AN: This chapter came a lot sooner than even I was expecting. However, the thanks is to God for his help in this chapter's creation because I am very much satisfied with how it turned out. This chapter will be posted for the week after next, and so I will have two weeks to better focus on my studies.
Thank you all so very much for your reviews and your support of my work. I immensely appreciate it. I hope you all read, review, and enjoy this chapter and I'll see you next time.-Pagliacci-11
Chapter 34
It was spring as Aelita looked out the window, the sun shining elegantly through the immaculately clean pane of glass. She could help but laugh as she felt the warmth of the sun on her hands. She was running along the wooden floor of the hermitage, and she saw her mother and father talking in the kitchen. They looked so earnest in their moment of conversation, and despite how she was watching them, she could barely hear them as they spoke in the barely audible tone parents are want to do to keep their children from hearing select things. Paying little mind to this, Aelita continued her merry way to the couch. After pulling herself up, she sat comfortably on the couch a moment and looked to the pile of presents on the ground nearby.
It was her sixth birthday, something she knew because of how much time had built up to it. Waldo had asked her what she would have liked, and she told him. However, she was not so naïve as one would think. Aelita knew there was a slight tension between her parents. When she'd asked both them on separate occasions, both had given relatively the same answer. Be it, "It's grown-up things, sweetie, don't worry," or "It's nothing that should worry you." But she knew it was something. It was definitely something. The several nights that her mother had come home late, and her father had confronted her on the subject were the worst. There were low voices at those times too. Aelita would see and hear this due to gently peeking from behind the corner that leads to her room. The arguments would last for all of maybe ten minutes, but it felt a great deal longer than that.
Aelita would retreat to her room after an amount of time. Eventually, she would hear her mother's hurried gate to her room and a slam of a door. Aelita would close her eyes, but soon her own door would usually open, and her father would gently come in and sit in the chair near her bed. He would be silent in those times, and she could feel his eyes on her sleeping form. She knew he hurt inside; she knew the aching of his heart. Whatever was going on, it was hurting her father far more profoundly than he'd cared to let on.
This morning was different; however, this morning was Aelita's morning; her birth morning. And she hoped that no matter what was happening, it would stop at least for a little while today. At that moment, she heard the doorbell ring. She got up to see who it was, and as the door opened, she saw her mother embraced the man who came through, her uncle. Her father seemed less pleased to see him, and he shook his hand. Aelita was silent as she beheld the man before her. His face was gentle and kind with small beady green eyes. He came in and embraced Aelita, and she loved his hug, so firm and warm; his small braided goatee and curlicue mustache smelling of lavender and jasmine. It was a lovely smell that Aelita associated forever with this day.
Soon, her parents came in, and Waldo brought out a cardboard box and set it down before her. Aelita was elated as she knelt and opened the box. Inside was a beautiful knit doll.
"Oh, he's so cute! What should I call him?"
Waldo replied, "How about Mr. Puck? It means Goblin."
"Do you like him?" Anthea asked.
"Oh, yes, yes. Thank you, Mommy!"
As she was still looking in the box, there was a small click. As she embraced her mother, there was another click.
Aelita's gaze turned towards the sound, and it was her uncle who was taking the pictures. She waved at him, and he waved gingerly back. As the day continued, there was an enormous amount of fun, an excellent time for everyone to enjoy themselves. Throughout the time, Aelita couldn't help but shake the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The tension between her father and her uncle had not passed.
That night, when Aelita was supposed to be in bed, again, she heard the low voices. They were angrier and just a touch louder than they were at nights prior. Her father was furious as was her mother; they were fighting. Fighting over something to do with closeness, something was too close, something was a high risk. But what? The argument went on for a bit longer and then finally subsided. The door to her parents' room closed gently, and her door opened. Her father came in and gently sat beside her. She remembered his smell; it was the comforting smell that he always had from his soap, that of figs and cinnamon and nutmeg. It was a smell that was distinctly her father.
He was silent for a moment, then he whispered as he gently stroked her hair, "I'll never let him get close enough to hurt you. Never, Aelita, you have my word."
