Sniffling, Ci says, “No, hon, that’s why I brought you here. Twenty years later, and you’re still a mystery. That’s why we try so hard to let you know you’re one of us. It’s rare you open up so much. I am just standing here, eagerly waiting to hear more of your story, Ina. If you have anything else, please tell it. I grow tired of talking about my disgusting past to every fan who hasn’t already read for themselves what’s clearly available in our materials.”
The emotions are surprisingly high, even for those who expected this story to be a tear-jerker, having all three villains from that day standing here as friends. Ina thinks of what to say next. “I really don’t see much else to tell. I was hurt, had my soul robbed from me, and put in your life as your fill-in, only to have the sore displeasure of being the one who had to detain you because your childhood was about to be slaughtered all thanks to an evil lie. I hate that day.” When she arrived, the ever-quiet Ina had a big smile on her face, rare for this silent being. Now, the memories of the moment she had to arrest the new sister she was told she’d have, knowing she might be destroyed, all flood into Ina’s mind. Yeah, more tears show up. Ina timidly hugs Cici and apologizes for what she had to do.
Whispering to her sister that it’s okay and that was long ago, Cici takes back over for the sake of time. “So, Ina was simply my new sister, OUR new sister, but I ruined that by letting my fear control me. I was so paranoid of losing everything that I was the one who forfeited it. As Yvie had never bothered anyone but specifically AB, and that was even often more like an annoying pestering than ever actually trying to take his life, she got off fairly easily. I, however, had to be punished for killing thousands of people, and rightfully so. I deserved every ounce of punishment. BUT someone else had to serve a life sentence for their crime. You could even say they got the death penalty.”
Seeing her cue, Mary is afraid to speak. “Yeah, Cici was sentenced to life in prison…for my crime. I was the one who forced her to blow up a city. I talked her into it, coached her, but in the end, I had to physically take her hands and manhandle her arms to make her do it. Of all the people I hurt that day, she was my main victim. And my dad? I couldn’t live anymore knowing the heartache I had caused him, and was going to cause him as he’d soon lose his sister. So, I hugged him, told him that I was sorry, and I said goodbye, ready to somehow deactivate myself. I was a thought clone. Surely, I could just stop existing. But that’s when something inside of me said to give AB another farewell message, ‘See you in twenty years.’ And that’s when this thought went back to where it originally came from, AB’s mind. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but long story short, the System Director decided to do a thing. Instead of having me killed, like I deserved, he took the fact that I was technically the result of AB thinking about a message from Missy and recreated me as a new character, being born as their straight-up daughter years later. The idea was that the concept of Tat would stay in AB’s mind, then when his daughter was born that the Director would point out as ‘that’s the one,’ AB was supposed to transfer my memory into this new body of mine. When you remember that PACs are a bunch of machines and not humans like the real-worlders, the idea of memory transfer among bodies isn’t that odd.”
Cic giggles, “So, there you have it. Tat wanted to be AB’s daughter, so she got that privilege. I was sentenced to life, but because my powers were so important, the bigwigs put me in our virtual training system so I would dream a full century’s worth of exile as an invisible girl in one tortuous night. Oh, and what I found out when I finally go out, literally a hundred years older while still stuck in a fifteen-year-old body, is that AB, my precious brother, was linked to me in secret for the whole experience because his immaturity as an older brother was seen as the reason for my childish nature, and his willingness to harbor a murderer with no regard to the law or the biblical principles regarding taking of a life was deemed a serious threat to the survival of the universe. I was alone for a century, watching the dreaded history of Storyboard X play out, not knowing that my brother had the worse torture of watching me suffer for all those years. Praise God Fiona was able to alter the experience so that we skipped some years, but I never wish that kind of agony on anyone else!”
Inner Man Theatre 