[Concordia]

“Okay, now I’m going to reconnect the nerves-.” Jack suddenly jammed the new forearm into Wilhelm’s metal nerve stump, getting the stallion to flinch and the new arm mostly made of aluminum at the moment to spasm, which was indicative of a successful nerve connection. “-Now. How’s that feel?”

“It feels like you just attached a piece of crap to my leg and replaced my nice arm with an even worse piece of crap.” Wilhelm responded as he sat up, flexing the much flimsier prosthetics that would be fine for living, but not for combat. “Seriously. I hate this.”

“Ach, this is interesting field of medicine. Nina wonders why she never got into cybernetics now.” The “nurse” of concordia, Nina, said from her seat off to the side of her sickroom. She was a huge brown bear in every aspect of the word. Thankfully the plump and kind-yet-firm bear’s medical outfit conserved her modesty, as considering how BIG she was Jack was sure he wouldn’t be able to stop looking.

“Thanks for letting me use your sickroom Nina.” Jack thanked only for the strict matronly bear to smile amicably and laugh with a hearty little chuckle.

“Is job to mend folks, but Nina not know how to fix metal-man. Nina is not ashamed to let another doctor work in her practice.” The bear waved off. “Now if you are all fixed, go, need to clean bed for next patient.”

“I’ll need to bring him back to put in his combat prosthetics later, is that okay?” Jack asked as Wilhelm gingerly stepped on the skeletal new leg, worried he’d break it.

“Absolutely, but give Nina time to prep a proper operation table this time, is easier to clean than bed, heh, heh!” The bear turned to her task and Jack followed Wilhelm out of the clinic.

“Oh just walk on it you big foal, it’s aluminum, not tin.” Jack chided, his friend limping off the foot as if it’d snap under him like a twig. Crafted from claptrap parts or not, geez….

“Doesn’t make me feel any more comfortable about it.” Wilhelm complained. “I mean, you used a salvaged Claptrap. That kinda says enough as is.” Jack held up a pipe made of refabricated aluminum from the claptrap he digistructed down to base, and smashed it clean into the heavy metal wall behind him, barely getting the pipe to bend.

“It’s aluminum Wil, it’s stronger than it seems. Claptraps are just poorly designed as-is aside from Frag. It’ll take your weight, just don’t go kicking kraggons or something until I make you a new leg out of steel, or if we’re lucky; titanium. Maybe carbon fiber this time….” Jack mused, looking over the railing and down the pit at the scrap/junk/garbage pile down at the bottom. “Blegh...dumpster diving for materials yet again….”

“I know. Reminds me of that time we got trapped in that raider infested town, except this is still easier.” Wilhelm said. “Back then, we had tons of people shooting at us.”

“And me picking up some hitchhikers in my flanks while I was face-first in a dumpster grabbing tin cans to fabricate into parts for your crapped-out leg.” Jack touched his thighs where some bullets nearly hamstringed him, and remembered Trixie’s marks. For some reason, what his marks were completely blanked out from his mind, like he’d forgotten. “James...what’s happening to us?”

“I don’t know, alright?” Wilhelm said. “I… I don’t know.”

“I mean, we’re not...weren’t, unicorns. Ponies even. We used to be human. How did we get here? Why? What happened to the real Jack and Wilhelm? Why do we have their memories?” Jack questioned, leaning over the railing and sighing as he looked down the pit. “What happened to Ryan Flora and James Anderson? Did we die? Are we from some sort of soul-transferral bullshit like from those shitty fanfics? Like when someone dies and turns into Naruto or some crap?”

“I don’t know, Ryan, and at this point, I don’t really care that much.” Wilhelm said. “I’m a lot stronger now, I’m not just like Wilhelm, I am Wilhelm. I… I just don’t know what to say about it.”

“Ugh...you were always the doer rather than the thinker between us. Damn it, why did we have to match Jack and Wil so much? It’s so hard to remember who I am….” Jack growled, sighing out his nose. “You have a date to get to, I have some work to do and a brother and niece to meet, there’s no way they aren’t my relatives.” Jack mumbled, sulking.

“Don’t worry about it, buddy. Things will turn out okay. And hey, at least this is better than home.” Wilhelm said sympathetically. “Well, minus people shooting at us all the time, that is.”

“Sadly, I actually consider that a plus...kinda scary I find it fun huh?” Jack admitted, chuckling darkly at enjoying all the life-and-death situations he never had before as a human, but Jack’s life for the past year had been fraught with peril and he loved it incredibly. “Now get going, you have a hot, deadly mare to be treated to dinner by.”

