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Loveless 0- Chapter 6: Family Reunion and New Friends
Juno despite major injuries tried to stand up.  He was determined and frantic to get Sethra back…she had been taken from him before, and now she had come back and almost immediately taken again…but the difference was this time there was still time.  And Juno was starting to wonder if the Bitri Corp was involved in more than just the creation of the XX Series.
As Juno tried to stand he felt his leg buckle under his weight.  The immense pain made him scream out loud.  The Totenmaschine that had carried him out here appeared startled and charged over to Juno.  Juno’s first reaction was that it was attacking him again.  But contrary to his belief, the robot caught him in mid fall uncharacteristically gently for a robot it’s size.  Juno stared at the robot startled and confused.  By the white tear bloom flower head dress it had crudely constructed there was only one thing Juno could say before losing consciousness from the pain.
“Sarah…is that you?” Juno said remembering his sister’s favorite flower before he promptly fainted.  As Juno’s state stabilized and he fell into a gentle, but disturbed sleep, the robot went back to the house and gathered things from the house to make a bed for Juno.  She also gathered the pieces of the broken book shelf to make a fire to keep Juno warm during the night.
Meanwhile in the damaged Bitri Corp van, the cargo originally destined to be the deal breaker for Juno began to activate after its self programming was complete.  Using its cyborg strength it tore through the van like hot butter.  It looked to the destroyed house where its target lived.   It searched the house to find its intended target, but found nothing after destroying many walls and doors.  Eventually it turned its eyes towards the forest where it was picking up a strange heat signature.
“Target acquired.” The female android chirped.  “Unit XX-8 is online sir.”
Nachtlichter in the van on the way back to Neo Berlin noticed the call light flashing on the control panel of the van.  He hurriedly hit the button and turned on the radio.  “XX-8?  Is that you?”  Nachtlichter asked curiously.
“Yes sir!  I have the target in sight.  Shall I go with the original plan?  Am I to be his slave?”  XX-8 asked waiting for a reply.
“No…the plans have changed XX-8.  You are to destroy him and a defective Totenmaschine…Totenmaschine number 12.”
“Affirmative sir.  Now reprogramming for combat mode!  Reprogramming complete!”  XX-8 chirped back.  The very slender and cute android headed off into the woods to destroy the man she would have originally functioned as a servant for.  Although programmed for murder, she still skipped along cutely as she was originally programmed to do.  Her pink hair appeared to be ablaze as she stepped into the clearing lit by fire.  “Hello, I am XX-8.  I will be your executioner today.  So hold still okay?”
Totenmaschine number 12, hereby known as Sarah got up from tending to her brother.  Before she could react, the pink haired android dashed at her with alarming speed and hit Sarah with a flat handed punch concentrating all of the force on the tips of her fingers.  Sarah sparked slightly as the attack sliced into her abdomen.  Sarah’s first reflex was to grab XX-8’s arm.  Sarah’s eye color changed to a gentle blue and she shook her head disapprovingly.  The pink haired robot glared angrily at Sarah and said “You defective piece of junk!  Don’t you dare mock me!”  The pink haired robot then struck the robot with her open palm releasing Sarah’s grip and knocking her sliding backwards into a nearby tree.  Sarah’s eye then went from the gentle blue color to an intense red.  XX-8 charged once again at Sarah leaving a bluish after image of herself and started to strike again.  Sarah however immediately grabbed XX-8’s arm and slammed her into the tree.  Then Sarah continued to shake the robot like a rag doll, smashing it into everything nearby until finally releasing it and flinging it to the ground.  Both of XX-8’s legs were broken in the melee, so she sat on the ground nearly defenseless.  Sarah walked over to the pink haired female cyborg and unsheathed the power hammer from her back to finish the task.  She raised it over her head and began the downward swing, but was stopped by a familiar voice.
“Stop!” Juno screamed.  Sarah looked up at him, dropped her hammer and ran over to him to keep him from getting up.  Meanwhile XX-8 snapped, sparked and popped where she lay.
“Damn it…a Totenmaschine isn’t supposed to be that fast…it’s reflexes were almost human…sir I need help…I can’t move.”  XX-8 pleaded.
Nachtlichter didn’t look very surprised, “Hmmm…so that’s why it didn’t kill him…that boy is lucky…but his luck will run out soon…” Nachtlichter said cackling.
“Master…help me…” XX-8 pleaded with Nachtlichter.
“No XX-8, you’re just another failure…commence self destruction…we won’t be needing you anymore.”  Nachtlichter said flipping open a glass panel on the van’s control system.  Nachtlichter then pressed the large red button under the glass.  “Goodbye XX-8.”
