GiDi left as it got later, giving apologies and promises that they’d be back early the next day. Of course, TO and DH both said that their small friend could stay with them, but GiDi only shook their head as a light flush covered their ears.

“I have trouble sleeping now when I’m away from Pearla.” They admitted. “I’ll be back tomorrow. I promise!”

Shortly after GiDi left, Avery also fell asleep; once more, they surprised TO by staying so close to them and DH. Of course, that could simply have been because they fell asleep while reading, the screen hovering in the air, flickering with the new, makeshift connection until it finally timed out. Rather than disturb them, DH got up, gathered some blankets and pillows from nearby beds, and brought them back over to TO, arranging everything so that they could be comfortable sharing the one narrow bed.

“I’m worried about Avery.” DH whispered as they draped one of the worn blankets over Avery. “They don’t act like this. Did you see how they grabbed GiDi earlier?”

“Is it surprising?” They asked, “This is all a lot… Everything we’ve been told today has just been a lot, and Avery’s been isolated since we came here.”

DH curled up next to TO, turning towards them and covering their mate with a blanket and a wing as they used the other synth as a pillow.

“I thought they’d leave me all by myself at first, before you were here.” They whispered, “But GiDi visited me every day until you got here. I thought maybe they didn’t want to visit me after.” Their hand clenched into a fist on TO’s chest, “But the in-... the others asked them to stay away.” They pressed their cheek against TO’s chest, “And even then, when GiDi couldn’t come here, I had you. I was ok. Avery was alone.” they tensed, “... Kei is still alone.”

“Kei’s fine.” TO said, only to just keep the hiss out of their voice. “More importantly…” They wrapped their arms around DH and held them tight. “What do we do, DH?”

DH chuckled. “I think I’m supposed to ask you that.” They said, “You’re the one that figures things out.”

Maybe they were… but they had no plans at the moment, no ideas. They couldn’t go back to the other synths, to King Decon. They had shot Kei, and couldn’t be entirely sure that such information hadn’t gotten to their higher ups. Even if it hadn’t been, their superiors would question them about what happened on Arkane, and there was every chance they’d end up admitting what they had done.

More importantly, going back meant being separated from DH. if they went back now, even if their superiors didn't question them about what happened, they would be separated from their mate.

TO refused to let that happen again. 

“... They said they want to send us away.” TO said, “To some other planet. Probably the one with the other-” They paused for a moment, recalling the name, “The other Chilacians.” The word seemed so odd, and it felt odder still to think that it referred to them.

That they were a species; a civilian species. A species that King Decon had turned into synths. Now that they could consider the new information Flit gave them, they realized it answered a lot of the questions; the need for surgeries to remove unnecessary organs, the ability for synths to fall in love if they were strange - no, if their minds hadn’t been altered.

How King Decon ‘made’ them also made far more sense now. It surprised TO that they hadn’t realized it before; Ova and spermatozoa, not base DNA and activation fluid. It opened up more questions for TO, even while it answered so many. Well, they could ask those questions now. Flit and Snout were here, and apparently they wanted to tell TO all these answers. 

“Do you want to go?” DH asked.

“I want to stay with you.” TO said, “If that’s staying here, or going to another planet… I want to stay with you.”

“And what about GiDi?”

“They want to stay here.” TO said, their ears dipping back as they spoke. “They want to stay here because they think it’s better than being a synth.” 

“... Do you think they’re right?”

The now familiar disconnect in their mind occurred once more; the one where they knew intuitively how they should respond, but their mind had too many objections to that; too many concerns. They knew they should respond with ‘no, of course not, King Decon is right,’ but everything GiDi said made sense, and despite everything their conditioning and training had taught them, they found themself agreeing with their small friend.

They thought about that one elderly synth in reclamation, got reprocessed because their productivity had fallen behind, and of the younger synth who got reprocessed before they had even lived. One was no longer productive, and the other threatened to take too many resources. Neither was ‘efficient’ and therefore had to be dealt with according to the ideals that were set out by King Decon. They thought also of the rich of Arkane, who seemed to take up so many more resources, and so many more frivolities than people like Pearla, Petra, and Lendulin. 

“... I don’t know.” TO finally said. “I think… there's a lot of problems, and I don’t know how to fix them.” They set their hand on the back of DH’s neck, and started scratching. “All I know is that I’ve got you here, and the insurgents don’t want to separate us, and probably won’t kill us. They’re content to send us off and let us live together. I think I’m alright with that, even if everything else is… Messy.” 

