Two

Reserved: The world and life experience have given them more reason to be suspicious of the motives of others than not. While they might not immediately assume the worst of the average person, they usually won’t get close enough to find out.

Stubborn: Two has been controlled for his entire life. First because he was too young, then because he was too sick — and then because he was a lab rat with no personal space or free will to speak of. Now he’s the one making the decisions (most of the time) and whether it’s a bad idea or not, at least it’s his.

Adventurous: No longer tied down by body or by circumstance, Two has made it a priority to do and see as much as he can. That’s without mentioning that he lives in a desert dead-set on killing him some way or another. At least it keeps things interesting, right?

Tenacious: When everyone expects the worst from you, prove them wrong. Or prove them right in a real big way. Think they can’t handle an AI? Think again. Think they won’t live past twenty? Done it. Think they won’t keep moving, keep surviving just because someone once said they couldn’t? Watch this space.

Some of us are water finders. Some of us are guards and defenders — sometimes of the people, but usually of the status quo. Some of us are innovators, artists, inventors, engineers… Scientists.

And some of us are just disposable.

Two was raised an orphan in a small and long struggling warren. In a time of desperation, a deal was made – the kind most Ankuri don't know about, or are smart enough to keep under wraps if they do. Young, sick, and weak, Two was afflicted by a heart mutation for which treatment was beyond the abilities of their warren's physicians – or any, so far as anyone could tell. The prognosis looked bleak; they'd likely not last more than another year or so, and in the meantime they were just another mouth to feed. So when the time came to make some sacrifices for the good of the warren, it wasn't that hard of a choice to make. ...At least not for the people in charge. Two had no say in it, and no strength to fight or flee when they and several others like them were traded away as fodder for the never-ending research being conducted in the depths of the Hive.

Not long after he arrived, Two was purposefully exposed to the entity he now affectionately refers to as "Doc." While they didn't exactly take to one another right away, they quickly bonded over the two things they had in common: a spite-fueled will to survive, and a deep, abiding resentment for the researchers keeping them there. No one expected Two to stick around for as long as he did — certainly not until well after everyone else who’d been traded alongside them perished in some fashion or another. It was pure luck (if you want to call it that) that he ended up with the shadow he did; an AI whose specialty aligned more with doctors and medics than with soldiers and war. With its help, Two was able not only to live well past their expected prognosis, but to grow stronger over time.

Together, they remained in that cold, brightly lit and lonely cell for over three years. The testing didn’t ever seem to end, and they were treated with little consideration for who they were before the AI or even as if they were still a curio. Things became easier when the AI began learning to communicate with language, but only marginally. And when the researchers finally concluded that they’d learned all they could from Two and Doc, they planned on outsourcing them to another warren again.

This is where things finally started to go Two's way. After a tiny slip-up during transport, they and the AI were able to break free from their captors and make a run for it. Thanks to a world that treats them with suspicion and mistrust at best - and outright hatred at worst - they haven’t stopped running since.