"Uh, yeah. He's down here. I saw him when I came down for my midnight shift, all curled up and muttering something about how it's 'just a dream'. Is he one of them buggy newer models? Never seen a Station with a blue eye before. Nor have I ever seen the Commander allowing a kid to come down here. You sure you know what you're doing? This place is off-limits for a reason, you know."
Eddie slowly blinked, awareness sluggishly coming back to him as he comprehended the gruff, agitated voice of Mr. Stinko echoing down the dark hallway. When did he fall asleep? The last thing he remembered was-
"Oh, right."
Squeezing his lone eye shut, Eddie pulled his head and cord off the ground, grimacing at how natural and innate the movement came to him. Why did it come so naturally? It was like he had always been a Station like this was his true form. Which was impossible, because he was Eddie, not some dumb machine!
"Yeah, I know what I'm doing."
The sound of Lloyd's voice prompted Eddie to snap open his eye and survey his surroundings. Thankfully, pushing aside the distressing strangeness of having crystal-clear vision in what should have been near blackness, he couldn't spot Lloyd or Mr. Stinko, giving him enough time to come up with a plan.
A part of him wanted to flee to another sector of the station and finish this nightmare he was having there, but another part of him almost felt... lonely, knowing that running away from his problems would only make them worse, no matter how fictional they were.
But if he hadn't woken by now...
No, no. None of those thoughts.
"Alright, just let me know if he starts acting up or something. I've heard cases of buggy Stations attacking those they're supposed to be protecting because not only could they not tell the difference between a threat and a non-threat, they didn't understand how to handle a threat and flat-out assailed the supposed threats themselves!"
"How would that even work, Mr. Stinko?"
"You wouldn't expect much from a Station, they don't have much in terms of defense, but have you ever seen one of them constrictor animals? The kind that wraps around their target and squeezes until their victim either suffocates or their bones break? Now, a Station doesn't have that much pressure behind its grip, but it can put a decent amount of stress on something. And even if it doesn't break the thing, who knows what sort of damage all that squeezing is doing internally."
Eddie couldn't help but feel a small twinge of amusement at Mr. Stinko's word of caution, his mind supplying him with the image of a malfunctioning Station going on a rampage and attacking everyone it came across. Sure, witnessing the event would be more cause for concern, but for now, it was just a thought experiment.
"Wow, that sounds..."
"Unpleasant, I know. It happened to this one Commander I knew. Really incompetent guy, actually. I don't even know how he became Commander in the first place. Anyway, he didn't bother doing the paperwork for an officially licensed Station and decided to just buy one from a shady source out in the Boötes Void. Turns out, it was defective and ended up attacking the sorry excuse for a Commander as soon as he turned it on."
"Uh..."
"They managed to subdue the Station after a couple of minutes, but the Commander was in recovery for months. I don't know what he's doing now, but it sure as abyss ain't Commandeering! How's your mother, by the way?"
"She's fine. But he's not buggy or defective. It's just... hard to explain."
"Oh, might want to keep him from blowing up then."
"Blowing up?"
"Oh, sure. Even if he isn't buggy or defective, I can tell that that Station doesn't have all his marbles. Those kinds of Stations have a poor time regulating their emotions and tend to get explosive, literally. Especially if something gets them all riled up. Now, that's not too big of a problem most of the time, but if they go off and start to feel like they're the universe's punching bag, well..."
If he still had any biological parts left, Eddie was pretty sure his blood would have run cold at that point. So not only was he a Station, but he was also a potential ticking time bomb? Fantastic. Then again, this was nothing but a strange nightmare. Maybe blowing up was the key to waking himself up?
Then again, he wasn't in any rush to simulate the sensation of dying again.
"I got the picture. Thanks, Mr. Stinko."
The light of a flashlight appeared from the other side of the room and Eddie flinched, rethinking his decision to remain where he was.
"Eddie? Are you there?"
He let out a tired sigh, realizing that there was no getting out of it now. "Hey, Lloyd."
