The Prototype

Adam was finally home. After the mysterious sickness of his childhood friend had been curec by the more wet and less dusty climate, it was finally nice enough to beback home. While Adam was sure that he physically wasnt able to catch rust, Legion hadnt given him an entirely clear answer as it had begun to tell him the micromechanic contraptions of the nanites that prevented them from a matter of effects.

Regardless of that, he also had buisiness in iwa, that being for once, to meet his old sensei. Or rather still is sensei, even if it had been a year or so since he had seen her last time. Buisness trip, he had been told by someone. Hopefully, Diana wasnt busy. Though even if she was, he would find comfort at the bottom of a bottle.

Making his way to towards the company building of Iwatomics Incorporated, whistling a song as he went, until he was standing in front of the doors, taking in a deep breath before entering the building.

Diana and Adam had a lot to talk about.

Diana...was not ready for this day.

The day had started simple enough; she was having breakfast as she made plans for new buildings to incorporate the unique abilities and histories of the major clans within Iwa and Suna when she received a message from the Sensory Center that her student had returned. While the Pylon Network had picked Adam up on their radar, they didn't have enough info to know it was him as everyone was still settling into their roles at the station. As soon as she had heard the news, she had made sure her schedule was made up of a lot less critical meetings she would need to attend given her student took priority.

Currently she was at her workshop in Iwatomics Incorporated, tinkering away at Masaru's fancy new gear to try and calm her nerves. She seemed to be doing that often, escaping to her workshop once more if she needed a break from the major issues in life. It was what she knew, what she was comfortable with. It let Diana center herself in such a way nothing was really able to do anymore.

A shame she couldn't retire; not yet at least. People needed her leadership; they relied on her to guide them. Just like Adam.

"Miss Diana, Adam's here!"

Diana would jump in her seat as she heard the sound of one of her Warmachina, a Nihan unit coming to inform her as requested. Looking to the younger 'replica' of herself, she'd nod and gave the little one a pat on the head. "Thank you little Nihan, you did well and may go to play with the others now."

Excitedly the Nihan would nod and run off to her sisters as Diana stood up and began cleaning up, making sure to leave the door open so Adam knew she wasn't busy.

The Student and Sensei had a lot of catching up to do.

Entering through the front doors with a large step, his metallic hand reaching for the handle and finally meeting it with a dull *clonk*, Adam would push the door open and finally stand back where it began. Ground zero for his change. Probably ground zero for so many things he didnt know about. After all, how could he even. Approaching the reception, he would be greeted by a strange looking entity which told him to just go to the labs and that he was being awaited. "Omnious..." Adam thought to himself, but finally shrugged and went over to one of the doors to the side, entering the hallways now and walking them down in relative silence, his footsteps sounding like some weird timer in the hall, seeing how they were almost paced perfectly in a rythm, one footstep every second or so.

Walking down those hallways almost made him depressive. While certainly there hadnt been many times he had bad experiences with this place, the one time he had a negative experience was enough to burn itself into his memory for ages to come. After all. How could he forget when it was effecting him every day. Legion, the voice of the swarm, the voice of many, that claimed that adam, were they two of them and ledion and his contiousness simply were speerate aspects of that, was only one of the feats that his... change... his suffering had brought upon him. He still could feel the feeling of his flesh being cut and torn apart, so incredibly fast and so slow at the same time. How his blood vaporised inside of his veins. How his bones got grinded away into nothing more then mere fuel for what he was now. And the incredible nothingness that he felt when he recontructed himself. Nothing except pain. Not even instinct. It was as if Legion had needed time to recreate him, maybe changed and swapped some things along the way. However it wasnt all bad. At least, according to legion, he could be drinking till the end of time and not die, so there were benefits. Even if he eventually would run out of money if he did that.

Finally, he would hear the voice of someone or rather something tell "miss diana" about his arrivial. Without a doubt that must have been the place where they were  Diana was located. Passing another corner once more, he came just in time to see the being called Nihan leaving a room. Making a beeline for it, his footsteps wouldnt increase in pace. After all, he was forcing himself to remain calm. Should he have brought coffee or anything? He didnt know. He didnt even know what to propperly ask Diana. If she was finished with her work or not. If she still had any interest in actually teaching him. If there was other stuff going around. If she could see if he was alright. All that didnt matter. And quite frankly, Adam didnt even have enough time to think about it before he stood in front of the door and pushed it open with one of his hands, bringing out: "Hey there Diana... long time no see..."

She didn't have much time to clean up before she heard her door open, and she felt the plethora of emotions radiating from the door. She hadn't practiced much with Nue's ability to let her sense emotions, especially as it hadn't been that long since she had gained its trust...but being so close to her student had her feeling like a knot had formed in her stomach. She was still not ready, and would probably never be ready. Turning to face the now opening door, Diana listened to her students words before speaking herself.

"Hello Adam and Legion; long time no see indeed. I hope the Warmachina and guards did not give you too much trouble."

Despite her physical appearance not having aged her a single day due to her Dojutsu, she looked tired, as if the years had finally gained a foothold, yet they couldn't fully latch on to her unchanging form. In a way, it made her look more human then she normally would, something neither could 100% claim to be anymore given the modifications Diana had done to both of them.

