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Why not, indeed.
Bemused by the strange new adventure that was happening to them, seemingly at random, Dark went with the little female willingly. He and Light sat across from her at the small table, which was too short for them to fit their knees under it, and waited to see what might happen next.
“All right—whew!” she sighed and mimed wiping sweat off her brow. Then she looked up at them. “I’m Lilibet—Lili for short. Thank you both for rescuing me!”
“We didn’t really do much,” Light pointed out. “Other than go along with your ruse. And my designation is Treads Lightly. This is my twin brother, Fights Darkness,” he added, pointing at Dark. “Though most people just call us ‘Light’ and ‘Dark.’ Which is convenient since I’m the Light Twin of our Pair and Dark is the Dark Twin.”
“Wait—you two are Twin Kindred?” she asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “I thought you must be some other kind because of your, uh, skin color.” She nodded at Dark’s golden-purple skin—a color the Ash’anti called “tallash.”
“We have Ash’anti blood as well as Twin Kindred Blood mixed in our DNA,” Light explained.
Dark noticed that he left out the part about how Dark had Berserker genes as well—possibly he didn’t want to scare her. That was fine with him—he deferred to his brother’s judgment. When the two of them were out together, Light tended to do most of the talking, which was fine with Dark. He preferred to look at the lovely little Elite, anyway.
“Wow, that’s really interesting—but what do you mean when you say you have Twin Kindred Blood ‘mixed’ in your DNA?” she asked.
“We’re Dark Kindred,” Dark said, joining the conversation at last.
“Oh, Dark Kindred?” Her eyes grew wide.
“Yes,” Light said, nodding. “Which means we aren’t gestated in a womb like most warriors—our DNA is mixed by Tolleg scientists and we’re grown in Gestation Tanks.”
Dark waited to see what the little Elite would think about that. Probably, she wouldn’t like it. Unfortunately, the Dark Kindred had attacked Earth some years past. They had been driven to do so by The Collective—the group of malevolent self-aware computers that had once ruled them all. This made a lot of humans—especially the females—frightened of him and his brother. Which was one reason Dark had felt the unfamiliar emotion of surprise when the little female had attached herself to them.
However Lilibet—or Lili, as she called herself—seemed to take their admission in stride.
“I’ve always wondered what the Dark Kindred looked like in person—I was living in a remote area and never saw any of you when…”
“When our people attacked your planet,” Light finished for her. “My brother and I weren’t among those who attacked,” he added.
Dark nodded.
“Our unit was kept back to protect our home world.”
“But we’re very sorry for what was done to Earth,” Light said earnestly.
“As much as we can be, anyway,” Dark growled.
Lili frowned.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Please excuse my brother—what he means is that we’re both new to feeling anything at all,” Light explained quickly. “I’ve only just had my emotion damper removed and Dark still has his in—though it’s turned down at the moment so he can experience emotions.”
“Wow…” She looked at them in wonder. “So…you’ve never had emotions before?”
Light shook his head.
“None before a few days ago when we moved to the Mother Ship. Having emotions is against the law on our home world—they call it ‘committing Feel Crime.’ They even have canines that can smell if you’re feeling—they’re called ‘Sniffers.’”
Her eyes got even wider.
“And what happens if you get caught, uh, ‘committing Feel Crime?’”
Dark barked a laugh that had no humor in it at all.
“Then you get terminated—eradicated. Fucking wiped out,” he added, to be sure she understood.
“Just for having feelings?” she exclaimed. Leaning forward, she put a hand on each of their arms. “I’m so sorry—that’s terrible.”