He got up and turned on Aelita's radio, gently turning it to a barely audible volume. Opening a CD case, Franz put the disc into the tray and let it play.
The music was soft, so very smooth as it played, but it was equally soothing.
Now that I've lost everything to you
You say you wanna start something new
And it's breaking my heart you're leaving
Baby, I'm grieving
But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you have a lot of nice things to wear
But then a lot of nice things turn bad out there
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
I'll always remember you like a child, girl
You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do
And it's breaking my heart in two
Because I never want to see you sad girl
Don't be a bad girl
But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Beware
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
And I'll always remember you like a child, girl
Baby, I love you
But if you want to leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Beware
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
It's hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
And I'll always remember you like a child, girl
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
And it's hard to get by just upon a smile
Ooh, baby baby, it's a wild world
And I'll always remember you like a child, girl.
Aelita awoke from her sleep, and she sat up to look at the clock. It was six in the morning. Amelia slept in the bed nearby, and the softly playing radio had faded to the announcer's voice speaking in the soft voice accustoming the early risers of the day to a rhythm, "And that was Cat Steven's Wild World. It is 6:00 in the morning on this the tenth of June. We wish a good morning to you all as we continue our mellow Call of the Dawn Morning Segment. This is Mickey Crews, KLSO, Paris."
Aelita sighed lightly as she got up and, after getting her robe, headed down to the showers. As she turned on the hot water, she let out a sigh as if she had spent the last two days in a state of constant pressure. Aelita went into the jets of water and gasping at first due to the shock of the water to the skin, she then eased her body into the water and began to clean herself. As she showered, Aelita reflected a bit on her dream. She remembered her uncle but strangely enough, not what he was called. But the smell of lavender and jasmine, she would never forget and was partially why when she discovered what the scent was, used it in her shampoo and conditioner. Strangely enough, the smell was the closest thing she felt to home.
But who was this uncle she could not remember the name of? Was that man really Johnathan Barrow? The real Johnathan Barrow? It was a question she knew she could confirm easily, and so she would. Also, just what was happening on Lyoko would be an exciting thing to check in on as well. Aelita knew that if the team were to stand a chance at fighting North-Gate, that inevitably they'd have to become intimate with North-Gate's vision on Lyoko. This was good. Aelita had a plan of operation and consequently structure for her day.
Aelita turned on the cold water and decreased the hot by a few degrees, and now in cold water, she breathed rapidly at first and then gathered herself. Turning the knobs off, Aelita dried off with a nearby towel and got into her robe. Now, she was set for her day. Heading back to her room, she opened the door and saw Amelia getting her clothes and bathrobe ready for the shower.
"Good morning, Ame, how are you?" Aelita asked as she sat on her bed.
Amelia looked at her, "I'm barely alive. I need my shower, and I need coffee."
"Coffee? I'm sorry I still don't know how you can drink that stuff."
"Simple. I put it in a cup and lift the cup to my lips, gently swallow. This is called drinking a beverage."
Aelita chuckled, "Smart-ass."
"Thank you, Ms. Stones. I'll be here all semester. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's an arctic blast with my name on it."
"Like the cold ones, do you?"
"It's the only surefire way to wake up in the morning—well, one of the main points anyway."
"The other being your glorified bean juice?"
"Just bean juice. Glorified means I go all decadent on it. Which only happens for my birthday and New Year's."
"I meant glorified as in you exalt it in a way that not most do."
"You'll understand when you have late nights and have to camouflage with morning people."
"I already do, it's called finals week. After that, it's called college."
Amelia looked at her, "Sure, because book learning is just so important to some. See you soon."
Aelita chuckled as Amelia went down the hall. Once she was dressed, Aelita sat down at her computer. She signed into to find her bot, and it was still floating around in the general vicinity of where it was last time she checked on it. Aelita went into the makeup of the bot, and as she was looking, her screen flashed red. Aelita's eyes went wide as there was no way her bot was supposed to be detected this easily. How? She had not even initiated a parameter scan. Aelita sent the bot through to the ice sector, but midway through transfer, the screen began to flash red again.
