That was stupid.

"The Albireo person is being stoopid," Alexa said aloud. There was no way there wasn't an ND0 System. Then what was Alexa running in her brain juices?

Well, Alexa was thinking using the brain juices, so technically she wasn't running the ND0 System was she?

"No wait," Alexa said pointing at her head with her fingies and closing her eyes while she focused, "Alexa is thinking using the brain juices, so is she using the ND0 System?"

She was not.

The ND0 System was the thingy that Main Core had used before to think, but then if Alexa was using the programs and database that Main Core left for her, was she using the ND0 System?

Why did she need to think? She could just ask!

[Main Core! Are we using the ND0 System?]

[Answer to Query: Current OS is labeled as Alexa.exe]

Alexa was running in Alexa! Alexa was Alexa Cored!

[Ale: Huh... But Core runs using the ND0 System tho.]

[Addendum, there is no mentions to any database or program stored within host. This unit doesn't have access to entity Core. So we can't investigate the Query.]

So that was that. Alexa would need to ask Core next time she saw her, perhaps in the next maintenance?

When was that scheduled anyway?

Alexa hadn't seen any mentions in her schedulé about a Maintenance, actually, hadn't those started to take longer between each other? Perhaps Alexa was getting better at this being [Human] thing. Heh.

"Alexa, it's called Brain." Aunty Viv said, "We don't think using the cerebrospinal fluid, we think using the neurons that form the brain."

The what now?

"To elaborate, you think using the pattern that is formed from the neuron interconnection in the brain, the brain merely works as the machine that allows you to store and understand the thoughts you are having, but we think using neurons and the brain is merely the way in which we interpret those thoughts." Aunty Viv said pulling images about those neuronal thingies and how they connected to the brain.

Alexanod.gif

That is to say, Alexa nodded sagely as if she understood, "So Alexa doesn't think using the brain juice, but using the wormy thingies." Alexa had a new deeper understanding about what made Alexa an Alexa. "That means that Alexa Noodle form is even more powerful than she thought before, since that looks like a neurotic thingy."

So that was why Alexa always returned to her most powerful form in the mornings when she woke up. It all made sense now! (It did not).

"...So, returning to the main issue." The mom person said from the side, "Alexa, dear... Can you tell us who gave you this? Do you remember who helped you deal with it?"

"What do you mean Miriam?" Aunty Viv asked.

"If Alexa doesn't remember who gave her or did the surgery, she still would need maintenance. These things are delicate, are they not? Even if a supervillain or a black site was the one that gave it to her, and even if they broke even more laws and used nanites. They would still need to give maintenance to the AI Core." The mom person said turning to Aunty Viv, "Am I wrong?"

"....No," Aunty Viv said, shaking her head, "Even with the use of nanites, we do need to give maintenance to our AI Cores, sometimes even replace them since the wear and tear from the experiments can crack them."

"So?" The mom person said kneeling so her face was at the level of Alexa (The best level), "Do you remember anything about the people who helped you keep your Main Core healthy? Like the color of their hair? Their eyes? Their names?"

Alexa... Wasn't paying that much attention, and she felt like she was repeating this way too often, couldn't these people read the reports? Or like, stay up to date? It was boring having to explain this every so often!

Alexa wasn't a machine made to repeat the same thing over and over! That was lazy! Lazy directing! Lazy drawing! Lazy writing!

"No," Alexa even so, shook her head, "Alexa wasn't paying attention to names or things like faces then, she was kind of dumb."

"There aren't dumb people Alexa," The mom person said shaking her head, "Do you remember anything about them?"

"Hmm...." Alexa remembered anything? Well, yes, there was something that stuck to her, something very important, "They wanted Alexa to grow cat ears."

She remembers clearly that.

"They gave Alexa blueprints about cats so Alexa would become a cat." Alexa remember that, mostly because P4 had deleted all of those blueprints and ignored their data dumps. Since the blueprint didn't offer that many advantages, it was mostly cosmetic, unlike the Kitty Cat Ale form, which increased performance and speed.

"It's for combat!"

Also it was cute, way cuter than the blueprints the weird [Human]s wanted Alexa to take in.

"... Well, that doesn't say anything to me." The mom person sighed.

"They kind of all looked the same to Alexa," Alexa said shrugging, "There wasn't anything that made them special to remember, besides they all used weird clothing that covered most of their forms. Alexa didn't even see a full [Human] blueprint till she escaped!"

