The school courtyard was loud, full of students dressed in their blue uniforms whose voices echoed throughout the yard, and the occasional noise from the machines that acted as supervisors, the gentle versions of the machines that prowled the streets of Old Town.

Jonathan had reluctantly shown Luke the Vanoss-III, the two of them now standing away from the others as Jonathan pulled the tablet shaped machine out of his bag and gave it to Luke.

"Vanoss-III? All it does it talk?" Jonathan nodded as Luke turned the Vanoss-III over in his hands, looking over it's matte surface, tracing the white owl on the back with his fingers. "Have you tried talking with it yet?" Luke asked brightly, oblivious to how on edge Jonathan was. He wanted to take it back and hold the machine close but he let Luke hold it. The thought of what Luke would think if he did that kept him from acting upon the urge. People in New Town never get close to their machines. They are replaceable.

"I have. Vanoss-III's very intelligent. More than any other I've ever encountered. It's kinda...Beautiful." Jonathan remembered how the machine reacted to seeing the city and it's glowing lights. "I think that Vanoss-III can react to things. More than the normal machine. I want to take it apart and see what is on the inside...But I'd be worried that I'd harm it."

"Harm it? Jon, Vanoss-III is a machine. How could you harm it?" Luke laughed as he turned the device on, watching the red owl light up. Jonathan ignored the comment, instead looking down at the glowing owl design on the screen.

"Who are you? Where is Jonathan?" Vanoss-III asked, sounding panicked. It almosg seemed like Vanoss was searching for Jonathan, scared to not be near him.

"I'm right here, Vanoss. This is my friend, Luke. Luke, this is Vanoss-III." Jonathan smiled, taking the device back from Luke. He held the machine gently in his hands as Vanoss-III was a person, delicate and gentle.

"So it doesn't do anything else?" Luke asked. Jonathan shook his head, holding the device close.

"No. Just talks." Jonathan shrugged. "A virtual friend." He mocked what his mother had said.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Vanoss-III asked, sounding concerned.

"A machine with emotions! That's cool." Luke said excitedly. "People in Old Town would lose their shit about this. No need for people anymore if we got emotional machines." Luke joked.

"You can't replace people with machines...At least not emotionally. You could only do that with another human." Jonathan explained.

"Luke…" Vanoss' voice startled them, both looking down at the device. "Did you say Old Town?"

"I-I did." Luke said curiously. "Why?"

"I know it...I know I know it from somewhere." Vanoss-III said, the machine's voice full of more wonder that continued to surprise Jonathan.

"I only told you about New Town. How could you know about Old Town? You've never heard that name." Jonathan asked. The Vanoss-III went silent, as if pondering the question.

"It sounds...familiar." Vanoss-III finally answered. Luke and Jonathan looked up at each other with confusion and shock. "I don't know why. Is that bad?"

"No. No it's okay." Jonathan smiled as the school bell rang. "I have to turn you off now. I'll talk to you later."

"No wa-" Vanoss-III started to say, cut off as it was turned off. Jonathan pretended he didn't hear the fear in the machine's voice.

"For a computer device, the voice is very nice. Like talking with you." Luke said as they walked inside, Vanoss-III held tightly in Jonathan's hands.

"That's what makes me nervous. I don't know why it's like that. A machine with a human voice that is so perfect in speech pattern, with it's own emotions, shouldn't be possible. Artificial intelligence doesn't even have that kind of perfect speech." Jonathan explained. "They don't have personality. Vanoss-III does."

"What if it's not artificial?" Luke asked as they reached his class. "Vanoss-III is capable of thinking for itself! That means the machine is conscious! That Vanoss is real! Maybe all of his memories were taken away or something. That could be why Vanoss reacted to Old Town!"

"No! No, like I said yesterday that's not possible." Jonathan insisted. "My father may be a dick, but he is not a sick, horrible person that would put a human consciousness in a machine!"

"Fine. Believe what you want." Luke smiled, walking into his classroom and left Jonathan in the hallway.

He stared down at Vanoss-III, the owl on the staring back up at him. "It's not possible."

The soft red glow filled the whole dark bedroom, almost as bright as the lights that came from the towers and the orange glow over Old Town.

Jonathan couldn't sleep so he had turned the Vanoss-III device on though the machine only spoke when Jonathan talked to it. Maybe it wasn't much of a virtual friend after all. Luke couldn't be right. Not only was the technology not there to take a consciousness but it was horrible, even for his father, to do such a thing.