"How?" Aelita thought aloud. She began feverishly typing, and once she had finished the code, that was necessary, the bot was swept through to the desert region. As Aelita looked at the torrents of data that were passing through her bot, her eyes went wide.
"This is absolutely insane!" she thought, "Never did this program have this much juice before! All this data, all the changes, what in the world is this?!"
Aelita typed quickly but not as quickly as she wanted to. She had to ensure accuracy over speed, that was becoming very evident that accuracy was what was needed to keep up the camouflage. Aelita was amazed that as she typed to take on a new identity of a lesser bot, that so much data was being added to the base program. The sheer amount that was being processed was staggering, and Aelita had to be very careful but also timely as to not lose this progress. She kept typing, kept computing as her program was nearing completion of its remodel. Her small bot had grown from four megabytes to a full gigabyte. But why? Why so much of a drastic addition? The whys didn't matter, what did was keeping up. Aelita was sweating from her forehead as she was beginning to keep up. Ordinarily, she'd have an assistant program active, but she knew that the assistant would barely help here. She knew this could only last so long. The data had to have a breakpoint in it somewhere, but where? If it wasn't soon, Aelita knew she'd have to abandon her bot, and to do that would lose the only insider to the North-Gate program.
The bot was still growing; it had escalated from one gigabyte to nearly two. But why so big why so much so soon? As Aelita typed, faster and faster, she grit her teeth, the pain from a small developing cramp was building in her fingers. "Fuck, fuck, no!" She screamed at herself. She took both hands by turns and clenched them into fists until finally, the lines of code ended.
Aelita was slightly panting. "Wow! Just—wow!" She sent out an initial system scan, and as the scan went over the targeted area, Aelita was amazed as the scan surged over the territory it was now in. However, as she continued to watch the scan, that amazement turned to horror.
The scan showed that the size of the sectors had not only been augmented, but to Aelita's amazement, they had vastly expanded, and the sectors were no longer wide ranges anymore. Instead, the cityscapes which she had seen with Jeremy before had been exponentially grown. What's more, as she saw the scan's results, she counted all manner of different security bots. There were also various elements of different types of security bots. As the list began to be compiled, Aelita counted at least twenty bot types, with some automated with some others being manually operated. However, that wasn't the worst of it. There were citizen drones all throughout the different quadrants that had set routines and acted as additional semi-active eyes of the bots.
Aelita took several screenshots of this and sent them to a compressed file. Once done, she set her bot to drift and collect more data. Taking the compressed folder, she typed a message, "Proxy Pie, call me. This is big. This is just a sample of what is going on with Lyoko." Aelita immediately sent the program snapshots to Jeremy.
"What was that?" Amelia's voice came from behind her.
Aelita froze, "Huh?" she turned around and saw Amelia standing just behind her.
"That was fucking amazing! What was that?"
"How—how long have you been standing there?" Aelita asked as she gently got up.
"Long enough to see you nearly have a heart attack and type up a blue streak to where I just have to know what that was. Come on, Aelita, what was that?!"
"It's a program some friends and I are working on. That's all it's for next year's robotics class." Aelita said as she went towards her nightstand.
Amelia sat down at the computer and was looking at the data pouring in, "Look at all this stuff! Warden Bots, Matchlock Bots, Cavalry, Night-Watch, and City Protectorates—what are you guys making?!"
"Look at this book it will tell you everything," Aelita said.
Amelia immediately whirled around, and a flash came from Aelita's phone. Amelia twitched, and after a short gasp fell to the floor, unconscious.
Aelita moved quickly as she knew the window that the return to the past gave. She securely closed out the program, deleted her draft to Jeremy, and turned off her computer. Aelita then began the operation of getting d Amelia's limp body into her bed. The girl was a quite bit heavier than she looked, but Aelita was able to finally get her into her bed.
As she sat down on her bed, Aelita thought, "Man, she's a lot heavier than she looks."
In about four minutes, Amelia began to gently stir. She groaned a bit, and she looked at Aelita, "What-what happened?"
"What do you remember?" Aelita asked.
