Pass

As Sarah stepped into the shack, she found herself in a small room with barely anything in it. 

There was an old mattress in one corner with old school books littered around it, an old looking gas camp stove with a kettle in another surrounded by old used packets of food you add water to in order to eat. 

Another corner had a small pile of laundry that needed washing and hanging up was an old well used school uniform. 

"Sorry about the mess but I never get any visitors." John said as he moved over to the kettle that was on the stove before pouring a cup of hot water which he passed to Sarah while saying. 

"Careful it's still hot." 

"Thank you." Sarah replied before sitting on the floor. 

"Are you not going to be drinking?" She asked when she noticed John did not have a cup of water. 

"Afraid you have my only cup." John replied with a smile as he started to tidy up a little bit. 

"How long have you lived here?" Sarah asked. 

"Hmm eleven years." John replied 

"How did you survive without the government allowance you're supposed to receive for being an orphan?" 

"If you know that I'm guessing that Tia already guessed at how I survived so there is no use hiding it, those who don't work don't eat after all." 

"So, you really have been working side jobs for eleven years for very little money?" 

"That about sums it up, after all when I asked about my government allowance at the city hall and the teachers at my school, they both claimed to know nothing about it." John explained before continuing. 

"What can a seven-year-old boy do when no one wants to help him or even acknowledge his existence?" 

"Why didn't you leave Dawnscape?" 

John turned to look at Sarah before saying. 

"How? with what money? and where?" after which he carried on tidying up a bit. 

There was silence for a moment before Tia spoke up again. 

"John Michaels, I request your assistance." 

"With?" John asked. 

"After you did not log into Genesis for four months, I started to wonder why so I tried to contact you with no successes as you know." Tia began explaining. 

"After that I started looking into your personal history, bank account history, school history and many other things to try to figure out why you lived where you did and why you never received your government allowance." 

"Wow Tia you're quite the stalker of an AI." John said with a chuckle. 

"Why is it that you think you have never received your allowance?" Tia asked, ignoring his comment though if someone looked closely, they would notice a slight smile. 

"Dean Thomas." John replied. 

"Who?" Sarah asked. 

"I don't know much about his family, just that they apparently run a successful mine in Genesis under the Dawnscape guild." 

"Because of this his family has some say in the city. When I was younger and before I became an orphan, I was fairly popular at school. Dean did not like that because he thought he should be top of the ladder with his family being so important." 

"He tried to bully and intimidate me, but I never listened and just ignored him, then after my parents died and I became an orphan his bullying just got worse as you saw outside, that gift was probably from him." 

"If I had to guess, he probably talked to his father or someone else in his family and they pulled some strings to stop me getting any sort of support from the government or school or anywhere else." 

"I also wouldn't be surprised if he or his family had something to do with my access band." John said, pointing towards the access band that now lay beside his bed. 

"What would you like to do about this John Michaels?" Tia suddenly asked, catching Sarah by surprise. 

*** 

Sarah was not the only one Surprised the other four women were also, this had never happened before in the one hundred and twelve years that Genesis and Tia had been running. Tia had never asked an individual how they wanted their justice to be served, it was always she who made that choice. 

"What are you doing here Tia?" Flame Empress asked but Tia just ignored her. 

*** 

"What do you mean?" John Michaels asked, looking at the holographic Tia. 

"I am asking you how you would like to punish those who have done you wrong for the past eleven years." Tia explained. 

"You're letting me decide? I can choose anything?" 

"I am and you can, tell me what punishment you would give this Dean Thomas and all those involved, also what punishment should the human race be given?" 

*** 

"TIA!" Fire Empress and Red Rose cried out in shock. 

Silver Queen and Silver Oracle were looking at Tia with shocked expressions because not only was she giving this man the right to decide an individual's punishment but also the whole of his race also. 

*** 

John looked at Tia for a moment before turning away and saying. 

"Pass" 

"Excuse me?" 

"I pass on the right to decide their punishment." 

"Why?" 

"Because I am not qualified, I know next to nothing about the world outside my little shack other than its shit, and I know even less about Genesis since I never studied it as I knew I would never play it." 

"I may not like the human race however I will not claim the power of god to destroy the innocent that have never done me wrong." 

"Go ahead and punish those that have hurt and damaged me sure but leave those who had no idea about any of this out of it because in the end if you or I punish them then we are no better than those who did this to me, in fact we are worse." 

"So go ahead and pass whatever punishment on the human race in Genesis you deem fit, it's not like I will be there to care anyway."