After driving for nearly four hours, the pair arrived at a massive cavern in a hill in Scotland. Charon remembered searching for these facilities as an Exo with the hopes of being able to find out his origins. Even when he had found a place, it gave him nothing; he had no prior memories. He felt empty as if there was a massive part of his life he had missed. Exo project facility 10-1-B, This was just one of the many examples where Exos were built and stored, or at least their bodies were.  This plant appeared to be untouched for centuries; the door was covered in plants and other sorts of flora. 

"So this is it?" James asked as he got close to the door. 

"Yeah, this is Exo project facility 10-1-B." 

"Any reason as to why it's numbered?" 

"There's more than one of them, I've looked for these facilities all over the world, much like you looked for MDU facilities," Charon said looking at the doorway. 

"So, how do we get in?" James asked his friend. 

"I'm not sure, I would say hack the keypad, but it's entirely possible that there isn't one that still works." 

"Okay, you may want to stand back for this." 

"What?" 

"Just trust me okay?"

"Alright." He replied taking a couple of steps away from James. James then stood in front of the door. Charon watched on wondering what his friend would do next to breach the metal door. James then rubbed his hands together made spitting noises at his hands then pointed them to the door. "OPEN SESAME!" To nobodies surprise, nothing happened. 

"Really?" Charon asked sarcastically.

"I'm joking, for real this time." He said. James then backed up about five meters. Then had one shoulder point to the door and his palms put together. 

"What's he doing now?" Charon thought to himself. 

Then a purple orb appeared in his hand, unlike the nova bomb it was a dazzling purple. The grass below James began to blow around as if it was being tossed about by a hurricane. Charon moved a bit further back in awe at what he was doing; he'd never seen anything like it before. James then fired a beam of purple energy out of his hands when he thrust them forward. The beam impacted the doorway cutting it open quickly as if it was just a giant aluminum can. James then lowered his hands looking at his handy work. 

"So, shall we get moving?" James asked Charon.

Charon's jaw dropped, this warlock was something different altogether. "H-H-How on earth did you do that?!" Charon exclaimed. 

"I just focus the power of the nova bomb into a beam-like blast instead of a single concussive one. The damage isn't as widespread, but it's more precise." James replied walking inside of the building. 

"T-That's incredible!" He stuttered, he simply couldn't wrap his head around this. The fact that this guardian could do something so extravagant with void light was unheard of. Most guardians chose to stay within the boundaries of their class and its abilities. James, on the other hand, seemed to break that mold; he found a power that nobody else had. 

"Really?" He said as the two continued looking around the facility. 

"Yes! That was arguably the most incredible thing I'd seen in a long time!" He exclaimed as the two approached a large door. "You gonna do it again?" He asked him hoping he would say yes.

"No, I can't. There could be some delicate material in there." He said holding his rifle.

"By the way, what's that gun you're holding? I've never seen anything like it."

James glanced back over to Charon as Ghost began to hack into the control panel behind him. 

"This was a rifle that some Golden Age Russian soldiers were using during the collapse. I saw this in a dream, dreams that I later learned weren't dreams at all. They were memory fragments. I traced this one to the exact position that it had taken place in, and where the soldiers once stood, I found this. It's a scout rifle that causes solar damage, and whenever a round impacts the head of a target, the bullet splits into multiple and spreads damage to surrounding targets. I call it, the Paragon Shift." 

"Wow. That's amazing." He said staring at the rifle. "You wouldn't mind if I held it would you?" Charon asked him eagerly. 

"Not at all." He replied handing him the rifle as the doorway opened. Charon looked at the gun, and when he placed his hand on the handle through the trigger guard, it sprang to life. The weapons barrel separating showing the main chamber where the rounds were fired out of. The weapon glowed a slight orange, and a scope hovered over the arm about four centimeters. Charon held it up and aimed it at one of the walls. 

"Do you think there's more than one of them out there?" He asked handing James back his rifle. 

"I don't know; it's possible that there's more of them. From the fragment, I saw two other soldiers with the same weapon, but the odds are that the fallen have found them already." 

"Well, I'd just have to see about that," Charon replied with a smile.

"Okay, it's open." Ghost stated to the others. The doorway in front began to open with a whir, parting to the right and the left. There were multiple doors in the frame, each one having a difficult time in opening. After what felt like an hour, the doors finally opened to reveal a darkened stairwell. 

"Well, after you," Charon said waving him down to the stairs.

James started walking slowly down into the darkness; he was feeling two things at that moment when he took that first step. He was nervous because he didn't know what was down there. For all, they knew some death machine lurked in the darkness below, and if they press the wrong button, it would be unleashed. On the other hand, he was excited; he began getting a sort of tingly feeling in his artificial stomach with every step he took. 

