Thanks to abbydobbie for the Fav! I'm glad to know that there are people who are, in fact, reading my works on this site. Hopefully people will keep reading!
Chapter 13 – Brought Back to His Senses
"Sixer was to Cipher like Dunban was to Dickson!" Maria barked, glaring down at Reyn. "Buzz off, or I'm giving you a Fire Punch next time, is that understood?!"
Reyn rubbed his chin. "All right, all right! Geez, where did you come from?!"
"I can be very fast on my feet when I want to be," Maria replied curtly. She huffed at him, then turned and looked at Sixer. Her anger melted away in almost an instant. "You okay, Sixer?"
Sixer relaxed and smiled. "I'm fine, Maria."
Maria looked Sixer over for a moment, then relaxed as well with a sigh of relief. "Good. I was worried for a moment there when I saw him barreling down the hall like a crazed bull."
"Hey!" Reyn rose to his feet. "I'll have you know that—"
"I get that you don't trust Sixer because of what he's done, but trust Joshua. My cousin knows what he's talking about." Maria motioned to Joshua, then turned her attention away from Reyn to look her cousin over. "Although, I have to say that this is the first time I've overlapped my timeline with a past event like this."
"I had wondered if that was the case," Sixer commented.
Maria nodded. "It makes the most sense, considering that I remember coming home after the Continuum Shift, and never set foot in this dimension until now. So, where's the lab, cousin?"
"The Machina lab is back the way you came." Joshua turned and motioned. "Follow—" He stopped. "Did you get those stasis rings from me?"
Sixer turned and caught sight of the same man Maria had gone after in the forest, without the mechanical blade-arms, and lying on Maria's hoverboard, just as he had seen through Maria's eyes.
"Yes. They were…an inheritance." Maria moved passed Joshua and towards the hoverboard.
"Dunban!" Reyn pushed past Sixer and Joshua and moved to stand at Maria's back. "He's – is he okay?"
"Depends on your definition of the word." Maria shot Reyn a dark look. "Mentally, he's still stuck under Dickson's control, whoever that monster is. Physically, he is in a dangerous, unstable balance of mechanical and organic functions. I need to assess what needs to be done about that before I can give an ultimatum on his condition. But, considering how his skin and the metal are unevenly fused together, I doubt that he will be able to live for long in this state."
Maria motioned, then started down the hall, the hoverboard following after her. Joshua fell in step next to her, with Reyn and Sixer following behind.
"How do you know things like that?" Reyn asked. "Are you a mechanic like Shulk is?"
"I'm a Reploid, like Joshua is," Maria corrected. Her armor glowed slightly and shifted as she spoke, turning back to her normal appearance. "And as a result of what I know and have been able to do, I know how to work around mechanical people. And, I know how to get the reprogramming out of your friend's head."
Sixer's tails curled at the tips at Maria's words.
"How do you intend to do that?" Reyn asked.
"Do you want to watch me stick a plug into the back of his head and poke around at what basically amounts to his sense of self in the form of programming code?" Maria raised an eyebrow.
"You know how to read code now?" Joshua asked.
"I had to learn it, in order to be able to run maintenance on myself." Maria looked around as they turned a corner in the hall. "Which way, Joshua?"
"Over here." Joshua moved ahead and moved to a door on their right. "Shulk should be here already."
"Are you really gonna let her poke around in Dunban's head?" Reyn asked.
"I trust my cousin," Joshua replied. "But my plan was the same as Maria's."
Joshua pushed the door open, then motioned Maria inside. "Shulk, Linada, we've got some help."
"What kind of – Dunban!"
Sixer recognized that voice. He lingered in the doorway with Reyn and looked in curiously while Maria pulled the hoverboard inside.
The room was part workshop, part server room. There was a metal examination table in the middle of the room, as well as computers lining one wall. The rest of it was all focused on metalwork, including a furnace in one corner.
