Apologies for the late update. My allergies are doing a good job of impersonating a severe head cold and it knocked me on my butt. Midnyght's computer is still out of commission, but never fear! I have quite a few chapters ready for your reading pleasure in the meantime.
Anyway, in this installment of Redemption, we begin to see why Neo Arcadia is such a mess, Phantom braves a direction connection to the eldest of the Robot Masters, and Ciel finds out that the government official that assigned her to the project that birthed Copy X wasn't very official at all.
Milan knocked on the doorframe to the lab. "Hey, Doc, you busy?"
Cerveau turned from the data he was sorting on his terminal, slightly surprised to see Milan and Ciel at his lab. "No, not at the moment. What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Ciel replied, stepping into the room. "I wanted to talk to you about the files you've been sending me, the ones of Master Zero's memory repair logs."
"I mentioned to Ciel that Master Zero's systems look like they're defragmenting, as if they're pulling the least damaged files and repairing them," Milan said, "and we wanted to see if his auto-repair system logs showed any repair focus on his processor."
"His auto-repair? Now that you mention it, his auto-repair system was damaged during his startup as well, but by his scans, that repaired itself, too. Which is…" For a Reploid's auto-repair to repair itself? Unheard of. Cerveau was astounded and honestly, it was exciting in a way.
"Wait, his auto-repair fixed itself?" Ciel was absolutely amazed by that detail. "You…all you did was provide new nanites, right?" He'd not asked Zero to undergo any sort of diagnostic or maintenance, and that had worried her. But now? "Is there any way that we could get Master Zero up here so that I could get his repair and diagnostic logs for analysis and comparison?"
"I can call him up, though Guardian Phantom would be coming, too." Of course, since Phantom was in Zero's custody. After a few moments, Cerveau nodded. "They'll be along in a minute."
Ciel looked over to the bank of charger pods, eyeing them for a moment before turning to the medic. "Cerveau, how much longer do the programmers have before they're ready to exit hibernation?"
"Mmm…" Cerveau hummed, glancing back at the line of charger pods. "Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes left on the recharge cycle. I gave them another round of nanites before they start their boot cycles, just to be sure. Judging by their readouts, it's been a good, long while since they've had a full recharge cycle, never mind the state of their auto-repair systems."
"I can't imagine what it's been like for them," Milan said. "How bad off were their systems when they came in?"
"They were at death's door. Their systems were being starved…if this is how the programmers are faring, I really hate to think how it's become for Reploids in general in Neo Arcadia." Cerveau shook his head slightly.
"Hold on," Milan said, shocked, "starved? They…were they…" He could barely wrap his head around the concept. "Were they being denied basic nanite resupply as well as access to their chargers?" And not just nanite injections like they'd get twice a year (or more often, if it were necessitated), but their raw material supplements as well? "What is Copy X thinking? The city is going to shut down without the Reploid half of the population. We make up the entire workforce until the human population can restabilize!"
"I can't even begin to fathom what Copy X could be thinking, but yes. All of their system functions were…I don't think they've had a proper charge in weeks. Their nanite supplies were alarmingly low, along with their raw material reserves. Guardian Phantom had to carry one halfway here, and after checking his health…" Cerveau shook his head, clearly disgusted with the condition of the programmers, clearly disgusted with Neo Arcadia and Copy X.
"Raw material supplements have been rationed out to once every four months, and charge cycles to two hours every other day, unless you're looking to get retired for straining the resources. The…the higher-ups, however, those like myself and my siblings, the Judges, and the army lieutenants, are not subjected to the same restrictions, but we are warned to keep our requests for supplies and charge as minimal as possible just to ensure the 'stability' of the city," Phantom said as he and Zero walked into the room. "And four days out in the desert did not bode well for any of their systems, compromised as they already were. I'm just glad we didn't lose anyone on the way here." Phantom looked to Cerveau, obviously worried. "The one that I brought in, the one in hibernation, how is he looking?"
Cerveau paused by that unit's charger, checking his stats over again. "He's already received two nanite injections, and I don't think he'll need a third, but I'm going to keep an eye on him just in case. He should feel a lot better now that he has a full charge and some supplies in his systems."
"That is a comforting thought," Phantom said, tilting his head as he looked over the pods. "What about their names? How long will it be before they're assigned names?"
Zero pulled Phantom a bit, tugging on his arm to silence him. "Cerveau, you called me up here for something?"
"Lady Ciel will name them once she decides on good names," Cerveau said with a smile before turning to Zero. "Yes, I did. From the data you've given me, it seems that your auto-repair system has repaired itself, which is unheard of in Reploids," and would be very useful to replicate, Cerveau thought, "so I'd like your repair and diagnostic logs from that system for analysis, if you don't mind."
Zero nudged Phantom toward one of the nearby chairs before vaulting onto the nearest table. "Get me a link-up to one of the computers and I'll set the copies to download," Zero said, taking the offered cable from Cerveau once the medical officer pulled one of the smaller terminals over to him. "It's going to take a minute, since my systems tend to be a little…or a lot detailed in their scans." Zero had long ago learned to ignore most of the minutiae in those logs, but he'd give full copies if something in them would prove useful. Plugging the cable into his neck, he verified the link before looking to Cerveau. "Is there a time frame you need me to focus on?"
Phantom dropped wordlessly into the chair, closing his eyes as he focused back on the encryption layer he'd been stuck on earlier.
"Just everything from the time you woke in Neo Arcadia to today so we don't' miss anything," Cerveau said, moving to the terminal and inputting something before nodding. "Whenever you're ready."
Zero laid back against the table, closing his eyes as he selected the batch of files, and he let out a soft breath as he initiated the file copy. A peripheral popped up, informing him that the transfer was going to take at least fourteen minutes. In the meanwhile…
Careful to keep from alerting the unit currently wearing the handcuffs, Zero initiated a wireless data transfer into the control mechanism on the cuffs, authorizing a system overwrite as he supplied a completely different locking program into the control mainframe.
"Are your memories returning more frequently now, or is the pace remaining steady?" Cerveau asked as he watched the upload process. Fourteen minutes…by that time, the programmers would be finished, too.
