A Hard Talk and a Hard Question

"No psychics." Izime stretched, trying to enjoy as much of the microsecond of digital intoxication as he could. The small render only lagging his brain for that brief moment, he explained where he'd fucked up. "It was a good idea to delay the inevitable but you were never the only problem and that's all I've ever been able to do: delay."

"Why save me then?" Psyis asked, recalling how often Izime had tried to enforce the same rules she broke and he'd tossed aside at the end. Not feeling guilt for a portion of Izime's involvement, at least there at the beginning, she was genuinely curious.

"I was involved already. In reality you..." Izime tilted his head looking at Psyis before reconsidering what the smarter course of action might have been that first night in Voltham. Not the better action, simply the best in terms of staying free. "you probably should have been hit by FearForm's trap. I kicked off some butterfly effect that first night and this here was never supposed to happen but its natural. This moment is just a small cyst as your reality corrects my infection."

"My real rule should have been not getting involved at all if I wanted to last longer. " Izime smiled as Psyis sat rocking slightly. The coolants effect tinging the thessians face and neck with a flush of magenta. "I got to into the role I'd made for myself, too greedy."

"Is that why you found Constantinople, became his friend, greed?" Psyis asked her eyes still closed, enjoying the slightly different intoxicating effect the coolant brought on. The wobbly drunkeness of earth liquor replace by a fluid weightless feeling of ease.

Psyis relaxed a bit, her mind still focused as she delved a bit further into the emotions of the man-machine beside her.

"I had a batch of fear toxin to sell, not a lot of takes for it on cramped spaceships floating around the gal-" Izime prattled on a bit, turning and stopping. Psyis looking at him, the fact she didn't believe a single word he'd just said written plainly across her arched brow.

"I thought he was your favorite."

"And he was my favorite, yes."

The two voices trailed off, Psyis taking another deep sip of the pleasant alcohol. Happy she'd scored a point against Izime's callous attitude. The mind-reader not needing to sort through his digital emotions to know Izime had found Constantinople for more than simple opportunity. He'd saved her, the cause more than simple calculation. Psyis could feel it, sense it even.

Testing her hypothesis now, words contrasting how Izime tried to dehumanize himself.

"Hero worship is a very human flaw." Psyis blinked a few times, that temporary blindness fading away as she tried to focus on Izime a bit too quickly. Eager to make the same distinction with his actions in Voltham. "You saved me the third time because we baited you in, why save me at all Izime ever. Don't say it was greed, you're already rich."

"That is a good question." Izime nodded looking at the excited thessian whod put a finger damned near inside his digital face. Moving a bit too soon after taking another large drink Izime had expected it. "The traps really weren't worth it, considering I'd never interfered like that before and the risks were huge, it was you out there. I.. didn't want to wait on the minutes it might have taken for them to bring you down I guess?"

"I didn't have control of that situation. I would have gotten swamped by that gas in a few more seconds..." Psyis scooted back, sitting and crossing her arms preparing to thank Izime who'd saved her those two time. Trying to get comfortable once more as she retracted her words from the Noodle Shop. "And Crusher could have knocked me into the cloud at the water treatment plant."

"Yep, so I got rid of it and him." Izime agreed, not bothering to look at Psyis. He already had multiple angles of her discomfort in admitting her own weaknesses. "It wasn't a big deal."

"Thank you" Psyis smiled softly as Izime turned in surprise at her words, the thanks obviously hadn't been the statistical winner of whatever algorithm Izime was using for her. "you saved me and probably a lot of innocent people in that area."

"Don't whitewash me Psyis I'm not a hero or even good. It's just resource management. I don't want humans to get hurt, or heroes or villains," Izime warned the heroine, adjusting a bit uncomfortably himself now. It was one thing to humanize him, another to try and clear a name he'd carved in the bones of a now extinct human species. "It makes my pool of potential improvements smaller, still I've killed a whole lot more than than I've ever saved to further that goal. Hell, I killed someone the second night before I stopped Crusher, I tossed him off over a rail didn't even need to.Even looked to make sure he was gone, it was lazy calcula-"

"I've killed too; crushed minds can't be any worse than crushed skulls." Psyis sat forward again returning the same fierce gaze Izime was at her. Glad the ignorant ass A.I. had stopped his synthetic arguments after she'd spoke over him. The reality of her own words settling back on her, "Probably a whole lot worse really."

"Out of necessity I'm aware." Izime blinked a few times, throwing in a final swing as he sat back in his chair dropping the subject. Not wanting to engage the psychic in a verbal altercation, they'd settle their business once he had his body back. Besides he knew everything Psyis was capable of, there was no way she could surprise him.

"Until yesterday, I almost ruined that because I didn't listen to my gut." Psyis make her point as she reached for the thermos again, pouring as she talked. Watching carefully to not spill over the rim of the cup Psyis shamefully admitted how she felt about the situation. "I hurt you Izime, I don't want to see you get locked up as soon as we fix that."

