Commentary: 2nd chapter in. By now, I'm pretty sure you've figured out what storyline the beginning will be like. Don't worry, it will pick up soon.

Summary: With a voice to comfort and guide her, she steps forth to confront the intimate world. But as soon as she touches cold metal from a decade ago, she immediately knows this would be some trip.


Another Crisis

II: Legacy


She had known something was just plain wrong with the shiny pistol as soon as her fingers had laid upon it. A faint sharp rush of faded memories seeped into her forgetful mind and somehow, that feeling had screwed with her vision, distorting it and prisming certain parts of her vision. It was a massive interface screw and it practically distracted her from the memories, forcing the body to dump all reserves to keep it stable. But did that stop her from picking it up anyways?

Not a chance in hell.

Feeling the cool sensation transfer from the metal grip to her gloved hand, curled fingers gave the pistol a firm experimental squeeze.

And then all went black as she experienced a mind which was not her own.

"You have to..."

Resounding heartbeats, steady and strong. Noise resounded inside her racing mind, diagnostics blinking all across her vision, coming to a rest as soon as she saw...

Her own hands? No. The left arm was lightly tanned, normal and human, complete with a ring bracelet which looked ancient. The right arm... was completely alien to her, yet familiar. A black arm glove covered her skin and what little was seen appeared a sickly snow white. The wrist was covered with a white gauntlet of careful design, as if the creator had... put delicate care into it. The hand turned to face the palm upwards and slowly, fingers clenched into a fist experimentally.

"Welcome to the future son...welcome to the war."

The next she knew, she was seeing the back of a figure, the sun in shining through the old dilapidated window blocking any identifying features from view. It spoke about one last wish, something about not letting go that easily. Symbiosis? A link?

The vision then warped to the very same pistol she had held a moment ago.

That... no. That person wasn't.

A rush of sinew bulging which she recognized as muscle tissue, blood flowing faster in response to something in the stream. A flash of nerve tissues, rushing directly into the brain and into a mind.

"Gave you my life..."

The voice spoke, desperate and pleading, for a promise. What words had come out next were warped, unclear to her still fuzzy mind. To... find someone? Find who?

She then saw a spatter of blood... next to her still body, now in the signature white attire. The sunlight had shined upon her body, illuminating it in a soft warmth. Making it appear more angelic than deceased.

She then saw the mysterious figure raise the pistol to it's head.

"Remember me."

The gunshot resounded and she was once more seeing the pistol in her hands, back to present times. Dumbstruck for a moment, she continuously gazed at the pistol, studying it's cold metal frame to get her mind off the unpleasant vision. The light white and blue hexagonal patterns upon the frame, emblazoned with two black ninety degree offset Ys near the solidly built hammer. Most likely the logo of CryNet Systems, her re-builder. A depressed cylinder just above the trigger confirmed the weapon was a revolver type, looking to be capable of holding six to seven rounds. The rest of the weapon was finished in dull matte black or drab grey. Nothing too fancy, but the unique frame gave it a pleasing aesthetic.

Setting the pistol aside a conveniently placed holo tag and reaching for the latter, her right hand brushed upon the stamped frame of the tags before her automated systems analyzed the tag. A moment later, the avatar and name of a person had displayed on her HUD.

She gave a silent gasp of surprise.

It was her own.

Quickly reading through her own biography, she expressed disappointment as she saw that much of her own biography schematics were completely blacked out, redacted to "Classified" status. The only odd clue she had was the fact she used to be a soldier for "Conglomerate, attached to the Vanguard of Hope". Giving a small sigh, she closed down the information to give a stare to the old dimmed tags. Absently, she bowed her head as she raised her arms up to place the tags around her neck, wearing the tags just as any soldier would.

It felt... vaguely comforting to her.

A sudden uneasy thought came to her mind right there.

If her integrated AI claimed that she was recently rebuilt by CryNet, then why did she have this flashback of someone claiming to have "given her life"? And even though the girl could not recall any memories, she knew from deep common sense it wasn't everyday that a military manufacturer dumped their top secret project into some abandoned building and leave it to rust. That would be absurd to waste billions of credits into a program, only to can it the day before public introduction.

