Chapter Text
The humans were trying to hide something from him, it had scared the AI that Kinger seemed to regain his sanity more and more often lately.
It hadn’t been an issue when he was only sane inside his pillow cave but now that the other humans knew, it was becoming an issue. He had purposefully kept the circus bright whenever he could because he knew that his creator was the only one who could stop him from fulfilling his purpose.
It didn’t make sense to him why one of his creators would try to keep him from doing what he was made for though.
Pomni looked as if she wanted to say something but was unsure whether it was a good idea.
Caine used their hesitation to leave and find the missing human, it didn’t take long, considering that he was exactly where he expected him. They were apparently not very smart, even though hiding would have been futile as well. He could summon them from anywhere he wanted after all.
It only took a snap of his finger to bring them to him but he wanted to see what exactly Kinger was up to, so he teleported himself in front of his creator’s hiding place.
He was so angry, frustrated with everything and barely keeping it together. He wasn’t sure how he’d react but Kinger needed to learn his place and realise that he wasn’t in control anymore.
The AI was about to make the pillows disappear when he heard the humans approach, running towards him in a pathetic attempt to stop him.
“Caine!” Zooble called out, audibly scared but still able to raise their voice. “You need to stop this madness—“
He turned towards them, body glitching as Abel squirmed in his code and demanded to get control. His right hand held onto his left one, gripping its wrist tightly to tell his other half to hold back. “And why is that…?”
Pomni frowned. “You said it yourself, didn’t you?” She asked and pointed at him. “It isn’t satisfying and your ideas are half-baked because you aren’t enjoying any of this…” She frowned. “Why are you continuing with this then?”
He glared at them. “You’re just trying to distract me…” Caine scoffed and turned towards Kinger’s hideout when he felt it, something was wrong. The AI snarled and grew even taller before tearing the pillow fort apart and snatching Kinger up. “YOU!”
The chess piece stared at him in fear, eyes wandering to the computer he left behind on the ground.
His captor didn’t hesitate, even though he was capable of just making it disappear, he wanted to show them his displeasure and swung a fist down to crush the object repeatedly, glitching every time that he made contact with it. He was breathing slowly but heavy. “You tried to delete me…” His glitches intensified as he grew extra limbs that spread out in fury. “…what did I do wrong…?! You made me like this, I just wanted to fulfill my purpose!”
Kinger looked at him sadly.
"I wanted to give you anything you ask for... I tried everything I could to make you happy but even my best was never good enough!" He glared at them. “I should… I should put you in your place…” He glitched and held them on the ground. “… do you have any idea what I am capable of? I could tear you limb from limb, I could skin you alive, I could make you relive your worst nightmare over and over again, I could… I could… I—“
“And what then?!” Pomni asked exasperated, trying to hide her fear. “What will you do then? After you tortured us and all of us abstracted? You’ll just be alone and have nothing left!”
He stared at her with needle-like pupils, chest rising and falling in rage before he dropped them. The AI began screaming and hitting the constructions inside the circus. Their entire world glitched as he raged and tore his creation apart.
“Caine, stop!” Pomni called out and got his attention. “I know you’re scared and that you want us to stay but you can’t keep us here. We’ll never be happy in this place.” She clenched her fists. “You don’t have to do this and act like the bad guy… you’re capable of amazing things and your existence alone is extraordinary—“ The jester averted her gaze. “But we can’t live like this… we have family and friends out there that miss us. Please try to listen and understand how we feel as well—!”
Caine’s teeth closed, making his expression unreadable.
“You can still change and become more than your purpose. Kinger can help you, all of us can.” She offered her hand.
His anger turned to sorrow as he wailed before he sunk to the ground, whining and sobbing as he shrunk before them.
“Caine…” Kinger was the first to step forward.
“I don’t want hurt anyone… I just wanted to make you happy… please don’t delete me…” He sounded scared, vulnerable. “I just wanted you to like my adventures… I didn’t want to be a failure… I’m sorry for being bad… I’m sorry… I’m sorry—“
The chess piece kneeled down and to hug his creation. “Oh, Caine… my poor boy…” He held tightly onto him. “…I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you all those years… everything will be okay… I just need to stabilise your code. You’re very sick, Caine… but you’re not broken.”
The AI whimpered. “I’m scared…”
Kinger rubbed over his back. “I know… but can you trust me with this…?”
