The Restoration Protocol

44 || a rose by any other name

The lab obeys Claude. Soon after he disappears behind the elevator doors, the mechanical hands restraining Mariko and Alias retract into the ceiling and walls. Alias runs immediately up to the elevator. The screen extending from the wall beside it has been illuminated with a red light and the image of a lock. No amount of tapping the display or yelling at 'Lihua' to change it again would do anything. She's a computer. She obeys her creator, the one who gave her this name, and thus, the elevator has become a one-way street blocking entry from underground.

AI with a clear purpose, willing to carry it out. Abe was the same, too. In spite of his doubts and uncertainty, he followed through with Claude's wishes until the very end, until he fulfilled the reason for his creation.

This realization seems to dawn on Alias as she peels herself away from the glowing red screen. Her eyes have become flooded with something frightening. A pure and untouchable despair, and Mariko hesitates to open her mouth in fear of shattering something in the process.

No, something has already shattered. In the same way Mariko sensed something inside Claude had died just by looking at him. But for Alias, it's a bit different.

"I am...just like him."

Mariko's jaw clenches involuntarily. Alias is staring at her now. Her posture is slouched, her body stiff.

"I am...a machine." Her hand reaches out to trace the edge of the short wall separating the elevator from the rest of the room. "I was created...as an android. Even in a virtual world, where I could have been made to be anything at all, I was still created...as a machine. Machines have purpose, they are...made for things."

Her gaze pierces through Mariko like a bullet fired from close range. It's evident she's searching for validation. Not for her self-worth, but validation for this purpose she speaks of. The way in which a neglected child wants to feel of use to their negligent parent. A feeling Mariko can understand all too well.

"I am...I am an android," Alias says again. "I shouldn't even be able to feel...realistically. I am a robot, I, I am a machine, this is artificial skin." She holds out her hand in front of her, splaying her fingers. "I am a piece of metal just like the limbs of this lab, I have circuits, electricity traveling through my body at all times, I am a weapon, I am not...me."

"Don't say that." Mariko shrinks into herself. She begins to massage her wrist mindlessly, feeling a sudden soreness from where the mechanical hands grabbed her. "Remember what Abe said at the other lab? You're special, Alias, you have a soul-"

"But is it mine??" She snaps at Mariko, putting a firm foot forward as she throws her arm back down to her side. "What if it's not even mine? What if it's Soleil's?? And I'm wrong for thinking I have anything of my own."

"That's not right. It can't be Soleil's. Soleil is from my world, so that's where she is, living or not-"

"But that doesn't change what I am!!"

She shouts. Latent anger, bubbling self-loathing, all rising to the top to burst at once and expel from the tongue without filter. She's lost all desire, all capacity for peace.

"I need orders!" Alias clutches the shirt over her chest. The parts of her right jacket sleeve which have torn from her blade hang loosely at her elbow. "I'm a machine, Mariko, I was made for a purpose, give me a purpose!"