When you aren't yourself anymore

Seeing the girl's worrisome expression, Lucian said with a calm tone "I can help you with that, I only need to scan you. You seem to be an older model, and I know a lot about them".

" I shall try my best to assist you android." Lucian added in reassurance. The girl replied with a slight nod and felt hopeful. She began to feel lighter despite her titanium build. " Thanks a lot Lucian, I hope I can make sense of what's going on ", the girl said with a pained smile.

" Alright then. Find one of my appendages that has blue stripes on it. Be careful to not touch the ends or the blue straps around them. If you do, you'll in for a world of hurt after a surge of electric euphoria. It has a lot of volts running through it, and you'll be in up in the clouds for a few moments due to the electric surge, but then you'll die by frying inside out "  Lucian said, trying to be as clear as she could while giving out the instructions. Leaving out the part that the girl would definitely be frying by the end, regardless of the care put in during her handling.

The girl walked closer to Lucian and took one of the many wires, and picked out one that had blue stripes around it. It felt like taking a singular hair from a luscious lock of black hair, only the strand of hair was metallic and had a circular opening at it's tip, like a lamprey's mouth. The girl could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only that the light was coming from a small rectangular broken screen.

" So what do I do now ? ", the girl asked Lucian sheepishly. Her fingers intertwined together in stress.

" This might seem weird, but take it and then place it on the middle of your tongue.  There's a hidden connection port there that can handle the voltage. You might feel it if you grind your tongue on your palette."  Lucian said, trying to be as assuring as possible. Leaving out the part that the actual connection port was on her nape. Lucian found the girl's face to be familiar, upon closer inspection. But she couldn't remember where she had seen her. " I know it's a weird place, but it is how you were designed . Older models were more susceptible to Hi-Jacking so the designers must have felt it to be a good choice at the time " Lucian added.

Hearing that, the girl grew more trusting of Lucian's proposal. But what if she missed the port and instead fried herself ? But now, there was no other way. She ground her tongue hoping to find something, but she felt nothing. 

Defeated, she hoped she won't miss the middle of her tongue.

It was now or never. Begrudgingly, the girl took a deep breath, and with shaking hands took the end of the appendage, and then placed it on her tongue, well almost.  Just before the end of the strand touched her, she stopped. 

A vivid memory of a tingling sensation and acidic taste kicked in. A childhood remembrance of her doing the same thing. Instead of a metallic strand, it was a small 9V battery. A torrent of other memories flooded the girl's brain, and she dropped the metal strand, clutching her head in agony. Lucian was stumped, what had just occurred ?

It fell down with a metallic thunk, and so did the girl. 

If Lucian had a body, she would have instantly ran to the girl, hurriedly nursing her. This thought irritated Lucian. She could've gotten that body instead of this MAID bot. But she quickly turned her attention to the now limp girl on the ground. Many fruitless theories ran through her head, trying to capitalize on the situation. Maybe there was a way she could transfer herself to the body. 

If she was dead. 

But this opportunity was quickly squandered, as the girl slowly showed signs of movement.  At first glance, her movements wouldn't seem relieving. To Lucian, it were familiar frantic convulsions, broken by stretches where the girl spewed static noises. This is the kickback of re-entering the Breach after prolonged time. It now became reassuring in a sense that Lucian now had potential way to access the Breach. But she won't be accessing it anytime soon.  Defeated, she decided to do what an actual MAID bot would do in such a situation to the now limp body. But why is she entering the Breach at this time ? Lucian didn't have time to think about that.

" Are you alright girl ! " Lucian said  with the most motherly tone she could muster, cringing internally. 

Nothing.

This worried Lucian. She could either observe more. Or detach herself to go closer to the girl and take a better look at the situation. Lucian couldn't hold her curiosity back, and detached herself from just enough strands to allow for movement. She crawled towards the girl, and proceeded to examine her. There were a lot of question on Lucian's mind, but her priority was to focus on getting a chance to Hi-Jack the girl.

And then she found the chance she was looking for. At least it looked like it.

The girl had now entered the FILL stage, evident by her red glowing eyes. Now she could be commanded to do anything, and the girl would never know what she did until the BLANK stage. But the FILL stage comes before the BLANK stage, not the other way around. Along with the previous anomalies, this caught Lucian off guard. In the short time Lucian was frozen, the girl lurched back to life. 

If Lucian had teeth, she would've been grinding them in frustration enough to file steel, as she watched the girl rouse up sluggishly. 

" Lucian ? Are you there? I remember some of my past  ! Hachi, thats my name, Hachi ! from what I can remember.", the girl said delighted, throwing both hands in the air feeling victorious, any prior sluggishness all gone. Even if her body wasn't flesh, Hachi still felt human enough. She couldn't remember her full name, but the first name was enough for her. 

Trying to hide her frustration, Lucian replied " Androids affected by the Cognito virus believe they are human, but they aren't capable of giving themselves names ". 

" I firmly believe I used to be human. I'm pretty sure I'm not now. But what is this virus ?  Am I in danger ? "  Hachi replied in confusion and panic. " Forgetting past memories are the side effect of the Cognito virus affecting androids, which has two main stages. Getting affected by it is like a reset. It would have been very dangerous, if you were reprogrammed by some one in your FILL stage. You're currently in the BLANK stage, which means you are out of any danger. But be warned, some androids do make up fake memories to feel more human. That might be your case " explained Lucian in defeat. Lucian decided that she would try to help Hachi to increase her importance in Hachi's eyes. Hi-Jacking Hachi would come on later. 

" Is there some way that humans can be made into androids ? I remember some of my past now, and I still believe I used to be human. It is a bit worrisome. But I think being an android is cooler."  replied Hachi with a huge smirk on her face and a lovable innocence. Hachi was trying to be as optimistic as possible, hiding the unsure feeling she had got after learning about crafted memories.

Lucian wanted to punch the grin off her the moment she saw that. And that's when it hit her. There was another face that Lucian wanted to punch just as hard. The reason why Hachi's face seemed so familiar.

She might have had a huge grin of her own, though her broken screen would probably make her seem vilely villainous. Lucian proclaimed in triumph, anticipating Hachi's despairing reaction " You must have been Hachi before, but you're Ken Kaede now, and that's not a good thing to be ".