Cassandra continued to watch the two automations do their task. It was certainly some interesting stuff that only got more and more grotesque as they continued. She might have been a little squeamish about it all at the start, but her mind just adapted to the sight after the ten-minute mark. It did help that she had seen it all before. Cassandra doubted a civilian could look at it, at the very least.

The similarities between it and a normal corpse were uncanny. When ignoring the blue, there was doubt that what she was seeing was even that of an automation and not a mutated human. The organs were undoubtedly not what they were supposed to be, but it could have all been excused as some messed up evolutionary trait. If Cassandra had been told that it was all organic, that it all came from a human, she would have believed it.

The skin of the construct was a mystery, however. It didn't act like human skin would, not holding itself together for as long as it possibly could. She got an extreme example of such when the newer construct needed to open up a hole in the stomach of the damaged automation. Instead of taking out a scalpel, or anything sharp for that matter, it just slowly drew its finger across the places that needed to separate. And… the skin obliged, tearing itself exactly at the points that were required of it.

That was the point where Cassandra got to see the core of an automation. She still wasn't too sure what to call it all, for there had been a lot more than she could even fathom. The designs, the masses were hidden away, and the constant presence of strings just didn't help her at all. Almost none of it could be understood, every part of the body seeming so foreign to her. It was as if she was looking at an alien.

Which she pretty much was, with how distant everything in it was when compared to things she had seen before. There was no real difference, honestly, and Cassandra could attest to such a claim with how badly her understanding had grown over the two hours she had stood and watched.

Jules had most certainly not lied about the time it would take, the construct she knew so well having slowly removed just about everything from the head of the damaged automation. It had been a gruelling procedure to watch, partly due to the sheer amount of things strewn across the table at that point. Some parts were more damaged than others. Most were in pristine condition, yet there were some extreme cases where clear fluid slowly leaked out. Since Cassandra had been told to take a step back at that point, she wasn't really sure what that liquid was nor how dangerous it was to be near. She just knew that her health was on the line if she was too close to it.

The other automation that had been activated for assistance had taken a much different route than Jules did. Cassandra supposed this was due to the area they were rooting around in, and just how dangerous it really was to mess with anything in there.

The core of the automations were their chests after all, with it holding nearly everything of importance inside. To crudely cut out whatever one wanted was tantamount to outright murder. Anything inside the ribcage was vital enough to be hidden by several layers, making it clear that it was all able to take lethal damage at the slightest scratch.

This was why there was no sharp object in the automation’s hands, as it slowly pushed aside the various organs, slowly going through the body with no hesitance. That act went on for close to a full hour, where there was finally some manner of an update.

The breach had been found, and it was an arguably easy fix. A smaller wire meant to send data had been bent in the wrong way due to the pressure of having to seal up holes in the head, and had therefore clogged up to the point where sending data through was almost impossible. From what Cassandra had understood, it had been fixed by sending in a replacement to solve it, that particular part of the wire having been ruined beyond any restoration. There had clearly not been any happiness from that action. According to what Jules had told her later on, those with personality matrixes were apparently very thoughtful about only having the same parts to themselves. Cassandra hadn't particularly felt empathy with this way of life, the woman had cut off a lot of her original muscle tissue willingly. Perhaps it was just another thing that she would never truly understand. She wouldn't put I past herself, at least.

The replacement procedure itself was quite the thing to watch, Jules actually having to come in and assist the other automation during the task. Holding the ends of the wires, helping place the new parts where they were supposed to be before fusing it together using it extreme heat. It was a wonderful process that Cassandra fully understood for once, being able to go through each step herself if given the time and resources.

This was likely also the last point where she ever had any semblance of knowledge about what was going on. With the extra automation’s task completed, there had been the initial idea of it going back to its resting place and remaining inactive until officer Grunwald called for it. Yet, Jules had told of different ideas, of a scenario where the automation helped even more by repairing the damaged organs.

Cassandra was happy to have been a part of the audience during that exchange. The new construct had not been happy about staying, yet Jules had spent quite a while detailing the necessities of the automation staying around.

It had ended up with the automation staying in the end, so that was slightly unexpected. Cassandra had personally bet on the construct leaving. It was yet another thing to be surprised by, she supposed. Not that it had mattered much or anything.

The corpse had been almost completely ignored after that, the two constructs spending the next hour meticulously going through just about every square centimetre of every organ that had been removed. With how much surface area that equated, it was safe to say that it had been a time-consuming experience.

