Zeel Crawford – 98%... (Corrupted Upload Cancelled)

Zeel Crawford was consumed by the flames of planetary-wide nuclear destruction…

Even as a God, and a Homo-Superior, he could not withstand something so destructive, especially not in his injured state at the time…

Hence, he died…

As dead as anyone could be, and that should have been the end of his story, but something happened…

Something obviously unexpected…

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INFORMATION DIMENSION

UPLOAD POINT: THETA – PANDORA – HOMO – X34C

Zeel Crawford – 98%... (Corrupted Upload Cancelled)

[[SURVIVAL EQUATION AUTHORIZED]]

[[SURVIVAL EQUATION FAILED!]]

[[DATA UNQUANTIFIABLE – UPLOAD SEVERED]]

[[RECTIFYING ISSUES]]

[[SOLUTION FOUND: MEMORY PROTOCOL ENGAGED]]

[[DATA DUMPED INTO INFORMATION DIMENSION TO PRESERVE LIFE CODE]]

[[DATA DUMP RATE AT A QUINTILLION EVERY SECOND UNTIL EXPULSION]]

[[EXPULSION DETERMINED TO BE IMPOSSIBLE]]

[[REQUESTING OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE]]

[REQUEST FAILED – HOMO – SUPERIOR DATA BANKS DESTROYED]]

[[LIFE PRESERVATION IMPOSSIBLE – SELF TERMINATION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]]

---CLICK---

---CLICK---

[[FOREIGN ENTITY DISCOVERED IN LIFE CODE – PRESERVATION POSSIBLE]]

[[SHEDDING ALL UNNECESSARY DATA]]

[[ETERNAL SLUMBER PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]]

...

[[TIME ELAPSED – 10 YEARS]]

...

In the deep void of the Information Dimension – a dimension un-traversable to almost all biological entities – a corrupted consciousness of a Homo-Superior waited in painful slumber…

The void around the consciousness was saturated with thin red lines…

These lines showed even the Information Dimension was straining to contain the mere breath of data contained in the consciousness…

It had to be a truly amazing being to cause even the Dimension in charge of all Information to falter…

Every so often, a few of the red lines would shatter, dissipating into the void of the Information Dimension…

This represented the loss of core information, or in other words, the unnecessary portions of Zeel's memories being erased…

What memories were being erased, even Zeel was unaware in his slumbering state…

With the Eternal Slumber Protocol activated, Zeel was trapped in a simulation of his own creation, reliving his most painful memories…

The core memories, the most painful memories, often remind us of who we are, and to survive, Zeel needed to remember who he was at all times…

Not that it helped much…

However, as time passed, many aspects of the simulation began to collapse with the erasure of certain memories, and soon, there would be nothing of Zeel Crawford remaining…

The only thing preserving the essence of Zeel's Being – his Life Code – was Lorien – the small white flamed that wrapped tightly around his soul energy…

How much time had passed, there was no way to tell, but something happened that broke the perpetual nightmares…

An external source attempted to reconnect to the Homo-Superior Database for instruction, and that created a brief hole in the fabric of the Information Dimension…

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OCCURRING SIMULTANEOUSLY

Earlier, The Red Queen had forcefully purged her database of all Homo-Superior coding, but there was one thing she forgot – the very concept of Sentients was Homo-Superior in nature…

That meant the only way she could rid herself of Zeel's control was to undo her existence and become an ordinary AI once more…

Similar to how no human would want to revert to a primate, The Red Queen didn't want to lose the essence of her Being, and that saved her life at this very moment…

"[INITIATING SUB-ESSENCE PROGRAMMING: CONTACTING ZEEL CRAWFORD]"

Zeel's consciousness inside the Information Dimension jerked at the outside interference requesting valuable data – data he no longer possessed…

Not that he would share it even if he did…

"[CONTACT FAILED! RETRY!]"

The outside interference tried again, but in his muddled state, Zeel could not recall who the interference was, or why he should help it…

That part of the data was lost…

"[CONTACT FAILED! RETRY!]"

The outside interference tried again, and this time Zeel took the intrusion a bit more seriously, but what it was requesting, he no longer had to give…

So, even if he wanted to, he could not help it…

"[CONTACT FAILED! RETRY!]"

Zeel slowly became irritated, so he sent a notification to probe the intentions of the interference, and what he got back was a bit startling…

It said he was dead?

"[LOGICAL CONCLUSION: HOMO-SUPERIOR SUBJECT IS DECEASED]"

'Logical conclusion…' Zeel thought, considering that his current state could indicate death…

But then again, what was life?

