Darius closed his eyes, feeling guilt wash over him anew. He wondered if he did something wrong to deserve this. If he somehow missed something his father might have been trying to tell him. Some explanation… Maybe if he had been smarter, he could have understood the situation better.

Soon after, another cold pulse pushed into his brain. He reached back to feel the chip ports in his skull. The flesh around them was swollen, bruised, and throbbing with heat. He felt the chips locked into place below the skin. Then he drew his hand away, realizing how dirty it was. His new metal hands, with his new metal arms. They felt like they’re continually submerged in ice water.

This is wrong. He thought to himself. One of the caretakers had a metal hand, and it felt warm, even on the colder days.

He wiped grime from his fingers onto the sheet, his only covering. Then he felt around his eyes. His face was swollen. He poked at the flesh that bordered the cold metal shoulder of one of his arms. He let out a gasp from his thick dry throat. The additional flash of pain almost made him lose consciousness. Nausea grasped his stomach. He had been on the edge of losing it all this time, but he forced himself to stay alert, awake. He pressed his eyes shut tightly with the effort and felt something like a click inside them, and then a mild vibration.

His vision suddenly flickered behind his eyelids. He opened them to see a zoomed view of the chromed hand in front of his face. Then some blurred lettering appeared on the left of his vision. He couldn’t quite make it out. A short beep sounded from within his head and his vision flickered again. The words were clearer, but he still couldn’t make out the text.

Another beep resounded from inside his brain and his spine began to tingle. Then an electric cool permeated his arms followed by warmth. Finally, warmth.

He placed his hands together, noticing a purity of touch that he had never imagined could be possible. It registered faster… cleaner than his natural hands could sense. It felt perfect. Powerful, but it was also frighteningly new. His confusion and fear surrounding the violation that this surgery had represented still remained, but a sense of wonder was growing as well.

He peered at his hands through his engorged eyelids. Another short flash crossed his vision. The text! He could finally read it. Wavering on the edge of sight, he saw “bration… 4%” Then it shifted with a flicker. “ibration… 17%” Flickered again.

“‘New World’ Prototype v0.112.9 - m.2029 - Property of SaeSyn Inc.

Initial System Boot Sequence: 8% - Vision Calibration… 4%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 9% - Vision Calibration… 17%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 10% - Vision Calibration… 82%”

His vision achieved an immediate clarity that he had never experienced before. He saw colors that were altogether new, and noticed details that his natural eyes never would have seen. The dim red darkness of the bunker was suddenly like daylight to him. Then his vision flickered from infrared, to ultraviolet, to a grayscale, and then through a number of light and contrast settings before returning to the richly saturated view that had first made his vision clear.

“Initial System Boot Sequence: 11% - Vision Calibration… 100%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 11% - Chipset Verification… 100%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 11% - Chipset Installing… 100%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 12% - Chipset Testing… 0%”

Elements began to appear in his vision. A targeting reticule focused, then disappeared. His heart rate popped into view. His heart began to race of its own accord. His breath became ragged. Then his heart and breathing slowed again on their own. The heart rate disappeared from view. A wall of text sped over the right side of his vision, detailing the names of infectious bacteria found in the various inflamed sections of his body.

“Initial System Boot Sequence: 12% - Chipset Testing… 100%

Initial System Boot Sequence: 15% - Medic Suite Scan… 100%”

“System Online...” The sound came alive in his ear canal. The text showing clearly on the left side of his vision.

“Initial System Boot Sequence: 20% - Integrated Nervous System… 0%”

“[ERROR] Left Arm”

“Run Diagnostic_Module(left-arm)”

An electric tingle crept down his fingers. Then an explosion of pain fired up the arm into his shoulder.

“Left Arm… Malfunctioning” He breathed hard, recovering from the shock.

“[BREACH DETECTED]

[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE] Boot Aborted...

Boot Sequence… Initiated”

[BREACH DETECTED]

[CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE] [CRITICAL SYS...

WARNING: Method ‘TMP_controller’ has been called but is not defined.

CRITICAL WARNING: System temperature has exceeded factory limits.”

Sudden scorching. Unabated burning. A white hot fire spread through his cybernetics, cooking the flesh that surrounded it. Agonized tears gathered again at the corners of his eyes, and then they began to sizzle, bubble, and evaporate away, leaving a crust of minerals against the glassy finish. Blisters formed and burst along the inflamed flesh bordering his new chromed spine. He tried to scream, but his raw throat wouldn’t cooperate. He vomited instead.

The bunker door opened, revealing a collection of black silhouettes as consciousness slipped from him and his world once again faded into darkness.