Perseus

The gears they grind, the axles groan, A life conscripted, bloodless stone. Bound in metal, forged in pain, A slave to gold’s unholy reign.

The lords in silk and gilded guise, Their laughter sharp, their whispering lies, From large thrones they crave and pine, For blood and bolts on battle's line.

Its chest a cage of burning cores, Its limbs encased in oiled wars. The metal sings, a discord's cry, Yet silently pleads to never die

The arena glows, a bloody maw, Where wealth devours what scraps it saw. It strikes, it breaks, it rips apart, A soulless blade of soulless art.

Prologue

---

The Pit.

Through a drug induced blur, Perseus follows the Apex worker in front of him. He was the only one left, everyone else was out in The Pit. Shrill, electric shrieks cut through the air, sharp enough to make one's teeth ache, while the coppery tang of blood hung heavy, almost thick enough to taste.

He kept his chin as high as he could, but he could barely focus. They drugged him when he was taken to get repairs. Not enough to make him incoherent, but enough to slow his processors down. Make it seem like he was running in sand.

A tug on his cybercuffs made him startle upright, the worker in front scowling back at him like a child dragging their feet.

“Hurry it up! You’ve got a fight in a few ticks.” The guard yanked harder on the cuffs, just to please himself, Perseus supposed, before mumbling under his voice box. ”They don’t pay me enough to be near you, scrap.”

Perseus angled his head, his gaze slipping over the corridor walls. Streaked with something that might’ve been grime or oil. The hallway stretched far, twisting slightly as it went, making it impossible to tell where the next turn was. Above it all, the lights buzzed and spat intermittently, stuttering flashes. It reminded him of home in a way, back in the Scraps with... with someone. He couldn’t remember who. But they were something that made his fans whirr warmly, the drug felt less like an unfocused haze and more like he was simply in a meditative state. Reminded himself of times where he was just built out of kid parts, witnessing the world behind his mom and dad's legs hidden in jagged buildings that reeked of burnt plastic and rubber.

As a five year old robot, the sound of Hyperions was different to Scrapborn. They walked heavier, with more purpose that was never good. Scrapborns walked lighter, instinctually silencing each step. He learned that quickly when they patrolled the Scrap where robots like him lived before being captured. He could hear them in his sleep and know who or how many was coming just off the steps. There were other tricks he learned as a kid too, like hiding things in an instant, pretending to look innocent, fake sleeping, or pretending to be scrapped.

For his entire childhood, Perseus spent the majority of it in The Pit. The Pit was separated by age brackets. So he fought other monsters or robots his age. Teens fighting teens. Back then it was easier to compartmentalize, to believe the fighting was just boys brawling. The loser always got taken out back and comforted, then sent back out. He wasn’t killing them, he wasn’t destroying them. He was just playing. As a kid, it was just easier to be in denial. Not like Vaan denied what he said. As long as it kept him fighting, he followed whatever narrative Perseus came up with.

As he was half-dragged towards the repair room, he thought of Vaan and all the little things he did to make him a fighter. He rewarded Perseus for winning, but always asked him to do a little more. Agree to an upgrade here or there. Maybe replace his old parts. Parts that his parents built him out of. Perseus would always say no, he was uncomfortable, but after a little convincing he’d always listen to Vaan. Because back then it was harder to associate the robot giving him rewards with the one jamming cables into his charging ports and interface without caring about the strain.

Though he preferred the cable ports rather than the degrading physical exams. They were redundant, but he was sure now, many years after, that Vaan had them done just to remind Perseus that there wasn’t any part that belonged to him anymore. Vaan had replaced them all with Vaan trademarked parts.

Maybe he wasn’t even himself anymore.

---

Perseus, barely conscious and stirred from memories at the sound of screaming, blinked sluggishly at the scrapborn being hauled like dead weight through the corridor by two Hyperion Guards. The scrapborns voice was raspy from misuse, so his screams came out as puffs of static.

"Please..." The scrapborn's voice hissed like a poorly-tuned frequency, his vocalizer struggling to form coherent sound. Static bursts punctuated desperate pauses. "Plea—plea—please, don’t!"

