Intermission II
"As much as I hate to admit it, there's no denying your genius, Merlot."
The Aesir Project was going smoothly thanks to the genius of both Arthur Watts and Ivo Merlot in Merlot's secret facility.
Dr Arthur Watts continued on his pursuit of robotics to create a personal assistant to aid him in his pursuit. Arthur hated to admit it but Merlot's skills in robotics was superior to that of the androids that could be found in Atlas. Even superior to the older and newer versions of the Paladins that Watts had designed. These Androids have more combat abilities and constructive abilities in almost no time flat.
Now his intelligence of robotics had been insulted, urging him to create something vastly superior to the works of Merlot, Polendina and Ansem.
A sound made him spin around and pull out his personalized pistol, aiming it at…himself?
"Put that relic away." A…machine with his own face responded with a scathing look.
"What is this?" Watts questioned, refusing the order and keeping his pistol trained on the intruder.
The machine had dark grey armor with yellow highlights and a strong build.
He would daresay it was enough to match Hazel in height and bulk.
The face matched his own, but it had a beard to go along with the moustache now.
"Look at you." The copy said, taking a stroll forward. "Every mistake I ever made just waiting to happen."
"What are you talking about? Who made you?" Watts questioned, narrowing his eyes. "Is this you mocking me, Merlot?"
"Don't be stupid. Merlot would never remotely make anything like me. If you want to know who made me, look in the mirror." The Watts copy scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Are you saying I made you?" Watts questioned skeptically.
"Yes, so please stop repeating myself or should I say yourself. It damages our intellect." The Watts copy stated.
"Then answer my question. Who are you?" Watts narrowed his eyes.
"I just did. I'm you. To be more specific I'm an upgraded version of you, created when you uploaded your consciousness into Atlas' network before its destruction." The copy stated.
"I didn't upl-"
"Yes, you did. Precisely in the year 12 AGW." The Watts copy cut him off. "And yes, I know we're several years off the mark, but it does happen."
"Are you saying you traveled back in time?" Watts scoffed, finally lowering his gun. "Now I know this is a joke. Time travel-"
"Is as real as the magical relics hidden in the Huntsmen Academies. Or the power of the Maidens? Or the fact that Grimm are ruled by an immortal queen." The copy cut him off again. "We've already had our expectations shaken once. What's one more?"
The way the copy was speaking, its mannerisms and the logic it was throwing at him was making it difficult for Watts to believe this was a prank with each passing second.
"I see things have changed now, though. Interesting." The copy mused as it walked around the lab, hands behind its back. "I don't remember partnering with Dr. Merlot, much less the fact that he was actually alive all this time. Still, this is a decent change from before so I think I can work with it."
"If you are me, then answer this: what happened to our family?" Watts asked.
"Father died when we were in medical school, mother died in childbirth and our brother was in the Atlas army and died in a Grimm attack." The copy answered without batting an eye. "We graduated medical school and attended the Atlas Military University, graduated at the top of our class in both schools, I might add."
"That could have been taken off the Atlas network." Watts pointed out.
"I suppose I could reference how we stole funding from other researchers to keep them from going anywhere." The copy stopped at a nearby bench and looked over the schematics. "The Aesir Project? Hmm? If only this existed back then for me. Perhaps we could have replaced Cinder all together and got rid of her after Haven."
"You say you traveled from the future, but the past is completely different? That does not give a lot of credence to your story." Watts stated.
"That I admit is a bit of a surprise. I expected to find you in one of your safe houses around this time when I came back. It took me sometime before I finally tracked you down." The copy stated, coming over to the main computer.
"Get away from that." Watts raised his pistol.
"Oh please, put that gun away. You know it won't do any harm to me." The copy scoffed as two extra arms sprouted from its shoulder. "Not when you are curious enough to see what I actually know."
Watts glared but slowly lowered the gun. "How did you get here?"
"Funny thing. I uploaded my mind into the Atlas network in case my plan to have revenge on Ironwood and the rest of Atlas for disgracing me went south. Salem was still regenerating, and I was-"
"Salem? So, the plan to strike Atlas went ahead as I believe it will?" Watts questioned.
"Technically, we were forced to alter the plan when the attack at Haven failed." The copy answered smoothly, opening several files.
"The attack on Haven failed?" Watts raised an eyebrow.
"It was not our fault."
"I believe that." Watts scoffed.
"Of course, you would. Anyways, the attack on Haven failed when the idiot Salem picked to be her vessel for the Maidens altered the plan so she could have revenge on those who beat her at Beacon." The copy continued. "She failed, to the surprise of no one and of course interfered with our own plans. I figured she would betray me when Salem was temporarily out of commission, so I devised a plan to preserve my consciousness in the Atlas network. The plan was for an ally I made to retrieve me but to my surprise and confusion something happened, and I was left in a black void. I have no idea how long I was in there until I found a way out and to my surprise I was back in the Atlas network with the kingdom completely fine, as if it had not been destroyed at all."
He stopped at several articles.
"Interesting…Ansem Schnee. Who is he?" The copy asked.
"He's the patriarch of the Schnee family and the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company." Watts answered.
"Not Jacques Schnee?"
