000:17:32:12

The world was dark.

He had fallen asleep at some point, somehow, and now his body lay in agony. Curled up on a cold hard floor, afraid to breathe as the hot assault of needles consumed his body. One too-sharp gasp and his torso spasmed as if his bones would break apart. Reacting to that would threaten the same for his limbs. He was desperate for enough breath to drive away the pounding in his temples. The world was dark.

So Emrys breathed slowly, steadily, and felt his chest rising and falling gently. The waking pain began to fade with the memories of a horrible dream as he breathed, and his joints released pent up tension. Soon his arms soothed enough to straighten out. His legs followed, then his neck. His eyelids felt heavy and then light enough to open. A bright sky through the tree branches above blinded him, and he blinked to adjust.

A shade of bright blue he'd never seen before. A tone of sunshine that drowned out the breeze he felt on his skin. Now that he could notice it, the air in his chest felt so thick he had to strain with every exhalation. As if in his nightmare of robots and gunfire he had forgotten how to breathe.

Emrys climbed to his hands and knees and felt the slick grass between his fingers, though he couldn't distinguish the shape of his hands in the mass of black static beneath him. He sat back on his heels to hold his hand up and flex his fingers beneath the static, but it only became more chaotic as he noticed a massive creature watching him from further away. His limbs felt more numb and began to cramp again as the panic swept him off his feet.

He pushed himself away and the static threatened to encompass him. His heart was racing, breath harder to grasp. And then he saw the creature back up as well, and then sit. Patiently.

It watched him with intelligent, curious eyes, analyzed his every move as if wondering what pained him. The sense that this pale creature was friendly began to cool his body. He stood and brushed himself off, finding the more defined shapes of his hands and body in the fading static. When he looked back up, it was as if new details had been rendered into the world.

There was now lush undergrowth and strange birdcalls, light filtered through impressionistic clouds and fluttering branches. Leaves and grass glistened on dark earth as if it had just stormed, but the air smelled of metals, not rain. The slender beast was made of sleek fur and pearlescent scales. A gentle face. Bright eyes watching.

"You don't quite belong here, do you?" the beast spoke, and her voice was cream into a mug of bitter coffee.

She reached out a hand of delicate webbed claws and beckoned him. He took a few cautious steps towards her and then placed his hand in hers. A stark oily black and crimson mess against her pristine ivory scales.

He met her eyes once more and her appearance had changed. The strange serpent had become a biped closer in the form to him. That's right, he remembered, these shapes are temporary. She smiled, welcoming. She squeezed his hand, turned and led him through the forest.

"I'm sorry to find you so badly wounded," she said, more intrigued than worried. "How did this happen?"

Emrys looked down at his body, still finding it shrouded in static. He thought back to his nightmare, flashing lights and bodies, but it was slipping away so fast. He thought he could remember this waking place from before that, not so much the forest but the storm that had passed before. Such terrifying thunder and lightning that prickled his skin. The feeling of falling from somewhere high.

"The-... sto-orm…"

He touched his other hand to his throat and the white creature looked back at him with mild concern. His voice was hoarse, fragmented, unsettled.

"I'll patch you up. Don't strain yourself for now."

Emrys nodded and followed patiently. The more at ease he grew, the more aware of his internal pains he became. Ribs that ached. Soreness that caused him to limp. A thick headache at the back of his skull. Hunger that ate away at his core. He grasped at memories like threads of spider silk in the dark.

The ivory creature led him out of the forest and into vast hills of tall grass and flowers. A breeze rolled pollen and seeds across the green sea. He soon found himself wading into the marshes of a lake that opened up in front of them. Ivory took his hand solidly in hers and led him further in. Clear, grassy water up to his hips, then his chest, soothing and fresh.

Ivory floated on her back and then dove into the water. Emrys waited for her return until he was pulled under by the jaws of something else. He struggled, taking in a lungful of water with a sharp inhale. A high ringing pounded in his skull, blinding him in darkness as if gouging into his eyes. He fought to escape but his foe wrangled him deeper into the lake, teeth firm at first, then frantic as he felt his heart being squeezed by the fluid in his chest and kicked harder.

