"That's...not my voice. How did you-"

Al raises his eyebrow plating, his confident smirk reflecting in the mirror. "Pretty sweet, right? A near-perfect recreation, made from audio files from that time in his life."

"It sounds so accurate, that's incredible. Just like the mnemonic station." The markazian constantly shifts her head and body, taking in the holographic form before her at different angles. Despite the curls being completely concealed by the hologuise, the muscle memory of moving her hair to look at her back remains.

"Hey, I told you I was a genius, didn't I?"

"You really are." Nova flips back around and flips her hair back, moving hand to hover over the guise's ear. There's resistance in the air, but the fingers phase through the area with enough pressure. Not quite as solid as it looks, but close enough for what it's needed for.

"I could do more if I had the parts, but the tech to create actual skin and fur textures is way more expensive." Pulling out his data pad, Al skims through the notes he's made on the project so far. "I'd need more time to replicate that, and more genetic material."

Nova instead shakes her head. "No need. This is perfect. No, beyond perfect." A breath in, then out, taking in the sight. "So," the disguised markazian hums. "This is who I was. It's so strange to see. Strange, but fascinating."

The lombax projection looks back to Clank, still lying on the table. It's ears droop a bit in worry as the body beneath it locks her fingertips together. "I just hope I'm right about all this. If this backfires…"

Al takes in the sight of his friend, and nostalgia pulls a sigh from him. "You really are his reincarnation."

Freezing, Nova turns toward him with eyebrows lifted in concern. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that you look like you're worrying way too much," he reassures. Placing a hand on the guise's shoulder and distracting Nova from her fretting. "This won't backfire. I've known Clank for years, and I know it'll be the best gift he's had in a long time."

With a smile, she whips around and pulls her larger friend into the tightest embrace she can muster, muffling the recreated voice into his gut. "This really means a lot, Al. Thank you so much."

He pats her back, still covered by the projection. "No problem. But, you should put that thing away for now. Save it for your surprise."

Nova backs out of the hug, looking back to the mirror one last time. "Yeah, you're right. If he sees me like this it'll ruin the whole thing." Before reaching for the device, she stops her hand in front of her face. There's a brief moment of curiosity that compels her to remove the holo-glove, if possible, but she decides against the distraction and turns off the hologuise. "Well, I'll let you work. I'll be reading up on some stuff while you do."

"Can do. I'll warn you before I wake Clank."

The markazian turns around to get back to reading, but she pivots back to face him with a huge grin one last time. "Gods, I really, really can't thank you enough for this, Al!"

"You just get to your weird magic book, Nova," he teases. "You're gonna do the thing tonight, right?"

"Yup!" Settling onto the bench, Nova opens her storage to reveal the book she's been reading: 'Occult Studies and You: A Guide to the Spirit Realm'.

Chapter 12: Contacting the Other Side

If one has the skill and knowledge to do so, some say it is entirely possible to build a connection between their plane of being and ours. Following the enclosed diagrams, one can find that such rituals are easier to perform than one might expect. These and other performances are often done by a high priest or priestess of Zoni-bound faith; the belief in those cultures is that the dimension-hopping abilities of the Zoni are similar in nature to reaching the spirit world. With skepticism at an all-time high, there are very few scientific studies on such subjects published at the time of writing this book…

Al looks over at the young markazian, and he recognizes the look in her eyes. "That girl is so hopeless. What'd you do to get her that smitten?" Of course, there's no answer from Clank's inactive body.

Pulling the magnifying lens over his optic for a clearer look, Al zooms into Clank's sisterboard. "Huh, I'd like to meet this other friend someday. Their work is incredibly precise, like they've done it for longer than I have. Everything looks clean, brand new, even!"

The shuffle of a turned page distracts Al, and he chuckles to himself. "I'll just give her a few minutes to study."

In the other room, Nova pulls out her phone and takes pictures of the diagrams for future reference. The photos are saved, the book is pressed against her chest, and the markazian stares into the ceiling to gather her thoughts. "I can't believe I'm going to do this. I'm really going to do this." There's a tension in her gut, and a sudden unease in her heart that sends her mind spiraling in a different direction than her studies. The pages are shut, and her fingertips gently glide across the book's title. "Am I doing the right thing?"