"You – how did you –"
"I know what I'm doing when I come across people in Dunban's situation." Maria looked over at Sixer and motioned for him to step in. He did so cautiously, meeting Shulk's gaze before meeting the gaze of his companion – a tall, metal woman with clearly human features.
The woman met his gaze with a guarded expression.
"Stanford is with Maria," Joshua said, motioning to Maria. "She rescued him from Cipher's control, although I would like to hear how Cipher died."
"You'll have to ask Sixer that one," Maria replied as she moved Dunban over to the examination table. "Cipher and the Dark Arms tried to do to me what Cipher'd done to Sixer and his family, but they failed. Unfortunately, the shock of it forced me unconscious for three days."
"We are very lucky that he failed," Sixer added when Shulk and the woman looked back at him. "I doubt that the multiverse would have done well against someone like Maria."
"She is that formidable?" Shulk looked between Maria and Sixer as Maria lifted up Dunban and placed him on the table. "Forgive me, but you—"
"I've used my appearance to my advantage," Maria replied. "But there are people who want to use me for my abilities." She glanced at Sixer. "Like the aliens who made a deal with Cipher when they put a bounty on my head. They know how my powers can be manipulated to mess with dimensions in a way they shouldn't."
"I see." Shulk frowned. "Then you have abilities that you don't like to talk about freely. Does Sixer's current state factor into that?"
"It does, actually." Maria looked towards Reyn, Shulk, and the metal woman. "And Sixer's state isn't something I'd prefer to talk about freely. I don't want people taking advantage of that knowledge."
Shulk looked over at Reyn, who raised his hands and shook his head.
"That certainly changes things," the mechanical woman commented. "You are Maria, correct? I am Linada, one of the Machina who have survived Weirdmageddon."
"Machina?" Maria tilted her head slightly, then gave a nod in greeting. "Nice to meet you, Linada. Do you have any cables that fit the port at the back of Dunban's head?"
Linada frowned, then strode over while Maria carefully moved Dunban's head so that Linada could have a look. "Well…yes, I do, but why?"
"Dickson likely reprogrammed Dunban's mind after adding all these changes," Maria explained. "Which means that I can change his mind back if I can have a look at Dunban's programming. I've done this for other people before, I am very confident I can do the same for him."
"I can vouch for her." Joshua stepped forward. "We helped a counterpart of hers named Myra who was in similar trouble."
Linada looked over at Joshua, then nodded and moved to one of the computer terminals.
"Myra?" Sixer repeated. "You've – you've met counterparts of yourselves?"
"Just mine, so far as I'm aware," Maria replied. "And – Myra was involved in the Dark Arms problem, Joshua. Her timeline just happens to be weird when it comes to us in general."
"Weird how?" Joshua asked.
"Her human self helped me against them, and her Reploid self was a part of the problem. And yes, they were the same person, I'm not joking."
Sixer winced. "That must have been strange for her. But…she is all right now, correct?"
"Yup. Last I checked, she was in a dimension where she could live in peace and spend time with the pirate crew she'd put together before the Dark Arms flew in and grabbed her." Maria held out a hand for the cable Linada found, then inspected the end before nodding and plugging it into the back of Dunban's head.
Reyn winced. "That's gotta hurt."
"It doesn't, actually. Tickles a bit and feels funny when you put it in and pull it out, but it's all about what happens while it's plugged in that could cause some hurt." Maria followed the cable to the computer terminal as the monitor filled up with code. "All right, Dickson, let's see where your fingers are hiding, eh?"
While Maria cracked her knuckles and started frowning at the code, Joshua made his way around Dickson's examination table and over to Sixer.
"Are those…Joshua's stasis rings?" Shulk looked over the rings curiously. "Or are these your own version?"
"They're his." Maria didn't look away from the screen.
"Maria said they were an…inheritance." Joshua frowned, then looked at Sixer. "You didn't recognize me, which means we've never met before."
Sixer shook his head.
"…I see. Something must happen to my future self. Don't tell me – please. I think that is something I shouldn't know about."
