A/N: So here's something crazy. I'm fairly certain that if I had not committed myself to doing the Courage and Computer romance after getting over the fear that I might be hated for doing it in a fic that had not billed itself as a gay romance for over 5 years of its lifespan, I probably would have hooked Computer up with Lily's mom by the end of this arc. Certain things would have happened much differently to accommodate it, of course. I probably would have had them share a cage back at Charon's and they would have inevitably gotten to know each other better. I would have given her a name too, and she probably would have played a much bigger part in the escape. I also would have had her escape the city with Courage and Computer rather than keep her trapped there and possessed. It would probably be around this part in the story when she reunites with Lily that there would be a big ol' love confession with Computer. Of course...it's really hard to imagine Computer as straight at this point lmao. One of the funniest developments in the story for me personally, as my confidence has grown and I've started to have a way more 'no fucks given' attitude about all of this, it's that I went from wanting to keep the doggo romance very low key and in the background as an apology to the people who were reading from the start who didn't know that it would eventually become a gay romance, to becoming the living embodiment of that Rebecca Sugar meme of MAKE IT GAYER. In the end, if the romance was a deal breaker for certain people, they're not the kind of person that I wanted reading this story anyway and I should not feel any inclination to have to cater to them. It's their loss.

Chapter 5: Separation Problems

Three days went by with very little happening of note. Courage rested while Atticus spent time with the puppies...while also tormenting Courage every time he screwed up his new name. It was, of course, a false sense of peace. Every night the lights of the distant city could be seen creeping closer. In spite of this, the SCC were not giving the refugees any new orders or making any sort of plans to move the camp. More and more people were being brought in daily, having already lost their homes or were on the verge of losing them to the amalgamation. A nervous air hung over the place and many people were simply getting in their cars, if they still had one, and moving on.

Still, the camp was getting ever more crowded regardless, and Courage had to push his way through multiple groups of people to get back to his tent after a visit with the puppies. SCC soldiers had been seen since yesterday chopping down trees to try and make more room to set up more tents, but even that was not enough.

Once inside, Courage flopped down onto the cot with a content little sigh, ready for another nap. Even after three days of rest he was still feeling wiped out from their escape from the city. He was not sure if it was Atticus's 'demanding' presence on his mind and body slowing his recovery, or if it was simply from the illness itself and the fact that he had long since reached the breaking point with it and thus it was hard to recover from anything at this point, or if it was both things taking a toll on him at the same time. Regardless, Atticus had noticed the same thing and was all the more eager to get back into a separate body because of it.

Eyes closed, Courage asked, "I'm still waiting for that dumb nickname...Atty."

Atticus groaned at Courage's new favorite nickname for him. He had come up with it the day before. It was a fusion of Atticus, and of course...Jenny.

"Your one purpose in life really is nothing more than to think up nicknames that I utterly loathe, isn't it?"

"Well, maybe if you got your head into the game, you could start annoying me back."

"Okay, you know what? Fine. I have the perfect annoying nickname for you. It is a reflection of my pure genius and the result of multiple days worth of consideration."

"Oh, boy." Courage chuckled.

"I'm not even sure if you will be able to handle it. Perhaps it would be better left unspoken."

"Tell me before I find a worse nickname than Atty."

Atticus grinned mischievously. "Are you sure?"

"I'll survive, don't worry."

He bit back laughter and said, "Twat."

"Oh, come on! All you did was replace 'I' with an 'A'! You can do better than that! I know you too well for you to-"

Still fighting back laughter, Atticus interrupted with, "...It seems to have done its job, hasn't it?"

Courage crossed his arms. "Don't you reverse psychology me! Think of something better!"

"Hmm, nah. I'm good."

"Ugh! I thought we had a dea-"

A voice from outside of the tent made him fall silent.

"Construct Number Thirty-Five, you have been ordered to meet with Elizabeth Astor."

Atticus made Courage sit up. "It must be time."

A wave of nervous anticipation rolled through Courage. Part of him wasn't really for this yet. He knew it needed to be done, but he wasn't exactly looking forward to their separation either.

Atticus made his way over to the tent entrance, pushed the flap out of the way...and was immediately met by the barrel of a gun pointing directly at his nose.

