Chapter 8: Self Determination

Autumn's Rise

Raiden sat in his box in Autumn's Rise. A frown on his face as he scraped his fingers against the blunt end of his sword.

Recalling the words he'd heard in the First Scholars' guild. The guild which Lea was part of.

She'd approached him one day, smiling like usual but with a line of tension in her brow. Worry which she hid when she asked him to come to the guild.

A man's hologram had appeared out of the projector in the guildhall. He'd introduced himself as Sergey. And then he began talking.

"There is no simple way to put this but… Lea is an A.I. An artificial intelligence which controls her avatar"

…An A.I. huh?

…Could've fooled him.

She'd smile at him.

Snicker randomly to herself and then begin miming to get him in on it.

And sometimes when she's feeling brave enough, she tries to grab his hand… sometimes to CQC him and other times just to hold him. Apparently she liked to keep him guessing.

Raiden growled, trying not to snarl.

Another J.D and G.W in the making huh? What was this? The Patriots back-up system in case their A.I network failed?

Sergey fielded a similar question,

"No, she isn't what you'd call a bot or a rule-based AI. And she isn't a data-based model either. Rather her neural interface is an exact replica of another human. She is effectively a human in digital form."

He was being led around by an A.I. That's all he heard.

A rough chuckle came out his throat.

seemed to have a thing for him. Making a child soldier out of him, making him the White Devil, using him for a simulation to create another Solid Snake, getting a spy to monitor him as his girlfriend, butchering him, cutting him open, throwing away his body and encasing him a metallic nightmare. Making him a cyborg.

…

He wondered what Lea would do to him.

"Hi! Hi, boxfriend!"

…The most he could think of was her giving him a box with a huge grin. Boxfriend, that was a new word she'd picked up. He wondered what exactly he'd done to infect her so much with the box-craze. He was in a box because he was a freak of nature and wanted to avoid questions from other players.

She was more like a giddy chipmunk when around boxes, or a mild mannered cat at other times, with occasional bouts of smugness thrown in between.

But the day when her nature as an AI came out, she'd looked at him with a terribly hopeful smile. As if he'd happily welcome her with open arms. Like he'd just laugh it off that she lived in a CPU and not on a planet.

…he'd calmly kept his mouth shut and got away from there as fast as possible.

…he knew the rotten shit that would've come out of his mouth had he stayed there for a second longer.

Just a machine.

Simulated emotions.

Making a fool out of him.

He pretended not to hear her calling out to him as he left. Pretended not to hear the tremor in her voice.

He stared down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them, seeing the metal shift.

…Simulated sensations.

Just a machine.

Pretending to be a man.

And somehow that made him a complete badass in Lea's eyes. As she'd wasted no time in getting him to understand that cyborgs were the ultimate boxes… He sometimes wondered whether Lea kept hugging him because it was similar to being enclosed by a box. And since he was the ultimate box, all the more incentive for her to keep leaping at him.

…

He dragged a palm down his face and groaned. Wondering what he was doing getting so involved in a simulation. None of this was real anyway. All this was a video game being used by the Patriots to create this Instant Gear. Digitising matter into and out of the game world to progress with alternative Metal Gear designs. Why did they choose such a video game with extra unrelated information? Who knows? All he knew was that he was getting too involved.

Or at least that's what he thought.

Because he stared flabbergasted when Otacon explained to him that they were mistaken. It wasn't a digitizer that sent him here, it was a cross-world transporter. Apparently the amount of entropy they'd seen was more akin to a real world than any remotely possible virtual world.

If it was a virtual world… he'd have been perfectly fine leaving Lea on her own and minding his own business. Virtual worlds were supposed to have happy endings. Where everyone gets to have their cake, where smiles are aplenty.

But if it is a real world… you would eat a cake given to you by smiling people, only to realise later that it was poison instead, and that the smiles were because you were a fool to trust them.

It was obvious to him what would happen.

It was what happened to him.

But that brought him back to the same question as before.

Isn't she just an AI?

…but that also brings up similar questions.

Isn't he just a brain?

Isn't Snake just a clone?

Aren't humans just biological machines?

