Chelen City: Interlude: Lizzie

 Notes: A little Lizzie interlude to tide us over before the finale. I couldn't leave her to suffer!

Title: Chelen City: Interlude: Lizzie

***

Interlude: Lizzie

 

He was here again.

It was the seventh time in the past two weeks he’d come to her. The first few times he spoke for a while before finally leaving, and she thought he’d given up after the third one, when he left with [[tears you made him cry you’re a terrible person]] a sad expression. But then he came back.

It would be easier if he gave up.

[[you miss him you’d miss him even worse you liar, you’re even lying to yourself that’s so stupid]]

He’d stopped talking so much. That was fine; she didn’t want to listen to him [[she has every audio file he’s ever spoken in a special place right next to her central cortex where she can listen to the whisper of him]] but even though he didn’t say as much, he still sat down beside her. Sometimes he accessed things on his tab or his implant, but more often he just leaned his head against her hull and kept her company. Not even Pol wanted to keep her company much these days [[you say you’re too busy for him too but you’re not, you’re just boring and angry and sad and no one wants to be around you not even Catie]]

Catie still talked to her every day; in some ways Lizzie and Catie were never separate. Their cortexes were combined so often right now, working for Elanus, that she could practically do her sister’s calculations for her. But she couldn’t, actually, because Catie didn’t do things the same way Lizzie did. She was much better with people, which was why she was helping Elanus handle the media while Lizzie focused on accessing Moreno.

[[make you pay for taking away Kee, I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU]]

She’d already made it so that he couldn’t leave Gania. Apart from the fact that doing so right now would trigger a clause in the constitution that made him ineligible for office and obliged to step down for dereliction of duty, she didn’t want him to escape justice. Elanus would get justice. Elanus was the only one who loved Kee as much as Lizzie di- [[no I don’t love him I don’t love him, I don’t, I can’t, he doesn’t remember me I’m nothing to him so he has to be nothing to me now but I miss him, I miss him, I MISS HIM]]

Thanks to massive infiltration of the identity matrixes at the ports and a black-market bounty on the head of any third party who attempted to exfiltrate the president, Moreno’s efforts to leave had been blocked. And today…today was the day he would fall. Today the presidential mansion was finally going to lose its last layer of digital protection. Some of the pieces had been there for centuries, intertwined with traps and triggers that would do everything from causing a citywide blackout to starting a negative cascade in the stock market. Anything to create confusion, to make it easier for the president to sneak out.

But no. Lizzie had found them all, every connection, every thread, and cut them ruthlessly. Caria Jayde was marching toward the mansion right now, a groundswell of followers with her, the media treating her like the darling Elanus had persuaded them she was. Elanus wasn’t present there, of course; he wasn’t going to be a part of the overthrow and arrest. He couldn’t be.

There were so many crimes to be laid at Moreno’s feet, but the greatest of them were the perpetuation of Elfshot Disease, and the murder of his vice-president. There was plenty of video to back that up, and it had been playing non-stop for the past news cycle. Few people thought to ask about the other person who’d been there with xir, defending xir [[forgetting everything important, all the people who love him, all for that AWFUL FU*(IE*UE(#WE*H)@E>>>>……--------reboot]]

“It’s going to be okay.”

Lizzie’s code blipped. She pulled back from her observation of the march to register the feeling of Kieron’s hand on her hull, stroking gently. Why? Why was he bothering? She was fine, she—

Was trembling. Ripples resounded up and down her hull, little tremors that made her joints flex just enough to buzz in places. She was shivering. Quivering. With…what did she feel?

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Kieron said, rubbing soft circles into her colorful synthskin. It took a moment for Lizzie to realize that her skin had turned gray. She’d been shiny white ever since the accident, reflective and cold and not colorful and bright the way she liked to be—had liked to be [[green is your favorite because its his favorite, you love it because he told you about grass and trees and the color of Zak’s eyes, the same as Pol’s eyes, green green green]] but serious. Firm. Unwelcoming. And now she was gray and trembling, and Kieron was with her.

He didn’t remember her, but he was comforting her. He didn’t know her, he couldn’t love her, but he was still with her. Over and over again, he’d been with her. Come to her. And all she’d done was push him away.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking in there, baby, but whatever it is, please, talk to me about it,” Kieron said, and there was pleading in his voice. “I’m here for you. I know I don’t remember everything about you and about the things we did together, but the love is still there. Every time I think your name, I know I love you. Every time I see you, I feel like my heart’s opening for you. All the things I’ve watched and heard, they all tell me what a wonderful person you are. You’re the best, honey; you’re my girl, and I’m your Kee. You saved my life.”

He leaned his forehead against her skin. “You saved me. You’re amazing, do you know that? I would be lost without you. Elanus would be lost. We’d all be messes if we didn’t have our Lizzie.”

It takes a moment for her vocals to come online. “K…kee?”

He smiled and patted her hull. “Hey baby.”

“Why are you crying?”

“Because I don’t want you to be scared,” he said. “I feel so bad about that, I can’t even tell you. I don’t want you to be afraid or lonely or feel like you aren’t loved, because you are. I love you so much, I swear. We all love you.”

“But you don’t—you—humans love as a result of shared experiences or certain archaic types of kinship, not…not…”

“Baby.” His voice cut through her babbling. “Are we sharing an experience right now?”

She could feel the heat of his forehead against her synthskin. It made her feel cozy. “Yes.”

“Then we have one. And we have way more, too, and just because I don’t remember them right now doesn’t mean they don’t count. They do. They do, so much. I love you, Lizzie.”

“I…”

“You don’t have to say it back,” he told her, then smiled. “But I think you might feel it too.” Where they were touching, her skin had turned grass green. “It’s going to be okay, Lizzie,” he said again, and this time. This time [[maybe he does love us maybe he loves us after all, maybe he…Kee Kee Keekeekeekeekeeeeeeeee]]

Lizzie wasn’t sure what kind of sound she made, but she felt color burst across her skin, and she felt the pressure sensors register Kieron’s grasp tightening for a moment, and she knew.

She knew he loved her. Even though things weren’t the same anymore, he loved her.

And she loved him back.