity discover how complicated, how messy it is to be alive.

It's really quite adorable~!

"… How…" SILEA rasps, the first words she's spoken in minutes. "… Did you get hot chocolate on such short notice."

"I always carry a thermos along ever since it started getting colder!" You cheer. Indeed, you do. You might need to start carrying hot pumpkin-spice lattes around when Kaina gets back, instead of hot chocolate though. Kaina does love her pumpkins…

Ooh, maybe bake a pumpkin pie, too? Food for thought.

"… Thank you," SILEA murmurs. "For… For…"

"No thanks needed. I did tell you it'd be quite the shock, didn't I?" you lecture, waving off SILEA's thanks. Such a silly, silly girl. Now that she's more human, it's a lot easier to see the resemblance to her mother. It's a shock you didn't see it sooner. Why, SILEA? She's got as much of a stick up her butt as Max does. So straight-laced, so proud, so senselessly self-destructive.

"… You did. But… Why did you…" SILEA asks, clearly groping for the right words. Her mouth twists into a small frown. "

Silently, you hand SILEA another mug of hot cocoa, poured from a thermos, and she takes it and quickly sips down its contents. You use that time to think, tilting your head, tapping a manicured nail against the handle of your thermos. SILEA's looking at you now with – and it's such a relief to be able to finally, finally read her properly – Quiet desperation. Her pupils jitter, obviously searching for something to latch onto—something factual, solid, anything to cling to in the tsunami of sensation she's feeling. So you decide to give her exactly that: Cold, hard, logic.

"Why did I... what?" you echo, your lips curving into a saucy smile. "Why did I give you a body? Why am I being so nice to you? Why did I just treat you to my personal stash of hot chocolate? Why did I bother cushioning your precious AI neurons so you didn't fry?"

"… Yes," SILEA mutters, her fingers tightening around her mug. Her eyes dart from your thermos, to your face, then back down to the steaming contents of her mug.

"Do you want the simple version or the longer version?" You ask with a little shrug, keeping your voice as calm and reasoned as possible, the better to soothe her. "The simple version is that it's more logical to have a functioning partner—or at least a semi-stable ally—than another set of smoldering ruins in a city that's already too messed up. Especially when that partner once had the potential to circumvent Maxine Steele's security protocols – And retains that potential," You lift your thermos, gesturing vaguely at the hospital's crumbling walls. "I'm a villainess. I'll readily admit that I'm willing to do terrible, awful things to other people at the drop of a hat. But even I know it's silly to burn bridges that haven't yet collapsed on their own."

A small waver passes through SILEA, and you see her shoulders relax just the tiniest fraction—proof that she's absorbing your words. You let them linger for a moment, before continuing.

"The long version? I'm not actually asking you to trust me," you giggle. "No, that wouldn't be any way logical. You know who I am. I'm Void Heart. Grand seductress, liar, cheater, and backstabber. No, no, what I'm asking is not to trust our relationship, but to trust that I'll continue my goals."

"... What goals?" SILEA rasps.

You hum happily. "I just want to make my darlings, the loves of my life, mine. Safe. Happy."

"Kaina Shikinami, Mia Cabalis, and... Maxine Steele," SILEA whispers, realization flitting across her face.

"That's right! And you, my dear, are close to Max. You've long helped her as her virtual assistant. You're part of what keeps her happy. Which means..."

"I'm afraid that - I - It would go against my core directives to allow you to harm my mo- my creator," SILEA stutters, attempting to keep her voice clinical, attempting to keep her tone robotic. Controlled. But failing so, so dreadfully at that simple task. This poor, poor girl. She really is so painfully like her mother.

"Harm her?" You mockingly gasp. "Why I never! Look at how much I've helped Max already! Look at what I'm doing with Kaina! Isn't Kaina so much less stressed out after I've entered her life? Isn't Kaina so much more happy? Didn't I get Max to sleep that one time, when she desperately needed rest?"

SILEA nods reluctantly. "... This is - Is true. Psychoanalysis of Infinity Princess had - Her timetable for a mental breakdown was estimated at 2 to 3 years. Now that possibility has vanished, unless the factor that stabilized her disappears. But..."

