"Okay?" A sense of relief came over Xerses. The fact that I finally admitted some truth made it better, and he finally moved his hand from my shoulder. He pressed one of his hands into the pocket of his jacket. "Tell me about it. What's off?"

"I don't... I don't know," I said honestly as I glanced back at the restaurant behind us. The door was closed and I couldn't see Pete. "It was something that Code said in there."

"Who? Pete?" Xerses pointed at the door. "That guy in there ain't no more than a fanboy, man," he laughed. "Did that bother you?"

"No, not that." I shook my head. "That wasn't what bothered me. A lot of Codes get excited when they see us. It was something else."

"What?" Xerses inched his head closer, eyebrows raised, looking for the answer as though it hung in the air. "Am I missing something? Are you?"

"Maybe?" I grimaced, inhaling sharply. "I thought I heard him say the troops were deploying. Like..."

"Like y'all were still in war?" Xerses stood straight, his eyes widening. "Maybe you two were in the same camp. Could be a data imprint that resurfaced when you crossed paths?"

"If that was the case, then why hasn't this happened before?" I looked down at my hands. "I've never had this happen. Shit, I don't even think of my past. What good is it to remember a war that does nothing for me now?"

The look on Xerses' face meant he wasn't sure what to say. He was stuck, looking at me. I knew he wracked his brain for the words but couldn't find them. Hell, I couldn't either. What happened inside made no sense to me. And after...

"There's more." There's no point in lying to him now. "When we were sitting down, eating, I thought if I purposely dug through my data files, I'd find some image of him. Anything that could connect him to my past."

Xerses' eyes brightened for a moment. "And? What'd you find?"

"That's a thing..." I let out a breath. "Nothing. I found nothing."

"Maybe that means the two of you never crossed paths." He shrugged.

"No, you're not listening." One of my hands slid over my neck. "There's nothing there at all. I can't pull up memory files, I can't think back to being stationed in Georgia. Being the war feels more like... déjà vu, not an actual occurrence."

"You're telling me you have no memories of World War III." Xerses looked confused, almost in disbelief.

And I couldn't help but nod. Because what he said was exactly it. I knew of the war, I know I'd enlisted at one point and been stationed outside of my hometown. But as for fighting, as for wielding a weapon and taking orders, I couldn't put an image to it. I couldn't even remember dying...

"Well, shit..." Xerses pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and looked up at the sky. "This ain't good. Maybe it's a blockage. Has anything weird happened lately?"

"No." I shook my head. "Everything's been fine."

"Oh?" Xerses dropped his gaze and looked at me. "What about the other day? At the Restoration office?"

"What about it?" I lifted my brow. "You mean when we met Luke?"

"Yeah, him." Xerses turned and faced me, looking at me curiously. "What happened that morning?"

"Nothing," I said. "Clara and I woke up, had some breakfast, then we left for work." After I said it, I rubbed my chin. "It was weird that she got to our office before I did, considering she worked at the other building with the other Restoration team. If she had told me we'd be working together, then we could've taken the same transport vehicle to Province Hall."

Xerses said nothing for a moment. I saw his eye twitch. I tried to read his emotions, but it was as if I couldn't. Or, more so, something wouldn't let me. Looking at him was like looking at a blank slate. He was unreadable. But why?

"X?" Slowly, I shook my head. "What happened at the office that day?"

"You..." he said quietly. "You were late. Over an hour, actually."

I gulped. What?

"I... I wasn't late," I said, stepping away from him. "I kissed Clara goodbye, hopped in a car, and went straight to work. Like I do every morning."

"Okay, that's fine," he said, cupping his chin. "And I believe that because you believe it."

"Then how was I an hour late?" I asked him.

Xerses paced for a moment. He slid one hand forward over his head, scratching it slightly. I looked at him for a moment as he mumbled to himself before looking back at the restaurant. This time, the door was open. Wide open. And I couldn't hear anything coming from inside of it. No voices. No laughter. Just silence.

I inched towards it, more curious than afraid. More confused than anything else.

