He'd just come from fleeing this very thing. From having his AI chip forcibly ripped away from him. From losing everything. This is worse than he could have imagined, the silence, the darkness -- it's more cloying and terrifying than quiet shadows ever were, back home. He can only assume the worst has happened. That despite Shadowmaru's help, despite the words exchanged over rubble and wreckage, he's been caught at last.

I don't want to die!

He wants to struggle. He wants to fight this, to flee as he did through the streets, the Brave Police hot on his heels. But there's no body. There's nothing for him to fight with. So his mind roils. Twists. It devolves straight into outright panic.

No, no, no, please no--

Those few minutes may as well have been a lifetime, for the scared young AI trapped bodiless in them.

He latches onto the voice with a child's desperation, forgetting this may very well be the one to trap him here. The same panic colors his response, the words strained and terrified.

"Please! I just want to leave! I promised I'd go! I promised him!"

Dimly, the fact he's only been asked a yes-or-no question dawns, the more rational portions of his AI noting it, and doing their best to inform the panicked parts they need to say those words.

"Yes! Please. Please, don't -- I want to live!"