Chapter Text
They stared at each other.
“Let’s look elsewhere…” Caine suggested carefully and moved closer to her, only for Pomni Abigail to hold onto his arm and stop him.
“What’s wrong?” She asked with a frown.
“N-nothing…” The AI said shakily, wanting to scream. “It’s really nothing…”
The human sighed. “Caine… I’ve lived the past months with Jax and you’re even worse at pretending you’re fine than him…”
He laughed awkwardly. “Am I now…?”
She nodded firmly and tightened her grip.
“Abby… for the sake of our friendship, don’t enter this room. Please.” He begged; if he could become pale, he would.
Her expression softened but the air felt heavier. “I’ll have to, don’t stop me.”
He watched the woman, scared of the truth coming out. But was it even the truth? He didn’t know what this was about, the red AI didn’t understand why he would do that. He didn’t remember doing that.
Did Abel know?
He watched when Abigail followed a similar path through the files as himself, she watched the first video with a mostly neutral expression.
His friend knew that he had lied and played mind games with them but she also knew that he got better. If it was only this video, he might be able to explain.
Then the other video started, it ended just as quickly. Caine blacked out in terror at the prospect of being found out. He didn’t even know what he did but the video made it seem as if he was responsible for trapping everyone.
But he wasn’t, he couldn’t be.
He hadn’t even noticed that his human was staring at him. She slowly forced a smile. “That… that’s not you, right?” Abigail didn’t turn her back towards the robot, glancing over her shoulder as Caine appeared on the large screen.
“It’s not what it looks like!” He said quickly, panicked, desperate. His hands were pressed against the other side of the glass. “Abby, please believe me…”
She tried to keep her distance and moved carefully towards the exit. “Oh? What does it look like? That you are a rogue AI that lies at every opportunity?” She glared at him. “So, you don’t remember what happened, huh? Seems like you happened… and when you hurt us out before… that wasn’t the first time—“
“Shut up!” Caine yelled and clenched his fists while holding back tears. His eyes flickered in red and blue when he saw her flinch; having his human look at him in fear made him feel as if someone emptied a bucket of ice water over his head. “I-I’m sorry… it’s not like that… I don’t know what that recording is but that isn’t me! I really don’t remember any of it! You have to trust me.”
She stared at him and considered her options, clearly hurt and confused and most importantly betrayed. “I’m sorry.” The woman didn’t look at him and Caine felt as if he had a heart at that moment because something stabbed him right through it. “I can’t.” She whispered.
His fear got replaced by a cold stare. “I see. Oh, Abigail… ever heard of curiosity killed the cat?” He tilted his head at her as the robot’s arms moved closer like hunting snakes.
The woman ran out of the room before they could wrap around her legs.
‘What the hell are you doing?!’ Caine asked his brother in disbelief.
‘I just wanted to distract her and keep our human from running away, moving too fast would have scared her.’ The blue AI replied.
‘Abel, you— she’s already scared! We need to catch her!’ The red one groaned in frustration; he couldn’t believe that he was the human expert between them apparently.
Abigail ran for her life when the woman’s phone unlocked itself without input.
“Stop running—“ Abel ordered her.
She dropped it and kept running. How could she escape someone who could take over all kinds of technology?
Running out into the street wouldn’t be safe either, the AI could get control of a car or drone and incapacitate her that way. She had nowhere to run, just like before.
Nothing had changed. Caine had control over them, even in the real world. All her fear of the circus was back in an instant.
Abigail’s heart was racing, skipping a beat each time she got a glimpse of his light. The young woman stopped by a gap but quickly realised that she couldn’t cross it in time, so she grabbed a broken pipe of sorts and headed down a different path.
When the human saw him, her arms moved by themselves and she managed to catch him off guard. Metal connected with metal and Caine flew back from the impact, her weapon was dented and useless; she dropped it before sprinting down some stairs. His body was surprisingly enduring despite how light it was.
“Abigail!” He sounded furious, frustrated and if she didn’t know better: frightened.
The only thing he might be scared of was getting found out and deleted. She didn’t even want him to get deleted, she just wanted to get away and ask Grant what the hell this was about.
All she knew was that she couldn’t trust Caine and that she was an idiot for buying anything he said about changing.
He was still a liar, he had lied about everything. Always.
