While the gossipy bunch inside of the manor house cackled and begged for more information on their current soap opera, Scott and Harley climbed up into the confines of the guard tower. Several minutes passed in silence as the tension built.

There was much to be said. Despite the directness of his approach, the actual conversation was difficult to begin. How did a man broach such a difficult topic with what amounted to Optimus Primes non-union standard little sister? Sure, she wasn't technically a transformer, but she might as well be given her racial profile.

Scott clenched his hands into fists for a moment then took a slow, cleansing, breath. Robot girl, or not, she was a girl. In the beginning it was easy to see her as a little girl, treat her like a small post-apocalyptic sibling. The fact that she grew to her current state after her tier-upgrade changed things. Where once she only acted toward him in a stoic or childish manner when she tried to be closer to him, she now held the mannerism of a young girl who just began to feel the desire to grow closer to him.

"Harley," said Scott in a soft, gentle, tone.

"Yes, Master?" she asked him in an equally soft manner. Her voice did not waver in the slightest, but she fidgeted slightly. It was a sure sign of her hidden agitation.

"I'm sorry," he said. The sincerity in his tone carried across the air.

Harley's cheeks colored instantly. There was no need to explain to her what her master apologized for in that moment. The way that he acted now spoke volumes.

"Master, I—" Harley stopped mid-sentence then raised her hand and lightly tapped her helmet. The visor disappeared and her eyes were revealed. Shimmering with emotion they showed the conflict within her even before the words left her lips. "I don't understand any of this."

He turned to look at his closest companion. In that moment all thoughts of her being some sort of transformer left him. Her body trembled slightly as she looked toward him. The stoic little girl who stood by him no matter what became exactly that in his eyes. Scott reached out to her and clasped her hands softly. "Me neither. It seems we're both caught up in something that we did not bargain for... unless I am wrong?"

Harley looked down toward the hands that gently clasped hers then closed her eyes. "I'm sorry for what I did to you back at the grocery store... I should remember my place."

Scott did not hesitate. He pulled his young companion forward then wrapped her in a tight, familial, embrace. "You're place is with me, no matter what that means in the future. We're family, right?"

Her lips began to tremble, then in a move surprising even to her she slipped her arms around him and hugged him back. As the first few seconds passed, that timid embrace became powerful and endearing.

They stayed that way for a time, neither speaking the unnecessary words that their simple embrace spoke. What would the world have seen? Where they an older brother comforting his younger sister? Were they a man inappropriately cuddling with a middle-school girl? Was it the sight of a master manipulating the emotions of his transport-slave?

He lightly stroked her back after a short time passed then placed his cheek against the top of her head. Now would come the hard part of the conversation.

"Harley, I need you to understand something. Alright?" he asked her softly.

"No," she said in a soft tone of her own.

Scott sighed loudly then released a tired chuckle. It was easy to forget how perceptive this weird little girl could be at times. "Yes. Harley."

She huffed loudly then pushed away from him. "Master only likes weird girls."

"You're a weird girl, too, Harley," said Scott in a light tone.

"Is that all that Harley is to you?" she asked him then. The moon peeked out from behind the clouds overhead and caused her eyes to shimmer softly once more. On the verge of tears, she refused to look away from him this time.

His hands moved to gently grasp Harley's shoulders. "We haven't known each other long, but I'm glad that we met. You never really said much before, but the fact that you were there for me when no one else in the world could stand with me... Don't you get what that means?"

"Master..." she said softly. She started to lower her eyes but then suddenly took a breath and forced herself to continue looking into his eyes instead.

"I know you feel a certain way about me, even if you don't seem to understand it," said Scott. He took a breath then nodded to her. "I just need you to understand that I can't see you in that same way."

Her lower lip started to quiver, then her eyes reddened slightly. Any pre-text that she was merely a machine was lost in that moment as Scott told her a harsh but necessary truth.

"M-master will marry all those weird girls, but doesn't feel that way about Harley," she said. She pulled back from him and drew her hands to her chest.

Scott stood before the young girl who had always stood beside him, and broke her heart. He did not apologize for it, nor did he try to lessen the blow.

Suddenly, a complicated expression arose on her face and she cried out, "Why! What did Harley do wrong?"

"Nothing. You've done absolutely nothing wrong," said Scott. "That's why I can't see you the way that I see the others."