Finally, the jaws released him and kinder arms grabbed ahold of him in a tight embrace. He heard Ivory's voice in his head, faint beneath the ringing, and tried to focus on it. The ringing began to fade, the pressure in his chest subsided.

"It's okay, I'm here. I'm trying to help you," she said, and he heard a mother's reassurance.

He opened his eyes and saw her in yet another form, covered in protective spines and scales. This time her eyes held more worry. She looked him over, her webbed hands glowing in the dark water. His pains fell away, staining the water like spilled ink as she tended to him. They were back in the shallows now. He watched the sunlight shimmer through the water. He watched the blood drift away from his body. His mind drifted too, the way a cloud shifts across the sky leaving shadows on the landscape.

He held up a hand to look at it, knowing the static had finally gone. His fingers of rubber and fiberglass stared back at him in lamplight.

He was sitting on a desk chair, in a home office. The sun had long gone, the slightest hint of moonlight peeking through the closed curtains. A panel of his chest had been removed, exposing mechanical parts. He let out a sharp gasp at the sight, briefly attempting to cover his wound. The lack of a breath in his throat seemed suffocating, but a small, sharp yank on his head startled him more. He tried to turn his neck and was met with a small sigh.

"Sit still for a minute, we're almost done, I promise."

"Lucia?" Emrys obeyed, seeing the computer monitor on the desk beside him. Windows of code and designs and information he somehow understood was out of place.

"Yeah, it's me." She sounded as if she'd grown used to the question. "Are you all here, yet?"

"What-"

He felt the shell of his head snap together, the pressure of her deft fingers tightening the interlocked pieces. If he had tear ducts, his eyes would've watered.

"There, all set. Fixed your shot up exoskeleton while you were out, too. Good as a new Gen-6. How do you feel?"

Emrys stretched out his limbs, certainly feeling like new. He looked back at his opened chest and struggled to sit still as Lucia locked the exoskeleton panels back in place. A bit of jostling at his spine left his torso feeling fuzzy for half a second, and he saw her wind the detached cables back into a charging dock. She came around to sit in front of him, looking only a tad disheveled from a long day.

"Well that part was… odd, but I feel okay I think," he said.

"Good. You had me worried for a moment, and I'm still not sure exactly where your AI came from. I've got some ideas though, and I put a temporary fix on the "memories" thing. Hopefully it helps."

Emrys blinked. "Am I still… in your house?"

She furrowed her brow. "Yeah. You're sticking with me, remember? I didn't break you, did I?"

"No, I mean, I don't think so anyway." Emrys tried to figure out why that felt odd, but could only imagine wet grass in his hands. Even that was fading fast. "Where's Zoran?"

Lucia sat back and tucked her hair behind her ear with a sigh. "He's at our friend's place by now. He should be safe there. She'll find him some better help than I can give him."

"I didn't say goodbye."

"You di-... Sorry, it was a bit rushed, you understand. Worry about yourself, alright? I'll do the worrying over him enough for both of us."

She smiled at him, and though he knew it was forced and tired, it comforted him in some way. She looked him in the eyes as she spoke to him. A distant friend rather than a computer to toy with.

"Alright, well what next, then? How can I help?" Emrys asked, dutiful.

Lucia looked her computer over and shut everything down. "Next we get some rest. While I sleep, maybe you can get acquainted with my house, run through that schedule I put in your memory. My Gen-6 is on standby, so you can take its place for now. Just don't wake the kids, okay? Don't let them think anything's changed."

Emrys nodded. "Wouldn't dream of it."

She seemed satisfied with that answer and bid him goodnight. He watched her leave for her own room, wondering what had changed since he saw her last. Wondering what she had managed to find in his systems. Wondering if they'd find the monster that brought him to life. But mostly wondering if he'd ever see Zoran alive again. He decided to get to work.

[new memories have been added]