Sorry about the delay in updates. While we do have quite a bit pre-written, there was a lot more editing than I anticipated and then real life happened. Don't you just love that?

Rock was immensely confused. He could sense several bioroids moving about, although the only frequency he recognized was Metal's. The signal hadn't stopped completely, even when Metal was unconscious, but now he seemed to be moving around again. It couldn't be, but…it had almost felt like Metal had Dr. Hikari's baby with him for a while: the child had been moved deeper into the facility. It was possible Dr. Hikari had been with him and Rock hadn't felt it. The turned had weaker signals, but Rock was pretty sure Dr. Hikari had stayed where he was. Metal seemed to be going back and forth a lot, but the child was staying put in the center.

Comprehension dawned on Rock: was that where his brothers were? But why would Metal have taken the baby? It was impossible that he kidnapped him: separating kin was beyond cruel to a bioroid. As angry as the children were, they wouldn't do that. Even if they sought to punish Dr. Hikari, they wouldn't do that to the baby.

Right?

He needed to find out what happened, why the child was there if Dr. Hikari wasn't. Of course, none of the children would allow Dr. Hikari anywhere near Elec or the others. Perhaps there'd been a misunderstanding. Maybe Metal hadn't taken Saito to Elec but just put him in one of the rooms where the turned were supposed to be, so that he'd be safe? Rock needed to figure out what was going on.

He turned down a corridor and began running, focusing almost entirely on the frequencies in the facility and the quickest way to reach them. He was so distracted he almost tripped over a vine.

Wait.

A vine?

He stopped and looked around: there were vines and other plants everywhere. That wasn't right, he was still inside. The rest of the hall was overgrown with verdant greenery and Rock carefully stepped into the adjoining lobby, glancing around. It was similarly overgrown here, and there was a bioroid standing in the midst of it all.

He was covered in thick, bulky armor that was gnarled and craggy like an aged tree. If Rock was one for high fantasy, he'd say this one sort of looked like an ent. Cautiously, Rock stepped into the room, looking around. "Um, hello."

The bioroid crossed his arms, determined. "Some of our fathers have insisted on staying, so you'll just have to stay put, too!" Vines reached for him, to grab instead of strike.

Rock was hoping that they'd at least be able to talk! So some of his brothers were staying? That meant some were intending to leave. At least that explained why the children were so anxious, why they were moving around a lot more. Like this one, they were all probably planting defenses. Working to protect their parents.

Rock equipped the Metal Blades and swiped them at the vines, stepping back to try and stay out of their reach. This was good: at least the blades were effective. "I need to talk to my brothers, I won't hurt them!"

"Trying to trick them into staying where they'll be killed is hurting them!" Was the second eldest that stupid?

Roots speared up through the ground, mostly intending to trip him but if he happened to get injured, well, he'd heal. And he'd injured their fathers, so Wood thought he deserved it anyway.

"There's a restraining order! They can't do anything to them!" Rock rolled to the side, away from the roots and threw a blade at them to keep them from snaking after him. They were his brothers, his kin, too! He was worried, he needed to see them, to see that they were alright.

"Humans lie! They nearly killed them! If the poison gas hadn't been blocked... They would have died! The guard captain, the one you talked to that time," Wood had been watching through Quick, who had been on that shift in disguise, "Pushed the button! And others ordered it... Humans can't be trusted! They murdered the Eldest, even though he considered Dr. Light kin, they'll murder our fathers and you, too! If our fathers like you, then we should take you with us, maybe, but you're not keeping them here!" A leaf appeared in his hands, and another, and another.

Rock hesitated for just a moment. The guard he spoke to…how did this child know about that? Were they watching all along? And he hadn't noticed? Rock shook his head: it was true that there were humans out there that wanted them dead, but there were humans out there that supported bioroids, too. "Doing this won't solve anything. They'll be even more afraid now, even more desperate to protect themselves…"

"And we have a right to protect ourselves, too! Once our fathers are away from here..." Wood shut up and sent the leaves spiraling out of his hands, cutting through the air toward Rock. They were brittle compared to metal, but sharp enough and easier to replace.

