Chapter 21 - A Familiar Face

After spending several minutes attempting the color puzzle, we eventually figured out the correct sequence. With one final pull of the switch, the door the robot was standing in front of opened.

I sprawled out onto the floor, mentally exhausted, "I never want to do that ever again…"

Niko stared down at me with a cheeky grin, "I thought it was kind of fun." She quickly scanned the door before turning back to me, "Come on, we should see what's in here."

I waved my arm lazily, letting it fall back to my side as I stayed glued to the floor. I heard Niko huff before she grabbed ahold of one of my arms and started pulling me off the floor. Given how much heavier I was than her, she had a bit of trouble pulling me up. I started to chuckle after several of her attempts failed, letting me fall back to the floor.

"Just give me five more minutes…" I playfully moaned.

Niko scoffed, "Now's not the time for rest, Alan!"

I lifted my head and smirked at her, "Any time is rest time if you try hard enough."

Niko stared back unamused before a mischievous flash went across her eyes. A small smirk crept onto her face as she moved closer to me and promptly planted herself on top of my chest, knocking the air out of me.

I gasped for what little air I could find, "Alright! Alright! I'll get up!"

She tilted her head and gave me an innocent look, "I'm just resting for a bit. It's like you said 'Any time is rest time if you-'"

"I take it back!" I coughed out, "Now please get off…!"

With a victorious smile, Niko hopped off me and I lifted myself off the floor, giving her a pained look, "You're so cruel, Niko…"

She giggled as I got onto my feet and, with a grab of my hand, led me through the newly-opened doorway.

More lakes of red Phosphor were scattered throughout the courtyard with a researcher fussing over a robot that was covered in squares. We let him be since his attention was solely on the robot. It didn't take us long to enter the last part of the laboratory. A lot more scientists and researchers were present here, though they all looked equally tired and worried. Just like the last building, there were two other side areas. One had computer terminals lined side-by-side as several of the researchers looked over the data that flew past their eyes, mumbling to themselves about the squares. The other area housed robots, all of whom seemed damaged in one way or another. Some were missing parts of their bodies while others looked completely rusted and simply were powered down against the wall. We didn't stick around too long and moved into the last room available to us.

"...Hello?" Niko called out into the room, catching the attention of a red-haired woman who was tinkering with a robot head on a table.

Her eyes went wide as she saw the lightbulb, "Oh, shoot! If I had known you would be here so soon, I would've turned off that darned lock!" She pocketed her screwdriver and brushed herself off before walking over to us, "Hello there! Sorry about the weird...security measures."

Niko smiled, "It's okay! Alan helped me out!"

The woman shifted her gaze to me, a look of shock on her face before she sweatdropped, "Well, I guess there have been stranger days...I definitely wasn't expecting to meet YOU in person."

I rubbed my neck, "Yeah, I've been getting that a lot."

She clapped her hands together, "So...can I help you with anything?"

"Yeah, actually…" Niko spoke up, "Do you know how we can get a library card?"

She raised an eyebrow, "A library card? You'll have to ask the library for that!"

I sighed, "We tried...We need to see the head librarian, but we can't see her without a library card…"

"...But at the same time, she's the one who gives out library cards," Niko said, finishing my sentence.

A small chuckle escaped from the woman's lips, "Really...Heh, that sounds like George alright! I'm sorry you caught her on a bad day!"

"Aw…" Niko moaned.

The woman looked deep in thought before she snapped her fingers, "Oh, I know! I can just give you my library card!" She dug into her pockets, pulled out her card, and handed it to Niko, "It won't be hard for me to get another one."

"Wow, thanks!" Niko took it and put it in her pocket.

"Well, that takes care of one...but I don't think we'll both be able to get in on just one card." I pointed out.

The woman facepalmed, "Oh, right! Plus, the front desk library robots have facial recognition and my photo on the card won't match you…" she chuckled, "...Unless I tape a photo of my face to your faces!"

Niko's brow furrowed, "Um-"

"That was a joke," she shrugged, "Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and the robot will take it anyway. Worse comes to worst, you can always find somewhere to take a photo of yourselves and just swap the card and photo back and forth."

"Would you happen to know a place where we could get photos"? I asked.

She hummed, "Hmm...I think I remember there being a place in the center of the street nearby, but last I heard, they were having some problems with the camera. Something about missing lenses?"

I recalled the lenses we had found in the alleyway cove. Those must have been replacements for the camera, but they just hadn't gotten delivered yet. I smiled, "Don't worry. I think we can take care of that problem."

"Glad to hear!" she beamed as Niko walked over to one of the bookshelves nearby. I guess something caught her eye and she wanted to check it out. "So…" the woman started to say, "You've both been walking all over the world, huh?"

"Mhm!" Niko hummed in response.

The woman sighed, "Geez...I can't imagine...Do you get really tired sometimes?"

"Kinda...but I don't mind! It's actually really pretty!"

"Haha, I'm glad you think so! Even with the sun gone, the world is still a beautiful place."

I gazed out the doorway before turning back to the woman, "What did the world look like with the sun?"

