"Foolish girl," hissed the raspy, mocking voice of a serpentine demon-creature, which towered over her, easily seven feet high. Its skin was a blackened mottled patchwork of filmy skin stretched taut over a skeleton that was a twisted parody of the human frame, and its face was more serpentine than human.

The demon, Pithius, drew back its almost plastic lips in a sinister smile as it smashed a cloven foot on her fingers, easily snapping the bones.

As Sakura screamed out in pain and passed out, the demon chuckled, kicking the katana away (carefully aiming its foot away from the blade), then looming over her with long, talon-like fingers, preparing to tear out her throat.

"Foolisssssh child, fighting thingsssss you could never hope to undersssstand." The demon drew back dramatically as it prepared to deliver the final blow.

Before it could strike, a flaming red arrow of pure holy energy lashed out from the darkness, clearly marking a line in the air above the fallen girl which the demon was almost dared to cross.

"And ssssshe isssss here," Pithius hissed, smiling and turning completely away from what had seemed his prey mere moments ago. This new arrival, the interloper with the eyes of electric blue... she was the one he wanted.

"Pithius," hino rei.bot said by way of introduction. She did not even spare the fallen Sakura a glance. She had already divined the situation moments before entering the blackened pit of hell that this thing called home. All she was focused on was the demon, her senses, both psychic and electronic, all focused and homed on that which had harmed her pet-- no, her friend-- and which had thus forfeited its right to exist as a result.

The demon smiled. "rei~~" it hissed, taking a deliberately too-familiar tone with the stern, reserved miko.

"never call me that--" rei.bot began, despising the casual address which also seemed to evoke a comparison to the flesh-and-blood Hino Rei, whom she classed as volatile and inferior to herself.

"But it'sssss ssssuch a beautiful name...." Pithius hissed, leaning on the miko's back now, having somehow closed the distance between them in the space of a breath, his head resting on her left shoulder, cheek nuzzling against hers, a taloned hand moving across the front of her kimono, a clawed finger tracing the edge of the fabric. "It means ssssspirit....."

rei.bot's eyes narrowed in anger at the touch, the proximity, but she nodded almost imperceptibly.

"A sssspirit of ssssuch nobility.... and violence...." The finger worked upper neck now, and traced the side of her cheek. "you think yoursssself sssso pure, sssso noble... but you are jusssst. A Toy."

For some reason, rei.bot did not respond, her electric-blue eyes looking straight ahead, not acknowledging the demon-head on her shoulder, which was now studying her profile intently.

"Created assss a cheap love-toy by that ssssshitennou.... a low grade robot from Dr. Evil.... then ssshattered and rebuilt assss a jinzzzzoningen on a whim by that madman Tomoe.... then broken again, and reforged from that unholy living metal of pure evil, Validium by the Time Lord Xadium...."

The clawed finger penetrated rei.bot's cheek, a feat which would have been impossible had she wished to prevent it. The glowing blue in her eyes faded slightly.

"You knowwww..." Pithius continued.... "you usssed your disssscipline to tame the evil in that living body of metal... but it issss not yourssss.... rei.... ssspirit.... you have no ssspirit of your own..... you have no ssssoul...."

rei.bot's eyes flickered low for a moment as the finger dug down her cheek slightly. A silvery drop of liquid metal coursed down her cheek in a strange approximation of blood, or-- if one were poetically inclined-- perhaps a tear.

"you are the prince of lies," rei.bot said quietly.

"your wordsss lack all conviction...." Pithius hissed back. "You know that for all your power... the ssstrength to crack worldssss.... to crusssh anyone that comessss before you... you are but a puppet... a toy for his amusssement."

"xadium..." rei.bot intoned, her features hardening for a moment.

"You know he just ussses you for his amusssement," Pithius hissed, gently cupping rei.bot's cheek and turning her head to face his, as he gazed into her flickering blue eyes, turning now to stand in front of her, nose to nose.

"to clean hisss housssse, babysssit his future child... clean up hisss messes...."

rei.bot's brow began to furrow.

"You know," Pithius continued, sliding his hand down her neck, down the front of her kimono and resting his hand in front of the spot where her heart would be had she bothered to form one out of the polymorphic metal that was her body. "that he will throw you away assss sssooon asss his Time Lord masssterssss tell him to. You hate that for all your power, your sssstrength, that he, the weakling who desspissses combat, carved out your body from the metal, that he knowsss all of you--"

The hand slid into the folds of her kimono, which despite being formed out of her body were also separate garments. It pressed against the warmth of her chest. rei.bot's eyes were growing increasingly dim as her face twisted into a sad, despondent look.

"--that he might know the one word, the sssecret ssswitch that makes you weak, docile, helplessssss..... that he could ssshut you down.... like the mere toy you are...."

rei.bot slumped forward slightly. These thoughts had indeed swirled through her mind. That there could be something, some lurking command in her programming that would make her into nothing but a

"--but a lifelesss doll to be laughed at, violated, assss you firssst were at the handssss of jedite--"

The miko's eyes faded almost to black as she fell back into the demon's hands. Pithius smiled. Her spirit was almost broken now-- soon he could take all that delicious holy power she had imbued herself with, taint it, add it to her own.

Striking his hand violently into the miko's chest, he easily penetrated the now almost putty-like metal, stabbing clean through her body. He began to draw forth power as rei.bot sagged forwards, her mind awash with scenarios of betrayal and pain and hopelessness at her condition as nothing more than a tool for the Time Lord's amusement.

