That was their brain. A scan of their own rough, unpolished brain. Not the brain of a synth, which had been carefully developed and tended to and developed with purpose; this was the brain of a civilian, untouched by King Decon’s will. TO thought that Flit had to be lying, but it only took a glance at their ears to prove that hope was wrong. They could only put their face in their hands and stare at the unfinished mess before them in silence.

“That means you two are also our… parents?” DH asked from behind them, their voice cracking.

“Not both of us.” Snout said, “For each generation, no synth has the two same progenitors. We found ones that had either my genetic code, or Snouts. GiDi is the only one formed from both of us.”

“... And me?” DH said, their quiet voice shaking as they leaned forward, a hand on TO’s back, “Which of you made me?”

“You have my DNA. I’m unsure who your other parent is.” Snout admitted, “I know their original code, but that doesn’t help much, as it was unfamiliar to me.”

“And… TO? Are they yours also?”

“No, no.” Flit said quickly, “TO shares half of my genetic code.”

Without looking, TO could hear the relieved breath leave DH’s body, feel the muscles in their hand unclench. They didn’t understand how they could be so at ease with that. They could have been corrected just because Snout experimented with their minds! And why? Just because they shared some base DNA?

“How many others?” TO finally said, their voice hissing from between their teeth. “How many others did you break?”

“Break?” Flit’s ears dipped, and they took a tentative step towards TO, “We didn’t break you-”

“You did!” TO protested, “We might have been normal! We could have been just like every other synth! We would have worked, and we wouldn’t have been so scared, or lonely-”

“And you wouldn’t have fallen in love.” Flit said, interrupting their rant, “You wouldn’t have an ounce of intellectual curiosity, wouldn’t be clever as you are, wouldn’t enjoy things like you do! You’d be like every other ‘normal’ synth.” Their wings puffed up, showing the scars once more. Their lips curled up only a little, and TO glimpsed that cracked tooth once more. They felt themself shrink before them, their wings suddenly tightening against their arms. “You’d be a mindless meat automaton in service to King Decon who, I remind you, has lied about making you in the first place!”

“I’m not saying it’s been easy!” Snout added, stepping forward and putting a hand on Flit’s arm. Instantly, their ears relaxed and their wings dropped. The way their ears twitched back gave away their irresistible fondness for Snout.

No wonder they hadn’t been able to hide it.

“No. It hasn’t been easy.” TO snapped.

“And I'm not saying it was a straightforward choice for us to make. Once I realized half of what was happening, once I saw my code and Flit’s code… I didn’t know for certain everything I knew now. I wasn’t so certain that King Decon wasn’t using this technique just to save time in synth production! But.. once I knew I had-” They frowned, glancing at Flit. “Once I knew I had offspring, I knew I had to do something. When your batch was being made, I had learned the true extent of the brain alterations, and I had learned the genetic links… I had to act. I had to do something.”

“How many are left?” TO hissed. They watched as Flit and Snout’s ears dropped, and in their silence they could only give one another this awful look of abject sorrow. “Well? How many others did you do this to?!”

 

“If I may?” Pholi said, speaking common in contrast to their synth speak, “The life for your kind, if what I understand is correct, is short, brutal, devoid of joy and love, and devoid of choice. I’d think even a hard life is better than that.” 

 

“Yes, but you're not a synth, are you!” TO snapped back. They turned to Flit and Snout again. “And I know some synths that would disagree. Q10, for example.” The memory of them willingly getting corrected to make the pain stop flooded back to them. “They were miserable, they were angry, scared, sad, and they wanted to be corrected!” They remembered as well the other synth down in the tunnels, the one that had recognized them. “And If you want to talk about choice, how many got caught for being different, and got corrected because of that? What choice did they have?” 

 

“That’s not…” Snout started, then stopped. They narrowed their eyes at the floor. “That’s not our fault. That’s King Decon’s. Thats’ the system.” 

 

“Q10.” TO continued, “Were they one of yours?” 

 

“Yes.” Flit said, their arms crossed as they stared down TO, “Mine, actually. Their other parent is unknown.” 

 

“Right. And Avery?” 

 

“Not ours.” Snout said. “The feedback systems in the tanks link to dual receptors, so when I turned off your feedback system, I turned off theirs as well.”

 

“So not just the ones that your DNA was in.” TO snapped. “Anyone who was next to them, too.” They glared at the older synths, “How many are left? How many passed their training?” 

 

“You, DH, and GiDi.” Snout said. “The others were-“ 

 

“Corrected.” TO finished. 

 

“Yes.” Flit said, “The others got corrected. We saw too many of them get corrected, so I took on another training class so I could have some influence on you! So I could try to protect you!” 

 

“From what! From serving King Decon?” 

 

“From serving a tyrant that doesn’t care about you, yes.” Snout said, “Like I said, Decon lies! And that brings us to the other… Aspect of this-“

 

“Which, I gently remind you, you can’t tell them yet.” Pholi said, “It’s too risky now.” 

 

“Oh, tell me.” TO said, “Go ahead. You’ve come this far.” 

 

Snout was silent for a moment, looking between Pholi and TO. After a long silence, it was Flit who spoke. 

 

“I can say that we have evidence that King Decon didn’t create any original DNA. We have evidence that he used the genetic code of a civilian race and turned them into his servants.” they shrugged, “We were civilians once, before such distinctions existed.” 

 

They had no proof for TO, but they could also see that once again, they weren’t lying. 

 

"How many more are still in training?” TO asked. “How many more did you do this to?” 