Quickly, her systems ran a historic check and she almost reconsidered her previous thought. Almost. Perhaps she was rebuilt by a rogue scientist who wanted to give his or her creation life? Like the novella "Frankenstein"? That... could make sense, although it was extremely rare in this day and age for Project heads to go completely rogue and alone. First, projects were worked upon via a team effort. That ensured nobody was messing to sabotage anything, There were just too many security measures and fail-safes for a risked chance. Heads would roll as well and the political and economic structures would suffer from the loss of such a monumental project.

And just what was her own holo tags talking about?

CryNet Systems, Vector Industries, something to do with "giving her life". The Conglomerate and Vanguard of Hope; a ship perhaps? And an almost motherly "good morning". Fragments of so many pieces she could not put together.

Nothing... was making any sense.

"Sir."

Her AI's soothing voice shattered her adrift thoughts, instructing her to break a pad lock on the doors in front of her. Walking up to the doors, her free left hand gripped the large padlock holding the doors closed. Experimentally, she gave it a light tug before deciding to use maximum power. There was no resistance as she yanked with all her might. Confused, she looked upon the door handles to discover there wasn't much of any handles left. Had she just...

Her head turned to her left hand, which was still gripping the intact padlock and the now ripped out metal handles of the door which had been previously attached. Brushing aside a slight discomfort for now, she dropped the broken piece to the floor and reached for the pistol again. Fingers wrapped around the ergonomic grip as another hand tapped the cylinder to the right side, opening and revealing a single punched out shell. Curious, she pulled it out only to be disappointed by the expended brass case. Empty. She'd have to find ammunition for it. Somehow.

A slight foul stench had hit her nose, causing the girl to recoil a bit away from the doorway. Just what was in there to cause a nasty smell?

KOS-MOS stepped out and came face to face with cages of darkened mass lumps. And not a second later, her vision adjusted to give a clear view.

She wished that it had never happened.

These "lumps" were deceased bodies.

xvx

"That's... very concerning, MOMO."

"But Miyuki! I saw her! With my own eyes! Some company decided to-"

The former held out a hand to hush the latter. "Yes, I understand that. But the probability of some company having found her body is just next to impossible. Much less replicate the same exact technology to rebuild her."

The Realian gave a dis-satisfied pout toward the former Vector Industries scientist. Miyuki had never been too serious of anything these days lately, even after seeing what most people would classify as divine intervention. Just why the events from four years ago never mattered much to Miyuki stumped MOMO. To make things short, they had essentially stopped the entire universe from resetting. And decided to screw the time loop, they could make this work themselves.

But then again, thought the 100-series prototype, four years was enough to dull the eventful life the motley crew. Four years of trying to figure out a way to access hyperspace travel without the reality network they had all become so dependent on.

Four years without contact from their other separated friends.

"And in all honesty MOMO," continued Miyuki, "I'm sure Shion would somehow find out and go on a manhunt if that company decided to re-manufacture KOS-MOS."

Those words almost made MOMO take back what she thought earlier. Almost.

"We have the Dammerung, the proud capital headquarters ship of Vector Industries. There isn't a chance in hell that we will go up anytime soon."

MOMO forced herself to resist the temptation of rolling her eyes. Ironic on how Vector Industries was also the very same company that ordered the immediate termination of KOS-MOS herself, simply because another android had been built without governmental nor company approval. To drive the point home, T-elos had been built without a single supervision team. Rather, she had been constructed from the deceased remains of some holy being and kept in utmost secrecy from pretty much everyone except two people. If the chessmaster had not been CEO, MOMO knew Shion would have a good chance of having the T-elos Project trashed outright.

Leave it to Wilhelm and Kevin to make a top secret soul jar and give it public and company approval...

But Shion and team had won, and Wilhelm had lost. It was simple as that and now, it was up to them to somehow find a way for the universe to stop it's collapse.

Progress was steady, albeit a little slow.

Trying to ignore Miyuki's grandeur speech, MOMO decided to focus back upon her task at hand. Fiddling with the wiring under the panel, she started the slow task of rearranging the circuit to see if it would make a difference.

