I am quite happy with how this story and the accompanying artwork, commissioned by Rismic, turned out. I hope you enjoy it.

You can get the back story that leads up to this point.

Part 1 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11994408/
Part 2 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11994420/
Part 3 https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11994434/

Story is by me,  northern-crosshair
Characters belong to  rismic
Artwork done by  Aakashi

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"Dave, please. I'm really uncomfortable about this." said Elie in a concerned voice as she looked over her exposed wiring. The robotic vixen was sitting in a chair in Dave's garage. Both her arms were removed as Dave stuck an inspection mirror into her chest from her open shoulder

"Just take it easy Elie." reassured Dave , "Things are going super smoothly. You've been a great help."

"Just....why can't we let my body repair this? I don't like being like this." said Elie, uncomforted by Dave's words.

"I completely understand you not liking being taken apart, Elie," Said Dave, putting his hand on what was left of her shoulder, "but your own diagnostics told us that your wiring harnesses near your power core were damaged by the heat from that fight of yours. The ones on the other side are partially melted and it's quite clear from what I see now, so are the ones on this side. You've seen the damage yourself."

"But the nanites can fix that." interrupted Elie, "Oh Dave, how did you convince me to go ahead with This? Please put me back together."

Dave was getting concerned at Elie's behavior. She knew full well that any repairs the nanites did on her major wiring was temporary at best. Suddenly it dawned on him that Elie was having, or about to have, a panic attack. Her body didn't breathe or sweat so there were none of the telltale signs to warn him. She may not have any arms, but if she panicked she could still do a lot of damage. He had to do something.

"Lets just stop and take a break, Elie, Dave suggested, "I know you can't go outside like this, but how about I just unplug you from the computer and let you get up and walk back and forth inside a bit. I have all your loose parts secured so we're not gonna lose anything."

Elie blurted out, "YES!!! that would be wonderful." her metal face lit up, figuratively of course, at the suggestion of a break. She moved her torso as if to reach around to unplug herself, forgetting for the moment that her arms were on Dave's workbench.

"Errr, let me get that for you." said Dave awkwardly as he quickly detached the cable from her. "Just be careful, your balance is going to be way off and don't forget that you have some cables hanging from your shoulders, don't let them get caught on anything."

Elie wiggled in the chair, trying to get up. Dave put his hand behind her back and gently helped her to her feet. He held onto with one hand to steady her as she got her balance. Elie stared over at the workbench that held her partially disassembled arms. She stepped up to it and just stared at them.

"Ummm, is everything OK?" Inquired Dave in a soft voice.

After a moment, Elie responded, "Yes....Yes it is. I'm just.....just thinking back to before all this happened....How I used to work on the other androi.....how I used to work on the others at the lab. I would do this all the time. Take them apart, and inspect everything. I'd just toss an arm onto the bench like it was an old laptop. Now.....now that piece of metal and plastic is ME." Elie's voice synthesizer let out a loud sigh.

"We've been at this a long time, do you want to just lay down and rest?" Dave suggested.

"No, I'm fine.....I guess" Elie answered, "I'm just still coming to terms with the fact that I'm a robot. There's just so much to think about. I'm still trying to figure out the questions I should be asking myself. I'm nowhere close to even getting started on the answers..........I'm getting way too worked up about this. Sorry for causing you problems."

"You weren't causing any problems. I just wanted to make sure you were OK. Are you sure you want to continue?" said Dave, still standing back a bit from the bench, giving Elie some space.

"We might as well," said Elie, shrugging what was left of her shoulders. "Just please get this done and get me put back together. At least then I can put my fur back on and go for a walk in the park or something." Elie looked next to her arms on the bench, "Are these the new wiring harnesses you made? I guess I never looked at them before we started."

Dave, surprised at the sudden change of Elie's demeanor, stuttered "Those? Oh, yes. The're the new ones I made off your schematics. Thankfully the connectors are all common industrial ones so I can just buy them from any number of places. The connectors and the wires I got should be a big improvement over what you have now. Those fabricators in your arms take a lot of power to run. I may have shopped around, but I certainly didn't skimp out on them."

"So explain to me why Dr. Everstone designed these bodies with wiring that melts?" inquired Elie, "I always understood that they were supposed to go long term without an overhaul? How is it that you're able to go to an auto parts store and buy something better?"

Dave, regaining his composure, explained, "These aren't car parts, but to answer your question; Everstone tended to overemphasize self-repair above everything, but she could never accept that the self-repair nanites simply couldn't build or repair absolutely everything. The plastic and insulation on your wiring and electrical connectors for example. The stuff the nanites make is good, but not great. She always hated that they needed periodic maintenance. It was weird, but now we know why she was like that."

