31. Am I that Broken?

With the two groups attempting to save Silver's life, Silver is feeling a sense of sinking, more like falling in the darkness.after what felt like hours of falling, Silver opens her eyes, finding herself on a bloody battlefield, standing on the wall of a trench, the stench of blood thick in the air, but not a single body to be causing it, looking around, Silver can see all sorts of strange warmachines, some she recognizes from things she has worked on or read about, but others are made with an ancient and obsolete technology. And some sort of star craft, her world hasn't even worked for the stars yet, not even having satellites, so the sight of such a large vessel here confuses her, and then her eyes fall on a coastline in the distance, with hundreds of warships in various degrees of destruction some even mostly sank if not for the shallow waters. "What....what is this place?" She asks aloud, despite thinking she is alone here, yet garnering a reply from an oddly familiar voice behind her. "This is your inner world, the lost stop to your soul..." The voice says, asking Silver turn around only to see a version of herself with an arm missing still, but wearing a strange but nice looking uniform in a light gray color, the emblem is a familiar choice, Afterwards, she is the one who had plans to make the teams emblem this. An armored fox with a mischievous smirk. "Why is my inner world a battlefield? An...an abandoned battle field?" Silver asks herself, her eyes wandering across the expanse at the devastation. "Abandoned? No...the only one fighting here, has always been me..." The well dressed uniform silver speaks, giving a sad smile to the grungy, mercenary looking version. "This...this is where all the battle send their dead, or at least...their killing machines..." the inner version of silver says before Stepping out of the trench she starts walking closer towards the far coast. "Come on sil, lets go for a walk...oh...and its good to finally meet you here." Turning back, the Alternative Sil gives a sad smile, as if she knows something the other is soon to learn. After only a moments hesitation, she steps out, falling in step beside the apt version. "Am...am I broken? Is it normal for an inner world to be a..." She stops, scared to know how broken she actually is. "A graveyard? Usually only liches have a sort of graveyard world...but you knew that already didn't you..." The alt says sadly, saying it as if stating a fact. The two grow silent as they walk, time passes, and portals form all over the sky from time to time, a new wreckage, some still burning as they crash down on the battlefield. The sun seems to be stuck in a perpetual setting or rising, the moon seen on the opposite side, partially hidden in the distance. All the while hours have passed in her inner world, only a few hours have passed, Silver ended up getting transported to their new saviors vehicle, being hooked up to more advanced medical devices than what they initially carried to them, and an imaging machine that scans her from head to toe, painting and terrible picture of her condition, shrapnel being discovered in silvers destroyed eye socket, and bits of shrapnel in both of her lungs, her heart having been cuts by a piece that punched through her back aide, and a leg that they are growing more and more sure will be amputated in order to save her life. "That bomb, if it was anyone else mid to low tier adventures would've perished long before risking bleeding to death...the fact she is still breathing is...she is strong..." The half elf damphire says, her face pale and filled with concern, her arms soaked in blood to the elbow And the two elves fared no better, even the bear folk seeming a bit ill from the image of Silvers medical state.

Back on Silver's inner world, miles away from the trench she had appeared in, they finally draw closer to the coast, smaller machines looking much like metal beasts instead of tanks or aircraft. "A world, somewhere out there had waged a massive war. One or both sides had deployed these metal beasts..." The alt says stepping up to one looking much like a wolf, half of its skull destroyed, slagged as if super heated to melting, and its side, riddled in hundreds of bullet holes, and dents from notable small arms fire. "This machine was the first from it all, it took the worst amount of damage overall...the others only have a few bullet holes or nearly complete except for what looks like their inner parts having been ripped out...maybe decommissioned, I don't know their stories...that's...for you to find..." The alt says, her eyes growing sadder as she gazes at her living self. "What do you mean find for myself? Its not of our world?" Silver says, stepping forward to touch it, as her hand falls she goes to say something. "Its not like they have a so---" only for silence to fall, the sensation of falling through darkness having taken hold a second time, this time, she awake landing on the ground, the sound of machine guns firing all around, and artillery, but the most notable thing is the wolf like machine pacing in a slow Deliberate circle around Silver, its eyes trained on her. She hasn't figured out what is going on, but she takes a defensive stance, lower herself as her claws lengthen, only an inch or so of claw, Not large, not as big as micah's, or her own parents, but where it lacks length she makes up for in durability. "Don't know what you are, or whats going on, but you are not whats killing me, not after everything, so bring it tin can!" Silver