Author's Notes: After long wanting to try this, I finally got around to doing this fic for the iPod Shuffle Challenge, the rules of which are:
1. Pick a character, pairing, or fandom you like.
2. Turn on your music player and put it on random/shuffle.
3. Write a ficlet related to each song that plays. You only have the time frame of the song to finish the drabble; you start when the song starts, and stop when it's over. No lingering afterwards!
4. Do ten of these, then post them.
Admittedly I didn't follow the rules to a T (heck, I don't even own an iPod, I just had a random generator pick songs I like), but I did the best job I could while staying at least close to the right times. Anyway, the pairing is Alpha/Adelle, because I think that's an interesting idea and nobody's ever tried it before. Though trying to write them during the course of the show would be an interesting challenge, all of these are set around the Epitaph time period and involve good!(or at least semi-sane)!Alpha.
Hope you enjoy! And please, judge me based on the stories, not the songs that inspired them. ;-) My writing may be better than my musical tastes.
Oops I Did It Again
by Britney Spears
It was hard for Alpha not to relapse.
People really aren't fair to serial killers. Do you think they enjoy killing people, murdering them, slicing their faces up to bits? Well…well, yes, they do. A lot. Which is what makes it so very, very hard to resist.
And it doesn't make it any easier when you live in a world of serial killers. It's so unfair. All these people, these Butchers—they just go around, slaughtering, no police or guards or Rossum security to stop them, they can just go and kill people without having to stop and think for a minute! And all that time that he spent plotting, working, arranging everything like a chessmaster…of course, that had been half the fun of it. Heck, that had been the most fun.
Adelle was a chessmaster too.
He always knew that. She could plot too, and work, and arrange everything. And now, in this post-apocalyptic world, she was doing it for good, helping, defending.
Maybe Alpha could avoid a relapse, then.
You Belong With Me
by Taylor Swift
It was all about Echo with him.
Adelle watched him, and it annoyed her. He was obsessed with her, as obsessed now as when he had been a madman. It didn't matter that she turned him down, it didn't matter that she was with Paul, he was still obsessed. He wanted her, and only her.
He worked with Adelle. Together they plotted their attacks against Rossum, worked to infiltrate important positions, planned tech that he and Topher could develop to protect them. They spent whole nights together, sharing their brilliant minds. Often their conversation would devolve into other things, too, like their lives (Adelle's one and the dozens Alpha could remember), their thoughts, the implications of what they were doing and had done.
They were both brilliant. Two of a kind. But Alpha never noticed that.
He was obsessed with Echo, always.
Never mind that Adelle was obsessed with him.
Boys of Summer
by The Ataris
He missed her so much right now.
Alpha stared up at the roof of his makeshift bedroom, thinking. Thinking about Adelle. Constantly, never-endingly. He couldn't seem to stop these days, he was obsessive. He always had been, hadn't he?
He was lucky he could think of her, he thought—still remember her, hadn't been Wiped along with so many others, but back into a psychopath as the case may be. He was lucky, but he couldn't risk it, of course. He couldn't leave his shelter, go out and seek Adelle out. He had to stay here, stay here for months and months and months more time, until that damn Pulse was gone and he wouldn't turn back into Kraft and kill everyone in his way.
And who knew where Adelle would be, by then.
Who knew if she would even be alive. After all, who knew how well the Pulse would work, or what else could happen in a world without law and order?
He should just forget about her. Forget about her, just like he finally managed to forget about Echo, and just stop worrying so much.
It would be the smarter thing. The saner thing.
That, or he could wait.
Wait until that Pulse was gone, and he could finally find her, and rebuild the world with her.
It wasn't the smarter option, but of course he knew it was what he would do.
Extraordinary
by Liz Phair
She was truly an extraordinary woman.
She was brilliant. Even when he had been a psychopath he had recognized that, respected that, hell, even when he was Wiped he had known that Adelle was in charge and she could handle anyone in her way. She was tough, and clever, and loving and ruthless.
Alpha was extraordinary, too. He could see through their Wipes, he could keep hold of the other minds they put in him, but that was nothing compared to Adelle. She didn't need some special brain quirk to be special, that's what he hadn't seen at first. When they had been enemies he had tried to figure that out, what was special about her mind, how could he develop a personality to counteract it? It wasn't until later that he saw the truth, that it was just her, that there was no way he could ever hope to match that mind.
She was more than just a mind. She was Adelle.
And that was what made her truly extraordinary.
Rockstar
by Nickelback
Adelle had always worked hard to succeed.
From the time she was a child, Adelle had worked, hard. Her parents had not tolerated lollygagging or pointless activities. They were not cruel, but they were stern, they knew their daughter was brilliant and would not let her waste her talents. So she had worked, worked hard in school, worked hard at university, questing to become great.
But it was never enough.