Rock managed to knock most of them away with the Metal Blades, but one bit into his arm and he winced. It wasn't anything like the injury he sustained from Metal; his arm was still functional, so he formed a metal blade in his hand. He'd need to knock Wood down some, get some of his armor off, before he could use the weapon Dr. Light prepared. He didn't want to seriously hurt Wood, so he had to aim carefully.

If he threw one of the blades at an angle, maybe he could slice layers of this child's armor off? He'd have to throw the blades hard, and properly, so that they rotated, but if they were glancing blows then he wouldn't hurt Wood too badly.

Wood tried to block with his leaves, but the blade cut through the tendrils connecting them, the ones that allowed Wood to control them, and they fell to the ground.

Rock didn't give Wood any quarter this time around and slung some blades at him, at an angle. He needed to slough it off slowly, try not to hit the skin underneath. If he cut Wood too badly then he'd… he wouldn't be able to attack again for a while, and Wood would regrow his armor in that time. Then Rock would have to hurt him all over again, and he didn't want to do that. So he wanted to do it right the first time.

Metal's weapon was a lot easier to use than Cut's. He wondered if the children had studied the designs of their parents and how they'd come up with their own abilities in the first place. Well, they'd had a lot of time to wait. Still... It was a relief that Wood wasn't really hurt when the bark came off. There weren't nerves in there, so it would have done a very good job keeping Rock from getting at his nanites.

Wood had figured out what Rock was doing, but even though he raised vines and roots, they were easy enough to dodge: Rock could feel the roots move in the ground, and the vines weren't very strong. He felt Wood grumble at Metal, and he wanted to say that it wasn't Metal's fault, but he didn't want to give Wood time to regrow too much armor, although he'd given him a bit of time to heal after each slice, just to be sure.

So he fired.

Like Flash's face, bare skin meant Rock's weapon worked really well: Wood went right to sleep. Rock remembered to ask Roll's permission before scanning him, just enough to get his weapon, and make sure he was okay, before pushing him under one of his trees, where he would be safe and out of the way. There wasn't anyone else to put him with, and Rock had to find his brothers.

When Rock turned to go, he felt Roll alert him. He spun around, but Wood was gone. There was another one like Time? Oh, that might be why he'd felt Metal somewhere nearby: he must have saved his cousin, or brother.

The little one, though... He frowned, but decided that it was best to just get to his brothers and find out. Maybe they'd just wanted to be sure he was okay? Or maybe Elec had met the little one at the hospital and missed him?

That might make sense, but something still felt off about it. Separating a father and child like that just didn't feel right. At least now he'd be able to make his way over to his brothers, find out what happened. See that they were okay. They could tell the children to stop fighting, that everything would be fine now.

When he opened the door to the next room, another nephew was there. Yes, it was the one Roll had seen. No, he wouldn't use Flash's weapon.

At least he hadn't attacked yet? That was good. "I feel bad, fighting people when I don't even know their names." He only knew Wood's from scanning him.

"It's Quick," the nephew said. "I took him someplace safe," though he didn't tell Rock that he'd run Wood up to their fathers' room and all the way back down here in the time it took the shorter bioroid to enter this room.

"That was nice of you. I just... When people are fighting, when people are afraid, I don't think anyone is safe." His brothers... "I don't want to hurt you, but I have to do what I can to make sure that my brothers, and everyone will be okay."

"We want them to be safe, too. We don't want to hurt you, either." Quick frowned and shook his head, "But, if we leave them here, alone, unguarded, they'll be killed—and don't even bring up that order your doctor had put up. As though a piece of paper would stop them." It was amazing that humanity seemed to be so two-faced about their own laws. "Did you know they were being starved, unable to do anything? That the guards barely even blinked when the order was issued?"

"They weren't being given enough to make armor or weapons," Rock acknowledged, "But Roll was making sure they weren't being starved, that they would be okay. Both of us, and Dr. Light, we've been doing everything we can for them. And we'll be able to take them home, after this." It was part of the order, and their lawyer thought that if anyone tried to argue with that, they would be shouted down for being stupid. Put another facility, more people, at risk, when Rock was the only one who could guard them and Dr. Light was in danger anyway? "And the soldiers... They obey orders. It's their job, to protect people, and sometimes protecting people means hurting people." Both of them knew that, didn't they? Even though they didn't like it. "I don't think he would have liked it, any more than I would like fighting you, or you would like fighting me." But both of them would still do it.

