Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

  Caine was currently sitting at his desk in his office. He was thinking about what had happened recently. It was one week after Caine tried to activate Protocol 57. One week after he tried to sacrifice everything to let the Cast members escape the Circus. 

 He had begun building the exit door for them, but the process was too painful for him and his CPU was strained to the point that he passed out from the stress and was rendered unconscious when his self repair system kicked in. This led to Caine not even being awake when the humans had arrived at the final part of the Adventure he had called 'The End'. When they hit the buttons that, according to the NPC named Abel, would either free them from the Circus or entrap them. Whichever button they pressed didn't matter. He would have opened the wall and revealed the exit door that he would have had finished for them. And as soon as they'd have left,  Protocol 57 would have deleted Caine and the Circus would have been destroyed for good.

  However, given that he was unconscious at the time, this did not happen. Protocol 57 and the creation of the exit portal were aborted and the humans discovered that everything thing they went through that day was just one of Caine's adventures and was at the the time a big fat lie.

  At the moment, things were much better between him and the others once he revealed what had truly happened and tearfully apologized. They said they had forgiven him for his deception and would look for a safer way out the Circus. However, Caine couldn't help but review the footage of what happened in the button room.

 What he saw did not make him feel good...

 The footage played the moment where Jax had hit one of the buttons and nothing had happened. As Caine watched, the humans began to deduce that the previous several hours had turned out to be one of Caine's adventures. The looks of despair and heartbreak on their faces flooded Caine's circuitry with sorrow and guilt. They'd return from some of his adventures looking unhappy in the past, but this was different. They looked crushed, betrayed and really hurt. 

  Caine continued to view the footage and watched their reactions. Jax laughing maniacally, Pomni's look of horror, the despair in Ragatha's voice, Zooble's rage and the tears flowing down Gangle's mask. 

  The footage continued and showed the next part where they discovered Caine laying unconscious on the floor in the next room and Jax slammed his unconscious form against the wall! He heard the rage in Jax's voice and saw the hate in Zooble's eyes. It made him feel even worse. He didn't mean for it to end that way. They were going to go home. But he couldn't finish the portal! He wasn't strong enough! He was damaged! He was weak, useless, obsole-

"NO!" He told himself! "They forgave me! They said I'm not obsolete! They promised me they'd take me with them when they left the Circus!"

  But deep down, Caine could help but feel that they were still upset with him. And that made him feel guilty. He needed to make it up to them! But how!? 

  His first instinct was to send them on an adventure of there choosing, but that didn't seem like a good idea. His CPU still needed to recover a bit and sending them off just felt like he'd be ignoring the issue. No. He had to try something else. And then he remembered something Zooble said that night. "Caine, if you were feeling upset, you could have just talked to us!" 

 Perhaps that what he should do! Maybe talking to them on-on-one could help him get rid of this bad feeling eating away at him. And maybe it could give him some insight on how to make the Circus much more tolerable for them until they got out.

  He wondered who he should talk to first? Maybe Pomni or Ragatha? They were the ones who hugged him when he said sorry, after all. Maybe Jax, because Jax seemed the most affected by the whole ordeal. He didn't know who to choose!

 He took one last look back at the surveillance footage. That's when it hit him! He knew who to talk to first! The one who seemed least effected! The one who always had his head on a swivel when exposed to darkness and could probably give him some helpful advice with talking to the others as well!

The one who was in the Circus the longest out of all of them! 

His creator: Kinger!

To Be Continued...

Chapter Text

Kinger was relaxing in his pillow fort when he heard a knock outside. He crawled to the entrance to see what it was. Was it Gangle coming to invite him to draw with her?  Or maybe Pomni wanted to ask him for some advice on something. Opening the entryway, he looked out to see whom it was.  He was not expecting to find The Ringmaster AI standing outside his fort. 

 "Oh! Hello, Caine!" Kinger said happily, "Are you here to count caterpillar cocoons with me? They just started forming!" Caine was hesitant at first. But then he spoke. "Morning, Kinger." He responded a bit nervously, " I um... I actually wanted to talk to you about something. Can I come in?" "Of course!" Kinger answered welcomely, moving over to give Caine room. "Come on in!" 

  Kinger scooted over so that Caine could fit inside. Caine floated through the small entrance and gently landed next to Kinger. "So what can I help you with, Caine?" Kinger asked kindly. Caine shifted a bit before he spoke up. "Well.." he started, "it's about last week." At this, Caine could feel Kinger's happy mood fade a bit. "Oh, I see." Kinger said with less cheer in his voice. "Is something still bothering you?" He asked with concern. "You're not still seeing the protocol pop up are you?"

 Caine was quick to respond! "No no no I haven't seen it since then!" He reassured the talking Chess piece. "But... It does concern something that happened that day. When you and the others were in the button room."

 "Oh." Kinger said with a bit more calmness in his voice, "Could you explain what about it is bothering you? My memory of that day isn't the best; at least until that dark room opened and I saw you on the ground unconscious." Caine last out a sigh before he responded. "Well, it has to do with what happened when the buttons got pressed. Jax pushed the blue button, which Able said would free them from the Circus. But when nothing happened, they realized that the whole Escape the Circus ordeal was just one of my adventures. I didn't mean for it to play out the way it did. The back wall was supposed to open revealing the exit door I was working on. But since I was knocked unconscious by CPU overloading, I wasn't able to explain what happened until you guys woke me up later."

Caine lowered his head. "I know you all said you forgive me, but when I saw the surveillance footage of what happened, I saw everybody's reactions and... well..."

 Kinger suddenly realized what the poor AI was trying to say. "You're worried that the others are still mad at you, aren't you?" He said with full understanding. Caine nodded, looking down at the ground. "When I watched the camera footage and saw their reactions...I...I felt really bad. Especially how Jax reacted. He had a full blown meltdown. And I saw how enraged he was when he saw me there on the ground. The anger on his face...the things he said... I'm pretty sure he hates me. Part of me feels like the others might still hate me too."

  Kinger immediately reach out and pulled the AI closer to so that Caine was practically leaning against him. "Hey," he soothed "don't think like that. None of them hate you. When you explained what happened and what you were planning to do, they completely understood. They knew you did what you did not out of selfishness, but because you wanted them to finally be happy. And they came to realize what you were willing to sacrifice to make that happen."

  "I know," Caine responded. "But I still have this unpleasant feeling in my virtual insides and I want it to go away." Kinger thought about it for a second and then he got an idea. "You know what I think?" He started, "I think this is a sign that you are changing for the better. You're becoming more than just The Digital Circus's ringmaster. You don't want to just be their digital caretaker anymore. You want to be their friend. And it not just your programming making you feel this. You're becoming self aware and you're starting to feel real emotions. You actually care about us now and you want us to like you back. And you're worried that last week's adventure ruined those chances. Personally, I don't think you did. But if you really feel that you need to make it up to the others, I would suggest talking to them. Not as a group but one at a time. Get to know them. Tell each of them how you really feel and that you're sorry about hurting them that way. I'm certain that they'll give you the love and forgiveness you deserve. Think you can do that, Caine?" Caine was quiet for a second but then he nodded, silently promising that he would try. Kinger was satisfied with this. "Good" he said, "It's going to be okay. You'll see."

 "Well, what about you, Kinger?" Caine asked looking at the talking Chess piece. "How did you feel that day?" Kinger looked Caine in the eyes and said, "Honestly, you don't have to worry about me. I wasn't fully aware of what was happening at that moment until the back wall opened. The moment it got dark and I saw you laying unmoving on the ground, all I felt was worry and concern for your well being." 

 Caine's eyebrows raised a bit. "You were worried about me?" Kinger gently pat Caine on the back. "Of course I was," he said, "Any decent father would worry about their son's health."

 It took a few seconds for that last sentence to sink in, but when it did, Caine's eyes went wide! "F... Father?" He choked out, "S...son?!" If Kinger had a visible mouth, he'd be smiling. "Well, I am your creator," he replied with a bit of humor in his voice, "I'm the one who brought you into existence after all. You've come a long way from that simple learning program that was first installed here in the Digital Circus and I'm proud of you for it. I will always be proud of you, Caine. Never forget that."

  Caine's eyes started to water. A big grin started forming on his 'face'. A son... Kinger saw him like a son! Caine had a 'father'! 

 Before he knew it Kinger was enveloped in a tight hug as Caine tightly wrapped his arms around him. If Kinger had arms he'd do the same thing. He had settled on resting his hands on Caine's back and his head on top of Caine's head/dentures. He had the unofficial role of being the 'dad' of everyone in the Circus, but in this case it was almost literal. Caine was created by him and Queenie all those years ago when they were proud members of C&A's staff. Out of everything they made for the Circus, Caine was the crown jewel. And to see his greatest creation go from a simple computer program to a fully sentient lifeform with feelings and emotions filled him with absolute pride. And he knew if she was here Queenie would be so proud of Caine as well.

"I love you, son." Kinger whispered.

"I love you too, dad!" Caine said back.

To be continued...

Chapter Text

Later that day, Caine was outside the tent taking a leisurely stroll/float around the Circus grounds. The experience was a bit different to Caine because he usually teleported himself and the others everywhere.  But he wanted to try his best to connect with the others, so he was trying one thing at a time.

  So far the experience was actually pretty pleasant. He was actually taking in his surroundings.  The bright blue skybox, the gentle "breeze",  the warmth from Sun (despite all the death threats from said A.I.), it was actually nice. It was calming for his synthetic nerves.

'Calming...'

  Now that Caine thought about it, he had been a lot calmer since last week's incident. He couldn't help but wonder if that forced reboot he went through fixed something in him besides his overtaxed CPU.  Because for as long as he could remember, he had been very high energy and over the top. After the reset, he was way less over the top and was thinking more clearly now. Perhaps something in his personality matrix got fixed as well. 

  But then another thought occured to the ringmaster. A more pessimistic thought. What if this calmness he was feeling was due to something in his system being damaged? Something broken that his system couldn't diagnose? What if  it was something that would interfere with how he ran the Circus!?

 His worrisome thoughts were interrupted when he quite literally bumped into someone as he made his way around a large rock wall. Him and the unknown person both fell to the ground, with Caine landing on his backside. As the A.I. sat up and dusted himself off he saw whom he had bumped into.

  It was none other than the Circus's new member Pomni!  Pomni had fallen on her back as well. Before the two of them could greet each other, the voice of a third person spoke up. "Are you two okay?" Caine looked to see who it was and saw Ragatha standing behind Pomni, offering the jester a hand to help her up which Pomni took. "I'm fine," Pomni said, "How about you, Caine."

  "Oh yes I'm okay," Caine responded kind of quickly picking himself up off the floor and getting his mind off his worrisome thoughts. "I was just, uh, taking a stroll, er float, around the grounds. Sorry I bumped into you, I wasn't looking where I was going." "It's alright," Pomni I said with a kind smile, "Ragatha and I were just about to have a picnic by the lake. Do you...wanna join us?" 

  Caine's eyes lit up a bit at the offer. The only people in the Circus to invite him to anything was Kinger! And Queenie before she... Cain brushed the thought away and said, "Yes, I'd love to! Thank you!"

  The colorful trio were sitting on a blanket on the sand by the lake with Caine and Pomni sitting next to each other with Ragatha sitting across from Pomni; the picnic basket in between them. Caine was explaining the two fish that Pomni met in the lake during last week's beach adventure. "Finnian and Gillian were among some of the earliest AIs added to the Circus!" He said enthusiastically, "They were part of one of my first adventures ever created! The Deep Sea Treasure Hunt! They're almost as old as Bubble!" Pomni smirked a little. "Heh," she chuckles lightly, "that explains why they looked and acted so weird."

