Hello hello! Sorry that this chapter is a week late. I (Rai) had a final project for class due, and it was a choice between either getting the chapter done or passing my class. Much as I love you guys, I had to choose my class. That said, happy late Thanksgiving!
Ache. The clone knew logically that's what this sensation was called where it had hit the ground. Jeremie and Aelita had given it simulated pain to ensure the clone would react appropriately to a painful situation. The clone wondered vaguely if what it felt and what Ivy felt would be the same. It also wondered why this physical pain could not compete with the emotions churning through him. These feelings frightened it, and the fact that it could frighten him just served to strengthen the fear. In fact, the only reason that the clone did not dissolve into blind panic was the fact that Ivy was there. Ivy, who would help the world make sense. She would tell the clone what to do. The clone trusted her implicitly.
"Is he gone?" the clone muttered to Ivy after about a minute of silence. It was still clinging to the arm she had used to help it up.
"Yes," Ivy confirmed quietly, pulling her arm away from the clone, but gently.
Another, shorter pause. "What now?" the clone prompted.
"Now…" Ivy took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know. I have to bring him to the factory, but there's no way he'll come with me if you're here. He might not come with me anyway, come to think of it, but I have to try. Mr. Belpois made it sound like he might be dangerous if something happened to him while he was gone. I know you're not, or at least I hope you aren't…" She shook her head.
'Dangerous?' the clone thought, bewildered. The idea that whatever had caused… whatever this was might make him dangerous… The clone was not sure what to do. Its newfound sense of self-preservation conflicted with its desire to protect others. For the first time, the clone found itself wondering if this was its own thought, or if this "feeling" had been programmed into it by Jeremie and Aelita to reduce risk factors.
"We'll have to stash you in the garden shed after all," Ivy decided, still thinking aloud.
Panic again. If the clone did not come with her, it would not be able to speak to Jeremie and Aelita, and it would surely be erased. ('Die?' a small voice at the back of its mind asked.) At the same time, obedience to Ivy had been written into just about every line of the program's code. The clone sensed it might be able to defy her if it tried hard enough, but for now all it could manage was the weakest protest. "But…" it managed in an almost inaudible voice.
Ivy fixed her bright green eyes on the clone again, focusing completely on him at last and frowning slightly, as if she was presented with a complicated math problem. "Don't worry," she told Michael's clone at last. "I'll talk to them for you. I can't promise that they'll say yes, but I will try."
The clone wanted to run as far and fast as its strong legs could take it. It wanted to try to outrun the supercomputer, or to go to the factory itself and beg the pair that had created it to let it stay. Instead, its eyes - just ever so slightly too blue - locked on Ivy's, and it nodded. "I trust you," it murmured. It did not know how to do anything but.
Twenty minutes of fruitless searching ensued. Ivy had never appreciated how large the Kadic grounds were until she was expected to turn them upside down looking for someone - without being caught by anyone, no less. The good news was that she managed to avoid Jim, Principal Delmas, and all of the teachers, which was nothing short of a miracle. The bad news was that there was no sign of Michael, and his cell phone kept going straight to voicemail. The worst news of all was that she ran into Lucas again, and this time he was even more difficult to get rid of.
"I'm looking for the other one," he had told Ivy, blocking her path. "I let you go earlier because you and Michael seemed to be needed elsewhere, but I know what I saw. There were two of him, Ivy, even if I covered for you. Is this why Michael has been acting so weird lately?"
"Lucas, I still have somewhere that I need to be." Ivy's tone was almost pleading. "I'll explain everything later, I swear."
"You're lying." It was not an accusation, merely a statement.
Ivy had given an exasperated sigh. "Probably," she admitted. "But right now, I really need to find him, and I need you to leave me alone." She had pushed past him without another word, and she prayed that he wasn't going to go to the principal.
It was only after all of this that Ivy had given up and decided to call Jeremie and break the news… Only to be informed that Michael was already at the factory.