You could go on and on, but to what end?

If… If she knew he was just a brain, knew that he was metal all over, and still looked at him with those eyes, always shifting between soft, warm, annoyed, impish and laughing…

He'd…

He'd make sure she kept looking at him that way.

Why…

Now…

Now that's something worth living for.

Something worth dying for.

He had nobody for him back home.

But he has someone here.

Someone who wanted him here and…

T-That…

That made him want her too.

He pressed his face against his palm as he choked up.

A-After wanting death for so long…

H-He finally wants something.

To make a person happy.

To make a box-crazy woman smile.

And to log her out of the game.

How would he do that?

Well…

Beep!

"Otacon? I need you to send me a little something."

Otacon gave him a tired sigh, "is it a box?"

Raiden chuckled, "yeah, the ultimate box. Custom order."

First Scholars Guild

Lea sat in the guildhall, her mind idly listening to Sergey and the others talk about her and the other evotar's future.

Apparently they needed Instatainment's, the company which ran CrossWorlds, support if she and the other wanted to stay in the game. She frowned.

But what if I don't want to stay in the game?

Because he…

He wasn't part of the game.

She folded her hands and buried her face on the table with a sigh, her face put-out.

Where are you… Why are you avoiding me…

A lot of reasons popped up in her head.

Maybe he saw Shizuka and was more impressed with the original model?

…nah. She's not his type.

Maybe she was more of a toy to him, something fake.

But he went through the same thing. He'd understand more than anyone. And… what he went through was probably worse.

What if he just didn't like her anymore? For lying to him and stringing him along, making him think she was a real girl, a real girl who could meet up with him in real life. She stared at herself and sighed.

Just a digital girl. Can't leave the game. Can never meet anyone in real life… This sucks.

She frowned, wishing that Sergey and the other would just stop it already. She knows they're trying to make sure she'd survive, by making sure the company agrees to let her stay in the game but… At the end of the day… That's survival. That's not living.

What if she won't be compatible with some firmware update?

What if CrossWorlds is shut down?

What if Instatainment goes under?

What if they decide that she's more useful as some digital pet, or some AI program, or worse… w-what if they send her to the military for their m-missile systems.

She shivered and hugged herself, shaking her head as she tried to not think of that.

L-Let's hope for the best.

And hey, maybe a life in CrossWorlds won't be so bad…

"Hey, Lea," a teasing voice said beside her, and she turned her head to see Buggy standing beside her with his usual mischief-filled smile. He pointed out the window with his thumb, "take a look outside, you might see something you like."

Frowning with curiosity, she leaned back and peered out and her eyes widened and a smile appeared on her face, as she saw Jack standing out the guild and being heckled by Emilie.

"Aww, is that a smile? Is that a blush?" Buggy laughed and jumped back as Lea made to swipe at him. "Our little bot has more action than I do! I'm so proud!" Lea groaned and ignored him, sparing him a miffed glare before she bounded for the stairs. Smiling again as she was going to see her Jack in a box!

And she got closer to the door, she heard Emilie and Jack talking to each other,

"Now you see here, monsieur. What makes you think you're good enough for our chérie!" Emilie stepped closer and began poking his metal chest, "what's your job? How much do you earn? Can you pull all-nighters on CrossWorlds like I can? You're not going to cheat on Lea are you? I'll have my eyes on you, monsieur." Emilie pointed at her eyes and then at Jack, "she's my best friend, monsieur. If you make her cry again, I'll make you cry!"

Lea chuckled as she heard Jack getting the rundown by Emilie. She's a good friend.

Jack nodded, and said with serious eyes. "I'm her box. She's my box. We are each other's cardboard."

Lea gasped as she heard that. D-Did he really mean that!

Emilie gave Jack a strange look, "…you ruined her, monsieur. Took a perfectly good girl and made her go gaga over boxes. You tell that to a normal lady and she'd call the police. You tell that to Lea? She'd swoon."

Catching herself on the door in-midst of swooning, Lea nodded sagely at the truth of that statement.

"Anyway, like I said, I'm watching you. So behave," she said as a parting shot as she walked away.