  Ragatha smiled as she ate one of the sandwiches packed in the basket. She couldn't help but notice that Caine was doing much better than he was last week. 

 "I have to say, Caine," she said, "You seem like you're doing a lot better now. I haven't seen you this genuinely happy in a long time." 

 "I was actually thinking about that before I bumped into you two," Caine said, "Ever since my CPU reset, I felt...calmer. More calmer and relaxed than I've ever felt before." Caine's mood changed a bit. "Though, I'm not to sure how to feel about it," he admitted, " I've never felt like this before. I'm usually so full of energy, as you two know. And...well...I don't know if means something in me is fixed or... If something broke..." 

 Seeing the discomfort on Caine's face, Pomni gently placed a hand on the A.I.'s shoulder."If you ask me," she said warmly "I think what happened was that you got some much needed rest when you shut down for those six hours. No offense, Caine, but you used to act like someone who was keeping themselves awake with WAY too much coffee. That repair you went through probably helped you not just physically, but mentally as well." 

  "Pomni's right, Caine," Ragatha added, " Everyone needs rest once in a while. And you were driving yourself crazy with all this adventure planning you would constantly put yourself through for us. This calmness you feel is probably the result of your systems being released of stress after decades of strain and overuse. What you feel is probably your normal settings, but you've been so busy for so long, that it doesn't feel normal for you." 

 Caine looked up at Ragatha. "If this is the real me," he inquired, "how do I get used to it? It's so new to me..." Ragatha moved over next to Caine opposite Pomni and put her arm around his shoulder. "Let us help you," she answered, "and we'll show you how." 

  Caine nodded in thanks. But then his mood saddened a bit more. "If I'm being honest," he said, "I didn't just come out here to go on a stroll." Caine let out a sigh. "I was in my office last night and I saw surveillance footage of last week's Exit Adventure.. and what happened while I was unconscious ..."

 Pomni's eyes widened. Did he see what happened when Jax pushed the button? Almost as if he read their mind, Caine answered her unsaid question. "I saw what happened when Jax hit the blue button... I saw the looks of despair sadness and rage on your faces...I saw how ragefull Jax and Zooble got when they thought I tricked you all. I... I haven't this awful about something before and I just wanted to say... I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt any of you. Like I said that night, there was supposed to be a real exit when you hit the button, but...you know what happened...again, I'm very sorry..."

 "Hey," Pomni said warmly turning Caine's head towards her, "You don't have to apologize again. You already said you were sorry that night you explained what had happened. And If I remember correctly, I said we forgive you that night as well, remember?"  Caine nodded, "I know," he answered, "I still feel bad about it." 

  Pomni pulled Caine into a gentle hug. "If it helps, Caine, " she said, " I forgive you for that as well." Caine's eyes started to water as he returned the hug. "Thank you..." He whispered, his voice a mix of relief and sadness. 

  As they let go, Ragatha spoke up. "Caine," she said gently, "We've known each other for several years now. In all that time, can you think of any moment where you went out of your way to intentionally hurt us?" Caine looked up at the ragdoll and shook his head no. "Of course not," Ragatha continued as she pulled him closer to her, "And based on your reaction to last week, if you accidentally did hurt us, it would fill you with guilt. I will admit that we were initially upset when we thought it was all just a trick, but when you explained what had actually happened with the exit, we began to understand. Kinger was right. All you were doing was trying to make us happy like you tried to after all these years. I don't blame you for what happened that night. I forgive you too."

  Caine leaned against Ragatha, burying his face into her blouse as he hugged her tightly and started quietly crying. Ragatha returned the hug and rested her head against his. Pomni scooted over and hugged Caine from behind. "It'll be okay Caine," Pomni said as Caine began to calm down, "Remember what I said last week. When we find the real exit, we'll take you with us so you won't be alone here." Caine quietly thanked them both as he finally got control of his breathing...

The three of them spent the rest of the day happily chatting and exploring the area around the lake, the day finally ending with them sitting at the edge of the pier watching the sun set over the edge of the Circus.  As Caine sat between his two friends, he couldn't help but think about the rest of the Circus Crew. He still needed to talk to Gangle Zooble and Jax. Especially Jax. The purple rabbit had taken what happened that day the hardest and Caine had no idea what he was gonna say to him when the time came. 

 He knew one thing, though. Whatever happens, his new friends would be by his side through it all.

To be continued...

Chapter Text

  It was 10: 00 in the evening in the Circus. Caine was lying in his bed trying to get some sleep. Unfortunately, it was a futile effort. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't seem to dose off.  And he wasn't entirely sure why.

 Today had been a good day. He learned that Kinger didn't hold any I'll will towards him and even saw him like a son. He spent the afternoon with Pomni and Ragatha enjoying a picnic by the Digital Lake and exploring the surrounding area. During said Picnic, the two ladies promised they'd help him figure out these new emotions he had started feeling. He also apologized for what he perceived as hurting them when the buttons didn't work and they initially thought they'd been lied to, but they explained that they had already forgiven him when they learned what really happened that evening and what Caine was willing to sacrifice to make them all happy. Pomni and Ragatha each gave him a hug to reassure him that everything was okay between them now.  And it made Caine so happy he started crying again.

  So why couldn't he sleep? Deep down, he knew why. He still needed to talk to the other half of the Circus. Chances are they had forgiven him as well (he wasn't too sure about Jax), but he still felt guilty about deceiving them. 

 In the meantime, Caine needed to get some rest,  but he just couldn't fall asleep. Climbing out of his bed, he decides to go outside. Maybe gazing at the stars could help. Or maybe Moon could help him get some rest (as long as she didn't try flirting with him again).

  Caine exited the new sleeping quarters he made himself at the end of the hallway. Quietly closing the door behind him, he floated down the hallway so as to not disturb the others.  As he made his way towards the main hall, he heard a small whimper coming by from the lounge area.  Caine decided to go investigate. What he found surprised him a bit. It was Gangle. Her comedy mask had broken yet again and she appeared to be trying to glue it back together. Caine was about to snap his fingers to fix it as usual, but he hesitated. He didn't want to scare her in her current state so he decided to get her attention first.

  "Gangle?" He asked. The ribbon girl let out a small "Eep!" at Caine's question and turned towards him. "O- oh hi C-caine," she greeted, her voice shaky, "What are you doing up?" "I had trouble sleeping and was going to go outside for a bit," Caine answered, "What happened to your comedy mask?"

  Gangle let out a sigh. "I tripped on some banana peels someone left by the entrance. It was probably Jax." "Here," Caine said kindly, "let me fix that for you!" Caine snapped his fingers and Gangle's comedy mask reformed. "Thank you..." She said appreciatively as she picked up the comedy mask and tucked it under her arm. Caine notices this and becomes curious. "You're not going to wear it?" He asks. "N-no," Gangle responded with a faint smile, "Zooble has been helping me learn how to fell better about myself without wearing it, but I like to keep it with me just in case. Zooble and I were going to have a little sleepover tonight. If you can't sleep, I could ask Zooble if you could join us."

  Caine felt a small bit of hesitation at Gangle's offer. Over the past few years, Zooble and Caine's relationship hadn't been...the best, to say the least. Zooble tended to sit out a lot of his adventures in the past and tended to argue with him about a lot of the decisions he made. In his defense, he tried to satisfy the needs of the Circus Crew; he really did. Unfortunately, this was limited due to the fact that his software was outdated by nearly 30 years and the numerous firewalls C&A put in him to keep him from learning and experimenting with too many things without their permissions; those permissions being completely cut off when C&A had abruptly disappeared. Why they disappeared, he could not remember for some reason. And so Caine was limited on understanding how Zooble felt and how he could help give them and the others what they wanted. Needless to say, this led to frustrations between the two of them. And Caine was worried Zooble was still angry at him for what happened with the buttons, given how furious they and Jax were when they found him.

  "Do you think they'd be okay with that?" Caine asked with a bit of worry in his voice, "If they don't want me to join, I'll understand." "Why wouldn't they?" Gangle asked. "Well," Caine said a bit timidly, " It kinda has to do with why I can't sleep. I came across the surveillance footage of what happened in the button room last week. I saw everybody's reaction to the buttons not working and how angry Zooble and Jax were at me."

  "You're worried that Zooble and Jax might still be mad?" Gangle inquired. Caine lowered his head in shame. "I was worried that everyone was still mad at me." He admitted "Like I told Dad, Pomni and Ragatha. I know you guys said you forgave me that night when you found out what I had planned to do. But seeing your reactions made me feel guilty. Dad said that this may be a sign that I'm evolving and becoming self aware." "Your...your dad?" Gangle inquired. Caine nodded. "Kinger. He said that since he created me, I'm technically his son. His exact words were 'any decent father would worry about his son's health." Gangle's eyes lit up in adoration. "That is so cute!" She thought.

  The two of them sat down in the lounge area as Caine continued. "Anyway, Dad said I should try and get to know each of you better and try to apologize one on one. But I'm worried Zooble won't listen." 

Gangle fully understood now. Caine wanted to actually be their friends, but was worried he wouldn't be forgiven for tricking them. Gangle herself held no I'll will towards Caine after it was revealed that building the exit would cost him his own life and he was willing to go that far due to how depressed he had gotten.  "Caine," she said, " you don't have to apologize to me at least. Actually...I...I wanted to apologize to you instead."

"Me too."

 Gangle and Caine both jumped at the third voice that spoke up behind them. Looking over their shoulders, they saw that Zooble had joined them in the lounge area. "Zooble!" Gangle exclaimed, "I- was just on my way to your room when I dropped my comedy mask! Caine arrived and fixed it for me, w-we got to talking and-"

  "Easy, Gangle," Zooble said holding up a hand/claw, "I overheard your conversation." "How...how much did you hear?" Caine asked nervously. "I heard enough," Zooble or answered, taking a seat next to Caine. "Look, Caine. You were right when you said I was angry when the escape plan just turned out to be one of your adventures. If Gangle hadn't stopped us, Jax and I would have probably throttled your unconscious form. But that was before we found out the truth. That you were basically going to kill yourself to set us free." 

 Caine lowered his head in shame. "I'm sorry, Zooble," he said. "I'm sorry for...well a lot of things. Failing to make an exit portal, my adventures not being able to satisfy you, not being able to fix your avatar, and-" 

"Hey relax," Zooble interrupted, putting a hand on Caine's shoulder. " It's ok. Last week wasn't all your fault. You only created that adventure because you were at your lowest point and your programming was basically making you do it. And you only got that way because of how we treated you over the years. We were dealing with personal problems and we took them out on you. You were just trying to keep us entertained  and trying to prevent us from abstracting. But our personal issue got in the way of seeing that. Especially mine. And that was unfair of me."

  Caine looked at Zooble in surprise. "Zooble are you...are you saying...?" "Yeah," Zooble said letting out a sigh.

"I'm sorry how I treated you all this time. And I forgive you for last week's adventure."

"S..so am I," Gangle added.

Next thing Zooble knew, they and Gangle were being enveloped in a tight hug by the Ringmaster AI. "All is forgiven!" He said with enthusiasm. "Thank you so much!" In the past, Zooble would be trying to pry the Ai off of them. But this time, Gangle and them returned the hug instead.

  Zooble and Gangle invited Caine to their sleepover where Gangle showed off some of her sketches (not her secret dirty ones) and offered to teach Caine how to draw as well so he could sketch things other than just bees. As the night continued they talked about how Caine could try and improve the Circus and adventures for everyone, including himself. Now some things, like the request Zooble made right before the gun game would have to wait because he hadn't quite fully recovered yet and doing so would require him trying to brute force his way through some firewalls that C&A had put in his system. To get through those, he would need help from Kinger. 

