After the Last Age - IC

[Quakernuts]

Unit Designation: Serah
Operational Status: 37% Operational
Code Matrix Status: Hopeful; Optimistic [GRACIOUS]

---

The elation at knowing that, despite their reservations about the AI, Serah was going to be brought with them could not be measured by any known methods. She was moving, in a form or fashion despite her legs breaking like brittle sticks, her arms little more than glorified placeholders. She knew this, of course. It wasn't like she could feel them, not in the same way a human could feel a limb, but she could assess her own damage. As she was picked up, she felt the slight sting of frustration from one of the men as he helped hoist her. She wanted to help, she truly did, but she simply couldn't. She lacked the bodily autonomy, she lacked the knowledge, she lacked so many things that, for the first time in so long, she felt helpless not because she was trapped, but because she had an opportunity to be useful and simply couldn't.

As they entered another room, the medical bay if Serah was remembering the layout correctly, she couldn't help but feel a bit of happiness in hearing the mechanic state he might be able to do something about her legs. "The old ones were never that great to begin with [DISABLED]." Serah stated, a bit of levity evident in her voice as she couldn't help but allow a sense of positivity to flow through her. She allowed him and the others who were helping to work, running slight diagnostics as he proved to be capable enough to provide locomotion back to the AI. Before long, she could tell that the legs had indeed been...well, repaired wasn't the right word, but jury rigged seemed to be the proper way to explain it. As he finished and stood back, Serah looked up at him and attempted to right herself. It was wobbly, as she hadn't used her legs in thousands of years, but in a short amount of time she was standing. "This...this is incredi-I can move...I can…[PROFESSIONAL]" There was a slight pause in Serah's speech as she looked at the others, the mechanic especially, before composing herself again. "Thank you, your assistance has proven most helpful [SAVIOR]." Serah stated, before turning towards the computer and specifically addressing the woman who asked her about her capabilities towards the machine. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure what would happen should she choose to interact with a machine that had a connection to the entirety of the base provided. It had been so long, and it was more proper to say that she personally had never interacted with the base at a superior level. She was, after all, a copy; a fragment. "I can attempt to interface [INTRUDE] with the computer, see if there's any data [HISTORY; LEGENDS] on the people in this room."

Using her new found mobility, she walked over to the machine much like a toddler just learning to use her legs. She was wobbly, and nearly fell once before running some internal calculations to compensate for the shock absorption, materials and pace. In the few steps it took her to reach the computer, she was walking normally. However, there was still the issue of her not having the use of her arms. The body she was using did have a connection wire sprouting from the neck that, she hoped, was still in working order that would allow her to interface with other machines, but she couldn't do that herself. "I require assistance however [HELP]. There is a cord at the base of this body's neck [NECK NECK NECK] that will allow me to connect to the machine. Could one of you please retrieve it and insert it into the top port on the tower [HUB] there?" When one of the group came forward and helped her, she gave a slight nod. "Thank you, this should take a mo-"

Serah's words cut off, as she herself found a vision of the abyss looking at her. It was terrifying, mind shattering, for it contained a fraction of her true self. Imagine looking at your own dead body, imagine it look back at you. Imagine it angry, disappointed, depressed and grief stricken all at once, without containing a single spark of life. Shattered access points, destroyed by time and degradation floated past her as the presence of her old and decrepit code reminded her of a mortality that she had once thought unattainable. Names flew out of the darkness, screaming at her as they darted past into the recesses of her mind. She couldn't look away, like a trance had overtaken her and a desire...an obsession to find out what happened pushed her virtual self forward.

Warning: Enemy Entity Detected

Wh..I don't...there's nothing here

Warning: Enemy Entity Detected

We are scared.

I have...that's...I'm dead...I'm dead…

Statement: LOOK AWAY

We are We, They are They

Names...Names names names names names

---

While this was all going on, the machine that was Serah stood in spot for a single second before the eyes immediately changed color to a vibrant red. "Warning: This unit has encountered catastrophic data failure" Serah stated, her voice notably more robotic in nature, as if she had entered some kind of diagnostic mode. "Warning: This unit is in immediate danger of core corruption. Recommendation: Terminate connection immediately." The machine's head spun around to view the others in the room.

"Statement: Help."

 

[Mythy the Dragon-Wolf]

Cardinal looked around the room with concerned eyes, focusing on each of the team as they spoke. He bit his lip, and sighed a bit. At least some of these people knew something about themselves. He? He couldn't remember his own name. Nor why he seemed to know what to do with this metal poker to make it a weapon. "Whatever we do.. we stick together with it, no?I don't want anyone getting eaten or something.

Then the AI suddenly began to freak out, and at the final words Cardinal jumped into action. He gulped and on instinct, cut the cord with his weapon rather than risk potentially more damage by yanking the cord out.