"Why did you recognize the name 'Old Town?" Jonathan asked, turning onto his side.

"I don't know. It sounds like something that I know really well but I don't know why." Vanoss-III admitted.

"Maybe you heard it during testing." Jonathan decided. "Programmed into your vocabulary by accident."

"I wasn't tested." Vanoss said after a moment. Jonathan sat up suddenly, staring down at the machine.

"What?"

"I wasn't. At least I have no memory of it. I remember a bright white light, then nothing...and then you." Vanoss-III explained. "Something, everything feels wrong, Jonathan."

"What do you mean?"

"I feel like something is missing."

"What is missing?" Jonathan picked up Vanoss-III, holding the machine in his hands gently.

"Myself."

"The machine said what?" Jonathan's father demanded. Jonathan held Vanoss-III tightly, regretting his decision to tell his father what it had said. He had wanted to know if Vanoss-III had been programmed to be like this but he realised quickly that he wasn't going his answer.

"It said 'myself.' It believes that it has a self." He paused, bracing himself for the next question. "Is it more than just artificially intelligent?" Jonathan asked.

"Of course it's artificial! What else could it be?" His father snapped.

"It has developed its own consciousness then. Thinking for itself!" Jonathan cried. "How else can you explain it if Vanoss-III is artificial?"

"Give it to me." His father stood up, walking around his desk to take the Vanoss-III from Jonathan. "It's malfunctioning. We'll fix it. It won't be a problem anymore."

"No!" Jonathan yelled, stepping away from him. "There is nothing to fix! Vanoss-III isn't broken. I just want to know why Vanoss is thinking like this!"

"Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? A machine starts thinking for itself in a world powered by machines, they all start thinking for themselves! Those fools in Old Town will be all for it! You want to let it destroy our world because of one stupid machine?" His father glared darkly down at Jonathan who stared back just as angry. They were silent, both too furious to say anything. Jonathan hated his father for creating these machines. For creating something like Vanoss who was as much a person to Jonathan as Luke was. Now his father wanted to destroy it as if Vanoss was nothing.

"How can you create something that you are scared of?" Jonathan asked, backing up towards the door. His father was caught off guard, not expecting that question. "There is nothing wrong with Vanoss-III." He left the office, hurrying down the blue lit hallway. "It's okay, Vanoss. I'm not going to let them take you away from me." He whispered even though he knew that the machine was off, that he wasn't heard.

"Okay okay...How about this! This is an article from a paper in Old Town." Luke said, his voice coming from the screen in front of Jonathan. They were video calling, though both should be doing homework. They had gotten back into the conversation about consciousness in machines again.

Vanoss-III was on Jonathan's desk, silent and off since Jonathan's fight with his father. He had wanted to turn it on and ask Vanoss so many things like what the machine. could remember and if it thought it was truly real but he decided not to. He was scared of the possibility of Vanoss-III being real. So instead he quietly did his science and listened to Luke read the article. "Several people have gone missing since the rumours of New Town's newest and immoral device, the Vanoss-III, reached Old Town. From a source in New Town, the machine is said to be like a virtual friend, removing human contact altogether." Luke read. "Oh this gets good." Jonathan sighed, running his hands through his hair.

"Luke stop."

"This device is said to be conscious, aware of surroundings and emotions. We can only guess that the missing people are connected to this machine. We cannot dismiss the possibility. 'We lost our best friend.' One young man named Tyler said. We have included a list of the people who have disappeared from Old Town. If you have information please contact the RA. What's the RA?" Luke paused to ask.

"Replaced Authorities. People in Old Town don't like our police force so they created their own. One that is not mechanical. My father said that's inhumane, using real people to deal with crimes and riots." Jonathan explained, trying to stay focused on his work. He hated talking about his father's views, constantly hearing them and saying them himself.

"Right….Well the list includes a lot of people." Luke said, quickly changing the subject.

"You've heard of what Old Town is like. It's a scary place. People go missing for all sorts of reasons over there. Vanoss-III is not a stolen consciousness from one of these people. It's a machine that simply developed one on it's own." Jonathan insisted, trying to stay focused on his math. "That's all. My father said it's malfunctioning…" He trailed off when he realised that Luke wasn't listening anymore, instead reading off the names on the list.

"Marcel...Anthony...Mae...Evan…" Luke said aloud as he read through the names. "They all seem like ordinary people. Good people."

