Chapter Text
“...and I’m going to fail my math test, no doubt about it! On the last one, I got a 57, and this is gonna be even worse. No matter how much I study, it doesn’t matter.”
Mirage and V1 sat on the ground, Mirage complaining loudly about her school life while V1 polished his Marksman revolver and every individual coin inside. He was scraping off flakes of metal from the outer shell, both for extra ammunition and to give it that well-used look.
“Is there anybody you can go to for help?” V1 suggested, looking over his firearm from every angle and clicking the coin cartridge open and shut. Once he was satisfied with it, he set it aside and moved on to clean up the Sharpshooter next. It had been jamming recently, and he was determined to fix it once and for all - electric weapons weren’t built to be unjammed properly, since jamming was very rare in the first place. He had just gotten unlucky.
Mirage shook her head. “Did you hear me say it? I don’t have any friends. And I’m not going to a teacher for help, that’s embarrassing. And I can’t just try running diagnostics on my processing unit, that’ll take a lot of time. And I don’t have any time! The test is tomorrow!”
As V1 shoved his fingers into the mouth of the Sharpshooter, trying to find the root of the jamming issue, he kept thinking. “I could help. Or do you also hate that idea?”
Crossing her arms, Mirage scoffed, looking away from him. “You’re a war robot. What makes you think you could handle math work?”
V1 looked up at Mirage, his optic unblinking and glowing brightly. “We are the same model. You just live somewhere different.”
Mirage looked around at the destruction surrounding them, the scorched remnants of Earth where they’d taken a pit stop. She could see the ruins of a building that reminded her of her school. “Yeah, way different… but just because we’re the same type of machine doesn’t mean you’ll understand fuckin’... algebra or whatever.”
“It doesn’t seem like you’re understanding it, either.” V1 retorted, returning his attention to the Sharpshooter. Once he was satisfied that it seemed unjammed, he moved onto his Core Eject shotgun as he spoke. “I learn fast. I could figure it out.”
“Yeah, but you’re not the one taking the test.” Mirage picked up the previously abandoned Marksman revolver, weighing it in her hands. Curiously, she opened the coin cartridge, taking one out and attempting to flip it into the air. Instead, it tumbled uselessly onto the ground. V1, who had been watching, picked up the coin instead. With practiced ease, he tossed the coin into the air, swiftly shooting it and watching as the bullet ricocheted into a nearby building while Mirage flinched away. She stared at the spot in the bricks where the electric shot had left a small darkened mark.
“You have to teach me how to do that.” She commented, picking up the Piercer revolver that had also been on the ground. V1 watched, wanting to make sure she didn’t try firing it without practice.
“I could. It’s easy once you get the hang of it, really. And if you shoot the coin when you see the flash, it splits.” To demonstrate, V1 tossed another coin into the air, waiting until he saw it glint before shooting and causing the two halves to fly in different directions.
Mirage sighed, drawing her knees up close to her chest and hugging them. “Your life sounds so much easier than mine. I know you’re constantly in hell or whatever, but I’d rather mindlessly fight other people than have to worry about things like math or bullies.”
Mirroring her pose, V1 stared at her, considering her words. “I want to know what it’s like to have a life like yours sometimes. It sounds a lot like what the humans apparently had before all their wars. I’ve always been curious about that life.”
Mirage looked over the revolver in her hand, considering it more thoughtfully. “We’re practically identical, aren’t we? Would anybody even notice if we swapped places?”
As soon as the words were spoken, both machines stared at each other. They knew they had the exact same idea in their head. One of them just had to speak it - and, of course, they had to pull it off.
“We could try it out.” V1 finally said, setting aside the shotgun. “Just for a day. I can do your math test for you and you can take care of things in Heresy for a bit. I’ll show you how the weapons work and you can teach me the basics of what it is you’re doing.”
Mirage was quiet for a moment, trying to make it seem as though she was considering it even if she’d already made up her mind. She nodded, relaxing a little more and setting the revolver in her own hands onto the ground. “Considering you… I doubt it’ll take you too long to pick up the basics. But I have no idea how to work these things…”
Before Mirage could keep lamenting, V1 shook his head, his wings fluttering slightly. “It’s not difficult. The humans designed these things to be really easy to use, especially as the demand went up. Even the stupidest husk could figure out the basics… the only issue is recoil. That’s where our advancements come in.”
Handing Mirage the Piercer once again, V1 instructed her on how to lock her arm in place to minimize recoil. Pointing at the nearby ruins for a target, he made sure she was holding it correctly before standing up straight again.
“And… fire!”