The light was directed straight into his eye and he instinctively turned away from it. Did he have to? Not really, it wasn't rocket science to know that robotic eyes didn't have retinas to be burned, unlike normal, organic eyes. But it did make him feel a little bit better about everything, that he was still somewhat human despite everything that had happened. If not in body, then in mind.
"Wait! Don't go, I just want to talk to you!"
"I know you do," Eddie responded, "And I don't want to have to keep running away from people. It's just... this voice! How can anyone stand sounding like this? How does Station stand it?! It's so obnoxious and grating that-"
"You're just upset because it's not YOUR voice. I can tell. I mean, you've never had a problem with Station's voice before."
"To be honest, I always did think it sounded kind of funny. Like some kind of fancy aristocrat stuck governing a bunch of poor people and keeping them from doing stupid stuff like licking electrical wires or jumping out of the airlock. But now... I just wish I would wake up already. I've had enough of this stupid nightmare."
"You still think this is some kind of dream?"
"Uh, yeah. What else would it be? Stuff like this just doesn't happen to people! Their best friend doesn't suddenly just get held hostage, they don't suddenly die saving said best friend, and they certainly don't get turned into an armless robot following a botched 'revival' attempt!"
"I said the same thing, but... but this is real, Eddie. And it wasn't botched! This was the only way to save you that we were sure had any chance of working!"
"Are you kidding me? With all due respect, this is Douglas we're talking about! That guy can do anything! Are you seriously telling me that the only solution to saving my life was to place me in a robot body? Wait, not place, BIND my soul to a robot that doesn't even have arms?! The guy's a genius and he came up with the most ridiculous thing ever! I mean, it is a nightmare, so it does make sense that Douglas would come up with something stupid."
"It's NOT a nightmare!"
"Oh, yeah? I haven't felt any pain at all since waking up in this body. Isn't that the main thing about nightmares? You check to see if you can feel pain, and if you can't, then it's a nightmare."
"Yeah, if you were still a human! But you're not! You're a Station now and I thought Station made it pretty obvious that Stations don't feel pain! Or most anything at all for that matter!"
"Gee, thanks for the revelation. I would have NEVER figured that one out on my own."
Lloyd sighed. "I know you're upset about this, but getting angry is only just going to hurt you in the long run, and honestly? I'm just glad you're still here, okay? I thought I lost you for good."
"But... But..."
This HAD to be a dream, a nightmare! Yet... every word was spoken with such conviction, such genuine empathy, that it made Eddie realize that only the real Lloyd would say something like that. Every other dream version would probably brush his concerns aside and then ask if he wanted to go to the arcade or the food court without any consideration for what he was going through. But this Lloyd was truly worried about him and didn't want to see him hurt.
It just didn't seem possible.
"I'm not..."
Eddie turned to the wall in his panic and froze. Within the metal laid his reflection, looking as if it had seen a ghost or some other such nonsense. He blinked and watched as the single eye, iris a sickeningly familiar shade of blue, repeated the action. A wave of revulsion shot through him, but the normal aftereffects failed to accompany it. No nauseating feeling in the pit of his stomach, no heart pounding as fast as it could in his chest, and no sweaty palms. Just a void where physical feeling should have been and the knowledge that the thing he was seeing in the reflection was him.
"I... I can't be..."
He blinked and a liquid-like substance filled his eye, blurring his vision for a moment. It took a moment for him to realize that he was crying, but as he watched the single tear run down his 'eyelid' and onto the floor with a 'splat', the boy-turned-robot realized that the liquid wasn't water like it should have been.
"Wait, is... is that OIL?!"
"Eddie..."
And just like that, like a switch had been flipped in his head, he knew it was true. He was a robot now, and there was no going back. He spun around, staring at the boy who had been his best friend for as long as he could remember with an accusatory glare.
"You did this to me! You and Douglas turned me into... this thing!"
"No, I didn't! I had nothing to do with this, Station, so-" Lloyd started to say before freezing in place, "Wait, I didn't mean to say that! It's just... you know, the voice! And... And the eye. And the... the..."