Wilhelm snorted, drooling a bit at the thought of steak as he turned away from his existentially-concerned friend, knowing he wouldn’t do anything stupid like scramble his New-U account and off himself. Jack’s musing was only interrupted by a violent explosion outside the colony that rocked the nearby area. “TAKE THAT YOU DISGUSTING FAILURE OF A PRODUCT!” Torgue’s screaming spilled over onto the general Echo lines and Jack snorted in humor.

“Better get used to it I guess….”

[Bison Bistro]

Wilhelm entered the steakhouse-themed restaurant eagerly, pushing open the old-fashioned steel double-doors with an eager look in his organic eye, roving over the place as the maitre-d, a beefy and ridiculously cut bison approached with a grin on his face. “Welcome to the Bison Bistro, where every bit of flesh to pass your lips tastes true to form. Would you happen to be Wilhelm?”

“Yes.” Wilhelm responded simply.

“You have a lady waiting for you over there.” He informed politely, pointing out Trixie’s booth over in the corner near the kitchen doors.

“Thank you.” Wilhelm said, then walked over to the table Trixie was sitting at, having to dodge a large number of other patrons of many different species before taking a seat across from the mare. “Hello Trixie.”

“Welcome Cyborg, to the tastiest place on Elpis. Only some scavs might say otherwise with their well-seasoned and roasted torks, but this is also the classiest on Elpis.” Trixie boasted, adjusting the straps of her deep blue dress.

“Seems like it.” Wilhelm said somewhat awkwardly, his eyes wandering around the room. “Your dress is… nice.”

“Thank you?” Trixie more asked than responded, looking bewildered. “Tin-man, just for reference, Trixie is a nudist, she couldn’t care less what she wears. But thank you nonetheless.”

“Yeah…” Wilhelm groaned.

“Oh don’t be a prude.” Trixie chided with humor, a giggle on her lips. “Trixie is proud of her body, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. I built most of it.” Wilhelm snapped. “It’s most of my biological parts I can’t really stand.”

“Oh? Shame.” Trixie commented idly as she picked up her menu to start looking over the options, but she already knew what to get, that was obvious. “I rather like your organic eye.”

“Yeah, well ya gotta keep one of them.” Wilhelm joked. “I mean, things happen on the job, just gave me another excuse to get more cybernetics.”

“Well just know that if Trixie is in any way interested, be sure to preserve a certain area at least.” Trixie grinned lecherously, making Wilhelm blush at her boldness. “Now, Trixie always gets the mushroom sauce fillet, what will you be getting?”

“Steak.” Wilhelm said simply, offering no other response.

“Oh silly cyborg. Everything on the menu is steak, Trixie means what kind?” The mare stressed with amusement.

“Pepperloin a la Tenderloin.” Wilhelm said, pointing to THE most expensive item on the menu.

“Oh~ somepony has taste! Waiter~!” Trixie called, Wilhelm’s mouth getting a bit moist at the thought of the meal.

“Yes, ma’am?” The waiter, a well-dressed kangaroo said as he approached.

“Trixie is getting the usual, and her date is getting the Pepperloin a la Tenderloin.”

“Very well, ma’am.” The waiter said. “Might I suggest that your date order something else, though? We are currently low on the seasoning needed to make his meal thanks to the recent scav raid. Perhaps we could-”

“You mean to tell me I can’t get what I’m ordering?” Wilhelm growled as he stood back up. “Where’s these food-thieving scavs? I’ll blow their heads off!” Wilhelm took out a standard Dahl pistol he had stored in his echo. “I want my steak, damn it!”

“Well sir, if you’re so eager, the one who may know runs the Up-And-Over bar topside. Ask for Moxxi.” The waiter informed calmly, people toted guns all the time, this was no different.

“Thank you.” Wilhelm said, putting away the pistol. “Come on, Trixie. I’m getting my steak.”

“Hm...a stallion of action like all the news say. Very well, Trixie will come along. Been forever since she flexed some genuine muscle.” Trixie mused as she got out of her seat, ripping her dress off to reveal a simple dark blue tube-top and jean short-shorts underneath as she took out a Jakobs pistol. “So Trixie was prepared.”

[Nina’s Clinic]

Jack had spent the past hour rifling through most of Concordia’s dumpsters and the trash pit at the very bottom of the colony, a whole hundred floors down and several stories into the moon’s surface. He found tons of good grift he could repurpose, it was amazing what people would throw away because they can just digistruct a new item.

