A/N: Well, I'm sorry the chapter is a day late-

Well, let me rephrase that. I'm not actually sorry this is late because I really couldn't help it, I got busy because my grandparents were coming and I'm not going to feel guilty because I have a life outsife of the little computer box. XD; HOWEVER, I am sorry I didn't find a way to give warning in some way, because one of my 2.5 readers was probably wondering where the update was. It's here.

Rabbits above ground, unless they are in proved, familiar surroundings close to their holes, live in continual fear. If it grows intense enough they can become glazed and paralyzed by it- "tharn", to use their own word. Hazel and his companions had been on the jump for nearly two days...they were all on edge, sometimes starting at nothing and, again, lying down in any patch of long grass that offered.

-Richard Adams, 'Watership Down'

10/10/02

1:55 AM

XR woke up with this vague feeling he'd forgotten something.

Vague, but strong. He actually had to get up and pace for a while, he was so restless, and after a moment he forgot the restless feeling and had no idea why he was even up. And he started wondering about it and then he remembered this movie he'd seen where this guy kept waking up earlier and earlier every night until he couldn't get back to sleep after two AM and then he went totally out-of-his-head crazy- and then he started freaking out and the noise of this caused Kila to come out and throw a boot at him, which caused an argument. By the time this altercation ended, he'd forgotten why he was even up in the first place, and mistakenly thought she'd come out and thrown footwear at him just for kicks. Aahaha. Kicks. Yeah, he should probably go back to bed now.

7:13 AM

XR came awake slowly, with a funny feeling something was 'off'.

He lay there not moving for a moment, trying to figure out what it could possibly be. Then he powered his visual sensors back on to see wide, pupilless eyes, inches away from his.

He froze.

"You need to get up now," she said in a monotone.

He clutched the couch cushions, staring and ticking loudly. He was completely paralyzed.

Then he recognized her and went limp with relief, closing his eyes. Yeah, that's right. Kila. This was, in fact, Kila's apartment, so it made sense that Kila would be present.

"Problem?" she said. "It's seven. Carrie will be back any minute and then she'll be angry."

"Get off me."

She jumped off his chest and he sat up, scowling. Her apartment or not, she had no right to be on him.

"You have two options," she said in a businesslike tone, walking away. She was fully dressed, he noticed. In fact, she didn't look like she'd changed clothes. Ew.

"Oh, yeah?" was the only retort he could think of. Geez, who did this girl think she was?

"You can stay here alone and maybe get abducted" the attack at Booster's place ran through his mind and he slumped in his seat, feeling briefly, alarmingly dizzy "or you can come with me when I go job-hunting and not bother me at all."

He blinked. What? Why did she need a job if he'd just hired her?

Well, it wasn't permanent, he reminded himself. Of course, it might be permanent to him, if his life ended before-

He shuddered, tears suddenly pricking his eyes. He pushed them back.

"Well?" Kila prompted.

He scowled. What, couldn't she see he was miserable? "Well, I'd really love to avoid you if at all possible-"

"Good."

"But I have no choice, do I?" he grumbled, standing up and unplugging himself from the wall.

"Smart man," she said, breezing out the front door.

He stared at the doorway for a minute, blinking. Eh? She was just leaving?

She stuck her head back in. "You were supposed to follow me."

"Oh yeah," he said. Right. She'd said they were leaving.

"I did, in fact, say that you were going to come with-"

"Yeah, yeah," and he followed her.

Outside the air smelled fresh and clean. He wondered about this for a moment (Tradeworld air was neither fresh nor clean), then realized it just seemed that way because the apartment had smelled funny.

The building was old enough to have stairs along with the elevator. To his dull dismay, she led him down the stairs- narrow, steep stairs- and he was forced to awkwardly pick his way down while she scurried ahead of him like a squirrel. A lot like a squirrel.

He was about halfway down when something clicked in his exhaustion-dulled brain. "Why're we goin' down the fire escape?"

She looked back at him from where she was almost at the bottom, then looked about her, nonplussed.

"Oh, just..." She scoffed, a noise that seemed directed at herself rather than him. "All right, we'll go back and take the elevator."

"Well, we're almost down now," he said, clambering down beside her. "All right, where're we goin'?"

She turned and studied him with a frown. He recoiled.

"What? What'd I say?"

"Do you have a virus or something?" she asked. "You act ill..." She turned away, shaking her head. "Oh, but what do I know."

