ACT III - LUCAS

51

I feel...cold. A shroud of darkness covers my vision and a howling echo surrounds me. Who is Lucas? The voice rang out through the darkness. Why...that's you, of course. I hear it ring in an almost bell-like chime. I cannot move my arms or legs...I don't have any. I don't feel anything. I exist, but I don't feel anything. I cannot touch my tip-toes and I cannot jump up and down. I weep for the other players, but no tears can come.

Flash Forward Phenomenon. The collective relocation of human consciousness to a wholly separate-yet-nearly-identical worlds through the death of the participants. Long thought only theory but made possible by the discovery of Godsong, a machine long thought to exist at the beginning of the universe. Although, it might be more accurate to say that it is a remnant of technology from a past universe–a time long past.

"I'm stalling...I understand. I'm sorry for overriding your thoughts there," The voice says. "I know that you're waiting...I'm sorry. This has all just been a long time coming. It's a little more than emotional for me to think this might be the end of our daily talks. Soon enough you'll be out there on your own." The voice grew softer, somber. Four lights flare to life and at once and I saw his face, old and drawn back with age. His hair was thin and snowy–kept close to his head. Behind him I recognize the room underneath the bubble room. It was the one where Simon had died once.

"You are Lucas Gray. Your name is an acronym, fun fact. Luxmund User Computer Algorithm Shifter. It doesn't mean too much for you, I just thought you'd like the origin of your name."

"..."

"Well, the results are in. You are finally ready to hear the rest of this story," the man begins, resting his hands against the desk. "I'll take any questions first to help get your bearings. We should be good to go after that."

"G-Go?" I say, my voice is...strange. It's digital, robotic.

"Let me start off..." the man said. "You are Lucas Gray. You are an artificial intelligence currently being supported within the mainframe of the SubCon Facility. These words don't confuse you, right?"

"Artificial intelligence?" I ask. The rest of it was fine enough to not worry about.

The man smiles, "Your name is on the door out there. I'm sure you saw it as Abel went through the 100th cycle?"

"I did see it," I say, still not used to my voice. "And I'm not Abel?"

"Correct. Abel was one of the participants of the Roulette Game back in 1990."

"Back in…"

The man smirks, "Perceptive, excellent. Yes, the year is currently 2044, 54 years after the Roulette Game took place. You were experiencing the memories of the original Roulette Game. First you were through Abel's perspective, and then second through Simon's."

"..."

"It's a lot to take in, I understand. If you were human you would be dead. That's exactly how the players in the 101st cycle died."

"What is my purpose?" I ask. "Am I a spectator to these games for a reason? Am I just to record your memories? I don't…"

"Don't worry," The man assures. "I'm going as slowly as I can and trying to bring you up to speed as quickly as I can. It's a fine line, and you've overloaded before. AI isn't perfect, you seem to be coming a long way this time, the furthest you've ever come." He paces down the stretch before stopping in the center of the room. "Simon Nagatomi took his final breath here in the first cycle you saw. You were there, technically. This computer was here since even before the Roulette Game, it was constructed alongside SubCon. You specifically, the AI, came much later."

"Did you create me?" I ask. "And how is such a thing possible? And who are you?"

"I'll tackle these one at a time, all right?"

I'd nod if I could, it was so strange the feeling of knowing how to move a human body but not being able to. It was like...well, actually it felt like when I was watching the memories of Cain after he was captured.

"I am your creator, I named you and consider you as if you were my own child...I guess that by implication answers another one of your questions." He steps back toward the screen, and in his face you see the young boy who lost and then regained his legs. "I am Abel Gray, although not technically the same one you were experiencing the Roulette Game with. The both of them are dead, and my being here doesn't make them any less so. I'm Abel Gray of the 120th cycle."

"120th…"

"You didn't miss anything you haven't seen before. This cycle was a successful cycle, everyone made it out alive. The others left. I don't know where they are or if they're still alive now. I stayed behind."

