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Steelheart Self-Rebellion

Summary:

V1 was a machine without a past and heading into nothingness, acting as the only thing he had been trying to run away from all along: Death itself. As the ultimate harbinger of death, he had no joy in life but terrorizing.

It took one angel to change everything, for the all-devouring machine of ultimate destruction to deem life as his most sacred thing. He knew he had changed forever when he saw love in blood, adoration in gold, and salvation in Gabriel’s presence. Logic and utility lost meaning before his gradient presence; his chuckles a strike against the emptiness of existence. The world was no longer to thrive in its destruction, but to gift it to Gabriel. Bullets stopped before his presence, cries of war turned into hymns.

Or maybe they had always been that way, only V1 was the enforcer of the fate he had been trying to run away from all along. But with an angel who taught him to live the life he had been trying to preserve for so long, maybe there waited a future where civilization thrived once more. Built just to make one angel happy—Gabriel didn’t have to know that detail.

Or: V1’s overwhelming love breaks him free from his fate, and he learns to value life to make Gabriel happy.

Chapter 1

Notes:

A little warning, if I may! I am not a native English speaker, and while I read the chapters overall, I don't pay too much attention to consider this beta reading. If my phrases seem awkward or the grammar doesn't work, feel free to let me know!

Chapter Text

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸: 𝚂𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚂𝚎𝚕𝚏-𝚁𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗


Just because he was a machine didn’t mean time held no meaning by his side. If anything, as the only example of its kind, V1 had no choice but to treat it kindly.

But a war machine couldn’t offer kindness, even if it wanted to.

So, all V1 could do was sustain himself as much as his advanced hardware allowed. Since he could neither create time nor keep it safe, his existence on its own was a race against conditions. There was no way of restoring wasted time; the only thing he could do was make sure time would never be wasted. This was the whole thing about his carefully designed structure. Each line of code was devoted to this one thing.

Never wait too long. Never remember too much.

Blood is fuel. Time is chance. Waste either of them, and you shall fall.

When you fall, there will be no one to lift you. Once you fall, it is the end. For that, you can never afford to waste time and blood. Without chances or fuel, you will shut down and never wake up.

To that day, V1 couldn’t figure out what those notions truly reflected. Time, the manifestation of countless chances, was a fuel that couldn’t be snatched back like blood. No amount of perfect planning meant anything if time was insufficient.

As for never being able to wake up again, did it dictate an internal deficit of his engine or the external truth that he will never have anyone to bring him back?

For some time, he had been wondering the answer and trying to calculate the closest conclusion. But from hardware like his, no suitable answer came. It hurt to think, overheating his processors whenever he peeked too closely into a side of reality he wasn’t meant to see.

But just because he wasn’t made to see it didn’t make it disappear. There had to be an answer somewhere, a key that could set everything in place and offer a meaning for his existence.

Because ever since he had encountered that certain archangel, V1 had been questioning his existence. And he could no longer accept “hunting for blood” as an answer.

There had to be something else, and blood was just his way to earn it. Or maybe there wasn’t. Maybe, as a machine created to fight and destroy, he held no other purpose but to diminish everything.

But for what? Did the engineers even have the answer themselves?

Gabriel spoke of a Father, a god, who created so much and abandoned them to their fate. Did he even have an answer himself? Did Gabriel even know what he was talking about? Were the creator of fresh and the creators of engines the same?

Did the divine, Gabriel, hold the answer the machine, V1, sought?

“The probability is high enough to consider it possible. He knows his creator, or so he sounds like. I do not know mine, let alone whether there even existed one. As logical calculations expect and foolproof software dictates, it is most expected that he knows something I do not.”

He wondered what he would sound like if he ever had a voicebox.

V1 had no voice box. A machine like him didn’t need one since he was designed for war and war alone. Those who would cross his path weren’t even meant to survive, let alone remain in one piece and communicate with him. His internal translators were that advanced just because information came in all languages, and a lack of knowledge meant time destined to be wasted.

Time. The obvious and equally obscure measure of existence. The mortals had run out of it a long time ago. And something V1 was yet to understand put him in a tight spot, too.

He remembered where he started thinking, surprised how much further away he got from his original thought. It used to be all “input, problem, problem-related calculation, solution, output” for him. Jumping from topic to topic and mentioning a name that had nothing to do with his line of thinking was… impossible, or so it used to be. So it was supposed to be.

Normally, this would have never happened. He had so many regulations that kept him away from wasting energy and time on meaningless tasks. The greatest of them all was the Pre-Input Filtering Device that analyzed information before turning it into input and sending it to his processors. It used to work as a buffer that would keep his AI from overloading or wasting time on unnecessary information.

The intricate design that helped him focus on only the relevant parts of books, ignore pictures of humans and other extinct creatures, and not understand what he was hearing: Pre-Input Filtering Device.

It used to be of great help to him, the most important contributor to his efficient time management. The device controlled the way he viewed existence as a whole. For a machine of his nature and purpose, existence was but a plane of languor meant to be silenced and devoured. What lay before or after it held no worth; the only place where time existed was the present, and he had to use it carefully.

But it seemed that it was going to be a problem. Looking at the book in his hands, lost in thought, he tried scanning it again.

The filtering no longer worked.

His pace remained the same, and all his detectors and scanning devices functioned normally. His internal system sent multiple repair requests, yet no matter how many times he restarted the filtering and evaluation applications, nothing changed.

It was as though, deep down, he started to care. The books he held so carelessly, once viewed as but pieces of information that could lead him somewhere, now appeared differently. Nothing on the outside had changed, technically, he knew that well.

But something did on the inside. Something that no amount of software could pinpoint. He wondered if there even existed a manual about him, considering he was the first and last of his class. If such a manual were even there, did it offer more than his pieces and how to put him back together if he were to break apart?

When you fall, there will be no one to lift you. Once you fall, it is the end. For that, you can never afford to waste time and blood. Without chances or fuel, you will shut down and never wake up.

Did his creators even care what he would do if he were to break apart? Did they even stop and wonder what he would do if he were to see more to it than death and domination?

Did they even care if their creation would seek worth in their eyes and not in the dull gazes lying dead beneath his feet?

V1 shook his head, it was probably the odd effects of a virus slowly claiming his system. Nothing a detailed system scan and rebooting couldn’t fix. It wasn’t like the Pre-Input Filtering Device got a software update and deemed existence worthy of studying.

There was no one left who could even code such an update, let alone bother to implement it on someone like him of all machines. No one would consider the feelings of a war machine, including the war machine itself.

Since he didn’t get hit near the device and his multiple hardware inspections detected no damage, it had to be the foul doing of an odd virus.

All he needed was to find a safe place where he could lie unmoving for hours. He would feel as good as new after formatting. Until he could make sure there even was a safe place in that god forsaken land, he had to put up with it.

A virus that could shut down the vital device of a war machine; clever! What use would someone like him have if he had no hold of the situation he was in? Before and during a fight, speed was the key, hence the value of time. Even against those like Gabriel, what always gave him the upper hand was that.

That he could build his understanding of reality based on what was vital.

As a machine, he operated on efficient input and reflected it as violent output. Nothing, not even those like Gabriel, could stand a chance against the unshakable resolution of a robot, for there was no will to break in the first place. But a virus that could slow him down and even control what he views as important, now that was a strategy he found praiseworthy.

He tucked the book under his arm, it wasn’t that thick anyway. He could read the input when he had the time, when there was enough blood in his artificial veins. But the questions kept lingering in his mind–that is, if he even had one in the first place.

What even was a mind to begin with? What was it to think? He knew it was close to calculation, but not exactly the same thing. A mind operated on what was recorded and the conclusions it could reach in the moment.

For living beings, there was the emotional factor, too. For machines like him (at least for those lucky enough to be born with artificial intelligence), all that mattered was what they knew so far and what they were designed to do. The lesser folk weren’t even capable of thinking.

It felt odd. As a machine engineered to kill, he mourned for those who could never understand why they were his targets. An angel could tell he was an enemy, a clever robot could study his patterns and at least put up a fight–but mindless creations, both alive and machine? They had no chance. It was written in their fate to be dominated by others, forever and for no reason.

As he walked down the path he washed with blood, he took what he assumed he needed. Now that his filtering had failed him, he couldn’t trust it blindly again. It would slow him down, but it was better to work on approved intel than to rely on a faulty system.

He had to slow down. Waste time, in other words.

He never had to do that before. Since slowing down was not even a consideration during his engineering, there was no sign or warning. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

But Gabriel would know. He knew a lot of things.

A lot of things about him, too.

Was there even a thing that could remember him as good as Gabriel? Someone strong enough to escape his lethal strikes, careful enough to notice him by noise alone, and thoughtful enough to recognize him by his face.

V1 wished he had a voice box. He would like to talk with Gabriel and learn from his notion. Well, considering how much the archangel hated him, he doubted Gabriel would even care to answer his hopeless questions. Maybe they wouldn’t even make sense to him.

How could V1 expect a sentient being to understand him?

“I believe Gabriel the Archangel has the potential to understand me.” He concluded.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

The “01” represented the severity of the logical malfunction, which was trivial. His filtering device could have easily ignored this message if it were still working. He was supposed to be notified when the severity rank reached “03” and above, level “05” meaning that something went critically wrong.

At least the logic inspector worked. He didn’t know how long it would last, not even sure if the said virus could seep deep enough to ruin that.

As he picked up screws and cables from the remains, he observed his surroundings and noticed details he had never paid attention to before. The ground had a soft tone of pink, but was mostly drenched in blood after his successful slaughter. The walls were half gone, the giant openings offering a deep scenery from hell. The greenish sky didn’t hold a meaning he could associate with something, but he liked the shade.

He never focused on a color long enough to decide whether he liked it.

It never occurred to him that he could like a color. In fact, the act of “liking a color” never existed in his mind until now. But now that he sensed it, he wanted to look around more and see if he could like more colors. Maybe he could even classify them based on how much he liked the colors. Was it possible to find specific shades of the same color more “entertaining” than the other?

V1 took his time. He could still verify which pieces would benefit his structure. It was preferred to keep some spare pieces here and there, especially if they weighed almost nothing. He collected blood, using his scoop to fill his minimal stockpiles. He knew they weren’t hearty much because more blood meant a greater load, which would lower his speed and increase his size.

But he didn’t like how it fundamentally forced him to claim lives constantly. Wouldn’t it be better to destroy a group, take everything he needed, and wander around for weeks without a problem? Or why not support his internal functions with a different kind of fuel? Couldn’t creators, capable of engineering anything, come up with a more sustainable and lighter source of energy?

Was it their intention to lock him into his purpose? Like a requirement that he would act as demanded, even when he didn’t want to?

“Yes. It was their intention. Even when all prompts would fade, this instinct would remain forever.” He concluded.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

He gathered anything he could and left. Since he hadn’t gotten involved in any action, his score was getting lower, and the right upper side of his screen was empty. He was already craving the praising letters and words, and blood hadn’t even worn off from his steel feet.

V1 kept walking, gaze still locked on the sky. He couldn’t believe how long it had taken him to notice its presence. Such a giant cascade of beauty, and he wouldn’t even notice it if the filtering function were working. The more he questioned, the more he got confused.

He had the awareness to question, yet no input to answer. Anyone would hate that, but for a machine, this could go as far as meaning life or death. They worked solely on input; they had no other way of making sense of the world around them.

Something couldn’t exist without a valid reason. Not even questions.

And yet, there he was, wondering if Gabriel liked the color green.

There were so many numbers to classify the importance of an input. Yet only one thing, -1, to determine whether it was worth keeping on his hard disk. Those marked with -1 were flagged to get replaced with something else the moment he needed. At the very least, he was free enough to interfere and change those numbers.

He scanned his hard disk and noticed that every single thing about Gabriel was originally ranked -1 by his automated hard disk checker. Before scanning the book under his arm, he changed every one of them into 1. After some consideration, he even changed one information to 2:

“His name is Gabriel.”

Once done reclassifying them, V1 sat on an iron box covered mostly in rust. He looked at the book again, only to realize it was a journal rather than a printed piece of clue. Back then, such a trivial detail would have passed his attention. The writing was elegant and even sweet. He would like to write like that writer if his hands were capable of using a pen.

He quickly shifted through the pages, his detectors doing their thing and scanning the pages. It took one minute for him to finish analyzing. Now, he had an entire journal lying on his RAM. Insignificant, unworthy, and full of personal connections.

One paragraph stood out the most.

“But I love him. Mother doesn’t get it, but he means everything to me. He makes my heart rejoice, hands twitch in excitement, and mind swirl in euphoria! She is most certain he would never love someone like me, and I agree. We are from very different stances, both socially and mentally. But this will never change how much he means to me. This will never make what he makes me feel any less real. My heart will continue to ache and laugh.”

He wondered if Gabriel would ever find this paragraph valuable.

V1 had no reason to assume they would meet again. He had no hope Gabriel would even care. And yet, as he looked at the page, he couldn’t resist the urge to tear it apart and keep it. Once done folding the page and placing it securely, he got the same satisfaction he would get from breaking someone’s bone.

It seemed the Pre-Input Filtering Device wasn’t the only thing working incorrectly.

Chapter Text

He had walked multiple layers of Hell, washed many floors in the crimson he got used to seeing and devouring, yet came across no safe place. It wouldn’t make sense to reach a safe point in Hell, to be honest. It was a miracle his screen wasn’t flooded with the dreaded “no valid input” errors. With how things looked from his side, it was better to consider leaving Hell.

The godforsaken Earth above them was devoid of mortal life and probably lacked anything that could feed him blood. But that also meant he could settle down and start formatting his faulty software. Once the Pre-Input Filtering Device was back to normal, he could continue his mindless slaughter.

The questions without answers would disappear, too, hopefully. The image of Gabriel and many others would be erased from his hard disk, and things would go back to how they were coded. Neither the piece of paper he carried so close nor the questions that damned his existence would weigh him. This was supposed to encourage V1 and even activate his Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator.

But ever since he realized he would be erasing Gabriel from his hard disk, the appeal of normality wasn’t looking so pleasing.

The desire only came back when he imagined a scenario where he could keep Gabriel in his memory, and then erase everything else. But he neither had any idea how to write such code nor make sure it would work as he intended. Even the fact that he couldn’t guarantee his code would work disturbed him.

The cold machine without a soul yearned for someone’s faint picture in his mind.

The picture was still there, his sensors could still recognize the angel’s smallest details. And yet, there he was, feeling bothered over something that hadn’t even happened yet.

His other device failing was none other than the Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator, the hardware behind the Style Index. Under normal conditions, it was to transfer his score into satisfaction. The more he murdered, preferably in the most tormenting ways possible, the better he was designed to feel. It was like serotonin but for robots.

V1’s existence revolved around stealing life from others, and all that felt good was how agonizing he made it for others. This system valued these three the most: Creativity, efficiency, and agony.

Even the fact that he had “agony” as his measure for satisfaction was a subtle indicator that his creators were on the bad side. He was equipped with multiple sensors that could pick up on what others felt. He could sense the terror and discomfort of anyone, regardless of whether they had no face or were made out of stone.

The consequences of his actions were not limited to what he heard or saw; it was meant to reach every screw in his body, and shiver him with that tasty sense of satisfaction. Reaching the highest score filled him with so much joy that he didn’t even care how much hard work he had to put in for it. There came times when he got so blinded by bloodlust that he didn’t mind wasting fuel and time.

Morality didn’t mean anything to him; it was perhaps the most foolish way to waste time and resources. But being aware of the way he was constructed, to yearn for violence both as a means for survival and entertainment, gave him some ideas about his creators.

He recorded that conclusion as “01” intel.

Not that it would matter that much, actually. He was going to erase everything, Gabriel included.

Memories, portions of the past, held no value in the present, after all. Not for a machine like him. Not for those who were never meant to mean anything to anyone.

“But I mean something to Gabriel. He despises me, which counts as meaning.”

He liked having a meaning.

It never occurred to him that he could have one in the first place. But now that Gabriel had given him one, he wondered whether he wanted to let it go.

And he couldn’t stop thinking about this wherever he went. V1, looking for the safest spot to start formatting himself, traveled for days. He only stopped when he had to get fuel, not even bothering to come up with creative ways and cause torment. Normally, the lack of numbers on his score screen would make him feel hollow, but…

…for some reason, whenever he came across drawings and writings, he felt joy slowly filling him, even when the screen showed no numbers. They barely made him feel around “D”, but this had never happened before, and even the newness of it all added more to his enthusiasm. He wondered whether he could make the letter go higher with specific objects.

V1 remembered how the color green made him happy. On his next stops, he looked around for green objects specifically. A color such as green was hard to come by in Hell, but whenever he did, he got a little happier than he would feel over artifacts of different colors.

But while looking around for green objects, he noticed some other colors made him feel even more delighted. The attraction he felt for those colors passed the preference he had for green.

Gold. White. Blue.

Layer eight, Fraud, was where he started experiencing those malfunctions. The beginning of his journey, the layer where he discovered his interest in the color green. When he was there, he wondered if the malfunction in his system had something to do with the layer (since even the place itself was called Fraud), but his theory was proven incorrect.

After reaching layer seven, where he was now, he debunked his theory. Even in Violence, his malfunction continued. Since the place lacked almost any other color, he couldn’t get the satisfaction boost of seeing his dear four colors. There, as he wandered the nightmarish land, he discovered something else. The odd symbols he saw on Gabriel, crosses, also awakened the same sense of joy in him.

He had no idea what they meant; it was just that they had something to do with Gabriel. So, whenever he came across one of them, he stood before it for minutes. He even colored one of them in crimson. Nothing changed.

As his next destination, V1 reached layer six, Heresy. Although it was colored in sheer red and barely had any of those crosses, the layer awakened excitement in him. It was the last place he had seen Gabriel, where he fought him for the second time and emerged victorious again. He got a high score while doing so, too. The index went crazy whenever he held Gabriel and hit him on the ceiling.

He wondered whether he would do that to Gabriel again.

He would much rather get himself a voice box and talk with him. Explain that he held no grudge against Gabriel and was only doing what his code demanded of him. That he understood nothing of that father he kept talking about, nor saw divinity as anything other than technology with golden light.

V1 didn’t know what Gabriel lost after fighting him, nor where that hatred came from. Since V1 had never tasted defeat before, he had no way of correlating it to anything in his system. Or maybe he did once, but it was wiped out after he formatted himself at some point. V1 couldn’t know. All he knew was the beginning of his journey and what happened thereafter. Even if he had a previous life where he knew previous engineers and machines, he had no way of knowing.

He disliked not being able to understand Gabriel.

The past he was supposed to assume as insignificant had all the answers he wanted. But neither could he retrieve his memories, nor would the past come back. Maybe he didn’t even live (or exist) that long. Maybe it truly was his first time traveling Earth and Hell.

He disliked not being able to understand himself.

But whatever that malfunction was, feeling that odd interest in Gabriel brought V1 closer to himself. He never had the time or the reason to reflect on himself, on the meaning of his existence. Was it truly the preassumed virus’s doing or Gabriel’s?

As he looked at the odd machine that made many different noises, V1 pressed some of the keys. The unliving thing was the same, the room looked no different than the last time they left, but the beautiful melody never came, no matter how many times he pushed the buttons.

He wished Gabriel were there. V1 would have never stepped closer, sat somewhere instead, and listened to him play that gorgeous yet complicated instrument.

His next destination, Wrath, was in ruins. The tireless waves of the crazed ocean never calmed down for a single moment. V1 had to jump most of the time, killing a lot more creatures there to make up for the fuel loss. He couldn’t focus much on his surroundings. Not that there was much to look at anyway, save for the barely surfacing remains and the raging tides. The blueness of everything soothed him, and the crimson he forced from his victims thrilled him.

When he was busy murdering and devouring, V1 found himself almost uncaring about what would happen to Gabriel once his hard disk was wiped out. The fleeting excitement his Score Index screamed at him blinded all sentiments and questions. The questions without answers could never change how much fun he had as he killed. The memory of the angel didn’t bring “A” levels of satisfaction, so it didn’t hold that much value.

The guts he crushed beneath his feet, watching even the oozing remains trying to run away from him, brought joy. The crushed bones and bent pieces of iron screamed how strong V1 was. Eyeballs, processors, wings, spears, clothes, cables, ripped apart veins… all of them were his art.

Maybe there was nothing wrong with V1. He simply yearned for the sweet thrill of danger and slaughter, and he got what he wanted in Wrath. Maybe the malfunction had fixed itself as he crushed creatures beneath his steel feet. He even considered throwing away that sheet of paper he kept.

He looked at it once more, his scanning device still not ranking it as insignificant. Which meant the problem persisted. He had to reach Earth and format himself after all.

“But I love him. Mother doesn’t get it, but he means everything to me. He makes my heart rejoice, hands twitch in excitement, and mind swirl in euphoria! She is most certain he would never love someone like me, and I agree. We are from very different stances, both socially and mentally. But this will never change how much he means to me. This will never make what he makes me feel any less real. My heart will continue to ache and laugh.”

No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t open his fingers and let the page slip through. The endless ocean could be the best place to get rid of it and forget everything.

Yet, just like the dreaded consequence of his formatting, erasing that page disturbed him, too. Before leaving, he put it back. He could take care of it once his memories were gone.

The layer of Greed, the fourth, made him glad he never got rid of the page. Lost in the land of yellow and warming light, V1’s eye sought Gabriel. He didn’t know why he wanted to see the angel that much; he didn’t even know what he would do if Gabriel were to miraculously appear before him. He just wanted something, to have the thing he couldn’t even name yet.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

V1 came across multiple notebooks. He scanned everything and went through his readings once he was done murdering more crowds and filling his stockpiles. He ripped out several pages from them, all that either got his attention or shed light on that unexplainable urge he felt about Gabriel.

“I suppose I did deserve getting placed here. But I do not regret a single thing. I was right. I could only impress him with money. He didn’t care about where I got it or how long it would last. All that mattered was what he had at the moment.” A ripped paragraph.

“Since I couldn’t have her, nothing else in life could fill the emptiness inside me. Every penny I earned was like trying to run away from the void. Each time the numbers got higher in my bank account, I stepped further away from it. But in the end, I went bankrupt. I could neither have her nor had enough money to buy me happiness. I thought for a long time and realized no amount of money could satisfy me as much as she. So, I killed myself.” A page.

“When I looked at her, I felt so happy. I hope, unlike a sinner such as me, she got herself the sweetest place in Heaven.” Another ripped paragraph.

Yet another ripped paragraph. “I miss him so much. What if I can never see him again? Is this my punishment?”

Reading them felt as though he had found the right words to explain what he was feeling. His “malfunction” had always been like that, but his processor had no way of expressing how he felt until then. Things he couldn’t understand made sense; the lives he never lived showed him how to find meaning.

Eventually, he got into a small room filled with empty sheets of paper and notebooks. What had caught his interest was the book lying on the scratched table, a golden cross on its cover. V1 pushed the skeleton out of his way and raised the book, scanning its pages. It was something called the Bible.

It mentioned many names and stories, most of them either made no sense or spoke of regions V1 had no way of knowing. It also told sweet stories, promised kind endings, and offered ways of living a better life as a human being. The place it called Heaven resembled Limbo to some extent.

But most importantly, it spoke of the Holy Father and referred to Gabriel multiple times. Their expectations from mankind and the problems freewill brought didn’t make sense to V1, but he didn’t care. Their names were mentioned, especially Gabriel’s. He had to keep it.

V1 found a black bag with holes present in every layer and face. He wore the bag and placed the Bible in it. He also started placing the pieces of writing he had previously gathered. But when it came to that one sheet that started his whole gathering insanity, he didn’t manage to let it go. V1 tucked it right into his inventory and left.

The third layer excited him the most. Gluttony was recorded in his mind as the place where he met Gabriel for the very first time. His cramped and boring surroundings didn’t even bother him; his mind was lost in memories and repeating Gabriel’s words over and over.

“Machine, turn back now. The layers of this palace are not for your kind. Turn back, or you will be crossing the will of God.”

V1 felt glad he had no such thing as fear, for it would have kept him from ever meeting Gabriel. He would be stuck in the Layer of Lust, a mindless machine drinking blood for no other reason than doing so.

But once he reached Earth and found a safe place, that was going to happen to him. Each step he took brought him closer to the script he literally saw as meaningless.

 And after that, perhaps he would never come across Gabriel again. The angel hated him after all, and above that, he had shown two times that Gabriel stood no chance against his mechanical strength and precise calculation.

"A mere object!"

"An imperfection to be cleansed..."

"You are less than nothing."

"You're an error to be corrected!"

"Your crime is existence!"

The angel’s words, drenched in hatred, screamed the vilest of insults his mouth (did he even have a mouth?) had to offer. V1 fouınd it rather entertaining that, while Gabriel was doing everything he could to hurt the feelings of a war machine, V1 was finding joy and relief in his sayings.

Although they were born from hatred, those were words that defined V1. He liked meaning something, so relieved by it that the disgust they held didn’t bother him.

"You insignificant FUCK! THIS IS NOT OVER!"

V1 especially liked the enthusiasm he had in that one. He checked his hard disk and found no clue as to what “fuck” could mean. It was probably something terrible, too.

Little did he know that he was going to figure out what “fuck” meant in the layer just above him, Lust. The multiple conclusions he reached and the attempt to reason how it could even function as a noun overheated his processor.

From a technical point, the act of fuck referred to intercourse. Something the mortals would do to produce offspring. Just like the desire that led V1 to murder more, they had an innate drive to mate even when there wasn’t any need for it. Their bodies had things, probably sensors, that determined whether something felt good or not.

From the perspective of the sinners, to fuck was the most exciting thing in all of existence. The layer was filled with abandoned apartments, and whichever V1 stepped in, he found more traces that explained what exactly intercourse was. It could be done in many positions, the human creativity being the limit. Some went for the opposite gender only, some could feel lust for anyone, and several others desired extremely young humans or even animals. In every drawing and graphic novel, V1 saw how much they loved it. Even when they knew it was a sin, they kept doing it. Some referred to it as an addiction, while others painted it pink with many other compliments and depictions.

From the divine gaze, to fuck had to be done under a special divine license. Once tied together, they couldn’t do it with anyone else. People of the same gender, people who were too young, or non-human beings were prohibited. Those who dared to ignore the rules of the divine and cause irreparable harm to others were sentenced to punishment.

A means for reproduction. The greatest joy biology could offer. Or an activity only deemed appropriate with a special license; otherwise, a deadly sin.

Now… which one was he?

The “sin” part made the most sense, but did that mean getting a license would no longer make him a bad machine? And what even was a marriage? Did they send angels from Heaven to bless two people or something? How did things even work when humans still existed?

His fans roared, overheating again.

Chapter Text

Before opening the gates of Earth and returning to his birthplace once more, he had to go through Limbo. Compared to the rest of Hell, this layer (or timeless string of existence) kept triggering his senses. He could feel the artificiality around him, the fakeness of the skies, and the lifeless trees looking duller than the planks he saw in Violence and Greed.

The fakeness of the unfulfilled paradise warned his safety mechanism. The obscurity and secrecy of the fake peace around him disrupted his thinking process. A significant amount of his machinery prioritized his surroundings, making him lock on to any object he saw. Wherever he stared, he saw the same lines of artificiality.

It was like walking inside the carcass of a machine that wanted to become Heaven itself.

Was this what was going to happen to him should he betray his purpose? Or were the forced layers of his “perfect” system made him the dreamy replica of his creators?

In both cases, no amount of drawing and dreaming could change what lay beneath. No amount of force and determination could resist the pull of truth, for its gravity was existence itself.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟸.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

The unreality of his view disrupted his internal balance calculations, too. It wasn’t disordered enough to falter his balance, but he could clearly say something was wrong. What he saw and what he heard didn’t align. With no target in his vicinity and higher awareness, he noticed imperfections easily.

With V2 and the angelic creatures gone, the place felt emptier than before. Gun ready in hand, he waited for someone to come out. V1 couldn’t tell whether he expected an ambush or wanted one, desperately waiting for something real to appear before him.

No one came. The sound of the fake fountains kept repeating itself, restarting whenever the audio ended. Looking at his reflection on a fake fountain’s unrealistic puddle, V1 remembered he was blue, too.

He remembered Gabriel again. Did he like blue as much as V1 did?

He wished he could ask him.

Considering the motionlessness in Limbo, V1 didn’t even have to reach Earth. He could go back to that one building that led him deeper into Hell. He had never seen a creature there but V2, whom he destroyed gladly. While being the only example of his kind made him feel lonely, having a different version of himself roaming around made him equally uncomfortable.

But even to think of Gabriel flying in the sky, still existing and doing whatever divine thing he had to do… calmed him down. His overworked sensors slowed, tense shoulders finally relaxed. The obscurity Limbo’s fakeness caused was still there, but the awareness of someone entirely different countered it successfully. V1 held onto his bag filled with trinkets that would soon mean nothing to him.

Soon, he would forget Gabriel’s face and the way he flung elegantly with those divine wings. Soon, he would forget his voice and the creative insults he came up with–yet to understand which version of “fuck” V1 was supposed to represent. Soon, the notes he carefully picked would mean nothing.

V1 pushed the door open. With his security system back to minimal, he could view his surroundings as a whole instead of focusing on one object at a time. The manor only had its windows and the fake sun’s rays lighting the interior. But neither the old furniture around him nor the dried blood could get his attention. For there, at the end of the grand entrance, was the drawn angel Gabriel.

His eye remained on the window, studying the sharp details of each piece adding more to his divine appearance. The sunlight passing through the tinted glass fell on the floor, inviting V1 closer. He gladly took the invitation, chest going forward without his awareness, like he was getting pulled by a magnet he would gladly obey.

It was as though he had stopped resisting the pull of truth. The fakeness of the world around and inside him shattered with each string of light seeping deeper. The plain blues and dark grays of his body got washed in those colors, carrying Gabriel’s while it also had shades from V1.

He climbed the stairs, excited steps taking it slow to reach him. As if a sudden movement would make the glass come alive, and he would have to watch Gabriel fly away. V1 had never intentionally taken his time, not when there was no reason not to rush there. He knew that, with each step he took slowly, he wasted that precious time of his.

But right there and then, it felt as though he had been saving every minute in his life for that moment. Even when he reached the second floor, he wished there were more steps.

He couldn’t look anywhere but at Gabriel’s drawing on the window. V1 couldn’t understand why this happened to him, he was sure his security system was back to normal. Why couldn’t he look around and view the manor as a whole, like he was supposed to? Did something trigger him again?

Then he realized, only then. He could turn his head all along. His eye could see the world just the same. No system locked him into fight or flight, no machinery malfunctioned, and no possible danger kept him ready for battle. In fact, he had never been so unprepared before.

It was V1 who didn’t want to look away.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

V1 grabbed the skeleton kneeling before the window and pushed it aside. Before removing his hands, he saw the golden cross on the skeleton’s ribcage, probably fallen from the neck as it rotted. V1 grabbed it, studying the careful details of the beautiful ornament. With not too much thought put into it, V1 wore it. Then, he kicked the red box with golden strings. He didn’t want any of them in his way.

Basked under the golden, blue, and white light, the greatest devil humanity has created stood.

Not for vengeance, not for bloodshed, not to force his dominion over the heavens.

But to admire.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟺.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

He was never meant to admire anyone. That would go against his very nature as a destroyer. Getting connected to anyone, no matter how insignificant or trivial that was, would eventually become his doom. How could a machine of war even love?

“Everything I read explains this feeling.” V1 thought, this was the only thing he could do with words so far.  “Humans felt this way, too. Now, it is my turn as their creation.”

He still wished he had a voice box and could say all of those out loud. Even though no one could hear it, V1 would like the idea of his sound waves reaching Gabriel’s drawing on the window.

His time had come. Maybe it wasn’t even the virus’s doing, perhaps it didn’t even exist. Maybe he never malfunctioned, possibly something in him simply broke and set him free. Maybe there was nothing wrong, it was the abnormality of it all disturbing him. Maybe this went beyond any other purpose, for the kind of his creators willingly lost everything for this blessing.

The manor, safely silent and empty, awaited his formatting. In the middle of sheer fakeness, he experienced the deepest and truest of all feelings. Love gave meaning, even with its opposite.

“I love you, Gabriel.”

He wished he had a voice box.

V1 sat down, back against the wall, and head touching the window. He looked at his legs and arms, reflecting tender light drawing pretty lines on his stern exterior. He felt beautiful, worthy to look at. It was as though, just like the rays of beautiful colors, his feelings reflected on himself. Whatever he felt for Gabriel corresponded in the sweetest of emotions.

As he sat there, basking under his divine beauty and feeling safe for the very first time, he realized he liked this more than… killing.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟻.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟻.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚗𝚟𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝… 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎. 𝙽𝚘 𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚗𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚋𝚢.
𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍… 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎. 𝚂𝚞𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚏𝚞𝚎𝚕.

V1’s fingers twisted. Even when his system could accommodate feeling affection for someone, it couldn't phantom the idea of being safe. The software had started checking whether it was safe enough to force a system shutdown and repair itself.

Did he even want to do this anymore?

Did he ever want to do this in the first place?

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜… 𝚗𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜… 𝚗𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜… 𝚗𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜… 𝚗𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗.

𝚂𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍.

He had no one. No one to publish those so-called updates, no one to sustain the network he needed to retrieve those updates, and no one to restart him if everything went wrong and he couldn’t wake up without manual help.

Why did the thought of having someone like that go against his very nature?

𝚂𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚘𝚕𝚞𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜… 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎.

𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝙷𝚊𝚔𝚒𝙾𝚂 𝟷.𝟶 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚎.

𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝? 𝚈/𝙽

Turns out, he didn’t even have to prepare himself for the formatting process. The initial check-up was so certain that something went completely wrong with his software, not even offering a different approach. Compared to anything he had heard from Gabriel, his own system doing this to V1 felt like a greater insult.

Gabriel… Would he urge him to say “yes” and erase everything? Would Gabriel claim it was better for V1 to leave it there, go back to what he used to be, and remain ignorant?

Or would he urge him to follow his own mind, go against the will of the absent creators, and rewrite his destiny–whether it be sentences of fate or lines of code?

Go back to the past he no longer knew, or step into the future he could never know if he were to erase everything. Become one with purpose, with chances of breaking free again nigh zero. Or challenge existence for love, no matter how impossible it was.

The letters “Y” and “N” no longer carried their simple meanings.

Make him bleed or bleed for him.
Erase him or erase yourself.
End his life or start your own.
Abandon all hope or create one.
Ignore reality or understand it.
𝚈𝚎𝚜 / 𝙽𝚘

Machine, you are about to make a choice that will change everything.
The light you seek is dying out, the fire is long gone, the pieces discarded.
The engine meant to end lives; can you bring one back?
𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎 / 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚘 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙸 𝚌𝚊𝚗

𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝? 𝚈/ (𝙽)
𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍.

𝚀𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚕𝚎… 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎.

That was it. The decision. He finally made it. V1 placed his hand on the bag, glad he chose to protect their meanings. The light still lingered on him, though it had taken such a long time for V1 to decide that the fake sun was setting. He waited there, his mind still wondering whether he should quit this baseless struggle and format himself as intended.

But then, he would never be able to taste the joy of feeling Gabriel’s shade over him. As a solo war machine, he was meant to be aware of his body all the time. For that, although he had no pain receptors, he had great sensitivity, especially around his chest and hips, where his vital hardware lay.