growls, the fur on her cat like ear standing on end, making her look feral. After only a few seconds, Silver takes the initiative, lunging forward,covering the short distance quickly, though the machine doesn't make her cover it alone as it too lunges into the fight, meeting Silver hard, the creak of metal and the whirring of mechanical servos heard as it claws into silver, drawing blood from Silvers left side, it being completely open due to her lack of an arm, making her groan in pain,though, one not to be outdone, she digs her claws into one of its shoulder joints clawing into the wiring,and hydraulic lines, damaging servos motors nearly Instantly crippling one of its arms before disengaging rolling under and past the metal beast, ignoring the pain in her side as it slowly heals, her exposed ribs already growing fresh flesh. The machine, despite Silver's thoughts asks or attempts to ask a simple question. "Hostile...identify...unknown...identify..." Hearing this, silver races a brow, usually a basic combat system has a basic friend or foe system, and a simple engagement rule set, not a questioning computer, that's artificial intelligence, at least basic ai anyway. "Silver...my name is Silver...and I don't know what you are, but I am not who you think I am fighting for..." Silver states, only for the machine to shake itself, glancing at its mangled shoulder before looking at silver. "Hostile...Silver...identified...engaging..." It says before doing another low lunge its metal jaws open, exposing sharp metal teeth, and a strange metal rending drill already spinning as it lunges for silver's leg. Seeing this, silver hops up just before it lands the strike, and slams a hard punch in its spine, the metal creaking and some giving way making a jagged hole near what would've been a normal wolfs spine landing just past the machine. Frowning as she feels it whipping around, she ducks low, opting to roll as its metal and spiked tail whips past where she was just standing, facing Silver now, it pounces forward, mouth open ,drill sparking, and claws swiping forward. Silver having only one arm to choose defending and fighting, She opts for throwing a hard punch to the side of its head, the blow making a loud clang and seemingly stunning the beast as it falls to the side, spark sputtering from its right optical orb, positioned in it skull. Silver ended up taking another claw to the chest, cracking one of her ribs, another swiped her cheek, coughing and spiting blood from her split cheek,she groans as she rolls back to her feet, her rib now giving her a fight. "Damn glad you aernt a wild beast on my world..." Silver states spitting more blood out, watching this warming wearily, both as strong as she is, and as fast, she has no choice but to exchange injuries since its a smart machine. " ...identity...Silver...super...soldier...confirmed..." Hearing this, Silver frowns. "You are too smart for your own good you know that?" Silver says, wearily, looking it over, she remembers the damage it took to wind up there. "Is your ai core in your head or lower body?" She asks, not expecting an answer as the two start pacing a circle around each, though the machine limbing as its one limb its disabling and hydrualic fluid is pouring out with every movement it makes, a sign that its fighting on limited time. Though the sound of loud clicking, and the occasional whirring can be heard. "Seriously? A self repair system? Feth you!" Silver says, lunging in, dodging its remaining working armto land on its back, silver locks her legs around its med section, quickly taking the opportunity to claw into its functioning shoulder, tearing bits of armor, wires and hoses out, riding the machine like a bull as it struggles to buck her off,wrapping an arm around it neck when it tries rolling it weight on top of her, despite grunting and panting from the strain on her lungs with its dense weight on her chest, she squeezes tight to it, refusing to lose her chance. Her claws slashing and ripping into the armored joints of the shoulders, eventually disabling both front legs, nearly tearing them off entirely, before clawing at the flexible metal plates at its neck and throat ripping its drill jaw out forcefully. After disabling its front legs and jaws, she starts clawing at the optical devices, destroying the one she damaged earlier, digging into the skull of the beast, pulling wires, and destroying what shocks her like power cables would, the electricity, though it shocks her is not much more than a tense machine with her durable physique. After a while of her clawing her way into its head, it eventually grows still. At this silver rolls away, huffing and panting tiredly, a self repairing ai operated machine...who thought that was a good idea? All that it would take for such a rudimentary ai to turn is some spy changing the friend or foe codes...it wouldn't even be that hard. Silver thinks to herself, looking at the machine beside her. Or is that what happened? You turned...they destroyed you, and then realizing the project was a failure...decommed your friends soon after? This world slowly grows hazy and black, a short while later when she blinks, she is back standing beside her Alternative. "Oh good, you didn't die, would've sucked to end it all here like that." The alt version says somewhat seriously with a sarcastic tone. "Die? So I could've died from that?! What the hell why didn't you warn me?!" Silver says glaring at her although version, panting a bit still. "I would've but you touched it before i could get to