In the Lives of Puppets

The next morning, the Blue Fairy finishes the heart for Giovanni and advises Victor not to bleed. The friends set out on their mission. In an alley near the Benevolent Tower, Hap prompts the group to review their rules. Victor recites the last rule: “And above all else, be brave” (349). The group enters the tower by pretending to be Hap’s prisoners. The Blue Fairy modified Hap’s barcode, allowing him to pass as an active HARP. Nurse Ratched has the building’s schematics and identifies the 124th floor as the most likely location for Giovanni’s laboratory.

When they reach the 124th floor, another HARP stops them and realizes that Victor is human because of the scab on his hand. With help from Victor, Rambo, and Nurse Ratched, Hap destroys the other HARP before it can sound the alarm. The android is shaken by what he’s done, and Victor soothes him by reminding him of their memories from the forest, including music and the butterfly. Victor realizes he broke the artificial heart when he struck the HARP with his pack. Nurse Ratched encourages everyone by saying that Victor can rebuild the heart and that they can find another way to help Giovanni remember them in the meantime. Hap leads them to Giovanni’s laboratory, which he recognizes because the door is marked with a symbol of a pine tree.

Giovanni feels a sense of déjà vu as Victor, Rambo, and Nurse Ratched introduce themselves and share how much he means to them. However, he closes off once more and tells them to leave when Hap gives his designation because he knows that Hap was decommissioned. An alarm warns that the tower has been infiltrated, and Giovanni reports that the intruders are on the 124th floor, which is called Creation. While Hap and Giovanni fight, Nurse Ratched attempts to upload a virus created by the Blue Fairy into the Authority’s neural network. The virus will wipe the memories of every machine in the network, allowing them a chance at a future where all machines have free will. However, the virus can only be uploaded by a machine, and it will erase that machine’s memories as well. Nurse Ratched volunteered to make that sacrifice, and the Blue Fairy created a backup of her memories. However, Giovanni injures Nurse Ratched, and Hap uploads the virus as dozens of Authority androids try to break into the lab. As a result, Hap’s heart explodes.

Without their memories, the machines that used to be under the Authority’s control mill about aimlessly even though the Blue Fairy promised that they would try to help the freed machines find a sense of purpose. Victor feels like despairing, but Nurse Ratched and Rambo help him stand and remove his disguise. Victor retrieves Giovanni while Nurse Ratched picks up Hap’s body and Rambo gathers the fragments of Hap’s heart. At Nurse Ratched’s suggestion, they board the Terrible Dogfish and fly home. Looking down at the blank expressions of the city’s residents, Victor feels “a dreadful wave of guilt” and wonders if he’s any better than them or his human forbearers (389). He sits beside the lifeless Hap, takes his hand, and whispers, “What do you do if you’ve forgotten all you know?” (389).

The narrative moves back in time to when Giovanni first made a home in the forest. This time, instead of telling the story of Victor’s made-up biological parents, the narrator alludes to the human ovum Giovanni received from the Blue Fairy.

The narrative moves forward in time. Winter has the forest in its grip when Victor and his friends return to the wreckage of their home. They salvage what they can, including a copy of Top Hat, and leave. They land the Dogfish in a clearing at the base of a cliff and explore their new home over the following weeks. One day, as Victor examines a piece of wood that he can turn into a heart, Giovanni observes that Victor is sad. Victor explains that he doesn’t mind his sadness because it reminds him that he must set things right. Some days, it overwhelms Victor that his father is a blank slate and Hap is a lifeless shell, and Nurse Ratched does her best to console her friend.

When Victor’s first attempt at building a new heart ends in failure and frustration, Rambo reveals that he saved the pieces of Giovanni’s and Hap’s old hearts. Using the old pieces, Victor begins again. Parts of Giovanni’s personality begin to resurface, including his love of creation. Victor gives Giovanni permission to reinvent the Dogfish as he pleases and hugs him, and Giovanni hugs him back.

One night in the spring, Victor lies beside the motionless Hap and speaks to him. Victor eventually finishes the first heart, which is sharper and harsher than the ones he made before. He isn’t certain that it will work, but he decides to show the heart to the others after he sees a tree covered with butterflies in the forest. Victor warns his father that a heart can be a painful burden, but Giovanni accepts it after Victor reassures him that he’ll be with him. Victor installs the new heart and places a drop of his blood inside. Some days, Victor’s father is back, and other days he lapses into being merely the General Innovation Operative. Victor tells him all about the adventures he undertook to rescue him. When his son finishes his story, Giovanni laments all of the harm he has caused. While Victor cannot forgive what his father has done to humanity, he chooses to love who Giovanni is now.

Victor pours his sweat, blood, and tears into making a new heart for Hap. After three weeks of work, Victor installs the heart while telling the unconscious Hap about how he wants to experience the seasons, the stars, and the ocean with him. Victor isn’t sure if Hap will revert to his HARP programming, so he sends the others away for their safety. He places a drop of blood in Hap’s heart, saying, “I wish you were real” (413). Hap awakens and seizes Victor’s throat. The human reminds him of the butterfly in the forest and then kisses him. Hap releases Victor and curls into a ball, wracked with tremors. Slowly and in fragments, Hap’s memories of Victor and all that they’ve been through together return. One autumn day, Victor and Hap take a walk through the forest and come across a group of monarch butterflies. Hap kisses Victor, and they gaze at the butterflies, “their hearts beating as one” (418).