The Talk About Judy

Both Alexis and Natalia became silent when they heard PIA say that she had something to report. PIA would barely say this but when she did, most of the time it would be a report about attempted burglary of the house. But because the security system was advanced, no one had succeeded till date.

"Yes PIA, what is it?" Alexis asked PIA in a calm voice thinking it was another attempted burglary.

PIA immediately began her report. "A weird looking teenager was standing outside the house 5 days back. At that time I didn't find it suspicious because she was just trying to look inside the house and after a while she went away."

Alexis could not help but smile at the innocence of PIA and tried to make her understand, "PIA! If someone is trying to peek inside the house then you have to be suspicious okay. They might be planning to do something bad later on."

PIA took Alexis's words seriously and replied, "Okay, I will keep that in mind from now on and will report to you if anything like that happens."

PIA took a pause as if she was uploading the new order from her master in her database and then continued, "Anyway, that was not the part that I was trying to focus on. Yesterday as I was keeping track of your hearing, I saw that same teenager outside of the court. I wanted to report this to you yesterday but you didn't return home."

Alexis was super confused when she heard PIA. She furrowed her brows and asked, "Wait, you did what? You were keeping track of my hearing? But how? No news channels were allowed to record anything that day."

PIA blurted out in a low robotic tone, "I might have hacked into the nearby cc-cameras because I wanted to see how you were doing."

"What?" Both Alexis and Natalia exclaimed simultaneously.

PIA's intelligence seemed to be accelerating day by day. The girls thought that they had limited PIA's access only inside the house but they had never expected her to get information by hacking other devices outside of the house.

"Don't worry. I have erased all my traces; no one will be able to link it back here." PIA tried to calm the girls down. Then she continued again, "Getting back to the original point, when I cross-referenced the image of that teenager in the public database, I realized that it was Judy Fortin, your offender."

"What?" Alexis shouted again at the top of her lungs because she could not believe that Judy was in front of her house as well.

"That bitch was even waiting for you outside of your own house? Just when I had begun to show some compassion towards her and I hear this." Natalia also shouted furiously.

"Argh! Stop shouting both of you. At this rate my voice receiver will be damaged very soon." PIA was starting to get agitated because the girls kept on interrupting her.

"Anyway…" PIA continued her explanation again "I was right about that girl not having any hostile intention when she was outside of the house. After carefully analyzing all the facts and evidences, I have reached to the conclusion that on that day, she came here to see if you had returned back safely from the Dead Zone."

"Wh…" When PIA paused for a brief second, Alexis was about to say something but PIA immediately interrupted her.

PIA spoke in her robotic voice, "And don't you dare say 'what' again. I will run away from the house if you do."

Alexis had already inhaled sharply and was about to shout that same word again. But she stopped midways and calmed herself down. Then she asked PIA, "You mean she knows that I ended up flying to the Dead Zone?"

"Yes."

Alexis immediately jumped out of her bed and started to pace back and forth, trying to remember the details of the day she was beaten up by Judy, before she found herself in the Dead Zone.

Natalia was watching her friend pacing restlessly. She was praying that she would not lose control of herself. She would hate to be in the same room with Alexis when she was not herself. She did not even dare to speak anything.

Alexis suddenly stopped pacing. She realized that she still had a few holes in her memories. She remembered feeling extreme pain and falling to the ground. She remembered experiencing near death feeling and the next thing she remembered was waking up inside the Dead Zone.

Alexis's mind was not in control of her body when she was 'reborn'. She only knew that she flew to the Dead Zone because of the video that Natalia had shown her.

"Does this mean the first person to find out about my powers was Judy? What did I do to her before I flew to the Dead Zone? Did I beat her up? Is that why she was so adamant in the court about accepting the punishment, because she feared me?" Alexis was thinking about all sorts of possibilities and her head was starting to spin.

Alexis held her head with both of her hands and asked to PIA, "PIA, how did you know that Judy knew about me being in the Dead Zone? What facts and evidences are you talking about?"

PIA said in a cheery robotic tone, "I am happy that you asked. As I was saying earlier, I recently made a new friend. He told me that Maurice Fortin, Judy's father, was leading the Dead Zone investigation when you were in there."

