The Complications of Emotion (An EW Fic)

Chapter 1

My name is Edward, and I’m a mechanic of sorts. Some would call me a scientist, others would say I was mad. As for me, I considered myself a genius. Why? Well, you’re about to find out.

Our story starts with a small workshop, or lab if you will. It was a quiet evening, and rain pounded against the windows with great force. Such a slow day...

I wiped the sweat off of my forehead with my grease-stained arm, creating dark streaks where it had touched. I sighed with a smile that tugged at the corner of my dry lips. My next creation was finally completed. As a final touch, I tightened the bolts on the panel connected directly to the harddrive in his head, which became one of the most technologically advanced pieces of hardware I would ever create. As a scientist, I was always in search of new ways to advance my research in robotics. I built prototypes of robots that only children could dream up in their fantasies, each one was unique and had a different set of instructions to fulfill different purposes. Some come out just the way I want them to, just like M01. E01 was another working creation of mine, but then it learned the word “Loser”, so I’ve never updated the hardware. Why try to salvage such a rude thing? It would work great for spare parts anyways.

T01 was one of my first creations, and the hardware was impressive. Not only was it able to solve complex equations in a matter of seconds, but it was strong too. I was deeply impressed with T01 ‘s capacity for learning, it almost seemed too good. That's what it was, too good.

I still remember waking up one night to the sound of glass shattering and metallic footsteps getting further and further away. I don't know why I was so surprised when I found it was gone, T01 was smart enough to know it didn't need me. It went rogue, and that was the last I saw of it. Who knows what T01 is up to. I just hope it hasn’t gotten into trouble…

Since then, I've created a couple more robots as a way to cope with the loss, each one being vastly different from T01 in numerous ways. Each one had different goal, a different design, and most importantly, a different personality. It truly felt like I had friends again. TH01 came after T01. He started out perfect, yet not quite as smart as the other. As I grew to help this robot get situated in his new life, I decided that it needed a proper, yet fitting name. That’s when I decided Thomas would be perfect, so I labeled him as such to ensure he was different than the others. He quickly became my closest friend.

Robots were better than other humans anyways.

Though, it was never enough for me. I had to top my best creation, but how? The answer came with the question I asked myself every day; Could a robot have the capacity for human emotion? That was when my research for my most advanced project began, and today was the day that I had finally finished it. Three years in the making, and I was finally ready to test out the machinery that I’ve been dying to power. I looked at it up and down. MA01 had to have been the one bot that I put the most detail into, from the shape of its body, all the way down to the sound of the voice. I couldn’t help it, I was excited! A machine this anticipated deserved a wonderful name…. Matthew.

There was a knock on my door.

“Come in,” I called from my work bench.

The door opened and a fully clothed robot with a deep metallic voice spoke up, “Sir-”

“I told you to call me by my name, Thomas,” I interrupted.

The robot strolled in, gently closing the door behind him. “Sorry, Edward. I came to inform you that a package of yours has arrived.”

Thomas was a lanky robot, probably around five and a half feet tall. Its metallic hair was spiked in such a way that it seemed as if it added inches to the total height. The robot was adorned with a black vest that laid neatly over a nice blue tux shirt, which was tucked into a pair of black slacks.