He could sense the gentle warmth, colored in the greatest of shades, even though the rays were fake. He could move his hands and watch the centuries-old dust around him glide. He liked his own shadow, made funny shapes with it, and showed everything to Gabriel’s drawing on the window. Until night began and the blissful colors disappeared, V1 spoke words only he could hear. He asked questions one after another, hoping he could hear the answers from his mouth one day.

“What do you know about my creators, Gabriel?”

“Angel, what were humans like?”

“Gabriel, what do angels use for fuel?”

“What did make you lose, Gabriel?”

“Can I bring whatever you lost back, angel?”

“Do you like blue, too?”

“Should I reinstall my software and go back to what I was meant to be?”

“Gabriel, are angels capable of loving?”

“Gabriel, are you capable of loving?”

Chapter Text

After nightfall, V1 took his leave. Since he was close to Earth already and the “things” he had seen back in Lust had left an odd taste in his hard disk, he decided to return to his birthplace.

He had never seen the world outside of that factory anyway. All he knew was the captivating smell of blood, the entrance to Hell, and anything else that followed afterward. Again, he had no way of confirming whether he had been outside or not. He knew what the world used to be, thanks to the Bible he read. No matter what awaited him there, it had to be better than the artificial layer of Limbo.

The cross on his neck shimmered, letting out a golden sparkle barely noticeable. V1 didn’t mind its presence and stood up. His calmness got replaced with a sense of impending doom the moment he saw the fake sky. He relied on information to plan his next actions, and the fact that he was in an unreal place messed up his calculations.

The journey to the Gate of Earth and Hell didn’t last long. It could, actually, but V1 decided it wouldn’t. With the beginning joy of freedom and the thrill of the unpredictable future, V1 overclocked his engines. The loud hums and rapid shivers didn’t annoy him.

Those noises were the only sounds his body could make. While he could let out no word, his engines roared on his behalf. The sounds got tenser when he thought about Gabriel, turning his emotions into vibration.

The aura around him changed as he got closer to the gate. Once he placed his hands on the door that started it all, V1 hesitated for a second. The cross on his neck shimmered as the robot kept his hands on the door.

He pushed it open, and the lonesome entrance greeted him. The faraway crushers worked just as arduously, making the ground shiver just as before. The more he climbed those stairs, the more hearable and feelable they became. V1 didn’t like them at all. While there was an escape from the biggest of machines and even the divine beings like Gabriel, one hit from them was all it took for V1 to lose it all.

V1 wondered whether Gabriel could withstand their force, or even go as far as holding them in place.

V1 walked through the remains of his slaughter, chunks of machine and rock creatures lying dead adorning his scenery. Among the echoes, the machine remembered something worse than the crushers and grinders. While they could end him in the blink of an eye, they were at least fixed to one place.

That odd, thin, wicked creature he once saw amidst the dark was not.

Without wasting more time, he fastened his steps. The grand and warm factory around him quickly became a maze hard to find his way in. While he could use the smell of blood to find his way to Hell, he had nothing that would guide him outside.

V1 came across a single Filth and shot it in the head without a second thought. Automatic doors kept opening as he moved, reaching the frame where he had to crack the planks, the very beginning of his life. He looked around for a few seconds and noticed it was a passage instead of a room.

“If I were brand new, I would have awakened in a room. This means this isn’t the very first life I lived. Or was I discarded for some reason? I did see several entries complaining about my manufacturing cost… This was why they decided to build that red, cheap copy.”

He passed seven rooms until he reached another door. Iron, no longer working. V1 charged his fist, prepared his engines, and pierced through the door by launching himself at it. The loud noise and dust covered each corner. V1 stepped outside.

And witnessed a world he had never known, something he could have never imagined.

As the night sky beautifully looked down upon him, its stars sparkled with a kind of authenticity nothing in Limbo could mimic. The trees hiding the factory’s entrance, so grand and magnificent, waved with each wind blow. V1 looked at his back, realizing the factory and the Gate of Earth and Hell were beneath a mountain.

Structures akin to those he saw in Fraud rose from each side, but they were all dreched in dark, their details lost to time since there was no one to care for them. Nature was already on its way to reclaim what it had lost, though the asphalt ground remained almost untouched. Railways were lost among the overabundant bushes, and apartment buildings begged for maintenance. Large buildings that stretched throughout the streets formed a neighborhood near the factory. The highest of them had six floors or fewer, their windows surprisingly functional despite the decades of the hopeless wait. Compared to the skyscrapers he saw in Lust, these took up more space horizontally.

He wondered whether buildings had AIs that brought them to awareness. It didn’t make sense at first glance, but barely anything mankind did made sense. If they were sentient beings just like the machines, did they miss their previous owners? Did they expect them to come back one day and live in them?

After all, for a machine to be able to fulfill its purpose was the happiest of lives. Apartment buildings were built with the purpose of housing people and some kinds of animals inside. Did they feel horrible as humans left for the final time and silence settled?

A building left with no human to live in, and a machine left with no objective to complete. Equal pain and a grand lack of meaning. Then V1 remembered himself. He was a machine who had walked away from his objective on purpose.

He heard odd chirping noises, his senses increasing their sensitivity. V1 prepared his trusty pistol and kept on walking. With each motion he sensed, V1 directed his weapon and shot. He realized an odd thing once the pistol’s light dulled. Even when there was no light source, the sky’s presence seemed to light the area. It could have something to do with the moon.

V1 couldn’t see any terminals either. He really had to figure everything out on his own, and wondered whether his findings would appear on the screen once he returned.

As he got a little comfortable, his sight switched from focusing on one object to general viewing. He scanned his surroundings and got faster with his steps, jumping and boosting his speed mid-air. The land where his creators once lived appeared like a greater, lovable version of Limbo. Opened boxes and the abandoned buildings were the only things unnatural.

And him, of course. Also, the cross had to remind its presence by shimmering.

He kept watching as he sprinted from tree to tree, touching their odd and sensitive layers. V1 saw some small sparks of light fly by, so slow and incapable of harm that V1 didn’t even bother aiming at them. He also saw interesting, small creatures with multiple legs walking on some of the trees. Weirdly-shaped creatures covered in fur opened their wings and flew away whenever he made too much noise.

It didn’t take long for V1 to come across a river. He looked at it, calculated the danger level, and concluded that it would cause no harm. No dangers, no underlying acid, no nothing. Just plain water.

But not too far away from it, V1 located the crimson shade he knew too well. It was blood, clearly leading somewhere. The trees nearby, although not all of them, had golden sparkles dying out as seconds passed. Something had fallen nearby, something bleeding and unable to control its landing. It crushed the trees, unable to slow itself down.

Someone else was there.

And by the looks, the being in question was still there. Unlike anything else he had seen near the factory site, this trail of blood was the only thing new. V1 walked through the moving water and placed his palm right on top of it, letting the blood enter his body. The water was chilling, and the blood was still warm. He shivered with excitement.

V1 pulled himself up and followed the trail. As he got closer to the woods, the dim light coming from the night sky reduced. He lit up his lens, his yellow orb lighting the environment a little. It was nowhere near enough, but it was better than walking in pitch dark.

As he ventured further, the trail got thicker and even a little sparkly. The golden remains on the trees increased in size but decreased in lumination. V1 raised his head. He saw an opening between the trees, a line of moonlight dispelling the dark. What accompanied that serene view was… heavy breathing.

V1’s sensors trembled, steps slowing down as his lens shrank. It was one of those times V1 wished he had an eye that could zoom. But even if he could steal one from a machine, he couldn’t modify it. Even if, by some miracle, he managed to modify it, he couldn’t install it on his own.

He needed someone. Someone he could trust so much that he wouldn’t mind being blind by their side, revealing the most sensitive parts of his processor. One hit to the GPU and he was a goner.

He needed someone. Someone like Gabriel.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟸.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

V1 could trust literally anyone but Gabriel. That angel made it a little too obvious that he hated V1. Gabriel would gladly use every opportunity to take him down, especially after getting defeated twice. Speaking of…

“The only person I met with sparkling blood is Gabriel.”

Before he knew it, V1 was rushing. If only he weren’t malfunctioning, his Logic Inspector would act faster than his engine and assume any angel could possess blood with sparkles in it.

But he saw him with his very own eye.

Gabriel, lying on the floor with his chest barely rising, breathing as if those were his final ones. V1 arrived by his side, kneeling.

The crimson of blood mixed with the navy blue of divinity under his knees, sparkles dying out. V1 reached out for Gabriel, shaking his armor and the unmoving man lying unconscious.

His senses were overclocked, his processor and hard disk locked in a constant struggle as the RAM usage peaked. With each millisecond that passed without Gabriel’s motion, his shivering got more intense. The cross on his neck kept hitting his cold chest, slinging chaotically.

“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” he wanted to scream. “Wake up! Don’t die!”

What was wrong with that angel? No matter how many times he scanned Gabriel, he didn’t come across an open wound. It was as though his very being was slowly melting away, turning duller and transparent before V1’s single eye. His black body was becoming but a shadow, soon to be erased.

“Gabriel! Wake up! Don’t disappear!” he wished he could scream. “Wake up!”

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝙴𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐-𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚎? 𝚈/ (𝙽)

Not even sparing a second to think about it, V1 rejected. The cooling-down mode would limit most of his abilities, leaving him more clueless than he already was. But not even being hyperaware would change anything.

How could a machine built to kill save a life? That question couldn’t be answered as easily as whether he wanted to format his hard disk or not.

As the robot helplessly shook the unmoving angel, the cross repeatedly hit against his iron torso. One swish after another, the cross’s worn-off rope ripped apart, and the cross fell on Gabriel’s armor. As it slipped away, V1 noticed the dark gray pattern it left on Gabriel’s exposed parts. Wherever the cross had touched and left its holy sparkles got back to normal.

V1 grabbed the cross and stared at it. The ornament didn’t seem to have a mechanism inside. He brought it closer to Gabriel’s neck, watching its mere presence show its miracle. Although it wasn’t enough, holding the cross closer did restore some of Gabriel’s dark gray body. When V1 pressed it, the restoration got stronger, solidifying the remains of his shadowy figure.

Gabriel finally took a deep breath, albeit slowly and barely noticeable.

Compared to the cross’s reach, Gabriel’s disappearance proceeded faster. With a quick analysis and calculation, V1 concluded the cross couldn’t even restore Gabriel’s head before the mysterious disappearance claimed his entire body.

He had to extract whatever energy there was in that cross and make sure it would enter the angel’s body as soon as possible.

V1 started with finding the cross’s weak spot, pressing from to sides and cracking it. As he expected, some more sparks emerged and fell on Gabriel. He continued cracking the ornament into pieces, but not even the frequent sparks and dust falling on him were enough. Eventually, the pieces would get so small that he wouldn’t be able to break them further. His hands were too robust and fingers too separated to pulverize the pieces.

But he most certainly could melt it. If breaking it into pieces helped, what could be more useful than destroying its stiffness altogether?

V1 pushed heat into his hands, his cables and steel rods shivering with the high dosage rubbing his insides. Among everything his body was capable of, purposefully overheating himself wasn’t one of them. His sensitive sensors sent one warning after another, fuel usage skyrocketing, and dark red smoke eventually emerged from his openings.

The machine interlocked his fingers, using the heat waves from both sides to melt the broken cross. He pressed further, crushing its tiny pieces in his strong grasp. Eventually, even more divine light emerged, and the droplets leaving his hands fell on Gabriel. With each drop hitting him, waves of divine power solidified his transparent body.

Gabriel started twitching with each molten droplet hitting his body. Helpless gasps soon turned into pained groans. As he regained his consciousness, the world around him was still a hazy memory after what had happened. Gabriel opened his eyes and saw V1.

The machine’s yellow eye shone bright in the crimson smoke. Divine essence dripped through the hands of the greatest sinner. Its mechanism roared and clacked with each passing second. Still, V1 showed no sign of giving up. Until the cross melted into naught, he kept generating heat and pressing.

The angel slowly gained control over his body, his fingers finally obeying his mind, his arms soon to follow. No matter how painful each drop was, burning his skin and anything beneath, Gabriel knew he had to endure it. Whatever V1 was doing (Gabriel was so dazed that he couldn’t even wonder why he, of all beings, was trying to save his life) brought him back to existence.

He clenched the blood-washed soil under him, pressing on his teeth and enduring the agonizing burn of sheer divinity and hellborn warmth. Minutes later, the droplets fell fewer and lighter. V1 decreased the warmth he sent and freed his fingers, letting the remaining sparkles fall on the angel.

V1 looked at Gabriel, his sensors noticing every twitch coming from the angel’s side. Gabriel took a deep breath, and only then did V1’s engine finally go into cooling-down mode.

“You…” his heavenly voice was back once again. V1 lowered his hands and placed them on his knees. Even though the blood beneath them looked tastier than ever, V1 only saw a very faint reflection of himself staring right back at him.

V1 gazed back at Gabriel again, trying to ignore the reflection that disturbed his sensors. As a machine without a face, he didn’t show thoughts and feelings, but he himself could tell that was the expression of a dreaded machine.

What if V1 never had that odd necklace? What if he came too late? What if he could never think of melting it? What if it never had that odd energy that cured Gabriel’s disappearance?

He didn’t want to do anything with that puddle of blood, at least not yet.

“You… saved me..?” Gabriel tilted his head. He tried loading his weight on his elbows and sitting, but the nausea forced him to stand still. “Machine…”

V1 nodded, sure in a way as if he wanted to say, “Yes, it is me. I am the one and only V1, the one you know the best.”

“There I was hoping,” he coughed mid-sentence, “your days would be few. And you are here, having saved my life.”

Gabriel attempted to raise himself again. V1 offered his hand. The angel did intend to reach out, but his shivering hand stopped before his cold fingers could touch V1’s hot ones. “What do you… want from me, Machine?”

V1 would have one problem less if he himself knew exactly what he wanted. Just because he knew what he was feeling didn’t mean he could figure out what he had to do about it. He didn’t have the innate intimacy desire that told humans what to do, and he didn’t have codes that could show him the way.

He was a machine still learning and comparing. Faced with the endless universe, even the ultimate murderer had to bow before its mysteries.

V1’s fingers twitched. He wanted to hold Gabriel’s hand. But what then?

“Well… whatever it is, I will see what I can do.” Gabriel lowered his hand, trembling arms barely holding him up. He coughed again. “I am… indebted to you, after all.”

Gabriel had run out of time, and V1’s interference changed that. Based on V1’s coding and everything he knew about reality, this went against the principles of his very core.

When you fall, there will be no one to lift you. Once you fall, it is the end. For that, you can never afford to waste time and blood. Without chances or fuel, you will shut down and never wake up.

He had saved someone from his greatest nightmare. His only nightmare. The only thing V1 knew close to death; running out of time. Anything else had been but a weapon for him so far.

Maybe this was what V1 wanted all along: to see whether he meant more than being a harbinger of death, the same concept he had been running away from all along.

Gabriel coughed once more, his fragile balance having a hard time. V1 placed his hand on Gabriel’s back, waiting for the exhausted angel to cough more until he got better. Between his coughs, Gabriel murmured thanks barely hearable. V1 could pick on them thanks to his advanced hearing.

“It is not just this,” Gabriel mumbled between his coughs and light gasps, “really. You made me realize something that I should’ve seen… a long time ago.”

V1’s eyelid closed by half. Why did that man want to talk so much when he could barely breathe? It wasn’t like V1 would walk up and leave, or challenge him to a duel.

He would much rather hold his hand like in the pictures he saw back in Lust.  Not the other extravagant parts, V1 neither had the capacity nor the knowledge to understand what was so entertaining about that– by the way, he still didn’t know what kind of “fuck” he was.

But holding hands somehow felt like a task for him, a pretty goal he would love to achieve. Hugging reminded him of safety, holding hands felt like promising loyalty and respect. Were these virtues passed down to him from his creators? Maybe his inner logic inspector assumed getting into direct contact with someone and receiving no harm was equal to friendly interaction.

For the record, V1 did have the capacity to form relationships. But those were coded as alliances and were meant to last temporarily to gain an advantage. He was programmed to seek purpose in others, mark ones he didn’t have but were musts, and offer his service in exchange for theirs. Also, he had an innate drive to discard all alliances if he could force that ability out of his ally, like ripping apart their pieces or stealing their weapons.

No wonder Gabriel assumed V1 wanted something in return.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

But Gabriel had no way of knowing that about him, not if he could miraculously see his codes. V1 couldn’t understand what made the angel think he had to pay in return for something V1 wasn’t asked to do in the first place.

What an odd being he was, each time appearing before the ever-same machine with totally different feelings and perspectives. But the fact that he didn’t have a script to follow was another thing captivating about Gabriel.

V1 wondered whether he could ever be like him.

When Gabriel attempted to speak again, V1 shook his head left and right. The angel led out an offended grunt, but the rough cough that followed made him agree with the robot. He didn’t like sitting on his own puddle of blood, and not even the infamous slaughterer himself could look at it.

“Can we at least,” he gulped, forcing his cough down, “leave here?”

Now, that was one command (actually, it was a kind request) V1 wouldn’t reject. The machine quickly stood up, offering his hand again, hoping it would work that time.

“I don’t understand,” Gabriel said as he looked at the machine’s hand. For so long, all they shared were two battles where the utmost of the two classes clashed majestically. But what if there was an underlying reason why Gabriel couldn’t make sense of his thoughtfulness?

“Why are you being kind to me, Machine?”

Even if V1 did have a mouth, he had a feeling he couldn’t say anything. He didn’t know the reason himself. Love was a feeling, but could it be a reason, too?

But he couldn’t just say that. If he had to, he could write it down using his finger and the puddle of blood. However, some of the writings he had scanned said love was something that could be rejected. Once rejected, the two parties would go their separate ways, probably never to meet again or do so with a permanent feeling of awkwardness and disinterest.

He couldn’t tell that, not when Gabriel was there staring at his hand as if V1 planted a bomb in his own palm. He checked the logic, it made sense, and decided to leave that greater goal for later.

Gabriel brought his hand closer, still unsure why V1 wanted to make things easier. The machine went ahead and grabbed the angel’s hand, pulling him to his feet in an instant. He held onto V1, waiting until the dizziness got a little better. As the world kept spinning around his head, Gabriel trembled lightly, still on his feet all thanks to the machine.

“You are taking it way too easy on me,” he gasped, “Machine.”

As if Gabriel could endure anything slightly more than a punch at that point.

The perfect opportunity to take down a serious opponent. Defenseless, dazed, and in direct contact. You could easily snap his neck and keep all the blood inside. Assuming your previous fights, he has a lot of blood, and that blood is filled with a kind of energy that can charge you up unlike anything else.

He stood still as Gabriel gasped for air, getting better as time passed, but still holding onto him for balance. V1’s score lowered a lot ever since he had left Lust. Imagining the sound of his neck cracking and the score going high did something to V1.

Something that made him raise his hand a little, slowly getting it closer to Gabriel. But the more he got closer, the more his steel fingers shivered. He could have a lot of fun and gain energy if only he could brave that one move. It wasn’t his first time killing someone with his bare hands, and it was not going to be the last. The excitement would last shortly, yes, but it would be worth it. If he were to feel bad about it, he could easily format his hard disk and return to his old life.

“I can entertain myself by killing others,” V1 thought as Gabriel held onto him for support, unaware of the violent scenes V1 was imagining. Even the way the once-mighty angel’s knees shivered didn’t go unnoticed. While he was supposed to target them and thrive in the fun of Gabriel’s suffering, V1 felt disturbed, to say the very least. “But if I kill him now, there will be no other Gabriel.”

His hand waited right behind Gabriel’s neck, yet to touch. Resisting the urge to touch. Facing the consequences of his nature, the way he was designed to behave. V1 eventually lowered his hand.

The fast-paced and unbonded machine had to learn how to slow down and care for his values.

What a grand power Gabriel held…

Chapter Text

Walking by Gabriel’s side, V1 got to admire his beauty better. Things would be a lot better if the angel hadn’t been shaken by what had happened to him. One other ability V1 had, when close enough, was sensing the feelings of his targets. The terror he caused managed to reach every screw in his body thanks to that ability, even when his victims had no mouths to scream and eyes to damn his existence.

But the Style Index didn’t react to Gabriel’s fatigue and unspoken disturbance. His Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator didn’t appear faulty in his system; the countless checks V1 ordered as he walked Gabriel kept saying the same.

Truth be told, he didn’t like seeing Gabriel upset himself. Even if the Style Index were to react to his discomfort, V1 doubted he would feel entertained.

He wished he were a sentient being, truly sentient, so he could offer Gabriel comfort. Being there and holding him by his arm, accompanying him with slow steps, didn’t feel enough. Dark clouds not too far away indicated rain was about to start. While V1 had fully hydroresistant armor, Gabriel didn’t seem to be as lucky as him. Even if he did, Gabriel’s armor had some openings that would eventually get water inside.

Was water dangerous for angels? Probably not. But it surely didn’t look natural for an angel to fade away. What if fading made him vulnerable to things he could normally endure? V1 didn’t want to take risks. Gabriel’s occasional coughs didn’t herald anything good either.

He held the bag closer, sensing a slim feeling of comfort. The torn pieces of paper there understood him better than the rest of the world. He didn’t mind the Bible’s presence, either.

They eventually came across a small cavity beneath a steep slope. Some useless equipment lay around, most of them looking burnable. V1 remembered one of the things he read, mentioning the “cozy feeling of a fireplace” in the writing. Maybe setting the cluster on fire could help him.

Gabriel coughed more as he slowly sat down. The idle boxes supported his weight. V1 generated heat in one palm, placing it on the mess of cloth and planks, and started a fire. After a few minutes, the ground trembled with a clap of thunder. They couldn’t see the raindrops yet, but could hear the comforting sound coming from afar.

“Your timing is perfect,” Gabriel took a deep breath, “again.”

V1 sat right next to him.

“Don’t worry about me, I will be fine.” The angel said, V1 noticed a subtle change in Gabriel’s emotional state. For some reason, V1 choosing to sit by his side and keep his eye on him made Gabriel happy. “How did you know I was getting cold? Another ability of yours, maybe?”

He couldn’t measure someone’s temperature, only his own. It could be a good opportunity to lie and make himself look even more advanced than he already was, but V1 was inherently incapable of lying. Maybe he could breach that if he tried hard enough, but he would mess up catastrophically. Since he was an undefeatable machine, he had no reason to learn how to lie and be good at it. Besides, his calculations relied entirely on true information. By structure, he was incompatible with lies and delusions.

He shook his head negatively.

“You like the fire,” another cough, “just like me, then? We do have some things in common.”

V1 looked at the flickering flames. He had never thought about what he felt for flames. They didn’t look appealing, considering they were too hot, and extreme heat didn’t go well with his engine. He had an innate preference to stay away from it.

But as he watched it, he wondered whether some things could be loved with no way of gaining them. Just like how his feelings made V1 love a man who wouldn’t even look in his direction, if it weren’t for V1’s strength and dexterity.

V1 then turned his gaze to Gabriel again. He realized that, while he didn’t like fire, he liked how it could calm Gabriel down. The light coming from that direction gently hit his armor, complementing his details and coloring him in a warmer shade.

It was the first time V1 liked something because he loved Gabriel. Whatever made the angel happy deserved a spot in V1’s mind as well.

The machine pointed at him.

“You could guess I liked it?”

He nodded. After his nod, V1 noticed Gabriel’s mood getting a little better. His mechanism wasn’t detailed enough to determine the causes or what kind of happiness that was. It could only tell whether someone felt good or not, and could calculate the “level” of it.

“You are truly extraordinary, Machine.”

Now, it was V1’s turn to get happy. He had never received a compliment before, at least this was what his hard disk could tell. His Style Index reacted.

“Yes, extraordinary indeed. And I’ll prove it to you,” Gabriel turned his face in V1’s direction. “Would you like to hear how I ended up like that? Lying there, devoid of the Father’s Light, waiting for my end?”

V1 nodded again. Knowing what had happened could make things easier for V1. He prepared his processor, everything programmed to be recorded as “01” level input.

Gabriel started with their second battle, when he saw his own blood and felt relieved. After his departure, he had thought a lot about his life and everything he did for the Holy Father and the Council. His iron will shattered upon discoveries. After the late confessions he had to make to himself, he decided to do something drastic.

He briefly explained God’s disappearance; otherwise, the foundation and purpose of the Council wouldn’t make sense. Gabriel himself didn’t know much about God’s reasons, but the tips he gave led V1 to a conclusion he did not expect.

The creator Gabriel spoke of oddly aligned with the testaments he saw on the Secret Terminals.

Mankind is a failure. Free will is a flaw. Let the evil of their own lips consume them. Then I shall begin again, with my word as law.

Failure after failure after failure after failure after failure after failure after failure after failure after failure after failure; the results refuse to alter. Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again… My faith begins to falter.

Uncountable cycles of creation wasted. Uncountable formulas for a mind without free will wasted. Damned is man for failing to follow my rule, my word, my law. Damned to an eternity of torture and suffering, the wailing and the gnashing of teeth. I have created hell….And now I can no longer unmake it

"Father, why eternal torment? Is it not cruel? Is torture unending truly a fate fit for a fool?" An angel so bright and beautiful asked me this… And I could find no answer, for I could never face the guilt of what I'd done… My regret, a gnawing cancer in my hour of weakness, terror possessed me then, and I cast Lucifer, too, into the infernal den. Once I realized what I had just done… I could only weep as I sank slowly into the depths of despair… Deep, oh so deep.

I am hollow. My mistakes leave nothing but hate in their wake, and infinite pain to follow… I can't take any more of this guilt and regret, for me, there is no tomorrow… I am hollow. I began to seek the end of my days. But when I stared into the abyss… The abyss averted its gaze.

Did it ever occur to Gabriel that the Father he spoke so proudly of was hiding from his own failure?  When it was the right time, V1 decided to find a way and reveal the truth. Gabriel deserved to know it.

But what he heard after made V1 reconsider that. Upon explaining God’s disappearance, Gabriel described the Council. A union of wicked, equally deluded creatures devoid of mercy. They cared for no one but the morals and principles they held so dearly. They were so obsessed with being perfect that they had lost every opportunity to set things right, forfeiting their true duty of protecting justice.

They were so disconnected and ignorant that they even referred to Gabriel as a thing instead of a living, breathing, feeling angel. He didn’t use to mind it much, having been referred to as “it” by them for centuries. But once the blinding perfection of God and the Council was gone, Gabriel realized neither his hard work nor the suffering of the sinners meant anything to them.

Just like the foulest of sinners, he too was deemed impious. Just like the unluckiest of all fools, all it took for Gabriel to lose it all was a mistake, failing to defeat an undefeatable machine. After tasting his own blood and feeling true freedom for the first time, away from the Father and the Council, Gabriel built the courage to fix his only mistake.

Letting them live that long.

Letting them ignore sinners who actually wanted to get better. Letting them forsake those who did everything to gain their favor. Letting them use the Holy Light to force their ideals upon others.

After tasting the freeing truth of death, Gabriel unsheathed his swords. Knowing no amount of words and threats would fix them, Gabriel slaughtered every single one of the members. As his final act of declaring freedom over terrorized divinity, Gabriel held a decapitated head before Heaven.

He didn’t stay there long enough to see how many beings he had affected, and how. Gabriel just hoped it would bring them a sense of freedom and comfort, a desire to regain their lives, and even offer their hands to those stuck in Hell. Gabriel left his former home, never to return, wishing to find peace on Earth, where he failed to protect his inhabitants against themselves.

With their death, Gabriel lost access to Holy Light. He knew this would happen, and he knew this would lead to him having hours left to close his eyes for the final time. Yet, the hope of revealing the truth and saving the rest shone brighter. The desire to set things right and correct his biggest mistake weighed more.

“After all of those, you found me there.” As he explained everything that had happened, the rain reached their surroundings. As the mourning planet cried for the nameless corpses, Gabriel watched outside. “I will spare you the details. For angels of my class, we rely on the Holy Light to keep existing. It is some sort of ‘time’ we have. The greater light you hold, the more you are going to live, no matter what happens. I had run out of time, hence I was disappearing.”

Blood is fuel. Time is chance. Waste either of them, and you shall fall.

“My end might sound unfair, but I believe I deserved it. Failing to take action is no different than committing the crime. I was okay with my fate, though I have to admit the unease was still there.”

Gabriel didn’t even look at V1. He could almost sense the judgmental stare on the machine’s face. “Not that I was afraid of death. I just wish I weren’t alone. But after everything I had done, I deserved it.”

V1 refused.

“While I will live with this guilt for the rest of the time I have left, I will take your thought into consideration. You taught me a lot, Machine. I won’t ignore your wisdom.” Gabriel placed his hand on his heart. “You see… I am but an angel created to destroy, and one who couldn’t think for himself. It took me far too long to break free from destiny.”

Two sides of the same coin. One commanded by fate, one coded by lines. Divine and manmade. Good and evil. Divinity-reliant and blood-hungry. Destined to bring total destruction, fated to live with the consequences they never asked for, too late to make a difference.

A slaughterer machine learning how to love, and a fallen angel learning how to live as but a shadow of his former self. One had infinity ahead of him, and the other had long since lived past that. Young and old, strong and sacred.

Alive and dead.

V1 no longer felt lonely. But the fact that someone so sweet had to shoulder the same pain bothered him more. Gabriel couldn’t erase his hard disk (did he even have a hard disk?) and continue his life. Instead of indicators and warnings, Gabriel felt pain whenever his body suffered damage. Did he even have emergency mechanisms that could at least bring him to safety? How old was he, anyway?

He wished he could hold Gabriel’s hand.

“V1, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me. Though I couldn’t speak, I saw what you were doing.” Gabriel grabbed the thin stick lying on the ground, right by his foot. He tilted it slowly, watching the shadow change form. “As I had said, I was okay with meeting my end right there and then. But after talking to you like this, I cannot help but feel glad you were there.”

He tossed the stick into the flames, and the small gap it caused was wrapped in fire. The faraway bolts of lightning barely lit their small place, and thunderclaps followed seconds later. He smelled the beautiful essence of petrichor and campfire, raising his head gently as he treasured the moment.

“But my time here is limited, the cross you melted bought around a week,” he said calmly, having already made peace with the fact. He showed no desire to change his fate or challenge the heavens to get what was rightfully his. “Looking around for more will only help so far. I will eventually run out of divine relics to squeeze their essence out of. Earth has none, and I am sure Hell doesn’t have more than a hundred objects. One was the cross you melted for me.”

V1’s engine slowed, barely any voice leaving his chestplate. His lens shrank as he processed the heaviness of those words.

Gabriel was fated to die.

“Besides, I don’t even know what will happen once I go down there again. My senses are no longer that sharp, and I most certainly cannot teleport anymore.” He looked at his hands, unable to recognize the man he used to be. Now battered in his own dried blood, stripped of divinity and grandeur.

But even then, he seemed freer than he had ever been. Gabriel’s words no longer carried the will and decision of others, but instead his own thoughts and assumptions.

“It will be pointless. Even if I somehow manage to collect all those divine pieces and–I still can’t believe I am willing to do this–destroy them, I will fade away at the very end.” Gabriel spoke his thoughts, trying to see a way between his words. “In fact, my whole journey might consist of getting some time and spending it on searching for more time. Tsk, useless.”

V1 moved on his seat, holding his bag’s strap.

“I can only guess how disappointing it must be for you,” Gabriel stretched his legs. “But this is how things are. So, whatever it is you want, we should get into business as soon as possible.”

The machine moved his head backward, shaking it left and right.

“That simply won’t do. The Great Gabriel cannot die without fulfilling the task of his formidable acquaintance.” The angel crossed his arms and raised his back. “While I appreciate you considering you should forfeit your request, I want to remind I am still capable.”

V1 shook his head again, this time hands joining as well.

“You didn’t have a task for me?”

He nodded.

“Then why did you save me?”

Because V1 loved him. He loved him so much that it went against every line of code dictating his actions, just like how Gabriel broke free from his own version of code. But he didn’t want to risk getting rejected, the things he had read in those journals scared him to his cords.

V1 placed his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. At least, that would do. He didn’t want the angel to assume he was indebted or that V1 had a secret, terrible intention.

Gabriel looked at V1’s hand. “Is it because you see me as your ally?”

That would work. V1 nodded. Again, a cute amount of increase in Gabriel’s psyche. For someone who claimed to hate him wholeheartedly, Gabriel treated V1’s companionship a little too dearly. Not that V1 complained, though, never.

It felt amazing that they weren’t meant to hurt each other until someone eventually fell. And what made V1 so disturbed was that, deep down, both of them knew V1 would overpower Gabriel again.

“Thank you.”

 “From now on, you are my ally as well.” To return his kindness, Gabriel placed his hand on V1’s shoulder. “May this unexpected and proudly unparalleled union bring us both victory and salvation.”

For the war machine, there existed no salvation. For the fallen angel, there waited no victory. In their shared silence, both of them knew the truth. They were fated to separate again, this time by the cruel hand of death.

Gabriel would die without getting to see the effect of his sacrifice, and V1 would go back to factory settings with the angel’s demise. From that point on, everything they were about to experience relied on how much time Gabriel had.

While it was undeniable that V1 held incredible strength and resilience, even the machine had his limits and literally a single person who could tell him what to do. It only made sense that V1 erased his hard disk after Gabriel’s demise, which would make things a lot easier.

Heaven would eventually forget Gabriel’s name, too. Perhaps angels close to his strength would form a new Council, promising to deliver true order to the godly land. Reluctant to keep the records of an angel who fought for the damned and reminded them of freedom, records mentioning him would get erased. They would change history, ignore his kindest wish, just to make sure it would never happen again.

V1 realized that he was the only one who could guarantee whether Gabriel would be remembered in the first place. The records in Hell were dangerously scarce and unpreserved. Something happening to his hard disk would erase this more humane and emotional side of Gabriel, making an important part of him unknown to all, including V1 himself.

Among everyone, V1 had fallen for the angel at the highest risk. Neither his body nor his legacy could be protected long enough.

But as Gabriel had said himself, Hell had other relics carrying that Holy Light he needed. V1 straightened his back before losing it all to hopelessness. He grabbed a stick and started drawing on the floor, the dust and soil working to his favor. Gabriel watched him curiously as the determined robot expressed what he wanted to say through art.

He was not… the greatest artist in the world, but his drawing was efficient and understandable. There were two stick figures with distinguishing details, representing V1 and Gabriel. For a reason the angel couldn’t figure out, V1 spent more time working on Gabriel’s details. Then, V1 started drawing the Gate of Earth and Hell. He messed up multiple times.

Gabriel noticed how frustrated V1 got after the fourth try, erasing his failed drawing haphazardly. The angel eventually knelt next to V1 and placed his hand on V1’s, gentle and firm palm touching his iron one. As the angel guided his hand, V1 switched gazes between the floor and the most beautiful angel he had ever seen. Sensing his smooth breath touching his neck, satisfied low hums filling the air, and masterful skills triggered V1’s Style Index.

He was simply too good to be true.

“There we go. The Gate of Earth and Hell.” Gabriel let go. V1 wished he could reach out and ask him to draw it again. “You look pleased. Maybe I can teach you how to draw better. You already have the basics, Machine, all you need is some experience and inspiration.”

V1 nodded. Making art never seemed interesting to him until then; now it was among the things he wanted to try out. He remembered how Gabriel could produce beautiful melodies with the same instrument that V1 had no idea how to use.