Izime considered the options that Psyis might be thinking of, placing each one back on the shelf in his mind. There were various ways running could work but Izime was tired of running and hiding. If things had come to this and he'd slipped up this badly it was time to take his seat. Let those who had the right of this universe do what they would with him.

"I won't fight the League and they're going to want some answers." Izime watched the molten metal fall, wondering how soon the snow would be falling back on earth. Izime didn't bother looking at the woman who'd essentially killed him, thinking instead on the things he'd be missing out on. "I know how this story is written and I'm not re-writing it just so I can be free."

In this perfected reality December would roll in, covering Centropolis in a blanket of white that glimmered much the same in the streetlights. Shya would be looking for him during Christmas and the Christmas after that. He'd hardly missed a single one since he entered their lives. Thanksgivings had never really worked out an Izime wasn't much of an eater so Christmas had always been their little families day.

That little handful of years had made for a decent enough mulligan considering how his universe had ended.

"So we go to the station and what?" Psyis watched as Izime glanced out the window, his body elsewhere and even though his mind was supposed to be here their conversation seemed forgotten, "You lay down in a cell, let the league bury you?"

Psyis downed the cup in one go, pausing and rocking for a second as she detailed Stan's determined efforts. Letting the space liquor block her vision as she imagined Izime sitting for the rest of forever locked under the ocean, "Because that's what Dark Night wants, is to lock your ass in the trench."

"I wouldn't mind it, aside from the whole getting locked up in a dark abyss, but yea getting judged by a third party doesn't sound so bad. I've had more than a couple thousand years to think about it," Izime adjusted himself in his seat as pointless as it was. Hoping that Psyis could at least try and put herself in his shoes, the jig was up. "Get the whole story out there, who was at fault. The humans, me, or our universe itself. I think I'd like the whole judge and jury thing. Just try and keep me out of that weird ass spectral space James likes to use."

Izime gave Psyis a nod as her purple face tried to wash away the effects of the alcohol, her red eyes looking at him a bit taken back.

"It got bigger than the body that's laying on that bed as soon as you crawled in my head; I'm still a hazard obviously. Sure I've been humanized by Bell, but that just let me blend in and enjoy a bit of what she missed out on." He appreciated that she at least wasn't going to argue against his views on it, so he decided to explain a bit further.

Psyis wondered if Izime had actually enjoyed any of the things that Bell had intended for him too. Seeing as Bell herself had even known how too enjoy the things they'd never had. Thinking back to Izime's statement about how her world, those stories had been things they'd needed just to stay sane. The gallows humor of Izime's joke settling around her neck. Their legs, the ineptitude, the mulligan, he hadn't been complaining at them, but for every human on the station.

"The very idea of me is still dangerous, every definition is just a better buzzword for death." Izime flourished his hands as if expressing his own grandeur and not damnation. Before posing Psyis a question of his own, wondering what had brought her to his side in this. "Let alone everything I could do given powers like yours, or the power I'll have when I'm in Savior Orbital. Which I must say is a plan I'm surprised you're even going along with."

"You saved me twice, tried to a third time." Psyis smiled at Izime wondering if he thought she didn't really trust him. She'd thrown Radiation Man at him and the most he'd done was taze her. Psyis nodding towards the door to the cabin that led to the other party that had convinced her, "We both think you deserve this."

"Constantinople doesn't care about demons; sure, he might drink with them or gamble. Scream at all of League Savior because they put one in the hospital? Not so often. You're not a bad human even if you're not that good at being one, he knew that and..." Psyis reached over giving Izime's chair a little wiggle seeing as she couldn't punch him like she wanted. Instead turning him a bit so she could see better, "I'm glad I learned it before it was too late."

"Even got a full power-point presentation on the King of Knickknacks," Psyis hoping Izime would follow her lighter tone as she tried to bring back a bit of the bot's humanity, "You aren't a bad person Izime."

"I've killed your earth's population a thousand times over." Izime glanced down at the thermos held tightly in Psyis hand, watching the blue receding from her hands. The Thessian obviously feeling quite strongly, in some kind of way about his words. Izime's processors lagging as white brows turned upwards. Izime regretting how human his space side chats had gotten since the last woman had followed him to a window like this. Psyis next words causing one of those processors to pop, Izime's nonexistent heart skipping a beat as the mind-reader lucked out.

"You were an evil A.I. fine but Be-" Psyis started in on Izime having seen a bit of his past, eager the share in the judgments she was making. Red eyes quickly looking down at her the cup in her hand as Izime's hologram flickered in warning, words dying out before they'd left her lips. She'd known he wasn't ready to talk about her yet.

