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Archimedes wasn't good for much. If it were up to him, if he were ruling the Moon Cell, Gilgamesh would've killed Archimedes already.
But he had no need to rule a place like SE.RA.PH. He had seen what the Moon Cell had to offer long ago, and there was nothing here outside of his Master that was worth anything of value.
However, if nothing else, Archimedes had done one good thing: he had tricked his former Master into putting on that wretched ring he had concocted up, splitting Kishinami Hakuno into three different forms, mind, body, and soul.
All of which belonged to him anyway. These other Servants had no idea what they had. Hakuno deserved better than a failed goddess and two failed rulers.
No, Hakuno was best with him. He had done the most for her. Would that Roman Emperor ever give anything up for her so-called Praetor? Would that goddess give Hakuno any type of freedom outside of playing the role of her husband? Altera only wanted to use Hakuno for her own gain.
Not that he was any different, of course, but unlike the mongrels fighting on behalf of Hakuno, he had rights to the whole of her, not just the parts like Nero, Tamamao, and Altera had.
None of those fools had given over 90% of their possessions for the girl. By that alone, those three and whoever else thought that his Master was theirs had lost rights.
He had done so much for Hakuno, after all. Forfeiting possessions notwithstanding. Had any of these others even bothered to attempt to take her off the Moon Cell? They all knew full well that the Moon Cell was no place for any of them, let alone Hakuno.
But then, he had expected these idiots to have the same insight he had. Of course, that was not possible.
They did not teach Hakuno how to read more than basic instructions or how to hold a pencil so she could both write and learn to draw. Her other Servants were only concerned about what Hakuno could do for them.
Not that the woman could see that. Not when she had been reverted back to a blank slate. The woman hadn't even recognized him when he had gone to see her.
Hakuno hadn't realized how much it had taken to track her back down to this hellish place. She felt zero remorse for forcing him to contract with her lesser counterpart in order to keep to this life since he had zero intention of being called back to the Throne of Heroes. She had much to answer for sticking him with Daybit Sem Void alone.
But her being a blank slate and being split into her mind, body, and soul made this process. He wasn't losing Hakuno again. Nor did Gilgamesh wish to deal with the memory loss issues again. Hakuno didn't need the Amnesia Syndrome defect.
They had that useless Master and his Aztec Servant, unfortunately, around. He had his computer building knowledge and skills. Tezcatlipoca and Daybit Sem Void could finally earn their keep for being a thorn in his side for the past year and a half.
"My man," Tezcatlipoca drawled, leaning against the wall of the cold space Gilgamesh had them hiding in. "There is an easier way to go about this. We could just summon Tlaloc and shove ya girl's soul into her. Easy. You're makin' this much too complicated."
Gilgamesh glared at the god, returning to his work of fitting the parts together. It had been a pain in the ass to get the parts from each of the Hakuno variants. He was pretty sure Arthur knew what he was up to, but he didn't give a shit about that.
"She has no need of your goddesses," Gilgamesh replied, focusing on his work. "You are here to adjust her features and to make sure the human parts of her are defect-free. I don't believe I allowed you and your foolish Master here in my presence to backseat drive."
"It would be easier to make her fully human," Daybit dared to point out, glancing over from where he was lounging. "If one of the parts you have stolen fails, it will not be easy to replace it. Tezcatlipoca does have a valid point about perhaps having me summon Tlaloc and having him simply put Haku's soul into her body. It would save us time."
Haku. Gilgamesh resisted the urge to open his gates and gut the mage where he sat for thinking to use his Master's nickname so casually.
Daybit did not know her as well as he did. It did not matter if the man had similar memory issues to Hakuno. Nor did it matter that he often gave his Servant that same blank stare Hakuno gave him when he said something outlandish, and it certainly did not matter that he could practically see both Kishinami Hakuno and Daybit Sem Void go through their various error screens when encountering something confusing.
"And you summoning another useless mongrel could also set off the alarm system here. In case you and your Assassin have forgotten, not one of us is supposed to be here!"
Especially not him. He was pretty sure the system still thought that he was collecting dust somewhere on the Far Side of the Moon Cell. Which meant that they were on limited time here.
Gilgamesh returned to his attention back to his work, ignoring the Master and Servant pair chattering back and forth. Well, Tezcatlipoca was talking. Talking a bit too much, in his opinion, but that was neither here nor there.
He turned the female NPC body that Tezcatlipoca had stolen for them over. It had taken too long to strip the original NPC of all of its parts, but he had experience with this. He had spent a good amount of time both here on SE.RA.PH. and tinkering with electronics. This was light work for someone as brilliant as he was.
Thankfully for the four of them, he had been working on Hakuno's new body in his spare time. Altera didn't need him that much, and as fun as it was to tease Arthur Pendragon, he needed to keep Hakuno's travel companions from exploring too much. The Master was getting too curious. If any of them were going to trigger the alarm system, it would be Daybit touching shit he didn't need to be touching.
Gilgamesh slipped the memory and logic chips inside. Had he messed with the data in the memory chip? Sure. He wasn't going through the whole ordeal of having Hakuno remember him. First and foremost, Hakuno needed to know who he was, what he had done for her, and that she cared for him the most.
