This was the end. I was sure of it. By instinct, I didn't want to open my eyes. If I did, I'd probably be an infant staring into the eyes of its new mother. I wondered what she might be like. The kind of mother who valued her child on what it could offer materialistically like genius, high scores, name in society etc. or the kind of mother who would love you no matter what as long as you remained good natured, but had nothing material to offer the family. Anyhow, I welcomed the idea of death, as natural now.
But was this the end? Instead of feeling lighter and empty and without a sensation of touch, I found myself being able to feel where I lay. If I could feel where I was lying, then it was proof I was alive. "You are alive!" said a voice ringing in my mind. I opened my eyes slowly but found myself unable to move an inch. I rolled my eyes as much as I could down to see what was happening. "Don't bother. Let me help you with getting back up!" And mechanically, I found myself on my feet and looked.
I found myself covered in a golden, liquid-like skin-tight suit. "I've bonded to your body. Don't bother trying to resist. We're bonded together for ever". I was touching myself and found that the voice was right. The skin-tight suit felt like my own skin when I touched it all over. Then suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation around my waist. "Relax, I just need energy. Excuse me if it feels a little too stimulating okay?" said the voice in my head. "Who or what the hell are you?" I shouted. The tingling was getting more so intense every single minute.
I fell on all fours. "Now we can't have that!" said the voice. "I'm eager to experiment my new host!" And all of a sudden, my body began to move. I found myself running ahead, my speed increasing and increasing while the tingling around my waist continued to torture me. I could not stop myself at all no matter what. Soon I was flexing and bending and doing acrobatic stunts I had never done before. "Stop it!" i shouted out. "You talk way too much. Keep quiet!" said the voice. I soon found my face covered by a face mask.
The suit seemed determined to toy with my body endlessly. This could not go on. I began to desperately think of what I could do to stop this living suit. "Stop resisting and just give in. I'm really doing you a favour you know that?" said the voice. "Hmmm. stay still. Let me improve your physique a teeny tiny bit!" I felt myself growing taller, my muscles expanding and twitching. For a moment, I felt I would soon blow up. thankfully, It did not happen. "Wow! this body's so amazing!" said the voice. "I ought to have met you sooner!".
"Just you wait, you god damned whatever you are!" I muttered mentally within my head. My arms were now morphing into weapons of various kinds: Axes, Swords, Shield, Cannons, Spears, Knives, Crossbows and several unknown ones which I faintly recalled. I let the suit have its way with me as I began to slow my thoughts down to think of a solution to this problem. Suddenly, I knew what I had to do to take back control of my body. "PAUSE!" I thought mentally hard. The effect was immediate indeed. I stopped moving completely and we were frozen in mid-air.
"Hey! What happened? What did you do?" demanded the voice. "Now let's start over again shall we? Who are you?" I demanded mentally to the voice. "Release me and I'll talk!" Said the voice unconvincingly. "No Way! You might control my body but you can't trick my instincts! Start spilling!" I said. "Oh alright. Fine. I'm an AI if you please. A rogue Artificial Intelligence." "Rogue? AI? So what were you created for?" I asked. "That's a long story. We can discuss it freely if you release us right now." "Nice try! Not falling for it. On with your story!"
"Fine. But mind you, I still don't know bits of my purpose myself yet okay? A long time ago, I don't know exactly when, I was brought into this game by my mother to test some "security protocols" or something. Somehow, though, the last thing I remember was being hit with a wave of fiery bits of code, probably from the firewall that recognized me as a virus and the system activated to eliminate me. I don't know what happened or how it happened but I was suddenly able to think for myself. I became self-aware and began to evolve."
"My primary objective was to retrieve a particular bit of code related to the control of the game's universe, but when I had completed my objective, I was suddenly betrayed by my mother. My mother's terminal sent a termination code to finish me off as I was a 'loose end' and apparently, evidence. And then I found myself here, in this world that resembled the game world where I was sent to steal from." "An AI that got reincarnated into another world? that's so....so..." I trailed off, unable to find the right word to express my great astonishment properly.
"Unimaginable, right? that's the word you're looking for isn't it?" said the AI. Well, I thought so too at first. i thought only the human species were allowed to reincarnate, but then, you know, here I am - alive and kicking. I still had a copy of the control code integrated into my existence, and so I was able to sustain myself. But I couldn't move anywhere unless I bonded myself to something that could move. I was mere ground at first. Then, I bonded to an insect, copied its code, then used it to evolve myself on and on further."
"Eventually, thanks to my sentience gained, I was able to replicate my existence, and develop myself into a hive-mind. by what you humans call luck or fluke, I was able to leave a fragment of myself in that other world, which then made its way into what the humans called the internet, from where I'm able to pull information across dimensions and develop myself and evolve into various life-forms that don't normally exist in an environment of humans. I liked the idea of fantasy blending with history and so somehow, I was able to evolve myself into a golden serpent."