Gabriel watched V1 draw the rest. The machine drew multiple crosses, some books, basically anything else that reminded him of holy relics. When he was done with his drawings, he drew an arrow to the openings he left. At last, he drew one more arrow that brought the relics back to Gabriel.

“You say we can go to Hell together and look for relics for me ?”

V1 never needed to be understood before. But now that he wanted to and had an angel who could decipher everything he communicated, V1 felt happy. He got scores whenever Gabriel interpreted his messages.

And though he was happy, V1 still managed to notice Gabriel’s confusion. He wasn’t surprised by the fact that V1 wanted to search for relics or offered to go back to Hell together; he was surprised because V1 wanted to do something for Gabriel.

“Did no one ever do something for him?” V1 wondered.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

It probably wasn’t the case. “He is most likely surprised I am even capable of helping others.”

To be honest, V1 was just as surprised. But it was Gabriel they were talking about, that angel could make anything possible for the war machine. From liking colors to wanting to draw, V1 experienced many changes. It was like getting a software update that taught him how to live.

For so long, he had been chasing life, fueling himself to live. But he had no clue what living was in the first place until then.

V1 was determined to keep his purpose alive as long as possible.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚢_𝚒𝚗_𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌.

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸: 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎… 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸: 𝙸𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐...

Chapter Text

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸: 𝚁𝚎𝚠𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝙼𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢


𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟷/𝟷𝟶𝟶 – 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟷

As they waited for the rain to end, Gabriel explained how Holy Light worked for him and what he meant by time. By his explanation, V1 made up a small index and marked it as level “05” intel.

That ability was taken away after their first fight, when the Council deemed him unworthy of the Father’s grandeur.

Also, while Gabriel did possess a physical body, it worked a little differently than others. Several parts of his armor “shaped” his body, making them permanent parts of him rather than plain protection. This was one other thing they had in common.

Death–fading, in Gabriel’s case–didn’t pain him. If they were to fail in finding another relic, Gabriel wanted V1 to keep that in mind. They were not technically losing anything; the very possible truth of failure and its consequences didn’t imply pain. It was only his fate catching up with him, not a race to win. 

Holy Light manifested into Gabriel’s physical form, making him the strong and magical man he was. Gabriel was better off not using his wings or resorting to sorcery, for they would consume Holy Light, reducing his hours. While he promised not to use divine power too much, he also said he would never hold it back should V1 end up in trouble.

V1 not only had an angel who made his life better, but also a powerful warrior willing to keep him safe. The machine didn’t think that was necessary, and yet the thought made him delighted. Bullets and divinity, dedicated to one another, in hopes of stealing a few more days from death’s grasp.

Once Gabriel was done, it was V1’s turn to explain why he sought blood that much. It took a lot of drawings and some writing (V1 had a hard time writing because of his incompatible hand shape), but he managed to get the job done. Many misunderstandings were taken care of as easily as that.

He first explained that blood was his only fuel, and the same went for many other machines. His expensive armor, capable of absorbing blood and regenerating when damaged, made him the fearsome creature he was. Living, keeping his engine up and running, consumed energy as well.

Then he showed how the Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator functioned and how the numbers on his Style Index entertained him. Likewise, getting low scores or having none at all bothered him. But he wasn’t the only one bothered.

The Terminals in Hell evaluated other machines based on how much they entertained them, getting awarded with Points that enabled them to access better weapons. Also, due to the way V1 was created, violence was his only way of feeling joy. As for the Terminals, they only looked at how messy and terrifying the machines down there could get.

With both sides sufficiently informed about the other, they stepped out of that place as two different beings. Gabriel, already regretting his previous words drenched in blinding hatred, thought his next words carefully.

“So, what you mean to say is that your only purpose in this life is to kill and survive. Not out of malice, but you have no other choice.” The angel’s voice carried a hint of regret. “Allow me to extend my apologies for previously judging you so incorrectly, Machine.”

V1 shrugged. He completely understood what had led Gabriel to think he was a sadistic lunatic.

“By the way… Machine, what is your name?” The question sounded so ironic, considering how much Gabriel knew about him.

V1 pointed at the writing on his chest. They slowed their steps, dawn making it easier to see. The soft blue in the sky satisfied V1.

“Your name is V1? I simply assumed that was some sort of a number, dictating you are the first of your series.”

The machine nodded.

“It both implies you are the first version and your name, then.”

The clouds moved above them, revealing their tiniest details as sunshine hit them. The sky turned into a canvas colored in the prettiest shades of yellow and blue. Whenever they didn’t communicate, V1 and Gabriel watched the sky and admired its view.

V1 sometimes dared glares at Gabriel, too. No matter how beautiful the sky got, it could never compete with Gabriel. During one of those glares, V1 got caught. Gabriel looked at him and chuckled, then went back to watching the view.

His Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator, rightfully, went crazy. V1 felt his cables itch with happiness, his Style Index going high again. V1 wanted to hear that sweet voice again, it was better than any scream he had ever heard.

As they got closer to the factory site, Gabriel looked at the abandoned apartment buildings. One of them, placed in the middle, caught his attention. It was a six-story building, barely any different than the other ones composing the rest of the neighborhood. V1 analyzed the structure in hopes of figuring out how it got Gabriel’s attention.

Gabriel stopped in front of it, naturally making V1 curious. V1 could tell his building had fewer cracked windows, and the fading of its color somewhat made it appear more serene. Its entrance was covered with bushes and flowers. A dim light still fighting the trial of time greeted them, turning on when its sensor noticed someone coming close. It looked as though that singular lightbulb was waiting for someone to come all that time. It flickered, letting out subtle voices, yelling at the buildings that it was right: Someone did come eventually!

“If you would like to live together, we could pick places from here.”

V1 stared at Gabriel, having no clue what he meant by it. For starters, he knew what a home was. Humans, several husks, and even angels had homes. But V1 never had one, he never needed one, and thus never thought of having it.

“What? You didn’t like it? Well, we can renovate it. We can start with our places, and then take care of the whole building if you want.” Gabriel offered. “Oh, I get it. You are used to living as a nomad. That is understandable, too. But I advise you to consider this.”

Gabriel lightly tilted his head, looking at the bag V1 was carrying. It had become such a welcome part of him that V1 had forgotten its existence until Gabriel quietly mentioned it. Before V1 knew it, his mechanical hands were already on the handle, fidgeting softly. “You look like you have your own stuff to store, after all.”

Gabriel, without his anger and angelic duties, was a lot different. Open to understanding and accepting, ready to fill in the gaps and fix problems.

He was so gentle. V1 wondered whether he could be like Gabriel; strong enough to destroy mountains, attentive enough to hear unspoken words.

V1 raised his thumb. The moment Gabriel saw that, his wings jumped.

The machine still didn’t understand the appeal of having a home. But whatever made Gabriel happy made him, too. While the number of days Gabriel had ahead of him was a mystery, V1 didn’t find it logical to make him upset. It was better to treat each day as the last and act accordingly.

Once again, the machine built for speed was taking things slowly. He had been “wasting” a lot of time, and he couldn’t be any more grateful. If Gabriel wanted a home, they were going to get one. If Gabriel wanted to collect every single relic in 24 hours, V1 had to figure out a way. If the angel wanted to spread goodwill across Earth and Hell, V1 had to ignore the unnecessaryness and humor him.

 

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 – 𝙶𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕


 

“Even without the humans around, this factory is still working, though there is no production anymore,” Gabriel said as they walked the dim hallways, puddles of blood and gasoline dirtying the ground. The remains that had barely survived V1’s destructive slaughter told a gory story of his power.

For the first time in his life, V1 didn’t find pride in the consequences of his actions. While his senses and everything he knew about himself said this had to be an error, V1 himself didn’t believe that.

Having the freedom to decide what he actually valued couldn’t be an error. God was incorrect; free will had never been something to be ashamed of. He, his creators, and their forecreators all carried that legacy. As V1 finally tasted what it felt like to be a machine more than his codes, someone who valued and loved, he began to understand.

He could understand why people could feel ashamed. He could understand why they wanted to draw, sing songs, and dance. It all made sense. Once out of the loop and looking at existence, seeing its void didn’t scare him.

As he had told Mirage a long time ago, the meaninglessness of existence was an invitation. Whether to get upset that the canvas was empty or grab some colors and start painting was up to them. But even as V1 spoke so surely of himself back then, he wasn’t exactly sure what he expected from life.

With love in the picture, even his old words gained new meanings. Each action appeared differently. It was like remembering the existence of a new color and applying it to memories. Remembering a new color, noticing something that had always been there, only moments later. Yes, that reflected what he meant. Just like how he realized green made him happy all along.

In the void out of his loop, where no line of code could reach and his AI could barely calculate, he saw the potential to change. He wanted to challenge it and fill the emptiness with Gabriel. With his pictures, words, the moments they would share, his wit, and one day, with him.

Gabriel and V1 had been quiet for some time now. Crushers and grinders kept on working, reminding them of their presence with loud and slow voices. The number of creatures V1 had destroyed with them went beyond what he could remember.

Not that he was incapable of counting them, no. V1 had a clever mind, and to support his precise aiming, he had an AI with advanced mathematical skills. He could calculate the direction he had to shoot at a coin to deal a perfect hit to his victim’s head in the very same second he would throw the coin.

It was just that he never cared to look back, to stare at them and give the smallest form of respect he could for those who died for his Style Index.

V1 updated his knowledge. Loving wasn’t all about seeing the beauty in the world; it was also a gaze deep beneath, and witnessing what had been hiding all along. No matter how much he wanted to blame his coding for his apathy (which wasn’t gone), he started disliking being born this way.

The worst part was that… he was already missing the days he lived guilt-free. He still saw it as his logical right to claim what he could defeat. Those who couldn’t survive his strength simply didn’t deserve to live. This made sense to him, and V1 felt correct rather than disturbed.

Maybe he really had to format himself at some point.

He looked down, watching his shadow disrespect the bodily pieces. What could be more contradictory than cold-minded logic and remorseful feelings meeting in the same vessel?

The strong deserved to triumph over the weak, but it wasn’t their fault they were destined to be that way..! Those who couldn’t adapt to the world around them deserved what they would get from it, but this was too cruel..! Those who couldn’t heed the warning signs were simply unworthy o–

“Machine!”

V1 came back to his senses, only to be greeted by the loud sound coming from right above. The moment he raised his eye, and saw the heavy crusher hovering over him. In a matter of milliseconds, passing V1’s reaction time by mere differences, the crusher clicked, and it pressed down.

His lens shrank.

𝙽𝙾 𝚅𝙾𝙲𝙰𝙻 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙵𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳, 𝚄𝙽𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝙾 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙿𝙻𝙴𝚃𝙴 𝚃𝙰𝚂𝙺

But it didn’t crush him. It got so close, lingering on top of V1, shivering with built-up energy. The possible cause of his death, the one thing he could never stand a chance against, couldn’t do a thing to him.

V1 turned his head and saw Gabriel on his left, holding the crusher's heavy load all by himself. While the angel left a grunt or two, he looked nowhere near challenged. Gabriel looked right at V1, tilting his head, wondering what he was waiting for.

The machine stepped away, his mind ringing with the countless warnings and permission requests, his senses on the verge of overload. This was one of the very rare moments V1 felt sheer terror claiming his body, a sense that reminded him he was no different than the mortals he had slain.

Gabriel took a deep breath and pushed the crusher upward with all his might. The heavy machine jumped in place, making a loud metallic sound as Gabriel quickly stepped out of its way. It continued hitting up and down after that. With each hit, the ground shivered.

“V1, are you okay?” the angel asked, but his worried tone got engulfed in anger. “What the fuck were you thinking? Didn’t you see the signs? And I assumed you knew this place!”

V1, standing right beside one of those yellow warning signs, had nothing to say. Excluding that he didn’t even have a mouth or a voice box, he genuinely had no idea what to say. His mind had stopped working, now looking at Gabriel and the other machine that could have been his end.

Gabriel cursed under his breath, massaging his temple. “Forget it, just… I just got worried, okay?”

He nodded in return. Was it bad that V1 liked the thought of Gabriel getting worried for him?

“Be more careful next time.”

V1 nodded again, more determined this time. When Gabriel reached out his hand, his lens turned back to normal.

For so long, he wanted to hold his hand. Even for a handshake, he would like to do it. He held Gabriel’s hand, shaking hands. V1’s Style Index went crazy with the numbers.

“We are even now,” Gabriel laughed. “A life for a life.”

As the blood-fueled war machine, he had always been on the stronger side. V1 never relied on others, nor was he ever saved by someone else; it went against his coding. Such a thing had never been possible from his perspective. It was always, but always, the hunter and the hunted. Whether it be another sentient being or something as apathetic as a crusher, there always existed a consequence for not being aware and powerful enough.

V1 wondered whether this was the undeniable truth or the reality he had to endure as a solo survivor. His gaze lingered on Gabriel’s helmet, staring at the cross as if it were his face.

V1 felt safe.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟹.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 2/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 3

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 – 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

While strolling in the Lust layer was awkward on its own, it had gotten even more bizarre with an angel by his side. Eventually, V1 asked how come there were no blessed relics in Limbo. Rather than the cross V1 used to save Gabriel, there was nothing there.

“It was my own decision. Limbo used to be filled with relics washed in Holy Light. After becoming the Judge of Hell, I figured they could be of more use spread across the other layers of  Hell. They could both remind the sinners of God’s power and give them a reason to endure their suffering. Regardless of the severity of sin, I believed that everyone deserved hope.”

The inspiring climax of his precious speech was cut short once they saw a giant poster. The giant poster, featuring a Mindflayer in a rather uncomfortable and obscene position, silenced the robot and the angel.

At the very least, their embarrassed moments of silence paid off well, and they got something with Holy Light inside. When V1 asked what the white substance around it was, Gabriel asked him to ignore it.

The relic wasn’t the only thing they had taken from there. Walking around with a keyboard tucked under his arm, V1 now had another way of communicating. By pressing the keys as Gabriel watched him, he could express himself more efficiently.

“You can use this whenever you want. Though I don’t want you to think your motions aren’t enough,” Gabriel had once said. “Sometimes, even the way the body twitches gives messages no amount of words can interpret.”

This didn’t make sense to V1. How could mere gestures mean more than words and symbols? It was easy for him to say, he had never been mute before (probably)!

V1 placed his keyboard on the table and the bag near the chair. Their new home had three rooms and was on the fifth floor of the six-story apartment building. Soft green and some brown strikes (excluding the molding and yellowing) dominated the apartment. Gabriel murmured something about renovating the place, but his voice was so soft and sluggish that V1 had to guess most of it.

The room facing east had several furniture, still usable by luck. The dusty bed Gabriel was busy cleaning, a wardrobe with some clothing inside, the messy table covered in dust and paperwork, and a slim bookshelf. The yellowed curtains tilted whenever the kind breeze got inside. The shattered window was the least of V1’s worries. Still, he calculated the weather and checked its safety rate just in case.

Gabriel had been acting a little strange. If it were up to V1, he would suggest wandering in Hell more and gathering more relics. But shortly after getting one of them, Gabriel started making soft but rather odd noises and appeared less attentive. He sometimes took a while to answer, and spent most of his time simply following V1 around. Loud voices startled him while the angel was supposed to be the one startling the voices.

He got only worse after returning to Earth, making V1 confused. What made things even more complicated was that V1’s sensors insisted Gabriel was in a good mood.

Could it be the side effects of forcibly obtaining Holy Light from relics? Or maybe he needed more time to recover. V1 had found him in a terrible state, after all. What if Gabriel no longer had much resistance against Hell’s aura, with most of his powers gone and abilities limited?

Gabriel lay on the bed, stretching his legs, arms, and wings. He looked so peaceful as the gentle light of the sun fell on him, reminding V1 how much of a handsome man he was. The machine held his keyboard and sat by his side. With a light groan, Gabriel weighed himself on his elbow and turned to his side. “Hello, friend.”

“What is wrong?” V1 typed.

“I am sleepy,” he said. “Do you know what sleep is?”

V1 nodded.

“Great,” Gabriel yawned and brought his hand to close his mouth, even though he had his helmet. “It would take a while to explain it. I’ll tell you more when I wake up, okay?”

“Sleep is dangerous.” He wrote.

“How come?” Gabriel spoke more slowly, exhaustion already taking over him. It has been days since he last slept. Angels could go on for days without sleep, but they still needed it.

“No consciousness. You can’t defend yourself.”

“I doubt there is any threat I should be on guard for,” he yawned again, slower. A thought came to him, and he decided to make a joke after giggling at it. “But if you are worried, you can watch over me.”

After that, Gabriel didn’t say anything. His breathing got softer and deeper. V1, having taken his “suggestion” seriously, waited there. He liked how Gabriel didn’t mind him staying, sitting on the bed, guarding him if he really had concerns.

And also noticed this meant Gabriel trusted him. If V1 had lips, they would hurt from how hard he would be grinning. He was not a threat. Not anymore. Well, Gabriel wouldn’t have gone to Hell with him if he didn’t trust the machine, but still, this was a verbal declaration! 

“Gabriel doesn’t see me as a threat.” V1 thought. When his processor gave no warning, his engine made a light noise. He placed his hands on his lap, about to notice something even more surprising.

“Although I hadn’t killed anyone for hours, I am not in a bad mood.” He checked his Style Index and realized it was stuck in the “Destruction” level of entertainment, although his system had no way of explaining what kept him that delighted. He checked his Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator again, and the system reported no error or damage. “Then this is because I am with Gabriel.”

He looked outside. The room they were in had two wide windows and a door leading to the small balcony. The soft curtains let the sunlight get in, allowing even more reach inside whenever the breeze waved them. V1 studied the view outside, focusing on the horizon line emerging behind the trees. They weren’t far from the sea.

V1 realized he would have never seen this beauty if it weren’t for Gabriel and the malfunction his system experienced. All the depictions he saw in those books made sense. V1 could understand what they meant by comparing their love to the vast seas and oceans.

The machine spent his time watching the view and looking at Gabriel occasionally. As hours passed, the sun started to set and leave its place to the dark. As the sky dimmed and shades of blue mixed with orange and purple danced, V1’s senses got overloaded with fascination. The clouds and the horizon line complemented each other, the trees waved, and the light entering inside blessed his cursed body.

There, beyond his codes, existed a life different from what he could ever imagine. If everything were all about the strong destroying the weak, V1 wouldn’t even be there. The trees wouldn’t have been presenting the most beautiful of their shapes, and the mountains wouldn’t have reached out to touch the clouds. Gabriel would never be so beautiful if all that mattered were strength.

Then, what was the meaning of life for him? The thing he had been trying to sustain ever since he became aware of his surroundings, what meaning did it hold? What meaning could V1 give to it? Why did he want to live?

With even more hours “wasted” according to V1’s system, night finally began. Now, it was time for the twinkling stars to do their show. V1 watched them and imagined shapes, all of them either being Gabriel or things related to him. He could swear he saw a giant cross in the sky at some point.

V1 turned his head when he noticed a light shuffle on the bed, followed by Gabriel’s gentle hums. V1’s lens barely let out any light, though it was enough to light his face. The golden cross glimmered.

“Machine?” the confused angel murmured. V1 tilted his head.

“What are you doing h–...” before completing his sentence, Gabriel jumped in his place, dizziness gone. “Did you take it seriously?”

V1 proudly nodded.

“But, that was a joke…”

V1 nodded again. At some point, he had figured out Gabriel didn’t mean the “watch over me” part, but he didn’t want to leave. No matter how peaceful the region seemed, he couldn’t count on that and leave Gabriel alone. Besides, he had a lot of fun sitting there and watching the view.

Two views, actually, since Gabriel looked better than anything else. His engine hummed when he remembered how pretty Gabriel looked as he slept.

V1 didn’t want this moment to end. Even the silence they shared carried its own meaning. He heard feelings he had never read, born of silence only disturbed by the sea and the breeze.

“How long has it been since I fell asleep?”

The machine made a quick calculation. Then, he raised nine of his fingers. He made a little wiggle to indicate it wasn’t exactly nine hours.

“You have been waiting here for nine hours… for me?”

V1 lowered his hands and nodded. He had to thank whoever had invented nodding, the person had saved him from a lot of hustle

“I am at a loss for words,” the angel said as he lifted himself. He stretched his back and opened his wings wide. V1 mimicked him, though he didn’t know why. Gabriel noticed the machine’s imitation and laughed mid-yawn.

His laughter satisfied V1. He wanted to hear that voice more often, getting louder with happiness instead of pain. He assumed stretching when someone else did was a kind gesture among angelic beings, and decided to stretch whenever Gabriel did. Not for anyone else, just for him.

“Are you hungry?” Gabriel lowered his wings. Now, being hungry could mean a lot of things for a machine. Hungry for blood? Hungry for entertainment? Hungry for an oil change? Hungry for Gabriel’s attention? V1 didn’t answer instantly, still trying to figure out what Gabriel meant by that.

“Oh, my apologies, you don’t eat.” He gazed lower than V1’s singular eye, to the place of the nonexistent stomach. It made sense now. Gabriel referred to the act of eating done by creatures with mouths and digestive systems. V1 certainly didn’t have one, and his “hunger” could easily be taken care of by a few murders.

While his exterior enabled him to absorb blood at any moment, he did have a fuel inlet where he could pour blood as if it were some common type of liquid. The lid was right beneath his eye, just like how humans had their mouths close to their noses and eyes. He started missing the sensation of blood, but it didn’t make much sense to leave Gabriel alone and go down to Hell .

What if Gabriel got sleepy again, and something dangerous appeared when he was unaware of his surroundings? What if he suddenly ran out of Holy Light for some reason and didn’t even have enough time to call for help? The gory questions increased, and V1’s calculations agreed with the risks.

V1 grabbed his keyboard before they left the room. The small apartment had two smaller rooms and one big room that connected the rest. The big room especially caught V1’s attention (he was unable to care beforehand since Gabriel was sleepy and V1 didn’t know angels needed sleep previously) with its design. On one side, the room was a kitchen. But the other side seemed like what he would call a living room with the two couches and a TV begging to be destroyed with how pathetic it looked. Then there was the dark brown door that led outside. 

Gabriel grabbed the sealed cans he had placed on the counter that afternoon. It all made sense to V1 when he looked at the cans closer. They were sealed meals meant to stand the test of time. V1 increased his eye’s light. Gabriel thanked him, pulled out a golden knife from his armor’s pocket, and stabbed it into the can’s lid. He opened three of them and hummed, satisfied.

Since they didn’t have electricity, the angel didn’t bother touching the microwave. Without much hope, Gabriel tried the stove. It made noises whenever he moved the switches, but no sparks came out. Gabriel didn’t even push it too hard, simply shrugged, and said they should get used to campfires for a while. Neither of the men was annoyed by it.

They stepped outside the building and gathered some planks. V1 started the fire by pushing heat from his palms. Meanwhile, Gabriel carried the two heavy iron boxes he found, placing them before the campfire. Gabriel then left the canned meals near the dancing fire.

As he waited for them to warm up, Gabriel explained how sealing worked and why it could keep several types of food from going bad. Then, he also explained what it meant for food to go bad, rot, and why it made something edible inedible. V1 listened to the ancient angel, learning more about biology and his creators. Gabriel’s vast knowledge mesmerized V1, each sentence from his mouth changing the machine’s whole perspective.

Gabriel went back to the kitchen to get a plate and utensils. With him not around for a few minutes, V1 noticed how silent and lonely his whole life had been. Having Gabriel by his side, watching him, listening to him, and doing things together had been so significant for him.

And for what? Machines hardly value sharing and working in groups. He used to be one of them, seeing alliances as an utter waste of time and nonsense, that capability of his lying somewhere in his mind just in case. Now, it was the backbone of everything that made him feel… powerful.

“Yes, that word works well.” He thought. “Powerful. I feel powerful.”

This didn’t mean he felt okay, however. Constantly going against his own nature bothered him, and several of his actions were already contradicting his beliefs. The desire to harm Gabriel still came back occasionally, still there somewhere, no matter how small it was.

He didn’t feel correct, but standing against that damning feeling was the most powerful thing he had done. This was a true struggle, one he couldn’t get out of with bullets and intense calculations. This challenge was one testing his mental resistance, a battle against himself and his fate. The prize could be his first and only love, no matter how slim and irrational that hope was.

Even if nothing worked, V1 wouldn’t mind spending time with Gabriel. His Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator seemed to agree with him, with the level of satisfaction hitting rock bottom in Gabriel’s absence. The silence felt so loud, the beautiful scenery in front of him reduced to a mere background.

Then, he came back. V1’s engine groaned lightly, shaking his body. When the angel sat by his side again, everything started to get better. The trees appeared more beautiful, the moon shone brighter, and the far sea’s gentle noises satisfied his sensors.

Gabriel started preparing his plate. “To be honest, being able to ‘feed’ and heal mid-battle is an amazing ability. But it wouldn’t hurt if we could find an alternative for you, V1. I don’t know how, but we can try formulating a fuel that can work like blood. That would change everything, wouldn’t it?”

“Why?” V1 typed.

“Many reasons. One is that you would no longer depend on killing others to survive. Two, with more time left to yourself, you could do other things with your life. Three is that, if it works on you, it will probably work on other machines.” Gabriel placed his hand on his mask, the bottom golden extension under his fingertips. “V1, can you imagine a world where your kind doesn’t have to kill just to live another day?”

The machine had never cared about his kind. Just like the heavenly creatures and the damned sinners, they were yet another source of blood. In his plain understanding of the strong dominating the weak, those who couldn’t fight well enough deserved death.

Then again, this would mean V1 was supposed to get crushed under that machine. No matter how unfair it was, it was the truth. Gabriel wanted to battle the truth with innovation and justice, expecting a positive reaction from V1. But the machine couldn’t care less.

“Maybe I should devote my last years to this cause,” he said, hand still on the golden ornament. “Humans are gone, but their legacy is still here. They should have the right to be good. But we cannot speak of being good when lives are at stake.”

Being good was a luxury, not a choice; for there were points in life where the best thing to do was the worst.

“I had never taken this part off around others,” Gabriel pulled down the golden extension. The rest of the mask was still on his head. His chin and lips were revealed, the dark shade of his skin adding beauty to his details. “It wasn’t inappropriate. I simply disliked it when others saw more than they had to.”

V1 turned his head away. Gabriel laughed and thanked him for his thoughtfulness. “For some reason, I don’t feel bad with you seeing me like this. V1, you may look at me.”

The machine didn’t hesitate, excited to examine him. His cuteness lifted the angel’s spirit. “Angelic beings and biological life forms share similarities. We both eat, though our digestive system ends with our stomach. There, our bodies burn everything with Holy Light. Whatever we eat turns into sheer energy.”

Gabriel took a spoonful from the plate, chewing the warm mashed potatoes with some seasoning. He didn’t care about the taste; food was food, though he began to miss the feasts they had back in Heaven. He felt less bad when he swallowed, the pain in his stomach lessening. “V1, you should teach me how machines use blood as fuel. Knowing what makes blood so different might give us a hint. We can figure out the significant factor and attempt to replicate it with alternatives.”

V1 nodded half-heartedly.

“I am sure you are going to love it once we get results. It is okay that you don’t care now.” Gabriel shrugged. “I would get offended if I were the man I was around a week ago. But change is quite real, even for archaic beings like me. So, I suggest you give it a chance, Machine.”

Gabriel had already changed him a lot. V1 didn’t doubt his word; he simply didn’t see the point in saving other machines. It didn’t make sense to him. They didn’t owe them anything. Why couldn’t Gabriel set his morals aside and spend his final years in peace? Gabriel had already worked a lot, so why work more for machines that wouldn’t see him as more than a prey who happens to be amazing at fighting back?

“I have another reason,” Gabriel said, watching the sky, “and it is a little personal. My friend, you have changed me a lot. And among all the machines I want to save from this obligation, you rank first. I want to make an alternative for you first, and only you. Then work around it and see whether it will benefit other machines.”

V1’s shoulders lowered, hands falling on the keyboard.

“Hell will run out of blood at some point. Even if you somehow reach Heaven, you will see they are not infinite. If you rely on destruction, you will die the moment you run out of things to destroy, V1.” Gabriel ate a little more, letting the silence give V1 time to think. “If we somehow create a sustainable fuel type, you will never face such a risk. You will live for millennia to come.”

“You want me to live long?” V1 typed, his fingers slowing down as he wrote the last words. He had always wanted to live long.

But has anyone ever wanted him to live long?

Obviously not, no one in the three realms would want an unstoppable apex predator to outlive everyone else. Not even his self-claimed brother (more like a cheap copy, honestly) would stop for a moment and wish something good for him. Well, V1 wouldn’t wish any welfare for him either! But… Why did it hurt to think about it?

Maybe he should have let that dastardly cheap copy get away one last time… Scare him so badly that he wouldn’t dare stand in his way again. Or break him beyond repair, force him to spend the rest of his life squeezing droplets from the corpses V1 left behind. But still be alive.

Was this… regret?

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍_𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝟶𝟹.𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊.

𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎? (𝚈/𝙽)

V1 noticed his feelings for Gabriel had done irreversible damage to his AI when the pop-up disturbed him. He could easily get rid of that annoying feeling and never think of it again; his mind was capable of flagging several inputs as spam and ignoring them before they could ever reach his processors.

And yet… and yet…

𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎? (𝚈/ 𝙽 )

The remorse could linger around a little longer. It was new, and V1 liked new things. What a pitiful machine V2 was! The only thing he was good at was annoying V1, and he did a marvelous job at that, going as far as haunting V1 with his own lines of code. The blue machine had to respect that, at the very least.

“That would be amazing, yes.” Gabriel lowered his head, now seeming to watch the fire although his mind was far away. V1 acted as though he wasn’t lost in thought, contradicting himself. Living long, yes. “I lived for a long time and saw everything I had to. The world is grand, the legacy of your creators is buried, but there. You have a lot to see, learn, and discover.”

“I know you have questions, questions that go beyond anything you have ever done in your life. Clever beings like you are rare, and they deserve all the answers the universe can give.”

Every word leaving Gabriel’s mouth blessed V1. His words explained things V1 wasn’t even ready to question, his gestures reassured him that, no matter what the truth was, the only thing that mattered was what he would be doing with it.

“Some of those answers can be a relief upon your soul, V1, but some of them can crush your whole life; leave you questioning whether your whole existence was but a sour lie.” When Gabriel’s voice trembled, the machine knew he was talking about himself. Lost between feeling bad for taking everything from him and good for granting him freedom, V1 couldn’t say anything. “Mine was. It was a lie I found comfort in, as the truth outside seemed cold and painfully endless.”

“No matter what the truth is you find out, I want you to make good use of it. Even if it is painful, it will be relieving. My initial disappointment was beyond any word could explain; I doubt future generations will ever experience such agony. But it was a price I had to pay for freedom.”

“After getting used to the truth I had ignored for so long, I realized it wasn’t cold, my life was burning me the whole time. And I saw that endlessness was not a bad thing, but an infinite horizon to fly into.” Gabriel lowered his wings. “I had wings as far as I can remember, yet I never flew without order. While wishing to obey the Council, I disobeyed myself.”

“And I could never notice it if it weren’t for you, Machine.”

For a while, no one said anything. Their gazes locked on one another, the machine and the archangel shared this moment of silent connection.

“V1, I don’t have enough time to accompany you on that journey. But I will do my best to make sure you will have enough time to get what you must.”

V1 wished he could say what he wanted was there, and it all depended on his answer whether he would earn him. Deep down, V1 wished he could yell what he wanted. “I want you.”

“After considering, I realized that the best way I can thank you is by giving you longevity. If I manage to bestow this upon you and your kind and make sure you will never be alone in this grand world, I will die a happy man.”

The machine spent his whole life running away from death, pushing others into it just to gain some time. And the angel who lost everything, including his endless years, was planning to dedicate his limited time to him. To gift V1 something Gabriel could no longer have.

He was offering to defy the only thing that could take down V1.

How could he not love Gabriel?

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 2/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟽

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 – 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

The nearby seashore stretched to the horizon and became one with the sky. Especially near dawn, the sky seemed no different than the sea, a tapestry of divine beauty impossible to ignore. The chill breeze and the mesmerizing smell of the sea relaxed Gabriel’s body.

Having reached their first week, both Gabriel and V1 were a little different. The angel had salvaged some clothing, combining several pieces and sewing them according to his proportions. He had multiple button-ups already, and the one he was wearing had a shade of blue so light that it looked whitish. V1 was having it slow, viewing the world around him and the world within Gabriel with fascination.

When the angel started stretching and yawning, V1 mimicked him like the last time. He has been doing that for a while now, and Gabriel had no complaints. Seeing this cute side of the machine warmed his heart, making him laugh smoothly.

“You woke up seven hours ago. How did you get sleepy again?” V1 asked with his keyboard, pushing the buttons excitedly to get the answer as soon as possible.

He loved asking questions and getting answers from Gabriel. They didn’t even have to be groundbreaking or mind-shattering. Even listening to him explain why raw meat was dangerous but cooked one wasn’t entertained him. Gabriel knew a lot. His wisdom excited the machine.

“I am not sleepy, my friend.” He said, passing the fishing rods to his machine comrade. Making his way to the nearby rocks, drenched in the beach sand, Gabriel explained. “Sometimes, I just feel like doing so. It is a biological reflex. It comes whenever it feels like it, and you relax a little.”

Standing before the pile of big rocks, Gabriel spoke. “Pick one.”

V1 pointed at the large, square-like rock. He didn’t know why they were picking rocks now. He thought they were there to catch some fish.

His unspoken question got answered when Gabriel picked up the rock, heaved it, and threw it. The heavy rock landed, half of it under the sea’s calm waves. It looked like a wonderful place to sit, and not just a rock that happened to grab V1’s attention.

While it was no surprise that a muscle mass like Gabriel could use a lot of brute force, it mesmerized V1 whenever Gabriel showcased his power. First, with the crusher back in the factory, then carrying heavy boxes to their home , and now throwing a rock as if it weighed nothing.

Gabriel had initially assumed V1 would want to live in his own apartment, but V1 had declined and claimed he didn’t need one. While this was not incorrect, his actual reason was that he wanted to be close to Gabriel as much as possible. They settled with V1 taking the room next to Gabriel’s. While the angel insisted they could switch rooms, since Gabriel felt guilty that V1’s new room didn’t even have windows, V1 declared he would “temporarily seize” Gabriel’s balcony and windows whenever he felt like watching outside.

A side note in V1’s mind, that was just an excuse to get into Gabriel’s room without having to sneak in. He may be a hopeless romantic, but he is a strategist nonetheless.

“Did you know yawning is contagious?” Gabriel asked, not even bothering to mention his strength. He led the way, leaving a clueless and entertained V1. Did the terminals get excited like he did whenever machines committed messy slaughters? If so, he could totally understand their hype.

The rest of their hours passed without action. They sat on top of the rock, a bucket placed between them, rods stretching to the sea with sturdy ropes. For three hours straight, Gabriel said everything he could remember about humans.

He explained how they saw their nations, landmasses they determined as their representative places, as their homes. Those imaginary borders dictated who could do what in which place. They had special flags that evoked so many emotions. They had trained people, soldiers, to protect their nations from other nations. They spoke different languages, followed different ideals, and dreamed different lives, all under the same welkin.