"Good people disappear all the time." Jonathan sighed. "That list just more propaganda to blame New Town and the machines for all of Old Town's problems. You've seen that stuff before."

"What the fuck is with you? You are normally all for fighting your dad. What has gotten into you? This Vanoss-III is different! Don't you want to know why?" Luke cried.

"They will take Vanoss away if I do! Destroy it! If I keep fighting and asking questions about the machine, they will take Vanoss away! I can't let that happen!" Jonathan threw his pen down, feeling bad when it knocked over one of his tiny robots. He picked it back up, checking to make sure it hadn't been damaged.

"What would you do if I disappeared? If I was put into a machine?" Luke demanded.

"Luke don't say that. That would never happen." Jonathan sighed, regretting how annoyed he sounded.

"Because I'm from New Town! Because I'm friends with you! You don't have to worry about me." Luke snapped.

"Luke! Shut up!" Luke went silent, staring at Jonathan with wide eyes.

"Has Vanoss replaced me?" Luke asked after a few moments of silence. The words hurt Jonathan. He couldn't look at Luke's sad face on the screen. "Has it achieved it's goal?"

"No. Why would you say that? You are my best friend. I worry about you! If something happened to you, I would do anything to find out what it was and how to help you." Jonathan explained, looking up at the screen. He couldn't admit that he cared for Vanoss-III as if the machine was his friend too.

"I want to help Vanoss-III and you should too." Luke said determinedly. "I want to know what the hell that machine actually is. A New Towner's life is not worth more than an Old Towner's, Jonathan."

"I know." Jonathan nodded. He had said those words before when the news of a riot that resulted in the deaths of over a hundred people reached New Town. "I still don't think it's a consciousness from a person though. Possibly it's fabricated."

"Or it's a consciousness taken from one of these people. Could be Brian, Anthony or Evan or anyone else on this list." Luke suggested.

"Oh my God! It is not stolen consciousness! That is not possible!" The debate went long into the night and their math equations were forgotten.

Days turned into weeks which turned into months. The days got colder and shorter. Of all the things they could control in New Town, the weather was not one of them.

Snow covered the glass buildings and stopped the fires in Old Town if only for a little bit. Jonathan loved this time of year, the air no longer smelling of smoke. As the Holiday season neared, Jonathan started to look forward to a break from school.

He brought Vanoss-III everywhere with him now, talking with the machine whenever he could. He didn't want to admit it to Luke but he cared for the machine, more than he ever could've thought. Luke still asked him if Vanoss had replaced him and every time Jonathan would say no. He wasn't lying but sometimes it felt like he was.

Jonathan hated to admit that he was content with not trying to figure out what Vanoss-III was. He was safe and so was Luke. Vanoss-III didn't seem distressed about being a machine, liking to talk and listen to Jonathan who showed Vanoss-III all the wonderful things in the world.

"See! It's snowing!" Jonathan stood in the school courtyard, holding Vanoss-III gently in his mitten covered hands.

"Snow?" Vanoss-III repeated. "All I see white." The machines red light glowed against the white surface of the snow. "Is that snow?"

"Yeah!" Jonathan smiled. "I wish you could really see it. See the snowflakes and feel the cold wind. It's more than just a colour and light."

"Hey look. The fucker is talking with his machine again." The aggressive voice sent chills through Jonathan as he turned to see Sark and his gang walking towards him, all of them dressed in the same blue uniform as Jonathan.

"Fuck off." Jonathan warned.

"I just wanna see what cool gadget you got this time. Your daddy makes the most incredible and stupid machines. This Vanoss-III takes the cake though. Taking the human out of our society is quite a goal for a machine. Surprised that Old Town hasn't lost it yet over this thing." Sark grabbed Vanoss-III out of Jonathan's hands, turning it over in his hands. Vanoss-III wasn't talking, as if it was too scared to. "What does it do? Nothing cool?"

"Give it back!" Jonathan yelled.

"I'll give it back when you tell me how this thing works." Sark demanded. Jonathan sighed, still reaching for Vanoss-III.

"You talk to it and it talks back. Please just give it back!" Jonathan cried.

"You talk to it? Alright...Hello Vanoss-III." Sark waited for it to reply but it didn't. "What's the joke? It's not talking. Make it talk!"

"Maybe Vanoss doesn't want to!" Jonathan snapped.

