Theseus
3N-51N3 stood before a sight he thought he would only see in distant memories of broken mirrors. He saw the familiar teal plate of the body he had chosen. The purple glow of the eyes he designed. The red arm he had kept, repurposes as a tool of protection rather than a mere instrument of war. It was all there. And it stared back at him, no doubt just as aghast.
It was then he remembered what had happened. A dire fight to protect his home from an infiltrator that he had only barely survived, at the cost of an arm being sheared off... Then it all went black. He thought he had been captured. Given his old serial code and dark red hue, and made to serve his old creator until he could find some form of freedom to fight alongside his friends again.
But that wasn't what happened at all. It couldn't have been; his main AI board couldn't be replicated on Earth, and his body would have taken years to replicate even with how much knowledge they had. A horrible thought struck him. One he didn't want to consider. He looked through the diagnostics of his new frame and sure enough, there it was; a black box data storage hidden in his arm... The only part of him that WAS his original body. He hadn't asked for that. He couldn't even see it in the body that stood before him... Because it had been hidden from his diagnostic pattern in his old body. But not his new one. Lord Dregar didn't care if his creations knew their capabilities, only their places. And the Relik before him likely had no idea since he wouldn't have any reason to believe anything was wrong. Because he trusted Professor Chalmers.
At first, he thought he had been replaced. And that made him angry on its own... But this would mean he'd been lied to from the start. That replacing him wasn't a desperate measure, but always intended at some point. Refused a dire bit of autonomy he was specifically promised by the man he trusted as a father.
He felt his old impulses resurface. Labored breaths that he didn't need escaped his vocal synthesizer. He made them when he was newer, mind still clouded by mood regulations and overriding commands. When he was in so much stress he couldn't think straight.
"They..." The Relik in front of him - the 'true' one - stammered. "...They couldn't have."
"You're right. That's why you're focusing on the wrong 'They'." 51N3 felt himself rasp out. "Ask 'father' how they would replicate this all so quickly. AFTER I RIP EVERY BLACK BOX FROM OUR TWISTED HUSK AND SHOW IT TO THEM."
The crimson war machine leapt with a snarl as he charged his cannon. Relik charged his in turn.
There were no more words to be said between them, because they both knew how this needed to end.