When the Commander came to, he found himself in a strange room he didn't recognize. He felt as if it were familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Coming to his feet slowly, he heard a strange ambient noise begin, almost like whispering. He rose easily, almost as if he weighed nothing. The noise settled as his movement did. A quiet, ambient ring washed through the room as he looked around. He was definitely in someone's house, but he had no idea whose it was or how he got there. He began to walk forwards, and the noise began again. He had initially expected for this to prove annoying, but the sound was strangely relaxing.

The Commander began to wander around the room, pulling open drawers and looking on shelves and in cabinets. He was surprised to see that they were all filled with his own belongings. His photos, his video games; even his microphone was set up on a stand over in the far corner of the room. The bed on the other side of the room looked quite inviting; however, resting was the last thing on the Commander's mind. He wanted to find out where he was and why he was there.

He opened the door, walking out into the hallway. Somehow, he knew that in order to get to the living room, he would have to turn right upon exiting his room. Sure enough, he made his way into the living room, where Eaglebones, Crash, and Ricky were all waiting for him on several well-kept and expensive-looking sofas. A fire roaring in the fireplace brought a feeling of comfort and security into the room, and he felt very calm as he sat down in an empty spot on one of the couches.

"We've been waiting for you," Eaglebones was the first to speak. "Somehow we all knew we were meant to gather here. Turns out we were supposed to find each other, and putting us all in the same room must've seemed like a good way to do that."

The Commander was confused.

"Seemed like to who? What's going on?"

Eaglebones looked concerned. He motioned for Ricky to speak.

"We had a feeling you would get here last."

"We got here early because we were asleep," Crash offered. "We were already unconscious."

This explanation did nothing to ease the Commander's complete cluelessness.

"Am I the only one who has no freaking idea what's going on here?"

"I sure didn't," Crash continued. "Eaglebones had to explain it to us. He knows a lot more about this kinda stuff than we do."

The Commander turned his head to look at Eaglebones, nervously hoping the glance would prompt an explanation. Although, he had a nagging feeling in his gut that he wasn't going to be happy with whatever he was about to say. Eaglebones cleared his throat.

"Do you, uh, have any questions?"

The Commander nodded slowly.

"Uh... yeah," he leaned forward in his seat, almost in a daze. "Where are we?"

A chilling silence filled the room as he finished his movement, the ambiance that came with the motion dissipating as no one said anything for a rather lengthy time. Eaglebones followed suit, leaning forward, half in preparation to comfort the Commander and half in attempt to refill the room with the calming noise. He figured it would help as much as anything.

"Commander..." he began, taking a slow breath and letting it out with a sigh to let the ambiance of his chest movements resonate throughout the room. He smiled. "Welcome to the afterlife."

The Commander could have sworn his blood temperature dropped at least 70 degrees upon hearing this. He wasn't sure whether or not Eaglebones was serious; however, after waking up in this strange house with no explanation, he was prepared to accept pretty much anything. He looked to Ricky, hoping for a supplementary explanation, and the smaller man looked around awkwardly and shrugged as if he were being accused of something.

"The BattleTram rolled down a hill or something, and crashed into a whatever. I don't know! You were in the passenger seat; we don't know any more than you would!"

The Commander did vaguely remember this.

"So, like," the Commander put a hand on his forehead, exhausted from trying to take in so much sudden and unbelievable information at once. "We're dead?"

"As doornails. Must've been a nasty wreck."

The Commander had to lean back for a moment. His mind was suddenly flooded with the images of him and his friends, laying motionless and cold among the wreckage of their vehicle. It wasn't a picture he too terribly enjoyed imagining. He thought about all he had left undone back on Earth. They hadn't made it to Vancouver and done whatever it was that they were going to do there. They hadn't gotten to go on their tour they had been so excitedly looking forward to. Worst of all, however, was how he hadn't gotten the chance to tell Jimmy he loved him.

Jimmy.

"Hey, uh," the Commander started cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood. "Did our robot friend make it out of the wreck okay?"

All at once, everyone's heads sunk down to stare at the floor as they all, somehow, had the same simultaneous influx of knowledge. Crash softly muttered a mumbled "probably not", and the Commander shakily nodded his understanding.

"So..." he started, hope rising audibly in his voice. "If Jimmy died with us in the accident, he'll be here pretty soon, right?"

The room grew uncomfortably silent as everyone craned their heads to look at him. The Commander quite disliked the look they were giving him. That look was the kind of look one gave to someone when they were forced to tell that person something that they really weren't going to like. The color drained from the Commander's face as he waited for someone to break the silence.

Everyone trusted Eaglebones to tell him as delicately as possible.

"Jimmy's a robot," he started. "...Was a robot. I suppose I should be using the past tense now that we're all here."

He coughed awkwardly. The Commander leaned forward, fearing what was coming next.

"...Anyway. Jimmy was a robot. An artificial intelligence. He may have looked real, sounded real, heck, maybe by our standards he was real. But for all this sort of thing is concerned, he's not. Er, wasn't."

The Commander swallowed nervously before shakily posing one last question.

"So... where is he now?"

"In pieces among the BattleTram's wreckage, probably," Eaglebones shook his head solemnly. "He didn't have a consciousness, at least not like the ones we know of."

The Commander felt an uncomfortable flood of dread pooling in the bottom of his gut.

"So..."

"...So as far as this world is concerned, now that his software is unable to run, it's as if he never existed at all."

The Commander suddenly felt all the energy keeping him upright being released out of him, falling over onto the floor on his hands and knees, without making a sound. The silence was a jarring difference from the ambient sounds of movement they had all by now gotten used to. Hanging his head low and squeezing his eyes shut, he inhaled deeply and cried out softly in the most genuine, hopeless, helpless wail any of them had ever heard. It was heartbreaking to listen to, and nobody wanted to say or do anything for a very long time. In retrospect, it was something the Commander should have expected from the beginning.

After all, robots don't have souls.