A low boom rang out as the platform hit the ground. Drake cowered and covered his head with his hands. Glitch, however, was not phased at all. Drake took his hands off his head once the boom had stopped echoing, and looked around. The floor was covered in the same raw, pink flesh that covered the walls, speckled with large, bolted down metal floors. Up in the metallic canopy of catwalks were square cages of varying sizes. Sprinkled in were a few elevators, which looked a bit unsafe, considering they had no doors and their boxes were guided with what looked to be random scraps of metal welded together.

“Is this it?” Drake asked, stepping onto the raw, fleshy ground.

“They sensed our presence and ran.” Glitch walked off the platform behind him.

“They? Who are they? And, I suppose they would run, since you are around.” Drake walked up and ran his hand across the coarse metal that held one of the elevators together, and frowned. Shoddy craftsmanship, he thought, the floors look fine but they skimped out on the elevators.

“You didn’t sense the presence of countless others? Wait, do you hear that?” Glitch asked, putting his only hand to his ear.

A single pair of footsteps squelched on the fleshy floor off in the distance. A humanoid shape could barely be made out.

“Who’s that?” Drake said, putting a hand above his eyes and squinting hard to try and make out the figure.

After trying to discern who it was that was walking towards them, they looked at eachother. Drake shrugged, and started to walk towards whoever was there. Glitch stood there for a second, looked around, and then quickly walked in Drake’s direction.

“Who do you think it is?” Drake turned to Glitch, who had caught up with him.

“I’m not sure, I’ve only ever been on the platform, remember? That’s the only time you’ve ever seen me. I’ve never gone past that point,” Glitch said, his face contorting into a hideous frown due to what his teeth were like.

Once they got close enough, whoever it was came into view. It was a girl, with short blonde hair spiked downwards. She had a Fallen mouth as well, but her skin wasn’t stitched up like Glitch’s, it was normal looking. There was a thick wire that was coming out of the left side of her head, fastened by a long metal wire cap. The wire trailed backwards behind her head and trailed off in the direction of her neck. Drake’s stomach dropped as soon as he noticed that she had metal claws for fingers, he quickly looked down to his left hand, and grabbed his middle finger with his other hand, then pulled the glove off. Under the glove he also had metal claws for fingers, but unlike her, he had scars that looped around his knuckles. He looked back up to her.

“Who, or what, are you?” Drake asked.

Losing his fingers was a traumatic experience, it was because of a fluke his father made the second time he was revived. The wires threaded through his body to disperse the nanites that regenerated his flesh cut off too early in one spot, and the nanites could not reach his fingers. He remembered the talk he had with his father after his fingers started to turn blue, then purple. Something went wrong, he was still technically dead. Blood was pumping, his brain was functioning, but his body didn’t completely catch up to his revived state. The nanites were the only thing he could do to keep his body from decaying, but in his rush to keep his son from turning into a living zombie, he made a mistake during the mostly non-invasive surgery.

His father was too afraid to mess with the wires, and was afraid that the decomposition would spread to the rest of his body. The operation started only two hours after he told his father what was going on, enough for his friend with connections to get prosthetic fingers manufactured. The worst part was that the drugs that he was given weren’t working that well.

It was his liver. It was taking longer than expected for all of his organs to catch up to him being alive again. He could barely metabolize anything, the anesthesia only partially worked, and his father didn’t want to have him overdose later. So he had to be conscious during the procedure, with nothing to numb the pain completely. He remembered begging and screaming for him to stop, or at least give him a break, only to be snubbed every time. It was so bad that he ended up vomiting because he was crying so hard. He could metabolize painkillers normally the next day, but the nightmares plagued him for months into the future.

“I came here to greet you, since the others are too… Either shy or scared. Males are a rarity and are quite polarizing here. The only other male here is, well… A troubled boy. So most everybody thinks that all boys are volatile and unapproachable,” The woman said, fiddling with the wire coming out of her head.

Drake snapped out of his flashback, there was another male here? Besides him, Glitch and Skyler, he thought nobody else survived the disease that wiped most of them out.

“There’s another boy here? There’s only three I know of, and one is standing next to me. The other is my half-brother. This is impossible, I’ve only heard from Skyler that us three are the only males of our kind left!” Drake said, pointing at Glitch, who glared at him in response.

