Mixed Personalities

"Disable my Machine Heart?

I asked you to help me, not to kill me."

"And that's exactly what I intend to do.

Your heart was severely damaged by overheating, and it became defective after that event.

Therefore, now your Machine Men personality and your human being personality are competing for control.

I will try to exploit this chink in the code to disable the control features of the Machine Heart, making it the same as the heart of any other human.

Only it will be mechanical."

K-111 stood in disbelief.

The opportunity presented to him seemed surreal, indeed, completely impossible.

"Wait a minute.

Are you perhaps telling me that you would be able to...."

"Yes, I can turn you into a real human.

And that's not all, I can even enhance all your physical abilities, making you not only a simple human, but also the strongest human ever.

If I could also copy the error in your code and transmit it to S-352's heart, I could make both of you absolutely perfect human beings.

Created as slaves, with a mechanical heart controlling your entire lives, you could make your slavery, your new strength.

Not only would you be free, but you could aspire to take control of the entire metropolis if only you so desired.

As for the girl, the choice is not up to her, but you, rebellious boy, you have the power to oppose me, what will you do?"

K-111 pondered for a moment.

Besides, not only would he be able to get rid of those voices in his head, he would be able to experience real emotions, he would be able to smile, cry, hate and love, on his own.

What's more, he would not have been alone; he could have freed Sophie as well, saving her from the terrible life that awaited her.

"All right, I accept.

What do you think Sophie?"

The girl hesitated for a moment.

"Are you really sure? It won't be dangerous?"

"What do you say about it, scientist?

"Well, the risk of you losing your mind or your heart exploding is certainly very high."

"I take these risks every day of my life, it won't make any difference.

So I decided, I accept, but on one condition."

"What condition?"

"You must wash your hands before you touch me.

With muriatic acid preferably."

"Ahahahaha how funny you are, of course I'll use latex gloves for the surgery, I don't want to risk giving you an infection."

"Surgery?"

"Exactly, first I will anesthetize you, after that, I will open your chest and connect my PC directly to your Machine Heart.

I will take the error code, modify it so as to block the mental inhibition functions and modify some mechanical parts to make the heart able to pump more oxygenated blood and thus enhance every single ability of your body, starting from endurance through brute strength, speed and any other physical ability I will be able to improve.

While the code changes will take place, I will also begin the same surgery on S-352's heart, which, because it has not been damaged, will have a lower risk of failure.

Having said that, I would say we can start."

K-111 took off his shirt, remaining shirtless with his scars exposed, lay down on the crib, and soon after was intubated and put to sleep via a soporific gas exhaled directly into his lungs.

After anesthesia, Dexter prepared for surgery while Sophie watched everything from a glass window outside the room.

First, through the aid of a powerful laser, the scientist opened the boy's chest, revealing his Machine Heart.

It was a perfect copy of a human heart, composed, however, of pieces of metal, tubes and gears, made with rather obsolete technology.

The only major difference was the presence of a small screen and connection ports for external cables near it.

On the screen towered the words "K-111" written in large letters.

Once the organ was discovered, it was necessary to modify some of its mechanical parts, to make them more powerful, it was not necessary to add or remove any components, also because being adapted to the subject's body, going to upset its parts too much, would have risked causing very serious damage, if not immediate death.

The damage was obvious, but it was enough to put some gears back in place to avoid further complications of that kind.

It was time to pick up and modify the machine's source code.

Once connected, the scientist fiddled with the code until the writing disappeared to be replaced by numbers and symbols that kept changing.

Meanwhile, something was going on in K-111's mind.

He found himself in a strange room.

In fact, to be precise, it wasn't a room, but was the inside of an old factory.

It was the factory where he used to train, however, it looked different than usual.

The floor, the walls, and all the other objects were completely black, as if they were made of glass and behind them there was only total emptiness.

In that emptiness ran a lot of lines of code colored by a very strong neon green, with a pixel font typical of the very first computers.

As he walked he felt strangely light, and felt a sensation that he could only describe as dreamlike.

He looked around for a while, until someone called out to him.

"You have finally arrived."

A distorted, metallic voice broke the silence.

Turning behind him he saw a strange figure completely black, like the rest of the environment.

But he recognized him immediately.

The stature, the sweatshirt, the walk and the movements were unmistakable.

That was him.

"Who are you? And what is this place?"

"You know well who I am, and you know well this place, too.

I am you, and you are me.

This place is nothing but the place where our first meeting took place."

"Our first meeting?"

"That's right.

This is where K-111 was born.

This is where I was born."

"I am K-111, you are nothing but a voice in my head."

"You are wrong, you are the one who is my reflection.

You started to rebel as a result of the incident in center, I'm the one and only original."

"I wasn't born in this place, nor in the center."

"Then tell me, where would you have been born?"

"I certainly can't know... The farthest memories I have are in my apartment."

"You and I were born in this place, in subject K-111's brain box.

I'm his original thought, that is, the real K-111, and you are nothing but a mistake, a parasite that inserted itself in here after I arrived.

Unfortunately, there is no room for both of us, and this will be my chance to eliminate you and return to C.C.!"

"You're the one who got into my head, you're the one who's in the wrong place, and I'll be the one to get rid of you!"

