Flipping the Script (Honkai: Star Rail - Stellaron Hunter AU)

Chapter 7: Snowfall Siege

A little while later, Caelus, Firefly, and Blade worked together to carry the remains of Svarog and Clara back to their hotel. They had to subtly sneak Svarog through the door though, and both Silver Wolf and Kafka looked confused once they entered the room and carelessly spilled the robot pieces out onto the table.

"Ah..." Silver Wolf remarked as Caelus placed Svarog's still active head in front of her, "So? How'd it go?"

"Take a guess," Caelus sighed, "At first, Svarog wouldn't let us through because he was following his directive orders, but then when Firefly defeated him in a battle, he saw no other way out, so he decided to cooperate with us instead."

"And who's this little cutie?" Kafka gazed towards Clara, who hid behind Caelus for comfort.

"The girl who changed his mind," Caelus replied, "and basically his adopted daughter. This is Clara."

Clara remained quietly hiding behind Caelus as he approached Silver Wolf.

"Listen, I need you to do me a favor," he said to the hacker extraordinaire, "after you're done extracting Svarog's memories of the Stellaron's location, do you think you can put him back together? I promised Clara we would in exchange for their help."

Silver Wolf didn't respond.

"What's the matter?" Caelus asked, "Cat got your tongue?"

"No," Silver Wolf said, "it's just...I'm not that good at engineering. Sure, I could probably rewrite his whole AI from scratch if I wanted to, but putting his body back together is another thing entirely."

"Not to worry," Firefly smiled, "I have experience fixing up my SAM. I can help you."

"Oh, uh, great," Silver Wolf said, "well, I suppose I can give it a shot."

"Good," Caelus smiled, "also, on top of that, I might have another plan..."

He pulled Silver Wolf and Firefly in closer and whispered into their ears. Clara, still distancing herself, looked towards them curiously, especially with Firefly's changing expressions.

"You think Elio will be bothered too much by it?" Caelus asked once he was done. They both frowned.

"If she's not in the script, then we're free to do whatever we want," Silver Wolf told him, "but..."

"Are you sure?" Firefly asked, "That seems kind of harsh..."

"Why not?" Caelus asked, "assuming they're up for it. I wouldn't want to put them in danger after all."

"I guess you're right," Firefly said, "but you'd better run it by her first."

"I will," Caelus nodded, "so long as you get the info you need, just make sure you turn Svarog back the way he's supposed to be."

"You sure you don't want me to rewrite his personality into something a bit more obedient if that's your plan?" Silver Wolf asked. Caelus got ready to refute her, but hesitated, shot Svarog a glance, and shrugged.

"Well...I guess it wouldn't hurt to make him like...8% more agreeable?"

Svarog's severed head had something to say about the matter.

"Re-writing the AI I contain is prohibited."

"It's just 8%," Silver Wolf smirked.

"That still constitutes a rewrite," Svarog argued.

"Oh, relax," Silver Wolf sighed, "it's not gonna kill you."

"It'll change my personality, and that goes against my mission parameters," Svarog protested.