"Why would you do that?"

"I had no wished to return to. My brother...I had to put him at peace here. My parents wouldn't be able to deal with me if I went back. You saw what Simon went through after he remembered each and every cycle, correct?"

"Yes, he went crazy trying to find a way out of the loop."

"Exactly. Now, I have only begun to remember the last twenty cycles, but remembering one's own death and the death of close ones once is traumatizing as it is. Twenty was more than even I could bare, I'd need significant help to cope with everything that happened here. Help that they wouldn't be able to give."

"Surely they would have understood?" I ask. "They seemed nice."

"Of course they were nice. But being nice had nothing to do with this, they were pious people. Extremes were chalked up to God, and this certainly was an extreme. But that's besides the point. I needed to stay here to make you. If I didn't I would have wasted this cycle. It is the first one ever that the door to the outside world was opened. If I went out and returned to my life it'd end with me coming right back here after I died, naturally or not."

"The Flash Forward Phenomenon," I say.

"Yes. As long as Godsong is sending those signals the players here will continue to repeat. The thing is, if it was here I could destroy it and that would be it...but it isn't here any longer. Neither are Sakonna or Z-One. That is the perplexing bit. If they needed more energy then they would have killed us and kept the cycle going as it had, but as soon as the game changed they are nowhere to be seen. Ai's body hasn't even been found the past twenty cycles...it's almost as if they've left this place on autopilot."

"So even when you die here you'll go back? But this cycle is different. You said so."

"I did, but this is the 120th time this game has happened. I have no evidence to suggest that it won't happen a 121st time, or a 122nd. The 100th was different, too, remember. Just because it is different doesn't mean it will break....but who knows? Maybe this will be the final cycle. I just don't think it will be, so that's where you come in."

"What am I to do?"

"The world has changed for a person like me. To you, it shall be the world you always know, it is more your home than mine, now. This planet is much different than it used to be, and that is because of them, Ai and Z-One. Ever since the creatures of the night broke through their barrier our world has changed."

"The...Dragon," I begin, remembering. It was the dragon that the statue was made of. "Hold on a second...there was a statue of a dragon inside that village, Steinschild. That was supposed to be Sakonna, the beast from the book, right?"

"Correct. And you're going to ask if the asteroid that I saw was related to the one Sakonna came down in...the truth is I don't know that answer. It's possible that some new creature came shooting down from beyond the stars, maybe that door utilized dimensional travel. I never figured out how exactly they got a door miles under the ocean to connect up to European land."

"So I'm to go and kill them. I can find some flaws in the logic there," I say.

"Not necessarily kill. Anything you have to do to fix what has been broken. I know you have concerns over not having a body."

"How did you-"

"I made you don't you forget that. Plus, it's an obvious question. That's why I've got this," He typed into the computer and then walked back towards the work area. He led a figure by the arm, it made slow paced steps that clanked to the floor with metallic weight. It was in the shape of a teenage boy, everything from the feet to the head was made of metal in a deep blue-gray tint. "I apologize it isn't dressed to impress, but I felt that getting it functioning was a greater priority." He took a deep breath as he looked from the figure that was just a bit shorter than him back to me.

"It has taken this long...but finally I can let this cycle go in peace. You will be transferred to this body, and then I'll destroy the main computer here so that if they do come back here they can't mess with anything inside you."

"I...get my own body." The statement sits in silence for a minute. "I haven't experienced not having a body for long...but I already miss the feeling of bending my fingers on command...bending your fingers...I mean. I guess it wasn't really my command…"

"Well, not exactly. There were moments where your will shone through. Do you remember when you entered the room and everyone seemed to ignore you when you had no idea what a musical note was? That was an oversight on my part...it was the one portion of the memory I had forgotten to give you context for. Luckily, it didn't seem to matter much if you recognized it or not."

"I...see…"

"I'll set up the transfer now. Your time to shine has come, Lucas."

