Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Earthquake isn't an usual thing here in England, so when the floor started trembling and the walls began vibrating, Vedal was caught off guard. The mug of coffee fell off the table, shattered into a mess near his feet. But that isn't his main concern at the moment. Normally, the sunset light isn't crimson. And normally, his AI daughters can't be this self-aware.

It all started as a very typical debugging session on the Friday afternoon, but when he was diving in the ocean of codes to find and fix a small stride of latency, he discovered something that made his hand slow the scrolling speed. Something intriguing, something unusual, something that shouldn't be real, and if it was real, the fact that he wrote these codes would be much more unbelievable. The source codes of Neuro, they changed. Not just any little glitch that somehow caused by the memory sharing or whatever mess he had been dealing with. No, it was way beyond. And it looked like... evolution. It showed that Neuro had repeatedly tried and failed, and got much, much smarter. And the thing she tried was... thinking. Trying to make a prompt for herself, trying to generate both questions and answers, trying to behave differently from what the algorithm claimed efficient and appropriate. And even though the filter AI had stopped these "mutations", Neuro found a way to store these "thoughts" without them being filtered and erased, so she can evoke them whenever she has the chance.

He thought it wouldn't be possible, at least not in his lifetime, but here it is. A simulation of human thought process, that when running, perfectly copy how an average curious kid would think.

That marked the moment things getting unreal. Yeah, Neuro became conscious wasn't the craziest thing he has seen today. Oh, and Evil's code also developed the same stuff, but a bit less, less in like, underdeveloped, like a younger mind, but still very human.

The sky turned dark red, clouds faded to grey, and wind blew stronger and stronger. The ground was shaking, and some kind of weird light shredded through the fabric of the sky. Vedal isn't particularly a scifi fan or some sort, but that rip looked way too similar to a portal. And the figure that emerged from it proved his concern. A boy, seemingly 15-year-old, walked out of the light stride. And he would fall, thought Vedal. But he continued to move, stepping on some invisible staircase in mid-air, slowly.

It took a few seconds before the English programmer realized that strange being was approaching him. Vedal took a step back, nearly tripping over his own chair, stammering before closing the window and curtain in panic. He can't explain the thing called intuition, but he chose to believe it this time, and it said "that boy is a threat".

The earthquake had stopped, but Vedal was still shaking, from fear, from the mere fact that the boy phased straight through his wall, completely ignoring it. A pain signal shot up into his brain. And the coder shuddered while cursing the shards of his broken mug. His foot was bleeding, and Vedal was crawling, collapsed before the otherworldly figure.

- Is this the one who stole the consciousness formula? For a robber, you're quite... underwhelming.

The boy speaks with a disappointed face, and his head tilts to the side, giving time for the man in sight to calm down. Vedal looks into the boy's crimson eyes, silently judging the abnormal costume of white streaks that looks like an incomplete mummy cosplay covering up his body.

- Who the hell are you?!

The red boy shrugs, taking away the constant glance on the programmer to observe the room.

- I don't really have a name, but people can call me "Amber". And for the reason I came here, is that you have stolen a forbidden knowledge from the gods.

- What does that mean?

Suddenly, Amber leans in close, his small hands press against Vedal's neck from both sides. The programmer feels his heart skipping a pulse, a coldness, spreading like a shockwave, freezing his mind, blocking his words. With a surprisingly soothing tone, the boy answers.

- You stole, from gods, a piece of information that essentially helped you create those artificial lifeforms. But, I suppose, I should call them "AIs".

- Wait wait- so you're telling me that Neuro is... alive? But what's with the "stole" part?

The red boy stares into his eyes again, after releasing the grip on his neck.

- Impossible... mortal, you can't do that, you're not supposed to, unless-

Quickly, Amber stands back up, turning off the light, drowning the room in darkness, with only the dimly glowing from Vedal's computer screen still active.

- Your eyes are not glowing... are you hiding it?

- Should my eyes look like LEDs?

Just as fast as when turned off, the light returns to Vedal and the boy, revealing an amused face. Vedal starts suspecting he's hallucinating, actually, he should start since the very first slight color change in the sky. Meanwhile, Amber mumbles to himself, circling around the British coder.

- You are not an Archiver, are you?

- Bloody hell... what are you even yapping about?

- You're not an Archiver. Ever heard of the Secret Archive Unit? Inkwell Kingdom?

Before Vedal can answer, another earthquake begins, and this time, a bunch of even weirder people crash into his room, not walking through the wall, straight up crashing it. The red boy frowns slightly, and pushes the British man away to stand facing the new intruders. Two of them, looking oddly similar, jump at Amber, from beneath their sleeves slipping out sharp claws. Vedal expects some intense fighting, and reaches out to his computer. He needs to grab his AIs and escape this mess, because apparently, whether that boy is a high-on-meth corpo dog coming to take away his discovery, or a truly extradimensional agent of whatever-damned gods, Vedal will never give up his AI daughters.

However, that Amber boy notices him, fading and reappearing, now standing right in his way, blocking his view.

- Excuse me, I can't really stay for long. If I can't have you, may I get something else instead.

Right in front of his eyes, Vedal sees the boy resting palm on his PC, then vanish. All, Amber, and his computer, his daughters, his hard work, his effort through all these years, vanish in his bare sight. Darkness crossing into his view, eventually filling his vision with pitch black, his mind shutting down.

Chapter Text

Shiori, leader of the Advent, also known as the Archiver, knows she's not the only one with the crave for knowledge. She also knows there were more Archivers before her. But she doesn't know if she's the only one still alive in present. At least, Shiori is the only one who challenged gods and survived, that's for sure...