The discomforting thought of KOS-MOS never left the forefront of her mind.

xvx

KOS-MOS gasped for breath, taking in lungfuls of stale musty air mixed in with the slight sour scent of rotting bodies. Powerful legs sprinted across the dusty floor, armoured boots giving loud clacks with every step she took. Her entire being burned with a suffocating hotness, threatening to literally blind her. She knew she was running, but running from what?

Luminescent melted goo slammed into her mind, mixed with rotting deceased innards and tissue.

Oh. Oh oh oh...those- Oh gods. Those...those-

"System Override. Emergency dump initializing."

Bardiche.

KOS-MOS's eyes widened in slight shock as she immediately felt her body simply stop itself from running. With that loss of control, she felt her entire body collapse upon it's knees and her state of hysteria vanish outright, leaving her at a sudden loss. Like a puppet with strings, she felt her own being lose control, having relinquished itself to another power. It was disturbing to her in an odd way, yet she wasn't too surprised at this. She knew how to react, she even wanted to, but her body refused to co-operate. So the girl simply kneeled there, alone inside her lost and confused mind. An internal clock marked off one minute of utter silence before the voice inside her head spoke to her.

Actually, it outright snarked.

"If it's any possible sir, would you not panic at the sight of rotten bodies for once?"

The former raised her eyebrows as she gave an uneasy smile, a bit embarrassed.

"Yes, I understand dead rotting bodies are horrible, but trust me. You have seen far far worse."

There he went again with the past tense. If it continued any further, KOS-MOS swore she was going to...

"I'm in you too, just to remind you sir. And yes, I can read your thoughts. I wasn't designated SECOND just because it seemed cool at the time."

Taking note of Bardiche's slight agitated tone, she frowned. And promptly apologized, her eyelids half closed in shame and head bowed. The kneeling state of her body only served to make her appear more pitiful and the soft sunlight just beyond reach completed it.

It felt...oddly comforting as she waited with patience for Bardiche to speak.

The AI gave another sigh, more aimed at himself than anything. "No no. I should have calmed you down, since... you..." It trailed off, unable to finish out of remaining her of her painful wounds.

KOS-MOS only felt her emotions descend deeper, biting her lip as she too reflected upon just minutes ago. She needed to think straight, not panic at every single damn horrible thing she saw or heard. She knew from common sense it would get people killed and she hated that feeling more than anything else. To lose someone, she hated it. Absolutely.

She found herself unconsciously clenching a fist in anger. Surprised at her rash action, the girl uncurled her fist and gave a confused stare at her raised palm.

Just... why had she?

Shaking her head to clear her scattered thoughts, KOS-MOS took in a deep breath to calm down and stared straight ahead with her eyes set and a small frown gracing her lips.

It worked as her super sensitive hearing detected the sharp crack of gunshots. That wasn't good. Wasting not a moment, KOS-MOS easily cleared the ground she was on to grab a ledge and vault herself to upper floor. Taking off with a steady paced run, she barreled through two other wooden doors before seeing a sign which read "Exit".

The gunshots were ever closer.

Her free hand reached for the exit door and she accidentally pulled, only to rip the steel opening mechanism from it's hinges. Startled eyes gave a second blank stare at the crushed piece of metal in her left hand. Bardiche had not been joking about her.

Pushing the broken door open, she averted her eyes as real time sunlight hit her body for the first time, basking her in it's warming glow. The previous darkness which she found utterly creepy was now replaced by a comforting afternoon. As the discomfort subsided, KOS-MOS surveyed the area, trying to make sense of where she was. A fountain, some benches, lots of clean cut hedgerows, trees...

A park?

Wait, what was that in the foreground? Two people?

"Activating Hilbert Tactical Visor."

She suddenly found her left eye looking through tinted blue and in an instant, her relatively "normal" vision, if someone would call seeing out fine details a hundred meters away normal, lit up with an array of information. There was distance markers, wound assessments for her body overall "health", energy readouts, a minimap showing her current location. Even the small minute details such as the condition of current weather and atmospheric composition. Everything that a soldier of the future would want and more.