that part, but your a trooper, i figured you could go toe to toe with this one at least haha." The alt laughs,a fresh twinkle of amusement in her eyes. "So...what did you learn?" The alt asks curiously, afterwards, alt or not, she is still curious. "I think they are ai, and they had their friend or foe flipped, causing a slaughter, and many of these to be destroyed, the ones that weren't were decommed, like the few that had the guts ripped out, they ripped out the computer cores in their entirety...at least that's what i got from the fight, they are smart, inquisitive, and combat capable machines, though the alloys are tough for munitions i was able to claw through some of its thinner spots like the shoulders and neck, the optical sensors are major weak points that were overlooked, and i see ways of improving it overall." Silver says, her brows knitted together as she thinks over it, unaware of a ghastly fragmented image of the very beast she fought floating around her eagerly. "Is that so? And would you want to build it? Make a better version of it yourself? Maybe a more loyal one?" Her alt asks with a smirk, watching the construct fragment floating around Silver. "Maybe? Like it would be an excellent urban combat unit, its size if designed right could fit in tight spots like me..." Silver says after a few moments of thought, finally looking up to see the shard floating around her. "Whoa what is that!" Silver exclaims catching the fragment in her hand. "That my dear is the equivalent of the machines soul, an amalgamation of its creators emotions and purpose for building it, and the stories and legends of its original machine...in shorts its a constructs soul..." The alt says smirking, knowing how her counterpart will react to this fact. "Like my magnum has a construct soul? A living weapon huh at least in part...so...if I have its soul, does that mean it'll be easier to make a construct in the future by putting its soul into the new machine? I can give it new life!" Silver exclaims her eyes twinkling like stars. Silver plays with the fragment rolling around her palm, letting it swirl around her ad she looks around. "So...all these machines...tanks...aircraft...star ships...other combat units...they are ones possessing souls...so in reality thousands...millions could've been fighting for each one of them.landing here..." Silver says, now seeing the goldmine her broken inner world can be. "True...but be warned the way of fighting or gaining these contracts is extremely dangerous and varied, if you die fighting them there's a high chance of of soul shattering...and if it doesn't you'll be permanently affected at the soul level,pick your fights carefully." The alt says, pointedly looking at the massive star craft, and what looks to be some form of metal coffin style machine. "Gm, if I cant make them a new construct, I can take inspiration for new machines regardless..." Silver thinks outlook, eyeing some of the more intact airplanes with which she could take inspiration from or even copy nearly completely. "That is a possibility in this graveyard...you'll have to go back soon though, a lot of time has passed since you went in there. Hows...hows micah?" The alt asks, looking away from her counterpart. Silver looks over, a look of confusion on her face at the odd question. "He ah...he is good. He is by my side as always." She answers her question, not really knowing what she wants to know other than that. "By your side? That's good...he can be trusted you know, he sacrificed a lot for you, and will give up the world, or burn it down, whichever you need...for you..." The alt says before walking away, fading to nothing in only a few steps. 'What is she on about? I trust him with my life...isn't that enough?' Looking around, confused on what to do next or how to leave. In the real world a day had passed, and Micah had elected with the rest of both groups, to go to the damphires employers' hideout to get a better doctor and help for silver, though stable, and signs of healing can be sign, its sluggish and there is still a bunch of shrapnel in her body, some even being discovered beside her esophagus, making it risky to remove in a moving vehicle. "She still hasn't woke up!" Micah states, his face etched with worry, bags showing under his eyes as he sits close to Silver, not daring to touch her for fear of causing her pain. Everyone realizes the reason behind his actions but no one speaks up, simply waiting for results, time passes, and pints of synthetic blood are flooded into silver, buying time until they arrive, and all the while, the elves remain quiet and weary around Silver's group, despite being allowed to treat silver, between micah and the two mage girls, their aura are nearly as violent as Silver is when she is conscious. "We are almost there, we have several excellent doctors, Though I am not as experienced as them in these cases, I graduated top of my class in three fields." The damphire girl says, trying to reassure the group, only to gain the glares of everyone, making the small girl shrink into her seat with a cold sweat. 'Its not me who wants her, i just work for the guy okay? He pays my bills why hate me?' She thinks to herself, unaware of just how hunted Silver actually is to realize that she looks much like the rest of the bounty hunters. "Better pray that those doctors bring her back..." Micah states,growling, the sound like boulders rumbling down a mountain as he speaks through it, the sound harrowing to hear. "Or I will level the place...with all of you in it..."