 

“You were the first group.” Flit said, “And… we decided you’d be the last. It was too risky in the end.” They sighed. “Look, you can be angry with us. I would be too, honestly. But we gave you freedom, and you clearly choose that. Choose each other.”

TO suddenly felt a hand on their arm, DH’s gentle grip holding them back. They hadn’t realized they were getting up, and only not noticed Tham tensing, their aim straightening. 

 

“Alright.” TO said after a moment to collect themself. DH pulled them back, forcing them to half-recline against them. It was hard to be angry when they did that.

It was hard to be angry at Flit and Snout when they realized it was ok for DH to do that here, in front of others.

“So. You broke us. And now we’re here. Now what?”

“Your rescue was GiDi’s plan.” Snout said. “We agreed in the end, but it was their plan.” 

 

“Alright. Why?” 

 

“Because you were going to be separated.” Flit said, “You said that you got caught and you’d be separated.” Their ears flushed as they glanced at Snout, “And.. I know I’d rather anything over being separated from my mate. The plan was to get you both here, and safe. After that… we didn’t really have a plan.” 

 

“… You did all this, so we’d be together?” DH asked. 

 

“Pretty much.” Flit said, “They were insistent. They didn’t care if they never saw you again after, if you worked with us, or if we had to sneak you away; so long as you’re together, they’re happy.” 

 

“And your plan before that? The reason you shut us off from the mental feedback stuff?” 

 

At this, Snout could only shrug. “It didn’t seem right.” They said, “That's all. I knew I couldn't do it to every synth I’d get caught too quickly, but I wanted to ‌help some of you, and it felt right to help the ones with our DNA. Outside of giving some of you some free will, we didn’t have a plan.” 

 

“… Are we prisoners?” DH asked, this time speaking in Common. It seemed he was addressing Tham and Pholi rather than Flit and Snout. 

 

“If it were me, you would be.” Tham said. “Though, if it were me, you wouldn’t be here.”

 

“You’re not prisoners.” Pholi said, taking a step forward, “you’re ‘high risk refugees’. We want to help you. We want to get you off the planet and somewhere you’ll be safe. There will be no fight with Decon. You won’t have to be separated, and you can just live out the rest of your lives together on a faraway planet. Vik can do something to your chips to make it seem like you’ve died, so other synths won’t chase you down.” 

“That’s all?” DH said, “You won't force information from us? You won’t make us do tech work for you, or-“ 

 

“If we forced you to fight for us, we’d be as bad as King Decon.” Tham said. 

 

“Yes.” TO hissed, “It’s not like you’d implicate someone in your work against their wishes, and then just kill them off.” 

 

“No. We wouldn’t.” Tham snapped. 

 

“Well, what about Vince? The Officer?”

Flit and snout’s ears twitched with confusion. Philo gave a deep sigh, but Tham just narrowed their eyes at TO. 

 

“who are you talking about?” Flit asked. 

 

“Vince, the officer from the prison. The one whose blood and cartilage they found mutilated in the water cleaning system after the breakout.”

 

“He was complicit.” 

 

“He was a civilian.”

 

“He kept our friends captive. You’d do the same. Shit, you shot one of your own when they threatened GiDi.” 

 

“I didn’t drag Kei down here.” TO snapped back, “And I didn’t kill them. You’ll note that they’re still in one piece. Or at least, they were when I saw them last. I don’t know if you’ve thrown them into a water purification system yet.” 

 

“You know what? Yes. I did that.” He turned to glare at Pholi. “And I’m sick of making excuses! He fought back! He was going to escape, and tell everyone what happened and where we went, and then we’d all be in the shit. I did what I had to do to protect us all, and if one guard had to die-“ 

 

“Tham… not now.” Pholi said, “Not the place to discuss this.” He turned back to TO. “… Our hands aren’t clean; I’ll admit that. We’re only a small group of people, and even I’ll admit that people have…” his tail fell limp, “People have died. Sometimes it’s accidental. Sometimes it’s not.” He looked up at TO, “But with you, I promise that we have no other motives for having you here. We wanted to bundle you up with the other indebted we saved, and get you off the planet as soon as possible. That got complicated, of course, but that’s all we want for you.” 

 

“We just want to help you.” Flit said, switching to common as well. “Because… You’re our offspring and because GiDi cares about you. So, that’s what we want to offer you; a life to live together. No more fighting, no more insurgents, no more Decon. Isn’t that what you want?”

 

It shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be enough for them. They should want to fight for king Decon. They should have been above the petty, self-centered desires of civilians and spend their life in service to serve the King Decon and live for the greater good of the galaxy.. Still, the answer came quickly to their lips before they could really consider it. 

“Then that’s what you’ll have.” Flit said. He turned to Tham. “And we’re not keeping them in here while we figure out how to get them off Arkane. It’s cruel.” 

 

“They’ll attack us. They’ll attack us, and escape.” 

 

“If they do, that’s their ticket out of here, gone.” They turned back to TO, “You won’t hurt any of us, are you?” 

 

Again, they should. They knew they should. They should fight as hard as they could to return to King Decon’s service, and work like a proper synth. 

 

 But they weren’t a proper synth, were they? Their mind was raw and unpolished as any civilians. There was something wrong with them, something that would keep them from being a real synth. 

 

They loved. They had mated. These are things that a synth shouldn’t do. 

 

They shot Kei. There was no going back after that. 

 

“No.” They said, their ears showing absolutely no sign of deception, “I won’t.”