It was as if Zero hadn't heard the question, the android remaining silent, resting against the table as if he'd fallen asleep.
"…Zero?" Cerveau nudged Zero's shoulder gently, his brow furrowing with concern at Zero's lack of response.
Zero's brow furrowed, and he cracked one eye open, verifying the file overwrite before opening the other eye. "What?"
"I asked you if your memories are returning more frequently than when they first began restoring," Cerveau said, frowning. "Did something happen? You didn't hear me the first time I asked."
"They're…they're coming in a little more frequently," Zero replied, "though the file length isn't nearly as long as some of the earlier files I repaired." He looked down a bit and blinked at the medic's other question before answering, "I was just looking over a few of the files I have gotten back. It's odd still being out of place about who I am with memories as old as the ones I have."
Cerveau nodded: he could only imagine. "You'll feel more comfortable as more and more recover," and Cerveau certainly hoped that they all would. "Though let me know right away if anything changes."
"I will," Zero replied.
"You mentioned that they've been coming back a bit more. Are most of them triggered or restored during hibernation?" Ciel asked, walking closer to the table he was on.
"Most of them are still in hibernation, and it seems like my systems are focusing more on the memories that weren't during the times I was on active duty. I'm getting a lot of satellite files as well, audio and visual logs or documents that have to relate with older memory files, but nothing really focusing on any of the Maverick Wars. I've gotten a few of the actual fights back, as well as the entire final battle of the Elf Wars," and that memory was one he had shared with Phantom the night before. "Past that," and he shrugged. "I'd provide copies of that, too, but I'd be plugged up for a good chunk of the day and I'm not certain seeing the files themselves would be all that helpful to your research."
Cerveau nodded: as interesting as Zero's memories would be, it wasn't the memories themselves they needed data on, it was the method by which the memories were restored.
"What about the memory of Uncle Rock's you unlocked last night?" Phantom asked. "Would that be relevant?"
Ciel shrunk back a little at the thought of the progenitor unit, or his elder brother, having to come up to the lab for anything.
"You unlocked one of Master Rock's memories?" Cerveau perked up at that: he'd heard the broadcast along with the rest of the base, even if he wasn't one of the ones gossiping incessantly about it. Zero had none of his memories, so Rock fared better with his twenty-three percent, though Cerveau suspected that Rock lost more than just the majority of his memory files to be reduced to newbuilt status so completely.
Zero looked as if Cerveau had just said he'd kicked someone's puppy. "I didn't mean to," honest. "It's just that, last night, X and Rock stopped by the room, and we got to talking about the Elf Wars, since Phantom had been telling me one of the stories X used to tell him. We got to talking about the fact that X lost track of me because the team that was supposed to be analyzing me decided I was better off dead and abandoned me in that lab. It triggered something of Rock's memory files, something about one of the wars he fought and how the ones he fought against had been reprogrammed and forced to fight, to kill, despite their original purposes being so benign." He looked to Ciel and Milan for a moment before turning back to Cerveau. "And why did no one bother telling me that Dark Elf is my daughter?"
Cerveau met Zero's gaze through his goggles. "It wasn't my place to tell you, especially not with your memory files as they were, and are. You have a lot to absorb as it is, so I thought it best to see what pace your processor sets on your memory files and let Master X field any questions you have about your past, given that he, out of all of us, is best suited to answer them."
"I guess you're right," Zero mused, "though I really would have liked to have not randomly stumbled across that realization."
"You said Master Rock knew others, fought others, that had been reprogrammed? How is that possible?" Milan looked absolutely flabbergasted, turning to look to Ciel. "For anything of that magni…" and he drifted off, eyes flitting towards the door.
"For anything close to a reprogramming attempt, since Reploids can't be," Ciel said, ignoring Milan's gaze, "it would require a full corruption of whatever data was being targeted for change and then installing new specifications and coding and hoping that they'd stick instead of being outright rejected by the unit's own systems."
"I'm shocked that it hasn't occurred to you that Reploids did not exist in that time period," Blues' voice deadpanned from the doorway to the lab. He'd stopped there when he heard the direction the conversation had taken. Rock was leaning into Blues' side again, his arms wrapped around Blues' shield arm as he looked to the ones in the room curiously.
Ciel spun on her heels, eyes going wide as she let out a startled meep, taking a half-step back towards Milan. Were the doorway a viable option for her at that moment, she would have bolted back to her room, Milan tailing her or not, but with the two Robot Masters currently blocking her way out, she settled for moving away from them, her eyes darting to the floor so she wouldn't have to actually see the taller unit staring a hole through her.
Blues took a moment to look over Ciel and Milan before turning his attention to Cerveau, even as Rock's gaze wandered over everyone in the lab. "The programmer units brought in yesterday are about due for their recharge cycles to end, yes? I want to look over the coding sets they brought with them for the Pantheons, Golems, and Emergency Response Protocols."
"I have copies if you'd like," Phantom offered. "Had I known you wanted them earlier, I could have saved you the trip."
"That'll work," and there was a bit of an audible shrug in Blues' voice: it didn't matter which unit provided the data so long as it was transferred to him. He leaned against the doorframe, Rock leaning into his side contentedly. "X's description of how they reacted on the surface is…worrisome." And the First Law was angry that Blues took this long to address it. "I'd like to address that. If that can be rectified, it will make any future raids on Neo Arcadia that much safer."
"I'm sure that my siblings and the Judges would be appreciative. Well," Phantom amended, "at least Judges Foxtar, Mantisk, and Kelverian would. Inarabitta and le Cactank, maybe. The others?" He shrugged. "If you want to wait for the programmers to come online, that's fine," he offered. "I'm not sure how I'd be able to provide the data, seeing as I'm not on the comm net yet."
"Do you have the same port types X did on his original body?" Blues' gaze was cemented on Phantom now, head tilted slightly, considering.
"I have all three, yes, though I'm not sure how…" What did that have to do with his comm net access? Or lack thereof, as the case was.
"X was built to be able to interface with the Robot Masters to an extent. He had at least one port that was compatible with us, should we be unable to interact wirelessly and X need something." Blues' tone wasn't exactly sharp, but he was frowning in that way that meant that someone wasn't getting it when they should be.
