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Mirage splayed out V2’s lifeless body. It was dead, she was sure of it. She was there in the last moments of this robot, a robot that had not known friendship until it was too late. But, deep down, she just couldn’t accept this truth. Not until she fully saw V2; down to the smallest details of its metal framework.
An autopsy.
Yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do when someone dies.
She gently intertwined her hand with V2’s. “I know you said you weren’t scared in your last moments,” Mirage was shaking, “but when I first disassembled my extremities, I was scared. So don’t worry, you’re in good hands.”
V2 said nothing. She was gone.
Mirage knew that.
She dug into her bag of tools and slowly pulled out all the tools she thought she’d need. Out of the bag, she produced the screwdriver that she’d used to dismantle herself years prior. Mirage turned it around in her hands a few times, remembering how fascinated she was as she learned the things that made her tick.
She would have loved to see what made V2 tick, maybe even get to work on patching her wounds and—
Mirage snapped back to reality. V2 was dead, there was no use in pretending they could have any happy moments as friends. She was just a messenger to comfort this blood-thirsty machine in its final moments.
Finally, she started to open the bright red panels that covered V2’s cold body. Every part of her was scratched or scuffed in some way.
“I can’t imagine what you had to do to get this banged up.” Mirage gently tugged at the wires emerging from where its left arm should have been. “I know V1 did awful things to you during your battles but there’s trauma on every part of you. That doesn’t come from just two fights.”
A vision hit Mirage in that moment.
She knew she had the ability to fix all of this; an image crept into her mind of V2 holding her gently as she fixed even the smallest of scratches along its chest panels. Mirage could carefully clamp wire caps on the exposed pit of where V2’s arm should have been, sketching out a more permanent solution that they could build together while staying up during late nights.
Mirage stared into the face of her deceased friend. She needed to focus.
The damage to V2 was severe.
She knew this was a war machine but just seeing the extent of the damage was baffling. How was V2 living for so long? She should have gone under maintenance ages ago to fix some of this.
Still, Mirage didn’t linger.
She continued slowly removing all of the panels covering V2’s body, carefully placing them next to the spot she had removed them from. The work put into this machine was beautiful, V2 truly was amazing from every angle.
It was quick work to take the robot apart. Mirage was experienced.
A thought hit her, she could take some of these parts to modify herself with.
It sickened her. That was a disgusting thought.
Everyone took from V2 without thinking about her. Mirage was above that. She was just confirming the death of her companion and taking notes to see how she worked. That was all.
As Mirage worked over her body, she somehow couldn’t bring herself to remove the processor from V2’s head. She couldn’t stand the idea of disconnecting her friend's mind from her body— V2 deserved better than that. She deserved someone to hold her life in higher regard than simply being a no longer functional robot.
V2 was more than scrap metal. Even if no one else but Mirage would see her like that.
“God, V2—” Mirage placed her head against V2’s. “I’m sorry. I wish I could save you from purgatory.” She moved back and looked over her friend's body. “You’re beautiful. I hope someone told you that in your life… I wish I had. I was thinking about it the second I saw you.” But she had a feeling she was the first to say it.
Mirage sat next to V2, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them. She rested her head on her knees and just gazed at V2.
Her beautiful figure was something that enraptured Mirage every time she got the opportunity to take a full look, even with all the exposed wire present at the moment. She couldn’t imagine how amazing V2 must have looked when she was lively. She was built to be a highly coordinated, blood-thirsty killing machine. It was a sight to behold such dedicated work.
Moving on with her autopsy, she took great care with rolling V2 onto its side, wanting to inspect within the panel on its back. V2’s beautiful wings had been trapped under its body, unfolding slightly as Mirage lifted its metal body off of the wings.
“Oh, I forgot about these.” She gently unfolded V2’s wings, splaying them out fully. “Wow, these are much bigger than mine.” Mirage carefully ran her hand along the length of the longest of V2’s ‘feathers’.
For a moment, she indulged in a vision.
Mirage would run her hands over the broken wing feathers. V2 jolting slightly at the sensation, not used to touch but welcoming the feeling of kindness that Mirage radiated. They’d laugh together and she could explain the process of fixing such a masterfully made piece of machinery.
“These are breathtaking.” Mirage commented to V2. There was no response as she gently ran her thumb over its broken feather. “I’ll take inspiration when I update mine… one of these days.”
She couldn’t imagine how painful it would be for V2 to fight in this condition, left arm torn from its socket and a shattered wing.
Mirage’s blood boiled as she imagined V1 doing this to her.
V2’s wings twitched as Mirage dug into the wires on her back panel. It gave her a scare at first, then a false sense of hope that maybe her friend wasn’t fully dead.
It was a silly hope, truly.
V2 is dead.
Mirage just jotted down some notes. She carefully placed V2’s form back down, wings now fully spread out on both sides. Her left feathers were basically torn to shreds.
This was becoming more than she could stomach. Mirage was getting sickeningly sentimental about this whole thing, thinking about V2 was becoming upsetting to her. Their short time together was impactful.
She decided to take some last few notes and fix her friend up. Then she’d figure out what to do from there.
As Mirage finally started putting V2 back together, unable to view this gentle soul as just a set of parts to scalp, she came to a very damaged panel on its right arm. She paused as she had a thought.
“No, this won’t do for you.” Mirage grabbed a slightly different screwdriver. “People just take and take from you, though, don’t they? I can’t be one of them.” She began to unscrew a similarly shaped panel on her own arm. “I’ll fix this piece of you, in return you get a piece of me.”
The metal in Mirage’s hand was shiny and new looking, never having lost any of the soft blue color through menial fighting. V2’s panel was worn and had chipped vibrant red coloring around all of the corners. There was a large dent in the middle that would be uncomfortable to have against its wiring. Mirage would fix it later, for now she worked on fitting the piece of herself into V2’s arm. She was gentle with it, every piece of V2 was handled with care.
“There!” Mirage ran a hand down V2’s reassembled arm. “Good as new.”
Her optic scanned V2’s form sadly. She was almost done putting everything back in place, collecting her notes, and moving on with her life. But something sat wrong in her chest.
Mirage had a deep aspiration to live and see the world and everything it had to offer. Yet, as she stared down at V2, there was a sickening sense that her dear friend would never be able to do any of those things. It made Mirage nauseated to imagine living her life to the fullest as V2 slowly rusted until she was unsalvageable.
She picked up a new tool and started to reinstate the final few pieces of V2.
“I promise..” Mirage paused. “I promise to you, V2, that I’ll take you with me wherever I end up. In the short amount of time I knew you, I could tell what kind of individual you are. An amazing one.” She placed down her tools, moving to place a hand against V2’s face. She gently caressed the small horn formation on the top of its head. Moving just a bit closer, she ‘kissed’ the side of the other robot's head. “We would have been good friends.”
Mirage’s heart sank as she stared into the lifeless face of V2.
“I’ll take you with me in my memories.” Mirage promised to her while finally finishing the reassembly. She wrote the final few things in her notepad. “You’ll love seeing the world… there’s a lot of oceans out there. A lot of life for you to admire.”
There was no response from V2.