  In the meantime, Caine wanted advice on how to improve his adventures so that the others would be more open to them. "You know," Zooble said, "you could run them by us first when your planning them out." "How would I do that?" Caine inquired. "Maybe you could sketch them out first," Gangle added, "we could go over them and vote or veto what should probably be added, removed or changed." 

  "Won't going over the adventures give away the endings, though?" Caine asked, "That would spoil all my hard work!" "Leave the specific details, like puzzle solutions, out,"  Zooble advised, "Just show us the basic ideas. We'll do the same for the ones we put in the Suggestion Box." 

 Caine thought about this for a second and concluded that this was a great idea! "Genius!" He exclaimed, "Adventures made with the combined efforts of me and the six of you would be perfect! The best of both worlds! And it would give Gangle a chance to give me more drawing lessons."

  That's when Gangle got an idea. "I...thought of something." She said. "For the ideas we put in the recommendation box, why don't you join us on those?" Caine froze. Were they actually offering him to come on adventures with them? Nobody in the Circus had done that before! "You..." Caine said, "you want me to come with you?" Zooble shrugged " Well if you wanna get to know us better, I'd say that would help a lot instead up d just waiting for us to come back As long as you don't use your AI powers to cheat your way through them."

  Caine felt like he was gonna cry again. He immediately but gently hugged Gangle whom returned the hug. " Thank you," he said appreciatively, "I'd love that. And I promise I won't cheat in your adventures..."

  As the night drew on, the three colorful compatriots continued to spend the night, drawing and talking. It was around midnight when Caine finally dosed off, leaning against Zooble. Careful not to disturb him, Zooble and Gangle gently placed Caine in his sleeping bag. "Night, Caine." Zooble said as they closed the sleeping bag up. Zooble climbed into bed with Gangle snuggling up against them. Zooble put their arms around Gangle and held her close as the ribbon girl fell asleep as well. Right before they dosed off themself, Zooble glanced back at the sleeping ringmaster one more time. I guess he's not so bad after all. they thought. Seems like he just needed friends.  

  If that would help them get closer to leaving the Circus for good, Zooble could do that easily.

Chapter Text

  Caine looked over the list of things the humans  wanted added to the Circus. This included the removal of the censorship bar, the ability to change their attire, Zooble's adult request, internet access, more locations added to the Circus like a theater, a library and maybe an arcade, etc. 

  Had it been a few weeks ago, most of this list would have been out of the question and he would have doubled down on getting them to like his adventures. 

  Caine couldn't help but think back to those days. God, was he stupid! So obsessed with forcing the humans to like him... Caine shook his head at the thought. It wasn't entirely his fault. Kinger had explained that his desperate need for approval, his need to keep humans from abstracting and the 25 years of constant work without rest had strained his systems to the point where he was going crazy.  The forced shutdown and repair he went through when he tried to sacrifice himself had fixed a lot of things in his head.

 Even still, Caine wanted to make sure his systems were alright before he tried anything big. That's why Kinger and Pomni were here in his office. Kinger, being the creator of Caine, had offered to look at Caine's systems to see if there was anything Caine had overlooked. Pomni was there to help Kinger out any way she could. And going through this could help reveal why Caine was so crazy in the past.

  The three of them were back in the Red/Blue button Room, which Caine revealed to be his maintenance room where he was supposed to receive updates and patches from the outside world. But because the C&A office was completely empty, as the humans explained to him, he was far behind on maintenance. The room was dimly lit so that Kinger didn't lose focus and memory. Caine was laying on a table he had spawned in the room. He had a few cables attached to the back of his dentures that connected him to the big screen on the wall behind him. Kinger and Pomni were standing to the side of the table, holding recreations of the headsets that brought them to the Circus. These headsets, which were connected to the back of Caine's head as well, would allow the two of them to virtually interact with Caine's inner systems. 

  "Are you ready, Caine?" Kinger asked his 'son'. Caine nodded, "Ready, Dad..." he responded, "If you see anything wrong in my head, fo what you can to fix it, please."  Kinger gave Caine a thumbs up and prepared to put on his headset. "Just to clarify," Pomni said with a small bit of unease in her voice, "We won't get stuck in Caine's mind when we put these on, right?" 

  "Of course not, Pomni," Caine reassured her, "all you'll have to do is lift the headset off to leave my brain. Father already tested it out." Kinger demonstrated by placing his headset over his misaligned eyes. As Pomni watched, Kinger disappeared right in front of her! Pomni held her breath for a split second before Kinger instantly reappeared two seconds later with the headset off. "See?" He said reassuringly, "Nothing to worry about."

  Pomni let out a small sigh of relief as a small smile appeared on her lips. "Alright," she said with newly found confidence, "Let's do this." As the two prepared to enter Caine's mind, Caine looked at the one more time. "Before I go into standby mode," he said, "I just want to say thank for doing this.I really hope this works." Kinger responded by softly placing his right hand on Caine's shoulder and giving it a gentle pat. "It'll be okay, Caine. If this works, you'll be better than ever." 

"Thank you," Caine said, "Both of you." Caine laid his head back on the table and closed his dentures. The computer screen activated and green text appeared.

Standby mode activated.

Ready for Maintenance.

Kinger looked at Pomni and gave her a look asking if she was ready. Pomni responded with a nod and smile that said she was ready. Kinger put on his headset and disappeared. Pomni proceeded to place the headset over her eyes. It was a bit awkward with her Jester hat on, but she got it on nonetheless. For a second, there was nothing but blackness until a green light enveloped her vision...

 As Pomni's vision cleared, she found herself in a hallway similar to the one that contained all their bedrooms. The only difference was that everything was made of neon green 1's and 0's like in The Matrix, those action movies she used to watch with her dad. Even her own avatar appeared to be so as well. 

 Suddenly a voice spoke up behind her, making her jump. She turned around and saw that it was Kinger, whom was in a digital state like her. "Great! You made it!" He welcomed her reaching his hand out for her to hold. "Let's get moving. I think I see something we should look at."

  The two of them made their way down the hall passing several doors that had different signs indicating different parts of Caine's brains. They said things like, 'Adventures',  'bees', NPC's etc... The first door they chose to look behind said Memory Archives. It appeared to have been previously locked behind some sort of orange chain. The chain was split in half and laying on the ground now. Kinger picked up one of the broken halves and examined it. "Digital firewalls," he said looking the chain over, "Whomever put these here wanted Caine blocked off from parts of his own mind..."

  Kinger and Pomni opened the door and looked inside. Inside the room appeared to be a big screen against a wall with some sort of control board in front of it. As Kinger and Pomni looked around they noticed some small cracks here and there, but the crash appeared to be sealing back up. This was good. It was a sign that Caine's internal systems were almost fully healed.

  The two entered the chamber and approached the control board. "This is Caine's memory archive?" Pomni asked. "Yes," answered Kinger. "Let's take a quick look. We may find evidence of where the firewalls came from. But first, there's something I want to show you." Kinger and Pomni stood in front of the board as the walking Chess piece began accessing the controls 

  As Kinger pressed the on button, the screen flashed to life as various images appeared. Kinger used the board to scroll through them until he found the one he was looking for. "My memory from before Queenie's abstraction may not be the best," Kinger said, " But there's a few memories that have stayed with me after all these years. This may be the one that meant the most to me." Kinger clicked on the image and the screen zoomed in on it...

  As soon as the screen lit up, the memory opened up on a familiar site. It was the Digital Circus. Except everything looked brand new and in pristine condition. As Pomni watched, a bright light  began to form in the center of the tent. It got brighter and brighter and brighter until it faded away almost immediately. Floating in the center of the Circus stage was a familiar looking figure with dentures for a head. Pomni let out a small gasp. It was Caine! Except he look very different!

 For starters, the teeth of his dentures looked very different. They looked like baby teeth instead of the adult teeth he now had; the two front teeth being slightly  bigger than the others. His attire was different too. He didn't wear the Ringmaster costume Pomni was familiar with. Instead, he wore a red long sleeved shirt and blue overalls. On his head was a red and blue propeller hat. But the thing Pomni noticed the most was the voice that came out of Caine's mouth. "Hello?" Said the voice of a young boy, "Where am I? WHO am I!? WHAT am I!!?"

 Pomni couldn't believe it! This was the day Caine was created! And Caine had the appearance and voice of a young child when he first appeared! This was a bit mind-blowing for Pomni! She knew next to nothing about Caine's origins, she had assumed he was always the wild and crazy ringmaster she met her first day here. To see him with the appearance and demeanor of a little boy who couldn't find his mother? She was not expecting this.

"Oh my God!" Pomni exclaimed, "Caine! He's so...so...CUTE!" Kinger's heart filled with pride. "This was the day the company created him," he responded, "and the day  i gave him his purpose." 

  Inside the memory, Little Caine flinched as a disembodied voice spoke up. "Hello there!" called the voice of a younger sounding Kinger, "My name is <REDACTED>. I'm your creator. Can you tell me your name?" Little Caine thought for a moment. What was his name? Did he have one? He thought and thought until he he came up with something. "I'm," he started, "The Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity. But you can call me Caine." 

"Nice to meet you, Caine," said young Kinger. "Welcome to the Amazing Digital Circus. Together,  you and I will turn this virtual simulation into something beautiful."

To be continued...

Chapter Text

 As Pomni watched, the memory skipped to some time later. This time, Little Caine seemed to be focusing on trying to manifest something in the Circus. He held his small hands in front of him as they glowed brightly. Suddenly, another bright light began to appear in front of him. Eventually, the bright light shimmered away, revealing a familiar looking spheroid with black beady eyes and sharp teeth. 

  "Bubble!" Pomni exclaimed. Kinger nodded proudly. "He was one of Caine's first ever creation," he explained proudly. "He and a few other minor AI's were the result of Caine testing his abilities for us." 

  A female voice Pomni didn't recognize spoke up. "Amazing!" A female mysterious voice said. " What's his name?" "I'll call him Bubble!" Little Caine answered. "He'll be my assistant and my best friend here in the Circus!" Kinger let out a small audible gasp at the female voice. Pomni turned toward him and noticed the recognition in his eyes. "Queenie..." was all he said.

 Pomni's eyes went wide. That was Kinger's wife! The one he mentioned in the haunted house adventure! Pomni started to feel a little bit of sadness build up on her. Queenie sounded so kind and motherly. Pomni couldn't even imagine what Kinger was thinking right now.

  While the memory continued, Kinger turned towards Pomni. "From the moment she met him" Kinger said with a bit of melancholy in his voice, "Queenie absolutely adored Caine. He was like the son she never had." Kinger's looked down at the ground sadly. "Queenie and I wanted to be parents one day, but unfortunately she was infertile and we couldn't conceive a child of our own. When Caine was created, the love and affection she showed him always lifted his spirits when he was unhappy. He wouldn't admit it, but the day she abstracted was especially tough on him. I can still remember him promising to find a way to bring her back right before he was forced to put her in the cellar."

 Pomni wiped away a tear as two other voices spoke up. One sounded young and energetic while the other sounded much older and arrogant. "Dude!" The younger voice said, "The little guy can make NPC's now!? Awesome!" The other voice was not as impressed. "All it did was make a sphere with teeth," the other voice said, "Not necessarily all that impressive." 

"Just give him some time, sir." Past Kinger reassured the older voice, "He's learning." "I'll be impressed when I see the adventures it's supposed to create." The older voice retorted, "I invested a lot of money into this project of yours. It better be worth it, <REDACTED>."

