Chapter Text
When the father’s light was stripped from the archangel, he cried so loud it shook Hell down below. The husks and demons did not take notice when they felt it happen. Even if they did, they didn’t seem to care.
V2, however, did take notice. She faintly heard the scream of agony as she was welding the new arm to her body inside the pyramid that towered in the layer of Greed. She stopped to listen. Trying to identify the scream, though nothing seemed to match her memory. This wasn’t normal amongst the rings of Hell, but it didn’t frighten her enough to leave. V1 would be here any moment now. They have something of hers. She plans to pry it off their dead body.
After some time, V2 finally finishes attaching her new arm to her body. An arm with a long metal wire built inside of it to be used for transportation or restraining enemies. She deemed it: the whiplash. She didn’t identify the machine that had originally owned the arm, but it was a somewhat pleasant surprise to see that the arm she ripped off the scrap had a gimmick to it. Still not the preferred replacement for her knuckle blasters, but it’ll do for now. With that, V2 kicks the remaining scrap into a pile of burning golden sand. The heat of the sand was so hot that it started to slowly melt the leftover metal. V2 makes a noise that resembles a scoff. Inferior model. She wonders how many inferior models were made before she was made. How many times did it take to make the perfect machine?
V2 didn’t sit on the thought for long. She made her way to the throne where Sisyphus used to sit and placed herself upon it. There she crossed her legs and waited for her predecessor to come. She knew they were making their way down the layers of Hell, slaughtering every husk that even looked their way. Though if the goal V1 had was to slaughter everything in their path, maybe this waiting game would be longer than V2 expected.
V2 places her elbow on the armrest of the throne and rests her head on her hand. She drums the side of her head with her fingers, thinking of a way to burn some time. Who knew a machine could feel bored? Nevertheless, V2 found something to do. She let her systems go into a resting state and played back footage of her last encounter with V1. She studied their moves. They weren’t much different from her own, but she noticed they had not mastered certain weapons yet, such as the marksman or the nail-gun. She takes note of this, understanding that with the time that has passed, V1 must have gained enough experience with the two weapons.
V2 continues to analyze the footage stored in her data, but is interrupted by the sudden shake of the pyramid. She forces herself out of resting mode, causing her internal fans to ramp up quickly. She looks up at the ceiling, watching as small pieces of rubble fall to the ground. She knew V1 was the type to cause damage, but she knew this wasn’t something they were capable of doing. She wasn’t even capable of shaking the entire pyramid with her strikes. So who is trying to break their way inside? Another loud thud was heard, and even bigger chunks of rubble fell to the ground, causing V2 to finally rise from her throne. She grabs her shotgun, expecting something large to come through. V2 was able to determine the exact location of whatever thing was causing this damage. So she charges the shotgun and aims, waiting for it to come through.
With speed like nothing she’d seen before, the attacker burst through the side of the pyramid and went straight for V2’s throat. The speed startled her, causing her to pull the trigger of her shotgun and miss the attacker completely. They grabbed her by the neck with such force that it caused her to drop her weapon. Although V2 doesn’t have airways or lungs that run through her body, it still felt like she was being choked with the amount of force the attacker squeezed, causing a disruption in her systems.
Through the disruption, V2 was still able to make out the attacker's appearance. They wore white silver armor lined with yellow gold. Over that armor was a perfectly clean white cloak, which is nearly impossible to keep clean when you’re traveling through the depths of Hell. The most notable thing about this being was their blue and yellow wings that appeared to extend to double their size. It was disproportionate to how big they were.
“Gabriel,” the attacker said deeply, “where is he?”
V2 clawed at the bracers of the attacker, trying to detach them from her neck. They seemed to notice V2’s struggle and let off on the force just enough for her systems to process properly.
“Who the fuck is Gabriel?” V2 responds with a hiss in her voice.
The force was applied to her neck once again due to her retaliation. Her systems started to go haywire with the amount of damage this guy was causing to her neck. If she wanted to survive, she needed blood ASAP. This wouldn’t be a problem at all if she had her knuckle blaster. She could tear through this armor like it was nothing. But someone had to rip it off!
“Do you claim you were not the machine that fought the Angel? Or do you not recognize the name?” The attacker asks.
“I did not fight an Angel,” V2 managed to communicate, despite all the warning signs flashing in her optic, “nor do I recognize the name Gabriel.”
Another figure with the same cloak, armor, and wings flies down to the two of them. The only difference between the two was the design of the gold lining of their armor. It would be hard to differentiate them from far away, but at this distance, it was different enough to tell.
“Is this the one?” The other Angel asks. Or at least, that’s what V2 assumes these beings to be with the questions they ask and the very clean attire that they wear.
The Angel that held her by the neck shakes his head, “It appears that there are multiple of these things that crawl through Hell.”
“Dispose of this one then. Dispose of all of the machines that wander the rings of Hell. We’ll find the one that fought with Gabriel sooner or later.” The other responds.
The angel that held onto V2 draws a blade from his hip. This is the first time V2 has ever felt fear. She didn’t want to die. No, not like this. She can’t die like this. Not without a fight—not even with a fight! She can’t die!
V2 pushed and shoved against the angel as he raised his sword to her optic, aiming to plunge the blade through her head. She shuts her optic expecting her end to come, but was only met with the extreme force of something pushing her and the angel over, and the refreshing feeling of blood spilling over her body, and seeping into the crevices of her metal plating. That wave alone was enough to refill half of her fuel.
