"BiFrost - Twisted Self-Portrait" by Matthew T. Summers

The man in the picture stared blankly back at me as I examined it carefully.  I knew the man in the picture, of course… how could one forget his original life, his own visage from eons ago?  Even if it had been over six thousand years and two genetic wars prior… I shook my head, still astounded that the picture even EXISTED, much less that it had survived the war-torn desolation that was now the planet Earth(Prime).

I studied the picture again, curiosity compelling me to delve into it further.  The picture showed me as I had been in 2004.  Brown hair and eyes, eyes that sparkled with more stories than I’d ever had time to write.  A bit of a double chin inherited from parents long forgotten, and laughter lines showed how easily the man in the picture laughed.  The damned stubble on my face that I fought to this day was still present in the picture, bringing a very rare smirk to my face.

How very, very long ago that had been.  I released my grip on the picture, allowing it to settle with a slim flutter to the ground of the wreckage I stood in.  This… this had been my residence, my home at the time that picture was taken.  Memories began to flood my circuitry then, memories I’d thought I’d long since suppressed.

She’d stood right there, against the spot where a wall had been standing, making jokes in an attempt to make me laugh before she took the picture.  I could hear her laughter now, on the edges of my consciousness… and I could almost smell the familiar smell of the soap and shampoo she always used.  My wife… the love of my life.  Oh god, that was so long ago… 

She’d been as tall as I, brown hair past her shoulders and eyes that changed colors depending on her mood.  Given that she was usually mad at me for my ornery streak, her eyes were usually green… though they turned blue when love was in the air.  Her face was nearly perfect, her skin so smooth… I shook my head to clear that memory before I got too wistful.

And… and my son…  a carbon copy of me except for his mother’s eyes, he’d been so full of spunk and life.  My world had revolved around the two, and in his slim three years of life, he’d taught me so much that I never thought I’d have had to learn.

My gaze went to the one remaining wall of the ruins, and my eyes landed on a cracked and brittle mirror that had somehow survived the years.  A horrible monstrosity stared back at me, an android pieced together from the losers of this war.  The creature wasn’t even humanoid, as a spider-like body afforded quicker movements and more surface area upon which to install more instruments of war. 

The head of the creature, the head of the metallic beast of war… my head, stared at the twisted reflection that showed the true cost of the war.  Humanity had been destroyed, with only slim and useless attempts at retaining the soul of humanity enshrined within metallic bodies of war. 

The mandibles of the robotic spider clicked together, the sound grating in the silence of the tomb I stood in.  I felt a wave of sadness cross my thoughts, the only human part of me left alive in this damned shell.  For the longest of moments, I stared at my reflection… until the Motherhood sent its next signal.

The enemy had been sighted, not six hundred land miles from my position.  It was time to return to the war.  Thoughts and memories were immediately forgotten as I shifted into war mode, twin lasers emerging from my shell as I scuttled quickly through the wall, bringing down the rest of the ruins around me.

War was life, and memories were better off dead.  It was now time to fight… it was the only life I knew now.