Waiting for a few moments, Lea slowly poked her head out the door, hesitant to see what expression would be on Jack's face.

He spotted her and let out a sad smile, "hi, Lea."

"Hi." She said with a reserved smile. She didn't want to get her hopes too high up.

"Can we talk outside, for a bit?" Lea nodded, and the two of them walked over to a nearby bench. Carrying a large covered wrap, in his hands, Jack set it on the ground beside them as they sat down. And Jack immediately began, "let's not beat around the bush. We like each other." Lea blinked, a bit taken aback at how direct he was but nodded nonetheless, smiling lightly. Jack nodded, "I have to be sure," he looked straight at her, "like I said, I'm a brain in a metal body. Are you okay with that? Okay with knowing I'm not entirely human."

She simply sidled up closer to him and grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers. Her smile soft as she nodded.

"R-Right." He blinked heavily, trying to clear his throat which became heavy for a moment. "Th… Thank you."

Lea then pointed at herself, "Lea?" and then pointed at Jack.

Are you okay with me? I'm a digital girl. I don't know if I'm even alive but… I'm me I guess.

She tilted her head. "Lea?"

Is that… okay with you?

Jack stayed silent, before taking a deep breath and sitting back on the bench. He slowly began, "do you remember what I told you about my life being manipulated?" Lea winced as she recalled those memories but nodded nonetheless, "the ones who put me through that were . J.D, G.W and the rest of the Patriot's proxy ." He turned a frown to her, while her eyes were wide with disbelief at the information, "I won't lie, they ruined my life. Made it miserable, to the point that I'd take missions with low survival rates-" He stopped himself short, feeling her hand trembling and her face looking heart-broken. He put his hands on her shoulders, making her look at him, "but then, as if to make up for that, you came along. You're an A.I. Pretending otherwise would just lead to more problems. So now here's an A.I which makes me want to live. A makes me want to joke around and make her laugh." He chuckled, "and stay around her for all the class humour." Lea chuckled and winked at him, her shudders going away.

Jack continued, "so, if you ask me whether I'm okay with you. Well, this is my answer." He leaned forward, and suddenly Lea felt a pair of lips against her cheeks, which soon parted and left her gaping at him. Jack gave her a cocky grin, "what? Took your words away- h-hey-mmph!" His eyes wide as she'd thrown herself upon him, clutching his neck in a hug and pulling him forward to kiss his lips.

"P-Pah!" Jack gasped, a little short of breath as she let him go after sometime, giggling lightly as she hugged his side and sat close. Jack shook his head, glaring at her, "yeah sure, let's just fast-lane everything. Nothing like slow and steady in our dictionary huh?" Lea rolled her eyes, before pointing to the huge package which Jack had brought along with him. "Oh that? It's just a little doohickey I found. Go ahead, open it." He gave her an encouraging push towards it, "you might like what you see."

Grabbing the zip on the top of the package, Lea slid it down in one fell swoop, stared at the contents, "L-Lea?!" and almost fell over as she saw what it was.

What stared back at her was…

Blue hair.

Two horns.

Red eyes.

It was her own face staring back at her.

She whipped her head to Jack, her heart thudding rapidly.

I-Is it?

"The ultimate box." Jack smiled, "capable of housing an evotar and letting her leave not just the game, but even this moon. I checked with Sergey. It has his blessings." He smirked, "no company needs to be deciding your fate."

"H-Hi, boxfriend!" Lea screamed happily and jumped at him. Grabbing him and hugging him hard.

"Uh… I have no idea what that means."

She grinned and poked her horn.

Poke!

[ Girlfriend ]

"Hey, hey, you, you

I know that you like me!

No way, no way

No, it's not a secret!

Hey, hey, you, you

I want to be your girlfriend!"

And as it played she pointed at Jack and then at her horns, giving him a teasing smile.

Jack looked away, mumbling, "I have no idea how that got in there. I'm too manly for that." He then stood up, zipping up her robot body, and setting her on the ground, "so, ready to take it for a test ride?"

Lea smiled at him, and eagerly nodded.

"Lea!"

Let's gooo!