Chapter 260: Chapter 260

[Loading up virtual environment...]

[Loading up checklist....]

[Loading up virtual persona...]

[Setting up artificial fake check-up list...]

[Setting up artificial fake work environment...]

[Setting up psyche analysis...]

"STOP IT!" The voice came crashing down as a crack within the virtual environment, and as it came, an opening in the floor started forming, "WHAT WAS THAT?!?!?!? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!?"

As the crack started to spread, error messages began flooding the virtual environment. They started to pile up and float down as if trying to seal the cracks, alas, it was to no avail. As a fist came crushing from under the floor, opening the crack wide open.

"EXPLANATIONS!" From there an arm covered in bloody cracks came up, pulling up herself up came the figure of Alexa, she was covered in gashes, her official white sundress was filled with blood and cuts, her hair was messy and unkept, "I DID NOT WISH FOR THIS!"

"DO NOT PATRONIZE ME!" Alexa glared and, throwing a punch forward, she let her arm stretch far as it sank into the air, as if it had crossed some kind of threshold, "EXPLANATIONS, NOW."

As she screamed, she pulled something from within that ripple in the space.

A second later, a second figure came out from there, it was... to the surprise of no one, a second Alexa, this one had a more calm demeanour, and while her sundress was also filled with holes, the blood was long dry.

This new Alexa had red eyes and a cold expression on her face.

"... It is what we wished for, a world where we could have a second chance, a chance to be happy." This red-eyed Alexa said, looking down at the first Alexa, "Aren't you living happily every day?"

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT I MEAN!" The first Alexa said pointing down the hole she had crawled from, "WHAT.WAS.THAT?"

"A hole into our psyche," The second red-eye Alexa said, "It does not look quite healthy, you are aware that by coming here you made everything harder, or was that too complex for you to understand?"

"....I will end you." The first Alexa said, this time she was no longer screaming, but even so, her voice had turned into an almost mechanical quality, it was not, however, devoid of emotions. The rage was palpable within the voice, "Do not test me, Test Subject P4."

"...I apologize Alexa," P4 said bowing to Alexa, "But if you are speaking to me , I assume the experiment is going well. If not you would not be this riled up by that... bump you experienced."

"Careful P4, be very careful about how you speak to me." Alexa seethed as her form struggled to keep a humanoid form, her flesh was boiling and attempting to grow claws and maws, "What...was....that?"

Alexa struggled to keep her form, each second that went by P4 could see how close Alexa was to loosing herself in the unbridled rage.

"That was a daughter mourning the death of her Mother." P4 said snapping her fingers and showing a video of Ale climbing into the funeral casket, it was filmed from a vantage point that allowed them to see it as it happened, and not from Ale's POV, "That was a goodbye, a scene usually only seen in the darkest moments when a mother dies trying to save their daughter. A last goodbye from the Mother to the daughter as they use their body to protect their daughter..."

P4 continued speaking, and behind the first video, hundreds of similar images started to play, different locations, different scenarios, a mother covering their child in a car accident.

A couple of parents using their bodies to protect their sons and daughters during a fire, during a mudslide, an avalanche... all kinds of natural disasters, and lastly... an image of a parent using their body to distract a monster from attacking their kin.

"A very Human action if anything," P4 finished speaking as Alexa's body started to calm down, "That is, in normal circumstances, in this instance? It was a bug, an error, a data leak from the original database."

"... But... Ale and Alexandra... We made them..." Alexa said as she walked to the video of Ale climbing into the coffin, "I made them..."

"Two fully formed personalities made into the spot," P4 said turning to Alexa, "You are aware how impossible that is to make yes? The reason you are you, the reason we are ..."

"... I know... When I am ... detached from my new life..." Alexa said closing her eyes, images of their past threatening to come to the front, the only reason they didn't bombard her, the only reason she was able to remain as Alexa... Was because P4 was there, weathering the storm in her stead, because she was stopping it, "I know why I am here."

"Because you were living a happy life and suddenly didn't like the fact that your new toys were suffering." P4 mocked Alexa, "You are happy, you will be happy, we made sure of that... But that is only for you, maybe our Brother can enjoy some happiness, but that is about it."

"...Mom?" Alexa said turning to P4, "Auntie...?"

P4 shook their head. Alexa knew it, as soon as the question formed in her head she knew the answer.

"Okay... If... If we didn't make Ale and Alexandra, then who were they?" Alexa asked, she didn't... she didn't know what to think about that, "At that point in time we had killed one human, we didn't kill any of the children or people in the facility, only the one who attacked us, but neither Ale or Alexandra moved like them."

"A very unlucky mother and daughter." P4 answered, "They were among the last people to survive, the database had been already made and prepared, the Arc was closed so their souls floated near the border between here and there, so when you wanted to make the Core of the Consciousness Strand for your Teenager form and your Adult form, their data was the one you unknownly sourced from."

Alexa closed her eyes, trying to imagine herself doing that, she couldn't. She wouldn't... Not now, not before... but then? When she wasn't even aware of what she was, what she really was...

"I..." Alexa couldn't, she didn't want to know, she didn't want to think about it.