Phantom frowned. "I…I wasn't aware of that, though Father never really explained why the four of us were built with a port that no other unit was designed with." That, at least, filled in that little gap in his understanding. He got to his feet, approaching Rock and Blues, turning around once he'd neared the pair and craning his head down to expose the ports.
Blues pulled a bundled cord from his trench coat pocket, unwinding it and slipping one end into his own port as he spoke to Phantom. "I'll warn you now, I won't feel like a Reploid once we're linked." He didn't want Phantom startling or anything, especially not when they were linked up: it hurt to have a cord yanked.
Phantom nodded. "I'll…try to keep that in mind," he said, hands fisting loosely in the cuffs.
Rock disentangled one of his arms from Blues' and took Phantom's hand quietly: there wasn't a reason to be nervous. Blues was really nice and now Phantom would see.
With that, Blues opened the port and slid the cable in. It took only a moment's work to establish the connection and query Phantom's systems. Blues would admit that linking to the Guardian was still less than ideal, but he'd displayed only kindness toward Rock, even when Blues wasn't there, and with this link, he'd have a better feel for who Phantom was, even if the Reploids were nigh unreadable compared to Robot Masters.
Phantom's eyes went wide as the connection was verified, and he suddenly felt very small inside his own head, as if he'd been shunted to a small section of his personality matrix, even though he retained control over the entire system. It was a little overwhelming, and the hand that Rock was holding tightened a little.
Searching for an access focus, as Phantom had prior experience with wired and wireless connections with other Reploids, he was startled to find that he couldn't pin down where Blues actually was to send a link confirmation. 'Uncle Blues,' he asked a bit nervously, 'where is your access point focused at? I'm trying to establish link confirmation for data transfer, but I can't…I can't find you.'
'We do not have an access point the way Reploids do. X could not find me at first, either.' Blues seemed mildly amused by that, like it was endearing and somehow, the amusement itself was communicated, brushed against Phantom almost to the point that he experienced the emotion for himself. Blues coalesced his focus near Phantom's access point, in plain view, still not making a move so as not to startle the Reploid. This'd been disorienting for X, so he expected it to be the same for the others.
Phantom nodded, finally able to sense where Blues was, and he sent a link confirmation to his uncle. 'Where there any other files you wanted, or would you just prefer access to my memory databanks?' The time Blues had spent in Neo Arcadia had not been positive in any way for the Robot Master, so perhaps if Phantom provided images, files, of the world before his father's replacement had been put into power, it would help the elder robot see that the world hadn't always been what he'd awoken to find.
'The databanks will be fine,' Blues responded, pulling Phantom along a bit via the link, guiding him through it now, trusting that he'd have the sense to watch and learn. 'If you send transfer requests to the same place you verified the link, I'll be able to receive file transfers,' but Blues was already accessing Phantom's memory databanks, querying for permission and being permitted deeper into the Reploid's mind.
'I wouldn't know what to ask for,' Phantom admitted, feeling the Robot Master rifling through his memory files, and he smiled at some of the earliest memories that were being queued to copy. 'Since I'm the baby of the family, you'll get a good idea of what your other nephews and your niece are like if you focus on the first ten to fifteen years.' After that, they'd be reassigned to military duty, and Phantom was sure Blues wouldn't be as interested watching that. After a moment, he tried to block any of the data files from the last four years from Blues, save for selecting the file of his argument with Copy X and initiating that to transfer as well.
Blues accepted the transfer for the argument with Copy X. Phantom's attempt at blocking the years with the Copy were…was he trying to shield Blues? From what, the truth? He didn't argue it though, let Phantom set up his little firewalls, and stayed corralled where the Reploid wanted him to be.
In all honesty, had Blues still been more…had his intentions not been so honest, Phantom would find himself in a very precarious position about now. As it was, Blues took only what Phantom was alright with him taking.
From the memory banks, at any rate. Blues didn't know how okay Phantom would be with him copying all of Phantom's programming code, but that's why Blues didn't ask for permission to take that.
'I can take the Neo Arcadian coding files too,' Blues pointed out, still rifling through Phantom's early memories. 'I can download from multiple databases at once,' so two or even twelve transfers from within the same database was a cakewalk.
Phantom was quick to select the data, sending the transfer request to Blues. 'That's the coding for all three sets. There's a few different versions, but each of the files has been tagged with what unit it was extracted from and who the coder was.' Phantom would have to make sure to reassign the names on those files with the new names Ciel would provide. And at that, "Lady Ciel," he said, bowing his head a bit, "when you determine names for the programmers, would you please let me know what they are so that I can reset some of my internal data for them," including the identification tags his systems had for them.
Ciel only barely glanced up at the Guardian before nodding. "I will," she said meekly.
Rock was glancing at Ciel curiously, but he didn't stare, didn't want to make her even more uncomfortable. Rock squeezed Phantom's hand to reassure him. And then Rock noticed Phantom's cuffs. And the lock on them. A nice, easy little lock. But…wasn't that his lock program? Did X put that on there? No, X was too nice for that.
That was kind of a mean prank, wasn't it? Did Phantom even know how to break it? At least it was half broken open already, so it should be easy for Phantom to finish cracking.
'Thank you,' Blues said, deftly organizing the files on his own end and tagging them according to his own identification system. 'Is that everything?' Because if it was, then Blues could disengage from the link and get to work analyzing this code…and Phantom's.
'Unless there's something you still want or haven't finished downloading,' and Phantom's queue was empty, 'then yes.'
'You should be more careful,' Blues added as he withdrew back into his own mind, files nicely packed in their own subfolder. 'I may be an 'uncle' to you, but you barely know me and we did not meet under favorable circumstances. Supposed I'd still held ill intent toward you? You let me right through what mental defenses you do have.' And, really, those firewalls were the effective ones. Once inside, Blues could have done whatever he'd felt like. 'Do not think that your inability to be reprogrammed makes you immune to mental attacks. There are other ways to destroy data.'