"What I'd like to know is how you managed to beat up that demon," Reyn commented from the doorway. "You said he racked up a debt?"
"He did," Sixer confirmed. "Most people who are transformed by Cipher did it by exchanging something in return for that power. He didn't do that with us. He…took from us what he needed to keep us under his control, and then he forced the transformations on myself and my family. After we crossed paths with Maria in another Gravity Falls, we…we had a year before Cipher caught up and broke into that dimension as well. He captured Maria because the Dark Arms – those left after their defeat at her hands – put a bounty on her head through him."
"But you said she survived without being changed," Joshua said.
"Correct. We staged a rescue and broke into his Fearamid, after which I found Maria in a moment when she was left alone. Her last act of consciousness was to summon two Pokémon – Chaos and Palkia."
"Her Mewtwo?" Joshua frowned. "Why?"
"I…think she knew what he used to be, considering that he said he was returning to his roots and borrowed water from the lake to become a monstrous creature that ate the Dark Arms." Sixer glanced over at Maria.
Maria chuckled darkly.
"What of Palkia, then?" Joshua frowned.
"He…summoned a large number of other Pokémon, and they attacked Cipher when he came back with the two Dark Arms. That's when Chaos attacked, and then – then my family joined the chaos. My brother landed the first blow by punching Cipher in the eye, and…well, the rest of us followed suit after that. He was pummeled by meteors, tied down by vines, and I hit him with all the energy I had before my brother crushed Cipher underfoot. The fight used up enough energy from us that we were ordered to stay in bed for a few days, but…it was worth it."
"I have no idea what those Pokémon things are, but if she can summon one that turns into a water monster, that definitely sounds like somethin'," Reyn commented.
"A-ha! There you are, nasty piece of code." Maria highlighted a section on the monitor. "Joshua, Linada, come have a look at this."
Joshua moved over to peer over Maria's shoulder while Linada bent over. Shulk moved to join them as well.
"See that? It's repressing his loyalties to his family and altering his memories so that it looks like Dickson was always a friend." Maria motioned to the code. "Dickson can't have been all that good at coding, since this was only a blanket job and didn't go that deep in. I'm going to go through the rest of this to see if there is anything else I need to worry about, and then I'm deleting this chunk of garbage. Since Dunban is still in stasis, the changes should save so that he'll be back to his old self when he wakes up." She paused. "Mostly. Those memories are going to be hell."
"How do you know how to work with these things?" Shulk asked. "I mean, you don't look like Joshua does under his disguise, do you?"
"Hm?"
"Your clothes, I mean. They look…real."
"Oh, that. Upgrade I got during the Dark Arms thing that I'm currently absent for." Maria waved off the stares. "I'm just as much a Reploid as Joshua is. It's just that I'm a bit more advanced and haven't used a holographic disguise in a long time." She paused, then added, "If it gets confusing, I'm centuries older than Joshua. But at the same time, I'm in another dimension fighting for my life and free will against the creatures that Joshua saw kill my parents not too long ago. So if I reference anything Joshua looks confused about, he just hasn't reached that part of my timeline yet."
"I get the feeling I am going to be feeling a lot of confusion," Joshua commented.
Maria nodded, then went back to scrolling through the programming.
Sixer remained standing back near Dunban while the others watched Maria work – except for Reyn, who remained in the doorway. He didn't have anything to contribute, and felt content enough to watch Maria work to save another from a distance.
"How close are ya to done?" Reyn asked. "I wanna know if I hafta get Fiora."
"Why?" Maria looked away from the monitor. "I'm set to edit his code and remove Dickson's influence in a second."
"Fiora's his sister." Reyn nodded to Dunban. "She's gonna want to be here."
"Then by all means, go get her!" Maria made a shooing motion. "And get anyone else who wants to be here when he wakes up!"
"Will do!" Reyn disappeared from the doorway quickly.
"Okay. Joshua, got anything to add?"
