Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Memory Failure- ABERRATION, answers

by Ironraven
edited by quiren

Section 9 and it's operatives aren't mine.

---

Having been alerted to which entrance they'd be using by Proto, Togusa's heart was pounding. He could only remember his feet hitting steps about two dozen times as he'd dashed down the stairs from the tenth floor. He didn't care if strangers were stared at him, gasping. Commandos weren't very common in hospitals.

His family barely made it through the door before he hugged them enthusiastically. He wasn't able to speak yet, if he'd tried he'd have only babbled. This was the first time they'd been in danger from his job, even if it had been a false alarm. There was no evidence that the Tachikoma had even received that memory, but the risks. If they'd been attacked...

Arakaki, with Proto in tow, eased around the tiny celebration, silently. Ishikawa had followed his teammate down at a more rational pace, and was awaiting the Chief by the elevators. "Boma, Pazu and Saito are still combing the area with the local cops. They've found most of it, there is no way the Tachikoma could have survived the impact."

"How did they stop it? I can't see it having simply been run over by accident."

"Chief, they didn't. The Major was offline, trying to get her systems under control. With the jamming that the Tachikoma was putting out, I can't see how she could have hacked it without a direct link even if she was awake." Ishikawa shook his head, bewildered. "Batou shot at it, but I took a fast glance at his memories- none of his shots missed, but none of them penetrated. The Tachikoma was acting strangely before then, maybe it malfunctioned."

Proto tapped his fingers together, thinking. "Then there are three possibilities. It really was an error in judgment, an accident. It had already been hacked, but by whom and when? Or, the Tachikoma committed suicide."

Aramaki shook his head. "Thirty-seven police officers killed or seriously injured. The fifteen at Kenbishi. Two of our people needing new bodies. A squad of Uchikoma destroyed. Any number of other victims that haven't been found yet. Bombings, fires, blackouts. And no answers." He reached out for the button that would summon the elevator. "You'll not take offense, Proto, when I say that artificial intelligences need to watched more closely. I'm not sure we can manage another of these rampages"

"I am, sir." The bioandroid's head bobbed in the slightest possible nod. "We would have been able to stop it. "

Ishikawa nodded slowly, reluctantly as the door opened. "'Thy own worst enemy is thy self.' Chief, do you remember what I told you the last words any of the old Tachikoma said to me were?"

---

Hitched to mindless machines, Motoko let the slightest hint of a smile slip into her mind, if not onto her face, when her roommate's gurney was wheeled in. "Hey."

Batou stared up at the ceiling tiles as the medics confirmed the monitoring devices attached to him working properly. He really didn't hear them as they reminded him that cybercom use within the the hospital might interfere with his care or that of others.

The Major watched him silently for a long minute after the others left. "You look like hell." He remained silent. Motoko pulled the pillow out from behind her head with her one good arm, throwing it at her teammate. Despite the playful nature of the act, she was concerned. She couldn't reach him to poke him, and had nothing else to throw. "Batou!"

"The Tachikoma didn't have to let us live. It could have escaped." Batou's lips barely moved as he continued to study the featureless white panels. "It could have left us or killed us, and gotten away." One of the tiles was slightly less white than the others. "What would you have done, in his place?"

Motoko looked down at where her toes should have been. "Killed us, hijacked the AI of a train, and disappeared. Past that, who knows. We never did know why it attacked the police." Her working thumb stroked her lips, softly. "Unless I had a reason to not kill us."

"Police have uniforms, armour, radios and guns. It probably thought they were the enemy." The Tachikoma's last words keept looping in the back of his mind. One thought had caused Batou to lay awake for hours, every night, since end of the Dejima crisis. "It said it had to go someplace, 'with the others'. Do you think they survived?"

Motoko closed her eyes. "We've never found their data store. Maybe they hacked him." She sighed, sadly. "If they are out there, they'd have contacted us. They've had enough time to call home."

That one word tightened his throat like a noose. Batou turned his head, his trademark ponytail burned away. He hadn't noticed the missing appendage yet. Home. Homes have families. His voice was pained. "What was he?"

---

Author's notes:
You can't jam the soul.