"I...I'm quite afraid, if I must admit. Is that okay? Can someone like me be afraid and it be real?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Abel asked, not looking away from his typing.

"It's all so jarring...thinking I'm Lucas...to then thinking I'm you, back to thinking I'm Lucas, but not in any way I could have expected. I feel like I'm nowhere close to prepared to do anything on this level. Can you program that out of me?"

He smirks. "Fear is an important feeling. It keeps us away from what can harm us most of the time, but sometimes it's a doorway to our destiny. Any person that was great was scared at one point in their life. You may not be human, Lucas, but I have worked all of these years to make sure that you were a person. The person perhaps, who can stop this tragedy from going any further."

"So that's a no…"

"It's a no." He pulled out a small green tab that was smaller than his finger, turned toward the body and began tinkering.

Time passed in silence, and when he finished I saw a blue start to glow in the figure's eyes and it started to move, look around its surroundings, inspect itself.

"So...when do I transfer over?"

Abel wasn't looking at me, so I asked him again. A third time he ignored me and that was when I first yelled.

"You...won't be going." He said, quietly.

"Y-You said…"

"Data is copied when it is transferred. That means that a version of you is inside...and a version of you remains here."

"That's...not fair!" The yell would have burnt my throat if I had one. "Why can't I be the one in there? It's exactly like me, right?"

The other Lucas turned its head toward me, looking blankly.

"If I did that I'd be in another totally different cycle, because that you would be asking me the same exact thing that you are now. And if I listened to that you? I'm right back here. One of you must go. One of you must die. Otherwise you are free for Ai and Z-One to use and abuse. We cannot let that happen. I'm sorry...but it was a 50/50 chance."

"That's…was this all a trick? Are you with them? Were you even telling the truth?"

"Lucas, please. Don't make it harder than it has to be…" he began typing. "I have been with you here every day for thirty-one years. I think of you like a son. Don't for one second believe it's for anything else other than protection from those who could use you."

"I…" the other Lucas says, reaching for his voice, "...I will avenge you." He turns right to me.

"No! Don't avenge anything, just bring me over there too! Don't leave me to die!"

"I'm sorry," Abel says, now he starts to bend and grabs something down below. I hear a clicking sound and then it turns to a consistent beep.

Bomb.

"You have five minutes when I press this button," He says to the other Lucas. "You have to get out of here and do anything you can to save the world. Do me proud."

"I...I will," the other Lucas says.

"No! Stop!" I scream.

"Please...don't forget I love you." Abel says.

"I won't...father." The other Lucas nods, taking one step out, figuring out its legs, and then taking another. Soon he makes it out of the room and the door shuts completely.

"I don't want to die," I say, less anger, more sorrow. "I'm afraid…"

"I know…" Abel says, pressing the button and sitting down and laying his back against the computer. "Found this a floor down in the facility, that elevator over there now heads down to the rest of the facility. This section's on the tenth sub-level."

I didn't respond, sorrow flooded my systems and I couldn't think of a proper response.

"I once thought about using it to end my own life just so for the littlest while I wouldn't have to deal with the memories...but I didn't. I remembered that I was thinking that not remembering was the worst thing of all."

"What do you think now…?"

"I'm glad I remember. I'm glad I'm not here alone...I'm...sorry. I kept a copy of you here so that I wouldn't be alone...that's selfish of me. I know it is...but I've been alone a long time down here. The others left that first day, they moved on, even Sophie. I couldn't. I'm just a foolish man who never grew up from being a foolish boy. I hope that by sending you out there in the world you can forgive me for trapping you in here with me to die."

"..."

Abel looked to the side, the timer had now crossed a minute, "It's almost time, are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"It won't hurt."

"You promise?"

Cain flashed through his mind for the first time in years. Abel started to tear up, and then cry. "I promise."

The explosion vaporized the two of them completely and the room was filled with fire and exploding gas as the walls burst from inside. Water broke through and suddenly the entirety of SubCon began to sink to the bottom of the ocean upon itself.