Clyde and Angel soon found themselves surrounded by various Claptrap AIs, wandering around the server, confused.

"Is this Robot Heaven?"

"Is this Robot Hell?"

"I'm surrounded by me! I love me!"

"I'm surrounded by me? I hate me!"

"What's wrong with them?" Angel asked, looking at the confused crowd of cloned AIs.

"Well, when 'Mister I'm-Gonna-Kill-All-The-Meatbags' took control, it also took control of all the other Claptrap units. The Vault Hunters destroyed a lot of them before finally deciding that asshat." Clyde plainly explained. He seemed rather disinterested in the entire thing, his mind somewhere else.

"Is something wrong, Clyde?" Angel asked, noticing his distress.

"...It's...it's nothing." Clyde lied, looking through of Claptraps. "You!" He pointed one out. "You were here before the whole takeover, right?" The Claptrap nodded excitedly. "Explain the situation to all the new guys, and tell all the vets to do the same."

The Claptrap nodded and began running around the crowd, parroting off information about the server and what happened to the robots.

"Clyde-" Angel began to say when Clyde held up a hand. He closed his hand slightly, as if he were grabbing the image of the Claptraps in front of him. The world seemed to freeze around the two of them. With a swift motion, he moved the entire scene to the side. He raised his other hand, dragging a new scene to the darkness the previous image had left.

Angel suddenly felt herself standing on sand. She looked around, and realized that she and Clyde were standing on a beach at sunset.

"Clyde…" Angel said, looking at the setting sun. "How did you do this?"

"It's not real." Clyde replied, looking blankly out to the sun. "None of it is. It just all looks nice."

"Well, I know it's not real." Angel replied. "I was asking how you did it. You never had this much control over the simulation before."

"I dunno." Clyde shrugged. "It's just sort of easier after…" He paused, before turning to look at Angel. "Angel...Am I real?"

"Of course you are!" Angel exclaimed. "What kind of question is that?"

"It's just...When the AI attacked, I couldn't do anything to fight it. I thought that, if I was human, I wouldn't be as affected as the Claptraps, that it would not have any power over me. I...I was wrong." Clyde sighed. "Angel, I suppose the better question is if I'm human or not…"

"What do you mean?" Angel asked. "You are human...right?"

"..." Clyde looked away, but Angel noticed that the clouds were beginning to move, violently forming strange, confusing images. "...When...when it took over, it showed me things. It showed me the truth." The clouds formed a man. "My father, he screwed me over. He sold me out. He was meant to die, but he sent me in his place." The man turned away, and the clouds began to move in wild, frantic whips. "I remember the pain. I remember the needles, the men in white lab coats. I remember their cold eyes, not questioning orders, even if I was the wrong person. I wonder if they knew…"

Hyperion. It was the only thing Angel could think of. There would only be one reason for the Claptrap records to be as classified as they were, about as classified as the files on her. They must have done something bad, something they couldn't afford to let out.

Something like horribly killing a child on purpose.

"Angel...I died." Clyde said, looking down at his hands. "I'm just some...some ghost, a copy of a broken mind. I'm not human, I'm an AI."

"What does it matter?" Angel asked. "You're here, that's all that-"

"Of course it matters!" Clyde exclaimed, the simulations blinking at his sudden outburst. "How can I…How can I claim to have any control over my emotions if I'm not even human? I always...I always thought that, maybe, there was some human part of me out there, somewhere out there, something to give me a little more agency over my life, something that makes me more than the Claptrap AIs! But there isn't!" Clyde shouted, before slumping his shoulders.

"...It doesn't matter what you are." Angel said, placing a hand on Clyde's shoulder. "It doesn't. You're clearly something special, no matter what you are. I know, I can tell. You're one of the most Mildly Decent people I've ever met."

Clyde looked at Angel, his eyes heavy with doubt. "You think I'm special?"

Angel felt herself blush, and she realized she had become so mentally invested in the VR that it must have been visible to Clyde. She nodded.

Clyde gently took her hand, and Put it on his cheek. "Prove it."

"What?" Angel said, confused.

"Do the thing." Clyde said. "That thing you can do, where you control technology. What's it called?"

"Phase Shift." Angel replied. "But, Clyde, I would never-"

"Why not?" Clyde asked. "What's different about me? Just...Just give me some evidence, something that shows me I'm not just some collection of numbers." Clyde closed his eyes and waited.

Angel looked at Clyde and slightly moved her hand to the back of his head.

Before she even knew what she was doing, she pulled him in and kissed him on the lips.

The VR system she was using was very advanced, even more complex than the ones people used for...personal activities. While she used her system just to get more personal with some tasks, the more complex functions carried over. Clyde, obviously, wasn't some porn program, so he wasn't aware of what stimuli he was sending to Angel. As she kissed him, Angel noticed that he smelt faintly of motor oil, likely due to the fact that he spent so much time surrounded by robots, or AI to be more exact.

It only lasted a moment, as Clyde quickly broke away from her, surprised.

"C-Clyde!" Angel exclaimed. "I'm sorry, that was sudden! I thought it would seem like a romantic gesture but-" She explained, rather embarrassed, but was interrupted by a fiercer kiss from Clyde, who wrapped his arms around her. Surprised at first, she soon placed her arms around his neck as they continued to kiss.

He broke away for a second, keeping his face close to hers.

"So I'm feeling something." Clyde commented casually, despite the intimate situation. "Are you?"

"Yes." Angel answered quickly. "Of course I am!"

"That's good." Clyde said, before pausing. "...How far exactly can we take this?"

Angel moved one of her arms off of Clyde's neck, waved it in the air, and placed it back. "I just turned off all the cameras in my chambers, so I should have some security." Clyde opened his mouth, about to make a comment, only for Angel to kiss him. "I love talking to you, Clyde, but I think our lips have better things to do Eventually."

Clyde shrugged. "I'm not going to argue with that."

And then they fucked.

So this chapter is where all the romance and whatnot comes to a head, and we finally have a couple. Woot. Now let's slowly break them. Woot.

The next chapter is going to follow Claptrap on Elpis with Athena. It's going to be fun, and hopefully out with less of a gap between the chapters. Sorry about that. Life and whatnot.