“Jack! You better have my parts ready!” Came Wilhelm’s booming voice. “We got a quest to do!”

“I hope you didn’t just include me. I still have to be here to meet up with John and Angel for the DNA testing.” Jack called from Nina’s operation table, which she’d so generously cleared off for him to work on the robotic limbs. “As for your new arm and leg, I’ve already finished their key functions, just armoring them at this point.” Which was sped up by the fact Jack found some old Dahl prosthetics tossed in the garbage. He wondered how funny of a reaction Wilhelm would have to his new limbs being designed originally for a diamond dog rather than a pony. They’d still work, they just look different, clawed fingers and softly padded foot for one.

Wilhelm properly entered the sickroom to see his new limbs, and groaned. “Dahl Dog limbs? Really?”

“Hey, these things were mostly intact, and they’re made of high-carbon steel. Only titanium and carbon fiber are better. I just spent an hour diving through dumpsters for you, I smell ripe like a dump for you.” Jack complained, waving his hands at Wilhelm to blow some of the stench towards him.

“Whew, Nina agrees, tin-man needs more appreciation, especially for Nina not forcing him to shower in decontamination chamber!” Which, as everyone knows, burns.

“Fine. Thanks for making new limbs.” Wilhelm said. “Just hurry up and finish armoring them, I have scavs to hunt down, and a date to finish.”

“Or, rather, a date to resume.” Trixie strode in as if she owned the place.

“You think this isn’t part of it?” Wilhelm questioned. “I consider this part of everything.”

“Oh, no, this is just a rest stop, the date resumes once we head out and start killing things.” Trixie beamed at the idea, getting everyone in the clinic to grin darkly.

“I like her, don’t screw up Wil.” Jack joked as he turned to the table and quickly finished bolting some steel armor sheeting to the outer frame of the prosthetic leg. “Alright, that’ll do. It’s better than your previous limbs too. Dahl hardware isn’t something to laugh at unlike their software.”

“Good. I don’t want this one breaking on me.” Wilhelm said. “Now, let’s get this on, shall we?”

“Climb onto operating table metal-man. Nina cleaned it again so you don’t have to worry about soiling Nina’s bed with grease again.” Nina gestured to a large flat table and Wilhelm nodded to the bear in gratitude as he moved to it and laid down upon it.

The removal and replacement process was much easier this time around since Jack wasn’t having to make new ports for the limbs like he had to earlier. Though now instead of skeletal aluminum limbs, Wilhelm now had most of his left leg up to his mid-thigh replaced with Dahl-green dog cybernetics and his left forearm up to his elbow was now also Dahl-green dog cybernetics. Thank whatever gods made this universe that most bipedal species had similar bone structure.

“Finally. Some actual limbs.” Wilhelm said. “Can I still do the whole punch thing?”

“Yeah, you can also do a claw attack now too though, those retracting blades in the fingers aren’t for show.” Jack mentioned, and Wilhelm held up his new green hand and on reflex, inch-long thick hook-like blades protruded from the tips of his new fingers.

“Sweet.” Wilhelm said.

“Now let us be off to get our steak seasoning!” Trixie declared, eagerly walking out of the clinic and Wilhelm took a few experimental steps on the new leg to soon start walking normally himself after her, though with noticeably less clanking due to the padding on the paw of his new foot.

“So when will potential brother be here?” Nina asked as she once again began disinfecting her operating table, and Jack sighed as he checked the time on his Echo.

“Soon, but maybe not so soon I can’t get a shower in. I smell like the dumpsters I dove through.” Jack commented as he stood up, shoveling the leftover scrap and his tools into his Echo storage.

“Nina has spare normal shower in back. Use. You do smell horrible.” Nina mentioned and pointed to a door.

“Thanks again Nina. I hope Dahl gives up on you.” Jack well-wished, and the former Dahl physician sighed wistfully as he left the room.

“Nina hopes so too.”

Jack had found the shower easily enough, and thankfully it was big enough for a bear like Nina, so it was plenty of room for him. Jack started stripping out of his clothes, tossing them into his Echo where thankfully, smell doesn’t linger. It’s why nobody has laundry machines anymore except on backwards planets like Pandora that are flooded with things from the pre-Echo era.

