A/N: This story was written for Blazey, who remains the best Caterina I ever could have hoped for.
Her Machine
"It is time for you to decide, Model Number HC-IIIX..."
Decide? He had never been given a decision before, let alone one that would affect the rest of his life. He had not been made for decisions, he had been made to follow orders... the entire HC series had been created as foot soldiers. Homo Caedelius (HC) - humans for destruction. It had not been his decision to be born for the Vatican's defense, and then it had not been his decision to rebel against them with his creator - but he had followed those orders anyway, just as a machine should.
She had said he was dying, his life system was shutting down. It was almost strange to hear those words in relation to him, to know that after only a few years of life he was to be terminated as an unethical project.
He shouldn't feel anything, he should accept his termination order as he had accepted all other orders given to him. But... some part of him deep down didn't want to die, the part that relied on the human brain stem that gave him more than just artificial intelligence.
"Will you return with me and live as a human?"
Of course she had to ask that. It was the reason the Vatican had shut down the HC project after only ten dolls, the whispers that it was unethical to create modified children and blend them with machinery to create the perfect weapon. It was his chance not to die, his chance to survive where the rest of his brethren had fallen... and yet, he couldn't take it.
His answer had been immediate. He was a machine, he had been born as a machine and he could never be treated as anything other. He had expected her to order his termination with his refusal, it was the logical course of action, so it was with 0.85% registered surprise that he heard her next words.
"If you wish it, I will treat you as though you were a machine."
She had knelt beside him. He remembered that with perfect clarity despite his systems failure at the time, she had stepped forwards and knelt in a pool of the blood-like fluid around him without hesitation. The touch of her fingers had been cool and soft, almost affectionate, and his world had narrowed to her words.
He had never been spoken to like that, with such a degree of ownership that every molecule in him was possessed.
"All of it, all of your being, belongs to me."
The Duchess Milan... a woman he had been ordered to kill mere hours before...
He didn't understand what the sensation was in his chest as he watched her then, it was unidentifiable to his diagnostic systems and he had written it off as an internal error due to the massive injuries he had received. Yet it wasn't long before he realized he got the same error whenever he was away from her side, or the first time he had found out about her illness.
In fact, the list of internal errors regarding her mounted. He was 49.4% faster to draw his weapon where she was concerned, and where before he had no interest in politics or reputation, he now found himself carrying out illogical tasks in order to preserve her interests.
She had altered him somehow, his programmed internal processes took secondary precedence to her orders... and as he stood guard at the head of her bed that first night after being repaired, silent and vigilant, he realized he was no longer just HC IIIX.
He was Gunslinger.
He was her machine.