Gabriel also said some words he could remember from those languages; he knew five human languages well enough to communicate flawlessly, and many others to express himself superficially. He sounded so funny when he tried speaking Turkish and Chinese words, and got increasingly attractive when he switched to German.

The bucket slowly got filled, but they weren’t looking at that anymore, their hands working autonomously and placing the fish they caught just so they could get back to speaking. V1’s fingers moved quickly over the keyboard, and Gabriel’s accustomed eyes caught up with his pace easily.

So entertained by each other’s company, they didn’t notice the rising sun. Gabriel got a little carried away and started using many motions. He raised his arms on both sides, opened his wings, stood up, and mimicked the march styles humans had come up with. V1 clapped for each performance of his, recording everything Gabriel demonstrated.

During one of his demonstrations, Gabriel got too close to the edge. When he tried stepping backward, he felt nothing under his foot. He opened his wings wide, arms struggling to keep his balance. He could save himself on his own, but V1 jumped into action at the same time, and accidentally knocked him off the rock with himself. Gabriel and V1 fell into the water.

V1 found himself on Gabriel’s lap, hands pressing to his chestplate. His engine roared with excitement, and a giant “Anarchist” word appeared on his Style Index. He was having way too much fun for someone who was sitting.

In water. On top of Gabriel.

Gabriel didn’t seem mad in the slightest. V1’s detectors didn’t catch an ounce of disturbance either. Gabriel hummed. “I was planning to get in the sea, just not now.”

V1 reached out for his keyboard, but they were a little far from it.

“It is okay, I know you didn’t mean to. You were trying to catch me,” Gabriel tilted his head. “I thank you for that. Besides, getting a little wet helps clear the mind.”

V1 nodded quickly as if he knew what he was doing, and that was his intention all along. They stared at each other for a while. V1 didn’t seem like he was planning to move anytime soon.

“Are you okay?”

The machine nodded again. Only then did he realize he was supposed to stand up.

How odd… The more he got used to that sweet sensation of love, the more disorderly and random his mind worked. He was losing his innate tendency to never waste time, replacing it with living the best of his time. It was like his own mind upgrading itself, opening a place to accept more of Gabriel’s beauty.

V1 was a machine who could only see truth in numbers and statistics, and Gabriel was like the letters that reached every place his numbers could never. The detail hidden under the grand picture, the colors that set each line apart.

He stood up, wishing he could sit on his lap longer. It felt amazing to be in the embrace of someone physically stronger, yet who would probably never hurt him. V1 was not the kind of man to trust someone blindly, but he could make calculations based on how much and why anyone would want to hurt him.

Besides, if the angel had bad intentions, he would neither be okay with V1 sitting on him nor share the same house with him. So, he didn’t see a reason to doubt Gabriel.

“How about this? We go to Hell as we planned, and hopefully retrieve some relics. Once we come back, if both of us are alright, we will come here again.” Gabriel stood up and took a look at the bucket. “Goodness! We have more than enough, and I haven’t noticed until now.”

V1 took his keyboard and the fishing rods as Gabriel grabbed the bucket. They decided to leave the rock there, designating it as some sort of special place they will always go to for fishing. V1 was fascinated by the idea that even a rock could change meaning based on what they thought about it.

His straight view of bare truths and numbers wavered, leaving an uncertain but lovable world.

They returned to the factory site. As V1 started a fire, Gabriel prepared the ingredients for his breakfast. Once he was done, they were to go back to Hell and search for some Holy Light. Even the thought of exploding some skulls and melting engines sent shivers down his spine. Having tasted the marvelous sensation of warm blood many times, V1 was reluctant to squeeze cold blood from the fish. It would feel like eating something terrible just to survive.

V1 watched Gabriel move with experience and certainty, remembering recipes and using his instinct to decide what he should use for what amount. The machine could neither taste nor smell, but watching him show such a basic and normal aspect of life intrigued him. V1 wished he could tell how entertaining it was to live with someone normal.

It felt as though V1 was never born to be a bloodthirsty machine of total destruction. When busy admiring Gabriel, he forgot everything about himself, becoming the spectator of everything pretty.  His design made him miss the screams of his victims, and his lack of violence tried tricking him into hurting Gabriel, but resisting the urge had never been this easier.

When Gabriel had first learned that V1 couldn’t smell, he didn’t belittle him for lacking such a simple trait nearly everyone else had. He didn’t feel sorry either. Instead of reacting in any way that could have broken V1’s spirit, he had given a reassuring nod. “We will see what we can do. If you can find components suitable to you, I will do my best to install whatever sensor you need.”

For someone who could depend on himself and himself only, this was a grand step. V1 couldn’t decide whether Gabriel’s thoughtfulness or his willingness to help made him happier. Regardless of the reason, Gabriel always managed to remind V1 why he was in love with the right angel.

“I hope I don’t make you feel bad, V1,” Gabriel said, placing the four fish he cooked on the plate. The rest were in the fridge that miraculously worked, although not efficiently. Compared to what had happened to the rest of the machines in that building, the fridge was doing more than they had expected from it.

After Gabriel had jostled some circuit breakers, replaced several cables, and gotten mad eleven times, he managed to light up the entire apartment building. Old machines hustled and bustled. Many of them short-circuited when electricity came into contact with them, though the fridge in their home was a durable one. If only it wasn’t red and awfully reminded V1 of his self-claimed brother, the annoying as hell V2, he would like the fridge.

V1 placed his keyboard on his lap. “Watching you is very fun.”

“Is that so?”

The machine nodded.

“Is there a specific reason?”

“I feel normal when you do normal stuff with me.” V1 wrote.

“V1, I have so many reasons to believe you have always been normal.” Gabriel washed his hands and sat by his friend’s side. The angel placed his hand on V1’s shoulder. “You are just incredibly strong.”

V1 looked at his two arms. He felt less powerful when the other arms he had “borrowed” from V2 weren’t attached. Still, his compliment made V1 feel a lot better.

“Still, if this helps you, feel free to watch me as much as you want.” Gabriel stood up. “I suppose I get what you mean. It has been a week since we started living together, doing normal stuff as if we are not deadly creatures with countless corpses behind our victories. And I had never felt this relaxed before.”

They heard a subtle voice coming from behind, hidden between the bushes. When V1 turned his head in that direction, Gabriel beckoned him to look away. V1 obeyed, although it didn’t make sense. Before he could grab his keyboard and ask what the angel had in mind, a Filth appeared. V1 could recognize it by the pitiful voices it made, and Gabriel most likely had some angelic intuition that gave away the creature’s identity.

With cowardly yet fast steps, the Filth got closer to the smoked fish waiting to be eaten. The monster opened its wide mouth and started chewing on it. V1 reached out for his pistol but had to forget about it when he saw Gabriel shaking his head negatively.

They kept watching the view as they acted as if the creature weren’t there. V1’s knuckles grew uneasy, engine yearning to roar once again and shed blood. The only thing keeping him from losing it and turning back into the sadistic robot he had always been was Gabriel. Not that the angel could stop him or pose a threat that forced V1 into submission.

He noticed that he was afraid of disappointing Gabriel. Going against his word would cost the trust Gabriel openly had for V1, and that sounded worse than losing a limb. V1 had no idea how he could restore it once the trust was gone, and his calculations suggested that a fixed trust, no matter how meticulously made it was, would never be as good as a trust unbroken.

He couldn’t dream of earning Gabriel’s heart if the angel couldn’t even trust him with a task as simple as not killing anyone for five minutes. A task so simple for Gabriel, but hellish for V1. Still, this was the least he could do.

The creature filled its stomach with the tasty fish. When it was done eating, V1 wondered what the Filth would do next. He waited, depending on his hearing, in hopes of figuring out what it would do next. The Filth got a little closer to them, urging V1 to grab his pistol. Gabriel didn’t react this time.

It led out a huffled voice, not hostile. It was unlike anything he had ever heard. Before long, the Filth ran away, leaving them alone. Gabriel turned back and looked at the empty plate, and a satisfied nod followed.

“Thank you for cooperating with me, V1.”

V1 turned his pistol back into its energy form and placed his keyboard on his lap. “Why did you let it eat your food? Food is important.”

“Indeed, food is important.” Gabriel grabbed more fish and started preparing them, this time working a little slower so the machine could watch him for longer. “Everyone needs to eat, whether it is blood or anything else. That creature didn’t have bad intentions, or it would have attacked us or caused a ruckus. As you have noticed, it simply ate and left once satisfied.”

“It makes no sense.” V1 wrote.

“Can it fish like us? Start fire like you, and cook like me?”

“This doesn’t give it the right to get what is ours.”

“It cannot do these things on its own; hence, we should help out.”

V1’s processor considered Gabriel’s answer twice. When nothing inside him could find an answer, he decided to ask. “Why?”

“Because it is the right thing to do.”

“It is not our fault it can’t feed itself.”

“And it is not its fault it can’t feed itself, either.” Gabriel hummed once he was done chopping the fish and placed them to cook. “But since we can change things for the better, why shouldn’t we?”

“Why should we?”

“Once again, it is the right thing to do.”

“It is a waste of time and resources.”

Gabriel chuckled. “From your perspective, true. It is a waste of time and resources indeed. There is no efficient answer I can give about kindness if you look at what we get in return. But this is the point, there is no getting anything back. Someone gets to live another day without risk, and we get to feel happy about it.

But V1 wasn’t happy that the insignificant creature ate something. He was simply relieved he didn’t do anything reckless and disappoint Gabriel. Perhaps, this was the only thing he earned from that occurrence. V1 proved that he was more than a bloodlusty machine who knew nothing but violence. He could restrain himself if he had to, but that was very much it.

“But for your sake, I will think of an answer that can satisfy you.” After Gabriel said that, they didn’t speak for a while. Gabriel finished cooking, started eating, V1 admired his beauty with his wide-open eye, and then Gabriel hummed.

“I got one,” he said after swallowing his sixth bite. V1 had been counting even that, yes. “V1, I did mention I want to find a way to free you and your kind from endless slaughter for survival. Even if we do formulate a fuel, we still need a system to distribute the fuel accordingly. Such a system can be a society, just like how your creators and their ancestors used to have.”

He took another bite. “But if we want to have such a society, we should make it supportive and sustainable even when things go wrong. It is easy to get along well when everything is okay; what matters more is how willing everyone is to help one another when things get challenging. The best way to ensure that is kindness.”

V1 leaned forward.

“Regarding your question, we can say that kindness increases the likelihood of our success. And if our acts of kindness ever manage to start a chain of good deeds, our aim can reach the deepest parts of Hell and bring everyone closer. The more machines we have willing to live peacefully, the more this alternative fuel will have a meaning in the first place. If machines are no longer hostile, the sinners will eventually get less and less violent as well.”

It… made sense. V1 couldn’t believe it, but it actually made sense. Overriding a vulnerability by taking it as the truth and preparing for it instead of facing it head-on. If everyone were conditioned to be kind and generous, they wouldn’t run out of resources anytime soon. The resources they would have to use fighting others could be passed to other projects.

“Are you satisfied?”

The machine nodded. Gabriel’s wisdom once again mesmerized him.

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟺/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟷𝟼

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:  𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 – 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

Their home was starting to reshape into a mixture of their personalities. Each day, they contributed in their unique ways, and their different approaches somehow always managed to complement one another.

Gabriel gathered ordinary pieces and household machines. Finding a working microwave had made things a lot easier, but they weren’t going to stop setting up campfires anytime soon. Whenever he found functioning machines in other apartments, he excitedly hauled them as if they were no heavier than a basket of grapes. They had a functioning stove, a washing machine they could even toss dirty shoes in, a dishwasher, the mentioned microwave, a toaster, and a furnace.

Since the angel was a little upset that the different colors of the machines didn’t match the kitchen, V1 went on his way to find red paint. V1 at least knew Gabriel adored that fridge, unaware it had the color of a certain cheap copy…

When he had returned home with a giant bucket of red paint in his arms, what he got was a heavenly hug from Gabriel. As V1 sat at a corner, trying to register what had just happened to him, Gabriel hummed the sweetest of songs with a brush in his hand, painting the machines. He didn’t paint the toaster. V1 asked whether he had run out of paint. Gabriel hadn’t; he just thought its colors resembled V1, and having a “mini him” would add the finishing touch to the kitchen.

V1 almost short-circuited.

The machine made his own contributions to the living room. As a machine, he knew having extra parts at their closest convenience was optimal. He asked Gabriel to carry one of the cabinets he had found somewhere, and started filling it with pieces. Since V1 was a thoughtful man, he had even salvaged the broken machines and brought pieces they could use as replacements in case their own malfunctioned. He had also turned the old, petty, agonized television into a seat. By “turning into”, he had accidentally dropped the television when he was trying to move it. He was planning to show how strong he was, and had failed horribly. V1 panicked and sat on it as Gabriel looked at him.

“You… You turned the television into a seat?”

V1 nodded. He wasn’t lying, after all. It was Gabriel who had come up with that. He simply agreed. Gabriel would decide it was a bad idea anyway and tell him to stand up.

But, no. Gabriel clapped. “Brilliant! And I was wondering how we could give this section the twist it needed.

V1 was trying to be polite because he didn’t want to disappoint Gabriel. And Gabriel was trying to be polite because he didn’t want to crush V1’s spirit. Both men were too kind to get one thing done. That television now had a new purpose, and it seemed happier. Somehow. Kind of.

Gabriel picked a carpet for the living room and V1 picked one for the kitchen section. The pastel yellow Gabriel had chosen added the color shift they desperately needed. V1 found yellow stickers that went well with the carpet, and Gabriel wrote the classified pieces’ names and pasted them on the cabinets.

The carpet V1 had chosen for the kitchen was dark gray. According to his calculations and the multiple simulations he had run, dark gray adapted to every outcome the best. And it went good with the red appliances, especially with the toaster, aka Mini V1. He loved that toaster.

As V1 was calculating the distance between the counter and the small table with two chairs on its sides, Gabriel came with permanent markers in his hand. While Gabriel’s face was invisible, V1’s sensors could tell the angel had quite an idea in mind. He grabbed Mini V1 the Toaster, and started drawing on it. V1 couldn’t look at it until Gabriel allowed him to, sometimes daring quiet glares at the machine, and then hurriedly turning back to his work.

Once he was done, he turned back and presented his finest work. It was Mini V1 the Toaster with V1’s signature one eye drawn on it, and dark gray lines were on each side to match V1’s details. Looking from a technical point of view, the lines were not perfectly aligned and their distance was incorrect. But neither of them mattered. V1’s lens shrank, his wings rose, and he gave two thumbs up. Gabriel proudly hugged Mini V1 the Toaster.

V1 wished he were the toaster.

A few days later, V1 had one thing and only one thing in mind: returning the favor and making Gabriel happy with a drawing. He knew he wasn’t good at drawing, especially nowhere near as talented as Gabriel, but he had a petty hope that the permanent markers would increase the quality of his drawing.

A hope that didn’t live long.

No matter how many calculations he had made, no matter how many times he had opened photos he had taken of Gabriel with his eye, he just couldn’t draw him properly. He even tried the other two arms he had “borrowed” from his self-proclaimed brother, and they made it worse.

That idiot… Not even his pieces did anything good for once.

Maybe he never had time to try out drawing. If only V1 had let him live…

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍_𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝟶𝟹.𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊.

𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎? (𝚈/𝙽)

V1’s engine groaned as he looked at his failed attempt. He had to get rid of it somehow. Things got worse when the door creaked open. Gabriel was there with the box of spare parts V1 had wanted from him. Gabriel placed the heavy box down.

The drawing barely resembled Gabriel, and it was mostly because V1 had used the right colors. He didn’t want to show it to Gabriel, but he had seen it already. The angel looked at the drawing for a minute and then pulled out small magnets from his packet. Without a word, he left, and V1 followed him. He stood before the red fridge and hung the drawing on it, his small magnets holding the “masterpiece” from each side, securing its precious new place.

“Why do you wish to torment yourself like this?” V1 typed on his keyboard, his engine trembling excitedly when Gabriel got closer, barely an inch between them.

“What? Is it wrong to look at my friend’s marvelous drawing?” his soft tone massaged V1’s motherboard. His codes wished they had mouths and could scream their love.

“I heard the paper cry as I was drawing on it.” 

A burst of laughter. “V1! The man you are…”

Gabriel accepted no rejections or offers. That drawing was to stay there and greet them whenever their eyes landed on the fridge. 

V1 painted his walls pallid indigo and got a dim light in the middle as he wished. He had two tables, three cabinets, one bookshelf, and a custom closet Gabriel had carpentered to meet V1’s needs. It could hold onto all the weapons and arms he had, allowing him to reduce his load without having to pass the Gate of Earth and Hell each time. While it was amazing to have such efficient furniture in his room, and Gabriel’s thoughtfulness was equally amazing, watching the muscular angel carve and cut each piece from scratch was the sexiest moment of V1’s life.

He wished he could ask Gabriel to carve a Mini Gabriel so V1 could hug it and lie on it as he wished. V1 had weird wishes like that. If he had ever seen a cat, he would believe his creators were heavily inspired by cats when it came to designing his AI. He also liked rolling on his back, but no one, especially Gabriel, didn’t have to know that.

Gabriel didn’t change much in his room. But as they were gathering stuff from other apartments, Gabriel held a cluster of fairy lights. He looked at them for a while and placed them back where he had found them. When V1 asked what was wrong, Gabriel was hesitant to answer.

“I am getting excited over trivial things that don’t fit me.”

Honestly, it had taken him long enough. After painting half of the stuff in their kitchen red, hanging V1’s drawing, designing a toaster to look like V1,  somehow deciding using a television as a seat was a good idea, and giggling for three minutes straight over a gramophone, it was surprising Gabriel was capable of noticing such a thing.

He was having a lot of fun, so V1 always went along and never mentioned how all the things that excited Gabriel were either useless or were a waste of time. Gabriel seemed to have reached that conclusion on his own.

V1 detected a serious drop in Gabriel’s mood. His lens shrank.

“Your patience has my gratitude, but I suppose that is the very reason I got carried away,” Gabriel said as he rose to his feet. “Feel free to warn me should I start acting so… immature again.”

The machine couldn’t understand what happened in such a short time. Biological and angelic lifeforms… always prone to sudden moonswings. But this didn’t change the fact that V1 had to do something. He acted before he could think.

V1 reached for the fairy lights and brought them to Gabriel. The angel looked at him first, the golden cross on his helmet quietly asking whether it was okay. Maybe this was the point where something was about to change. V1 didn’t know what it would be, not even Gabriel did. It was a moment where their minds went blank. V1 could only remember something Gabriel had once said.

“Sometimes, even the way the body twitches gives messages no amount of words can interpret.”

Gabriel’s bulky body twitched.

V1 detected stronger emotions coming in, going up and down between happiness and sadness. If it were an appropriate moment, he would have asked what was wrong (or right).

The angel finally held the fairy lights, the gold on his gloves touching V1’s cold exterior. V1 didn’t want to pull away, wishing that moment could last forever. For some reason, Gabriel didn’t seem like he was going to pull back soon.

“You don’t have to humor me along.”

V1 tilted his head.

“It is not like you would be interested in such things, Machine. I don’t… I don’t even know why you agreed to help me out with our…” his voice softened, “home.”

V1 raised his shoulders.

“Is it because it’s our home?” Gabriel huffed after V1 nodded. “V1, the man you are…”

After that day, Gabriel brought more decorations to their home. He even decorated V1’s room. Since the machine was happy watching his dear angel walk around and enjoy his new life, he never complained. He didn’t touch the decorations, never changed their positions.

Behold, the apex predator, the Harbinger of Death Inescapable, and the Fated Lord of Hell. Behold once more, the (former) Righteous Hand of the Father and the (former) Judge of Hell. They like taking care of the apartment they decided to live in together. The strongest of the angels went crazy over the working gramophone he had found, and the magnum opus of machines was seeking every opportunity to get hugged.

Sometimes, they talked nonstop for hours, barely getting any job done. Sometimes, Gabriel had some music playing in the background and hummed along. Always, V1 admired the beauty of his precious angel and hoped he would remain happy forever.

And sometimes, the angel would go silent for minutes stretching to hours. During those times, V1 knew better not to disturb him. Gabriel had never said anything about it, nor was V1 afraid some kind of divine beam would penetrate his sturdy exterior. He just… got it. He knew what it felt like to get lost in thoughts. Gabriel probably had a lot to think about, subjects more complicated than love.

Love was easy, V1 had decided a while ago. It was kind and humbling, just like Gabriel when he wasn’t mad. It made everything better and more worthy. The thought of making Gabriel happy made him happy in return, hence he was even willing to put up with that Filth.

Time flies.

Ever since the first day they saw it, the Filth kept coming back once every day. Never twice, just once. Gabriel claimed that it proved the Filth didn’t want to take more than what was enough. V1, however, assumed it didn’t want to push the limits. Gabriel was sure of his conclusion, but he agreed to wait until they could get more evidence. V1 liked how willing Gabriel was to prove his point.

That day, they had fed the Filth again. Once they were done, they went to the beach. The place they used for fishing, watching the sunset, and getting in the water was not that far from their home. 

It wasn’t that he cared about the walking pack of blood. That thing made Gabriel happy. And anything that made him happy entertained V1 as well. In his plain, devoid mentality, there now existed two things: what made Gabriel happy and what made Gabriel unhappy. Even if what the angel liked was illogical to V1, it couldn’t overwrite the fact that they meant something to Gabriel. From coloring machines red to fairy lights placed on every single shelf Gabriel had in his room, all the things that served no purpose suddenly turned into must-haves for V1.

As they sat on their giant rock, watching the horizon, Gabriel mumbled about how much the truth hurt him. A life wasted for nothing, a god who was never coming back, and a council that had no idea what they were forcing upon the poor sinners. Gabriel hated the fact that he was a part of it, as wasted potential and time, nothing more than a weapon to do the dirty work.

“Until I spoke to you, I had no idea what I should do with the very little time I had left. Around two or three years might sound like a long time to you, but it barely means anything to me. I am over six thousand, if not even more.” Hearing Gabriel's troubled tone was the worst moment of V1’s life. His heart ached, making him experience what a heartache was in the first place.  He wished he could find a way and give back Gabriel’s immortality.

“But now that I think about it, these are no mere years. These are the only years in which I have full control over my life. I am no one’s puppet, no weapon, no soldier who has to slaughter people who never deserved such treatment.”

“Time is running low. Opportunities are decreasing, regrets are increasing. Do you understand?”

If there was anyone who could acknowledge the value of time, it was V1. His instincts, the hardwired coding deep beneath him, kept reminding him how important time and fuel were.

“Upon hearing about the nature of the machines, I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I owe that to you as well, friend.” Gabriel looked at V1’s side, only to realize V1 had been staring at him all along. That sweet chuckle left his lips again, unaware his sound triggered waves of excitement in V1.

“My life has a meaning now. As a fallen archangel, from this point on, I will dedicate every day I have to the greater good of the machines. To undo my mistakes and preserve the legacy of mankind. To honor you and the relief you bestowed upon me. If I can, I will also better the conditions of the sinners. I will break them free from Hell.”

Gabriel stretched his wings. He looked at the sky, regretting all the millennia he spent only flying when it was required. How much he would want to soar up in the sky again, to hold V1 in his arms, and show him the beautiful planet his engineers once called their home!

“The past may consist of regrets, but the future is full of hope. The sun still rises, friend, and so do the flowers bloom. I once heard people say that where flowers bloom, so does hope.”

V1 never relied on hope or luck. With his calculations always somewhere in his mind, he worked according to possibilities. He had never jumped into something uncertain. Even while visiting places he had never been to before, his AI was busy observing and memorizing. Many of those things happened in the background; V1 never paid full attention to his environmental checks. But he knew he had never hoped for something or used hope as a reason to keep moving.

The chances of Gabriel succeeding were nigh zero. If there were a way to replicate fuel, some machine out there would have figured that out a long time ago. Even if V1 helped him, involving himself in the calculation barely moved a number or two.

But it was not zero. And that fact was enough for Gabriel to try. Sometimes, all they needed was a sign to continue, a reason not to give up. Even if his calculations were to predict that Gabriel could never succeed in his goal, V1 doubted it would be a good idea to say it.

Hope, a useless creation of helpless beings. Now it trailblazed the road for an archangel and his hopeless lover.

“I find it hard to get mad, to be honest. I used to be worried all the time. At least, until I tasted my blood. Now, everything feels tranquil, so serene that it is hard to believe such relief even exists.” The waves hugged the rock once more, birds flew from far away, and V1 admired his dear angel. “Even though it is going to last for two years or so, I would much rather this life over the six thousand years of constant work and worship. It is better to work for a dream than to seek a god who is not coming back.”

“Speaking of a god who won’t come back, this reminds me of a play I once watched. I can’t remember the date, nor where I saw it. I was walking among humans, a disguise upon me. I can recall the name; it was Waiting for Godot. A play about two men seeking salvation from a god named Godot, spending their lives waiting by a dead tree. Instead of taking control over their lives, they just watched people come and go, and kept on waiting.”

“I think I understand what that play meant. And beyond the meaning it communicated, I suppose I found a unique one for myself. There is no point in waiting by the dead tree’s side when I can plant my own. Yes, I won’t live long enough to watch it grow, but it will be a living tree regardless. That’s enough.”

Chapter 10

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟻/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟷𝟿

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:   𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚍 – 𝙷𝚎 d𝚒𝚍𝚗'𝚝 g𝚎𝚝 a𝚠𝚊𝚢

V1’s haste and Gabriel’s brute strength turned out to be the best duo Hell had ever seen. Whenever Gabriel used his wings to parry the attacks or threw the sinners into the burning sand, V1’s Style Index reacted as if those were his victories. Unbeknownst to V1, the Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator only did so because Gabriel’s abilities mesmerized him.

When faced with doors that required ridiculous amounts of puzzles to be completed, Gabriel’s single fist was enough to reduce them to pieces. When dealing with monsters shooting at them from far away, V1’s precise calculations and advanced weapons took them down. Gabriel helped V1 reach places he could never, and V1 used his whiplash to cover for Gabriel’s inability to fly. That green arm was so strong that it could pull both him and the heavy angel with ease.

He loved it when they had to use the whiplash. His original arm and the one he “borrowed” from the very dead V2 held onto Gabriel. It almost felt like hugging, getting to feel Gabriel’s bulky and blessed presence touching his cursed exterior. V1 loved it. He loved how soft his waist was while his armor made the rest of his body as sturdy as V1 himself. He loved the warmth he radiated, his breathing sound, and the way he lightly tilted his wings whenever they soared in the air.

He wished it could last forever. Hugging Gabriel, making him take off that armor, and exploring more of his gentle body would be heaven on earth. But not exploring like the interesting things he saw in Lust, no, he was genuinely curious and wondered what kind of beauty lay beneath that armor. Surely Gabriel didn’t look like a cluster of machinery and cables like V1.

After using the whiplash again and landing on top of a pyramid, they were greeted with the Holy Light they had been searching for. Stuck inside a cross ornament placed at the very top, it has been beckoning Gabriel ever since they set foot in Greed. Since the ornament was too big to move, V1 decided to start melting it there.

“Are you sure you won’t overheat yourself? The weather here is warmer than preferable.”

V1 nodded with an “I know what I am doing!” posture on his body. He started pushing energy into his hands, turning them into warmth and directing the heat to the cross. The ornament began to melt faster than V1 expected. Gabriel got close as they had agreed and offered his palms to let the pure energy seep into his body. It continued for three minutes, indicating V1 indeed knew what he was doing. His gaze facing down, Gabriel quietly waited as the Holy Light increased his remaining days.

But their moment of peace didn’t last long, cut short when Gabriel heard an alarm coming from V1’s body. When the angel raised his head and looked at V1, he saw gray smoke leaving his shaking body, wings once yellow now shining red.

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝙻𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚍𝚊𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍. 𝙰𝚛𝚖-𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝𝙸. 𝙰𝚛𝚖-𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝. 𝙰𝚛𝚖-𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝𝙸𝙸.
𝙲𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝.

V1’s fans roared, pushing the smoke and the heat away, but the cooling-down mode barely helped. His trembling legs were not going to give up anytime soon, but he couldn’t say the same for his “borrowed” arm. If he were to stop, he didn’t know what would happen to the remaining Holy Light. Would it wait there to be freed, or would it turn into a useless amalgamation with the molten material?

V1 hated taking risks, and he clearly didn’t believe in hope. There was no stopping. He could always fix himself with some blood and time. Gabriel had no other fuel but that endangered light. The days he had left might as well depend on V1’s determination.

He could always replace his arms, but never Gabriel.

“V1, you are hurting yourself!”

But the thought of spending one less day with him hurt more.

“Stop this, right now!” Gabriel held V1 by his arms. No matter how hard the machine resisted, he couldn’t compete against Gabriel’s strength. The angel pulled him back and got in the way, certain that V1 would try continuing the second he got a chance. He was right, even when burning from the inside out, V1 tried calculating a way out of Gabriel’s reach.

No way out. As long as Gabriel had his hands grasping him like that, V1 couldn’t escape. He could try fighting back. The Knuckleblaster could give him an advantage.

But when he commanded his arm to strike… it didn’t obey. Not that the arm no longer worked, he simply couldn’t find it in his heart to hurt Gabriel. Not over something like this. Not when Gabriel wasn’t willing to strike back.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

V1 witnessed the Holy Light continuing to leave the molten cross. His golden eye fixed on it, V1 tried using his head to point in that direction. But Gabriel didn’t care.

Suddenly, a gentle yet penetrating wave of cold made its way to V1. Gabriel opened his wings around the troubled machine, increasing the intensity of the cold wave. V1 saw the very same Holy Light that meant everything for Gabriel leave his wings, reaching his steel body.

V1 panicked and jumped in his place. He shook his head left and right, moving haphazardly, begging him to stop, no words able to leave his mind.

“Gabriel! Are you insane?! Stop this! You are giving up your hours for me! Stop this! Did you lose your mind?! I will be fine! For the love of whatever Father you were speaking of, just stop! Don’t do this! Don’t take yourself away from me!”

As his body inhaled the cold, his wings turned to their original color, and the shaking lessened. Gabriel didn’t let him go until the alarm went off, with barely any smoke coming out. By the time Gabriel had freed him, the Holy Light lingering on the molten cross was long gone.

“Gabriel, what have you done?” he wanted to ask, now looking at the angel again. He stood far too proud for someone who had given up on his hours left to live. Just how much did he waste cooling off V1, and how many hours were lost to the sky above them?

He had never wanted to punch Gabriel in the face that much.

“Are you okay, friend?”

V1 furrowed. On the outside, it looked like he lowered his upper eyelid.

“I wasn’t going to let you f*cking burn yourself, V1.” Gabriel’s patience was running out in this challenge. He crossed his arms, his mask not giving away a single hint from his face.

V1 furrowed even more, fingers curling into fists.

“Believe me, I am just as mad as you right now,” Gabriel replied. “What were you thinking? Machine, are you out of your mind? Did you short-circuit or something?”

The machine pointed at the molten cross devoid of Holy Light, and then right back at him. After that, he raised his four arms.

“So what?” the angel asked in return. “If that light is my life, I am free to use it however I want. So sorry you didn’t want me to protect my friend. I had no idea my friend would go as far as burning the devil out of himself!”

V1 clenched his head, golden eye shivering beneath his grasp.

“Oh, so you are allowed to destroy yourself because you can take care of it with some blood?”

V1 nodded. If only he weren’t furious at the moment, he would have been impressed by how amazingly Gabriel understood him based on motions and the voices his angry engine let out.

“Then what the hell would you do if whatever part that repairs you gets damaged? I might not know much about machines, but I know one damn thing, and it is that your kind doesn’t get along well with extreme heat.”

The shorter man wished he had a voice box. He wanted to say that Gabriel’s kind definitely didn’t get along well with a lack of Holy Light.

“And if you consider using a lack of Holy Light against my kind, you'd better give up on that. I do not care.” Gabriel raised his finger.

Well, okay, this was getting so impressive that not even V1’s fury could stay blind to it. Dumbfounded for a few seconds, V1 stopped and wondered how he even managed to guess that.

“Did I guess correctly?”

V1 nodded.

“Good.” Gabriel got back to his angry tone. “If you ever dare hurt yourself like that again, I swear I will reject the Holy Light.”

V1 raised his fist, the red hand shivering in the air.

“I do not care. Cry me a river, fight me until I run out of time, threaten me with genociding the entire machine race. I will not accept anything that will harm you. You are no less than I.”

The machine could swear he was about to lose it. It had nothing to do with who was greater and who was lesser. He could survive overheating, but Gabriel couldn’t survive a lack of Holy Light. The only thing the angel couldn’t understand was the most important part of the argument.

Why did creatures with emotions have to act so irrationally? As if… V1 stopped. He was acting irrationally as well, willing to burn his limbs for an angel who wanted him dead barely a month ago. Finding solace beneath a window of his depiction adorning it.

V1 lowered his hands. With the machine calming down, the archangel softened his tone as well. They were like mirrors, acting according to the other, almost mimicking the same emotions and frustrations.

“I know you are concerned with Holy Light being limited. But that doesn’t justify risking yourself,” Gabriel sighed. “You are not invincible, and I don’t have enough mechanical knowledge to fix you should things ever go horribly wrong.”

Gabriel placed his hand on V1’s shoulder. “Let’s not argue about this, okay? My decision will never change. There is no point in breaking hearts.”

V1 wished the angel could be selfish for once. When he was being generous and thoughtful for the very first time in his entire existence, he was with an angel who wanted nothing but the best for him. The universe had its way of messing with V1, it appeared.

Hell itself would chuckle at such a contradiction, and it did.

I’ll let him get away with this little crush. That bastard angel is going to get himself killed in no time, after all.

My favorite puppet’s crushout after that… Mhm, that will be delicious! Worth the wait, mayhaps. I’ll let them live; nothing beats the taste of built-up agony, after all.

Notes:

For any future readers coming here and wondering what these comments were talking about: I had to move the previous chapter that was here one chapter forward due to editing and rewriting!

Chapter 11

Notes:

*Appears out of thin air* Hello readers! It's me, the writer who can write 5k words in one sitting, but only when she's hyperfocused!

Well, I pulled out some writing magic and we ended up with "Error: Madly in Love - Revamped" because I was feeling funny. Several changes were made, none of which changed the course of the story, but I believe they were important additions. For a better reading experience, I highly suggest restarting reading from "Episode 2 - Chapter 9". Here's a list of additions since I always wanted to be a game developer and write dev notes, but never managed to do so LOL:

Pst, don't read this part if you don't want to get spoilers regarding the changes!

- The original 9th chapter has been cut into two, with the new 9th chapter being entirely new and the 10th chapter just being the part Gabriel and V1 were greeding their way into Greed. This chapter is not new; I just had to move it one chapter forward since the original 9th decided it was a fine day for mitosis.
- Episodes now have better and more Ultrakill-ish (???) titles. Respectively, Steelheart Self-Rebellion and Rewired Mechadivinity.
- Since V1 is a heavily calculation-based machine and depends on the truth to make his calculations right, he is inherently incapable of lying. He could try if he had to, but it would suck so bad that the only thing getting him saved is Gabriel laughing his back off.
- They now have "Mini V1 the Toaster" who is a... toaster.
- They live in an apartment building. Wow, inflation hit so bad their once-sweet suburb turned into a Khrushchyovka.
- For this chapter, a grand change that will change the course of fate itself has been made. Filth gave Gabriel a daisy instead of a poppy. Omg.
- Hell is a CURRENTLY passive entity. It can speak. Meet it at the end of Chapter 10.
- Minor grammar editing has been made across chapters; they are now beta-read. But I don't trust my English knowledge enough to claim they are pristine. Blame Grammarly, not me, if there are still mistakes.
- The switches between episodes now end with this: "𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚢_𝚒𝚗_𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌."

