"Humans don't have a heaven either," Mercury said simply, even in front of this grave she so obviously came to honor. Her question hadn't been whether a Reploid consciousness could duplicate a human's, or another being's. It had been whether these pretty thoughts existed, or were reachable, at all.

A part of her supposed it would be nice to believe in someone watching over her, but that wasn't how the world actually worked. (And even if it was, there would be no one watching for her.) And even if there were a heaven, she doubted the man buried here ever expected to see it instead of Hell. She didn't expect it, either, not after what her life had been.