"Oh, for the love of-" He began, grabbing it and yanking it out of the SCC soldier's grip before he could react. He proceeded to empty the ammo out of it and drop it into the grass. "The next SCC moron who points a gun in my face is getting it shoved up their-"

Composing himself from being unexpectedly disarmed, the man cleared his throat loudly to cut Atticus off. "Construct Number-"

"That's Atticus now." He immediately butted right back in.

"Const-"

Atticus picked the empty gun up off the ground and threw it at the guy's head. It bounced off with a satisfying clunk. "Atticus!"

"Construct-"

...Now he was pelted by the discarded ammo.

"Ugh, we're not going to get anywhere like this!" He cried out. "I am to escort you to Astor so...so stop hitting me with those things!"

Atticus continued to pelt him in the back with them as they walked through the camp to get to Elizabeth. He just kept picking them back up out of the grass as they dropped and threw them again.

By the time they reached a large tent surrounded by SCC equipment, the SCC guy's head was practically steaming, and he whirled around to face Courage with his teeth grit.

Atticus tossed another bullet at his head and hit him square between the eyes. "Att-i-cus! It's not hard!"

"G-get in there! She's waiting for you!" He seethed.

Atticus tossed his last bullet at the guy and then pushed past him. Courage couldn't help but chuckle at his antics.

"Be careful! You've got the guy so angry that he's probably going to come back tonight and strangle us...you while we...while you-" He trailed off, ear drooping as the reality of how much things were about to change hit him at full force.

Atticus had spent the last few days sounding like a broken record every time Courage's anxiety about their separation flared up. "Stop acting like I'm about to be killed! We'll still be together!"

"I-I know, but-" He fell silent as Atticus entered the massive tent.

Elizabeth was at a table in the middle of the tent, hovering over piles of papers. It was much like when Courage had first met her. She was even wearing her glasses again.

Atticus walked up like he owned the place and sat down in one of the empty chairs at the table. Elizabeth looked up from her papers, her expression unshakably unperturbed.

"Ah, you have finally arrived then, dog? I was starting to wonder what was taking you so long. Well, you can rejoice. I have found the parts that were needed and I am ready to remove the Construct from you."

"That's Atticus now." A certain somebody broke in.

She stared at him for a moment, her unconcerned expression never wavering. "Oh, wonderful. It has decided to name itself." She sarcastically quipped with an exaggerated hand wave.

Atticus did not skip a beat. "Actually, it was Courage and one other who named me. Also, that's 'he', thank you very much."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and proceeded to ignore him. She picked a strange looking machine up off the ground and thudded it down onto the table, sending papers and pictures flying. Several of them floated down into Courage's lap. He picked one up and found the smiling face of a woman looking back at him. It was the same with the next one too. The last picture that had landed in his lap was that of a very severe looking, silver haired man whose frozen visage was leering up at him.

"Who are these people?" He asked.

"Hmm? Those? I sent several people out to look through the SCC archives and bring me back as much information about the Construct project as possible. Those pictures are that of the people who donated their lives to the project."

Atticus squinted. "You mean the people that you lied to about what would happen to them when you used them to make Constructs."

"I never lied to anyone. It was never my project." Elizabeth dismissed. "Those fools were too desperate to read between the lines anyway. It was obvious that their existence was not going to persist through their Constructs. They simply decided to give in to wishful thinking, that is all."

Atticus considered the picture of the man again and held it up for Elizabeth to see. "Who is this in particular?" He asked, already having a bit of a hunch on who it was.

Elizabeth's expression hardened at the sight of it. "Edgar." She uttered out, her voice taking on a hateful tone. "The previous leader of the SCC, and the man whose Construct is currently giving me a headache."

Atticus was silent for a moment and then simply let out a soft, "...Oh."

"I knew it." Courage said, and then added, "I guess this means you're not a girl then after all."

"D-don't sound so disappointed! And I don't actually care about being a guy or girl or whatever else, I just don't want to be her specifically!"

Elizabeth watched the conversation play out with a confused expression. "I'm not even going to ask..." She finally said.

"You, uh, don't seem to like the guy very much." Atticus dryly pointed out.

