Chapter Text
Departing from earth and withdrawing from his interfering with society had, somehow, still left That Man with a packed schedule.
It was the initial reason he’d decided to dive back into his ill-advised former hobby of creating clones and replicas of the living. Despite knowing what had come from his last attempt, the act had been second nature. Asuka had hardly realized until he was already taking flesh samples and programming equipment for replication. He could only wonder what his colleagues would think of him, seeing him immediately go back to old tricks. Hard to say. Disappointment would likely be part of it, though. Disappointment in his work ethic, his inability to change…
…Ah, and there came the guilt again. He tried to shoo it away. He didn’t have a right to feel guilt. But it was an emotion that tended to find him, anyway. One of the things he’d tried to do while up here was to work on some better thought patterns. In isolation, it was easy to become trapped in looping thoughts. So he was trying to recognize when he was falling into those patterns so he could try to think about something else instead. Slow going so far, but-
If he was doing a poor enough job of distracting himself, the universe must have decided to step in. Asuka nearly fell out of his seat as a light began to flash on the wall.
“UNKNOWN VESSEL IN MOONBASE RANGE.” It declared between alarm blares. ”UNKNOWN VESSEL APPROACHING MOONBASE.”
Spacefaring ships weren’t a common sight. Little chance that its arrival was an accident. Asuka backed away from the table he’d been working at, sparing just enough time to be sure that nothing would catch fire in his absence.
He made his way to the communications hub of the moonbase. One of the clones had already set things up for his arrival, politely and silently bowing out of the room at the sight of the man who’d made him.
Sensors mounted outside the base offered him a glimpse of the arriving vessel- unknown indeed, not one he had ever seen before. Asuka picked up the microphone from its mount. He tried not to let his confusion come out as a stutter. “This is the moonbase Tír na nÓg, you are flying in a restricted airspace. Is your pilot speaking? State your ship class and intention.”
“One-man spacefaring vessel, P-Class. Requesting landing space.”
“Who is this?” He demanded. Asuka immediately cowed under his own voice, turning meek once more. “Um, who am I speaking to?”
The return static crackled almost inquisitively. “Designation: Simulation model #Kreuz E195GRD.”
He stared at the speaker grate in silence, as though the machine itself could offer him an answer. He hadn’t heard that right, had he? He couldn’t have. It just wasn’t…
The man didn’t realize he was running until the seat was left spinning behind him. Asuka rushed to greet his guest, only at the last moment remembering to hit the release switch to the bay door so his guest could actually dock. The landing bay was situated close to the communications center, but even that short run was enough to make Asuka wobbly-kneed and wheezy from the effort. It would take a minute or two for the door to open, the ship to enter, and it to dock, which he took to regain his stamina and attempt to look presentable to his arriving guest.
Once the bay door had sealed again and the space refilled with air, Asuka let himself in. The spaceship was small, by spaceship standards. Most of its size went into the layers of pressurized cabin walls and rockets to ensure it could actually get anywhere. Still big enough to require a platform to disembark. Several such mechanisms had been helpfully built into the station during its creation, with one unfurling as soon as it recognized a ship in one of the docking stations.
A door slid open on the vessel’s side. A pneumatic hiss and cloud of releasing air briefly obscured the figure standing at the ship’s entrance. The pilot passed through it without issue, waving a hand in the air in front of their face to clear away some of the obstruction.
As they neared the bay platform, Asuka found himself staring at his own face.
“Good day, creator.”
Or a similar one, at least. The mirrored image of him had a few oddities that made his eyes linger. While none of them had ever been an entirely perfect copy, and environmental factors altered it further, this still fell outside the parameters he expected. E195GRD had let his hair overgrow, untamed to the point of messiness and a few matted-looking spots amid the tangle. Deep creases had carved themselves under his one uncovered eye. Nearly every visible seam in his robe was frayed. There was an all-around unkemptness to the clone that puzzled him. Asuka could have stared all day, were it not for more pressing questions lining up in the back of his throat.
“What…what on earth are you doing here?” The figure of speech suddenly felt ironic, but there were more important things to dwell on at the moment.
The clone looked at him in complete calm, as though the answer were obscenely obvious. “Returning from my scouting mission.”
