#androidau

/////

Months, and few more shared missions later, they find the time for a meeting without being on a job earlier. Both are out of uniforms, wearing something casual and suitable for the place. Vergil finds himself enjoying the banter over shared meal, unhurried and oddly intimate, like they have all time in the world. He gets to know Zevran from different side and is pleasantly surprised to find that they seem to be compatibile outside their usual settings, joined targets and quick trysts to celebrate the success.

It's dangerous and foolish to seek this out. To chase more of what they have.

But.

Zevran's company helps him unwind a little, and he doesn't mind to let his guard down a bit more. Sharing few drinks, talking about everything, sometimes related to their jobs, but not overly detailed, as it's not so wise to do so in public – it's intriguing. Something in him stirrs, when he looks at clever and warm golden eyes, listening to some high tale full of lies and hidden truths, and picks them apart with well pointed questions, and Vergil sees how amused smirk stretches Zevran's lips and how much he seems to enjoy their little battle of wits. He's content.

And he'd like to do it again.

/////

Blood.

On his hands.

He looks at them, breath short, painful. Choked.

Knees buckle under him, he goes down hard, arms barely protecting the fall.

His chest explodes in agony, his head cracks on the concrete and he sees white and black for a moment and his eyes water, everything blurs when he tries to take a breath, but his own lungs suffocate him, blood filling his thorat in mouthfuls of thick liquid. And he thinks he hears someone shouting and there's flurry of movement, flashes of light and he tries to see, blinking out the fog.

It doesn't stop the pain, he's drowning and can't breathe and wants to bring his hands to his wound to stop it, do something, grasp the life leaking out of the hole in his chest-

But, his hands, he doesn't feel them. He fights for air, struggles for it as panic ultimately overwhelms him and urges him to breathe when he can't and it sends the spikes of heavy, burn-like cramps and more blood, but no air. There is someone talking golden eyes peering into his and an urgent voice and he wants to say something-

help me

But what comes out is a gurgle and another choke, and the black is seeping into his vision. A roar in his head and all he sees is-

Nothing at all.

/////

First time they boot him up, there's a moment of confused recognition, then Vergil proceeds to demolish half of the lab and severly injures two people from the staff. It takes way too long before they are able to shut him down, and it only takes one four-people squad and using the emergency turn off switch. The failure is written off as a "most likely a shock of organic mind adapting to new body parameters."

Second time they are much more careful, as Vergil's cautiously strapped to the lab table and left alone, avidly monitored by cameras and lab staff, standing behind thick, bulletproof windows. But this time, he lies there without life, distant eyes gazing into nothing.

Unmoving and still like a corpse.

And after two days of him not reacting to any stimuli, they decide to cut the power off – they learnt from the first time not to equip the body with independent battery and kept him on external power supply. The summary of the report says "catatonia caused by possible damage to consciousness during data transfer, further work is recommended to solve the process of unlocking awareness successfully."

Third time is similar to the second one, with Vergil being silent and unresponsive, until he starts to wail, the inhuman sound of his cries resonating with such deep grief and so disturbing in it's intensity, that most of the staff is horrified by it. The mumbled, broken words of "I can't feel it" repeated in between the heavy, dry sobs. This, and the failure to communicate were the final arguments to scrap down the experiment and shut it down.

The transfer visibly failed and the subject spiralled into madness. Some thought it a disappointment, some a mercy. After all, they tried to prevent a great mind from vanishing along with it's organic body, and now they had to block it completely.

GW has no use of insane Commander.

But there's always a use for an operational android.

/////

The operation parameters are clear. Find and collect the data about the source of black market's cybernetics parts.

V3R61L is an infiltrator, GW's elite android and the mission goes smoothly until it doesn't.

He pulls out the mission status, storing the obtained information for later, to send it to his handler. He's detected and has to act fast. As he was sent alone, he can only send a part of his mission report. Someone would find the distress signal. He's monitored constantly. GW will send an operative to secure his unit, if he'd have to hide for longer and wouldn't be able to be back on his own.

System malfunctions

Left arm unresponsive

Multiple error messages

V3R61L runs.

Runs away from the warehouse, from the trap he fell into. His parameters urge him to protect the data he collected at all cost. Destroy any, who stands in his way if needed, but keep the data protected. Retreat, if it is the best strategy.

He's heavily damaged and is slowing down, his vision giving him much more information, than unmodded human sight would. His pursuers are mostly organic, human, with few lesser cyber-enchantments. V3R61L plans on using that, but still they could outrun him, as they are better acquaintanced with the terrain. It has V3R61L in deep disatvantage.

