He was not asleep, but lay in his worn and comfortable bed anyway, his ice blue eyes trained upon the ceiling. It was summer, so his window was open, allowing the warm breezes of the night to carry in the fresh scent of pine. A worn blanket fell over the lower half of his body, but his chest was naked and bare, except for his own hand, which lay across it limply, lifelessly. He held his other hand above his head and it sank into the soft down pillow that he slept on. His breathing was shallow, but his heartbeat was fast and hard. His heart beat mercilessly in his chest and with every breath, pains went shooting through his ribs and down his sides. He wanted to sit up, to try and fight the barrage of oncoming pain and memories, but he could not fight it.

Juunana-gou shut his eyes tightly, and his body tensed up. The hand that was lying across his chest suddenly formed a claw, and his nails dug deep into flesh. He shook, because there was nothing else to do with the surge of adrenaline that swept through him, and he gripped the pillow above his head as tightly as he could with his other hand. His mind wandered, wading through the pain and finally finding the memory that he wanted to keep locked up in his heart forever.

It was quiet now. So quiet that he somehow just knew that something terrible had happened. So quiet that he could hear his own unsteady heartbeat echoing in his ears. He had been awake for hours, had been waiting for hours, unsure and terrified. The doctor had taken his sister; he had dragged her limp and unresponsive body out of the cage, carrying her to some unknown doom. And there was nothing that he could have done to stop him. He was chained to the wall, his body hanging loosely from the bindings above his head. He could no longer feel his hands or his arms; they had long since grown cold and numb. He was weak, too weak, but still when the doctor came for her, he had fought. Adrenaline had given him strength that he had not known, and he had strained so hard against his chains that his wrists begun to bleed, blood trailing down his arms and onto his shoulders. But it wasn’t enough. The doctor had laughed at him and his foolish attempt at heroism and simply hauled his sister out of the cell and out of sight. He could not see her and did not know what the doctor was doing. It was torturous and terrible to be helpless and chained. There was nothing he could do except listen to his sister’s screams.

And now that it was quiet, now that he could no longer hear her whimpers of pain, he was terrified. It had been quiet for far too long now. The only conclusion that he could come to, though he did not want to think of this --- was that she was dead.

The thought of this brought out an instant sob, and he leaned his head against his arm and cried, tears mixing with the blood and dirt on his cheeks. He had failed her; he had not been able to protect her. She had been taken away, dragged to her death, and he had not been able to save her. He had done nothing. The sobs shook his body violently, and his breath came out in and out in ragged, raspy gasps.

There was a sound; the click of a lock. His crying ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and he raised his heavy head off of his arm, angling it so that he could see. The light from the laboratory shone in through the bars, lines of light and dark crossing the floor of the cell in a perfect pattern. The door was open, and standing in the frame, with bars of light and dark running across his body, was the doctor. He stood there, the key in his hands, staring down at him with disgust. His sister was nowhere to be seen, and there was blood staining the stark white lab coat that the doctor was wearing. He used the last ounce of his strength and strained against the bars once more.

“Where is she?!” He demanded.

Dr. Gero tucked the keys away neatly in the pocket of his lab coat. He looked around the dirty cell for a moment, and then turned his eyes back towards him. “And who might you be speaking of?”

Fury and fear, and every other kind of horrible emotion swept through him, churning in his empty stomach. Hatred burned bright in his light blue eyes as he glared at the doctor, shaking and nauseous and in pain. Though he did not want to, he began to cry again, tears seeming to burst from his eyes with all of the fury and violence that he felt at that moment. His next words came out amid a flurry of gasps and sobs and he glared at the doctor, struggling to see through the tears and blood:

“Tell me where my sister is, you sick fuck!”

Through the haze of fury and tears, he could see the doctor cross his arms and look down at him, glaring. His bushy white mustache twitched with a smirk. “Now, I don’t think someone in your position should be saying such things. I think you should perhaps rephrase that sentence.”

“If you killed her, I swear I’ll---”

“You’ll what?” The doctor laughed. “ Kill me? Look at you. You’re too broken and beaten and weak to even sit up. You can barely even breathe and yet you threaten me? Don’t make me laugh. You could do nothing. You are nothing. Nothing except what I make you to be; you are a mindless, pathetic marionette.”

The boy snarled through his tears, staring at the man with complete hatred and disgust, his blue eyes narrowed into slits. “I am nobody’s puppet. I may be broken and bleeding, but you still have not won. I refuse to let you do this to me. And you will never command me. Never. I will never take orders from you.”