"I hope that your trip across Kishin treated you well. But before you tell me about that...how are you?"

She didn't want to bring up how she had accidentally abandoned him; not yet. How does one tell their student that you were trapped in an alternate dimension for an entire year, having to push one's body beyond anything they had ever done just to survive? It was the most ridiculous excuse one could make, and yet it was true. For now they'd just have to take it slow; work up to it.

Upon hearing Diana greet him, he would stand still for a few seconds, bracing himself against the emotions he felt. Part of him just wanted to go over to her and hug her. It was strage. After all, she had both killed him, no her experiment had killed him, an dit had brought her back too. Besides that however, she had stood next to him and made sure he was still there. And she was still there too, unlike other people he liked or maybe even loved. Instead however, she would clench his fists hard, to an extend where enough pain was going through his body, to keep himself composed, as he brought out in a somewhat sore voice: "I uh... the other one isnt here... but yeah... long time no see..."

Continuing to stare at the korikane prodigy, Adams mind would be filed with a plethora of different throughts before ultimatively he would add in a somewhat confused sound: "Oh y-yeah... they didnt mind me..." What was going through his mind however, was concern. Diana looked tired. About as tired as when she had stayed up all night in order to make sure he was going to make it, with the difference being that she looked like she had done this for the better part of the last few weeks. Was she sick?

Shaking his head ever so slightly about the question answered, he would give out: "You know i can heal... but you look like you are in a bad shape at the moment Diana... are you alright?"

Obviously there were other, negative emotions in the back of his head as well, those being a bit of anger and a much larger part of sadness. The feeling of being abandoned. To Adam, it felt like he had been changed and then tosses away, like a faulty prototype. Seeing the warmaschina, regardless if they were coming after him, or he after them, this thought had taken a larger hold then ever before. After all, what was he now? He knew he had died adn has been reconstructed out of other things. Inhuman things. And yet he was still bleeding. And yet he still needed to do human things. But he was biting his lip and not talking about it for now. After all, other things were more important, that being his Sensei's health.

"Ah, that is good to know." She was a little surprised to hear Legion wasn't mentally kicking right now, but that certainly didn't make this any easier for her. "And it is good to hear they did not bother you." While the warmachina were developed before Adam's...transformation, she had been giving them priority while Adam was away. Being their creator sort of left her in a place where she needed to until they could fully establish themselves after all.

As Adam turned her question to him back towards her own physical state, she'd let out a light snort. "...That bad huh? Heavy weighs the Kage's Crown indeed it seems, even with my modifications to hide this sort of thing." Preforming a handseal, she'd let medical chakra flow through her, and most of the signs of her exhaustion would fade; though her posture still made it clear she wasn't out of the woods yet. "Despite how I may look though, I am doing...okay. Not well, but okay."

She'd shift her weight and motion for him to sit down on one of the stools. "My question was not directed towards your physical body though; I am referring to your mental state Adam. You may have the body of a machine, but you still have the mind of a human and as your sensei it is my job to make sure that you are healthy in body, mind, and soul. Physically you look well, but I can tell that there are things on your mind you wish to speak of; not all of them positive." She'd take a deep breath. "But besides all of that, I want to know how much my student has grown in my absence."

"Yeah... i heard that you became Kage. Things changed i recon..." Adam would state, before bringin his arms together in front of his chest, looking at the doll-like woman, his sensei, in front of him as she healed herself. Adam in some ways was lucking that his body was in the possible prime it could be at any given time. A feat others would have killed for certainly. Also a feat whihc allowed him to hide his mental fatique, which he had to fight with every day.

Afterwards when Diana told him to sit down, he would eye the chair, before giving out a rather awkward joke of the likes: "You arent going to pulverise me again, are you?", before walking over and taking a seal, his arms now laying in his lap once more as he waited for what his sensie had planned. As he had feared, talks were shifting back to him, and while in the long run it was better, and Legion would have told him that as well, he didnt feel like it at all.

"Oh well i am...-" Adam would start as his mind was going through all the possible excuses or lies he could have told, before he decided that honesty was likely best as he continued: "- I uh... feel not too well. Honestly i can understand why Legion isnt here at the moment. I recon if i had somewhere else to be, i would do the the same." Pausing for a few moments to let his statement sicker in, she would lean back into the chair and elaborate: "You know... the thing in the lab... this was an accident, I can get that and arent mad even, but... i wanted to be close to you. Learn. Feel whole, you know? That thing we had. Student and Sensei... it felt like an alternative." Not going further to elaborate the "alternative" to what exactly, it didnt take long before he showed her absently by bringing out the bottle of booze from his trenchcoat, opening it and downing another portion of it, before repeating the process reversed, reaching its starting point as he put the bottle back into his jacket and looking to the floor as his hands were going together with the usual, characteristic metallic *click* that his hands tended to do. "Grown... i havent much. I went out of Iwa for a bit but things have been slow. I didnt really see a sense in growing."

{Exit due to Frost Ban}