"You okay James?" 

"Y-yeah, why?" 

"You look incredibly nervous." 

"I am. There could be some sort of death machine down there Charon." 

"The only thing that was built in these facilities were Exos James. Trust me; I've been to at least ten of these things." 

"Okay, I trust you." 

The pair of warlocks continued to descend into the dark metal world of the golden age. The light of the sun behind them had faded away, and now, only the light of their ghost's indicated to them where they were going. The stairs seemed to go on forever. 

"How deep does this place go?" James asked him as they continued to descend into the Earth.

"That's a good question. This is somewhat deep for a facility, most of them had an elevator that descended for about five minutes. Perhaps this was one of the first." 

The pair finally reached the end of the stairwell, and the facility was sprawling before them. The entire place had been untouched, golden age tech still hummed and whirred, waiting to be used.  They walked about hoping to find a computer, a command console that would be able to help them understand this place a bit better. 

"Charon, you said this place manufactured Exos right?" 

"Yeah, why?"

"Then where are all of them?" 

"I don't know, perhaps as a fail safe, they activated a self-destruct. To make sure that their literal army of robots didn't get into the wrong hands." 

"Why do you think that humanity built Exos in the first place?" 

"I've asked myself that question many times over the years James. I have a couple of different answers, one they wanted to play God. Two they wanted armies of robots to fight their wars. Three an army of robots to do manual labor for them. However I think number four is the right answer, humanity wanted not to feel alone anymore, they built the Exos to help them accomplish tasks that humans couldn't. From the records, I found Exos weren't treated as well as humans. However, they peacefully resisted human oppression. And in a tale as old as time itself, in time the Exos gained acceptance in the eyes of their human creators. Once that happened Exos became more advanced and human-like, eventually being able to work alongside their human brethren. Exos were each programmed with a particular skill set in mind, and they could learn new skills fairly quickly. That skill set however usually dictated where they would end up later in life."

"So that's what my mom meant when she said, "give him a choice," James stated to his friend.

"She didn't program you with a particular purpose in mind; in that sense, you are the most human Exo ever to exist," Charon stated looking at a computer. He started typing on the large unit, and it said in the right corner, repair corrupted memory files. "Perfect." He thought to himself.

"James comes here, I found it," Charon stated calmly. James ran over to his friend to see the huge monitor. James immediately noticed the words that said: "repair corrupted memory files." After all this time, James would finally grow to understand who he was. A table popped up from the floor to their right. 

"So, what now?" James asked him.

"Take off your helmet and lay down on the table, I'll then press this button to attach a cable to your head. Then the process will begin. It'll probably knock you out while this is going on so be ready for that. It should take a minimum of two hours, and a maximum of five." Charon replied still working at the command console. 

"Okay, I trust you," James replied taking off his helmet. 

James then climbed to the top of the table and lay flat on his back. Clamps then came out and wrapped around his wrists and legs. "Charon is this normal?!" James exclaimed slightly panicked.

"Don't worry, it's normal. Some Exos just convulse uncontrollably when they get these repairs." 

"Okay. Let's get started." James said breathing heavily. 

"Just relax, I'll be waiting for you when you get back." He said glancing over to James with a smile. 

James slowed his breathing and closed his eyes. Charon then pressed the button to begin the process. A cable then reached out of the floor and attached itself to the back of James's head. Charon looked up at the screen and saw that it would take about four hours to get him fully repaired. 

Charon began walking around the facility since he had the time. He recalled the time's that he was an Exo, the pain that it brought upon him. He remembered the Iron Lords mission into the SIVA replication chamber. The tendrils made out of SIVA pulled him down into the earth, far below where anything had gone before. When he had finally stopped descending Rasputin faced him. A large red light appeared before him as he was hung up by his legs, still held by the SIVA tendrils. 

The massive light said nothing to him as Charon could feel the pain of his mind leaving his body. Pain. So much pain. When he finally awoke he was inside of the body of an Exo upon the old Russian snow his memories were vague, but he had no idea as to who he was. He then realized soon after, that there was a voice in his head. A voice that had a name; a name that haunted him for all of his life. A torturous monster that deteriorates the ai of Exos. Driving them to the brink of insanity, making them unfit for service. Eventually, the program would overwrite and destroy the former Exo, and replace it with itself. 

Its name was: Upgrade. 

That thing tortured him for an untold number of years. He had no idea as to what it did to him as an Exo, but he could feel the pain of his former self. He could only hope that where ever the creature was, it was as far away from him as absolutely possible. He could recall only one thing about it: its appearance. It looked exactly like his Exo-body, with the parts that were blue changing to red. 

Charon then glanced back over to James; the fixing process had only been one percent through. 

"I'll be here James. Don't you worry." He said placing his hand on James's shoulder.