"So what are you?"
Anna paused her hands, fingers threaded in red and white strands. It was an honest question, blunt and straight to the point. One that Anna had many, many years to come to terms with, but to explain to another person when she's never had to? She watched Elsa with wide eyes, taking in the sight of the blonde woman sitting across the table from her a mug of hot chocolate being idly spun in her hands. Ice blue eyes stared at her curiously, flicking downwards every so often and a light blush grazing her cheeks.
Is there something wrong with the sweater? Should I have picked something else to wear after that shower? But it's huge and comfy and blue and it smells like Elsa. Okay, keep the fact you like the smell of jasmine and mint to yourself Anna.
Tilting her head to the side Anna quickly replayed the last twenty minutes, wondering why...
Stepping out of the shower Anna grabbed for the fluffy blue towel hanging on the rack, drying herself off. Tossing the towel over her hair once she was sufficiently dried off, she looked around the bathroom. Pale blue walls with white accents seemed to be the theme Elsa was going for, giving it a very soothing feel. She smiled at the small snowflakes that appeared throughout the room, on the floor mats, the corners of the mirror, even the decorative bars of soap were snowflakes.
Glancing around she noticed that other than the dirty clothes she wore in the garage, there was nothing else for her to wear. Giving her hair a final once over fluff with the towel she tossed it into the pile of dirty laundry and stepped out into the hallway, looking to the left and the right.
"Hey Elsa?"
"What is it Ann-" the redhead tilted her head curiously as Elsa leaned around the corner from the kitchen and stared at her for a moment. She turned her head away from Anna averting her gaze, a heavy blush staining her cheeks. "Where's your clothes?"
"They were dirty."
"What about the towel?"
"It was wet."
Blue eyes glanced back at her briefly before looking away again and disappearing back into the kitchen.
"Door on your left is the guest room, there should some clothes in the closet you can choose from."
Anna merely blinked at the flustered blonde.
Ooh, that's right...some humans have issues with nudity. Note to self, keep the towel on. Now back to her question.
Anna leaned forward smiling, elbows on the table and her face resting in her hands.
"I'm Anna," she stated simply, though she knew Elsa wouldn't let it slide that easily.
The blonde huffed quietly and took a sip of the hot chocolate.
"Are you even a companion AI? From what I've seen you are far too advanced to just simply be one," Elsa tapped a few keys on the laptop next to her and a projection of a normal AI's internal schematic appeared in the middle of the table between them. "My equipment couldn't even get past your external layer so I'm basing this off of what I've seen so far. You also don't act like any AI I've seen, so tell me the truth."
"It's not that I don't want to, but there's a lot of complications with knowing," fidgeting in her seat Anna clasped her hands together tightly in her lap, the task of braiding her unruly hair discarded for the moment. "You've already taken me in and helped when you could've just as easily left me in that alley."
Peering up through her bangs she watched Elsa through the projection. Would she freak out? The blonde didn't seem the type to do so, but who knew what was hidden underneath that beautiful face. She did seem very knowledgeable, what with that lab and the snippets of information that Olaf gave her. But then she would understand why Anna...
Okay, stop with the rambling, this is so not helping. Just ask the stunning blonde if she really wants to know then show her. Simple. Now stop being distracted by that loose strand of hair she's tucking behind her ear.
"If you really want to know, I'll tell you. I just don't want to cause you any problems with what I am."
A spark of curiosity lit up those ice blue eyes and Elsa simply nodded.
"It's not an easy thing to answer," reaching across the table Anna hooked her fingers onto the laptop, sliding it closer. "Better if I just show you honestly," with a quiet pop the panel above her wrist opened and she pulled out a thin cable, attaching it to an open port in the side of the laptop.
Anna's eyes slid closed as a massive rush of information flooded through the cable, nearly overloading her sensors. It had been far too long since she had been connected to any source of information and it was far too soon for her newly repaired receptors
"Initializing cascading blockades. Input minimized to 15%"
"Anna?"
Gosh, that's still such a pretty sound.
"Anna?!"
Pressure appeared on her left shoulder and hand, gripping tightly and shaking her. The tension from the near overload faded away and Anna slowly opened her eyes to find Elsa leaning over her side, staring at her with worry etched in her pale face.
"Sorry about that," blinking slowly Anna shook her head, tucking away the packets of info streaming slowly through the cable now.
"You scared me again with going rigid like that," Elsa pulled up another chair and sat down beside Anna, still gently holding on to her hand. "And then these green lines appeared in the skin around your eyes..."
"It's alright," Anna just smiled at the worried blonde, placing her other hand over top Elsa's. "It was just a bit too much, but it's fixed mostly. I still have things to repair before I'm completely back to my old self. Now! Where was I?"
The projection flickered briefly before a snapshot of a news article appeared. An older man in his late forties with shaggy auburn hair and hazel eyes, dressed in a grey suit and lab coat stood in front of a gleaming white building.
"That's Jon Arenston, he was behind the program to create the companion AI's," Elsa commented quietly, wondering what he had to with this.
The image faded and another took its place causing Elsa to gasp loudly.
Jon Arenston was standing next to Anna.
The AI could only watch in silence as Elsa stared at the picture and the attached headline.
ARENSTON DAUGHTER DIAGNOSED WITH INCURABLE DISEASE
"I don't understand..." Elsa ripped her eyes away from the image to stare down at Anna. "This doesn't make any sense."
"Anna Arenston was diagnosed with a rare disease that ate away at her body," a sad smile lifted Anna's lips. "It starts at the feet and works its way up, devouring muscle, bone, organs, until you simply...die."
