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Every ghost story and bump in the night had an explanation, but the true answer was more complex than any rusty pipes or whisper of wind through a broken window. That was something the Kirijo Group Shadow Operatives knew well.
After all, they were one of the only organizations out there facing the shadows and slaying what went bump in the night.
In the aftermath of one such battle, an armored truck rumbled down the highway in the guise of a Kirijo Electronics delivery carrying very special cargo--two Operatives fresh off the field.
Labrys and Aegis-- a pair of Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons-- cleaned their equipment in brief silence.
Labrys wiped dark, shadowy ichor from the edge of her rocket-strapped blade, testing its sharpness with a heavy gauntleted hand…her hand, before she set it to the side on the inbuilt weapon rack with the imitation of a sigh.
Aigis, who was cleaning the scorch marks off of her fingertips with a soft cloth and a jar of polish, looked up at Labrys and cocked her head.
"You're thinking of something?"
Labrys looked up , her artificial blue hair falling across her face as her joints clicked and whirred from the motion.
“Yeah. Lil’ bit. That last hot zone jus’...reminded me of somethin’, that’s all.” Her voice was tinged with a heavy Osakan accent…one that didn’t sound quite right from her lips.
Aigis continued to polish her fingers absently, but offered Labyrs her best approximation of a warm smile.
"I'm willing to listen if its something you'd want to discuss."
Labrys shifted, her foot scraping along the ground as she attempted to engage the slippery lock on her detachable arm, noting the heavy stains of shadowy ichor that stained her fingers like blood.
That would have to be polished out later.
“Reminded me of the lab.” She said slowly.
The mission had been deep within an old Kirijo lab that’d gone defunct and become a nest for the shadowy creatures that leaked through reality itself. A simple ‘sweep and clear’ operation, not requiring anywhere close to the full team.
“I think I mighta been there once, even.”
"Oh," Aigis answer was quiet. "You remember it?"
She put her rag down, and carefully picked her way to the other side of the truck, sitting down next to Labrys instead of across from her.
Labrys flexed her fingers, hating the way they clicked and scraped together.
“Yes.” she said with a half nod. “I think it’s where they put the plumes of dusk they got outta the dead units inta my chest. Ya know…where I started ta feel things for the first time.”
She twisted her arm, and there was a satisfying click as it finally properly locked into place.
Aigis put her hand on Labrys' shoulder. There was a gentle 'click' as their chassis met one another.
"That must have been an overwhelming experience..."
“It wasn’t great” She said with a tilt of her head and the weak sound of a laugh. As advanced as she was, outside of the TV would and her shadow, her facial expression was stilted and hard to read.
“To go from bein’ nothin’ but a machine with strange images in ya head…to bein’ someone who can feel, all because of the sisters ya tore to pieces with your own hands.”
She looked up at Aigis. “Didn’t that happen ta you?”
Aigis shook her head slowly.
"It didn't happen the same way for me..."
“Guess they perfected it after I was declared outdated,” Labrys said with a roll of her shoulders. With just the two of them there, she didn’t bother to hide the circular joints and obviously mechanical workings of her clunky body.
“Didn’t have to do th’ trial and error anymore. Didn’t have ta have the …data trials.”
"I guess so," Aigis nodded. "When I came online I didn't feel at all. or I didn't understand what I felt. It took a long time for me to gradually start to have emotions-- and longer for me to understand them."
“...” Labrys’s lips twitched, almost a frown “...how long did it take for ya to understand ‘em?”
There was the sound of metal scraping gently against metal as Aigis fingers tightened a little against Labrys' arm.
"Almost a year. Just long enough for the person...." she looked away. "Just long enough to lose something important."
Labrys leaned towards her, metallic hand pressed to her side. “I’m sorry. I know it ain’t a lot comin’ from someone like me. But it ain’t fair.”
Her eyes flicked down “...the girl on the docks, yeah?”
It wasn’t the first time she’d said it…’the girl on the docks’ , ‘the one she was to wait for’.
There was a soft click as she twitched, and then she corrected herself “I mean. The boy.”
Aigis just nodded, not correcting her either way.
"Yes."
Labrys leaned her head to rest it against Aigis’ arm. A simulation of a human gesture of comfort. Something remembered from Unit# 24’s memories.
“It ain’t easy losin’ someone the moment ya finally start to understand how you feel ‘bout them. Even machines like us can get that.” She hesitated before she said in a low, softer tone “maybe especially machines like us.”
"It isn't easy," Aigis agreed. She put her hand on top of Labrys' head. "For anyone. But maybe especially people like us."
Labrys felt the plumes of dusk burning in her chassis as she huffed weakly, the weight of Aigis’ hand atop her head a comfort.
“Ain’t sure I’m much of a people, Aigis. You…You absolutely are. Me, even after th’ Investigation Team went through all that…I ain’t so sure. My shadow wasn’t all wrong.”
"No, Labrys, you're as much of a person as I am. I can say that for certain."
The android looked up at her.
“What makes ya so sure? I mean…everything I am is because of the pieces of the people I killed shoved into me. That an’...hazy memories of someone I ain’t…”
There was a note of hope in the tone. Maybe hope for an answer.
Aigis smiled at her, her hand still resting on her head.
"Because I learned the secret. That's what all people are. Pieces and memories of the people we've known and who have been important to us. Who they were. The things they did. They live in us, and we carry them forward."
Labrys held her hand to her chest, giving her best smile in return to her ‘younger sister’.
“Issat all? That’s…that’s what it takes to really make a person?” Her fingers curled against her chassis over where the gestalt plume of dusk hummed it’s power. “Memories an’ pieces of others.”
She closed her eyes.
“like your memories of the boy on the pier. An’ the Shadow Operatives…an’ …” she trailed off “of folks ya had to leave behind. I remember a lotta stuff. The memories of so many of us, jammed in here with me…I remember a young girl who wanted ta be a student council president. I remember drownin’..”
Labrys shivered under Aigis’ hand. “If that all makes me a person…then I’ll be happy to carry ‘em.”
Aigis nodded to her, and put a hand on her chest.
"That's how I feel, too. And that's how I know you're a person."
Labrys smiled at her, before she did the most human thing her protocols and memories could find.
She hugged Aigis tight in her mechanical arms.
“Thanks sis.”