Phantom tried to keep from reacting to that information, but he did tense up a little, clutching to Rock's hand, and he bowed his head. 'I understand, uncle,' he said, 'I…I am sorry that I did not think of that, but now that I know, I will take considerations from here on out.' It was odd to think that he had to protect himself from family, but if Blues felt it was necessary to make that point, he would respect and acknowledge it.
Blues nodded both over the link and in person, then cut their connection. Gently, he reached up to Phantom's port and disengaged the plug's locking mechanism and pulled it from the Guardian's port, then did the same with his own. "I'll begin my analysis of this data," and he had to slide his arm from Rock's to wind the cord back up, "and we'll see where the bad code is." Like a walk in the park: there was no if, no maybe, and no uncertainty about it. He was absolutely confident that he'd see it and Rock smiled up to him, now grasping the side of his coat.
Zero groaned a little as he pushed himself up from the table, disengaging the cable from his port. "Download's finished," he said, "and I apologize in advance for how insanely detailed my logs are. My systems are a bit…obsessive about details, so you're going to be muddling through a lot of those reports."
"I noticed that when you were in the charger and your systems were repairing, it posted repair logs to the pod's display screen." Seriously, it was as though the movements of each nanite was meticulously logged and posted. Every fiddly and seemingly superfluous detail presented on Zero's logs. Cerveau knew it'd take a lot longer to go through, but really, it was smart that Zero's systems were so anal about it: more data meant an easier diagnosis, provided you knew what it all meant.
Snatches of conversation flitted out to the hallway as X approached, trying to figure out just where his brothers had gone off to and wondering why they had left Rocinolle's lab in the first place. Seeing both Robot Masters in the doorway, X moved through the wall, looking to the gathered units when he cleared the other side. "Okay, what did I miss?"
Rock immediately brightened, reaching out to X with one hand, his fingers flitting into X's arm a bit, that staticky feeling registering in his systems. "Blues got copies of the programming those Reploids brought from the city," Rock said, still focused on X's unique nature and how novel the tingly sensation was. "So we'll know why they were hurting people," Rock glanced back at Blues at that statement, smiling when the older unit nodded shortly.
That's good, X thought, realizing what a mess of Blues' systems the First Law was likely making. "It'll help when we take back the city, too, since we'd be able to patch the update before we move in." He looked to Blues for confirmation.
"I'll issue it as an order from high up within the city's bureaucracy; they'll implement it themselves," Blues agreed, his head tilted, already delving into the coding sets, reading it over. "Once that is patched, they won't be firing randomly on citizens. Of course, it'll be easiest overall to order them to lay down their arms." To sit down and be quiet while those above them fought for dominance.
Which could be provided by X Hacking some of the senior units, since reprogramming wasn't an option and it'd be easier to filter down commands by affecting the senior officer of the response team. "That won't be much of an issue either," X supplied. "I think my bigger concern is providing an overwrite if it turns out that the units themselves have been recoded somewhere," which was going to prove far worrisome if X was right, seeing as even Pantheons had basic reprogramming protections.
Another wall had fallen in the lock program that Zero had been working on during the file transfer, the android finally getting himself unstuck and managing to get two layers further in before the program fed him another hard-to-crack firewall. Linking into Phantom's cuffs, Zero quickly undid the two encryption walls he had figured out, wondering idly if Phantom had even noticed that the cuff's program had been changed.
Rock's eyes widened when Zero undid two of the encryption layers on Phantom's cuffs. Zero did that? That was…that was so mean! Rock looked to Zero with wide eyes, looking like he was both upset and admonishing the ex-Hunter.
"Considering the….ah, 'security' in Neo Arcadia, it's won't be an issue at all," Blues replied to X, glancing down at Rock and querying him about why he was suddenly a little bit upset. Wait, Zero what? And Phantom didn't notice? Blues accepted a copy of the lock program from Rock, quickly inspecting it. Well, the locks were easy, so there shouldn't be a problem, right?
Rock wasn't so sure: it was taking them a long time to break each encryption layer.
Zero was sorely tempted to duck his head a little when Rock looked at him. While it seemed that Phantom was still completely unaware of the change to the handcuffs, Rock had definitely noticed. Opting to try for a change of topic, Zero saw the way X's right eye was colored, remembered what that indicated, and turned to Blues. "Blues, a quick question. The security program you provided for X—is that something that's specifically for him because he's a Cyber Elf?"
The question had been burning at the back of his mind for a while.
Blues considered Zero for several long moments before speaking. "No, that wasn't the only reason I provided it, though his current condition did make it considerably more urgent that he receive and install it."
"Wait, install?" Zero said, actually getting to his feet at that. "I was with X when we started training for the 17th Elite. He couldn't just install whatever programs he needed. I had to teach him basic self-defense and attack parameters step-by-step!"
Even Phantom was a little perturbed. "Did becoming an elf change Father's protections against data overwrites?"
Blues stared right back at them. "His original programming and protections are intact."
"Then how did you manage a program install?" Zero asked. "We're protected against anything external being added without permissions, and the…to have permissions for the program, wouldn't X have had to design it himself?" And X wasn't a coder, so that option…Did Blues walk him through the program construction?
Now Blues just stared at them, outright frowning as though Zero just insulted him somehow.
Ciel perked up a bit at the conversation, her voice still coming out low and a little uneven because of her nervousness. "Actually, external programs and data can be installed without issue. Low-level permissions are needed for file install of even the most basic document, as well as any and all wireless communications. Higher-level permissions for full program installs are a lot harder to manage, but not impossible, since the unit has to willingly accept the program and override the system protections that would normally hack the external program apart when an unauthorized install initiated. I ran into that problem during—" Her eyes went wide and she quickly shut right back up, ducking a bit behind Milan.
Now Blues and Rock's attention focused on Ciel. "During what?" What had she been doing that would have required overrides like that?
Milan answered that. "Ciel was hired on by the Neo Arcadian Governmental Office of Reploid Engineering four years ago for her skills with programming and construction. She was responsible for building the copy that's—"
Blues' entire demeanor changed. A flash of true anger passed over his face, unmistakable even with the sunglasses, but then he trembled as he forced more of his emotional displays offline, ignoring warning and error messages, ignoring what this was going to do to his core, to his processors. His posture became rigid and beside him, Rock's eyes widened and his lenses refocused as he shunted off Blues' empathetic resonation in his own processors, quickly damming up the flow before they looped and aggravated Blues' emotional condition. "What do you mean, she built that facsimile in Neo Arcadia?" Blues' voice was low and, despite him bringing many more of his emotional displays offline, the anger did not leave, his voice trembling with it.