Mirage’s finger found the trigger, her eye squeezing shut, and she felt her arm absorbing the jolt of the gun as it shot a burst of electricity into the nearby wall. She opened her eye again, looking at the targeted wall to the gun to the wall again. She had just shot a real firearm. She was amazed, and looked at V1 again.
“How do I reload this?” She asked, but V1 shook his head.
“You won’t need to worry about that. All you need to know is the piercing shot. That button right there on the side, it charges a more powerful shot…”
Slowly, V1 went through his entire arsenal, showing Mirage every single weapon and their special feature. He made sure to specifically show her how to flip coins with the Marksman, since that was what she had been interested in. He even showed off some more advanced techniques, such as shooting coins with the Electric Railcannon, just to show her what she could do with the weapons she’d have on hand. He especially showed her how he stored the weapons in his mechanical wings, and his technique on switching between them. Then, finally, he detached his two extra arms and laid them out on the ground.
“This one is the Knuckleblaster,” he began as he pointed to the red one. He then pointed to the green arm, “and this is the Whiplash”.
Mirage picked up the Knuckleblaster, tracing her fingers over the sharp claws and holding it in her lap. “This is huge. You’re compatible with it?”
V1 shrugged, tugging at the hook of the Whiplash. “It comes from a similar model.”
Mirage nodded, before watching as V1 showed her how to attach and detach the arms, speaking about them as he did.
“The Knuckleblaster has a stronger punch, but it’s heavier, so it takes longer to wind up. And if you have the arm extended for long enough, it shoots two shotgun shells. But it can’t parry projectiles like our arms can, so watch out.” He explained, holding the Knuckleblaster in his own hands before passing it back to Mirage, picking up the Whiplash instead. “And the Whiplash has a hook that can extend and retract. You can pull yourself to heavier enemies or pull lighter ones to you, and also use it to traverse.”
Mirage nodded again, setting the Knuckleblaster down. Once she was sure she had the basics down, reciting all of them to V1, she reached over to grab her bag and dragged her binder out of it.
“Fancy battle talk over, we have to move on to different topics. How familiar are you really with math?”
V1 watched as she flipped the binder open, processing the different numbers and letters and symbols on the pages inside, along with the frustrated writing and doodles in the margins of the paper. “It was used to create us. I think I can figure it out.”
Mirage rolled her eye, unzipping her pencil case and pulling out a red pen. She slowly explained the basics of her math work to V1, using the pen as a pointer as she went along. V1 didn’t say a thing as he processed the information, before he was handed a sheet of paper with the problems on it.
The next ten minutes were spent without talking as V1 figured out the various questions on the paper that had been handed to him. The atmosphere was silent apart from the occasional sound of Mirage practicing her shooting, feeling a sense of accomplishment the better her aim got. When V1 was finally done, he tapped her on the shoulder, before handing the paper to her. Mirage sighed, before picking up the answer sheet, looking over V1’s work like she was a teacher and humming as she went along.
“Okay, so…” Mirage began, pointing at question number 8. “The answer here is wrong. It says on the sheet that the correct answer is 427, but you answered 432… And honestly, I have no fucking clue what you did wrong! The paper doesn’t show what the process is! It just shows you that you got the question wrong and leaves it at that!”
V1 was caught off guard by the outburst, and waited for her to stop talking so he could say something. “No, it’s fine. I got most of the questions correct, didn’t I? I can pass the test for you with 85% at least.”
Mirage tucked her knees up to her chest again and shoved her binder aside, sighing. “In all honesty, the math isn’t even the most difficult part. V1, you aren’t ready for my life. …Sorry.”
V1 tilted his head. “Oh. How?”
Mirage grumbled, turning her head to look him in the eye. “Do you want the full rundown? Just to prepare you.”
V1 nodded, his wings perking up curiously. Mirage sighed again. “If you’re sure.” She began counting on her fingers as she listed off all the important information.
“The dress code is easy. Wear your uniform, no makeup, no headphones in class, no rolling up your sleeves unless you absolutely have to, no drawing on yourself or other people. We have English first period, Drama second, lunch, study period third, and Math fourth. We go to the library for our study period. Stuff as much information as you can into you before the Math test. We sit by the tree in the courtyard for lunch and that’s the only time we’re allowed to listen to music.”
Mirage paused for breath, ensuring V1 was still listening. When she started speaking again, her voice became more serious, leaning in slightly closer.
“But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The social stuff is even worse. We do not have friends. Do not talk to anyone. Our worst enemy is Miracle - she looks like a red version of us, and she thinks she’s so much better. She has the same study period as us, make sure you sit on the opposite side of the library to her. She will try bothering you. Just don’t respond. We’re too cool for her, alright?”
Mirage waited for V1 to nod before continuing.