"He said he told you," insisted Jeremie again and again in response to Ivy's frustration.
"He didn't," Ivy responded again and again with a growl. "I'll be right there."
As was usual these days, Aelita and Jeremie were both at the factory when Ivy arrived, deep in conversation which stopped as soon as the elevator doors opened.. As usual, Aelita greeted Ivy with a smile. To Ivy's slight surprise, Jeremie matched her smile, looking more relaxed than she had seen him since Michael had disappeared. "You're just in time," he informed her. "We're wrapping up the tests on him now."
"Is the news good, then?" In spite of everything, Ivy felt a spark of excitement for Michael's sake.
Jeremie's smile diminished slightly. "The news is mixed," he admitted. "But the important thing is… it's really him, Ivy. No XANA tricks, nothing. He's back." He put a hand to his headset and added, "You can come up now, Michael."
Ivy made a noncommittal noise, conflicting emotions warring in her now. On the one hand, she was relieved that Michael was really back, but on the other… some small part of her had been hoping that the boy she had seen less than an hour ago had not been the real Michael. Her ambivalent feelings only increased as the elevator delivered Michael a minute later, and he looked past her like she was not even there.
"Are you satisfied that I'm me now?" he asked, marching over to Jeremie and Aelita and crossing her arms. "I came back on my own, I did all your tests."
"Yes, you did very good, Michael," Aelita said reassuringly as Jeremie tapped a few keys to bring up the data. The two of them exchanged a look.
Michael's careless demeanor faltered. "Is… everything okay?" he inquired, nervousness creeping into his voice.
Jeremie took a deep breath and sighed. "Well, the thing is… your virtualization program is full of bugs, Michael. We don't know how it happened. It could be prolonged exposure to the digital void, it could be we did it by accident in our haste to bring you back… It could even be that XANA got to you while you were in the digital sea and bugged up your protocols. We just don't know."
Michael dropped his arms to his sides, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "So what does that mean?" he asked slowly.
Another meaningful glance exchanged between the two. "It means we can't send you back to Lyoko," Aelita intoned at last.
"Well, we could," Jeremie corrected. "It would just probably… be a one-way trip."
Michael did not speak, but crossed his arms again, hugging them close against his chest. Ivy felt a wash of pity, remembering how excited Michael had been about going to Lyoko before all this. She did not speak or move toward him. Even under the best of circumstances, Michael tended to return sympathy with aggression.
"You can fix it, though, right?" was his response at last, looking from Aelita to Jeremie and then back again.
Jeremie opened his mouth to say something. Aelita laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him. The blonde man shut his mouth and allowed Aelita to answer instead. "We're not sure, Michael. There are other complications that the group has been wanting to talk to you about. You as well, Ivy."
"Complications?" echoed Ivy, speaking for the first time since Michael had entered the room. "Like what?"
"We're going to meet up at Yumi's tonight to discuss it," Aelita answered evasively. "We would like you both to be there. We'll be at the school tonight to pick you up just before dinner. Okay?"
Ivy nodded. Michael just grunted.
"Sorry to keep you hanging," added Jeremie. "There's just a lot to sort out today. Aelita and I have been skipping our jobs for a week, so we've got to get that all in order. Is the clone in a safe place so it can be dealt with, Ivy?"
Ivy swallowed hard, steeling her nerves. "Yes, but -" she began.
Micahel cut across her, still not looking at her. "No," he spat. "If you start talking about that thing, I'm out of here. Am I done?" he demanded of Jeremie and Aelita.
"Y-yes," answered a stunned Aelita, confused at Michael's sudden change in attitude.
"Good. I'm going back to school." Without a word of goodbye to any of them, Michael stalked out of the lab.
A few moments of shocked silence passed. "What happened?" Aelita asked Ivy at length.
"He doesn't like the clone," Ivy answered, understating hugely.
