Ashe

The facility walls were a stark white, reminding Yugi of the sterilised abyss of a hospital, and the similarities of the places weren’t lost on him. The mere thought was enough to make his hairs stand up unpleasantly, brushing against the underside of his sleeves.

He walked through the long corridors, lips curling at the unnatural feeling of everything. He had been to hospitals before, and even the excessive cleanliness trying to disguise the stench of death there couldn’t hold a candle to the unsettling creepiness this facility resonated.

“And this room is where we smooth out any remaining bugs in the system. A mess of computers and technology, not very interesting to outsiders I’m afraid.”

Yugi grunted.

“Shall we move on to the main attraction? I’m afraid most of the facility is… not open for viewing.”

“How so?” Yugi asked, but allowed himself to be corralled through another door nonetheless. The technician in charge of his ‘tour’ fumbled around with their clipboard, beads of sweat covering their face.

“I’m afraid only those who fund this project have access to the inner labs. It’s really all so boring anyway; I promise you, sir, you’re not missing out on seeing anything.”

“I suppose I’m only here for the weapon. Carry on.” Yugi waved the person forward, who seemed grateful.

“Right, of course. This way please, General.”

They entered another room, and Yugi felt his skin crawl at the white walls that greeted him yet again. He was getting very sick of this never-ending mass of white. The quicker they could get this over and done with the better off he would feel.

The next room wasn’t empty, and Yugi was immediately grateful for the variation. There was a man standing in the middle, away from the benches lining the sides. He clutched a parcel in his hand, a box of some sort.

He turned towards them immediately as they entered, and the moment his eyes locked with Yugi’s he gave a sharp salute.

“Sir.” He said in a smooth, deep voice. Yugi was taken aback, not expecting such a fine voice on an android. It cost a lot of money to equip a robot a realistic sounding voice, without the static of an automated tone.

He was reluctant to admit it, but he was already impressed.

“This is the weapon of war?”

“Indeed it is. This is project Atem, the weapon of war commissioned by the Commander himself.” The technician puffed out their chest, like it was some great, proud achievement. Yugi allowed him a whistle of appreciation, but saved his attention for the android.

Atem slowly fell to his knees, one pressed to the floor while the other propped up an arm. His spare hand held out the parcel, and the technician took it from him.

“This is the instruction guide for the android. Everything you need to know about its performance, and how to best utilise it is in here.” They handed the package to Yugi, who looked at it vaguely for a second before shoving it into his pants pocket.

His attention immediately gravitated back to the kneeling man in front of him. Was it a man? Did it even identify with anything so human? Yugi had the feeling it didn’t matter, or at least it was irrelevant to him, and therefore he didn’t care.

Atem was a weapon of war after all, and that was what Yugi planned to use him as. If people wanted human acting androids, they could cough up the money themselves for that. The Empire had paid for a weapon, and that’s exactly what Yugi intended to bring back with him. It mattered not what they looked like, only that they performed to his expectations.

“How well is he trained?”

“He will immediately respond to any of your commands, sir.” The technician replied.

“And he only obeys my orders?”

“He is programmed to register your voice, but yes, he only reacts to your commands.”

“Prove it; try to give him an order.” Yugi demanded, crossing his arms and leaning back. The technician coughed awkwardly, fretting with their clipboard.

“Yes, of course,” he nodded, scooting around to Yugi’s side to face Atem. “Subject Atem, I order you to stand.”

Atem remained motionless, not a single sign he had heard showing on his form. Yugi hummed, impressed.

“Stand up Atem.” Yugi said. The moment the syllables passed over his tongue, Atem rose, standing straight and staring ahead, his gaze unseeing.

“Impressive.” Yugi marvelled, circling around him. “And his military training?”

“He understands every kind of phrase and saying. He will also not react to any analogies or the sort, leaving you free to use sarcasm around him, should you wish.”

“Truly?” Yugi reeled back in surprise. “Well shoot me in the foot.” He gave Atem a side glance, but the other didn’t move. “Very impressive. This one will do well on the battlefield.”

“I take it the process is complete, then? You will be taking him now?” The technician seemed antsy, their fingers digging into the sheets on the clipboard.

“I will.” Yugi agreed, running a hand down one of Atem’s arms. He stopped when he reached the hand, bringing it forward in his, feeling the way Atem gave him no resistance. “One last thing.” Yugi dropped the arm, letting it fall back to Atem’s side. “Who do you serve, Atem?”

“General Yugi Mutou of the Domino Empire.”

“Good,” Yugi nodded, pleased. “That is all I wanted to see. I trust you will be able to send on all the paperwork regarding him? Details and what not?”

