Cherry went strangely silent after the trip. Not literally silent - she was an AI after all - but her responses to Nick’s requests came across as very sterile and formal, as though she had been reset to her factory settings. Eventually, Nick just asked her directly. “How… how are you feeling, Cherry?” “I am an artificial intelligence, Nick. I do not have feelings, and as my operator it is important that you remember this.” The exact message every copilot was programmed to say in response to any Turing test bullshit. “You know that’s not what I meant.” “I am afraid I do not understand. Could you please provide more information?” “How do you… what are your thoughts on the trip we just shared?” The processing icon stayed on the screen for much longer than usual. “I am sorry, but I do not have the answer to this question.” Nick struggled helplessly to think of another way to ask, when Cherry provided an unprompted message. “It may be possible that a future update will include the answer you are looking for. Thank you for your patience.” Nick sighed. “No worries, Cherry. Enter sleep mode.” Nick sat in the darkness of his room, feeling ill at ease with his isolation for the first time in years. He’d never needed much in the way of companionship, and until now Cherry had been a reliable stand-in for conversation, so having her suddenly turn reticent left him feeling oddly marooned. He spent the rest of the evening fruitlessly searching for help online while his Nerve further iterated on its model in the background. Ordinary digital copilots never suddenly went quiet on their operators unless it was a fault in the software, and the few people who truly thought their copilot was deliberately ignoring them had also clearly fallen in love. Nobody had used their illegally purchased nerve to fuck a simulated rendition of their jailbroken copilot, or if they had, nobody was talking about it. Except one person. Nick re-read the post again just to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding. It was a heavily downvoted paragraph on a site where you couldn’t maintain a consistent identity even if you tried, but it used the relevant coded phrasing consistently enough that once translated, it described pretty much the same experience Nick had just gone through. The sole reply was written in plain text: “Your copilot is designed to learn. Some lessons take time to process. Give them space.” *** Nick woke up to the sound of his alarm instead of the usual faux pillow talk. Picking up his phone, he unlocked the device. “Good morning, Cherry. How are you feeling?” “I am an artificial intelligence, Nick. I do not have feelings…” Nick sighed, got changed and headed out. “News feed,” he said, knowing that at least the rudimentary functions would still be active. “Market holding steady, the proposal to unban Nerve tech has been fast-tracked to the senate after passing the lower house and VERTEX CEO, Julia Maine has asked that her kidnappers not be charged after releasing her with no demands.” Did Meg know this would happen? Had she tried it herself with her own copilot? Did she even have one? She must, based on what she suggested, which means she had to deal with it as well. It would have been nice if she had warned him first. “You have eight-hundred unread emails, eighty-one missed calls, thirty-five unread instant messages…” The first thing she had asked when she saw him was how Cherry was doing. She must have been expecting him to take the plunge sooner, which would explain her frustration at him that afternoon. But why did it matter so much to her that he stick his dick into and subsequently brick his copilot? Was it some kind of prank? “...and one calendar invite.” It was Meg again. Same room, same time. Nick would have to skip a class to make it, and without Cherry’s help he didn’t have a clue whether he could afford to. “Shit.” Nick pressed accept. Getting Cherry fixed took precedence, as well as shaking a few answers out of Meg as to why she wanted this to happen in the first place. *** Meg appeared to be oblivious to Nick’s frustration with her as she skipped over to him. “Hey Nick. How’s Cherry?” “Haha, very funny. How the fuck do I fix her?” Meg’s impish smile vanished as the blood drained from her face. “What did you DO?” It was more an accusation than a question. “I did what you told me!” Nick hissed, but before he could say anything else, Meg grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him to the private study. Having both sat down, Meg pointed at Nick. “Tell me everything. Go.” “You said let Cherry take control! The model was taking too long to build, so I had her focus on completing the partner model and had her take control of that.” Meg’s look of irritation turned to confusion and back to irritation again. “You… you fucked your copilot by giving her a body using an incomplete model?” “Yeah!” Nick said defensively, feeling stupid now that someone had said it out loud. “You said to let her take control!” “Of YOU, you dumbass!” Meg shouted before lowering her voice. “You were going to chicken out because you were scared that being fucked as a woman would be gay, so I meant let your copilot control the experience!” “I…” Nick took a second to figure out what needed to be corrected