//4-HN: [Familiar Echoes]

The man with the revolver scrambled back, a look of terror occupying his face. The blood-covered man in front of him had refused to comply.

'Just a rich boy putting up a tough act,' he had thought. "He thinks he can make a shield out of his money."

The corpses surrounding the man made strong cases to the contrary.

4-HN looked down, seeing that one of the gang members that had attacked him was dragging himself across the pavement, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. He walked over, putting his foot on the man's back.

"Please," the man managed to choke out.

"Did you stop?" 4-HN asked. The man's face warped into a mix of fear and confusion.

"What?" he croaked.

"Did you stop when she said the same thing?" 4-HN stared coldly at the sorry creature that was dirtying the underside of his boot.

"I'm sorry," the creature whispered. "I'm sorry. I was only following orders."

"Whose orders?" 4-HN asked, his cold expression hinting at intrigue.

"I can't tell you. They'll do far worse things to me than you can."

"I doubt it," 4-HN said, increasing the pressure of his foot. A crunching sound ensued, followed by a gurgling noise. He stomped down again. The gurgling stopped.

He turned to the last of the gang members, who was clutching his revolver with trembling hands in the corner. He walked over, grabbing the gun and crumpling it in his hand.

"I'm doing you a favor, you know," 4-HN said. "If you had tried to lay your hands on her," he said, gesturing to 5-AE, who was standing in the entrance to the alleyway, observing the carnage. "Your death would have been far more painful."

The man scrambled to his feet, running towards the street. His body hit the ground before he made it even a meter away.

5-AE retracted her finger from the man's skull. 'You were taking too long,' her indifferent voice appeared in 4-HN's head. 'Remember what you came here to do. We won't gain anything by helping her, but our effort would be wasted if we came here just to leave her in the alley.'

4-HN nodded, his anger receding, regaining his composure. When he was angry, he turned almost into an entirely different person. He turned to the android whom he had saved. She was curled into a fetal position, and was badly beaten. Sparks flew from the places she had been hit with rocks. 4-HN tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "We're not here to hurt you. We just want to ask a few questions," he said.

The woman looked up, slowly unfurling her limbs and sitting up with obvious difficulty. "Wh-" she paused, collecting herself. "What do you want to know?"

"Why were those men attacking you?" he asked.

"I'm a housekeeping android," she said. "My owner went gambling the other night, and lost too much money. He wasn't able to pay off his debt, so the casino hired some local thugs to ransack his house. I was the most valuable thing he owned, so they decided to take me." She smiled weakly. "I don't have any combat capabilities, so it wasn't hard for some low-level criminals to take me. They're willing to do anything to get money."

"You two clearly are more than capable of defending yourselves," she added, her eyes flicking towards the mess behind 4-HN. "Who are you?"

4-HN shared a look with 5-AE.

'We can't tell her who we really are. She doesn't seem to be a threat, but we need to draw as little attention as we can,' 5-AE thought to him.

He nodded. "We're former military androids. We were lucky enough to avoid losing our minds. I'm Ahn, this is Sae," he lied, gesturing to 5-AE, who was still standing in the entrance of the alley.

(Note: Ahn is pronounced "On" and Sae is pronounced "Sigh-ay")

'I like it,' 5-AE's voice once again appeared in 4-HN's head, sounding something approaching content.

"I see. I'm Ava," the housekeeper stood up shakily. 4-HN relaxed a little. She had bought his story.

"I hate to ask you for help after you've done so much, but I'm worried for my master," Ava said, her eyes focusing, having recovered from the shock of being attacked. "Can you help me make sure he's safe? I don't have much to give, but you can take anything you want when we get there." Her voice was trembling. "Please."

4-HN looked at 5-AE. She sighed, then turned toward the street, reluctantly saying, "let's go."

4-HN was expecting a lot more resistance from her. Was she starting to develop a sense of empathy? No, he determined. She wanted to avoid any conflict with him. After the first time she was angry, she had agreed with what he said a lot more openly.

"Where are we headed?" he asked, turning to Ava, who was trailing slightly behind them. 4-HN noticed that she was limping, heavily favoring her right leg. He slowed down so she could catch up, then grabbed her left arm and wrapped it around his shoulders, supporting her injured leg. This was what he had been trained to do in the case that a squadmate was crippled during an assignment. 5-AE glanced at him, raising her eyebrow. He shrugged.

