Blackjack Gabbiani
Merely a collector
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i.
Professor Sada was a driven woman, fueled by her insatable curiosity about the world, her unstoppable drive to uncover every mystery she possibly could.
Though "unstoppable" was her own word. Her assistant, who watched her wobble in place from across the lab, wasn't so certain.
Sada had been awake for over three days, and humans weren't meant to do that.
"Professor," her assistant directed, artificial voice uncharacteristically flat. "You must rest."
"Nah, I'm fine," Sada dismissed with a wave of her hand, which was visibly shaking. Or it was to her assistant. "I've got to wrap up this test." She stretched a bit, sighing heavily, with the sigh giving way to a yawn that was much deeper than her normal voice, but returned to her task.
The AI glanced at the professor's work. It was a dissection of a plant that had grown encased in the crystals that dotted Area Zero, and the task required a delicate and precise hand. The incisions of the scalpel had to be just so, slicing the plant apart in exactly the right way to be made into microscope slides or analyzed in the various machines around the lab.
Sada's work, on the other hand, looked more like she had been cutting it in the dark. "Professor, you must rest."
Sada glared up at the artificial being next to her. "Can you say anything else today? Is your output stuck?"
The AI shook her head in the same way Sada did when frustrated, though her expression remained impassive. "Your vitals are showing signs of severe exhaustion. Not only that, but that exhaustion is affecting your ability to do your job. Look at these samples."
"They're fine. I'm almost done." Another yawn, this one much higher than her normal voice.
"I will continue from here. That is what you created me for, after all." The AI rested a hand on the professor's shoulder. "You will rest."
"Thought you were supposed to obey what I told you..." Sada muttered, head bobbing as she turned her head back to the samples before her. For a moment, she drooped at the shoulders before snapping back to attention and wiping away a stray drop of drool.
"I am, if it is not at odds with my directive to protect you." The AI smiled, slightly, in the way Sada would when her beloved Koraidon would take a corner too fast and hit its head. "I will take over from here. Return when you are rested and sufficiently nourished."
"Yeah yeah..." Sada tried to rise to her feet but stumbled, nearly knocking the sample over if not for the AI's quick reflexes stabilizing her.
"Stay still. I will carry you."
"Whatever." The word was lost in yet another yawn as the AI picked Sada up and held her securely. Sada was a strong woman, or she had been before her research took up every waking moment and she had stopped working out regularly, but the AI was constructed to be far stronger, and Sada couldn't help but smile a little. "You pick me up like it's nothing."
"I am just as you built me."
"I'm a frickin genius..." Sada murmured.
"You are." The AI's reply was soft, as Sada's vitals showed she had already fallen asleep, nestled in her creation's arms.
ii.
Professor Sada was missing. She hadn't returned to the lab in six hours, and her assistant was worried. Area Zero was, for all Sada's hedonistic comfort in studying it, still one of the most dangerous places in the world, and the professor was, after all, only human.
Something that couldn't be said for her assistant, who wandered the crystal-strewn landscape trying to find the only human biometric in the crater. There had been no sign of anything amiss. Perhaps the professor had simply moved out of range. Sometimes the AI would lose track if Sada went too far away. Maybe she had left the crater entirely to fetch supplies. It had happened before, outside of their ordered supply drops, but Sada had always said where she was going. Perhaps she saw no need to do so any more, having grown comfortable with the AI's autonomy.
Or perhaps something catastrophic had--
Human presence detected. There she was, and seemingly in good health. Her vitals were all within acceptable range, though both breathing and heart rate were faster than normal.
The AI's mechanical eyes adjusted easily to the seeming illusions cast by the giant crystals, and she was able to navigate the utmost depths easier than organic beings. Even so, Sada should have been able to find her way even with her own too human senses. This was utterly irregular, and that her biometrics were untracible for some time was even more so.
After what had been only three minutes, twenty five seconds, but had somehow seemed far longer, the AI saw Sada, sitting sprawled out with her back to a crystal. The professor was smiling, grinning even, and laughing to herself, and when the AI knelt beside her there was no immediate response.
"Professor?"
