The expression on June’s face does little to hide her annoyance, which Zara finds amusing. Her brow raises as she chuckles, letting out a puff of smoke from her vape pen in the opposite direction of June. “I pay attention,” Zara counters with a wave of her hand, “I just have what my family likes to call, ‘selective hearing.’” Meaning, Zara could hear everything people told her; she just chose to tune out what she didn’t deem important in the moment. And at least at that moment in time, G.A.I.A. had been of little to no importance to her. Zara stiffens at the mention of G.A.I.A. possibly having control over Kishan. Could that really happen? “I get what you and Sebastian are saying, and I see the logic behind it, I do,” she sighs, shaking her head when their eyes finally meet, “but this is Kishan we’re talking about, June. Programming or not, we have to be sure. Is there any way of knowing for certain he’s been turned?”
If Zara were honest, she didn’t really grasp the severity of the issue until Javier sat down and explained it to her, the best he could, and told her she should really talk to June. That’s a first…The truth is, Zara’s been the avoidant one with this. She put off understanding the whole thing, and…she put off being there for her friend, because she’s scared. She’s scared things are getting way, way more out of hand than any of them could have imagined; and all of this was just supposed to be some fun side thing they all did that brought them closer together. They all had their initial reasons for entering The Grid, but several years have gone by now. The group has changed; all of them have, in different ways. Hell, Zara’s fucking married to Javier now, and that’s way different from where they began.
She taps a finger against the straw of her Coke, fiddling with it while she thinks nervously to herself. Yeah…Sebastian has been the only one around, hasn’t he? For some reason that just feels a little too convenient for Zara. She’s distrustful at heart, and protective of her people. She’s also jealous….and just June trusts him, that doesn’t mean she has to. Keeping an eye on him so he doesn’t hurt her friend, or the rest of them, can’t hurt…Besides, it’s not like she and Reyes are ‘best friends,’ or even close, for that matter. Maybe that’s partly on Zara for being so distant, but there’s something about him that just doesn’t sit right with her; like he’s hiding something. She snorts, “yeah well, I don’t know computers like that asshole nerd does, but I do know Kishan. Maybe not in the same way, but still…” Fuck. She owes June an apology for completely disappearing on her, and she knows it. Even if life got in the way, June still found ways to show up for Zara. Hell, she still showed up as a bridesmaid come time for Zara’s wedding, and put up with the planning aspect of things. “Look I’m, uh…sorry, that I basically abandoned you after things got pretty bad with The Grid, and G.A.I.A. I wasn’t trying to, the timing of it just- I…it doesn’t matter. Regardless, I’m sorry, June. I should have been there for you like you were for me, and that’s that,” Zara admits, still looking down at her straw as she speaks. “But I dunno, dude, this…I just…I know I haven’t been there, but I don’t know. It doesn’t sit right with me to just label him as corrupt, and compromised, and leave it at that. Delete. Like…no,” she shakes her head before continuing. “We already lost him out here, June, and couldn’t do anything about it. Maybe in there, we can do something to help him. Because I’m not losing him again, and this time to fucking computer program. Fuck her. I’ll fight to keep him in any way I can this go around.” No more wasting time. She already did enough of that when she avoided The Grid because of the Kishan copy. That's the last version of her friend in there, and he needs her help now more than ever. “Hell, I’ll make you and Reyes teach me about computers just for this if I have to. Because Kishan is worth saving. Computer program glitch, or humanoid, he’s worth it.”
June made a face as Zara mentioned her 'selective hearing'. It wasn't surprising to hear her say something like that. They'd been friends long enough for the hacker to know how Zara could tune out stuff from time to time. But at least she'd gotten her attention with the whole Kishan situation, even though June considered it was too late. “I know it's Kishan we're talking about. I know he was our friend, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a threat to us now, even if it's against his will”. Because the problem was, he'd most likely lost any will that was left thanks to GAIA. “We can examine his code, but even that won't be a certainty. We only see what GAIA lets us see. But it's basic computing, Zara. GAIA's influence is like a computer virus, spreading from host to host, infecting the system and continually replicating itself as it goes. We know for sure it controls the whole Grid, so it's theoretically sound to assume it controls Kishan and Sera”. They only reason each of them; June, Bas, Maya, weren't infected as they went in was because their avatars weren't consistently available to GAIA. They all plugged in and out, as users they were shielded in a way.
“I don't want to hurt Kishan, Zara, or what is left of him. But I don't want to be the reason GAIA continues to cause harm. It has already shown us it has a way to reach outside too,” she murmured. And who knew what else it could do out here in the realm world if they didn't work to keep stopping its spreading?
The hacker looked at her friend then, raising her eyebrows. Frankly, she hadn't expected an apology from Zara. Too much time had passed, and June continued to operate with her life's motto. Everyone leaves. She didn't resent Zara for stepping away for as long as she did, though. Surprisingly. June was known for holding grudges, but in Zara's case she didn't. She understood there was a lot of shit her friend had been dealing with in terms of her family and her substance addiction, all of that added to the fact that she'd been putting all her efforts into her career as a musician. So yeah, she hadn't expected an apology because it had been justified in many ways that Zara had left. “I know,” the hacker said, aware that the timing had not been right for her friend to keep committing to the Grid as she once did. “It's okay,” she said, and she really meant it. It had been rough dealing with it mostly on her own. But that was the thing. At least she hadn't been entirely alone.
“I know it's not easy to think about just deleting Kishan's consciousness. But we have to think clearly here, not be sentimental about it,” she began, speaking slowly and serenely, because she knew Zara had been much closer to Kishan than she had been. “If it comes down to preserving him at the expense of GAIA fucking things up, or deleting him because that can help put a break on the damage that AI can do to us all, the choice is obvious, Zara,” she answered, sounding as serious and composed as possible. Saying things like this was why she was often labeled as the cold-hearted bitch of the group. But none of this was said flippantly, she had spent hours thinking about it already, and understood the weight of either choice. It was just a matter of considering the greatest good and the greatest evil of both options.