He wondered how bad he looked if he was drawing concern from complete strangers. Anyway, he didn't have a virus. (He didn't, right? Now that he thought about it, he didn't feel so hot at the moment but that was just nerves and fatigue, right? Right? Oh, craters, another thing to worry about. Thanks a lot, Kila.)

He was snapped out of this cheery line of thought by the sound of her voice. "Anyway, yes, we're taking the subway," she was saying, heading down the sidewalk and snapping her fingers in his direction. "C'mon, Skippy."

He blinked. "Skippy?"

7:34

XR had never taken the subway on Tradeworld before. He'd been in the station a few times on busts, but he'd never needed to actually use it for transportation.

He didn't like it much, he decided, as he clung to a pole in the middle of the car, shivering like a wet puppy. It was if anything more stable than riding on 42, but it was dark and loud and he had a headache. He'd had one since yesterday. He'd always been prone to headaches, for no real reason the LGMs could find. This one actually wasn't too bad compared to others he'd had (there had been times when he'd been reduced to huddling in the pantry for hours with his helmet resting in one of Booster's soft piles of donuts, unresponsive to anyone's attempts to cheer him up. Yes, even Mira's).

"LOLLIPOP!" a small boy's voice screamed from somewhere near the back of the car, for what had to be the tenth time.

"SWEET MOTHER OF VENUS, SHUT UP!" Kila hollered from the pole next to him. He cringed and clung to his own pole, new waves of pain rolling in behind his eyes. He felt queasy.

"Next time we're freakin' takin' the freakin' bus," she cursed, shaking her head (it caused her ears to swish around, making a flapping noise). "Ame kef."

'We'? XR was fairly positive she wouldn't have a 'we' the next time she needed transportation. She'd better not.

Which reminded him. He turned to study her, clinging to her pole like a barnacle. He still didn't know much about this... creature.

As he watched, she turned to meet his stare, wide-eyed and fearful. "What?" she said. "What're you looking at?"

He looked away, shaking his head. "Nothing."

"I'm doing you a favor, you know."

"I know." He was already starting to miss his team.

8:17

XR yawned, resting his back against the wall a few inches to the side of the office door Kila had vanished into. He let his gaze wander over the inside of the hallway. It looked pretty normal, kinda dingy, whitewashed with an occasional gunk splatter.

How had he gotten here? Why had he gone with her? Was he stupid? Had someone slipped him stupid pills?

He whacked himself in the helmet a few times, stopping when he realized he was worsening an already impressive headache. Ugh.

He wrapped his arms around himself, rocking back and forth. There was a nagging, restless feeling growing in his mind, telling him he wasn't where he should be, he should be at Star Command. Programming. He didn't have permission to be here.

It belatedly occurred to him that as a matter of fact, no one even knew where he was- including his team. And Buzz wasn't too happy with him already.

Booster was the one he should call. He was the least likely of the team to get really steaming mad at him.

He took out his communicator, then put it back away. What if someone could track the signal? Like, oh, that MOB that wanted to kill him? Or Buzz, he supposed. Really, it wouldn't be good for anyone to know he was here.

He nibbled his lower lip. The mob itself hadn't seemed like the type to have that kind of technology, but if he was wrong- oh, mother of Venus, if he was wrong. Kila's protection was... negligible. In fact, he doubted she was really providing him with any protection. The only thing making him any safer was the fact that his location had changed. And Star Command finding out would net him a pink slip, no question.

He hugged himself, looking around the room. His eyes fell on the receptionist sitting at her desk at the end of the hall.

He hurried up to her, tapping the desk. She turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh- can- can I use your phone?" he stammered.

"There's a pay phone over there, suga," she said, snapping her gum.

He nodded and darted over to it, popping in the required money and waiting for the screen to light up.

"Hey, Booster," he said, forcing a grin. His voice sounded surprisingly even.

"XR?" his friend said, shocked. "Where are you? We couldn't contact you! Are you okay?"

"Oh, fine, I'm fine," he said. Haha, yeah, right. "Look, big guy, I won't be in to work for a little while. I thought I'd take off, you know, see the sights..." Yeah, he'd thought he could take a little tour of the afterlife. See the sights. Never come back. Why was he doing this to himself?

"You're going on vacation?" Booster said with utter, not-unexpected disbelief.

"Yeah, I think I kinda need it..." Actually, he suddenly realized what he wanted was for Booster not to be on the other end of a phone, but here in person. When had Booster ever let him get hurt?

What, apart from the time he left him alone in an empty apartment to be attacked by a hit man?

