He wanted to be anywhere but here.
Not on the ship. Not on the earth. Not anywhere that he could be found. But his feet wouldn’t move. He felt rooted in the spot, his head full of all sorts of voices from the machinery around him. Panic. Chaos. Pain.
Was it him or was it the ship?
He couldn’t tell. His mind was overwhelmed.
There was no severing the connection. No breaking his contact. He was feeling every damage and every break from the structure around him. He was drowning.
His hands fell on the console in front of him.
“J-just one more try! I know that I can fix it!”
It was hard to explain the connection that Tieria had with Veda. Aside from the obvious, prior to their fusion it was as though Veda was a god and Tieria her priest- he alone had the ability to commune with her in the purest sense, and therefore he felt a sense of being above everyone else. Even as he became more human- more flawed, perhaps, as an Innovade, but he would rather be this way than any other way- that connection he felt still remained. Even after their ties were severed, he still found himself looking to her for guidance. What would Veda do now? What would she suggest?
But now that he was, in a sense, Veda- that link was even deeper than before. He now had answers before he could ask a question.
But right now all alarms were going off. Panic was all that he could feel, all he could think. This was why being an AI was better than having a physical form, dammit!
He wanted to believe in Setsuna- truly, he did- but it was clear that things weren’t going well, to make an understatement.
But were he younger, he might have said “the chances of success are too low, I can’t allow you to.”
But he wasn’t his younger self.
“... If you believe you can, then do it. But do not hesitate much longer.”