a/n: I really like the Phase 4 headcanon where the band rebuilds Cyborg Noodle to be good / not a gunslinging maniac and make her a part of the group again. I think I just want an excuse to write some sisterly Noodle/Cyborg bonding because I find that cute ^.^

OOO

Chapter 5: Live

OOO

"For the love of God, Murdoc, did you even try to code her with a personality?"

Murdoc spoke through the screwdriver he was holding in between his teeth while he struggled to untangle the wires of the circuit board sitting against his knees. "Well, considering me and and God ain't so close, I guess there's your answer."

Noodle looked up from Murdoc's computer and glared at him before rolling her eyes and looking back down at the split screen in front of her. "You turned her into a Simon Says machine instead of an actual intelligent being," she mumbled, quickly typing out the last bit of the code that was meant to be devoted towards emotional processing because wow Murdoc really didn't put any effort into giving this poor thing any empathy.

"Look, get off my case, alright?" Murdoc he snapped at her. He was pulling out a cluster of red wires from the board and crossing them over to other circuits. "I just needed the thing to play guitar and keep me from gettin' killed. I didn't give a shit about her sterling conversational skills." He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers in exaggeration at the last part like the perpetual child that he was. Noodle did the intelligent thing and ignored him.

Murdoc was shocked when Noodle proposed to try and reprogram Cyborg and put her back into commission. Like everyone thought Noodle would have nothing but vitriol for her. But she was smart enough to know that it wasn't Cyborg's fault she was programmed to practically be evil - thanks, Murdoc - and perhaps with a little bit more care put into her coding and her reconstruction, she could be a valuable addition to the band. Just the thought of layering together two live guitarists was too irresistible. Besides, it wasn't like the she and Murdoc had much to do these days aside from bumming around the house. Might as well pick up a little pet project and try her hand at some artificial intelligence software. You know. Classic pastimes for a lazy Sunday.

Noodle stared at the program that was still running on the left side of her screen and started to fiddle with Murdoc's original code that she was trying to rewrite on the right side. The fingers of her right hand were flying across the keys of the number pad whilst she reached over with her left to make sure the wires running from Cyborg's back to the laptop were all connected properly. "You wonder why she wound up attacking you," Noodle berated. "You went through so much trouble to program her with a terabyte worth of weapons knowledge, but you didn't think to teach her how to discern the difference between a hug and a chokehold?"

"Ay, well what the fuck did she need to know that for, I mean, honestly, Noods," Murdoc insisted. He reached forward, opened up one of the panels on the back of Cyborg's thigh, and started to fit the circuit board inside. "Can't think of everything. Had an album and whatever. But you stopped her and saved me so no harm done."

Noodle rolled her eyes, stopped the program for a moment, and started to apply some of the adjustments and corrections she was working on for the past five hours, give or take. "You're lucky I was even there," she told him. "And that I had the sense to shut her down instead of trying to shoot her in the head when she was blocking every one of your bullets. And by the way, you quite literally can't shoot a gun to save your life."

"Oi, fuck you, I was doin' pretty good considering the circumstances."

"You were off by three feet! That's pitiful."

"You try an' shoot a fuckin' killing machine that's headed straight for you. It was a stressful situation!"

"Oh please, she was two feet away from you at one point and you sent a bullet over by the ocean. You weren't even close."

"Well fuck you too, Miss 'I'm a crazy super soldier that can kick ass and shoot guns and swing swords and code a fuckin' cyborg.' The fuck else did that old codger even teach you lot?"

Noodle snorted. "More than you'd like to know, actually. We were trained to be able to infiltrate highly secure government databases. This is nothing. I'm more curious about how you even know how to do all this stuff."

"Noodle, let me tell you. Prison was fuckin' boring as shit. I had a lot of free time."

Noodle wasn't sure of the quality of what Murdoc learned out of self-taught boredom, but he was a lot better at circuitry than Noodle was, and there was a lot of rewiring that needed to be done considering that Noodle practically ripped out six circuit boards to shut Cyborg down.

"Are you done with those things, by the way?" Noodle asked, trying to restart her program again. "I want to turn her on soon."

"Yeah, yeah, almost done," Murdoc muttered, screwing in the last circuit board in the back of Cyborg's thigh. Noodle watched him adjust the board, screw, unscrew, until he finally shut the panel closed and tapped it with finality. He pointed the screwdriver at her computer. "You done with that shit yet? Thought you were some kind of prodigy. What's taking so long?"

Noodle scowled at him. "Would you be patient? Give me a few seconds. Kusojijii..."

"Oi, the fuck did you say?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just make sure everything's screwed up tight and be ready to flip her switch when I say so."

"Aye, aye, Captain Midget."

"Would you please try and act like you're a man in his sixties? Honestly..."

"I swear to fuck Noodle you call me old one more goddamn time..."