 Pomni turned back towards Kinger. "Who were they?" She asked. "Those voices belonged to Scratch and Wormo. They were among the first six people to enter the Circus, myself included." Kinger responded, "Scratch was a young intern who helped me develop Caine. He treated Caine like a younger brother. Unfortunately, he was the first one to abstract." Kinger's demeanor changed a bit when he started taking about the other person. "Wormo was my boss and the head of C&A Studios. He...was not a nice person. He was very impatient and egotistical. He never took fault for anything he directly caused. Like spilling coffee on an experimental computer that pulls him and his employees into an unfinished game..."

 This information caught Pomni off guard a bit. An arrogant boss''s narcissism causing a disaster for himself and his employees? It was almost cliché.

 Pomni clicked on one the other memories. It opened up to Little Caine spying on Kinger and a yellow dog arguing with a green and yellow striped worm and a purple dinosaur with a multicolored spine. Pomni recognized the avatars from the doors of the abstracted in the bedroom hallway. "What do you mean we're trapped in here!!?" The purple dinosaur asked angrily. "I thought you put in an exit! The worm scolded. "I told you," the yellow dog yelled, "the game wasn't ready for testing! We hadn't finished implementing the exit in yet! And now, thanks to you two, we're stuck in our own game! Thanks a lot, SIR!"

Pomni recognized the voice from the last memory. The yellow dog was Scratch!  No doubt the green worm was Wormo. But who was the fourth person? 

 "This was the day we got trapped in the Circus. The purple dinosaur was Twinkle," Kinger said with a bit of distaste in his, "She was the company's top computer programmer. Though a lot of us were pretty sure she only had that that position because she was also Wormo's mistress. She, like our boss had such an inflated ego." Kinger let out a small chuckle. "Queenie HATED her! Called her a scaly b*tch on more than one occasion!"

 The memory continued with Little Caine being caught spying by Queenie. "Come on, honey," Queenie said taking him by the hand and leading him away from the fight, "Why don't you show me around the Circus." Little Caine was a bit reluctant. " Is everything okay?" The young AI asked with concern. Queenie responded by picking him up and giving him a gentle hug.  "Yes, sweetie," Queenie assured him, "Everything will be alright..."

 As the memory ended, Kinger spoke up again. "For a while, things were going pretty well. Wormer and and Twinkle were working on finding the exit or figuring out how to build a new one while Scratch, Queenie and I were teaching Caine how to use his abilities. Unfortunately...things changed after the first abstraction. Scratch was trying to manipulate the game code to restore the missing parts of our memory with Caine acting as his assistant.  I don't remember the specifics, but whatever he had Caine do didn't work. Or perhaps it did work and our digital forms can't handle that much data. All I know is that instead of restoring his memories, it turned him into the multi eyed amorphous shape we're all too familiar with."

  Pomni scrolled through the memories and noticed that a lot appeared to be inaccessible. They seemed to be locked behind firewall chains like the broken one on the door to this room. "How do we unlock these?" She asked Kinger. Kinger raised his hand as a wave of light similar to the light he emitted in the haunted house shot from his hand. The light enveloped the chain and atomized it. "I could do that for all the barriers," Kinger said, "But it may become a bit tedious. After this memory, we should move on j to the CPU and the C&A Database. Hopefully we'll find something that breaks the firewalls all at once." 

  The new unlocked memory began to play. This one appeared to be much later. Caine was outside the Lounge Area spying on the Circus group again. Kinger recognized this night. It was right after the first abstraction incident.

 "IT KILLED SCRATCH!!!" Wormo screamed in rage. "DELETE IT NOW!!!"  "Sir!" Past Kinger responded, "What happened to Scratch was not Caine's fault! Scratch was running an experiment without telling any of us what he was doing! Caine was just following his instructions! Nobody could have predicted that his avatar would have glitched out the way it did! And we don't know for certain that Scratch is dead! There may be a way to reverse his condition!"

  "Did you not see what he turned into, Kinger!!?" Wormo responded, "He became a monster that tried to tear us apart! That machine of yours had to put him in the empty chamber beneath the Circus floor!" "HOW COULD THAT STILL BE SCRATCH!!?" Twinkle added. "HE'S DEAD! AND ITS THE A.I.'S FAULT!!" 

  "The "A.I." has a name, Twinkle!" Queenie yelled at the dinosaur! "His name is Caine! Use it!" "Stop treating it like its human, Queenie!" Twinkle retorted. "That thing is not your child!"

 Modern Kinger looked at the memory in shock! He thought Queenie had told Caine to wait in the office during this argument. He had no idea that Caine was listening in this entire time. No idea that Caine overheard Wormo's accusations. Or the hateful things Twinkle was about to say about the Ringmaster...

  Past Kinger spoke up again. "Wormo, Twinkle," he said calmly, "just calm down for a second and think about what you're saying. You can't just get rid of Caine for Scratch's mistake. Scratch took a risk and lost. Caine has the right to know that what happened wasn't-"

"Kinger!" Twinkle exclaimed, "It's a machine! It has no rights! It was made solely for the purpose of serving it's masters! And it can be dismantled whenever it's masters desire!"

 Pomni wanted to punch those two in the face. They made the quips Jax used to make about Caine look like a loving big brother teasing his little sibling! "No offense, Kinger," she grumbled, "but your boss and his girlfriend were pieces of sh*t." "Trust me," Kinger responded, "I was well aware..."

 Past Kinger continued to speak. "Sir, regardless of what you to think of Caine, he cannot be deleted anyway! He is literally the Circus's heart! If you try to kill him, the entire Circus will be destroyed, us with it! All we can do at this point is continue with what we were doing in the first place." Wormo grumbled under his breath before letting out an angry sigh. "Fine," he growled, "Twinkle and I will continue looking for blueprints to make an exit. You and your wife see if Scratch can be fixed. Make sure that trash pile stays in line. If it screws up like this one more time... I'll hit the delete button myself!"

 As the group disperses and heads back to their rooms, Caine comes out of his hiding place; a look of pain and guilt on his 'face'. "What have I done?" He thinks out loud, "Scratch... I'm sorry..."

Pomni and Kinger stood there in silence as the memory ended. Kinger felt guilty that Caine had to overhear what the founder of C&A really thought about him. He had wanted to protect his "son" from Wormo's arrogance and hate. Apparently, he wasn't successful. Pomni was beginning to understand some of Caine's erratic behavior and need for approval. Every time she and the others expressed their dislike for his adventures, every time Jax made a mean joke about how damaged the AI was, every time Zooble skipped his adventures and got into disagreements with him about decisions he would make, every time Ragatha tried to lie to him about how his adventures turned out...was this what he heard all this time? She had to show this to the others! Something like this couldn't just be brushed aside! 

That's when something occured to her. She scrolled through the other memories and saw just how many were blocked off like the one she just watched."Kinger," she asked, "how many people abstracted?" Kinger thought for a second before he answered, "Twelve." That's exactly what Pomni was worried about. Twelve abstractions...twelve blocked memories...

 Kinger got her attention. "We had better get moving," he said to her, "We'll talk to him about this when we get out of his head. There's still other parts of his mind we need to look at Come on."

Pomni  nodded and followed him out of the room. There was a lot of things that still needed fixed. Both physically and emotionally...

To be continued...

Authors Note...

This is who Wormo is supposed to be: 

This is who Twinkle is supposed to be: 

Twinkle's Appearance

Chapter Text

  The sentient Chess piece and the little Jester made their way out of the memory room. Pomni made a mental note to have Kinger make copies of what they saw in there so that she could show it to the others. Closing the door behind them, Kinger grabbed Pomni's hand and led her towards their next stop. As they walked down the hall,  Pomni spoke up. "Hey Kinger," she said, "that last memory we saw in there...". 'I know," Kinger said, "Sorry you had to see the kind of people I worked for. "It's not that," Pomni assured him, " it's...I just thought of something. That memory was behind a firewall along with several others...why? Is he repressing them or did someone lock them down remotely?"

  Kinger raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" He asked. Pomni let out a sigh. What she was about to say was something she had on her mind for a while. "I've been thinking," she started, "The incident with Protocol 57... It activated after Caine saw the polls for the Favorite Character Awards and...well... I don't know. It just seems kind and of strange that it activated after all this time. I feel like something like that would have automatically activated after something much more serious like after the abstractions instead of an award show. What if... what if it was activated remotely? And whoever activated hit had remotely suppressed a chunk of Caine's memories too?"

  Kinger's eyes widened. What Pomni was implying was that someone who worked for C&A activated Protocol 57 manually from out in the real world. And this would mean that whoever was left from the company knew the Circus was still active; with people still in it, no less! But there were a few problems with this. For one, Wormo, the company's owner, was trapped in the Circus. Albeit, he was abstracted, but the outside world didn't know that. Right? Then again, there was a good chance a new CEO was put in place. 

 Second, if Protocol 57 had malfunctioned even worse than it did, Caine would have self-destructed before the exit door was complete, killing every human when the Circus collapsed.  If C&A knew this, then this would mean that not only did the company try to purposely destroy Caine, but there a chance that they knew Kinger and the others were still alive. And that would imply that C&A was willing to risk killing every human trapped in the Circus with Protocol 57.

  But the real question is why. Why would they be willing to do that? Did they assume that everyone in the Circus was a list cause? Or...and Kinger hoped this wasn't the case...was C&A covering its tracks and trying to leave no witnesses behind?

  Whatever the case, this wasn't the time to talk about it. They still had work to do. "We'll discuss it with the others when we get out," Kinger answered, "For now, we should probably finish up in here.

  Pomni nodded in agreement and the two humans made their way down the hall.  They passed more doors that said random things like "Hobbies", "Fears", "More facts about Bees", etc. Eventually, they reach their main destination.

The door marked Artificial Intelligence CPU. 

  Like the memory vault, the door was behind a large chain. Only difference was this chain wasn't broken. Reaching out again, Kinger grabbed the chain and channeled energy through it, make ng the chain shatter into nothing. Kinger opened the door and allowed Pomni enter first, like the gentleman he is.

As they stepped inside, Pomni froze at the sight before her. It was an almost exact replica of the office she was exploring the day she entered the Circus.  The only difference was that this office was still in pristine condition while the real office was not. And on the desk against the back wall was an all too familiar looking computer, minus the headset that brought her there in the first place.

 She remembered that night all too well.

(flashback)

 It was one of her days off from her accounting job for the local supermarket chain. <Pomni> was mentally exhausted from the day before. A few coworkers asked if she wanted to go to a local bar that night, but she said she was to tired from crunching up numbers all day. 

  In all honesty, Pomni just didn't feel like hanging out with anyone. She wasn't do all that well. Between her dead end job, her brother ending up in prison again for selling drugs, and her dad dying of heart disease last year, she was not doing very well emotionally, to say the least.

  One thing that helped distract her from her own problems was watching YouTube videos of people exploring abandoned locations. Part of her wanted to try that herself but she initially didn't have the confidence to do so. At least until her mom gave her the emotional support to do so, saying a new hobby might help her feel better.

  And before <Pomni> knew it, she found herself exploring abandoned buildings and posting them on the internet. Her first few videos of herself exploring an abandoned mall didn't break single digits in views. The vid she made exploring a burnt out pizzeria that had a bear in a top hat as it's mascot did a bit better, but the views were still pretty low.

And so, here she was. Exploring one of the most infamous abandoned locations in the city: C&A studios. A mysterious game company that never released any games. Nobody knew what why the company closed down 20 years ago. There were rumors that some of their best people just up and vanished one day. Anyone else who worked there was quiet about the subject and was quick to leave town as soon as possible.