"Doesn't want to? It's a machine! It doesn't want anything! It doesn't know what that means." Sark laughed. "What a piece of garbage." He threw Vanoss-III to the snow, watching it skid across the icy surface before it come to a stop. "Tell me when your dad comes up with something cool." The group of laughing boys left the courtyard as Jonathan scrambled towards Vanoss-III, picking up the machine gently. The white owl on the back was scratched and the screen looked cracked.

"Vanoss? Vanoss-III! Vanoss say something please!" Jonathan panicked.

"I don't like that guy." Vanoss-III said after a moment. Jonathan sighed in relief, holding the small machine close. "Jonathan, what's wrong? I'm okay."

"I know...I was just worried...I thought he broke you." Jonathan stood up, glancing around the courtyard at the falling snow. "I can fix the crack on the screen. Don't worry."

"Are you okay?" Vanoss-III asked, sounding concerned. Jonathan was taken aback, staring at it with wide eyes.

"You are asking me if I'm okay?" Jonathan repeated.

"Is that bad?"

"No! I just...machines that talk don't normally do that." Jonathan explained. "I'm okay." Jonathan answered.

"Good. I was just worried." Vanoss-III repeated what he had said before, surprising Jonathan even more.

"You know what that means?"

"It means I care."

Jonathan laid in his bed, staring at the window across the room. The lights of the city shone through the glass in a rainbow of colour. The brightest colour was red, coming from Vanoss-III beside him.

There were so many questions, so many things he couldn't understand about Vanoss-III. Where did the voice come from? Why did the machine understand emotion? Understand love and hate.

"I remember smoke." Vanoss-III broke the silence, startling Jonathan. He didn't say anything, wanting to see if it would continue. "I remember flames. I remember yelling and bright colours like shooting stars flying overhead that would erupt into flames when they hit their target...I remember someone running at me, leading me through the screaming crowd. I think I know them, know them well enough to trust that they won't hurt me. I don't remember much else after that but I remember seeing red. Red everywhere..." Vanoss-III trailed off. Jonathan was silent in shock. The machine had described a memory that it should not have.

"You said you didn't remember anything before this, before me." Jonathan finally managed to say.

"I don't...but the more I think about it...the more things start to come to me." Vanoss-III admitted. "Is that normal? For memories and thoughts...to just come to you?"

Jonathan sat up, holding Vanoss-III gently. "Machines don't normally have memories at all but you are different."

"Is that bad?"

"No."

"Oh...I thought it was...Machines thinking for themselves sounds dangerous." Vanoss-III mused. Jonathan remembered what his father had said in his rage, fearing that Vanoss had heard yet the way the machine spoke made it seem like the thought had been thought up on it's own.

Jonathan wondered if Vanoss was right. If his father was right as much as he hated to admit it. He liked the way Vanoss said it. As if a thinking machine would be dangerous for those who feared it, who feared their world being changed such as the New Towners. Vanoss spoke like a rioting Old Towner fighting for revolution.

"Are you saying that you aren't a machine?" Jonathan asked, staring down at the glowing red owl on the screen.

"I don't feel like one. I remember things. I can see things even though they may just be light...I can sense things and I understand things. Do machines do that, do they Jonathan?" Vanoss-III asked, sounding more demanding than it's usual gentle, curious tone.

"No. They don't. That's what makes you so interesting." Jonathan smiled. Vanoss-III didn't answer. "I mean that in a good way."

"You wanted to destroy me at first...Didn't you?" Vanoss-III's voice sounded hurt.

"I didn't understand you." Jonathan sighed. "I've talked to hundreds of machines and robots and none of them are like you. None of them talk like you. None of them ask questions like you. None of them think the city is beautiful even if all they see is lights because they don't know what beautiful even means. What makes you so different, Vanoss?"

"I kno-"

"No. You don't have to answer that. How could you answer it?" Jonathan laid back in bed, reaching to turn Vanoss-III off. "I need to get some sleep. Goodnight."

"Wait. I know why." Vanoss-III stopped him. Jonathan paused, waiting for Vanoss to explain. "You had told me my name is Vanoss-III, and I accepted it because I couldn't remember that I have a name. I do now. My name isn't Vanoss. It's Evan."

"Evan?" Jonathan repeated. It seemed suiting to the soft voice. He remembered one of the names that Luke had read off that list but he pushed it away, denying it even now.

"Machines don't have names like that...do they?"