Anya POV:
Roughly 3 minutes after I called Zola, we finally made it to what looked to be a room that was some kind of factory. We could already hear the thumping of Szabo's mindless body on the other side of the wall... but color us shocked when we saw that, in front of us and looking to be severely drained and weakened, was Nene. And he was currently inside of a sealing circle, one that I could tell was of his own creation.
"Nene!" I shouted as I felt my codes kick in and forced my feet directly to him, along with my allies in Shu, Kesu, Jiro, and daddy. And when I got next to him, Nene looked at me in confusion.
"Who... who are you?" he asked, me gawking at that.
"You... you don't remember?!" I asked, him thing hissing in pain as I saw he had been injured from Szabo and the generals.
"It's... very hard... after giving Himiko my powers... it's almost a coin flip... sometimes I remember everything... all the horrible things I did... and other times, I forget all of who I used to be... now's your chance to finally be rid of me... after all the shit I've done, I deserve the worst..." he said, me being surprised. His voice... it didn't sound sarcastic, evil, malicious, or funny at all. It felt remorseful. It felt... like he was guilty! And then, when I touched his arm that was injured... I finally realized something that was shocking. I didn't feel bones... I felt... metal!
"Oh... oh my god... I finally understand now... I understand why I can finally get rid of calling you Master Nene and why I feel the need to protect you... you've been converted into a Mecha Robo..." I gawked, which made Shu gasp.
"You're kidding me! How can that happen?!" Shu asked as Nene then held his head in pain.
"Ugh... I feel something inside... some kind of information that could help... but... I can't think right... I know I don't deserve your pity... but if we need to save this world... and destroy the Balaur Shadow... I must ask that you share your strength with me... if I can recover my former strength... I shall repay a hefty debt that has been owed for a decade..." he said, me looking at Shu and dad and they looked upset and ready to chew him out, but I frowned.
"I can see it and hear it in his voice... he's not afflicted by that dreaded disease, so he's thinking of his own accord... he's remorseful, guilt-ridden... I command all of us to help my fellow automaton back on his feet, got it, Shu?" I said, him groaning at that.
"AUGH! Fine! But the moment he does anything nasty, you're dead, got it, Nene?" Shu complained as our group then shared our strength with him as we saw that Szabo had noticed our appearance. We proceeded to heal him the whole way, which Nene then gasped as I felt it. His Shadow had returned. His Chimaera then erupted from his back and I saw that my point was proven. His Chimaera was purple, not red! He then unleashed a powerful blast of magic at Szabo of Groundus, which severed our robot friend from the rest of the generals, me then rushing in and grabbing him before he could fly off and placing the Eternal Engine we'd found in Himiko's chambers. And when I did so, Szabo gasped as he then spoke.
"M...M...Master Anya?" he asked, me squealing in glee as I hugged him tight as my allies followed suit and proceeded to assist in defeating the four generals, Kesu being the superior of her replica model while Shu, dad, and Nene demolished the others with ease.
"Szabo! I'm so happy you're alright! Don't give me a scare like that again!" I smirked as he then gasped as I saw his engine was glowing white.
"Augh... I... I feel something in my engine... s-so this is what it's like... to have a soul?" he asked before he then shocked all of us at how he gained a shadow! Not just any shadow, but the Pumpkin King Shadow!
"Oh my!... Szabo now has the ultimate Shadow of accuracy..." Nene gawked at it.
"Hmm... Master Nene... explain, please?" Szabo asked me, me smiling at him.
"Well... it's hard to say, but this Nene is not the same as the one we fought ages ago... this is a replica, most likely made by this cube... do you remember anything, Nene?" I asked, him nodding.
"Yes, I do... this entire cube is alive, forged from the soul of the creator of Destroy... that's why there are so many Destroys in stasis on this cube. All were imperfect attempts to make the real deal. And the only way to completely destroy this cube is to destroy the soul itself. To destroy the Balaur Shadow at the heart of the cube. But given how strong that shadow is, only mine and Himiko's power could slay it... wait... where's Himiko?!" he asked in surprised as I sighed.