She let out a, "Hmph!" and grabbed a screwdriver to start tinkering with the strange machine. "Edgar is nobody worth remembering." She grumbled, putting all of her attention onto the machine. While her expression remained calm, her voice seemed to tell a different story. There was a seething spitefulness to her every word. "While he may have been a brilliant inventor and was personally responsible for saving the world on more than one occasion, he was a cruel man who lacked any empathy or compassion. He cared only for himself and any action he took was simply to better his own standing in the world. For any good he did, he committed just as many atrocities for his own gain. Had the worst of his actions become widely known to the public, he would have never been allowed to reach an old age. The Constructs were his last ditch effort to find a way to preserve himself, but he could not make a breakthrough in time, and so he died, and I'm stuck dealing with his obnoxious shadow. By all means, I should be enjoying this. His Construct is, after all, a living reminder of his failure, but I loathe having to hear that voice again."

Atticus crossed his arms. "Well, you're the one who apparently thought that British Hitler was prime marriage material."

Elizabeth stopped tinkering with the machine and looked up at him with a dry expression. "Edgar was my father."

"O-oh..." He stammered stupidly, and then it seemed to actually hit him. "OH!" And he proceeded to winced and let out an, "Eww..."

"It finally all makes sense!" Courage exclaimed, interrupting Atticus's long, continuous Ewww-ing.

"Hold up now!" Atticus then cried out, grabbing at Courage's ears only to forget that one was missing. "The guy I'm based on SPAWNED!"

"I knew something wasn't adding up..." Courage mused.

"I am so glad that I don't have his memories!"

"She's probably not a robot then..."

"It must have been so awful..."

"But she must have been present for at least some of-"

"-And all he got out of it was THAT!" Atticus gestured toward an exceptionally annoyed looking Elizabeth.

Courage placed a paw to his chin and squinted. "Doesn't this mean you're kind of her dad and her brother all at the same time?"

"That's disgusting!" He yelped.

Elizabeth finally broke in to yell, "Will you two morons shut up!"

Atticus glared at her. "Ooh, if I'm a moron what does that make you then, hmm?"

"Zip it!" She demanded, waving the screwdriver at him. "And we are not related in any way, shape, or form! You are nothing more than a mindless machine that happens to resemble my dead father!"

"...I mean, there is a bit of a resemblance." Courage softly uttered out.

"NO, THERE'S NOT!" They both yelled at the exact same time...sounding exactly like each other.

Elizabeth pulled a length of cable out from the machine with a spike on the end of it, clearly ready to put an end to this nonsense.

"I will extract the Construct from you now and begin the process of putting its programming back to the way that it was. After that...I want the two of you as far away from me as possible."

Atticus raised a paw. "Hold on. What body are you planning on putting me in?"

"I have more than a few failures in this organization that I would very greatly enjoy punishing by putting them on Host Duty."

Atticus winced at that. "You really are your father's child, huh?"

She glared hatefully at him. "What are you implying, parasite? Do you really have the gall to moralize to me about this when there is no ethical way for you to take a body for your own? No matter what you do, you are robbing that person of their autonomy, unless they consent to such a thing, of course, but I guarantee you that nobody is looking to have a parasite take them over and leave them unconscious for months, if not years of their life."

"What about that old dog body of mine?"

"Ha! Dog body? You don't even see it as a creature with a life of its own! This should be the part where I tell you that you remind me so much of Edgar, but I will spare you that because not even you live up to his callousness. Regardless, that dog may not have the spark of sentience that has spread through the animal population despite the SCC's best efforts to slow the phenomenon, but do you really think that it has enjoyed waking up to find itself stabbed and with numerous other injuries from all of the things that you put it through?"

Atticus frowned. "Maybe you should shove off with your own moralizing! Stop pretending like you actually care about that dog! You were two seconds away from euthanizing him as a means to kill my siblings, who, I might add, have only become the way that they are because of what you and your organization did to them!"

"Then perhaps don't pretend like you're any better...parasite!"

"Look, is that dog still around or not?"

"Yes, but I'm not sure that you would want it back. While it has healed from many of the injuries you gave it, that does not mean it's fully healed yet. Surely you do not want a body that is still in the process of recovering."

Crossing his arms, Atticus replied with, "Well, I'm the one responsible for those injuries, right? I'll suffer through the rest of the healing process as penance for what I did to him."

"Not much of a consolation prize for that dog. Not only did you injure it, but now it's about to lose control of itself again to the same parasite!"