"No. It..." Harley shook her head then stepped away from him. She refused to look him in the eyes for a moment. "That makes no sense."

Her eyes rose once more and she looked to him for answers. "Why doesn't it make sense?"

Scott closed his eyes briefly then slowly opened them. "I'm not the guy who can answer things like that. I'm absolutely shit with relationships."

She lunged forward and grabbed his arm. Her complicated emotions writ heavily across her face she pleaded with her eyes. "Is it... Is it because Harley isn't a real person? She—"

"Hell no!" said Scott emphatically. The emotionally conflicted girl gasped at him then drew back a little. His demeanor changed so drastically in that moment that her mind was once again sent reeling.

"You're more real to me than anyone else alive right now!" Scott stared at Harley, his chest beginning to heave. "You've been there for me when there was no one else. You're the only person on this entire miserable fucking rock that I trust completely."

He reached out and gripped her by the shoulder once more, his eyes practically ablaze with emotion. "Those other people in that room are faction and friends, but you're my family! You!"

Harley's chest began to rise and fall rapidly as tears started to trail hotly down her cheeks. "W-what does that mean?"

"I care too much about you, to treat you like someone I can barely trust. I don't know any of those girls in there, not really, but I need to get to know them in the hopes of building a future for all of us." Scott gulped down a bit of air then slowly released it. "You're part of the reason I'm even bothering to do that. I want a world where you can be happy, just like everyone else."

"M-master..." said Harley, at a loss for words.

"We've only just met by my view of time, but you've known me the entirety of your life in this world." Scott smiled at her as his own tears began to trickle down. "I was there the moment you were born. We've protected each other ever since. I could never see you as less than you are. Please understand what I mean here. I don't know how to say it any more clearly."

"Y-you, Master, you—" Harley drew back once more and rapidly shook her head. "Harley doesn't understand!"

"Harley, do you know what family is?" asked Scott. He sat down on a nearby bench and patted the spot next to him.

"It is people who share blood relationships, isn't it?" asked Harley. She then scurried over and sat next to him obediently.

"That's one definition, but it's not the most important one." Scott offered her a tearful smile then placed his hand atop her head. Her cheeks colored once more, but she did not do anything to make him move his hand.

"When I put my hand on your head, what goes through your mind?" he asked her.

"It's embarrassing..." she said softly.

"Why?" he asked her.

"Harley does not know," she replied in another soft tone.

Scott lowered his hand and drew her into a one-armed hug. "How about this? Is this embarrassing."

"Harley does not mind this as much," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

He leaned over and rested his cheek atop her head. "Now? How does this make you feel?"

"Harley—" she said in a gentle voice. "This is something that I like."

He noted that she stopped speaking to herself in the third person. There had to be some significance to it.

They continued to share that tender moment for a while, but inevitably, they had to continue their conversation. Scott asked, "This is something you like? What we're doing now?"

"Yes. Master. I like this," she said softly.

"How do you feel when I'm talking with the other girls, like Brittani or Eloa?" asked Scott.

"No," she said.

"No?" asked Scott, a slight hint of amusement in his voice. He squeezed her gently with his arm then asked, "No what?"

"I don't like that," she said, annoyance evident in her words.

Scott smiled slightly to himself then asked, "Why not?"

Her demeanor changed once more. She curled her hands into little fists then whispered. "It hurts Harley."

"Oh, Harley," said Scott softly. He nuzzled the top of her head with his cheek.

She whispered something that made him blink rapidly a few times. "What was that?"

"Harley asked why Master would do something so dumb," said Harley.

"What do you mean? It's dumb to spend time with Eloa or Brittani?" he asked her.

A soft snort was soon followed by another cryptic statement. "Why would master go away, and not take Harley? It's dumb."

Scott found himself at a loss for words. What was she talking about? The more he tried to understand the girl, the stranger she became at times. "Why would I go away?"

"That is what Harley wants to know." She crossed her arms over her chest and made a huffing sound.

He shook his head, she was becoming sassy again. It was better than being upset, but who knew where that road would lead? "Why do you think I'm going to go away when I talk to them?"

"When Master talks to weird girls, it--" she said. Harley sighed then bit her lower lip a little. "Harley's core hurts... Harley always feels like master is about to go on a long trip without Harley."

"Oh, Harley," said Scott softly. He drew her closer with his arm and nuzzled the top of her head.