"So what you're trying to do is replace my wiring with stuff that my body can't repair, but is less likely to be damaged in the first place?" asked Elie.

"Well, like I said, your body never really could repair it that well to begin with." said Dave, "That sort of stuff could only be done somewhat decently in the converter itself. The idea is that this should give you an advantage if you get into another fight. The last thing you need is to have your wiring short out on you. Who knows, perhaps you'll get Dr. Everstone's wiring to overheat.....It's good to see you've calmed down. You're looking at this quite objectively now."

"I wish I was, Dave, I really do, but I just want to run away screaming from all of this." mused Elie. "It's just such a weird feeling sitting there, feeling things be disconnected and you poking around inside of me. I mean, I know these bodies are supposed to go 10 years or so before needing an overhaul, but when you sit there and think about it, that's not long. If a person takes reasonable care of themselves they can go, 40, 50, 60 years without needing anything more than rudimentary medical care. What is it going to be like when I need to have a detailed tear-down? What happens to me if something happens to you? Do I eventually break-down and get turned into a science exhibit?"

"I....I guess I don't know." said Dave sheepishly, "I'd love just as much as you to just turn this all over to the cops and run away from all of this, but are people really gonna believe us if we show them you and tell them about Dr. Everstone? I mean, they will eventually believe us, but for now it's just us against Dr. Everstone. So we...."

"Stop, just stop please, Dave," interupted Elie, "I know you're trying to help, but I'm such a nervous wreck right now and being in a hundred pieces is not helping. I just want this to be done and be put back together, but you still have have to tear me down even more.

"Well, we need to get to your power core to replace that wiring," said Dave, "and there's just no really nice way to do it."

"Oh, I know." responded Elie. "The way my body is designed affords a lot of protection to my power core. It just also means you have to take me halfway apart to get to it." Elie paused for a moment. "I keep talking about taking myself apart as if I'm working on a microwave. Geese, why am I saying that? I'm not some appliance!"

"Calm down, Elie. Like you said, you worked on the androids for a long time, you're simply talking about them like you always did," reassured Dave. "If you're ready, should we get back to work."

Elie paused for a moment before responding, "I'm not ready, I'm just not, but what other choice do I have? I'm sorry I keep rambling on. Just get me back in the chair and get this done with."

Dave helped Elie sit back down in the chair and he began removing her chest-plate, Elie giving Dave instructions on how to do it. Dave carefully bagged and labeled every part he removed and set it in an organizer by the wall. Before too long, Elie's power core was exposed. Shutting down her power core, Elie kept herself running by drawing power from the charger. Dave replaced most of the damaged wiring while Elie watched intently. Finally, it came down to the last batch of wires.

"Well, you know what is left," Dave said reluctantly, "Are you ready for me to open up your head and turn you off so I can replace the cables that go to your processor? I can plug your hard drive into the emulator program I made if you want me to, I have it installed on my computer. Either that or I can just leave you turned off."

"I never thought I'd want to be plugged into that thing," Elie remarked with apprehension, "but it sure seems like a better idea than letting you rewire me without me being able to help. Are you sure it works?"

"It tested out fine with the test AI drive I used. I just plug your drive in and you should be able to communicate with me through the cameras, microphone, and speakers I setup," replied Dave, "If you want, I could make a backup of your drive?"

"NO!!!" Elie Shouted, "I have problems enough with being a bunch of ones and zeros on a hard drive. I don't need there to be multiple copies of me." Elie's response reflecting her continued troubles in trying to figure out who she was; If she was the same person she was before her conversion into a robot, or if if she was just an automaton who happened to have a copy of the memories of the now-dead Elizabeth Cooper.

"Sorry, Sorry," said Dave defensively, realizing he had made a mistake in even asking that question. "No copies it is then. Lets just get your head open before we turn you off."

Elie let out a huff, sounding as if she was trying to blast Dave with a burst of air from her nostrils, forgetting that as a robot she didn't have lungs, let alone breath. The two of them said nothing as Dave opened up Elie's head, it was thickly armored, but came apart easily with the right tools. Once her head was open and Dave could see her hard drive and main computer, Dave asked Elie to turn herself off as politely as he could, as she still seemed a bit upset over his question earlier. He looked over at his computer screen as the readouts logged the shutdown process of Elie's operating system. Once it read that she was shutdown, Dave confirmed by checking the small LEDs on her processor. Checking the documentation Elie had prepared for him, Dave confirmed that she was completely off. Dave unplugged her from the charger and waited a minute for the last bit of power to drain and the lights to go off.