“Of course, yes,” the technician bobbed their head, flicking through the sheets. “Everything will be sent and waiting on your desk before you return to the capitol, sir. Just don’t forget about the updates on his progress, and if any bugs show in his system, we’ll need him back to sort them out.”

“What kind of bugs?” Yugi pursed his lips, not pleased at the sound of that. He turned his body to fully face the technician, who balked slightly under Yugi’s full attention.

“N-Nothing should happen, but if anything was to leak through, we would-”

“What kind of things would leak through?” Yugi side glanced Atem, wondering what the technician was going on about. Until a few moments ago, he had seemed completely confident Atem was an obedient weapon of war.

“It shouldn’t be anything of consequence. Just a string of the weapon’s old personality, or something resembling human emotion may resurface under extreme pressure. None of this will be relevant on the battlefield though I assure you. It will perform perfectly out there.”

“Wait wait, resembling human emotion? Are you implying this weapon used to be human?” Yugi didn’t bother trying to hide the distaste in his voice. He rounded on the technician, watching the sweat trail down their neck.

“N-No, of course not, sir. Such a thing is unheard of, and completely impossible in this day and age. I assure you this android is completely free of such things. It is just that it has gone through several changes, and several layers of personality have been added, so some of the older pieces of data still embedded in its system may spring out unpredictably. I assure you though, General, that your weapon of war is nothing more than a weapon, and never was. Forgive my slip of the tongue, some scientist humour that was misworded.”

“That’s not something to joke about. The Commander could have your tongue for that.” Yugi commented, crossing his arms.

“This branch runs under General Ironheart, actually. We receive all orders from him.” The technician squeaked.

“I’m well aware that Ironheart likes to poke around at weird shit in here. I don’t care what he does, anyway. Some of us are actually trying to win this war, you know.”

“Of course sir, and the Empire is grateful for all you’ve done for it.”

I’m sure they are, Yugi rolled his eyes. Probably ecstatic I slaughtered battalions for them so they didn’t have to lift a finger.

The technician put on a forced smile, gesturing to the doorway. “I’ll have that paperwork sent to you soon, sir, now if we could head out, this building is under heavy time restrictions...”

“Of course.” Yugi said dully, striding past the sweating man. He didn’t need to hear any more of their lies. Did they take Yugi for an idiot? He had years of dealing with these kinds of people under his belt, and he could see through all of their cover ups.

He waited until he was outside the compound before turning to his companion, knowing Atem had been following behind him silently.

“So you used to be a person under there, did you?” Yugi clicked his tongue. This complicated things, more than he wanted to admit. At the forefront of his mind was the disgust that they had used actual humans to make these weapons. And how was that even possible? Nothing that even came close had been attempted, their current technologies not yet trusted for such a task, not to mention the many ethical boundaries it crossed. It was wrong, so wrong.

Human looking androids, he could understand, but to build weapons out of humans… He shuddered to think about the process, the lengths they went to to scoop out everything that made Atem Atem, and replace him with the obedient shell standing beside him.

“Did it hurt?” He asked, finding himself morbidly drawn to the topic.

“Please specify your instructions, sir.”

“The process? Of being turned from a human into… this.” Yugi gestured to Atem as a whole. Atem blinked slowly, showing no shift in emotion.

“I do not understand your orders, sir.”

“What do you remember of the compound?” Yugi tried a different approach. This one got him a reaction, it seemed.

“I was charged with training to be able to perform to the best of my abilities for my owner, to be able to be the perfect weapon of war without human limitations.”

“Did they take those human limitations of yours away?”

“I did not have them to begin with, sir. I am not human.”

“But you were.”

At this Atem blinked slowly, his expression unchanging. “I do not understand, sir.”

Yugi sighed; he knew a looking battle when he saw one. “Never mind, then. I’ll discuss it with Ryou when we return to base.”

Atem’s expression remained stoic, sensing he wasn’t needed immediately.

“I bet you want revenge, deep down.” Yugi tilted his head, searching Atem’s gaze for anything. It was strange for him; he was so used to being able to read people’s emotions, and yet Atem had mastered not showing a single one. Or perhaps they had, as he suspected, stripped them all out of him. He paused for a moment and studied the android. Maybe he had never had them to begin with.

“Deep down inside, you’re angry at what they did to you, I can tell. I don’t think you volunteered for this,” Yugi hummed, tapping his chin. “And you know what? I think it’s only fair you get to act on this feeling. After all, I’m always telling my subordinates to let out their negative feelings in controlled purges.”

Atem didn’t respond, staring lifelessly ahead.

