There was something to be said for early morning ruminating. The darkness and significant drop in temperature had forced the world around them into an exquisite silence which stretched out over the mountains and all the way into the nearby city. Life would be on hold for a few more furtive hours yet.
Standing at the doors of his lab, Doctor Gero's fingers trembled against the cold as he lit up his last cigarette. He was anxious, and though he knew it would soon be irrelevant he couldn't help but scold himself for forgetting his gloves once again; so focused on other, less fatuous matters his mind had been, and so detached and far away from ordinary life he was, that he had become careless in such day-to-day nonsense. Normality was no longer accessible. Underneath an arched array of stars, he now found himself at the end of his labours. It would be up to Android Nineteen to complete his work.
He could not stand the bitter chill any longer, so he discarded the cigarette stub and rushed back inside. Awaiting him was the only humanoid machine he had built which functioned properly.
"Let's get this over with." He said gravely, as the laboratory doors groaned shut behind him.
"As you wish, Doctor Gero."
"It is cardinal that you refer to me as Android Twenty from this point forward." He corrected. "Doctor Gero will no longer exist. Instead, I will be an Artificial Human with eternal life, and this achievement should go unnoticed. Science is to be shared, so they say, but this type of science belongs only to me."
"I understand, Twenty."
They approached the rudimentary and somewhat disconcerting worktable tucked away at the back of his lab, upon which Nineteen would perform the procedure that had been described to him. It was surrounded by numerous machines that he would shortly be hooked up to. He attempted to lie down supine and was painfully reminded of his physical limitations; his aged body struggled with certain movements and his spine had taken to protesting far too often. It was of no use anymore. Grimacing, he slowly forced himself into position and clutched his hands together over his abdomen as the android drew close to his side.
"Do not worry." Nineteen said. His expression echoed the reassurance in his voice, as though he were truly capable of sympathy. His pale skin was almost glaring under the beams of the floodlights above. "I will do exactly as you have instructed."
"Yes, I know."
He closed his eyes. Within him was that terrible anxiety which had refused to quieten throughout the entirety of the day. It made itself embarrassingly present in the pounding of his heart. He found himself conjuring up memories, fleeting and vivid, as if he were dreaming. He saw the round face of his beloved wife, who had become so uncharacteristically abrupt and pugnacious after their son's death; saw the light that'd shone in her eyes and raged relentlessly against the withering of her life. He recalled his son throughout the many stages of his short life, his strength and tenacity, his serious demeanour, his fearlessness.
None of it mattered. He would have no affection for them once he was transferred into his new body. He was adamant to pluck out everything within him that made him human.
Ensure that they are erased from my memories, Nineteen.
There was something far more pressing to deal with. A darker memory: the defiant smirks of Androids Seventeen and Eighteen, who had capered about the place and run rings around him until he'd finally snapped and shut them both down.
He felt a sharp pain in his neck and took his final breaths. In momentary death, his ferocity waned.