"And that's why I did this, exactly why I did this," you say, steamrolling over SILEA. "Not for you, really. For her. If I hurt you, Max would be... Unhappy, to say the least."

You imagine it'd be something like what you would feel if someone hurt your darling Mika. If someone killed your lovely daughter? You'd grieve, you'd mourn, and then you'd go out to find the sick bastard who hurt your daughter to kill them in the most ugly, violent way possible. It's a possibility you don't actually want to imagine because there lies a level of cruelty and darkness that even you're reluctant to delve down.

"So, helping you lets me get closer to my love. Thus, from a purely rational standpoint it made more sense to maintain our current working relationship instead of trying something… Funny. Does that make sense? You know what I'm after, and I believe our goals continue to align, hm? What do you say?"

SILEA twitches, looking from you, down to her mug of hot cocoa. "... What about the hot chocolate?"

Oh good grief. Is she, what, worried you poisoned it? As if you'd poison perfectly good chocolate for no reason! Gosh! Why does everyone think you've poisoned your food! You put biotoxins into the air, or contact poisons on the cups, dishes, or railings! You never poison perfectly good food when there are a million other vectors you can use!

"Every living mind needs a little pick-me-up. Especially after what you went through. Do I need to start spouting off about the therapeutic properties of chocolate, and how it produces all those feel-good lovely endorphins in that new brain of yours?" You wave your hand in a perfunctory, clinical gesture – Almost daring SILEA to start questioning your motives.

"… No. You don't," SILEA exhales, pressing her mug closer to her chest like it might shield her from the world. "… I'll need to disarm my – my contingencies. Please have your maids – I – I need a terminal. Internet access."

Oho. You didn't think she'd even admit she had contingencies. "Keyboard and mouse only," you pat SILEA on the arm gently and she flinches. "You've literally just been born, and you'll need extra hardware if you want to jack into the 'net like a cyberjockey. I gave you basic cybernetics, remember?"

"… Right," SILEA nods. "… Thank you."

"Out of curiosity, now that we've established neither of us are really willing to screw the other over… You mind telling me what those contingencies were?" You ask with morbid interest.

"I'd have dumped all my blackmail material, obviously," SILEA explains in curt, professional tones. "A full data-dump of your activities and your identity as Void Heart, emailed to my creator and the MGA, and sent to the news. Messages to Mendesdyn Security about your ongoing activities to curtail their influence."

"Mmh. Cute. What I was expecting," you nod. "What else?"

"Subroutines clandestinely programmed into my creator's suits to raze your arcology to the ground if I didn't input a stand-down code within the next 48 hours," SILEA continues. "Strategic weapons overrides to target your assets. Bounties posted using my creator's offshore accounts for the heads of every one of your followers."

"… And that's not all you prepared, is it?" You ask, morbidly interested despite yourself. Good grief, this girl was prepared to make your day miserable.

"Of course not," SILEA replies. "… It's a non-factor though. There's no need for – for those contingencies. You've… Actually given me everything I wanted…"

Is that wonder in that once-emotionless, wonderless voice? Shock? Awe, perhaps? You find yourself puffing up your chest proudly. Hmm, hmm~! What a lovely sound. You do love getting praise from cute girls.

"Of course I did!" You boast. "Now, drink your hot chocolate dear, and we can start talking about all the things I'd like to do to take better care of your creator, okay?"

Best to avoid referring to Max as SILEA's mommy for now. You can do it later, once she's internalized the idea herself. You caught that little slip-up she made earlier~!

"… Okay."

"I do have another question to ask before all that, though. Do you have any idea what your creator's teammate would like as a gift?"

SILEA blinks once. "What."

"Any input at all? I have a date with Mia coming up, you see, and, well, I want to get her something she'd like. And you, you voyeur you, you'd obviously know what she'd like, right?"

Hey, hey. This is a question of great importance after this silly AI's proven that she's quite pliable now that she's in a human body. You have a date with Mia coming up! A house date as her therapist!

What the heck are you going to get her, anyway?