SINGULARITY

EIGHTH SEQUENCE

"Iris I understand shes your friend so you'd feel that way about her but..."

"No! No Zaccaheus. I just... How can you be like this? We lost a son, something neither of us has ever gotten over. I know you would do anything to get him back. Thats why you helped Julia, I though you sympathised with her. And now you tell me you're angry at her? She was a wreck Zaccaheus, and yet you're angry with her?"

Zaccaheus was frustrated now. Why did Iris care what he thought of Julia? She was blinded by their own loss, as he had been intially.

"Listen to me Iris. Elijah, he is gone. I have gotten over that. I'm not the one who won't shut up about taking up one of those nanobot bodies, and leaving this place forever to find him. He, is gone. He made his choice; he was selfish, he chose his own vain desire for immortality over us. I did sympathize with Julia, I know how it feels to loose a son, as do you. But we had no right to make that decision for Daniel," he sighed, "I should have taken Julia to see him myself, not forced him out like that. I'm not Daniel's father, I'm not his family. I've only damaged things between them. Daniel will never stay here. Julia needs to accept this and let go of him, let go like I let go of Elijah, and like you need to."

He gazed into Iris's eyes as he finished, he could see the frustration in them.

"How dare you talk about him like that. Selfish? Vain?" Her tone was rising now, "Elijah wanted us to go with him Zaccaheus. He pleaded for us to go with him, to see the future as he did. You, you were the one who insisted on staying here, you forced me to stay here with you. You were the one who was selfish... Afraid."

Zaccaheus stood up now, infuriated at the accusations, "So it's my fault? My fault we're stuck here like this; miserable? Elijah is the one who left us; who left you! I'm the one still here, I'm the one who cared!"

"Zaccaheus don't pretend you're not still here because of me... I'm still here because of you!"

Zaccaheus swiped both of their plates off of the table in a rage; Iris jumped in her seat in shock. How could she blame this on him? It wasn't his fault, it was never his fault. It was Elijah's fault; Zaccaheus's own son who himself had runaway from their world, abandoned them.

"So thats how you feel is it? That I've kept you trapped in this world? That I'm holding you here against your will?"

Iris was tearing up now, she was shaking her head profusely, whispering, pleading, "No, no Zac I didn't mean it, please..."

He pointed a finger at her aggresively now, roaring, "Julia was pathetic! Daniel was no better, but she needs to accept that hes gone from her! I brought him back but thats obliterated any chances of him wanting to stay permanently. She needs to realise that he's a lost cause, like I realised with Elijah, and like you need to! Elijah betrayed us! He succumbed to the allure of immortality, choosing the slefishness of eternal life, over us. You feel sorry for Julia, and you blame it on her idiot son, but some how with Elijah it's my fault and not his?!"

"Please Zac, please I'm sorry, I don't want to fight like this..."

He ignored her, he felt betrayed by what she'd said, "Iris you need to forget Elijah! You need to understand he's not human anymore, not like us. Is that really what you want, to become like him?! To lose everything that makes us who we are?!"

She spoke timidly, "If it means none of this loneliness, none of this suffering, this... this misery... Zaccaheus, you're lying to me when you say you've forgotten Elijah, that you don't care about him anymore... I know thats a lie, because... I know you're better than that."