Justin hadn't been kidding when he said it would be difficult to repair the female Reploid. Her damage was much more severe than Alex had imagined. Not only was the body in bad shape, her mind was practically destroyed. After her punishment was over, she had begun to work on the Reploid.
Finding parts for the body was the easy part. Such parts weren't in short supply, however, paying for them was always difficult. Alex did as many odd jobs as her father, and health, would allow. If she could, she would attempt to repair as much of the original body as possible, as it was much more cost effective to do so. With her father's help, she had managed to salvage most the Reploid's arm and leg parts, but she still had to pay for new torso parts.
Her mind, on the other hand, was much harder to repair. Everything needed replacing. Starting from scratch with a mind was a very tricky thing. Without her father, Alex wouldn't have had a chance. The mind of a Reploid was a very complicated thing, after all. As if that weren't bad enough, finding new chips was such a hassle. The chips were more expensive than Alex could have ever imagined. They were twice as expensive as body parts, and she always had to the doge questions of the clerks she bought them from. Building Reploids in private was frowned upon, and the last thing she wanted was to get in trouble with the law. Thankfully, they let her go after a few questions.
Whenever she got a free moment, Alex worked on repairing the Reploid. Due to her condition, she was home schooled, so schooling didn't get in the way. It was, more often than not, her illness that got in the way. Alex had a blood disease. She had inherited it from her mother. Every now and then, she had to go to the hospital for blood transfusions, or to refill a prescription. It was always a hassle, but it had to be taken care off. So far, the disease had yet to reach a severe point, but it still loomed over her life like a dark shadow, ready to consume her at any moment.
Despite all of these obstacles, Alex kept working. Once she had her mind set on something, there was no changing it. She wanted to fix this Reploid to prove that anything that broken could be repaired. The thought gave her an odd sense of hope, so she persisted.
Once again, it was Alex's birthday. Four long years had passed since her first trip to the junkyard. Alex was now a young teenage girl, and just like all those years ago, she felt like this would be a special birthday. As of today, she was finally finished with the repairs. The Reploid was fixed. She could jump up in down in excitement, if she was still ten years old. Instead, Alex settled on a grin.
She gave the clock a quick glance. Five twenty five. Justin was usually home by five thirty. Her father had insisted that he be there when the Reploid was activated. Alex had waited for four years, she decided that she could wait five more minutes.
Too bad these last few minutes had to go by so slowly. The fourteen year old paced the small room, giving the Reploid a few glances every now and then, and ran her fingers through her now short hair. It had seemed like a good idea to cut he hair shorter, but now she missed it's old length, as she now had nothing to grasp when she was nervous or excited.
What was the Reploid going to be like? The only chips that she and Justin had attempted to save were her memory and personality chips. The information on personality chips were mostly saved and downloaded to new chips, while on the other had, the memory chips were junk. Justin said he would try to save them, but he had yet to get back to his daughter on it.
Finally, a familiar voice filled the silent void. "I'm home! Alex, you there?"
"In here, dad!" She called back. Once her father had entered the room, she asked him the question that had been on her mind for a while now. "Did you recover anything from the chips?
"Only one thing, but I don't think it's something we have to download in her current chip. We'll just tell her when she wakes up. Is she charged up?" Alex gave her father a nod. "Well, let's wake her up." He said with a grin of his own. Justin had been involved in the repairing the Reploid as well, and while he didn't show it was much as his daughter, he looked forward to this too.
It had been four years, it was time for her to wake up.
The first thing she was aware of was the bright, fluorescent light of the room. It was painful to look at. She had to blink her eyes several times to get used to it. The next thing she noticed was the surface she laid on. It was a cold work bench. It was an unpleasant thing to be resting on. Where was she? Was she dreaming? She wiggled her fingers to test them out. This all felt very real.
"Hey, can you hear me?"
A young girl's voice.
"Give her a moment."
A man's voice.
She looked over to her left. Two figures stood at her side. The girl's green eyes watched her with excitement, while the man's dark brown eyes observed her calmly. They both had the same light brown hair.
"…Who are you?" She managed to speak. Her voice felt so weak and unused.
"I'm Alex Heap." The girl smiled. "And this is my dad." She gestured to the older man who stood next to her.
"You can just call me Justin." The man said in a calm manner.
She repeated their names in her mind. She had a feeling that she ought to remember those names. "Do… do you know what my name is?"
"In fact, I do know your name." The girl next to him, Alex, looked at him with mild surprise. "Your name is Iris."
Iris. Her name was Iris.
"I like it." She smiled.