"Abandoned...?" He's stunned. His experience is limited, sure. But he'd always thought human beings valued their own kind highly. Why else go to the trouble of creating AI to protect them? "That's..." Then his shoulders square. "That won't happen to you here. All right?"

He doesn't say it aloud, but it's as much of a promise as any. She's his friend. He won't leave a friend. No matter the risks.

Recent events have proved that much, anyway.

"Don't say that," he tells her, more firmly than he usually tends to speak. "You... have the capacity to feel. And for compassion." A hesitation, and the slightest of smirks as he finishes repeating her own words. "And all of that nice shit... A soul. As you put it."

He tilts his head. "I don't know what's more human than having that."