X moved forward then, raising a hand towards Blues to try and get him to settle down. "Ciel, who contacted you about building him? I know you told me when I found this base that you had built him, but the…that governmental office doesn't exist." And there was no way that they'd founded it in the months after he'd lost his body.
Ciel was physically shaking as she answered, and most of the units in the room had to amplify their auditory receptors to hear her clearly. "I…I was contacted by a man from that office," though it had never been anything more than short audio communications, "who told me that my skills with Reploid engineering would be necessary because something terrible had happened to you and required a new body be built. He never gave me a name, but he provided copies of portions of your programming code, physical specs, and a few other details. I…" She shook as the memory played in her mind, the memory of a Reploid unit sneaking up on her in her room before she was going to bed, covering her nose and mouth with something she couldn't identify. When she finally recovered, finally woke up, it had been nearly a day later, and her lab was completely trashed, the copy's body missing, and a venom-filled audio recording from someone saying that if she knew what was good for her and the rest of the humans in the building she lived in, she'd keep her mouth shut about the entire incident. "I…I was sworn to secrecy because he told me…he told me that the city couldn't know. I…" She actually started crying. "I never…never finished…never intended for him to…" and she collapsed into full-blown tears, dropping to her knees as she crumbled into Milan's arms.
Blues raised a nearly-trembling hand to his forehead, closing his eyes as he tried to deal with the error messages, the indignation that yet another copy was built, yet another faulty facsimile, and it, too, was using its broken logic chains to make decisions. As a newbuilt, as a newbuilt, it was taken, not even completed yet, and, "…When they shunted it up to the throne, it was still a newbuilt, wasn't it?" Such a horribly planned coup, and it succeeded? How? His voice was strained, as though holding back from screaming himself. And this Reploid, now twisted beyond recovery, and for what? How did no one notice that it was a newbuilt? It should have been immediately evident.
And this was reminding both Robot Masters of another copy, of how it, too, was released as a newbuilt with faulty logic chains. How that one had to die as well, its life wasted because of someone else's carelessness. The makers have a responsibility. A responsibility. And instead, they set the little ones up to self-destruct?
There was nothing he could have done. Allowing that one to live would have killed them all.
"X…X wasn't…" Ciel stammered.
"I never really took direct part in a lot of the daily operations of the city. I was there, and I offered what time I wanted, but most people…" He frowned. "Most people said it was beneath me to come mingle with the common folk, that it wasn't necessary for me to take part in such menial tasks as the operations of my city. Sure, I handled a lot of the performance reviews and evaluations, but…" He shook his head. "The likely reason no one noticed he was a newbuilt is because, by the end, I'd not left the tower for years. No one wanted me down from the tower, content to imagine me sitting upon a throne and issuing commands to the city without ever actually raising a hand to help. My children and the Judges were my company. My people, my city, only cared that I remain in power. I was the one that led them to Elysium, to the paradise in the wastelands, so what was I supposed to care for those that wanted only to grovel in the dirt at my feet?" His own rage was building, aimed at no one in particular and aimed at himself for letting the situation become what it had.
"How did you not finish him?" Zero asked. "How is he operating when he's incomplete?"
"My…my lab was attacked, raided, about a month before I was able to finish him. I'd been…working on getting his logic systems and judgment core built when they took him. They…whoever it was, they took that data, but I have no idea if they were able to install it. From the way the city is now, though…" and she held tightly to Milan, trying to get herself to settle down. It wasn't right for her to be this broken, not when the Resistance needed her as much as they needed X.
And X had been having his own emotional upsets as it was.
Rock was looking up at Blues worriedly now, wanting to reassure him about Copy Rock, but what could be said? They all regretted it, they all felt like they'd failed that one, somehow, even if they didn't even encounter him until after it was far too late.
And…oh, this was just wonderful. Blues had been running scans on the programming data he'd received from Phantom and …this wasn't their original coding at all. What the hell.
"If the individual you describe has enough pull in the city to deceive you, cover his tracks, and then place that newbuilt in X's niche, the it is reasonable to assume that they have been working in other corners. It will be safe to also assume that that facsimile is working under that person, possibly even taking orders from them. Someone finished its logic and judgment, sloppily done as it was. Someone was also into the coding for the Pantheons, Golems, and the Emergency Response Protocols. There are large portions of added or altered coding that weren't even written to try to fit in with the rest." They may as well have highlighted and underlined the coding, it was so obvious. Blues tilted his head, opting to focus on this as a way to allow the immense anger he was feeling toward Ciel dissipate. "There are programmed 'patches' jury-rigged in here that would have resulted in the massive malfunctions in Neo Arcadia."
"Is there any way you could set up overwrites for the Pantheons and Golems that would actually stick, or are we going to have to find a way to take them temporarily offline when we take the city?" X asked. If someone was affecting the coding of these units… "Phantom, do you have copies of the coding from the power plant as well?"
"Nothing too current, no," Phantom replied. "The last time I was asked to look at the coding there was nearly three years ago, back when the output started really going haywire."
"Blues, would you mind?" X asked, turning to his brother. "I know I'm asking a lot, and I'm sorry."
"If Phantom is fine with linking again," Blues sort of shrugged though his systems were still in a high state of alarm and, honestly, he looked like he was torn between either leaving this entire situation or issuing some serious smackdown. Rock reached up to Blues with both arms, hugging him around the shoulders on tiptoe, and Blues let a slight smirk through for Rock's benefit and put a hand on the child's back. "As for the Pantheons, no, I cannot do a forceful overwrite on them; they are not mechaniloids. They would need to be offlined forcibly and requested to accept the patch after the coup."
X nodded in understanding.