The doctor frowned momentarily, then his features relaxed and he placed his hand on the cell door once more, preparing to leave. He looked over his shoulder. “It’s funny how such dreams are often defeated. This is very nearly completed, boy. It is almost over. Shortly, you will have no choice. Your mind, as well as your body will eventually be mine to control. And then we shall see how well my puppet obeys. The day will come when you will forget all that you have said to me, and all that has happened to you.”

“No.” He spat out in reply. He shook his head as best as he could, dirty black strands splaying across his face, and he spoke through clenched teeth. “I will never forget. I could never forget.”

As if the anger had finally gotten to him, the doctor straightened up and stalked over to the boy, his footsteps quick and menacing. They faced each other with unwavering eyes, neither one willing to give in to the other, neither one willing to give up pride or power. Then the doctor drew his hand back and slapped the boy, slapped him so hard that his head smashed into the wall behind him.

“You can forget and you will forget, you impudent little thing! It is evitable. Your mind will be erased and all of your fond, pathetic little memories will be replaced with nothing but what I program into you. You will be a machine --- A cold, cruel, lifeless machine. There will be no memories in your mind. There will be nothing except for what I give you.”

Pain seared through the boy’s head, and he could feel the trickle of fresh blood running down from his temple. He fought to hold his head high, but only succeeded in lifting it just enough so that he could stare at the doctor’s worn and bloodstained shoes. Again, sickness bubbled up from his stomach, and he had to fight the oncoming fit of nausea by closing his blue eyes shut tightly. His hair hung limply down in front of his face, shielding him from view.

“You can steal my mind away from me,” he said as he struggled to keep his consciousness, “and you can make me into your machine, but you will not be able to touch my heart. That is one thing that you can never take away from me. And all of this hatred that I have for you will be burned into my heart forever. You might be able to take everything else away from me, but I will always, always remember what you did to us. And hatred this dark and deep will never, ever fade away. There will never be a day when I am able to forget. But I swear that there will be a day when you regret what you have done to us.”

“Perhaps.” The doctor said quietly. “But what I do to you will never be erased. No matter what happens to me, you will never get your life back. You will never be the same. And that is your punishment: to remain living as a mindless, killing android, unable to change the course of your pathetic life. You will always be my machine; you will always be my weapon. There is nothing that can change this. I’m building you to be resilient. I’m building you to be irreversible.”

As she approached the familiar clearing in the woods, Marron quickened her pace, catching the sight of smoke coming up from her uncle’s chimney. Her legs were aching from the strain, and she had already fallen more than once; one of her shins was bruised so badly that it would be black by morning. There were scrapes all over her face and legs from the twigs and branches that had caught her as she ran. Her ponytails had come almost undone, and she could feel the hair coming loose and falling around her shoulders. She wanted to stop, wanted to bend over and take a breather, leaning against one of the tall silent forest trees. But she forced herself to go on, ignoring the sharp ache in her side and her own shortness of breath. She could not give up, not when she was so close to her uncle’s cabin.

She could barely remember her trek through the forest. It was all a blur to her now as she pushed her way through the branches and made her way into the clearing where her uncle’s cabin sat. She had not been scared, though the wilderness was dark and uninviting at night. The moon was bright and high in the sky, and it shown down through the pine trees in beams, guiding her along her path. She scampered through the dense foliage, skipping over rocks and logs and sloshing through puddles and creeks. It had rained earlier, not a lot, but it was enough to make her clothing damp and uncomfortable. Enough to make the branches that slapped against her face cold and wet. Though it was summer and warm, she could still feel the chill seeping in through her clothes and under her skin.

She ran across the clearing, and the moon created long shadows that followed her as she ran. Just before she reached the cabin, her right leg gave out and she paused, crying out in pain. She didn’t fall, but wavered in her stance for a moment as she stared at the door, which seemed so far away to her right then. Limping, she stumbled up onto the porch of the cabin and fell against the railing, leaning her arms on the worn wood. With all of her strength, she pushed herself up and staggered to the door. She reached for the handle and turned, but it would not open. She struggled not to curse as she jiggled the handle, trying to force it to open.

She limped over the window beside the door and cupped her hands, peering inside. She could see that the fire was lit and glowing brightly, but she could not make out anything else in the darkness of the cabin. She rapped on the glass with her fist, shaking the window in its frame.

“Juunana!” She yelled out her uncle’s name, and her voice sounded loud in foreign in the quiet forest. “Juunana! Open the door!”