Quick seriously doubted that living with Dr. Light could be referred to as a "safe" existence. "They don't consider us to be people." Quick said simply and flicked his wrist. A golden, metallic boomerang was in his hand. "Humanity failed to keep them safe in the hospitals, failed to keep them safe here. There's no reason for us to believe that promise a third time." And he was gone. Something slammed into Rock from the side, sending him tumbling. Quick stepped back, Rock's vision of him blurring before solidifying again.

"Roll?" he sent, because Quick was fast. He thought that, even after what he'd discovered fighting Metal, there was only one way he would really be able to hit him. To hurt him enough to slow him down and use the inhibitor nanites, but that would inhibit Quick's ability to heal. So he'd have to move fast, and Roll was better at healing than he was. He sent her what he had planned, and then his relief and thanks when she agreed.

He took a deep breath, got to his feet, and summoned Wood's leaves, sent them spiraling out throughout the room.

The leaves themselves wouldn't have been a very big deal. It was the tendrils that connected them. When Quick was going so fast? He'd hit one, and the momentum would send all the leaves connected to it slicing into him, one after another after another.

Rock only had to make a few strands of them, and they were easy to make.

He would have hesitated after each blow, but Quick was moving so fast, he ran into all of them at once. It was the blink of an eye before Rock saw his nephew's battered body fall to the ground, and he begged Roll to use Rock's own systems to start scanning Quick, start healing, before Rock even got to his feet, before he even fired his buster.

After that, he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the nephew, focusing all his attention on him to get more data and make it easier for Roll to act through him.

Please let him be okay, please...

It had been hard, sometimes, to figure out how to use the weapons of his brothers to beat them. Maybe it was that the nephews had better weapons, but Quick, Wood... it had been too easy to hurt them. He hated it.

There was blood everywhere, but with Roll's help it slowed quickly. Even though Quick's nanites already started working to close the smaller cuts, the sheer number of injuries meant it was almost as bad as when Metal lopped Rock's arm off. Quick remained unconscious, but his pain indicators quieted considerably. Rock knew his brothers had to have felt that; he wondered whose child this was. He hoped they wouldn't be too angry with him. He hoped they'd understand.

Quick wasn't as big as Wood, but he was still bigger than Rock. His armor was surprising light, so Rock was able to pull him to a corner, out of harm's way. He considered taking him to his brothers, but if another nephew saw him pulling Quick around, they may take it the wrong way. Think he was taking him outside, to Dr. Light.

That would never go over well, and Quick might get hurt again when a fight started.

Rock hugged Quick, and cleaned him off a bit even after he was healed. Seeing blood on his nephews was even worse than his brothers. He hoped he wouldn't have to fight Time again... He hoped they'd forgive him someday. He wished there was something else he could do, but even though he wanted to put Quick with someone there were only humans nearby, and that might scare him if he woke up before they did, or put him in danger if he didn't. So... Rock kept going, and tried to reach Elec, to let him know that Quick was okay, even though they might have felt him being hurt, and that Rock was sorry. He hoped they were okay, but Rock's range was nothing like Roll's. Back then, he hadn't been able to tell that Elec was there until Elec was right behind him. He thought he was getting closer, though.

After a few minutes of walking, Rock began recognized where he was from previous visits. He and Roll had come here several times. Not nearly often enough, Rock thought. He came to what he recognized as the guards' station, the room before the chamber his brothers were contained in. There wasn't any blood on the floor—thankfully, but there were some discarded syringes scattered there. The soldiers were nowhere to be found, but Rock saw some of Metal's blades jutting from the doorway of one of the closets. The blades must be sealing the door shut. He was about to step over to investigate when he heard voices. He turned his head and listened. His brothers!

He sent his joy, worry and relief as he ran to them. It probably wasn't over yet; there were nephews nearby, but they would at least let him say hello before fighting, surely. He could see them again and tell Roll they were okay!

Four of his brothers were still in the room, though they'd had their backs to him when he entered. They glanced back to him, torn between greeting him and watching what was unfolding. Rock's eyes widened: there was a large hole blasted into the side of the cell and through it he could see a helicopter. He moved forward carefully, unable to take his eyes from the scene. Fire went to his side and put a comforting hand on Rock's shoulder, sending a message that they were alright. Rock looked at him, confused.