“I keep telling them it’s because he is incomplete that he’s like that. Being incomplete, well, maybe have your friend over there describe it.” The woman gestured towards Glitch

“I’ve never felt like this before, it’s not just a physical part of me that’s gone, it’s a part of my being, I feel. Like a part of my soul left with my arm. There’s an emptiness where it once was that constantly eats at me. I thought existence was suffering before, but this… This is a whole other level of suffering I wasn’t prepared for.” Glitch lowered his head and brought his hand to where his arm used to be.

Drake recalled how he felt when he was getting his fingers replaced, it wasn’t just a physical pain. It felt like something inside him was being forcefully ripped out, and only strangely returned when his new fingers were implanted. He looked back down at his hand.

“Do you think… That just replacing the missing part can bring that part of the soul back?” Drake asked, tracing the scars on his knuckles with his eyes.

“No, only with materials made by Mother can one be re-completed,” The woman said, shaking her head.

“So… Does that mean that my prosthetic fingers were made with materials from here?” Drake said, looking up at the woman.

“Yes, also.... I will give your similar-looking friend over there a replacement arm, one that will patch up the hole and make him complete again.” The woman turned her gesture into a point. Glitch looked up at her with his eyes wide open.

“You can do that?” Glitch asked, looking back to his stump.

“Of course, but materials are few and far between, I’ve been saving them.” The woman said, then gave the wire cap on her head a twist.

“Did you get a request for fingers a few years back, by any chance?” Drake said, then held up his hand.

“I’d have to check the logs, but if you don’t feel incomplete, it should have come from here,” The woman said, putting her thumb and pointer finger to her chin.

“What’s your name?” Glitch asked as he looked back at her.

“Oh, I completely forgot to introduce myself! My name is Wira, I was the one who gave your friend’s father the device you are using to connect to Mother’s mainframe. It would have been rude if I hadn’t greeted a guest, so here I am.” Wira laughed as she took her hand off of her face and flicked her wrist in their direction.

“So, how long do you think it’ll take for the others to start showing themselves?” Drake said as he slid his glove back on.

“It’d take a lot of convincing, maybe if… Maybe if the male who lives here comes around, they would be more receptive of your presence?” Wira said as she lowered her arm to her side.

“Enough talk of whoever that is, being incomplete like this is unbearable. I would like a replacement arm please, for the love of god,” Glitch said in a wobbly voice.

“Oh, right. Your suspiciously similar-looking friend can follow me. You can go explore, um… Drake, right? I believe that’s what your father said what your name was,” Wira said, gesturing behind her to a tall hallway behind her.

“Wait, how did you and my father meet anyways? How did he get the wireless connector from you?” Drake asked, holding up his hand to signal for her to stop.

“I can leave this place for a short amount of time every once and awhile, but mostly I’m glued to the servers.” Wira turned her head but didn’t turn around.

“Will Glitch stay if I leave?” Drake said, signaling to Glitch who was walking next to Wira.

“Yes, your mind and hers are connected now. I know your similar-looking friend is part of you, but I’m not sure how.” Wira put her hands to her hips.

“He’s the demon part of me that was “locked away since birth.” At least that’s what my father told me after I started remembering what happened when he took over my body, and he couldn’t hide it from me anymore,” Drake said, disdain in his voice.

“Hm, weird. I wonder how he did that. Your father must be a genius. A genius who likes to keep his secrets at that.” Wira laughed.

“As long as you can keep him busy, and out of my body, I’m fine with whatever you do,” Drake said as he turned around and walked away.

He didn’t really want to explore, knowing that his psychotic other half was there made him ill. He hated his other side still, even after his tearful attempt to rationalize what he did. He went back to the platform, hoping that taking it up would take him out of the mainframe. As soon as he put both his feet back onto it, he woke up. He frowned and angrily punched his pillow, how could he have forgotten about Glitch? Meeting Glitch again completely spoiled the experience for him. He was just barely tolerating him until he found a way to pawn him off on someone else. He wanted to try again later, but the prospect of running into Glitch again made him wary. He sighed, took off the device, and got under the covers. Thinking about his encounter with his other self until he eventually drifted off to sleep.