Hakuno didn't need anyone else other than himself. He could do more for her than anyone else at the end of the day. In fact, he had done more for her than anyone else in her life.
Would any of these others go this far for her? No, he didn't think so.
"God," Gilgamesh began, glancing at Tezcatlipoca, making the other pause from his one-sided conversation with his Master. "I am finished. You need to come here and heal her and adjust what I wish adjusted before I start her systems back up."
The god gave a lazy smile, sauntering over to his side, bending down, and looking Hakuno over.
"Whatcha want, Goldie? Short hair? Long hair? Taller? Shorter? Younger? More kinks? More shyness? We have a lot of options."
"Shorter, around 150 centimeters. Same brunette hair color as before. Perhaps her hair can be a bit longer. Same honey-brown eye color as well. Chest reduced."
They didn't need to be making too many changes. His plain Master had been mostly fine before… Gilgamesh heard the god click his tongue at his words, leaving him to glance over at Tezcatlipoca.
"Nah, my guy. You aren't seeing the vision. The brown hair is okay and all, but we can do better."
Gilgamesh frowned, watching his soon-to-be Master's body take on a more familiar form. That was his girl, but the hair color was all wrong. Pink was not her color.
"Not pink," Gilgamesh warned, waving his hand. She didn't need the cotton-candy hair color, although it would be amusing to tease her about looking like the sweets that she enjoyed so much.
If anything, his only complaints about Hakuno's body had been her oversized chest and her rather plain hair color. He did have a fondness for blondes, much like Hakuno, it seemed. Her waking up to his hair color would be amusing, actually. It would be far too funny to see her all flustered about it, attempting to hide the new hair color.
"Make her blonde."
"We could make her younger, too," Tezcatlipoca pointed out with a shrug, even as Daybit rolled his eyes.
"Tezcatlipoca," Daybit warned, standing up and coming over to their side.
"What? We don't want these robots findin' her and draggin' her back to this social experiment, right? So we make her young, haul ass to another planet, or back to earth, and raise her. These computer people are lookin' for a Japanese woman just of age. They won't be lookin' for Hummingbird if she's a kid."
The god turned his attention to Gilgamesh, his sunglasses dipping enough so that he could see those inhuman eyes staring back at him.
"Think of it, my man. You could raise her to only look for us. Ya want your girlypop to only be with you, no? Bit and I happen to enjoy our time with Hummingbird and you as well. Ya both are fun and different. Besides, it ain't like any of us in this room are goin' anywhere anytime soon. We have all the time in the world if ya wanna age her down, Goldie. Might actually be smart to do so."
"Tezcatlipoca, not everyone enjoys the reliance you enjoy when you age people down," Daybit pointed out, earning a grin from the god.
"Nah, look at em'. Man is considering it."
He was, Gilgamesh thought, looking down at his Master's new body. The idiot god had a point. If they kept exploring space with Hakuno as she was with the same mana signatures and all, what was stopping the Moon Cell from dragging her right back here?
He didn't wish to go through this whole ordeal again. Sneaking in this time had been a pain in the ass. Once they left again, SE.RA.PH. would heighten its security again. It would take even longer than it had this time to get back to the Near Side. And who was to say that Hakuno would even be in the same place in the Moon Cell as she was right now?
"She'd still know who you, I, and my man right there are. Just everything else would be a bit fuzzy for her and all that. Ain't nothing ya can't fix with a bit of manipulation and grooming. You could make Hummingbird into your ideal version of her as she grows up. It really ain't all that deep."
And what did the god get out of it? He had been around Tezcatlipoca long enough to know that the man did nothing unless he got something in return.
If they went back to earth, he'd take Hakuno and run. He could raise Hakuno himself. He didn't need these two troublemakers around her full-time anyway.
Gilgamesh nodded after another moment of thinking, motioning for the god to go ahead.
"Age her down to age eight. That is neither too young nor too old to start over again," Gilgamesh replied.
"Good choice, Goldie. We'll get this done real quick and mosey on out of here."
Gilgamesh refused to move from where he stood, watching the god work. He felt the divine energy, watching Hakuno's body shrink down soon enough, leaving him to bend down and scoop her up before the god or his Master had a chance to.
She felt as she had before. Hakuno really felt as good in his arms as before. She was his to protect. He had found her first. Whatever claim these others thought they had was nothing compared to his claim on Hakuno.
Slowly, almost painfully so, Gilgamesh watched those honey-brown eyes open, looking around blearily before they landed on him.
"Gilgamesh? Where are we? Why is it so cold here?"
Gilgamesh held Hakuno to his chest, holding her as close to him as he could. His lips pressed to her blond locks.
"Don't worry, Arammu. Rest some more. I will ensure we get home."
No one would stop him. Not even the blond-haired Saber opening the door to their hideaway space, his hand on the hilt of Excalibur as those green eyes widened upon the sight of them.
Arthur Pendragon could move aside, or they could once more fight. He didn't care.
He wasn't losing his Master again.