The years passed, the work continued, and Himari watched them all grow before her eyes. Each had the same face, the same genetic template. And yet she quietly named a few - under her breath - when no one else could hear.

She could see how different they would be. It wasn’t how they were built, the way the cybernetics shaped them. It was in the way that they moved. How they stirred in their three-year-long sleep, every little expression that flitted across their faces as they dreamed.

“Okay…” she hummed to the android inside the tank, smiling at them as if they could see her, hear her. “Looks like your construct download is going just fine. Polymer circuits are integrating and cybernetics…” she idly tapped the console screen, watching as mechanical fingers curled and flexed at her instruction, “Okay, cybernetics are operational. Half a year and you should be moving around just fine.”

“How are our patients?” Samuels called out from down the aisle.

“They’re in the green, developing on time,” she called back. “I’m looking forward to meeting ‘em!”

He chuckled softly, shaking his head as he moved across the bay to check on the rest of the tanks, “Aren’t we all, Himari. Aren’t we all…”

“Look alive everybody!” the floor boss barked out, stomping along the bays as the assembly tanks finally began to drain. “Three years of work! Let’s make it across the finish line!”

The androids began to stir for the first time, eyes fluttering as they started to come online. Some choked and sputtered as the fluid drained below their faces, their first breaths in a new world.

“Himari,” the floor boss called out, his attention more on the androids than her. “What have we got?”

Himari tried to keep her hands steady, fumbling with the panel as she checked the readouts of the tanks, “Forty-six coming online. Vitals are holding… They’re no longer on life support!”

The tension broke as a cheer cascaded up and down the bays, the excitement of the moment numbing the ache that sat in Himari’s chest.

They’d lost four…

The tanks lowered to the floor and slowly began to open. At first, many only leaned against the supports, coughing and gasping as they breathed for the first time. But one by one the androids began to step out, their caretakers at the ready for those that stumbled. Himari quickly steadied the one closest to her as they emerged, holding them up.

They looked to her as they held her arm and all she could do was smile, small and proud, “Welcome to the world.”

Even after the month they’d spent running them through their paces, Himari couldn’t help but watch as the first airships were loaded up. They’d be heading off soon to deliver the androids - their androids - to wherever they were needed.

“Do you ever think to check?” she asked softly, looking out towards the sunset as it painted the open sky.

“Think to check what?” Samuels asked with an exhausted shrug.

“On the androids,” she said, nudging his shoulder with a small smile. “Ya know, after they’re rolled out.”

What had been a smile slowly fell as Samuels looked at the horizon, “Don’t…”

“What? I’m just curious.”

“And I'm telling you, don’t. Company doesn’t pay us to make house calls. Nor do they want them.”

“I…” Himari shook her head, thumping her fist on the docking bay floor. “Don’t you wonder?”

Samuels sighed and ran a hand over his face, giving her a tired smile, “Of course I did, when I first started…”

She frowned in thought as she stared at him, “What happened?”

“Got over it,” he said, but she didn’t think he believed it either. The look on his face was too worn, too hurt, “You see enough batches, the novelty wears off. You get used to it.”

She… She didn’t know what to say. And she tried. She tried to think of something. But, whatever she thought of she knew he’d already heard it, already said it himself once…

She hated the quiet pity on his face as he smiled and lied to her face, “They’re just numbers, ‘Mari. Sooner you get used to it, the easier the job gets…”

It felt like a lifetime since they’d talked on that docking bay floor. In some ways it was. A lifetime of mistakes…

Himari rolled her shoulders, wincing as she strode through the workshop. Sunlight poured in through the skylight above, so much warmer than the cold lights of the factory. Even the machinery felt warmer, well worn with use and care.

It was home, plain and simple.

She called out, racing up the steps to the common room and into their little makeshift infirmary off on the side, “Alright! Let’s help get our guest patched–”

She froze, staring at the android on her table, their body covered with burns and scars across their skin.

It had been years, but she knew that face. She’d watched them grow up before her eyes after all…

They were hurt - blood and polymer leaking through cracks in their cybernetics, and still, they smiled when they saw her, “Hello… H-Hello again - miss Himari.”

“You… You remember me?” Himari shook her head, quickly getting to work as she checked their injuries. “L-Let’s get you patched up…”

“Miss Himari?” her heart ached at the sound of their voice, like they didn’t blame her at all, like they still trusted her after all this time.

“Y-Yes?”

“It’s good to see you again, miss,” they said with a smile that made her resolve crack.

She shouldn’t, but she couldn’t help but smile back, her voice shaking, “It’s good to finally see you again too.”

They winced and clutched their shoulder as a short surged through the circuits and nerves in their arm. Worry twisted in Himari’s gut as she looked over the cybernetic limb with care.

“Will I… Will I be okay?”

“Everything will be alright,” she whispered, more to herself than them.

And yet- “Now that you’re here…” -that half-remembered phrase echoed back at her, made her stare at them.

She cradled their face in her hands, brushing their golden hair like a child she’d lost and found again.

She wasn’t their caretaker anymore. Maybe she should never have been. They’d deserved better than her youthful ambitions, better than the burden she’d helped make them for. And yet-

“I mean it,” she said, soft and desperate. They had to know she meant it, that it was more than just the imprint, “You’re safe here and I… I-I’ll help you, I promise.”

-she was proud. Damn her heart, she was proud to see them still standing, to see this life she’d made still here. They had done so much to help people, that much she was sure. Now, it was her turn.

They closed their eyes, relief on their face as they leaned into her hand, “Thank you, miss Himari…”