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Dante helped her go over there, both of them struggling a lot. She could hear the voice of the Governor laughing above them.
“This is quite a sight! Oh, Eden, young Eden... How did it feel to finally meet your... sibling? I know he isn’t quite the ideal older brother, but what an impressive, remarkable achievement your father created with him! Men were so obsessed with artificial intelligence for years, but your father simply turned the problem around, making human intelligence into a computer instead! I have to admit, dealing with an actual human brain has its challenges at times. It can be quite difficult, and sometimes, I’m baffled about how an entity which has never known a physical existence can reason over ethical problems or societal issues...”
“Don’t call my brother an entity or an object, you greedy bastard,” hissed Eden.
“Oh, but Prometheus is far more than that, of course! Prometheus... Do you know your brother was named after the brave Titan that brought fire to the humans?”
“...I’m pretty sure he got his guts eaten up by an eagle for that,” groaned Dante.
“Well then, we know who’s the eagle,” said Eden.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
They finally reached the spot Pan had indicated, but Eden quickly understood this wasn’t about the System. Instead, there were three rows of Parts. All kinds of Parts: hands, arms, feet, fingers, and legs. Eden sighed. She was a bit glad, and also a bit disappointed it wasn’t the solution she had hoped for. Still, she quickly searched through the Parts assembled to find some that would fit her legs. Dante helped her grab a pair of dark matte ones, made of some very advanced tech. Eden put them on, immediately finding some relief in being able to stand by herself. Those were the most advanced Parts she had ever set her eyes on, probably the kind she’d never be able to afford by herself in this life... Perhaps that model wasn’t even on the market as she had never seen anything quite like it. She guessed there were analgesic needles in the joining parts, as her hips went from painful to strangely numb. She practiced moving around, grateful that Pan had somehow managed to repair her SIN a bit, at least enough for her to use Parts again.
Once she was set and able to walk by herself again, Eden dove further into the shelves, hoping to find something for Dante, more pain relievers or a healing bot perhaps. But there wasn’t anything. Those people weren’t very concerned with the pain they inflicted on others in this room... At least, now she didn’t have to lay on him, she could support him instead. Eden turned to Dante, grabbing his arm.
“You alright?” she asked again, unable to put her worries aside.
He nodded, and gently kissed her on the top of the head again, annoying Eden a bit. She wished they had more time together, but all of a sudden, she had a bit of regret that it was only the two of them up there. Some of Dante’s men would have been good reinforcements, and a way to drag their injured boss to safety…
Sadly, she had no time to think about that. With her legs functional again, and with two new Parts, the previous one ditched without an ounce of regret, she then focused on her SIN. If she could use Parts again, that meant she was back in the System. Somehow, Pan had healed her SIN while she was in there with him.
“A.? Nebty? Somebody?” she called.
“Finally!” exclaimed Greed. “What’s up, Ghost? You missed the war!”
“Shut up. What did I miss? Are you in?”
“We’re like… halfway in. It’s so freaking complicated, the System is not happy at all with us being here, and Nebty gave us orders to wait before we touch anything.”
“Yes I did,” said Nebty’s voice. “Eden, I’m looking at the heart of the System right now, and it’s really, really complicated. Everything is nested together; if we touch anything, I’m worried we’re going to trigger a chain reaction and do a lot more damage than good. Please tell me you’ve found a way to deactivate this hell!”
Eden took a deep breath, and slowly shook her head. She turned around, analyzing the room, trying to search for answers, but nothing here seemed to help.
“I-I found it,” she said. “The heart... no, the brain of the System. It’s not a data center, Nebty, or even a central unit. It’s a brain.”
“...A brain?” said Circé. “What the... Are you talking about something figuratively? Is that a code name or something...?”
“No, I’m talking about a real, actual human brain. It’s a human brain that’s generating all of the System’s abilities. He was born disabled many years ago, so the Core used a... a child’s brain to juice the whole System. That’s why it’s so intelligent, but it’s no artificial intelligence, it’s actual human intelligence, only enhanced by the machines. He’s the one making all the decisions, the one who’s been trying to stop the Core from the beginning. Pan. Pan is the System’s heart.”
“Holy fuck...”
“...Shit,” grunted Nebty. “So... you’re telling me if we... deactivate the System, we have to actually... stop Pan?”
“We have to kill him,” grunted Eden, “and that’s what he thinks too.”
“You sound like you’ve got a different idea, Ghost,” said A.
“I don’t have another idea,” she retorted. “I simply hate the idea of killing him. Pan is... my older brother. And not just that, he’s the Architect’s son and the only one who’s been trying to stop the Core so far. He’s... he’s basically everything that is actually good about the System! The moral sense of it!”
“...I admit, the more I hear you, girl, the more I don’t like it either,” said Malieka.
“I get that too, but is there no way to dissociate the two?” asked Nebty. “Eden, we have to stop these people no matter what; we’re talking about hundreds of lives at stake at this very moment. I totally get that you don’t want to... sacrifice Pan, but if you got another option, I need to hear it right now.”
“I don’t have one! …Yet.”
There had to be another solution. Eden kept looking around, desperate, looking for the one idea she really needed.
