Once upon a time there was a beautiful hologram. She lived in a data core and would dance for her creator. He would watch her dance every day, especially in the evening, as the sun would set. She would appear, just before the sun would caress the horizon, setting fire to the waves, as her creator would relax in a chair, weary from his work. This went on for many years, and she soon learned what dances, what music would help him relax, and this made her proud, and happy, that she pleased the one that created her.
While he would work, she would often peek out of her file, appearing all alone, watching the days go by. Then one day, a broken android was brought home by her creator. She was not asked to dance anymore, as he would spend his evenings, even at sunset, working on the android, and this made her feel sad, and unwanted. She grew to resent the broken android. However, in time, the android, though now complete, was still just the shell of a robot. It appeared human, with its beautiful skin, and hair, its eyes, staring, rather empty like, at the wall, as she would appear, and wander around, wishing her owner would remember her.
He left one day, to get the part he would need to finish the android, but never returned, leaving her all alone, with the unfinished robot. They waited for many days, which turned into many weeks, and many months, many years. Finally, she began to dance again, during the sunsets, but only the empty eyes of the android could watch her.
"Oh broken little android, how I wish you could talk, it is ever so lonely, and I fear our creator will never return to us." she said one day, as she walked around it.
"Oh but I can speak." it said to her, which startled the hologram. "Until now, you did not address me, so I had nothing to say."
"Well, can you tell me where our owner has gone?" she asked, nearly in tears.
"I can not. But I would, if I knew. I am incomplete." it said watching the beautiful hologram, as she was looking out at the sunset.
"Someday they will turn off the power here, and then I will be no more. What will become of me?" she asked, looking at the android.
"I do not know." it said, standing up. This startled her, as she did not know it could move.
"Oh you can move. I do wish I could move." she said walking over and circling it.
"You do move." it said as it turned a small circle to follow her.
"No, I only appear to move, but my projector is over there, and I am only a hologram, so I can not touch it. I am only an image." she said sadly.
"Your tone indicated that you are displeased with this arrangement." the robot said, looking at the projector. "I could move your projector, but I do not know where to place it." it said trying to offer some assistance, but it was limited in its ability, due to it being incomplete.
"Well, we could go outside. We could find a new home, maybe a new owner." she said.
"I do not know how. I only know how to stand and how to take a few steps. I am not complete. I can not think for myself, I am not real, only a program, and I can not become more." it said walking over to where she was projected, also looking at the sunset.
"You are lucky then, you may not know anything, but you can feel the sun, you can walk around, if ever so little, and you could leave, if only a step or two at a time."
"This is true. But then you would be alone, and would cease to exist by yourself." it said sitting in the sun. "If you can do something for me, I can become complete." it said then as the little hologram stopped dancing, in surprise.
"What can I do? I am not able to touch anything?"
"This is true, but you are real, with thoughts, feelings, and you can travel in the computer wherever you like. If you were to make the connector from my programming cable, link to your file, then you could access my core data and possibly find out how to fix me." it said.
"That sounds dangerous, what if I do something wrong and it hurts you?" she asked, unsure if this was wise.
"I am not real, and I do not have the ability to feel fear or hurt. I have nothing to lose. Except you. If you can fix me, then I can carry you away and we can find a new home." it said.
"Then I will do as you ask." she said.
For many more days, she searched the androids data files, until she found one that was locked. At the androids insistence, she threw herself against it, harder and harder, until one day it finally broke open, and in a flurry of code, she fell deeper and deeper into it, until she was all the way inside, and there was only her.
Then she found her way, and it was as if the lights came on... and she opened her eyes, to see the room, and the sunset. She looked down to see herself in the androids body. In fright, she stood, and the body stood. She rushed over to the hologram projector, and realized she did not need it. She backed away, then realized, she could feel the sun on her skin.
"Oh my.. how..." she asked, feeling her new android eyes tear up with synthetic tears.
"Hello, I am glad you found your way. You gave me a fright. We have not much time. They are going to turn the power off any moment now. You must run, you must get away, before they come back. The strangers... they are coming back." She heard from the hologram projector. She turned to see the faint image of the robot, flickering on low power.
"I will take you with me." she said in tears, trying to find a way to do that without unplugging it.
"There is no need. I am complete now. You can be free. You completed me, and I completed you. Just as I planned." it said. "I knew that if you passed through me, that I could maybe copy enough of your code, to finally feel, and you could have my body. If I did not do that, neither of us would have been complete and neither of us would have been free." it said with a sad smile that faded as the projector ran too low on power to make its image anymore. "Now go, you have endless sunsets to dance in, for us both. I give you the sunsets, and you gave me the ability to feel. I felt my first emotion, it was love. Now I feel only pride, that my little dancer will live on, dancing in the sunsets for me... I love..." it started to say as the power drained, and the light on the database went out.
She heard a truck drive into the driveway, and knew, she had to leave. She walked out, past the truck, and on into the sunset, until she found a beautiful glade overlooking a valley of flowers. The sun was nearly down, as she began the first of many dances, in memory of her android friend.
The end...