When he stripped completely naked and stood in front of the mirror, Jack wasn’t sure how he felt. His flanks were blank. He knew damn fucking well he had his marks, so why were they gone? A sense of loss, confusion, and despair almost overwhelmed him as he leaned into the mirror, his horn pressing against the surface rather than his forehead and he sighed long and slow out his nose. “This isn’t me….”

“Whoa!” Jack froze. Someone was in here. “Oh, um...sorry!” The door slammed shut before he could see who it was. The voice was female, so he sighed.

“Great, a mare just saw my blank flanks….” Jack knew why he felt ashamed, but also couldn’t understand why. Two lifetimes of knowledge warred with each other and he shivered before climbing into the shower to get clean.

[15 Minutes Later]

With a damp mane and the feeling of rejuvenation a shower gives, Jack exited the bathroom to pause at the sight. Over Echo was one thing, in the flesh was another. “Hey~ kiddo! You must be my little brother, because damn, I remember looking exactly like you at your age.” John, who looked like a slightly older version of Jack was sitting in a patient chair, clearly having been having a conversation a Nina as she took some blood samples.

John even had similar taste in clothes. While Jack wore a black leather ‘biker’ jacket and faded jeans, John wore a high-collar brown leather jacket and well-to-do yellow slacks that matched his ‘bright-idea’ yellow fur with what seemed to be very expensive horseshoes adding a bit to his height. Only rich ponies got horseshoes. “Holy crap….” Jack gaped, it was like looking in a mirror. Same yellow coat, same chocolate-brown mane, same green eyes, it was surreal.

“Hey dad, got some-oh.” A white-coated unicorn mare sporting several deep blue tribal tattooes even over her fur entered. She wore a smart black business suit which did nothing to hide her impressive hourglass figure, but any attraction was thrown aside what with her very familiar chocolate brown mane and green eyes. But at the sight of him she blushed and became a bit awkward. “Oh, h-hey. You might be my uncle. I’m Angel.”

“She’s the darling pumpkin who accidentally walked in on ya.” John teased, getting Angel to look away in embarrassment and Jack actually cracked a smile.

“Hey Angel, things happen. It’s all good.” Jack brushed aside. If they’re family, he can just tease the hell out of her for this. “Okay, so I gave blood earlier, now we just Nina to-.”

“Is brother.” Nina stated offhandedly, as if the news wasn’t all that important as she read her handheld device she put both vials of sample blood into. “Same parents, etc, nothing unexpected at this point. Nina congratulates you.” She then put a bandage over where she took blood from John’s arm, the stallion seeming stuck in a state of awe and elation. “There, Nina did good. Now you all leave, celebrate.” The bear helped John out of the chair and more-or-less pushed them all out of her clinic. Guess she was eager for them to bond or she finally reached the limits of her matronly patience.

“W-well...um. Hey Jack, uh, Uncle Jack. I’m Angel Thymine, your niece. S-sorry for walking in on you, Nina was sure you’d likely already be behind the curtain and I had to go….” Angel admitted nervously.

“Like I said, it’s alright.” Jack reassured his newfound niece, and turned to his equally newfound brother, who was staring off into space. “Um...big bro?” At Jack saying that, John suddenly screamed in joy and grabbed Jack for a crushing hug.

“A BROTHER! I HAVE A LITTLE BROTHER! We are SO going on a trip someplace! I’ll pay someone else to cover you for Luna’s Vault Expedition, we are totally, absolutely, going to-!”

John’s elation was interrupted by an Echo call, Zarpedon’s voice and face becoming known and seen by all on Elpis. “People of Elpis. I am sorry. It is the only way.” Shortly, Helios began shining brightly, purple light building upon several points around its central construction, and soon converged together into a giant laser beam that struck the moon, shaking it so hard that everyone fell over.

“WHAT?! SHE THREATENS OUR MOON!” Luna’s enraged voice rang out from Nina’s clinic, where she’d been sleeping off whatever Iwajira’s draining of her did to her. “BITCH! WE SHALL NOT LAY HERE AND-!”

“NINA SAY SLEEP!” A loud crash was heard inside, followed by silence. “Worry not, angry goddess is sleeping now, like big mana-drained baby.” Nina called out for anyone nearby to know she had the situation handled.

“...Sorry little bro, plans change. We have a moon to save.”

Author's Notes:

This one was mostly original stuff we decided to work in, and help remove doubts that Jack and Wil aren't just the genuine articles, but also different people entirely.

Next chapter the crew gets together again for a big-time briefing from John, and then split up again to try and get some serious multitasking done.