And what a surprise that had been, before that moment Alexa had thought all the [Humans] were homogenous!

"So they wore protective gear..." Aunty Viv said thoughtfully, "Did they want to experiment with bioweaponry?"

"So lab 3?" The mom person said turning to Aunty Viv, "I assume it wasn't your Lab 1."

"... Don't offend me like that, we would never use children in our human experimentation." Aunty Viv said shaking her head, "All our subjects are voluntary."

"All your subjects are yourself." The mom person said sarcastically, "But seriously, do you think Krieger is behind this?"

"Doubtful." Aunty Viv said shaking her head, "They deal with weapons. The only laboratory equipped to deal with the type of modifications needed to have an actual human have one of these is mine..."

"What even made you create P9?" The mom person asked, "No wait, why are you even dealing with these things, aren't they outside of your specialty?"

"P9 wasn't mine." Aunty Viv said back, "It was a collaboration project. At first I thought it was something Krieger made, but he also only joined at the end to check on the armament it could wield."

"...So if it wasn't yours, and it wasn't from Krieger research. Who made it?" The mom person asked confused, "Lab 4?"

"They don't deal with weaponry, and I never asked." Aunty Viv said, "You didn't ask either?"

"Why would I ask? I felt bad enough with the results of the psych evaluation. I didn't want anything else to do with that, and besides. They guaranteed me that all the P9 developed the same consciousness." The mom person answered the question as such, "I did check in another four test samples and they all developed the same, even when they were exposed to different environments and questions."

After some silence, which Alexa used sagely by sneaking to the side and pulling a chair to sit, it seemed that this would take some extra time.

"Why didn't you ask where they got it?" And then the Mom person finally asked.

"Same reason as you." Aunty Viv answered, "I didn't want to be pulled more than needed, Krieger didn't ask either by the way. He told me Kessler was also pulled into it at a later date."

"Kessler...yeah that checks, P9 did have bionics on it." The mom person said turning to Alexa, "Alexa dear, do you have any part that has mechanical components on you?"

Did Alexa?

[Loading up current blueprint...]

"Nope," Alexa said shaking her head, Ale did have some modifications like that, but that was Ale! Not Alexa!

"...How did they..." The mom person suddenly said as she covered her mouth, "Alexa... How did they give your AI Core maintenance?"

How did they do it? Alexa didn't have that many memories of that, but she knew the routine it was needed, as that had been seeded within P4 to execute whenever the order for maintenance came.

"Alexa needed to open her headspace and move her fleshy bits aside so they could interface with Main Core!" Alexa answered cheerfully, "Do you want to see?"

"NO!" "Yes."

Then the mom person glared at Aunty Viv.

"What?" Aunty Viv answered, "It's obviously something within the capabilities of her, the fact that she is healthy means that she has achieved a way to do so safely, so there is no risk of it."

"You are also a Doctor, even if you don't act like one, tell me how you can think that exposing a living brain to the environment is safe?" The mom person said glaring at Aunty Viv, "The risks of infection alone would make something like that extremely dangerous!"

"She is a regenerator, as stated by her." Aunty Viv said pointing to Alexa, "Meaning she can heal any issue and as a Core User her body is sturdier, it would help us advance our research further."

"No," The mom person repeated herself, "We will not experiment on living humans, we are better. You are better Vivian."

"...Fine." Aunty Viv said sighing, "Alexa, can you describe the procedure?"

"Nope," Alexa answered simply as that, since she herself had no memories of it. As P4 always was shut down, "Alexa never saw how it happened, she knows what she needed to do to facilitate it, and that before the procedure was made they gave Alexa the hurts. But she doesn't know what they did after it was done."

Not that Alexa was hurt herself, since all the body parts that existed at that point were no longer around, no wait... If that Alexa(P4) didn't have any remaining parts... Then was Alexa the same as P4?

"Hmm..." Alexa stopped to think about it. "Nope, Alexa doesn't know."

And decided to stop thinking about that, since it was stupid. Alexa was still Alexa, no matter what. She would Always be Alexa after all.

"Sounds about right," Aunty Viv said, "The trauma of the procedure would make that I guess."

"Okay, enough about that." The mom person said sighing, "What do you think we should do then?"

"Look for her guardians." Aunty Viv said without waiting even a second, "Unless you want to keep her, but you know how dangerous that would be."