So caught up in her amazement was she never noticed her AI's voice until he had "physically" tapped her shoulder to bring her back to reality, at which she cutely stared off into space in the direction of the tap. It took around a second for her to realize Bardiche had notified her.

And it only took a millisecond for her to swivel her head as a close gunshot rang out.

Immediately acting upon instinct, her body crouched to make herself a smaller target, vision never left the general area of the park. A simple thought caused her vision to zoom in to two distant figures, the tactical visor doing it's job as intended. Now, she could clearly see two white uniformed men, evident by the guns in their hands. Another was there as well, but it looked as if he was kneeling?

KOS-MOS was no slouch, but the fact that she had a weapon and these guys had weapons caused a cold knot to form in the bottom pit of her stomach. The knot grew tighter as her systems now identified these men as "Hostile". Except for the one on his knees. She saw the arm of one soldier raise...

Maybe...she shouldn't have picked up that pistol.

A crack rang out as a bullet snuffed a life, spattering it all over the pavement.

xvx

A slight crackle as an electronic communications channel was opened up and brought to life, patching in a lone patrol to their leading officer somewhere else hundreds of miles away.

"This is Cobolt Two, I got nothing from these Recon forces here."

The next response was quite the hotblooded one.

"Nothing? You got nothing? What the HELL do you mean you got nothing?"

A white clad trooper shifted his body weight in nerve at the raging hatred of commander, despite it being delivered via comm channel. If the devil had a voice and was made military commander, the bitching voice nearly cracking the comm channel would qualify. Before he had a chance to explain the situation, the voice raged again.

"This bitch has killed about HALF of Cobolt section already! I ain't payin' you fools to die here! Now stay alert and keep watch! That tin fuck is coming, I can smell it."

An automatic crisp "Sir yes sir!".

The channel went dead halfway through, blind rage having gotten the better of the nasty voice. Which lead to the two troopers watching out for anything on patrol. But knowing these paramilitaries, they were soon to slack off. Less than three seconds in, they started to idle chat.

"God, they don't pay for me this shit. Why does the Commander have such a hard-on for this thing?"

"Dude, this nanorobot is dangerous stuff. You've heard what it can do." The second trooper. "Turn invisible, deploy armor, even use the famous X-Buster that Vector Industries android could do. Only a hundred times worse. I've even heard it could generate a concussion blast up to 20 tons of PSI. And that's the LEAST of it's power!"

The former soldier gave an annoyed grunt, not caring in the slightest, despite the facts which had been just told. "Pfft. What I heard is that Vector robot is dead as space. There's no way that another one can exist, let alone it being made by us. Hell, we've only begun to invent this shitty uncomfortable body armor we're wearing ri-"

A sound of weak struggling and a muffled precision F-strike.

"Hold it."

A gloved thumb flipped off the safety of the drab pistol and lifted to align the sights on a fallen man's head. Not a split second later, the pistol discharged and sent the victim's brain matter splattering all over the concrete park.

"Kay done," was the casual response.

xvx

What the fuck... Just... what?

Gloved hands fisted into loose locks of sky as her lost mind struggled to grasp what happened before her eyes. Had...had those two men just kill someone in cold blood?

No way this was happening. Not like this.

KOS-MOS slumped her exhausted body against the shattered brick wall of the building, her frantic mind trying to register what the hell had happened. She had just watched two full armor suited men casually execute what looked like a member of an official military force. What was worse was the fact they were hunting a super prototype down and apparently over-rode any actual military command, if the uniformed man she just saw getting killed was any indication. And the bodies she had encountered in the earlier rooms-

Oh god, the bodies...

The girl slammed the base of her skull to get the unpleasant images out, repeating a mental mantra to try and focus upon something else.

She took a gaze at the empty pistol in her grasp, the interface of her systems IDing it as "Magdalene-18". A nickname for this revolver perhaps? Trying to seek solace, her free hand swung out the cylinder to the side, the single empty shell casing still inside the chamber. Without a second thought, she removed it from the weapon by pinching it in between her fingers and was about to toss it when she realized something.

She didn't know what caliber Magdalene-18 was.

