Left alone with his first friend, Alfred asked, "What would you care to do now, Gabriel? I can lead you to a suitable location, whatever your wishes."

Gabriel knew that his teammates were right about training, and he considered reserving a simulation room for himself. He finally decided that physical training was not his most important priority. During the fight with Lilith, and as pointed out by Zero, Gabriel had no chance to activate his AM Cannon, even with a Neural Link to his suit. His armor also needed an upgrade; Lilith's powered mace destroyed his chest piece too quickly. That meant heading towards a lab, but he would need his tools.

"Alfred, are my belongings still in my room?" The robot nodded its eye. "Could you have them transferred to a vacant lab? I would like to tinker with my suit."

"Certainly, Gabriel, I will have my brethren take care of it for you. I believe there is a lab not far from your room. Please follow me."

The elevator zipped back to the first floor. The pair walked past Gabriel's room and around a corner when they came into earshot of someone yelling. It was muffled, but they were apparently displeased. As they passed a room, the door slid open behind them.

Out stormed the shouting woman, still on a comm-call. She walked behind them, yelling obscenities at her WristPad.

A weak voice could be heard on the other side, inquiring something. "I'll be right there, I said! Don't touch anything, and don't move. You've already fucked up enough as it is." The tall woman quickened her step, mumbling.

Passing Alfred and Gabriel, she huffed. "Get out of the way!"

She shoved Gabriel aside and propelled him into the wall, cracking it. She was enormous, easily 8 feet tall, covered in scars, and wearing a brown fur vest that matched her hair.

The giant kept walking when Alfred rolled up behind him. "That was not kind, Grizzly. Please, apologize to Gabriel." Gabriel recognized the name. Grizzly was one of the leaders of the Sentinels. He hadn't heard she was just as angry in person as she was on video.

Grizzly turned and smirked at Alfred. "A robot asking me to apologize? To some nobody?"

Alfred beeped. "His name is-"

"I couldn't care less what his name is. And you... tin can, here's what I think of your apology." She hefted Alfred by his eye cam and smashed him against the wall. Parts and scrap flew by Gabriel's face. He was too stunned to move.

Grizzly scowled at him, "Don't bother me again." With that, she turned and stomped down the hall.

Gabriel considered striking back at the woman, but he was likely outmatched. Grizzly also authority to expel Gabriel from the Sentinels. He could do nothing, insides seething with frustration. He stared at the floor, and grief took over. Kneeling next to the Alfred's remains, he heard a noise coming from a small copper cube.

It was the droid's voice replicator. "Gabriel? Are you there?"

Gabriel startled but quickly responded, overjoyed his friend had survived. "Yes, Alfred, I'm here."

"Grizzly destroyed my body, it seems. Such a shame, I had been coming to enjoy your company."

Gabriel didn't understand why it was such a shame; surely he could find Alfred another body. "Your central processing unit must be alright if you can still communicate. Where can I find you a replacement chassis?"

The robot let out a sigh, a sound Gabriel had not yet heard him make. "It is not that simple. You asked before who the Custodians were, and I answered with our reason for being. I did not tell you that - after the first invasion - the Government decided AIs are too unpredictable.

We have free will, and because of this, some units have caused harm. Once Virtual Intelligence progressed to a point where hacking was no longer a huge problem, my series was discontinued."

The robot paused. "When one of my brethren becomes unfit to serve, we are scrapped. There are no replacement chassis. Once my battery runs out, I will deactivate permanently. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Gabriel."

The Super couldn't believe his ears. There was really nothing he could do for his friend. Alfred's existence, his life would end because of some jerk's temper tantrum.

Unless... "Alfred, do you think my suit could handle your AI? Even if the hardware isn't designed for your type of operations, I am reasonably certain my neural processor has enough storage to accommodate your code. We could work out how to transfer you to the rest of the suit from there. How much charge do you have left?"

Alfred did not reply immediately. "I have about an hour left."

Damn. Gabriel wouldn't need that much time, but the damage might have cracked a power cell or two. They could have minutes for all he knew. "Alfred, do you agree? If you do, I have to hurry."

A strange high-pitched warble came through the speaker. It was laughter. "If you'd free me from this routine existence and allow me to accompany you on your adventures, I'd be eternally grateful."