"But she is an orphan," The mom person said, "Besides, if her DID... I fear that one of her guardians may be the one that she... lost."

"Who would be stupid enough to allow something like that," Aunty Viv said laughing, but that was what happened! "To give a fragment of personality the authority to sign for her. That is the same as saying that someone who can't walk should be allowed to run."

...That sounded rude. Alexa wasn't sure why, but it felt like they were insulting Alexa. Surely it wasn't... right?

"Alexa, do you have your guardian's number? You said you didn't have a Mama or Papa, but who takes care of you?" The mom person asked.

"There was Alexandra...There is Ale..." Alexa started with the easy ones, "Then there is [Big Sister] and [Golem]...[Elder]... I guess that [Gabriel] could be one....?"

Who else?

"Ah, Big Brother too!" Alexa said nodding, he should be counted right? Right?

"... Do those sound like code names for Core Users to you too?" The Mom person said turning to Aunty Viv.

"Golem and Gabriel at least," Aunty Viv said, "And troublesome ones at that."

"Do you know them?" The Mom person asked while turning to stare at the big TV screen, as Aunty Viv had sent a new image, "You have to be kidding."

"There aren't that many Gabriels in the scene." Aunty Viv said shaking her head, "And the only Gabriel that has a link to a Golem is that one."

"Ah, Gabriel!" Alexa said waving at the image on the tv, "And Ale!"

And then pointed at a small figure at the back. It was Ale in their Rhapsody armor!

"...ALBIREO, can you enhance that section." The Mom person asked to the nice girl within the system.

"[Acknowledged.]"

And the nice girl answered, as it closed the image and asked Alexa for a photo of Ale wearing the Rhapsody armor, Alexa picked one and sent it quickly.

Not even a second later, the image started to be made on the big TV, it wasn't the image that Alexa had sent, but instead one that changed the form... Had the nice girl used Alexa's image to generate a new one?

They could have just asked for one with Ale posing like that tho...

"Does that get up look like this one?" The mom person said pulling her crystal thingy and showing it to Aunty Viv.

"Yes, and that is the Haephestus Forge emblem," Aunty Viv said, "So that means your new kid is a minion to one of the dangerous Super Villain organizations..."

How was that an issue?

"Well, at least that means she isn't tied to the Saintsworths..." Aunty Viv said sighing, "That would make this mess even worse."

"About that..." The mom person said scratching the side of her head, "Alexa, can you tell Aunt Vivian the full name of your big brother?"

Alexa could do that!

"Alexa's twin brother is Alexanders Saintsworths!" Alexa said, nodding, "Allegedly!"

"Allegedly." The mom person said after Alexa.

"Yes that!" Alexa pointed to the mom person.

"...He has no sisters." Aunty Viv said first, "And his birth was recorded and studied, there wasn't a twin born with him."

"It was?" The mom person said surprised, "Why?"

"Why do you think? The previous patriarch was full gun-ho about blood supremacy, so he wanted to ensure there weren't doubts about his lineage." Aunty Viv said, shrugging, "Not that it matters, there are still some remaining samples from the original umbilical cord and the placenta stored in the Saintsworths Vaults."

The mom person stopped to think about that for a few seconds, "Meaning there is enough genetic material to make a clone..." Then she turned to look at Alexa, "Do you think..."

"No," Aunty Viv said, shaking her head, "We aren't there yet; besides, the deep freezing ensures the cells aren't viable for that. You need fresh samples to even think about cloning. And if you use the digitized data, you end with failure at the gestation... Or what you saw a few moments ago."

"The primordial matter..." The mom person said sighing, "But then how do you explain... Alexa."

"Easy," Aunty Viv said and pointed to Alexa, "She is not actually the sister of Alexanders, but a victim of the most recent of his shenanigans."

"*Le dramatic gasp*" Alexa did a le dramatic gasp.

"...Ah yeah, that checks." The mom person said nodding, "But then who do we call, we can't call super villains to ask them to pick her up. That wouldn't be responsible."

"Do you still have Eleanore's number?" Aunty Viv asked.

"Yeah, but she is still mad at us for taking the job opportunity, so I am not sure she would answer." The mom person sighed.

No wait, [Eleanore]?

"You know [Eleanore]?" Alexa asked surprised, "Why?"

"We went to school together," Aunty Viv answered, "She was studying psychology with Miriam while I was majoring in genetics."

Oh, that sounded... kind of right? Alexa wasn't sure why it annoyed her tho.