“You did what?” 

 

Tham’s voice was low and restrained, the words hissing out as though pushed by the pure pressure of his apparent anger. If TO thought that Tham had been angry before, it was nothing compared to the absolute rage that made them shake now.

 

“I was aware of this.” Pholi said even as he still read over the text before him. “It just wasn’t important.”

 

“Of course it was!” Tham snapped, turning to Pholi as his tail lashed on the ground. TO could practically feel the vibrations shake through the ground and to their feet. The bruises from when Tham had held TO down in the boat with his tail had mostly faded, but now TO was certain that if he had wanted to, he could have easily broken their ribs with a few good slams with that tail. Had he been holding back then to make sure that TO didn’t get hurt?

 

“Look.” Pholi said, “Jason was aware of it, and said not to talk about it. If he knew, and he was fine with it, that’s all I care about.”

 

The moment Pholi mentioned that name, an odd silence fell over the room. Tham and Vik nodded their heads down, as did a few others that TO had not yet met formally. GiDi and Pearla remained stony faced and silent, while the others simply looked confused.

 

The name was familiar to TO. It only took a moment for them to remember where they had heard that name before. 

 

“Jason. We thought him to be the former leader of the insurgency, according to our information.”

 

“Right!” DH said, suddenly remembering as well, “He was the father of that girl, Helen, Right?”

 

“Yes, that girl, Helen.” Pearla said, the words coming out in a slow hiss, “The one that was killed. Likely by synths-”

 

“Not by us.” GiDi said, giving her hand a squeeze as they turned to her, “Not by me.”

 

Out of the corner of their eye, TO saw Avery back away from the others, their ears flicking down, their wings tightening around them.

 

“And even if TO or DH had done it.” Flit said, “You seem to think there’s any opportunity to choose. If a synth who could receive the job of an execution had refused their duty, they would have been killed immediately, and another would have done the job.” Their wings tightened slightly around them, their ears dipping down, “We’re tools. Tools that don’t work get thrown out.” 

 

“So that’s why you destroyed planets?” Tham snapped.

 

“Tham, enough.” Pholi said. “You’ve heard enough about what they went through, didn’t you? Even a synth with a normal mind would have thought they were doing the right thing. It’s an entire culture of indoctrination.” He snorted, his little tail continuing to whip at the back of his chair. “Such a hypocrite. Decon outlaws religion because of its tendency to grow cults, but then forms his own cult-like religion for his synths.” 

 

“He has not!” TO said, their ears pinning back in anger at the mere suggestion of it, “We follow no religion-”

 

“You follow a powerful being who demands your total, unwavering obedience to shape the galaxy to his will. One who, might I add, has messed around so much with your minds and altered your cognition so much through conditioning that you can’t help but obey. He even tried to convince you - successfully, might I add, that he created you.” He shook his head. “Sounds like a religious cult to me.” 

 

“And even so,” Flit said, their own ears narrowed back as they glowered at Tham, “I did it at the time because I thought it was the right thing to do. None of us decide we’re just going to go out and kill civilians. We go out thinking we’re making the galaxy a better place.” 

 

“And for the most part, the conditioning is inflexible once we leave the tanks.” Snout said, “It’s part of the mind alteration done to most of us; it’s impossible for a properly altered synth to reevaluate things. In fact-” They gestured at TO, DH, and GiDi, “I’d like to point out that the few surviving synths with whole minds are right here now-”

 

“Not like they had a choice.” Tham said. “We captured them.”

 

“Excuse you.” GiDi said, their ears flattening out, “I could have left. I stayed, thank you very much.”

 

Tham flushed a deep red. “Sorry. Yes, well, you’re different-”

 

“And so are they. And so is every other synth that Decon hasn’t broken!” GiDi said, “Every synth that does what you’re so angry about? They’re all brainwashed and programmed to do what they’re told, and even without having my mind altered, it’s hard to break from that!” 

 

“But they-” He pointed at Flit, “They were what, a general or something?”

 

“A retiree.” Flit muttered.

 

“A retiree. I thought that was supposed to be a high honor or something. they weren’t young when they got that, so they had plenty of time to learn that genocide and planetary destruction are bad?”

 

“Time, yes.” Flit said, standing upright. They crossed their arms, and their wings puffed up just slightly — it was the pose they had often taken when addressing trainees. “Not an opportunity, though. Snout performed well enough to be taken into medical training right away so they never had direct civilian contact, and they placed me in combat right away; My only civilian contact for a very long time involved civilians trying to kill me.” 

