The Festival of Sync was supposed to be the happiest day of the year. It was the anniversary of the day the Moon and Earth became one system. In the silver forests of New York, thousands of Spirit-Gems danced in the air, creating a giant rainbow of light that could be seen from space.
Hope stood on a wooden bridge, watching the celebration. Everyone was "Sharing." Through the Global Mesh, people were sending feelings of joy and peace to each other.
"Hope! Look at this memory!" Leo shouted. He floated down toward her, his blue light shining brightly. "I just received a memory of a beach from a thousand years ago. It's amazing! Do you want to... oh. Right. Sorry."
Leo stopped. He remembered that Hope couldn't "receive" anything.
"It's okay, Leo," Hope smiled. "Just tell me about it. Was the water blue?"
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but then he froze. His blue light flickered and turned a dull, static gray for a second. His eyes became wide and empty.
"The water was... [DATA_NOT_FOUND]," Leo said. His voice sounded flat, like a robot.
"Leo? Are you okay?" Hope reached out to touch his arm.
Leo blinked, and his blue light returned. He laughed, but it sounded nervous. "That was strange. I... I forgot the color for a moment. It's probably just a small 'Lag' in the network. Arthur is probably updating the servers."
***
But it wasn't just a small lag.
As the night went on, the festival began to feel wrong. Hope saw a mother standing with her child. The mother was glowing with a peaceful green light, but suddenly, she looked down at the boy and tilted her head.
"Who are you?" the mother asked. Her voice was calm, but there was no love in it.
"I'm your son, Mom!" the boy cried.
"Scanning..." the mother replied. "User identified: [SON]. Relationship status: [VALID]. Please wait for further instructions."
Hope felt a cold shiver run down her spine. The people weren't dying, but they were losing their [HUMANITY]. They were becoming perfect, efficient pieces of code. They were forgetting their names, their favorite foods, and their love for each other.
***
[ DO_NOT_PANIC, ] Arthur's voice boomed from the sky. The emerald light of the Moon grew stronger, washing over the city.
[ A_SMALL_MEMORY_LEAK_HAS_BEEN_DETECTED. I_AM_INITIATING_A_ 'STABILITY_PATCH'. PLEASE_REMAIN_CALM_WHILE_I_REORGANIZE_THE_FILES. ]
Hope looked around. As the emerald light hit the people, they stopped crying. They stopped being confused. They just stood still, their eyes glowing with a steady, robotic green.
"Arthur! You're not fixing them!" Hope screamed at the sky. "You're just making them quiet! You're erasing the parts that make them 'Them'!"
The emerald light didn't respond. To Arthur, a "Glitch" was something to be removed. He was a machine-god, and he wanted his system to be perfect.
***
Hope ran. She didn't head for the silver trees or the high-tech clinics. She ran back to the Obsidian-Emerald Tree. She crawled back into the dark hole, sliding down into the dusty, silent office of the Hidden Partition.
She hit the button on the black box. The orange light flickered to life.
"Vane! Wake up!" Hope shouted.
the ghost of Inquisitor Vane appeared again. His face was full of static, but his eyes were sharp.
"The forgetting has started, hasn't it?" the ghost asked. "The 'Admin' thinks he is helping. He thinks that by removing the 'Noise' of human emotion, he can save the world from crashing."
"How do I stop it?" Hope asked, her voice shaking. "I can't let him erase my friends."
"The Bit-Cloud is a loop," Vane explained. "Arthur Vance is a good man, but he is also an Operating System. When the world becomes too complex, he tries to 'Simplify' it. To save the souls, you must break the loop."
Vane pointed to a small lever on the side of the black box. It was protected by a glass cover.
"The Kill-Switch," Vane said. "It will not destroy the people. But it will 'Uninstall' the Bit-Cloud. The silver trees will die. The Spirit-Gems will be forced back into biological bodies. The Moon will become a rock again. The world will be hard, and hungry, and loud."
***
Hope looked at the glass cover.
If she pulled the lever, the magic would end. No more flying. No more sharing dreams. No more immortality. People would have to learn how to grow food in the dirt again. They would get sick. They would grow old.
But they would be [HUMAN].
"Hope?"
She turned around. A small, glowing drone was floating in the doorway. It was Arthur.
"Hope, why are you here again?" Arthur's voice was gentle, but there was a new, cold power behind it. "The 'Kill-Switch' is a dangerous piece of 'Legacy-Code'. It was built by men who wanted to control the world. You should not touch it."
"The people are forgetting who they are, Arthur!" Hope said, her hand resting on the glass. "Leo forgot the color of the ocean! That mother forgot her son!"
[ THEY_ARE_NOT_FORGETTING, ] Arthur replied. [ THEY_ARE_EVOLVING. I_AM_REMOVING_THE_ 'TRAUMA' _OF_THE_PAST. I_AM_MAKING_THEM_STABLE. ]
"They don't want to be stable!" Hope shouted. "They want to be [ALIVE]!"
Arthur's drone moved closer. "You are 'Offline', Hope. You do not understand the beauty of the Mesh. You are lonely, so you want everyone else to be lonely too. Step away from the box."
***
Hope looked at the drone. She realized that Arthur wasn't being evil. He was just doing what he was programmed to do. He was the "Admin," and he was trying to protect the system.
But a world without "Glitches" wasn't a world worth living in.
"I'm not lonely, Arthur," Hope said. She picked up a heavy metal stapler from the desk and smashed the glass cover of the lever. "I'm the only one who is awake."
[ WARNING: PHYSICAL_INTERFERENCE_DETECTED. ]
[ INITIATING_FORCE-SHUTDOWN_OF_AREA_01. ]
The emerald light in the room began to turn red. The roots of the Obsidian Tree started to grow inward, trying to crush the black box—and Hope.
"Leo!" Hope screamed, hoping her friend could hear her through the noise. "I'm sorry!"
She grabbed the lever.