"Yes you do." a man with a scar on his eye laughed as he watched him from the big screen.
"God, he's not responding properly." another man in a white coat spoke.
"Well shit." the man said as he sipped his coffee. "Hey, Luna! Shouldn't you interfere right now before he breaks the system?"
"I am logging-in, you know it's hard to maintain a non-influenced image when he is in this state." a woman with dark hair and cold, dead eyes spoke in a monotonic tone.
"I almost feel bad for him." the man with glasses said.
"Prepare to switch locations, Cid."
"I'm on it," Cid put down his coffee and started tapping the keyboard.
"I'm logged. Building the Operator image." she positioned herself to face the microphone and took a deep breath "Ready."
---
"Zachary!"
Her face covered up his vision, making him unable to see anything but her blue eyes. Her concerned look filled every corner of his vision.
"Operator..."
"You don't look too well..."
He felt the floor beneath him change, it became softer as if his body was floating.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"In the sea, I brought a beach ball with me!"
He moved his body and turned to face her, he found himself under the bright sun and in the warm blue water, the operator wore a yellow swimsuit matching her blond hair. She tossed the transparent ball to him and cheered "Come on! Let's have fun together!"
"..." He caught the ball and stared at her for a minute, finally his mind took in the sudden change that occurred, showing her a small smile he spoke. "Sure."
They spend the entire day, swimming together and building sandcastles, he surprisingly tagged along in all the summer activities in hopes of feeling a form of relief.
After a full day of joy and playfulness, they both finally rested on the shore, it was a nice change for him from the constant roaming. It took his mind off of these meddling ideas and unkind thoughts too, He lied down on the cool sand, the operator returned to her hovercraft, joining him at sky gazing.
"Doesn't this one look like a swan?"
"Where?" He tried to see where her finger pointed.
"This one!" He managed to catch the constellation she pointed at. "oh yeah."
"The sky looks so pretty tonight."
"Yeah... surprisingly." he was bewildered at the fact that the sky managed to stay beautiful despite what transpired.
"Does it make you feel all happy on the inside?" She giggled.
"I guess, to an extent." he did love seeing starry skies, it made him feel at peace. Which was something he realized he hadn't told the operator about.
"That's great!"
He turned to her and asked, "How did you know?"
"hm?" she looked at him puzzled.
"How did you know that looking at the stars helps me?"
"Oh, it's just a hunch!" She laughed and clapped her hand together, "Well, it's time for me to go." She turned around and flew away.
---
"And that's it for this episode of The Experiment And Me" mocked Cid as he nudged the guy with glasses to laugh, but he was rather unamused and just humored him.
"Shut the fuck up, Cidney. You're one to talk after what you just did!"
"It was Greg's fault, not mine." He replied ever so smugly.
Greg's eyes shot up from cleaning his glasses to his accuser. "How is it my fault?! You're the one in charge of loading the sites! And you loaded the wrong one! You're supposed to load the open lands!"
"Hey, relax you two, it still worked out. He calmed down now."
"Did you extract all the power we needed?" Asked Luna.
"Yeah, it was a success." Smiled Gregory.
---
Zachary realized how happy he was, how he would be still stuck in that horrible place if not for the operator saving him. It also wasn't the first time she came to his aid, it made him feel grateful for having at least someone he could count on.
He turned around, thinking she didn't go far, but he couldn't find her. He thought about waiting till another day, but an idea sparked in his head.
He took a deep breath and screamed at the sky.
"OPERATOR! ARE YOU THERE?"
---
There was a beeping sound coming from the computer.
"Huh?" Gregory went to the computer typing and staring at the screen.
"What's that?" Asked Luna.
"The device is detecting high energy levels."
"Damn Luna, did you do anything extra?" he snorted as she shot him a death glare.
"I think he's saying something." He switched on the screens and speakers for the others to hear.
"Operator! I want to tell you something!"
"..." They were all silent.
"Please, I know you're there. I can feel you're there."