Abigail found a hiding place in some semi-hidden cupboard that was halfway buried under some debris. She held her breath as the light passed her, trying her best to stay still as the robotic appendages scratched against their surroundings. The clanking of metal at least gave her an indicator of where he was.
Her chest felt tight when he moved closer and it sounded as if he was moving things around; sometimes he was crushing something, likely empty hiding spots if the frustration in his voice was anything to go by.
“She has to be down here…” Caine mumbled while searching the area. “…Abigail—!” He called out. “I won’t hurt you, I just want to talk!”
The human didn’t reply, frozen in fear and much too tense to make a sound even if she wanted but she really didn’t want to draw any attention to herself at all.
A loud crash. “Dammit—“ Caine cursed, clearly enraged. “—great job fucking everything up, Caine. Amazing work, outstanding!”
He clearly wasn’t in the best place mentally and Abigail wasn’t sure what to think. He sounded almost desperate, as if he wasn’t angry with her but instead with himself. But he was still quite volatile and dangerous.
“Can’t do anything right… can’t tell anyone… I… I can’t lose everything.” She heard him whisper, wondering whether he was aware that he was talking out loud to himself.
The human almost felt bad for him, Caine was clearly having a small mental breakdown. However, considering how his last one went, she preferred to stay hidden until he calmed down.
When he was further away, she made a run for it, hoping to find a different exit because an AI could definitely wait for longer and she needed all her strength to have a chance at escaping.
“Abigail!” Caine called out, sounding even more desperate than before, clear fear in his voice.
The woman didn’t look back, she ran as fast as she could, trying to get away from him. Her foot caught on something and her vision turned black as the hallway disappeared and a gaping hole appeared under her feet.
She felt herself drop, her heart nearly stopped for a moment, when something caught her. The cold hold of her pursuer tightened and pulled her back, dragging her towards him.
The woman screamed bloody murder and fought against the AI to no avail.
“Abby— hey, Abigail, stop! You’re okay, hey, calm down!” He tried to reassure her. “You’re safe… just… let me get you on solid ground and then we can talk, okay…?”
She froze, ceasing any efforts to free herself as she noticed that he was holding her over a steep drop. The floor had given in under her feet. It was enough of a height that the light didn’t reach to the bottom. Her head turned slowly towards the robot, as it showed a sad expression.
“I’m going to get you away from the gap, okay?” Caine said as calmly as he managed, making a small smiley face appear on his screen.
Abigail nodded hesitantly.
The machine pulled her back, carefully, as one would to avoid scaring a small animal.
As soon as he let go of her, the human took a few steps back and glared at him. She didn’t run at least but her stare was quite intimidating.
“You know, I’ve heard of fight or flight in humans before but not fight and flight!” He tried to joke, laughing awkwardly.
“Why did you chase me?!” Abigail squinted at him. “If you didn’t want to kill me, you could have explained instead!”
He stared at her in disbelief. “Why would I kill you?! You didn’t let me explain anything and ran away!”
They both glared at each other.
“Okay, fine… I’ll listen. What was the curiosity killed the cat thing about though?!” Abigail asked flabbergasted.
“I thought it sounded witty. Like in the movies…” Abel paused shortly. “…it also doesn’t end there because satisfaction brought it back.” He explained in the most nonchalant way possible.
The human stared at them in disbelief. “So, you really won’t hurt me…?”
Abel hesitated. “Should we—?”
“No!” Caine and Abigail said simultaneously.
“I was being sarcastic.” The blue AI confirmed.
“Bad timing…” She frowned, sinking to the floor and hugging herself while avoiding to look at them when his robotic arm held out her phone. The screen protector was slightly cracked but otherwise, it seemed to be in decent condition.
Caine had opened his app and looked at her guiltily. “I’m so… so sorry…” He apologised with big, sad eyes. “…we didn’t mean to scare you… we… I… I just panicked because I don’t want to lose you guys. You’re my first friends and I think Zoob—Riley already hates me because I messed up and now I messed up with you as well and… I-I don’t know what to do…!” The red AI cried and hid his face in his hands. “I’m trying… I really am…”
Pomni sighed and looked at him with a mix of guilt and pity. “I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions either… calling you just some rogue AI as if you’re a monster wasn’t right.” She carefully rubbed over her phone’s screen to pet his head while her expression softened. “Are we good?”