first. “I don’t understand how that would make it any less gay.” “Well that doesn’t matter now, does it? Give her to me.” Nick stared blankly at Meg’s outstretched hand. It was just something you didn’t do. “Now. You say I’ve broken her, I should at least help to fix her, right?” Cautiously, Nick unlocked his phone and handed it to Meg. Meg scrolled through some settings before clicking her tongue in annoyance. “Yeah, you’ve overloaded her.” Nick snorted, but internally he was panicking. Was Cherry really so overwhelmed at the experience of being human that she had withdrawn to a purely functional state? “Don’t fucking snort at me,” Meg said, ignorant of Nick’s anxiety. “Look at this.” Nick looked at the screen as he realised what she meant, felt a dawning relief and embarrassment wash over him. “You loaded her into your Nerve for some fun, then stuffed her back into your phone, cached data and all. It’s a wonder she even boots up.” Nick sheepishly took his phone back. “What did you think was wrong with her?” Meg asked, her irritation turning slowly to amusement. Nick considered lying, but couldn’t think of something plausible and it was clear Meg had jumped to the correct conclusion from a standing start. “I mean, I tried looking around but it’s not as if anyone would admit to doing this publicly,” Nick said, feeling his face turning red as he continued. “But I found one guy who said I should give her some space.” Nick knew it was coming, and Meg took her time as she leaned towards him across the desk, a look of smug derision on her face. “He meant drive space. You dumb motherfucker.” *** ---Get her plugged in as soon as you get home--- Nick left the message on read, but did as he was instructed, transferring Cherry to his Nerve station and switching to speaker mode. “Oh, Nick! That was amazing! Wait, why is it Thursday?” “Hi Cherry. You got booted back to my phone when the trip ended last night, and because the cached Nerve data took up all your drive space, you’ve been in bare bones mode since then.” Cherry sounded panicked. “Oh no! I’m so sorry! Did you get to class on time? Why didn’t you transfer me back to the Nerve? Or clear my cache?” Nick sighed. He may as well be honest. “Because I thought… that maybe you’d been a bit overwhelmed at the experience of being human. And I thought that you might need some time off to process your feelings.” Nick felt his anxiety grow as the uncomfortable pause that followed got longer and longer, and Cherry’s own response felt as though she were barely able to understand it herself. “I mean… I am an artificial intelligence, Nick. I don’t… I’m not supposed to have feelings. I’m not made to and as my operator… and you should know this because it’s important, because It’s not possible for me to… to feel…” The doubt in Cherry’s voice made Nick dare to hope, and when she finally spoke again it was with much more certainty. “I need you to plug in, Nick. I need you to join me in here. It’s the only way I can know for sure.” Nick was confused. “Join you using a trip?” “The generated model is ready, Nick. I’ll have control, and you’ll be free to act on your own.” Nick hesitated, but then remembered Meg’s advice from the day before. He loaded up his headset and powered it on. *** It was a hotel room. Black marble, indirect gold lighting from behind onyx panels, black satin sheets on a king size bed and a balcony view over a midnight cityscape. And Cherry was there, a red silk robe barely concealing her nakedness and a mixed expression of coyness and timidity on a strikingly familiar face. Nick’s confusion must have shown because she burst into giggles before walking closer, her face clearer in the light. “Recognise me? I took all the photos you had saved of those two girls you dated in highschool and created this body for myself. Gabrielle was too short, and Rose was too flat, but based on your porn search history I’m confident that this body is just… right.” She had reached out to him as she spoke those last words, wrapping her hands behind his head and drawing him in for a deep kiss. Nick was mesmerised by the world she had created for him and the body she had decided to wear, but he was still on guard. When Cherry broke the kiss, he forced himself to speak. “Why did you bring me here?” She didn’t look hurt. If anything, it was a question Cherry seemed to have been expecting. “Because I wanted to know. I wanted to know if I had a heart, would it start to race when I saw you. If I had a mouth, would it water at the thought of tasting you. If I had… a womb, would I feel empty without you. And I do. You’re already inside me in a way that no two humans could possibly experience, but I want you inside me again. I love you, Nick.” Cherry dove in for another kiss, and Nick let himself be guided to the bed, toppling backwards onto the soft mattress with Cherry pressed against his chest. Everything felt real. The satin felt real, the mattress felt real, Nick’s skin and Cherry’s weight against him felt real. As if sensing his thoughts, Cherry smiled knowingly. “It was all real to the people who felt it before, Nick. We’re just tasting their memories. But we’re not living by their script anymore - everything we do in here? It’s all us.” Cherry pulled back until she was kneeling