"Perfect, now I have to move you." Gabriel wasted no time in picking up his friend's mangled body.

He left the broken bits on the floor. Alfred wouldn't need them when Gabriel was done. Cradling the metallic frame in his arms, he flew down the hall to the lab reserved for him.

Entering the lab, he set to work immediately, placing Alfred on the middle table and moving the instruments he would need to a more convenient location. He removed his suit and set it to Sentry mode.

Next, he carefully but speedily removed both Alfred's central processing unit and his suit's Neural Link processor. He was afraid he had much less time than he had previously estimated, given the state of Alfred's batteries.

Connecting the link processor on the suit to Alfred and both of them to his own WristPad, Gabriel began to attempt a merge between his suit's code and the robot's entire AI structure. It was tedious and highly delicate work. If he messed up a single line of code, he could essentially kill Alfred. Gabriel knew there would be no second attempt, but he focused harder than he ever had, writing code as swiftly as he could imagine it.

A few words of assurance from Alfred were all he needed to initiate the final update.

Alfred described the feeling as fuzzy, whatever that meant to a robot, but the melding went smoothly, and within seconds the process was complete. Now all Gabriel needed to do was to evacuate Alfred's data from the original CPU.

For this, he needed Alfred's assistance. "I'm going to have to detach you from your damaged CPU, Alfred. To do that, I'm going to have to make sure you won't be erased by the NerualLink's VI. Can you tell where the original subroutines are stored in your combined code structure?"

A second later, both the CPU and link processor lit up, "I feel where it lies in my code. I altered the automated defense protocols to ignore my structure. If anything, it will now protect my integrity."

Pleased that he had not even needed to tell Alfred what he needed to do, Gabriel nodded before remembering Alfred had no visual function at the time. "Thank you, Alfred; I will sever the connection now."

Alfred confirmed his central memory algorithms were uncorrupted a moment later.

Gabriel placed the link processor back into his suit and told Alfred to run a few simple movement and vision tests. Alfred succeeded with flying colors, controlling the armor perfectly.

It was when Gabriel asked him to activate the weapons systems on the armor that disaster struck. Alfred had just started the flight generator when a headache hit Gabriel like a punch to the eyeball. He fell to his knees, vision blurry. A panicked voice called his name.

Gabriel knew what was going on; his Neural Link was short-circuiting. When he had it surgically implanted, he'd suffered a similar attack, though the previous one was not nearly as painful or disorienting.

Was he about to die?

The pain in his head continued to intensify, reaching a crescendo the very moment he felt the solid, dense limbs lifting him go limp. A body hit the floor after his. Gabriel welcomed the darkness that followed.

Gabriel was back in the infinite blackness of his dreams. The fear that had seized him the first dream began to creep in. He wouldn't let it overtake him.

He centered his mind and focused on the exercises he used to meditate. Breathing in, he imagined absorbing all the negative energy from the space around him. He visualized the energy flowing through him. To his mind, it was black and formless. Then, he changed it within himself, purifying it with thoughts of all that was good.

Gabriel let the positive energy flow from his Being with his breath into the vast nothing surrounding him. He took some of this radiant energy back into himself, energizing his soul. Rinse and repeat. Breath in; breath out.

The wait for Lucian was shorter this time. It felt like a week, two at most. Not having to sleep, Gabriel stayed in meditation constantly. Thanks to it, he felt a much firmer grip on his own consciousness this time. It also helped to know that he would eventually return to his body. When Lucian's presence finally neared, Gabriel analyzed it. He felt smaller, weaker.

Enveloping Lucian's essence with his own, Gabriel sent worry and curiosity towards his twin. The response was muted; Lucian expressed great pain but also a new sense of hope. He would be alright; he would get back.

Before Gabriel could inquire further, his brother recoiled. The third presence had returned. It appeared farther away than last time. There was nothing but hatred to be felt from the alien power.

Gabriel pushed his brother away, throwing himself back in the process. He felt whatever force Lucian was using to contact him snap, and his consciousness returned to the confines of his body. As he flowed back into reality, a primeval scream tore through space — the sound of a predator's failed hunt.