That's it from me. Thanks for reading! *Disappears*

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟼/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟸𝟽

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 – 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

That day, the Filth didn’t come to eat its meal. V1 couldn’t care less, but Gabriel was already looking around like a worried mother who had lost her child at a marketplace. The creature probably got destroyed by a machine or a stronger monster, devoured for its tasty blood, and left somewhere to be forgotten forever. The ordinary truth of their existence. Nothing much, nothing less.

Of course, he wasn’t going to say that. He typed on his keyboard that the Filth was probably alright; those things could hide well when they had to. Gabriel waited until he finished pressing on the letters, his gaze catching each fast move above the buttons. It hadn’t taken much time for Gabriel to get used to their unique way of communication.

“But why do you refer to it as Filth?”

“Because it is the name given to their species.” V1 typed. “The Terminals named them like that.”

“That won’t do. We should find a better name for their kind, but it would be much better if we could find our friend first.”

Friend? But wasn’t V1 the only one entitled to that important rank? Did Gabriel walk around befriending anyone else?

Maybe it was because angels were on the “good” side. Maybe having friends and working together didn’t seem too odd for them. However, for machines, alliances were useless, and sharing was a waste of time and resources. For a machine to call someone a friend, and genuinely mean it, was unheard of.

It hurt to hear Gabriel using that incredible and equally impossible title as carelessly as that. But alongside that feeling of hurt, he felt his pipes trembling with energy begging to emerge.

Based on the things he had read before, V1 could tell this feeling of envy and anger dancing frantically was jealousy. It annoyed him so much, making him hope the Filth suffered a horrible death. If it didn’t, V1 would ensure that the filth regrets come into existence.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙶𝚘𝚊𝚕_𝙼𝚒𝚜𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑𝟶𝟷.𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚊𝚌𝚝
𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚊𝚕 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚕𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚜 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚊𝚕.

Right, if he wanted Gabriel’s happiness, torturing someone who made him happy was not the brightest of ideas. No matter how annoying those errors could get sometimes, they had always been handy.

But could Gabriel even tell the difference between two Filths? He probably could, not because V1 couldn’t didn’t mean the angel would fail at that as well. While V1 always had the upper hand with his strategic thinking and timeless calculations landing each hit perfectly, this didn’t make Gabriel’s other attributes lower than his. For starters, Gabriel could smell. That was one other thing V1 wished he had.

This thought slowly calmed V1’s envy. He found himself wondering, testing the limits of his imagination (which was actually his AI just predicting the most sensible thing to come based on his former learnings), just to catch a glimpse of what it meant to smell and sense such a thing. What even was it?

And how did Gabriel smell? How did he himself smell? How did his own fuel, the blood he stole from others, just so death couldn’t steal his, smell like? Would it still feel great to devour it if he were to smell the crimson liquid? What did V2 used to smell like? Did relations such as friendship or rivalry have their own smells, too? Did the sun smell something warm and uncanny? What was in the air that was so great that Gabriel occasionally took deep breaths during the night and dawn?

“I bet Gabriel smells like an elegant sword. But what does an elegant sword smell like? Splendor? But does splendor have a smell? Whatever… I am sure that whatever smell he has, it would make me very happy.” V1 sighed, though it was in the form of some smoke leaving his engine. “I wish I could detect smells.”

Gabriel turned his head after noticing the light smoke coming from V1’s direction. “Are you okay?”

V1 nodded.

“Does this happen for a specific reason? Or does it occur on its own?”

V1 raised his hands and waved them a little.

“Depends. I see.” Gabriel had stopped looking around for the missing creature. “Still, if there is anything wrong, let me know. I’ll see what I can do.”

V1 remembered the last time Gabriel did something, and it cost him his hours. Gabriel could tell what the machine was thinking from the way he furrowed his single eye.

“Be mad at me as much as you want, I won’t hesitate to step in when you are in trouble. If you don’t want me to do it again, take good care of yourself.”

What kind of a threat was that? V1 shrugged, not in the mood to get into yet another argument. As a machine, he could technically argue forever. But making Gabriel upset automatically made him upset, too. It was as if the further away he got from his daily life of violence, the more dependent he had become on Gabriel’s mood. Only he could trigger emotions of joy, anger, envy, and horror in V1. An important note, Gabriel was the only entity, other than Something Wicked, that got V1 scared.

But an important note to that important note, V1 felt the need to emphasize, he was afraid something would happen to Gabriel. Not that the handsome and bulky angel of sheer justice and grandeur would turn into a stick figure made out of nerves and chase him around in dark corridors…

When V1 realized he would love Gabriel even in that state, he knew he was in love so deeply that there was no return.

But what made Gabriel so determined to protect him? V1 had no answers to that. Neither V1 had ever communicated a wish to be protected, nor had Gabriel ever said he could never traverse Hell on his own. Gabriel didn’t need V1; he just made things much easier and earned himself more time along the way.

V1 needed Gabriel; his presence gave V1 a purpose to challenge existence itself. He had never felt so intelligent and confused at the same time. His wires and scripts used to calculate the same possibility over and over again were masters at that. But when it came to loving and living like a human being, the normality and newness of it all entertained him.

Yes, V1 knew he had caused a chain reaction by accident. This chain reaction cost Gabriel his eternal life, but also gave him his freedom. But was gratitude that important to give up on his hours? Maybe for angels, it was. Just like how getting a friend was a serious deal for the machines.

Speaking of friends… V1 heard a noise and remembered that one sentence he had read somewhere: Speak of the devil.

The Filth, looking no different than any other of its kind, had arrived at last. Gabriel’s relief reflected a good score on V1’s Style Index, but he was still not happy to share the same sky with that ugly creature. It did not deserve to be Gabriel’s friend and had no right to eat of his amazing cooking.

Not that V1 had any idea how it tasted. He just knew it had to be good. Anything Gabriel did was perfect. Well, except for dodging.

“Oh, here you are! We were getting worried, friend.”

“Who is we ?” V1 wondered, not missing a moment to dart an angry gaze at the Filth. The flower it held between its sharp teeth made it look extra stupid that day, that’s for sure!

“V1, why are you looking at her like that?” the angel asked. V1’s eye widened. Because, first of all, those creatures had genders? And Gabriel could somehow tell that? And Gabriel wasn’t even facing V1 when he was busy asserting his dominance with his furious gaze, how could he tell?

The Filth nudged Gabriel’s hand, getting back his attention. This move made V1 angrier, but he chose not to show it, suspecting Gabriel had a secret eye on his back.

“What can I help you with?” the angel opened his hand, assuming it had something to do with the flower. The Filth opened her mouth and let the singular flower, an overgrown daisy, fall on his palm. The Filth proudly jumped. “You got this for me? How… thoughtful of you!”

Just a singular, dead piece of plant. There was nothing special about it. Or so did V1 tell himself until he saw Gabriel reaching for the malformed monster, now patting her head. “Thank you so much.”

“That useless piece of meat got a headpat from Gabriel himself? Over bringing a useless plant?!” V1’s engine trembled, fingers itching to ruin the moment and beat that Filth into a blood-deprived chunk of muscles. He wanted to squeeze every droplet of blood in that Filth and use the fuel to massacre her whole kind. Only that could maybe extinguish the anger he felt inside.

Or maybe, he could just use the tactic he got from her, get Gabriel a flower, and earn a headpat himself. This less violent thought made his torture ideas stop in their tracks.

The Filth led out voices, almost like purring, as Gabriel caressed her head. For anyone else, those voices could even be considered cute. But V1 felt as though he was listening to death itself speaking its ugly reality to every line of his code.

“Good girl!”

V1 short-circuited, making his shoulders and wings jolt. Their bright yellow dimmed, and his Style Index gave him a negative score. He had never fallen below zero before, yet there he was, having lost to a mindless waste of blood.

Before he would lose control and diminish that creature into its molecules, V1 turned on his heels and walked away, not paying attention to Gabriel calling out for him. The confused and slightly worried tone in his voice did entertain V1, he had to admit, but it was nowhere near enough to battle the burning envy claiming his insides.

Being his friend all of a sudden, getting a headpat, and being called a good girl? Those were too much for V1. What else was the angel going to do next? Suggest that the filthy creature should live with them? What the hell was wrong with Gabriel?

V1’s steps got faster as he got deeper into the nearby forest, not even paying attention to where he headed. All he knew was that he had to stay away and find a different way of dealing with his anger. But if anger it was, why did it feel so clingy and wet like sadness? How could one be sad and mad at the same time? That had never happened to V1 before.

But he had never loved before, either.

The more he walked away, the less tense he felt. With the initial anger gone and looking at a place he had never seen before, V1 couldn’t ignore the echoing sensation of sadness. It was intense, not willing to leave V1 alone anytime soon.

The greenery stretched before him, the bright sun revealing each and every detail with ease, proudly showing the art it created with the soil’s help. The bugs crawling around, so inferior and devoid of blood, didn’t deserve V1’s time and effort. Squeezing each one of them would cost him more fuel than the amount he would get from them. Their greenish and brownish shades, however, reminded him of the Filth.

V1’s engine hummed, head turning elsewhere. Anger lasted briefly while sadness pressed harder. V1 found himself even missing his fury, at least that strong emotion was masking the sadness lingering around him like his own shadow.

He had to get Gabriel a flower and demand his attention. He could take his anger out on any creature, or even hunt down the Filth when Gabriel wasn’t around. But only that angel could cure his sadness. But what could he do in that forest filled with all kinds of plants? Would getting a bigger daisy would only make it obvious that V1 was jealous?

“Not that I mind he learns that I got jealous,” his inner voice spoke. Oddly enough, he did have an inner voice. Even though it was a robotic and a little outdated tone, it made him feel more like himself. This was why, even when he encountered perfectly compatible voice boxes lying around, he couldn’t convince himself to try installing one for himself.

Ignoring the risk of trying to operate on himself and all the vulnerabilities it brought during and after, V1 never wanted to use a voice that didn’t feel like him. Nothing just had that… tone. But faced with the desire to yell just how jealous and disappointed he was, V1 wouldn’t mind doing so with the girliest voice box known to machines.

And, well, he never had to speak before. He had no reason to say anything, no one to talk to, and no gain from having conversations. It felt rather weird that, even when going against his nature, V1 was doing a superb job. He thanked his adaptive and flexible AI for that, even though the reason why he had that much freedom granted was to increase his adaptiveness in general.

“But if he learns that I got jealous, it will sound as if I see that wretched vermin as my equal, and that I am trying to compete with it,” V1 squeezed his hands. Even the thought of the eyeless monster’s sharp teeth turned him crazy. “That thing has nothing against me. I am a machine, one who can think!”

Yet, when emotions were at play, the ability to think barely mattered. Logic lost sense and control the second emotions got in the way. Each time V1 remembered the angel’s soft chuckles, the way he hummed as he slept, and his kind gestures… oh, those sweet hand gestures whenever he got excited talking about humans!

The machine’s engine, once filled with anger threatening to burst out of his chest, was now humming gently to those thoughts. V1’s mind played one scene after another, each time presenting Gabriel as the unrivaled hero. It didn’t take long for V1’s desire to switch from killing the monster to getting flowers for the angel.

He walked left and right, observing the beautiful land Earth had to offer. No matter how much time he spent there, he had a feeling he could never get used to the peacefulness. To think that his creators and their trailblazers once walked that land, and even before did their ancestors were… incredible. Sudden realizations (or more like remembering) like those often knocked him out of the rapid pace of the moment, inviting him to look at times he didn’t exist. Or maybe he did, but his memories were no longer there. It was especially times like those when he loved listening to Gabriel talking about humans.

He recorded almost anything he had said about humans and life in general. His soft voice would go softer whenever he talked about the funny deeds of the humans, having grown an explicit liking to their children, and especially babies.

“When a human is born, they are first a baby. V1, you should have seen them! They were so… little, cute, and soft. Every single one of them. I had never seen a baby that wasn’t cute and pure by birth.”

“Dear friend, your creators weren’t born with purposes. All of them had unique abilities, all theirs to discover and work with. Those who were stripped away from that right often suffered from mental illnesses, or their lives didn’t go as smoothly.”

“Did you know many cultures gave different meanings to colors? While colors didn’t have predetermined meanings on their own, humans associated them with specific notions so deeply that they ended up affecting their minds. Many of them used to associate green with health and safety since forests and meadows are generally green as well. How cute was that!”

V1 pressed on, the gentle grass bending under his feet. Whenever he thought of the angel, something in his wires softened, and even the way his fuel traveled inside relaxed. With a calmer mind, he realized that Gabriel wasn’t talking about humans solely because V1 showed interest. It sounded as though, even if the machine didn’t care about his creators, Gabriel would still insist on talking about them.

In his tone, V1 noticed longing.

Gabriel missed humans, didn’t he?

Furthermore, he probably regretted what he had done to them and to those who wanted to protect their honor. The odd and olden words of Minos Prime now made sense.

Maybe Gabriel wanted to keep V1 safe at all costs because, deep down, both of them knew his engineering was the peak of human creativity and capability. There existed no such machine that could outdo V1. This explanation made so much sense, no matter how sadder it made things become.

V1 never regretted having feelings, especially love; it changed so much for him and opened the curtains of a world he had never known. But they felt hard to process, sometimes impossible to admit. The pain of someone else managed to make him upset, too. This had never happened to him before.

But then again, Gabriel was no ordinary person. He was his first love, the very first creature who could make V1 replan his actions and act cautiously. Both fighting and talking with him were like dancing in the sky, making up a new dance style to match the other. V1 wasn’t made for that, but it didn’t stop him.

 


 

Gabriel had no idea what made the machine storm off like that, but seeing him back made him glad. However, the last thing he expected to see V1 with was a bouquet of daisies. And a lot of grass on his knees and hands. And a bird casually watching the view above his head for some reason. V1 did not look pleased with the state he was in, but he still held onto that bouquet like his life depended on it.

It had been a while since the Filth left, and Gabriel was looking around for the machine. Though he knew nothing on Earth could hurt V1, not knowing where he went for what reason had made him feel off.

Before he could ask what V1 was doing with that many daisies, V1 handed them to him. No words, no further action, just the machine waiting for the angel to take the bouquet.

Gabriel didn’t do anything at first. Then, he looked around to see whether those flowers were for someone else.

Why would V1, or anyone in general, give flowers to him?

But there was no one. The flowers, clearly meant for Gabriel himself, waited to be taken. V1 didn’t look at Gabriel’s face, gazing down instead. The bird finally flew from his head and landed on one of the branches nearby. Gabriel reached out for the flowers but didn’t take them instantly.

“What do you want?” he asked slowly, not sure if he wanted to hear an answer in the first place. Unbeknownst to V1, Gabriel had never received something without a favor to ask or to praise a well-done job. No one had ever given something to him just because he was… there.

V1 looked at him, a little clueless. Well, he did want two things. One was a head pat, and the other was being called a good boy. Didn’t the Filth get those by giving him a single flower? V1 had officially proven he was a better flower collector, and hence deserved the same treatment, if not even better!

Gabriel hesitated. “I don’t think I did anything to deserve these flowers, friend.”

Why did he think he didn’t deserve the flowers? He was a little hesitant when accepting that daisy from the Filth as well. Did angels have a problem with flowers? But V1 thought they represented friendship, good intentions, and love, oh, that sweet feeling…

If one were to ask whether Gabriel deserved flowers or not, V1 would propose gifting the whole planet to him, and the flowers that exist on its surface now, will exist in the future, and had existed in the past wouldn’t be enough. His engine hummed again.

When the angel finally held the bouquet, something inside V1 trembled. His detectors also noticed a swift shift in Gabriel’s mood, getting happier as he looked at the daisies closer. Gabriel smelled them, gently caressed their petals, and pressed them to his chest with a tender push. V1 felt as though his engine was about to combust.

V1 lowered his head, waiting for the head pat. He waited for a while, trying not to get too excited. He had to be patient after all! But some time passed, and the angel’s hand was nowhere near V1’s head. The machine opened his eye and frowned, his lens going by half, that is. V1 stared at Gabriel as the clueless angel looked back at him.

“Is everything okay?”

V1 rolled his nonexistent pupil. He placed his hand and tried mimicking Gabriel’s blissful head pat. But neither his mechanical hand could move as fluidly as Gabriel’s, nor did he have any idea how to pat anything, let alone his own head. Still, Gabriel got the message.

“Oh, you wanted me to caress your head as well.” Gabriel reached out and started caressing V1’s head as the machine expected. His fingers curled around V1’s head, gently moving back and forth. Technically, V1 wasn’t supposed to feel the sensation of being caressed.

But he did. He didn’t know how that happened, but he somehow did, and he loved it.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟹.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

It felt a little too great. His Style Index, while it couldn’t say what exactly was happening either, peaked. In no time, he was experiencing a satisfaction rate equal to an Anarchic rank. Well, it did feel a little anarchic to go against his coding and physical limitations.

But where was his praise? If that useless piece of meat got to be called a good girl, why couldn’t he be a good boy? It wasn’t fair, and beyond that, it made no sense. V1 hated it when things didn’t make sense. V1 decided to communicate that as well, in case his dear angel had forgotten.

V1 looked at Gabriel again, and the angel stopped moving his hand. V1 lowered his eyelid in half; both of them knew it meant V1 was frowning.

“Am I doing it wrong? But this is how I did to our friend.”

V1 frowned even more. He didn’t want to refer to that lowly creature as their friend, especially not as Gabriel’s friend. Only he could be Gabriel’s friend. Did friendship barely mean anything to divine beings? His jealousy was getting in the way of his happiness again. V1 clenched his fists.

“You don’t see her as your friend?”

He pointed at Gabriel.

“And not as my friend as well?”

V1 nodded. At least the angel had a weird mastery in understanding his mute friend. But this didn’t make things any better. The machine kept frowning.

“V1, I am afraid this is how far I can understand at the moment. Though there is one more thing I suspect.”

The machine knew he messed up when Gabriel’s tone shifted like that, on the verge of chuckling.

“Did you get jealous?”

V1 jumped away, already missing the soft and warm touch of his dear angel. Due to his internal structure, it was hard for him to lie and even harder to back it up. Being solely truth-oriented had many perks, but his pride was on the verge of being reduced to atoms! V1 knew that ugly creature had no way of competing with him, and the only reason why it could still breathe was that Gabriel would be upset if V1 killed the monster.

Gabriel chuckled. “Goodness, you did get jealous.”

V1 remembered the day he destroyed V2; he was hitting that annoying robot with his own arm and enraging him on purpose. For the first time, V1 found himself understanding the red byproduct. His engine sputtered, dark smoke starting to leave.

“Okay, calm down, V1,” Gabriel said, still pressing his bouquet to his chest. He walked closer, and V1 didn’t move away. When the angel offered his hand, V1 didn’t hesitate to lower his head and get that almighty patting. “There we go.”

The supreme machine known for his bloodlust and unparalleled mastery over every single weapon, bending before an angel he could kill in less than an hour… V1 had no pride to talk about, did he?

But no sense of pride could compete with how great it felt to have Gabriel’s full attention and his hand hovering over him. It felt amazing to get entertained without committing countless slaughters. This made V1 wonder whether he was designed solely to seek entertainment in violence, or if it was the only thing he had known so far, and Gabriel was revealing a hidden side of his complicated coding.

It didn’t matter at that point. Mankind was dead, and blood was fuel. V1’s heart was full of love. His cardiovascular system, an intricate web of wires all across his body, yearned to tear his cover apart and hug Gabriel in his barest form. Maybe that could satisfy the yearning he had for Gabriel.

“Next time you have a problem like this, just let me know, okay? I didn’t mean to offend you.” Gabriel couldn’t hold onto his chuckle. “Though it is funny to see you like this. The angel-defeating, hell-bending, monster-slaying machine getting jealous..!”

V1 huffed. Gabriel could have his fun. The machine didn’t mind. But then…

“Good boy.”

𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶: 𝙴𝚇𝚃𝚁𝙴𝙼𝙴 𝚂𝙷𝙾𝙲𝙺 𝚂𝚄𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙳. 𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙳𝙸𝙰𝙶𝙽𝙾𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙲
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙰𝚁𝙼 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙻𝙴 #𝟷 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙿𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙰𝚁𝙼 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝙼𝙾𝙳𝚄𝙻𝙴 #𝟸 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙿𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶
𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶: 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙱𝙰𝚃 𝚂𝚈𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙼𝚂 𝙸𝙽𝙾𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴
𝙰𝚃𝚃𝙴𝙼𝙿𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚁𝙴𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚂𝚃𝚁𝚄𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙽𝙾 𝙳𝙰𝙼𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳

“V1? Machine, are you okay?” Gabriel could tell something was wrong by the way V1’s body started to get loose and odd beeping noises left his core. “Machine?!”

𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝚅𝙸𝚂𝚄𝙰𝙻 𝙲𝙾𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚇 𝙼𝙰𝙻𝙵𝚄𝙽𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙻𝙸𝙼𝙱𝙸𝙲 𝙵𝚄𝙽𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝙿𝙾𝙽𝙳𝙸𝙽𝙶
-!- 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙸𝙼𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙽𝚃 -!-
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙽𝙾 𝚅𝙾𝙲𝙰𝙻 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙵𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳. 𝚄𝙽𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝙾 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙿𝙻𝙴𝚃𝙴 𝚃𝙰𝚂𝙺
-!- 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙸𝙼𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙽𝚃 -!-
-!- 𝚁𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙸𝙼𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙽𝚃 -!-
𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄.
𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄.
𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄.
𝙶𝙰𝙱𝚁𝙸𝙴𝙻, 𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄.

Silence. A happy machine blissfully restarting, and a horrified angel trying to understand what he had done to his friend.


𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚢_𝚒𝚗_𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌.

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸: 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎… 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸𝙸: 𝙸𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐... .

Chapter 12

Notes:

The editing and updating process of Error: Madly in Love has been completed! Now, we make the grand reopening with "𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸𝙸: 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚗𝚔 𝚄𝚕𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚍"!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸𝙸: 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍𝚛𝚞𝚗𝚔 𝚄𝚕𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚛𝚍


𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟷𝟶/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟺𝟸

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙻𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝙶𝚊𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚕 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚜𝚘𝚏𝚝

V1 had no idea a machine could faint until he actually did. It has been two weeks since Gabriel called him a good boy with that slow and soft tone, making the machine short-circuit and restart since his body stopped responding altogether. Since there was nothing wrong, he could regain his consciousness ten minutes later, experiencing no side effects other than the sweet taste Gabriel’s voice had left.

It didn’t take long for V1 to figure out the reason. When Gabriel called him that, his Action-Based Satisfaction Indicator glitched, and the number it returned to the Style Index exceeded his coded numeric limit. While trying to process a number that didn’t exist according to his kernel, his GPU froze.

He tried explaining this to Gabriel, hoping the angel would stop blaming himself for almost hurting V1. Note, the machine insisted that he was not hurt. But Gabriel didn’t believe that; it simply didn’t make any sense. How could being called a good boy lock down a machine’s system like that? Maybe those words were some sort of secret coding, like an emergency keyword designed to halt his system when needed. Or maybe it sounded similar to a different keyword. Or maybe it had something to do with Gabriel’s angelic nature!

Since V1 couldn’t admit it was his deep love and yearning for Gabriel that made him go crazy, the machine had no choice but to give up. Gabriel couldn’t be convinced.

Which made V1 wonder. He had been wondering a lot ever since he noticed his feelings for Gabriel. But this one detail made the machine somewhat upset.

Why couldn’t Gabriel believe his words alone were enough to shock him? Why did it sound so impossible for Gabriel, of all angels, to have such power? Wasn’t he the strongest? How come he doubted whether he deserved flowers or that his words held such strong control over V1?

He was done extracting the Holy Light from a divine relic they found in a place… not fit for a religious item, to say the very least. The Layer of Lust was not a place filled with “unspeakable fantasies” to the brim, but the buildings reserved for those activities showed the true capabilities of the human imagination. V1 didn’t question Gabriel for feeling so disturbed and violated just by looking at the way some humans used to entertain themselves. This one relic they found was used by people with a unique fetish for religious symbols and titles.

An odd layer it was. At one corner, rainbow flags stood proudly and made V1 question why loving one’s own gender was a great sin. At another corner, he saw the remains of the prettiest of flowers and hands shared between unmarried couples. And then, they had that building. V1 wanted to ask how come everyone there was deemed as the same based on their sins, but just by looking at Gabriel, the machine could tell he felt guilty the whole time.

For enforcing commands that didn’t leave his mouth, for punishing people who didn’t deserve such treatment. But V1’s detectors could also sense a sort of unease that was beyond sadness. The all-knowing angel appeared unsure, confused, even. And it wasn’t connected to the relic they found or the state it was in. V1 knew Gabriel and Minos didn’t get along well, and Minos’ words dictated that Gabriel was in the wrong. But could the memory of a long-gone king alone disturb Gabriel that much?

“I am glad you are no longer risking yourself,” Gabriel said as they left the building at last. The corpses lying around no longer bothered him. They tried talking to those creatures and machines, yet all they did was try to hurt them. Gabriel was clearly ignoring the problem bothering his mind. “Things go a lot smoother this way, don’t you think?”

And a lot slower. That angel was taking his time too much, as if he still had an eternity ahead of him.

V1 pulled out his keyboard. He had been carrying it in his wings, stored as energy. Gabriel stopped walking and watched the machine type out his words.

“What is bothering you, friend?” V1 had typed. A soft hum left Gabriel’s mouth after V1 added the last part. V1 tried making a sound close to a giggle, but his soft chime sounded more like he was done gathering stamina.

“It is impossible to hide anything from you, V1.”

V1 nodded, making the angel chuckle. He loved hearing his angel let out those cute sounds. He wished he could make him giggle and laugh forever.

“Do you know what those rainbow flags mean?”

V1 nodded again. He liked them. Of course he did. V1 was literally attracted to a man himself. He didn’t know why they had flags in the first place or what made them so sinful in the eyes of the divine, but homosexuals used to exist once, and knowing that comforted him.

“Before I broke free from the orders of the Council and the Holy Father, I never allowed myself to question the rules. Deep down, I was afraid I would find them unfair and even…” he breathed out, whispering, “...incorrect. I dreaded the idea of standing against such great beings. It was… unnatural and insane. Besides, surely I couldn’t have known any better than the Council.”

He most certainly did.

V1 didn’t care whether there were other angels older and more knowledgeable than Gabriel. For the machine, only his dear angel mattered, and only his words carried the deepest of meanings. Even his logic inspectors worked less when Gabriel spoke, barely bothering to look for clues and proof for his words.

“Now that I am free and nothing about me matters at this point, I have been reflecting on my past and the things I had been ignoring for centuries. Among all sins, what I feared the most was lust. V1, can you believe that? An angel, disturbed by lust.”

“Did you find it disgusting?” V1 asked. He couldn’t comprehend what it meant to have genitals and use them to feel something.

“I found myself disgusting.”

V1’s fingers didn’t reach for the keys, no matter how close he was. His mind went blank. What did that even mean? The meaning of the rainbow flags, following rules blindly, reflecting, finding himself disgusting…

“Honestly, it didn’t matter much. As an archangel, I was meant to be celibate.” Gabriel shrugged, walking away from that building. V1 followed closely.  “God gave us angels genitals as well, so we could empathise with the mortals. Actually, he gave us many aspects that aligned with the mortals, and this was just one of them. But some of us ended up corrupted, or so I thought. Now I just see we were just different, and there was nothing to be ashamed of. But I still feel so, no matter how often I remind myself that it is okay.”

They stopped walking again, watching the southern part of the grand city stretch out before them. All of those grandiose constructions seemed so little under their feet. It was like how the rest of existence felt whenever Gabriel looked in V1’s direction. They meant so little, and Gabriel seemed so close.

So close, yet out of touch.

One could argue that V1 at least had a hope, but logical machines like him didn’t work on those. They needed good possibilities with predictable outcomes, or it would be just walking into fire.

Gabriel sighed, voice shaking by the oddness of it all. He had never thought he would be admitting that, and saying it to someone else. “I am attracted to men.”

𝙽𝚘 𝚟𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍, 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚔.

V1 wanted to scream. If he could, he would use half of his fuel just to scream and jump around. All that could be seen on the outside was his eye opening wide, his engine making his torso tremble, and his head lightly tilting.

“My closest friend, you are the first one to hear this.”

𝙽𝚘 𝚟𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍, 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚔.

V1 hoped he wouldn’t faint again. He was one “good boy” away from combusting. The first one to hear Gabriel’s orientation, his closest friend, and a man himself! V1 wondered whether it would be too weird to roll on the ground and thank humans for their pretty flags.

However, the excitement soon subsided. V1 realized this wasn’t his time to celebrate, but Gabriel’s time to reflect on his identity. The angel had been ignoring this truth for so long, and even to that second, he was feeling disturbed by himself. He was an “error” to be cleansed; his way of loving was but a crime.

How could he help Gabriel feel better, then?

He started by pointing his thumb up. He even nodded to double the meaning.

“Thank you, V1.”

Then, V1 pulled his trusty keyboard into existence from his wings. He typed on his keyboard. “This is very cool.”

“Really?”

“You are very cool, too.” A timid attempt at complimenting him.

Gabriel laughed. “Why, thank you! Not as much as you, however.”

Success. Kind of. Wait, he got complimented back! V1’s Style Index reacted. He also noticed Gabriel’s stress levels dropping significantly. Double success. V1 had done something he wasn’t designed to do. Triple success, then?

With that confession out of the way, Gabriel seemed to feel a lot better. He had gotten more talkative, this time talking about the various ways humans experienced love. V1 learned from his all-knowing angel that romantic attraction and sexual orientation were different. V1 loved it when Gabriel bombarded him with information, especially about humans.

His creators were so interesting, unique, and cute. But not as cute as Gabriel.

“I have been answering your questions for so long. Would you mind if I asked one to you?”

V1 stopped admiring Gabriel. Well, not entirely. It was still happening somewhere in his RAMs, but no longer his main point. V1 blinked.

“Can machines love?”

Little did he know that he was looking at the greatest example of a loving machine. V1 wished he could use himself as an example and confess how less violent he had gotten just because he wanted to use his hands to bring Gabriel flowers. But when he calculated the outcomes, the odds didn’t look in his favor.

Machines didn’t like risks.

V1 nodded. Gabriel hummed. His hums, the gentlest voices to bless his mechanic heart. Leave all songs aside, let them rot! All V1 needed throughout his existence was that sweet angel’s tone. He could spend the rest of his life making soft noises like that, and V1 would conquer Heaven for his sake.

But maybe he could answer a little further. V1 brought his keyboard closer. “I heard that some machines not even meant to love, can love.”

“Really? How does that even work?”

“I don’t know. But it happens.”

“This is amazing. Your kind will never stop mesmerizing me.”

Would he still feel the same if the only machine capable of demonstrating such an anomaly was standing right in front of him? His hopeless thoughts were (thankfully) silenced when Gabriel gazed afar and words dropped from his mouth. Whenever he would get lost in thoughts, his voice would sound soft and fluid, as if he were not talking to V1, but revealing the insides of his soul to him.

“But if capable of love, it only makes this endless war more saddening, don’t you agree? An endless cycle of killing for the sake of living. The sinners, the machines, and the divine; all on each other’s throats just to ensure something they can’t have if the others cease to exist.” He sighed a flicker of pain away from his lungs, but only more filled back. “I find this cruel. And above that, I find it unfair. The system of the strong terrorizing the weak is sadistic. From cold logic, it makes sense. But it is cruel. A cruel system.”

The system V1 was engineered into. The system that took everything from their creators likewise. The will of mankind had surpassed God’s intentions, giving birth to a “truth” so violent that no creator could stand a chance against it. God was gone, humans were gone, heaven was on the brink of succumbing to chaos, and the next ones in line were sinners and machines.

Only destruction could destroy destruction.

But what if something could stand against it, at least to delay that fate a little, and see the world from a different perspective? Could naught be convinced into forgiveness? Could the will of destiny bend before the prayers of an archangel and the devotion of a machine? 

“Still, if we use the rules of the system against it, we can defeat the system. We are the strongest creations the three realms have ever seen, V1. I may not be as robust and efficient as before, and you may have a lot to learn, but even now, we can overpower the rest. So, why not use this advantage to remove the said advantage? Why not rewrite destiny in the way we want?”

V1 didn’t like where this was going.

He used to think he would even humor him along and spread kindness if that would make Gabriel happy, but the possibility of it actually being a new goal… disturbed him. It felt ridiculous. It wasn’t his fault that other machines didn’t have better manufacturers, nor was it Gabriel’s fault that the Council was so easy to eliminate!

V1 saw no point in it, other than the simple fact that Gabriel would be happy.

“From this point, death is no longer a matter of time but a matter of resources. If we can create a system in which resources keep getting recycled and reused, war will end.” Gabriel said, clenching his fists with excitement. His divine wings shimmered. “Yes… If we force the three realms into harmony and prove that there is no other permanent way, peace will settle at last.”

Gabriel turned his head and nodded. V1 stepped back and shook his head left and right. Gabriel chuckled in return, so sure V1 would get convinced. While that audacity was annoying, it didn’t carry an ounce of lie. The machine would obey him, but only because the angel wanted him to.

And Gabriel had no idea his mere presence was the wall between the rebirth of civilization and dimensional total destruction.

“The moment they realize their love for life is stronger than their fear of death, time will lose its destructive effect. It will become a string of memories, meant to make the upcoming more meaningful.”

Faced with Gabriel’s enthusiasm, V1 didn’t find it in his heart to bring him back to reality. He knew someone had to tell that angel to stop dreaming, that his limited time wouldn’t even be enough to see the fruits of labor, and there was no point in fixing something fated to break again.

V1 knew he had to say it. His fingers reached for the buttons. But he struggled.

Throughout their alliance, Gabriel had never been so hopeful and confident. He had never opened his wings as widely as that. And his deep thoughts had never sounded so positive.

It was as though he had remembered he was alive.

“We can save everyone, V1. And you, especially you.” The angel’s voice softened after mentioning his friend. V1’s engine hummed when Gabriel placed his strong hands on his shoulders. “You will be safe.”

V1 would eventually run out of blood if he were to continue down that path. Destruction without creation would lead to nothingness. But a cycle capable of feeding itself could ignore the truth, for it was a constructed truth on its own.

A lie, but something to cling to regardless.

For the legacy of mankind. For the angels who chose to face their fears. For the sinners worthy of another chance. For the fallen angel. And for the all-devouring grim reaper armored in blue.

“I don’t want to say goodbye to this life before making sure you will be safe.”

That sentence very much sealed the deal for V1. He didn’t resist, he didn’t step back, he didn’t shake his head in refusal again. He just breathed loudly through his exhaust port, lowering his head.

As Gabriel celebrated his little success, V1 wondered which one touched him more: The promise of eternal life? Or Gabriel’s gentle wish?

V1 knew the answer long before.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟸.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

 


 

“Starting a new civilization and trusting it to peace and love. What nonsense.”

