Chapter Text
Machines quietly hummed around Subspace, some beeping softly as they monitored his body. He was growing weaker by the day. The rot was eating away at his muscle mass and starting to shut down his organs. Technology and medications helped, but it was only a matter of time before they stopped working.
Subspace mustered whatever strength he could to stand, leaning against walls and objects to move. He needed to finish his project. This was the only thing that would save him.
Finally, he reached it. His most favored creation, the only thing that was keeping him able to work. Gamma. His fingers fumbled with the mechanisms, shutting off the robot and detaching its arms. He slipped his own arms inside. The metal was heavy on his shoulders, but they still whirred to life, giving him the support he needed to keep from ruining his project.
He sorted through his old notes and files, finding the most recent set. He flipped through, rubber pads turning the pages with ease, leafing through paper after paper until he found what he wanted. His plans for more. Plans for better. For a steel body that could house a mind of flesh, or at least… It should. He had yet to test it.
Better now than never. Subspace got to work, detaching the head of his robot and opening it up. Its head panels would need some reworking, along with some hardware rewiring, as would the torso. But that would be the easy part. The hard part would be adding in something new.
A few long hours later, Subspace stared at his finished creation. This… should work. And if it doesn't, at least his notes will persist for others to learn from.
Slowly, he stepped into the robotic body, the suit he had built it to be attaching to his limbs with ease. He stared at the final piece in his hands, the head of the machine. The new face plates clicked apart, seams opening to allow him to put it on. His horns slid into place, and gradually, the plates closed around his head, enclosing him in the metal that would be his body's resting place.
He took his last breath, then tried to relax. He knew what was coming.
A faint crunch came from the head of the machine, tainted blood trapped within. The body would perish within minutes, but the machines were quicker. Into Subspace's head they crept, reading every crevice of his mind, documenting every wrinkle and translating it into bits and bytes, ones and zeroes.
Eventually, the process finished. The machine slumped, the body inside going limp. Then, slowly, it came back to life. Pink lights from within flickered on.
"…It worked." Subspace's voice, now carrying a synthesized crackle, came from the machine. His mind had successfully been uploaded to the machine. Now, he just had to remove his former body from it.
He struggled with it for a moment, his formerly living brain not used to the functions of the robotic body, but soon, the front panels of his head and torso opened. His corpse slumped out, blood seeping from two small punctures on his temples.
He wriggled the legs out, and closed his body back up. He stared down at the floor where his corpse sat. He had expected to feel something about it, but all he felt now was apathy.
He picked up the corpse, his new limbs whirring with precision, and moved it to some place where it would be disposed of without anyone noticing.
The next morning, he resumed his usual work. His colleagues assumed he was simply going to spend the day in the Gamma suit, given his condition. None questioned it.