"And the fact that my best friend in the whole universe apparently thinks I'm straight-up DEAD to him now, huh? I've only been a Station for less than a day and you're already... you're already... I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
Eddie flung himself back into the wall and back into the Station port, not caring in the slightest where he went or if Lloyd cared or not. Clearly, he didn't. Who would do such a thing as lying to him and pretending they cared about his feelings when in reality, they had already forgotten his name? He felt completely alone in this vast, empty universe. Alone, trapped in a robotic body that didn't feel a single thing. Alone, with no one to talk to him or be there for him. And he hated it. He hated everything about it and he just wanted it all to go away.
Was he really about to go through with this? There was a nagging voice in the back of his metal head that told him that he would regret it and that he still had a chance to turn back. But the feeling of hatred and betrayal coursing through his newfound circuitry burned brighter than any doubts he could possibly have. It wasn't like they would care if he destroyed himself anyway, why would they? If Lloyd didn't care, then neither would Douglas or anyone else.
He was alone in this, completely alone. And that was fine by him. He didn't need anyone, not anymore. All he needed now was the sweet release of oblivion. Or being sent back to that pastel void of pink. Whatever it took to get him out of this body, out of this personal hell of his that he had been dragged into unwillingly because nobody bothered to ponder the age-old proverb; 'Just because you could, doesn't mean you should.'
Just like everything else in this stupid body, the process to self-destruct himself came instinctually to him. All it would take is a couple of mental processes, a couple of mental flips being switched in his computerized brain, and then...
"EDDIE!"
"What the d-"
Lloyd ran down the hall and grabbed onto his cable cord in a vice-like grip. "I won't let you go through with this!"
"Go through with what, Lloyd?"
"Agh! I hate it when you play dumb! I know what you're planning on doing, okay? Station told me all about it, he said something about being able to read the 'signals' you give off or whatever. Well, I won't let you blow yourself up, okay?!"
"And why not?!" Eddie said, glaring at Lloyd as best as he could in such a form, "Why do I matter to you? You have your whole life ahead of you, man. You can be anyone you want to be. But me? You've said it yourself. I'm nothing but a dusty-old Station who'll probably spend the rest of his miserable existence cooped up in this crummy old station doing... Well, whatever Station does! And yeah, I said existence. Because this is sure as DURF not living! I'm done with this, okay? I'm done trying to be something that I'm not."
"I know this doesn't seem like living right now," Lloyd replied, his voice softer than Eddie had ever remembered hearing it, "But it doesn't mean that you have to give up. We'll figure something out, I promise. We'll find a way to make this work or something! But this? This isn't the answer."
"And what is the answer, Lloyd? Tell me that, because I sure as ABYSS don't know!"
"Well, whatever it is, this isn't it! But fine. If you want to implode on yourself, then go ahead. You'll just end up taking me out with you. Then we'll be together forever. Isn't that what you want?"
Eddie's eyeball shot up in panic as he comprehended Lloyd's words. "NO! I'll... I'll just go and self-destruct somewhere else then, away from you!"
But to his surprise, Eddie found that he couldn't budge from his friend's titanium-strength grip.
"What the- let me go!"
"No way! I'm not letting you out of my sight or my hands until I know that you're not going to do something as stupid and selfish as that!"
"Selfish?" Eddie questioned, casting his gaze towards the ground, "I thought you didn't care, Lloyd. You made that pretty obvious with the whole 'calling me Station' thing. So... why are you suddenly so void-bent on me sticking around here, even though I clearly don't want to? I wasn't anything special when I was a human, I'm not anything special now."
"Yes, you are! I made a mistake, okay? I'm just as stressed out about this as you are! You're my best friend, Eddie, and I'd do anything for you. If you're not going to stay around for your sake, will you at least stick around for mine? As unmanly and childish as this sounds, I need you.
Eddie gazed up at his companion and felt a sense of warmth spread through his circuits. Without another word, he draped his head over their shoulder, sighing in defeat.
"Alright, I'll stay. But only for you, Lloyd."