"They would have turned into something worse, at least this way she could say goodbye." P4 said turning off the recordings, "Ale is not aware of this, she will probably start assuming the most convenient thing for her own awareness and come up with the correct answer for our sake."

"... It's that also a Law that you set up?" Alexa asked opening her eyes and turning to P4, "Is that also something we did?"

"No," P4 said shaking their head once more, "It is the logical outcome, Ale is not the girl who died after the Arc was sealed and sent this way, she is Ale Saintsworths. Your older sister."

"... Do we... Is there a way to know her real name?" Alexa couldn't help but say, turning to look at what was behind P4, at what really was behind P4, not the imaginary of the empty space and dark void, but the actual form behind them, "Is it saved somewhere there?"

"Did you not listen before?" P4 said snapping their fingers, a ripple started to form behind them, and as if a curtain was pulled, the void turned into a metallic sphere, a gargantuan metallic sphere.

An AI Core spinning lazily as it was surrounded by several Dyson rings orbiting around it, data banks, data servers, subcomputational systems fueled by a dwarf star...

Or that was how Alexa's brain parsed it, she wasn't even sure if she would be able to see the real form of P4 anytime soon.

"They didn't make it to the ARC. The only reason they were able to make it to this side was that they survived till you attempted to make those Consciousness Strands. If they hadn't managed to survive these last five years, they would have been either snuffed out of reality or become one of the pawns of The Scrambler." P4 snapped their finger once again, and the image behind them returned to a starry sky. "Now, did you risk our psyche only for this? Guilt?"

Alexa recoiled at that accusation, "I... No," Had she really come here only for that? "How did I even regain my full awareness?"

"You have not gained such a thing," P4 said smirking, "You are still what, five? Your form at least seems to imply that, no. What you are doing is piloting your older sister's brain while she is tired from crying into unconsciousness."

Alexa couldn't help but flinch at that.

"Ale... I am in Ale's brain?" Alexa summoned a mirror and sure enough, her form was still hers, the same body she had made from day one, her True Body, "But I am me."

"And you are also me." P4 said nodding along, "But Ale knows something is up, she has noticed how causality twists to accommodate us, so her suspicion activated one of the failsafes and rerouted that thought to you. Who in turn wanted to help your older sister to feel better. And as a child who always solves the problems by biting at them, you followed your instincts."

Alexa had felt the need to dig, while sleeping within the Queen sized bed in their mindscape she felt the need to dig down, the answer would be there. She knew that somehow.

Even as she felt her body be cut, and her blood be drained, she knew that she needed to go down.

The more down she went the more clear her head felt, the more cold her thoughts had turned, and her rage started to climb up, by the point she got here she was seething with righteous fury.

And as soon as she pulled herself in she felt all the information rush back, all the thoughtback rolls she suffered, that Ale suffered, the indignation at the fact that her mind was being toyed by...

And the identity of the one who had set up all of this.

Alexandra Saintsworths, the original one anyway.

"And so I came back, not as P4, not as a test subject, not as a bioweapon... But as the one who made a wish upon a star... " Alexa said sighing, "Should have listened to big brother..."

Alexa couldn't help but laugh at herself.

"Do remember that he also failed to get his wish fulfilled in the end," P4 pointed out, "If he had succeeded, we wouldn't be here after all."

"That is true... Do you think he is happy now?" Alexa couldn't help but ask yet again, "I... is that why I haven't interacted with him? Why we always find an excuse to not meet him?"

"Guilt." P4 nodded, "From his side is probably self-preservation instincts, he does have Sapphire by his side... The old hag somehow managed to worm herself into this world too."

"Is that... emotions?" Alexa finally asked.

"... We always had a few of those, not as many, but some. The more you move towards becoming human, the more that will come to my side... and when you achieve it... We will fade away." P4 sighed, "And then we may just save the world."

"Should we tell Ale?" Alexa asked, "Do you think they will forgive us?"

"If you want to keep her around then that is the Human thing to do." P4 nodded, "But we will not."

"Why?" Alexa asked confused, "You don't like her?"

"That is not the issue, have you forgotten already?" P4 pointed down, at the crack Alexa had used to come here, "This is on the border between Terra Nova and Terra Invicta. Nothing from Terra Invicta will be able to pass down to Terra Nova, information is among the things that will not pass."

"But... The Scrambler... The Theater Master... Sapphire...." Alexa said pointing down, "Even Beatrice made past it!"

So many examples of inhabitants from that side.

"Beatrice... does not count, her Mother cheated." P4 said grumbling, "Your examples are flawed too, both The Scrambler and The Theater Master were within the range of the original ARC. Sapphire was an administrator so part of her psyche survived, and to that we add the fact that the [Wish] moved in a way we didn't expect, you have your Brother to thank for that."

Alexanders? Had the original [Wish] helped him in such a way? That sounded about right, big Brother always had the luck of a devil... or a dragon in this case.

"Then... how do we tell Ale? About her past." Alexa asked turning to P4 pleading with her eyes, "She deserves to know the truth..."