“No!  Wait!” XX-8 screamed before her communications were cut off.  “No…I don’t want to die…I don’t want to die!”  XX-8 said clutching her head as the countdown began for self destruct.  She looked up at her victors and said “You should go…if you don’t, you will only die with me.  The blast radius is about a mile…so you should start running.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Juno asked surprised.
“Because…you spared my life…hurry…go!” XX-8 said smiling slightly.
“No there has to be something we can do.” Juno said crying.  “I have seen enough death in my life!  I don’t want to see anymore!”
“But I’m defective…there’s no reason to cry for me…go, you aren’t going to make it…I only have 5 seconds left.”
Sarah picked up Juno and started running back towards the house as quickly as possible.  XX-8 counted down its last 5 seconds of life as they ran.  Juno and Sarah hadn’t gotten more than 30 feet away before she got to one second left.  Almost comically as the android cringed before its imminent death…nothing happened.  Sarah had already put herself up as a human shield between Juno and the explosion she thought was going to happen.  One minute later, she still hadn’t exploded.  “What happened?” Juno asked.
XX-8 did a system scan on herself quickly and determined the problem.  “Well you see, I wasn’t made to be a combat model…so they forgot to put the self destruct module in.  Nachtlichter you idiot…”
Juno looked at her puzzled and then immediately started laughing.  “Wow!  I guess Bitri Corp isn’t so smart after all.”
“No just Nachtlichter, he is a bit too full of himself.  So he makes mistakes.  Just like bringing a Totenmaschine whose soul is directly related to you.”  XX-8 said.
“Soul?  What do you mean a soul?  Is that why she is protecting me?  Is that why…she made the tear bloom head dress…just like my sister?”  Juno said having a sudden epiphany.
“Most likely…that’s a big problem with the Totenmaschines…they don’t have good constraints over their energy source, so they tend to migrate towards who they used to be in life.”  XX-8 said.
“So you’re saying all of Bitri Corp’s products are powered by human souls?”  Juno said loudly.
“In so many words…yes.  Bitri Corp actually just pumps ether from the air into a large battery.  Sometimes a wandering human soul gets trapped in the battery and then it starts to take over.  We call those defectives.  We generally destroy them.  That one didn’t start acting up until it saw you.  Lately though Bitri Corp has been using a different method to collect ether…it’s a large machine and they hook us up inside it and transfer the ether into us as opposed to a battery.”  XX-8 explained.
“So when her battery dies…” Juno said realizing what it meant for his sister.
“Yes…she dies…in fact her soul is completely depleted and she ceases to exsist even as a spirit.  You could call it the worst kind of death.”  XX-8 said solemnly.
“So what can I do about it?”  Juno asked crying.
“Not much sadly…her life force is already partially gone…so she can’t be transferred to an XX body.” XX-8 said.
“I can’t accept that, I’ll find a way to save her…but wait…do you know where they took Sethra?”  Juno asked with sudden determination.
“Sethra?  You mean XX-7?  Why do you want her, she’s extremely defective.”  XX-8 said smirking.
“She is just like my fiancée who I lost to the CASKET bombings…” Juno said.
“Hmmm…so that’s why they wanted her so badly…we don’t have any time…we need to go now to save her.”  XX-8 said.
“Wait though…why are you helping us?  And how do you know so much that Sethra didn’t know if she’s the same model as you?”  Juno questioned.
“Well for the first part of the question you spared my life and tried to help me despite the fact I was about to explode…or so I thought…how embarrassing that was.  As for the second question, I was originally supposed to spy on you and report anything suspicious to Bitri Corp.  So they programmed me with enough knowledge about how we work to know if something fishy was going on or not.”
“So how do I know to trust you now?” Juno asked as he watched the android start to perform repairs on itself.
“Well, I guess you really can’t…but you will have to if you want Sethra back right?  I mean I know exactly where they are taking her.  And that is privileged information.  And besides, if we can’t get Sethra back, you can have me instead…”  she said grinning sheepishly.
“You’re right…as soon as you are ready let’s go.”  Juno said trying to stand once again only to fall back to the ground.
“More like when you are ready…I can fix myself in another half an hour…your bones don’t mend as easily as I can fix mine.”  XX-8 said smiling.  “Just go to sleep, we will go when you feel better.  I doubt they are going to destroy her, they are going to want to learn why she is malfunctioning before they do that.  That will take them a while.  The last time this happened it took months.”