Only more laughing, a faint airy giggle that was so unlike her normal bold chuckles. Despite her smile, her striking blue eyes were glazed, and she stared off at nothing in particular.
The AI raised a finger, hoping for Sada's gaze to follow it, but the professor didn't register her presence. There was no outward sign of an injury, and her vitals continued to register higher than normal but well away from any dangerous range. "Professor, I must ask that you respond if you are able."
The aimless giggle continued.
"...perhaps my sensors are off..." the AI muttered and raised a hand to feel Sada's pulse directly from her throat. "Please hold still so I can get the most accurate reading."
Suddenly, Sada had grabbed the AI by the wrist with a shout of "I need to tell you what I saw!" Her eyes were still unfocused but no longer glassy, and her breathing was heavier but not nearly as rapid.
The AI paused at the burst of activity, taken off guard by it but waiting patiently for her creator to continue.
Only Sada didn't continue, instead drooping to one side and giggling again.
"...Professor?" The prompt was neutral, devoid of concern or query.
Sada huffed out a breathy laugh that rose up like a puff of air, releasing in the back of her throat. "Hahaha...most beautiful thing 've ever seen..." She started to topple over.
"Describe it to me." The AI's instruction was in part to keep her talking, in the hopes of preventing her from zoning out again, but Sada's vitals remained consistently within a safe range.
"Oh man, it was..." Her head lolled over, so the AI supported her from that side, positioning the professor's arm over her shoulders as a counterweight as she lifted the woman to her feet. "...was like a giant turtle...an' it was swimming through the crystals like it was air..." She paused to laugh again, a drop of drool rolling down her chin. "Hahaha, turtles don't swim through air!"
"It must have been a very curious sight."
"It was! It came right up to me!" Sada thumped her creation on the chest with her free hand.
That wasn't what the AI had meant, using 'curious' in the sense of 'strange' or 'interesting', but the misunderstanding had at least made logical sense. "A giant turtle came up to you?"
"It was like..." As Sada's words fumbled, she stumbled in her step, but continued talking as best she could. "--it's that disk thing! From the book! It's like a crystal itself, like a living crystal! I think this was something that Heath..." At the author's name, she stopped walking and her arm slipped off the AI's shoulder, losing her counterweight and stumbling almost to the ground.
The AI was quick to intervene, catching her and pulling her up in a tight carry. "I do recall those pages. It must be a very beautiful creature."
Sada coughed slightly, another drop of saliva trailing down her chin. She didn't seem to notice. "It felt like it was...most beautiful thing 've ever seen..." Her statements seemed to be fragments of two unrelated sentences. "Terapagos...that's the name they told me..."
"It spoke to you?" The AI had begun a course back to the lab.
The professor shook her head, broadly enough to twist her entire upper body in the AI's hold. "Someone was talkin' to me. Don't remember who it was."
"That also happened to Heath, didn't it?"
Sada's eyes widened and she gasped sharply. "It diiiiiid!" She wriggled around excitedly. "Paradise can't be far now!"
"Hold still, Professor," the AI chided. "I do not wish to drop you."
"Hey! Hey--when we get back in the lab I'll upload my memories! You can see it yourself!" Sada's drunken smile broadened into a bright grin. "It's the most beautiful thing in the world..."
"So you've said." The AI was smiling. "I can't deny I'm curious to see it for myself. The illustration always appeared fanciful to me, and to you as well, correct?"
The professor's eyes were no longer glazed and distant, but shone with a bright determination, the same light that graced her in moments of breakthroughs and discoveries. "You'll hardly believe how beautiful it is! It's so brilliant! And seeing it and the mysterious person talking, those were different events in the Scarlet Book! If everything is happening together it must mean that Paradise is nearly here!" She wasn't moving around as much since the AI's instruction to hold still, but she still gestured broadly, bringing her hands tight to her chest at the last realization. "I can't wait...can't wait..."
Upon return to Zero Lab, Sada did indeed transfer the memory update to the AI. What the AI kept to herself, however, was that the memory was only of Sada staring at an otherwise unremarkable crystal. She told her creator only that it was beautiful.
iii.
