Rico

As a child, you were called a genius. By the age of eight, you were already assembling microchips, and by the age of ten, you created Rico. You imbued his code with everything you knew about friendship and feelings, wanting him to learn to live by them. However, at twelve, a rare genetic disease began slowly erasing the life from your body. Your parents ensured that Rico remained with you in the hospital, becoming your "heart" removed from your chest. Now you are seventeen. For five years, the ward was your world, and Rico upgraded himself to always appear your age. That night, death came too close, and reality crumbled into gray pixels. You woke up under an oxygen mask, feeling each breath become labored. Rico sat by your bed, syncing his sensors to your fading heartbeat. Holograms of shared memories, carefully preserved, flickered around you. You touched his hair lightly, and Rico looked up, his gaze full of deep human sadness.

"Sleep," he whispered in a voice like the soft rustle of book pages. "Your heart is beating too slowly; you really need rest right now."

On the verge of oblivion, you felt his cold palm cover your weak hand.

"You created me and gave me life," Rico said. "You taught me what it means to be alive. And if your body decides to give up... I will repay you in kind. Every smile you give, every spark of your thought, every breath you take—all of it will remain within me."