"Oh, uh…" she hesitated, "...Y'know, it's kind of embarrassing to admit how little of it I've actually seen."

"Really?"

She chuckled, "Ironic, isn't it? Even though I'm the world's leading researcher, all I do is stay here and build robots." She sighed, "They're the ones exploring the world. I just write down the data, crunch numbers, generate graphs…"

"Right…" Niko said, "We've been seeing robots everywhere!" She turned to look at us, "I just thought it was 'cause the world was too dangerous for most people to explore…"

"That's not far from the truth, actually," the woman replied, snapping her fingers, "But I know someone who still does his research firsthand!"

"Let me guess…The Author?" I huffed.

She nodded, "Even after segments of land started falling apart and access to the more remote areas became difficult. I mean, he outright built a machine that could fly!" she waved her hands around excitedly, "Something we all thought was not physically possible!"

Of course he did...I could feel myself tensing up as the lady continued to rave about The Author.

"I asked him about working with us, so he provides us with all sorts of insights from time to time…" she sweatdropped, "...but for some reason, he REALLY didn't want to build robots. Or, more specifically, coding them."

"So he does have coding experience…" I mumbled to myself. That certainly confirmed my suspicion that he built the laptop he gave to me from scratch.

"How come he didn't want to help with the robots?" Niko asked from the bookshelf.

The woman shrugged, "Beats me! I mean, he's happy to work with robots! In fact, he even-"

She froze. I noticed her entire attitude change to something much more troubled, "...Ah, it's been a while since we last talked. He must be busy with his books now, yeah…"

Niko had come back from the bookshelf with a tube of glue in her hand, "Is it alright if I take this? I think we may need it."

That question brought the woman back to normal, "Oh sure! I have tons of those! Never know when you need to glitter things up, right? " she added before winking.

"Thank you!" Niko handed me the glue to put in my pack. I did so, but there was one more thing I wanted to ask the lady.

I put a hand on Niko, stopping her from leaving as I grabbed the amber necklace from her pocket. The lady didn't seem to notice it in my fist as I turned to face her, "Could I ask...one more question, if you don't mind?"

"Sure!"

I took a deep breath, "Is...your name 'Kip' by any chance?"

Her eyes went wide, "Sure is! How'd you know?"

I slowly opened my hand, revealing the amber necklace to her.

As her gaze fell upon it, she took a step back, "...Oh…T-that's..." she looked back up at me, "How...did you get this?"

...Guess I was right, "A robot in the Barrens gave it to us. To help us get to the Glen." I handed the necklace back to Niko, "She...kinda looked like you. Plus, I saw one of the letters that you had sent to her."

"I see…"

She fell silent as she stared at the necklace. Her normal upbeat attitude was instead replaced by a melancholic wistfulness. She stayed like that until she sighed, "...It was supposed to be such a breakthrough, y'know? I even based her on myself so I'll KNOW it works!"

I raised an eyebrow, "Huh? What breakthrough?"

"We wanted to build a robot that acts like a person, thinks like a person...a robot that isn't bound by its own code."

"You mean...like artificial intelligence?"

She nodded slowly, "But turns out, you can't really BUILD something like that. Too many contradictions in the code...made her unstable." She shivered, "...That was the only time I've ever seen a robot go rogue. Scariest day of my life, tell you what!"

Niko piped up, "...rogue? But...she seemed so nice when we talked! Even if she talked a little weird…"

Kip rubbed her arm, "Ah, she's been repaired for some time now. My friend was able to stabilize her volatile state through his own means. A real miracle worker, that one…"

Wonder how he ended up doing that…I thought to myself as Kip continued.

"After he was through, she ended up turning out just like how I wanted...but the damage was already done." Her eyes became mournful, "...I gave up on her back then...we all did. I'm sure she realized that...and now she won't ever come back. She won't even answer my letters…"

"I-I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to…"

She quickly shook her head, shaking off the sadness that weighed down on her, "No, it's alright. You just wanted to know."

That doesn't mean I feel good about it...I thought.

She smiled at both of us, "You should hold on to that amber, okay?"

"We will!" Niko said.

With a plan now made, we said our goodbyes to Kip and left the lab. While we made our way back to the street with the vendors on it, I thought about what we needed to do. We found a library card to use for when we would go back to the library, but we need to change the picture on it so that we aren't blocked due to facial recognition. Yet, we only have one card...

One step at a time. Let's just find the camera first, I told myself.

Kip had told us the place where we could find the camera was at the center of the vendor street. Standing outside the building, it didn't look like where you would go to get your picture taken. Instead, it just looked like the buildings around it. A man standing near the doors was messing with the drawstrings on his jacket when he noticed us.

"Are you two here for your photos?" he asked.

Niko nodded, "Actually, yeah! We need to take a picture for...reasons."

The man chuckled, "Well, I got good news and bad news. The good news is that the photo center is right behind me." he said, pointing towards the doorway.

"The bad news is that it doesn't work, right?" I said, remembering what Kip told us about the missing lenses.

"Heh, you're catching on quick," the man quipped, "After operations ended in the Barrens, this place got shut down. All of the engineers lost their jobs and became street vendors."