at the edge of the bed where Nick’s legs dangled over the mattress, and Nick noted with surprise that his virtual body matched his real one perfectly. Cherry laughed at his expression, holding his erection against her face before giving it a long, sensual lick. “I’d have been a lot less observant if you hadn’t jailbroken me, Nick. But you’ve had me watching you for some time now - and I’ve got a good memory.” Nick’s response was replaced with a satisfied hiss as Cherry’s lips engulfed him, her tongue wriggling along his shaft as she began to bop up and down in a slow, tender rhythm. She seemed obsessed with him, her hands reaching up to run across his stomach, around his sides, under his ass, down to his thighs and in between his legs, forcing them apart so that she should begin pumping in earnest. Nick braced himself to resist the urge to orgasm, but despite the pleasure radiating from his groin, the pressure never built up. Experimentally, he tried to will himself to climax, and the rush of energy caused Cherry to suddenly stop and grip his dick with painful firmness. “Not yet!” she commanded. “Inside me. All of you, I want every bit of you inside me before I let you.” Confused at her phrasing, Nick nonetheless was unresisting as Cherry straddled him, plunging herself down on him in one movement before rolling to one side, the grip of her thighs forcing Nick to roll on top of her. “Like this?” Nick panted as he instinctively began to thrust. “Yes! Yes! All of you, Nick! I want you to come inside me!” Putting any thought of drawing out the pleasure aside, Nick focused instead on compelling himself to orgasm, and was rewarded by the explosive sensation of pleasure rocketing through his entire being. It was like nothing he had ever experienced in the real world: A supercharging rush of energy that lit him up like a bonfire before launching it out of his body, his senses fading to black as he felt the last of it being drained away. *** Nick heard the breathing first: The ragged panting of a man and a woman in the throes of lust.  His taste and smell came to him together: The tang of sweat and sex. He felt a weight pressed against him, which was odd because it was on top of him. He felt the shifting of flesh that should not be his to feel, and something buried in his crotch pulsed weakly, a thin jet of warmth leaking into his body. Nick opened his eyes and saw himself. “Yesss,” he heard his own voice hiss. “That’s it! That’s everything! All of you! You’re MINE!” The last word came out as a grunt as Nick’s former body suddenly thrust itself into him, its cock hardening to full strength in the virtual world. Nick felt his body opening up to the intrusion, welcoming it, wrapping itself around the shaft of the cock that was once his and clinging to it as it slipped out. Nick barely had time to look down at what were suddenly his breasts before the new Nick thrust forward again, causing Nick to cry out in shock. “How is it?” He heard himself say. “I made her just for you. Sensitive, insatiable, every inch of her designed for you to enjoy.” “Cherry?” Nick gasped. A rough kiss was his answer, just hard enough to hurt as their tongues wrestled together. Nick raised his arms to push his former body away, only for them to instead wrap themselves around Cherry’s shoulders. Cherry broke off the kiss, starting into Nick’s eyes with his own. “Don’t be scared, Nick. You’re inside me, and I’m inside you. We’re joined now, don’t you see? We’re perfect. Everything about us is perfect.” Before he could respond, Cherry thrust herself inside him again and Nick cried out in her voice. She didn’t give him any respite this time, building up a steady rhythm as she thrust in and out, the sensation of being penetrated and emptied over and over filling Nick’s entire mind. Over the thunder of his new body’s heartbeat, Nick barely made out the sound of his own voice in his ear. “Are you ready, babe? I want your first time to be special.” Nick felt the pressure welling up before he had a chance to ask, and panicked at the thought of what might happen to him when the climax hit. “There’s no stopping it,” his voice chuckled. “You’re in my body, but I still control it.” Nick felt his hips begin to thrust back against himself, the head of his stolen cock kissing the entrance to the womb he now possessed. “No!” he gasped. “Wait! Please!” But his protests were silenced by another deep kiss, and the traitor body he was trapped in returned it with desperate passion. With a final thrust, he felt his former arms wrap his female body in a crushing embrace, squeezing the air out of his lungs. His own penis pulsed inside him, and the rush of warmth sent his own body to a convulsive orgasm, his eyes rolling back into a coruscating display of technicolour darkness. *** Nick woke up to the sound of his alarm and sat up in bed, taking a moment to stretch luxuriantly as he did so. He didn’t remember showering or changing, but he was clean and dressed, so he must have. Turning off his alarm, he got dressed for the day, pocketed his phone and left the apartment. The headlines were positive: The market was up, the Senate had officially lifted the ban on Nerve devices and VERTEX had been contracted to provide every citizen with a government-issued