Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own this franchise.
Author Note: This came after watching Fullmetal Alchemist. So yeah. You'll know what I'm saying when ya see it. Placido's POV is in italics. Mmn italics. Oh yeah this is a three-shot, the creation, the evolution and the adaptation.
It's Just an Imitation:
The Creation
Things never went well with Z-ONE and the rebuilt us. The memories had to be implanted after the bodies were built and thinking so Paradox and I would have to catch them for him. I think that Paradox was built first and then I was. Several of the prototypes for Aporia's despair had failed. The first despair would always break down and beg for his parents. Z-ONE wanted frail sanity not a sobbing child. Lucciano was built. I assume he was the closest we would get I myself would have tried for someone a little more controlled. Jose came next because we kept failing at the second despair. He was difficult to build but we only needed one. We had to give him enough memories to make him think he was not Aporia but someone else. It didn't work. They all remained aware of Aporia and none of them dealt very well with it.
This time he promises that he'll get the second despair right. The fragmented pieces of failed experiments lie on the ground. Paradox stands in front of the door ready to grab the robot in case it fails.
"Are you sure this is going to work? We're running out of parts." I mention.
Z-ONE nods and continues. I watch the building this time. The parts coming together is a beautiful and essential component of life, real or not. Then again who's to say even with metal organs and artificial souls we are not real? We are capable of thought, pain, feeling. Z-ONE starts with the metal frame and brain of a substance that even I am not allowed to know
0101011101101000011000010111 0100001000000100100101110011 0010000001000111011011110110 1001011011100110011100100000 0100111101101110001011100010 0000010000010110110100100000 0100100100100000010010000111 0101011100100111010000111111 0010000001000001011011010010 0000010010010010000001000100 0110010101100001011001000011 1111001000000100100101110011 0010000001010100011010000110 0101011100100110010100100000 0101001101101111011011010110 0101011101000110100001101001 0110111001100111001000000101 0111011100100110111101101110 0110011100111111001000000101 0111011000010110100101110100 0010111000101110001011100010 0000010101110110100001100001 0111010000100000010010010111 0011001000000100110101111001 0010000001001110011000010110 1101011001010011111100100000
I wonder if it can think. Z-ONE starts to hum as the machine starts coming to life. I think it's beautiful even without features or a real form.
"What gender is it supposed to be?" I ask the God.
"Male." He replies.
"Why is it so small?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"I like it that way."
"But wouldn't he be a better fighter if he was larger?"
"…"
Everything pauses and I feel a deep frown through the mask.
"No."
"But…"
"No."
I sit in silence as hums from the just made chest begin.
0100100100100000010001000110 1111011011100010011101110100 0010000001001011011011100110 1111011101110010000001001001 0110011000100000010010010010 0111011011010010000001000001 0010000001000111011010010111 0010011011000010111000100000 0100100100100000010001000110 1111011011100010011101110100 0010000001001011011011100110 1111011101110010000001001001 0110011000100000010010010010 0111011011010010000001000001 0010000001000010011011110111 1001001011100010000001001001 0010000001000100011011110110 1110001001110111010000100000 0101011101101000011001010110 1110001000000100100100100000 0101011101100001011100110010 0000010000100110111101110010 0110111000101110001000000100 1001001000000100010001101111 0110111000100111011101000010 0000010010110110111001101111 0111011100100000010101110110 1000011011110010000001001101 0111100100100000010011010110 1111011101000110100001100101 0111001000100000010010010111 0011001011100010000001001001 0010000001000100011011110110 1110001001110111010000100000 0100101101101110011011110111 0111001000000101011101101000 0111100100100000010010010010 0000010000010110110100100000 0100000101101100011011110110 1110011001010010111000100000 0101000001101100011001010110 0001011100110110010100100000 0101010001100101011011000110 1100001000000100110101100101 00101110
Z-ONE turns to Paradox.
"Please bring me some… parts."
The blonde nods and runs off. The machine starts shaking violently. I wonder if it's scared. I put my hand against it and feel the vibrations from the lovely computer. Paradox runs back with a handful of something. I look at it.
"Are you sure it's alright to show him what you use?" Paradox asks the half metal man.
"Yes. He would have learnt anyway." Z-ONE replies with the slightest hint of emotion.
Paradox unwraps the parts and shows me the limbs.
"What are those?" I ask.
"People's parts. We need to have some human components to work properly. Otherwise we are simply robots and not very smart ones at that. The earlier projects failed because we put too much human components in them, you failed. I was a lucky breakthrough, you Antinomy are a failure but a miraculous one. I thank you for existing to keep us from doing anything truly depraved." The blonde says with slight trembles.
"This time we won't let this one have anything to hold it back." Z-ONE murmurs
"What if that backfires? No morals at all means that it will do as it wishes." I mention.
The two look at me with shock.
"We thought you'd freak out more." Paradox says.
"Mmn, Paradox did." Z-ONE nods.
"These bodies are the ones of those that died and if they can help prevent this future then at least they have a purpose." I state.
The two nod and Z-ONE gets to work on the cyborg? Robot? Imitation of a human.
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"Uploading language programs." Z-ONE narrates.
"What languages will it speak?" I ask.
"Italian, English, Japanese."
"Can it think right now?"
"Yes. It doesn't have memories or a real personality yet though so all it can think are pointless questions."
"Even something without memories has a personality. I think I had on in my early stages. I wonder if I was very different than I am now."
"It doesn't matter."
I'm thinking in English. What's going on? Am I broken? I think I am. I also think I'm dead. Maybe I'm a dead computer. I wonder if anyone misses me or I'm just junk that was thrown away to be upgraded? How do I know all this stuff?