"She uh... fell down a trap door... we have another team going to rescue her, so you don't need to worry. We need to press on to where the heart is," I said, Nene nodding.
"Every single place we've been to thus far will lead us to that heart. We should aim to get there at roughly the same time frame. The defenses are great and will need all of us working together in harmony to even reach the soul... but there remains one final hurdle after all of that," Nene said, me looking at him in confusion.
"What would that be?" I asked.
If the cube is without a soul, then the entire complex will be set to self-destruct, leaving us no time to escape... and the self-destruct will be strong enough to destroy the entirety of the lower half of the outer planet. So that means one of us must stay behind... we need to give this cube a soul to prevent it from killing millions... so I'll be willing to do the deed," Nene said, me gawking at that.
"You really have changed... the Nene that did all that shit before would never want to save the world... welcome back, my lord," Kesu said as Nene frowned and we continued forward.
"Can I just say that this is sounding to be way too dangerous?" dad asked.
"Danger is my middle name," Shu smirked.
"I thought it was Leslie?" Jiro asked, me then guffawing in laughter at that, which caused Shu the blush in embarrassment.
"Don't tell Kluke or Sahlia, or you're getting punched in the face," Shu said to me.
"Don't worry, hehe... got the yucks out," I snickered. "Anyways, we should check in on the other teams," I smiled as I then called up the team that was looking for Himiko to let them know the news.
"Hello, Jibral? Status report," I said, him then responding after.
"Well... Himiko showed us a lot of different things relating to her and Nene's past... he really did have a lot of love at that time... but the bad news, she fell down another trap hole. We're going down to check where she is. And according to the map, we'll be able to meet up at roughly the same spot," he said, me nodding at that.
"And we have something to tell you as well... I've found out why I've been wanting to protect Nene recently. He's actually a robotic clone, free of the disease and having all the memories he had in the past. And he said that this entire cube is fueled by the soul of someone that wants to destroy the world. And that we'll need to defeat said soul in order to stop all production," I said.
"Sounds difficult," Shifa frowned on the other end.
"He didn't make it sound easy, that's for sure. Especially since we'd need to sacrifice someone to power the cube instead whenever the soul is destroyed, or else the resulting self-destruct will destroy the entire lower half of the planet!" Shu said, that making Jibral gawk.
"I think Himiko said something about that. The one that's powering this cube is the soul of an Ancient called Gurgoth, him being Nene's cousin that wished to seize the throne, but then being denied for his crimes against the weak... so, he made Destroy and, when Nene sealed him away, Gurgoth fused his soul into this cube to one day get revenge," Jibral explained.
"I remember that... his soul was originally the same as yours, Shu. The Blue Dragon... but when he activated Red Shadow Power, he turned it into the Balaur Shadow through inhumane experimentation... he then went into hiding, and now I know where he is," Nene said with a snarl and I frowned at that.
"Then it looks like we'll need to get some much-needed vengeance! Especially since we don't need any more death and destruction in this world. One Destroy was bad enough, one bomb robot was bad enough, we don't need an armada of them attacking everyone in sight!" Szabo said with seriousness.
"Well said, general Szabo. Let's get nasty," Kesu smirked as she extended her claws and we then went forward. We had quite the journey ahead of us.
Zola POV:
After going down the elevator from the servant robo's room with Yasato, we found something amazing. We found the source of the Mecha Robo production, that being a whole slew of machines that produced them, much like the Ancient War Factory near the laser fields. After finding this, we immediately wasted no time and shut down the production in the same way that we did before, taking a piece of metal that was on the ground and using it to jam up the machine so it would cause a malfunction! And after doing so, Yasato made a very valid point.
"You know, if we want to, we can make our own Mecha Robos to assist us in our fight using the parts we've been collecting. It might surprise Miss Anya," Yasato said, which made me smile.
"Huh... smart thinking, Yasato! Let's try it!" I smiled as we then went to one of the machines and proceeded to put together a servant robo with our different parts. And when we did, we added some combat features, an activation unit, and an Eternal Engine. And after we did so, the newest Servant Robo hummed to life, me making it have a female voice by default.
