Robotnik took a quick look over the folders Mecha Vanilla had in regards to Chao within her memory banks. He found that he had been correct in his guess that she had barely any knowledge that would prove useful in comparison with Mecha Cream. This was to be expected, as Cream had spent more time with the Chao then her mother had. Satisfied with what he had learned, the dictator transferred all of the folders over to the computer's hard drive, making sure to wipe them from her own memories banks in the process. Robo Vanilla did not need this information to perform her duties, though, in addition to this, the memory of the location of her former home was also deleted from her CPU. Such knowledge was unnecessary for a robian slave. Vanilla had a more indirect role in the plan he was coming up with, thus the information was deemed worthless to her. The less of a trail he left concerning the Chao Garden, the better. As extra insurance, any folders that could be used to connect her to the existence of Cream, before she had become Unit 3185113, were also wiped from her memory banks, as well as any memories of the day of her capture. Though this might be considered overkill, it was a precaution that he felt was necessary in order to safeguard this information. Just in case there was a chance of either of the rabbits ever regaining their free will, they would no longer have access to such incriminating memories. Robotnik did not know, nor did he really care, what would happen if a robian ever regained its free will. However, if this ever did occur, he did not want to risk such a creature being aware of its actions as a robian. His guess was that robians were oblivious to everything around them, otherwise deroboticized mobians would have been crazy, deranged, or mentally broken from being trapped inside their own bodies for so long.
As for Mecha Cream herself, once her memories were completely uploaded to the computer's hard drive he deleted them from her CPU. Other than a basic knowledge of how to continue functioning, she had practically no memories at all within her head. When she was disconnected from the machine, she simply stood there like a statue, only able to respond to commands and nothing else at the moment. She had no knowledge of anything outside of herself and Mecha Cheese. Cream basically shared the fate that some robian children faced when their minds couldn't handle the transition from organic to metal, thus essentially needing to be reprogrammed in order to function properly in their various jobs.
The reason for this nearly complete mind wipe was mostly because her CPU could only hold so much information, as it was not like that of an adult robian. Child robians were only capable of holding five terabytes of data, compared to the ten that adults robians could hold, not to mention the twenty terabyte memory of most senior citizens. Just where did all of this information come from? Well, robians are nothing more than roboticized mobians, thus this information was an entire lifetime of knowledge and experiences converted into hard data. A six-year-old robian like Cream could have logs of two thousand one hundred and ninety days stored within its CPU, along with countless other random bits of information. Thus, the speed and size of a CPU, when considering robian models- determined by age- would be greatest for the senior citizen robians because they have so much data to store, approximately twenty one thousand days.
Robian CPUs did not have any backward capabilities, though. Just as you can not really transplant the brain of a senior citizen into the body of a six-year-old, the same is true for robians. Thus, Robotnik wanted to maximize the small space he had available as, out of the five terabytes he had to work with, only half of this could be considered free space.
For the time being, Mecha Cream obeyed her master's orders and headed towards the factory were she 'met' others like her. Not being the outgoing rabbit, or even the robian that she had been only hours ago, Robo Cream did not even acknowledge the other robian workers. She simply slipped into a vacant spot and began to work in the assembly line, never once looking up from her task of helping to assemble SWATbots. These robots would later be used to capture more mobians, who would then be converted to robians. A portion of these slaves would often be children that would spend their existence as robians assembling parts for more SWATbots. So, in a strange twist of fate, the little kids that were captured by SWATbots and roboticized then spent their days helping to build the parts of the very robots that were responsible for their being roboticized. It was indeed a bizarre circle of life that Robotnik had started: Robian children assembling the SWATbots that go out to capture and roboticize more children, which in turn, go about assembling more of the robots that subjected others to the same fate.
Even with an almost empty head, though, Mecha Cream proved to be different from the others around her. Robotnik learned of this firsthand when he got a report that there was something wrong in the SWATbot factory where Mecha Cream had been sent to work. Feeling concern for his investment in the robian six-year-old, the dictator came up with a suitable excuse to go there personally, as this was not something that he would normally do in person. If such an emergency did not involve that blasted hedgehog or the meddlesome Freedom Fighters, he usually left it for his robian minions or SWATbots to handle.
Upon reaching the factory, he saw what the problem was, though he hadn't been prepared for such a sight as now met his eyes. There was Unit 3185113, constantly assembling parts that kept coming down the line, yet the robian children after her had all shorted out, unable to keep up with such a rapid pace. Meanwhile, a sizeable pile of parts was collecting on the belt, spilling over onto the floor, and half-burying the overheated robians. Apparently, the roboticized Cream was too effective with the job that she had been given, since she was actually causing problems because of her speed.
Robotnik ordered her to stop and follow after him, which she did at once. As he left the room, the genius noticed another robian rabbit that looked similar to Cream. He decided that, later on, he would have a SWATbot bring this look-alike to him, since an idea was starting to form in his head. For this plan to work, though, he would need to make sure to erase any knowledge of such orders from the SWATbot's memory banks.
After returning to the secret lab, he ordered Robotic Cream to sit down on the table, and she promptly hopped up, sitting and waiting for her next order. Upon scanning her to learn of the cause for her surprising efficiency, he discovered that Mecha Cheese, who she was currently wearing like a backpack, was providing her with a steady power boost that allowed her to work even faster than she should have been capable of. Like most of the functions she had within her little metallic body, Robotnik did not really have a clue how this worked. One of the most incredible feats he had learned of, a skill that still didn't cease to amaze him, was the fact that she was capable of flying with those long ears of hers. Still, considering who Cream's parents were, or had been, this was to be an expected trait that she had gained from both of them.