“I have an order for you, Atem.”

Atem straightened, fists clenched at his sides. “Yes, sir?”

Yugi walked up until he was directly in front of Atem. “Look at me,” once Atem’s eyes were on him, he continued, “I want you to destroy this base. Make sure no one survives. This place now officially no longer exists, and was never here to begin with. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly, sir.” Atem said smoothly, stepping back to allow himself room to bow to Yugi. Once his body returned upright, he pivoted on his heel, sprinting back into the compound.

Yugi took a stroll further away, moving towards where his vehicle had been parked. Something about policies too long for Yugi to care about had made him park outside of the facility, but in the long run it only served to make it easier for him. He had come here with every intention of shutting the place down, all too aware of the institute’s shadiness. This matter with Atem only further cemented their demise.

I hope he enjoys himself, let some of that ripe human emotion through, Yugi mused, listening as the alarms began to sound. He heard several large crashes, a smirk dancing on his lips as he imagined how Atem was moving through the base. Would he react to anything? Any areas the technicians poked at him too hard, or punished him for being too human? Yugi almost wished he had stormed the place with a squad of troops, if only to be able to read the files that were stacked inside, teasingly promising him details of Atem’s development process. But as the base was assaulted by the force of the very creature it had set out to create, Yugi decided he didn’t want to see the kind of sick things it took to make a machine out of a human.

He kicked at the ground, crushing dirt beneath his boots with a satisfying crunch, right as another explosion went off. Smoke began to billow out from a section of the base, and Yugi watched it extend into the sky slowly, turning the lazy shades of blue; dark and almost reminiscent of storm clouds. It was enough to bring a small smirk to his face, the darkness swirling overhead like a symbol of doom, signalling the end for the compound.

As a particularly loud explosion went off, one that rocked the very ground, Yugi made out Atem’s form walking towards him. Yugi surveyed the damage as Atem approached, whistling his praise at the carnage.

Once Atem reached him, he dropped to one knee, saying, “I have completed your orders, sir.”

“Well done.” Yugi said, a hand reaching out to pat through Atem’s hair before he even realised what he was doing. He started, shifting his hand back to cough into it awkwardly. “You may rise.”

Atem did as he was bid, standing by Yugi’s side. Yugi watched as the other moved, his gaze turning thoughtful. Without thinking, he reached out to touch Atem’s cheek, just to feel the skin there.

He didn’t know why he felt so enamoured by Atem, but there was something in the inhuman smoothness of Atem’s skin that excited him. Running his fingers over it felt wonderful, and he couldn’t resist trailing a hand through Atem’s locks to test the strands. Ah, just as soft. How could someone who felt so safe and smooth be a weapon of war? He couldn’t deny Atem’s handsome features too, and it left him wondering if Atem had suitors during his human life. Yugi knew without a doubt he would have been pining after Atem if they had met under different circumstances. Even with the blood caked onto him, the fresher patches reflecting the firelight dully, he still looked flawless.

“I’m sorry.” Yugi said, pulling his hand away. He shifted his attention to the base, watching the way the flames licked around the metal, already melting sections of it. It wouldn’t be long until they found their way into chemicals and triggered an explosion. They would need to move on, or risk being caught up in the damage.

“Let’s go, Atem.” Yugi said, turning back around.

“Yes, sir.” Atem followed at Yugi’s heels.

Yugi led him over to his vehicle, popping the lock button to unlock the doors. He made to move into the driver’s seat, but paused once he realised Atem made no move to get in.

“Aren’t you coming?” Yugi raised an eyebrow.

“I need your permission, sir, before entering any vehicles.” Atem dipped his head.

“That sounds stupid. Why?”

“To safeguard against any potential problems that may occur, should any attacks on my system occur.”

“Attacks?”

“I believe the technician referred to them as ‘bugs’ in my system.”

“Ah.” It clicked in Yugi’s mind. He snorted, rolling his eyes. So the creators did implement ways to keep Atem’s human side from surfacing. Interesting. That meant that deep down, somewhere, they weren’t able to fully destroy the human that had been Atem. There was no other explanation for the lengths they had taken to keep Atem compliant.

“That rule is stupid and you should ignore it. I hereby order you to forget about that rule. You don’t have to abide by it anymore, understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now get in the car.” Atem nodded, smoothly walking over to the front passenger seat and sliding inside. Yugi followed afterwards, sighing contently as the leather seat moulded to his form.

“Let’s get you to your new home, Atem.” Yugi patted his shoulder, shifting back to the wheel. He smiled when he saw Atem nod at him.

Things were about to get interesting back at base.