On A Doorstep (unedited version)

Chapter 23

Hey remember Project Titan? You wanna know what it is? Let's find out.

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Back at the robot, Angela was taken to remove the chip in her head. Roland was engulfed by the amount of hugs by his siblings.

"Rolly's home!" Penny cheered.

Maurice and Violet held onto Roland tightly, so happy he and Angela were safe and home. That was before Roland was knocked to the ground by a sobbing Kuzon. Roland laughed as tears stung his eyes.

Erin yelled as he saw many of his siblings in the robot as Melody and Mason just stared, unsure what to think.

Meanwhile Cosmo sat down as Gibson placed the activators they use on the team sometimes into the back of his head. His systems shut off for a moment as he ducked his head. The brainwashed information was sucked out of his systems, no longer needing. to follow Skeleton King. He was still knocked out before suddenly raising his head back up again.

"Does that feel better?" Gibson asked, receiving a nod.

Artemis shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Antauri noticed this.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked.

Artemis bit her lip.

"I'm just worried that once my real personality shows up, you may not like me very much." She admitted.

Antauri blinked in surprise. He did remember hearing about the fact that some of the personalities on these kids were forcibly changed, just seeing it first hand was a bit jarring.

"Why would you think that?" He asked.

Artemis held her arms.

"The robot's thought I was too chipper, too perky for their liking. They said it was too unprofessional for a warrior so...." Her voice trailed off.

Antauri knelt down to her and took her hand. She looked down at him.

"If that was true, Otto wouldn't be as cheerful or as comedic as he is." Antauri said, looking over at Otto as he was talking excitedly to the quadruplets as they just got back to normal.

Artemis looked back at them, seeing Jessy giggle as Jerica constantly apologize for what they've done. Otto, in response, hugged her and comforted her. Artemis smiled a bit before looking back at Antauri.

"Are you sure you won't mind?" She asked.

Antauri shook his head.

"Not at all. I promise, we'll like you for who you really are." He said before getting up and going behind her.

He placed the activator in the back of her head and started to reverse the brainwashing and personality changing process.

Maximus gasped as his systems came back online.

"Holy-!" He yelped and jumped up before nearly falling.

Nova grabbed him.

"Woah easy there." She said before helping him back up.

Maximus turned to her and placed a hand on his chest.

"Th-thanks. Thanks for helping me." He said with a small smile.

Nova patted his shoulder and smiled. Violet noticed Maximus and smiled widely before running over to them. It's been so long since she'd last seen him, before he was roboticized and placed with her other siblings.

"No problem, just let me know if you need anything." Nova said before walking off.

Maximus sighed and was about to sit down when he noticed Violet. She was a small little kid and had a huge smile on her face.

"Oh uh-"

"Hi Max, it's me. Your older sister!" She chirped.

Maximus's eyes widened as this information started messing with his mind. She was so young! There was no way she was older than him!

"No...no you're not!" He wheezed, shaking his head.

Violet crossed her arms and smirked.

"Oh yeah I am, I was born before you." She said, enjoying his reaction.

"No way! There's no way!" Maximus denied, shaking his head even more.

There was just no way!

"Actually kiddo it's true." Oscar's voice said over his communicator.

Maximus jumped nearly ten feet in the air and yelped. Oscar and Violet laughed so hard at his reaction as he looked around.

"Who-who said that?!" He demanded.

"It's me your concise, nah I'm joking. I'm Oscar your brother." Oscar joked, calming down.

"O-oh, um why weren't you..?"

"I can't use my legs very well, so I'm kinda stuck here." Oscar explained briefly.

The others were hearing Oscar's voice on their communicators as well, since they can't fit the drone in the command center. The kids were starting to get back to normal, finally.

Meanwhile Angela looked down as Mandarin started getting the chip out. Angela was silent for a while. Jinmay noticed this and scooted closer to her.

"I don't think an apology is going to make up for the horrible things I've done." Angela muttered.

Mandarin kept working, letting her continue.

"I went with the worst monster in the universe and betrayed my family...you....how can you forgive me?" Angela asked.

"Easy, you're my daughter and Skeleton King seduced you." Mandarin simply said.

Jinmay nodded and gave Angela a warm smile.

"Yeah he made you betray us, he knew what to say to make you want to join up with him." She said.

Angela's face twisted, ready to cry again.

"B-but if I wasn't so weak then I wouldn't have fallen for it." She said softly.

The chip was suddenly taken out as all of her old emotions and thoughts came running back to her. This caused tears to start pouring out of her eyes as she began sobbing. Regret, guilt, and self loathing consumed her as Mandarin pulled her into his side. He stroked her head.

"I was going to talk to you about this before...but I should have done it earlier. Much earlier." Mandarin lamented as Jinmay knelt next to Angela.

"We all should have done a better job with that. But you are not weak Angela, not by a long shot." Jinmay said to her.

Angela looked doubtfully at her.

"You stopped yourself from what you were going to do to Roland and fought against this. That isn't what I would call weakness." Mandarin pointed out, showing her the chip.

Angela stared at it for a brief second before looking away.

"Now look just because you were born in a lab designed to be apart of an army, that doesn't mean that's your ultimate fate." Mandarin began, finally having that talk he's been meaning to do.

Angela looked up at him.

"But-?!" She began to ask but Mandarin put up a hand.