"Why would master take a trip without Harley? Harley is faster than master. Harley can't protect master, if she is not with master." The little robot girl turned toward him and asked, "Why would master leave Harley behind like that?"

"Harley. I'm not going anywhere. We're family. Most of the time we are alone together driving through the city," said Scott.

"Where was Harley when master was crossing the weird girl's bridge?" asked Harley.

Scott coughed for a moment, his eyes wide. "Hey..."

"Harley does not understand why master likes weird girls," she said, a slight pout on her lips.

"Who isn't a weird girl to you?" he asked her in a light tone, to try and ease the tension in the atmosphere a bit.

"Rosa," said Harley. "Rosa and Harley are not weird girls, like those other weird girls."

Scott drew back a little. Where had that come from? "Rosa isn't a weird girl to you?"

"No. Harley usually likes Rosa," she said. "Rosa is not weird like those other girls. Rosa is weird like Harley."

"How so?" he asked her, amused at her word choice. Curious to see how his closest companion's mind actually worked; he eagerly anticipated her response.

"Master does not know?" asked Harley in a tone of voice that bespoke mild amusement. "All of the weird girls that master likes want something from master. Rosa wants to do things for master, just like Harley."

Scott took her words to heart. In some ways, his alleged sibling did not understand how life worked. In this one way, though, she was quite observant.

"What makes you think that about Rosa?" he asked her thoughtfully.

"It is obvious that Rosa would like to cross master's bridge," said Harley in a blatant manner.

He laughed nervously then shook his head at her. "Do you really know what that means?"

She leaned back, crossed one leg over the other, and lightly clasped her hands together atop her knee. "Harley is an adult."

Scott's incredulous, and mildly disturbed, expression caught her attention. Harley made a strange noise reminiscent of an engine trying to start that soon turned into a high-pitched girlish giggle. The look on her master's face was priceless.

He quickly changed the subject. "So, the... Weird girls. You don't like them because they want things from me?"

Her good humor died a little. Harley nodded softly then said, "They want to take things from master. What if they keep taking things from master until master is gone?"

"I see," he said. Her words were simplistic, a strange conglomeration of childishness and maturity that hit the mark as precisely as the shots she might fire from a rifle. "Well, there's one part of me they can never take."

"What part is that master?" she asked him, a curious lilt in her tone.

"The part that is reserved only for you," he told her. Scott gave her a chaste brotherly kiss on the top of the head then pressed his cheek there once more.

Harley's nose crinkled slightly and her face reddened. She did not know what else to say so she said the first thing to pop into her head. "What kind of part is that? Ah...is that part like a crank shaft Master?"

"More like my core, Harley," said Scott lightly before he stroked her hair a little. "You protect mine, and I'll protect yours. What do you say?"

"Master wants to protect Harley's core..." she whispered softly.

He nuzzled the top of her head then spoke in a gentle and sincere voice, "It's what family does."

Harley's eyes widened and she started to fidget nervously. Scott noticed her reaction and asked what was wrong.

"Harley has been told a thing," she said slowly, her words deliberate and delivered in a strangely sober tone. "Would Master like to see it?"

"A thing? Sure, let me see it." Scott watched as she tapped at the air. A message screen appeared to him.

Doki-Doki Automaton Awakening

As a race dedicated to the development of powerful emotional bonds, you are strongest when your heart aligns with your chosen partner. Now that you have begun to understand that bond better, your true potential can be addressed.

If your partner is willing to deepen the bond, they may take you on a development quest. Once successfully completed, it will grant you an Awakened Heart Core. This upgrade will allow you to awaken your true potential.

Think carefully before you admit this to your partner. If your bond is not strong enough, they may reject the quest. Worse, you may both fail it. Failure will mean permanent separation and dissolution of your body in this world.

The quest may only be taken and completed by both you and your partner. No one else may go with you or the quest will not spawn.

Tell your partner and he will receive the quest event, Doki-Doki Awakening, at some point in the near future. This quest may be taken any time prior to the moment that you reach your next tier. It will benefit both of you to only undertake the quest once you are certain that you have developed a strong emotional connection.

The difficulty level of the Doki-Doki Awakening quest event will scale with the average levels and abilities that you both possess.

"Harley... this is amazing news," said Scott, his excitement growing.

She nodded her head mutely. It should be great news, but one part of the announcement troubled her deeply. If they took the quest, she could be separated from her master forever.