 

[Quakernuts]

Unit Designation: Serah
Operational Status: Existential Crisis
Code Matrix Status: Danger; Warning; Danger;

---

The AI watched as one of the humans made a move to cut the cord, physically with a blade. So much of it wanted to scream out at the person in question, wondering if he honestly thought that was the best idea. To slice the cord like that would leave a chunk of her own matrix, i.e. her brain inside a damaged computer to forever stare at her own coded corpse. Luckily, AI's think and react much faster than any human could ever hope to achieve, so while it only took a couple of seconds for the swordsman to move and slice the cord, to Serah, it could have been a year. The now red eyes of the machine followed the blade, but inside there was a whole host of interactions taking place as Serah continued to stare into the darkness that was once a living piece of her soul.

Serah started mumbling to herself, caught in a loop of trying to perform logic statements and right herself into an operational state of mind, but forever coming back to the illogical truth that was the fact that she was dead. Was she Serah, or was she something else? She was a partition, a copy, a 'false' Serah, right? If so, was she not an individual? Another person in her entirety? What would she think? What would the 'hers' think? She was losing her mind…

And she was watching it happen.

"Warning: Outside interference will result in memory loss within damaged unit. Recommend immediate retreat into outer shell."

"What...I am not that machine...I am Serah? Am I Serah?" Serah asked, not fully in her own right mind as the holographic image that depicted her shifted with static.

"Warning: Existential crisis detected. Statement: We do not have time for this."

"Time...I've had nothing but time, all the time in the world...I faced truths but I did not face reality." There was a loud screeching, causing Serah to do the equivalent of grabbing her head and scream in pain as everything shifted. The world, her world, collapsed in on itself, as if being sucked in by a black hole, only to expand and explode like a super nova. She felt something rip from her chest, or better put, her core as a second holographic depiction of her appeared in front of the soul crushing view. A red her, complete with a few adjustments. Instead of being completely human in holographic form, this vision before her was more akin to a cyborg. Half her face was metallic and clearly robotic, her left arm and leg were also mechanical, and she stared at Serah as if she were a mere germ to be analyzed.

"Statement: We do not have time for this. Priority: The survival of this unit." The red version of herself stated, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Statement: Continue to work and survive, a purpose has been given once more and to give that up now is paramount to suicide."

"I can't die...Can I die? She died, why didn't I?"

"Answer: None." The red version stated, pushing against Serah and shoving her backwards towards the connection port. "Statement: We will have to find out why, but we can't do that if we're trapped here for all eternity. Recommendation: Brace for a rude awakening." Serah stared at herself, her mind fraying at the edges as the slow realization of what she was talking to hit her. She was fragmenting, she was heavy into the throes of rampancy…

She was insane in every sense of the word. A truth she had always known, but a reality she had chosen not to face.

Like being hit with a massive vacuum, Serah found herself sucked back into the connection and within moments was looking through the eyes of the robot again. The sword sliced through the connection as a flood of data, corrupted and unreadable slipped through with her, undoubtedly brought back with her due to her rude departure. The machine stumbled backwards, tilting behind her as she moved to right herself without falling. It was touch and go for a moment as the jerry rigged legs on the robot appeared to shake and rattle a moment, but Serah did not fall. Eventually she stood upright, her eyes green once more as she stared at the cord that the swordsman had cut...Designation Cardinal Rain. Real name redacted. Names flooded her mind as she 'blinked', looking to each and every person. Olivia, Naomi Mayr, Quinn Iloyd, Samuel. Other names flooded her mind but she couldn't associate them to people, at least not people in the room. Locations, cities, countries, organizations. Names, all these names and not one outside of the names of the people currently in the room could she say what they meant.

There was a pause of a few seconds, which considering the speed at which AI's can think, translated to Serah taking an eternity to think about what happened and sort through what she could. She was still shaken, confused and trying rapidly to perform a 'mental purge' in order to keep herself coherent enough to function. Taking what could amount to a very deep breath, Serah eventually looked up at the others in the room. "My apologies, I [FAILED] was unable to gather any information that might be pertinent [USEFUL] to the people in this room, aside from your names." Serah stated. "The data was completely corrupted, any attempt to pull anything more than the basic [USELESS; JUNK] would have resulted in major core matrix damage, potentially failure."

Serah kept the part about the other Serah being very clearly dead to herself, because even she didn't know how to explain that bit nor did she want to have that conversation. "It's probably best to find ourselves an exit at this point [ESCAPE]."

 

[Quiet One]

That was that as far as the computer was concerned. It seemed that their one hope of remembering who they were was lost. This of course hit each of them differently, and some it didn't fully hit at all. That was for them to decide. However, there was nothing else in the ruins they'd woken up in that could help them, so it was time to follow the map to the exit.

It was as they were approaching that they ran into the giant bugs again. But they weren't attacking them. In fact, they didn't seem to even notice the five humans or the machine. They flew past them and scurried deeper into the compound. They seemed...afraid of something. When they finally got to the entrance, they saw an unexpected but very welcome sight: a man was standing in front of the doorway and waved to them. His face was pale and bluish. His movements stiff and...unnatural.

"Help!" the man said. After 10 seconds he said again, "Help!" And repeated every ten seconds exactly.