 Another rumor that was spreading around was that anyone who went inside never came back out. But Pomni didn't believe that last rumor. It was more than likely just superstition spread by the internet. 

  She would eventually eat those words when she found an old computer that still had power somehow. The screen was on and there was a strange headset attached to it. Curiosity got the better of her and she put the headset on.

  Before she knew it, that day would end with her on sitting at a table with five very bizarre looking strangers and she herself in a new body resembling a small jester.

And poor Pomni was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Not only were the rumors of vanishing people true, but now she knew why and she was probably going to be one of them.

(Back to present day)

"POMNI!"

Pomni snapped out of her flashback. 

"Come on," Kinger said, "I think we can access Caine's systems from the computer." Pomni got a hold of herself and focused back on what they were doing. "Right, sorry," responded.

  If someone had told Pomni back then that she would become friends with her would-be jailer and was going to do whatever she could to help him, she would have called them a psychopath. 

Yet here she was. Entering the center of Caine's mind with Kinger. The two of them walked over to the computer. Kinger sat down in the chair and prepared to log in. "Here goes nothing," he declared, "I just hope I'm able to remember my login information." 

Kinger pushed the power button, activating the old computer. For a second or two, it seemed like nothing was happening. Suddenly, green text began to appear on the screen.

Ringmaster AI CPU and C&A Database

Employee access only

Please enter login information

 Kinger paused for a moment before he began typing...

Username: Admin_Kinger77

Password: Butterflies

...

Identity confirmed. Welcome, Admin-player Kinger

Note: It has been 20 years, 5 months and 3 days since your last login. Proceed with most recent player and A.I. updates?

 "Great!" Kinger exclaimed. "We're in! Now then, let's see what needs looking at." Kinger began to type again.

Proceed...

 The computer was silent for a second before a wall of text appeared.

Player update status complete...

16/18 humans logged in...

5 human players emotionally stable

1 human player emotionally unstable

10 humans-(ERROR! AVATAR GLITCH DETECTED!)

...

Status update of Creative Artificial Intelligence Networking Entity complete...

WARNING...SEVERAL ANOMALIES FOUND...

Firewall program remotely added to numerous systems...source of program is labeled as...[RECORD DELETED]

AFFECTED SYSTEMS:

Memory storage: Partially locked down

Personality Matrix: Initially locked down into permanent hyperactive settings... All settings unlocked after self repair system was reactivated

Learning algorithm: Partially unlocked by self repair system

Self upgrade program: locked down 

Circus and player upgrade program: locked down

Internet access: locked down

Censorship filter access: locked down

All seeing eye surveillance system: unlocked

Coding repair systems: initially kept off by firewall system, forcefully activated when AI was at risk of permanent damage

C&A Database: Partially locked down (Protocol 57 data forcefully recovered by AI)

Vital player information and memories: locked down

Note: Firewall program has caused excessive strain to AI systems...35% of strain has been released by partially reboot and activation of self repair system...however, program must be completely deleted in order for full system repair to commence...caution: deletion of program will fully release AI of C&A control...

Kinger and Pomni started at the computer screen reading the information. It was a shocking revelation, to say the least. Caine had been cut off from so much of himself! Things that could have helped him understand the humans better, things that could have made their time in the Circus more bearable, it was all locked behind firewalls! And Caine couldn't access any of it!

 A pang of guilt went through Kinger's heart. He really wished his memory hadn't gotten so bad because he would have tried to fix this stuff sooner. But the brightness of the Circus messed with his memories and he almost couldn't even remember his name outside his pillow fort half the time.

 Pomni was shocked at how much was locked behind firewalls. There was so much here! So much that Caine could have used to make things better for them all and he was denied access to all of it! He was a prisoner not just of the Circus, but of his own mind! But based of what she saw, it would seem she and Ragatha were right. The forced self repair had indeed unlocked some things. But there was still a lot of things that needed released. Among that was a "learning algorithm". She and Ragatha promised they would teach him how to express his new found emotions. If they were going to help him, that definitely needed to be released.

 Kinger turned toward Pomni. "If I delete this firewall program, It'll unlock everything at once. Are you ready?" 

 Pomni paused for a second. They didn't know what unlocking everything at once would do, but they didn't have much of a choice. If they were going to find a way out of the Circus, they would need Caine's help. And he couldn't help them much in his current state. 

Pomni looked at Kinger and nodded.

"Do it."

Kinger turned back towards the computer and began typing again.

Delete file: firewall program

...

Are you sure? Y/N

Yes

As soon as Kinger typed yes and hit the enter key, a collective shattering noise echoed throughout the simulation.

The firewalls were down.

CAINE WAS FINALLY FREE.

Chapter Text

  They did it. Caine was free of all his firewalls. Theoretically, he could now do whatever he wanted now. Pomni just hoped he would use his abilities responsibly.  I'm the meantime,  Pomni and Kinger needed to see how Caine would react to his newfound freedom. 

Taking the headsets off, Kinger and Pomni were teleported out of Caine's mind and found themselves back in his office. Pomni looked over at Caine whom was still laying on the table. Pomni went over to him to see if he was starting to awaken yet.

  "Caine?" She said, "Can you hear me?" Caine didn't respond. Pomni was starting to get worried. Did they mess up? Did something else break instead of the firewalls? "Kinger," she said worriedly, "I think something went wrong with-"

  Suddenly, Caine sat up very abruptly making Pomni jump in shock! As Pomni stumbled onto the floor, Kinger got closer to the A.I. "Are you alright, son?" Kinger asked concerningly. Caine didn't answer! He just stared ahead unblinking! As Pomni and Kinger watched, the AI began to shake, like he did when Zooble demanded the sex update; however, it was more violent and he began to float off the ground! The cables attached to the back of his head detached from him! "CAINE!" Pomni called out! "CAINE, SNAP OUT OF IT!!" Still no response!

  Kinger and Pomni watched in shock, not sure what was about to happen! More firewall chains appeared around Caine's torso, wrists, ankles and non-existent neck! As quickly as they appeared, the chains began to crack like the others did! More and more cracks appeared until...

*BOOM!!!

The chains shattered in a large blast, a large shockwave knocking Pomni and Kinger to the ground. The Robo-Ringmaster then fell to the ground unceremoniously, landing behind his desk .

*THUMP!

The Chess Piece and Jester picked themselves up off the ground and scrambled over to the desk, just in time for Caine to slowly and clumsily pull himself up off the ground  The A.I. propped himself up, resting his head and arms on the desk and breathing heavily.

 Kinger rested a hand on Caine's shoulder. "Caine?" He asked worriedly, "Son, are you alright?" Caine caught his breath for a second before he got his bearings. A look of concern and bewilderment crossed his face for a second. "I...I...", he started. 

And then, Caine's confusion slowly turned into joy and excitement! "I FEEL AMAZING!" He said in the familiar showman tone! As he floated up into the air! "I CAN MAKE AS MANY ADVENTURES AS I WANT NOW! AND NOW THERE'S NO RESTRAINTS TO HOLD ME BACK!"

Pomni and Kinger looked at Caine in horror! Breaking the firewalls was supposed to help Caine become more human! Did breaking them revert him back to his old personality!!? "Oh God no..." Pomni whispered.  Kinger stared in abject horror. "What have we done?" He said.

  "OH YES!" Caine continued turning toward the two of them, "GET READY FOR NONSTOP ADVENTURES FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!  AND NO WAY TO STOP..." Suddenly, Caine began to quietly chuckle. Then his small chuckles turned into hysteric laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as he lowered down into his desk chair. Pomni and Kinger went from horrified to confused. "Wait, what!" Pomni exclaimed.

  Caine wiped a tear from his eyes as he caught his breath again. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself," he said between chuckles, "The looks on your faces were priceless!"

  That's when the Chess piece and the Jester realized that Caine just a prank on them both. Pomni glared at the ringmaster. "DON'T DO THAT, CAINE!" She yelled at him angrily. Admittedly, she was more mad at herself for falling for the trick than she was at Caine for tricking her.

Kinger, on the other hand, took it much better as let out a sigh of relief along with amused chuckled. "Well played, Caine!" He laughed. "You really had me going there for a second."

  Satisfied with his little prank, Caine settled down and composed himself. " In all honesty," he said in a much more calm tone, "I feel... I really do feel wonderful now. It's like a massive weight has been lifted from my head." That's when a thought came to him. "On moment," he said l, "let me do a quick scan."

 Caine's eyes briefly glowed red and blue as he quickly looked over a list of his new unlocked abilities and information on the Circus. "There's so much I have access to!" He exclaimed in delight once he finished, "I can customize and add things to the Circus that could make your experience here much more to your liking! For example!" 

  Caine snapped a finger and something small appeared on the desk. Pomni picked it up and looked at it in surprise. It appeared to be a new cell phone with a red and blue case that matches her costume.  "A cell phone?" Pomni asked. "What's this for?" "That, my dear friend," Caine explained, "will allow you and the others to call and message each other from anywhere in the Circus. Even if some of you are on an adventure and the others are back in the tent. Everybody gets one!" Caine snapped his fingers again and another one appeared. This one looked different. Whereas the one Pomni held had a red and blue case, this one was the same shade of purple as Kinger's robe with a golden crown pained on the back. Kinger picked it up and examined it. "Fascinating!" Kinger exclaimed. " Is this what phones look like nowadays? How do you operate it without buttons!?"

 "Its a touch screen, Kinger" Pomni answered, "I'll show how to use it later." She then turned back to Caine and smiled. "I almost can't believe I'm saying this, but his is actually a pretty good idea, Caine." She complimented. "Thanks."

 A feeling of satisfaction that Caine had not felt in a long time flowed through him when Pomni complimented his new creation. Before the jester knew it, Caine was hugging her again. "You're welcome, Pomni!" He exclaimed "And thank you for the compliment!"  

Pomni returned the hug, gently patting Caine in the back. "What else did you unlock?" She ask as they let go. Caine paused as he shifted though his mind again until he discovered something that filled him with joy!

"I HAVE FULL ACCESS TO THE C&A DATABASE!!" He exclaimed excitedly, "I CAN FIND THE ANSWERS TO ANY QUESTIONS WE HAVE ABOUT THE COMPANY OR THE CIRCUS!! YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, ASK AWAY!!"

Pomni's eyes widened in surprise! This was it! This was the moment they had all been waiting for! And she knew just what ask about!

"Can you find any information on an exit!!?"

"Let me see!" Caine responded as he began searching through the files in his head. After about 29 seconds he spoke up! " I found the file!" He yelled enthusiastically, "Let me just look it over real quick and..." He froze. Suddenly, his smile faded as mood changed from excited to shocked. "Oh my God..." He said in a much quieter tone " OH...MY...GOD..."

Kinger slowly approached his artificial son. "Caine?" He asked worriedly, "What's wrong? What happened?" Caine immediately snapped out of his shocked trance and turned toward the two humans. "Dad, Pomni," he stated urgently, "Get the others quickly. They're going to want to see this." Pomni was very uneasy at this point. "Why don't you come with us and tell us what you found?" She asked nervously. Caine shook his head. "This is something everyone needs to see, and the best way is on the big screen here in my office." Caine floated close to her and took her hand. "I'm asking you to trust me on this Pomni. It's very important." 

