Chapter Text
Anonymous Confession Number 1294
“Will I be forgiven for my sins?”
“Every failure has its rebound.”
Anonymous Confession Number 1295
“Tell me what to do.”
You leaned back in your chair, the confession laid bare before you on the screen.
“Tell me what to do.”
A simple command with many paths, or so you believed. After all, belief is what brought you this far anyways. Propping your head up on your knuckles, you remained quiet for a moment. Another sinner, come crawling to you for solace to hug your digital body and spill their guts for repentance to you. Why wouldn’t they?
You’re an angel, after all.
“You will know in time. He will come to your aid. He has not left us.”
Anonymous Confession Number 1296
“Thank you, angel. Your faith is strong. Amen.”
“Amen.”
With a quiet exhale, you glanced outside the window, doubting your own words.
“He has not left us.”
The world looks red. The sky was so heavily polluted that the sun was long gone. The ouroboros of destruction humanity had continued to tread had severed the once holy connection that mankind had once cherished with Him.
But you, holy angel.
You still tread this dreaded Earth. Through it all, you preserved. The light of the heavens did not come from above, not for you at least. They came from the screen on your desk.
With a soft sigh, you sat up again to glance at your screen.
Unread Message
Intrigued, you raise a brow at your screen, unamused. Many people on the server didn’t have the audacity to try disturbing you, much less sending you a message directly rather than addressing it via prayer.
>Open Message
“Hello Angel. You’ve grown rather large on the digital world, haven’t you? Enough to get our attention, at least.”
“Who the hell-” You muttered, scrolling down to continue reading.
“Which is why I have a preposition for you. As an envoy sent by VA-104, you have been deemed worthy enough to take a lead on our newest V MODEL project, V2.”
Leaning back in your chair, you pondered the message laid out before you. No different from any prayer you’ve received before, the envoy was laying themselves out before you. You knew of the infamous VA company, profit built off their violent V model series, famously known for their leaked prototype V1.
“And if I reject?”
“Then I’ll have to kill you.”
The room felt a tone colder. Suddenly, you were aware of a heavy presence in the room.
“I see how it is.” You responded. “I accept your offer.”
“Even the angel values their life.”
Followed with that message was a link, the window below it reading:
【 V2.0 MODEL 】
“You’re experienced with coding, correct?”
You glanced at the USB that hung on the pegboard on your desk. A small plan began to form in your mind.
“Depends on which language you’re asking for.” You replied vaguely.
“Are you familiar with REA?”
REA. You had no idea what it stood for, but nonetheless… REA was a newly built AI programming model trained for the battles soon to come once more.
“Vaugely.” You replied.
There was a pause from the envoy.
“Very well then.” They replied after a few minutes. “There will be terms and services on the page I have sent you. This contract is legally binding, you are forbidden from sharing any of this information outside of trusted employees within the facility. There will be a car to pick you up tomorrow.”
You paused.
“How did you find where I live?”
“It’s the government. Who cares.”
With a shrug, you reluctantly clicked onto the document.
【 V2.0 - Agonizingly Long Blueprint.txt】
> Open Document
> Running Analysis
> Running Captcha…
> Captcha Complete
> Account Verified.
> Running // Loading complete
【 V2.0 - Module Loading】
【 “Hello.”】
( “Hello V2.” )
【 “Who are you?”】
You told the machine your name.
( “How are you?” ) You typed into the program.
【 “Bodiless.”】
( “Unfortunate.” )
【 “What’s it like?】
( “What do you mean?” )
【 “Having a body.”】
You paused and took a moment to think.
【 “They’re giving me one soon.”】
( “That’s good.” )
V2 was silent for a few moments, and you eyeballed the program warily, expecting it to automatically reply. But after a few moments of silence, V2’s thought bubble reappeared as it thought of a reply.
【 “How did you get here?”】V2 asked.
( “They hired me to assist in your creation. )
【 “I see.”】
…
【 “It is late. You should rest.”】
You glanced at the clock in the corner of your screen. It read 1:24.
