Work Text:
Max Haltmann began the previous day with everything a person could possibly ask for. He had ended it with nothing but a broken soul.
His healthy 30-year-old body? A monstrosity of half flesh and blood and half cold metal and robotics.
His wife Beatrice, the love of his life who had been right by his side through everything for as long as he could remember? Dead, having given up any chance at escaping a brutal death just for a slim chance to save their only child via some bubble.
Their daughter Susie, who had been the light of their lives and turned seven years old that day? Trapped alone in an unknown dimension and more than likely never to be seen again - with the only reason he knew she survived so much as that initial fall being that her mother spent her final moments vaguely telling him that it was going to be okay.
“She made it. Trust me, Max, she’s going to make it. Thank you, my love, for everything.”
Those were the final words she ever said. The last things he heard from Susie were her agonizing screams of horror and shock as she disappeared into Another Dimension, as it was apparently called.
It shouldn’t have been that way. They never should have had to say any of that. This was supposed to be a day of celebration! A day for their little girl to celebrate her birthday and continue to live the perfect life she deserved. A day for him and his love to celebrate the precious child that had already given them so much to be proud of.
He shouldn’t have let this day turn into this.
He shouldn’t have tested that machine so quickly. He shouldn’t have done it on poor Susie’s seventh birthday when she shouldn’t have even been in that observation tube. Neither should he have let Beatrice in there nor even himself. Why was he so careless? Why did he activate such a terrible machine?
All of that was going through his head the night after he became a widowed, heartbroken cyborg. The night after he realized what his soulless robotic workers had done to his body to keep him alive. The night after he sobbed into and cradled his beloved Beatrice’s cold body and found out that the bubbly, loving woman who had been his rock since childhood was gone. The night after he realized that his little Susie, who should have been celebrating her happiest birthday ever, was now, at best, fighting to stay alive in a place that she had never even known about.
All of that on his mind - not to mention the fact that the incident itself sent him into a coma until his half-mechanization was over - made it feel like an eternity until he fell asleep in that bed, now with only him for the first time since he and Beatrice arrived here eight years ago.
Yet, somehow, he fell asleep. And then what felt like immediately after, he felt himself in that bed again. Once again, he was all alone in that bed.
Yet he felt… different compared to last night. More… right.
He reached up to the right side of his face and instead of feeling a mess of metal and glass, he felt… well, his face, just as he knew it.
Just as he sat up in confusion, then the door suddenly started to open up and he got startled for a moment. Who could possibly be there? I mean, it’s not like those robots were ever very good at opening their doors.
But then it opened up and, already ready for the day, in came… Beatrice? Not cold and lifeless, but as beautiful and beaming with as much warmth and love as she always did?
“I guess preparing for that birthday party tired you out more than usual!”
Wow. It was actually her! Maybe all of that was a nightmare!
Max had no idea what to think, but he just got up and hugged her as tight as he had in years with a tearful smile (on the inside anyway). Even she was a little taken aback by his reaction, but she quickly returned it as he finally broke his silence.
“I… I’d rather not talk about the dream I had last night, but I’ll just say that it made me realize how lucky I am to have you, Bea.”
“Well, Max, that nightmare’s in the past. And I’m so glad to be living this dream with you.”
“And I’m glad to be living it with you. I love you so much, Bea.”
“I love you too, Max.”
Beatrice then gave him a soft, calming kiss on the forehead just as she had done so many times before, and it was at that point when he realized that, if she was still here, then that must mean…
“Daddy!”
There she was. Susie. Their birthday girl. Their miracle.
She was running towards him as fast as she could, but not even she could have predicted how loving the hug from her father would be as he started to cry into her.
“I… I’m sorry, I didn't have a great dream last night, but it’s all okay now! I love you so much! Happy birthday, Susie!”
“Dad, Mom, I love you so much!” the birthday girl said with as much infectious joy as ever. “What are we doing today?”
“I’ll… you’ll find out in a bit!”
“Oh, okay. But, um… could we get some ice cream first?”
“Oh, absolutely!” Beatrice, the core of this family’s love for ice cream, said beaming with excitement. “Get up, you sleepy bug!”
He finally got up, and his family got ready to get some ice cream like so many times before.
“You know, I just wanted to tell both of you how eternally grateful I feel to have you two in my life. No matter what else we have, with you two, I’m the happiest man in the universe.”