Yet it had likewise been extremely surreal. Cassandra had not yet figured out just what she had been expecting when she realised they had moved onto the actual repairing face. How did one fix a damaged organ? Was more mass added to add to that which had been lost? Maybe there would be sewed parts of it together again. Whatever she might have guessed it to be would have been wrong, at least.

Needles. That was the answer. The two automations pricked the organs with needles, again and again, shifting their grip slightly with each stab. The needles themselves were perhaps a bit wider than normal, yet that had been the only real outstanding feature of them. To Cassandra, as the only one not in the know, it had seemed like any old office supply that could have easily been taken from somebody's desk. It just didn't make sense.

The explanation that Jules had given her made even less sense in the end. Something about openings promoting growth. Yet… constructs didn't actually grow, so it was closer to an analogy of sorts about how the materials used were self-healing if hit hard enough with smaller wounds. Therefore, the process of repairing the organs was less about healing them directly but allowing it to heal a mass of smaller wounds which would culminate in some overheal that would go over the very damaged part which would in the end cause a total restoration of the entire organ. Again, it wasn't something that Cassandra could fully get her hands around. Maybe it was just the automation explaining it badly, however. It wasn't like there was any real way to be sure, since the information was not available online.

After those rounds of stabbing organs, it was time to put it all back into the head again. Now that was something that Cassandra could understand, having seen the reverse before. It was basically the opposite of what Jules had spent so long doing, tying all the organs together to the side with string. There were also other parts that were put back into place, such as connections for the blue blood to flow through the different organs. The fluid inside was apparently something that needed to be changed around regularly, therefore requiring the need for a pump. That meant that the automations had some kind of heart. Or, that’s how Cassandra saw that fact.

It took a whole hour more before the two automations were finally done. It turned out that stitching it all together, making sure that the different parts didn't break from sudden movements, and then finally restricting the upper parts of the cranium was something that was very time-intensive. And it would apparently have taken a lot more time, if not for a lot of the work already having been done by the damaged automation itself, the construct spending most of the time actively making the calculations needed for the cranium placement.

Then… It was done. The top of the automation was put back into place, the skin made to restructure itself to hide anything that had been there before, and… it all looked good as new. Cassandre couldn't even tell that the construct had been damaged to begin with.

The formerly damaged automation was still hurried over to one of the places on the wall, however. According to Jules, the materials used to set the organs in place were still made to only truly harden after ten hours of downtime, making it needed to not move at all during that time. Cassandra wasn't sure that time requirement would be held fully since Jared was to wake up within a few hours.

That was one thing that had not really been noticed. Cassandra, in all her wisdom, had stayed down in the basement for more hours than she had originally intended. Most of the night had already passed by that point, morning soon coming around. Not that her body was protesting her choice, her mind still refusing the idea of actually sleeping or anything close to it.

“I believe that was everything we needed to do tonight,” Jules said, stretching its arms up high. Not that there was actually any need to stretch out the automations body without such a flaw. But, Cassandra knew that was just another part that stuck to the constructs as an example of imitating humans. Even in the basement, they would do it, the action so ingrained in them. “While there were a few hiccups, I must thank you for your service today.”

That wasn't spoken to Cassandra but to the other automation in the room. It simply nodded at Jules, however, not showing any real emotion towards the fact that they had finished a long and arduous task.

“I am happy that I could be of assistance. If there is nothing else, I will return to an inactive state.”

And so it walked off, without any other words or anything that implied any enjoyment out of what had transpired. No real emotion. Cassandra felt the actions as offish, the woman had expected something more from the constructs. Maybe Jules was just the weird one of the bunch, much too expressive for its own good?

“I gotta give that one a name before I die,” Jules said, before slapping the upper part of its face. “Wait, no! I jinxed it! My death will be swift and without mercy!”

Yup. Definitely too expressive.

“If that was all, do you want to leave this floor? It has been getting cold as of late,” Cassandra asked, her words once again reminding her of how cool the air was. She would have continued to wear her jacket if she had known how cold it would be there.

“No thank you. You can just go up to your bed now,” Jules said. That did cause some confusion on the woman’s face, so the construct explained it in more detail. “It has been a long time since I got juiced up, so I kinda need to do that for the next few hours I have left this morning. I’ll see you when duty calls for both of us.”

… Right. Cassandra decided to take one step in front of the other. The night had been long, and her legs were tired from standing. Even if she couldn't sleep, her body still needed to lie down for a while.