Placing the empty shell back into the revolver for now, she closed the lock back up and placed the weapon in her left hand, freeing her right. Now looking down at her own body for the time, KOS-MOS tried to look for another weapon she could use to defend herself.

She only found a small boot knife strapped to her ankle.

With a grim pout on her features, a gloved right hand tightened on the only weapon available to her, a light tug pulling it out of the sheath. Taking a quick look at the blade itself, the girl found it had a tapered point and a serrated edge on the top, made obviously to gut an enemy if needed. Upon it was not CryNet Systems, but a different logo. Two simple inverted commas arranged to circle in an infinite loop. Below it was simply the word "Vector".

Bardiche had mentioned before her original frame was created by Vector Industries.

"KOS-MOS is the pride of Vector, you know Allen?"

Voice? Again? Only...these voices-

"Hahaha. Well, you did design her Chief."

Chief? Why did that title feel so familiar to her? Was it something to do with her?

"No no. I just simply had to reverse engineer her. I'm her co-creator. That's it."

"Sir. Threat detected."

Shaking her head for the third time to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling, she took several deep breaths to calm her shot nerves down. And just as she started to calm down, KOS-MOS felt her body energy levels jolt and spike up in a flash, her entire being now acutely aware of her surroundings. She could clearly hear the ambient noise in the background behind her and even pick up the occasional chatter from those two soldiers on patrol. She blinked once and then twice to see her own vision light up with a diegetic heads up display, not too dissimilar to the visor's own, if only more simplified.

"Combat Mode, get set!"

With her body feeling much more lighter and faster in general, KOS-MOS turned her head to her left to take a peek at the patrol. She frowned as her hearing picked up faint radio chatter from the two of them. It was obvious they were not going to leave anytime soon.

"Tactical Options Available."

Well, so much for avoiding combat.

A yellow hexagonal marker labeled "1" had displayed itself on her under HUD, just in front of a massive shipping crate. Below that hexagon was a simple word. Resupply.

Taking a quick glance at her revolver, she silently prayed to any divine being that there would be ammunition for it.

With no further absent thoughts, KOS-MOS vaulted from the broken side wall to avoid detection and easily ran over to the huge shipping crate, ensuring she stayed out of view of the patrol. Crouching near a green box which had conveniently been already opened, her hurried gaze picked up four pistol magazines and five larger ones which were most likely meant for an assault rifle of some type. Within tenths of one second, her system had tagged all the available types with no luck. Trying to remember her weapon caliber, she brought the revolver to her vision to analyze it once more, this time succeeding with results.

50TactAE Compact?

KOS-MOS rummaged through the various ammunition types, finding nothing but small caliber pistol and rifle rounds. She tried once again only to no avail. The caliber type was not there. Her mouth let out a stressed non-existent huff of frustration as she once again lowered her left hand.

The gods hadn't answered her and her right hand tightened upon the rubberized grip of the boot knife.

Looks like she was going to have to use cold metal.

Bringing up the knife in front of her, she could see the sunlight glint off the dull drab grey parkerization on it. And on it, a blurry image of her eyes.

Red? Her irises were red?

KOS-MOS pushed the thought from her mind, needing to focus on her grim task. Skirting along the green bushes, she quickly jogged from cover to cover, making sure she was not in the line of sight of the two men. If they had killed a man in cold blood, then she was pretty sure they would also kill her if given the chance.

So she had to kill them first.

It felt somehow eerie to her, but her body and mind seemed to accept the fact this was natural. Almost... a way of life.

Pressing her back against the cool rough concrete of the fountain, she was only about five meters away from one of them. She took a quick glance and confirmed the other one had wandered off, a good twenty meters away. Focusing back upon the other threat, she crept up closer, confident they would not notice her presence. Just as she was about to spring up and plunge cold steel into flesh-

"Have you no conscious at all, KOS-MOS?"

She let out a small gasp at the sudden faraway voice in her head, knowing it was not her AI. For one, the voice was female. And two...

How had it known her nam-

"Shit! It's that tin fuck!"

Oh crap.