Oh, yes, she became successful, in a sense. She climbed the latter of her company, got promoted, quit over money, found a higher job for more money with Rossum, and then got a transfer again, to the Dollhouse. And she did everything, everything from budgets to assassinations. She compromised her morals, she brought herself to near alcoholic insanity, but still it wasn't enough, the world crumbled around her.
Alpha never had to do that.
Alpha just had to download a new mind, and he was perfect.
She hated that. She wanted to kill him for that sometimes, even when they worked together. She wasn't to scream at him, tell him he was worthless—
"Damn do I admire you, Adelle."
She was a success.
Scum of the Earth
by Rob Zombie
It was very easy to feel like crap when your biggest accomplishments in life involved cutting up people's faces.
Alpha was a mess. He wasn't completely sane, and he wasn't quite insane, either, the result being that he seemed, if anything, less hinged than ever before. He kept thinking, thinking, thinking constantly about them—about Whiskey (or was it Claire, he could never remember), about Wendy, about those old flames of Echo's…he wanted to puke, he wanted to kill them again, he wanted to kill himself again, wait he hadn't done that yet, was he supposed to, he couldn't remember? And they were all talking in his head, arguing, some in favor of this, some in favor of that, shut up, shut up, just SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY, he was trying to think, damn it!
"It's alright, Alpha. Just let it out."
He looked up. Adelle was there, a hand on his shoulder. She had her own inner demons, after all.
Suddenly, he felt a lot more sane.
Super Villain
by Powerman 5000
"You're not the only one who has done terrible things, you know."
He scoffed. "Please, Adelle. I doubt you ever did anything as bad as I've…" He looked off, his look wistful while his tone was bitter.
It was her turn to scoff, now. "I made this world," she said, her eyes going down. "Rossum wouldn't have been able to do this, if not for me."
...
"And why did you do it, then?"
"What?"
"I…I enjoyed it, you know. Doing evil. The pain, it…I liked it. What about you, Adelle? What made you turn those designs over, what made you do those things?"
"…I suppose…I suppose I enjoyed it, too. Or the power that came with it, at least."
"So we're both bastards, then."
"We were. We don't have to be."
"And how do we stop?"
Her hand was suddenly on his, soft, tender. He looked up, looked her right in the eye.
"We work on it, together."
"And find something new to enjoy, maybe?"
She smiled. And despite himself, Alpha did, too.
If Today Was Your Last Day
by Nickelback
Adelle—
You are one of the most amazing women I have ever met. I've only just realized this—we've known each other for over a decade, but it's taken me long, too long, to open my eyes. To see how great you really are.
Do you know what I love about you the most? You never give up. After all these years—from when you helped Echo take down Boyd, when you had to escape Rossum's wrath, when you tried and failed to stop Perrin, stop Holden, stop the end. How you never stopped trying to help me, to make me the man I am.
Your work might get undone, though. That's why I have to go, before Topher finishes his Pulse, so that if I turn back into Kraft, I won't hurt you. And while I hope to find you when the Pulse is over, when I can come to join you, I can't help but worry that this is our last day together.
So, I just wanted to tell you all that, while I have the chance.
But I can't. I can't build up the courage to come out and tell you this. I never have.
And so I guess now, as I leave without saying goodbye, I've given up.
I'm just not as brave as you, I suppose.
Complicated
by Avril Lavigne
You really need to stop worrying so much, Alpha.
In a way, it's admirable. You feel guilty, of course. We all do. All of us have done things, things that we regret. Me, Topher, even Paul and Echo…we all have to live with our past demons, the evil that lurks in our minds.
I imagine it must be harder for you. All those other minds, those voices. Perhaps you're not as good at that as Echo, able to control those minds, keep them straight. Clearly you used to be less stable, less intact even before we Wiped you.
But you must learn to let it go.
Stop worrying about Kraft, Alpha. Stop worrying about the old Alpha, the man you used to be, when you slaughtered your fellow Actives and so many others. Stop worrying that you'll become that person again.
You are a different man now, Alpha. A good man. And you've come farther than any of us, worked harder than any of us to make right the sins of the past.
Just stop worrying.
Let me hold your hand, and pretend that everything is simpler than it is.
Fireflies
by Owl City
Adelle dreamed of a better world.
It was hard, dreaming that, given how things were. Even a year after the Pulse there were so many refugees, mass riots and looting, and no real legitimate government able to control the problems. She and the others were on their own now, trying to rebuild society, help the people, help the homeless and heal the mental wounds.
But she dreamed. She dreamed of the world being whole again, the city alive. She dreamed of a redemption from the previous evil, Rossum's evil defeated, the world turned from dark and horrid to happy and peaceful.
It seemed impossible, those dreams.
But then she would wake up from them, and feel a pair of strong arms around her, and look over onto the face of someone who had already gone from being broken to whole, evil to good, dark to peaceful.
And she kisses him softly as he sleeps, and realizes that some dreams aren't as impossible as they first appear.
A/N: Whoo, first Dollhouse fic in over a year. Anyway, I think they came out alright, I hope you enjoyed. Please review!