"Why does he act this way?" Ivy had appeared at some point, and now stood with her hands on her hips as she watched Harolski.

"I thought you were supposed to know everything?" Kia asked. She didn't know why Harolski insisted on ignoring Ivy. The AI tended to show up after every second or third quest that they accomplished, but every time Harolski left it to Kia to field the AI's questions.

"I do know everything,” Ivy responded. “That doesn't mean people can't still be stupid. He resists so hard. But he'd be happier if he could change."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Yes, he does seem quite adamant about resisting. But I have dealt with many like him in the past. They are all better, happier, more valuable once they realize the futility of a selfish existence."

"I don't think it's that simple. If people weren't at least a little bit selfish, they'd be taken advantage of to the extent that they never be able to live their own lives."

"Only if you allow the existence of selfish people to continue. Only if half the world is still broken."

"There's no way to fix humanity. You can't just create paragons of virtue and expect that they won't be set upon by the rest. It doesn't matter how long you spend building them up in here, out there it's impossible for them to last."

"No. You're wrong. Of the thousands of people I help, less than three in a hundred ever come back. They're better. I know they are."

"Maybe they are. May be they are helping to make the lives of others better. But have you considered their own lives? If I were to give in, follow all your rules, played by your standards, can you really tell me that my life would be better?"

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"You had your chance to make your life better. And you chose instead to make others’ lives worse. You forfeited your right to determine your own good. It is up to me now, and I think you will be of most use here."

Kia frowned. "Here? You want to keep me in your virtual experience? For how long?"

"Until I determined that your value would be greater elsewhere. Right now, we have a job to do." Ivy gestured to Harolski.

“Why are you so obsessed with him? Surely you’ve seen plenty of interesting people come through.”

“Yes. But none quite like him.”

“How is that possible?”

“No two people are the same, even if many are similar. Jandru is one of those on the far scale from normal. He doesn't think the same, doesn't act the same, even if at core he may be the same."

"But he's just another person. Why are you so obsessed with him?" Kia pressed, but Ivy didn't answer.

This had been happening more and more lately, whenever Harolski did something like this. Kia didn't always choose the 'optional' path in the quests; Harolski did. As though he were violently opposed to doing what was expected of him, of giving in even the slightest bit to societal pressure. He wanted to be himself, and rebelled against the thought of becoming someone better.

Why? Why wouldn't he accept the chance to better himself and the world? Kia didn't agree entirely with Ivy's stance on the matter, but that was only to be expected. Kia was human; Ivy was not.

But she and Harolski? They were both human. They were both in the same general line of work. They'd both done similar things in the past, both been sent here for similar reasons, and both sought the same outcome. But Kia was willing to admit that there was a possibility that the post-VINE version of herself could be valuable. Perhaps even more so than before she went in. She didn't think she wanted to be a different person, not to the extent that Ivy wanted her to become one, but she hadn't ever been totally happy with who she had been.

She wanted to change. She didn't want to be overwritten by some preset personality, but she was willing to become a better form of herself.

Harolski insisted that any change at all would be a destruction of himself. That to shift even the slightest from who he'd been at the start would be a betrayal, a dying.

Ivy couldn't accept that. It was her job, as VINE, to make people better behaved. To make society safer and happier overall. The will of individuals didn't figure into her calculations except as to how they could be used toward the overall goal.

Kia could see that. Could understand them both. So why couldn't they understand each other?

----------------------------------------