Lloyd and Phoebe left her home together, riding back to his place in the same car. She had developed an understandable paranoia because of recent events, so she laid down in the back, out of sight, while he sat in the driver seat.

For the first time in a while, he genuinely felt hopeful. It's not like they'd be able to anything significant to Manifest, but he felt closer to finding answers than ever before.

As they pulled up to his house, they could see Ben sitting on his doorstep, posed like the thinking man.
"That guy there, you don't have to worry, he's human and he's on our side." Lloyd said the moment he realized he forgot to mention Ben.

"I would hope so." She remarked. "Otherwise I would've assumed this was an ambush and gouged out your eyes."

"Ha ha." He replied sarcastically, even though the thought of her doing it made his flesh crawl. "Allow me to introduce you two."

Ben broke his statuesque pose as they approached.
"Oh wowww, you're both actually alive. Maybe you should've been my therapist. I have a cranky old lady."

"Why were you sitting like that?" Phoebe asked, sounding amused under the mask.

"This is how we charge." He replied simply.

"Really?"

"Hell no." He chuckled. "If we stay still long enough, the machine enters standby mode and we can play games."

Phoebe paused. "Is that a joke too? Or-"

"How about we all go inside?" Lloyd suggested. "I don't like wearing this thing."

Lloyd held the door open for Phoebe but stopped Ben.

"I'm sorry but... you're still connected. And even though Frederick told you to assist me, I don't think it's wise for our entire conversations to be recorded on your hardware."

Lloyd could feel Ben's faceless mug peering through his soul before he spoke.

"I'm fairly certain they aren't checking every one of these, with how quickly they're making them, but I'll wait out here no problem. I can connect to your phone so you can speak to me whenever you need to."

Lloyd pulled it out and raised it up to Ben, who held out his hand like he was giving a high five. Within seconds, a notification popped up that said; Contact Added: Benjamin Mitchell.

"I don't think you've ever mentioned your last name." Lloyd told Ben.

"I don't think you've asked." Ben contested. "Good thing too. My therapist is also very nosy."

As Lloyd entered, Phoebe was staring at the black box system set up all over the room.

"What is this?" She asked.
"It's the black box you almost knocked me out with, remember?" Lloyd answered as he bent down to pick up his laptop.

"It allows me to do virtual sessions at home. It's how I plan on helping us, and seeing my family again."

She watched him tap rapidly on the keyboard, the silence between them growing louder.

"I'm sorry, Lloyd. I didn't know."

"You didn't know, I didn't know, what else is new?" He responded bluntly, too focused on his laptop. Then it dawned on him what she said.

"It's okay. I forgive you. We've all made mistakes." He looked up at her earnestly and she smiled.

"Well I think it's ready. I had to calibrate it for too people. We should have enough room, but since this is your first time, I have to tell you, you don't need to move physically, you use your eyes to move and speak clearly to the machine to add changes to the scene, you'll see me do it first, it's easy. Now I already have your double up and running with the same simulation as last time, but it's been since I left, so she might be more angry than shocked. Do you have any other scenery in mind that you find peaceful?"

Phoebe thought to herself for a second. "Hmm. Anything, you say?"

"Yeah, fire away." Lloyd replied.

"Space!" She said excitedly. "I have always wanted to go to space."

Lloyd blinked. "Any other specifics? Or do you wanna be floating around in a vacuum?"

"Obviously I want to be on a space station. Looking down on Earth, not any of those other rinky dink planets. But you know, the way Earth looked like before. Not now." Phoebe ended her description with less fervor than it began with.

"I got you." He replied. "But, to ensure a peaceful transition for the Phoebe inside, I'm going to place a rocket nearby with a countdown blaring from speakers. If she loves space as much as you, she'll board it and meet with us in a few minutes."

"She absolutely would." Phoebe chimed. She stood next to Lloyd, knocking over the water bottle that Frederick left behind.

"You shouldn't leave trash on your living room floor." She chided. "It's very unbecoming, especially when you have guests."

"That's not even mine." said Lloyd. Starting sequence in five...four...three.."

"Wait, what's this then?"
He turned to look at her. In the bottle, there was a long black flashdrive with a purple blinking light.

"I have no idea. Frederick must've left it on purpose. He was so distressed about our situation that I didn't even notice."

She gave Lloyd the bottle and he took out the flashdrive, dropping the bottle onto the floor.

"What did I just say?" She snapped. But he was concentrated on the drive.

"He definitely has a plan. I just wish he told me what it was." Lloyd murmured. He looked very carefully at the rectangular device. It was transmitting a signal, but it appeared to have no microphone on it. Frederick wouldn't have been so frantic if he wanted to spy on him, this must've had a different purpose.

"We'll figure this out later. For now, let's get you sorted, shall we?"

The entire room began to change, becoming a shiny metallic elevator. Lloyd looked down and remembered Phoebe still had on the same clothes, besides the vest she insisted on wearing. Hopefully, that wouldn't have been two much of a problem.
The doors opened to a central command room with big curved windows about ten feet high, giving a big glimpse at, from their angle, nothing but darkness. They could see a tiny figure standing near the windows past a control deck. She, somehow, had changed her own clothes. Wearing a long red tunic with black bracelets, her pants and boots were black leather. Her hair was in a braided ponytail.