A low chirp emanated from DH, and they muttered something, but they slurred their words and even TO had a hard time making out what they said. It didn’t matter. They continued to scratch the back of DH’s head until their mate was well asleep, then they let their hand rest against DH’s back as they drifted to sleep as well.

The insurgents would get them off the planet, to somewhere they could live together. TO was alright with that; TO wanted that. So, with nowhere else to go, they decided that if they had to help the insurgents to bypass the blockade to get off the planet, then that’s what they’d do. 

======

Though GiDi and Pearla were there the next morning, the only others that stayed were Vik, Tham, and a smaller insectoid lady with purple chitin, broken purple wings, four legs and two arms. She ate what looked like a bowl of syrup with grains mixed in. 

“Where Flit and Snout?” GiDi asked as they entered the common room.

“Still asleep.” Tham answered from the long makeshift table where they sat by themself, drinking from a steaming mug. “They were up late last night.”

“Well, you know them.” The other lady said. She glanced up, smiled at GiDi, but as soon as she saw TO and DH, she froze with the spoon halfway to her mouth.

“They’re out?!” she said, nearly dropping her spoon. She turned to Tham. “You let them out?”

“They’re not going to hurt us.” GiDi said. They gestured to the table where she was sitting. “This is Mira. She lives here, but she was out last night. She’s Nocturnal, mostly” They gave Mira a quick smile. “Mira, these are my friends, DH, TO, and Avery.”

“... And the other one?”

“Not a friend.” GiDi said. They turned to the others. “You sit; I’ll get you food.”

They sat down at the table, trying to ignore the fact that Mira was watching them so carefully. 

“Nice to meet you?” DH offered.

“Is it?” Mira said back. She turned from DH, and looked at TO, “Do you really hate bugs that much?”

TO’s ears flicked down, “What?”

“Bugs. You hate them. You're terrified of them. I mean, DH has to peel the Cocopods for you, which is admittedly cute, but a live one made you scream like a child.”

“Mira has excellent hearing, can walk up walls, and is pretty well silent unless she wants to be.” GiDi tried to keep their voice casual, but their ears were twitching with amusement. “She can even sneak up on me if she wants.”

“Yeah, I was trailing you two for a bit.” She admitted. “When you were just you; not synths. I didn’t want to risk getting detected by your little helmets. Flit said the helmets were good at detecting stuff.”

“You were following us?” TO’s mind raced as they tried to think of a situation where they thought they were being followed.

Well, the only time they could think of was with that ServAi. 

“... Did you follow us the night of the prison escape?” DH asked, “It was weird that all that happened when we were busy, and -”

“Nope. not her.” Vik’s voice came to them from the corner, where it looked like they hadn’t moved all night. “That was me. Hacked the ServAi that was driving your carriage.”

“You hacked nothing.” Tham muttered, “That ‌chauffeur service saves money by getting off-the-books repairs done for cheap with shoddy parts.”

“I do their repairs, and sneak in a little something-something to let me see what the bot is doing, and where it’s going.”

“That’s it?” TO said, their ears pinning back, “and what, just by luck, we got one that was altered-”

“Well, I’ve been doing repairs on these things for years. The odds of you getting one I’ve altered were pretty high, but-” their large, rounded ears twitched as they stretched, “I have my ways.”

“He’s clever, but don’t let him fool you into thinking he’s some tech wizard.” GiDi said as they put bowls of soggy preserved fruits down before TO and DH. “He used the online booking system, and booked every single vehicle he hadn’t worked on.”

“Hey! It was still hard work.” Vik snapped as he turned back to the computer. “I have a program I use just for that, actually.”

“How does it work?” DH asked, suddenly leaning forward, “I mean, that’s fairly clever as it is; just booking up the vehicles you don’t want your target to use, but how does your program work?”

“Oh, that’s simple! I find some big event in the entertainment district, and-”

“Maybe it’s best not to tell them all your secrets.” Tham hissed. “They’re still synths, and they're not working with us.” 

 TO, who had simply been poking at the soggy, misshapen fruits, had been wondering how to approach the topic. Now, Tham was offering a way to do it.

“... Actually.” TO said, their ears pinning back as they considered what they were about to agree to, “For the time, to get off this planet-” They glanced at Avery and DH. They had mentioned their idea beforehand, and though it was with some hesitation, both agreed that it was perhaps the only path forward for them. Now, as TO looked to them for support, they both looked away, their ears down.

They couldn’t blame either of them. Still, they had to do this. This was the only way they could stay with DH. 

“We’ve decided to help you circumvent the blockade.”