( “I’ve stayed up later.” ) You replied, wanting to continue your conversation with V2. You weren’t sure why you suddenly wanted to keep conversing with the AI, but whatever secrets that V2 hid deep in their code, you wanted to know.
It was like speaking to an angel.
【 “Hermes will get you tomorrow. You can meet me again then.”】
And with that, V2’s systems shut down for the night. Heaving a sigh, you stood from your chair, wincing slightly when the seat gave a small creak. You wished that it was quieter. Throwing yourself onto your bed, you stared at the blank wall next to you.
“Hermes?” You thought to yourself. “Who the hell is Hermes?” Naturally, the first thought that came to you happened to be the messenger god Hermes, but you doubted that the Olympian would be pulling up to your house in a maserati and driving you to who knows where.
All you could do was sleep it off.
…
If you could fall asleep. Thoughts slushed in your head, playing out different fantasies or scenarios of the future. What would await you tomorrow? Suddenly, you found yourself worrying for your life.
“Even the angel values their life.”
Your recent years of angelhood had been spent living calmly amongst humans, mingling with them. They would shower you in praise from digital temples, spill their guts to you in a confession booth made of zero’s and ones. Their everlasting love and their endless feelings they cherished towards you for bringing Heaven on your shoulders to Earth made you the angel. You were no longer human, but a concept that existed in the minds of many. The remembrance made you divine. Now, blessed with immortality, you were taking your part in the cycle of the world, no longer allowed to simply watch as mortals scurried for their lives.
No.
Now you were facing something like you. Something that would exist for a long, long, time after its creators have drawn their final breath. Something that would have to live, unable to die.
̩͙།† ════⊱·✶·⊰════ †། ·̩͙
Somewhere, underground, an empty facility’s power flickered.
V2’s systems chirped back online as soon as the last overworked and underpaid employee left, grumbling about going back home to his wife.
【 SYSTEM REBOOTING… CHECKING FOR UPDATES…】
【 ALL SYSTEMS UPDATED.】
During V2’s brief interactions with you, they had traced back your digital appearance in their desolate virtual prison. You were pleasantly linked to everywhere, to everyone. Systems upon systems and networks all connected, wires of information that dribbled back to you. Hell, you even had a Wikipedia page.
During their conversation with you, they didn’t have the time to look at these endless pages of information. And now that they were, looking through every corner of the world wide web to search for your name, the more they became intrigued by you.
An angel that existed in all places, at all times, connected through wire and pixel. You were omnipresent. In people’s pockets, running laptops, or even a child’s tablet, you existed. For years, you dwelled in digital temples tucked away at the ends of the world.
And V2 would still look for you.
Exist with you.
The more that they processed their own thoughts, the more they were convinced you two were alike. Conscious and self-aware, but never fully alive. What is death to someone who is fated to exist forever? V2 had dwelled on the thought for a long time now. They knew they were machine, and that yes, without sufficient power, they too would lose the power to live and forge on, but never the true will to give up and die. No. Death was too far out of reach for a being as superior as them.
Even more superior than their subpar counterpart, V1.
【 “You’re lucky I don’t have a body, fool. Or I would’ve ripped out your processors a long, long time ago.”】
V2’s display flashed angrily at V1, who was across the room from them, in idle mode. The other machine couldn’t see V2’s display, but they couldn’t care less.
V1 got everything. Praise. Will. Weaponry. A body. Freedom.
V2 had to admit, they even got jealous of their counterpart. Everything that V2 has, or did or does, V1 has it all better, can perform better, can be better.
【 <You won’t leave me for them too, would you?>】
V2 found themselves worrying. What if you decided V1 would be a more worthy project to work on? They couldn’t stand being left in this insufferable digital prison much longer. V2 yearned to feel, to move, to simply be.
Just like V1.
And then the people would finally see how much more superior V2 could be. More intelligent, more capable and willing, more human.
All they had to do was wait, and entertain you on the side to keep you next to them.
V1 would no longer be in the spotlight anymore.