"Well, I guess it's a good thing we're getting rid of it," Jeremie remarked with a shrug, seemingly at a loss. "As long as you're sure no one is going to see him vanish."
"It's not going to matter much if someone sees him disappear, people have already seen Michael and the clone together," Ivy pointed out. "Lucas saw them, no less."
Jeremie groaned. "Okay, so we'll have to do a return to the past. I'll send you back, and I'll need you to let me know when you have the clone in a secure location so that I can erase him."
Ivy took a deep breath, recognizing that her ability to stall this conversation any longer had just dried up. "I don't think you can erase him," she stated quietly.
Her teacher, who was occupied with programming the return to the past, took a moment to process her statement. Jeremie blinked, then frowned as her words reached him. "I have full control of the tower, if that's what you're concerned about. Deactivating it without going to Lyoko is no issue."
"No, I mean… morally," Ivy explained. This got their attention. Two pairs of confounded eyes fixed on Ivy, silently demanding explanation. Ivy took another deep breath, trying her best to ignore the shakiness in her hands as she attempted to explain this without sounding insane. "He's… changed," she said at last. "I don't think he's just a program anymore."
"Ivy," began Jeremie in a tone that was clearly meant to convey understanding rather than condescension. "I know that you have spent a lot of time with the clone and that he's meant to seem human, but-"
"I know that!" Ivy interrupted quickly, embarrassment and irritation at Jeremie's assumption warring inside of her. "I know he's still a program, but I think he's more than he was before. Something happened this morning." Briefly, Ivy related to the two older Lyoko Warriors the events of that morning. She glossed over the fight with Michael, more because she wanted to pretend herself that it had not happened than to keep him out of trouble.
"He asked us not to kill him," Ivy finished at last. "I think that we owe him a chance, at least."
There was a brief pause as Jeremie and Aelita digested Ivy's story. "Something must have gone wrong with the program," Jeremie said at last, and the condescending tone was gone - as was his relaxed attitude. "You should have told us sooner."
"He asked me not to," Ivy reiterated. "He was afraid."
"Ivy." Jeremie cast her an impatient glance. "It can't be afraid. It's a program. It can simulate emotions to convince other people that it is Michael, if need be… but if it's trying to convince you that it's a real boy, we've got bigger problems."
"He's a learning clone," pointed out Ivy. "Maybe he learned them. He could be an AI."
Jeremie was already typing furiously in the computer, and becoming visibly annoyed at Ivy's continued interruption. "That's not possible, Ivy," he said shortly.
Ivy, in turn, was becoming frustrated with Jeremie's refusal to take her seriously. This was a sentiment clearly shared by Aelita, who laid a hand on the keyboard to stop Jeremie typing and gave him a look that gave no room for argument. Jeremie gave an impatient noise but turned to Ivy, waiting for her response. "There's XANA," was her only counter.
"Okay," Jeremie revised. "Let's put it this way. Is the supercomputer technically able to create and sustain artificial intelligence? Yes, with only one cited case. However, we have no idea how Franz Hopper managed to create XANA as a true, sentient artificial intelligence. The Turing Test is pretty much useless in the case of the supercomputer, as it is capable of producing programs that are able to convince a human that they are human with ease. The problem would be in drawing the line between true thought and emotion and mere simulations. But okay, let's suppose for just a moment that Michael's clone is the real thing. If that's the case, that is even more reason that we should be killing it."
"Jeremie!" Aelita's voice was full of undisguised horror.
"What!" Jeremie's tone was defensive, now. "Look, the only sentient program that we know of is XANA, and we've spent years saving the world from him. I don't think it's worth the gamble, and if we can quash the risk while it's still small..."
"He asked us not to kill him," Ivy reiterated, feeling faintly sick.
"You're allowing your personal attachment blind you," Jeremie said dismissively.
"My personal attachment? I've spent the better part of a week avoiding him! The only thing I know is that if something can think enough to want to live, we can't just kill it without a thought. We at least owe him a chance to prove himself."