"Enough! Can we just get this over with already?" Atticus groused.

Like it or not, Elizabeth did have a point, but there was not much that he could do about it. Maybe if his power had been working properly he would have been able to be 'ethical' about it and create a robot body for himself instead, but that just wasn't something he could do in his current state. Besides, he needed that dog. The wellspring would not work for him unless he could trick it into believing that he was the same species as Courage. Yes, he was going to have to sacrifice the dog along with himself, but there was no other way for it to work. It was that or let Courage die. It was, after all, the reason why he had chosen the body of a stray that nobody was going to miss. He certainly felt differently about strays now, after everything he had gone through with Charon, but he could not turn away from this path now. It was not ethical in the slightest, but he was going to pay the ultimate price for it anyway.

"As you wish." Elizabeth smugly answered, knowing that she had won the argument. She called for an SCC solider and sent him off to fetch the dog. While they waited, she went back to tinkering with the machine, content to completely ignore her 'guests'.

Sensing how bothered Atticus was by all of this, Courage whispered, "I don't think that you're a parasite, and I'd be more than happy to keep sharing this body with you if I could."

"But you can't, and that's the problem." He sighed.

After a few minutes, the solider returned with the dog on a leash. He trudged in on all fours, panting, tongue out, and looking around happily. He was still heavily bandaged up but not quite as mummified as he had been before. The moment he saw Courage, his ears perked up, apparently recognizing him. He dropped down into that playful dog pose, butt in the air and tail wagging. His big eyes sparkled behind those familiar glasses.

Atticus winced. "Can't you act at least slightly dignified?" He asked. But of course the dog did not care because the dog...was a dog.

He suddenly bounded forward, ripping free of the SCC guy's hold on the leash. He tackled Courage to the ground and began licking him across the face repeatedly.

"Gross!" Atticus exclaimed. "I'm going to have to wash that tongue now!"

Courage laughed between licks. "I think some of you has rubbed off on him...or maybe it's the other way around."

Atticus struggled his way out from under the dog. "I would not be licking you right now, thank you very much!" He cried out, shuddering at the thought.

The dog circled them playfully, on all fours, until the SCC solider tried to grab his leash, and noticing this, he took off running. He tore through Elizabeth's tent for a good couple of minutes as the hapless soldier tried to catch him. Papers were still floating to the ground like snow for quite awhile afterwards, even after he was caught.

Seeing the carnage, Courage joked, "Yep, he gets that from you."

Dog secured in the soldier's arms and subdued with a few scratches behind the ear, Elizabeth once again presented the cable with the spike on the end. "Can we please, please get this over with?" She all but begged.

"I guess this is it." Courage said rather unhappily.

He felt Atticus's presence wrap around his consciousness in that affectionate way of his. Even though Courage couldn't help but smile at the gesture, he still felt incredibly sad that they were about to be separated.

Sighing wistfully, he joked, "I suppose this is for the best or else I would have had to start charging you for rent."

He sensed Atticus smile at that and he began to say, "Does this mean-"

"Don't you dare say it." Courage groaned.

"-that I've been living in your head rent free?"

"Uuuughhhh..."

Elizabeth went over and unceremoniously jabbed the spike into the back of Courage's neck, causing him to yelp from the pain.

"You really do enjoy being a giant bi-" Atticus began, obviously angry at her intentional attempt to hurt Courage, but as he was speaking she pushed it in even further, causing his voice to be replaced by another yelp from Courage.

"There we go." She slyly spoke, moving back over to the machine.

Tears stung at the edges of Courage's eyes. Even without Elizabeth trying to push it in further, the spike still hurt horribly. He so badly wished that he could just rip it out and forget about moving Atticus back into his old body. This was so much worse than the first time she had done this.

He could sense Atticus angrily plotting a million different ways to get back at her for this, but as the download commenced, he turned all of his attention back on to Courage.

"See you on the other side." He warmly assured as his presence began to fade.

Courage tried to hold on to him, for as long as he could, but there was no stopping what needed to happen, and soon enough he was alone. Nothing was left but a dark void in his mind where his companion had been for such a long time now. He felt as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His mind felt clearer and he could think faster, but there was no denying the great emptiness inside of himself as well. His brain might no longer be under such an incredible amount of strain, but what did that matter when he no longer felt like he was whole?