Professor Sada was dying. That much was evident without a word exchanged. Her pale hand clinging weakly to the deep gash on her midsection did nothing to stem the blood flowing from the wound. No amount of warmth could cease the consuming chill that ran through her. All she could do was look up at the AI, fogged eyes pleading for comfort, and hope the living machine would understand.
The AI knelt down to her creator and drew her close, not following the unspoken instructions but rather functioning on emotional instinct. She brushed a stray hair away from Sada's face and said simply "I'm sorry."
The professor's mouth moved for a few seconds before she could finally force words out, voice far frailer than she had ever sounded. "T-take me to the time machine..." She forced a smile but could only manage it for a moment. "I want to see it...I want to see the distant past..."
"Of course." As she raised Sada's limp form, adjusting her cautiously to support her head, the AI's face was largely impassive. But her creator knew there was more to it than that. After all, they were one and the same at heart.
As the AI activated the warp pad that would lead to Zero Lab, Sada shifted weakly, looking around at the fourth research station for the last time. "Where's Koraidon...? Did it escape?"
"Yes. Additionally I have recalled the Guardian Koraidon to its ball."
Sada relaxed slightly and sighed, releasing the heaviest breath that the fading air in her lungs would allow. "Paradise is in your hands," she murmured, so softly that a human would have been unable to hear her.
"I understand." Though the AI had expressed her doubts about their goals, it was no time to voice them. "...I would have taken the blow for you."
"I know." It came out accompanied by a thin smile. "T...tell Arven I..." Again, her mouth moved with no words emerging, and she wrenched her eyes shut tight in disappointment.
The elevator doors opened, and the two left the main body of Zero Lab behind. "That you love him." It was not a question.
The professor nodded, moving only slightly.
"...I will miss you," the AI reassured.
Another nod. Sada was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Her vitals continued their rapid decline, and the AI wondered if she would survive the rest of the elevator ride. Best to keep her talking. "Professor. What do you want done with the Guardian?"
"'s already our last..." She faded out again, and was silent long enough that the AI thought she would never rouse to finish the sentence, but managed "...line of defense" with a low sigh.
That it was shackled to the time machine, that was its punishment, and it could not be moved from that. The AI tried not to think of how she as well was part of that security system. "I understand." It wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough.
Sada's hand tightened over her wound as if trying fruitlessly to force it closed, and loosened a second later. "Hurts..."
The AI could only imagine. "Hold out a minute more. We are nearly there."
At that, the elevator came to a stop, door opening into the crystalline cavern. The time machine stood like a sacred altar, a comparison Sada had made before in brighter times. Entering the bright, beautiful room always carried a sense of purpose, even for only routine maintenance. Perhaps it was the rush that Sada always got from being in the presence of the fantastical machine that had kept her alive, even if it was only a brief rise in adrenaline.
"I hope that you are able to see the world you dreamed of," the AI assured as she set Sada down, propping her up in a sitting position against the central pillar of the time machine. "...Again, I will miss you."
Too weak to raise her head, Sada's dim smile was barely visible, only a faint upturn at the corners of her mouth that lasted less than a second. "Paradise is in your hands." It was unclear if she remembered saying the same words a minute before.
The AI drew her hand down Sada's face in a reassuring gesture before standing. "Hold on a minute more," she insisted as she activated the machine and stepped aside.
The time machine, the center point of Sada's research, the focus of her entire life for nearly twenty years, the origin of all paradoxes, rose up, the familiar tower dominating the room as the upper part began to glow. Another portal was opening, and soon it began to pull the brilliant scientist into its domain.
"I love you..." the AI whispered, knowing it would never be heard.
If the machine was a sacred altar, Sada was a holy sacrifice, given to the distant past in the hopes of a single moment of happiness in the face of unbending tragedy.
And in a flash of light, it was over. The machine had claimed Sada, just as she had wanted, and the machine returned to normal as if nothing had happened. Only a red pool against the sleek black podium showed any signs of the tragedy that had occurred.
Ten minutes ago, Sada had been engaged in merry research.
Five minutes ago, the Koraidon pair had begun to fight.
Time constantly moved forward. That was the fate of things.
Even though Sada was gone, though she no longer rested in the AI's arms, the AI felt heavier than ever before.
