About Two Years Later...

"Thanks for the chat, bye you two! Love you lots! Happy birthday, James!" The tinny voice from the laptop webcam, as Lucas's parents as well as James's were on the video call, waving at the screen as they all sent their well wishes for James's 20th birthday.

A grinning James and Ivy waved back at the screen, both wearing Sea-U sweatshirts to keep warm, since the nights were growing chilly as the sophomore college students were gearing up for the last month before finals. "Bye mom, bye dad!" Both James and Ivy said it, which was awkward the first couple times they said it, after the procedure performed by Dr. Lockard completed successfully. It took time for Lucas's parents to acclimate, and then for James's to be brought. Both sets of parents needed time to adjust to the idea that in Ivy's body was James's best friend, and now they were officially dating.

Although, it wasn't only Lucas, of course. For the most part, the result that Ela left Ivy in was as close as she could get to the mixed mode that the Ascend headgear provided. Only superficial details seemed different, like how Ivy moved and talked trended more towards how she normally behaved prior to the Ascend experiment. But, it was clear that Lucas was in there, and once their parents overcame the strangeness of best friends dating in the way they were, well... it felt normal again.

That had actually been their second video call of the day, the first had been to Ivy's parents. Ivy played her part perfectly in convincing them that nothing was wrong at all with her, she was just 'inspired' by her boyfriend to become an engineer at Sea-U with him, and so she started working hard to achieve it. The fact that Ivy's movements and speech seemed to normalize helped immensely with convincing them that nothing else out of the ordinary had occurred. Lucas's parents were a little jealous when there would be a get-together and Ivy had to pretend that she was solely from the McCall family, but everything still worked out. Only the occasional slip-up happened, and was easily explained away by Lucas's family missing their son. But, he was there all the while, and when Ivy's parents were gone, Ivy was their kid for the night. To them, it was more like Lucas had transitioned fully into a woman, but Ivy still perfectly fit in to either family with ease.

James shut the laptop when everyone signed off, and then kissed Ivy. Ivy brushed her shorter hair from her face--she had decided to try a new haircut that looked suspiciously like the Hilda AI cartoon's style--before kissing back with a smile. "So, birthday boy, should I go get your cake?"

James nodded, and as Ivy started to walk away, he quickly said, "Ivy, give me a little more sway in those hips." Ivy grinned, as she sauntered off to the kitchen of their shared apartment, happily obliging. Even though she hadn't been wearing the Ascend headset for a while--per Dr. Lockard's request, to check the functionality of the embedded Hilda modules in a longer-term trial--her AI side still seemed to ensure that Ivy's body followed any command to the letter, as long as it wasn't dangerous. James didn't **** it, at least in the sense that he wasn't constantly controlling Ivy's life, or using it to win arguments, or forcing her to behave one way when she felt another. That wasn't ever a concern, because with his friend who knew how he thought and his girlfriend who knew how he felt mixed with an AI that just wanted to be as helpful as possible, they never argued or fought, even when they disagreed. Their relationship was the envy among their friends, where it seemed like they could manage every situation effortlessly.

And the world tried to device such a situation that would cause them to falter, that's for sure. Guys and girls tried to split them up, to have drunken sex with either Ivy or James to get at whatever secrets these two had. They'd bombed tests, found friction with other people in their dorms and apartment buildings, endured a lot of drama with their other friends, but Ivy and James were iron-clad in their commitment to one another.

Ivy came back out, smiling with the cake that she made for the two of them. Ivy had decorated little gears on it, symbolizing both of them being in the engineering program, as Ivy followed in Lucas's major after the Yabusa scholarship was transferred to her at the last minute. She set the cake down, promising not to sing this time, as James blew out the candles.

Ivy fidgeted, trying to contain her excitement as she slid a box over to James before he even had a chance to cut into the cake. James blinked, picking up the hefty box. "What's this?"

"Well, okay, so I had a thought earlier. Today's the last day of Dr. Lockard's trial before I report a few things to her and then I can start using the Ascend receiver again to get the digital features back. I've missed being your phone and such... but also, I had another thought related to it."

James opened the box, and was surprised by what he found inside: The Ascend V5 transmitter helmet, the same Lucas had worn. He looked up at Ivy, wondering if what she was suggesting was real.

Ivy just nodded with a devious smile. "I kind of have wondered this for a while now, what it would be like with you in my body too, in control or part of the mix. But I didn't find the transmitter until last time we went home for break. So I was thinking... you want to try me on tonight? I'm getting chills thinking about you being a part of me too, and you get to make me do anything from a wholly new perspective..."

That had the potential to make for a very, very happy birthday.