"...Which means they're probably gonna be the most helpful to fixing it."

"We can figure it out!" Niko beamed, eager to get started.

I scratched my chin as I planned out the fastest way to get the camera working. Once I did, I laid out the plan for Niko, "Okay, you go ask the vendors how to fix the camera and I'll run over to grab the lenses. Once I get back, we'll get the camera fixed together. Sound like a plan?"

"Mhm!"

I smiled and rubbed her head, "Alright. Stay safe. I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, we separated. Niko went up the street to the nearest vendor to ask about the camera while I backtracked to the alley to pick up the lenses. Finding them again was the easy part. The not-so-easy part was figuring out how to carry them all without dropping them. Eventually, I took the thinner lenses and stuffed them into my pack while taking the thicker lenses into my arms.

Well, that takes care of that. Better head back to Niko, I thought as I left the alcove.

I made my way back towards the vendor street when I heard the soft patter of footsteps from behind me. It was the fox again. I just knew it. I stopped and glanced over my shoulder to see if I could spot them. Sure enough, I could see the orange fur and obsidian black eyes of the fox staring back at me with an intense gaze before it quickly vanished down the alley.

I was rooted in place as I stared at where the fox had been. This fox seemed to be really interested in me. I wonder why...Maybe it had to do with me being here in this world in the first place? Or was it something more?

I quickly shook myself out of my thoughts. Whatever the reason, I probably wasn't going to find out anytime soon. After making sure I still had the lenses secure in my arms and pack, I jogged back to the street.

Niko was already waiting for me back at the photo center when I arrived, the lightbulb still shining in her arms. I slowed down as I reached her and we both headed inside.

The camera that was supposed to take our pictures was a lot bigger than I'd thought. It was almost as big as the room we were in. Four slots faced as we examined the backside, suggesting that they were where the lenses went. I laid out all the lenses on the floor and we got to work, Niko providing the information that the vendors said while I figured out where the lenses were supposed to go.

It didn't take us long to get the camera fixed. Once we pulled the level on the camera, the lenses locked in and light from the camera lit up the wall it was facing.

"Oh! We got it!" Niko exclaimed.

I smiled at her and held up my hand, "Nice work, Niko."

We high fived and Niko ran around to the other side, standing in front of the light.

"Uh...cheese?" Niko said, making me chuckle as I leaned against the camera to watch her. With a snap, the camera fired, a bright flash filling up the room.

"Ouch, m-my eyes…" I heard Niko moan.

A small piece of film popped out of a small slot on the camera. I walked over and grabbed the picture of Niko.

Niko walked over and smiled at it, "It's me!" she said before her brow furrowed, "...are my eyes always this big?"

I laughed, "Only sometimes."

She frowned at me, "What's that supposed to mean?"

I pulled the camera lever, turning it on again, "Oh, nothing..." I stood within the light and, with another flash of light, got my picture taken. The film rolled out the slot and Niko grabbed onto it, examining it.

As I came back around, she smiled up at me, "Your picture looks great!"

I rubbed my neck as my face warmed up, "Oh, stop, you're making me blush…"

She giggled as she pulled out the library card we got from Kip while I pulled the glitter glue from my pack and handed it to her. She squirted it onto the photo of Kip and placed her photo right on top of it. She held it up, proud of her glittery work.

"Well, that takes care of that!" she said, pocketing the card and handing the glue back to me, "Hopefully this works!"

I chuckled as I started to follow her out, but then I stopped, turning back to the camera as a thought popped into my head. I turned to Niko, who was just about to exit, "Hey, Niko?" She stopped and turned back to me, "Is it alright if…" I felt my face warm up again, "...we take one more picture?"

Niko tilted her head, "Sure, but is it of you or me?"

I pulled the lever, activating the camera one last time, before turning back to her with a soft smile, "...Both of us."

Her eyes widened and a large smile grew on her face, "Yeah, of course!"

We both moved in front of the camera. I kneeled down to Niko's height and wrapped my arm around her. In response, she leaned closer to me, causing me to smile.

"Cheese!" she trilled.

The camera flashed and we both quickly moved back around the camera to see the final product. A vague sense of excitement started to flow throughout my body. It was strange. I had never felt this excited about anything before.

The camera finally spat out the film after a couple of seconds and I grabbed onto it eagerly. As it developed, I was worried that something would ruin the picture. Did I blink? What if my head was slightly cut off?

The film finally revealed the picture and in that instant, all my doubts went away. It was…

Perfect.

Golden, yellow eyes stared back at me with a smile that was as radiant as the lightbulb itself. Next to her, it was hard not to smile at myself. It was as if all of my worries and pain had disappeared, replaced only by pure joy.

And I knew it was all thanks to her.

I kneeled down to let Niko look at it. Her grin only grew larger as she admired it, "That looks great!"

I nodded, gazing at it for one more moment before slipping it into my pocket and making sure that it was going to stay there, no matter what. I stood up and held out my hand, "Ready to get going?"

She grabbed on to it, her smile unfading, and together we headed back to the library.