Chapter Text
For some reason, he was scared. He didn’t think he was supposed to feel scared. He didn’t think he was supposed to be able to think.
But thoughts ran through his mind anyways. Not real thoughts, just questions he couldn’t grasp. The only thing he could really understand from his own mind were these words in a vacuum: “what just happened?”
Nothing ‘just happened.’ Apparently, he had just been… created. And apparently, he had just been created to serve. That wouldn’t be a problem, he thought- there was nothing else he could do.
The man called himself Doctor Andonuts. Doctor Andonuts stood above him as he laid on the table, and Doctor Andonuts’ eyes traveled his body, making sure every piece was functioning as it should be.
Doctor Andonuts had told him he was a robot. He didn’t know what a robot was, but he supposed that made sense. Knowledge would distract him from serving, or so he thought. But, if he was made purely to serve, he wondered why Doctor Andonuts had created him with thoughts and feelings in the first place.
It had taken him a long time to be able to even open his eye to be able to see the man who had created him, but luckily, moving seemed to get easier with each metaphorical step he took. He had been able to move his left arm- for some reason he wasn’t able to feel the right one- and was attempting to push himself into a sitting position.
Doctor Andonuts had been watching him the entire time. Doctor Andonuts hadn’t said a word to him since explaining his creation, not even to explain a little more of what was going on.
He was confused. He had no idea what kind of world he had just been created into, and he had no idea what the “Pigmask Army” was.
He had questions, but he didn’t have the words to ask them. Any vocalization took more energy than he was able to spend, and each time he even attempted to say a word it died on his numb tongue.
He tried to push himself up again. It shook, but he was able to arch his back a bit. For some reason, his head was too heavy to lift.
But even though his head was heavy, it felt completely empty. Empty compared to what? he thought, but no point of reference made its way into his hollow mind.
Why do I know what it means to be ‘full,’ if I was made to be empty?
With one final push, he was able to straighten out his arm, finally sitting up straight. His head threatened to fall forward, but he was able to hold it up. It was getting easier.
His eyes immediately started at his feet, and gazed up the rest of himself that he could see. Aside from the unfamiliar clothes he was wearing, most of his body was wrapped in bandages.
He wondered why.
His left arm was still propping him up, so after forcing his eye to blink away the oncoming dryness, he slowly tried to turn his head to examine the right one.
…
Andonuts was admittedly half asleep when he was jolted back into action by a choked cry that was not his own. Somehow, the boy had managed to prop himself up, and his eye was wide.
Andonuts followed his gaze, and it led him to where the boy’s right arm used to be. His other arm started inching toward it, weakly at first, until he was able to brush his fingers against the bandages.
He diverted his eye to Andonuts, his hand still touching the bandages. The doctor was never good at reading expressions.
“...Oh, we haven’t finished the design yet. There’ll be something there soon,”
He was only halfway paying attention as he spoke, too lost in his own thoughts. He had done everything perfectly- why did the boy know he was supposed to have another arm? People aren’t born with awareness of missing pieces, and robots aren’t made with knowledge of missing parts. The memory erasure was a foolproof process.
Well, he had never had to perform an amputation on a human without their knowledge before. Maybe it was just something in the brain. Andonuts was exceptional, but brains weren’t his specialty.
The boy kept looking between Andonuts and his own missing arm, his mouth open and obviously trying to form words. No words successfully came out.
“Yeah, you’ll have something soon. For now, do you think you’ll be able to stand up?”
The boy blinked at him, and then suddenly pushed himself off of the table.
Andonuts didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, and he jumped forward instinctively to help steady him.
It was a good thing he did so, too- with one hand on his back and the other holding his left hand, Andonuts carried basically the boy’s entire weight.
The boy’s legs were shaking, but they grew steady surprisingly fast. Andonuts lessened his grip, attempting to let him stand for himself.
“Think…”
Andonuts didn’t know what the poor kid meant by that single word, but it was the first actual one he had gotten out. He couldn’t help but smile.
“You’re doing great,”
The boy slightly pursed his lips and turned his head down. He moved his left foot forward.
Major progress.
He took another step, and Andonuts further lessened his grip. He was doing unreasonably well.
Even the younger of the human chimeras took weeks to walk again, but this boy was doing splendid. A surge of pride welled up inside of him- Andonuts was the one who was responsible for the Reconstruction; Andonuts was the one who was responsible for the recovery.
He may have caused unfathomable amounts of pain. But that didn’t matter. He created this boy, he gave him new life- and he was beginning to care for him as if he were his own son.
“I’ll always be with you”
It had been the first time Doctor Andonuts had to comfort his child on his own. Since Mrs. Andonuts died, Jeff had been practically unresponsive.
The doctor had been in a comfortable sleep that night when little Jeff had turned on his light and hopped into his bed. Andonuts thought he was having a nightmare at first.
Jeff had been 4 years old. He was already showing the signs of exceptionalism, but he was extremely far behind with some motor functions. He had never been able to stand for more than a few seconds, and walking had been out of the question. That was why Andonuts was in utter disbelief when he saw him standing at his door in the middle of the night, and even more so when he ran to his father’s bed to jump up and hug him.
He wrapped his arms around his son to comfort him, but it was such a foreign feeling. The last time he had felt the embrace of a human was when his wife wanted to have a child- she had sworn never to make that mistake again- and Jeff had never been fond of his father in the least bit.
“I had a nightmare.”
“It wasn’t real.”
“But it felt real.”
“As nightmares often do,”
Jeff had pulled back at that part. His face was just as unexpressive as it has always been, through what Andonuts could see without his glasses.
“Mommy’s not coming back, is she.”
It was a statement, not a question. Andonuts nodded, and Jeff buried his head back in his father’s chest.
He didn’t know what death was. Neither of his parents wanted him to have that fear during such an important time in his development. Neither of his parents expected one of them to be taken so soon.
“You’re gonna leave me too.”
Andonuts looked down at his son. He couldn’t tell if he was crying.
He had made a call to Snow Wood Boarding School the previous day.
The chimera had somehow managed to walk across the entire room, and was smiling at the doctor with pride.
Andonuts wanted nothing to do with it anymore.