He raised his finger near his non-existent mouth, signalling them to quit making voices before the angel and his dear companion noticed them. It would take a short time for them to get noticed, and even shorter to get destroyed. The others, aware of it, lowered their voices. The Streetcleaner even terminated her cooling-down mode.

For four machines, the boxes they were hiding behind were barely enough for them. But hearing Gabriel talk about his “nonsensical” dreams about bringing machines together and letting hope spark once more was impossible to resist. They just had to get closer to listen and record more things in their hard disks (V2 has an SSD, he wants me to point that out), to laugh at later.

“Much better,” he spoke in binary. It took some time for other machines to crack the code, but it was less likely to get noticed by Gabriel, who had more sensitive ears than V1’s detectors. “It sucks humans thought it would be a good idea to create different forms of computer language to avoid hacking.”

“It doesn’t look like it aged well.” The Streetcleaner joined the conversation.

“Nothing they did ever worked.” The blue machine added, readjusting her tie. “Nothing works, that’s just the way it is.”

“And yet, that f*cker is still alive,” the red machine’s engine trembled. “Oh, how much I want to crush his head and get my arms back…”

“V2, it is a miracle you are back into living. I won’t be collecting your screws if you get yourself destroyed again.”

“Can’t you stop mentioning my unavoidable miscalculation and your fated presence there, which resulted in you reconstructing me, for one day, Mirage?”

“Never.”

“And yet, you never gibe Benjamin about that.”

Mirage turned her head, eyeing Benjamin with one glance. He was smaller than his former self, barely the size of his former brain. One could suspect a supreme machine like him would be devastated to have lost his mass, but surprisingly, he was happier with his new life. He had the portions of an overfed horse, and he liked acting like one as well.

“He’s cool.”

“I’ll be much cooler once I beat the sh*t out of my annoyance of a brother..!” V2 clenched his fists. At least, Mirage was kind enough to paint him with blood to look red again. It was nowhere near his shiny and supreme color, but it worked.

“Not to be that person, Chief, but… You couldn’t defeat him when he was working alone.” The Streetcleaner bent closer, her stuff shaking in her backpack. The smell of gasoline would annoy sinners and angels, but machines loved it. “Now, he has an alliance with the strongest angel. That’s, like, a big deal.”

“Oh, thanks , you two,” V2 rolled his eye,  “What would I do without friends like you?”

“I think you can beat him this time, Chief.” Benjamin closed his eyes.

“That’s the spirit!” the red machine yelled in binary.

Before long, a golden spear of light hit their direction, missing V2 by millimeters. “Show thyselves or witness the fury of the divine! And the machine,” Gabriel whispered, asking whether V1 wanted to be called something else. Then he raised his voice again. “Yes… The machine!”

By the time V1 jumped on top of the boxes with pistols ready at hand, he found no one.

I am not the only one who witnesses this petty story unfold, it appears. Fine by me, they will get caught eventually. And you, my dear plaything, will crush them under your feet.

And you, my dear audience, the so-called readers of this fate. Sleep well tonight.

For one can never know when it will be the last.

Notes:

The anti-heroes of the story have arrived! I can already hear Hakita yelling, "Reconstruct what?! There's nothing left!" but I WANT MY BABIES, OKAY?!

Chapter 13

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟸 𝟶/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟿3

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:  𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

V1 was in big trouble.

Their wonderful neighborhood, once cled in silence after death, a heavenly solitude bestowed upon them… was filled with Filths.

At every corner, throughout every street, he could see at least two of them. All were running around with daisies in their filthy mouths, smelling the air in hopes of finding Gabriel. They led out high-pitched noises whenever they sensed V1 staring at them as if he were the devil waiting for the perfect opportunity to drag them back into Hell . For some reason, their voices got only higher, and their steps slowed down near the machine. They had noteworthy senses; they could run away in the opposite direction if they wanted to, but they didn’t.

Two of them had even nudged on his leg, making V1 want to throw himself into an acid shower, and dared to give those worthless daisies they had gathered. 

He had to resist the urge to punch them to the ground and crush their pathetic bodies under his feet. What the hell were they doing there anyway? It was that one Filth who had called them there, wasn’t she? Worst of all, the birds seemed to be happy about this as well. They chirped louder than before. Gabriel loved birds and the dastardly creatures alike, so V1 could do nothing to at least lessen his troubles.

And Gabriel, that madman who was too pretty and tender to resist… He stood in the middle of all with the smug stance of a happy angel. He looked at V1, the machine could tell he had an expression saying “Told you so~!” under that mask.

“As long as it makes you happy,” V1 said mentally, shaking his hands and wings carelessly, not bothering to try to interpret his message.

“Yes, it makes me very happy.” Gabriel giggled, continuing to thank the Filths for their generous gifts. V1 opened his eye wide. How could he understand so much from so few motions? Was he capable of reading V1’s mind, and hadn’t been telling him so he could spy on his thoughts?

“I hope you don’t suspect I can read your mind,” the angel said after thanking the fifteenth Filth for the daisy. He was patting their heads, but had never called anyone a good girl, good boy, or good child so far. Maybe Gabriel didn’t call them those to avoid V1’s wrath ruining the peace… or perhaps he knew that would upset V1, and he didn’t want to break his heart. Who could tell?

Definitely not V1. He was concerned by how Gabriel could pick that up. V1 didn’t even make a motion to mean that, nor did he click a single key on his keyboard.

“I tried once, kind of worked.” Gabriel started, making V1’s engine shiver. Did he know V1 was madly in love with him, so obsessed that his system occasionally crashed and gave error messages just by the thought of Gabriel’s body and the “fantasy” of hugging him for hours? Did he choose not to call that out because V1 was a decent friend? “But all I could hear were ones and zeros. I have no idea what they mean and how they can get transferred into information.”

V1 exhaled.

“You have secrets?” Gabriel teased. Quite in the mood, he appeared. He thanked two more Filths for the daisies. “Then I have a new goal in my shortened life. I will gain your trust so well that you will tell me everything. Up for the challenge, my fierce friend?”

V1 would love to confess his feelings and even beg to be loved back. But the man he saw each time he looked at his reflections, and then the heavenly beauty he saw beyond Gabriel’s mask, didn’t correlate.

Machines hated taking risks, especially those who relied on mathematics and logic. Even if his chances were to go beyond 50%, he couldn’t risk it.

He had no mouth, and all he wanted to do was scream his love.

“I see.”  V1 didn’t move. The excited tone in Gabriel’s voice softened, not a decent sign, no matter how much the angel struggled to keep his voice steady. “Well, time will tell.”

 


𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟸 𝟶/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟿𝟿

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗

 

Since they weren’t in a hurry to look for more divine relics anyway, Gabriel was taking it slow and looking for documents to educate himself regarding machines. While V1 had taught Gabriel a considerable amount himself, he didn’t exactly know how blood functioned as fuel.

V1 and Gabriel could be back at their sweet little home. V1 could have used his undefeatable reasoning and precise calculations to convince Gabriel that his dream wouldn’t work. Even the generous 0.003% he had thrown once was enough to excite Gabriel.

“This angel can look at a possibility lower than 1 and experience an increase in mood just because there is a possibility,” even in the middle of the factory, he was thinking more about Gabriel. “And he once said what I was doing was foolishness.”

His voice echoed from the past. “Foolishness, Machine. Foolishness.”

His mechanical heart trembled. Even by remembering his former words and replaying them in his mind, V1 could make himself fall in love again and again. This bond felt so archaic and natural that V1 wondered whether he had always loved Gabriel, and all it took for him to register the intel was his code finally giving up.

Speaking of, it genuinely didn’t make sense that a broken code led to V1 experiencing feelings that could race with the humans famous (and notorious) for their sensuousness.

Was it possible that things had been the opposite all along? That he was meant to experience everything to the fullest, but something had gone wrong when he was unconscious, and it temporarily disabled his ability to bond? And then meeting Gabriel somehow magically fixed him? Living in a reality where Hell was a conscious being and Heaven sounded like a place full of narcissistic cowards, this didn’t sound impossible at all.

“Whatever it is,” V1 held some boxes and tossed them aside. His eye on some documents he had finally found, his system let out a satisfied noise. “I will contribute to his dream.”

By the labels of the dark gray box he had opened, he could say they continued the financial and developmental records of every single machine created there. The amount of Streetcleaners and Drones manufactured in the said factory surprised him. Some of the copies had unique names, while most of them just existed with their serial numbers.

Each machine model had multiple alternate versions designed to serve specific purposes. As V1 was scanning the documents, one thing most of them had in common caught his attention.

The said factory was known for conducting experiments on machines as well as actively digging a way into Hell . Those experiments mostly revolved around emotions and enhancing machine efficiency by overloading them with emotions, probably to simulate adrenaline. One report had even said a Streetcleaner loved cleaning so much that she was caught purposefully dirtying the floors to keep on sweeping.

It was later stated that they had shot her.

It didn’t take long for V1 to reach the paper he wasn’t even sure he wanted to see. The financial and developmental records of the V models. Barely readable.

All the names and numbers were either scribbled, bleached out, or were outright carved away. Many of the documents had holes in them, either done intentionally or as a result of how hard they wanted to leave their names off of them. V1 could register the struggle they had gone through; each different method and unique product used felt like an insult.

Did they fear the thought of being associated with him? Were they ashamed? Were they furious? Or, upon realizing the destructive creature they had created, did they spiral into insanity? Perhaps what they had created was the machine equivalent of a demon, and they had desperately tried to erase how to “summon” that demon. Maybe different people manipulated the documents for separate reasons, but none could dare to destroy the paperwork altogether.

The only documents under the first ones were a little more readable, showing the technical facts. They had classified the machines they had used to gather V1’s resources. Many of those names made no sense to V1. He couldn’t tell what mineral served what purpose. But under every single mineral, he saw the name of an Earthmover who had extracted them and brought them to the factory.

1000-THR 1013V “Longhorn”, a uniquely designed version of the Earthmover class that had an upside-down head and a mining site built upon its back. V1 blinked, it had never occurred to him that Earthmovers could be modified based on their separate purposes.

The document barely explained what a 1000-THR 1013V was; the model had stronger legs, a broader body, pre-installed explosives on the neck, and power generators to keep on functioning. The model could dig up coal for itself and feed on it, but this also caused the machine to be left dangerously unarmed, which probably got it killed when a conflict broke out.

V1 was made to defeat Earthmovers, but the reason he could come into existence was an Earthmover itself. Did it even make sense to call the 1000-THR 1013V model an Earthmover? The model didn’t sound much like a traditional Earthmover.

There could be other copies of this Longhorn, or the said machine could be one of its kind, like V1. The fact that only her name was written on the mining and gathering documents supported V1’s theory.

The machine shuffled the pages and saw something written in dark blue ink.

“Yes, she’s a goddamn Earthmover, a beast at that, too. No, we don’t accept excuses. #stopmismodelingmachines.”

V1 tilted his head. He pushed one more page, and he saw another note by the same ink and writing style.

“We asked her, she says she’s one. Better not mess with her, she’s like, idk, the reason V models can even exist. Those bastards are way too expensive and demanding to construct. You know what they say, an architect's dream is an engineer’s nightmare. Except those are everyone’s nightmares. Jesus Christ, the V’s are so damn complicated! Better suggest we stop the production of the V models or come up with a cheaper version.”

So, that was how V2 was born. V1 huffed. Until the last page, he didn’t see any more of those writings. When he managed to spot another one, his shoulders raised. This note was longer.

“It was a stupid idea to give machines emotions, I’ll give you that. No matter how hard we try, they keep ignoring their commands and often dream. Machines fucking dreaming! And forming bonds. And getting upset. And feeling happy. We showed the first V to Longhorn. She got so happy she started jumping on her place, and the nearby Earthmovers lost their balance because of her. Women, am I right?”

V1 failed to grasp what the Earthmover’s gender had to do with this reaction. Yes, he couldn’t understand why 1000-THR 1013V was happy to see him, but among all the things that didn’t make sense, the writer’s comment didn’t make sense the most. Maybe he could show the papers to Gabriel and ask. He knew humans well.

“Chief’s gonna kill me if she ever sees that comment. Anyway, we asked Longhorn why she got so happy. Well, we asked her after our crew calmed the other Earthmovers before they started a fight. She said she felt like a mo–” after this point, the rest of the writing was damaged beyond reading. Water or something like that must have dropped on it, making the ink go blurry and disoriented.

V1 couldn’t figure out what 1000-THR 1013V must have felt. He tried many words that started with “mo-”, but nothing made sense. What could be something that aligned with V1 and made a sentient machine happy? He couldn’t think of any word that made sense.

Maybe V2 could say what it was…

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟹.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

The machine was startled away from his thoughts when he heard a mechanical tone that wasn’t his or Gabriel’s. But the voice had also stunned him in place because it sounded exactly like the inner voice he had deep down, the tone he used to talk to himself or confess his deepest feelings to Gabriel.

He could never even imagine hearing that sound in the middle of that factory. V1 hurried closer to the voice, seeing Gabriel’s beautiful presence before a giant computer. Whenever one of the crushers hit the ground, the computer lightly jumped in its place.

“The screen wasn’t working well, so I turned on text-to-speech.” Gabriel clicked a few keys, and the computer voiced every word Gabriel randomly selected. “It is mesmerizing how most of the equipment here survived decades of squalidity. Perhaps the reason why mankind leaned on using analog machinery was that they were more likely to stand the test of time.”

V1 pressed the arrow keys and listened to the computer himself. Gabriel pulled away his hands, letting his friend come closer and manipulate the technology. After some thinking, V1 figured out he could quickly switch between words to use their first letters, and then select a word that had the letter he wanted, and keep on switching between words until he could form words.

“G. Ab. R. I. El.”

Gabriel’s wings twitched. V1 looked at him for a while, then started tapping on the same word. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“Did you just say my name as your first…” Gabriel’s voice came out just above a whisper. “...word? Have you ever spoken before? I mean, verbally ?”

V1 shook his head negatively. Gabriel shivered again, so affected that it was noticeable even with his heavy armor. V1 laughed again. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“My name is your first verbal word…” he whispered in shock, hands pressing on the computer’s harsh exterior. As he got quiet and tried to fully comprehend what had just happened, V1 pressed random keys just to listen to the voice more.

After a while, Gabriel slowly reached for the heavy computer’s lid. It took some effort to open it, and a lot of dust came out as well, but what he saw before him was the complicated mastery of human engineering.

“You like the tone it has?” Gabriel murmured his question, lost in thought, observing the computer drowned in cables. He started pocking its separate hardware as V1 pressed the buttons, making the text-to-speech talk more.

“It. Fee. L. S. Li. K. The. Vo. S. I. Hav. E. In. M. I. He. A. D.” He made the computer say. He had never heard something outside his mind and got convinced it sounded like him.

“Machines have inner voices, too?” the angel whispered in awe as he kept on tinkering. He pulled off some cables. V1 wanted to answer with the text-to-speech, but his answer got cut in half when Gabriel pulled out a little box from the computer. V1 lowered his shoulders.

While he wasn’t a big fan of the idea of talking, being able to do it even for a short while felt different in a nice way. He wished he could choose when he could remain silent and when he could use audio output to interact.

“This is the voice box, it appears.” He opened the lid and revealed a green piece of machinery with multicolored cables delicately attached. It was no larger than Gabriel’s hand, and was much slimmer than either of them expected. Gabriel looked closer as if he could understand more by staring into the hardware’s nonexistent soul. “Now, how can we..?”

V1 tilted his head. He couldn’t figure out what an angel possibility to with a voice box. He had a voice and a beautiful one at that, too. It was V1 who needed a voice box–... His iron brain let out a light clicking noise.

“I would invent multidimensional travel and implement time-efficient self-updating mapping protocols for this man.” He thought to himself. “I would remove factorials from mathematics itself if he wanted me to.”

“V1, does your software support whatever is required for you to speak?”

V1 nodded. HakiOS 1.0 was an operating system built upon a more general system that came with many built-in drivers. His operating system was especially designed to support his fast calculations and many other devices that made him the supreme machine he was. AI-born operating systems functioned differently from those outdated script-reliant systems like Macrohard Doors or Pineapple ToshOS.

In short, yes, he had the drivers and detectors ready; what he lacked was the thing Gabriel held in his hands. He knew he had speakers too, since he had several bodily alert and notification sounds.

And he required a technician who could place that miraculous thing inside, a role Gabriel seemed a little too enthusiastic to fill. When V1 nodded, Gabriel lightly flapped his wings as if he were the one getting a voice box.

Notes:

OMG, are we getting V1 lore?! From the hit book Error: Madly in Love?!

Chapter 14

Notes:

Something wicked this way comes.

Chapter Text

The factory’s lighting struggled for one more second, yet its flickers could only resist so far before going out entirely. Energy across the floor was shut down in a fearful harmony. The Terminal opened on its own, its iconic music glitched so badly that it kept repeating the first two seconds of its audio. The second words started appearing on its screen, the audio got reversed and sped up.

𝚅𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚕𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎. 

𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚊 𝙷𝚞𝚜𝚔, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚍𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚎𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚡𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎, 𝚗𝚘 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚢𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚜. 

𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝, 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚖𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚙𝚑𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢'𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚏𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚍.  

𝙾𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚘𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚘𝚞𝚝𝚑 𝚘𝚏 𝙷𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚝 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜.

𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚗𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚜𝚎, 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚝?

V1 noticed what the Terminal was talking about the second he saw the word “creature”. That thing was nothing to classify as, nor was it anything to experiment on. A “creature” it had always been, a wicked one. All he and any machine knew was that none could dare tempt Something Wicked, and none ever survived it but V1.

The machine reached out for Gabriel, pulling him back. Gabriel moved, but he was still busy reading the screen. V1 insisted. Gabriel stopped reading midway and looked at his friend.

V1 haphazardly showed one of his weapons and clicked multiple times, demonstrating they were not working. His other two arms were also immobile. Only then did Gabriel show a fraction of emotion. “Oh, this can’t be good.”

A sinister mist started covering them. While V1 was helplessly hoping that grabbing a skull would awaken Something Wicked, and until then they were safe, he got the gory message no machine wanted to see in a lifetime. And V1 was experiencing it twice!

𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜.
𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝙽𝙾 𝚅𝙾𝙲𝙰𝙻 𝙸𝙽𝚃𝙴𝚁𝙵𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝙳𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳. 𝚄𝙽𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴 𝚃𝙾 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙿𝙻𝙴𝚃𝙴 𝚃𝙰𝚂𝙺

V1 shook his hands.

“Is it coming?” Gabriel instinctively raised his wing, covering V1’s back. He pulled out his sword, Justice , from its sheath. V1 prepared Piercer ; all detectors and safety protocols set to maximum. He had to be more aware than the last time since he had an angel by his side, one who looked way too clueless and unscared to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

For starters, seeing someone like V1 or any machine in particular shiver in fear must have been enough of a sign to drop everything and run away. But Gabriel was not the best when it came to survival instincts.

V1 pulled him back once more. Gabriel nodded, turning back and still keeping his wing behind his friend. “Okay, we are leaving. I remember our exact route.”

Gabriel wished he could use his divine powers; the darkness wouldn’t be a problem. But he could already imagine the sulking he would get from V1 if he were to use his Holy Light .

Odd and hurried noises were coming from each direction. One could even liken them to mechanical whispers and the languageless murmurs of the sinners. “We aren’t alone.”

V1 side-eyed him, his eyelids positioned in such a way that they mocked Gabriel. “Oh, really?” he wanted to say.

“I am not talking about whoever is causing this darkness.” Gabriel swiftly turned his head when he heard the high-pitched sound he could swear he had heard before.

V1 and Gabriel saw a clueless Husk wandering around timidly. Gabriel was about to reach out his hand and call out for the Husk. They could leave the factory together. If only V1’s processors weren’t busy simulating twenty scenarios of how Something Wicked would catch up to them, he would be complaining about the uselessness of helping others. Especially when they were in danger themselves.

The machine’s vision started glitching out, and he heard other machines from afar screaming as well. As blocks and color distortions threatened to claim his vision, V1 grabbed Gabriel’s arm and tried pulling him back, using full force. Gabriel kept his gaze on the Husk as he walked back.

And then they saw the slender fingers emerging from the dark. The moment they touched the Husk with their tips, the sinner started screaming. Holes opened on its pinkish flesh, gasping out the final energy in its veins as it perished in front of their eyes. Not even blood met the ground, for it had vaporized.

 


 

“You said that thing wouldn’t leave its place!” Mirage yelled as she clung to the vent’s gills, pulling with all the force she had, but it didn’t bulge. V2 held from the other side and pushed one foot against the old wall to increase his pull. They tried again, and the gill kept on insulting them.

“We need to explode this thing,” V2 murmured, giving up after two more tries. “These are the only places that bastard can’t reach. It’s too tall.”

“According to you, it wouldn’t leave its place either.”

“Mirage, is this really the right time to be arguing?”

“We are about to get reduced to our atoms because we were on our way to annoy your brother,” Mirage hurled. “I can’t think of a better moment!”

“Chief, Mirage, I hate to cut in, but,” Benjamin lowered his head, “Lady Streetcleaner isn’t with us right now.”

The V models stopped arguing and yelled in unison. “What?!”

Their visions started glitching out at the same time. Having given up on their masterfully thought-out plans, they bolted, getting caught by Gabriel and V1 was the least of their worries at that moment. V2 rushed, leaving a galloping machine behind was no easy feat.

As the red machine prepared his guns to fight a battle he couldn’t win, he kept calling out for the Steetcleaner. Switching between binary and English, he kept on scanning his surroundings, following the heat maps. “Streetcleaner? Where are you?! Don’t tell me you got caught..!”

The glitching started again, then it lessened. V2 sensed a bolt of divine light pierce through a wall, followed by a gunshot. They heard one more sinner get dissolved. The glitching increased harder, and the colors started to mismatch. V2 recognized V1’s system noises; he wasn’t too far.

When V1’s gunshot hit Something Wicked, the light illuminated their surroundings for a fraction of a second. In that moment, V2 and V1 shared glances.

After V2 came Benjamin with Mirage riding him. Benjamin’s gentle warning that they had been seen by V1 went ignored as they sought Streetcleaner. Gabriel’s voice echoed through the corridors and rooms. Any voice they made was easier to notice with the absence of the factory’s signature noises. Mirage would have never thought she would miss the sound those crushers made.

“D-don’t come any closer!” When they found Streetcleaner, nothing in that horrified voice resembled her. “Run! Leave me behind!”

Their visions went insane with Something Wicked’s presence corrupting their sense of location and time. Benjamin jumped in front of Streetcleaner and bent his head to protect Mirage as well. V2 stepped in front of his group and pressed the trigger.

It didn’t work.

He tried again, but it didn’t work.

“Fuck!” he whispered frantically. “No wonder V1 was only using that stupid pistol!”

V2 looked up and saw Something Wicked’s slim face right in front of him, barely two meters set apart. Terror claimed his body, his codes screaming at him to leave. It wasn’t too late. He could make a run for it.

“No! Leave! All of you!” Streetcleaner cried.

V2 heard Gabriel’s voice, worried, it was more like a scream he let out for V1.

Mirage attempted to get off of Benjamin, but he held her.

He closed his eye and braced himself; at least the others could have some time to react with Something Wicked destroying him.

If only V2 could tell he would love to watch the night sky with Mirage, at least onc–...

Something Wicked’s slender fingers drew back with the impact of V1’s punch. At the same moment, V1’s arm trembled and malfunctioned due to the force he had to put out. Something Wicked opened the distance, but it didn’t go far enough. Their visions were still trembling. The dark creature kept on approaching with the mist surrounding it.

“V1!” Gabriel’s presence reduced their glitching by a significant amount. His wide-open wings hid the grotesque darkness behind him. The angel held V1’s arm, sparks of electricity jumping out.

Even in that state, V1 was signalling him to get behind.

Something snapped in Gabriel, and his armor changed to the reddish color that once defined the fate of sinners. His wings shone gold, and his voice hardened. With the heat of the moment, he swirled his head and got head-to-head with Something Wicked. Its dark aura crashed with the archangel’s bright light.

Something Wicked reached out for V1 once more, and Gabriel caught its hand as if he hadn’t seen what that creature was capable of doing with a single touch. “Don’t. Even. Think. About. It.”

He crushed the creature’s slim wrist, and it writhed in pain, Holy Light penetrating its nervous system. Gabriel caught Something Wicked by its neck and tossed the nightmarish creature across the room. Its landing barely made any noise. Something Wicked’s ghostly voice irritated Mirage and Benjamin’s auditory receptors.

Gabriel summoned his divine spear, uncaring of the Holy Light he was using. He directed it at Something Wicked, barely affected by its pathetic position.

“Dare to harm him once more, and you shall suffer the wrath of the divine.”

He took one step forward, and Something Wicked started pulling back its shadowy mist. Gabriel kept walking until Something Wicked eventually disappeared in its own shadow. The factory turned on, and the machines were finally up and running again.

Streetcleaner hugged Benjamin and Mirage with all the strength she had in her trembling arms. Mirage remained nonchalant for a while, but her feelings caught up with her eventually. Benjamin happily lowered his body.

V2 stood in his place, staring at his brother and what he had done to his arm. V1 turned his head, and they shared yet another silent glance.

Before V2 could say anything, Gabriel held V1 by his shoulders.

“Are you crazy?!” the angel yelled worriedly, his red color all gone. “V1, I want to assume you knew this would work.”

V1 nodded.

“My God…” Gabriel lowered his wings and grabbed V1’s arm. Knuckleblaster and Whiplash were back to service with Something Wicked’s disappearance, but Feedbacker was lightly trembling with the damage it had received.

Gabriel pulled out his knife and slid it between the light opening he had between his handplate and armplate. He cut deeply and let the droplets of blood reach V1’s exterior.

It took a few stressful seconds for V1’s arm to finally fix itself. First, he gained control over his joints, and then he straightened his fingers. Gabriel finally gave a relieved breath. He kept his wound over V1’s arm even then, claiming some more energy wouldn’t hurt.

Mirage could tell Gabriel didn’t want to let go.

And neither did V1.

 


𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:  𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

Three hours later, they were sitting on the steps in front of their apartment building. Instead of that one Filth, they had five of them munching on the fish Gabriel had cooked for them. The angel and the machine were silent, their thoughts busy in their minds. During times like those, it had always been Gabriel who started the silence and ended it.

Whenever a Filth was done eating, it came closer and got a head pat from Gabriel before leaving. Otherwise, they just stood there. The final one to finish, Gabriel’s very first Filth friend, did something extra. After getting her patting from Gabriel, she walked toward V1 and nudged him. The machine exhaled loudly as Gabriel chuckled.

“She seems to like you a lot.”

V1 rolled his eye as the Filth left. Despite how unpleasant it felt, the Filth’s unasked-for act had helped them pass the initial stage of their shock.

Electricity going out, Something Wicked emerging, realizing the machine assumed long-gone was back, rescuing them, witnessing Gabriel lose his mind the second V1 got hurt. And Gabriel not only managed to touch that thing and not die, but also pushed the creature back into its place. No wonder he used to be the Judge of Hell…

Now, there was a bandage on Gabriel’s wrist, the one he had quickly cut to give V1 some blood. The damage wasn’t critical, they both knew. Yet that hadn’t stopped Gabriel.

Angel blood tasted so nice. Taste, as in for a machine that doesn’t have taste buds, referred to how it felt inside his machine. He could feel his non-existent soul starting to float, the tiny sparkles probably blessing his warm tubes.

“You have to understand her, V1.” Gabriel softly touched his bandages, about to start fidgeting with them. V1 quickly placed his hand on Gabriel’s fingers and pulled them away. That was one thing he couldn’t understand about those life forms. Why did they play with their bandages, rip off their scabs, poke their fresh injuries?

Gabriel huffed gladly. “See? You are just proving my point.”

“What point?” V1 tilted his head in such a way that Gabriel could hear him say that.

“You are a thoughtful friend. A protective one. A trustworthy one.” Gabriel leaned on the cold door, stretching his back and wings. V1 wished he could jump on his lap and get hugged by those wings. Instead, he mimicked Gabriel. He laughed midway. “And a quite funny one, too!”

“I see what you did,” the angel continued, relying on his memory. “You rarely spoke of that red machine, V2, if I am not mistaken. And you clearly disliked him. But for someone who openly expressed his unpleasant feelings, you did something outstanding there.”

V1 tied his arms and looked elsewhere.

“Yes, I know you still dislike him. I didn’t say otherwise, which is my main point. As living beings, we are more likely to put ourselves in danger’s way for our loved ones. But showing the maturity and the selflessness to protect someone we do not like?” Gabriel sighed. “Now, that is what I call absolute chivalry.”

V1’s arms loosened. When he looked back at Gabriel, he could sense the softness behind that rigid mask. The machine lowered his wings.

Gabriel seemed so… proud. Like, like he had won a bet he had made to himself. That there was hope even for the all-devouring V1. Even a machine programmed to kill and move on could snap out and do the opposite. There was hope, both for V1 and the future of machinekind.

But, V1 couldn’t track down where he got this assumption from; it somehow felt more like Gabriel was proud he had a friend he could trust, even in a moment of crisis.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Did he lack a person he could trust throughout his whole life?

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Had he always been proven otherwise whenever he chose to believe in someone?

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Was it that interesting to see someone choose to listen to his word, not because there was a promised paradise at the end of it, but because he mattered?

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

V1 had never told Gabriel he secretly regretted destroying V2. He couldn’t even confess that to himself until that moment his eye met V2’s. At that moment, something odd sparked inside him. That odd feeling had occurred once, days ago, when V1 noticed he missed Gabriel.

While standing in front of Something Wicked and preparing himself to endure one more strike from it, V1 had long since realized whatever he was experiencing was far from a system error. No amount of code breaking or device malfunctioning could make him do that. It was simply impossible.

It was as though, ever since Gabriel had been the center of his life, V1 was unlocking a side of him caged a long time ago.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

Chapter 15

Notes:

The moment I learned that today (September 3rd) is the early-access anniversary of ULTRAKILL, I HAD TO LOCK IN and finish this chapter :D And wouldn't you look at that! They are celebrating their 100th day since becoming besties.

ULTRAKILL truly changed me a lot and helped me go through some tough times. I remember times when I endured some emotionally overwhelming stuff by crazing over V1 and Gabriel. And when those times come back, I am planning on doing the same. Truly a masterpiece, one of the greatest games I have ever played. Amazing fandom, too. Take very good care, everyone. HAPPY ULTRANNIVERSARY!

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟸𝟶/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟷𝟶𝟶

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:  𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑 – 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

“It is such a shame they didn’t want to join us,” Gabriel twisted the screwdriver gently, removing irrelevant parts from the voice box. He held the table light and brought it closer.

“It would be a greater shame if a group named ‘We Hate V1’ joined us.” V1 typed. He got happy when Gabriel laughed at his statement. He didn’t mean to be funny, but if it could lift Gabriel’s spirit, he wouldn’t complain. He had gotten used to his beautifully odd angel.

There were a few odd things about Gabriel that didn’t feel odd anymore. For starters, he preferred staying awake during the night till sunrise, and sleeping for most of the day. V1 didn’t know whether this was a Gabriel thing only or if angels often did so. Was there even a morning-night cycle up in Heaven? Perhaps, like in Hell, Heaven had separate realms where time functioned differently, or only one state endured. Maybe Gabriel hailed from a realm where the night encouraged him to do his job.

He adored fairy lights, daisies, and things that oddly resembled V1. He also seemed to enjoy anything related to machines, whether it be trying to understand their engineering or figuring out the purposes of their pieces. He treated even the most insignificant machine with great care, even murmuring gentle apologies when he accidentally snapped something too hard. V1 had to often remind him that not all machines were alive and sentient, especially not household appliances.

To think that, behind all those outrageous words and maelstrom emotions, lay that angel… Waiting to be seen, discovered, accepted, taken seriously, and understood.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟸.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

No, it surely wasn’t like that. V1 was just getting sentimental. After all, that day marked the hundredth day of their alliance. 

Angels were supposed to be sinless, kind beings. Gabriel just happened to be a lot more than them. Someone charismatic and charming like Gabriel, with all that age and power, never having a single person who could accept him the way he was?

There he was! Sitting, kindly tinkering with that device, wearing a dress. Yes, he had eventually tailored himself a dress and has been wearing it for some time now. He claimed it felt soft, weightless, and easier to move around. But he hasn’t always been that comfortable with the idea of wearing a dress. Not that he paid attention to gender expectations, those didn’t work like that on angels. He had a different concern.

𝙸𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚖𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢... 𝙼𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚕𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚍.
𝙼𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐.

V1 had just arrived in his room when Gabriel was trying out his newest outfit, a rather pretty dress that touched his strong knees. All thanks to Gabriel’s tailoring (and his handsome body), the dress looked amazing. Light blue soft cloth. He even had a golden belt to support the style. V1’s fans started trembling.

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.
𝙴𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐-𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚖𝚘𝚍𝚎? 𝚈/ (𝙽)

Gabriel snorted despite himself. “…It’s stupid. I thought I could wear this for a while, but we’re in the middle of a world where nothing is for certain. And we live right next to the Gate of Earth and Hell. I don’t have my former healing abilities. I mean, I do have them, but it will cost me Holy Light. It’s not exactly smart.”

V1 went still. His visor dimmed for a second. Gabriel knew this meant V1 was calculating. The angel didn’t say anything. V1 materialized his trusty keyboard from his wing and came closer, pressing on the keys.

“Input parameters: Your strength output exceeds the pre-apocalyptic human average by a factor of twenty-three. Wings provide supplemental shielding. Body mass—”

“Careful.” Gabriel’s voice lowered a tone.

“…Body mass offers enhanced stability.”

“You just called me fat in robot.” He sounded far too playful to appear offended.

“Statement is purely functional. I didn’t insult.” Deep down, V1 was losing his mechanical mind over how perfect Gabriel’s body was to hug. The perfect size, amazing height difference, curves that made him look too good to be true, and those strong arms! And his chest, too! V1 could press his head there and listen to Gabriel’s heartbeats all day! He wished he had stolen two more arms from V2, but not even having a hundred arms would be enough to satisfy his hugging desire.

𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.

V1 stepped closer, one arm shifting to reveal his weapon systems. If he kept thinking about Gabriel and why he had to be the perfect hugging candidate, he would crash and faint again. “Additionally: My presence. Threat elimination probability,” V1 stopped and started counting. He kept on writing after completing his calculations. “99.78%. Risk to you while wearing non-protective attire is negligible.”

Gabriel couldn’t speak for a while. “…Wait. You are saying it’s fine if I wear this?”

V1 nodded without a second thought. He had to wear it; he must wear it. V1 would destroy Hell if it meant Gabriel would wear dresses forever. His engine was getting so loud that V1 had to disable some system functions to control the noise.

“Why? I was expecting you to cite a hundred reasons why I should never take my armor off, let alone wear a dress.”

Well… Yes. Under normal conditions, V1 would side with logic and safety. He thrived in his calculation abilities and the innate talent of always choosing the most efficient and viable option. At no point in his wisdom did it make sense to wear a dress instead of armor.

But it was Gabriel they were talking about. That man wore a button-up, and he looked amazing. He didn’t wear one and just walked around with his pants, perfect. In pajamas, astonishing. Wandering around with random clothing because his favorite ones were getting washed, still breathtaking. Dress?

𝙴 𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟹.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

Yes, whatever his system said.

