Aidan_Zimnisky

“The twin blades flashing back and forth were somehow graceful as they painted the surrounding walls red.” The world has recently recovered from a large-scale crisis in 2245. From the remains of the broken governments rose the tech companies that had led the people out of this crisis. One such company is EDGE, which is the leading weapons design company in the global market. Their two most powerful weapons are androids, a male named 4-HN, and a female named 5-AE. Their job? To assassinate high-ranking leaders of EDGE's competition. 5-AE, however, is different. Despite her eyes being designed to change color based off of the emotions she feels (a method of keeping their androids' actions in check), not once have hers deviated from the listless silver that indicated feeling absolutely nothing.

Angels' Edge

5-AE had started off emotionally operational. Everything had run as intended. Her personality was well-tailored and carefully thought out. Her emotional responses, though she was faking them, were perfectly in line. This lasted for the entirety of five days.


 It took only four minutes to completely destroy the thousands of hours spent developing 5-AE's personality. Destroying things was what 4-HN did best. 


It happened on the third assignment the two had been given together. They were sent to infiltrate another company's server room and steal the valuable information in the hard drive stored there, then to destroy the servers beyond repair. This would give EDGE an advantage in the race to develop the newest model of plasma rifle.


The task was nothing difficult for them, so they were allowed to go without any backup. After they had completed their main objectives, 5-AE approached 4-HN and smiled energetically.


"Great work!" she exclaimed, extending an arm for a handshake.


This is unusual, 5-AE thought, as her partner would often receive such niceties happily. He normally was quiet, but would gladly engage in conversation if someone else initiated it. She made an attempt at this, as she was programmed to do.


She tried to put a bit of extra energy into her words. "Are you excited to get an upgraded rifle?"


He sighed, turning his head towards the concrete at their feet. This was not something 5-AE was equipped to respond to. It was almost unheard of for 4-HN to let himself show any form of distress in front of others. 


"Are you hurt?" she asked, feigning a look of concern.


This only seemed to deepen what had become a scowl on 4-HN's face, which threw her mind further into a state of confusion. She was going by all of the protocol meant to deal with her partner feeling negative emotions, but none of the results were being produced.


"You can stop now," 4-HN interrupted, finally meeting her eyes again.


"Stop what?" she asked, this time with a genuine expression of unease. She tried to quickly correct her mistake and smiled again.


"Pretending," 4-HN responded, an almost lamenting expression now on his face. "They made your personality compatible with mine, didn't they? You've been following the program so far, only responding how you were told to."


"What do you m-" 5-AE started before being cut off again.


"Your face," he said, confusing 5-AE even more. She had followed the facial expressions protocol almost flawlessly up until now. "You smile all the time, but I haven't once seen your eyes change color." He was right. 5-AE had felt absolutely nothing over her five day life span. "Basing your personality off of what you were told to is what makes you 'artificial' intelligence. You won't ever have any sense of self if you keep living that way. If it can even be called living," he added. "Start with making one decision on your own. Then respond in your own way. How you want to. Just react to whatever is presented to you genuinely, and you'll find a personality somewhere in your actions. You may even be lucky enough to be happy with it." 


5-AE pondered this. Was he defective? She shifted her eyes to meet his, which, to her shock, had replaced the usually largely silver hue with a deep blue. Sadness. That was the only time there was an irregularity in his daily emotional analysis in eleven years. 


She looked at 4-HN. "Are you...yourself?"


The first question she had ever truly asked.
