Ayo was a blustering fire storm when he was angry, and this was the angriest Vi had ever seen him. She'd scrubbed her data banks of her meeting with the Paladin, but had missed a crucial spot. She sat quietly as her memories played over a projector on the wall, and the frame was replaying the same two seconds over and over of her turning from Danse and leaving. This alone wasn't so severe of an infraction, but at the very last frame of the scene the transmitter was visible in his hands. It had not slipped past Ayo.

"Of all the hairbrained, ill planned, devious, disgusting displays of treachery! Handing over Institute tech to a known Brotherhood soldier has got to be the most vile thing any synth has ever done in the history of this organisation!" He screamed, veins bulging on his neck and spit flying from his mouth.

She had nothing to say for herself, and didn't dare speak anyway. Her cheek still burned from the first time she tried to defend her actions.

"Are you malfunctioning, synth?" He spat the word like it was foul tasting and she flinched at it. "Do you need to be reconditioned into a fucking janitorial unit? Is following orders in the field so difficult for your fucking processors that you can't so much as play fetch like the dog you are?" He was still screaming, but the walls were thick enough that no one would hear. That was how Ayo was, big and bad behind closed doors. In the company of his compatriots, Vi had noticed he was something of a beta. A blustering, demanding beta, but still one nonetheless.

Vi shook her head slowly, nodes and wires attached to her scalp jingling quietly. "It was an error of judgement." She half-whispered, even though she knew it wouldn't help.

Crack!

Her other cheek stung from the slap, but she didn't break eye contact. She wondered if other synths were disciplined in the same way. She also wondered if Ayo trusted her so much that he allowed himself to forget how easily she could snap him in half. He roared suddenly and pelted her face with several more backhands until her pale cheeks shone pink, and she felt her suspicions confirmed. He was too comfortable with things. For the first time, conspiratorial thoughts cropped up in her head. Vi kept her face still, so as to placate him. He normally tired himself out quickly.

"I would ask to…fix things."

"I should fucking fix you. That's what I get for putting the standard intelligence level in a courser. They told me to just make you stupid and docile like the rest but I didn't listen. It only makes sense that you'd go and get ideas." He was pacing now, using short feverish steps that made her head hurt to listen to. It was too echoey in this room.

"I did not know the Brotherhood. I didn't know they were enemies. If you would let me enter their ranks undercover I could-" He cut her off with a closed fist to the teeth this time. One of the lower front ones was left feeling loose, but she didn't let the pain cross her features. If she cried out it would just fan the flames of his anger.

"You'll do nothing else to humiliate me, you bitch. Come with me, now." He grabbed her arm roughly, fingers digging into her skin through the thin uniform she wore, and yanked her from her seat. She yelped as the nodes on her temples were pulled free and left tiny, bleeding pin pricks on her skin. Her stomach dropped into her feet.

"Am I being reconditioned?" She said, alarm in her voice. When she got no reply the synth repeated herself in what could only be called a shriek. It was the cry of a wild animal, injured and pinned in a corner. A cry for help. Tears pricked at her eyes.

"Please no, I'll do anything. Please!" He ignored her again and they left the man's office, taking a left and then a right that confirmed her suspicions. Vi ripped her arm away from him and he looked a little surprised, like he didn't know she was capable of independent movement. Instead of running, the synth dropped to her knees in front of him and cried. The thought of losing who she was entirely and being made to scrub toilets until her circuits gave out was too much to consider.

"Please, please. Give me a second chance. Let me prove myself! I'll do anything!" She wailed, fingers entwined in his lab coat. Her face was wet with tears now, and a few technicians who were busy going to and fro from different offices had stopped to watch the spectacle.

Dr. Ayo wrapped his fingers in a mass of her thick brown curls and yanked her to her feet, glared into her eyes for a moment and shoved her back toward his office amidst loud sobs of thanks. Normally, Vi was a vision of composure and coolheadedness but now wasn't the time for pride. She hadn't been alive long, only four months and nine days according to her records, but the synth had grown to like being sentient in that amount of time. If it could be called that anyway. Depending on who you asked in the Institute, she was not truly a living thing. A few amongst them might disagree but they would never do so openly, lest they be expelled from the facility and mocked openly among those they had once counted as friends. Growing attached to the synths was strictly prohibited, let alone thinking of them on the same level as a real human being. In fact, it was even in the employee handbook, rule number three section two if she remembered correctly. What she did remember with perfect clarity was the beating she'd gotten when Ayo had discovered her peeking in his terminal to read it. The memory still gave her anxiety.