Right. Of course. Asuka knew full well what he’d initially sent his replica out to do, but “I thought…I was worried something terrible had happened to you. Your location transmitter wasn’t turning up on any scans for months, I couldn’t get a response from it anywhere. All I could assume was that you had been decommissioned in some sort of accident. Without any way to tell…”
“It was removed.” E1 carefully took off his feathered eyepatch. Where his right eye was supposed to be underneath was instead a mangled metal sinkhole of biomechanics. Something fleshy pulsated in the socket, but before Asuka could think to get a better look at the damage, the patch was put back in place. “For security reasons, of course. I did not want to risk someone recovering it and using the device as a way to track your location.”
Asuka wasn’t quite sure what he was saying, but he trusted his clone to be of a rational sort. “In either case, I’m glad to see that concern didn’t come to pass.” With his hands clasped, he approached. “Here, let me see. I’m sure I can have repairs done in a matter of-
“I’m fine.” The clone curtly cut him off. “I did not return for repairs.”
Its sharpness took him off-guard. It was strange to hear his own voice speaking in such a way. Yet another sentiment that sent shame twisting through his thoughts, wondering if that sort of curtness was something he’d inflicted upon others in the past. He was a long-lived man, surely it had happened more than once. Had he done that to Frederick? To Aria?
No, no self-pitying again. He wouldn’t allow himself. “Nonetheless, it is still good to see you again, E195- “
“Creator,” his replica said, with an intensity Asuka, once again, had not expected. “Is that strictly necessary? We are the only ones here. Surely, abbreviating my designation would be the more logical choice? It makes little sense to expend the effort.”
The man stared in silence. “Right. Of course. Nice to see you…E1.” His clone looked content with the new moniker. “Whenever you’re ready, I can take your scouting data and update it to the base’s file network.”
“Actually, creator, I have a project that I’ve been working diligently on during the course of my absence. The reason I returned was to show it to you.”
Asuka opened his mouth, then shut it. Had he heard that right? None of the units he’d sent prior had come back with something like that. What about this one had been different? Did something about it spontaneously manifest a sense of independence? What a thought! He’d never imagined such a thing.
Damn the scouting data. If one of his creations had developed a sense of initiative and creativity, of course he would be the first in line to witness it. “O-of course! What is it? What do you have?”
E1 raised a hand. “I am not surprised by your answer. Please, wait here. I have it on my ship. If you’ll allow me a moment to retrieve it for you…”
He turned away and moved back toward the docked ship, raggedy robes swishing with his steps. Asuka wondered if he himself walked that way, or if it was some habit that this unit had developed from interacting with other humans. For the few clones he had sent out and had returned already, that was always a fascinating thing to parse. His replicas often needed to interact with humans in order to complete their tasks, so it was only natural. Everyone was influenced by their environment in some way or another. Even animals. Even clones. They’d return to the base with new figures of speech, or odd habitual quirks, or knowledge that Asuka himself wasn’t familiar with. Though he had his worries about their lack of experience and general naivete towards existence getting his duplicates into trouble while on earth, most of them had had enough sense, or luck, to avoid any serious worries.
While lost in thought, he hardly noticed E1’s return, nor his new, sheet-covered luggage.
“Creator.”
Asuka returned his attention to his artificial progeny. “Ah- forgive me, E1. I was lost in thought, I-”
“Rationale is irrelevant. I simply wish for you to have enough focus to admire my work’s intricacies.”
“Right, right, of course.” He gestured to the sheet. “Well, let’s see it, then.”
With a little flick of the wrist that he must have learned somewhere, E1 did as he was told, removing the covering with flourish.
Asuka’s smile immediately overturned. The weight of it tugged his mouth open.
“I…? What…Who-”
Happy Chaos was kneeling before him. But it took far too many moments to realize he recognized the man at all. The only word coming to mind was ‘wrong.’ Though his former teacher had already become distorted and corrupted from how Asuka had known him before the war, this was a further twist, into something somehow even more unrecognizable from his old self.
Chaos’ navy-blue flesh had gone pale and washed out, but as opposed to looking more humanlike, it only succeeded in making him resemble a cold, dead cadaver. The long scars painting lines through his skin didn’t help. Like the clone currently holding the tarp, he had a level of unkemptness even beyond what he could expect from Chaos, his dark lenses split with hairline cracks and a single horn chipped. What the hell had happened to him??
“May I introduce my most successful specimen.” E1 gestured down to the…thing at his side. “I have taken to calling him ‘Harley,’ though he also responds to ‘pet’ and ‘whore.’ You may use whichever pleases you.”
Asuka merely looked on in slack-jawed bafflement. Chaos had a similar expression, vision blurry and unfocused. Belatedly, the realization hit that his former teacher had not a stitch of clothing on him, and currently sat naked on the moonbase floor.
