"I was once a handsome, dashing, debonair... dog, loved by everyone who saw me, the kind that made flowers bloom just by walking past." Space Brother Dao was chewing slowly on something in its mouth, and every so often it let out a woof woof.

"Things you humans would never believe, I have seen. Twin-winged satellites caught in the blast at the rim of Orion, going up in roaring flames. C-rays streaking across the dark space of the Gate of Cybertron. And every one of those moments will fade away in time, the way... tears... fade into the rain."

Space Brother Dao's emotional thought rose and fell like a poem being recited, full of rhythm and feeling.

Its krypton-gold dog eyes looked ready to shed real drops of something like quicksilver. "The hour of death... has come..."

Shen Cong watched Brother Dao's performance, his mouth twitching. "Blade Runner. I've seen it several times. Brother Dao, get to the point."

"Ahem... you've seen that old movie too? You could have said so. Rewriting the lines takes a lot of brainpower. My brain keeps wanting to change lately. It wants me to fuse with my space capsule, but that's not happening. I am the space hero Space Brother Dao, and I'm not giving up my sleek body, so full of power and beauty."

"Get to the point."

"Hey now, kid, hasn't anyone told you it's very rude to interrupt?"

Shen Cong was at a loss for words. He said coldly, "But you're just a dog."

"Er, you have a point." Space Brother Dao nodded its doggy head. "Then listen well. My legendary story is already part of legend, buried in the dust of history... Back then, in the silent Xuntian module, I had only Tang Yaya for company. She was like a beam of light that filled my life with brightness."

Shen Cong's hand drifted, of its own accord, to the hilt of his Locust-Plus Radiative Core Blades.

Talking to a dog really was hard work.

Brother Dao was still reminiscing. "Every day, her every smile and frown was my greatest source…