Elizabeth got to work, tapping away at a keyboard attached to the odd machine. She adjusted her glasses and squinted at the screen. Finally, she muttered, "What a mess this Construct is. I would be better off putting it out of its misery, but...there are still uses for it."

Courage glared at her but she of course did not notice. With an unhappy groan, he sunk further down into his chair. Even his limbs felt lighter, like he had been wearing heavy clothing up until this point. It made him so angry to be forced to confront just how much Atticus had been having a poor effect on his already ill and tired body.

An hour went by as Elizabeth worked on Atticus's programming. In that time, Courage found himself sinking deeper and deeper into a pit of sadness. It really did feel as if Atticus had left behind an empty void in his wake. It was eating away at Courage's mind and making him feel so unfathomably lonely. He could not even talk to him right now to make it a little better.

With an exasperated sigh, Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. "Bring me the dog." She ordered the soldier.

Courage held his breath as he watched the spike get jabbed into the back of the dog's neck, who howled in pain and struggled uselessly against the arms holding him in place. It was an unpleasant sight, one that Elizabeth probably could have avoided if she had bothered to be a little kinder.

The dog's howling stopped with an eerie suddenness, and next, while he did not exactly go limp, he did become rather vacant. His fur turned that familiar dark blue color, accompanied by that equally familiar glow. He blinked, looked around, and then reached to pull the spike out of his neck. The soldier lowered him to the floor. Immediately all of his attention turned to Courage, who had to look like a sad, melted blob in his chair at this point.

"Courage?" He asked, sounding a little worried.

All Courage could muster in response was a soft, sad whimper.

Atticus smiled reassuringly at him and then looked down at his own paws. They must have seemed familiar and unfamiliar to him all at the same time. He placed them onto his chest. "See? I told you. I'm still here and everything is still the same. Now you just don't have to worry about your brain melting out of your ears."

When Courage did not respond, he moved in closer and offered him a paw. "Everything is alright. You don't have to be sad."

Courage hesitated for a moment and then took the paw. He let himself be pulled down from the chair. Atticus immediately hugged him and did not let go. It helped...a little.

Elizabeth cleared her throat and Atticus looked up at her. Realizing how long he had been hugging Courage, he pulled himself free...but kept hold of both of Courage's paws.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"What?" He asked, squinting at her, still not letting go of Courage's paws.

Her eyebrow raised even higher. "This is certainly not an...orientation that was inherited from Edgar."

"W-we're just two friends being...friendly! What? Haven't you ever seen two friends being best friends before?"

Somehow Elizabeth raised her eyebrow even higher than it already was. "...Is that what they're calling it these days?"

…..

The two of them were sent back to their tent. Elizabeth had been more than just a little glad to see them go, and at least for Atticus, that feeling was mutual. Courage was such a mess that he didn't seem to notice either way. By the afternoon, it was obvious that whatever was wrong with him...wasn't getting any better. Despite Atticus's best efforts, nothing seemed to be capable of lifting Courage out of the malaise their separation had caused. Atticus had thought that he would get better in an hour or two, but in truth, he was seemingly only getting worse with time.

Atticus had left his side only once to go check on the puppies and let them know that they were separate again. He had managed to snag some rations as well, but Courage obviously wasn't all that willing to eat. Even though Atticus himself was feeling pretty hungry, he decided that he'd hold off on eating until Courage was feeling better.

After having checked on the puppies, he spent the next several hours pacing back and forth in the tent, practically turning that line of grass into mud, all while worrying his head off for Courage. Courage himself was a trembling lump of blanket. The moment they had returned to the tent, he had sat down on the cot and covered himself with it, never to resurface again. Any time Atticus tried to talk to him, all he'd get was a whimper for a reply.

It was during what had to be his millionth turn during his pacing session that he heard the blanket shift a little and looked over at the cot eagerly.

"Courage?" He asked.

The lump simply continued to shiver without any change.

Shaking his head, he went over and gently poked it but did not get any sort of reaction.

"Courage, seriously, why on earth are you being this way? You won't even talk to me so how the heck am I supposed to help?"

The lump whimpered and shivered even harder.

Atticus placed his paws onto his hips and shook his head. "This is getting ridiculous."

He grabbed a flap at the top of the lump and raised it up. He was met by Courage's frighteningly big, shimmering, tearful eyes.