K-111 tapped his pockets, and found his old butterfly knife.

After opening it, he looked at the figure in front of him and noticed that it too was holding a knife identical to his own.

Now that he looked at him better, however, he noticed one thing.

Through his chest, in the darkness, he could notice an object.

In fact no, it was not just any object, but the Machine Heart!

"I see you finally noticed it.

What's the matter, would you like one too?"

The boy looked at his chest, and noticed that he too had an area of dark glass, but with a strange vortex inside it, a kind of black hole.

"If you want me to leave, you'll have to rip my heart out of my chest, like I did with that man.

Do you remember that?"

Suddenly, another figure appeared beside the reflection.

It was another man made of glass, with a big gash in his face and a hole in his chest, which, however, unlike K-111's, seemed to be more like a broken window, as if someone had forced his hand through it.

"You remember me don't you? It was fun ripping my heart out?"

"Of course it was, you should have seen how I popped it."

"It wasn't fun, I simply wanted to scare your comrades and teach you a lesson.

A pig like you would have died anyway."

The glass ghost disappeared, to make room for another.

"What about him instead?"

This time the person was completely unrecognizable; he was just a pile of glass shards floating in the air, maintaining a vaguely human-like shape.

"This is the rebel who made you experience all that suffering, the one you brutally murdered in front of his daughter, not even sparing his wife."

"It wasn't me who killed them, it was you."

"Weren't you the original one?

Then what about your beloved master?

Don't you owe him everything? Then why do you speak ill of him, why do you call him a monster?"

The figure of C.C. began to materialize in front of K-111's reflection, but the boy hurled himself at it, lashing it with his fist and smashing it to smithereens.

"NOW I'M SICK OF THESE MIRRORS, FACE ME."

The two launched an attack on each other.

The boy at first seemed to get the better of the shadow, but he soon found that his stabs inflicted no effect on his opponent, while he continued to bleed.

After several blows, the two blocked each other, finishing head to head.

"What are you fighting for?

What exactly do you desire?

For the likes of us, freedom cannot be obtained.

Even if you got rid of me, you would still be considered a slave out there, and it's already a miracle if you don't get killed, let alone make a normal life for yourself."

He could not retort to this statement.

What was he fighting for in the end?

He was born as a slave, and society would never accept him.

These thoughts made him falter, leaving time for his reflection to inflict a terrible stab that reopened the scar on his lip.

K-111 fell to the ground and the knife flew away from him.

He was left unarmed, and the reflection was ready to take him out.

Meanwhile, Dexter had finished the surgery on Sophie, and she had awakened.

"How are you feeling dear? Are you all right?"

"I feel a little strange... I'm a little dizzy."

"Don't worry, it will pass soon."

"How is Kei instead?"

"You mean the boy? Unfortunately the procedure is taking longer than expected, it's like there's something blocking the code change, but I just don't understand what it could be."

"What does this mean?"

"It means that if the program can't process my code, it won't wake up again.

That was a possibility actually, but I didn't think it would really happen."

"Oh no Kei! Please wake up, don't leave me here alone..."

By now, K-111's reflection had the upper hand and it would be a matter of a little while before he took him out.

"Honestly, I thought you were more motivated than that, you let me down.

You couldn't tell me who you are or why you desire freedom.

You are a slave regardless of Machine Heart."

K-111 had given up, when he heard a voice calling to him from a distance.

The voice was faint, but it was clear what it was saying.

"Kei, Kei, come back to me!"

That was what made him react.

"Do you want to know who I am? Do you want to know what I want?

I AM KEI, AND I WANT TO BE WITH SOPHIE, THE PERSON I LOVE.

MY FREEDOM IS ONLY WITH HER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"

"Wha-".

The glass barrier protecting the reflection's chest shattered.

"I TAKE THAT BACK."

Said the boy, tearing his heart from his own shadow.

"Wait, you're making a terrible mistake.

Actually the Machine Heart is-"

After these words he shattered into a thousand pieces, and so did the whole scenery around him.

Left suspended in the void, Kei, brought the Machine Heart closer to the black hole in his chest, which attracted him like a magnet.

The tubes snapped back into their original place, along with the cables and gears, which began to turn again.

His heart suddenly began to beat again, and closing his eyes he saw a white light envelop him.

"THIS IS IT, THE CODE HAS PENETRATED, THE MODIFICATION HAS SUCCEEDED!"

Said Dexter shouting.

He hurriedly approached the boy, seeing a new entry appear on his small monitor.

"KEI."

He immediately removed the connections, closed the incision, and after disconnecting the sleeping gas and restarting his heart with a defibrillator shot, the boy woke up.

"Kei..."

The girl threw herself on him, hugging him, then burst into tears.

"You had me worried... I thought you were never coming back..."

"I beat him Sophie...K-111 is dead, now there is only Kei..."

"Well, I'd say the experiment was successful!"

"Successful my ass, you damn dirty dick, I seriously thought I was going to die this time."

"Well, you're alive, though, and you're free now."

"In fact..."

"Now there's only one last thing left to do."

"What is it?"

Dexter pulled out an electromagnetic gun, pointing it at the two.

"It's time for my payment."