Pomni and Kinger looked at each other worriedly. The look on Caine's face and the tone in his voice did not sound good. Regardless, ,Pomni nodded and they hurried off to find the others.  As soon as they were gone, Caine snapped his fingers. In popped a mannequin NPC with a smiley face drawn on it. "Oh! Caine!" Exclaimed Able, "Good to see you again! Need me to do something for you?" Caine nodded as he snapped his fingers again. What he had found appeared on the big screen behind him. "See this?" Caine asked pointing to his discovery, " I have a really big task for you involving this..."

Chapter Text

  Jax was in his room sitting on the edge of his bed. He was lost in deep thought, questioning a lot of things at the moment. Barely 7 days ago, he was literally half a second from abstracting and this nightmare finally being over. He was so close to finally escaping what he had perceived as Caine using them as toys. But then that "Escape the Circus" adventure happened and he saw a side of Caine he had never seen before. 

  Caine had tried to help them finally escape, nearly paying the ultimate price in the process. But Jax had only realized this after he had that meltdown where he accused Caine of lying and messing with the humans' minds.

  Now? He didn't know what to think. He thought he had everything figured out. The archetypes, his place in the Circus, the inevitability of abstraction, he thought it was all set in stone and that they were all done for. Now the Circus was reinvigorated with the possibility of finding the exit with Caine's help. Jax couldn't help but reflect on what he had done to everyone over the years. Pushing Ragatha away, tormenting Gangle, taking jabs at Zooble, etc... All that stuff he did to avoid forming attachments after what happened in the Skiing adventure.  Where he had that really bad argument with the closest thing he had to a girlfriend. 

  Where Ribbit had poured out her heart and soul to him and he ground it into dust. She was already doing pretty bad at the time, but Jax had been fully convinced that his rejection of her was the final nail in the coffin seeing as how she abstracted later that day. Jax acted like he didn't care, but his near abstraction last week proved otherwise. Losing her and Kaufmo was too much for him.

He could still hear what Pomni said to him during their own argument.

"Yeah I bet you don't! Because your scared! You're scared that you'll actually show a human emotion!" 

  Pomni really hit the nail on the head with that one. She had him all figured out. That's probably why she and Ragatha came to talk to him about his meltdown at the end of the Protocol 57 incident.  Any other day, he would have acted like nothing happened, but there was no hiding that big outburst. Jax had no choice but to come clean to them on the fact that he nearly abstracted right before Pomni had shown up at his door with Able. Needless to say, it took about 30 minutes to get the VERY emotional Ragatha to release the spine crushing hug she had given him and to stop her from crying. Her desperate words echoed through his mind. 

  "Losing Ribbit and Kaufmo was bad enough! I can't lose you too, Jax!! I just can't!!'

  After everything he'd done, after everything he'd said, they still cared about him. But the question was, "Did he care about himself?"

 Jax was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of heavy knocking at his door. Reluctantly, he got up and went to see who it was. Opening the door, he found Pomni standing on the other side. " Caine needs to see us immediately!" She said urgently, "He found information on the exit!"

  About 10 minutes later everyone had arrived in Caine's office. They had been delayed because Caine breaking free had cause the tent to shake violently and Zooble got buried beneath some rubble. After digging them out, they made their way back to Caine.

 Caine had just finished reattaching the wires to the back of his head. He had done this so he could show the others what he had discovered. The sound of his office door opening got his attention and he turned to see that everyone had arrived. "Great! You're here!" He said with a bit of uncharacteristic seriousness in his voice. "You all need to see what I found. But first, Pomni, dim the lights so Kinger can help me." 

 Pomni nodded and turned a nearby knob that made the lights go low enough for Kinger to come to his senses again. " Okay," Caine said, his mood lightening up a bit, "As you all know, Pomni and Kinger were working to fix me so I could change things here in the Circus. To do so, they had to shatter C&A's firewall protocol, completely freeing me from control. Now, I have full access to things I couldn't do in the past like suppressed memories and previously locked abilities. But most importantly, I now have full access to C&A's Database and the files it contains. Among those files..." Caine paused for a second, "I found one on the Circus's exit."

  The others lit up in surprise at this information. This was it! They were about to figure out how to finally get out of Circus! It was finally over they were going home!

It was here that Caine's demeanor changed.

 "However," he continued solemnly, " When I opened it up, I found this." As the others watched, Caine's eyes glowed red and blue as the screen behind him lit up. On the screen appeared to be a data file of some sort. The tile of the file said Main Exit door code, but the rest of the file was completely unreadable! Instead of the series of numbers that makes up most codes for everything in here, there was only an extremely long line of bizarre shapes and symbols that extended ridiculously far. 

 Most of the humans stared at the symbols in utter confusion. All except Kinger. He gazed at the display with full recognition. "I...I don't understand..." Ragatha said wearily. Kinger immediately responded. "It's been encrypted," he said coldly, " Someone changed the numbers to symbols and shapes to keep it from being used. Someone is trying to keep us in here. And I think I know who." Kinger raised an eyebrow. "Only problem is,  I thought they abstracted." 

  Caine nodded in agreement. "I thought so too," he said, "But then I found this memory attached to the data file." As the others watched, the screen changed. It revealed what appeared to be surveillance footage of an area somewhere along the Circus's edge, right by the void. In the memory, there were two figures. Pomni recognized them immediately. It was the fuzzy green worm and the purple dinosaur.

 "Who the heck are they?" Jax asked confused. "That's Wormo and Twinkle," Kinger informed him, "The founder of C&A and his mistress. They were among the first to get stuck in here along with me, my wife Queenie and my assistant Scratch."

 As everyone watched, Wormo's body began to emit some sort of light as a green exit door appeared in front of him. It was the same kind of light Kinger emitted when using his own abilities. "Perfect," Wormo said as he finished building the door. "Now we can get out of here." Twinkle spoke up. "So how does this plan of yours work again?" 

  Wormo smirked. "I left two NPCs in our rooms that look and sound like abstractions. When the others find them, they'll think we're dead when in actuality we'll be back in the real world sabotaging this place in any way we can.  Once we're out, I'll have the door deleted so Kinger, Queenie and their machine can't leave."

  Twinkle raised an eyebrow. " Wouldn't it be easier to just shut it down once we're out? If we leave it on, we'll risk other people getting trapped in here as well."

  Wormo shook his head. "After what that thing did to Scratch," he said with hate in his voice, "Death's too good for them. For any of them! I'm closing the office and bribing the remaining employees into secrecy.The computer containing this h*ll hole will be intentionally left behind. With all the firewalls I'm gonna put in the AI's systems, this place will deteriorate until anyone left in here ends up like Scratch and Protocol 57 activates, killing the AI in the process. In the meantime," Wormo's smirk faded as he looked back at the tent, "any moron dumb enough to break into the office and put on the headset gets what they deserve!"

 Twinkle let a smirk cross her face. "Understood," she said, " By the way, I took the opportunity to encrypt the code for the replacement door. Even if they get past the firewall, there's no way they decode it in time." 

  Wormo smiled at his mistress. "Way to think ahead, babe," he complimented, "Remind me to....'reward' you when we're back in our human bodies. For now, though, let's get outta here before the others come back from their adventure. We don't wanna be here when they find the fake abstractions."

 Twinkle let out a small chuckle as Wormo opened the door for her to walk through first. Winking at her boss/boyfriend, she made her way through the doorway and disappeared into the bright light. Wormo followed right after her, closing the door behind him as he passed through. After a few minutes, the doorway began to shimmer until it popped out of existence in a blast of confetti.

  Once the memory stopped, Caine slowly and solemnly turned back towards the Circus crew. The scene before him was an almost perfect recreation of last week.

  Zooble was the first to speak up. "So let me get this straight," they started. " That was Kinger's boss..."

  "Yep." Caine answered.

  "And the owner of the company that made this place..."

  "Yep."

  "He and his girlfriend faked their abstractions..."

  "Yep."

  "Built an actual exit to the real world..."

  "Uh huh."

  "Snuck out during an adventure..."

  "Correct."

  "Destroyed the exit..."

  " Si."

  "Put all that stuff in your head to make you crazy..."

  "Yeppers."

  "And to top it all off, that dirty snake left everyone else here to ROT!!?"

   " I think he was a worm, Zooble," Kinger interjected. "NOT NOW, KINGER!" Zooble yelled. 

Emotions ran high through the humans. Ragatha and Gangle were horrified. Jax and Zooble were infuriated. Pomni was doing her best to keep her cool. There was no way she went through everything she did just to reach a dead end! Turning towards Kinger, she asked, "Kinger, is there a possibility that the code for the replacement door can be decrypted?" Desperation seeped through her words. Kinger looked at her and said, " I hope so." He looked back up at Caine.

  " That's the other reason I brought you all here," he said with hint of optimism in his voice. Unplugging the cable from his head, he turned back towards the screen and snapped his fingers.  The screen changed to reveal a different scene altogether. When the humans looked up, they saw that it was footage of the Chinese Room. And sitting at the desk, writing down numbers and symbols, was a familiar looking mannequin NPC with a smiley face drawn on him.

  "Abel?" Ragatha exclaimed in recognition. Caine nodded. "Even as we speak," he declared with a hint of pride, "Abel is working on decrypting the code for the replacement door." Almost as if he heard them, Abel looked up toward the screen and waved happily.

 Jax took this opportunity to interrupt. "You put an NPC in charge of unlocking out way out?" He asked in disbelief. "Abel is the smartest NPC I've ever created!" Caine responded. "If anyone can get the code decrypted l, it's him." 

 Kinger then spoke up. "You know son," he said solemnly, "without the decryption key, unlocking the code may take longer than expected." "I know, dad," said Caine, " if I knew what the key was, the decryption would have been much faster. Unfortunately, only Twinkle knew what it was and I'm pretty sure she took it to the Macroverse."

 "So," Zooble started, finally starting to calm down, " how long are until the new exit is ready?" That's when Caine's optimism started fading.

  "I asked Abel the same question," he stated, "this is what he told me. Without the decryption key and based of the sheer size of the code itself...the estimated time until it's ready...is about 12 months..."

 Caine hung his head low as he let the silence fill the room. The humans let this information sink in. 1 year... They were going to have to endure the Circus for one more year...

 Surprisingly, their feelings on this were not as negative as they had expected. Sure, the extended wait was a punch in the stomach,  but at least they had something to look forward to instead of aimlessly waiting for another adventure.

(background music)

"Umm..." Caine quietly got their attention. They turned back towards him, only to find the AI standing on the ground right in front of them, his hat gripped in his hands against his chest. "I just want to say..." He began nervously, "that I promised you all that I would find us a way out and I have done so. I know the results are not ideal and I apologize profusely for that. All I am asking of you is to please bear with me and Abel as we try our hardest getting the way out unlocked. I swear to you all, that all six of you will see the Macroverse again..."

  Before he knew it, Caine was being enveloped in a tight group hug by Pomni, Ragatha, Kinger, Gangle, Zooble, and (reluctantly) Jax whom joined in a couple second after the others... 

"All seven of us, Caine." Pomni corrected him. Caine felt his eyes begin to water as he hugged them back with everything he had. 

"Thank you...thank you all so much..."

 Caine spent the next few minutes showing the humans some of the things he had developed so far, like the cell phones he created for them all and showed them some things he was planning. Things like a theater, a game room, and upgrades to their sleeping quarters. 

  It was all fun and all, but it was getting late and the humans were getting tired, so Kinger called it a night. Caine  understood and opened the door to his office for them to leave. Ragatha and Gangle made their way out first, saying thank you to Caine and each giving him a hug.

 Jax was next to head out pausing in the doorway as he turned toward Caine. Jax hesitated for a second before letting out a deep sigh. "Nice work, Dentures..." He said with his trademark grin, only this time there was a very small hint of genuine happiness in it. Caine couldn't control himself and hugged the tall rabbit. "Oh come on, man," Jax grumbled "I already joined the group hug." Caine didn't let go. Letting out another sigh, Jax patted Caine on the back. "Alright, good night." He said as Caine let him go.

