Dumas held Mari’s gaze as she said<span style="font-style: italic"> ‘I love’</span>.  Did she mean that in general, or was she referring to a very specific case?  He’d just barely managed to accept the idea that she didn’t hate him because of his accidental crimes against her.  For her to regard him with such a strong and sacred emotion...it seemed almost impossible.  But Mari possessed a truly remarkable heart.  Perhaps, for it, nothing was impossible.  Dumas’s rational side warned him against hope, which would only lead to having all his dreams crushed beneath the weight of bitter disappointment.  And yet, he hoped anyway.<br/><br/>But none of that changed the truth in Mari’s statement.  Regardless of who came first, she was as real as anyone could claim to be.  She deserved to live a good life.  The best life he could give her.   Maybe if it was possible to reason or negotiate with her other self, there might be some less drastic solution.  But even when he’d threatened the bitch with total destruction, she’d only sneered at him.  “You’re right,” Dumas conceed.  “She’s got to go.  God knows, there are parts of me...if they could take control any time they wanted, I’d do my best to eliminate them.  Regardless of what it cost me.”<br/><br/>Dumas crouched down, so that his face was level with Mari’s.  “We’ll see what the doctors can do.  And if nothing they try works, there’s always DEE.”  Of course, having DEE poke around inside her head would require a direct interface, and that meant a neural jack.  Dumas was frugal with the wages he earned working at Wonderland, but an operation like that still cost far more than he’d saved.  He wouldn’t have been able to afford his own jack, if Red hadn’t paid for it.  However, Dumas was determined to find a way, even if it meant helping Chester steal the crown jewels.  There wasn’t anything he’d balk at, as long as it might make Mari happy and healthy.<br/><br/>“Now, why don’t you climb up?” Dumas offered with a smile, remembering Mari’s joke about carrying her around like a backpack.  “I’ll give you a piggyback ride into the kitchen.”