Phantom reached out, silently requesting Blues' cord. Though he was okay with reconnecting with the Robot Master, his firewalls and defensive protocols were going active, shield upon shield thrown up as he selected the singular file he was going to transfer to Blues. Verifying it was being copied and transferred, he isolated it as safe to bypass his defenses while ensuring that Blues couldn't use the isolated track to delve into his systems.
He wasn't going to disappoint his uncle a second time.
Blues pulled the cord from his pocket and plugged it into his own port before moving to plug the other end into Phantom's neck. He'd have offered it to the Guardian to do it for himself, but with his hands bound, Phantom really couldn't do much of anything for himself.
Once again, Blues requested the link from Phantom, letting the Reploid set the pace. He made his 'location' more apparent this time around, too, and smiled over the link when he got a look at Phantom. 'This is much better.' It made Blues feel better, too, and it was strange to think that he was actually becoming worried about this one's welfare.
Phantom verified the link before sending the file over to Blues. There was a flicker of pride at Blues' comment that echoed in his systems.
There was a feeling of approbation coming from Blues as he accepted the file, scanned it, and put it into the same subfolder as the other files from Phantom. "I'll take a look at it once I finish analyzing the coding for the others," he told X as he disengaged his link with Phantom and reached up to remove the plug once again.
"I have a question," Zero said. "The program that X uses, the defense system…is that something that can be given to other Reploids?"
"It could be applied to other Reploids, but his version won't work on anyone without his coding. I understand that Reploids are based off of X's coding, but a version specifically for those units would need to be generated. The same would apply to any units using…a different coding set." And at that, Blues actually looked up from Rock and made eye contact with Zero.
"So you'd need copies of our individual programming codes?" Zero asked. "Would you want a copy of mine?" And that was a lot to ask of Blues, coming from Zero; there was something about him that the Robot Master just didn't agree with. For a moment, Zero wondered if that, too, was locked away somewhere in his damaged memories.
Blues was quiet for a long time, his expression unreadable. Internally, he was very, very quickly going over the pros and cons of this suggestion. There were no two ways about it that actually linking to Zero for anything was dangerous to the point that it was life-threatening. Blues did not think he was remotely paranoid for thinking that way, and by the worry reverberating from Rock's side of his link with the child, Rock didn't think Blues was being paranoid, either. Actually linking to him and providing a program would…
Suicidal. That's what it was. Absolutely suicidal. And Zero, X, all of them had no idea.
But. Getting a chance to actually look at Zero's coding? An outright link, by wire or wireless, was completely out of the question. Blues would not consider it. However, if he just bounced it to Blues over the network?
Finally, the eldest Robot Master spoke. "I'll make a mock Reploid account on the comm network. You can send a full copy there."
Zero nodded, ensured that he was online and broadcasting along the public channel, and he gave Blues his signal ID code.
Blues didn't actually need the ID code to be able to message Zero, but he accepted it anyway and, after a moment, Zero received a transfer request from a Reploid that he'd never felt on the network, from an account that didn't appear to even be online, save for the fact that it was contacting him right now, in real time.
"Is there anything you need aside from my programming?" Zero asked as he selected the coding for transfer.
"Do you have full copies of your maintenance logs?" Blues sounded a bit distracted, as though he just compiled a large reading list and was prioritizing which should go first.
Zero nodded. "Yeah, I have those. Maintenance logs are stored in a completely different section of my processor, so those won't be damaged. Why are you asking, though?"
"It could help expedite your memory recovery."
"Ah, okay," Zero said, selecting the last few day's worth of logs and sending those over to Blues as well.
Blues was quiet for several long moments, then said, "I need full copies."
"Wha…?" Zero blinked, looking at Blues. "Wait, the full database? Blues, that's got three hundred years' worth of maintenance file logs!" Did Blues have any idea how enormous that section of his processor actually was or how long that would take to transfer?
"Yes, all of them," Blues said flatly, tilting his head as Rock smiled.
With a shrug, Zero selected the whole bank of files and initiated the transfer. "We're going to be here for a minute," he said.
"I understand that," Blues shrugged. "It can't be helped, it is a large volume of data." Though breaking the upload into four parts and charging each processor with a quarter of the work did significantly cut down the wait time.
Zero groaned, dropping back down onto the examination table. "Well, does anyone else have something for me to do to pass the next seventy-six…wait…the next forty-two minutes?" Zero tilted his head up, looking at Blues. "How did you just kill almost half of the load time?"
"I delegated a portion of the upload to each processor," Blues said offhandedly.
Rock piped up with, "Why don't you break through the encryption you put on Phantom's handcuffs while the file transfers?"
"The encryption on…" Phantom looked down, hacking into the controls on his cuffs. "Zero!"
"What?" Zero fired back. "It's one thing for Hirondelle to trust you won't randomly take them off. It's a different matter if anyone in that room bragged about that across the comm net!"
"That's really mean, Zero, when you can't even hack through it to get him out," Rock pouted, leaning into Blues slightly when Zero and Phantom began exclaiming to one another.
"Hold on!" Zero turned to Rock, actually sitting up. "I can hack through it, it just takes a minute! I've been asleep for a century! I'm a little rusty at this!"
"We've been asleep for two and we're older, but you've been working on the same layer for the last five minutes!"
"Do you realize how hard it is to crack a code when you've got to devote all your processor power to it?" Zero said, his voice edging toward whining at the younger Robot Master.
"It's not hard at all," Phantom said. "Just cracked the top encryption and I'm working on the next one now."
"What do you…How?" Zero said. "I've run the code through every translation I can think of and it still doesn't make sense!"
"Did you bother reading each of the bits backwards?" Phantom shot back. "Each bit of data is coded backwards in hexavigesimal," he stated, as if the coding had been obvious.
Zero could only stare blankly ahead as he brought down the encryption wall.
Rock opened his mouth to retort to Zero, but Blues covered his mouth with one hand, pulling the child's head back slightly so Rock was leaning against him fully and looking up at him. Blues' slight frown was enough to convince Rock to drop it.
"Cerveau," Milan piped up, "shouldn't the programmers be ending their charge cycles right about now?"
"Ah—you're right," Cerveau said once he double-checked the time. He moved to the chargers and input the sequence to end their charge cycles—normally, it was on a timer on its own, but given that they were in the med lab and were in critical condition, everything had to be cleared by a medical officer first.