Juno looked at her weakly and laid back down.  “Thank you XX-8…do you think there is something I might call you instead of that number?”
“I dunno…make up something…I am yours now after all.  And make it something cute!” She said winking.
“How about Strawberry?  It seems to fit since your hair is pink.”  Juno said.
“Strawberry?  I like it!  Doesn’t strike fear into the heart though does it?”  XX-8 said chuckling.
“Well you said something cute…death isn’t cute.”  Juno said smiling.
“Yeah, you are right…but I like the name none the less.” The android now known as Strawberry said.  “Now get some sleep…you will feel better in the morning.”
“Alright…” Juno said.  He lay there watching Strawberry fixing herself and eventually his drowsiness took over and put him to sleep.  After tending to her wounds she fashioned a splint for Juno’s leg out of some wood she found nearby.  Sarah watched her cautiously as Strawberry worked on her brother.
“Hey number 12, be the look out okay?  I need you to watch the perimeter for activity.” Strawberry said.  Sarah nodded with new found trust for Strawberry and then stomped off loudly into the woods.  Strawberry grinned roguishly as the robot plodded off.  She slipped out of her clothes and snuggled up next to Juno while he was sleeping.  “You were merciful to me…and I have no master now…I will make you my own by any means necessary.”  Strawberry whispered gently as she shut her systems down to restore her energy.
As Sarah patrolled the forest, she heard something.  A loud noise like an old rusty pick up truck roared on the road next to the darkened forest.  The truck suddenly stopped and a large group of men with mismatched fatigues and heavy combat boots jumped out of the truck.  “What’s this?  A Totenmaschine out here?!  This can’t be!  They can’t have spread out this far!”  The man obviously in charge said raising his weapon to the Totenmaschine.  Sarah shook her head emphatically and pointed over to the camp fire.
“Sir!  I think it’s trying to tell us something…it’s acting oddly human too.”  One of the lesser soldiers said.  The man in charge nodded and followed the Totenmaschine back to the campfire…where they found a man laying wounded next to a naked pink haired robot.  There would be a lot of explaining to do once they woke up.  The group set up camp where they stood and tied down Sarah.  Juno eventually woke up because of all the loud noise to find a naked Strawberry next to him and three rifles pointed at him.  “Care to explain what you’re doing out here city boy?”

Description
Loveless 0- Chapter 6: Family Reunion and New Friends
Juno despite major injuries tried to stand up.  He was determined and frantic to get Sethra back…she had been taken from him before, and now she had come back and almost immediately taken again…but the difference was this time there was still time.  And Juno was starting to wonder if the Bitri Corp was involved in more than just the creation of the XX Series.
As Juno tried to stand he felt his leg buckle under his weight.  The immense pain made him scream out loud.  The Totenmaschine that had carried him out here appeared startled and charged over to Juno.  Juno’s first reaction was that it was attacking him again.  But contrary to his belief, the robot caught him in mid fall uncharacteristically gently for a robot it’s size.  Juno stared at the robot startled and confused.  By the white tear bloom flower head dress it had crudely constructed there was only one thing Juno could say before losing consciousness from the pain.
“Sarah…is that you?” Juno said remembering his sister’s favorite flower before he promptly fainted.  As Juno’s state stabilized and he fell into a gentle, but disturbed sleep, the robot went back to the house and gathered things from the house to make a bed for Juno.  She also gathered the pieces of the broken book shelf to make a fire to keep Juno warm during the night.
Meanwhile in the damaged Bitri Corp van, the cargo originally destined to be the deal breaker for Juno began to activate after its self programming was complete.  Using its cyborg strength it tore through the van like hot butter.  It looked to the destroyed house where its target lived.   It searched the house to find its intended target, but found nothing after destroying many walls and doors.  Eventually it turned its eyes towards the forest where it was picking up a strange heat signature.
“Target acquired.” The female android chirped.  “Unit XX-8 is online sir.”
Nachtlichter in the van on the way back to Neo Berlin noticed the call light flashing on the control panel of the van.  He hurriedly hit the button and turned on the radio.  “XX-8?  Is that you?”  Nachtlichter asked curiously.
“Yes sir!  I have the target in sight.  Shall I go with the original plan?  Am I to be his slave?”  XX-8 asked waiting for a reply.
“No…the plans have changed XX-8.  You are to destroy him and a defective Totenmaschine…Totenmaschine number 12.”
