Through the Looking Glass: Chapter Two

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As soon as Kaylr rolled over, Merith pounced again, going to bash his head with a swift kick from the side.

"If we have doubles here, they have not been brought to our attention yet" Dawn said with a shrug then smiled "I control air, yes, Uncle Rigel controls Earth. That includes metals."

"I assume you've decided to stop being weird?" Esk asked Dawn dryly.

"We got so many elementalists. Woah wait.. wait.. have we got the whole lot now? " Matt considered

"you need a fire elementalist." Esk told him flatly.

"Maaan, we should have invited Web!"

---

Kay glanced at Asher and Starr and moved to Asher's side while the cuffs were cut. [She explained then?]

"Wait, so can you control, like, robots and spaceships?" Ellie asked Rigel, "Cause that would be cool."

~~
"Yes," Asher muttered to Kay, looking a bit embarrassed still. "I can only imagine how uncomfortable this must be for you."

[It's some consolation to know that violating my mind and privacy allowed Starr to launch this rescue. It isn't pleasant, at times it's downright humiliating but I keep telling myself it's worth it to save everyone else. ] He looked glum. It was a pretty massive violation, and one he preferred not to think about.

---

Dawn looked to Esk then shrugged "Hard to stop being weird when it is your natural state. I care about my friends." She said then sighed

Rigel shook his head at that "I can control the metal in a robot or ship if it has no soul. Asher and James I cannot control." He said then shrugged "They are harder than just normal metals that are unworked."

~~~
Starr cut the bracelets off the carpathians, smiling as she watched them both close their eyes to heal their bodies. It was interesting to watch that happen at least to her. She gave them a smile then headed to toss the bracelets before stopping and looking at them "That might hold her" She said then headed for the cabinets to look for uncut ones

"Huh... nice to know they've got souls after all." Matt glanced over at the androids.

Esk shook his head at Dawn. "You're a strange girl."

"You still doubted?" Rigel asked, looking to Matt at that "They are not the only ones, pretty much all of the 7s have souls. Sixes and previous do not."

Dawn shrugged a little "Well, then it's a strangeness I will keep"

Asher nodded. "It's not the sort of thing anyone would want to experience, and I guess the only way to handle it is to tell yourself it was for the greater good." He glanced over at Starr, "At least it was her, and not someone else. She can be trusted far more than most people."

~~
"They have SOULS? Freaky," Ellie said. Yeah, she still didn't trust those guys completely. Robots, man. So weird.

"Sixes were the ones in the shop on that beach planet right?" Matt glanced to Ellie for confirmation. "or were those 5s?"

"Sixes aren't that different to sevens in code." Esk told him helpfully. "They were mass recalled though."

"How the hell do you know so much about robots?" Matt asked.

Esk shrugged. "I looked it up once. I was curious."

"It's true, huge recall, something about over the air updates and hacking vulnerabilities?" Luka joined them.

---

Kay nodded [A small mercy. I half hope her duplicate gets nightmares for the rest of her life because of it. ] His eyes narrowed for a moment as he glanced toward her cage, then he looked back to the carpathians. [How are you both feeling now?]

"I think they were Fives in the shop, but I dunno. That was weeks ago," Ellie said. "Man, they were weird. So polite, and their faces didn't move right!" She nodded, "I remember that recall, some family had an android when I was a kid, and they sent it back when it kept having epileptic seizures. So weird."

Rigel looked to Luka and smiled as she joined them "Yeah, they were too vulnerable to everything"

~~~
"Much better, thank you" Sawna said and smiled without showing her teeth. That was something they learned early since fangs freaked people out quite often, especially in an otherwise 'human' face.

"poor thing" Matt shook his head. "That sounds horrible. "

"At least they wouldn't feel any pain from it." Esk shrugged.

"I guess, but they can feel emotions. " Matt shook his head.

"They can have phobias, they can definitely get scared." Luka nodded. "And that would be scary, to not have control of your own body like that. Nasty. Poor androids. "

"The ones here feel pain." Esk told them flatly.

"but WHY?" Matt asked. "What purpose does that serve?"

Esk shrugged "Easier to keep them in line if you can threaten them with pain I guess. Stellan said something about pleasure bots reacting more realistically but at that point I kinda stopped listening because it was gross."