Cover blown, KOS-MOS did the only thing she could within five meters of her alerted enemy. She charged straight at him, knife pulled back to ready a strike. Her field of view blurred as she sprinted at maximum power, the full force of her charge now impacting upon both the enemy soldier and her as she now got a crash course upon an old scientist's Three Laws of Motion. Acting upon instinct, she deftly raised her right arm for a strike, to plunge the blade she held into a weak spot. Instead, she got a slight surprise as the soldier she had tackled quickly intercepted it and held her wrist in a strong grip, trying to pinch a nerve to force drop the knife from her grasp. She only tightened up, locking her muscles to prevent the loss of her weapon. Only realizing now she had the empty revolver in her other hand, did she come to the grim conclusion to use it as an improvised club.

Giving it a small flip, KOS-MOS reversed the weapon so that it's barrel was in her grasp and reared her arm back to give the soldier a heavy blow. The soldier gave out a small cry as the end of the grip struck across his temple, enough to crack the orange visor of the helmet he wore. His struggling and grip upon the girl's wrist weakened, just enough for her to-

A sharp pain erupted from her side, a heavy military boot impacting against her lower left ribs, enough for her diegetic interface to light up red and blur with static as it momentarily failed. A second immediate blow pushed her away from her target as she now realized the other soldier exploited her momentary fight with his comrade to flank her.

Her eyes widened in shock as she felt sudden impacts of pain slam into her chest, reverberating through out her body and forcing it to almost docile levels. Wanting to give a shout or anything to unmask her confusion and swimming screwed vision, she tried to make a half hearted attempt at a yell.

KOS-MOS only coughed up a concerning amount of red which she knew was blood.

Her own blood.

She barely heard Bardiche's own voice warn her that her health was critical.

"Warning: Health Critical! Please seek cover immediately! Base functions impaired; switching to core function mode. Life support priority. Warning!"

Dammit, she couldn't die like this! Not taken out by some two uniformed thugs who just shot a man in cold blood. No! That was just a disgrace to her...

She felt and saw the corners of her vision darken with a monochromatic red. The girl knew she was dying from the now barely accessed bullet wounds in her chest, vaguely knowing the rounds had struck her lungs and heart, shattering more than a few ribs in the process and maybe a flailed chest segment as well. She was sure they had tumbled and made a fine mess of her vitals too, which would definitely outright kill her slowly, if the shock did not get to her first.

Quiet. Everything was just so... quiet.

"I know... we'll meet again."

Never! She had too!

With a rage she never knew to exist inside her, her blurred tunnel vision saw iron sights line up with an equally blurry white mass, seeing double as her body and mind struggled against the fierce pain. Somehow, one of the men's rifles had ended up in her hands when the other one had pushed her off and put a good burst into her body. Vision spinning, hearing just about shot except for her own quickened irregular pulse, and her entire body feeling on fire, she let out a single breath.

It was enough.

Pulling the trigger, she felt her body vibrate as the rifle in her hands jumped. Just barely, she saw one of the blurs go down, body twitching as his now dead reflexes jerked the trigger on his own rifle, hitting the other soldier across the chest, splattering it with gunpowder and blood as the flesh underneath exploded.

A clatter of hardened composites resounded as the girl sunk to her knees, her short adrenalinal burst over, replaced by a feeling of dull throbbing pain inside her chest region. Her head bowed, hair obscuring most of her vision and the sun. Not like she could see, her perception still hurting beyond levels. Gritting her bloodied teeth against the pain, she dragged herself to sit up against the fountain barrier, opening her eyes to see the warming sun in a glorious morning. She halfheartedly struggled for breath in her shot up respiratory system, the powerful sprays of still running water dampening her tainted skin and cleansing it of the blood somewhat.

It felt nice.

So...very...nice...

"Wound assessment underway. Processing. Wound rate at 85 percent, combat effectiveness reduced to ten percent. Wounds will take up to twenty minutes to heal at current state. System sleep commencing. Rest well, Sir."

KOS-MOS gave a smile as she closed her eyes willingly, bidding Bardiche the same.


Closing Notes: In the words of Forrest Gump, "You got shot." Lol. Well, I hope you've enjoyed read this part so far. And a special thanks to the person who faved my story, Strawberry. Now all I need is a signed review...somehow. As always please do review and critique if necessary.