Read Part One here and Part Three here.

"Your supporters in our ranks have been ousted and killed. Do not request the aid of the Solar Sect again, half-breed scum."

The message's end is devastating in its succinctness, and Ebun's coils flare a brilliant red in her anger. She closes her eyes until they slowly return back to blue.

The gathering of Heads and Co-Heads that make up the Coalition leaders don't bother to hide their displeasure. Silasun and Phillips curse simultaneously in their respective languages, Phillips releasing a string of human expletives and Silasun likely damning the name of the Kova god of fortune. Georgia runs a hand down her wizened face, appearing to have aged another decade within the span of seconds, and Llia's coils shift uneasily off his head and into his face, flushed yellow and quivering slightly in worry.

They had relied on the backing of the Sect for far too long, and it was time to regret that reliance. With their withdrawal, Ebun's Coalition was left without an important ally and a major supplier of ammunition. It had only been a matter of time, obviously, after the old leader of the Sect had been assassinated by human extremists. Still, Ebun and the other heads thought they would have more time to work out a deal with their other allies, few as they may be.

The conflict between humans of Earth and the Kovites had been going on for about a decade, fueled by a recent dramatic increase in xenophobic rhetoric in human political leaders. Yet, both Earth and Kova are resistant to the motley assortment of humans, Kovites, and inter-species individuals that make up Ebun's forces. And, despite her resemblance to the Kovites, her late father's status as a human is no secret to anyone, making allies hard to come by. The extremist humans see her as too alien and therefore a threat, and the extremist Kovites believe her a traitor to their species.

The Coalition fights for unity on all sides, allying with sympathetic groups from either species and hoping to return to the years when all species lived in harmony on Earth.

"I recommend reaching out to the Roses of Revolution," Lucas says to the room, when no one speaks. There's another beat of silence, before Ebun nods.

"Does anyone disagree?" she asks, allowing room for a dissenting opinion.

"I don't," Llia says quietly, updating a hologram tracking the flow of weapons into the Coalition as he speaks. "That sounds like our best course of action. We may still be alright for at least a few months considering how recent our last shipment was, but speaking with Rose General Edwards sooner rather than later is a good idea." His coils are flat against his head again, now a deep contemplative blue.

Ebun pauses. While Llia is doing a spectacular job as her interim Co-Head, Lucas suspects she would rather Nike at her side. The difference between the two is staggering; Nike is talkative, bubbly, a brutal force to be reckoned with in the field and a borderline-rebellious robotics specialist off of it as she constantly pushes the boundaries of what she's allowed to create in her lab. Llia, on the other hand, is quiet, unassuming but startlingly observant. While no less brilliant than Nike, he approaches problems with formulas rather than fists, arguable making him a better strategist than Nike. Ebun had handpicked him specifically because of that fact. Yet, she seems unsure of what to make of him.

The hollow feeling returns to Lucas's chest, programming once again demanding the response. He wants to laugh at the internal "feeling," or yell, or something else completely unnecessary to helping Ebun. He really needs to find a way to address this emotion problem. Ebun is struggling, and Bitan's coding is doing nothing but make him "feel" complicated and uninterpretable emotions instead of giving him a clear answer on how to help.

"Perhaps you should suggest to Ebun that she take a day to herself, Lucas, since we are temporarily at a strategic standstill. Allow her some time with Nike unhindered."

"Why use me as an intermediary? Do you wish not to speak with her?"

"No, I only meant because you are her father."

"I… you're mistaken, Llia. I am, ah, 'a mere copy of a man long dead.'"

"I didn't say you were her birth father. You don't have to be her progenitor to be her father figure. You raised her from childhood after her mother died, yes? She may be independent enough that she no longer requires close nurturing, but… this is a trying time. She needs support."

"But it… I fear my programming does not allow me the capacity to empathize enough to know what she needs."

"That's not because of your programming, Lucas. This is a difficult situation regardless of whether you're an android. And don't tell me you don't have the capacity to empathize – you've proven the opposite plenty of times before."

"I'm artificial. I don't eat, I don't sleep. Nothing I 'feel' is actually real, and what you perceive as empathy is dictated entirely by code. This is beyond the scope of what even that can do."

"So what if your emotions are simulated? You are feeling them as if they are real, which is what makes them real."

"I suppose…"

"Please mention the idea to her, at the very least. She likely will take no such rest, but she may better receive your suggestion than mine."