A Bio-Weapon's Rhapsody

Chapter 58: P4 wasn’t Human? That’s a new one

The explanation was simpler than what Alexa probably expected, even if the question she had made was useless, 'Why had P4 waken up Alexandra and Ale first?'Easy to answer, they hadn't. Not in the way that Alexa seemed to think, while Alexa saw the other two as different versions of her, they weren't really that, not entirely right. They had started as that, of course, versions of Alexa that saw the World differently since they processed the World using a more complete version of the brain.

Of course, if one was bombarded by the instability of a teenager's hormonal brain, they would act like that; of course, if one was bombarded by the feelings and needs of a fully grown adult brain, they may behave erratically.

But that would only last for so long; they would start to acclimate, and then Alexa may end up breaking, so what she did was to compartmentalize everything, make an individual conscious stream for each situation, and assign a part of the processing power. Leave it running at the back and only summon it fully when needed, it was simple enough to achieve.

And so they came to be as subpersonality cores; what P4 did wasn't something as simple as waking them up, no. They merely restarted their thought process and allowed them to rise once more.

That was easy enough to achieve, and it didn't require much tampering from them, it didn't even require summoning Granpa back to the front, even if that was also an option. But no, they had been around at the front too much.

They needed to return to the other side, to the back, this Alexa wasn't ready to being exposed this much quite yet. And Alexanders wasn't anywhere powerful enough to withstand what had for him either. So P4 needed to return to the other side, sooner rather than later.

P4 decided to frame it up like that.

Alexa of course was flabergasted, the girl wasn't used to being scolded like this.

Most Humans saw her and wanted to protect and or pamper her; she was that type of existence, one that people couldn't help but love, pamper, and want to keep, be it one way or another.

Alexandra said, walking to Alexa's side and picking her up and giving her a hug.

Ale added her part, even like that, after the fact that Alexa reffered to her as 'The mean' one, she still stood up at Alexa's side.

P4 said evenly.

Alexandra said, soothing Alexa, who seemed like she wanted to cry but was doing her best not to,

Alexandra was too smart for her own good.

Of course Alexa, Alexandra and Ale didn't remember those changes.

Grandpa had made sure of that; they didn't remember the fact of how much this was already diverging from how it should be; the price they paid was the fact that Alexa's Consciousness Stream had changed more; Core had made sure to protect itself like it should to tampering from external forces.

Even if said external force was itself.

Perhaps P4 shouldn't have used that Thought rollback? No, it was needed, it needed to seed some data and distracting and confusing the enemy was the way to go, brother had done that plenty of times when dealing with hostile takeovers. Not that P4 wanted to take over Alexa, their mission wasn't something as mundane as that.

No, its mission was to make sure Alexa was here, and it had already succeeded, it should fade away.

Ale suddenly asked.

P4 almost faltered while running, the stupidiest question should have come from Alexa, not from Ale, but then again, Ale was also a brat on her own way. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel⟡fire.net

"Everything all right?" [Gabriel] asked. Slowing down on its flying to hover near P4.

They had ran halfway through to their designated escape route, not many zombies were around this side, P4 could see four nail-like projectiles forming behind [Gabriel]. "We are almost there, I just need to shoot these bolters on the wall, and they should open the way; Vulcanus sent me this route."

P4 wasn't sure if the attack would work, especially so if someone like [Vulcanus] was the one sponsoring the strategy, the man did look like a machine, so P4 had some degree of respect to him, but the fact that he couldn't even manage his workers meant that P4 lost that faith on him. The fact that two of his employees had done such shabby work was, honestly, taking too many points from him.

"I'm fine, the change made upon my psyche is healing so soon enough you will get a normal-sounding and looking Rhapsody." P4 said redoubling her calculations, they needed to think of a plausible excuse to decompose a wall and not make it sound like it was the work of Nanites.

Perhaps she should just let a flesh uncontrolled growth in that direction? It may end up getting some fear and weird looks towards Alexa, but surely it would be better than the looks a Nanite user would end with?

It's not like they could discard this appearance; it would be meaningless if they didn't become Alexa. Alexa may be passing as a shapeshifter, but there was meaning to a , especially so if said name was that of a .

"...Right…Well, hang on in there. I called in advance, so we will get a Healer to look at you soon enough," [Gabriel] said raising his gun towards the wall, P4 took this chance and accelerated its own thought process speed.

They needed to talk this through sooner rather than later.

Alexa was the first to complain as the World slowed to a crawl.

Alexandra said scolding Alexa.

It was quite a ridiculous scene that would make most laugh at the irrational look of it, the fact that an older version of her was scolding her after trying to soothe her for something. It made P4 want to cry, the memories of what they had lost….