"He lives in Section 42, House Eight," Ava said, putting a large amount of weight on 4-HN. Her injury was worse than he had initially thought.

"Do you know where that is, 5-" he stopped, correcting himself. "Sae?"

'Just call me 'Sae'', her voice came. '5-AE is just a serial number given by EDGE. This is the first time anyone has called me by something unique. I don't want EDGE to influence me anymore.'

This surprised 4-HN even more than her compliance had earlier. Maybe she was changing.

"Yes, I do, 'Ahn'," she replied out loud, putting a distinct emphasis on his false name. There was a hint of stubbornness in her voice. She clearly intended to call him by this name, whether he liked it or not.

'Ahn' held back laughter. She was definitely changing.

They walked in silence for the following minutes. Ava broke the silence.

"How long have you two known each other?"

Ahn thought about his response carefully before answering. He still needed to exercise caution around anybody that could leak information, whether they intended to or not. He felt that they could trust Ava, but one slip of the tongue could spell disaster.

"We were sent on a mission together about three years ago," he said. It wasn't a lie, just not the entire truth.

Ava nodded, seemingly lost in thought. She then spoke again.

"That's about the time my owner found me." She smiled. "He is a kind man. I was thought to be defective for the limp in my left leg, and my manufacturer thought it would be cheaper to replace me than to fix me, so they threw me into the slums and left." Her face turned a light shade of pink. "But Marvin found me on his way back from a business trip, and told me that as long as I could work, he would take me in. He treated me very well...something I wasn't used to after living in the slums for almost two weeks." Her complexion now approached red.

'Is she malfunctioning?' Sae thought to Ahn, casting him a confused look.

"He sounds like a good person," Ahn said, ignoring Sae's comment.

"He is. He gave me a chance to live," Ave replied.

Ahn flinched, earning another sideways glance from Sae.

'It's nothing,' he told her. She seemed to buy it.

Ava pointed to a street that branched off of the main road about a kilometer away. "That's where we're going."

Ahn nodded. The street they were on was in the gray area between rich and poor, the closest thing District 5 had to a middle class. The houses here belonged to the people that often worked as receptionists or lower tier jobs for large companies, a step above the factory work that the poor residents of the slums had to do. These were the people that most often fell into the casinos' traps, having hopes of being able to move into the upper class section of the city. Very few ever did. Those foolish enough to attempt this ended up in the slums if they were lucky. If they were unlucky enough to not have enough money to pay off their debt, they were found beaten to near death in a ditch.

The surrounding houses had basic modern necessities, such as holo screens in every room, cryopreservation units, and hover cars. They did not, however, get to experience the luxury that the upper class did. The upper class had jet boards, instant clothing machines, and even age prevention units. These were the most coveted technological advancement made in the last decade. They allowed the user to slow the aging process to half of its original speed, allowing the extremely wealthy to have lifespans of up to one hundred and eighty years. The lure of such technology was usually what led the few that resided in the middle class to economic ruin at the hands of gambling. Even if they received all of the possible raises and promotions available for their job positions, they would never be able to afford these machines.

"Here," Ava said, pointing to the house directly to their right.

Ahn nodded, walking up to the door and knocking on it. No response came. He knocked again. Still nothing. He scanned the building for heat signatures, but found none.

"Nobody's home," he said.

Ava looked nervous. "He should have gotten home from work over an hour ago," she said, worry lining her voice.

Ahn tried the doorknob. It swung open. It was unlocked.

The house was simply decorated, a few paintings lining the walls, some holographic plants in the corners. Aside from that, the house was plain. Only the necessities. This was not uncommon for houses in the middle class area. Ahn walked into what looked to be the living room. He froze.

"Is he there?" Ava called. Ahn didn't reply. Ava couldn't wait any longer. She ran into the living room. "Marvin? Marvin are you-" She trailed off.

Ahn took the scene in slowly, watching Ava fall to her knees, sobbing. There were entrails decorating the plain walls, streaks of blood staining the carpet. In the middle of the room, a heat blade was sticking out of the floor. On top of it was a man's severed head, an insignia branded into his forehead. A phoenix.

Ahn felt a pang of sadness as he looked at Ana, who had completely stopped talking coherently, instead wailing and rolling on the floor. Her cries carried utter despair as they echoed off of the walls. The sound only heard when someone was broken. When they had experienced true sadness. When they had lost someone close to them.

He knew this feeling all too well.