"mm, maybe it'd be better if they could enjoy it." Luka mused.

"just... no." Matt shook his head. "They can feel but they still can't disobey, that's even grosser."

---

Kay nodded. [Good. If you need anything, just ask one of us. Given how chop happy my duplicate apparently was, I expect there's a fairly substantial supply of blood stock on this ship.]

Rigel shivered and looked over to one of the androids on this ship, seeing if he could control them at all here.

~~~
"I know they do, the other guards would tease us with it." Sawna said and sighed

[Well that's just cruel.] Unsurprising though, given these people.

---

"Don't screw with the androids Rigel." Esk sighed.

"what?" Luka glanced to Rigel. "What are you trying to do?" She asked curiously.

Sawna nodded and looked down "It was."

"There are more evil beings in this universe than good" Andre added

~~~
Rigel blinked and looked to Esk "I was just trying to see if they were immune to control as well"

"just because you can do something doesn't mean you should." Esk told him flatly.

"You're being weird" Luka told him.

He shrugged.

"No no, she's right, you ARE being weird. Did they mess with your brain back in that other lab or something?" Matt asked. "Or is there just a limit to how long you can remain bitchy and mean to people?"

"Shooting Kay put me in a decent mood." Esk told Matt with a smirk.

"aaand there's the bitchiness. Right. I was worried there, thought you had a brain parasite or something." Matt told him.

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Seriously though, since when did you care about androids?" Matt asked.

"I don't care about them. " Esk looked faintly annoyed.

"right right, because you don't care about anything right?" Matt rolled his eyes.

"not true. I care about not dying, I care about getting home and I care about freedom. Also chips, we had chips on Vestia, there's no snack foods here."

Matt stared at his brother incredulously. "You're screwing around aren't you?"

Esk shrugged. "you're awfully suspicious of everything I do Matt. Ever consider talking to a professional about your paranoia?"

"I wanted to know if these had souls" Rigel said, frowning as he looked at Esk and Matt then around again "If they did, I wanted to see if we could leave the freeing program with them here."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Matt looked alarmed. "I mean, this universe is all topsy turvy backwards and full of evil doubles. how do we know the androids aren't evil too?"

Rigel shrugged "That is why I wanted to check if they have souls at all first"

"Do they?" Matt asked.

"Souls don't define good and evil." Luka shook her head. "But... is it right to deny free will to entities just because they're evil?"

"Prison." Esk said simply.

"But if they commit no crime, how do you define good and evil anyway? It's such a relative term" Luka protested.

"true." Esk shrugged.

"I dunno, I think we should just try to get outta here, not try to start some robot uprising before we leave." Matt frowned.

"In the Entropium culture, everything has life and spirit to some degree, even a tiny pebble." Mirror Third input quietly.

"The imperium have no gods, and no afterlife, no real thing of immortal souls. We live, we die. it's what you do during your life that matters." Luka told Third.

Rigel shrugged "I figure if they have souls then they should be given a chance to be good on their own"

"I still think we should just take the escape pods and let Vestia cut life support to those left behind." Matt muttered.

"We should focus on ourselves and getting home. Save the social justice for our universe." Esk stood up. "We got enough problems without taking on more causes."

"I hate to admit it, but he has a point. Freedom is great and all, but we need to prioritize ourselves and getting home." Luka nodded.

Rigel shrugged and nodded "It depends on if we take over Vestia or not. If we can get these slaves on a shuttle and send them off to make their way home and take another shuttle ourselves, we still have the problem of where to go and how to get there without just being chased by Vestia"

"I'm told this universe's Satare colonies are nice." Esk remarked casually.

"You mean not warmongering xenophobic assholes?" Matt corrected him.

"Peaceful accepting and full of happy singing children and bunny rabbits from what I hear." Esk smirked.

"The Imperium isn't full of assholes." Luka protested.

Matt looked like he didn't believe her.

"Talk to Stellan about it." Esk suggested.

"I still find it weird to hear you casually refer to him by your own name." Matt told his brother.

Esk shrugged. "Not my name though is it?"

Matt sighed.

"We could go chill with the snuggly Satare until we can get home," Ellie said happily. "Yay tall people!"