With the joy fully on all three of their faces, Beatrice and Susie showed their love for Max by reaching their hands to his tearful, yet joyously laughing face, with both of his eyes closed for an affectionate pinch.
And then he opened his eyes again.
Or at least he opened his one real eye again, as he once again felt nothing on his face but the cold metal and glass where his right eye should have been.
He was no longer standing up in their hallway, but instead flat on his back in bed.
He felt around his body and still felt the cold metal under parts of his night suit. He had a feeling that something was up, but as he sat in his bed…
Their bed.
“Bea?”
But she wasn’t there. Nothing was there besides a flat, cold stack of blankets. No matter what he wished were true, that bed was only going to be his, not theirs, for as long as he lived.
His dream was crumbling before him as he got out and tried to run to Susie’s bedroom next door. He was limping there as he still struggled to walk smoothly in this strange bionic form, but he was still going as fast as he could hoping that maybe, just maybe, his baby girl was still there.
“Susie?”
Yet he opened the door and nobody was there. There were so many things in that room, yet not the little girl who mattered so much more than any of them.
Trying to process how his own mind had deceived him, he couldn’t help but just slowly trot through her room and see all her most prized possessions. Her familiar, beloved dog plushie. Her tiny, sluggish ice cream mixer - the first thing she ever crafted on her fourth birthday.
And then her little desk-dresser hybrid, where she both did her hair and crafted her work. On it was both her frequently-used hairbrush and scraps of projects she was recently working on.
But also on there was a pair of small pictures he was familiar with. One was of both him and Beatrice, but especially him, looking on with tears of pride as she showed off that ice cream mixer on her fourth birthday. It was already enough to choke him up, as she had already done so much to be proud of in her short life.
And then there was the other picture. This one was of Susie and her mother beaming with joy as they looked at each other and had ice cream, their absolute favorite treat.
And that was when he lost it.
He shakily picked that picture up and held it to his chest as he wailed and sobbed with every bit of his shattered soul, maybe even more than he ever did the day before.
He still wanted to be optimistic about Susie. He wanted to hope that she was going to survive Another Dimension like Beatrice predicted and that the ultimate miracle was going to bring her back home.
But even so, no miracle was going to bring Beatrice back. Her story in this realm was over. That was reality, and reality didn’t care one bit that her story had ended far too soon.
Even if that miracle brought Susie back to him today, nothing was ever going to be the same. She was going to have to grow up without her mother, who had brought so much light, calmness, and comfort to her young life. She was never going to enjoy ice cream with her ever again. In fact, her father wasn’t going to look the same. She herself would probably never be the same after all of that!
Did she even know that her mommy was gone? Or that her daddy was alive? What if she thought that both of them were okay? How could he possibly know how to tell her that her mommy wasn't okay, and how could she possibly know how to handle it? What if she really thought that he was dead? Maybe even both? Was she even alive anymore?
Or had she already died in that place too? Had Beatrice died just to delay the inevitable?
No. No, no, no, no, no.
She was alive. There had to be someone left. She had to be alive.
But why did she have to be stuck there? Did she ever even expect to get out of there, whether or not it was possible?
Max wanted so badly at that point to have just one moment, no matter how brief it was, to see his little girl and, if nothing else, let his little girl know that at least he was alive and just try to comfort her through what was undoubtedly the darkest time in her young life. But he just didn’t have a way to get through to her.
Wait a minute, though. He was a scientific genius, or at least Beatrice and Susie thought he was. And perhaps they were right.
He may have lost the woman who gave his work the magic it needed to flourish - both figuratively and literally - but he still had his brain to work with. He could try to figure out a way to get into Another Dimension and reunite with Susie. And if he couldn’t get them both out?
Fine. At least they wouldn’t be apart. At least he’d be suffering with a bright light right beside him. At least she’d know that someone was still there to help her, no matter how long he lasted there.
He’d rather die in agony and in vain than try getting help from that broken computer that had ruined everything (at least then he'd be with Bea again), but he could find a way to do something. And maybe he could bring her back home without a hitch.
At the very least, it’d be foolish not to try. Beatrice definitely would have wanted him to try.
Max knew that there was no way to make all of his dreams come true. But for the ones that could come true, he’d try to make them so if it was the last thing he did.
“Rest in beautiful peace and thank you for everything, Beatrice. Susie, hang in there as much as you can. Your miracle’s coming. Daddy’s coming.”