Hello everyone :3
This is my entry for the Elsword Fanfiction Brigade discord server about Friendship or Time travel.
Since I'm not good with time travel, I chose friendship. And to make it better, I decided to give these two ancient Nasod some love.
That lovely cover image you just saw was drawn by もるもる (Morumoru). Please, check their pixiv for more amazing arts like that one 3
Now, enjoy:
Thick walls of steel colored black where the only thing that one could see from inside of one of many control chambers of the laboratory. A small round window of reinforced glass casted a light stream over the entity that rested inside the chamber. A young girl with silver hair, dressed in a full body white and pink plastic suit. Long black spikes grew out of her back. They seemed to be connected directly with her. She was sitting with her face hid between her knees. A pink light crown floated over her forehead as if it were a hologram.
She raised her head just enough to see over her knees. The dark room was suddenly illuminated by many blue holo-screens. They appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the girl. Data started showing on the screens, scrolling so fast it was impossible to read. It finally stopped and showed a single line of text.
/Initialize status_check
/status_check…. 0%
The number started to increase slowly. The young girl raised her head more, resting her back against the metallic wall. Her body felt numb, as if she just woke up from a long slumber. She stretched her arms into the air and looked around. The windows were now displaying more unreadable text. She didn't try to read it.
/status_check_number 1… 100%
/Initialize core_check
Again, the screens changed its contents from one process to another. She waited patiently for them to wait. New checks were requested by the screen in front of her. The ceiling above her opened, revealing a large machine that descended its mechanical arms into the chamber. There were eight arms, each one equipped with a needle connected to a wire. The girl walked to the center of the chamber and the machine moved its arms to place the needles in different parts of her body.
Even though she was being punctured she didn't felt the pain. It felt as if someone was pressing a finger against the places she got prickled. Not painful, but uncomfortable, especially the one that was driven through her nape.
/Initialize sensorial_check
She brazed for it. The numbness on her body disappeared, and an intense pain coursed through her. It was from all her senses and all nerves being activated at the same time. The sensation was brief. The machine ended the check and retired the needles. The mechanical arms folded again in the space over the chamber and the ceiling closed again. She let her body fall again, returning to her curled up state as the screens faded.
All but one, the blue screens turned off. The last one still hovered in front of her, inactive. She stared at it for a while until it finally showed something new.
"How are you?"
All the check programs closed. Now the screen displayed what looked like a chat application.
"I just completed the daily checks. Haven't you received them?" The girl thought. As she formed the phrase on her mind, it appeared on the screen, under the previous one.
Three dots appeared moving on the screen under the two phrases. Her interlocutor was writing an answer.
"I did. They are perfect. I want to know how you are feeling. That data can't be analyzed by standard means."
"It is also hard to describe in any other way. I would prefer if we skip this part of the check."
As she said/thought that. She hid her face again between her legs. The words being written on the screen sounded inside her mind this time.
"I'm going down there myself, wait for me."
Not too long after that message, the steel wall in front of her started to move, sliding to one side and revealing the Nasod Apple behind it. She was wearing a soft and fluffy pink dress and a kind smile.
"How are you doing, Q?"
Q was just a temporal nickname, but Apple seemed to like it. She didn't had a real name, and was named Q Prototype 00 when she was built. It was Apple who thought she would need a better name from now on, but since none of them was able to come up with a good one, she just used Q instead of the whole name.
"Your feeling simulator was recently installed, it usually takes years to fully develop and train it, but you are using a build designed with my own experiences, so you should be able to master it in no time."
"It is weird. Feelings are a hard to understand concept. They can't be measured, and they are usually hard to tell apart. Some feelings are opposed to others yet they can be felt at the same time. If I try to explain them, I find myself using many confusing adjectives."
"I felt like that at first too; so don't worry. It's hard to get used to it unless you try. For now let's just start with some simple questions. I'll give you a group of answers and you'll choose the one that you feel like it's the most accurate."
The prototype rolled her eyes. She didn't understand what was the point of all of that. She never had to deal with those feelings Apple keep speaking about, but in her current position it was the best option she had. After all, it was Apple the one that saved her from her own code.
She was built with the unique objective of serving as a test subject for the Queen's Throne. A powerful ability that worked with the exotic code. Since she was only a prototype she wasn't given anything more than the necessary. At first, the Code and the Queen's Throne worked fine. They made some tests and the result were excellent. However, as time passed by, they discovered an unpleasant reality. The Queen's Throne energy output damages the body of the user, not only that, but the pain and the energy flow cause the user mind to slowly consume.
It was too late for Q when they find out, she already lost control of her actions and went berserk, attacking anything in her path; Nasod or human. She then went missing and wasn't found until very recently. It was Apple the one that find her first. Q's body wasn't as nicely made as most Nasod of her class, so it was starting to run out of strength. Her first plan was to destroy it if possible, but seeing her in that state made her think of something better. She captured her alive.
