"I know what I saw."
She spoke with less confidence than intended, and the resulting silence that fell upon the "room" was practically deafening.
Gentle sunlight filtered across wavering grass, decorated in the style of a greenhouse, or a scenic outdoor pavilion. It was fake, of course - all of it, from the feeling of the sunlight on her skin, to the scent of freshly-cut lawn trimmings on the wind, all the product of more "advanced" artificial intelligence to "put her at ease". R-1438 stood at the center of the mass, surrounded by the effigies of her... superiors. To be in the presence of so many at once was unheard of, yet based on the prior day's events, she had felt it necessary to call them all together.
It wasn't going as she'd hoped.
There was what amounted to a low sigh. At least one of them, she recognized. The Aristarch, prim and perfect as always, selecting his words as though picking each one up to inspect it for some vile, unseen parasite, spoke from his place at a marble seat.
"So you have reiterated." He said flatly, fingers leafing tiredly through an illusory file.
"However, you have yet to produce any evidence. Which functionary was responsible for footage archival?"
Another spoke up, this one rising from a garden chair, an eclectic collection of shapes. Possibly a stand-in for another? Sometimes it was impossible to tell from a surface-level connection.
"It was you, wasn't it Iris?"
"An Observer unit wasn't present." Said the blue-haired girl wistfully, her eyes meeting R's. There was a playful glint in her eye, as she blew a phantom dandelion, watching its seeds scatter across the fields.
"We didn't detect anything weird."
R closed her eyes, already feeling the ire bubbling like pitch in her stomach. Ever since this woman had arrived, been "rescued"... Nothing seemed to go right anymore. As if her hand were reaching out, trying to to grasp the reality of the situation, only to have it it pass through her fingers like vapor. A voice by her ear caused her eyes to snap open, sending chills down her neck.
"Hey. Heeeey." Said Iris;
"This isn't the first questionable report you've made, right?"
The Observer stepped back, flashing her a friendly grin that might as well have been made of knives.
"It's not your fault, I guess. Being obsolete must be rough, I get it." - She shrugged her shoulders, and shook her head.
"Better watch your step, or you'll be so~rry-"
A hand blurred forward out, seizing the blue-haired woman by the neck, as R pulled her close with such swiftness it seemed almost instantaneous. There was fear in those eyes now, and it was oh-so gratifying, the gloating in her throat fading to a whimper as her free hand curled into a fist.
"What gives you the right-"
"Stop."
Her knuckles slammed into the earth below, sending up a cascade of dirt. Iris had vanished from view, ejected from the proceedings. The Aristarch lowered himself back into his seat... and glowered at her as she rose, nursing her hand, the pain that flowed through it surprisingly, irritatingly real.
"Appealing to emotion won't save you here. We're all part of the same system."
A general chorus of agreement went up from the other apparitions, each speaking in turn, as though now in a hurry to finish the evaluation.
"If there were such a large-scale temporal shift, as you described, it would have been contained by Central." Boomed a voice that was like the chorus of a hundred voices, all moving in turn. Some of them she knew as functionaries of different aspects, different areas, some overseeing hundreds, thousands of galaxies - yet their voices, their opinions, all seemed to toe the same line.
"There is nothing that can exist outside of the Records, let alone every possible recording device installed on your machine. We cannot take you merely at your word, Remedy."
"The allotted time for inquiry has passed. Our assessment will be delivered once all existing data has been compiled. Please return to your functions."
...and just like that, it was over. She felt her fist unclench, as, one after another, the functionaries disappeared. The last to go was the Aristarch, giving her a lingering, disapproving look before disintegrating into particles of light.
Slowly, she sat down, and let her head fall into her hands. How... could any of this be happening? Were they right? Was her memory simply... on the fritz? Unreliable?
...Outmoded?
The thought dangled precariously on a dark precipice in her mind, peering into the black below, as it contemplated just how far the drop might be. Her thoughts, however, were interrupted as a gruff voice spoke up.
"I believe you."
There was a soft hum as a previously unseen participant made themselves known. A lumpy, bulbous, hunched form materialized at her side, a mechanical-looking head peering quizzically in her direction. She blinked. It wasn't an avatar she recognized, but the voice hardly seemed judgmental. Shrugging, she turned her attention back to the fields, tossing a small stone such that it skimmed across the surface of the grass.
"Belief is irrelevant." She said, perhaps a little more curtly than she initially meant.
"What we saw is true."
The new arrival shook his head, and raised a hand, as though having a eureka! moment.
"They don't want to hear it!" He declared;
"There's this perfectly ordered idea of the universe, and at the very last second, someone comes running in threatening to demolish their whole understanding, undoing millions of years of research. Even cold, seemingly rational machines don't want to touch this."
Now he had her attention. R looked to her side with surprise. Not often you saw that kind of self-reflection in a machine, especially one that seemed comparatively crude.
"And you're any different?"
He touched a hand to his "chest", as though humbled by her attention, mechanical head pulling in towards his chest in embarrassment.
"I'm... more like you." He explained haltingly, fingers clacking together anxiously; "I'm in Data Recycling. Nowadays, with the advances in studying the Records-"
"You must have a lot of free time."
"That's... one way to put it yes." He conceded, "But, I also see things that others don't, if you get my meaning."
Contraband, huh? Her eyebrows raised a little at the prospect. Retaining information that hadn't been processed by an Observer was, to say the very least, against every established safeguard in existence. And yet-
"I think so." She said, coolly.
"What does it have to do with me?"
"I'll accept your proposition. It's a bit of an irregular arrangement that falls outside of my jurisdiction sure, but... Exceptional times call for exceptional exceptions."
R blinked in surprise as the functionary extended a hand. It wasn't the one she would have preferred, initially... but, if she was going to find answers? It didn't look like they were going to be found on the beaten track.
"...Thank you." She said, finally. Her hand clasped the one before her, and the Cleaner looked down at it in awe. Perhaps he'd never come into such close contact with her kind?
"What's your name?"
"My formal designation is Cleaner Type Functionary Ver. 174.18... but you can call me Hyle."
"R-1438."
"Aw, come on!" Said Hyle, extracting his hands and waving them about excitedly; "It's a special occasion! You don't have something more interesting, more unique you'd like to be known as?"
She smiled, for what felt like the first time in a long while. It felt like things were finally moving in the right direction.
"Well-"