Dave removed Elie's hard drive, then scooted his chair over to the bench, connected it the computer, and fired up the emulator. To Dave's surprise, Elie's operating system refused to load properly on the emulator, crashing when it started to load "her". Worried, Dave ran a scan on the drive. Everything came back as being normal. Dave tried loading the Test AI drive into the emulator and it worked fine. Dave then tried loading Elie onto the emulator again and once more it failed.

Dave sat there pondering the situation he was in. He could put the drive back into her body and turn Elie back on and explain the situation, or he could just replace the wiring without her. Looking over the instructions Elie had left for him, he decided to just replace the wiring without her. It wasn't that hard and turning her back on without replacing the wiring would just stress her out more than she already was.

Dave replaced the last bit of wiring in Elie's body without difficulty. Rubbing his weary eyes and eager to turn her back on, Dave reached behind him and grabbed her hard drive from the bench and reinstalled it. Once that was complete Dave plugged the charger back into her and then turned Elie on. The colored LEDs on Elie's processor flashed and changed color as her operating system was loaded. Once the LED's read full on, Dave moved his chair so he was sitting in front of Elie, since she couldn't move her head with her chest-plate removed, and said, "Elizabeth, can you hear me?"

Elie looked at Dave for a moment and then moved her eyes around, looking at her surroundings, she seemed to be confused. After a few moments she said to Dave in an unsure voice, "Dave?.......Dr. Everstone....she made me into a robot?.....you're fixing me?......can't remember?...I'm....Elizabeth......Elizabeth Cooper?......" Elizabeth continued saying single words and short phrases in a confused tone of voice.

Dave was worried. Something was very wrong. Had the Emulator damaged her? No, it couldn't have. Dave turned to his computer to check the diagnostic readings. Looking at the computer Dave felt like he was about to start crapping bricks. Next to the computer was Elie's hard drive. He had grabbed the AI test drive when he reached behind himself, forgetting that he had left Alie's hard drive next to the emulator. But the test drive had no memories on it. It was just a blank install. How was it speaking in Elie's voice and saying things that she would know? Hell, how was it speaking at all? All of that sort of data was stored on her dard drive, which was sitting on his bench instead of in her head.

"Oh crap, wrong drive," Dave said in shock. He reached for the charger cable and unplugged it from Elie's body, which fell limp immediately, the power core still being off.

After spending several minutes for the adrenalin rush to wear off, Dave tried to understand what he had just seen. What he had seen simply wasn't possible, all of Elie's memories and software were stored on that drive. The only other storage in her body was a few embedded microcontrollers, but they were black boxes as far as the main processor was concerned. Could it be the emulator? No, he had intentionally set the drive to be read-only. Dave had no idea what was going on, but he needed to get Elie at least up and running and figure the rest of this out later.

Dave quickly swapped Elie's hard drive into her body. Connecting the charger cable back up to her, Dave decided not to mention any of this to Elie for the time being. Just like before, Dave turned Elie back on and watched as the lights on her processor changed colors through the startup process. As before, Dave sat in front of her and said, "Elizabeth, can you hear me?"

Slie looked around for a moment before saying in an uneasy voice, "Dave, what the hell was that? Why did you unplug me? Why couldn't I remember anything?"

"Woa Woa Woa," Dave interrupted, 'You remember that? But how?"

"Ugh, hold on," Elie moaned, "Whatever you did is making me want to throw up right now.

Dave gritted his teeth and thought to himself, "Weeeell, you're a robot and don't have a stomach, so you can't. What the hell did I do?"

Dave did his best to comfort Elie and her feeling of sickness went away after about 20 minutes. Once she was feeling better, the two of them began to try and figure out what had just happened.

"So let me get this straight," asked Dave, "you remember me powering you up with the test disk installed, but you couldn't remember anything?"

"It was really weird," answered Elie, "It was like all my memories were there, but they were just out of my reach. Have you ever woken up out of a deep sleep and for just a moment not even remember your own name? That's what it was like, except it lasted the whole time until you unplugged me."

Dave's face lit up as he said, "Ah, I know what you're talking about. Yea, I've had that happen before, but that still doesn't explain why that happened. I mean, that test drive had no memories or programing on it. It was only for testing the emulator for basic functionality. You also shouldn't have remembered anything from when I had the test drive in your body, yours was sitting on the bench."

"But you said that my drive didn't work in the emulator?", asked Emlie.

"No it didn't," Dave responded, "If you drive doesn't work on the emulator then how does it work when it's plugged into your body?

"Well...," said Elie, "I have a silly idea what it could have been."

"I'm going to have to spend some time looking into this," replied Dave, "I probably just had a setting wrong or something....but lets hear your silly idea."

"Well.....," Elie said reluctantly, "Could it have been my soul that was doing those things?"