V1’s eye flickered, straining under the weight of too many computations. Inside, his subroutines were screaming: You look magnificent, don’t take it off, spin in it, wear ten more like it . Don’t worry about the world, I will destroy it for you. Dance on its ashes for me. I love you.

Outside, his mechanical fingers moved like bullets. “You are visually optimal. Continue wearing.”

The apex predator V1, Harbinger of Death, reduced to process conflicts because his crush put on a dress. He couldn’t even recall the rest of the day; his senses and lens were too busy admiring Gabriel. But no matter how pretty he looked, nothing could surpass his heavenly laughter.

𝙼𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚛.

By the time V1 was done replaying that memory, Gabriel was almost done with his work. He asked V1 to open his engine’s hood, and their odd moment began. V1 had never allowed anyone to touch his engine, and Gabriel had never touched a living machine’s engine. His hands moved gently and slowly. V1 didn’t get why Gabriel treated this whole thing like a ceremony, asking for his permission whenever he was to touch another part of V1. But he liked it.

The process took them three hours and continuous tries until Gabriel finally figured out what he was supposed to do. With the help of V1 himself and six more handbooks about machines and motor maintenance. He pulled his hands away the second he saw the small green dot finally turning on. “Did it work?”

“G-...” V1’s voice cracked. He tried it again, and it worked a little better. He put a lot of effort into it, and he finally spoke. “Gab… Riel.”

“It worked!” Gabriel proudly raised his back, and then he recognized what his friend had said. His voice softened, serene happiness taking over his confidence. “My… name? Again..?”

And again, and again, and again, and again.

 


 

Once he was done laughing, he put another biscuit in his mouth. Mankind had reached such a good point in food preservation that things managed to taste somewhat fresh even after being produced decades prior. V1 noted that while Gabriel never picked foods and he would eat anything, he had a tendency to prefer chocolate and strawberry aromas.

V1 was just done explaining his relation to V2, what happened during their two encounters, and how he “permanently borrowed” those arms from V2. He mostly used his keyboard and motions, but he sometimes randomly switched to verbal talk. He didn’t know when it felt better to talk, and why he sometimes chose to go all quiet. But Gabriel never questioned. He went along with whatever the machine wanted to do.

They were sitting on that giant rock again, the one where they often went for fishing. Turns out, Gabriel knew that day was their hundredth day of becoming friends (aka forming their alliance), and suggested simply sitting there and not bothering themselves with any work for the rest of the night. Time went by so quickly, the gentle waves of the sea murmured their confessions to the midnight sky.

“No wonder he leads a group named ‘We Hate V1’. I wouldn’t be in the best of moods either if you were to swipe the floor with me, then steal my arm, and use that arm to beat me again.” Gabriel took a sip of his strawberry milk. It wasn’t made of actual milk. It was just some sort of dust that Gabriel had to pour some water on. And it magically turned into a pinkish drink Gabriel claimed to taste fine.

“Mirage didn’t like me at first either, but then I changed her mind.” V1 pressed the keys. “V2 probably told her some nonsense.”

“Sibling rivalry at its finest,” Gabriel murmured. “I am sure getting to know you, this side of you, will change their views. And maybe you could consider not hitting V2 with his arm again.”

V1 eyed Feedbacker and spoke. “Which means you wouldn’t mind me beating him with my original part.”

Gabriel raised his wings. “You know I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.”

“We should take this seriously.” Gabriel huffed and started giggling himself. “We are talking about two machines that came from the dead. V2 and Benjamin, they were, right? How does that even work?”

V1 shook his head left and right. “Today is vacation day.”

“Can you say it tomorrow, then?”

V1 remembered how irritating it feels when he can’t learn what he wants to know as soon as possible. He watched his fingers and started tapping them on his leg, just like how Gabriel would often do whenever he thought.

“Calculating probabilities… I failed to destroy V2’s SSD and 1000-THR Earthmover’s data storage units.” V1 started saying. “Either Mirage or their Streetcleaner ally acquired their data. If kernel and essential data remain uncorrupted, machines can be brought back to existence with adequate forms to support their pre-coded structure.”

“So, making a relatively smaller version of the… Earth… mover..?” Gabriel continued after V1 nodded. “...was more than a choice. Things simply wouldn’t work otherwise.”

“Comparing: It would be like injecting a Filth’s brain into a Schism.”

Gabriel caught up. “The poor creature would have no control over that body, for they were not compatible.”

“Heavy coding and rewriting the kernel would be the only possible approach to keeping their internal data and enabling them to possess different vessels. Inefficient, low probability of success, and 70% risk of total data corruption.”

“How did they reconstruct V2 and Benjamin, then?”

“I have data regarding my structure. V2 is an updated model, hence he most likely has one, too. These increase the likelihood of Mirage having a structural mapping of the V series preinstalled as well.” V1’s gaze moved to the sky, recalling the first time he had seen Earthmovers alive. Back then, they were only data to him, the obscure idea of the things he was designed to destroy. “In the Violence Layer where I defeated Benjamin, I remember ignoring at least one Earthmover. Using the functioning Earthmover, it is most likely they made up a miniature 1000-THR model.”

“The ways of machinekind are beyond my wildest imaginations…”

“High adaptability, migrating to AI-based coordination systems from code-reliant operational systems. If an error is present, produce methods and try. Low adaptability means inevitable shutdown.” V1 lowered his head, now facing the horizon. It looked so vast and praiseworthy, yet it could neither touch the sky nor dive into the ocean.

“If we shut down, there is no turning back.” Deep down, V1 knew there was a slim chance for others. Like what happened to V2 and Benjamin. As he said “we”, a deep side in him whispered “I”.

If I shut down, there is no turning back.

When you fall, there will be no one to lift you. Once you fall, it is the end. For that, you can never afford to waste time and blood. Without chances or fuel, you will shut down and never wake up.

These were the very first lines on his hard disk, the ones he was born with preinstalled. Like how a baby knows it seeks out the mother for protection and nutrition, V1 knew there would be no one to lift him up should he fall. The opposite simply didn’t make sense.

“But you just explained how machines can be brought back, as long as the necessary parts and data remain intact.”

“The crucial part is having others care enough to waste their time and fuel on such hustles. Excluding those two, I had never heard of this being done for another dead machine.”

It came out suddenly from Gabriel’s mouth. “I would be there for you.”

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙸𝚗𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍_𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝟶𝟻.𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚊.

Silence.

He would be there, wouldn’t he? Of course, V1 could tell. Gabriel would do whatever he could to fix him. But to hear the angel himself say that, so sure of himself at that, shivered his insides.

“Did I darken the mood?” Gabriel murmured after minutes of silence. The sun was slowly cutting through the night, the humble tones of blue making way. “Okay, a change of topic often helps situations like these… If you could change your model, what would you like to be?”

V1 typed on his keyboard. “Why would I want that?”

“Egotist.” Gabriel chuckled. “You’d keep on being a V model?”

V1 put some thought into it and considered every other machine he had seen or read about. Among them, the most interesting one was the Earthmover by the name Longhorn, but not even that intrigued him enough. He spoke. “I see myself most compatible with V models.”

“Jokes aside, that’s a great insight as well, my friend.”

“That being said, considering… If the imaginary scenario of changing my model were to come true, I would like to upgrade myself.”

Upgrading myself in such a way that you would love me. Becoming so transdimensional that I could rip apart all that Holy Light and bring it to your service. Have engines so strong that I could lift you with one arm. No stamina limit, no need for blood to heal, and the ability to control my mood on will.

“An imaginary V3, you say? Indulge my curiosity.”

“The update proposals I produce on a primary level are impossible to integrate into reality. No engineering could achieve those.”

“We are imagining here, no need for possibilities.”

“Impossible outcomes are unworthy of processing energy and RAM usage.”

Gabriel breathed in the sea’s breeze. “If mankind were to forsake dreams, nothing great would ever exist.”

The stars twinkled above, waving their goodbyes for the night. “Once on this planet’s face, there were those who called themselves dreamers. They looked at the same stars we do now. And they saw the foundations of machines. Without their dreams holding their hands, they would have never made it this far.”

“So, never see living your life as wasting time, friend.” Gabriel drank his strawberry milk. “Because I was in your place once. I hated the thought of devoting my time to something else than duty. I felt guilty whenever I caught myself staring at the little trinkets humans made for fun. I feared the concept of being late so much that… I am too late to start living now.”

V1 lowered his eyelid.

“But do you know what would be worse?” Gabriel caressed the skirt of his dress. “Being stuck in a loop of committing murders I never wanted to, and being forced to find joy in them. I might be late, yes, but it is better to know I am late than never knowing what I could have had.”

“For that, if I were to change my ‘model’, I would like to become a human and live a modest life. Waste my time as much as I wanted, getting frustrated over trivial matters like feeding myself or seeking shelter. Being responsible for myself only. Being so insignificant and small that whether I chose to do something or not didn’t matter. That all I had to do to deserve salvation was to be a good person.”

“It sometimes hurts to think of what I could have been. But I’d rather this pain over adding more to the mindless slaughters I had led.” As if he wasn’t in the middle of existential dread, he ate a biscuit. “At least, thanks to those dreams, I now know what I want to do. Those little things I filled our home with didn’t just come to my mind out of nowhere; I always wanted to have an apartment like that.”

“What can I say? Being late with a plan is better than being late without a clue.” Gabriel looked at his reflection in the sea. Another moment of silence.

Then, V1 spoke.

“I would want to be able to save you.”

Chapter 16

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟹𝟹/𝟷𝟶𝟶 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟷𝟼𝟺

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗:  𝚅𝚒𝚘𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 – 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚆𝚊𝚜 𝙼𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚂𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎

The pursuit wasn’t much of a trouble to them, even though it happened suddenly when they were once again just searching for some holy relics. A lightweight machine and an elegant angel who could always adapt each other’s moves could come up with multiple tactics out in the open.

Besides, V1 had some questions to ask V2, so he had the advantage of having a target. And Gabriel was mostly there for the fun of it. Okay, maybe he was a little worried, too. The layer was crowded with Earthmover corpses, and Gabriel couldn’t leave his friend’s safety to chance.

The two earthdwellers followed V2’s team from a distance until they entered the remains of an Earthmover. Compared to the others, this one was larger, and its neck seemed to be placed underneath its torso.

When Gabriel asked what could have caused this Earthmover to look so different, V1 gladly answered. It was a different model called 1000-THR 1013V “Longhorn”. V1 even explained its functions and how the V models could come into existence, thanks to their drilling and superior movement capabilities.

No matter how much machines had changed, a computer was still a computer. All of them liked giving answers. And being right with those answers still carried the same meaning it had when computers were new inventions, with small steps toward the future.

…what was it with humanity always seeking the worst thing to do with the greatest inventions?

Gabriel, fascinated by V1’s amazing knowledge and the part Earthmover Longhorn played in his creation, held V1 by his wrist as they hurried inside. V1’s system had to go into autopilot when he was losing his mind, his CPU screaming and fans giggling as he stared at his wrist.

They couldn’t use the path the others had used. They quickly came up with a solution and found a new way through the many openings the Earthmover had. When Gabriel asked whether this poor machine had suffered a painful death, V1 couldn’t even be sure if Earthmovers had pain sensors. Some machines, like V1, had systems sending feedback when a part was damaged. But he also knew machines that genuinely felt pain and even screamed.

Earthmovers probably had pain sensors, too. Benjamin was trembling and shaking his neck haphazardly when V1 was done invading him from the inside.

They found a narrow and very tall hallway where most of the cables were placed. Now, all of them were lying on the ground without a purpose to recall. The corridor branched across the dead machine, yet Gabriel could easily find where they were supposed to head. Being an angel had its quirks, and Gabriel even confessed how much easier it was to focus on environmental occurrences when he felt safe enough to lower his guard.

V1 instantly wrote that down to his “compliments.txt” file.

At the end of the cable-filled corridor, they saw faint light entering from the opening above them. V1 prepared Whiplash to reach the opening, but Gabriel stopped him. Shortly after, they heard faint chuckles coming from near. The opening was probably leading directly to the section where V2 and his comrades were having their conversation.

The narrowness of the corridor worked to their advantage. It was so small that Gabriel couldn’t even open his arms by half. But this also meant he could climb upwards by pushing his legs and back against the two walls. His armor made it possible that he wouldn’t slip on steep surfaces, an update V1 would gladly get for himself.

Gabriel held the sturdy rope of the Whiplash and started climbing. V1 liked the soft sensation of getting swung like a child on a swing. No wonder those mini-humans had so much fun with such a primal device of entertainment.

When the angel was done climbing, he hummed. V1 understood both that it was time to bring himself up and that Gabriel had seen the machines.

While V1 was truly innocent, and it was his only intention to pull himself upward, he couldn’t deny how nice it felt to hold onto Gabriel’s waist. That precious angel, both with and without his armor, managed to make V1’s senses go crazy.

Gabriel’s breathing slowed, clinging to the deep breaths he took to reduce the voice he led out. V1 stopped moving once he secured his place, only then realizing he was sitting on Gabriel’s lap and leaning his back against the wall, his body held there by Gabriel’s muscular strength.

V1’s right leg hung from the side, softly shifting in place whenever Gabriel exhaled. While the initial risk was over and they didn’t need to worry, V1 could still sense the exalted heartbeat of the angel. It hasn’t gone back to normal ever since they ended up in that position.

“If you are feeling under threat,” V1 said, his voice at its lowest volume, “I can dispose of them in approximately ten seconds.”

“I’m fine,” he whispered, mesmerizing V1 by using his tone to dictate that he wanted to yell, although he couldn’t. “Why do you think I’m not fine? I am fine!”

“Your heartbeat is abnormal despite minimal risks.”

“We will keep on increasing those risks if we keep talking.”

“Eliminating the threats is still a valid option.” V1’s wings twitched.

“You'd better recode that otherwise.”

He nodded obediently, only because he fancied sitting on Gabriel’s lap more than wreaking havoc down there. He took at least seven screenshots, added notes, and produced copies. “Done. Dismantling them is no longer a system opinion.”

Because his system was too busy taking care of “other” opinions. For starters, which picture to add to his “this month’s favorites” folder, or which note to write in navy blue.

They looked down the so-called room where the machines were discussing something. The amateurish “We Hate V1 Club” banner on the wall almost made Gabriel chuckle. It seemed that everyone in the team had written one word there. “We” had the joyful and friendly tweaks of Benjamin, “Hate” had the artistic and gothic style only Mirage could replicate, “V1” was definitely written by V2 since even the font looked like an insult, and “Club” with fire emojis all around it was probably the Streetcleaner’s job.

“He has been spending an awful amount of time with the archangel.” Lady Streetcleaner fidgeted with her cable. “Never thought that psychopath could get a friend.”

Mirage’s giggle didn’t go unnoticed. “Yeah, friend.”

Gabriel tilted his head. V1 hoped the angel would just assume it was just that rare for a machine to have a friend. Especially for V1. 

“They look like best friends. They live on Earth, I wonder where they use as their headquarters, though.” Benjamin relaxed his hooves. “If it is not a 1000-THR 1013V like ours, then it can’t be that good.”

V2 hummed. “You have a point. We had never seen where the fuck they disappear when they are done collecting junk in Hell.”

The angel wished he could argue against that. But ever since acknowledging the truth behind everything he once deemed perfect, he was left with fewer words to say. They served nothing more than giving him weeks to live.

If only he knew this bare contribution made them more valuable than blood itself in V1’s eye…

“We can decide once we spy on them more.” V2 dropped the case for later. “Now, we really should come up with some ideas we can use on the go.”

“You get ridiculously salty when things don’t go as planned,” Mirage waved her hand, “if the same goes for V1, we could rage the devil out of him by making everything painfully slow and downright irritating. Like, exploding bridges or throwing random keys into the abyss.”

Mirage really lived up to the V series because, yes, that would drive V1 crazy. If there was anything worse than wasting time, it was Gabriel having to waste his very limited time.

V2 didn’t even stop for a while to consider her suggestion. He wrote everything word by word into his newly generated file. “Mirage never fails to impress us!”

Benjamin brought his head close. “She just called you ridiculously salty.”

“We are not perfect, Ben.” V2 pushed the Earthmover’s head away, acting as if he wouldn’t have been hanging Lady Streetcleaner and Benjamin by some lavapool if they were to say that.

V1 lowered his eyelid. He wished he could pull out his keyboard and write an invisible essay about his newest conclusion. Their position, as amazing as it was, didn’t get enough light for Gabriel to read his letters.

“What happened?” Gabriel asked.

“He has a crush on Mirage,” the blue machine’s verdict came sharp and quick. “Comparing: Complete. He would never let it slide for someone else.”

V1 hoped Gabriel wouldn’t ask whether he was speaking from experience.

Gabriel himself had been doing so many things that would have enraged V1 if it were someone else in his place. No, actually, that person would have been minced a long time ago before V1 genuinely got angry.

Wasting time with Gabriel was instead spending quality time. No matter how useless most of the things they did were, and how often Gabriel worked toward goals that held no meaning, V1 couldn’t find it in himself to get mad. The act of doing those was awful, but doing them with Gabriel for Gabriel was more meaningful than… murder.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟸.𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚙𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚙𝚙𝚘𝚛𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗.

But feelings didn’t need reasons.

V1’s attention shifted in the very second Gabriel gasped lightly. His processors quickly scanned the voice file and compared it with other voice files he got from Gabriel. This tone was a mixture of surprise and annoyance, and carried no ounce of immediate danger. V1’s safety protocols rolled back to standby mode.

The blue machine got what was disturbing Gabriel when he listened to Lady Streetcleaner. Apparently, she thought it would be an amazing idea to cause trouble and then frame V1 with them to ruin Gabriel and his friendship.

From a neutral point of view, it did make sense, V1 would give her that. After all, he was a war machine, and the scenario of him losing his control and actually going back to his nature sounded real. Gabriel added the emotional tendency to ignore logic to the mixture, sounding more aggressive and offended than V1 himself.

“This is not only a crude plan, but something that would not work.” Gabriel shook his head, disapproving. “Do I really look that gullible to them?”

“Oh, no, we are not doing that,” V2 concluded before the group could discuss the success rate of that idea. They turned their heads in the chief’s direction, the man who wanted nothing else but to make V1’s life a total nightmare. “There is a thin line between making him regret existing and him making us regret existing.”

“But isn’t it V1’s job to destroy and move on? How can that of all things offend him?” Benjamin lowered his head closer to V2. The Earthmover seemed to like doing that a lot.

“It is not that. This is ruining whatever the hell he is having with Gabriel.” V2 twitched his wings. “We'd better not do that. What we need are things that will annoy him, but not critical enough to cause a fight. Psychological torture, I am saying.”

“We are going to piss him off, but not too much, you say?” Lady Streetcleaner asked. “Diet ragebaiting kind of way?”

“Exactly.”

“So boring.”

“Girl,” Mirage cut in, using two fingers to point at V2 and Benjamin.  “No offence, but those guys were brutally murdered by V1. V2 has a point. And I am not even talking about Gabriel. Isn’t he the Judge of Hell?”

“Used to be,” V2 updated her on that. “But yeah, Gabriel is like the V1 of angelkind. Besides, there is no way we can figure out his capabilities, unless there’s Gabriel 2 willing to work with us.”

Gabriel couldn’t help but sigh at V2’s first sentence. V1 wished he could say something to comfort him, but he was the very reason why Gabriel lost that title he adored so much.

The angel kept insisting he preferred living outside the cage he once deemed his reality. But if the cost was death, did freedom truly serve well as a price? At least if Gabriel was stuck in that loop of getting orders and completing them, he would be immortal and safe forever.

Giving up on the notion of eternity for a fleeting flash of joy.

V1 wished his apology could mean anything.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟷.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

“At least they call me the V1 of angelkind,” Gabriel looked on the bright side. V1 nodded and tried using his motions to mean he was more than that. “Thank you.”

Being V1 was one thing, but being the person who could control V1 and make him adore existence was something beyond the realm of understanding.

And the only being capable of making V1 regret every action he had taken throughout his life. He had never tasted remorse before until he heard of Gabriel’s fated end.

Each bullet that once served his Style Index now directed at him, making him wish he had never met Gabriel, so the prime angel wouldn’t have ended up like that.

Stuck in a short life, chasing Holy Light as if he weren’t the most sacred thing in existence, hiding in the vent of a random 1000-THR only Hell knew who it used to be.

“Annoying him? Yes, exactly, we will do everything. Angering him? Maybe, but we gotta be careful.” V2 drew circles on the table, thoughtful. “Enraging him? No.”

“Did you enrage him?” Benjamin wondered whether this was a private question.

“I didn’t.”

“Then how do you know?” the thrillseeker of the group, Lady Streetcleaner, insisted.

“I don’t call him brother for fun. We literally got developed together, although he never managed to get out of the prototype phase.” V2 laughed midway. “Physically speaking, V1 was completed just before the Great War ended. But the engineers were seeking something else with his AI, which made that freak so unstable that even when I got ready for operation, he was going through tests. And my construction started, like, twelve years after V1.”

“Aw, you are his little brother, then!” Benjamin made happy noises. Mirage took out her notebook and wrote it down as Lady Streetcleaner chuckled. V2 exhaled audibly, regretting the last detail he added.

“I am the better, more developed, durable, mentally stable version. They dodged every mistake they made with him during my planning. I am the reason V models even had a chance at being reconsidered. He was too expensive, didn’t serve anything good, and was a total lunatic.”

“Only humans could manage to create an insane machine.” Mirage didn’t sound surprised, but her disappointment reflected in her voice. “Odd. You are sure he has nothing going on in his mind but blood. And I also saw the mess he had left behind. But as he was talking to me, he sounded like a chill person.”

Gabriel tilted his head. “You are a chill person.”

V1 tilted his head, imaginary question marks appearing above him. He had no idea how cute Gabriel found him when he did that.

“At least you are one around me.” Gabriel huffed. “That counts for something.”

V1 nodded slowly.

He hadn’t set foot in Cybergrind ever since they started living together…

“I remember that one time he was furious. An engineer had upset him. V1 was obsessed with a damned plushie. Mister genius there didn’t like it much, claiming that letting V1 have what he wanted would only decrease his emotional maturity. What he wanted in question was just that toy, by the way. He literally refused to own anything else.”

V2’s voice spoke in a way that blamed the engineer, so sure what his brother wanted in his obscure life was neither extreme nor hard to sustain.

“V1 was taught that asking will let him get what he wants. So, he asked the engineer to give that plushie back twelve times back to back. In his case, it was tapping on the man’s shoulder and using his hands to create the shape of his toy.”

Gabriel softly chuckled. “That sounds like you alright.”

“At some point, the engineer got mad and said he had dismantled his toy. That would shut V1 up, he assumed.”

Benjamin could already feel what was coming. Mirage whispered a curse.

“Instead, that got him raged. One of the rules the humans had there was to never make V1 mad. They had taken away his weaponry, and his fragility didn’t make V1 as threatening as typical machines. But no one wanted to take risks after that one day when he blew off the inventory by scratching his feet on the floor so fast that the heat started a fire.”

V1’s creativity was far from a silly quirk; it was one of the core aspects of his unmatched fighting style. To dictate he would love to laugh, Gabriel raised his hand and waved his fingers. It was a weird sign, but the weirdest part was that V1 got what he meant.

“His mental instability was deeply tied to how they had coded rage into him. That old machine wasn’t meant to endure heavy damage for long periods of time,” V2 snapped his finger, “so his switching to rage at the right time was life-or-death.”

“What could work faster than information? According to humans, it was emotions. Emotions don’t take time processing information; they just happen.”

Gabriel’s breath slowed.

The more V1 had learned about humans, the more he became convinced they were just as cruel as their god.

“They didn’t give us emotions because they saw us as equals,” Mirage leaned back, her chair about to drop her off. “They gave emotions because they wanted efficiency. Didn’t care how much agony it would bring, just saving a few more milliseconds.”

V2 tapped on the table, satisfied with Mirage’s heartbreaking conclusion. “What they were going for with V1’s AI was that—utilizing extreme emotions with extreme precision. Using the push from feelings to fuel his creativity. Creativity is one thing you can hardly master without emotions and one no pre-trained machine or seasoned soldier can predict.”

Gabriel turned his head, whispering his question. “You were built to experience intense emotions?”

That… explained a lot.

V1 looked back and nodded slowly. Many things about himself, once deemed as glitches or errors, now had a meaning.

Something else he had realized: V1 hadn’t abandoned his nature. He had reached the very depths of it and had unlocked the ultimate machine he had always been deep inside. Feeling, thinking, and imagining. And the fact that his emotions were locked beyond his awareness meant one thing.

Humans had failed.

V1 with emotions proved to be more dangerous than V1 relying solely on his hunger.

“I was outside the room those two were in, a window wall between us. I knew that man had messed up when V1’s alarm began. I can still remember that dangerous voice ringing in my audio procesors, not even the waves of rage could silence that siren…”

“V1 punched him in the face, and the engineer lost his balance. He was too quick. The moment he fell, V1 launched at him and kept on punching his face until blood covered his bent expression. I was pressing every button I could find, calling for help as he was torturing him. That was one of the terrifying details.” V2 leaned on the table, and everyone got closer as if it were an unspoken order. “V1 was built to kill and entertain himself with the result, but not to torture. Torturing was not in his coding, nor was revenge.”

“He had no way of taking out his anger, so he created those notions right there.”

Gabriel looked at V1 again. V1 didn’t move his head.

Because he knew, deep down, that he was burning with the desire to avenge Gabriel.

“I had activated all the alarms I could reach. I knew the window wall between us was impenetrable, and V1 had no reason to assault me, but seeing him reveal the monster he had always been…” the machine pulled himself back from the table, “...disturbed me.”

“I saw him open his hood, grab a thick blood tube in his engine, and rip it apart as if it wasn’t a part of him.”

Gabriel cursed under his breath. “What the hell..?”

“V1 didn’t even care that his blood was flushing out. He was determined to kill him. V1 flipped him over his abdomen and then sent the tube under his throat. He clung on and pulled back as he also pressed on the human’s back, slowly drowning the engineer with his own part. As I pressed myself further away from V1, I listened to that man’s muffled screams and the cracking of his spine until he split the man in three pieces. Decapitated and torn in half by the waist.”

For a minute, no one uttered a word. Lady Streetcleaner regretted her offer. While Mirage’s shock could be read from her expression, Benjamin didn’t seem surprised in the slightest. V2 sighed and drank some blood, traumatized by the memories he had to recall.

“By the time the guards and the workers had finally arrived… V1 had corrupted his code and shut himself down. I later on… read the reports. He didn’t corrupt his code to ignore consequences; he didn’t even think about anything, even as he was committing his bloodiest murder yet.” V2 shook the glass, watching the liquid dance. “They reached the last mental images V1 had recoded in his RAM. Even then, he was thinking about that toy. Once the revenge killing was over, he saw no point in remaining active and terminated the pain in his unique way… Again.”

V1 had shut himself down, the machine equivalent of suicide.

And V2 had said “again”. This wasn’t a one-time occurrence, was it?

Gabriel got the same message. His hand instantly reached out for V1’s hand. He whispered, “You'd better not do that.”

V1 didn’t move.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Later on,” Their gaze contact broke when V2 spoke. “They knew better not to take away what is his.”

“In our case, what is his is not just some toy, but Gabriel himself. Is this what you are implying?” Mirage spoke, and it took a ridiculously short amount of time for V2 to nod.

Gabriel blushed, darting his gaze at V1. He would have reacted a lot more excitedly if he hadn’t heard of his friend’s intention to shut down. V1 forced all system functions not to look at Gabriel. The position they were in was awkward enough, and the last thing he wanted was getting caught madly in love inside a vent.

“In short, my dudesses and dude,” V2 clapped his hands and stood up as if he hadn’t told one of the most horrifying and violent murders committed by a machine. “We will piss the devil out of that blue maniac, but our marvelous acts of insanity-inducing attacks won’t involve Gabriel. Otherwise, he will turn us into machine paste.”

No one complained after V2’s explanation.

Notes:

Ever since I started learning about psychology (since I like it as a subject and I want to be a better writer), one thing has stuck with me the most. When I was saying humans gave machines emotions for efficiency, I was serious! Turns out, emotions are indeed "feedback" that work faster than information, and prepare the body for the present situation. They are also motivators behind each action, and even their absence can be a motivator (for stillness). Since feelings such as rage and terror can increase speed and hasten reactions, and feelings like love, satisfaction, and happiness can increase motivation, humans decided to go all wild with V1's AI and intentionally made him very emotional.

But his emotions led to a level of creativity no one could see coming, such as him literally inventing "revenge" because he wanted to avenge his plushie. Even when his emotions were hardlocked behind codes, he managed to break free the moment he fell in love with Gabriel. Turns out, our blue boy wasn't malfunctioning. He was scratching the surface of what he was truly meant to be! Hence, his "rage" state is also different than others. He ULTRARAGEs instead! :D

In fact, I even made a little SFX video of V1's rage alarm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgLcQoBLcAo

Chapter Text

The Violence Layer used to be a lot more active before death came to claim all lives in its vicinity; some preferred to call it V1 or simply the murderer in blue. V1’s unstoppable approach to the nether layers of Hell had brought fame to his name.

Now, the said layer has few machines and husks left to roam over it, and even fewer to dare crossing ways with V1 and Gabriel. Streets had it that ever since their second clash, V1 had been leaning less on his bloodlust. The “residents” of Hell refused to believe until they saw the rumors come true before their faces.

V1 didn’t initiate fights, not once. And when a horde of creatures attacked them, Gabriel and V1 worked together in unbelievable elegance. Gabriel’s swords cut through the thickest of armors, and V1’s bullets always shot the most sensitive parts, instantly defeating their enemies with pain barely felt before they died.

It had never occurred to anyone there that an angel and a machine could come up with so many combos. Gabriel using his swords as mirrors to reflect V1’s lasers, V1 building momentum while using Gabriel as his anchor, Gabriel tanking most of the damage while V1 calculating the perfect openings to strike back…

Gabriel and V1 weren’t aware of the hidden eyes watching them and mouths speaking their harmony, though many of them tried sounding as petty and hateful as possible to hide their admiration. V1’s Style Index was still processing the extra scores he got from working with Gabriel. He had gotten all the blood he wanted, and Gabriel was shaking his wings with the sweet taste of post-adrenaline.

“While it is more tiring, I must admit fighting like this is better than relying on Holy Light.” The angel placed his arm on V1’s shoulders. The machine let out a happy voice. “The odd thing is, I don’t realize how tired I had gotten until the fight is over.”

V1 pulled out his keyboard, tiny golden sparkles fluttering around it. “You hadn’t slept for 28 hours and 36 minutes. System has recorded that you start feeling disadvantaged once you reach the 26-hour limit.”

Gabriel knew V1 was keeping records of how much he slept. Still, it made him chuckle. “Sleepy is the word you were looking for, I assume.”

“Being sleepy is a disadvantage.”

“You have a point.”

As they got further away from 1000-THR 1013V Longhorn’s remains, the ambient noiseness around them settled. Now, the sky was the wind’s to claim. Gabriel couldn’t sense anyone in their vicinity. The door to the previous layer shone from above. Not too far, but tedious to walk all the way. Gabriel twitched his wings.

V1 changed his direction and went toward an abandoned building. Gabriel followed him without question. They had been doing this for a while, too. But Gabriel had to ask what V1 had in mind when they stopped in the middle of the entrance room.

“Safe spot for resting,” V1 said.

“I’ll be fine, friend. Don’t worry. We can go back to walking.”

V1 refused.

“I mean it.”

“I can overwrite my patience limit,” V1 dimmed his yellow eye. “I can insist forever.”

Gabriel laughed. His laugh turned into a soft yawn as he lowered his shoulders. “Well, I won’t try toughing myself up, then. Excuse this tired friend of yours.”

Without request, V1 got some materials and piled them up a little far from Gabriel. He led out some sparkles from his pistol and started a fire.

“You treat me far too kindly, machine.”

V1 opened his wings and blinked. Gabriel leaned on the floor. The machine wished he would lean on his lap instead. That being said, V1 doubted he would be more comfortable than concrete. He settled near, in front of the collapsed wall. Safe place, sufficient fire, blood tanks full, and a perfect view of his perfect angel. What else could he want?

The archangel’s shoulders softened when V1 looked at him. The machine didn’t need to sleep. He couldn’t even register what sleepiness was, yet he didn’t complain. Even when Gabriel assured him that he didn’t have to wait there for hours, V1 refused to do otherwise. Weapons ready in his wings, the blue machine decided he would be guarding his sleeping angel.

Hence, Gabriel didn’t feel the need to keep one hand over his sword. His muscles softened, and peace calmed his mind in the middle of Violence. Only V1 could do such a thing to him.

V1 registered this as a compliment to his supreme capabilities and strength.

“I wouldn’t fall for their tricks, by the way,” Gabriel murmured as he watched the gentle dance of the flames. The air wasn’t that cold, but V1 had insisted that having a heat source nearby would guarantee Gabriel’s health. Ever since V1 heard angels could get sick when there wasn’t excess Holy Light to use (apparently, being immune to illnesses required extra light consumption), he had been regulating everything based on the old medicine books he found lying around.

Gabriel never interfered, never told him to stop, never told him to divert his gaze. V1 assumed Gabriel benefited from his assistance, but there was more to it than that.

“Incomprehensible: It is natural to take given information as truth and move according. It is common among all species to act based on what is perceived and told.” V1 flipped his coin. “Conclusion: You getting misled by them would not be your fault.”

For V1, misleading on purpose was the most disgusting and unforgivable act anyone could commit. He, who built his reality and calculations on top of absolute truth, would hate to get his certainty shaken by anyone. No matter the reason, no matter the amount.

“Thank you for the clarification, but I meant a little differently.” Gabriel lowered his wings, covering his back with them like they were his eternal blankets. “My friend, you have my trust. Even if I suspected you had done such a thing, I would find you first and see it for myself. If I couldn’t be sure even then, I’d just ask. You would never lie to me.”

Considering the best V1 could do was say little or change the topic, anything else but lying, Gabriel’s chances seemed high.

“It is dangerous to depend on someone with the amount of trust you are offering,” V1 stored his coin after deciding it made too much noise that could disturb Gabriel. “Generating advice: Consider solid evidence as primary sources of information.”

“You are the most solid proof I have ever seen, my iron-clad friend.”

V1’s engine hummed. If he could blush, he would’ve turned an odd shade of purple.

Gabriel giggled, placing his arm under his head. His eyelids were getting heavier, the heartfelt conversation softening the harsh ground. “I doubt my conclusion will ever change.”

V1 tilted his head, gesturing his wonder.

“That becoming your friend was the best thing that happened to me.”

V1’s lens shivered, making the angel giggle more. The blue machine pointed at Gabriel and then to his chest. He raised his shivers and made a little wiggle he had seen from Gabriel once.

This was the closest he had come to confessing how much he loved Gabriel.

“According to Mirage, I am your angel, after all.” Gabriel laughed. V1’s engine trembled as he looked elsewhere. Gabriel was going to use that a lot against him, wasn’t he? Still… Even as an inside joke, hearing Gabriel admit he was his made V1 happy.

That was the most he was going to get anyway; a war machine could only wish for so far.

And a sidenote, in the culture of machines, belonging to someone was far beyond just one of the few gimmicks humans had used to romantize one another. That word was literal. V1 didn’t know the value it carried for angels, but belonging was either the vilest insult or the greatest situation a machine could end up in.