"Greetings, Master... how may I assist you?" the servant robot asked, me smiling at her.
"You are to assist us in defeating the threat of this Atomic Cube by going to the heart of the facility. If we fail, then this factory will send powerful bombs all across the planet," I said, her nodding at that.
"Of course, Master... may I ask your names?" she asked. We then introduced ourselves before I then smiled at her. "And what would you like your name to be?"
"My name?... You wish to give me the choice to give myself a name?" she asked, me nodding at that. "Well... may I see myself in a reflection?" Toripo then obliged by making a mirror with Reflecta and she was able to see her appearance. She looked more feminine than other Servant Robos and was roughly the same height as Kluke. We also gave her a paint job of orange rather than yellow and we gave her heightened eyes that could act like human eyes, minus tears. "Hmm... I'd like it if I would be called... Joy. Because I am filled with joy," she smiled, as we gave her a lower and upper jaw to do that with.
"Welcome to life, Joy. I hope we can become great friends," Yasato smiled. We then got a call from none other than Anya, which I then responded to as we found another elevator.
"Hey, Zola? We got quite the status report to give you," Anya smiled at me.
"And we have a similar report to give you," I smiled back.
"Really? Well, how about you share yours first?"
"We managed to find and shut down the production of the combat mecha-robos by destroying the machines! Similar to the Ancient War Factory we destroyed during our last venture," I explained.
"Great! That's great to hear! Is that all?" Anya smirked.
"Nope. Because we managed to create a new friend... go on, say hi," I smirked as I gave Joy the communicator.
"Um... hello... my name is Joy. Whom am I speaking with?" Joy asked as Anya spoke.
"Oh my... um... hello, Joy. I'm Anya. Are you a servant robot?" Anya asked.
"Yes, I am... I have been given life by Master Zola. Are you also my master?" Joy asked.
"No, no, I'm a friend. A fellow automaton. I hope we can meet each other in person, soon," Anya smiled politely.
"Here, Master Zola," Joy smiled as I then took the communicator and heard Anya talk shortly after.
"Anyways, the other thing we wanted to say is that we rescued Nene... and I found out the reason why I've been helping him and stopped calling him master. It's because... he's actually a clone in the form of a robot!" Anya said, that actually making Okuni spit out some water in shock from a water bottle.
"WHAT?! How is that possible?!" Okuni asked.
"I think I know why... if this place was made to make assault robots of the most dangerous breed, who better than the most powerful Ancient in existence?" Guru Guru asked, Anya then speaking after.
"He said that the only way to stop this cube from producing anymore bomb robots, we'll need to get to the heart at the very bottom of the cube and destroy the soul that's in charge. But then, Nene said that he'd have to sacrifice his life to stop the place from self-destructing after. If this cube explodes, the blast could be enough to destroy the entirety of the lower half of the planet!" Anya said, me gawking at that.
"And Nene's going to sacrifice himself... and willingly?... What the hell happened?" Sura Sura asked.
"Because he's somehow got all of his memories of who he was... but without the disease in him. So he's able to think of his own accord," Anya's dad said, me nodding at that.
"Well... okay then. We'll keep pressing on and try to find out more. You make sure to do the same, got it?" I said.
"Yes. The heart of this place is going to be at the bottom, and it'll be a direct feed to everyone's current position. We won't make a move until all of us are one unit," said the voice of none other than Nene! But without the nastiness... it made me spooked, but I remained civil, though I definitely showed my hostility in my voice.
"This... is Zola... over and out," I said with a growl in my voice as the connection ended.
"I can sense animosity in your voice, Master Zola... is something the matter?" Joy asked as I sighed.
"I still feel hatred towards Nene... he did a lot of terrible things to innocent people," I admitted.
"If he's without that disease, though, then I can guarantee that he'll be a much better soul. Trust me, I should know. I was part of his royal court back then," Korin said, me sighing and nodding.
"Maro hopes that's truthful," Marumaro said with a sigh.
"Same," Mira and Tora said shortly after. We then went to the elevator and proceeded down to the next level down.