Right now, what really interested him was the power that the roboticized chao supplied to the robian six-year-old. If Robotnik could at least figure out how to replicate the mobile power source function of Mecha Cheese, such knowledge would prove very helpful in speeding up the production of his various robots. That meddlesome hedgehog destroyed his machines almost as fast as the dictator could have more created to go after him. An advancement like this might allow him to simply overwhelm the hedgehog with numbers, or at least tire him out, since he was only a mobian after all. True, he was a mobian with super speed, Chaos energy, and the ability to burn through enough Power Rings to power nearly half of Robotnik's empire for six months, yet in the end, he was still a mobian, one who would tire out eventually.
It was at this moment that the robian look-alike was brought in, and she now stood before her master awaiting her next orders. Robotnik ordered Mecha Cream to stand face-to-face and hand-to-hand with her double. As both robians immediately obeyed, their master couldn't help but laugh. The two of them were practically mirror images of each other, and he even had them perform as such. Each robian child mirrored the other's movements exactly, giving the idea that Unit 3185113's double was simply her reflection from a mirror.
Following Robotnik's commands, Mecha Cream then left her master and started to head towards her new assignment, though her double stayed behind. Surely if Cream had been aware of what had just happened, she would have been gushing with amazement over having found someone that looked just like her. However, robians do not gush with anything other than oil, and that only when they are damaged. Emotions are not something they are capable of feeling, thanks to the flaw in the roboticizer which Robotnik used to make his slaves.
As Robo Cream walked along, only looking straight ahead, she did not notice the rabbit with a robotic arm and mechanical legs that ran past her. This unique mobian paused long enough to watch the oblivious robian child for a short time, possibly wondering if anything could be done to help her. Unfortunately, while the mobian female hadn't seen many rabbits, mobian or not, in awhile, she knew there was nothing that could be done at that time. Thus, the intruder gave a forlorn last look at her before continuing onward. Mecha Cream eventually made it to where she was to work from now on, having been moved up from building simple SWATbots to making more advanced robots that were used against creatures that could actually fight back.
Snively, who had temporarily returned during this time, ran into with Mecha Cream as she worked in the assembly line, since she stood out among the other robians present because of her small size compared to them. He didn't really take much notice of her or care about this, though, since it was not that unusual an occurrence. Snively had occasionally seen robian children moved on to different tasks because they proved to be too good at making simple SWATbots. He even overlooked her 'backpack', simply thinking that it was something that had been roboticized along with her, not knowing that the article was really a robian creature that he had never seen before.
For the next month, all that Mecha Cream did was make high quality SWATbots from sun up to sun down, and moon rise to moon fall. In the meantime, her look-alike was being made into a complete and total replica of her, minus all of her knowledge concerning Chao and Cheese. All of Cream's non-Chao related memories were uploaded into her robian clone. Robotnik did this as an extra line of insurance so that no one would ever find out about Mecha Cream. He felt that this strategy would probably work out better than his Auto Automaton project, where he tried to create robots that could be mistaken for mobians. While his automatons performed very well, they didn't always succeed in deceiving mobians for various reasons. There were simply too many flaws that could be accurately predicted and prevented for this plan to work with such a delicate operation as he was planning. Rather than risk such errors here, it was much easier to make use of his lucky find, this unknown robian rabbit that he could turn into a clone of Unit 3185113. Robotnik had to wonder if the robotic twin would accept Cream's memories and persona as her own, were she ever to be de-roboticized.
The dictator decided that he didn't really care one way or the other. Whatever else happened, his enemies would think that Unit 3185113's double was really Cream, since there would be no way of knowing what he had done. Memory-swapped robians would probably be the last thing the rebels would think of, as he had completely and utterly erased the double's original memory, replacing it with Mecha Cream's.
When Robotnik was ready, Mecha Cream was brought back to the secret lab, where he uploaded into her memory banks everything that was missing from her double's CPU. This consisted of everything that had to do with Cheese, the Chao, and the Chao Garden. Everything else, such as her likes, dislikes, hobbies, fears, memories of her mother and friends, even her own name no longer resided in her memory banks, having been transferred to her look-alike instead.
So, in a sense, one might say that Robotnik had split Cream into two, leaving one unknown rabbit with the majority of her memories, yet lacking her skills, while her original body still had all of her abilities, lacking any memories but those regarding the time she had spent with Cheese and the Chao. In the end, both rabbits could still be considered the 'real' Cream, as they both had part of what made Cream her unique self.
With her time in Robotropolis over, Robo Cream was disassembled again, along with Mecha Vanilla, who was called back from her temporary post. Both were once again stored within the Kangaroo robians, while the robian double was sent back to work at the factory. With Unit 935 as the leader, a troop of robians and SWATbots headed back to the Southern Baronies with the official report being that they were transporting supplies to that area. This was the region where the wannabe rebels had conned the mobians into thinking that they were genuine heroes. Apparently, there more mobians living here than Robotnik had originally thought. While the site in question was far enough from the Chao Garden that it would not attract the attention of that blasted Hedgehog, those that lived in the area might end up wandering too far, possibly finding his discovery. The dictator knew that the Garden had remained undisturbed since the raid over a month ago, thanks to recon gained from a stealth robian. Planning accordingly, he had decided that stamping out the rest of those pitiful fools, who were unaware that they were part of a fake resistance movement, and having them take their place in a very real robian unit would best serve to hide his true intentions for that area.
I would like to thank
blaze firelight and cream for reviewing this story
blaze firelight and cream for editing Chapter 05