"Ah, geez!" He exclaimed, and unsure of what to do, he just...lowered the flap again.

...Back to pacing it was then!

More time passed with no change from Courage, and Atticus was starting to create a muddy hole in the floor so he figured that it was time to try again. This time he grabbed the blanket and pulled it off of Courage. He did not receive any sort of resistance to the action. Courage just continued to sit there looking like the saddest dog in the world.

"For goodness sake, Courage!" Atticus finally cried out, grabbing him by the shoulders and yanking him limply onto his feet. "You're not supposed to be the depressed one!"

Courage whimpered pathetically, his eyes still big and watery.

Atticus let him go, hoping that he would continue to stand. Instead, he seemed to fold in on himself like he no longer had any bones in his body and melted into the grass below.

"This is just great..." Atticus groaned, rubbing the back of his head.

He took the limp Courage and put him back on the cot, frowning at him with a mixture of concern and annoyance.

Courage sat there, sniffing and whimpering sorrowfully...for absolutely no reason at all.

"I swear I'm going to kill Elizabeth. She never warned that something like this might happen." Atticus groused. It was nearly half a day later and Courage was still only getting worse and worse. "What might make you feel better?" He asked his hapless companion out of desperation.

Courage did not reply, he just continued to stare at him, looking all depressed and weepy.

Atticus started to pace again, his worrying reaching all new heights. What if this was some sort of permanent side effect that the SCC had simply never documented before? It was entirely possible, especially given how long they had been together. Would...would Courage never go back to being himself?

He slowed to a stop again, staring helplessly at his weepy companion. Surely there was something he could do to make him feel better?

It was, of course, that exact moment when an idea struck him...but he really did not want to do it.

He clasped his paws together and brought them up toward his snout, considering his options. Courage whimpered again, nearly breaking his blackened, shriveled heart in the process.

It looked as if he had no other choice...

As long as he didn't put his neck in to it, maybe...

He exhaled loudly and helplessly. "I really, really, really don't want to do this, but if it makes you feel better...I guess I'm just going to have to take one for the team, and...well-" He lunged forward.

He wrapped his arms around Courage in one of those crushing hugs that was usually done to 'him', and very, very briefly nuzzled his depressed companion. Thoroughly flustered, he tried to free himself from the situation now that he had done what little he could for Courage, but his companion suddenly had his arms around him too in a vice-like grip. Courage buried the side of his face into his chest as hard as he could and began to sob like he had just gone through the saddest thing in the world.

"H-hey!" Atticus stammered out, completely taken aback by this strange turn of events. "T-there's nothing to cry about! I...we-"

"I feel empty!" Courage sobbed, barely even able to get the words out.

"O-oh, well, that's-"

"It feels like something important is missing now that you're gone!"

"Ugh! I'm still here!"

Courage clung to him even harder. "It doesn't change the way I feel! It's so awful! It's like a big, empty void has opened up inside of my brain and I'm about to fall in! I feel so alone!"

Atticus's ears drooped at that. He was finally starting to understand just how bad this was for Courage. It wasn't just some silly, minor thing that he was going through. This was clearly some major and painful side effect from how long they had spent together in the same body, and Courage was going to need time and a little care to get better.

Atticus placed a paw onto Courage's back. "Hey, it's going to be okay."

"No! No, it's not!" Courage choked out. "I'm going to lose you, and I'm going to lose Muriel too, and I'm going to be all alone! It doesn't matter if I survive my illness because I'm going to be alone! I'm going to lose everything! I can't take it! I'm so scared and it hurts so much!"

It seemed that whatever void Atticus's presence had left behind in Courage's mind was causing some of his greatest anxieties to spiral out of control. Wanting nothing more than to comfort him, Atticus gently rubbed his back, hoping that it might help in some small way.

"I won't let that happen, I swear it." He assured Courage, and he meant every word of it. There were the puppies now, of course. And somehow, someway, he was going to save his fellow survivors of Charon from the clutches of the amalgamation, and when he did, Courage would have the biggest family anyone could ever ask for to last him the rest of his days.

Courage pressed the side of his head into him even harder, as though that would somehow cause them to phase back together again.

"Please, please don't leave me." He whimpered.