"Do you need a hand?" Phantom asked.
Ciel perked up a little at this, casting a look over to Cerveau, though she remained snuggled into Milan.
"Mmm, Lady Ciel, do you want to give me a hand?" Cerveau didn't miss how uncomfortable Ciel was around the progenitor units, even though both barely glanced at her, but given their reaction to the question she asked—which was an answer he was admittedly interested in as well—he could understand why she was skittish.
Milan helped Ciel to her feet before they both moved for the back end of the room, each of them grabbing a few armloads of green cloth and setting out the uniforms on a nearby worktable.
Phantom knelt down by Rock. "Do you think you could undo the encryptions and reset the lock to its previous program for me? I'd like to help."
Rock's eyes brightened and he nodded emphatically. Before Blues could even give input, Rock pounced on the program, quickly undoing the encryption—the rest of the layers took Rock under a second to undo and toss aside—and reinstating the old, boring lock program. "I'd ask if you wanted to play with it, except handcuffs are kind of a bad place for it."
"We can play again later," Phantom said with a devious smirk. "We can put a harder version on the cuffs and make Zero undo them. The old man could use the practice, it seems."
Rock smiled wider. "That sounds fun." Almost as much fun as sledding with Phantom.
Zero was staring at the both of them. "You're both so mean," he said, dropping back against the table and staring at the progress bar and trying to glare it into going faster.
Phantom tossed the cuffs over to Zero, who deftly caught the items and set them down on the table next to him. Moving over to the last of the pods, he offered his hand to the programmer. "Come with me," he said, leading the programmer to one of the examination tables. "How are you feeling?"
"Still a little groggy," the Reploid answered. "Other than that, though, I feel better than I have in a while." He moved onto the table with Phantom's help. "Guardian Phantom…we all made it here?"
Phantom nodded, smiling. "All nine of you did, yes. Now, lay back and relax, PC-59. Cerveau's the medical officer here; he'll check on you in a minute, make sure you're out of any immediate danger from the low-power state you ended up in." Phantom looked down a little, having regretted not taking any of his crystal supplies before leaving. "If you're okay for now, I'm going to help with the others."
"Cerveau?" the programmer asked, looking to the medical officer.
"Yes," Ciel said, moving over to him with a pile of clothes. "Given time, I'll be providing all nine of you with names. Your identification codes are something of Neo Arcadia I don't intend to allow you to carry around here." She smiled softly, resting a hand against the Reploid's shoulder. "Welcome to the Resistance."
"Welcome indeed," X said, stepping forward. "I'm glad to see my son was able to bring you to safety and that you're all doing well."
"Master X?" at least six of them blurted out, looking at the Cyber Elf.
"What?" PC-59 said, looking over at X. "If you're here, then…?"
"I'll get everyone up to speed as soon as Cerveau releases you all from the med wing. Milan, get onto the comm net and tell Dande we need nine new room assignments. And tell Faucon or Autruche to get down to Loceida's," he said, looking at the piles of clothes that were being sorted out. "We're short a belt," he said.
"On it," Milan said, bouncing the messages to their intended recipients.
Cerveau came to PC-59 first, given that he was the most critical of the nine, and began his examination. "I've given you and the others two nanite injections and four months' worth of mineral supplements to get your systems back up to speed. Aside from feeling groggy, how are you? Are your systems acclimating well?"
"They're operating as well as can be expected, sir," and they were doing well. "My auto-repair's still having a few issues adjusting to the higher-than-normal supply and nanite level, but it should be able to adjust within the next couple of hours. Main systems are just a little laggy, which is why I'm groggy at the moment."
"Anything booting improperly or showing yellow or red?" Phantom asked, looking up to Cerveau. "I hope I'm not being in the way."
"Not at all," and Cerveau honestly didn't mind. "If your systems are this unfamiliar with ideal levels of resources…they'll acclimate in a few hours' time, as you projected. Just stay here and don't push yourself until your processor clears." And with that, Cerveau moved to the next unit: he wanted to get them all checked over and dressed soon so they could actually get comfortable.
"So," Ciel said, returning to the unit Phantom was attending to, "you had a pretty rough time on the way in. I'm…" She looked at him for a moment before smiling. "Reset your personal identification tag, Saule," she said.
"So soon?" X asked. "I've never seen you name a unit that quickly."
"He survived a great deal," she said. "To bend without breaking, to whether the storm that's been raging in Neo Arcadia…like a willow tree. So, Saule." Ciel looked to the unit. "Does that meet with your approval?" Her smile widened when he nodded.
Cerveau smiled as well, checking the other units over, making sure that nothing was booting up flagged, that nothing was hurting. They all seemed a bit overwhelmed, which was honestly expected, but they all seemed relieved to have made it, too.
It'd be a relief to anyone, particularly considering that each had an Order of Retirement issued against them.
"Milan, did Dande shoot back any room assignments?" X asked.
"They're all going to be stationed on Level Five," Milan answered. "Rooms Twenty-Two through Thirty, unless any of them are bunking together." He wasn't sure if they would be. Most Neo Arcadian Reploids had subdued their emotional drives to keep their lives, so for any of them to have been developing attachments was next to unheard of.
"We had nine rooms available in a row?" X asked, then floated back a step when the realization had hit him about why. "We've…did anyone move their things?"
Milan nodded solemnly. "They've been boxed and marked."
Phantom and Zero both looked, Phantom to his father and Zero at Milan.
"What are you talking about?" Zero finally asked.
"The…units we lose on the raids, like the ones we lost when we went after you," Ciel answered, "aren't forgotten. Their belongings are kept safe, and we intend to build memorials for them once the city is ours again, even if it's not done in a public area." To honor their sacrifice for the Resistance and the true head of the city. "Neige and her group keep us updated on the ones we can't save in the city."
Most of the senior Resistance members fell silent for a moment.
That list was already over six thousand names long.
Rock's brow furrowed, and he opened his mouth as to ask a question aloud, but thought better of it and instead queried Blues. Rock's eyes widened when the elder unit informed him what they were talking about.