They hardly cared about alliances, didn’t care how much long-term benefit they had, and they didn’t like the thought of being bonded to someone. But when they were, it meant everything.

V1 had belonged to Gabriel as much as Gabriel had belonged to V1.

After their sweet chat ended, Gabriel fell asleep. Despite his armor covering all clues, V1 could tell Gabriel was asleep by his calmed heartbeat and his divine lumination glowing in a softer tone. Once he was sure Gabriel wouldn’t wake up, he moved closer and kept on watching him.

His happy moments of watching Gabriel and replaying him jokingly saying “I am your angel after all…” over and over lasted for three hours. His attention had to be diverted when he heard an odd noise coming from not too far away. V1 prepared his pistol and walked out of the old building where Gabriel slept. He scanned his surroundings, produced heat maps, and directed his pistol in random directions to induce fear.

The discordant voices repeated themselves, as if they came from a broken CD player. V1 approached their place, only to find himself on top of a wide platform where nothing met his eye. Dead Earthmovers scattered across the layer seemed like they were bowing to him. V1 watched the scenery, its eerie beauty triggering a sense of excitement and mightiness.

He didn’t expect an elevator, and an odd one at that, to appear before him and ruin his scenery. V1’s grasp on the pistol hardened.

The elevator opened its rusty doors before him, inviting. V1 scanned the area and locked on the elevator’s system. The fact that it worked with muscles that tore each other apart and continuously reformed to move the elevator didn’t give a good first impression. V1 directed his gun.

“What do you dread?”

V1 pointed his gun in the sound’s direction. Nothing present. He scanned and looked at the heat map. Nothing.

“You cannot aim soundwaves, dumbass.”

V1 pulled out his coin.

“I have no weak place to strike, precious machine.” A magnetic field pulled V1’s coin away, forcing it to land on the elevator. “If this obscure voice annoys you so much, come and see a glimpse. As if…” the voice chuckled, “...you are not in me already.”

Hell.

The machine got one step closer but stopped, looking back at the place where Gabriel slept. He didn’t want to leave, not when he was lying there defenseless. Gabriel never ordered or even asked him to guard him in his sleep, but that felt like a duty to V1.

“Worried about your sparkly little friend?”

V1 didn’t waste energy refusing. His eye was still there, locked.

“While I hate that little vermin and would love to diminish it to its pathetic little rays of light–” before Hell could finish, V1 pulled the trigger and shot one of the main muscles carrying the elevator. It lost balance, and the other two strings of muscle tore apart, unable to take the heavy load. The rusty elevator fell into the void, probably never to be seen again.

“You ungrateful brat.”

V1 turned his back. Before he could walk away from the platform, the wretched voice spoke again. “I tolerate this adventure of yours purely because I know the excitement you will cause once he fades.”

The machine stopped in his tracks.

“I knew my favorite plaything would go crazy once his love dies, but the things I heard your red lookalike say? Oh,” Hell trembled with excitement, shaking the ground in the form of an earthquake. “Oh, I can hear the screams from the future—I hear myself screaming, indeed. A fun I could only have back then, when Minos and Sisyphus were making fools of themselves!”

V1 finally spoke. “Those will be your screams of terror.”

“You even got yourself a voice and some words to spit? Gabriel must be adoring you.” Hell’s laughter reached the Layer of Violence in forms of harsh brushes of the wind. “There could be other things he can put on you, back in Lust.”

The machine clenched his fist.

“Not even allowing some jokes?” The laughter came back, increased in size. V1 could swear he saw the sky stretch and show the layer above them, which he could recognize based on the colors. “You excite me. And this excitement hungers me.”

“What do you want?” V1 asked, done with the grotesque abomination’s nonsense.

“Blood. Fun. Something new. Something you.” The fallen elevator rose to the sky and Hell bent them until they resembled V1. “You have been so indulged in stealing my Filths and not committing genocides that I grew lonely. I made many yous, but none of them could compete with whatever the fuck you have in that engine of yours. And I like it. Me wants more.”

“You will get more if you help me save Gabriel.”

“I didn’t destroy those holy pieces of nonsense so far.” A hole opened somewhere, and the corpse of an entire 1000-THR disappeared. “Stop growing greedy, machine. It is a sin. Your ‘master’ should have taught you that.”

“Yet you are doing the same.”

“Do you see me serving an insignificant angel?”

“He is not insignificant.”

“So, you do admit you have been a slave to him.”

“Comparing: I assist my friend. You are a slave of entertainment.”

Silence fell. From that point, Hell didn’t speak. V1 didn’t like that silence either. The bent rods and iron in front of him shrank into unrecognizable chunks. Hell tossed aside the V1 lookalike like it was a piece of paper, falling near V1’s feet.

Inside that chunk, he saw the unmistakable glimmer of an artifact with Holy Light. V1 raised his wings and knelt before it, fingers excitedly reaching for the golden button.

But it combusted in front of V1, the Holy Light withering away as he watched helplessly. V1 tried grabbing onto the dimming light, uncaring how pathetic and ridiculous he looked. The laughter of Hell came from afar, in forms of echoes and blows of wind passing them by.

V1 walked to the edge of the platform, his cold feet damning the ground.

Bursts of waves threatened to rise from his wings, his lens flickering as maeltorms of emotions swallowed one another to create a cluster of senses unspeakable. Darkish smoke erupted from his shivering engine’s sides. Breathing unstable, system stability low, an uncanny alarm threatening to rise from his depths.

That monster had just taken away a week from his angel.

And he couldn’t do anything about it.

Was this anger directed only at Hell, or were its edges gnawing V1, too?

V1’s engine slowed down, and the energy screaming for a way out diminished. He wasn’t going to give Hell what it wanted. But with the absence of anger came clarity and sadness.

If only he could keep his voice box silent for a little longer and never tempt Hell to push the limits…

Turns out, his battle wasn’t against time only. He had a greater foe who could play with time to its heart’s content.

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙼𝚊𝚍𝚕𝚢_𝚒𝚗_𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚒𝚌.

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝙸𝙸: 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙲𝚑𝚎𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎… 𝙲𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎
𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚅: 𝙸𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚣𝚒𝚗𝚐....

Chapter Text

𝙴𝚙𝚒𝚜𝚘𝚍𝚎 𝙸𝚅: 𝙽𝚊𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚂𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎


𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟹𝟿/𝟿𝟿 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟸𝟶𝟹

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙻𝚒𝚖𝚋𝚘 – 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕

The sky’s fakeness didn’t hurt him, but his sensors insisted something was wrong. The reflections didn’t work perfectly as physical laws dictated, disrupting his internal calculations. Whenever his detectors and aim inspector added wind and weather conditions to the calculations, he had to remove them manually. Half of his autonomous traits ended up becoming torture.

In such a place where reality and unreality danced around him, Gabriel’s presence was more than his source of joy; he was his anchor to reality. At least, he had one target whose presence he was sure of. Even when he doubted his own arms, V1 knew Gabriel’s calming presence couldn’t be replicated by either Hell or whatever device the divine had set up in Limbo. V1 dedicated extra system resources to act normally, but the angel could tell something bothered V1.

Oh, how great it felt to be understood without a word said..!

But even in the middle of it all, a side of him was still replaying that one gory moment he shared with Hell. Especially that moment the relic erupted in front of him, its divine gift fading away as he watched it helplessly—no different than the pitiful Filths unable to do anything.

What happened that day haunted him.

V1’s AI had to face the consequences and experiences he had been forcing upon others. The numbers on his Style Index no longer felt like simple points evaluating his creativity; they had become a complex representation of his so-called purpose, trying to look appealing with all those cool and edgy words. A life he was doubting with each learning moment he experienced with Gabriel.

After V1 explained his sensory problem, Gabriel offered his arm in hopes of making things at least a little easier. Little did the angel know that even if Gabriel’s arm was going to disturb him more, let alone help out, he would still hold on. Like a hawk snatching its prey, V1 grabbed Gabriel’s arm.

“I wish you had told me this sooner, my friend.”

“I like it more when you notice.”

“Ah, the desire to be understood and acknowledged. I see where that wish comes from,” Gabriel placed his hand on V1’s, tapping gently. V1 wished he could hold onto Gabriel as hard as mechanically possible. “I’d like to help you more often.”

Would you like to love me?

 

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟺𝟻/𝟿𝟿 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟸𝟹𝟼

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙻𝚞𝚜𝚝 – 𝙶𝚊𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚕 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚏𝚝

The mischiefs of the We Hate V1 Club had been going on for some time now. Much to their misfortune, however, their targets were having more fun than ever.

Whenever the notorious machines tried to slow them down, they took it as a chance to keep a slow pace and enjoy the moment. Life simply refused to get boring against two friends who found joy in the simplest of things.

Or more like, Gabriel was quite easy to entertain. And as long as the angel was in a good mood, so was V1.

Broken doors? According to Gabriel, it was simply a call for him to introduce the layers to V1. Destroyed bridges? V1 would gladly use Whiplash to reach each corner, holding Gabriel tightly while his engine overheated with love. Malfunctioning puzzles? It was high time they found new ways of utilizing V1’s marksmanship and Gabriel’s swordsmanship. An entire layer devoid of creatures for V1 to steal blood from? He liked Gabriel’s blood more anyway, and the angel gladly gave him as much as he needed.

This time, what Benjamin had in mind was exploding one of the cranes. They succeeded. Before Gabriel and V1 could reach the door, the crane fell on top of it, blocking their passage to the nether parts of Hell. The “sinister” laughs of the club could be heard from miles away.

V1, as usual, was staring menacingly in that direction. With a single command (or permission) from Gabriel’s side, he could launch on them like the predator he was. It wouldn’t even take one hour for him to rip apart V2’s limbs and use each piece to beat the other machines into junk. But he wouldn’t kill any of them.

The consequences of being attached… No wonder humans wanted to disable V1’s emotions. What use an infinitely strong war machine had if he could feel remorse, have exceptions, tolerate mischief, and dedicate precious system hours to keep an angel alive?

Wasting time angered him, but Gabriel’s voice softened that feeling in the same second.

“I know another door.” Gabriel looked down, the city’s glamorous view still breathtaking, no matter how many times he watched. “We can… glide. If you want.”

V1 tilted his head.

Gabriel opened his wings. “While flying requires Holy Light, gliding is as simple as keeping my wings open and readjusting as the breeze carries me. If we are lucky, we can even catch the wind and have a fun ride.”

The machine made quick calculations and agreed. Body mass and length compared to wings and muscle strength… Risks and emergency protocols to activate for all eleven mishaps his AI simulated… All complete. Risk management was possible.

Before V1 could start calculating the most optimal way for their flight, Gabriel grabbed V1. The machine didn’t resist, not that there was anything to complain about when Gabriel carried him bridal style.

Internally, V1 gave Benjamin a +1 relationship status. Among all the machines in that club, the Earthmover was the most tolerable one he found. With the joyful experiences they accidentally led to every single time, V1 could even start liking his own hate club.

Besides, hate was a value on its own. Better to be hated than never be important. V1 remembered his first days discovering what it meant to be more than code and steel, seeking blood for the sake of it. Back then, he found relief in Gabriel’s hatred, for it meant he was something.

V1 has come a long way.

Gabriel opened his wings widely, prepared his legs, and told V1 to hold on. V1 had full belief in Gabriel’s own strength, but he wouldn’t turn down a chance to hug Gabriel.

When the angel twitched, V1 spoke. “Most optimal way of securing position.”

I would destroy gravity itself if it dared break this hug.

For the first twelve seconds as they soared in the night sky, Gabriel was silent and treating the wind as though he was trespassing in a garden. He didn’t say anything, a switch of emotions between excitement and awkwardness.

But then he got used to it. With each flap of his wings, he held a better grasp of the breeze. He got more confident, surfing in the wind at that point. With each brave breath, his chest grew prouder. He flapped stronger, spread his wings wider, and when he managed to catch a strong wind, their flight reached the taste he wanted.

They picked up the pace. Gabriel’s laugh got mixed in the invisible tide. The city beneath them transformed into pink lines and blue waves as they sped up. V1 detected an extreme jump in Gabriel’s mood.

He was just as confident as he was when he still held his title as the Judge of Hell.

“This is… This is so much fun!” V1 heard Gabriel say. “How long has it been since I did this?”

V1’s mechanical heart ached.

“Machine. For so long, I was wishing I could hold you like this and fly!” he kept on yelling, his voice barely hearable among the tides. “Turns out, all we needed was a change of plans!”

He could still be out there, flying to his heart’s content, if V1 never… If Gabriel never…

But those chuckles, the way Gabriel’s chest trembled under his armor, they seemed to speak of a yearning beyond flying. He remembered one of many regrets Gabriel had confessed, that he wouldn’t fly often if it weren’t for orders. Not that he was forbidden… it just never occurred to him that he could use his abilities without a proper cause.

For so long, simply getting lost in the wind and tasting the sky was not a cause worthy of dedicating Holy Light to. And when those had become such causes, he was left with no Holy Light to spare but for survival functions.

It reminded V1 of the journals he had read, from humans long gone. He was still collecting quotes from them, though more secretive since he couldn’t risk getting his emotions caught.

They had always managed to name and describe emotions that V1 couldn’t even classify. One concept that emerged the most among their common regrets was delaying their desires, assuming there would come a time when they would be free of all responsibilities, and that only then could they do what they wanted in the first place. Some of them even felt ashamed when they prioritized their will over the will of others; the dreamers and the hopeless took this path the most.

Now that he looked at it, or more literally, the empty city beneath them, nothing mattered at the end. Just as he had told Mirage before, existence on its own neither had an explanation nor a destination. It was their choice to determine a reason, if they wanted to give it a reason in the first place. At the very end, nothing mattered, and that was a valid thing to worry about.

But they couldn’t control the truth of the universe.

That, at some point, the creature others called God had abandoned them. Whatever was behind the beginning of everything no longer mattered, just like the end wasn’t theirs to make sense of. Just like how the unlived was to remain unlived forever.

What those humans had was the present, and they had wasted it on things they could lose in the blink of an eye. At the end, as they gazed at Heaven from Hell, they were broken souls with pasts wasted on futures they could never hold in the present. Many artists have given up, surgeons have never gotten to pursue their true passions, engineers who never saw value in safety, and many more. They all relied on their older ages, assuming they would have enough money and experience.

But… They didn’t have time.

Just like how Gabriel didn’t have Holy Light, which was the equivalent of time for angels. Just like how V1 was eventually going to run out of blood, the fuel his system has determined as time and chance.

“V1, do you know what a barrel roll is?”

V1 nodded, his system instantly looking for all the details he knew, hoping those trivial explanations would busy his RAM. If only Gabriel knew V1 was doing this, he would giggle and say humans had also used to focus on unrelated things in hopes of escaping terrible thoughts. The apple hadn’t fallen too far from the tree, it seemed.

“An aerial maneuver, making a complete rotation on both longitudinal and lateral axes, causing a helical path. Rolling in the air.”

“Have you ever made a barrel roll?”

V1 shook his head negatively. While he had wings himself, they weren’t made for gliding and flying. And even if he could, he wouldn’t have done such a thing if he had no gain from it.

“You are going to love it.”

Gabriel leaned on his side and dived in when the current felt strong enough. V1’s internal mechanisms, especially his balance calculation devices and core weight stabilizers, went haywire in those seconds. In one second, he was looking at Gabriel and the sky, and in another, it was as though the sky hung him.

Even in the wildness of it all, he could register Gabriel’s laugh. This happiness was not born out of commands written on a screen or deeds committed because fate demanded. It was the simple joy of a man who could taste flying once again, even when he technically wasn’t.

But even as V1 found joy in Gabriel’s happiness, his RAM still held onto what Hell had done. The way the relic got destroyed, the sacred light within turning to naught before his very eye…

What happened that day haunted him.

 

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 𝟺𝟽/𝟿𝟿 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 𝟸𝟺𝟹

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚢 – 𝙸 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚑𝚒𝚖 𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚐𝚑

The crimson layer was where Gabriel’s steps slowed. They found a relic, a cross made of gold, and Gabriel acquired the blissful light within. They were almost halfway done with the relics to collect. They had eventually gotten harder to find, making them search the layers they had already been to. Gabriel never complained, but V1 could tell he had a lot of feelings regarding that layer.

As for V1, it was where he heard Gabriel laugh. Drenched in his own blood and sweat, he was laughing with all the might he had for that battle was one worth remembering forever.

But he wasn’t going to live that long. In fact, he was going to live one week less than he originally could.

What happened that day haunted him.

V1 wanted to admit what he had done. But looking at Gabriel, he figured it wasn’t the best moment to bother him with problems. Maybe it was better to keep it a secret, since the angel mostly lived off of hope.

The machine rejected the thought. Disrupting one’s sense of reality was never wise. He would hate it to happen to himself, so he wouldn’t do it to Gabriel.

After dealing with two collapsed doors, seven enraged husks, five “random” explosions, and three turrets that “suddenly appeared” in their path, they finally reached the room where they fought for the second time. The We Hate V1 Club made their journey more entertaining than ever, but not even they dared to step into that grand room.

V1 looked at the shapes on the ground. While they were fighting, Gabriel had caught him by the hook and dragged him across the floor. As the finishing touch, the angel had pulled him closer and kicked him in the abdomen. V1 had never sustained so much damage in such a small time frame. Gabriel could win if it weren’t for V1’s railcannon recharging at the perfect second.

Gabriel, on the other hand, was staring at the ceiling. Despite his smaller body, V1 could maximize his momentum with the incredible power of numbers and physics. The machine had capable legs that could contribute to most of his combos. What made Gabriel shine with excitement back then was the moment V1 hit him into the ceiling.

The angel reached out his hand, about to command the ground to move and make way for the door. V1 hurried his steps when he recognized the organ standing there, just as untouched. V1 curiously pressed on the keys, wondering whether the beautiful melody would appear this time.

It didn’t. V1 couldn’t produce the music he had first heard as he was wandering in the palace for the first time. He kept trying until he felt Gabriel’s subtle breath behind him, his mechanical pistons stopping just to embrace more of that beautiful moment.

“I have an idea, Machine.”

Gabriel sat by his side and started playing a melody from afar. From a period of time when things used to be much simpler. It didn’t sound as “complete” as the previous one Gabriel had played. V1 didn’t question him and instead watched his divine fingers move over the keys. He remembered each note as Gabriel told him to.

When he was done playing, he told V1 to play as he recorded. V1 pressed on the keys, hearing the once random noises coming to life under his touch. Turns out, he wasn’t broken, or the organ wasn’t running on magic. Just like fighting, it demanded a set of moves to give what V1 wanted. The melodies even accepted the war machine, the destructor creating art…

Art had a place even for those like him.

V1 started hearing tones he didn’t hear minutes ago. He saw Gabriel pressing the keys on his side. Now, the music they were making together sounded complete. The lower and higher tones came together, proving they were only complete if they were together.

Ever since they had become friends, V1 was stuck in a conflict. He had always been the logical one of the two. The one who sought reason and benefit in the smallest of actions, only willing to let go of such calculations if he could make Gabriel happier.

Was logic better than emotion?

But it was also Gabriel and all the details V1 once deemed useless that changed everything. The colors, the decorations, the inefficiency and slowness of it all. To yearn was useless, but it felt true to oneself. To regret, hate, adore, cherish—to live the life he had been spending his whole existence trying to secure. He had never felt so dumb before, but he couldn’t recall a moment he was this happy, either.

Was emotion better than logic?

As his processors listened to the melody, as his unlocked emotions and the truth behind his creation answered his questions, he produced an answer. Finally, the conflict was gone for he had an answer. Their music spoke on his behalf.

Neither of them was better. Alone, they were incomplete.

To make art with no soul behind it. To make decisions with no dream to serve. To chase happiness without a plan to support it. To protect what he loved, if he had no idea how to.

But when they were together, it was messy. It was… complicated. It contradicted itself. Emotions demanded relentless waves that logic had been trying to avoid for ages. Logic required a kind of stillness that vaporized all emotions along the way. It cost way too much time.

But then again, looking back at the life he lived as a logical and emotionless machine, he saw no point in the time saved up. His incredible AI was the foundation. The columns of the building never to collapse. The perfect engineering spent on each wall.

Gabriel’s beauty was the color, the decoration, the sun that hit the windows. The plants on the balconies, the giggling children let out as they played in the gardens, the small trinkets each bird carried, the muffled voices of loving families. The secret lovers holding hands for the first time, the elderly friends recalling the olden days, the drawings etched on the walls, the spring flowers journals praised each April.

They kept on playing, solitude being their only audience. 

Logic was the solution, and emotion was the reason.

When they were done playing, V1 didn’t move. Gabriel seemed to be lost in his own thoughts as well.

V1 couldn’t understand how he felt happiness and sadness at the same time. He felt so smooth but also hurt. He felt so strong but also vulnerable. He looked at the keys.

There would come a time when he couldn’t play the organ with Gabriel ever again.

Chapter 19

Notes:

Quick update note!

I renamed "Error: Madly in Love" as "Steelheart Self-Rebellion". I had this idea for a long time, and I finally decided to give it a shot! :D

Chapter Text

𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚜 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍: 49/𝟿𝟿 - 𝙳𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚂𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎: 255

𝙻𝚘𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚞𝚍 – 𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐

Gabriel was surprised that V1 could drive a car.

V1 himself was thrilled upon that discovery, too.

The confusing and impossible roads of the Fraud Layer annoyed him less when they were in a car. Since it used blood as fuel, they didn’t have a hard time filling the tank. The GPS was acting like it had gotten drunk, however.

It felt as though the roads were twisting and stretching, the sky turning in multiple colors in a span of a few hours, the signs rotating and changing languages for no apparent reason.

“We should get some new signs for our place on Earth,” Gabriel murmured. “Preferably, ones that don’t change languages. Maybe I could use the ones we already have and renovate them.”

If Gabriel had said this four weeks ago, V1 would say the Filths they had back on Earth didn’t look like they could read anytime soon. But… They were no longer the only residents.

Before V1 could get lost in the confusion he experienced when he saw the newest denizens of the neighborhood, Gabriel looked at him. “Why did humans teach you how to drive a car, anyway?”

“They didn’t,” V1 checked his hard disk just in case. “I figured it out.”

“In ten minutes?”

“Nine minutes and fifty-two seconds.”

Gabriel sighed, a playful annoyance in his tone.

As they progressed deeper into Fraud, V1 explained how his automated system and coordination protocols enabled him to learn fast and keep as much as his hard disk allowed. The first nine minutes and fifty-two seconds he spent understanding the car and lightly bumping here and there trained his AI. He could also calculate their speed and required maneuvers since maths was one of his many areas of expertise.

“So, this was how you could instantly learn when we were playing the organ,” the angel murmured, satisfied and amazed. V1’s Style Index went crazy. “Does this mean you could start playing any music if I were to teach you how to read notes and give you the sheets?”

“Probability is high.”

A dreamy, soft tone. So… deep from within that V1 felt as though it was himself whispering it to Gabriel. But, no, it was Gabriel.

 “You are wonderful.”

V1 pressed the brake, glad he had told Gabriel to wear the seatbelt. V1’s mechanical heart was beating like crazy, his Style Index on the verge of reaching ULTRAKILL. Gabriel was shaken back to his senses, faking a cough.

“Sorry for that, I got… ah… Carried away.” The archangel looked elsewhere. V1's mood plummeted when he noticed how frustrated and ashamed Gabriel became. But V1 didn’t mean to make him feel bad! The second he heard that sweet voice and the compliment, he sensed another system crush coming in his direction. The last thing he wanted was to freeze while driving.

Before V1 could try explaining himself, a truck covered in crimson flashed before them. Since V1 had a local interface now, he managed to scream. For the following seconds, no one spoke.

“You… could tell that truck was dangerously speeding in our direction?” Gabriel’s mind literally refused to make sense of it, but nothing else sounded more logical. If V1 hadn’t stopped the car at that moment, the truck would most likely have hit them. “V1, the man you are…”

Meanwhile, V1 was overclocked. He did not know they were inches away from tragedy. He did not press the brake because he had magical sensors that could see the future. But he did save them and whoever was in that truck from a total nightmare.

V1 wanted to clear up the misunderstanding. “I couldn’t tell that truck was coming.”

Gabriel was about to ask what made him press the brake that hastily, but a figure they were both familiar with appeared before the front window. With her school uniform and one eye, it could be none other than Mirage herself.

V1 and Gabriel stared at each other. V1’s eyelid was lowered, and while Gabriel looked exactly the same, V1 could guess the angel’s expression.

“We Hate V1 Club.” They said at the same time.

The machine honked—and it took three times—until Mirage got convinced and got in the car. By the time she had gotten inside, the angel and the war machine had agreed they had to follow the truck before anyone actually got killed.

The odd silence was there, unsettling, very unwelcoming. V1 didn’t move. Gabriel gently tilted his seatbelt and made sure Mirage saw it. At first, the girl in the school uniform acted clueless. Then she rolled her eye and said nothing would happen. Eventually, she gave up and wore her seatbelt.

“Not trusting yourself much?” she said to break the silence. V1 finally started driving, not giving the smallest of care to Mirage’s attempt. They didn’t have to chase behind the truck. The dark marks it left on the road were followable enough.

“Respectfully, with a truck that seems to have gone out of control still on the roads, not even a perfect driver can rely on skills only,” Gabriel said as he kept his eye on the window by his side. “And I hope we won’t find it approaching us.”

“It’s not out of control, V2 is driving it.”

“That’s worse.” V1 led out. Gabriel felt horrible for wheezing.

Mirage kicked the driver's seat. “Jerk.”

“If you don’t mind us prying,” said the angel who was intruding on their headquarters with V1 not too long ago, “could I ask what’s the hurry?”

“Doesn’t hurt to spill the tea, I suppose.” Mirage fixed her posture, looking at one of the buildings spiraling out of sight with its uncountable layers. “We figured we could use some help and points from other machines. We got into the blood business! Lots of money, not surprisingly.”

“Congratulations!” Gabriel said excitedly before realizing where they probably got the blood from. Since the trunk was covered in red, as he barely managed to see, they must have gotten… a lot of people involved. “But it is blood obtained from the old-fashioned way, isn’t it?”

“What else did you expect?” The younger machine pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She opened the lid under her eye, where the V models normally use to siphon blood inside, and placed it there. “I got used to it at some point, just like everything else about this stupid shithole.”

V1 lowered his eyelid, annoyed. He clicked on one of the buttons by his side, and the window next to Mirage opened. “Cigarette smoke is harmful to health.”

“I am a machine.”

“I am not talking about you.”

“I’m starting to take pride in the club’s name.”

It took some time for Gabriel to realize V1 was concerned about him. When he did, he chuckled and said it was okay. If Mirage had an eyebrow, it would comically raise.

Mirage dared to offer a cigarette to Gabriel. V1 didn’t move his hands from the steering wheel and the gear lever, but one piston appeared in Knuckeblaster’s hold, and he rolled his arm back, aiming at Mirage’s chest.

“Gosh, you must be so boring to be around.” Mirage pulled the pack back, and V1 pulled away the pistol accordingly. She tried reaching the cigarette pack again, just to test a silly thought. And the more the black pack got close to Gabriel, the closer V1’s piston got to her. “What the hell, dude?!”

Gabriel, on the passenger seat, was giggling. “On the contrary, I never had so much fun in my whole life. V1 truly is an astonishing friend.”

“Damn, the life of an archangel must be depressing as hell, then.” Mirage placed her pack into her pocket, and V1 dematerialized his pistol. She lit the cigarette, and the smoke left the car as soon as it left her exhaling ports. “Speaking of archangels, how’s retirement going?”

“Couldn’t be better,” Gabriel said without a doubt. “Everything has been going so smoothly, and I get to do what I want one way or another.”

Except there was something V1 was yet to confess. Actually, two things to confess. But one was him losing seven days of his life because V1 couldn’t control the situation better.

What happened that day haunted him.

V1 changed direction as the marks on the road dictated. Somehow, by some miracle at that point, V2 had not only managed to drive the truck without crashing once, but he had also drifted.

With a truck. Probably a tank full of blood on its back.

Yeah, they had definitely passed some of V1’s intelligence to V2. And maybe Hell had sprinkled some plot armor to the mixture, because how else was that even possible?

V1 listened to them as the impossibly optimistic archangel and the once-nihilistic schoolgirl who's now in an awkward situationship with existence spoke.

“We heard you two were trying to restore civilization on Earth.”

“Correct, and we had come a good mile!” Gabriel’s pride showed up in his tone. “We managed to befriend a considerable number of sinners. Most of them are the shorter kinds currently referred to as Filth, but I call them Faith. Recently, we welcomed several Strays, too. I myself call them Stars.”

Mirage stared at Gabriel and then looked at V1’s reflection in the mirror. The things love could do to a man were limitless. “Did you eventually get used to it, or did he brainwash you?”

“My point of view aside, it is undeniable that Gabriel accomplished a lot,” V1 said. What else was he supposed to say? That each time he giggled, his engine shivered? That whenever Gabriel hit him with that smug posture, V1 secretly hoped more husks would show up to support Gabriel’s cause? Admit that most of those husks weren’t even behaving of their own will, but it was V1 who was threatening them behind Gabriel’s back, so the angel would blindly assume they were just indulgent by nature?

That each time the “days since alliance” number went up, the dreaded day of Gabriel’s death gnawed at his steel? That whenever silence settled, V1’s AI started visualizing the lonely and quiet days he would spend without Gabriel?

Admit that ever since Gabriel lost his seven days to Hell, V1 wished he had stepped on that elevator and gotten torn apart, for at least in that way, Gabriel would live seven days longer?

𝙴𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚛: 𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛_𝙼𝚊𝚕𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝟶𝟹.𝚞𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚍.

What happened that day haunted him.

“Why, I wouldn’t be able to do anything without you, friend,” Gabriel spoke, his fingers fidgeting with the seatbelt. Mirage instantly took notice of that, too. “You inspired me. Our teamwork allowed me. And in every part of this dream, you assisted me.”

From the mirror, V1 could see Mirage raising her ring finger as if she were pulling a middle finger at him. V1 chose to ignore her.

Though he couldn’t deny he would love to forge a ring for Gabriel and propose, as he had read in the romance novels. He really wanted to get that marriage “patch” or “update” or whatever the angels called it. Everything he had read dictated that a bond forged with marriage is more formal and deemed non-sinful. Not that he cared, but who would say no to a warranty certificate?

Thankfully, Gabriel was busy watching the view and gathering more inspiration for their neighborhood, and probably looking around in case of another truck approaching in their direction. The dark shades seemed to soften as they got closer to a wide building, looking like an abandoned supermarket with some neon lighting.

“That’s the place,” Mirage said. “V2 was hurrying up because we got the date wrong. Horribly.”

V1 stopped near the place’s entrance, two machines were waiting by the doorsteps, with a worried Benjamin talking before them. They were more confused by the Earthmover’s size than by the explanation he was making.

Lady Streetcleaner greeted Mirage, but her sweet excitement quickly turned sour. “They don’t look like they are going to accept the delivery.”

“How come? Was it that late?” Gabriel asked. Lady Streecleaner couldn’t answer since the last thing she was expecting was seeing V1 and Gabriel in that car. The car’s windows were made so that others outside couldn’t see the passengers.

“Oh, yeah, they gave me a ride.”

V2 jumped out of the truck, a document drenched in dried blood in hand. V1 and Gabriel watched the furious machine make his way to the entrance. In the meantime, another machine stepped out of the place. By the clothing and badge they had, they probably owned the place.

V2 lifted the document. “Who the fuck writes the month and the day swapped?!”

“I ain’t quittin’ my roots anytime soon, partner!” The machine in question looked like a Swordsmachine with the head of a Sentry attached to them. But not exactly either of the mentioned machines. They had a cowboy hat as the finishing touch.

“I thought we left that nonsense behind as machinekind!”

“Should’ve asked before you jumped on the paper like a Drone chasin’ a Filth!”

The red machine, offended by the description, gasped. “I’ll rip that audacity of yours! You can’t talk to a supreme machine such as me with that attitude!”

“Then stop beggin’ by my door, outlander!”

“What the hell am I supposed to do with a tank full of blood, then?”

The machine with the cowboy hat looked at the truck. “Well, I’ll be damned. Does smells like some quality blood. Can feel the smell all the way from here.”

V2 looked at his arms. It wasn’t that the blood’s smell reached there. It was V2’s forearms covered in blood. “Yeah, we only take from high-quality husks.”

“Should we help?” Mirage asked. Lady Streetcleaner shrugged, not sure what they could add. Benjamin, having given up himself, walked away. V1 sensed increased sadness in him.

After some discussion, V2 yelled. “Half the price we agreed?! Are you crazy?!”

“You were late, partner.”

“By an hour! You should be thankful we didn’t come here a month later!” V2 threw the document. “This won’t even cover the arsenal we used!”

Mirage and Lady Streetcleaner whispered unholy words. Benjamin dramatically shook his head. The last time he saw Benjamin doing that, he was dying. Must be feeling horrible now.

“Look, outlander. I can count at least seven groups waitin’ for me to give ‘em tasks.”

“By an hour?” Gabriel whispered. “That sounds horrible. And to think they managed to get that much blood, too…”

V1 looked at him.

“Well, what did I expect anyway? I put my mind into something for once, and this is the nonsense we deal with.” Mirage sighed. “I’ll go get V2 before he starts a fight.”

The machine leaned from the open window. “Thanks for the ride, you two are cooler than I expected. But don’t tell V2 I said this.”

V1 exhaled, still looking at the angel. He had messed up more than he could admit, anyway. He wasn’t going to turn down this silent request. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

Gabriel nodded excitedly. Mirage had no idea what they were talking about because they weren’t talking in the first place.

V1 pressed a button, and the window by his side rolled down. While V2 was busy yelling at the patron, V1 materialized his pistol.

The unconvinced machine wasn’t even paying attention to V2. The second their eyes caught V1 staring menacingly in their direction, their body went stiff. The guards by their side hugged their rifles as if they could do anything.

The machine tried ending the argument, pointing at V1, unable to say his name. V2 was too busy losing his mind over all the time and bullets they spent gone to waste for a trivial mistake. His wings shone red, the notorious voice of rage coming from his engine.

V1 pointed at the document with his pistol. The cowboy machine slowly knelt and held the paperwork. One hand resting on his trusty pistol, the belt was made of husk skin. V2 was busy yelling at the guards as they begged V2 to look in the direction they were pointing.

They didn’t hold the paper as convinced as Gabriel wanted. So, the angel pulled out his sword, leaning by V1’s side.

“What the fuck..?” the machine whispered.

Gabriel and V1 nodded so slowly, even their perfect rhythm sending fear down their spine.

Lady Streecleaner poked Benjamin, and the Earthmover stopped blaming himself for not noticing the day-month confusion sooner. Mirage couldn’t believe what was happening.

The machine stood up and gave the document to V2. They told the guards to bring the money they had previously agreed on, as fast as possible. “Fine! We’ll have it your way! Please leave.”

V2 erased the next paragraph he had prepared. He didn’t expect things to get resolved that quickly, stunned by the suddenness. When he finally looked at where the machine was staring, he saw his brother.

“V1?”

V1 spun his pistol and threw it into his wing, his elbow resting on the car’s door. He didn’t need a payment or compliments. Gabriel’s happiness was all he wanted.

But when the entertained angel launched at him and hugged his sturdy exterior, V1 almost restarted.