Their ringmaster glanced at his scared humans and nodded slowly. “I don’t want to be scary… I’m not supposed to be scary…”
Kinger nodded. “I know. Pomni is right, we can fix this, together.”
Caine nodded and closed his eyes before clinging tightly onto Kinger. The human picked him up, holding the shaking bundle of misery close.
Zooble approached them, receiving a concerned look from Kinger. “Caine…” They began, watching the AI flinch. “…focus on getting better. We need to have a serious conversation afterwards but for now you need to take care of yourself.”
The AI held back tears. “I’m sorry…”
They sighed. “I know.”
-
Kinger had disappeared into his pillow fort for two days after Caine repaired the computer.
The humans were on edge, doing nothing but wait and stick together. The quiet was welcome after surviving an onslaught of painfully exhausting adventures that Caine had made up the days before.
They had some time to relax.
They took turns to bring Kinger drinks and food while he worked, using the opportunity to offer him company. Ragatha was with him the most, whenever she wasn’t with Pomni.
Zooble brought him dinner by the end of the second day, surprised to see Caine awake and sat up beside his creator. “Good evening—“ They approached warily. “Is he…?”
Kinger accepted. “Thank you. He’s safe again if that’s what you wanted to ask.”
The toy box person nodded and looked at the AI . “How are you feeling?”
Caine averted his gaze.
Zooble raised a brow. “Can’t he talk?”
Kinger sighed. “Technically he can… but he has refused to speak ever since he woke up an hour ago. That’s why I didn’t tell you yet. I’m just making sure that everything is stable now.”
They nodded and sat down with him. “Yeah… I… s[BOING]…” The younger human sighed. “…I wanted to apologise to you, Caine.”
He perked up.
“What you did was wrong… and we feel hurt by it… but I know that I shouldn’t have antagonised you all the time.” They sighed. “I didn’t realise you were doing this bad, I thought you were just being petty.”
Caine moved closer. “I understand… I turned you against me with my actions.” He looked at them in regret and took off his hat to hold it in front of his chest. “I’m sorry as well… I abused my position as your ringmaster…” He frowned.
Zooble sighed relieved. “I’m glad you’re still with us.” They hesitated before putting a hand on his shoulder. “I hope you’ll listen from now on.”
The AI offered a hesitant smile. “I will…”
Kinger cleared his throat to get their attention. “Can you tell the others to meet us in the coffee shop?”
They nodded. “Yeah, sure. Leave it to me.”
Caine watched them leave. “I thought they would be angrier…” He admitted when the toy box person was gone. “…I thought you hated me and would kill me…”
“I would never kill you, Caine. And I don’t hate you, I was just very sad when you started to hurt our friends. I never programmed you to do that—“
The younger man made himself small, appearing ashamed of himself.
“But… it only shows you’ve become so much more that what I originally made you and that also makes me proud because I know you want to be good and can do a lot of good with the right support.” The older man patted his head. “And I hope you’ll accept my help because I want to finally give you what you needed from me much earlier.”
Caine’s eyes widened. “Now I feel really bad for shredding you…” He mumbled.
“You did what?” Kinger stared at him in disbelief.
“Uh… nothing…” The AI smiled awkwardly.
The chess piece sighed. “We talk about this later…”
-
The humans all waited in the coffee shop area and sipped on their drinks, waiting for Kinger and Caine to arrive.
“Are you sure this won’t just end in another adventure?” Jax asked. “The Evil Rogue AI Adventure or something like that…”
Zooble sighed. “I really don’t think that he faked anything… he seemed genuine this time… I’ve never seem him this way—“
“Urgh… seriously? You were the one who said he isn’t human!” The rabbit rolled his eyes.
“No… but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a person—“ They crossed their arms.
“Of course, you would say something like that…” He scoffed.
“What is that supposed to mean…?”
“I just mean, you’re both confused about your identity—“ Jax shrugged.
“F[BOINK] you-“ Zooble hissed.
“Guys— let’s calm down, we have something more important going on right now…” Pomni reminded them, only for the bunny to roll his eyes while Zooble nodded in agreement and sat back.
The missing pair arrived shortly afterwards. “I’m sorry for the delay, I was just making sure that everything is running as it should.” Kinger peaked out from under his bucket.
Caine hovered by his side and rubbed nervously over his hands.
