"Right. That should be better."

"What did you do to me, old man?"

The messy man turned Elizar back around again, facing the android with that same grin he always seemed to have. "Oh, good. You're acting a lot more like you're supposed to, now. Think back."

Blue eyes narrowed. "It's not so much thinking back as it is looking up."

"Good! Good! That's wonderful, Elizar!"

"Shut up." Elizar's command had come out more forcefully than he had intended, but the other man still just grinned.

"I'm going to put you to sleep for now, all right?"

"You're--"

...It was gone.

--

-The darkness was pressing. Suffocating, it could be called. Imposing, with murderous intent. The silence was deafening. One strains to hear a single tap, even the sound of a pin hitting the floor, but there is nothing. There is only a painful nothing...-

--

Elizar's eyes opened wide and he inhaled deeply, as if he'd never had a breath before in his life. Though it was necessity to some, this act was only there for the sake of appearance.

"You should have awakened more quickly," a child's spiteful voice came from his left. "You were first to have your database installed; it's pathetic that you slept so long."

A groan bubbled up from the throat of the pale-skinned android. "What the hell...?"
"Is something wrong?" The child pulled her torso from the wall and looked up into blue eyes; her surprise was somewhat evident. "White centres...?"

"I know. Some idiot messed up my eyes."

"That's not in the database."

"It's in mine."

The girl's brown eyes narrowed from beneath stray golden strands, the evident malice intensifying. "You're useless."

"So are you," Elizar smirked and looked along the wall against which he was standing. He was third in a line of five. The fifth, a tanned girl next to the child who had been speaking, appeared to still be asleep.

"I'm not useless."

"Hm? Aren't you?"

"I was not constructed for the military to use."

Again, a rampant smirk crossed the young man's face. "Civilian. I know. You're a plaything for two children."

The girl narrowed her eyes again, a scowl not quite making its way to her lips but still apparent nonetheless. "Don't phrase it that way, twenty-three."

"Shut up, twenty-four."

"You should both be silent and wait for instruction," a green-haired android leaned off the wall to glare at his two comrades.

"Hmph." Elizar closed his offensive eyes and turned his face toward the ceiling. "What about twenty-five? She's not up yet."

"She's not supposed to be."

"Batch Five!" A new voice rang out from the semi-darkness, silencing arguments on all sides. "D21 Daire."

"Standby," a violet-eyed android spoke up from the end of the row.

"D22 Henry."

The green-haired android to Elizar's right spoke this time, the annoyed tone gone from his voice completely. "Standby."

"D23 Elizar."

"Standby," Elizar's plain frustration spoke for him, but he was not one to go against regulations by saying something out of line.

"D24 Tripoli."

The girl now. "Standby."

"D24 Tripoli, leave the line and proceed to dock two."

"Sir." Tripoli turned and frowned at Elizar one last time before escaping the dark place through a nearly concealed door somewhere to the right.

The blue android opened his mouth to call after the girl, to throw one final insult that would echo through the halls, but was cut off by that stifling voice calling another name.

"D25 Miyuki."

"Transfer, sir."

When had she awakened? Elizar turned to face the female android. Surely enough, the young woman had roused without any notice by the other four of the batch.

"Right. Transfer D25 Miyuki, stand by."

"Yes."

A bright light infiltrated the darkness as a pair of doors opened straight ahead.

"Walk." The man's voice came again. That voice abused them from the inside out; it didn't have any compassion for that which was not human.

In a way, it's understandable... Elizar was lost in thought as he moved forward. We are the creation; we have no rights. We are pawns; we have no real feelings.

As he progressed, however, he revoked this idle thought. Who was to say that they didn't have real feelings? Who was to say that what they knew as truth was false? This was just the military. They would have to be cautious if they didn't want damaged units on the battlefield.

"Aaaaah!"

Suddenly, a terrified yell. The voice didn't seem quite complete... Something from the Alpha Series?

The Alpha Series preceded the Dunner Series of units. They were less complete, less human. There was a history of malfunction for these units, but the information on this in the D-Series database was sketchy at best.

The four from Batch Five each turned slightly toward the source of the screaming, their eyes focusing on a doorway down a side hall. They weren't sure whether to pay it mind.

There were footsteps from behind, a slight tap as each heel, then toe, hit the floor.
"Well," the man spoke quietly, "I suppose you should see this at one time or another." He was the source of that horribly cold tone.

He narrowed his eyes at the row, then led the way to the room's entrance. The man stopped at the door and pushed it open.

The screams of torture intensified; they were loud, crying yells of true pain that scratched at the ears and begged for release.

Elizar turned to the rest of his row. It was an android in this much agony, but there was no empathy on his part for the suffering unit. Henry, on the other hand, seemed to be different in that regard. He was cringing at the sound, probably close to tears himself. Even though they were given tears for the sake of being realistic, this still didn't seem normal. Pain and death were not supposed to perturb them in any way, but Henry... He was standing on the verge of collapse.

"Go on," the stern man ordered, "you bloody androids."

Bloody... how appropriate. They had not spilled a drop as of yet, but when they got into full use, the bucket would fall from the shelf and spill its contents all about the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling...

They filed into the room, silent despite the continuing screams of the Alpha unit writhing on the floor. He was crying, sobbing, howling, screaming... But it shouldn't have any effect at all. It shouldn't bother them at all. That seemed the right opinion to have. They seemed the right thoughts to keep.

It provoked a sense of wonder, in a way. What feelings were running through this unit's head? What made it scream in such terror?

...No. Not terror. It's pain. That's right; it's pain.

"It's an error. Don't think too much of it."

Elizar turned to face the cold man. "Why are we watching this, then?" he inquired, scanning the stern face for some sort of hint. What happened to make this a requirement? To make this something for "sooner or later"?

The man with the callous voice briefly inspected the line with a glance, his gaze coming to rest with Henry.

"What's wrong with you?" the man demanded angrily, his voice barely registering amidst the screams.

"Nothing, sir." Henry straightened his posture and struggled to maintain a neutral expression.

The screams continued; the voice wasn't wearing out like a human's would. Persistence to the highest degree.

The man's stare returned to Elizar. "This one reacted badly when we installed another personality."

"If one personality does not approve of the acts committed by any previous personality, the unit may be "horrified" with itself, and a malfunction may occur," Elizar recited.

The man nodded approvingly, but did not lose the icy expression that lingered on his face. He didn't seem to register that he hadn't answered Elizar's question.
The Alpha unit began to shiver, to shake, and cried. He wasn't screaming anymore, but he was crying. The contrast with the sounds that filled the room previously made this new silence almost unbearable. The air hung heavy, breached only by the light sobs of the distraught unit. Elizar couldn't even imagine how this unit felt. He didn't want to imagine how this whimpering chunk of metal might think it feels...

But it does feel! This unit is quivering and weeping like a small child who needs comfort, and there is certainly feeling in this!

"That's all, then. Pay it no mind." The man who led them here wasn't affected at all. If anything, he seemed annoyed. This... Elizar could imagine this thought. 'Why did it have to waste our time?' would be one of them. 'Why couldn't the programmers have gotten it right?' would be another.

I guess it really doesn't mean anything... A frown settled upon Elizar's face. We are what we are; there will never be a change. I can only wonder why they allowed us to think like this...

"Start walking," the man with the callous voice issued another order.

There really is nothing to it.