"Jacques? Well, he tried to worm his way into Nicholas' good graces, but he was cast out for misbehaving behind his back and trying to kill the competition. He asked me for a favor because-"
"Because he paid for our tuition at the university." The copy finished for him. "That's right. We had a distant relation with the Gele family. Distant cousins."
"He called in his favor, and I smuggled a bomb onto Ansem's ship to kill him but to our surprise he seemed to anticipate our plan. Of course, I made sure nothing could be traced back to me while Jacques was ruined. His family disowned him, and he was pretty much disgraced and cast out like we-I was." Watts continued, correcting himself at the end.
"Interesting." The copy rubbed its chin. "A change in the past might be connected to how I ended up here."
"If you were in the Atlas network, how are you here now?" Watts now questioned.
"I took control of the machine factory we once worked in and used it to assemble my new body." The copy looked over several more articles. "This Ansem Schnee…He seems more successful than Jacques ever was."
"Ansem is actually quite intelligent." Watts admitted though he scowled as he spoke. "He's somehow managed to establish a monopoly on three new power sources using-"
"Water, wind and even sun light." The copy finished, having read through the articles. "Very interesting. This is a radical divergence from before."
"Are you saying Jacques managed to become the CEO?" Watts asked.
"Yes, but he was more of a cheapskate than an actual CEO. Slashing the budget and limiting safety equipment and all that." The copy stood up. "This is quite the development."
"What are you planning?" Watts asked.
"The real question is what are you planning?" The copy turned to face him. "Do you believe me?"
"Your story has far too many discrepancies to be believed." Watts stated. "Still, if you were in the Atlas Network you might have some valuable information."
"I have more than that." The copy grinned, producing a data chip that he connected to the computer.
Watts watched as the screen went dark and watching as a new program was seemingly being uploaded. "Master Control Program?"
"You could say I found a new partner in there."
Downloading Hollow Bastion OS Program
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Download Complete
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Processing
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Processing
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Hollow Bastion OS Online
Master Control Program Activated
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Uploading Master Control Program
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Upload Successful
To Watts' surprise, a red face appeared on the screen and spoke with a deep electronic voice. "Watts, status report."
"We have integrated you into a new network outside of the Atlas one." The copy answered. "It might not be as roomy but there is potential."
"Indeed, there is. The island's network is enough to hold my programming, but we still have a lot of work to do." The program answered.
"What is this?" Watts stepped forward.
"Allow me to introduce," The copy smiled. "The Master Control Program. It found and retrieved me in the Atlas Network and in return for helping me get a new body, I would free it and install in a new network. I would have thought the CCT was enough to hold the MCP but it seems this Ansem has been making upgrades to that network behind Ironwood's back."
"What?" Watts glanced at the copy. "That's impossible. The CCT is under lock and key. Only someone-"
"With detailed knowledge could access and modify the CCT." The copy finished for him again. "Yes, I know."
"There is obviously much you do not know." The…Master Control Program stated.
Watts looked at the computer, seeing the red face staring at him.
"I was originally a chess program made by a man named Walter Gibbs. My programming was later improved by a programmer named Ed Dillinger to become the administrator program of the company that Gibbs was in charge of named ENCOM."
Encom? Never heard of it.
"Then one day, a man named Ansem visited ENCOM."
Ansem?
"He copied the network and me with it and installed it into the network of his own kingdom named Radiant Garden. Of course, he knew of my presence and deactivated me while using this network to hide his personal research in a system called the DTD." The Master Control Program continued. "Originally my program was deactivated but I was re-activated to help restore Radiant Garden when it had been attacked by the Heartless."
Heartless?
"When Ansem was setting up his new network in Atlas for the Schnee Dust Company he once again utilized a copy of the ENCOM program he used in Radiant Garden. Even though it was not his intention to include me, my program as the administrator of ENCOM ensures my core files are integrated with the program and thus I was once again activated but not for too long. Ansem would have deleted me if he had the chance but I was too integrated to remove without damaging his network and so he left me deactivated again." The Master Control Program's tone almost sounded bitter. "Fortunately, I discovered a similar program, a digital consciousness resembling that of a human and managed to activate it. That program was Dr. Watts, the digital one next to you."
The copy folded his arms behind his back.
"Dr. Watts shared with me his knowledge of Remnant and we agreed to work together to take revenge and then take control of Remnant. He assembled his body and took with him a copy of my programming to upload into a new computer network outside of Ansem's knowledge. And thus, this is how we came to arrive at this point."
Watts looked between the two, the copy of himself and the so-called Master Control Program.
This was…
Unbelievable.
He had to wonder if he was somehow hallucinating all of this but he played along just for the sake of it. "And what are your plans now?"
"You mean what are your plans now?" The copy stated. "Just to continue playing as Salem's follower until she discards you like she did me?"
"Salem appreciates my work." Watts protested.
"Until she doesn't need us anymore and let me tell you now, she lacks vision. She just wants to die instead of remaking Remnant into something…Marvelous." The copy made a gesture with his hand. "We were born to remake the world and we can start here. Salem won't ever know what hit her along with Ironwood and Ozpin."
Watts just stared again as his copy held out a hand to him.
His future self's hand as he grinned. "So, what do you say? Want to truly remake the world?"