Something inside XR went suddenly cold and he smoothed the expression off his face.

"Oh. Gee. Well, I would've maybe liked to go with you..." Booster was saying, his eyebrows furrowing and his pointy ear thingies drooping.

XR frowned. He resisted saying 'you do know you're not my girlfriend, right?' but only with difficulty.

"Well, sorry. I'll ask next time." His voice was nasal and clipped and petty.

"Okay. Well, have a good time. I hope you feel better."

He nodded, staring off into space. "Yeah... thanks..."

"All right, ready to go?"

He jumped, yelping. Kila was standing there.

What the heck? Who was she to interrupt his conversation? For all he knew, this could be the last time he ever spoke to Booster. And here was this stupid Tradeworld punk-

"Who's that?" Booster asked from the screen.

Uhhh... "Kate, she's my date," he said out of nowhere and cut the call. Then he stared bug-eyed at the blank screen, letting the ticking in his chest wind down.

Yes, that excuse would fly. That was a great excuse. FANTASTIC. First off, everyone would be old-henning him because they would think he was rebounding. Second, what, he'd never date a girl that looked like that.

"I'm not your k'shirkina date," she snapped behind him.

"I was just-"

"I don't care if it was just an excuse. I have standards, see?" she berated, grabbing his arm and yanking him out the door. He yelped and began working to extricate himself. She was unusually strong for her size.

"Standards?" he cried. "You're talking to me about standards?"

Outside, it was starting to rain. Kila led him along at a fast, manic pace, still complaining-

"Yes, standards, I'm not any Tradeworld tramp and you sir-"

"Well, hey-"

"You, sir, are so not my type. You look like a barrel and you're just the most spineless thing I've ever-"

This was not fair. "Well, hey, you're not exactly-"

"Shut up. In any event that was uncalled for and I'm so cheesed off at you now-"

"Hey!" he snapped. "I hired you, and I can fire you, too!"

"Go ahead, I don't care," she snapped, showing fangs.

He wasn't going to fire her. He didn't have the strength. "Well, that's good that you don't care! Because you could be fired any second!"

"Whatever. I'm not your date."

"I wouldn't want to date you anyway," he snapped.

"Me neither." She'd let go of his arm by this point and didn't seem overly concerned over whether or not he was even still behind her.

He supposed he could actually dodge her pretty easily if he wanted. Not that he wanted to. Yet, he amended. The way things were going, he might very well end up needing to escape.

12:01 PM

The next building they went to was a fast-food joint. That was fairly excruciating. They wound up sitting at a dinky table across from each other, really uncomfortably close.

He looked down at the food she'd bought him, a dented-up can of oil. He tried to force down some of it. It tasted greasy and disgusting and he pushed it away, gulping. He'd been feeling a little queasy all morning and he was afraid trying to drink would just make it worse.

"So, um..." she said, looking away and studying other people in the diner. "How long do you suppose we'll need to do this?"

"I don't know," he said, staring at the table. Forever. Nothing would ever get better and he'd be stuck with her until he died.

"Mm. What do you know?"

He gave her a reproachful look.

"Well, that's how you answer all my questions," she snapped.

There was one thing he knew: She was rude and blunt and whiny and a stupid little Tradeworld punk. And ugly.

"Hmph," he said.

She ate in silence for a moment. She ate really fast. It was gross to watch. He looked away.

"So, I ask you a question?" she said suddenly.

He froze. What now. "I reserve the right not to answer..."

"Oh, of course."

He looked down, picking at something on the surface of the table.

"Do you know..." she said hesitantly. "How is your head constructed to allow it to suspend in the air like that? It's a fairly unique feature. I mean, I have a mechanical background, and-"

He looked up sharply. "You wanna know about my head?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. Well. Repelling magnets, or-"

His head. He shows up and calls her out of nowhere, asking for help getting away from the mafia, and she asks how his head floats. For crying out LOUD. What was this, the fiftieth time he'd been asked that question? Ugh! Weren't there doofier-looking robots out there to pester?

"I don't know," he snapped, looking away. And if he was asked again tomorrow by someone else, he still wouldn't know. Geez! He didn't have a degree in physics!

"Oh... kay. How do you swallow without a neck, either? I mean-"

"I don't KNOW." For crying out LOUD.

"All right, all right," she grumbled, looking down and doing that stirring-the-ice-around thing of hers. He squeezed his eyes shut. Every little noise was hurting his head.

And she wanted to know how it floated. GOSH. Like he needed those questions now. Geez.