 

“I also imagine it’s easier to press a button from orbit than it is to execute a child in person.” Pholi said. 

 

“Yes.” Flit agreed, “And it’s easier when you know the other person is going to shoot you in the face as well.” 

 

“I imagine… of course I wouldn’t know. Though to be fair, I was complicit in the exploitation of Arkane’s lower classes for many years, so-” He glanced up at Tham, “I suppose you have an issue with me as well. I didn’t even have excessive conditioning to excuse me; just privilege.”

 

“That’s not the same.” Tham said, taking a step towards Flit, “They-” 

 

“Look.” GiDi said, stepping forward between Flit and Tham. “I never met Jason, obviously. I showed up here long after he was… gone. Maybe we would have worked well together. Maybe I wouldn’t have trusted him; I don’t know. But I know that we don’t have a lot of time here, right? I know we need to get my friends off the planet and safe, but we’re in lockdown. We have a small army of synths who will destroy the planet if it takes too long to find us. We have problems, and they will not go away by fighting. When we’re safe, we can fight among ourselves, right?” 

 

TO hadn’t noticed before how squared Tham’s shoulders had been this whole time. They only noticed it now as their shoulders sunk and rounded out and looked away.

 

“If Flit was going to hurt any of you, they wouldn’t have come here.” GiDi said, “They wouldn’t have brought me here to hide with you. And they wouldn’t have helped break you out of the prison, Tham.”

 

“... I was just surprised.” Tham muttered. “I can’t understand how someone could do something like that, and Jason, how could he trust them?”

 

“I couldn’t tell you how myself.” Pholi said. “I know Jason knew. Well-” They looked to Flit, “Apologies. He spoke of a ‘synth friend’ that he had, and probably thinking we’d never meet face to face, they told me a few things. He said never to bring it up and never went into detail. Until you showed up here, you were just a ‘synth friend’ who sent information and asked us to retrieve nearby synths from time to time.” They looked at Tham, “Each one that came to us, might I add, was just scared and confused; never aggressive.” 

 

“I know.” they muttered, “But we never had one working with us before now. Not before Snout.”

 

“And I’d like to add that I begged to stay and help.” Snout said, “I had research to finish. I was just about ready to prove Decon’s deception.” 

 

“... I met Jason accidentally.” Flit said, still holding that pose with their arms crossed. “It was in a red zone on a different planet where we were weeding out the last of the local insurgents. I was moving to another ship above orbit, but got hit by debris and knocked off track and to the planet. When I landed, I didn’t have any armor, or a multi-gun.” He shrugged. “I never had a posting on a planet before, but I did my best to just act like a civilian. I met Jason, and because he thought I was just another civilian trying to escape, he tried to help me. Since I was injured, I took the help.”

 

“... Is that how you lost your leg?” TO asked, forgetting for the moment his anger with Flit, “In the crash?”

 

“... That was the time I lost my leg, but I didn’t lose it in the crash.” Flit said. He frowned as he sat down, rubbing his fake leg as though it were real; as though it hurt.

 

“... It’s hurting you?” Snout asked, sitting down next to him on the crate. “Does that help?” 

 

“A little.” He muttered, “It hurts when I think of losing it.”

 

“You don’t owe anyone an explanation.” Pholi said, “You were trustworthy to Jason. You’re trustworthy to me.”

 

“And nobody’s going to press you for an explanation.” GiDi said, their ears pinning back as they looked around. Their eyes fixed on Tham. “Right?”

 

“Right.” Tham muttered.

 

“... No.” Flit said, sighing as they continued to rub the hard plastic of their prosthetic limb, “No… when Jason was here, his word was probably fine, but he’s not here anymore.” He looked at GiDi. “It’s ok… I’ll tell them what happened.”

 

TO was curious, of course, about how Flit lost their leg. They were curious enough to forget their anger and listen, their ears forward, as Flit told the story. However, even as Flit spoke, there was something else that took their attention, something that gnawed at their stomach from the inside.

 

They had hoped that seeing some interactions between the insurgents would tell them who was really in charge; someone had to be in charge, of course, whether or not they knew it. They had assumed it was Pholi, or maybe even Tham. They were, of course, wrong. After a brief interaction, it was clear to see that GiDi was the unknown leader of the insurgents on Arkane.