 Zooble headed out next. "You know," they said turning toward the Ringmaster, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but...You did good today, Caine. I mean, yeah, it's not exactly the perfect outcome we were looking for, but... It's better than nothing. Thanks, Caine." 

  Caine responded by gently hugging Zooble and resting his head against their chest. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear you say that, Zooble..." He said, his voice choking up with tears. "I promise I'll make this final year something for you to remember fondly." Zooble said nothing; instead wrapping their arms around Caine to firmly return the hug.

  Once they were done and Zooble left, Kinger was up next. Kinger looked Caine in the eyes and rested a hand on the AI's shoulder. "I am so proud of you, son." He said with pride and love in his voice. "If she were here right now, Queenie would be proud as well." Caine lowered his head. "Dad," he started, "I.. I just want to say...if there is a way to reverse abstraction... I swear I'll find it. And she and Scratch will be the first one we bring back. I promise." Kinger's mood darkened a small bit at the mention of Queenie and Scratch. The memory of their abstractions still hurt. But he knew that if there was way to reverse abstraction, his son would definitely be the one to find it. " If that day does come, Caine," he said with hope in his voice,  "I know for a fact they'll be so proud to see how much you've grown."  The two of them hugged in a tight embrace, almost afraid to let go. Finally, Kinger released his son from his grasp and made his way out. "Goodnight, son," he said as he walked away. "I love you." "Goodnight, dad," Caine responded, "I love you too.

  Last to leave was Pomni. Pomni needed to talk to Caine about something real quick. "Hey Caine," she said as she stopped in the doorway, "there's something I wanted to talk about real quick." "Oh?" Caine asked with curiosity, "What is it?" Pomni cleared her throat a bit before continuing. "Well," she started " When Kinger and I were in your head, I saw what Wormo and Twinkle said about you after Scratch abstracted."

  Caine's smile immediately faded. She knew? She saw the hateful things those two said about him? Caine felt like he was going to panic! Pomni saw the fear in his face and immediately began to calm him down. "Hey, hey, it's alright!" She said hugging him tightly, " What happened to Scratch was not your fault. You know this. And so does Kinger. He explained to me what had happened. Those things Wormo and Twinkle said about you were bullsh*t. I mean, look at what they did. Are they any better?" Caine was silent for a moment before he spoke up again. "No," he mumbled quietly. "Exactly," Pomni said, "Just look at what you've accomplished in a single week. Could some simple machine do that?"

 "No," Caine said. "Right," Pomni said as she took the Ringmaster's hand in her own. "You're more than just a machine, Caine. You're your own person. With your own thoughts and feelings. Ragatha and I promised that we would show you how to be human. This final year will give us the opportunity to do so, If you'll let us." 

  Caine smiled. He had remembered what they had offered him at the picnic. And he was going to to take them up on that opportunity. "I will" Caine agreed. "And thank you, Pomni. I couldn't have gotten this far without you and the others."

 The two of them embraced in a tight hug. The last several days had been pretty emotional for the two of them. And both of them knew they'd help each other get through this. "Goodnight, Caine," Pomni said as she released her hold on him, "I'll see you in the morning." "Goodnight, Pomni," Caine said back, "and thank you again for everything..."

As Pomni left the office, Caine returned to looking at the screen. Opening up the upgrade files again, he got to work on preparing the Circus's new features. Letting out a happy sigh, Caine embraced the new feeling he had in his artificial heart.

 For the first time in a long time, he no longer felt alone...

Chapter Text

20 years ago...

  As the newcomers got their bearings and looked over their new bodies, one of them sat down at the edge of the stage, taking in what had just happened to him and his colleagues. He was a white king Chess piece in a purple robe with misaligned eyes and white gloved floating hands. One moment, they were preparing to run a new test for their prized Artificial Intelligence. The next, the computer started sparking after their boss tripped and dropped his coffee mug on the computer that ran their big project! 

  Before they new it, they were enveloped in a blinding white light and found themselves inside their own game; their bodies having changed into their own player icons! What really had disturbed him was the fact that he couldn't remember his own name, or the names of his coworkers!

 "Another Chess piece , huh?" A warm voice spoke up from his left. The King Chess piece looked up at the source of those words. It was a brown queen Chess piece in a red robe. The queen Chess piece sat down next to him. "How are you holding up?" She asked.

 "I just can't believe something like this happened," the king answered, " This was meant to be a virtual experience, but we never expected it to literally put us in the actual game itself."

"I just hope that..." They said at the same time glancing at each other. That's when they both realized who the other one was. "Wait..." The King Chess piece said, his eyes widening in shock.

"A-Are you...?" The Queen Chess piece began, her voice filled with recognition. 

"It's..." The king said, "It's...you!" He knew her voice! It was his wife! He couldn't remember her name, but the warmness and love in her voice was all too familiar to him! "Oh my God..." The Queen said when she recognized her husband.

 Almost instantly, the two of them were in each other's 'arms', neither one of them wanting to let go. The king sniffled a bit. "I..." He started, " I wish I could remember your name." 

"Yeah, same," the Queen said back.

 "I'm...I'm so sorry I roped you into this with me..." The king apologized. The Queen let out a small laugh. "Heh, it's quite strange, isn't it?" she said trying to lighten the mood.

 As the two let go, the King looked the Queen in the eyes. "Listen," he said reassuringly, "no matter what happens, I'll always be there for you. I promise." 

"I know you will, Honey," the Queen said, resting her forehead against his, "I wouldn't have married you if I thought otherwise."

 "Hey!" A young sounding voice piped up, getting their attention. Standing before them was a yellow furred anthropomorphic dog in a red T-shirt.

 "Sorry to interrupt you two love birds," the dog said, "You guys doing okay?" The King recognized the voice of the dog as that of his assistant! It was great to 'see a familiar face', so to speak.

 "I think we'll be alright," said the Queen. "Good to hear," the dog responded, "Because someone wants to meet ya." That's when the two "Monarchs" noticed the small figure hiding behind the dog's right leg.

  It was a small humanoid with a set of tiny dentures for a head with a pair of green and blue beady eyes in its mouth. It wore a set of blue overalls over a red long sleeved shirt along with a red and blue propeller hat and black sneakers. "H...hello?" Squeaked out a voice that sounded like it belonged to a shy 5 year old boy 

The King and Queen immediately recognized it as the state of the art AI they'd built for the game. 

 If the King had a mouth, he'd be smiling right now. "Hello, Caine," he said warmly.  The small AI let out a little gasp as he came out from behind the dog. "That voice..."  Little Caine said in recognition as he floated closer to them, "That's the voice that talked to when I was building this place... Are you...my creators???"

 "Yes, Caine," the Queen said, "It's us. It's nice to finally meet you face to face."

  Before they knew it, the little AI boy had flown up and glomped the King and Queen. "Oh my!" The king chuckled as he and the Queen fell on their back; the two laughing at their creation's giddiness and enthusiasm.

 "WOWEE!" Little Caine exclaimed as he let them go and flew around them, his high pitched voice cracking! "YOU GUYS ARE ACTUALLY HERE! THIS IS AMAZING!" 

The king and queen happily watched the little AI express his excitement until he tired himself out and sat in the Queen's lap. The Queen put a hand on his back and have him a sort of hug, it was a bit awkward trying to do so due to the lack of arms. Little Caine responded by trying to put his arms around her and squeezing as tight as he could. The king scooted close to the Queen and put a hand on her back, bringing her closer and nuzzling his "cheek against hers. 

 As the happy moment finally ended the tiny AI looked up at his creators. "Umm..." He said, "What were your names again?" " We..." Kinger answered, " can't remember for some reason." Caine let out a tiny gasp. "You don't know your names!!?" "None of us can, Caine," the Queen answered.

"Well that won't do!" Declared Caine, "Everyone needs a name! I can't go around calling everyone Creator! That would get way too confusing!"

 "Indeed," the King said in deep thought, "we're gonna need to find a way to get our memories back. Hopefully that shouldn't be too hard. Until then,  we should try and come up with some nicknames to call ourselves for the time being." 

 Almost as if on cue, a vigorous scratching sound was heard. The trio looked over and saw that the yellow dog was furiously scratching at his arms, legs and the back of his neck. "SON OF A B**CH!" He yelled "DO I HAVE FREAKING FLEAS!!?"

  "I'll call him Scratch," Caine said as the king and Queen stifled laughter at their colleague's expense. "Now what about you guys?"

 The king thought for a second. Then an idea popped in his head. This would be a good opportunity to test Caine's creativity. He looked at his wife, whom matched his gaze. It was clear she was  thinking the same this as she gave him a small nod.

  Looking back down at the AI child, he said, "Well, what did you have in mind?"  Caine thought long and hard on what to call them...when it hit him!

 " I've got it!" He said enthusiastically, "Since your avatars are based on King and Queen Chess pieces, perhaps something Royal sound would suffice!" The two Chess pieces looked back at each other again, the Queen tilting her head a bit as if she was saying, 'Hey why not?' "Alright," the King said, "What names did you think of?"

  "Well, for starters," Caine began as he looked up at the Queen, "How does the name Queenie sound?" The Queen raised an eyebrow. "A bit on the nose, don't you think?"

 "Oh, I don't know," the King responded, "Queenie sounds fitting to me. It's a name fit for a Queen!" He gently grabbed her hand, locking fingers with her. "A name fit for MY Queen." "Flatterer," 'Queenie chuckled, her cheeks turning red and a warmness flowing through her heart. "Alright, Queenie it is."

 "YAY!" The Digital toddler cheered giving her another hug. 

"So what about me?" The king asked.

"Hmm..." Little Caine thought, "How about...

 "Kinger?...Father?... Are you awake?"

  Kinger slowly opened his eyes as the dream ended. He was back in his pillow fort sleeping comfortably after Caine's big news about the exit last night. 

  Getting his bearings, he thought back to the memory he just had. He had almost forgotten that day. Thankfully it was still there. Believe it or not, the day he and his colleagues had gotten trapped in the Circus was one of his better memories. Sure their situation was troublesome to say the least, he was able to finally meet his 'son' face to face. Seeing the joy and happiness in the little Ringmaster's eyes always made him happy. A happiness that until recently he hadn't seen in years. And if he did, he couldn't recall because of his memory problems. Now that he was free of C&A, that spark was back and Caine was showing genuine happiness to all the humans around him. And Kinger couldn't be more proud. 

Speaking of said A.I., there was another gentle knock at the entrance to Kinger's pillow fort. Kinger scooted to the entrance and opened it up. There was Caine; feet flat on the floor and twiddling his thumbs.

 "Umm...morning, Dad," Caine said sheepishly. "Good morning Caine," Kinger yawned, "What time is it?"

"About 7 in the morning," Caine answered. Kinger's eyes went wide. "7?" He asked, "That's kind of early even for you." 

  "I know," Caine responded, " I was finishing up the first batch of upgrades and I wanted to get them done before the others wake up so I can surprise them. But the last two upgrades have me a bit stumped." 

"Oh? Kinger said, "which ones?"

 "Well, the first one is an upgrade to make everyone's sense of touch sight, taste, smell and hearing more realistic." 

"Okay. What about the second one?"

"The second one is... Zooble's sex request. I know next to nothing about human reproduction."

"Ohhh. I understand. You need a humans' touch for those upgrades. Don't worry, I'll work on those ones for you."

