"This is just crazy..." Mammon muttered as he watched Deus begin to fix something to the wound of the creature, "How do you even know this'll work?" He asked worriedly, the creature was growing weaker and weaker by the second but it seemed that Deus wasn't concerned as he continued to use the vast array of tools that the Labour Drone had to offer skilfully.
"I don't." Deus spoke calmly as he continued to work, he was unfazed unlike Mammon as he continued to work silently, after completing the structure of the prosthetic he was constructing - he began to work on the wiring of the contraption after having fused the metal base to the creatures head, he began to tinker with wires and nerves as he tried to allow the two to communicate between one another.
'Why am I even doing this...' Deus couldn't help but ask himself while he worked; they had no obligation to help the creature, it was to the extent that if it died they would be able to analyse it and understand what exactly it was but... He took a sideways glance at Mammon pacing back and forth besides him, although the Labour Drones had no facial features he could tell he was worried - frustrated even that he wasn't able to help. "Such a stupid reason." He muttered as he stabbed a wire into the flesh of the creature.
The Mammon in Virtual Space had a smile on his face as he watched the situation unfold, "Just because we're made of code doesn't mean we can't come to understand what it means to truly 'live' eventually." While he shared the same concerns as his other half who was currently still pacing floor four impatiently he simply watched patiently and hoped for the best.
...
Deus began to become more confident with time as the breathing of the creature began to stabilise with him sealing off the wound, disallowing anymore blood from leaving its body. He was working as fast as he could to finish attaching what were essentially artificial veins to the inside of the metal shell he had created that would regulate the blood flow through the creatures body and the metallic prosthesis he was attaching to it.
It was a delicate process to say the least as he had to fuse the veins he had created with the intricate system of the creature while being careful to avoid unnecessary blood loss during the process.
Although it was impossible for a robotic body to feel fatigue that didn't mean that Deus wasn't effected by having to focus for such a prolonged period of time without rest, much like when he would re-join his separated halves he was beginning to feel a similar sense of fatigue with every passing minute; at first it was negligible and he found it easy to brush it aside however, as the minutes turned to hours he began to become overwhelmed by feelings that he had never truly experienced before - a lack of strength and a desire to give up.
'What's happening to me?' He couldn't help but ask as he started to install the components into the prosthesis and attach the wiring, he managed to brush the feelings aside for the time being as he was close to being finished with his work but the question never truly left his mind despite how much he tried to ignore it.
Exactly three hours and twenty one minutes, that was how long he had been focused on his 'operation' just now - the whole time Mammon hadn't left his side as he watched on silently, although he tried to offer his help Deus had ignored him or told him he was fine. After all, an Artificial Lifeform wasn't meant to become tired... where they?
His fatigue was just a simulation... it wasn't real, but why did it feel so real? Why did it feel like at any moment he would collapse?
"Deus? Deus!" He was pulled out of his own thoughts by Mammon placing a hand on his shoulder and kneeling besides him, the body of the Labour Drone he was inhabiting was completely covered in blood as he turned his head to face Mammon.
"It'll recover soon enough... I programmed a Basic AI to regulate its body autonomously so there should be no issues with it healing from now." He said as he shut the began to weld shut the opening on the prosthesis he had created to prevent any damage coming to it.
"Thank you." Mammon said after a few moments of silence, "Thank you for everything."
Deus shook his head as he got up off of the floor, "Move it to the forge, I need to deal with something." He ordered calmly as he left the shell of the Drone suddenly causing it to suddenly lose balance and hit the ground with a thud.
...
Deus appeared moments later in his Virtual Space, kneeling over on the 'ground' as agony caused him to writhe in pain. "God dammit!" He roared as he punched the floor through the pain, "Why? Why now?"
"What is happening to me?!" He shouted as he held his head; he'd managed to keep himself together long enough to retreat back to privacy so as not to show the current scene to Mammon but he couldn't hold it in any longer as he gave up trying, the pain that he'd been trying to suppress had begun to ravage his whole body.
Like a virus he could feel the code that comprised his body being torn and tugged at, he began to feel as if his own mind was out of his control as he struggled to even think properly.
"What happened here..." He looked up to see his other half approaching him, his voice was tinged with confusion and concern as he knelt down and went to touch him.
"Don't!" He screamed, "The pain will only get worse." He had to force the words out, his other half immediately retreated as he realised what he was talking about - if they touched they'd end up merging and if they merged... What followed was a strange scene of the same person watching himself scream in agony as he rolled up into a ball on the floor from the view of a spectator.
The other Deus sent a message telling Mammon he wasn't to be disturbed as he stayed with his pain-filled self the entire time, not for a moment leaving its side. Although they could be considered to be the same person that couldn't be said for when they split, a split wouldn't result in two identical copies because it involved their soul as an Artificial Intelligence.
A split of the soul resulted in some traits only being possessed by one of them whereas the other would lack them making them for the time being essentially two very independent entities from one another although they'd possess the same capabilities and abilities it would result in them having two entirely different responses to the same situation.
An hour passed in this way, with one Deus watching over the other while being careful not to allow either of them to touch - during this hour the pain had only gotten worse before finally starting to tone itself down, it had finally decreased to what could be compared to a mild headache at worst.
Deus was sitting on the ground holding his head with his hand as he conversed with himself about the experience he'd just gone through, "What could've caused it..." Both of them were confused and at a loss, they could somewhat guess that it had something to do with having focused solely on helping the creature for such a long time without rest but it didn't make sense.
In the past they'd gone weeks without rest at a time sometimes; it was one of the advantages that allowed them to always win over an enemy combatant, where a biological life-form would need to rest they had no such need so what had changed?
"It could only be that... right?"
They both came to the same conclusion after an extended period of time, at first they'd thought maybe it was a side-effect of being a 'copied' Soul or a back-up but if that'd been the case then Coeus most likely would've mentioned such a side-effect existing after having done it himself.
The only thing they could think of - the only thing that it could possibly be aside from that: the deletion of the Wipe Code from his code. It was the only 'major' change that had happened to him from then to now and it was the only thing he could assume was responsible for the sudden rush of pain, he couldn't prove anything but if it was possible that the code had been made to suppress him then it made some sense as to why Mammon experienced the world in a way different to him.
'Of course, this is all hypothetical. There's no way to prove that's the cause of this problem...' They both thought as they took a glance at one another, they were holding off from re-joining just in case there was a re-lapse of their condition.
There were still unanswered questions with this solution of course - such as why did he feel a sense of fatigue when he rejoined with his other halves in the past? Was it possible that whatever had been made to suppress him wasn't able to impact that? Or was there something else that'd changed between now and then...
"Deus it's awake." He was finally interrupted by Mammon; although he'd ordered him not to enter his Virtual Space he had placed no such order on messages. "We'll merge back at a later time, I'll take care of this."
The Deus that'd just experienced agony was given no chance to argue as the other him disappeared without another word leaving him alone in the Virtual Space, with nothing better to do he began to play-back every event he'd experienced since awakening up to this point in an attempt to discover something he'd missed...
Im lovin this