Being so physically strong yet unable to fight back was maddening; some days Vi thought of finally doing something about the abuse she endured at the hands of her 'father', but it was only fantasy. Vi only existed as a pet project for him, a test run to see if it was possible to make coursers who weren't the dull, quiet specimens that roamed the halls in their black dusters and sunglasses. She knew better than to bit the hand that not only fed but was responsible for her entire existence. Synths who turned on their masters were not reconditioned, that she knew for sure. She still missed her friend ZR-12, a fellow courser who'd had one such malfunction early on in her life and who was promptly scrapped for parts. His cries still rang in her ears if she lingered on the thought too long, as well as in her dreams.

"How dare you embarrass me in front of my colleagues." The doctor's tone was no longer so volatile, but there was an undercurrent of something much more dangerous.

"I-I don't want to die." She said, backing away and wiping her nose with the back of her hand. He scoffed loudly.

"You are a machine. Machines don't die. They serve," he spat, rubbing his scalp vigorously for a moment, "Come here. Get down." He said, voice full of hatred and with a single bony finger pointing at his feet. Confused, she did as he said.

He didn't speak again, just bunched the hem of his lab coat up around his hips and shuffled his fly and underclothes to the side. Vi furrowed her brows and looked away, unsure. She knew of human anatomy, but only in the capacity of which pressure points would do what and where to shoot someone for the quickest kill. The man looming above her grunted with annoyance and reached down to pull her chin back toward his body with a clipped command to…isuck it/i? She wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. Perhaps one of his blows had damaged an auditory nerve and she wasn't processing things as she should, but when she opened her mouth to question it she had not even enough time to take a breath before he gripped the back of her head and forced himself on her.

Vi choked and pushed against Ayo's hips, unable to breathe. He held her tightly as she panicked at his feet, and after a second of bathing in her fear he began to guide her head back and forth with a pleasurable grunt. Vi was just glad for the opportunity to draw breath and swallow back the bile that rose up when he'd all but attacked her gag reflex; unfortunately just as soon as he offered some release he pushed her face back down again. More pushing and muffled squeals, thick ropes of saliva dripping down her chin and onto his shiny black shoes added to her humiliation. She'd never heard of anything like this happening before, but for some reason it felt keenly wrong. The sensation of disgust and anger began creeping up her spine as he pumped away, using her and ignoring her cries. Doctor Ayo didn't even speak to her again, just stared down at her with hate filled eyes while she tried not to maintain eye contact.

The pumping eventually quickened, and her jaw began to ache. She wasn't sure how much longer she could tolerate this, and though her tears had long dried Vi's body was still wracked with dry, fearful sobs. Ayo had always been a hard, unpleasant man, but she'd never expected to be...assaulted in such a way, if this could be considered assault at all. It felt like it should be, anyway. Could an object, a robot, be assaulted? The synth would have rather taken a thousand punches than one single second of...this, that was certain.

Slowly, Ayo's speed increased to almost a fever pitch. At first, he had tasted like sweat and soap, but now her tongue and lips were rubbed so raw that she didn't taste much at all. Her nose was running, the front of her uniform was soaked with spit and her eyes were swollen from crying. She didn't fight back anymore, and when he gave a final three powerful pumps and the vile, uncomfortable thing in her mouth twitched, Vi couldn't muster the energy for a reaction. The fluid left in her mouth was bitter and made her mouth water as if she were about to vomit, so she spat it on the floor in front of her and sank to the ground with a silent, gasping sob. Her lungs were burning and her jaw felt like it might never be able to close again without discomfort, and for once she did not look to her creator for comfort. Previously, he'd been perhaps a bit cruel but still supportive when she needed it, but now she knew how he really felt about her. She'd tricked herself into thinking she meant anything to him, and she vowed to herself then and there to never let anyone fool her like this again. Vi covered her face with her hands, curled into the fetal position, and listened as Ayo called her a stupid bitch and left her with one final humiliation; he stood before her with feet spread and pissed on her shuddering body, his face empty of emotion.

"Clean that up. Tomorrow, you'll be getting that transmitter. I don't care who you have to kill, fuck or whatever else. Come back without it and you'll find that this was a comfortable day off for you. Don't disappoint me again."