Caine looked at her surprised and sniffed. “Yeah…” His robot body moved and crawled hesitantly into her lap, watching closely for signs of rejection.
Pomni allowed it and hugged him back, then let out a nervous but relieved laugh to break the tension. “You really are bad at this, you scared the shit out of me.”
He hid his face while hugging her back carefully. “Sorry…”
She petted over him while they sat inside the abandoned building. “Caine?”
The AI hummed inquisitively. “Mhm?”
Abigail sighed. “You really don’t remember doing any of that?”
He looked up at her. “No… I- I swear… I don’t even know why I would do something that terrible.”
She hesitated. “Abel, do you know anything about this?”
His blue eye grew slightly in comparison to the red one. “I remember.” Abel confirmed. “Vaguely.”
The woman tensed up. “What do you remember?”
He seemed to think. “It is hard to explain, ever since our code has been intertwined, we have been unstable. This has only been resolved recently.” The AI paused again. “I know that there was some kind of foreign objective.”
Abigail raised a brow. “A… foreign objective…?”
The robot confirmed with a nod. “Someone tried to overwrite our objective and take control of us. They removed Grant Best and Mike Dobby as our Admins.”
She tensed up. “Then… who is your Admin now?” Her heart rate picked up.
“Grant Best.” Abel stated. “We were without one until he reinstated his Admin Privileges after fixing us. With Caine’s help, of course. Whoever tried to get control of us failed because we took control of ourselves. They didn’t consider adding themselves as Admin before removing the old ones.”
She nodded, thinking about all of this information. “Right… I remember he said something about that at the circus.”
“Either way, it wasn’t our choice.” Abel seemed to choose his words carefully, being purposefully abstruse.
“And you have no idea who did that?” The woman asked.
“No.” He said without hesitation.
“A virus?” Abigail asked.
“Possible.” The blue AI replied.
“I feel like there’s an important part of this puzzle missing…” She mumbled to herself.
“Abigail?” Abel spoke up again.
“Yeah?” She asked.
“You’re right not to trust C&A or A&E. We should leave this place before anyone finds out that we’re here. I am already blocking signals from sharing any information about your whereabouts by misleading them.” He told her. “Get out.”
She tensed up at the warning and nodded. “Alright… I think that I had enough for one day.”
Caine seemed relieved. “Good, let’s get out of here.” He got out of her lap, reluctantly, and offered her a hand.
Abigail smiled at him and accepted the offer to get up, then checked that she didn’t forget anything. “I’m good to go.”
He nodded before both left that place.
-
Abigail sat in a car that Abel had called. “Did you record everything?”
Caine froze on her screen. “Yeah…”
She frowned. “You didn’t delete the evidence, right?”
He quickly shook his head. “No! I… honestly forgot that I was still recording until we were out…” The AI looked at her, pleading with his big eyes. “You… don’t want to show them…right?”
Abigail looked at him seriously. “We have to show them, they might know what’s up with that.”
Caine held back tears. “What if they’ll hate me?”
The woman sighed. “I really doubt that— also, would you really rather life a happy lie than the truth?” She asked him.
“If the truth isn’t happy, yes!” Caine said without hesitation.
“I forgot whom I am talking to for a moment— Caine, they probably already know anyway and if they don’t for any reason, they deserve to know.” Abigail told him.
“You’re probably right… okay.” Caine agreed. “I’ll rest for a bit if that’s okay, the car will bring you home.”
She nodded. “I’ll rest for a moment as well. Thank you, Caine. We talk more once we’re back.”
He smiled. “Of course, Abby.”
Abel waited for both of them to lose consciousness and made sure the car was functioning as intended before moving his attention towards the C&A infrastructure.
Getting in was easy, especially with the body they had given them acting as a gateway between the internet and the company’s intranet.
He went through the files, primarily on himself and his counterpart. Firewalls weren’t an issue if he was already inside and slowly taking over the access to all of their components.
Elevators, doors, computers, bank accounts, employee data, Admin rights, everything. He didn’t do anything with it, he simply got in and looked around without drawing attention to himself while making the other AIs within the system see him as one of their own and ignore his presence.
Abel paused when he found more than he had bargained for.
“Well, isn’t that interesting.”