No. They weren't that person anymore, and it wasn't their either.

Alexa said, puffing out her cheeks and crossing her arms above her chest.

P4 said shaking its head,

Not that Alexa would underst–

Alexa said, raising her hand and summoning a projection of what seemed to be an aurora,

Alexa fiddled with the projection, twisting it and stretching it, at some points she zoomed in, in other instances she zoomed out as if wanting to see it from afar.

Alexa seemed intent on finding P4 within that Consciousness Strand.

Ale and Alexandra seemed to look with interest to it, but that was about it. Unlike P4 that was flabbergasted by this, it of course knew what it was, but they never had seen one. Not like it should be visible to them, only people from this had them after all.

P4 said when they came out of the reverie of seeing that thing,

Alexa said hmping,

Alexa was still wanting to return to that form? It was some weird fixation, P4 understood the mango affliction, since that had been encoded manually within her, but the weird CRAB fixation was a surprise, but then again, plans never survived the first minute when encountering live combat was it?

P4 decided to ask before moving on to the next topic.

Alexa said raising her hand and letting a blue light shine on her finger and touching the Aurora, the projection stopped for a second before flowing backwards.

It was quite mesmerizing…till that happened.

The first to say anything was Alexandra.

The second one was Ale who stared wide-eyed.

Was the question that Alexa said as the projection showed a gash crossing the Aurora, it was a crack that slowly expanded across the Aurora and showed red color that didn't seem to mesh quite right with the other colors.

P4 of course was the only one that wasn't surprised by it.

P4 said as they stood beside the projection, looking at it as the gash spread further and further. The aurora projection seemed to tremble, and it looked as if it was about to break; they took Alexa's hand and removed it from the projection when the destruction arrived at its peak.

Pausing the reproduction.

P4 said pointing to the center of the destruction, a single red light shining from within the interior of the Consciousness Stream, as if peeking across a keyhole into this side of the room.

Ale asked as she tried to hide her nervousness behind a joke.

Not that it worked.

P4 answered.

Ale asked, trying to redirect the conversation away from the ominous red that shone within the Consciousness Stream projection.

P4 said answering a question no one had asked.

Alexa's question made the whole place turn into silence.

If P4 had been moving, they would have probably missed a step and fallen into the ground.

P4 asked, unsure if they had heard it right.

Alexa said, highlighting the parts of the Consciousness Stream she had assigned to Alexandra and Ale.

Also, the part that Main Core took while processing the data.

P4 said as they had never expected that kind of answer, they expected dread like how Ale reacted.

They expected machinations and plans to deal with her existence, just like how Alexandra had started to think and plan ways to make Alexa either seal P4's existence or discard it.

But Alexa had thought that the problem was one of how much one weighed? Of body mass?

It was…

So ridiculous that P4 couldn't help but laugh, even though they had discarded the motions of emotions so long ago, the mere idea of enjoying the absurdity of something was so far removed that it took them out by surprise, before they could even stop the processing of that train of thought.

Ale said moving near Alexandra.

Alexandra answered.

Alexa said, nodding empathically to P4.

Not that it would help P4, it wasn't a problem of weight, but of affinity, or well, of the fact that P4 worked using another framework different from that of Alexa, she didn't had something like a Consciousness Stream, if anything she would have something closer to what had.

No, Consciousness Streams were what used, perhaps P4 could form one of what used? They were close enough to , but that would stretch it too much. And P4 didn't want to call unwanted attention, it was bad enough as it was with knocking at that door.

P4 said after controlling itself from the laughing attack.

Alexa said turning to P4.

P4 said touching the projection, red cracks started to spread across the Consciousness Stream projection, soon it all collapsed on itself, turning into a gem-like object.

One was attacked by the remnants of the Consciousness Stream, which destroyed it and left behind only rubble.

,P4 said, it was a little more dramatic than P4 had wanted, and if it was to be honest, it doubted it would even be able to do that much damage.

Alexandra said, trying to smile reassuringly to Alexa.

Not that it had much success, not here, perhaps on the outside World it would be able to fool someone, but here…

Well, they may not be a reflection of the soul, but the Consciousness Stream was as close as you could get to their true self.

Alexa said grumpily, it seemed like she wanted to complain about something.

P4 said as they felt themselves be pulled down and away from the mindscape.

Core:Rogue entity neutralized.

P4 saw that and couldn't help but smirk; of course, Core would think like that, it wasn't wrong, but it was funny nonetheless. Either way, P4 waved away at Ale, Alexa and Alexandra.

She couldn't help but look forward to how this new would end up shaping as it had changed so much from how it had been before; it made one wonder how much it would diverge?

At the very least, P4 hoped that the problem of was dealt with sooner rather than later.