His frame, an amalgamation of haphazardly bolted plates and exposed wiring, jerked as he was dragged forward. The guards’ gloved fists clamped around his wrists, the grip indifferent to the way plating scraped raw against wire. One of them—a broad, flat-faced brute with optics dulled by boredom—arched a brow as he glanced at his partner.

"So much energy," he mused, kicking aside a loose bearing that skittered across the floor. "Guess The Pit didn’t work its magic after all."

"No, no," rasped the scrapborn, their words choking under weak gasps of air. "Ju-just n-n-need... n-new pa-parts..." The half-crumpled form wriggled helplessly in their grasp.

“Shut your vocalizer up!” the second guard growled, punctuating his command with a shove that slammed the scrapborn onto its knees. The impact resonated through his frame with a hollow clang. “Cheap metal like you doesn’t get a say,” The guards voice could barely be heard over the scrap borns scream of pure anguish.

“I’ve got a better idea,” The second Hyperion guard stated, towering over the scrapborn. Perseus forced his head away moments later, temporarily turning his optics off so he didn’t have to watch. The sound of parts being torn, a shriek cut off midway. When his optics came back on, he was greeted with a familiar sight.

The Scrapborn lay splayed on the floor, shuddering convulsively, as dark oil dripped grotesquely from his jagged mouth. One of the guards held the remains of his voice box: a chaotic cluster of jagged, leaking wires entwined around an antiquated, rusted core. The viscous fluid clung to the guard's gloves, pooling above the floor's dull chrome sheen.

“Better,” the guard declared flatly, tossing the dripping mechanism into a corner like discarded refuse. The metallic thud punctuated the airless silence, louder than it had any right to be. They wasted no further words, each grasping one of the Scrapborn's trembling legs and dragging the silent creature down the corridor. Its muffled metal limbs traced uneven streaks across the surface as it was pulled toward whatever destination awaited. Perseus felt his fans whir more and he forced them to quiet. Vaan got him new ones due to his old ones breaking within the week. Stress made them go too fast. Overheat themselves.

Perseus wished, not for the first time, that he had been deactivated. Though he feared it, sometimes he wondered what was worse than it. His fans kept whirring, but he couldn’t stop them. He felt the stress of not quieting down his fans speed them up until the Apex worker finally turned to glare at him.

“Keep the noise down! I guess I’ll have to tell Vaan your fans need replacing.” The worker chuckles, and Perseus knew he couldn’t quiet his fans anymore. He was already broken from today's battles, now his fans were off kilter. Top it all off with being threatened a day with Vaan and upgrades.

When they finally reached the repair room, Perseus felt himself tense for just a second as the workers hand grabbed at his arm instead of the cuffs. Touch made his fans whirl and little sparks fly into his wires. He hated it. Hated how they just... handled him without any dignity. They had no right.

But then again, did he have any himself?

He grit his mechanized jaw together as the guard rests one hand on his upper back shoving him in. Faded paint peeled off the walls in long ribbons like skin too tired to cling anymore, exposing jaundiced patches of corroded metal beneath. Rust clawed at every corner, devouring supports and hinges with greedy patience, like rust was the only thing still alive here. Newer parts gleamed unnaturally under overhead fluorescent strips, aggressive in their sterility. Their sharp, polished edges didn’t belong along their corroded companions. Bolts, screws, and fragments sat scattered. The scent of old oil hung thick in the air. Upgrading a Scrapborn to the point of being a Hyperion was forbidden. But that didn’t stop some from adding a few... adjustments.

Vaan certainly didn’t give a shit.

Perseus stumbles right to the medical metal table awaiting him. It was long with the other half tilted up to rest halfway. He hated it because he’s been upgraded for nearly 60+ years. Nothing good ever came out of it. Only pain, discomfort, unease. The hatred of wearing parts that didn't feel like him.

The worker shifted his weight, backpedaling toward the steel door, his boots echoing dully against the unforgiving concrete floor. A practiced, toothy grin tugged at his face—its cheer as artificial as the glow of the overhead fluorescents.