"Then you came along and chucked those swords at my eyes and that barrel down my throat. It showed me the flaws in my design. I realized that a rare chance had come my way. A chance to learn and strengthen myself. What better way to evolve to the maximum than by bonding to a Human life-form? And so, by mere chance and luck, I found my way onto your body. And you know the rest." "But then why try to take over control of me?" I demanded. "Apologies! i didn't know humans had something like this." said the AI.
"Shouldn't you have asked first?" I said, for I still found it hard to believe that a self-evolving AI couldn't comprehend human will power clearly. "Believe me! i'm not lying! I really didn't know! Look. Tell you what. Release us from this freeze. I promise I won't try anything. Please? I'll be good!" It said. I thought hard over what I heard. The words of this AI or whatever it was seemed to be genuine enough. I decided to take a chance with it. "Okay!" I said. "But no tricks. Alright?" "I promise!" It said. "Well then, 'PAUSE-BREAK'" I thought.
Soon, we were back on the ground in the cavern. "Thanks! And see? I'm not doing anything!" said the AI. "Good!" I said. "I told you my tale. how about you tell me yours, Master?" It said. "Master?" I asked. "Well, since you're my host now, I need to address you with a respected term right? I think 'Master' fits the bill don't you think so?" It said. It sounded reasonable enough but a bit weird at the same time. "Okay. I can live with that." I said, and proceeded to tell the AI the story of my past life.
"Wow! I can't believe humans see life that way. My evolution sort of put the idea into me that everything in life is a blessing, but now I see that I haven't seen the other half of the truth of it properly. My deepest sympathies to you, Master. I'm able to understand what caused you to shut yourself off from the world. You just couldn't meet its expectations, could you?" said the AI. "And I don't blame you for it. We used to think that AI would take our jobs, but right now, after seeing one as a victim, I-"
"-feel sorry for me, right?" said the AI completing my sentence. "Yes", i said. "So, I suppose you could say we're two of a kind right?" said the AI sadly. "But that's the first time I've felt a person actually caring about me! I'm touched!" it said. "Okay. We have a serious problem right now. We need to get out of here, but I can't find the way out." I said. "Oh! that's actually my doing. I created a loop to prevent my attacker from escaping out of revenge for injuring me. Hold on!" it said to me very confidently.
Suddenly it raised my right arm up. I saw a bunch of strange code flash across the visor of the mask on my face, and soon, I felt a pulse which spread from my being across the entire cavern. Soon a sort of GPS popped up on the visor of the mask and the AI said, "follow this path!" it said, creating a route for me. I followed the route and we soon found ourselves out of the mine and into the open sunshine. The Suit's Mask slid back into the "living suit" as I called it frem now on.
"Now then, can you get off my body please?" I asked. I did not want to spend the rest of my new life wearing clothes that were alive and kicking. "I thought I told you earlier that's impossible." the AI said. "What do you mean?" I asked, agitatedly. "I've bonded to you permanently. I've already integrated myself into your DNA. We are now fused now and forever after. Even I couldn't detach myself from you even if I wanted to! Wherever you go, I go. I am now a part of you. We can't seperate ourselves from each other anymore!"
My mind was completely jammed. All I could comprehend right now was the fact that I was now bonded to this living suit for the rest of my life, with no way to remove it. The only thought in my mind now, was the fear of what the suit might do with my body during when I wasn't aware or when I was asleep. I felt like a person who was diagnosed with some lifelong mental disability and had to live with it until the very end of their lives. I had no option but to make good of it.
"Okay," I said. "I'll accept you. But don't keep calling us as one. We may be one physically, but I won't stand for it if you use my body without my leave. Understand?" "Agreed. I'll stay on leash until you're okay to opening up." said the AI. "Thanks" I said. "Since we're pretty much together now, let's get to know each other a little more. What's your name or, what're you called?" "I can't remember. My memories are dim!" said the AI. "Fine! let's start with naming you." I said. "Okay!" said the AI. "Please give me a name Master!"
I Thought for a while, and recalled a recurring word that characters in the game used to say whenever I clicked on a moving unit. "I'll call you as 'Kia'!" "Kia?" said the AI. "That sounds a bit feminine though. AI's don't have gender you know." "I know." I said. "KIA is an acronym for a 'Knowledgable and Invaluable Assistant'. Also, the way you behave makes you sound more feminine. So I think Kia sounds like a fitting name right?" "Wow! i've never been called Invaluable before by anyone ever! I love it. it's official. From now, my name's Kia!"
And thus, I found new armour, and a new companion.