Chapter 255: Chapter 255
The door was a normal metallic door; there was nothing special about it, and yet. To Ale it looked like a wall that was impossible to breach, even though she knew that all she would need was a push and it would open to her.
Actually, she was getting a few data streams that said that if she sent a data packet with a certain information within she could have the door automatically open too, that was also an option.
And yet Ale wasn't sure about what to do or how to do it, should she... just open the door?
There was something wrong about merely opening the door; she was not ready, she should have taken a shower or something, she was dirty and sweaty after going around, and besides, she probably smelled weird with all the testing and whatnot that they had gone through.
She probably smelled like a laboratory and that was a bad smell to have for them, that would probably wake up bad memories for Alexandra from their time as a test subject, so she should-
"Ale!" Miriam Eversoul suddenly shook Ale by the shoulder and raised her voice at her. "Are you okay? We can do this later."
"Whenever you are ready we can do it, it doesn't have to be today." Miriam Eversoul said to Ale, that was enough to shake her out of it.
The realization of what had happened hit her stronger than what she had expected.
"Did I have... a panic attack?" Ale spoke aloud, she had... read about those, as her work as a streamer demanded interaction with the public and entertaining she had researched what her actions could elicit in the viewers. And there were some 'sensitive' topics that Ale needed to be aware of.
And this particular topic was one that Ale checked after the weird psychological change that Alexandra experienced the first time, when Main Core had sealed the memories away.
Something that they ended up unsealing eventually. Something about people getting stuck before doing something, or whenever they got stuck because a memory was triggered...
Just like how Ale had been stuck in that logic loop.
... Oh, Ale was having panic attacks.
"I'm fine," Ale was most definetly not fine, now that she was made aware of that she knew to check on her mental state and that kind of things.
Checking on her Consciousness Stream she could see how it seemed to be somewhat murky, unlike how it looked before as a shining stream of constelations... Right now it looked more like a stream of sparks of light that were halfway going dark.
Ale shook her head and slapped herself.
"Really, let's go." Ale deliberately didn't answer if she wanted Miriam Eversoul to come with her or not, instead she raised her hand and pushed at the door to open it.
The room was... sterile.
That was the only way that Ale could refer to it, there was nothing on the room, it was devoid of furniture and decorations, there wasn't even a single mote of dust or trash within this room.
Ale was sure of how sterile it was because even to her sensors there was nothing here, nothing besides a box in the middle of the room.
"At least he pulled her out of the crystal pod and into a coffin." Miriam Eversoul spoke from the back, "I'll be here if you need me."
And then, without fanfare or anything, she stood at the back of the room beside the wall.
Ale... walked slowly with measured steps, each step felt as if it were heavier than the previous one. And with each step she took, she made sure to check her surroundings, there was nothing within the walls, ceiling or floor.
Ale was sure of it, as her sensors didn't detect anything.
All that she could see was the coffin and under it what seemed to be a mechanism that had get it here, Ale could interface with the primitive AI within the device, it was a simple and normal system to pull the coffing up from an inferior level.
It seemed they were atop the laboratory that Alexanders had showed the image of Alexandra before.
"... Heya Alexandra, long time no see I guess..." Ale said as she stood beside the open coffin's lid.
It was not the real Alexandra of course, even if it was a cloned body of the one that Alexandra had used when teleporting her away.
"I am mad at you, you know?" Ale even so spoke to the clonded body.
Ale's sensors detected that it was a healthy body, it had a slowed-down metabolism, and while the heart wasn't beating more than a couple times per minute, it... somewhat qualified as alive.
Alexandra's body was currently cold, and while she was not breathing, Ale knew her blood still was getting oxygen. This was no normal human body after all, it was one based upon Alexa's body.
Same as the body Ale was using. It was at the peak of efficiency and was capable of surviving things no normal human could. Even, so, it was only technically alive.
Should someone that didn't know what to see, they would obviously see it as a dead body. Alexanders sure as hell had said that she was dead after all, and he hadn't been able to get Alexandra back either.