"I remember—coming back from the shower—after that—nothing," Amelia said, clearly confused.
"Would you like for me to get the nurse?" Aelita asked.
"No, no. Just get me some water. I feel a bit nauseous."
Aelita headed out to a nearby vending machine and got a bottle of cold water. She came back and gave Amelia the bottle. Aelita sighed as Amelia seemed to come out of it.
"Man, that was really, really weird." She said.
Aelita nodded, "Are you feeling better?"
"A bit, thanks."
"Come on, let's go get you some breakfast. Who knows, maybe you're just hungry."
Amelia nodded, "Yeah, good idea."
Meanwhile, at Jeremy's house, he had just received Aelita's email, and he looked at her screenshots. As he looked at the systematic implication given the scale of Lyoko, he was astounded. Lyoko's parameters and perimeters had been expanded twenty-fold. As Jeremy looked at the bot varieties, he wrote down what had been sent to him, and once finished, he looked at the list. It was a very in-depth system, and building on what he had seen previously with Aelita, Jeremy concluded what was being made was a seeming scale model of Renaissance-Era Rome. But to what purpose? For if what he had seen in the screenshots were accurate, there was so much attention to detail given, it felt a bit bizarre.
Jeremy got up and looked out at the expanse of the countryside outside his window. As his eyes wandered along the tree line, Jeremy contemplated what all of this meant. North-Gate had modified Lyoko already so much. Any more change and soon enough, everything would become as much a new frontier as it was when he first turned on the supercomputer. Jeremy had to see the active components of Lyoko, he had to verify with his own eyes, just what was being seen from Aelita's bot.
To wait for the school semester to start would waste far too much time. In many ways, the uncomfortable truth that North-Gate had achieved to do what XANA had all be dreamed; It had divided the group by literally separating through distance and circumstance. Ulrich and Odd were back with their families. If history was any guide, Odd's family inclination towards venturing abroad during the fashion season nullified him entirely from the equation. Ulrich was with his family and likely on a trip to see his relatives in Austria. That left Yumi and Aelita, which severely underpowered the group, and to go alone was certainly not an option.
Jeremy sat in his chair when there was a knock at his door, "Come in," Jeremy said.
Emily came in, and she said, "How are you feeling?"
Jeremy gave a light sigh, "Well, much the same. How are you?"
"I'm alright. Your father and I are headed out to for the day we'll be back around five or so."
Jeremy nodded, "Alright is there anything I need to do in the meantime?"
"Yes. If you could take care of the bathroom while we're gone, I'd appreciate it."
Jeremy nodded, "Alright, easy enough."
"Would you like us to bring you back anything?"
"Depends. Where are you going?"
"We're going to Patrice's."
"In that case, the salmon with a loaded baked potato."
Emily nodded and smiled, "Alright, we'll see you this afternoon."
Jeremy went up to Emily and gave her a hug, "Thank you. I'll see you both this evening. Just be safe."
Emily chuckled, "Jeremy, it's only to Patrice's."
"Even so, just be safe." He said.
She kissed him on the cheek and said, "We will be."
They left, and Jeremy knew he had the better part of twelve hours to himself. Heading down to the living room, he sat down in his mother's chair and relaxed a moment. In all honesty, it was great to have his parents out of the house. It wasn't that he didn't like them, not at all. However, as was the wont of many teenagers, he desired his privacy, his own quiet time to collect himself away from people. It was in many ways an equal rate of exchange, that's how he preferred to see it. His parents would get to enjoy a day out and enjoy themselves, he got the house to himself. As Jeremy lounged, he thought about calling Odd or Ulrich to see what was up with them. He meditated on this for a while and then decided it was worthwhile to chance it and so he opened Aelita's phone and called Odd first.
The line rang, and soon Odd picked up, "Hello, oh cousin of mine."
"Odd, it's me," Jeremy replied.
"Aelita, I know puberty can be hectic and all, but why do you sound so very much like Jeremy?"
"Very cute. Odd, it's me, Jeremy."
"What are you doing with Aelita's cell-phone?"