Atticus was utterly taken aback. The only thing he could think to do was chuckle sadly and say, "I'm not going anywhere yet. It's like you said before, we need to make the best out of the time we have left together, because we don't know what the future holds." He closed his eyes and let his chin rest on top of Courage's head. "But I will do everything in my power to make sure your future is a happy one."

Courage raised his head so that they were eye to eye, his face one big, blubbery mess. He made one halfhearted attempt to clear away the tears wetting his fur and then leaned in and nuzzled Atticus with everything he had to give.

With what was seemingly becoming tradition for the both of them, Atticus must have had a spectacularly stupid expression on his face afterwards because it somehow managed to break through Courage's sadness. He smiled, and with a sniff, began to laugh.

Over the sound of Courage's soft laughter, a strange sort of 'fhwhap, fhwhap, fhwhap' sound could be heard. Atticus frowned and looked around, but he could not find the source of it.

He let go of Courage and turned to check behind him, since that seemed to be where the sound was coming from. The moment he did so, Courage's weak laughter became much stronger and more genuine.

"What?" Atticus asked, turning back around only for the sound to stay directly behind him.

"L-look, look! Y-your t-tail!" Courage fought to say since he could hardly stop laughing. "I wish I had a camera right now!"

Atticus's expression turned to that of worry. "H-huh? What do you-" He craned his neck to try and see over his shoulder, and...

"GAH!" He cried out, seeing now that his tail was wagging. "I-IT'S INVOLUNTARY!" He cried out, desperate to save face, and began spinning madly in a circle trying to catch it.

After much panic and contorting himself, he finally managed to grab it. He glared at the thing, waited for a minute or two, and let it go...only for it to immediately start wagging again.

He slapped a paw to his forehead and then sat down in the grass, making sure to keep his tail under him. He crossed his arms and put on a smug smile because he had beaten the thing at its own game. Courage sat down beside him, a grin still on his face, but that sadness was already starting to creep its way back in again.

"Will you be okay?" Atticus asked, concerned once more.

Courage closed his eyes and let out a sigh, his smile slowly melting into a frown. "I-I don't know. Something inside of me doesn't feel right anymore. It..it's awful."

"I think it will pass if you give it some time, and if not, well, I'll be here to help you adjust." He put on a halfhearted smile. "I'm certainly well acquainted with the sort of thing you're feeling right now, unfortunately."

Courage laughed gratefully, and then, unable to stop himself, began to cry again. "S-sorry!"

Atticus placed a paw onto his shoulder. "You don't have anything to apologize for. I'm happy to help you get through...whatever this is."

With a little urging, Atticus managed to get him to eat supper. Shortly after that, Atticus tried to make a game out of brainstorming dumb nicknames to distract him, but he just couldn't get into it. Still, he was so thankful for Atticus's attempt that he leaned in and nuzzled him again and got plenty of amusement out of watching that blue glow turn bright red.

As night rolled in, Courage was so mentally exhausted and hurting that he decided he'd rather go to bed early. Since Atticus was so eager to help out, and since their pillow had long since disappeared since Lily stole it...Courage decided to make Atticus his new pillow. Once you got used to the bright red light that you could so easily see behind your closed eyelids, it made for a rather comfy way to sleep.

…...

Elizabeth was not one for fear or apprehension. She did what was necessary, with as little emotional attachment as possible, and never looked back once the deed was done. It was the only way you could survive as the leader of the SCC. You had to make the difficult choices with ruthless efficiency, lest the deaths of a few quickly become the deaths of millions.

And so, when she opened the flap of the tent where the Construct of her father dwelt, she was surprised by her own hesitation. She stepped inside, feeling something that at least resembled the emotion of doubt. When she saw what awaited her in there, that foreign feeling of hesitation and doubt only grew.

The dog and the Construct were asleep. To be more exact, the dog was lying on it with a cheek nestled against its chest. It had a paw resting on his back. The dog could not have looked more content in his sleep with that happy, little smile on his face and his tail somehow wagging even as he dreamed. The Construct was a different story, of course. It retained a somewhat serious expression even while it slept.

What an odd pair. For as much as that...that thing resembled her father in so many ways, it was also nothing like him all at the same time. She, of course, understood perfectly well that a Construct was not the person they came from, but they sometimes still felt like uncanny shades of the people who died to make them. Most of the first ones had been 'friends' of her father, and it had been impossible for her not to notice how much those things seemed like ghostly imprints of them left lingering in the world.