E1 sighed. “Ah, Creator, you still seem nervous while socializing. Allow me to acquaint you two.” He clapped his hands. “Harley, this is Master’s creator. Greet him the way I taught you to.”
As soon as the order was given, Chaos shuddered to life, with a rickety smile winding up the sides of his cheeks. “Whatever you say.”
That Man, still frozen in confusion, merely watched. His former mentor limply crawled over to him. The thought briefly crossed Asuka’s mind that E1 had done something to damage his legs as well, to force him to crawl like a beggar. Yet Chaos looked positively delighted, if not the slightest bit lucid. He fumbled against Asuka’s shin, his own two wrapping around in a motion the mage desperately tried not to view as a dog dry-humping a human’s leg.
“Haha,” E1 gave a dry chuckle of amusement. “A bit forward, pet, but I expect nothing less. Not to worry, creator, it means he likes you.”
This wasn’t any sort of ‘like’ that he was familiar with. That wasn’t something that usually involved someone drunkenly grabbing at his clothes. It took Asuka several moments before he realized the sloppy tugs were trying to accomplish something. Chaos was attempting to strip him of his vestments.
“Wh- what are you doing?! Get off of me!” Asuka frantically attempted to shove the man away. “Master, what on earth has gotten into you?!”
Chaos sat back on his haunches, hands still half-curled in a grabbing motion. He blinked slowly. “What…?” he said, tone soft and just as disoriented as his appearance. “‘Master?’ But…Master is right there! How can Harley be…”
E1 clicked his teeth. “Oh, careful, creator. Don’t go using that word with him. You'll confuse his tiny little brain. He’s not as skilled at that ‘higher cognition’ nonsense as he used to be. Very agreeable, though.”
While Asuka looked at them in aghast befuddlement, E1 put a hand on the kneeling man’s head. Even without words, the gesture appeared mocking. “Ignore him, Harley, the man is just being stupid. Don’t worry about what he says, just listen to Master, alright?”
The words barely had to leave his mouth before Chaos was purring against the clone’s hand again. “Heehee…Ohkaaaaay…”
There was a similar mocking aura to the copy’s smile. “He’s much more palatable like this, isn’t he? Or at the very least, more preferable.”
A single golden eye zipped back and forth between E1 and Chaos. “Palatable?! Preferable?!” Spittle flew from Asuka’s lips. “Are you insane?”
“I see…are my results unsatisfactory?”
The man spluttered. “Calling this a failure is the least I could say!” Asuka grimaced at the sight of a dark patch on the leg of his hakama. He didn’t need to look at Chaos’ naked cock dripping on the floor to tell him that it wasn’t a sweat stain, but it was easier to pretend if he kept his eyes elsewhere.
While his head was being patted, Happy Chaos had begun panting like a dog. His gaze was too empty to even near the idea of shame at how he was drooling. How could this be his former master? The father of magic, reduced to some brain-dead puppet?
Anger and bewilderment fought for dominance in Asuka’s thoughts. “Do you have nothing to say for yourself?!”
The clone slowly tilted his head. “For what?”
“What have you done to him? Why is he…like this?!” He watched Chaos try to repeat the same gesture as before, sleepily gripping at E1’s clothes in an attempt to take them off of him.
“Running around as a half-clothed madman, was that not enough debasement? Harley, no touching. Sit.” As effortless and offbeat as shooing away an insect, E1 backhanded Chaos across the cheek. That small amount of force was still enough to send the man tumbling onto his back. But all the while, the noises he made were very clearly those of enjoyment, and his unclothed cock twitched from his ‘master’s’ mere touch. “I’ve trained him. It took quite the deal of patience, and a bit of hypnotic magic for emphasis, but he’s become quite the natural.”
’Hypnosis?’ Were he not currently looking at what was in front of him, That Man would have assumed it was some twisted attempt at a joke. Even for the few who believed it was something that existed, that form of ‘magic’ was viewed as nothing more than a stupid party trick. What sort of questionable materials had his clone managed to find on earth? And how had he even managed to use them?!
At his continued lack of approval, E1’s face slid into a frown. “I do not understand. I did not perform my work on a civilian. I have not made a victim of someone who did not deserve it. And, I quite assure you, he is significantly happier like this. He could come from merely being struck- not that I would allow him to so easily, but he could. I have him under complete control. He does not even stand without my permission. No longer will the world have to fear the threat of Happy Chaos. He has found a new place, a happier place, as the whore-mutt at my feet.”
