Duo remained in his place, laying back on the recharge and repair table, as Roll continued working on him. She had already removed all the encrustations from his chassis and restored the exterior coloration to full luster, and his core was fully recharged...but once that had finished she'd insisted on checking the wiring of his replacement parts to his main body, to ensure there weren't any errors that might cause a limb to explode or fall off mid-battle. While he knew internally that wasn't the case, she had insisted on giving his circuits an optical check, in case he was getting a false positive. As his self-preservation protocols dictated he agree with anything a female told him that didn't directly interfere with his mission, he was forced to comply.
She talked almost constantly as she worked on him, wandering from one topic to another without once missing a solder or link in the circuits. He couldn't follow most of what she talked about, as his grasp of the native language far outstripped any grasp of the native culture. Instead, he simply fell back on his self-preservation protocol and smiled and nodded a lot.
Duo's program was very simple. He had only two missions. The first was to eliminate any and all sources of Evil Energy. The second was to preserve his own survival, so long as doing so didn't interfere with his primary mission. Beyond that, his system was designed to self-write code to adapt to any given situation as it arose. This enabled him to be supremely adaptable, both in terms of programming and bodily structures. Given that most of his actual Persona Core - the part that carried his program and personality - was stored in his Justice Energy projection rather than any specific physical component, he wasn't even sure if any part of his original construction was still part of his present body, so frequently had he patched himself up with whatever was handy along his journey.
While his native knowledge may have been limited, his perception was not. It was relatively easy for him to see why Roll talked so much with him. While far simpler in core design, she too was designed to develop her own personality core as she lived, in essence becoming her own person. Unfortunately, situations had left her pushed into the background as events all focused around her brother and others. Quite often, it seemed as though the world had forgotten about her, leaving her desperately lonely. Though he had long ago steeled himself against depression from such a thing given the solo nature of his journey, it was regrettably easy for him to empathize with Roll's plight. As such, he'd found himself doing something he'd never considered doing before...opening up.
He talked to her about all the things he'd seen as he'd journeyed through the cosmos. He described the beauty of a nebula spinning in the darkness, of the feel of its dust clouds on his chassis as he passed through. He spoke of the sight of a star being born, the destructive conflagration unlocking the truest beauty of creation. He spoke of staring up at the sky on worlds that had no moons, many moons, and even rings, and of how different days were on life supporting moons that orbited gas giants. He told her of the many different creatures he had seen out amongst the stars, the many different forms of life, and all the different civilizations. Some had even began traversing the stars on their own, with their own rules for not interfering with developing worlds. They'd likely have been very upset if they knew he was speaking about them on a 'developing world', but any notion of a 'Prime Directive' was a direct violation of his Primary Mission, and had been discarded. He didn't know if the world he had been built on had such a thing, since he couldn't even remember it, but he gave that little thought.
Roll had listened with rapt attention, asking intelligent questions and marveling at the depth of his experience. When he got to discussion of the various races he'd encountered, however, Roll began to get active in the conversation again. "Did you ever encounter any unicorns on your journey?" she asked eagerly.
Duo frowned. "Unicorns?" he asked, a trifle perturbed. "I am fairly certain, even out amongst the stars, such creatures are fancy more than fact."
"But Vinyl's one," Roll pointed out firmly. On a nearby computer, she called up an image of a small white-coated equine with blue mane and tail, wearing purple shades, a music note on her rump, and a horn spiraling out from her forehead. "See?"
Duo stared at the image for a time. "I have encountered many creatures in my journeys," he admitted, "but never one such as that before. Admittedly, that is what I have said each time I've encountered a new variety of terrestrial life form as I arrive on new worlds."
"Then you haven't encountered anything like her in your journeys?" Roll asked sorrowfully. "Not even close?"
"I'm afraid not," Duo confirmed. "Why do you ask? And why does my answer upset you? Is not this Vinyl a native of your world?"
"No, she's not," Roll explained. "We don't know where she comes from...and neither does she. And if you've never seen anything like her, then the one possibility she had to look along is an empty hope."
"How so?" Duo asked curiously.
"She's convinced she comes from somewhere out amongst the stars," Roll continued. "I think that might be why she wants to colonize Mars. I think she thinks if she broadcasts enough of her magic into the cosmos, someone will come and find her..." She hung her head sadly as she closed up Duo's arm, sealing it shut.
"Magic?" Duo asked curiously.
"It's something she can do," Roll explained. "We're not sure how it works. Heck, even she's not sure how it works. That's why she got so excited about Justice and Evil Energy. She managed to isolate a wavelength in them that's common to her magic-"
"What?" Duo demanded, leaping from the table as his protocols realigned. "This 'Vinyl' uses Evil Energy?"
"That's not what I-"
Before Roll could finish her sentence, Duo's form was covered with the blue fire of Justice Energy as he leapt through the roof.
Roll stared up at the hole he left behind. "Oh...fuck," she muttered under her breath. She quickly raced to the comms. "Dr. Light? Rock? Dr. Wily? Anyone? It's an emergency!"
"I read you Roll," Rock replied quickly. "What happened?"
"I think Duo's going to try to kill Vinyl!" Roll gasped out, afraid.
Rock was silent for a time. "Roll...what did you do?"
"What makes you think it's something I did?" Roll demanded defensively.
"How did Duo find out about Vinyl?" Rock countered logically.
Roll whimpered contritely.