She could not help but note how much the dog seemed to be clinging to the Construct for support since their separation. She had seen much of the disastrous results of those early attempts at having Constructs possess fully conscious hosts. So many of the test subjects had come out of it beyond help, and many of the Constructs had stopped functioning optimally afterwards as well. These two were, by all accounts, the first Construct and host to have lived in harmony with one another without a catastrophic decline in the host's mental health. Well, that was not to say there weren't any lasting side effects, as was obvious now. The dog was clearly not taking the separation as well as he should be, while the Construct at least seemed to be unaffected. This was unquestionably a better outcome than the disastrous results of the past.

In the end, Elizabeth decided to let them sleep. She was not one for pity or mercy, so she was not sure what compelled her to leave that tent and put her plans on hold for a little while longer. She did not feel bad for what she was going to do, and she did not feel bad for them either. Maybe, just maybe, she could empathize with that Construct on some small level. She would not wish what she was about to do on anyone...or anything. If it were her, she would consider it a fate worse than death. She loathed that Construct with every fiber of her being, but she was not looking forward to doing this, if only for her own sake more than its. It was necessary though. It needed to be done if they were to have any chance at putting a stop to the amalgamation.

She just hoped that she would have the strength to look him in the eyes when the time came.

End Of Chapter

A/N: You guys are lucky that I cannot pun to save my life because if I could Computer's main post-character development trait would be him turning into a pun dispensing machine just to (affectionately) annoy the shit out of Courage...and you. LOL

If there is one thing that I wish I would have done it's make Computer's dog a character of his own and an unwilling participant in all of this to really lean in to the unpleasant implications of it. I unfortunately did try to do a bit of a cop out with this back in Volume I by having the dog be 'dumb', which is easily one of my biggest mistakes with the story for way more than just one reason. I really, really, really don't like the implications I set up that it's okay for what gets done to the dog to happen because he's 'mentally lesser', and even just going with the concept of a 'dumb' anthro dog was just really poorly thought out on my part for incredibly obvious reasons. I've tried to fix this to some extent by making it clear in later parts of the story that the dog is not a dumb anthro dog but is instead literally just a regular, realistic, non-sentient dog from a mental standpoint and that non-sentient animals exist in the ATEverse alongside the sentient ones. It still isn't a great fix, and the implications are still there to some extent, but its just too late in the game to change it now. If I ever go back and make revisions, especially to Volume I like I've been wanting to for years now, this is one of the biggest mistakes I've made that I would like to fix.

Besides, having a fully sentient and unwilling host just kinda fits better with the tragedy that is Computer's existence. He literally cannot live life as an organic being without depriving someone else of their own life. It makes how flawed and morally gray he often is all the more stark because, his host body being sentient or not, the fact that he's perfectly willing to sacrifice another living being without their permission, after having deemed them worthless because they are a 'stray', to save Courage is uhhhh... kinda really shitty. Yes, this was always the intent from day one. It was always meant to be a major issue slowly coming to a boil under the surface.

This is also why, even if I had not explicitly set out to write an ace romance, Computer's asexuality would likely still be present because, yeeeaaahhh, there's a third party involved who cannot consent. It's also why I'm not big on even having them kiss and thus why I spent some time setting up nuzzling as a potential equivalent to kissing for dogs. (Computer already not being into the whole concept of kissing helps too LOL) Yeah, I do occasionally like to acknowledge the darker implications of how Computer treats the beings he takes over as nothing more than a body to puppet with little concern for their well being outside of what personally affects him while in the body, but there are certain lines I'm not going to cross with this lmao.

I should also mention that there is not any meaning behind the name Atticus. It just ended up being the only name I could find that really seemed to fit him. It wasn't just a plot point in the story, finding a name that fits Computer is surprisingly hard. I do like the potential meanings you guys have been coming up with though. That it could be a play on the word Attic or that it's a pun of Abacus. The only issue I'm having with the name right now, aside from muscle memory causing me to type in Computer all of the time, is that I can't figure out if its better to use Atticus's or Atticus'. According to Google, either way is correct, but they both don't look particularly right to me. I've been using Atticus's for now and I'll probably keep using it for consistency sake.