"Shut up! I'm trying to concentrate."

"...fuckin' tart."

It only took Noodle a couple of more minutes of double checking all of her diagnostics before she shut the laptop closed and pulled out the wire leading from her laptop to the back of Cyborg's neck. It took Noodle days to show Murdoc a far more efficient way of charging Cyborg that didn't involve sticking wires in ports in every single mechanism in her body because not only was it unnecessary, it also made the poor thing look positively creepy and made her leak too much machine oil. Cyborg now only needed two ports on the back of her neck that had to be connected to her charging station, and Noodle decided to pull those out as well, deciding that Cyborg was charged enough for a little test run.

"Okay!" Noodle nodded, moving around Cyborg so that she was standing right in front of her. The robot stood only a couple of inches shorter than her. "Let's turn her on!"

"You sure you got everything right?" Murdoc asked her again, swiftly moving behind Noodle as a form of protection. "Don't need that thing killing me once we flip her on."

Noodle smirked at him as she reached around to press the on switch on the back of Cyborg's head. "I'm sure."

They had done a lot of maintenance on Cyborg, and Noodle was pleased to see that she didn't shudder, click, spark, or buzz as she powered up. There was just a soft humming as her processors booted up, and Noodle held her breath as Cyborg's eyes gradually blinked open. Murdoc didn't have time to make her look too realistic the first time around - time constraints and something about needing her in the studio recording as soon as possible - but Noodle was proud of close to a month's worth of work of putting in little details to help make Cyborg look more like who she was meant to be modeled after.

Noodle marveled as Cyborg's hair shifted while she straightened up and looked around the room. She also noticed little things like her eyelashes, her fingernails, the lines on her hands, and the texture of her lips. They'd really done a good job on her this time around.

Murdoc was already gripping Noodle's shoulder, prepared to shove her towards the machine in case it started getting out of control. But, it didn't seem like it was at all necessary. If anything, Cyborg looked more confused than anything else, observing the surroundings of Noodle's room that she wasn't familiar with. It seemed like her fear and anger response weren't activating, which was good. That meant they wouldn't get attacked this time around.

Noodle lifted her hand and waved in a small greeting before Cyborg turned to her and blinked rapidly in a manner that looked so positively human. It only took Noodle a few seconds to realize that she was probably perplexed by Noodle's appearance. Sure, she was a few years older, but the similarities were probably still there and very much apparent. Besides, Cyborg knew who she was modeled after. Noodle took care not to touch any of her memory banks.

She cleared her throat and decided it was time to test her baseline knowledge. "Hello," Noodle tried innocently.

Cyborg blinked before nodding and repeating the greeting. "Hello."

Noodle turned to Murdoc. "See? Perfectly pleasant? What did I tell you?"

"Alright, alright," Murdoc complained. "Just make sure she even knows who the fuck we are."

Noodle turned back to Cyborg and cleared her throat. "Um...do you know who I am?"

Cyborg's head dipped again in a smaller nod. "Yes. You are Noodle. The lead guitarist for the band Gorillaz. I was modeled after you."

Noodle grinned. "Perfect!" She pulled Murdoc out from behind her until he was standing right next to her. "Do you know who this is?"

"Murdoc Faust Niccals. Bass player for the band Gorillaz."

Murdoc frowned. "Hey! What the fuck happened to 'sir'? Or 'master'?"

"I got rid of all that. She's not a slave, you know." Murdoc opened his mouth to complain but Noodle slapped his stomach and told him to be quiet. She turned back to Cyborg and gestured between herself and Murdoc. "Do you know the other members of the Gorillaz band besides the two of us?"

Cyborg nodded once more. "Stuart Pot. Lead singer. Pseudonym 2D. Russel Hobbs. Drummer."

Murdoc's eyebrows raised up. "Huh. She was always forgettin' who the dullard was..."

Noodle frowned. "That's because you half-assed her language processing." She turned back to the Cyborg and nibbled on her bottom lip. "Do you know where you are?"

Cyborg paused for a moment, did a quick sweep of her surroundings, and shook her head slightly. "Unfortunately I do not."

Noodle gestured to herself. "Well, right now you're in my bedroom."

Cyborg's eyes squinted slightly, as if she were allowing herself a moment to process the information. "I see. These are your sleeping quarters."

Noodle smiled in amusement. She might have to remember to program some more colloquial language databases for her later on so she wouldn't sound quite so formal all the time. But she nodded regardless and pointed behind her at Murdoc. "Yes. This whole apartment is where we live. Where the Gorillaz band lives."

Cyborg tilted her head to the side in wonderment - yes!, all those physical indicators of human expression seemed to be working just fine. "So this is your home. Where you live."

"Exactly!"

"Am I meant to be protecting this home?"

Noodle whirled around and frowned and Murdoc. "I I thought you took out all that bodyguard crap. I'm trying to make her feel welcome here."