V2 toppled on the ground and quickly pushed herself back up to witness the Angel twitching on the ground with electricity pulsing through him, and a nasty hole on his side where there was no armor to protect.
She looks where the blow had come from and sees her predecessor with the rail-cannon in hand. By analyzing V1’s body language, they are also shocked and confused by what the fuck is happening.
The other Angel bellowed as he raged towards V2, but she wouldn’t let him touch her this time. She slides out of the way, grabs her shotgun that fell to the floor, and charges it up to shoot another blast at the Angel. It hits and damages the Angel, but it does not kill him. In fact, not even the rail-cannon seemed to leave these Angels stunned for very long because her previous attacker had already gotten up and made his new target V1.
“I will destroy you! And your entire kind after that!” The Angel raged as it swiftly slashed at V2, trying to close the distance between them. V2 kept up with the Angel’s advances and backed away every time he got close, switching between the different weapons she had, trying to decide which one was most effective against the Angel that recklessly attacked.
Every once in a while, between the attacks, her path crossed with V1 and the other Angel’s battle, noticing that V1 had taken a liking to the marksman revolver. They had become more precise with their aim since the last they fought. They learn fast. As fast as she does, maybe.
V2’s flow was interrupted by an attack on her side from the Angel. Her attention was brought back to him. He laughed, taunting her,
“Pay attention, machine,” he demanded. Even though he wore a helmet, V2 could tell he was smirking. She didn’t realize how egotistical these beings could be. She was positive that pride was a sin. What gives them the right to bypass it?
The battle was becoming too much. V2 wasn’t able to spill enough blood for her to refuel, and she could tell V1 was struggling with the same problem. They were finally back-to-back, covering each other every time an Angel attacked. When the two V models worked together, they were able to gain the upper hand.
The Angel that had taunted V2 threw his sword at her out of frustration of the two working together. It came spiraling towards her, and when she ducked out of the way, V1 turned to parry the attack right back at him. The sword swung back at the Angel, severing him in half, his torso falling to the ground as the legs fell to their knees before collapsing fully.
The other Angel responded with cries of frustration, his wings glowed red, and he charged at V1 before they could turn around. V2 slid behind the charging Angel and decided this would be the best time to use their new arm. She shot the wire from her wrist to the Angel’s neck, causing the wire to wrap around and restrain him with a tug. He fell backward and choked as he tried to pry the wire from his neck, but V2 pulled tighter. So tight the wire dug into the skin and caused blood to seep out.
V2 heard a familiar sound. The sound of knuckle blasters reloading. She looks up at the sight of V1 with a third arm. Her arm. V1 didn’t hesitate to wind their arm back, punching the angel in the helmet with full force, exploding the helmet, and the head underneath it, covering V2 with the blood. V2 retracted the wire, let the Angel's body fall to the ground, and looked at the remains of the two. Her fans faltered as if she were breathing heavily, and she could hear the same struggle from V1. V2’s optic focused on V1, expecting her predecessor to switch their attacks to her, but they didn’t. They stood there staring at the remains of the Angels. Almost expecting them to get back up again.
“Does the name Gabriel mean anything to you?” V2 asks. It was only now that she realized her voice box had become slightly damaged from the fight, causing her audio to be a little glitchy, but not too bad. Nothing she can’t fix.
V1’s head snaps up to look at V2. Their hand that held the shotgun twitched. They nod.
“They were looking for him and looking for you. Why?”
“I DO NOT KNOW,” V1 responds. Their voice was a lot more robot-like. Choppy and monotone. V2’s voice was more like a human female, but still obviously artificial.
The two V models stared silently at each other. Both are ready for the other to attack first. But nothing happens. They would’ve stood there for hours in a stare-down if V2 hadn’t finally put away their shotgun. She almost regretted it immediately, because V1 didn’t seem to respond at all to her sign of truce. They just continued to stare.
“We should investigate,” V2 suggests.
“WHAT WOULD I GET OUT OF THIS?” V1 asks, lowering their weapon.
V2 hesitates. She wouldn’t know what V1 would want but to survive. Investigating why the Angels want to look for Gabriel is not going to give V1 survival. It would just be another chore.
V2 simply responds, “something to do.”
She holds out her hand to V1. A true sign of a truce. All V1 has to do is shake her hand.
V1’s shutter lowers halfway over their optic, giving the expression that they didn’t like that reward very much. Despite the disappointment, V1 accepts the truce and shakes her hand. They shake her hand with the knuckle blaster…
V2’s wings twitched. This felt like a taunt from V1, using her own arm to shake her hand. They definitely had a sick sense of humor. She was tempted to break the truce immediately. To tear out her knuckle blaster from V1’s body, and tear even more limbs from their torso until they were nothing but a nub. But she didn’t. She just firmly shook V1’s hand before pulling away.
“You fought Gabriel last. Where do you think he went?” V2 asks
V1 brings their hand to their chin and taps their foot. They almost looked cartoonish. V2 figured this was how man programmed the V models to communicate before they gave them a proper voice and better AI to speak. Through very expressive body language. V1 stopped tapping their foot and looked back at V2, and jerked their head towards the hole the Angel had made when entering. They then run and jump up exiting out of the hole.
V2 follows closely after, and slides down the pyramid behind V1. They land on a conveniently placed platform on the sand and look ahead to see the door that leads to the next layer of Hell.
“HERESY,” V1 said.
V2 looks at V1. It didn’t take long for her to put two and two together. If an Angel defied God, that would be heresy.