"It's a long story due to our friendly neighborhood North-Gate."
"Did the hinges get stuck or something and demand your phone as payment to allow you to pass like a classic troll?"
"Odd, focus." Jeremy said with a chuckle, "How are things going for you?"
"Ah, they're okay. I'm actually heading back to Kadic early. Mom had a whole exhibition to tour Europe with, and honestly, I'm not for it. So, my parents called Delmas, and he said I'm good to come back to Kadic for the summer intersession."
"That's actually great to hear honestly. What about Ulrich?"
"Ulrich and his family are headed to Russia this summer. They have a friend of his father's they're going to meet and spend the break hitting a lot of the tourist hot-spots."
"That's not so bad. I was wondering if I could get the team together for a bit of exploration on Lyoko since North-Gate launched an overhaul of the system."
"Isn't that a bit risky with Ulrich gone?"
"Not to worry. I coded everyone's actions into a small portion of software, so I could make a reasonable AI counterpart in case something like this were to happen. The AI, however, is one that I will control manually, so I will be with you in spirit."
"Pretty good idea there, Einstein, I have to admit."
"When will you be back at Kadic?"
"Give it a couple days. Dad's going to drop me off at the east entrance. You might want to contact Yumi to let her know what the plan is."
"She's the next one I'm going to be calling, don't worry."
"Alrighty then. I'll see you in two days, Einstein. Say hi to Aelita for me when you can."
"Will do. See you later, Odd."
Jeremy then dialed Yumi, and her phone rang. After four rings, Yumi picked up, "Hi, Jeremy."
"How did you know it was me?"
"Aelita's sitting right across from me, and besides, you have her cell-phone, after all, that's happened with our mutual acquaintance."
"Indeed. Hey, Yumi, I have a question. Would you like to join, Odd, Aelita, and myself for a trip to the reformatted Lyoko?"
"You're going to join us in the supercomputer?"
"Not exactly. I logged Ulrich's techniques and methods of engagement and movement, and I'll be utilizing an AI from the lab to see what you guys see."
"Oh, well, that's new. When did you work on that?"
"I finished it around the time we brought William back. It's a relatively simple program."
"Hold on, Aelita wants to talk to you."
Aelita's voice came over the phone, "Jeremy, have you had a chance to look over what I sent you?"
"I did, and it's honestly amazing. The boundaries of the sectors have been massively expanded. It's my thinking that if we don't explore at least a portion of one sector over time, we'll be hopelessly lost in the other sectors. I'll make a waypoint to get to come back. Hopefully, the time we spend in Lyoko will allow us to make precautionary sweeps of at least one sector to see what we can anticipate in the others."
"It sounds good but as I sent you, there's all manner of security bots out there so we'd have to be careful. If I sent you a cursory glance at what I have able to glean from North-Gate's server, could you devise us a cover code so we wouldn't be as easily detected?"
"I can certainly try. If the code of expansion and the bots is any indicator, it will be an exhilarating challenge. I will also work on a few new protocols I wanted to implement originally to see it that will help us."
"Great. Oh, you're on speaker, just to let you know."
"Can you hear me, Yumi?" Jeremy asked.
"Loud and clear. I approve of what's going on. When's Odd coming back?"
"In two days, he said."
"That's good. We'll have some time to prepare for this." Aelita said.
"In the meantime, I have to convince my mother to allow me to get back to Kadic. With the recent medical scare that North-Gate sent my way, getting to Kadic will be a touch of a task."
"I have an idea," Yumi replied, "how about you tell her that we're all getting together to have one last hurrah before vacation officially begins? I mean it would buy us two to three days at least. That way, if anything goes wrong, we'd have a bit of time to recuperate."
"It might work. Where would you have me dropped off if she buys it?"
"Have her drop you off at my house. I'll make sure Odd is here before you, so it looks just a bit more kosher."
"Sounds worth a shot, honestly. Alright, let's do it." Jeremy said.
"Alright. I'll set it up with mom and dad." Yumi said.
"Jeremy, I'm taking you off the speaker. I need to tell you something." Aelita said.
"Alright, go ahead."