It was hard to fix the damage from the Queen's Throne. Q spent a lot of time half dismantled on Apple's workshop. Her hurt core pulsing weakly on the table. Apple had to replace lots of parts, and modify a lot of Q's code herself. But with every small advance, she felt like it was worth it. She never had that feeling before. The feeling of saving a life.
Q stared at four blue holo-screens, each one showing a single word: angry, happy, sad and afraid. A larger screen floated over the four with a question written in it: How do you feel right now? Behind the group of floating holo-screens was Apple, expectantly looking at her.
She examined the four possibilities and thought about them. Angry; that's a reaction creatures had when frustration and fury combine. It usually occurs when things don't go as planned, but it can also be a reaction against overwhelming situations. But Q didn't had reasons to be angry. In fact, she never felt like that, even when she was under the Queen's Throne influence. She couldn't understand why would someone be angry when things wouldn't go as planned. Doing so don't fix it, quite the opposite, being angry makes thinking harder, and ideas that come from angry beings are usually bad.
Happy is what people feel when something good happens to them. Some individuals also feel happy even if it happens to other people, and there's even some odd individuals that are happy even when bad things happen to them. Q wasn't sure about this one. The fact that she wasn't in a berserk state anymore was something good. So was she happy?
"Please consider all the possibilities before answering," Apple said, as if she just read Q's mind.
Sadness is what sensible creatures feel when something bad happens. It doesn't necessarily has to affect them, some individuals are emphatic enough to be sad about other people. Thinking about the state she was until Apple found her, sad would be a good answer. However, Q felt like it would be rude to say it after all the hard work her savior made.
And finally there was afraid. A feeling that happens when someone fears something, specially when that something is very likely to happen. Thinking about this Q couldn't help but to also think about the fact that she could lose control of her actions again at any moment. However, like sad; she felt like it wasn't an appropriate answer.
"The most accurate answer would be happy, I think. Considering all that happened, I guess that feeling happy about receiving your help is correct."
"You guess?" Apple questioned lightly laughing "You still have to improve, but I guess that is fine for now. What I want to ask you today is how do you feel about more complex feelings."
Q straightened her head to look at her partner, feeling curious about what this complex feelings were.
"Have you think about how you feel towards different entities?" Apple questioned.
"The only person I know it's you. I've been out of my mind for so long that I barely remember anything from before."
"That's fine. And how do you feel about me?"
She waited before answering. Thinking what would be the best answer. She felt gratitude for saving her, but there were more things. And it was obvious that Apple was more interested in those other things.
"You're not going to give me some possibilities?" Q asked.
"You don't need them. Just say whatever is the first thing that comes into your mind."
"I feel safe when I'm with you, like if I could rest without having to worry about losing my mind again. I also feel happy about the fact that I'm not alone. I also feel like I should do my best to assist you with everything you're doing for me. And…"
"That's too many words! Just summarize it in a single one," Apple interrupted, causing Q to stare at her bewildered, without knowing how to compress all that she was saying in a single word. Apple sighed and added: "Q, are you my friend?"
"Friendship. The definition of friendship is the relationship that exists between two individuals that share common interests or goals. And is usually a bond that takes years to form. Unfortunately we don't have any of those traits, so I guess we aren't."
Apple took a deep breath and stood, walking around the metal chamber. She finally looked down on Q to say:
"You know, not everything need to be done by the rulebook. Not all friendships are based on the very same conditions, and there are more kinds of friendly relationships that we could count. So, again; I'll make it easy for you. What makes a real friendship is the desire of both individuals to be together. No matter what happens, true friends will always stick together."
She made her way to the exit of the chamber and looked back.
"So, Q… If I say that once I leave this chamber, I'll be leaving the island too, will you follow me?"
"This chamber is the only way to make sure that if I go crazy again no one is hurt! I can't go out." Q answered.
"Then, you'll stay here alone? And you'll let me wander the world alone too?"
Apple walked back inside the chamber and offered a hand to the confused Q.
"I know that you are afraid of what could happen even if you didn't want to tell me. And I know that you are feeling sad about all that already happened. But hear me, when I found you I made my mind. I want to be friends with you, no matter what. And I won't allow my friend to confine herself inside this gloomy place. Now, if you want to be my friend, just follow me."
Q stood up and walked near the exit of the chamber. She looked at Apple's hand, kindly waiting for her to grasp it. It didn't made sense. It was unreasonable. She thought about it in and out, and no matter how much she considered it; she already decided that leaving the cell was a bad idea. But for some reason, when those words were spoken by Apple, they had a lot more sense. Even when her core was telling her otherwise, she felt like, as long as she stays with Apple; she could achieve anything. Even though she knew how limited was her friend's power, and how dangerous she was herself, she couldn't help it but to believe in her words.
She reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly. Apple pulled her out of the chamber. Even though nothing restrained her, Q felt relieved. Even when it was her the one that requested being confined in the steel chamber, she still felt really lonely when Apple wasn't with her.
"I guess that this…" Q started to say, looking back at the closing chamber "Makes us friends then?"