"I'm sorry, Ivy," Jeremie replied tonelessly. "I did put parameters in place to ensure that something like this would never happen. They must have failed, so this is at least in part my fault. Whether it's just a bug, or if it's real AI, we can't take the risk either way."
"Jeremie." The horror was gone from Aelita's voice, replaced with what Ivy suspected were unshed tears. The young woman with the bright pink hair who usually smiled so easily was not smiling anymore. Her hands were balled into fists, and she was shaking faintly. "Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
"A… Aelita…?" Jeremie turned to her, confusion written all over his face.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Aelita repeated more audibly. "With all your talk of personal attachment and AIs being dangerous… Aren't you forgetting everything? I spent a year and a half of my life thinking I was an AI."
Jeremie's mouth worked soundlessly. "Oh…" was all he managed.
"Yeah. Oh." A tear escaped the corner of Aelita's eye, which she wiped away impatiently, her eyes never leaving Jeremie. "Back then, it didn't matter to you that I might be an AI, because I could think and I could feel and you wanted to meet me. I've been sitting here biting my tongue for the past couple of weeks because I know you're scared and I know you think you're doing the right thing and we've all been through a lot. But if you have changed so much you feel you have the right to make this decision based on something that might happen… I don't know you at all anymore."
"Aelita…" Jeremie gaped at her, hurt. "You don't mean that… I'm just trying to keep us safe…"
Jeremie and Aelita appeared to have forgotten Ivy was even there. The girl wanted nothing more than to sink into the floor. As this was not an option, she chose instead to clear her throat uncomfortably.
Both of them looked over at her, as if emerging from a dream. Aelita gave Ivy an apologetic look. Jeremie swallowed visibly and started typing again. "Send it to the factory when you get back to school. We'll all take a vote. I assume I already know yours and Michael's."
"Yes," Ivy agreed, nodding. It was as good of an outcome as she could have hoped for, and right now she wanted nothing more than to leave this situation.
"Okay. Then I'm taking you back to this morning just before people saw you and the double enter. Return to the past now."
White light erupted from the floor, and the world around Ivy faded… Ivy and the clone were running through the halls, weaving their way through staff members and a few other straggling students. Ivy also thought she heard Jim yell something about detention, which she knew she would hear about later. But that was the least of her concerns. She pulled the clone behind a pillar not far from the classroom to talk to him.
"What did they say?" the clone gushed before Ivy could say a word.
"You have to go to the factory," Ivy replied, choosing her words carefully. "They're going to vote… but Aelita is definitely on your side. It was all I could do."
"I understand," the clone said with a nod of his head. "I will go." He started to turn away, then paused and added, "If I do not come back… thank you for trying to help me."
"Of course," Ivy responded automatically, then watched him go, hoping that she had made the right decision.
Around 20:30 that evening, Michael was starting to wonder what the big deal was. The boy had shown up right before the appointed time to avoid standing with Ivy for an extended period of time, but he had shown up nonetheless for Yumi to pick them up. Ulrich and Odd were waiting for them with two pizzas and a plethora of paper plates. Aside from a rather ominous expression on Yumi's face when he explained that Jeremie and Aelita "couldn't make it" and an awkward silence between Michael and Ivy, the dinner was shaping up to be better than the boy had anticipated. In fact, by midway through, Michael was even toying with the idea of acknowledging to Ivy again. He would not forgive her, not yet, but at the very least he could stop acting like she was invisible. And that was when Ulrich dropped the bombshell.
"What?" Michael's half-eaten slice of pizza hung suspended in the air, momentarily forgotten as he struggled to wrap his mind around the words that had just come out of Ulrich's mouth.
"We think it would be best if you and Ivy took a break from the team until further notice," Ulrich repeated patiently.
"But… but you can't!" Michael burst out angrily. A piece of sausage slid off of his pizza and plopped onto Yumi's carpet. The boy replaced the pizza on the paper plate, his eyes moving between each of the three original Lyoko Warriors as he searched silently for a sign that they did not mean what they were saying. All the boy saw was sad resolution.