"Should I even try?" Ale asked with a frown on her face, "To bring you back... we promised to not do it for Main Core... But... Can I do it for you?"
Ale was not sure, she slowly and with great care put a hand atop the face of Alexandra. Unsure of what she wanted to do.
"... Go away." Ale almost barked the words out with as much vitriol as she was capable.
Because as soon as her hand touched Alexandra's cloned body... a blue screen manifested in front of her.
New Blueprint detected, downloading...
"Ale?" Miriam Eversoul asked from behind.
Right, Ale almost smacked herself in the head when remembering that she was not alone.
"Sorry about that," Ale said turning back and looking at Miriam Eversoul with an awkward smile on her face, "I remembered something and couldn't help myself, I was not talking to you."
"I suspected as much, do you want me to give you some privacy?" Miriam Eversoul asked with worry on her face.
Did Ale want to be alone here?
"Thank you, please don't go far... and... if possible ignore anything that you hear." Ale said awkwardly, she didn't want Miriam Eversoul to hear or question her about what she would say aloud.
But at the same time, she didn't want to be alone here, not now, if possible not today. The thoughts... the thoughts threatened to spill out.
"Okay... Albireo, can you isolate the sound from within this room till Ale is ready to call for me?" Miriam Eversoul said turning towards the door.
"[That is possible should Lady Ale wish for it.]" The voice of Alibreo answered from the door, Ale was almost scared about Alibreo answering from one of the internal walls or even from the coffin, but it was good to know that it was answering from the door.
It meant that all the connections that Albireo had were still there, or so Ale hoped that was what it meant.
"Yes... Please, at least till I call for her." Ale said nodding towards Miriam Eversoul and the door where Albireo was speaking from.
"Then... I'll see you later, take your time." Miriam Eversoul said opening the door, "All the time you need, goodbyes are important. I'll ensure that your Brother gets you a nice spot in a graveyard for Alexandra."
...her Brother? Ah, Alexanders. That was not Ale's Brother, but saying so would probably only confuse Miriam Eversoul, so Ale said nothing.
"Thank you," And merely thanked her for that, graveyard... that was not something that Ale wanted to think about.
Instead, she merely watched as Miriam Eversoul walked out of the door, and after a few seconds, there was a sound coming from the door, and suddenly the room seemed to turn even more stagnant, a weird buzzing sound in Ale's ears, but besides that, no other sound was heard.
If Ale focused she could even hear her own pulse in her ears.
And now that was done, Ale turned towards this body of Alexandra and then towards an empty spot in the air, she wasn't quite sure to where to glare, so she decided to glare at that point.
"What the hell is this [Core]?" Ale said summoning the blueprint yet again. It was... a quite detailed copy of Alexandra's old body, or well, new body?
Ale wasn't sure what to think or how to refer to it, she had noticed that the blueprint was no longer stored within their database, but hadn't thought much about it.
We detected a compatible blueprint, and so we added it to the database. The data was acquired as soon as the nanites came into contact with the body.
This blueprint is devoid of the means to survive by itself or pilot the meatsuit, it is quite useful to our needs.
"That is the body of my sister!" Ale screamed as she pointed at Alexandra's cloned body, "I will not... I will never allow her body to be desecrated like that!"
Ale wanted to rip out the blueprint from the databank, to delete and erase the nodes used to store it...
That is not your purview, we exist to help and provide assistance to our host. Your only worry should be how to help Alexa.
This blueprint can be useful be it for spy ops or honeytraps. Your Consciousness Stream is also maturing, soon you should be able to pilot that meatsuit without needing to generate a new Consciousness Stream.
So no new identities/EGOs will be born.
Ale clenched her teeth at the mention of new identities, was that all they were to Core?
Mere tools and instruments that could be disposed of and thrown away like that?
Of course they were that, Ale had theorized this before, why was she even surprised?