No movement came from within, and she pounded harder on the window. Her leg felt as though it was going to fall off, and her lungs had been so overworked that they were aching in her chest. Sharp pains seared through all of her limbs. She gave up on the window and stumbled back to the door, her knuckles rapping hard against the heavy wood.

“Please open the door!” She yelled again. “It’s Marron. Please! It’s important!”

There was finally a sound of movement from within, and she could hear the floor of the cabin creak as Juunana-gou made his way to the door. She stood back, leaning against the railing, and waited for him to unlock it and let her into the cabin. A chill came over her again, and she tucked her jacket tighter around her small shoulders, pulling the sleeves down so that they covered her hands. She felt bad for waking her uncle up and disturbing him at such an ungodly hour, but she also knew that it was important for her to talk to him. If there were something seriously wrong with her mother, Juunana-gou would know what it was and he would know how to fix it. They were nearly the same; her mother and her uncle were twins and androids, and they were closely connected with a bond that ran deeper than most. She knew that she would find sympathy and help in his eyes; eyes that looked so much like her mother’s.

When he finally opened the door, he looked as though he had just woken up. His long, dark hair was slightly out of place, and he was naked except for the pair of jeans that he usually wore. They were unbuttoned, and Marron concluded that he had probably slipped them on only for her benefit. His chest shone bright white under the glowing moon, and she could see that there were scratches all over it; some of them were bleeding. His eyes were not sleepy, but very much awake and concerned as he took in her appearance.

“Marron, what are you doing here?” He asked her, and he looked confused and possibly a little annoyed. “It’s two in the morning. Are you hurt?”

She shook her head quickly, and what still remained of her ponytails whipped around her round face. “No, I’m not hurt. And I’m sorry to bother you this late, but I needed to talk you right away.”

Juunana-gou stepped back and opened the door wide, putting a hand to his temple in confusion. “What? Marron, couldn’t this have waited until daylight? You wouldn’t have had to run all the way here; your mother could have driven you.”

“No….No!” She cried, frustrated. “She couldn’t drive me. And no, this couldn’t wait. It’s really important. Mama is sick and I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”

He looked at her closely, reached a hand out to touch her damp jacket. His eyes moved to the forest beyond her, as if searching for signs of clouds or rain. “Why are you all wet? Do you have a chill? You better come inside before you get sick.”

Any other time she would appreciate his concern for her, but right now she just wanted him to listen and he didn’t seem to be paying attention to her. It made her angry, thinking that she had run all this way just to have him fuss over her. She spoke quickly, as if saying it faster would make it less painful for her:

“You’re not listening to me!” She accused. “I think there is something wrong with her! She has been acting so strangely, and even Papa thinks that there might be something going on. And I don’t want anything to happen to her, because I know that she is jinzouningen, and I’m afraid that something might be really wrong. I’m sorry that I woke you up. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble; I just needed to talk to someone. I was just really worried and scared, and you were just automatically the first person that I thought of. I don’t really know anyone else that I could talk to about all of this. I didn’t think that anyone else would understand. I’m sorry.”

Juunana-gou held up a hand to silence her, his eyes understanding but tired.

“Wait, wait. Slow down Marron.” He commanded gently. “You’re going to give yourself a panic attack. Why don’t you come inside and sit by the fire so that you can warm up a bit. I don’t want you to catch a cold. Once you’re inside, we’ll talk about this rationally okay?”

That sounded reasonable enough. She was chilled all the way through to the bone, and it would feel good to put on one of his nice big tee shirts and a pair of warm sweats. Also, the thought of sitting beside the glowing fireplace wrapped up in a blanket and drinking hot chocolate was pretty appetizing. Her uncle could make an excellent cup of hot chocolate when he put his mind to it --- none of that fake packet stuff, but real kettle cocoa. Besides, her right leg was still aching and she should probably put some ice on it before it got any worse. Her uncle was right. It wasn’t a good idea to discuss such things when she was tired and cold and panicked. It would be better to wait until she had a clear head, so that she could present the information to him in a rational way. It would do neither one of them any good if she rambled on and on, apologizing and crying. She sat up from the porch railing and limped to the front door of the cabin.

After she had passed through the doorway and into the cabin, he held the door open a moment longer. With a wary glance, Juunana-gou watched the silent forest behind her, his eyes suspicious and narrowed. He waited, turning his head to the side slightly, as if expected someone to jump out of the trees any moment. He turned back momentarily and faced his niece, who sat in front of the large, stone fireplace, warming her hands.