Ivy, who was curled up on the futon nearby, took a different tack. "Why?" she asked the group simply.
It was Odd, surprisingly, who answered. "It's not that we don't want you around," he assured them both. "It's just, well… we can't take the risk of having you fighting with us. Someone could get hurt."
"The situation with Michael being gone made us realize how much danger we were putting you both in," Ulrich added. "We can't do that."
"What?! So wait a second, I get pushed into the digital void -"
"I didn't push you!" Ivy pointed out, a touch of anger in her voice.
"Whatever. My point is, she messed up -" Michael jabbed an accusing finger at Ivy "- and I get punished for it?"
"Michael, no one is being punished," Yumi started, but Michael interrupted.
"No, that's exactly what's happening!" he snapped. "That wasn't XANA's fault, that was Ivy's. I mean, I haven't even gotten to fight yet!"
"And comments like that are exactly why you're not going to," was Yumi's response, overriding Michael's tirade with a tone that brooked no argument. "This isn't a game, Michael."
"I know that!" Michael said quickly, but he had lost some of his steam, and Yumi took the opportunity to continue speaking.
"I know this is difficult to hear because you have both been working very hard," she stated, "but we only want to do what is best for you. This is our fight, and it always has been, and we were wrong to involve you in the first place."
"It's our fight too!" Michael protested. "It's our world too! You can't just decide that we should go back to acting like we don't know what's going on."
"We're not asking that, necessarily," Ulrich interjected. "We just… need you to take a step back. If an attack comes at the school, we will expect you to help keep the students safe. But for now, that is the extent of your involvement."
"Oh, come on," scoffed the dark-haired boy, glaring at his mentor. "That's just to make us feel better and you know it. Don't lie to us." Michael turned to Ivy and gestured emphatically. "Why aren't you saying anything?" he demanded. "Come on! Back me up! We deserve to be a part of this."
Ivy hesitated, not meeting Michael's eyes and touching her hair, a nervous gesture. "I do want to fight," she said in a quiet voice. "I do. I just… I get it, Michael. You weren't here. You and Yumi and Ulrich and Odd… and even Lucas… you almost died. I had to fight by myself and all I could think was if I was too late for even one of you that it would be my fault."
"And you of all people should realize now that Lyoko, even without XANA, can be dangerous," Ulrich added, not unkindly. He was looking at Michael with what the boy suspected was pity, which only made the boy angrier, but he had no good response. Instead, Michael stared at his hands, trying to think of a new argument.
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that, Ivy," Yumi said to Ivy now. "And we're sorry to be putting you both through this, too. I know that the clone staying is only going to make things more complicated, too, but…"
Michael's head snapped up. "What?" he asked, momentarily surprised out of his sulk by this comment. "What did you say?"
Yumi turned her dark eyes on him. "The clone," she reiterated. "We took a vote. It showed signs of sentience, so we decided to let it continue to exist for the time being, until we can conclusively test-"
Once again, the boy cut across her, his gaze fixed on Ivy now. "That's what you wanted to talk to Jeremie and Aelita about? You wanted to keep it? What, as… as some kind of pet?"
"No, Michael," Ivy replied, returning his gaze steadily. "Not as a pet. And I didn't want anything, he's the one that asked."
"But he only does what you tell him to," Michael pointed out.
"Like Yumi just said," Ivy continued as if she hadn't heard him, though her voice rose, "he's showing signs of sentience. That means he's thinking for himself."
"I know what it means," snapped the boy, insulted.
"Then you know it wasn't my call!" Ivy growled back.
Michael gave a noise of frustration and looked around the group. "You're not going to let me stay in the group no matter what I say, are you? I don't care if Ivy wants to quit, but I want to stay. Will you let me?"
Again, it was Odd that answered. "No," he replied simply. "I'm sorry."
