Two years passed.
I was fourteen now.
During those two years, my life settled into a comfortable rhythm.
Study.
Research.
Experiment.
Repeat.
If there was one thing that had changed more than anything else...
It was Angel.
What had begun as occasional conversations while she attended the classes remotely had slowly evolved into a daily routine.
We talked almost every day.
Sometimes about our studies.
Sometimes about technology.
Sometimes about casual things of the world outside, of which she is unable to interact with physically again.
Despite the unimaginable distance separating us, she had become one of the people I spoke to most, and likewise for her.
---
Academically, I had reached another milestone.
The cybernetics within my brain had undergone yet another major revision.
Unlike my first neural implant, which focused primarily on memory retention and learning efficiency, this upgrade targeted something considerably more ambitious.
Parallel thought processing.
The human brain was extraordinary.
Yet even it had limitations.
Consciously, people generally focused on one complex train of thought at a time. They could switch rapidly between subjects, but true simultaneous reasoning remained limited.
My newest neural modifications changed that.
Not completely.
But enough.
I could now consciously maintain multiple independent lines of reasoning at once.
I had also made a program so that over time, it would stimulate certain neural activity within my brain, so that overtime is would develop parallel thought processing capabilities even when I eventually remive the neural implants and cybernetics from my body.
One part of my mind could perform mathematical modelling.
Another could review research papers.
Another could monitor ongoing simulations.
Another could continue an ordinary conversation.
The increase in productivity in all my projects and plans was tremendous.
I was currently making full use of it.
The laboratory beneath my home had gradually become my favorite place on Aurix-9.
Clean white workstations lined the room.
Holographic displays floated in the air around me.
Dozens of simulation windows remained open simultaneously.
As for the project of achieving biological immortality. I doubt i would achieve it before the events of Borderlands 1 kick starts.
I had to be absolutely sure that nothing could go wrong.
I needed to program the Memory Cells in the body to learn, remeber, and relay the necessary information to the Cancer and Stem Cells in the body.
Stem Cells can virtually become anything, however the human body eventually stops having these Stem Cells morph and shift into any type of cell in the body post-child birth.
That's the long short run of how lizards can regrow their tail, Stem Cells regenerate it by transforming into bone, blood, flesh, nerves, and so on and fully regrow a new perfect tail.
If I can manipulate it, I can have it become any cell in my body, maybe even adapt and evolve and make me fireproof via adapting to heat and so on.
Cancer Cells are unstable cells that basically just reproduce uncontrollably.
Now if that can be controlled and managed, I could regenerate from a drop of blood within seconds and it would stop reproducing cells at a rapid rate once I am fully restored.
No need to become a infinite grotesque regenerating monstrosity.
Cells had to be born, live and die in controlled amounts.
---
A familiar voice echoed through the laboratory.
"Morning, Raime!"
I smiled hearing the hologram being projected behind me along with her voice.
"Morning, Angel."
Her holographic avatar appeared above the central worktable.
She looked older now.
Still unmistakably a child.
But more confident than the timid seven-year-old I'd first met.
"So..."
She folded her arms.
"I looked through the files you asked for."
"And?"
"I think Hyperion already solved about half your manufacturing problems."
I deflated in my chair at that.
"Oi! What's with that attitude! You are working here everyday on multiple things than focusing on one at a time, fo course half of them are bound to have problems and here you are cheating getting me to help you! Hmph! And I dont even get a thank you." She muttered the last part silently, after her scolding.
"I know, I know, thank you for your help. Please my divine guardian Angel, could you give the blueprints now."
She puffed out her chest clearly happy at tge praise; she swiped her hand through the air.
Dozens of blueprints immediately appeared.
Mechanical assembly systems.
Micro-fabrication equipment.
Self-repair protocols for programming.
Medical diagnostic units.
Experimental maintenance drones.
Even incomplete research documents that had never left Hyperion's internal databases.
"I still don't know how you keep getting access to these."
Angel tilted her head innocently.
"...I ask."
I stared at her.
"You ask, ask who? The wind? Thats not a answer."
"Well...I ask the systems here and there and they listen to me and there, full access given."
"My my, aren't you the little devil, not very angel-like is it now?"
"Oh please..." she rolled her eyes at my response.
Angel was truly a powerhouse had she not died prematurely in Borderlands 2.
To prevent her father, Handsome Jack from charging the Pandora Vault Key all in order to awaken The Warrior, a Primordial Vault Guardian created by the Eridian race to serve as both protector of The Great Vault aka Pandora from those that would open The Great Vault, and as a weapon.
Angel begged both the second generation and third generation Vault Hunters to break into Control Core Angel and kill her.
However, Handsome Jack would kill Roland in a sneak attack and kidnap Lilith with the same Siren controlling collar Angel had.
In the end, Jack still awakened The Warrior but was defeated.
As for who the first generation Vault Hunter is, that of course is Typhon DeLeon and his wife Leda whom would give birth to the Calypso twins, of which inherited the power of PhaseLeech that belonged to the ancient Siren Nyriad, the one responsible for killing the entire Eridian race and imprisoning The Destroyer within The Great Vault.
---
One thing had become abundantly clear over the past two years.
Angel's relationship with technology bordered on the incomprehensible.
As the PhaseShift Siren, she had control over technology and electricity to an unknown degree.
In the ancient past, the Erdian superweapon that was powered by the life force of the Eridian race that Nyriad drained, must have been operated by the PhaseShift Siren which speaks volumes of the unfathomable degree of technological control she could possess.
With how much the substance Eridium was pumped into Angel by Jack. She must have reached a level of power equal to the Siren sister of Nyriad from the ancient past, if not possibly surpassing her.
If I had to describe it, it was like Angel controlled technology just like how a Force User would The Force.
Machines recognized her presence almost instinctively.
Networks bent around her.
Firewalls that would take elite specialists weeks to penetrate often opened before she even realized she'd bypassed them.
Watching her work was both inspiring and mildly terrifying.
If she ever fully understood the extent of her abilities...
There probably wouldn't be a computer system be it Human-made or Alien-made in the galaxy capable of being unaccessible.
---
"I've been thinking," I said.
"About?"
"Nanotechnology."
Angel blinked.
"The really tiny machines you keep talking about? It does sound like a cool idea."
---
The laboratory became remarkably quiet.
Ideas bounced back and forth almost faster than either of us could finish speaking.
Within minutes, the laboratory displays filled with entirely new design concepts.
Swarm communication protocols.
Distributed processing.
Self-organizing repair routines.
Collective decision-making algorithms.
Manufacturing schematics.
The project rapidly evolved far beyond my original concept.
Neither of us noticed the passing hours, days and weeks as we worked on the new project.
And with a little Siren power to infuse it. The Nanomachines idea will actually be feasible and become a reality.
And there goes it, one step closer to becoming unrivaled in the galaxy all so I can live a carefree life.
Defeat every threat that could endager me. Defeat the Destroyer Vault worshiping cultists in The Great War that The Watcher warned about.
But most importantly prevent The Destroyer, an interdimensional immortal and nigh-unstopable civilisation devouring and ever adapting and evolving, star devouring monster from escaping The Great Vault (which is actually the planet Pandora) and destroying the Universe.