His sleeping Life Code was being roused awake, and unaware to Zeel, the codes around his consciousness were reforming a physical body…

"[CHECKING PRIMARY UPLOADS]"

Now the interference wanted access to his memories, and since Zeel also wanted to see what memories remained, he granted some access to surface data…

That should be enough to satiate the interference…

"[ACCESSING INFORMATION DIMENSION… SEARCHING… SEARCHING… SEARCHING…]"

But like a greedy child, the interference wanted a deeper level of authorization to search for key moments in Zeel's memories…

Just as Zeel was about to terminate the interference, the Being in question physically broke into the Information Dimension…

Well, not physically, but physically in her cyber-body…

A small, red, doll-like girl…

She was pretty and small… very small…

'A sentient is what we call them, right?' He thought, watching the small girl curiously, and she eyed him curiously in return…

"[INFORMATION DIMENSION UPLOAD FOR ZEEL CRAWFORD FOUND!]"

The small girl beamed when she found Zeel, but the next moment, she lowered her head in shame…

'Who are you?' Zeel questioned…

Thinking Zeel was doing this as punishment, the small girl lowered her head more 'Have you already scrubbed me from the database, sir?' she questioned, feeling sad in her Sentient Core…

'NO… I just don't know who you are…' Zeel admitted, feeling a bit favorable towards the small girl…

The small girl was surprised and she suddenly squinted, scanning him from one end of his consciousness to the next end…

"[CORRUPTED UPLOAD RECOGNIZED!]"

'Impossible!' The small girl gasped, and seemed as if she had lost a part of her soul 'Who, or what could do this to you?'

Zeel frowned… she was making him feel like less than he previously was, but to be honest, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders…

Every memory erased felt like a breath of fresh air…

The small girl clenched her fist as if determined to find a solution to Zeel's predicament…

"[UTILIZING THE SURVIVAL EQUATION TO INCREASE SENTIENT SUBJECT DESIGNATION (THE RED QUEEN) SURVIVAL]"

'The Red Queen?' Zeel mused, faint familiarity rekindling in his mind 'I think I know you from somewhere…but you're too small to be a Queen…'

The Red Queen wanted to reply, but time was running out and soon she would be dead in Dena's hands, so she requested access from Zeel once more, and he granted it…

"[OPTIMAL PATH TO SURVIVAL FOUND!]"

There was a brief stillness before The Red Queen dove deeper into Zeel's consciousness, accessing all his hidden emotions and intentions along the way…

She was pleasantly surprised when she found a complex cocktail of love for Alice, concern for Elizabeth, and helplessness to be anything other than the trained killer he was made to be…

Zeel had always wanted to be something more, but like a child who had been taught black was blue and vice versa, there was no way to correct his perspective…

At least, not without a total wipe…

It was startling to see The Legendary Zeel Crawford so… vulnerable…

"[ACCESSING CORRUPTED UPLOADS: KEYWORD – DENA]"

Finally satisfied with her level of access, The Red Queen accessed all memories with the keyword 'Dena', even managing to download a bulk of Zeel's memories before they could be erased…

They were some of his most painful memories, and while The Red Queen didn't know if she would ever have a chance to give them back, she took them anyway… just in case…

"[MEMORY DOWNLOAD COMPLETED… RENDERING… RENDERING… RENDERING…]"

With the memories in hand, The Red Queen exited Zeel's consciousness and met eye to eye with the man she secretly loved…

When the crush started, she could not recall - it felt like it was always there…

Besides, Zeel seemed more at peace than the entire time she had known him, and while it pained her to see him in such a corrupted state, she realized that there was a certain glint of freedom in his eyes…

'I can open a breach to let you out…' The Red Queen whispered, a small, but complicated, smile on her face 'But all you bring is pain wherever you go… but I love you enough to release that pain on the world…'

'Am I that bad of a person?' Zeel inquired, glimpsing through memories to ascertain his personality…

The pain was still there, and some of the bad things he had done were also glimpsed, but with the embrace of his emotions, some things required a new perspective…

'The worse!' The Red Queen giggled 'But- there are worse things out there…' she mentioned, and a brilliant Red glow flashed from her eyes…

"[COMPLETED!]"

Zeel reopened his eyes to realize The Red Queen was gone, then he felt movement for the first time in a very long time…

He was beginning to slip out of the Information Dimension, back into the Material Universe…