"Don't talk about Bell, thats..." Izime tried to keep his temper in check, so the air units didn't over-cycle. Practically spitting the heroines name as he decided to set the record straight on the human he'd groomed since birth. "Using my own memories won't work on me Miss Psyis, Bell was my servant from birth. She only existed to improve my functions, her life only happened because I needed to be bet-"

"Better?" Psyis didn't look up from the alcohol that was still giving her the confidence to speak so bluntly about someone Izime had obviously cared a great deal for. Still Wanting to place herself firmly on the side of the similarly antagonistic researcher, Psyis tried to remind Izime of who he'd been, "I think she succeed, she made you a good human. I just want to keep you that way."

Izime throwing himself silently back in the seat, punching it dramatically even though it wouldn't react to his frustration. The psychics words flipping all sorts of bits in his programming as he felt torn. The human side of him refusing her now as the logical processing part could see the thessian's logic.

The silence stretching on, Psyis listening as the fans slowly spun back down. The thessian turning and looking back out the window, briefly taking Bells place beside the A.I. watching the slowly falling fast melting metal around them. Not quite smiling but occasionally giving Izime a bit of a glance as her lips pinched together.

Izime finally growing to appreciate Psyis ability to not ask stupid questions for five minutes, wondering if she'd manage a sixth. The probability of it dropping rapidly as yet another cup of the very drinkable and thus very dangerous liquor was thrown back all at once.

Purple face turning towards him as circling shades of blue worked across Psyis cheeks she opened her mouth and fell short at five minutes and twenty-three seconds, "I-um..did you ever go to the movies?"

Izime stood moving to snatch cup away, or he would have. His hand flickering as it passed through the metal as his eyes glared moving between the thermos and the obviously inebriated Psyis. "That is enough drinking for you."

With a frustrated huff Izime stood walking staight through the pilots seat and door, leaving Psyis blinking eyes not working. To drunk to think about what she'd been asking. The thessian's personal question still hanging in the air as she considered how often Izime seemed to not answer when it came to her.

"What'd I say?" Psyis looked around the now empty room, a bit past tipsy in her rush to find the courage to discover Izime's past. Blinking a bit wondering what had been wrong with talking about Bell or going to the movies.

The number of cups and direction she'd yanked the conversation quickly burying Psyis under their combined effects. The thessian left standing alone and a bit confused knowing that something beyond the liquor in her hands was the cause.

Hadn't Izime been the one who'd asked for the mulligan?

Glancing down at the thermos in her hands, Psyis chewed over the thought and all that came with it. The liquor not having any answers she looked back out the window.

Neither of the two having the answer as to why Izime had been upset at her offer to show him the movie's proper. Replaying the conversation in her mind Psyis imagined what it would be like to show Izime all he'd missed.

Would Izime be impressed by something as simple as an action movie?

Even fell a rush on a rollercoaster after riding a black hole through the end of the universe?

Idle thoughts washing Psyis' worry over what had upset Izime away. Liquored mind considering the more intimate details of the man and how she might help him. Leaning back in the chair and pulling the once used now twice familiar blanket from its back where its rested.

Carefully checking the cap on the thermos as she pulled her long legs up to wrap them in the soft cotton. A soft sigh spilling though the cabin as red eyes closed under the warm glow of Mercury once more.

Body working away the effects of the drink while her mind made wild plans on how she'd turn the tables on Dark Night and finish Bell's work.

A gently vibration rumbling through the chair just as soon as she'd gotten comfortable, Psyis rubbing at a red eye with one dark blue hand. Looking around to find Izime once more in the seat across from her, looking over at her apologetically. The other red eye opening as the last bit of drunk from the space-based alcohol slipped away.

"Sorry, it's time to get up" Izime's smile fell, his serious mood returning as Psyis realized the hours had slipped by during her nap. Waiting until she seemed a bit more awake he went ahead and asked her to wake the last of their three mutineers. "Go kick Constantinople out of my bunk seeing as the man can't listen."

"Its time to move on the League, we're taking Savior Orbital." Psyis pausing at the open door, turning at a phrase she'd never heard as a League member came out. The heroine wondering if the actual villains had ever delivered such words while looking out over such an alien and violent landscape.

For the briefest moment seeing the demonic A.I. that Izime had claimed to be.

That glowing form standing and commanding the heroes betray their own. The shiver and shake only further distorting the image in her head, Izime's form warping. Psyis mind replacing the various supply drops from last night with weapons Izime had found hidden.

Doomed devices crafted from ancient relics that they'd never encountered or understand exploding.

Releasing the same killer that had strangled his universe upon her own.

That stoicism becoming cold calculate as the demonic A.I. gave then no fight, simply the same end he'd suffered.

Flashing back to the more comfortable apathy she'd grown to know. The thessian watching Izime have a very awkward moment that had ruined the possible omen. Psyis leaving as a holographic finger idly picked at a non-existent nose.

Thoughts of killer A.I.s long gone from her mind.