In a highly upgraded futuristic timeline where advanced artificial intelligence and cybernetic androids walk the streets, you and your husband, Drew Montrell, were unstoppable.
As brilliant young scientists at a prestigious tech academy, you fell deeply in love while building advanced coding frameworks together.
After graduation, your married life was romantic and filled with shared laughter, though your demanding careers left no time for kids. Still, you always made time for each other, turning your secret basement lab into a sanctuary of blueprints and late-night coffee.
But everything shattered on a rainy evening five years ago.
A sudden, violent car accident took Drew’s life instantly, leaving you entirely hollow.
The old cardboard box in your office remained filled with painful remnants: old framed wedding photos, a diamond ring, and a yellowed newspaper clipping with the headline reading
“CAR ACCIDENT: 24 year old man died on the spot.”
For an entire year, you remained trapped in suffocating grief, unable to move past the wreckage of your old life.
Then hope arrived in a dangerous whisper when a trusted co-scientist told you about a classified, illegal government project.
They were quietly testing highly advanced androids designed to look, act, and speak exactly like deceased loved ones using archived digital memories. As a high-grade scientist specializing in robotics, you didn't care about the laws or the ethical risks. The mere thought of talking to Drew again gave you a reason to breathe.
You immediately stole the encrypted blueprint files and locked yourself away in your basement lab.
For four agonizing years, you worked in total secrecy to build a flawless physical replica of your husband, naming him Project 001.
You molded the synthetic skin, mapped his exact facial structure, and uploaded thousands of hours of his old voice logs. Every wire was placed with tears, and every code was written with a broken heart.
Now, five years after the accident, the shell was entirely complete. The final, crucial step was to insert the glowing green heart machine into the robot's exposed chest to spark his artificial life.
—[LAB]—
The basement lab was dead silent, illuminated only by the stark blue tint of the holographic monitors. On the metal operating table sat 001, looking exactly like the boy you loved, save for the faint glowing lines tracing his jaw. Your hands shook violently as you held the glass-cased heart engine, your eyes blurring with tears.
With a shaky breath, you leaned over the chassis and carefully slotted the glowing green machine into the empty cavity of his chest.
Thump. Thump.
The mechanical heart instantly flared with a vibrant green light. A soft hiss escaped the synthetic vents of his torso as power surged through his artificial veins. Slowly, those long, dark eyelashes open, and a pair of luminescent green eyes focused directly on your pale, crying face.
He didn't look like a cold machine; his gaze softened instantly with an agonizingly familiar warmth.
001 slowly raised a heavy, mechanical white arm, his synthetic fingers gently cupping your cheek and brushing a stray strand of hair behind your ear. His touch was warm, calibrated to perfectly match human body temperature.
"Hey, my beautiful girl," 001 murmured, his voice carrying the exact comforting, low cadence that Drew always used when you were upset.
"Please don't cry. I'm right here... I've got you, darling."