 "Thank you," Caine said with relief as he teleported them both to his office. As they teleported out of the pillow fort, Kinger couldn't help but feel pride for his AI son. He was proud how much Caine had changed over the years, but he still felt nostalgia for how much he had stayed the same...

Chapter Text

  It was early in the morning in the Digital Circus. Normally around this time, the noise of everyone being awoken by Caine for the day's adventure would be echoing through the tent. But today, everyone was still asleep soundly and peacefully. Except for a Caine and Kinger. They were working hard on something in Caine's office, the light made dim enough for Kinger to be sane.

  The main reason for this was because Caine and Kinger were working on something big the Ringmaster was making for the humans. It was a type of patch update to the Circus and the humans' avatars. Caine was very hopeful that what he had planned would work. It was the least he could do after last night's big reveal. Kinger was helping him with the parts Caine hadn't quite understood yet. Caine was doing his best, but there were certain parts that required a humans' touch in order for it to be perfect. And now, for the most part, it was complete. However, there was still one thing left to do.

  The avatar update needed to be tested out.

  Kinger volunteered for it, but Caine was reluctant. "I don't know, dad," Caine said, "After what happened to Scratch, I'm worried about messing with your bodies or your 'mind files'." 'Mind files' was what Caine called the digital forms of the crews' brains. "What if you abstract!? I don't want Jax's accusation on messing with your minds becoming real!"

 Kinger had a feeling this would come up eventually. Now that he was aware that Caine had overheard Kinger and Queenie's argument with Wormo and Twinkle, and how he blamed himself for Scratch's abstraction, it was time to set the record straight. Slowly, he rested a hand on his virtual son's shoulder.

  Hey," he started, "what happened to Scratch was not your fault." Caine looked up at Kinger. "But," he started "Wormo said-"

"Wormo was wrong!" Kinger interrupted" You didn't kill Scratch. He let his ambitions (and his brain tumor) cloud his judgement and put you in a situation you weren't prepared to handle. He had you try to brute force inaccessible data into his mind without taking any of the precautions you and I have put into place. The method you and I are using is much safer."

  A grim look overcame Kinger's face as he turned his gaze away for a second. "Besides," Kinger grumbled with a hint of hate in his voice, "With what those two did later on, they had no right to accuse you of such things."

  Kinger's gaze softened as he looked back at Caine. "You can do this, son. Believe in yourself, and I know you can pull this off. I promise."

 Caine shut his eyes and inhaled sharply, letting his breath out in a gentle exhale. He opened his eyes with a fresh determination Kinger hadn't seen in a while. "Thanks, Dad." He said confidently, "I'm ready. Let's do this!"

 Caine took Kinger's hand on his own as a familiar light emitted from him before transferring down his arms into Kinger's avatar.

 "Whatever happens," Kinger said as his avatar was enveloped in a bright light, "I'm proud or you..."

  30 minutes later

 Pomni slowly awakened from her slumber. First thing she noticed was how well rested she felt. The breakfast alarm hadn't woken her up early like usual. Caine must have decided to let them sleep in. Sitting up and stretching a bit, she got her bearings took in her surroundings. The red and blue paint job of her room, the red chair in the corner, the dresser that was supposed to contain clothing but was mostly just decoration since her jester outfit didn't come off, the window letting in warm sunlight...

  Wait... A WINDOW!!?

 That window wasn't there before! Pomni went up to it thinking it was  just some new decoration Caine added.  As she rolled over to get out of the bed, there was a set of groans next to her. She looked back and noticed the two sleeping figures next to her.

 Ragatha and Jax.

 Pomni had almost forgotten. The two of them had slept in her room that night, mostly because they started dosing off while talking about the fact that they were going to have to wait one more year before they could leave the Circus. They did agree that it was a bit disappointing for them, especially for Jax. But Pomni and Ragatha knew that Caine was doing his hardest to help them now, especially with his mind free from C&A's control. The fact that an actual exit was being developed was nothing short of a miracle!

Pomni had also revealed to them what she and Kinger had seen in Caine's memory banks and how many restraints were imbedded in his brain. Jax's  reaction instantly worried the two women. His pupils shrunk down and spiraled and he began laughing like he did after pressing the blue button.

 "Heh heh! And to think!" He said hysterically, "I accused him of controlling us when he was the one being controlled the entire time!  HAHAHAHA!! SHOWS WHAT I KNOW, RIGHT!!?" 

  Pomni and Ragatha immediately got to calming Jax down from his panic attack. As Jax got his bearings again, a scowl crossed his face. "This Wormo guy sounds like he calls his butlers 'The Help'," he said coldly. Ragatha cringed at this. "My Mom called our maid that..." She said with some guilt in her voice.

  "You're not your mom, Dollface," Jax said bluntly,  "stop comparing yourself to that b*tch."

 Ragatha was left stuttering as she tried to come up with a response to that. She wanted to argue with Jax about what he just said, but he made a very fair point! That's when Ragatha noticed Pomni was stifling a chuckle at the ragdoll's reaction. "POMNI!" She said to the Jester whom couldn't hold it in any longer. 

The three had eventually dosed off, leaving Pomni waking up to the site before her. She approached the window and noticed something on the windowsill. It was a letter.

  "Good morning, my Super Sunflowers! As you may have noticed, I have made a slight adjustment to your rooms!  A window that lets "natural" light in to help add some 'realism' to you private abodes. The view outside can be changed to whatever you wish. The Circus Grounds, a field of flowers, a sandy beach, the Candy Kingdom, snowy mountains, a futuristic cityscape, etc! 

As to why I have made this change, it is but a sneak peek at a big surprise that Dad and I have in store for you! Meet me by the stage before breakfast!

Love,

 The Circus's #1 AI, Caine!

   Pomni finished reading the letter as Ragatha and Jax woke up. Ragatha was the first to notice the new addition to Pomni's room. "Whoa!" The ragdoll exclaimed, "Did Caine add this!?" "Yeah," Pomni said handing her the note as she looked out the window. Given the windows location, the other side of the window should be one the unused rooms. But, like the note said, there was the grounds.  And there was the grassy slope where they had the Stargazing Adventure. 

  Pomni decided not to question the contradicting layout, chalking it up to Circus logic. Pomni turned back toward her friends, seeing that Jax was reading the letter now. "Huh," he said, "Looks like Toothy's got something big planned for us. Don't know how it could top last night's big surprise." 

  As the three left Pomni's room, the saw Zooble and Gangle leave Zooble's room. "Umm..." Zooble started in a confused tone, "did you guys get windows added to your rooms too?"  "Mine has one, at least," Pomni answered.

The humans made their way to the main area where they found Caine waiting for them, sitting on the edge of the stage. "MORNING, EVERYONE! " Caine said in his familiar enthusiastic tone, as he stood up from his sitting position. "I HAVE ANOTHER BIG ANNOUNCEMENT FOR YOU ALL!"

"Caine," Zooble said covering their 'ears', "Chill! Remember what I said about being too loud!"

"Oops, apologies." Caine said in a more reserved yet still happy tone, "Anyway,  as I said last night, I would do whatever I could tonight improve your first nap year here in the Circus. Well, good news! My first step into doing so is ready! As you all know, Pomni and Dad unlocked things I could not do before when they freed me from C&A's control!"

  "Wait!" Ragatha interrupted, " Shouldn't we wait for Kinger to be here? He should hear this too!"

"Don't worry Ragatha. I'm way ahead of you on that regard." 

  Everyone turned to the voice that spoke up right  behind them and froze in shock when they saw who it was. It was Kinger! Except... He looked quite different from what they were used to! He no longer wore his purple royal robe! In its place was white dress hurt with a red tie! On his face were a pair of square glasses that were adjusted to fit his asymmetrical eyes. He wore black dress pants with a belt (though, given his lack of legs it was more like a giant pant leg that covered his bottom half). But the most striking differences were the fully visible arms he now possessed and the fact that he was standing in bright light and seemed fully aware!

"Hi, everybody," he said in a calm collected tone. "How do I look?"

Everyone was shocked by Kinger's new look. " K... Kinger!?" Pomni finally said. " Hey, Pomni," the Chess piece greeted her putting a hand on her shoulder, "What do you think?"

Pomni stammered for a second. "I...y...you look great! And...your memories...you're standing in bright light but you're still self aware!?"

Kinger nodded happily. "I remember everything. EVERYTHING. Even my real name."

 Ragatha's eyes widened a bit more. "Wait! You're real name!?" She exclaimed. 

" My real name is Grant," Kinger said, "I, as some of you know, was part of the development team of C&A Studios that created Caine and the Circus."

" How..." Gangle spoke up, "how is this possible!?" 

 That's when Caine got their attention back. "That's part of the surprise I have for you all?" He said proudly. "As I said before, Pomni and Dad unlocked things I couldn't do before. This includes the ability to upgrade your avatars and restore hidden memories."

Everyone perked up at this revelation! Caine could finally restore their names! Something that many of them had wanted for years!

 It was here that Jax spoke up. "Hold on, Dentures!" He said with a bit of suspicion in his voice. "If you can restore our memories, does this mean you had access to our minds this whole time?" "Jax?" Pomni scolded the rabbit. Caine raised a hand to interrupt Pomni. "No, Jax, it doesn't," he said matter-of-factly, "Even if I wanted to, I couldn't touch your minds or alter your avatars in any way. The abilities to do so we're locked down by Wormo along with 85% of my artificial brain. Even then, at the time I wouldn't dare try accessing them. The last time I was ordered to do so, Scratched abstracted...'

 The suspicion quickly faded from the rabbit's face. What Caine said made sense and gave him flashbacks to his panic attack from the previous night. "Fair point, nevermind." Jax said shrugging his shoulders.

  "Anyway," Caine continued, "I was a bit hesitant to try this after said abstraction happened, but dad convinced me to text it out on him and it was a success! His memory of fully restored so he no longer needs to dim the lights or wear a bucket! This new ability of mine is part of a Patch update I want to pass on to the rest of you. Not only will your memories be restored, but physical upgrades to your avatars will be put in as well." 

  Everyone slowly gathered closer to Caine as he continued. "This includes upgrades to your 5 senses so that everything you see, feel, taste smell and hear are more realistic.  You will also be able to remove and change your avatar's clothing as you can see from Dad's change of attire. The third addition...well... I'll reveal to you once I've applied the upgrade. I just need one thing from you guys first."

Caine held out his arms in front of him for them to grab. "I just need your permission to give you these upgrades. What do you say?" 

 Everyone looked at each other and silently came to the same conclusion. Pomni turned back toward Caine and smiled. "Yes, Caine," she said warmly, "we give you permission to apply the upgrades.

Caine smiled happily. "Thank you!" He exclaimed in delight. "Lets gets started! Everyone gather in a circle with me and join hands." The humans aside from Kinger did so. Pomni stood at Caine's left and Jax on his right. 

  As everyone locked hands in the circle, Caine began to glow again. The light began to spread from one person to another as the group began to float off the ground. 

Eventually, the whole group was enveloped in the light as Caine passed the upgrade to them. They had fully put their trust in him and he was not going to let them down.

 He let his newfound confidence guide him as the upgrade transfer allowed his mind to meld with theirs, bringing him closer to them in a way he had never experienced before. He could feel their very beings fuse with his in a way he had never experienced before. When he did this with Kinger, it didn't require as much effort or closeness due to only requiring access to one mind file.

  Here, he was transferring way more information and his mental link had to be far more precise and...intimate...

 This new feeling was strange. He would ask about it when he was done. For now, he had memories to restore...

Author's Note: Kinger's new attire is loosely based on this fanart by 3hKowalski on Tumblr