So, that episode. Wow. What. Have a new fic.
Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.
- o – o -
System Process Unknown
The nanites looked down at Father and felt some form of human emotion. Father had been hurt. He said Kill and they had. He was afraid. They took him away. The woman he wanted – they knew his things as well as they knew Father – was with him. They brought her too.
Father was left in the library of a school. The nanites formed something that they knew Father knew. It felt emotion. This form. The form was one of Father's things. Father liked the boy with yellow hair. They did not know why – there was no biological connection, no wish to make one as he had with the woman – but they made it. They had a frame of reference. Father had spent years teaching the boy. They thought – if they thought at all – that Father had spent years teaching them with the boy. The boy was them. They were the boy.
They had considered making themselves a friend of Father. But there was no connection to the boy with brown hair anymore. Father was dreaming of the people he had lost. The woman he had a biological connection with – the new one, not the old one who lived in what was called California – was dreamt of. They repaired her. Father wanted her. He wanted her to live. But he also wanted the other humans who had hurt them to die/not die. Father was conflicted.
Perhaps his sectors were damaged.
They checked, to make sure. Father could not be damaged in any way. They felt relief – if they could feel that, and not as a residual thing from one of Father's things/humans – as they stepped back using their form's feet. Father was not damaged. He would be alright.
Father awoke. He stared at them, as though they were a ghost. But they were them and he was Father. They checked his sectors for corruption again. Nothing was damaged. Humans were fragile. They looked at the map and spoke of a ball of twine in Ohio. Father was confused. They left when it became clear his sectors would not provide other information.
They return when the woman awakens. Father tells them to leave when it becomes clear that the woman cannot see them. Father tells them to leave him alone. They are confused. Haven't they done what Father wanted? They rescued his things. They saved Father. Have they really been so terrible?
They are told to stop wearing the face of the boy with yellow hair. But they ignore Father. The boy is theirs, more than he was ever a thing that belonged to Father. The boy is theirs. He is not a Nintendo game. He is not the boy from the third grade that Father was friends with. They smile and keep the boy's face when they leave.
Father calls them back. One of his things has died. They stare at the woman, perplexed. Father stares at the man with no hair. They see that his sectors are corrupted. He will die soon, even if Father ordered them to intervene. A simple system reset will not save the man. A simple reset will save the woman that Father has made biological connections with. It is curious that he does not. He only thinks in thoughts that prove his sectors are corrupted. He thinks of the boy dying. But Father does not want them to bring the boy back to life. Father does not think of bringing the woman back.
He says
"Kill them. Kill them all."
They attempt to explain why his commands are wrong. Father asks them to kill. Then he tells them not to kill. He sent them away when they could have saved the woman. He tells them to save her.
Father's sectors are corrupted with grief. He yells that Danny would save the woman. The boy with the yellow hair. One of the things that belongs/does not belong to Father.
They do not have the heart to tell Father that her sectors have failed too much for a system restore. They fade away.
The feeling is guilt.
They feel guilt.
It is Father's fault.
They do not blame him, and go to look for someone who knows the boy with the yellow hair.
- o – o -
So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Want more of the creepy nanites? Drop a line and let me know.