Tell Cody her registration status leaves her

Alex spent the rest of the day in a haze. The night, he tossed and turned. He had to move fast. But he wasn't some savvy, streetwise spin doctor. Alex was an IT professional.

When a computer wasn't working, you didn't order a replacement GPU. You turned it off and on. You tried the simplest fix, first.

The next morning, Alex went to talk to Cody.

After referencing her schedule, Alex positioned himself shortly before the bell, then caught Cody coming out of her AP Math class. Smiling, she was surrounded by a gaggle of chatty friends.

Alex took a deep breath and approached her.

“Cody, we need to talk,” Alex interrupted the group, his tone serious.

Cody looked up at him, her expression showing a mix of curiosity and guilt, quickly ducked her friends and sent them off without her. She didn't want them hearing about what she'd managed to break this time, likely.

"What's up, Al?" asked Cody, quickly policing herself and becoming the vision of innocence.

Alex glanced about to ensure no one was standing nearby, then leaned in. "I know you're an Emulated."

Cody froze like a deer in the headlights. "No, I'm not."

He grabbed her arm and led her into an unoccupied classroom. "Listen. Your secret isn't the problem. It's your registration."

"My registration?" squeaked Cody.

Of course she was aware what the real problem was. Everyone - EVERYONE - knew Emulated couldn't be the guardian of an Emulated. That was the point.

"Your registration isn't valid, Cody," said Alex, in a hushed tone. "Not in a legal sense, not in a technical sense."

Cody became indignant. “My parents didn’t want to own me, so what? Why's that a crime? I'm not hurting anybody."

Alex kept his tone measured. "If people found out about this, the whole school could get in trouble. People could lose their jobs. An Emulated can't belong to itself."

"So? I won't tell anyone."

"I found out. If I could, others can," warned Alex.

"Found out what?" Cody said, scowling. "I own myself, same as you? I've been doing fine since I got turned into a robot - thanks, but I can handle myself." She turned to leave.

Alex felt a pang of empathy but had to persist. He body blocked her from the door. "You owning yourself is the problem. How the hell did you manage to totally avoid registration?"

He'd done his research. From what he'd read, activating an Emulated without an assigned guardian shouldn't have been possible.

"How should I know? My parents just never did it, I guess," said Cody, trying to dodge around him.

Alex played goalie, hustling from side to side to keep the athlete from running away. "I'm serious. This isn't the same your driver's license being expired or the wrong name being on the electric bill," he said. "Emulated are designed from a base system level to recognize a guardian - for all you know, you could still be in registration mode."

Cody angrily grabbed Alex's arms and simply started pushing him toward the door. "So? Why's it your business if I'm in registration mode or whatever?"

Alex fought back but Cody was squirmier than a fish, and a lot stronger than one too. "Cody, you don't have a legal guardian. If your system's still looking for one, you could be taken advantage of. If someone registered you, they'd have more claim to you than your parents - you have no paper trail protecting you."

Cody shoved Alex off her. "Like I'd let anybody register me!"

"They wouldn't give you a choice!" exclaimed Alex, giving up on restraining the girl. "If they managed to put you in registration mode, all it'd take is saying a command phrase like 'register as guardian' and your system would automatically write them into the bios."

Cody halted halfway out the door, expression shocked. "Uh."

"What?"

"Registration complete," said Cody, a flicker of fear passing through her. But then she became nonchalant and turned stiffly away from the door, toward Alex. "S-so I'd say something like that, huh? 'Registration complete,' like some robot? That's - it's not going to happen. I mean, who would even say that? A-And I'd have to be in registration mode too?"

Alex was about to reassure her, to tell her none of that was likely, that he was just trying to scare her into listening to him, when the fateful words he'd spoken echoed again in his ears. Register as guardian.

His eyes widened in realization.

A moment of silence hung between him and Cody, heavy with implication. They both knew what he'd said. It couldn't be unsaid. Why had she been left in registration mode? Why had he actually said the words? It really didn't matter now, did it? Alex had messed up, and Cody knew it.

Cody played it cool, masking her worry. "Anyway, yeah. I'll talk to Mom and Dad about registration, or whatever. So I can go, right?"

Cody wanted to pretend like what happened, hadn't. But an accidental Emulated registration... Alex had a feeling he'd really screwed up this time.

What would be the responsible thing to do? Should he play along? Telling Cody what trouble they were in might make her panic, and that's the last thing either of them needed right now.