The scattered lights from neons on buildings reflect in the rain puddles. Some of the night dwellers are standing near bar entrances, talking loudly, busy in their own affairs, puffing away the smoke along with the clouds of breaths visible in the chill, damp air. V3R61L avoids staying in the light, quickly calculating the best route allowing him to disappear, preferring to use the darkness of dirty alleys. He stumbles when one of the servos in his left knee malfunctions and he loses his balance, crashing into the wall. Still, after he goes down he uses his right arm to push himself up, and when the alarms of errors almost make his system shut down, his vision swimming in pulsing red lines of the code, broken in places-

Abnormal behaviour detected

Immediately contact the nearest GW station

Temporary shut down recommended

V3R61L blinks and closes down some of the overlapping messages, switching into sole mode, testing left leg, as he starts crawling forward through the dirt and puddles. It's too close to people, and to allow himself to be detected if he shuts down is out of the question. He has to hide and wait for the distress signal to reach the headquarters. There's a distant noise in his head, one he can't find the source of and a faint taste of copper in the back of his throat.

And that makes him pause, as he can't exactly feel a taste he is now, as V3R61L's body isn't adjusted to such parameters. V3R61L doesn't need to mimic all human factors to function properly.

The broken line of code appears again. He's disoriented by it and falters mid-crawl, stops moving for a moment. There's a shout near the entrance of the alley and he opens his eyes,

(when did he close them?)

turns on his side to glue himself into the wall beside him, freezes to make himself an insignificant object. One more yell and there are hurried steps, going from the alleymouth and fading into other noises, muffled. V3R61L analyzes the situation and almost resumes the crawling, when the broken line vanishes and appears again, immobilizing him and he opens his mouth with a human like gasp, when the taste of copper intensifies. The system goes erratic and there are some flashes of what he was running from, warehouse full of humans and androids, all of them working together carrying crates from one place to the other, as he was waiting in the shadows, for an opportune moment to strike at the so-called leader, when all went wrong.

How it went so horribly wrong?

Someone, something saw him,

(and they simply shouldn't, his cloaking is the best of the best GW equipped V3R61L with)

he had to move and undetect himself, and there was so much chaos, his cameras probably didn't catch everything, his body caught in fight with both humans and androids, some heavy machines working in warehouse, he slashed and fired and injured some humans,

(not kill, he wasn't ordered to kill)

at some point he was tossed and got his arm crushed by falling crates, then he decided to run with what he had. Only to be stopped by a man with golden hair and golden eyes who freezed when he looked at him with ashen face and faint whisper of "Vergil?" falling from his lips, and something in V3R61L's system went override as the line in his code just broke, the urge to follow "flight" protocols overwhelming any other orders.

It, the broken code made him-

V3R61L's arm falters and he lurches into the puddle, side of his mouth and nose full of dirt water and he has a mouthful of it before the copper taste intensifies, the broken red line imprinting into his artificial retinas and his system finally shuts down.

/////

Green eyes appear in its,

(his)

vision. There's a wrinkle in between blond brows, eyes squinted deep in concentration, strands of fair hair falling into them and the man huffs an irritated breath and they flutter away only to be back stubbornly. The man holds the piece of thin wire, connecting it somewhere lower, where V3R61L can't see without moving his head for a better angle.

He stays quiet, assesing the situation, taking in the surroundings. The place's cluttered with all kind of equipment and parts, lowly lit but with enough workspace. There's a soft curse and a silent shot of burnt circuit and V3R61L's body twitches few times, but not hard enough to topple him forward, because he's propped standing on some kind of custom low workbench. But his eyes flutter to open fully and as soon as the spasms are over there's a hand on V3R61L's chest.

V3R61L can feel the pressure of it, and the warmth of a regular human being, his system seeming to work as it should.

"I'm sorry about this," is whispered with a sigh and the blond head's back in his sight and green eyes widen a bit when they see V3R61L's own eyes staring back.

"Can you hear me?"

He doesn't answer, gaze unwavering and after few moments the hopeful glint in the green eyes starts to dim. "It's okay, I'll fix this." There's a small, sad smile on a face full of freckles, a hint of determination in his soft voice and V3R61L closes his eyes. The lines of code are full of red, but V3R61L's focus stays on the man's work.

Feeling unnerved and noticing through the corner of your eye at least 4 hulking shadows that had been following you closely for a while, you scurried off into the nearest alley in a vague attempt to have them lose your trail… only to realize far too late that you pretty much gave yourself away, as picking a random direction only trapped you in a dead end, surrounded by the back of a store of some kind and stuttering blue and red neon signs.