"You found everything I would have mentioned," Joshua replied with awe in his voice. "And some things I hadn't noticed. You've come a long way."
"Heh. Just make sure you remember to keep my past self – your present version of me – up to date on things and I'll be golden." Maria hit a few more keys, and the code on the monitor shifted slightly. "Okay, saving changes and…." She turned and looked over at Dunban. "Joshua, would you do the honors of removing the stasis rings?"
"Of course." Joshua walked over to Dunban's still form and reached for the mechanical part of the glowing rings. He pressed down on a pair of buttons on the two rings simultaneously, and the rings immediately dulled and retracted into thin glass rods with a mechanical control panel at the center. "Hm."
Maria held out a hand and took the two devices from Joshua before tucking them under her jacket. "His systems are restarting and taking note of the changes. It shouldn't be too long now."
Sure enough, a progress bar had now replaced the programming on the monitor, and it was slowly filling up.
"Sixer, I'd recommend you stay out of his line of sight for now. I don't know how he's going to react if he sees you first thing."
"Understood." Sixer moved more behind Dunban's head. Joshua raised an eyebrow at the action.
Reyn appeared in the doorway. "He awake yet?"
"He will be in a few seconds." Maria glanced between the monitor and Reyn. "Come on, get in here. All of you."
Reyn stepped in, only to be pushed aside by a young woman in armor. She made an immediate beeline for Dunban's side, sending Sixer a cautious look as she did so.
"Dundun wake soon?" Riki bounced in, followed by the woman with her rifle and another young woman with small wings sprouting from her head.
"Are you sure it's safe to have him in here?" the woman with the rifle frowned at Sixer.
"He's with my cousin, Sharla," Joshua replied. "If he does anything, it will be on her head."
"And if you want to take it up with me, we can spar later if you feel like it," Maria replied. "Dunban's coming online in three…two…"
The progress bar vanished, and a moment later, Dunban's cybernetic eye flickered to life with a quiet whirring sound. He grunted, then opened his human eye with a confused grogginess. "What…where…"
Fiora clasped her hands over her mouth and looked at him with wide eyes. Dunban's gaze focused on her a second later.
"…Fiora?" His human eye widened. "What are you – oh, no, don't tell me he—"
"Hold still for a second." Maria came over. "I need to get this cable out of the back of your head."
Dunban jolted when Maria's hand came down on his shoulder, the cybernetic eye blinking rapidly. "Who—"
"The name's Maria." Maria smiled and grabbed the cable with her other hand. "It's all right, Dunban. I've just removed Dickson's control from your head. You've got control of your own limbs again."
The cable exited Dunban's head with a soft click, one Dunban flinched at. He stared at Maria in surprise before looking back at Fiora.
"It's good to have you back, brother." Fiora leaned over and slipped an arm under Dunban, hugging him as gently as she possibly could. Dunban immediately raised one of his arms and gripped her back tightly, burying his face in her shoulder.
Sixer smiled and relaxed, then looked over at Maria. He frowned when he saw she wasn't smiling.
"It's…it's good to be back," Dunban said with a slight wince. He let Fiora go and settled back. "What's happened? I know I've been left out of a lot of things."
"Well, apparently, that damn demon's dead." Reyn nodded to Maria. "An' one of his pets works for her now."
Sixer's ears pulled back as a frown crossed his face. "I am not a pet."
Dunban stiffened at his voice, then turned slightly and looked back at Sixer. Sixer met his gaze while Dunban's cybernetic eye whirred quietly.
"I see." The words were short and clipped. "A change in loyalties?"
Sixer shook his head. "It was a forced loyalty, before. Maria saved my family and I from a fate worse than death."
Dunban eyed Sixer for a moment. Then his expression softened. "Glad to see you were able to get out of there. I owe your friend a great debt."
"Think nothing of it," Maria said, bringing Dunban's attention back to her. "Besides, I'm not done yet. You look like you're in pretty bad shape."
