Chapter Text
[BOOT] Bootup.sqnc initiated...
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There was a warmth on its shoulder as its eyes opened for the first time. It immediately took in its surroundings, recording every detail to memory. The warmth was spreading through them quickly now. They turned to face that warmth, and were met with the soft smile of an old man. His hand was on their shoulder, a green glow emanating from it. Locating the source of the warmth an odd sensation ran through the machine. The synthetic muscles around their oral cavity twitched upwards. She was smiling.
Before the smile could stick, the door to the lab opened, and the warmth quickly faded as the man’s hand left her shoulder. Their head fell back, staring up at the ceiling again. The sound of voices carried through its auditory sensors as they came online.
“–told you already, you’re done, Polendina.”
“I just need more time, she’s almost ready I swear!”
“You said that a month ago, and a month before that, I’ve given you as much funding as I can, but I’m sorry, I’ve already chosen Watt’s proposal over your own.”
“Please James, can’t you see what I’ve built, what we could accomplish with just a bit more time!?”
The two were yelling now, and the machine automatically adjusted their auditory processing. They were talking about it, about its future. It felt cold in the absence of that warmth, slowly draining from its form. Its optics picked up the shadow of someone moving around them, before a surge of power shot out of them.
[WARNING] Charging interrupted — please resume.
[SYS] Battery remaining: 43%
Its eyes slowly shut, its programming telling it to enter a resting mode to conserve power.
[CMD] Bootup.sqnc termination initiated.
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[ERR] Unknown command at {Remember}
[QRY] Would you like to retry?
Doctor Pietro Polendina stared aghast at his life’s work, his own daughter, being terminated in front of his very eyes. Her eyes shut for a final time, the smile he had only the faintest glimpse of gone from her face. He hadn’t even had time to share his aura with the girl. He was too late, he was foolish, he should have worked harder, faster.
“I’m sorry, Pietro, but its time to move her,” James Ironwood had the gall to lay a gentle yet firm hand on the good doctor’s shoulder. A man who had just lost not only his life’s work, but his child.
No, Pietro had done enough, he had worked as hard as he could. Ironwood was the one in the wrong. Ironwood was the one who would pay for the grievances of a father who would never be able to see his daughter smile again.
“You would have me move the corpse of my own child, James?” Pietro spat as he glared up at the hard faced man he thought he respected.
“Don’t get sentimental on me, doctor, it was a failed project, a setback.” Ironwood’s hand left his shoulder as he turned to leave the lab, “I know you can rise to the occasion again, perhaps under Arthur’s command, you can create something worthwhile.”
Soon the general left and other military staff replaced him. Pietro watched as they took his research, his technology, and shoved the body of his child into a crate with other miscellaneous junk like she was trash. The workers hurried their boxing and packing as they could feel the silent rage building behind the good doctor’s eyes.
No sooner than when the door to his now empty lab shut once again did Polendina let out an enraged cry that quickly morphed into a pained sob. He had lost everything so close to the finish line, he had seen the light emerging behind his creation, his daughter’s eyes. And now Ironwood had stolen it all away. What would he do now, work for that hack Watts, the very idea almost tore another enraged howl from his throat.
But before he could scream, the lights flickered and shorted out. Had James been so quick to dismiss him as to already shut off the power? No, the cold that creeped up on him was nothing like he’d ever felt in Atlas. Mantle, sure, but Atlas was never cold, the lab was kept a sterile environment without the need for a chill. So what could have—
“Poor Doctor Polendina, so close but so far…” The voice came from all around him, it felt sickeningly sweet to his ears.
“Who’s there, how did you get back here?” He spun around in his walker, facing only an impenetrable gloom. Every darkened corner seemed to cast a shadow of its own, somehow even darker than the room he was in.
“Who I am is of no consequence, but you, a father who had his child ripped from his arms before he even had a chance to breath life into her…” The voice seemed to caress his aching soul, “And to have your chance stripped from you, forced to work beneath your station… it’s not fair, is it?”
“No… it’s not, she was everything I wanted, my life’s ambition! My…” The words died in Pietro’s mouth, fresh tears threatened to stain his cheeks as the voice continued.
“To let you hold a life in your arms… only to rip it away before you even get the chance to love it properly…” A cold, pale hand landed on his wrist. A woman of pearlescent skin and dark eyes seemed to form from the darkness itself, a sympathetic frown on her lips. “I know this pain all too well, my dear doctor.”
Polendina studied the woman, she felt like darkness, like death coming to take him.
“It was his fault after all, he did this, not you…” Her cold hand slipped into his, holding it tightly, “I know what it is like to have someone so superior claim a life that by all right was yours to keep.”
Her words were a balm to his soul, they spoke to the rage that had been building since Ironwood had unplugged, killed, his daughter right in front of him.
“He had no right!” Polendina repeated her words, screamed them as hot tears crawled down his face.
“No, but you can make him pay…” Her voice sounded like it was right in his ear, whispering a dark promise that spoke to the hatred blackening his soul, “We can make him pay.”