Valkyrie Smash

“Odin…”

Sam’s mood soured the moment he saw the old man’s face. He looked much better than the last time they met, with all of his limbs restored and injuries healed. One thing that didn’t change is that he’s wrapped n chains, his body fixed to a chair leaving him no space for movement at all.

[How do you feel?] The old man asked, his expression remaining neutral.

“Am I supposed to feel something?” Sam asked, doing his best to remain calm.

Tension increased as they stared into each other’s eyes, neither one saying anything for a while.

“Elina, where is Alice right now?”

His question received no answer. The female scientist remained silent, her eyes cast down. The old man was the last person he had expected to survive so with him being around it only made sense for the others to be around. Sadly it appears things aren’t that simple.

[Alice…] the old man spoke, his voice conveying subtle but heart wrenching pain. [She left with Loki…]

Silence returned, the suffocating pressure of the pure white room adding to the stress building up in Sam. It was then that he noticed how calm he’s being about the situation. He knew he should be feeling uncontrollable rage at the moment, however surprisingly he had his emotions under complete control. Not that he didn’t feel anything. He just had a better time holding it in, that’s all.

“It’s all your fault, old man.” He said, walking toward the bed ad sitting down. After a few seconds of thought he turned with a question that seemed a little surprising to the other two. “So? When are we going after them?”

[Once we clean up things over here.] Wolf replied.

[W-w-w-w-wait! What are you talking about!?] Elina cut in. [Don’t tell me… are you really going to chace them into another dimension!!?]

“Well, obviously.” Sam answered.

“But how are you going to do it? Is it even possible to find a specific person in the multiverse?”

Although she has a point, Sam wasn’t too stressed about the how. Odin escaped his world to this one and the Nephilim still managed to find him. It might be difficult but as long as there is a possibility he was confident they could make it work.

[Sam, I will ask you again.] Wolf spoke again, repeating the same question as before. [How do you feel?]

Stopping for a moment, Sam gave it much thought before answering.

“My thoughts are much clearer.” He said. “My memory as well. I can visualize things without much effort and I have a much easier time staying focused.”

[I see…] Wolf nodded. [It’s not exactly an intended effect of ASC, however there is no point in complaining about enhanced performance. That said, I highly advise against attempting to increase your cognitive abilities any more than this, unless you want to risk losing what makes you you.]

“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t be upgrading any time seen.”

The truth is Sam was doing his best to not think too much. His normal human brain was one of the best to ever exist in their world and now it no longer suffers from the limitations placed on him by mother nature. If he isn’t careful with his thoughts no one knows what kind of trouble he might find himself into.

[And Sam. Don’t suppress your emotions. Just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.]𝑶𝒱xt.𝚌𝞸𝐌

Human emotions are a series of biochemical reactions which are out of people’s control. One can try to suppress them and sometimes people grow numb to them, however in the end it was impossible to control them completely. Now that his brain had been upgraded to an electronic one it was possible for him tune out some thoughts and feelings, something that terrified even him.

“Guess this isn’t exactly like the Valkyries, huh?” Sam asked.

The girls experienced emotions like a normal human which made it impossible to tell the difference, however Sam began to understand how it’s possible to restrain some of them while leaving the rest untouched.

[Valkyries… the Nephilim in general have been the way they are from the start so it appears natural to them.] Said wolf, closing his eyes and exhaling. [For us it takes some time to get used to the change. That said, you’re the Third person we tried this on so I don’t exactly know how it’ll turn out or you.]

“Is this why I’m locked in here?” Sam asked.

[Well, there was a possibility that you wouldn’t be the same person once you woke up.] Said Elina, fidgeting in her place.

“The ship of Theseus, huh?”

Sam banished that thought the moment it appeared. He had a lot of important things to take care of, this wasn’t the time for him to ponder over whether he’s still the same person or not.

“Well, for the time being I’m still me.” He said. “Though I can’t say the same about my body, my memories seem to be intact so…”

[It would be pointless to get an entirely new body just for it to be the same as the old one.] Said Wolf, the corners of his mouth curling up. [While the ASC work to give you the best body your genes would allow. It seems miss Brians took the liberty to do some modifications.]

“Let’s focus on my brain for now.” Sam gave a disapproving look to the nervous female scientist. “You didn’t do anything, right? Anything beside… that…”

Part of the problem with Alice is that her memories have been modified with a few things added and thers erased. Now that he’s in the same position he realized how scary the prospect of not knowing if your memories are real or not can be. What’s scarier is that he might never notice and since he has no way to confirm it he might never know.

[I didn’t do anything!] Elina snapped, slamming her hands on the desk as her face flushed.

“Really?”

[Really!]

Though he wanted to believe her he still had no way of telling for sure. That said, with the memory of their breakup still there he felt that everything should be fine.

[Memory manipulation isn’t that easy of a task. Especially in our case since we used to be biological humans.] Wolf explained. [Loki… you heard our theory about why… about why Alice turned out that way, right?]

“Yeah?” Sam said, recalling the story Loki told them. “The part about self-awareness, right?”

[Yes…] pausing for a moment, Wolf went on. [Science can’t explain what makes people people. Even with all of the advancements we made and the technological progress we still don’t know what consciousness is and how the human mind works. The procedure worked for me and I’m confident that I’m still the same man as before. It might sound simple, however you have to think about it very carefully and ask yourself the question; are you the same person as before?]

The human mind was an unknown variable, it was impossible to calculate what might happen when messing around with it.

Letting his gaze fall to the floor, Sam closed his eyes and began to think. His childhood, his white haired friend, the Calamity invasion, the war, the Resistance, the Valkyries, his inventions and research. He remembered it all, knowing with utmost certainty that he had lived through it all.

“Elina.” Placing his hand on his knees, he pushed himself up and turned to the female scientist. “There is a lot to take care of so…”

His body might be different and the same goes for his brain. However Sam was sure of it, his essence was still there. He wondered if that’s what they call a soul, but something told him that as long as he had it he could confidently say he’s still there.