In the helicopter were the children, along with Ice and Elec. Metal was sitting next to Elec, and a nephew he didn't recognize was piloting the aircraft. One of the nephews was bent over someone else—Wood, he realized—and the last thing that Rock focused on was the child in Elec's arms. Dr. Hikari's son.

He opened his mouth, wanting to know why they would do something so terrible but not knowing what to say, but was interrupted by a transmission from Elec. He recognized it as being sent only to the first gens, including Rock and Roll. A private line.

"Ice says something's been odd about the children, that they all have memory locks in place," Elec paused and Rock could see him turn to answer one of the children's questions, as though he hadn't just been talking about them. He continued silently, "I think they're aware they have locks, but aren't doing anything about them. They want them there.

"This helicopter wasn't grown by one of us, either," Elec added, looking down at the cockpit from where he was sitting. "There are manufactured parts all over this thing. Parts that were added, a custom job. Parts made by humans." There were minute imperfections on the surface that something assembled from the ground up by nanites wouldn't have, just like the syringes hadn't had them. Why deliberately make something flawed? No, this hadn't been made by nanites, but by the techniques humans had.

Rock saw both brothers make eye contact with him, briefly, as the helicopter took off. Metal glanced back and down, but there was no contempt at Rock in his gaze, nor any trace of smugness.

He looked worried. For them.

So. If that was why they were leaving, Rock knew that they had to. They had to try to protect their children: if someone was using them? Prolonging everyone's pain for some reason, no matter what it was? "...He wouldn't hurt that child. He loves him very much." Why did you take him? He tried to send that to Metal. There had to be a reason, there had to be. They wouldn't just... A kin bond like that, just to make someone suffer? No, no. Not even if Elec had suffered because of him, surely his brother wouldn't want that. Surely.

Wide blue eyes pleaded that was true.

Metal didn't send a response. There wasn't enough time, not with them taking off and the distance between him and Rock growing greater by the second. Not with Air engaging the cloaking, completely cutting off any transmission. It was like the ones in the chopper stopped existing. Then the cloaking continued, and the helicopter disappeared into the sky. It could not even be heard.

How did you even begin to track that?

Rock turned back to his brothers, eyes wide. The second eldest, and still so young. A child who had nearly lost his brothers, again, and, and... what was going on?

At least these four were safe, for now, and he let Guts enfold him in those big arms, curled up on a lap one of his nephews had left not very long ago at all, but still. He wanted Dr. Light.

This time, it was one of his brothers that carried him out of this place. Placed him into his father's arms, and he clung to Dr. Light's coat the way he had just after Elec.

Because it had begun again, hadn't it? He'd hoped, but this hadn't ended with Fire. He'd had to fight again, he'd have to fight again... Who knew how many times? Metal might fight him twice. How could he look at Quick, how could he possibly try to hurt him again, after what he'd nearly done this time?

All his brothers could do was try to calm him, reassure him. Elec and Ice would get to the bottom of this, figure out what was wrong with the children. They'd find out what was wrong, then they could fix it. They'd all work together. Rock wouldn't have to be alone this time around.

His brothers were nervous, standing there, with people looking at them, but most of their attention was on Rock, and how Dr. Light had bent down to wrap his arms around the boy.

How, when he cried, most of the humans there were actually concerned.

At least no one was demanding they be shut down for transport, kept contained until they reached Light Labs. At least people were looking at Rock as a person, and by extension, were beginning to see them as people. A wave of worry for the children slipped between them, shared by each. They needed to be able to see this, too. They needed to experience this, understand that what they experienced didn't need to be reality. That it wasn't necessarily the way it had to be.

They didn't need to be two species at odds with each other.

Roll had kept their room for them, although it seemed so much larger now. Emptier. Although Roll had a way of filling up space with fluffed-up pillows and fresh water, all sorts of marks that Roll Was Here and was defending this place against worry and chaos (and loneliness) in so many ways that made them wonder what would happen if she decided to defend this place the way they had their hospitals.

Especially when the way that she shook the pillows was kind of a hint that she wanted to grab someone's shoulders and shake some sense into them.

They'd all just kind of stood to the side and let her do her thing. Let her set their room back up. Let her be angry…over there. All four of them knew that there'd be a lot of questions, possibly interrogations. The children would be back, they knew.