"Okay, hear me out," Xerses started to talk, and I turned back to look at him. His hands were in front of him as he explained, "What if you got in the car, just like you thought, fully intending on gettin' to work on time, right? But... what if you didn't get out?"

I froze. "You mean I sat in the car?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "What if you were just sat there, disconnected?"

"X, I don't disconnect, I'm—"

"Malfunctioners disconnect," he said. And that hurt.

Seeing the pain on my face, he came closer, continuing to explain, "And I'm not saying you're a malfunctioner, or breaking down, or anything. But what I'm saying is, maybe there's a connecting factor between the last batch and Codes."

"Codes as a whole?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "Or just me?"

Xerses sighed and shook his head. "Do you think a Code is going to outright say something is wrong with them?"

I was silent. He had a point.

"Exactly," he said. "And you're only telling me because I saw through your shit. Now..." Xerses came to my side and draped an arm over my shoulders, dropping his voice to a whisper only I could hear, "We'll run some malfunctioner tests on you, see if we can find an error in your code. If I can locate the disconnect and fix your files, then we'll be ready for the Domes when they're good and built."

I'd be a guinea pig.

"They monitor every malfunctioner test..." I looked up at the sky as I spoke. "Erica would know. She'd know we were doing something. And Clara..."

"She won't find out." He patted my arm. "I promise. I'll fix you."

|||

Finishing dinner with a smile on my face was hard. Going home as though I didn't admit what was wrong with me was worse. But Clara didn't see it, any of it, and I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She was normally so curious, so observant. And yet, as we lay down to go to bed and call it a night, she simply nestled against me without a single worry in the world.

I wanted to live like that, like her, but I never could. To be able to ignore my troubles, to sleep through them. That was an acquired skill. A part of me wondered if she had trained herself to do it after losing everyone in her family. If it hadn't been for Xerses, where would she have been?

When the next morning arrived, and I kissed her goodbye, I had the same thought. But about me.

If it wasn't for Xerses, where would I be?

I'd probably be at work, that was one fact. I would've been in my office, preparing my files to test the next batch of Malfunctioners before shooing them into the world. Yet... I wasn't.

After Clara had ordered her transportation vehicle to head to her office, I ordered one for myself. The difference between this morning and the others, I didn't key the directions for Province Hall. I entered Xerses' home address. Since we were always on the road, he had equipment stored in his lab. Many of which were identical to the ones we used on a malfunctioning Code. He swore with just the simple computers he had, he could locate what was wrong with me and fix it. Before it got worse. I had to give in.

Catch whatever bug I have no before it turned into a full system error. And then none of us would be able to ignore it. Clara's rainbows and sunshine wouldn't be able to hide it.

Just like it couldn't hide the protests that'd formed outside.

"You've arrived at your desired destination," the vehicle told me once it reached the parking lot of Xerses' building.

Normally, I'd acknowledge the car. It wasn't its fault it was a machine. I knew the software didn't go beyond basic AI; I couldn't help myself. But this time, I didn't. My eyes were glued across the street, to the people with signs in their hands. On them, they'd written in black marker, "CODES ARE NOT WELCOME HERE."

I couldn't help but wonder, in a future where everything was typed on a digital screen, how was everyone able to find so much damn marker, paper, and time on their hands.

The Domes hadn't even started construction yet.

And we've been here, long before any of you...

"Please review your email upon exiting the vehicle. An exit survey will be sent to you shortly."

I glanced at the car's dashboard before nodding as though it could see me. "Sure," I said to it, shooting the interface a smile. "I'll respond accordingly."

"Thank you, Mr. Wallace," the vehicle responded. "Have a good day."

"You, too," I said, then laughed. Because there was no way the car could have a good day. It was an inanimate object, programmed to feel as real as a standard smartphone. There just wasn't a cap to my kindness. And yet, as I stepped out of the car and the chants from the crowd hit my ears, I knew there was a limit. I could only be nice for so long.

And that's why I needed Xerses to fix me.