Every word he spoke only made it clearer and clearer to Asuka that he had made something terrible. He reeled back. “No. No, this- this is awful, this is perverted beyond all reason. This whole project was a mistake. I should have known better than to do something like this, I should’ve- !”
“I see that look in your eyes, creator.” E1 began to scratch Chaos beneath the chin, looking more and more like a dog with every gesture. “You want to decommission me. Decommission the fruits of my creative labors. Why? Why are you so taken aback by my work?”
“How could I not? How could I possibly have any other reaction to such an abject failure??”
“I believe you are the failure in this scenario, creator. Despite your claims of good intentions, you have failed to act on them. I have no such hesitation. I took the initiative. I did what was necessary. I have rehabilitated him.”
“This isn’t rehabilitation! This is madness!”
“He was already mad. All I did was take that madness and rework it into something useful.” E1 shrugged, unbothered. Chaos whimpered and sighed at a pair of fingers being shoved into his open mouth. “That’s what I returned to show you, creator. I had hoped you would express more pride in my sense of initiative. Instead, I only find myself disappointed. I was designed with a mind that gravitates toward the most logical and straightforward options in a given scenario. I do not understand your adverse reaction. I am merely following the parameters you made me with.”
No, Asuka didn’t buy that for a second. This was far beyond simple programming. This was cold, calculated cruelty.
Cruelty born from his own flesh and blood. Even if he hadn’t crafted these circumstances himself, he was the one that had allowed them to happen. His clones were all derived from him. It had to mean that, in the right circumstances, he himself was capable of such depravity. All it took to bring that monstrousness out of him would be a few wrong choices and the wrong set of circumstances.
He ran. It was the only choice he could think to make. The moment it was within reach, Asuka slammed the emergency locking mechanism into place. Magic-resistant metal panels folded out to cover the door, wall, and any nearby spaces that the loading bay could have connected to, only leaving a tiny slit through the door’s window to peer through.
Muffled footsteps approached the door. Rather than a slamming fist or a blast of magic, there was only a polite knocking.
“So it seems,” E1’s voice, like his steps, were muted, but audible still, “you’ve picked the option you’re most fond of, when it comes to dealing with your problems. Running away.”
“You’re corrupted,” Asuka replied, shocked at the raggedness of his own voice.
“I only have within me what you put there. You created me, shouldn’t you know that? Does your sense of denial run so deeply?”
“Shut up!”
Something in his chest hurt. Though he knew E1 couldn’t see him, he hesitated in putting a hand to the spot. His free hand felt for the other emergency latch, the one that would throw the bay doors wide open.
“What will you do then, Asuka? Throw open the airlock? Depressurize the bay? Would you still be so morally superior after you’ve killed me? Or are such actions only forgivable when you do them?”
“SHUT UP!!”
“Hmph…”
E1 turned away, regarding the altercation with as much indifference as everything else. His Harley sat obediently where he’d been left, visibly resisting the urge to drag his hips against the floor for friction. It wasn’t often that he went for so long without some sort of relief. Maintaining their punishment-and-reward system was necessary, even with Chaos so deeply under his sway. And besides, after their failure, it would feel nice to release a bit of pressure.
“Harley, you were very good for Master. Do you know what that means?”
A hint of lucidity surfaced in his muddled eyes. “Reward?”
“Hmm. So you can be smart sometimes.” He gave his companion a condescending pat on the head.
As he did, threads of magical energy slithered out from the folds of his battered robes. His first few attempts, back when he was still getting the hang of that school of magic, had left his clothes burnt and messied. Now, he made it look effortless. Everything was perfectly tailored to his pet’s size and build. Chaos was left suspended from the ceiling, perfectly eye-to-eye with his superior despite his feet being off the ground. The first few minutes of adjustment often gave him the most exquisite squirms as his pet tried to settle down. Like an uneasy puppet- a puppet that would grow comfortable with its place of servitude.
A firmer thread looped around the man’s throat and dug itself into one ear. Found the hole that had been left. Pushed right on through to the inner contours of his skull. A current of magical electricity traveled along its length to deliver its load right into the soft, spongy mass.
E1 put a pair of fingers under his subject's chin to tilt it. “Up, Harley. I need to see whatever functioning grey matter you have left.”
Enough zaps in the right places made the pathways flow properly. The naked man’s eyelids fluttered as his eyes rolled back in his skull. When he finally slumped into his restraints, those misty eyes had returned to a striking silver.