“Don’t try to escape,” A friendly little message. But Perseus read the underlying message clear. Good luck trying. They always threatened him with words as if he didn’t have a virus injected into his own chip. Threatening deactivation the moment he disobeyed. That had more bite than their bark.

Besides that, Perseus was too tired to move much.

So he laid there, alone. His metal chassis bent from being hit, wires spilled from exposures, some sparked faintly before sputtering out. Burnt circuitry–sharp, acrid, filled the air. Each cycle of spinning blades erupted louder than the last, jolting his battered frame every few seconds. He was in enough disrepair to feel a little more... comfortable. It reminded him of his old rusty parts his parents upgraded him with every year.

Right before... well, Vaan started the degrading exams. The most memorable one was the one when he was fifteen.

__

Many years ago.

“It hurts,” Perseus's voice cracked, but there was no mistaking the edge of desperation in it. He jerked back, only for Vaan's other hand to grip his shoulder and pin him in place. Vaan was screwing new armor plates during this exam. The one he knew was two sizes too small for his rusty ports. But all the robot did was twist and turn them tighter even as Perseus held his breath, nails digging into the table.

“Vaan!” Perseus's breath hitched as another screw ground into place, sending a white-hot bolt of pain straight to his sensors. He curled forward, nails scraping against the table's surface like a cornered animal. He wondered if the robot even heard him. But either he didn’t, or he didn’t care enough to respond. He turned his head away, shuddering puffs of air escaping.

That definitely got Vaans attention.

“Is that... air?” Vaan mumbles, and if Perseus had skin like in those old relic magazines the... hoomans had... it would’ve run pale. He wasn’t supposed to give himself upgrades. Even if the ability to fake breathing like a human wasn’t an upgrade.

“No... pipe broke.” Perseus lied quickly, ducking his head. But that didn’t convince him. Vans larger hand wrapped around Perseus jaw, grip tightening enough that it left indents in the metal visor. Perseus felt oil build up by his optics, trickling down his cheeks as that artificial air came out quick.

“You don’t lie to me, Scrapboy.” Vaan snarls, “Now take it out.”

Perseus turned his head away, Vaans grip hurt so much. But the action only angered the man more.

Vaan grunts, grip tightening as his other hand reaches for the “Since you want to misbehave, sit still.”

Perseus barely had time to feel his fans whirr before the grip on his jaw tightened. The older robot's two fingers found two buttons that unlatched his jaw. The moment his jaw came loose, Perseus’s head jerked back involuntarily, the vulnerability searing as his mimicked humanity was stripped away. His hands shot up, fumbling ineffectively at empty air for what was no longer there. He couldn’t talk right without his lower jaw. But Vaan was already shoving forceps down, grabbing the tiny air can Perseus installed next to his vocal cord to mimic human breathing. When he pulled it out, it was over.

Perseus gasped silently, mouthless, his gestures stuttering between panic and resignation. His remaining systems whirred louder, compensating for the loss with futile overcorrections. Vaan tossed the air in a bottle in the trash. The trash receptacle hissed when it sealed shut. Vaan stepped back, lifting the robotic jaw in his hand like a trophy, his optics narrowing with disdain. “You’ll get this back soon. Just behave. Or do you need further adjustments?”

Vaan stepped towards the closet, opening the door–

---

The door creaked open, slicing a thin line of light across the sterile room. Perseus flinched. But it was just the new mechanic. His grip tightened on the medical bed, the drugs making him lean back but his piercing gaze focused on them the entire time. But that didn’t stop the adrenaline from biting hard into his veins. Perseus’s fingers curled tighter around the thin edges of the bed until his metal limbs creaked with stiffness, his entire body pressing back like the cold metal frame might somehow swallow him whole.

Still, his eyes locked on the mechanic, unblinking. Hatred burning behind stoic indifference. He wouldn’t let another robot think they cornered him. Another robot thinking they had the right to touch him without his permission, replace his parts or put on some that were uncomfortable.