Opening up the book once more, the young woman starts the page over for a third time. The words begin to fade, losing their meaning just as she reads them after the fourth paragraph. With a groan, the young woman places said reading material on the bench. "I guess I'll check on the boys. I know they're fine, but I'm curious. Then I'll be back to this."

Soft footsteps reach Al, and he looks up from Clank's body. "Oh, hey. I thought you were reading."

"I was," she confirms, sheepishly fluffing her hair. "It's just that, well, my brain's stuck on something and I can't focus on the book until I deal with that first."

"No problem. We've got all day for this if you need it," he assures. "Is your 'brain thing' something I can help with?"

"Yeah. Could I, um, watch you do the check?"

Gesturing to their smaller friend's chest cavity, Al taps on the corner of his inactive frame. "Clank's fine, so I'm actually done here. Are you just curious about robotics?"

"Eh, a bit? I'm no tech genius or anything, but if something goes wrong in the future I want to be able to help. I've seen his blueprints and Ratchet's notes on them, but I've never seen it in color."

Al thinks on it for a moment, ultimately deciding to heed the request. "Alright, then. Come here, let me show you something you might not know."

After the young hero takes her place beside him, Al's eyepiece stretches once more. There's a short click as Clank is opened back up, and a thin metal screwdriver is pointed to the space inside. "He's had special upgrades in the past, but nothing as interesting as this. You see that glowing battery pack right there, Nova?"

Blue eyes lock straight onto it, a bright beacon of light amidst the darkened, inactive components around it. "Yeah."

"Other XP-18 sisterboards don't have that core, you know. It's completely unique to Clank."

Nova can sense it; a familiar energy that can only be described as home. It's always there, faintly, but the close proximity makes the Zoni bioenergy there feel more concentrated. "Clank's soul," she whispers. It's glow fills the markazian's eyes, her lips slightly parted in fascination. "It's beautiful."

Al's optics squint a bit, and a short chuckle rumbles from his mouth. "You know, it's a very personal thing to see a robot's sisterboard."

The young woman's face immediately shoots back, her entire body stiffening straight as a board. Wide eyes look at the other robot in near horror, and her palms cover her face to block sight of Clank. "Oh, oh jeez, oh gods, I-I didn't mean, I shouldn't have pried, I didn't know that-"

He snorts at her reaction, a comforting hand pressed to her back. "I'm just kidding, Nova. It's fine. To be more specific, seeing a robot's innermost components is kinda, well, context sensitive. If you're getting something repaired, then yeah, whoever's fixing you will see it. That's to be expected. Some folks are picky about who they trust to do it, but most are pretty neutral about it. It would be considered rude if you just straight up asked a stranger to see their sisterboard though, or asked about their specifications in detail without a reason for it. It's like flirting, but for robots."

Taking in the new information seems to calm her, and she turns her focus towards learning more. "What about Clank? Unless that's a personal question."

"Well, Clank has seen my family members, but in the past he would come to me consistently. He has that friend from when he was gone too, the one he's been seeing before you showed up. It was Ratchet that he usually trusted for maintenance that he couldn't do himself."

"I see." Nova looks over to the diminutive warbot on the table, whose optics are still sealed shut. "Do you think he would trust me with that someday?"

Said warbot's frame is sealed shut once more, and Al smiles at her hopeful tone. "If he didn't trust you, he probably would have specifically asked you to wait in the other room while I did this. I certainly wouldn't have let you see anything, either."

The thought of it warms the markazian's heart, and she nods with a content hum. "Okay. Thank you for showing me. I think I'm ready to keep studying now. Just warn me before you wake him."

"Can do." With that, Al watches as Nova sits back down onto the bench, leaning on the wall in an effort to get comfortable. He moves to return to his previous project, setting an internal alarm to go off in a few hours just in case he gets pulled into his work too deeply. Before picking up his tools once more, the mechanic steals a final glance of Clank's new lady friend. She seems filled with energy, slightly shifting her position every few pages.

He lets out a chuckle, shaking his head as work resumes and the rest of the world becomes background noise.