Casualties. Why…Rock's brow furrowed…why did it seem odd that they were giving Reploids memorials? Rock knew that they should get them, that it was right that they get them, but for some reason, Rock thought that a lot of people would oppose that and it'd be prevented from happening. But he couldn't remember why he thought that way. And all Blues would tell him was that they needed to be happy that this much progress had been made.
Milan helped one of the programmers out of her pod, handing her the pile of clothes and directing her towards a blocked-off section in the back of the lab so that she could change. She stumbled a bit as she moved, and Ciel looked towards her, watching her gait.
"Milan," she called, "when she's done changing, I need you to help her over to one of the exam tables." From the way the unit was limping, Ciel wondered if she'd offlined her sensory receptors to ignore something wrong with the limb. "Phantom, that unit there…"
"PC-71," he supplied. "What of her?"
"Was she injured at all on the way here? She's got a bad limp."
Phantom shook his head. "She was limping when I found her in Neo Arcadia. She didn't tell me if anything was wrong, but all things considered, I was there in an…official capacity, so she wasn't really much for talking about anything."
Ciel looked at the unit. "Cerveau, can I get the pod's maintenance logs for her?"
"Of course," Cerveau answered, moving over to PC-71's pod and transferring the maintenance logs to his pad for Ciel to look over. He handed her the pad before returning to his examination of the last of the programmers.
Ciel's eyes scanned the data, quickly narrowing her search down to the nanite's repair logs. "Cerveau, I think we're going to have to actually open 71's leg up. The nanites logged a repair attempt, but there's something they're having issues with." Something compromised in her systems?
Cerveau grabbed the rolling cart he kept his tools on and brought it over to where Ciel was standing, placing it beside the examination table. "How bad is the limp?" If they were going to open her up, he'd need some synthetic skin to close the incision back up at the very least, and possibly some parts. They wouldn't know what until they had a look, of course.
"It's nothing too pronounced that she can't walk on it at all," and she wasn't reflexively curling the leg up or trying to carry her weight more on the good leg. "I'm thinking the majority of the limp is coming from a lack of sensory reception. Here," she said, passing the data pad back to Cerveau. "Look at the logs here. She's got months-old red flags showing up. Even the new nanites are having issues addressing it. Maybe because of the sensory offline?" Current-gen Reploids did tend to be wired in ways where the systems occasionally crisscrossed if they were poorly maintained.
"If the injury has been causing problems for that long, we may very well have to replace some of her parts," Cerveau hummed thoughtfully. "The sensory offline may have sent false error messages to her auto-repair system and misdiagnosed the issue with the nanites."
"I was thinking the same thing."
Milan approached with PC-71, helping her onto the table.
"Hello," Ciel said, greeting the unit. "I don't mean to pry, but we noticed that you've got a pretty bad limp with your right leg and that the nanites weren't able to direct any actual repairs during your recharge cycle." Ciel took the Reploid's hand in hers. "We'll do what we can to help, but we need to know what's wrong."
"I was in an accident with an industrial unit about half a year ago, ma'am. I had been on my way home and had been…the unit dropped a steel beam on my leg," she said. "Auto-repairs were able to take care of most of it, ma'am, and my mechanic was able to rebuild what needed it, but…the sensory network's been misfiring since. I've kept it offline to keep from getting a retirement order because of the effect the pain would have had on me otherwise."
"We can replace the parts manually if it's something your nanites can't correct on their own, but as Lady Ciel said, we'll have to open you up." Cerveau helped her to straighten her leg once she laid back on the table, trying to be as gentle as he could. "I think it'd be best for you to bring your whole leg's sensory network offline for this."
The unit nodded, quickly offlining the whole leg. "Done, sir," she said.
Cerveau stepped forward then, pulling the cart closer to himself and Ciel both. He had to cut open the synthetic skin to even see what was going on inside, and once her leg was opened up, Cerveau paused, his frown deepening. It'd been a long, long time since he saw so many parts that need to be outright replaced in one location.
Ciel leaned over, grabbing a mask and drawing it over her mouth, before turning her attention to the Reploid's leg. She looked over the parts, her frown matching Cerveau's. "We're going to need to send someone down for parts," she said, her voice slightly muffled by the mask, "and hope that we've got everything we need. Cerveau, could you please hand me a pair of gloves?" While Reploids generally could work on each other regardless of the conditions (though sanitary and sterile conditions were preferred), humans that worked on the units had to take much of the same precautions that they did when operating on other humans. "When you said your…mechanic," and her voice didn't hide her discomfort with using the term, "rebuilt you, did they just repair your parts and reinstall them?"
"Yes, ma'am," PC-71 answered. "It's best to not strain the city's resources if you want to keep living."
Ciel shook her head and looked to Cerveau, taking the offered gloves and putting them on. "Unless you want to send Milan down, could you message someone to get the parts we need? From what I can see, we need all four motor servos and a batch of sensory wiring." She leaned closer, moving some of the unit's parts aside. "At least her skeleton survived the impact. We won't have to rebuild the lower leg from scratch." She frowned again. "And we're going to need a lot of new tubing." Whole sections of the robot's coolant and lubricant lines were completely missing, tied off to keep the fluids from draining into the limb.
Cerveau took a few moments to do an in-depth scan, measuring the leg and the parts, quickly making a list of the parts they'd need and sending the request out, flagged as urgent, to Rocinolle. It specified what Cerveau needed and how much of it, and requested that she bring it up immediately: that would be most appreciated. "Rocinolle is bringing the parts up now," since no one ever dallied if it was an urgent request from the lead medical officer. "It'll take some time, but we should be able to do a full repair in here."
Ciel grabbed a few tools off of the nearby cart, setting the wire cutters down as she started working the cover panels off of the Reploid's motor servos. "Cerveau, I think we're going to rewire the entire system. Look," she said, pointing to the damaged and frayed wire inside the first servo. "This…" she sighed, resisted the urge to slam her head into the table, and started following the wires to the data terminals where they were attached. "I'm almost scared to see what the civilian units in the city look like right now if this is considered an effective means of rehabilitating a unit after an injury." She looked at 71, smiling a bit. "We'll have you back up to spec in no time."
This was, after all, what Ciel was best at.