All Things End: Part 94

Chapter 94: Frailty

Nina shoved a thermometer into Computer's mouth, much to his displeasure. He was currently a dull blue color which was the best he had looked ever since they had raced to get him back to the hotel. Grayness kept seeping into his glow as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He was looking even more haggard now and seemed ready to fall over at any given moment.

“Nothing.” She said, scratching her head in confusion. “He's not running a fever at all.”

“What the heck's wrong with him then?” Courage asked.

“Will you two stop talking like I'm not even here?” He snapped weakly. Even when he was slipping out of consciousness at random intervals, he still wasn't being any less...well, like himself. “It's bad enough that I've got to deal with all this dizziness and head pain without you idiots making it worse!”

“Now really isn't the time to get angry over little things, Compute!” Courage scolded him. “We don't know what to do to help you!”

“If you want to help, you can start by telling me how we got here.” His tone was slightly lethargic and he kept squinting, obviously incapable of keeping his eyes focused. “The last thing I remember was that we were at that diner, and...”

“Y-you forgot the rest?” Courage stuttered out. Panic was beginning to fill his voice despite his best efforts to keep calm. Just what the heck was happening to his friend? Between this and his loss of color, it was all so strange...

The machine placed a paw up against his head. “It's blank after that. Did we...talk to Muriel or something? I remember we were planning on talking to her, but-”

“This is bad.” Courage whimpered. “What if you keep forgetting things? You couldn't even remember me for a few seconds back there!”

“I doubt it was that bad.” He replied with a listless shrug. “Although, I have noticed that my memory hasn't been the greatest lately. Wait...” He stopped, his expression suddenly growing sullen for a moment.

“What's up?” Nina asked.

His eyes widened. “Oh, no! I think I might know what's wrong!”

Courage's stomach plummeted at his friend's fearful tone. “What's going on?” He weakly asked.

“Nina,” Computer said, turning to her. “Can you go get my real body?”

“Y-yeah.” She replied. Obviously she was just as confused as Courage was, but she did not dare object to Computer's request.

“What do you think?” Courage asked him as soon as she was gone.

Computer clutched his head again, cringing. “Just wait for a moment. I need to be sure first.” He looked absolutely mortified, which only made Courage feel even worse. “I don't want you two to panic over what could be nothing.” He went on.

“D-do you need anything?” Courage asked in a quiet voice. He wished that he could do something to make his friend feel a little better.

Computer ignored the question. He was staring off into space, partly lost in thought and partly terrified out of his wits.

“Computer?” He asked again.

The machine blinked and shook his head. “No, no, I'm fine.” He replied, exhaling loudly and closed his eyes for a moment. “I suppose I should thank you for asking though. That's what a friend is supposed to do, right? Well, that's what the book said to do anyway.”

Courage gave him a grim smile. “Now's really not the best time to worry about being a proper friend.”

“Come to think of it.” He spoke, his expression becoming sorrowful. “I almost forgot to tell you how sorry I am.”

“W-wha? Why are you apologizing? You haven't done anything wrong.”

He gave Courage a sad smile. “I'm very sorry for everything that I've done and everything that I will do in the future, whether it is intentional or not. I wanted to change for the better, but I couldn't do it no matter how hard I tried. Now all I can do is apologize for it. I intentionally drove most of my old owners away, but now I keep doing it even when I don't mean to.”

“Compute, I told you already, it's fine. I don't want you to change and you don't have to feel guilty about anything, alright? I promised I wouldn't do to you what those other people did, so I'm not going anywhere, okay?”

The glowing dog glanced away. “Until we fight again, then you won't be talking like that.”

Courage smiled. “How many times have we fought by now? I'm still here despite all that, right?”

“Bah! Why must you always get my hopes up? I know how this will end and I don't want to set myself up for another disaster!”

“I'm not like those people. I made a promise and I'm sticking by it.” Courage adamantly replied.

“Words don't mean anything in the end!” Computer finally snapped. “I don't even know why I'm arguing about this anymore! It's an inevitability! I know for a fact that it is!”

Courage gave him another calm smile. “I think you're just stressed out, Compute. When this is all over with and we finally get back home, I'll prove to you that you're wrong. I'm going to keep my promise, no matter what.”

His friend stared at him with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. He clutched his head again and tried to say something but couldn't seem to find the words.

“Try to calm down, okay?” He asked. “I know these last couple of days have been really rough on you, but you've gotta stop stressing out.”

“Fine...” He relented. “If you insist, but you make it sound like it's easy though.”

Nina came tromping back into the room. Computer's real body was slung over her back.

“This thing weighs a ton!” She exclaimed, dropping the machine onto the floor.

“Be careful with that!” He yelled, cringing at her carelessness. “Just hurry up and get it plugged in!”

“Don't be so bossy!” She snapped back.

He went over and plugged one of the claws into his back. “Sorry, I'm just a bit worried, alright? You can't fault me for being a bit on edge.”

“Ugh, just hurry up and figure out what's wrong with you, okay?” She grumbled, sorting out his many wires and plugging them in.

He nodded and allowed the download process to start up. They watched as his blue glow drained away, leaving a normal yet very confused dog in his place. Said dog stared up at them rather dumbly and then shook the claw off his back.

“Come over here, little guy!” Nina coaxed. The dog clearly recognized her and trudged over. She scooped him up into her arms and began to pet him. In response, he almost immediately began to nod off.

“He seems to be okay.” Courage pipped in. “He doesn't look sick at all, unlike Computer.”

“Yeah.” She agreed, mystified with this new development.

“How are you doing, Compute?” Courage asked, turning to the machine on the floor. His friend remained silent though, much to his dismay. The screen was glowing with its usual color, and as far as he could tell, Computer looked fine, but still-

“Computer?” He asked again. “Are you okay?”

Nothing...

“Computer...” Dread was welling up inside of him. “Is...everything alright?”

“It's bad!” He finally spoke. “It's very, very bad!” His voice was nearing complete hysterics.

“What?” Courage asked. “What do you mean? Calm down and explain.”

“I wasn't sure!” He cried out. “I never knew for certain if my system could still degrade even while I was in a different body! I figured that it wouldn't matter even if it did because I thought we'd be up that mountain long before it could start affecting me!”

Courage swallowed. His sense of dread was growing by the second. “What do you mean, Compute?”

“I-I've never seen it this bad! Even when I intentionally let my system degrade, it never got a chance to get this far!” Fear etched every word that he spoke. “My memory banks have almost completely failed, which explains the random loss of memory. If that goes, well, you can't exactly fix anything when you can't hold a memory for less than ten milliseconds.”

“So what you're saying is-” Courage tried to say in a weak voice. He almost couldn't believe what he was hearing.

“I can't even begin to hope for a chance of stop my system from collapsing now. There's no time and...I-I don't even know where to start. I've never-”

Courage's mouth fell open. The hopelessness in his friend's voice only helped to compound his own terror.

“I've got a few hours left before my memory goes completely. The entire system might last another day or so before it gives out too, but that's hardly anything worth celebrating. Its instability must have manifested itself physically and mentally while I was in that dog body. My, 'clumsy insanity', as Nina put it was very likely connected with that. Jumping into a human body and then back into a dog must have been the last straw for my system. These severe symptoms are merely it being unable to cope with the needs of an organic body.”

“So, wait. This means you're going to-” Nina asked in disbelief.

“I've got a couple of hours left, but yes, this is the end. I'm going to die.”

End Of Chapter