“Then there’s Gabrielle. She’s even worse, if you could believe it. She thinks she’s so perfect, and she’s just mean to everyone. She ruined Minerva’s life. Minerva was at the top of the social hierarchy before Gabrielle came along. And when Sienna tried to stand up to Gabrielle, she was stopped very quickly. You’ll know exactly who Gabrielle is when you see her. Her uniform is impeccable, and she has a golden cross necklace. She’s always flanked by her four friends. They call themselves the ‘Virtues’, but everyone thinks it’s stupid. Their names are Violet, Victoria, Valerie, and Vanessa, but nobody ever cares so don’t refer to them individually. Gabrielle is only kind of nice to Freya, who has a huge crush on her, but everyone knows Gabrielle is way out of her league. We share Drama class with Gabrielle. Just don’t look in her direction and you should be fine. And Minerva and Sienna, don’t talk to either of them. They’re both losers now. If you talk to them, you’ll also be seen as a loser. They’ve been saying something about having a comeback, but right now they’re just outcasts. Got it?”
V1 could feel his processor overheating from all the information, and he took a moment to let it cool down, hearing the fans whirring in his head. He then nodded, relaying everything he’d heard to her. “Don’t talk to anyone, ignore Miracle, avoid Gabrielle. That’s it?”
Mirage thought hard, before nodding. “Yeah. Now we just need to pull off switching places.”
The two looked at each other. V1 reached over his back. “My wings can be detached. I brought my toolbox.”
For the next 20 minutes, V1 and Mirage tried figuring out how to detach V1’s wings. There had never been a need to do so, and as such V1 didn’t truly know how to get them off. But after some fumbling with the tools, all eight wings were off, and now they just had to attach them to Mirage.
“You’re gonna have to get used to having your clothing off if you want to disguise as me.” V1 commented as he looked away while Mirage removed her tie, shirt, and blazer.
“I know! It’s just… weird. It’s gonna take me a bit to get used to it.” Mirage bunched her clothing up in front of her chest, tapping V1 on the shoulder to signal that he could start attaching the wings. As the mechanical components clicked into place, they kept talking.
“It’s just for a day. I’m not used to wearing clothing, so I have to get used to that.” V1 said as he fumbled with the tools.
“At least you get to keep your modesty.” Mirage grumbled. Once the wings were in place, she practiced moving them up and down, flexing them out then folding them up. She then noticed V1 reaching out, requesting the clothing she’d removed, and she reluctantly handed them over.
“At least we’re not humans.” V1 commented as Mirage shuddered slightly. They compared themselves for just a second, then realized something very important; where V1 had the designation mark with his name, Mirage had nothing. They stared at each other for a moment.
“I have a marker in my bag.”
Once V1 had lined up his mark with her and drawn it on, Mirage handed over the rest of her clothing and V1 put it on. It felt restrictive, but he reminded himself that he wouldn’t need to fight anything in her world, and felt a little better about it. Once they were fully swapped, they compared themselves. They were pretty much identical, apart from Mirage being an inch or two shorter. V1 stared at her.
“Open your eye all the way. It’ll look more convincing.” He advised, and Mirage did so, adjusting her posture as well.
“Should we swap voice boxes? You don’t exactly… sound like me.” Mirage suggested, and V1 considered it. After a moment, he nodded.
“It’ll take a bit longer, but we’ve got time.” He agreed, picking up his toolbox once again as they knelt on the floor to solidify the swap. They were each able to remove their own voice box with ease, setting them down on the floor and considering them. V1 pointed at the voice box with a blue sticker on it then pointed at himself, before pointing at the voice box with no sticker and pointing at Mirage. Mirage nodded. Then they each put in the opposite box, attaching them easily due to their identical models. Both of them spent about a minute humming and making small sounds, trying to get used to the new voices.
“You don’t use yours very often.” Mirage commented in V1’s voice, having noticed how much less worn-out his voice box had looked compared to hers. V1 nodded in agreement.
“That’s another thing.” He said in Mirage’s voice. “I don’t speak often. Try not to talk too much or it’ll be suspicious.”
Mirage nodded, before looking at the discarded arsenal on the floor, tucking it all into her wings. V1 packed up the binder into the bag on the floor, slinging it over his shoulder. They looked at each other, and it felt strange, like looking at themselves; and that was pretty much exactly what was happening.
“The elevator over there leads to my world.” Mirage said, pointing at the lit-up elevator next to a nearby collapsed building. V1 gave her a thumbs-up, before pointing to a small doorway in a mess of jumbled construction equipment.
“That passageway leads to the mouth of Hell, and once you get into the elevator, it should lead straight to Heresy.”
They stared at each other for another moment, before wordlessly walking towards their respective destinations, prepared to spend a single day as each other.