"Let me finish. There are times when our destinies are chosen for us, that I can agree with, however there are many cases where it's what we do that decides our fates. That I believe is the case for you and your siblings. I placed you and some of your other siblings knowing that wasn't going to be your fate, and so were the others who were taken." He explained.

Angela kept her head at Mandarin's side, listening. Jinmay nodded, wanting to get her own say in this.

"Yeah I don't remember what I was built for, but I'm sure the people who made me didn't make me so that I would end up with Chiro and the others. I'm sure they had different plans." She pointed out.

Mandarin nodded as he stroked Angela's back.

"I kept thinking that I would keep protecting Shuggazoom until the day I die, then I thought my fate lies in ruling over Shuggazoom. Then I thought I would serve Skeleton King because he said that was my fate. However I know now that neither of those are true." Mandarin explained.

Angela looked up at him in confusion.

"Then what is?" She asked.

Mandarin tilted his head, thinking for a moment.

"Hmm good question, but I have a idea that a large part of it now is being your mother." He said, smiling.

Angela's eyes welled up with tears again before smiling and nuzzling him. Jinmay smiled and patted her back.

"We all have insecurities Angie, even me." Jinmay said, rubbing her robotic arm.

Mandarin snickered.

"Especially me."

Angela quickly got up.

"Only because-!"

"Of Skeleton King, I know." Mandarin said, sighing a bit.

Angela nodded before digging her face into his chest.

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry!" She cried.

Mandarin held onto her and rubbed her back, letting her cry.
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Reid gasped as his systems came back online as Jubilee rubbed her head.

"My head feels like a toilet." She grumbled.

"Same here..." Reid said softly before looking around.

"Wait...wait where's-?!"

Antauri took out the activator as Artemis kneeled down to the ground, groaning. Antauri frowned as he knelt down next to her.

"Are you o-?"

"Yahoo!" Artemis cheered, jumping up.

The others looked over to her in concern. Artemis bounced in place before looking at Antauri.

"Thank you so much Antauri! I feel a ton better! A ton better? Is that how you say it? Oh who cares I feel great!" Artemis chirped before hugging the silver monkey.

Antauri blinked as she let go and ran off towards Penny and Trixie, babbling and talking to her about whatever. Antauri couldn't help but smile, that is until he overheard the conversation between Chiro, Reid, and Jubilee.

"I'm sorry we didn't see this...what was his name again?" Chiro asked.

Reid and Jubilee looked at each other briefly.

"Our brother wasn't given a name, he had to be roboticized and brainwashed instantly right after us." Reid said.

Chiro blinked, okay that's gonna be hard.

"Okay then can you tell me what he looks like?" He asked.

Jubilee nodded.

"Yeah he's our height, yellow like us and has brown eyes-" She began.

"Yeah and he's very chubby like-" Reid began before seeing Kuzon walk them.

"Like him! Like him but bigger!" Reid said.

Kuzon stopped and gave them a confused look. Chiro made mental notes of this monkey's appearance. Jubilee looked down a bit.

"Please help us find him. He may be a huge dork and a bit of a pushover, but he's also really sweet and...he's our brother." She said softly.

Chiro nodded and smiled. He leaned down to them.

"Don't worry we'll find him. My guess is that he's at the castle still, I don't know why he's there but we'll get him back." He said as Mandarin, Jinmay, and Angela came into the room.

Jinmay walked up to him.

"Chiro what's wrong?" She asked.

"We need to go back out, we need to find their brother and fast-" Chiro began before the screen flickered.

"Have you all missed one?" A chilling voice asked.

They all saw Skeleton King as he sat on a throne made of black crystal in the Shuggazoom stadium. Cosmo hid behind Trixie, who held out an arm. Mandarin glared as he held Angela close to him.

"Skeleton King! What do you want?" Chiro asked angrily.

Skeleton King chuckled as he motioned his staff towards the city.

"I would just like to inform you that you have one more warrior of mine to face. Titan." He stated as Skelemandarin hopped up next to him.

The others looked towards each other.

"Titan?" Mandarin asked.

Artemis gulped, having a bad feeling about what project Titan was. Maximus, meanwhile, was shaking and looking down. He knew what project Titan was, he knew exactly what it was.

"Yes that is his new name after all, since you didn't even bother to give him one." Skelemandarin said cruelly.

"The robots didn't give me time to name him! They took him off before I could do anything!" Mandarin defended.

"Mandarin! What have you done to him?" Antauri asked.

Jubilee growled and got in front of Antauri.

"You better not have hurt my brother!" She growled.

"Oh! And what are you going to do about it you little traitor?!" Skelemandarin huffed.

Jubilee put up her fists.

"You're gonna have to answer to my fists that's what!" She snapped before Reid grabbed her arm.

He gave her a stern look.

"Settle down, where is he?" He asked.

Skeleton King smirked.

"Why don't you find out for yourselves? I'm sure his new self will be quite a surprise." He said before chuckling evilly.

Mandarin glared at him, just what does he mean by that?

"Oh! But do be quick about it, if not your precious city will be in shambles." Skeleton King threatened before the screen cutted to a part of the city.

Nothing was seeming to happen, until a huge explosion took down one of the smaller buildings. There were a few gasps and shouts of shock as Mandarin has a really bad feeling. Skeleton King's face popped up one more time.

"Time is running out, boy."

The screen went black as many of the others went into a frenzy.