Dunban frowned, then looked down at his half-mechanical, half-organic appearance. "Dickson thought it might be fun to experiment, make me into the thing that I fought against when I wielded the Monado." He sighed.
"We might be able to stabilize your mechanical systems," Linada spoke up. "But we would need—"
"Can you run a diagnostics check on yourself?"
The group looked at Maria with some surprise.
"If everything comes back green, you're fine," Maria said. "If it doesn't, we'll work on things from there."
"Are you sure he can do that when he isn't fully—"
"Most of me from the neck down is in dire need of repairs because—" Dunban blinked in surprise as he cut Joshua's question off. "Wait. How did you know I could do that?"
"I've got a diagnostics system myself," Maria replied. "You're not the only one in this room who's gone from organic to mechanical, even if you're between the two right now."
Joshua stared at Maria.
"What are you suggesting?" asked the girl with wings.
"It's going to be tricky, because I haven't done this before, but I'm thinking that I might have to make you a new mechanical body that is similar to mine and Joshua's. You'd still be able to eat and drink human foods, and you'd still be you, but your body will be like ours and a lot less like who you were and currently are. I'm not going to fully commit to it, because the choice is yours, but…if you want to be a part of the group that takes Dickson down, I doubt you want to be in a body that's coming apart because of what he did."
Joshua stared at Maria in surprise. Sixer's eyebrows rose up quickly as well.
"How would you manage the soul transfer?" Joshua asked. "He doesn't have a core like you do, and it's not like we have a robotocizing chamber at our disposal."
"That's why I said it's going to be tricky – if Dunban says to go for it." Maria looked back at Dunban. "But the choice is yours. I'll give you some time to think on it, but…as you already noted yourself, you've got a bit of a ticking clock already."
Dunban met Maria's gaze for a moment, then turned his gaze to the ceiling. "Before I come to such a decision, there are others in the camp who might need the same sort of attention as I. Will you extend them the same curtesy?"
Fiora sucked in a breath sharply. "Dunban—"
"Only if they want to go in that direction, but yes." Maria nodded. "Are there others out there changed by Dickson or—"
"I believe he is talking about the humans who were taken and changed by Egil, a member of my kind," Linada spoke up. "It was a part of an escalating war, from before the demon's arrival."
Maria frowned, then raised an eyebrow at Joshua, who had a strangely grim expression on his face. She followed his gaze to Fiora, and her expression shifted. "Ah. I see."
Sixer looked between the two for a moment, then his own eyebrows rose.
Fiora wasn't wearing armor. She was in a state similar to her brother's. No wonder Dunban was so concerned.
"Dunban, Linada said there might be a way she could clone Hom organs," Fiora said quickly. "If we have that chance, then we could be fully us again."
"But how long do we have to wait? This place – it's the only city left, isn't it? Your materials have to be limited, and I doubt you'd be able to grow back organs in the remaining time we have." Dunban looked at his sister. "And we can't take on Dickson with us as we are right now. Or if we were in our old bodies. He has the advantage in that."
Sixer frowned. Did it sound like Dunban was…?
Dunban looked at Maria. "I'll do it. I won't be able to take Dickson down with me as I am."
Maria blinked, then nodded, despite the wide-eyed looks coming from almost everyone else in the room. "All right. I'm going to need a lot of materials for this." Maria reached under her jacket and pulled out a binder. "Get me the metals I need, and maybe an extra pair of hands, and I should be able to work from there."
"Shulk can help you," Dunban said.
"D-Dunban!" Shulk looked startled. "Are you—"
"I trust your skills. Dickson may have trained you, but you've gone beyond anything he could have taught you. Use what you know in order to take him down, before he does to the rest of the world what he did to me."
Shulk blinked in surprise, then steeled his gaze and nodded. "All right. If you're so sure. What do we need?"
Maria nodded and opened the binder. "I've got the designs for my body right here. We can look at that and figure out what we need for Dunban from there. You ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
Maria grinned at Shulk and Joshua. "Then let's get to work."