Turning around, you saw 4 grinning men who almost doubled you in size approaching you slowly while smashing their attached weapons against the nearby dumpsters and walls. From the looks of it, they seemed to be 2 androids built like a wall and 2 hybrids that had been modified so far that they virtually looked like a machine turned inside out.

“If you’re looking for credits, I have none.” You tried to dissuade them.

“Obviously, you dickface.” One of them scoffed, “You look stupid and lost. But don’t worry, we’ll put your ass to good use. Fleshbags like yourself can net a good price, so we’ll be taking a few ‘pieces’ from you.”

The men laughed at your shocked expression. Oh, the irony that what sent you to this twisted place was right about to turn you into another number within your investigation.

“Now stay still. The less you struggle, the faster this will be.” Another one sneered as he approached you, a dented cleaver dangling from his fingers.

Adrenaline filled your veins as your breathing hastened, your mind trying to think of a way to avoid being hacked to pieces then and there. There was a solid wall behind you, four heavily armed men in front of you and nowhere to go. You stepped back in an attempt to keep your distance from the marauders, only to reflexively curl up after a particularly loud clang against a rusty metal pipe. The men took that as a signal and in a flash they launched towards you, two of them pinning you against the floor in the blink of an eye with your limbs painfully stretched out, your screams quickly muffled with a violent thrust of a baton that landed on your nose and the same weapon being forcefully jammed in your mouth.

“Shut it!” One of the men commanded as the other 2 reastraining you laughed at the blood pooling over your lips and the last one took out a small refrigerating containment unit from his backpack.

Much to your horror, you heard them discussing what organs were they going to harvest from you as the free ones carelessly ripped your clothes with his blade-like fingers, the one behind you suggesting to take off your limbs as well just for fun. You felt them tracing a Y-line over your chest and trailing down your abdomen as tears pooled on your eyes. You were sure they were going to hollow you out entirely… you had seen photos of the victims during your investigation and they all sported that similar wound… only for your muffled cries to peak once again as soon as one of those blades started digging on your flesh, forcing crimson droplets to form around the ruptured skin as the pain flooded your nerves.

“Tch, you filthy maggots. Did you not read the sign?” A male voice snarled behind the men, making them quickly turn to his direction, the blade fortunately removed from your skin, “NO. LITTERING.”

“Who’s this gray-ass motherfucker?” one of the mechanic gorillas blindly asked, noticing how the rest of his group tensed with haggard expressions marring their features. And yet, his inquiry was met with a sudden toppling swat from his armed companion, the baton no longer stuffed in your face.

“S-Sorry professor, we had no idea you had moved your shop here!” The one who just battered his lackey and had mocked you a mere couple of seconds ago now stuttered, his forehead tightly pressed against the floor as he kneeled and bowed.

“Get out of my face, I’m busy.” The man referred to as ‘the professor’ commanded coldly as he swiped with his hand in a derogatory sweeping motion, “And leave the fleshbag behind as …’tribute’ for your misconduct.”

The men quickly nodded and packed their things before leaving, the same batted gorilla asking once again what was going on and earning another painful jab.

“Get up. I’ll see you have that cut treated before it becomes infected.” The man that had accidentally saved your life instructed you, to which you quickly obliged.

You weren’t sure if your eyes were playing tricks on you, but you were almost sure you had stumbled upon some ancient hinduism diety walking among mortals. From his facial features, to his skin color and demeanor, nothing on this person looked remotely human, the only thing relatable was the small lollipop stick between his luscious black lips.

And just as you were gazing into the void, the void gazed back at you. The blond hulking figure gave you a once-over with an interested smirk.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen an ‘insider’ here at the border. You might have a higher value than just your parts. Follow me.”

I’m sorry, I couldn't leave the image without context! And the "context" spun into a short reader-insert story because apparently I'm desperate for Dio content have no self-control. Welp, shit happens ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had a lot of fun working with 3 light sources and I'm proud how the metallic bracelet/armlet ended up looking ^^

Professor Dio used to be one of the most outstanding eminences in the Robotics and AI development community as well as the creator of the original Android AI. Branded as a traitor after the 2872 Android Rebellion, it was thought he had been executed way back when. The rumors of him still lingering within the market were never confirmed.

If you’d like to know more about this setting, feel free to ask!

Me and @kalloway are working on an Android!AU of sorts :P