He finally made it. After all that trudging and fighting, Copen reached the Mother Computer. When she revealed her true intentions, the Luminous Avenger became furious. Copen did all he could to free Kohaku.
And soon she was saved. But that wouldn't be enough to save Copen from what he would soon learn. The Mother computer took on a true form. While it looked like Lola, it was her hologram form that was unsettling to him.
The sentient programming before him took the form of his own mother. Her hair, figure, posture, all of it was there. He didn't want to remember what he lost. It was too painful, realizing he lost his humanity.
He murdered his own sister and his father already died. He didn't know what became of Nori either. Copen never knew what occured regarding his aunt and uncle either. He now found himself without a family.
Well, any true family. His makeshift one was waiting for him back home. But right now, he had a mission. To save his new "sister" from the evil machine ahead.
The Mother Computer was made by someone called "The Creator". An enemy Copen fought previously, called Ypsilon, was supposed to be designed in this creator's image. However, Copen noticed some of his old image in that creation. He shook the thought from his head and decided to press forward.
All of what happened to him never lost its meaning, he'd never forget it. But for now, there were some other important things that needed doing. However, Copen found some part of himself unable to move forward. He knew this wasn't his mother, he was fully aware of that.
Still, some part of him was resentful of the circumstances. Copen swore that this creator would pay with their very life. Once the fight was nearing its end, Copen took one last glance at the hologram before him. It was a bittersweet moment, like watching the sunset.
This was not the time for him to think of such things, as he was temporarily blindsided. This gave Ypsilon the opportunity to unleash a drop attack on the Luminous Avenger. Copen's system was soon overrode with some implanted firmware. It was used to control Copen into following Mother's orders.
Kohaku somehow regained consciousness and shoved Mother out of her body. While the hologram woman recovered her strength, Kohaku took the opportunity to search for Copen. Regardless of where Kohaku looked, she couldn't find any signs of him. By some miracle, Null was running to see Kohaku while completely intact.
"Null! How are you still alive!? What are you even doing here!?" Kohaku shrieked.
"I was somehow restored. I feel it may be the Creator's doing. But tell me, how are you doing?" Null answered cheerfully.
Kohaku shook her head.
"Not good, not good at all. The Mother Computer got Copen! There's no time to spare! We have to fix the teleporter and get to him right away!" Kohaku explained panickily.
"I'll set up the teleporter at once!" Null notified.
"B-but won't that hurt you like last time!?" Kohaku worried.
"Not at all. My body still contains the code for the teleporter. We merely need to collect the spare parts. Unfortunately, they're in the other sectors. And the last part can only be obtained by request through the Mother Computer. That would be the core, which we can get if we request Ypsilon to get it from her. The beach block has the electron processor and the mountain block has the transfer wires." Null explained.
"It's a good thing there's still energy bars floating around. Hopefully we'll be able to repair it before we run out of bars." Kohaku sighed.
It took quite some time for the repairs to be made. Luckily, they were still able to reach Copen and not run out of energy bars.
"Copen, it's me! And I brought Null! We're here to take you back home!" Kohaku shouted from a distance as she waved her arms in a frenzy.
Although, he acted very strange, far different from his usual self. When Copen caught sight of Kohaku, his expression was even more emotionless than usual. She ran over to him, the happiest she'd ever been.
"Copen! We finally found you! We can go back home now!" Kohaku cheered.
"You can't return home right now I'm afraid. You see, Mother has to be defeated in order for the way back to your world to activate." Null corrected.
That's when Null noticed something strange was going on with Copen.
"Kohaku, Copen isn't behaving like his usual self. It may have something to do with his fight with the Mother Computer. If you give me a moment, I can find out what happened to him and how to fix it." Null offered.
Kohaku agreed and Null made a scan. It showed some harmful data within his system.
"What!? How did this happen!? Is there anything we can do about it!?" Kohaku exclaimed.
"I can delete the data for the teleporter and absorb the harmful programming in his system. But once I do this, you have to go back and leave. Live a happy life for myself and the others that were here. Can you promise that for me? Absolutely swear it?" Null begged.
Kohaku nodded, a fist balled up in pure determination. She was certain to give this everything she had. Kohaku inhaled her final energy bar ever as Null removed the data from Copen and implanted it into her own sytem. Kohaku choked down her snack in tears as there was a beep.
When she heard a groggy groan from Copen, Kohaku was in tears once again.
"W-what happened? Where am I? K-Kohaku? You're alright? I don't understand, what-" But Kohaku placed her left index finger over Coopen's mouth and hushed him.
"It's okay, you're safe now. You were infected with some bad firmware and Null removed it from you. B-but s-she-" That was all Kohaku could manage as she sobbed her heart out for the third time that day.
"It's alright, let's go. We'll return to our world and make sure nothing like this ever happens." Copen commented as he and Kohaku walked through the portal back home.