“Affirmative sir.  Now reprogramming for combat mode!  Reprogramming complete!”  XX-8 chirped back.  The very slender and cute android headed off into the woods to destroy the man she would have originally functioned as a servant for.  Although programmed for murder, she still skipped along cutely as she was originally programmed to do.  Her pink hair appeared to be ablaze as she stepped into the clearing lit by fire.  “Hello, I am XX-8.  I will be your executioner today.  So hold still okay?”
Totenmaschine number 12, hereby known as Sarah got up from tending to her brother.  Before she could react, the pink haired android dashed at her with alarming speed and hit Sarah with a flat handed punch concentrating all of the force on the tips of her fingers.  Sarah sparked slightly as the attack sliced into her abdomen.  Sarah’s first reflex was to grab XX-8’s arm.  Sarah’s eye color changed to a gentle blue and she shook her head disapprovingly.  The pink haired robot glared angrily at Sarah and said “You defective piece of junk!  Don’t you dare mock me!”  The pink haired robot then struck the robot with her open palm releasing Sarah’s grip and knocking her sliding backwards into a nearby tree.  Sarah’s eye then went from the gentle blue color to an intense red.  XX-8 charged once again at Sarah leaving a bluish after image of herself and started to strike again.  Sarah however immediately grabbed XX-8’s arm and slammed her into the tree.  Then Sarah continued to shake the robot like a rag doll, smashing it into everything nearby until finally releasing it and flinging it to the ground.  Both of XX-8’s legs were broken in the melee, so she sat on the ground nearly defenseless.  Sarah walked over to the pink haired female cyborg and unsheathed the power hammer from her back to finish the task.  She raised it over her head and began the downward swing, but was stopped by a familiar voice.
“Stop!” Juno screamed.  Sarah looked up at him, dropped her hammer and ran over to him to keep him from getting up.  Meanwhile XX-8 snapped, sparked and popped where she lay.
“Damn it…a Totenmaschine isn’t supposed to be that fast…it’s reflexes were almost human…sir I need help…I can’t move.”  XX-8 pleaded.
Nachtlichter didn’t look very surprised, “Hmmm…so that’s why it didn’t kill him…that boy is lucky…but his luck will run out soon…” Nachtlichter said cackling.
“Master…help me…” XX-8 pleaded with Nachtlichter.
“No XX-8, you’re just another failure…commence self destruction…we won’t be needing you anymore.”  Nachtlichter said flipping open a glass panel on the van’s control system.  Nachtlichter then pressed the large red button under the glass.  “Goodbye XX-8.”
“No!  Wait!” XX-8 screamed before her communications were cut off.  “No…I don’t want to die…I don’t want to die!”  XX-8 said clutching her head as the countdown began for self destruct.  She looked up at her victors and said “You should go…if you don’t, you will only die with me.  The blast radius is about a mile…so you should start running.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Juno asked surprised.
“Because…you spared my life…hurry…go!” XX-8 said smiling slightly.
“No there has to be something we can do.” Juno said crying.  “I have seen enough death in my life!  I don’t want to see anymore!”
“But I’m defective…there’s no reason to cry for me…go, you aren’t going to make it…I only have 5 seconds left.”
Sarah picked up Juno and started running back towards the house as quickly as possible.  XX-8 counted down its last 5 seconds of life as they ran.  Juno and Sarah hadn’t gotten more than 30 feet away before she got to one second left.  Almost comically as the android cringed before its imminent death…nothing happened.  Sarah had already put herself up as a human shield between Juno and the explosion she thought was going to happen.  One minute later, she still hadn’t exploded.  “What happened?” Juno asked.
XX-8 did a system scan on herself quickly and determined the problem.  “Well you see, I wasn’t made to be a combat model…so they forgot to put the self destruct module in.  Nachtlichter you idiot…”
Juno looked at her puzzled and then immediately started laughing.  “Wow!  I guess Bitri Corp isn’t so smart after all.”
“No just Nachtlichter, he is a bit too full of himself.  So he makes mistakes.  Just like bringing a Totenmaschine whose soul is directly related to you.”  XX-8 said.
“Soul?  What do you mean a soul?  Is that why she is protecting me?  Is that why…she made the tear bloom head dress…just like my sister?”  Juno said having a sudden epiphany.
“Most likely…that’s a big problem with the Totenmaschines…they don’t have good constraints over their energy source, so they tend to migrate towards who they used to be in life.”  XX-8 said.
“So you’re saying all of Bitri Corp’s products are powered by human souls?”  Juno said loudly.