Z-ONE has already crafted most of the face and the body. It's attractive I have to say that. The pale skin and slim torso reminds me of someone. I can't remember. I guess it wasn't that important.
"It can speak and hear now so please be careful. These things always have flawed ideas of what going on." Paradox mentions.
The imitation screams.
I can hear them calling me a thing, I'm a thing? Well fine, I guess I am really just a junk computer. Humans always throwing things away when the tire of them.
"What am I?" The imitation asks with a deep voice with traces of static.
"An imitation of a human in a flawless body with a flawed mind and an artificial soul. You are only machine with a human thinking system currently but soon you'll be much more." I tell it.
"So a human threw me away to get another whatever I am?" It asks.
"Think of yourself as a robot." Paradox says. "It will make it easier."
Z-ONE starts working on the aesthetics. The imitation ends up with a solitary red eye and grey and white hair. The imitation growls with static.
The thing with a metal face takes an eye off of the thing with the colour yellow hair.
"What are you doing!?" I yell at him.
"Giving you your human component. I believe that you only need one." The thing states.
I try to move and can't. I guess he didn't program that.
"Fuck you. I'm not going to have any pieces of those humans that threw me away in me!" I scream.
"It's only an eye." The yellow thing sighs.
The metal thing puts the eye into my head and my vision improves.
"Why'd you make him anatomically correct?" A blue thing asks.
"I don't want any of you to have any crises and gender identity is just another thing to slow us down." The metal thing snaps.
"Why didn't you make him a girl though?" The blue thing asks another dumb question.
"Because you've been getting depressed recently and we know that you prefer men." The yellow thing says.
"Mmn." The metal thing nods.
"So you made him just for me?" I ask with a bit too much eagerness.
"No, not just for you but partially." Z-ONE replies.
Paradox stares at the imitation of a human.
"Are you sure this is the best of ideas Z-ONE? I am aware that Aporia asked but the three don't have his traits. What if when they know that they must join together and lose themselves they have a crisis? They will know that not only were they never real but they will die." He reasons.
"It is a noble death." Z-ONE mutters.
Paradox sighs and swishes a hand through his hair.
"What if they are afraid of death?" He asks.
"They should not be, they are only imitations after all."
"I've got to go."
"No you-"
Paradox walks out the door slamming it behind him. Z-ONE sighs and puts his hands into the head of the imitation.
"You'll be able to move now." He tells it as he closes up the panel.
It snarls and sits up.
"He's rather handsome." I mention.
"He is partially Aporia." Z-ONE reminds me, as if I could ever forget.
"Good morning Placido, welcome to life." I smile.
"Shut up whatever the hell you are." It sneers.
"Z-ONE he's a bit temperamental." I inform him.
"Interesting. It doesn't even have memories yet it has a personality. I wonder if that will remain when I implant them." Z-ONE monologues.
"Implant memories? Bullshit, a computer doesn't need a full memory drive to work right. Isn't it enough that I have AI? Why do I need such things?" The imitation asks.
"Because I said you do." Z-ONE replies.
The imitation stays silent for a bit.
"Earlier on whatever you are said I was an imitation of a human. The correct word would be android." It informs e.
"Well then Im an android just like you." I smile.
"Do you also hate those inferior beings?"
"What beings?"
"Humans."
"No."
"You fool."
Z-ONE sighs and starts preparing the memories. The imitation looks at him and starts running. I chase after him.
"It will only hurt a little!" I call.
The sound of clicking is audible through the compound.
"Are, are you wearing heels?" I ask through a yell.
Heh, Z-ONE's putting his androids in women's clothing now. Guess I got off lucky, no idea why Paradox is wearing that stuff though. Then again maybe he likes it. Speaking of Paradox where is he? The sound of clicking stops and screams ring through. I run even faster to the source of the sound. Paradox has the android in some weird grip.
"There I caught the other imitation." He snarls.
"Is that why you're upset? It doesn't matter if we're imitations Z-ONE still cares." I say.
"Get this moron off me!" It screams.
"Anyway at least we existed truly once; you can't say the same for the emperors." I tell the blonde.
He frowns and throws the android to the ground.
"Just go."
I hold the imitation by the arm and walk him back to Z-ONE.
"Paradox caught him. He's a fast little beggar even in those heels. Why did you put him in heels?" I ask my old friend.
"Hmn, makes it easier to fuse." Z-ONE mutters.
I hand him the skinny android and allow Z-ONE to restore some of Aporia's memories into him. The man screams.
"Even more reason to hate these humans! How dare they let their greed do this! How dare they let those monsters exist! How dare they get her killed!" Placido screams.
Now that he has his memories in he is truly a being of intelligence. Real or fake. Wait her? I thought that Aporia was a downstairs dancer.
"You said he was for me." I pout.
"No, I said that he was partially for you. It is not my concern that he doesn't bat both hands like Aporia." Z-ONE sighs.
"Wait Aporia was both ways?" The freshly emerged Paradox asks.
"Yes." Z-ONE nods.
I giggle at that new information. Placido sits growling.
"Excellent, even with low amounts of human components the artificial bio-technology acted as if it were alive. Congratulations Placido, first despair, you would have been the first in true androids if this were any other world." Z-ONE speaks, for the first time fully audible.
The android stares at him before walking off.
"Antinomy it's your job to make sure he stays alive and sane. I don't want him dead because I don't think I can replace him." The old human tells me.
I nod and chase after the white haired bot.
"Placido!" I cry.
He glares at me.
"What do you want?" He asks with a small breath.
"You and me, together. I'm lonely and you'll be lonely and this will keep us sane." I grin.
"Disgusting, that is disgustingly human. I honestly thought you would understand." He grimaces.
Placido walks off into the cruel gray world above.