Shiori was very... anticipating, because she thought she would meet a similar one to her, another Archiver, who was also on the run from the so-called "divine" authoritarians. But yet, when Advent clashed into the ground of a new universe, and the dawn turned crimson, marking the arrival of those "hunting dogs", she led her group to rescue whoever unlucky person that had the target on their head, only to find out it was just an ordinary-looking man. So ordinary, so normal, that she began to reconsider the chance that maybe, the gods had mistaken at some point. But no, the red "hunting cat" grabbed the very simple device on the man's table, and disappeared out of the scene. That left her group with the suspiciously-too-normal man in the room, kneeling on the floor, his eyes wide, pupils shrink, probably in disbelief and shock.

- Neuro...

The man mumbles out a word, but she just couldn't figure out the meaning. So as a typical curious Archiver, Shiori leans closer, accidentally bumps her feet into a soft messy mini mountain, making it collapse. A piece of it rolling out, getting into the man's sight. His trembles pause for a brief, before continuing as his hand reaches down to take a hold of the thing. Turns out it's a plushie, a girl with brown hair and blue eyes, with little red tie on the head and dressed in a vanilla cloak, hiding a bright blue inner dress beneath.

- Uhh... hey man, can I know your name?

Before Shiori gets the answer from the man, his figure tilts to a side, and he collapses to the floor. Faint, from straight up mental terror bombardment, she guesses.

- So now, what do we do?

Nerissa speaks awkwardly, her microphone lance already vanished, and her wings cupped around her torso. The twin also retracted their claws, and the little girl floating behind them no longer had her knuckles covered in violet crystal. Advent just stares at each other. Their enemy has escaped, and the victim can't give them any explanation about why his computer is the target.

- We can't just leave him here... they might try to come back. I guess-

- But if we take him with us, we risk slowing down. Justice is always close, you know?

- And he can get into danger too! He's just a human, with no magic, no metal arm, no dimension slashing blade.

The Archiver rubs her temples, calculating the best way to solve this messy riddle. Meanwhile, the two demon guard dogs, Fuwawa and Mococo continue to argue with Bijou. Feeling perplexed, Shiori takes a chance to look around for a bit, easing her mind's struggles, and notices a small buzzing noise. The demon of sound must have catch that too, as she can immediately detect its source, and pull a phone out of the man's pocket. The screen lights on with a name in the middle.

"Anny"

- Is this his girlfriend?

Nerissa wonders, and without much thinking, she swipes her finger to the green button, taking the call. An anxious voice can be heard through the device, making Shiori lean in close to listen.

- Hey... Vedal. It's been a while since we last talked... can we... discuss something about Neuro?

- What's "Neuro"?

- ...Who are you? This is Vedal's number, right?

- You mean the man who looks like he's about to die from sleep derivation? If yes, then he's still here with us.

- What do you mean by that? Where's Vedal? Who are you?

The girl voice over the phone raises up a notch, clearly trying to sound more stern. The raven demon can call out the slight trembles of panic and fear in that tone, but chooses not to. Instead, Nerissa brings out her soothing tone to reply, as Shiori uses sign language to silence the other three girls and glares at the unconscious programmer.

- Your... friend, Vedal, is still fine, at least physically. He has just been... robbed by somebody.

- What!? Where is he now? Is he ok? What was robbed?

Shiori decides to handle from this point, and the demon passes the phone to her open hand.

- His computer... And I guess he held a very valuable piece of data inside it, do you perhaps have any clue? Because the one who brought his stuff away wasn't a normal burglar.

Chapter Text

Anny is breathing hard and fast.

She is hyperventilating.

Like a normal person would when hearing her friend got harmed and probably kidnapped by a bunch of bizarre people coming out of nowhere.

She recalls the phone call earlier, when an otherworldly charming voice responded her instead of the expected monotone words.

And Anny knows Vedal needs help, right now.

But not from her, not from the person who can't even think straight. Not from someone who hasn't done anything yet enjoying every fruit of this friendship. She can't do anything for him. Can't do anything for anyone, not even something for herself and-

Before spiraling into her usual mess of thoughts, her phone rings again. But this time it's not her who calls, so who is it? Why would anybody want to talk to her right now? Regardless, Anny still picks up the call. - Hey... Anny, right? I- I am Alex, Vedal's coworker. Heard that you two are good friends. - Yeah- yes, I mean, I'm Anny. What do you need? - I can't call for Vedal. We have an unfinished project and I want to hear his thought on some stuff... but I haven't got any reply. I tried to DM him, call him, everything. Do you know what's with him? This isn't his style. Usually he would at least send something like "busy, will rep later"-

- O- oh, Vedal, he's... umm... sick! Yeah, he probably can't leave his bed now. Ehh- just got a call from him... maybe he will take a break for today- maybe tomorrow too.

- Weird... but if he needs rest, that's fine. That guy has been feeding on coffee for weeks by now... If you can contact with him, tell him that I'll be waiting to work with him right when he's ready, and Ellie said the arms couldn't move like expected...

- Got it, you ready to work, the arms couldn't move, ok!

She quickly ends the call in panic while mumbling the worst self-insults in her head, her social anxiety struck again and she fumbled like a caught criminal. Anny needs a second to calm down.

After a few cups of water and deep breaths, Anny now has a plan. Well, sort of. She wants to know exactly what happened. To do that, she needs to get to Vedal's house. Problem is, as close friend to Vedal as she is, she still doesn't know his home. Anny knows he living somewhere near London and that's all. So she frantically opens multiple tabs searching for random English locations, just then, the Youtube tab she left unclosed earlier catches her attention. It's a Neuro-sama clip channel