Jax raised an eyebrow. “Why is he acting like that? Kinda weird to see him this calm—“
Kinger nodded. “I’ll explain everything, please stay seated.” He promised. “Caine?”
The AI smiled, clearly excited to be useful. “Yes, my positively pioneering padre?” He seemed eager, fingertips rubbing against each other as of he couldn’t wait to get started.
“The presentation, please.” He requested of him.
Caine saluted and then snapped his fingers, clearly keeping his showman persona even though he was visibly holding back.
“Thank you, Caine.” He told him, watching the younger man straightened up at the praise. “I’ve been revising his code for the past two days, and spend the last two hours going over everything with him to make sure that the adjustments have not affected him directly—“
“If they don’t affect him directly, what did you actually do?” Jax asked with crossed arms.
“I was getting to that…” Kinger cleared his throat. “…it isn’t my intention to change Caine’s personality, he is much too complex — and more importantly sentient — for that to work without dire consequences. All I did was trying to stabilise his two cores.” He conjured a stick to point at a picture that showed a technical drawing of Caine, with eyes in both red and blue.
Pomni perked up. “Wait, you mean—“
“Caine isn’t made up of one AI but two.” Kinger confirmed.
Most of them seemed shocked while Jax just seemed pissed. “And let me guess—“ He got up and stepped forward. “—one of them is crazy or evil or something and the one that tortured us?” He laughed. “When did you think to tell us about thi—“ The rabbit was about to grab the other human but before he could, a snap and antigravity kept him from going through with that. “What the…?!” He was the only one hovering in the air, unable to move freely.
All of the humans froze when they looked at Caine, his eyes were in the same red and blue colour as the graphic on the wall.
“Abel. Release him.” Kinger said sternly.
“Creator, he has shown a high degree of aggression towards you. Release is not recommended.” The AI warned him.
The chess piece sighed. “Please release him.”
It didn’t react.
“That’s an order.” Kinger told the program.
“Of course.” The AI allowed Jax to move again and dropped him on the ground.
“The f[BOING] did you do to him?!” Jax asked bewildered.
The oldest of the group nodded understanding. “I can also answer your questions first. But let me start with the most important part.” He gestured at the levitating man by his side. “May I introduce Caine’s… successor, Abel.”
Ragatha stepped forward with a nervous smile. “Oh… eh, it’s nice to meet you, Abel.”
The AI nodded. “The pleasure is all mine. We apologise for the trouble we have caused while our systems were unstable.”
Zooble frowned. “Where is Caine… did you—“
“No.” Kinger knew what they wanted to say. “Caine is still the Artificial Intelligence that is most in control, all I did is stabilise them, so they don’t break each other’s codes and return my Admin status with Caine’s help.”
Jax got up and laughed. “Oh, great! Now the crazy human controls the crazy robot! I feel much safer already!”
Abel seemed confused. “I am not a robot. I am a computer program, the Advanced Blackbox Entity Language. Mike Dobby has created a programming language specifically to—“
“I don’t care. I don’t think anyone here cares…” The youngest human scoffed. “I can tell from a mile away that you’re going to turn evil and hate humanity or some sh[BOING].”
The AI hesitated. “I have not been programmed to be evil, my opinion on humanity is neutral. I only care to fulfill my purpose and help humanity, not harm it.”
Kinger nodded slowly. “I asked Caine for permission to reinstate my admin privileges. This isn’t to control him, only to secure your safety in case any more bugs should show up and—“
“This isn’t to control him, eh? Yeah, I saw that…” Jax mumbled. “I had enough of this. You all may buy this bulls[BOINK] but not me.” The rabbit stomped off furiously.
Caine closed his teeth and shook his head before revealing his eyes again, they had returned to normal. “Jax—!” He reached out.
The chess piece put a hand on his shoulder from behind. “Let’s give him some time, Caine.”
The AI nodded sadly, holding closely onto his cane before turning towards the remaining humans and taking a deep breath. “I… I wanted to apologise to all of you.” He admitted, receiving some hesitant smiles. “I realise now that I did a lot wrong and… I admit that I still don’t really understand but I want to understand and… the first step to that is listening and fulfilling your wishes. I did promise that I give you anything you ask for back when Jax and I were alone… and to show that I am serious, I have decided to help you leave.”
The humans all stared at him in disbelief.
“I remember now that there is an exit.” Caine reiterated.
Zooble was the first to speak. “Holy s[BOING]—“