"Another thing you don't know," she was muttering. "Our taxes at work."

"Look, isn't my floating head just a tiny bit irrelevant?" he demanded.

She shot him a resentful look. "Perhaps. Well, I didn' want to start another crying jag..." She looked away. "And it's just... a unique feature..."

XR didn't wanna hear about his unique features. (He wasn't a torkma. Nuh-unh.) "I see."

Finally she stood up, adjusting the strap of the duffel bag she was wearing. "All right, let's go."

He stood up as well, hanging his head. They left. XR didn't realize she'd left all the trash on the table until they were outside, by which time he didn't care (and might not have cared in the first place anyway).

12:48

Next, she dragged him into another questionable office building and left him in the lobby while she disappeared into more job interviews. That left XR sitting on a shabby couch, dully trying to decipher the Jukani magazine someone had left on the waiting-room table. He'd never been too good at Jukani, machine or no, it was a weird language. Speaking of Jukani, he'd finally placed Kila's strange accent- it was mostly, well, Jukani, with a little hint of something else he didn't recognize. That explained her attitude, he'd decided. Jukani was a weird planet over all. It was out on the fringe of the neighboring Galactic Federation. In fact, that whole galaxy was weird. All their 'shades-of-gray morality' talk, what retards- obviously, in this life, you were either good or evil. Period.

Then he realized he couldn't exactly qualify what he was doing now as 'good.'

He leaned back, huddling in the seat. Tears welled up in his eyes. He really had brought this all on himself, hadn't he? And no one was going to help him out of it. Absolutely no one. Kila was a loser, and he seriously doubted he was going to find anyone better on Tradeworld.

He sat there a moment, dully staring at the floor. Thick, hot, slimy oil tears streaked the bottom of his helmet. Ugh, he was quickly becoming a mess. Eh, he'd already been a mess. It didn't matter, he was too tired to care.

After a moment of huddling there miserable he realized his communicator was ringing. Oh, thank goodness, a distraction- or, er, uh-oh, who was calling? It couldn't be good, whoever it was.

He considered not answering, but finally he gave in to his curiosity and flipped up his wrist communicator. Probably it was Mira or Booster. Or Buzz. In which case, his goose was that extra bit more cooked.

But no, it was MALIK. Huh, come to think of it, he wasn't so sure she was classifiable as 'good' either- but she was a ranger, wasn't she? Oh, forget it.

"Why weren't you at the meet?" she demanded in a desperate tone that sounded shockingly close to a normal-person voice. For her. What with the emotion in it.

He stared. That's what had woken him up last night! Oh craters. Oh, craters. "Oh, geez, I-"

"Well, it doesn't matter now." Every word was full of hate. Geez, what was her problem? It wasn't like skipping one meeting was a punishable offense- "I just thought you might like to know the Motherboard denounced me as defective in front of the whole group!"

He was about to say 'the "whole group" meaning the janitor and a desk?' when he realized what she'd said. Defective? What the heck was a-

And then it hit his mind like a bullet. Out of nowhere. He shuddered, wide-eyed. This kind of sudden infodump had only happened to him once before, when he was brand new and suddenly learning his name, who he was, what he was, where he worked, etc. Now he was suddenly learning that a defective robot was one that was irreparably Not Right, either due to some mental glitch, or an unhealthy attitude, or... in MALIK's case probably both and then some.

And being a robot, she wasn't going to change any time soon. She couldn't just get therapy for it or something. She was... she was useless.

Despite being a far smaller piece of news than that first one about what his entire EXISTENCE entailed- this was far less palatable. He wondered where the information even came from. It didn't feel like Desky's broadcasts, or anything like that, it felt like this was just something he'd known all along- even though he knew he hadn't until a second ago. It was strange.

Eh, the LGMs must've programmed it in or something. He wasn't in the mood to care right now.

He stared at his sister as though seeing her for the first time. "You- y-you're a defective?" His voice was a horrified whisper.

MALIK gazed back at him for a moment, suddenly looking very small. She'd always been small, only coming up to the base of his helmet- with her helmet, a large, clumsy, awkward red thing sitting on top of a glass globe- and he could only imagine how short she'd be without it. Probably even smaller than an LGM. But it had never shown quite this clearly.

She was wearing a small, slack frown quite unlike her usual snarl and when she spoke her voice was almost soft. It matched her size instead of being large and grating, like he was used to.

"Apparently so. Apparently so."

And she hung up.

A/N: Update might be late next week too, I'm going on vacation.