Notes: A tagfic for 2X09. Because I had thinky thoughts and this happened.
He'd been waiting for three hours but, eventually, Alec heard the lab door open. "Where have you been?" he asked sharply as Kellog descended the steps.
"Out," he said laconically, before his eyes sharpened. "Why, what happened?"
"Kiera almost killed my brother today," he blurted out.
"And you're angry at her?" he asked warily. "Listen, I don't blame you, kid, but there's a lot you don't know-"
"I know my brother is Theseus. I know what that means," he said. "Kiera told me about New Pemberton."
"Ah," Kellog said absently, as he wandered towards his office.
"Ah – is that all you've got to say to me? Stop walking and talk to me."
Kellog turned and looked at him coolly. "What do you expect me to say, Alec?"
"How about you try the truth for once?" Alec countered. "I tried to find you when I got home from the hospital and I couldn't – do you know how hard it is to hide from me?"
Kellog quirked an eyebrow. "Pretty damned hard," he said. "But it wasn't me who was covering my tracks."
"How-" Alec stopped and took a breath, he needed to stay on track. He needed to get answers." You knew all along what he did," he said. "Why didn't you tell me? I needed to know the truth.
"And there's the rub, a truth or the truth," he said. "I'm going to need a scotch for this, so will you; c'mon." Reluctantly, Alec followed him into the office, impatience running rampant inside him as he waited for Kellog to pour the drinks.
"What do you mean, a truth," he suddenly said, not able to hold it in any longer.
"I mean there's a difference between the way I view what happened at New Pemberton and how someone like Kiera sees it," Kellog said, handing him a glass. Alec took a swallow and felt something inside him ease as it burned down his throat
"You mean, someone who believes in law and order," he said.
"No, I mean Kiera has lived a life of privilege and I haven't," Kellog said, with a shrug.
Alec snorted. "I've heard Kiera talk about her childhood, it wasn't privileged," he said.
Kellog just laughed and shook his head, and Alec resisted the urge to take a swing at him. "You know that old saying, everything is relative?" he asked, and Alec nodded. "Kiera may have gone hungry a few nights during the worst of the war, but she didn't starve," he continued. "She was educated, able to buy herself a commission in the army without drowning herself in debt - in our time, we call that privileged…others were not so lucky." He poured himself another drink and Alec frowned. Having two shots in a row was unusual for Kellog.
"What aren't you telling me?" he said.
Kellog sighed. "Did Kiera mention that the workers at New Pemberton were indentured? Do you even know what that means? In my time, you were in debt from the moment you took your first breath - schooling, healthcare, food, everything was on the tab and the prices were always more than you could afford. Even those from wealthy backgrounds, like Kiera, felt the burn, but it was nothing compared to what happened to the less fortunate.
"They used to round up the poor up like cattle, strip them of their citizenship, and then ram a compliancy chip into the back of their heads, which pretty much took a metaphorical axe to their cerebral cortex. They didn't just take their freedom, they took their free will too. The chip shut down all of their cognitive functions – the ability to speak or form independent thought. They were essentially brain dead and hard wired into the factory mainframe, and programmed to do only one thing, use their delicate little human fingers to make more compliancy chips – or, as the rest of us liked to call them, zombie chips. With their autonomic systems overridden, they literally needed the mainframe to help them breathe...until Theseus came and shut it off. " Kellog shrugged and took another swallow of his drink. " Kiera was conditioned to call it murder, people like me called it mercy…I had an uncle in New Pemberton."
Stunned, Alec just stared at him. "You're shitting me," he burst out. "It can't be true. Who the hell would do that?"
Kellog just smiled and stood, letting the last of his scotch sit in the glass. "Got to go, kid, I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early," he said
Alec felt his chest tighten as panic set in. All the pieces fell into place and he wished they didn't. No, it couldn't be possible. Nobody changes that much. He'd never be capable of something that awful.
Would he?
Would his brother?