"Do you realize how long I spent on that coding?" Murdoc countered back. "'Sides it can't hurt. Someone tries to fucking rob us now we've got two of you birds to deal with the fucker. I'm being practical."

Noodle turned back to Cyborg. "No, you're not meant to be protecting this home. In fact, we want you to live in it."

Cyborg's eyes widened. "Live...in it?"

Murdoc groaned. "Sweet Satan, Noods, stop makin' this so sentimental - "

"Yes," Noodle answered Cyborg. "That's why we helped rebuild you. We were hoping - well, I don't know about Murdoc, but I was hoping that you might want to stay with the band. We'd love a new guitarist."

Noodle couldn't pretend what it was like to have been programmed for the sole purpose of replacing one human and protecting another, and then to be suddenly ripped free of all that programming and be allowed to simply...be. It must have been a terribly conflicting situation to be found in, because for an artificially intelligent cyborg, she looked terribly perplexed and unsure of how to answer. Cyborg looked pointedly over Noodle's shoulder, probably staring at Murdoc, before turning back to Noodle and frowning sadly. "...I was only meant to be the guitarist of the band Gorillaz until your return. Now that you have returned, I have no purpose."

Noodle chewed on her lip. "Well...you're right. You have no purpose. We didn't program you with a purpose this time."

Cyborg glared angrily. "Then what have I been reconstructed for?"

"That's for you to decide, isn't it?" Noodle shrugged. She walked closer to Cyborg and pushed back the bangs that were hanging in front of her face. Noodle could still perfectly remember wearing her hair this way, and looking at Cyborg's face was still like looking into a strange, realistic mirror that left her fifteen year old self immortalized in surprising detail, right down to the green of her eyes. "We didn't give you a purpose because...we were hoping you might find one for yourself. We don't want you to be a weapon or a replacement. We just want you to be part of the band. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Noodle expected talking to Cyborg to be an experience too strange to stomach. It was in some ways. Cyborg and Noodle had the same voice, although Noodle's was just a little bit more rough from age and from smoking. Their eyes and build were the same, and hearing Cyborg play on all of the recent albums was probably the strangest thing to get used to. But Noodle couldn't believe Murdoc's claims that Cyborg was just a carbon copy of Noodle. Perhaps it was Noodle getting too attached and sentimental like Murdoc feared. But there was something about Cyborg completely unique to her. Perhaps it was her reaction to kindness and her reluctance to do something selfishly - all feelings that were perfectly natural coming from a being that probably spent all of her existence not quite knowing who she was.

Noodle was what Cyborg lived up to. What room was left for any individuality? It wasn't her fault that Murdoc programmed her to be a killing machine that malfunctioned at the drop of a dime. Surely she deserved better than that. A second chance perhaps?

Cyborg watched Noodle's hands as they combed back her hair. "Would that be an acceptable arrangement? To be part of the band?"

Noodle smiled. "Of course! The more the merrier. Besides, what better addition to the band could there be than another guitarist who plays just as good as I do? We'll make you feel right at home, and you can stay with us for as long as you'd like."

Murdoc finally chimed in, looking positively bored from his position leaning against the wall on the other side of the room. "Yeah, yeah, alright, the bucket o' bolts can stay. Whoopty fucking do. Can we get on with this shit? You birds are makin' me want to drink myself dead."

"Ignore him," Noodle soothed. "You know how he can be. He's always bitter. But he's more than happy to have you here. Do you want to see everyone else? I'm sure 2D will be amazed at how much your programming has changed."

"Oi, I ain't bitter! Stop bad mouthing me!"

Noodle wrapped an arm around Cyborg's shoulders. "We'll have to get you some clothes of your own, but you can borrow some of my old ones for now. We can leave your charging station in my room until we can find you a room to yourself."

Cyborg nodded and gave Noodle a very small smile. "I think that will be satisfactory."

"Perfect!" Noodle grinned. "Oh, we can take you shopping tomorrow and buy you all new things. Then we can get you your own guitar and equipment. It'll be so much fun, you'll see."

Murdoc was staring on at the scene in disgust. "Am I witnessing some weird as fuck female bonding or whatever? Cause if I am, I'm fuckin' outta here."

Noodle was already leading Cyborg out of her room. "I hope that purchasing possessions for my extended stay won't be an imposition on the band."

"Of course not," Noodle promised. "We have more than enough money, and the important thing is to make you feel at home. We can spend as much as we need to. Whatever will make you comfortable."

Murdoc followed them out into the hall. "Let's not get crazy now. We're close to dippin' into emergency funds, Noods. You hear that? Emergency funds! Meaning the dirty money! Gotta be careful with that shit. There ain't no time for shopping sprees. Noodle? Dammit Noodle I know you're listening to me! Noodle!"