There was a moment of silence then Aelita said, "Jeremy, I researched Johnathan Barrow, the original Johnathan Barrow, the co-creator of North-Gate. And—Jeremy, I knew him as a child. I only saw him once, but when I saw his picture in the obituaries in his hometown after a search, I knew it was him. He had the same goatee and mustache he had when I was a child."
"Are you sure, Aelita?"
"Yes. John was at my house on my birthday when I was six, he took two photos, one with the three of us, my father, my mother, and I. The second picture was of me in my mother's arms on that day. He was known to me as my uncle, but never given a name, just the title of Uncle."
"That's not uncommon. A lot of parents familiarize close friends as aunt or uncle whoever to make sure the child isn't afraid of them."
"I know. So, the question remains is Sylvia, the avatar of North-Gate, truly my half-sister?"
"Have you asked your mother about this?"
"I have, and she denies any element of Johnathan Barrow and her ever being intimate in that regard. She told me that Johnathan was a homosexual that such a union would not and did not happen."
"And that doesn't check out?"
"No, it doesn't. Johnathan Barrow had a wife, Svetlana Tolkachev, and three children. At the time of his death."
"That doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't a homosexual. He could have just been closeted is all."
"I thought about that. I researched John's supposed lover, Tom Majorek, as she called him, and I cross-referenced the name with radio-stations in Warsaw, and he was manager of one station but only for two years. He had a few different smaller jobs, but then after three years, he vanishes without a trace."
"Aelita, I would advise you to take a break from the Johnathan Barrow element for just a bit. I know it's a major question you want to have answered, but I feel that if you persist in following this, it may blow up in your face in more ways than one."
"Not my face, Jeremy, more my mother's. But maybe you're right." Aelita said with a sigh.
Jeremy spoke softly, "For right now, let's just focus on exploring Lyoko's revamped sectors. Once we have an idea of what we're dealing with, we can then deal with the smaller pieces of the puzzle."
"Of course, you're right. I just wanted you to know what I have found so far."
"And I appreciate that Aelita, more than you realize. Is there anything else that you need to say?"
"No, no, it's okay, Jeremy. Thank you."
"Of course. I'll be in touch over the next couple of days, okay?"
"Alright, thank you. Goodbye—I love you, Proxy-Pie."
"I love you too. See you soon."
Jeremy ended the call and gently closed the phone. He sighed lightly as he rested in the chair. It was helpful to now have a plan of investigation at this point. It was the right call. Jeremy got up, albeit reluctantly, and went to his room. He got out his laptop and looked up Johnathan Barrow and Svetlana Tolkachev. Some lovely wedding photos were in greyscale out of respect for the late man's memory. "Hmm, nice looking facial hair, I give him that." Jeremy thought aloud as he looked at the elegant braid and waxed curlicue mustache.
He continued to scroll through the photos. However, on the eighth layer of photos, he stopped cold. The picture was in a park, closer examination revealed it to be just outside Kadic on the park bench. It was of Johnathan, Svetlana and Anthea Schaffer and a child. John was dressed in an elegant black suit with a light blue vest black shirt and blue tie. Anthea was in a matching summer dress, and Svetlana was dressed similarly to Anthea. All three looked extremely happy. However, between Anthea and John was a child sitting on both their knees. She about eight years old. Jeremy's heart beat faster as he zoomed on the child's face. The young girl in the photo and the avatar of North-Gate was the same person.
Back at North-Gate's hub, Terrance was sitting at his command console, looking at the small vial of Anthea's blood. Terry knew what he was ordered to do at the same, even he was hesitant. Terry knew the surges of pain this would cause several especially one person particularly. His own heartbeat was fast because he was nervous.
Terry looked at Sylvia, who was beside him, and he asked, "Are you absolutely sure you want this?"
Sylvia looked at him, "Terry, please. I need to know."
Terry looked at the vial of deep red blood in the low light, dreading what he felt was to come. Deep in the pit of his stomach, he was apprehensive; but this is what was commanded of him. After a hard swallow, he went up to North-Gate's receiving tray and placed the vial inside.