".... Can we revive my sister?" Ale asked as she turned to stare at Alexandra's cloned body. "We have a body that is compatible with her, if I pour all our mana into it... Can you make her back?"
The dead can't return to the world of the living.
That is the Law, not even gods or administrators are immune to that Law, as such Alexandra Saintsworths's fate was sealed when she took in Death.
Ale sighed, she had suspected that. Alexanders had never even entertained that idea, or well, he had said that there was something stopping him from achieving such a feat.
The fact that Core confirmed that it was some kind of Law meant that the blonde asshole was right.
The dead could not return to the world of the living as Core had said.
"...I hate you." Ale said turning to the blue screen that had been answering her, "If I could I would rip you out from our body... but so long you ensure and keep working to keep Alexa safe... I can tolerate you."
And that was the thing, even if Core was hostile towards her, she could live with that. She would never, ever, expect any type of help or boons from Core. All so that she would not be let down.
Their relationship was one of business, Ale would keep and continue ensuring that Alexa was safe and the missions assigned to them were fulfilled, and Core would continue managing their powers.
Well, Ale would do her best to learn to use their powers without as much help from Core and Main Core, perhaps in that way she one day would be able to do things that Core deemed impossible. Such as reviving Alexandra.
Your appreciation is not needed for me to fulfill my work.
Continue working to keep Alexa safe and the light of civilization will shine upon this world.
That is all that matters.
Ale did not answer to Core and merely willed away the blue screen, turning once more towards Alexandra's cloned body.
Taking a closer look to the older woman, she was wearing a white gown and had a blanket covering her body, all that Ale could see was her face and shoulders.
So sighing, Ale fully opened the coffin lid and removed the white blanket. Sure enough Alexandra was indeed wearing a white gown, she was not wearing shoes or anything, not that she needed of course.
"......What am I even doing...?" Ale said shaking her head and looking towards the door.
She was not sure what she was doing, or why she was doing it. But...
"This is your fault," Ale decided to blame Alexandra for it, "If you didn't leave me alone I wouldn't be ... Why did you leave me alone? Did you know... What I would suffer?"
Ale was crying yet again.
"Did you know we would need help? Was that why you sent us here?" Ale started to climb up, she climbed into the small coffin, it was by no means small of course.
It was big enough to hold the body of a grown adult woman, but even so, it was closer to an individual bed. A very narrow individual bed.
"Miriam Eversoul... seems like a good human," Ale said as she pushed Alexandra's body to a side. It still didn't give her enough room. "I have no idea how you knew about her, or why you decided to send us here instead with [Big Sister]. But she offered to house us you know? Me and Alexa... A test subject and a Bioweapon..."
Ale slowly wormed herself besides Alexandra's body, she was not comfortable at all, Alexandra's body was cold, and it wasn't responsive to her, with some effort she managed to make Alexandra's body turn to one side, as if the older woman was sleeping with her body turned to one side.
Using this, Ale put one of the older woman's arms atop her, as if she was being hugged. And while it was like that, she put the blanket atop them both.
"We will live with her... for now," Ale said as she started snuggling the cloned body... "Alexa will probably enjoy it, she is happy whenever and wherever she is... I..."
Ale put her face against the chest of the cloned body, it felt different.
She knew as a fact that this body was exactly as Alexandra was, exactly as how she had been at the last moment. But she couldn't help but remember the face that the older woman had made when Alexandra's finger touched Ale's forehead.
Looking up Ale saw the face of the cloned body, it was... devoid of emotion, of course it was. Ale superimposed her memories to this face and she couldn't help but think they were different people.
"What am I even doing... hugging a clone of you..." Ale couldn't help but laugh at herself and slowly fall into slumber.
She was not sure at what moment it was that she fully fell to sleep, but when her consciousness faded away and she closed her eyes, she murmured something that she was not even sure if she had said "... I will miss you.... mom."
And like that, Ale closed her eyes and cried silently, hugging the cloned body of the first person that had ever shown love and worry for her safety.