Dave got a perplexed look on his face as he pondered the idea before replying, "Elie, I know you've been wondering if you have a soul or if you're just a photocopy of Elie. I don't know the answer. I just don't."

"That would explain what happened though, wouldn't it?" blurted out Elie.

Dave paused as he chose his words carefully, "For the sake of the argument, if your soul is, for lack of a better term, 'attached' to your body in general, that might explain everything. Why your drive wouldn't work in the emulator and what happened when I had the test drive in your body."

After a moment of silence, Elie pipped up, "So that means I'm not just a robot then? I'm the same person I was before and not just some bits on a hard drive?"

"Elie, I'm not trying to crush your hopes or everything, but please don't put too much into this yet," answered Dave, an unsure look on his face, "I'm tired and might have done something that caused this, I don’t know. I need to check the logs, I need to figure out what happened, and that's going to take time. Odds are it was just a malfunction of some kind. Just don't hang all your hopes on this. Even if it's just a malfunction of some kind doesn't mean you don't have a soul."

"I wonder if anyone has tried to figure this out already?", pondered Elie out loud, ignoring what Dave had just said. "Dave, could you please see if you can find anything online."

Dave wished Elie would stop trying to read so much into this, but he could see that she wasn't going to let the matter drop. He might as well play along for the time being. "I've never heard of anyone proving the existence of the soul before," said Dave. "I'm no philosopher, but lets see what we can find."

Dave sat down in front of his computer and began typing and clicking for several minutes as he tried different search terms. "Ah, here we go," he said, "Interactionism: A theory in the philosophy of mind which holds that matter and mind/soul are distinct and independent, but exert causal effects on one another."

"So, if I still have a soul, where is it attached to in me?" pondered Elie aloud.

"No idea," replied Dave, continuing to play along for the time being, "It's clearly not attached to your hard drive, but if a soul is immaterial, who says it has to be attached to anything in particular? Think about it, people get hearts, lungs, and such transplanted all the time, yet they don't suddenly become the dead person they got the organs from. What if it's just attached to your body in general?"

"That could be," said Eli, her voice choking up, "I hate to get all emotional, but finding out that I still have a soul is such a relief. Since this all happened I've put more thought into that question than during any other time in my life."

"Elie, remember what I said," cautioned Dave, "We don't know what happened, it might have been caused by something else."

Elie brushed off Dave's words of caution, "Thinking about this some more, this does bring up some practical implications."

"What do you mean?" asked Dave.

"Well," answered Elie, "For one it means that I can't just swap bodies like robots in the movies do, not that we have the parts to do that anyway. It also means that I can die. Even if I had you back up my hard drive, it wouldn't do any good if my body was destroyed or irreparably damaged. Also, does the bond to your body and soul get weaker over time, degrading the body? That could be why all the anti-aging treatments they try that work in animals don't work in people. Just a whole lot of stuff to think about."

Dave, getting up from the computer and sitting back down in front of Elie, said "That's all stuff to think about after I figured out what actually happened. Getting back to you though, do you want to get started with getting put back together?

Elie stared at Dave and said, "Have you looked at a clock? You look like you're about ready to pass out. I'll just go into sleep mode and you can wake me up when you are ready."

"Really?, said Dave, "You've been dreading being taken apart all this time and now you don't seem to mind it."

"Dave, I HATE being taken apart, how many times have I said that?" grumbled Elie, "It's creepy as hell, but I also hate the thought of being put back together incorrectly. I mean this in the nicest way, but you look and sound like crap. I'm terrified that you're going to drop parts of me and lose them. Go put yourself back together so we can get started on me tomorrow."

"Well OK, if you insist," said Dave as Elie put herself into sleep mode.

Dave covered Elie and the workbench with blankets to protect her exposed parts and wiring from dust and insects, then locked up the garage. As he walked to his apartment, he thought about what had happened. It had to have been a screw-up on his part. It couldn't be THAT easy to prove the existence of the soul.......but what if it was that easy? Could it affect the fight against Dr. Everstone? What if all that stuff Elie had thought up was right. Dave stopped himself, what was he doing entertaining those thoughts? He was just trying to make Elie feel better by playing along. He needed to get some sleep and then figure out what really happened and then find a way to break it to Elie.

Dave's mind turned to the alternative. What if the robot in his garage was just a photocopy of Elie? What if he had actually watched her die in the converter? What if all his efforts had been for naught?

Dave arrived at his apartment and turned on the radio in his bedroom to drown out the thoughts in his head as he got ready to go to sleep. He needed to stop thinking about Elie and start thinking about himself. Get himself back together like Elie had said, figuratively speaking, so he could get her back together.

"Sweet Dreams," said Dave to himself as he turned out the light.