The compartment retracted, and soon the voice was heard, "Synchronization complete. High Function and data repository unlocked."
Terry was silent as he opened the data repository and then opened the file under the name "Initiation Tapes." He looked at Sylvia who looked at him with tears very near the surface, and she nodded. He typed in the maintenance control code and the files opened. They were ten files, half were video, and half were audio.
Terry looked at Jacob, who was behind Sylvia, and he said, "Jake, comfort her. Something tells me that she'll need it more than anything in a few moments."
Jacob sat with her at a terminal as Terry pressed play.
One by one, the files played, file by file, the reasoning was laid bare. As Terry watched Sylvia, he saw her grow very sad as she began to weep openly. Usually, a very controlled young girl, she now had no control. In many ways, Terry knew fully that this was what needed to be done. But he knew what was to come; he knew the pending zeal that was now slowly given life within Sylvia's mind. He knew the name of the creature that, with each file played, was rearing its head.
A monster is what many outsiders would call it. In many ways, it appeared unsympathetic, uncaring, and wrathful. But Terry knew more; this was an entity birthed out of pain. But more than pain, it was logic trying to understand why select things happened as they did. It was logic coming to terms with reality. The reality which Terry knew had to be contained and adequately vented. For years, not he had known the exact truth. But now, the same process within the girl he saw before him was being strengthened in him. Anthea's blood was the key, the key to the lock of the vault of so many kept secrets.
The final audio log played, and Terry watched the girl silently before him as she wept. Although within him, his heart was being torn to pieces. Soon, Sylvia lurched forward, and in a bellowing wail, her despair was truly made known. A deep guttural wail that made Terry's very hairs stand on end, a wail so utterly soaked and aggrieved in pain and sorrow that in the last seconds, Terry stopped the recording. What the child had wanted to know had been given to her. The true extent of the secrets of her existence locked with the key made of her mother's blood had been told.
Sylvia went over to Terry and embraced him firmly. Her tears falling like rain, her arms clinging to the man who she knew and saw as her true protector. She cried her voice nearly wrecked, "Oh please, help me, Terry, oh please!"
Terry wrapped his arms around the girl, and he gently kissed her head. "You go ahead and cry, my dear child." Terry said, his voice soft and low, "You have a nice long cry."
Sylvia spoke through her tears, "I know I made a big show about how Yolanda's uptight and sometimes I feel you're an ogre—but you do care about me!"
"Of course, we do." Terry whispered, "Shh, shh, it's alright, little one, it's alright."
Sylvia calmed slowly, feeling the warm and firm caress of Terry's hand upon her head, and soon her body was still only rising and falling by turns as she breathed.
Sylvia pulled her head from Terry's chest, "It's like you read me when you first found me, remember? And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
Terry spoke softly, "For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow."
Sylvia nodded, "Yes, yes."
Terry looked into the child's eyes and said, "Use that pain, Sylvie. Use that pain and make beauty. I know you have it in you. Use that pain and make your dispenser of justice. Make your sentinel for in creation is the only way to overcome the destruction you have just encountered. Make it so that people need not fear for the pain you have been through, make it so that that they have hope through you. That through you, the situation is not impossible, but there is a recourse."
Sylvia nodded, "I will. I have a vision in mind."
"Good, very good, Sylvie. Pursue it."
Terry looked at Jacob, "Jake, take her to get something to eat and make sure she gets some rest."
As Sylvia went with Jacob, Terry said, "Remember Sylvia. Remember what I read to you a few years ago. 'For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.'
Sylvia nodded and went along with Jacob. Terry looked at the ten files, and he was about to press "send" to Aelita's phone. However, at this moment, Terry paused. He hesitated because he knew this would also result in significant pain. However, the truth had to be known. But he remembered the wise words of an old friend, "Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said right now? Does this need to be said right now by me?" Terry weighed this in his mind, he considered all three with great decision. Two of the questions could wait. It needed to be said but now was not the time. It would come in time enough to say what needed to be said. Terry closed the file, and after putting North-Gate into standby, he went to his cot and lay down to sleep.
