When my eyes were caressed by the light of the dawning Sun, I awoke, stunned by what had happened. I had barely noticed that more than a whole day had passed since I passed out.
My first dreaded thought was, 'Oh, no. She's out'. In that same moment, I heard that same voice inside my head say in a slightly more cheerful and frenetic manner, "I missed you, Sy! It's been a long time since I talked to you! Why is it that you freed me from that wretched place? Do you perhaps need help escaping from a life-or-death scenario from yours truly? Did you suddenly feel bad about locking me up in such a place for so many years? Whatever the reason may be, thank you! I've been so bored of seeing darkness. You really should've been more creative with the place you locked me in, since seeing nothing but pure darkness really gets the best of you at times!".
While those words were being spoken, my muscles were twitching uncontrollably, and I remember holding in an extreme nervous breakdown which was being caused by the fear.
I was terrified of her.
Many, many years ago, before I was ever locked in my room, I was used to a normal, privileged life in a lush region of the surface, called Nyrmyth. My parents had an affinity to technology, which is what made them so wealthy in the first place. I know very little about what happened after the incident. Even though I was quite knowledgeable about the geo-political side of the world after the Cyber Revolution, my family was a complete mystery. So much so that I had already forgotten the name of my own parents.
In a low and slightly shaking voice I said, "Hey, Ai… How long has it been? I'm sorry for locking you inside there, I swear I wasn't in my right mi-" "Then why didn't you free me years ago? That thought should've most definitely come inside your head at some point, but you never did. So don't try to make up excuses. I know you're scared." Ai interrupted in a serious tone. I thought she was going to take over my mind and soul at any moment as she did once before, but that helpless feeling never came.
"You do know that I can hear what you're thinking, right? I'm not going to take over unless you really need me to. I forgave you a very long time ago. Being alone for so long makes you think a lot. Too much, I would say", said Ai in a more cheerful tone. "How is that possible? I haven't fully forgiven myself for locking you inside there, and after the incident, I vowed to myself that I would never free you from that terrible place. So how could you have forgiven me even after all that?" I said as my eyes started to well up.
"It's true that I hated you for a long while, but again, being alone makes you do nothing but think. So, I concluded that it was for the best of us, but it seems like it wasn't worth it for either of us in the end. It was the right thing to do at that time, and the past is the past, so why mourn over something that could've happened? And even though some of my screws are crooked, I'm still the good old me from years ago. Now stop crying and tell me, what was it that made you free me from my dark cage?" she said.
I listened and wiped the tears of my face, "I never meant to free you willingly. You suddenly broke out of your cage during the pain. It was a great time for you to do so, though. If you hadn't come out, I would probably already be dead from the agony." I answered, truthfully not knowing what had happened during the flash.
"Huh, I'm glad I broke out of the cage, but what do you mean by "agony"?" she asked in a curious tone.
"Right, I haven't explained. It's been some time since we were locked inside of this room, around ten years-", Ai suddenly gasped and interrupted me, "What?! Does it mean we're already seventeen years old?! How the hell have you not gone completely insane in that time frame?". I felt her mental intention of making a full medical check on my body.
"Can I continue explaining?" I asked, slightly annoyed from the interruption. "Please, go ahead." she answered. "Thank you. To answer your question, yes, we are indeed much older than when we last met. And to answer your second question, the truth is that I don't really know. There are probably many factors as to why I didn't go crazy; I mostly give credit to reading most of my free time, and my endless hours of practice on swordsmanship. Anyway, as I was saying~" I went on to explain most of the information I knew about the current state of the world, such as the Cyber Revolution and NeuraCorp controlling basically everything and everyone, as well as the strange passing of events that occurred the day the flash happened.
"Wow… I didn't expect so much to happen within ten years. Thank you for filling me in! By the way, something feels strange, like there's something foreign inside your soul. I think you should take a look at it." Ai said.
Even though it took me a moment to concentrate enough thanks to all the distractions, I eventually opened the door to my soul chamber, and looked inside. The moment I did, I completely lost concentration and was flung back into consciousness, and in that moment, I almost passed out from the shock and shouted "What?!"