PIA changed her tone suddenly and whispered, "Of course, this piece of information is not public so I want you to keep that a secret, my friend will be unhappy with me if he found out that I told this to you."

"And he also told me that Judy played a huge role in stopping the investigation by going into the Dead Zone herself. Her father terminated the investigation when Judy kept on insisting that she was the one who flew to the Dead Zone, wearing a pair of boots with propeller." PIA proudly gave all the details of the fact that she was talking about.

Alexis kept quiet for some time, trying to process all the new information that she was presented with. Then she asked in a skeptical voice, "Wait a minute! Judy's father was leading the investigation? And Judy stopped it? Why? Can you tell me how do you know all these?"

PIA pretended to be exhausted of explaining the same thing over and over again by sighing loudly, "I just told you… my new friend told me all that."

Natalia clapped her hands like she cracked some big code and shouted, "Aha! Is it the same friend that you were going to tell me about when I entered the room earlier?"

PIA excitedly replied, "Yes you are right. It's that same friend." PIA paused for a second and said sadly, "Or my only friend."

Alexis was glaring at Natalia for making PIA sad. Natalia could feel the heat and thought that it would be best if she did not talk so she looked the other way.

Alexis was dying to know how PIA knew all these information. "Don't be sad PIA, you will make more friends with time. And who exactly is your new friend? How did you two even meet?"

PIA was cheery again. She instantly started to tell Alexis about her new friend. "He is the butler of the Fortin mansion. His name is Harold. He is a droid who has been working in the Fortin mansion for several years."

Then PIA hesitantly shared the next piece of information, "He was trying to hack into my system to leave a message for you." And she continued in her cheery voice again, "But I stopped him. And I became friend with him once I knew he did not have bad intentions."

Alexis stomped her foot on the ground and shouted at PIA, "What? He tried to hack you and then you became friend with him? And he is a droid which serves the Fortin mansion? If so, why would he share all those confidential information with you? That does not make any sense."

PIA tried to defend her new friend's action, "Well just like how I want you to be happy, Harold also wants the same for his master Judy. And he said he saw her smile for the first time when she was about to leave for the hearing. He deduced by linking several other evidences that Judy's happiness is somehow tied to you."

PIA further explained, "And Harold was trying to hack the system just because he wanted to contact you to make you aware of all the good things that Judy did for your sake. But when I offered to pass along his message to you, he said that he wanted to be friends with me. And I accepted."

Alexis felt like the soft spot for Judy was growing in her heart. And she hated it so she screamed, "PIA why are you spewing all these nonsensical things today? A few good deeds would not be enough to forget how much Judy had tortured me, mentally as well as physically."

PIA then took a logical stance on the matter, "I am not saying that you should forgive Judy. I am just implying that to have her on your side would be beneficial to you. If government somehow discovers about your powers, which will happen sooner or later, then at least you would have someone powerful like Judy's father on your side to vouch for you."

"And I further analyzed the facial expressions of Judy when she was standing outside the door. She was just worried about something, and if my calculations are correct, she was worried about you. As soon as she saw you, her expression was not sad anymore. She smiled and left." PIA was side by side showing the video of Alexis happily eating the chicken in her kitchen, and Judy smiling while looking at Alexis.

Natalia finally broke her silence and spoke, "I think what PIA is suggesting about having someone powerful to stand by you is very logical. And I hate that I am saying this but I think you should give another chance to Judy, to be your friend."

Alexis did not like what the two of them were saying at all. It was making her uncomfortable. "Natalia, why are you also taking Judy's side? Why are you and PIA ganging up against me?"

Natalia sighed and tried to reason with Alexis. She did not think that she would be saying this to Alexis, but after listening to PIA she felt that she needed to, "I accidently met Judy in front of the Area Court. And she asked me to say to you that she was sorry for everything that she ever did to you."

Natalia further continued, "I thought that she was just trying to provoke me but I could see remorse in her eyes. She even said that she could have easily escaped the punishment just the way she got out of the custody, but she said she wanted to get punished for her actions, and that she wanted to repent for her crimes."

Alexis was not saying anything. She just kept quiet.

Natalia carefully spoke again, afraid that Alexis might get angry, "I know, saying sorry will not dissolve the entire trauma that she gave you but at least it is a start, a proof that she is willing to change."