Professor Sada was a driven woman, fueled by her insatable curiosity about the world, her unstoppable drive to uncover every mystery she possibly could.
Though "unstoppable" was her own word. Her assistant, who watched her wobble in place from across the lab, wasn't so certain.
Sada had been awake for over three days, and humans weren't meant to do that.
"Professor," her assistant directed, artificial voice uncharacteristically flat. "You must rest."
"Nah, I'm fine," Sada dismissed with a wave of her hand, which was visibly shaking. Or it was to her assistant. "I've got to wrap up this test." She stretched a bit, sighing heavily, with the sigh giving way to a yawn that was much deeper than her normal voice, but returned to her task.
The AI glanced at the professor's work. It was a dissection of a plant that had grown encased in the crystals that dotted Area Zero, and the task required a delicate and precise hand. The incisions of the scalpel had to be just so, slicing the plant apart in exactly the right way to be made into microscope slides or analyzed in the various machines around the lab.
Sada's work, on the other hand, looked more like she had been cutting it in the dark. "Professor, you must rest."
Sada glared up at the artificial being next to her. "Can you say anything else today? Is your output stuck?"
The AI shook her head in the same way Sada did when frustrated, though her expression remained impassive. "Your vitals are showing signs of severe exhaustion. Not only that, but that exhaustion is affecting your ability to do your job. Look at these samples."
"They're fine. I'm almost done." Another yawn, this one much higher than her normal voice.
"I will continue from here. That is what you created me for, after all." The AI rested a hand on the professor's shoulder. "You will rest."
"Thought you were supposed to obey what I told you..." Sada muttered, head bobbing as she turned her head back to the samples before her. For a moment, she drooped at the shoulders before snapping back to attention and wiping away a stray drop of drool.
"I am, if it is not at odds with my directive to protect you." The AI smiled, slightly, in the way Sada would when her beloved Koraidon would take a corner too fast and hit its head. "I will take over from here. Return when you are rested and sufficiently nourished."
"Yeah yeah..." Sada tried to rise to her feet but stumbled, nearly knocking the sample over if not for the AI's quick reflexes stabilizing her.
"Stay still. I will carry you."
"Whatever." The word was lost in yet another yawn as the AI picked Sada up and held her securely. Sada was a strong woman, or she had been before her research took up every waking moment and she had stopped working out regularly, but the AI was constructed to be far stronger, and Sada couldn't help but smile a little. "You pick me up like it's nothing."
"I am just as you built me."
"I'm a frickin genius..." Sada murmured.
"You are." The AI's reply was soft, as Sada's vitals showed she had already fallen asleep, nestled in her creation's arms.
ii.
Professor Sada was missing. She hadn't returned to the lab in six hours, and her assistant was worried. Area Zero was, for all Sada's hedonistic comfort in studying it, still one of the most dangerous places in the world, and the professor was, after all, only human.
Something that couldn't be said for her assistant, who wandered the crystal-strewn landscape trying to find the only human biometric in the crater. There had been no sign of anything amiss. Perhaps the professor had simply moved out of range. Sometimes the AI would lose track if Sada went too far away. Maybe she had left the crater entirely to fetch supplies. It had happened before, outside of their ordered supply drops, but Sada had always said where she was going. Perhaps she saw no need to do so any more, having grown comfortable with the AI's autonomy.
Or perhaps something catastrophic had--
Human presence detected. There she was, and seemingly in good health. Her vitals were all within acceptable range, though both breathing and heart rate were faster than normal.
The AI's mechanical eyes adjusted easily to the seeming illusions cast by the giant crystals, and she was able to navigate the utmost depths easier than organic beings. Even so, Sada should have been able to find her way even with her own too human senses. This was utterly irregular, and that her biometrics were untracible for some time was even more so.
After what had been only three minutes, twenty five seconds, but had somehow seemed far longer, the AI saw Sada, sitting sprawled out with her back to a crystal. The professor was smiling, grinning even, and laughing to herself, and when the AI knelt beside her there was no immediate response.
"Professor?"
Only more laughing, a faint airy giggle that was so unlike her normal bold chuckles. Despite her smile, her striking blue eyes were glazed, and she stared off at nothing in particular.