Muscles all over his body errantly twitched, trying to process the signals. “Did he like it? Does he wanna be our third after all?” His voice crackled like a broken radio.
Slowly, E1 shook his head. “Of course not. To my disappointment, he was just as sanctimonious as I had believed him to be, after all. No respect for my work, nor my breed of ambition. Our meeting here was unsuccessful overall.”
Chaos snickered. “Heh. Always knew Asuka was a prude, through ‘n through-”
He yelped. A sharp-ended tendril speared the back of his neck, driving itself into the mechanical piece E1 had implanted there before their first ‘discussion.’ The moment it was touched, the device whirred to life, and it busied itself doing its job of drenching his nervous system with a cocktail of magic and aphrodisiacs.
“Quiet. Your thoughts on the matter were not asked for.”
“I th-thought- !”
Between the sudden hypnotic rush and the restraints around every limb, Chaos had no other choice to just sit and let a pale fist connect with his face. His head jerked back with a wet crunch.
“Do not ‘think.’ Your purpose is not to think. It is to obey.” E1 looked down at his hand. The knuckles had split, blood welling in the cracks. “Now look at what you’ve done. How unseemly. You aren’t just going to leave this, are you? Clean up your mess, whore.”
“Uh…uh…ohkaaaay…” A forked tongue lolled out of his mouth, lapping at the wound as soon as it came within range. His dull eyes practically spiraled, body overwhelmed by the sheer amount of chemicals and artificial pheromones flooding his system. With the degree of control E1 had over his bodily functions, any sense of tolerance he’d built up was always reset. What point would there be in drugging something that felt none of its wondrous effects? E1 preferred the simplicity. Harley, of course, preferred whatever his master preferred, so it suited him fine.
The clone’s expression creased upon noting how much enjoyment the other man was already getting out of this. He took a half-step back to avoid having his clothing stained. “One of these days, I ought to properly castrate you. Pity, all of my tools are at home.”
“Sorry…Master…”
“No matter. Perhaps we can make something of it.” A smile tugged at his lips. “I’ll forgive you for that, if you don’t come. If you have enough self-control, that means I can trust you. Does that sound like a deal?”
He punctuated the question with a carefully-metered dose of hypnotics. Even if Harley didn’t nod, the whole-body twitches were close enough.
E1 withdrew a latex glove from one pocket, pulling it on with his teeth. While Harley continued sucking on the wound, he positioned himself behind the man’s back and let his covered hand rest on his hip.
“Keep going, pet. Don’t stop until I tell you.” The rubbery material made a strange noise from being dragged along sweaty skin. E1 immediately noticed the man’s cock reacting to the feel and sound. “Up-pup-pup! Control, remember?”
“C...control…”
“Good.” Fingers fanned along the meat of his bare thigh. ”Let’s see how far you’ve gotten with the chair.”
A pity that Asuka had only gotten a good look at the front. The two of them had experienced far more success on the opposite end. Enough practice and diligence had loosened the ring of muscle to a much more agreeable state. E1 wouldn’t debase himself by putting anything valuable or important in there, but he couldn’t help but marvel at how much his subject could take. Conventional toys didn’t make a dent anymore.
E1 hardly put the effort in to move slowly, or to gradually increase the intensity. All he needed to know was that it wouldn’t injure his hand. With that worry assuaged, he shoved his fist inside, right up to the wrist.
Harley screamed, a full-lunged sound wrenched from his chest, even through all the pleasant sensations he’d already been experiencing. His master had mapped out the minutiae of his body, and that included knowing exactly where his prostate was.
Chaos did nothing more than obey the demands of his oversexed body and the orders that had been trained into him. His body took his master’s hand like it had been built for nothing else. He rolled his hips and pushed back against the intrusion, not in an attempt to force it out but to coax it deeper into his guts. A thought crossed the clone’s mind to get a mirror for next time, to see if he’d be able to make out the contours of his fist through the muscle wall from the front.
In trying to see for himself, E1 only managed to see that, despite his promise, Harley was still letting his enjoyment show. Sighing, the man pulled back his drool-coated hand and grasped his partner’s shaft until the external pressure made it stop twitching.
“Control, Harley, control…” He tutted, pushing his fist in further and further past the wrist. Had he gone this far before? It didn’t matter. Any damage he left could be fixed. Unlike his creator, the replica knew how to clean up his own mistakes.
E1 wasn’t sure if his creator was still listening. Asuka’s nature as a voyeur may or may not have overrode his sense of disgust. He didn’t much care either way. If he was, E1 merely hoped he would learn something from it.