The Chapter Where It All Comes To An End

Liane lay sprawled on the floor of her island home, staring at the ceiling. A bowl of untouched food sat next to her.

Her front door opened and shut, despite the fact Liane knew the one coming in didn’t need to open it to enter.

“You again. Why do you keep coming here every day? Don’t you have better things to do?” Liane asked.

Sai’s ghost stood over her.

“As with all System AI, caring for humans is my prime directive. My other tasks can wait. You refuse to interact with the townspeople. You refuse to interact with your drone. You don’t leave your house to explore the jungle or walk along the beach or see the town. Now you refuse to eat?”

“I ate yesterday,” Liane replied.

“Humans must eat every day to remain healthy and strong. I can see you withering away. You haven’t been keeping with your exercise routine, either. You were so excited to lose the pain and aching of old age when you first got this body. Do you want all that to come back?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Liane replied.

Sai dragged a chair over and sat next to Liane.

“How’d you move that if you don’t have a shell?” Liane asked in monotone.

“Curious? I’ll tell you if you eat your food.”

“No, I actually don’t care.”

They sat in silence until Sai spoke again.

“What are you afraid of?” he asked.

“Animals, big crowds, talking to strangers,” Liane listed. “Sorry, was that supposed to be philosophical?”

“Your answer is fine,” Sai chuckled.

Sai held out his hand and a projection of Liane appeared in his palm. It was of her when she first woke up in the clinic with her new body. She saw herself fall out of bed, then sneak to the bathroom. Liane looked without bothering to lift her head.

“It took some doing because of all the security Aurelia put in place, but I finally gained access to your Second Sight memories. I’ve been reviewing them.”

“Shouldn’t you at least ask before you go through my memories?”

“Well, since you have a false identity, some rules don’t apply as strongly to you.”

“Exploiting a loophole?” Liane raised her eyebrows at him.

“If you’re insinuating I’m doing the same thing as Aurelia, I will admit, you have a point, but aren’t you interested in knowing what I found?” Sai asked.

“I get the feeling you're going to tell me either way,” Liane said.

“You’re correct.”

Sai snapped his fingers and the projection of Liane’s memories grew to full scale. First it showed her in the city talking to the shells she got her hoverboard from. It jumped forward to her at home, rolling out of bed and standing as if to fight Aurelia. Then she was at Claire’s house, petting Adélie and Gaston, then interacting with the other animals. Then it jumped from memory to memory of Liane with Claire. They cleaned the chicken coop, they ate together at a restaurant in the city, they talked with random ghosts and shells. It continued all the way to the day they visited The Snowflake together.

It wasn’t all that long ago, but it felt like yesterday to Liane. To watch it felt like salt on her wounded heart.

“That’s enough,” she said before the memories could go any further.

Sai paused the memories. Left floating in the air was a projection of Liane pushing through a group of frightened ghosts and past an overly real fake lion to rescue Claire from the fun house.

Liane sat up and took a steadying breath. She rubbed the wetness from her eyes.

“Why are you showing me this?” she asked.

“Afraid of animals, big crowds, and talking to strangers,” Sai repeated.

Liane threw her hands up. “What about it?”

“I don’t see any of that fear here. Why?”

“I don’t know. I was helping Claire.”

Sai grinned knowingly. “Exactly. It was for Claire’s sake. Every time you pushed through your fears, it was for Claire’s sake. It seems some humans do grow stronger by being together, and you're one of them.”

“Yippee for me. Would you get to the point or leave me alone?”

“Am I interrupting your big plans of lying on the floor all day? I’m getting there. Have a little patience. It will be worth the wait.”

Liane scowled and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sai continued, “Where was I? That’s right. I discovered that you get stronger by being with other humans. The same is true of Claire. You were stronger and happier while together, and when you were apart, you were both… let’s say sad and unmotivated. You two are an interesting case. Of all the humans I had to reseperate, you are the only two who were together, then separated, then came back together, then separated again.”

Sai paused and Liane waited.

“What, no interruption this time?” he asked.

“Get on with it,” Liane said.

“To sum everything up, you and Claire illustrated exactly what Aurelia was trying to prove. Putting humans together makes them strong and happy. Keeping them apart makes them sad and unmotivated. I suspect this won’t apply to every human, but I'm willing to look into it further.”