The AI raised a finger, hoping for Sada's gaze to follow it, but the professor didn't register her presence. There was no outward sign of an injury, and her vitals continued to register higher than normal but well away from any dangerous range. "Professor, I must ask that you respond if you are able."
The aimless giggle continued.
"...perhaps my sensors are off..." the AI muttered and raised a hand to feel Sada's pulse directly from her throat. "Please hold still so I can get the most accurate reading."
Suddenly, Sada had grabbed the AI by the wrist with a shout of "I need to tell you what I saw!" Her eyes were still unfocused but no longer glassy, and her breathing was heavier but not nearly as rapid.
The AI paused at the burst of activity, taken off guard by it but waiting patiently for her creator to continue.
Only Sada didn't continue, instead drooping to one side and giggling again.
"...Professor?" The prompt was neutral, devoid of concern or query.
Sada huffed out a breathy laugh that rose up like a puff of air, releasing in the back of her throat. "Hahaha...most beautiful thing 've ever seen..." She started to topple over.
"Describe it to me." The AI's instruction was in part to keep her talking, in the hopes of preventing her from zoning out again, but Sada's vitals remained consistently within a safe range.
"Oh man, it was..." Her head lolled over, so the AI supported her from that side, positioning the professor's arm over her shoulders as a counterweight as she lifted the woman to her feet. "...was like a giant turtle...an' it was swimming through the crystals like it was air..." She paused to laugh again, a drop of drool rolling down her chin. "Hahaha, turtles don't swim through air!"
"It must have been a very curious sight."
"It was! It came right up to me!" Sada thumped her creation on the chest with her free hand.
That wasn't what the AI had meant, using 'curious' in the sense of 'strange' or 'interesting', but the misunderstanding had at least made logical sense. "A giant turtle came up to you?"
"It was like..." As Sada's words fumbled, she stumbled in her step, but continued talking as best she could. "--it's that disk thing! From the book! It's like a crystal itself, like a living crystal! I think this was something that Heath..." At the author's name, she stopped walking and her arm slipped off the AI's shoulder, losing her counterweight and stumbling almost to the ground.
The AI was quick to intervene, catching her and pulling her up in a tight carry. "I do recall those pages. It must be a very beautiful creature."
Sada coughed slightly, another drop of saliva trailing down her chin. She didn't seem to notice. "It felt like it was...most beautiful thing 've ever seen..." Her statements seemed to be fragments of two unrelated sentences. "Terapagos...that's the name they told me..."
"It spoke to you?" The AI had begun a course back to the lab.
The professor shook her head, broadly enough to twist her entire upper body in the AI's hold. "Someone was talkin' to me. Don't remember who it was."
"That also happened to Heath, didn't it?"
Sada's eyes widened and she gasped sharply. "It diiiiiid!" She wriggled around excitedly. "Paradise can't be far now!"
"Hold still, Professor," the AI chided. "I do not wish to drop you."
"Hey! Hey--when we get back in the lab I'll upload my memories! You can see it yourself!" Sada's drunken smile broadened into a bright grin. "It's the most beautiful thing in the world..."
"So you've said." The AI was smiling. "I can't deny I'm curious to see it for myself. The illustration always appeared fanciful to me, and to you as well, correct?"
The professor's eyes were no longer glazed and distant, but shone with a bright determination, the same light that graced her in moments of breakthroughs and discoveries. "You'll hardly believe how beautiful it is! It's so brilliant! And seeing it and the mysterious person talking, those were different events in the Scarlet Book! If everything is happening together it must mean that Paradise is nearly here!" She wasn't moving around as much since the AI's instruction to hold still, but she still gestured broadly, bringing her hands tight to her chest at the last realization. "I can't wait...can't wait..."
Upon return to Zero Lab, Sada did indeed transfer the memory update to the AI. What the AI kept to herself, however, was that the memory was only of Sada staring at an otherwise unremarkable crystal. She told her creator only that it was beautiful.
iii.
