A Brass Night Ballet

Immunity

"Did you know her Aries?" Coco questioned.

"Not personally, but she mentioned she was Iona Cordey's sister. She wanted to be a musician like her, but something happened to her voice, and she became a Luddite instead. If she was caught in the middle of the automatron's when the uprising started, then it's no surprise her sister was killed," Aries explained. "And so she blamed all automatrons for what happened to her sister," Coco finished. "Yeah. I know you didn't want to kill her," Aries said.
"These things often can't be helped,".

"That's why we need to get to the bottom of why the uprising happened. And if your Father has reason to believe that the Brass King can stop it, then that's what needs to be done," Aries said with determination in his tone. "I agree," Coco told him before rounding the corner.

There were several areas to sweep for more supplies, including one of those strange brass ladybugs that seemed to pop up everywhere. As well as a lock that sealed the area where Coco found those jugglers and the two gunmen automatrons. She didn't see herself coming back to this area as she swept the area very thoroughly, but you never knew. There was a Grimoire in the center of the last path, which Coco was glad to see. Her left was blocked by one of the usual locks she had run into. But the right lead to what looked to be some sort of drainage pipe. With a man standing in the corner.

After what happened with her previous run in with a human, Coco prepared her arm blade for a fight. But the man waved his hands in a sign of surrender. "Don't attack! I'm human! I'm not going to hurt you," the man told her. Coco relaxed at the man's words before taking the time to repair the Grimoire in front of her. True to his word, the man didn't make a move.

"Are you truly safe here?" Coco questioned as she approached the man. "Well, the other robots haven't been able to get anywhere near due to Lady Delina killing all of them. Her manners leave a lot to be desired, but she left me alone when she realized I was human," the man said.
"She's dead now. I saw her body as I was coming through here," Coco said, and the man looked surprised. And technically, the statement wasn't a lie. "Well, I suppose that I would be taking a risk if I stayed here much longer. Still..." the man trailed, looking at the wall distractedly.

"Is something wrong?" Coco questioned.
"It's just..." the man sighed before looking at Coco with a determined look on his face. "My name is Elige. Could I ask you for a favor?" "Depending on the favor," Coco told him. "My wife's body is lying in Isabelle Street. There was a fire, and I couldn't reach her through the flames. She... she was the reason I'd managed to make it through all of this madness. And even though she's gone..." There was a hitch in his voice, but it didn't sound like the one people made when they were lying. It was due to emotion. "I'd hate to think of her just lying there. If you could perhaps bring her belongings, I'd have something to remember her by. It seems a bit much to assume you could manage to bring me the body, given everything that's going on."

"I'll see what I can do. If other violent humans have been through here before, there's a chance what was left may have been looted," Coco warned him. "Let's hope not. But thank you. Small kindnesses like these give me something to cling to," Elige told her. She nodded at him before jumping onto the ladder, smoothly grinding down.
Coco's time in this particular area of Epoque was not anything she would consider pleasant. Between the dirty water in the drainage channel ruining her dress, extremely unnatural baby automatrons, and the numerous exploding ones, she almost wished she was back in the cathedral.

And the decaying acid from those creatures did less than stellar things for both her clothes and her parts. As she grinded her arm blade on the stone wall to smooth out the damage it had taken from the explosions she'd been forced to block instead of avoid, she glanced to the left and saw the flames burning all across the street.

"This is likely near where the man found his wife," Coco said. "Yup. Flames are everywhere around here. But there was a path back there on our right. There's a chance it might loop back around to that locked door we saw earlier," Aries mentioned to her. "Good point. I'll check," Coco said before doubling back.

"There," she said, her green eyes locking onto the black dress. But... "We found it! The black dress!" Aries exclaimed.
"He can't haven't meant this black dress," Coco said with a frown. "What makes you think that?" Aries questioned before noticing what she meant. "Wait... it's a robot? What on earth is going on?"
"I haven't a..." Coco paused.

She thought about the various articles she'd picked up. Snippets on information about various things that had been going on before the uprising. Something about this was familiar. Then she realized.

"Gemini. There was an article we found about a man who married a robot," Coco told him. "Mr. E - Elige! It makes sense now. Wait... so his wife didn't go rogue when the rest did. Cause he said she saved his life. How come she didn't uprise?" Aries questioned. "Multiple automatrons didn't uprise. Including myself. What makes us so special?" Coco thought to herself.

Pasco was immune. Lucinella was immune. This robot that Elige called his wife was immune. Either the three of them were connected in some way, or each automatron had an isolated reason as to why they were immune. Loyalty, perhaps? Could an automatron's ties be stronger than whatever plague infected the others to cause them to break away from the Brass Covenant? Something else to ask Father when the time came.

Ducking down, Coco grabbed the purse that was on her person before looking at her body. There was no Luce oil she could sense in her body. But the body itself was mostly fine. There was a chance that the man could have his wife back if repairs were made. Coco was sure her Father would be willing. Perhaps there was a chance for this to end happily for Elige. It might've been a bit selfish to ask Father to take away valuable time from his research into the uprising and the Petri Disease, but... well, the humans always did say that nothing ventured was nothing gained. And Coco agreed.

"There's that path next to the Grimoire we passed on the way back. We can bring her body back there," Aries said. "How'd you know I was planning on taking it back?" Coco questioned. "That much was obvious. Despite everything, you're still thinking of other people," Aries said.

"Father always did say it was one of my greatest qualities," Coco said with a nod. "He's got no reason to stay here with his wife back. He can go back to the Rita hotel, and Father could probably take the time to fix her."

"Luce oil doesn't exactly grow on trees, Coco," Aries said. Coco picked up the female automatron and the moment she did, a message behind the body was revealed. Carved into the wall with steadily decreasing legibility, it read "I love you, Elige." On the entire trip back, Coco's Luce oil made an undiscernible sound to her.