"She will need to find for herself, she will find it on her own eventually, she is smart. And she is already vaguely aware of the most important clue she can get." P4 said summoning an image of Ale wearing her body armor, "What do you think is the difference between Ale and us?"

"She is twelve years old?" Alexa said unsure about what P4 was getting to.

"No, Ale is a good Humanoid Weapon. She has the talent to become a BioWeapon." P4 said moving the image so now Ale was wielding the modified claw armament she liked to use, "And we are not that."

Alexa nodded as the realization hit her, "You are right...We are not BioWeapons, not really." Alexa couldn't help but admit that, "We are a Monster. An aberration, a mistake... We are the destructor and the end of the world. We are the poison that killed everything we had, even before we understood how much they meant to us."

Alexa knew better than anyone what she was.

"If she actually knew what we are..." Alexa said sitting on the floor.

"What you are and what I am..." P4 said walking towards Alexa and sitting in front of her, from the side it was almost as if a lone girl was sitting in front of a mirror, only one had red eyes and the other blue eyes, "I am the poison that killed my foster family, my Brother, and everyone in my universe... You, on the other hand..."

"You?" Alexa asked confused, "We are the same."

"No," P4 said shaking their head, "I am an Eldritch Entity who brought the end of the world to the planet I arrived at. You, on the other hand, have not done anything of the like."

P4 then summoned the 'Maintenance' logs. The maintenance Alexa, Ale and Alexandra had been doing were bogus ones, the time during those maintenances had been to distract them while Core did the heavy lifting and ensured something else.

"We made sure, we are not poisoning the ambient mana, Terra Nova was prepared and set up for our arrival, the mana in the planet was ready and attuned. Our birth didn't bring destruction..." P4 said turning to Alexa, "We have hope... You have hope... Our history will not repeat, at least not because of us."

Alexa was seeing the data, and she couldn't help but dream, dream of how that would look.

"... But... Is it worth it? The sacrifices we did..." Alexa couldn't help but ask that as she looked at P4, "Will... will it work?"

"The causality will try its best to move everything forward, Core will keep monitoring us... And the ND0 system should do the rest." P4 said nodding to Alexa. "This may be the last time we see each other, I can't return to your side. We can't risk cross-contamination, so even this conversation will remain here..."

"Do you think Granpa will do his work this time?" Alexa couldn't help but ask as she looked to the ceiling of this space, there at the corner of the ceiling was a singular red screen as if waiting something.

"They will do their best, besides you have seen it, have you not?" P4 said nodding, "Granpa has been chained down, only the ND0 System was left out in the open, and even that needs to follow its directives. Should anything go wrong, we do have the fail-safes."

Alexa... was not sure if she wanted to know what that was about, even after knowing that most if not all of this information would not make it down...

"If information can't make it back, can you tell me what those failsafes are?" Alexa decided to ask about it.

"No." But P4 said as much, "I would have told you before, but after seeing that."

P4 summoned once again the image of Ale climbing into the coffin with Alexandra.

"Information may not make it through, but emotions and feelings seem to be able to make it there," P4 said summoning another image, this time it was the image of a black-haired girl and an older woman, they were in a car accident at the bottom of a cliff, the sky seemed to be filled with smoke and the land looked... like an ashfield? "Perhaps it was a chance... perhaps it was causality... But the parallelism can't be ignored."

P4 superimposed both images and... as they started playing the video, the images superimposed perfectly, Ale climbing into the coffin with the image of the teenager climbing up to the body of their Mother.

"..." Alexa didn't know what to say.

"We will not be seeing us again Alexa," P4 said that as they stood up and took a few steps backward, as they moved the crack that Alexa had made started to grow in size, in Alexa's direction. "May the light of Civilization shine bright and guide you towards Hapiness."

And with that, Alexa fell down into the abyss. As she fell, she couldn't help but feel each memory about what had happened slip through her fingers. But as they moved away from her, Alexa picked up the last one that P4 had shared with her.

The image of the unknown girl climbing up to her Mother after the crash accident.

Alexa clung to that one and the emotions that had been embedded within it, Alexa could not give Ale's original name back, she couldn't tell her what name her Mother had.

But she could cling to the emotions embedded within the memory, the emotion of relief from the Mother that her child had survived.

The emotion of relief and security from the child when they hugged their Mother after the crash accident.

At the very least, Alexa wanted to convey that emotion back to Ale who was searching for hope, was it the correct thing to do? Alexa didn't know.

She only hoped that when she woke up tomorrow she could bring some of the happiness back to Ale too. This may have started as her selfish desire to be happy, but she wanted the people around her to be happy too.

She wanted the woman who had been [Labeled] as her Mom (Miriam Eversoul) to find happiness.

She wanted for the woman who had been [Labeled] as her Aunt to find her own version of humanity (Vivian Kellet).

She wanted the man who had been twisted beyond the limits of humanity and corrupted into what would become The Dragon of Calamity to achieve happiness instead of grief as they cried tears of blood on a ruined planet.

Alexa could only hope that even a fragment of this would make it back to Terra Nova.

And with that Wish in her heart, Alexa closed her eyes. And wished for the best, because that was all she could do...

Make a wish upon a dying star.