Professor Sada was dying. That much was evident without a word exchanged. Her pale hand clinging weakly to the deep gash on her midsection did nothing to stem the blood flowing from the wound. No amount of warmth could cease the consuming chill that ran through her. All she could do was look up at the AI, fogged eyes pleading for comfort, and hope the living machine would understand.
The AI knelt down to her creator and drew her close, not following the unspoken instructions but rather functioning on emotional instinct. She brushed a stray hair away from Sada's face and said simply "I'm sorry."
The professor's mouth moved for a few seconds before she could finally force words out, voice far frailer than she had ever sounded. "T-take me to the time machine..." She forced a smile but could only manage it for a moment. "I want to see it...I want to see the distant past..."
"Of course." As she raised Sada's limp form, adjusting her cautiously to support her head, the AI's face was largely impassive. But her creator knew there was more to it than that. After all, they were one and the same at heart.
As the AI activated the warp pad that would lead to Zero Lab, Sada shifted weakly, looking around at the fourth research station for the last time. "Where's Koraidon...? Did it escape?"
"Yes. Additionally I have recalled the Guardian Koraidon to its ball."
Sada relaxed slightly and sighed, releasing the heaviest breath that the fading air in her lungs would allow. "Paradise is in your hands," she murmured, so softly that a human would have been unable to hear her.
"I understand." Though the AI had expressed her doubts about their goals, it was no time to voice them. "...I would have taken the blow for you."
"I know." It came out accompanied by a thin smile. "T...tell Arven I..." Again, her mouth moved with no words emerging, and she wrenched her eyes shut tight in disappointment.
The elevator doors opened, and the two left the main body of Zero Lab behind. "That you love him." It was not a question.
The professor nodded, moving only slightly.
"...I will miss you," the AI reassured.
Another nod. Sada was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Her vitals continued their rapid decline, and the AI wondered if she would survive the rest of the elevator ride. Best to keep her talking. "Professor. What do you want done with the Guardian?"
"'s already our last..." She faded out again, and was silent long enough that the AI thought she would never rouse to finish the sentence, but managed "...line of defense" with a low sigh.
That it was shackled to the time machine, that was its punishment, and it could not be moved from that. The AI tried not to think of how she as well was part of that security system. "I understand." It wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough.
Sada's hand tightened over her wound as if trying fruitlessly to force it closed, and loosened a second later. "Hurts..."
The AI could only imagine. "Hold out a minute more. We are nearly there."
At that, the elevator came to a stop, door opening into the crystalline cavern. The time machine stood like a sacred altar, a comparison Sada had made before in brighter times. Entering the bright, beautiful room always carried a sense of purpose, even for only routine maintenance. Perhaps it was the rush that Sada always got from being in the presence of the fantastical machine that had kept her alive, even if it was only a brief rise in adrenaline.
"I hope that you are able to see the world you dreamed of," the AI assured as she set Sada down, propping her up in a sitting position against the central pillar of the time machine. "...Again, I will miss you."
Too weak to raise her head, Sada's dim smile was barely visible, only a faint upturn at the corners of her mouth that lasted less than a second. "Paradise is in your hands." It was unclear if she remembered saying the same words a minute before.
The AI drew her hand down Sada's face in a reassuring gesture before standing. "Hold on a minute more," she insisted as she activated the machine and stepped aside.
The time machine, the center point of Sada's research, the focus of her entire life for nearly twenty years, the origin of all paradoxes, rose up, the familiar tower dominating the room as the upper part began to glow. Another portal was opening, and soon it began to pull the brilliant scientist into its domain.
"I love you..." the AI whispered, knowing it would never be heard.
If the machine was a sacred altar, Sada was a holy sacrifice, given to the distant past in the hopes of a single moment of happiness in the face of unbending tragedy.
And in a flash of light, it was over. The machine had claimed Sada, just as she had wanted, and the machine returned to normal as if nothing had happened. Only a red pool against the sleek black podium showed any signs of the tragedy that had occurred.
Ten minutes ago, Sada had been engaged in merry research.
Five minutes ago, the Koraidon pair had begun to fight.
Time constantly moved forward. That was the fate of things.
Even though Sada was gone, though she no longer rested in the AI's arms, the AI felt heavier than ever before.
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