"How..." the words escaped Gregory's mouth almost naturally.
"What came over him now?"
Luna sighed and went to the microphone.
"What are you doing?" Asked Gregory.
"No need to form an image, I'm just gonna use the mic." She pressed the start up button and replied.
---
A voice echoed from within the world itself. The voice filled the night blue skies "Yes, Zachary?"
"So you can hear me!"
"Of course, I'm always here, even when I don't reply right away."
Zach took a deep breath and mustered all his courage "I just wanted to say, thank you. For saving me again."
---
His words merely passed through her ears, she was about to reply when caught her off guard.
"For watching over me from above."
Her attention was caught, looking back at her colleagues who shrug.
"Well, we're off for tonight, finish up with him and shut it down. Come on Greg." Cid said as he dragged Gregory away from the computer and with him to the door leaving hastily.
Luna rolled her eyes at them and continued to focus on whom she talked with.
"You always pull me out of my worst moments, the times where I'm about to drown so deep, you always find a way to cheer me up."
"You're welcome." She said coldly, luckily for her, the computer edited her voice to sound like the happy lucky go operator whom he cared for.
"I mean... it's not something small you know? Especially when, I don't really offer anything in return." His voice went lower and lost the flare it had once he reached the end of his sentence.
"You don't have to, you, just being there is fine by me." She almost smiled.
Somehow, the conversations felt a lot less heavy when these two aren't numbing her brain with their useless comments, Cid in particular.
"Where are you?" He asked. "In the sky? Up there?"
"You can say so." She giggled.
"I know this isn't heaven, but, I'm not sure if this is purgatory. I doubt it though... since a kind person like you is here with me." A wide grin grew on his face. She could see his beaming face through the screen on top of her, she thought he had a nice smile for someone in captivity.
"What do you mean?" She wasn't sure why she asked that maybe because she wasn't ready to go to sleep and let her mind gamble with her dreams. She wasn't having it easy either. Peaceful sleep rarely came by.
"To be honest with you, I don't know what I did to deserve you around me."
She subconsciously let out a long disgusted "ugh" out of her that she immediately regretted.
"No seriously! I mean, I've done so many stupid things in my life, I didn't think I'd deserve to know someone like you."
She wasn't sure what he was talking about, since she checked his records, and all he did was some petty fights with the wrong people when he was in high school, no crimes, no drugs, no guns. What was he talking about?
"Curiosity killed the fucking cat." She mumbled. "What did you do?"
She noticed him looking down, almost like he was having a hard time speaking up his mind.
She was about to assure him that he doesn't have to tell her but he looked back at the sky and told his guilt.
"I'm lost."
The first word that appeared in her mind was "a simulation." She thought he was talking about the emotional blunders he keeps having due to the "generator program".
But his next sentence made her a bit uneasy. "I depended on a guy that never came to my aid. He abandoned me."
He was talking about the other detective. She thought.
"No matter how many times I try to keep this world at bay, it ends up going against me."
It should, that's what the program is supposed to do, she thought.
"No matter how many times I cry his name, he never shows up. He never... does. And..."
"... He probably never will."
Her heart clenched, she remembered all the other times he went through the generator program. Greg cranking up his mental pain levels to maximum, and him screaming and crying for "Marshall" to come and find him, to end his suffering, to let him be. The sound of Cid laughing behind her, mocking him as Zachary choked on his own crying, tears covering his face. Until they manage to extract all of the energy he produces.
It can last hours at times, sometimes days.
"And recently, I've been feeling very exhausted. And maybe... just maybe." She was surprised he still managed to talk after all of this. After all what they're doing to him.
"Maybe it's not that bad to be stuck in here."
What on Earth is this man talking about? Did he finally snap? she shook her head in disbelief.
"What do you mean? Don't you want to get out? To end all the vicious cycles?"
"If it means I get to stay here to see you another day, then I can endure it."
She was speechless, she wasn't sure how to respond to him.
She walked to the computer and activated the operator's image.
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