She kept her gaze on the image of father and daughter, smiling happily at each other, not a care in the world.
"The doctors gave her five, maybe six months to live. It would be a month after the news was given that the effects started and Anna was confined to a wheelchair as the feet finally gave out," she squeezed the hand between hers gently. "But she was always smiling, always laughing. Nothing that happened could ever bring her down."
Pictures flickered to life, each showing the rapid progression of the disease. But each shot showed a smiling redhead, regardless of how skinny and sick she looked.
"Papa took the news hard," a slight jerk was all Anna needed to feel to know that Elsa reacted to her particular phrase. "So he worked for four months on a project, when he wasn't at his daughter's side. He decided that that she would live on, in one way or another. Using his knowledge of the companion bots he was helping to make, he expanded on the idea."
Anna tilted her head back slightly, watching Elsa out of the corner of her eye. The blonde was blatantly staring at her eyes filled with a maelstrom of emotions but her face remained neutral.
Here we go then...
"Instead of an AI that could learn, why not one that would learn and feel? Even then, it wasn't enough. Papa thought, could I possibly place memories and experiences in as well?" Anna swallowed the lump in her throat. "He built a machine that would make a copy of the human brain, every single memory and what essentially makes a person an individual. All stored away in a neat little file."
"Did she agree to all this?" Elsa quietly asked, nothing but a murmur.
"Yes she did. She wanted her father happy, anything to get him to smile again." Anna peered back at the image of the sick girl lying weak and helpless in the hospital bed. She was laughing and smiling at something off camera. "By the time everything was all set and ready to go there wasn't much time left at all. The disease had progressed much quicker than anticipated and was already destroying her heart."
"That must have been very difficult for her, I can't imagine that kind of pain."
Anna could very easily imagine it. A twinge in her chest and gut had her clenching her fist tightly again.
What did they call it, phantom pain?
"Warning: Voice synapses require further repair."
She ignored it as she watched Elsa take a sip from her mug, wondering what she was thinking of.
"They were only able to make a single attempt. The next day she passed away, peacefully. A week later I woke up," Anna's voice crackled towards the end sounding more like a dying stereo.
"Warning: Hibernation mode must be initialized to complete repairs."
She huffed in annoyance and placed her hands flat on the table, earning a curious look from Elsa.
"Gimme a moment," closing her eyes Anna searched for a certain sliver of data. Grasping onto it, she let her body fully enter its much needed hibernation.
Elsa watched with a mix of worry and curiosity as Anna's body went completely still. It was still unsettling to see her in such a way despite knowing the AI for such a short time. That near constant smile that had Elsa's stomach jumping nervously when directed at her. Reaching up she tucked a loose strand of hair behind Anna's ear, marveling at the feel of it under her fingertips. Everything about Anna felt too real.
With a quiet sigh she leaned back into her chair, idly biting at her thumb.
"Okay, there we go," a flicker above the table caught her attention and Elsa found herself staring at a miniature hologram of Anna. Still wearing the oversized sweater, tiny shorts, and that wide smile.
"Sorry about that, my systems are still fixing themselves and I overstretched myself," the two foot tall hologram sat down cross-legged on the table. "Did you have any questions? I realized that I've just spouted out all this info at you."
"I just want to make sure I've got this right. He made you to what…become his daughter?" Elsa watched the smile on Anna's face dim slightly.
"Not to become his daughter, but to preserve her in some way. She was only sixteen at the time," images appeared above the table. Various unrecognizable schematics danced in front of Elsa and she leaned against the table to get a closer look.
Apart from some vague resemblance, most of the setup was completely unique.
"Papa made my body to be the most advanced he could make it. I am made to be self-repairing, to keep all my systems up and running. From the electro-vascular system, to the synthetic musculature and everything in between." Anna flipped through the images and settled on a side shot of the interior of her head. "I wouldn't just learn though, I would feel and think and essentially be the closest an AI could be to a human."
"So how did the copy of her mind fit into all this," Elsa turned her head to look at the still body next to her. "You look to be an exact copy of her, beyond that cute streak of white in your hair," she kept her gaze away from the hologram, realizing what she just said.
She didn't see Anna practically bouncing back and forth, a large smile on her face.
"Well, while I have everything that was her in my head, I'm not her. I've learned, adapted, and have my own personality. But I can pull from her memories and experiences to help with my own. For example! I can eat food, mostly for pleasure, but while the technical side of me can breakdown the composition of the item," Elsa turned back to the table to find Anna had scooted in front of her mug. "I know the taste of chocolate and I know it's my favorite."
The blonde laughed and lifted the mug to her lips. She grinned at the pout Anna was giving her.
"Then next time I'll have to make up a cup for you hmm?"
Elsa had bid her a good night shortly after and slipped off to her room, leaving Anna to go over the checklist of her systems in need of immediate attention. Most was just fixing corroded wiring, filling and smoothing out micro fractures, or readjusting the various sensors and modules that have been unused in many years.
While the repair systems took over Anna let her mind wander through her memories from long ago.
"Papa?"
"Yes Anna, what is it?"
"I don't understand this concept of…love"
"Love? Love is when someone has become an important part of your life that you can't imagine it without them. It's when simply the thought of them fills you with so much happiness and being away from them you ache and miss them. Loving someone means that you would do anything for them, whether they love you or not. That their happiness is more important than your own."
"And that's what it is?"
"My dear Anna, love is the most unscientific, most illogical thing there is in this world. There is never a set definition as to what it is. It will happen to you when you least expect it."
AN: Okay, that took quite a bit, but now some of the background is out of the way I can move on with the plot lol