“In so many words…yes.  Bitri Corp actually just pumps ether from the air into a large battery.  Sometimes a wandering human soul gets trapped in the battery and then it starts to take over.  We call those defectives.  We generally destroy them.  That one didn’t start acting up until it saw you.  Lately though Bitri Corp has been using a different method to collect ether…it’s a large machine and they hook us up inside it and transfer the ether into us as opposed to a battery.”  XX-8 explained.
“So when her battery dies…” Juno said realizing what it meant for his sister.
“Yes…she dies…in fact her soul is completely depleted and she ceases to exsist even as a spirit.  You could call it the worst kind of death.”  XX-8 said solemnly.
“So what can I do about it?”  Juno asked crying.
“Not much sadly…her life force is already partially gone…so she can’t be transferred to an XX body.” XX-8 said.
“I can’t accept that, I’ll find a way to save her…but wait…do you know where they took Sethra?”  Juno asked with sudden determination.
“Sethra?  You mean XX-7?  Why do you want her, she’s extremely defective.”  XX-8 said smirking.
“She is just like my fiancée who I lost to the CASKET bombings…” Juno said.
“Hmmm…so that’s why they wanted her so badly…we don’t have any time…we need to go now to save her.”  XX-8 said.
“Wait though…why are you helping us?  And how do you know so much that Sethra didn’t know if she’s the same model as you?”  Juno questioned.
“Well for the first part of the question you spared my life and tried to help me despite the fact I was about to explode…or so I thought…how embarrassing that was.  As for the second question, I was originally supposed to spy on you and report anything suspicious to Bitri Corp.  So they programmed me with enough knowledge about how we work to know if something fishy was going on or not.”
“So how do I know to trust you now?” Juno asked as he watched the android start to perform repairs on itself.
“Well, I guess you really can’t…but you will have to if you want Sethra back right?  I mean I know exactly where they are taking her.  And that is privileged information.  And besides, if we can’t get Sethra back, you can have me instead…”  she said grinning sheepishly.
“You’re right…as soon as you are ready let’s go.”  Juno said trying to stand once again only to fall back to the ground.
“More like when you are ready…I can fix myself in another half an hour…your bones don’t mend as easily as I can fix mine.”  XX-8 said smiling.  “Just go to sleep, we will go when you feel better.  I doubt they are going to destroy her, they are going to want to learn why she is malfunctioning before they do that.  That will take them a while.  The last time this happened it took months.”
Juno looked at her weakly and laid back down.  “Thank you XX-8…do you think there is something I might call you instead of that number?”
“I dunno…make up something…I am yours now after all.  And make it something cute!” She said winking.
“How about Strawberry?  It seems to fit since your hair is pink.”  Juno said.
“Strawberry?  I like it!  Doesn’t strike fear into the heart though does it?”  XX-8 said chuckling.
“Well you said something cute…death isn’t cute.”  Juno said smiling.
“Yeah, you are right…but I like the name none the less.” The android now known as Strawberry said.  “Now get some sleep…you will feel better in the morning.”
“Alright…” Juno said.  He lay there watching Strawberry fixing herself and eventually his drowsiness took over and put him to sleep.  After tending to her wounds she fashioned a splint for Juno’s leg out of some wood she found nearby.  Sarah watched her cautiously as Strawberry worked on her brother.
“Hey number 12, be the look out okay?  I need you to watch the perimeter for activity.” Strawberry said.  Sarah nodded with new found trust for Strawberry and then stomped off loudly into the woods.  Strawberry grinned roguishly as the robot plodded off.  She slipped out of her clothes and snuggled up next to Juno while he was sleeping.  “You were merciful to me…and I have no master now…I will make you my own by any means necessary.”  Strawberry whispered gently as she shut her systems down to restore her energy.
As Sarah patrolled the forest, she heard something.  A loud noise like an old rusty pick up truck roared on the road next to the darkened forest.  The truck suddenly stopped and a large group of men with mismatched fatigues and heavy combat boots jumped out of the truck.  “What’s this?  A Totenmaschine out here?!  This can’t be!  They can’t have spread out this far!”  The man obviously in charge said raising his weapon to the Totenmaschine.  Sarah shook her head emphatically and pointed over to the camp fire.
“Sir!  I think it’s trying to tell us something…it’s acting oddly human too.”  One of the lesser soldiers said.  The man in charge nodded and followed the Totenmaschine back to the campfire…where they found a man laying wounded next to a naked pink haired robot.  There would be a lot of explaining to do once they woke up.  The group set up camp where they stood and tied down Sarah.  Juno eventually woke up because of all the loud noise to find a naked Strawberry next to him and three rifles pointed at him.  “Care to explain what you’re doing out here city boy?”