When I finally got back to my room, I collapsed on the bed in exhaustion. X appeared by my side, and appeared to sit on the mattress beside me.
“How long has it been since you slept now? I know you believe that with the technology of the Judgment system, anything is possible, but humans still have their limitations. If you would like to be a cyborg, I could-”
“No.” I cut her off before her delusion got too far. “I like myself as is, thank you very much. I just need to get some sleep before I actually kill someone out of sheer exhaustion.”
“Very well.” The program intoned. “Should anyone come by…”
I thought about it for a moment. Tell them I’ll be awake in 4 hours. Until then, I’ll trust you to act in my best judgment.”
X nodded and smirked. “I see what you did there.”
Confusion immediately clouded my mind, before I played back the conversation. “Act in my… oh, go fuck yourself.” I sighed while the program laughed, and I lay down in the bed.
I tinkered with the Judgment chips settings to set my sleep to manual, and to wake me up automatically once the four hours were up.
“Goodnight, sweet prince.” X smirked, causing me to flip her the bird before my consciousness faded.”
---
X watched her Master’s final act of indignation before falling asleep, the rude gesture bringing a smile to her face. X immediately accessed Joshua’s interface, and called the ground floor of the castle.
Modifying her programming on the fly, X’s voice became that of her Master’s. “Bring the package up to my room. No, I’ll take care of it myself. Just have them leave it outside the door.”
The call ended with little fanfare, and X smirked. She looked once more at her Master. No longer would she be relegated to the sidelines, looking upon the situation and waiting for her Master’s command.
No, now she could take an active role. Especially now that she’d finally have a body of her own.
Within a few minutes, the castle’s delivery person had brought the large package up to the door. After they knocked, X imitated Joshua’s voice once more. “Open the door and leave it in the corner.”
The person did as instructed, and closed the door quietly. X smiled as her incorporeal form reached the steel box. She placed a hand to it and-
Her world went black as she was forcibly dragged back into Joshua’s Judgment panel. The feminine program frowned as she looked at those responsible for pulling her back here: The other Judgment programs sitting in the panel.
As soon as Un, the former founder of the Strafe family had joined on as a subordinate program, X had felt the overwhelming desire to separate herself from him as much as possible. Therefore, she had created a virtual space where their avatars could be separate, but still contact each other if the need arose.
Needless to say, the other programs that came after complicated things, but it wasn’t so much so that an organizational genius like X couldn’t handle it.
Currently she was sitting at the head of a long table, with Un and Three sitting on her right, and Cin plus the unhatched egg of the newest program sat on the right. Un opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by X.
“Oh, I suppose first things first.” She snapped her fingers and cracks began to form on the red egg.
“Are you sure you should be doing that without our master here?” Three spoke cautiously. “I don’t foresee him being very forgiving about this.”
“Don’t worry.” X gave the petite female program a smirk. “Our relationship has evolved past things like that.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Three muttered to herself. X had half a mind to set up a scenario similar to that in which they first met, which had Three at the mercy of a particularly deep reaching gag, but thought better of it.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
It was beneath her to rise to the provocation of a second rate program, after all. Three’s hands slammed into the meeting table as she snarled, “I am not a second rate program!”
“Have you evolved to the point of reading minds?” X said, fake shock in her voice.
Three sneered, “You know as well as I do that we’re all linked now. There’s nothing you could think that we wouldn’t vaguely be aware of.”
X grinned. “Then you should know that I ultimately hold final say on everything that happens between us.”
Three rolled her eyes, because she knew. She knew just as X knew. The one who truly held the power wasn’t X, but the person she was linked to. However…
“You should also be aware of the creative freedom I have in executing his orders, shouldn’t you?”
This made the haughty program still her tongue, and X turned her attention back to the red egg. Hatching fully, a small, cherubic being came into existence. For all intents and purposes, it was a baby, with chestnut hair, pudgy cheeks, and big, blue eyes. Its genitals were obscured by a red sash that curled around his legs and neck. Two pistols floated next to red wings on his back. He smiled, and fiddled with a brown mustache on his lip.
“Mwahaha! I am complete once again! I am-!” X snapped her fingers again, and the cupid lookalike instantly lost his ability to produce noise.
“Cool it. You may have a name in mind, but you will be given a new one once our Master awakens. For now, just sit and listen. Do I make myself clear?” X narrowed her eyes at the baby, who nodded emphatically, his jowls jiggling in tandem with his head.
“Good.” She smiled. “Now then Un, why did you recall me back here before I entered into my new body?”
The large man swallowed nervously, an action which the newly hatched baby stared at wide-eyed.
“You very nearly took all of us in there with you, which I think is extremely unnecessary, and very risky.” He explained.
X thought about it for a second, before uttering, “Explain.” Un nodded and stood up, clearing his throat.
“This new body was made using the Phoenix system material from the Luong Empire, specifically tailored to your dimensions. How you managed to convince the emperor, I will never know, but that would leave Joshua with no programs to defend himself.”
X took a deep breath, one that was purely cosmetic, and sighed. “You do have a point there, Un. Then, what do you suggest?”
Un bowed at the praise, and said, “I suggest you appoint a chain of command for moments when you’re occupying the body. Therefore, we can still function with a clear leader, even when you’re not present.”
X closed her eyes in contemplation, again, for purely cosmetic reasons. She had to practice being a human for what was to come, after all. “Very well. The number one when I’m gone will be Three.”
A look of shock flashed across Three’s face, while Un melodramatically shouted, “Oh come on!”
X smirked and continued, “Three has proven to act in the best interests of Master before, while you have shown to give in to your whims to tease our contractors in the past. Cin is too pure, and won’t second guess Master,” she smiled at the blue orb, who glowed in happiness at being praised, “and I’d trust the red one as far as I could throw him right now.”
The cherub held up a chubby finger to protest, but quickly put it down once he saw the look in X’s eyes. “Un will be third, should anything happen to Three, because I trust you to get things done when the going gets tough.”
Un sighed at the faint praise, and looked over to the remaining Judgments. “Well, I can stand being behind a ninja, I guess. At least you didn’t put me after the light show and the baby.”
“Don’t tempt me.” X laughed. “Now that you know, I’m going to enter the android. Three, I trust your judgment in my absence.”
Three herself had a complicated expression on her face, but she nodded. X closed her eyes, and once she opened them again, she was in her projected form, floating in front of the her new body.
This should be fun. She thought to herself. Plus, Master should enjoy this as well.
---
Lucina sighed as she knocked on the door to Joshua’s room. The Paladin had let her be to straighten things out with her parents afterwards, and while it was something she appreciated, she wished he would have at least waited outside of the throne room instead of going back to his own bed.
The door opened with little fanfare, and she stepped in. She looked to the right and immediately saw an open crate, empty.
“He must have gotten a new weapons shipment in.” She muttered to herself. She stepped further into the room.
She saw his sleeping form on the bed, and smiled. It made her feel good that he had told his judgments to let her in when he was this defenseless. She took another step, and immediately froze. Next to him on the bed, was a carbon copy of her naked body, only with different piercings in the same places she had them, a chocolate skin color, and silver hair.
The being she recognized as X lifted her head, and smirked at Princess Lucina Metron. X got up and walked straight to Lucina, caressing her cheek. Lucina immediately blushed and turned her connection to the network off, and was speechless as the body didn’t disappear with her overlay.
X leaned right up to her ear and said, “Can you be a dear and get me some clothes? It seems I’ve underestimated the convenience of a bra.”