"Ms. Caulley," Lloyd said warily. He looked at the real Phoebe for assurance. She nodded.

"I'm here to talk about your situation." Faster than either of them expected, Digital Phoebe pulled out a strange looking weapon that fired three laser shots at them. Real Phoebe ducked and screamed, while Lloyd stood unfazed, bewildered at her mental ability.

"Aw man, you didn't even flinch." Digital Phoebe sounded deflated.

"Well, I'm not actually here." He told her. Then he looked behind him. None of the laser blasts had even come close to hitting them.

"And I've already seen firsthand that you have terrible aim."

"Shut up." The women said in unison.

"Hey other me," said Digital Phoebe. "Come here, you gotta see this."

Lloyd could feel Phoebe physically moving next to him, so he stuck out his hand to stop her.
"Your eyes control movement, remember? You almost ran into the sensor."

"Oops, sorry." She replied, as she adjusted herself and did it properly. Lloyd moved forward a little, but gave them space as the observed the Earth below.

"It's unbelievable." said Real Phoebe.

"I know right? But what's even more unbelievable," Digital Phoebe began.

"Is that outfit," Real Phoebe continued.

"That we designed in middle school for the career fair!" They said together, giddy with excitement.

Lloyd watched on quietly, puzzled by this turn of events.

"Excuse me ladies, but we kind of came here with a purpose, and it seems to me that it's been partially fulfilled. So instead of me being the one explaining things, I guess I have to ask. How are you... happy?"

Real Phoebe frowned at him. "That's kind of rude, Lloyd."

"Wait, wait, I didn't mean," Lloyd was red-faced and flustered. "You know what I meant. How are able to do these things that made you happy? How did you conjure the clothes and the laser gun?"

"Well, I woke back up on that beach with nobody around. I couldn't tell the time, nothing was happening, I was all alone. Thanks for that, but the way." Digital Phoebe glared at him.

"Since the world didn't look like shit, I knew it was fake, and once I knew that, I could do what I wanted. I was having a party with some very sexy guys and some fire dancers when I saw a spaceship in the distance."

"Fire dancers, sexy guys and you still left?" Real Phoebe was appalled.

"Of course. This is space! My one true dream." Digital Phoebe explained.

"Yeah I guess I would've left too. Plus that outfit is amazing, if I do say so myself." Real Phoebe replied smugly.

"And I do." said Digital Phoebe, giggling.

"Ok." Lloyd was exasperated.

"Phoebe," he began.

"Yes?" They said in unison.

"We're gonna start right there. Let's call one of Living Phoebe, and the other... Internet Phoebe."

"I'm alive too, you jackass." Digital Phoebe retorted.

"Yeah that's very disrespectful." Real Phoebe agreed.

"Alright, I'm sorry. How about-"

"How about we pick and you shut up?" Digital Phoebe instructed.

Lloyd wondered why she was being so intense, then he remembered she doesn't have any new memories of him, so he made his model sit down and wait.

"I got it, you know how we love French right? Call me Phoebe Deux."

Like Scooby Doo? That sounds terrible. Lloyd thought to himself.

"Phoebe Two, I love it!" Real Phoebe exclaimed. "And I'll just go by Phoebe."

Even knowing it means two is still weird. He thought. She's supposed to be a future version of you, the most present, not a coinciding one.

Instead of giving the women even more existential crises, he decided to let them have this moment.

"Now, Phoebe Deux," oh my god that sounds terrible. He thought to himself immediately. "We have a proposition for you."

"We want you to go undercover to help us expose the government!" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Or," Lloyd added. "You could just join the digital world like a normal person."

"Will I get to keep going to space if I do that?" Phoebe Deux asked.

"Almost certainly no." Lloyd commented.

"Option A it is then," she replied cheerfully. "What would you have me do?"

They both looked at Lloyd, who was at a loss for words. He looked behind him, knowing nobody else was there.

"Well, I need to check with my other informants before giving you exact directions at this moment. Currently I have two, almost three if we can figure out how to help Ben, plus you two makes five. Our focus is the factories were they make the automatons, and the wherever they're sending the cryochambers. Those don't stay at the clinics and we need to know where they're putting them."

"Sounds...half-assed. You're coming up with something better soon right?" asked Phoebe Deux.

"Of course. In the meantime. Enjoy space and your fire dancers. You're safe in my blackbox, a local sandbox that can be closed off from the system at any point." Phoebe walked over to Lloyd while Phoebe Deux gave a curtsy.

"Thank you. Oh, and Phoebe." Phoebe Deux said quickly.

"Yes?"

"I'm trusting him because you're with him, but don't forget he put us in this situation. Don't let him hurt you, okay?"

"I can handle him, I promise." They smiled at each other and the elevator doors closed. Then the simulation faded back to Lloyd's living room.

"That went way better than I anticipated." Lloyd told Phoebe.

"I wish I got to see the fire dancers." Phoebe lamented.

"Next time." He assured her, pulling the blinking flashdrive out of his pocket.

"Right now, it's time to figure out what this is."