"rei.bot is no one's toy," came a stern voice from behind the two. It was not Sakura's voice-- she was passed out on the floor, her wounds already healing from her combined Time Lord and senshi biology. It was the voice of Doctor Xadium.

"Enter the puppetmasster," Pithius hissed, but his tone was somewhat off. He had not expected the coward to come after his daughter or the miko.

"rei.bot has her own soul," Xadium continued defiantly, advancing on the demon, trying not to let his discomfort at being utterly unarmed and outclassed from showing. "She took the Validium body and made it her own. Her spirit now fills it, makes it shine with her own light!"

"What light," Pithius countered, swinging rei.bot around between himself and the Time Lord as he swing behind her, stabbing even deeper through her body, the miko's arms flapping around like the broken arms of a marionette. "You know sssshe'ssss just a child'sssss toy playing at being human."

"hino rei.bot is more human than many humans I know," Xadium spat back angrily, looking at the defeated face of the cybernetic miko with a mixture of sadness, pity, anger and rage. "I've known humans who toyed with the human heart like it was nothing, indulging in their own wanton whims for nothing more than their own pleasure." He took hold of rei.bot's chin. "rei.bot has been honorable and true, and would give her life for others unhesitatingly. If that isn't human, I don't know what is."

rei.bot's eyes seemed to brighten for a moment.

"Not for you...." Pithius retorted even as he twisted his talons in rei.bot's chest, supping on her soul. "She hatessss you, you know."

rei.bot's eyes dimmed again.

Xadium shrugged. "Hatred is part of humanity as well. Light and dark in juxtaposition. No one understands that balance better than she."

"Hah, brave wordsssss from the man who could turn her off with a word," Pithius hissed as rei.bot's eyes went almost totally dark.

"Well my voice is rather annoying to females, I've been told," Xadium quipped.

"Do not mock me, Time Lord!" Pithius bellowed, drawing in rei.bot's holy strength. Soon he would use the power to just vaporize the insect. All he needed were a few more seconds....

"Wouldn't think of it," Xadium sharply countered. "There is no 'off' switch in rei.bot, no hidden command to make her docile. When I rebuilt her I gave her complete freedom and independence. The only one who can defeat her is herself."

rei.bot's head tilted a little, her eyes still dark.

"Liessss!" Pithius hissed angrily. "No one would give sssssuch a creature assss thisssss that much power without limiting it. Essspecially not a Time Lord! Your people are known for their paranoia..."

"But I knew her BEFORE I crafted her this new body," Xadium pressed, turning rei.bot's in his hand, and looking her in the dull grey eyes. "And I trust her. completely." The words were quiet, and full of sincerity.

"Trusssst? A machine?" Pithius yelled, sensing some kind of resistance to his efforts to drain the holy energy and redoubling his efforts, having to use force where none was required before.

"We are all machines!" Xadium yelled, causing rei.bot to blink involuntarily. "Biological or mechanical, we all are mechanisms with our own special animus! And I tell you know," the Time Lord almost roared, letting go of rei.bot's face and jabbing a finger in the demon's face, "Aside from my own wife, the ONLY person I would trust with my daughter's life is this PERSON here, my FRIEND, HINO REI.BOT!"

Pithius had had enough of the tirade and extended the arm that was thrust through rei.bot's chest, lancing Xadium in the side and sending him tumbling to the side, sprawling over Sakura's resting body in a heap. The Time Lord passed out as blood spilled crimson across the pitch black ground.

It was the last time Pithius would ever have use of that arm.

The sound of one deep heartbeat filled the cavern as a faint pulse of energy seemed to burst out from rei.bot's body collapsing back in against her.

The next moment, like a phoenix from the ashes, eyes streaming forth a hellish electric blue misty glow, rei.bot straightened up, her left arm reaching across to the protruding arm sticking out of her chest and jerking it downward, where it snapped with the crack of a breaking tree limb.

Pithius' scream echoed through the cavernous pit as rei.bot ripped the arm clean off and flung it aside, her body glowing with a holy blue aura magnitudes greater than anything the demon had even touched before.

Turning slowly, the large flapping sleeves of her kimono the only sound for a moment, the miko cracked her neck, the hole in her chest already closing, and she locked gazes with the demon who had been her tormentor.

Pithius blinked. Gone was the perpetual scowl that had always seemed to adorn the miko's face. In it's place, was a bright, happy-- not even malevolent-- smile.

The demon blinked again, and the smile was gone, replaced by the traditional serious expression of holy severity rei.bot liked to affect. The next second, the flat of her palm was pressed against his chest.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

With an infuriated kiyap, rei.bot let loose a blast of blue holy energy so intense that it suffused every particle of the demon's body, exploding it from the inside out in a tremendous burst of energy. The particle shower bounced harmlessly off a translucent energy barrier the miko had erected in front of herself-- mainly to shield the two Time Lords behind her, who were still passed out, and of much weaker constitution than herself.

Slowly, after what seemed an eternity, Xadium's eyes opened, and the blurry images around him began to take focus. Sakura, sitting in the corner, rubbing her head. Above him, red and white, towering. A hand, extended.

"rei.bot?" Xadium asked groggily as she snapped into double vision then focus.

"just rei will do," the miko replied, a smile on her face.