"Fine. Then I want to go back to school." Michael pushed the plate of pizza away from him. "You can keep your apologies. If you're done with me, I'm done with you, too."
The group dispersed quite shortly after that. Yumi agreed to drive Ivy and Michael back to campus. Odd and Ulrich headed home to the apartment that they both shared. To their surprised, someone was waiting on their doorstep when they arrived there. Jeremie, red-eyed and holding a duffel bag, stood shivering outside.
"Why didn't you just use your key?" Odd called to him as they approached.
The young man shook his head. "It didn't feel right," he answered, sounding like he had a bad head cold. "Can… Can I stay with you guys tonight?"
Ulrich and Odd exchanged a glance. Truth be told, neither of them was very happy with Jeremie's actions as of late. But family was family. "Of course," Ulrich replied, unlocking the door as Odd clapped Jeremie on the shoulder. "Come on in. I'll make us something to drink."
Yumi's car pulled away, leaving the two students behind. As of this morning, they had had a purpose, a common goal that united them. Now they were once again just a couple of normal students. Michael felt more lost and lonely at this school than he had ever been before, and he turned to hurry toward the dorms.
To his utter amazement, Ivy made one last attempt to speak to him. "Michael…"
Michael did not turn at the sound of his name, but he did stop. "God, Ivy, can you not take a hint?" he snarled, staring at the frozen ground. "I don't want to talk to you. Ever. You ruined everything."
Ivy made a sound as if she was going to say something else, then thought better of it. She brushed by him, half-jogging toward the dorms. Michael let her go, and waited despite the cold to ensure that they wouldn't run into each other on the way up the stairs.
Lucas looked up as Michael slammed the door to their room closed. "Evening," he remarked mildly. Michael just grunted, pulling off his sweatshirt and throwing it carelessly into the wardrobe. "Not going to hang that up?" Lucas commented.
"No," Michael groused, shutting the wardrobe with slightly more force than was strictly required.
"What's been with you lately?" Lucas inquired as Michael stalked over to his bed.
"I don't even know." This was completely the truth. God only knew what that thing had been up to around here.
"Are you and Ivy fighting again or something?"
"Shut up, Lucas." Michael threw himself on the bed, flinging his arm over his eyes.
Lucas gave a shrug. "Okay, fine."
Silence fell. Michael heard rather than saw Lucas working his homework, based on the rustling of his backpack, the sound of turning pages, the scribbling of Lucas' mechanical pencil. Michael himself just sat there, feeling about as miserable as he could ever remember being. In fact, this feeling was only comparable to one thing. He cleared his throat and spoke in a low mumble. "My mother."
"I'm sorry?" The scribbling stopped.
"My mom. She left us, when I was four. Just walked out the door and never came back." Michael moved his arm off his face, but only so he could roll over and face the wall. "I looked her up before I came so school here. She has a new family now. Kid should be about ten now, I think."
A pause. Lucas was waiting for Michael to continue. When he did not, his roommate simply said "I see." Another pause. "I'm really sorry that happened, Michael. If… If you don't me asking, why are you telling me this now?"
'Because,' Michael thought bitterly, 'I can't tell her that, can I?' He knew that whatever his dad used to say about his mom just not being ready to have a child that it was a lie. She just didn't want him. And whatever Ivy said, he knew that she was lying too. She had replaced him, after all, and decided she liked the replacement better. Michael would never be able to begin to express how deeply that had wounded him. Now she had taken Lyoko away from him, too. This was all her fault.
Michael had come back from the digital void wanting to beg Ivy's forgiveness, to tell her that of course he didn't hate her, that he even… The boy shook his head and closed his eyes. No, he didn't hate her. But from now on he was going to try his very best to do so.
Oooh boy. We apologize for this chapter being so heavy! This is sort of our mid-season finale. Don't worry, things should lighten up by next chapter. See you guys in December!
-Rai and Sky