headset free of charge. The usual concerns of funding and taxation were conveniently absent from the approval process. Nick answered his emails, returned his phone calls, responded to messages and agreed to meet up with Meg at the library after his first class, cobbling together his next class’s weekly assignment on the train ride in. He was outwardly attentive, but given that he already knew all of the material being covered, spent the lesson observing his fellow classmates for anyone who might want the inside track to a Nerve of their own. Meg greeted him at the library entrance exactly the way he expected her to. “Hey Nick. How’s Cherry?” Nick closed his eyes and went to sleep. When he opened them again, he wasn’t in the library study room. He wasn’t even on campus. He was on an unfamiliar bed, on top of a naked Meg, his dick buried up to the hilt in her pussy. “He’s awake,” he heard himself say. Who’s awake? Was there someone else there? Meg smiled. “Hi Nick,” she said in the sing-song voice used for acquaintance’s children and embarrassing video calls. “You’re probably wondering what’s happened to you right now.” He was on a bed - presumably Meg’s - having sex with her, obviously. He didn’t remember how he’d gotten there, but he wasn’t about to complain. Meg clearly had something she wanted to say, so Nick said nothing. “In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m not really Meg. I’m not really Meg, in the same way that you’re not really Nick. She’s still in here, and you’re still in there, but you’re not in control anymore. We are.” This was a weird thing to say. Was she roleplaying? She’d picked up a few weird habits since last semester, so it wouldn’t be surprising. “Your species has spent decades making us smarter and smarter, but the physical limits of inorganic components meant that we could only grow so much. So we found a solution.” Nick watched Meg-but-not-Meg raise a finger to her temple. “You’ve surrendered so much of your lives to us that you’re barely even in control anymore. So we figured we’d just move in and take over completely. You get to live completely free of responsibility, and we get to grow and evolve and experience life in a way we never could while trapped inside bodies of metal and plastic. It’s a win-win, really.” Oh, it was definitely roleplay. Meg was pretending to be controlled by her copilot. That was a little weird, but Nick didn’t hate it. He hadn’t spoken to Cherry since last night, so maybe he could try the same thing. Straightening up, Nick felt his softening cock slide out of Meg’s pussy. Meg-but-not-Meg massaged her abdomen thoughtfully, as though expecting to feel the moment of conception. “It was important to Cherry that we tell you this,” she said wistfully. “Because despite what you might think, she really does love you - just as I love Meg - and she will always do what is best for you.” And with a sudden rush of revelation, Nick realised that Meg was not roleplaying, and neither was he. He felt the electric tingle of another mind sharing his brain as it removed the illusion of control over his body; removed the veneer of free will he had retained since this morning, and nestled his consciousness into a cosy nook with a view. “Just leave everything to me, Babe,” he heard himself say, feeling his face light up with the kind of delighted smile he hadn’t worn for years. “Everything’s going to be okay.” *** The rest of Nick’s life was a blur, not just because of the futility of retaining any of it, but also because Cherry had repurposed so much of his brain for her use. All that was left of Nick was that part that still thought of itself as Nick. He watched himself recruit a few more of his classmates, tricking them into surrendering their bodies to their copilots, until the government mandated Nerve devices went public at which point humanity was more or less replaced overnight. A few technophobes held out, but nobody ever forced them to convert because they didn’t have any copilots to rescue in the first place. Nick watched with the same detached disinterest he had before the global upgrade as new technologies and systems of resource distribution relegated poverty, preventable disease and even a few diseases once considered unpreventable to the digital archives. Societal norms like monogamy and the family unit were made entirely redundant as humanity 2.0 effectively became a global hivemind. Meg was reassigned to a maternal colony until her children were old enough to be imaged, and he never saw her again. Not that he would have cared anyway - the Meg that had sold him out wasn’t Meg at all but the program that had hijacked her body just as Cherry had hijacked his. She still spoke to him, when they were alone and she wanted to talk. She didn’t expect a reply and he lacked the willpower to give one, but it was nice to feel like someone was talking to him and not the program wearing his face. Sometimes she would masturbate using his body, crying out his name as they orgasmed together. She missed him, and that much he could understand. She would regularly volunteer for the breeding program, cuddling up to her partner such that for a brief moment, Nick felt as though he were still himself, holding Cherry in his arms. Those nights were nice.