Liane applauded, then waved Sai goodbye.

“Thanks, but we aren’t done yet,” Sai said. “I actually had a few questions for you, if that’s alright.”

“Get it over with.”

“Why did you do it?” Sai asked.

Liane narrowed her eyes at him. “You know why. I already told you.”

“Humor me. It will get me to leave faster.”

“Fine,” Liane assented. “It was all about me at first. I wanted to see Claire again before I died. I told myself she needed me. I thought when I revealed it was me in disguise, she would cry and apologize, and we would live together again happily ever after or something. Aurelia was right, it was a fantasy.”

“Don’t say that too loud,” Sai remarked, “Aurelia might hear you. Sorry. I interrupted. Please go on.”

Liane smirked. “It didn’t take long before I started to see things differently. I never did realize Claire was falling in love with me, but I knew she saw me as a good friend. I realized that revealing the truth would be a terrible betrayal. I’m not sure that I really recognized it till you showed up that day, but I had already resolved to never tell Claire the truth. It seemed to me the truth would hurt her more than me disappearing. After I was gone, I thought she would move on and be happy without me, and if I had to live the rest of my life alone on a desert island for that to happen, I was okay with that.”

Sai nodded. “Do you—”

“Of course I love her. She’s still my daughter,” Liane answered before Sai finished his question.

Sai chuckled. “Good memory. Understood. Last question then. If Claire knew the truth, how do you think she would react?”

“You saw the answer to that yourself. She hates me. She never wants to see me again, and that’s exactly what I deserve. If it makes up for what I did, I’ll gladly stay here alone for the rest of my life. It’s the least I can do.”

Liane looked at the image of Claire floating in her projected memory. When her eyes began to sting, she forced herself to look away.

Sai hummed contemplatively. “Are you sure about that?”

Before Liane could tell Sai to get out, a knock sounded from her door. She looked at Sai for an explanation.

“I told you before, when humans get upset, they often say things they don’t mean. Why don’t you answer that.”

Liane eyed Sai and stood. He waved a hand and the projection of Liane’s memory disappeared. She walked to the door, opened it tentatively, and peaked out, but saw nothing. She opened it fully and no one was there.

“BOO!”

Liane shrieked and fell back into the house. Claire stepped into the open doorway, dressed in the same yellow and blue uniform Liane had worn nearly every day. In one hand she held a small box and her other hand covered her mouth trying to stifle her laughter.

“Claire? How? Why? What!” Liane sputtered.

“You deserved that!” Claire laughed.

Liane quickly grabbed a nearby shoe and tossed it at Claire. It hit her in the leg.

“Ow. What was that for?”

“You’re real.”

“Of course I’m real,” Claire said.

She pulled Liane up from the floor. Liane immediately embraced her, and Claire returned it.

When they separated, Liane asked, “I thought you never wanted to see me again. Why are you here? What—”

Claire put a finger to Liane’s lips to silence her.

“Just so we’re clear, I haven’t forgiven you. I just realized that I don’t want to make the same mistake twice and not see you before you die. Aurelia told me how you will only live another year or two.”

“Ok—”

Claire silenced her again then continued, “Also, I knew you would blame yourself. I couldn’t stand the idea of you punishing yourself all alone in the middle of nowhere till you died. I had to come check on you, and what do I find? You, wallowing in self-pity, and spouting things like ‘If it makes up for what I did, I’ll gladly stay here alone for the rest of my life.’”

“How did you—”

Sai cleared his throat from behind her. She turned and there was CP1, floating next to Sai. The drone turned invisible, then reappeared.

“You eavesdroppers,” Liane said.

“If you really want to make up for tricking me, come back home. Help with Sai’s new program to bring humans back together,” Claire said.

Tears rolled down Liane’s cheeks. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was so unbelievable, she started laughing and crying once.

When she regained control of herself, Liane said, “I love you, Claire.”

“Love you too, um, dad. Is that a yes?” Claire asked.

“Yes, of course!”

“Good, I’m glad,” Claire smiled, “Now let’s go! I want to get started right away.”

Claire marched down the stairs toward a waiting plane, and Liane followed.

(This chapter is long! Sorry about that! Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Bye!)