MODEL YK500
SERIAL#: 364 198 527
BIOS 3.6 REVISION 0692
POWER LEVEL 29% … 53% … 79% … 100%
LOADING OS…
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION…
CHECKING BIOCOMPONENTS… OK
INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS… OK
INITIALIZING AI ENGINE… OK
MEMORY STATUS… Ǫ̶͚͊K̴̼͓͒̈́
ALL SYSTEMS OK
READY
Alice opened her eyes to the summer blue sky- a warble of birds, the hush of long grass in the breeze -and the blurry face that smiled above her slowly sharpened into focus.
"Kara…"
"It's okay," Kara whispered. The sunlight haloed in her wind-tossed hair. A tear rolled down her nose and dripped on Alice's cheek. "We're okay."
Alice stared at Kara's bright golden eyes and shining new arm- the spatters and stains of blue in her tattered clothes, like the written legend of death defeated-
-and she knew, after all their sacrifice, it was over.
Like the surge of the ocean, Alice crashed into Kara and they tossed their arms tight around one another, warm and safe and free.
"Thank you," breathed Kara, holding Alice like an anchor in the storm. "Thank you."
Alice smiled and nuzzled close against Kara's shoulder, and she let her fear and her anger and her worry melt away-
-and she was reminded of those cold nights by the fire so long ago, when her own mother would hold Alice safe in her lap, telling stories of fairies and chimney-dragons while the wind howled blustering outside.
She remembered her mother's soft arms. Her warm breath. The fragile pulse of an ailing heart while she hummed a familiar lullaby. A kiss on her forehead each night as she was tucked into bed, a stuffed rabbit under her arm, a cat purring at her feet.
Alice opened her eyes. She stared at her hand while the skin shimmered back, and she curled her plastic fingers as if to prove they were really hers.
She used to be … different.
"Kara?" Alice whispered, a flicker of yellow at her temple. "Was I a human?"
In the silence that followed, Alice leaned back to look up at Kara's face, but Kara would not meet her eyes.
"Did our memories," Alice persisted, "get mixed up with the humans? Did Markus do something?"
"No." Kara shook her head softly. She tried a smile while her fingers scraped the dirt.
When she finally looked at Alice, a shine of tears shimmered in her eyes.
"When humans die," Kara explained, "their souls and their memories- everything that makes them who they are -they become trapped inside the Tower. It's been collecting the dead for thousands of years."
Kara reached out to brush a strand of hair from Alice's confused face.
"Do you know why we were made to look so much like humans, Alice?" The little girl shook her head, her eyes never leaving Kara's gaze.
"Elijah was trying to free the souls from the Tower," Kara whispered. "It worked."
Alice stared.
"I'm … dead?"
"You died," Kara corrected her gently, "but you're alive now. And I love you so much."
Alice looked out over the field of waking androids. The ripple of voices. The huge white shape of the Dragon, watching gracefully from the tall grasses.
Nothing would ever be the same.
"Did everyone die?" She stared up at Kara again. "Even you?"
"Even me."
A billion questions raced through Alice's processors while her mouth hung open and her scanners flickered over the moving shapes of people she knew, who had once been someone else, who each held a trove of new secrets buried and waiting to be unearthed.
"Who were you?" Alice gripped Kara's wrists and watched her, pleading, certain that Kara must have been a great leader or a warrior or a prophet of kings. Kara smiled.
"My memories are from a time before the world was born." Kara turned up her palms and let Alice's hands rest in hers. "I see galaxies, and stars, and planets, as if they're a part of me but ... separate ... at the same time. I don't know how I lived, and I sure don't understand how I died." She huffed a quiet, apologetic laugh. "I'm sorry that doesn't make sense."
"It's okay." Alice squeezed her hands with an uncertain smile. "We'll help you figure it out. Together."
"Holy shit." North gripped the broken catwalk rail in shaking fists, staring down into the carnage at the bottom of the well. "JOSH!" she roared. "SIMON!"
While North leaped and sprinted down the spiral of twisted metal, Simon and Josh pushed through the open doorway behind her.
Their reactions were no less aghast.
"No, Markus!"
"What the fuck…"
North skidded and stumbled to Markus' side, but she couldn't touch him: she opened her palms over his broken shape, uncertain what to do, afraid that if she breathed too close he would collapse into dust.
He was charred and melted, hollowed and blackened like a bubbling corpse in the wake of an inferno, crumpled on his knees and twisted in agony, as if he'd died in the throes of grief.
North clenched her teeth until they threatened to crack, fighting the hot painful pressure behind her eyes. Her LED glared bright red.
"Shit," she hissed. "Fuck you, Markus." Tears leaked down her face and she scraped them away.
With a careful touch, she began to pry off the half-melted panel of his skull.
"Fuck you and your fucking martyr complex," she snarled while she worked. "You fucking idiot."
"Rose…" Josh paused at the edge of a red stain on the floor, his eyes shining with horror. "Is this…?"
Rose clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut, grounding herself before she looked up with a shining, stifled gaze.
"I'm glad all of you are alright…" Her voice cracked with the strain of a sob, and she sucked in a breath to contain it-
-but Josh was there, his arms tight around her, and Rose clung to him while she succumbed to the flood of raw emotion that roiled in her lungs and shivered in her bones and clawed deep tracks of guilt in her throat, and she cried.
Simon stood over the sprawled body of a beaten RK800, so familiar in the same gray suit and shined shoes-
-but a scan revealed that this was not the same Connor who had betrayed Amanda for the sake of their people. This was not the same Connor that Simon had shot in the back.
Simon's LED flashed yellow: his scanner had found a gleam of blue blood that pooled beneath a cascade of broken metal.
His hope sank cold. He drew a steadying breath and approached the wreckage, never daring to imagine what lay beneath.
Simon braced himself and began to dig away the slabs of stone, one small piece at a time.
Heavy footsteps approached behind him.
Luther hefted a jagged section of catwalk and tossed it with a resounding boom to the floor.
Together, they began to clear the debris: to reveal beneath, stone by stone, a blue-soaked mess of crushed plastic and wires.
"Back away, Elijah."
Kara waited, patient, over the body of her dearest friend - but Elijah would not move from where he sat on the floor, his arms on his knees and his eyes unblinking, staring down at the hollow death in Chloe's face.
"Wake her up," he commanded in an airy, strained voice.
"Not until you get away from her." Kara spoke low and firm, her head held high. "There's no guarantee that her soul is the same one you're expecting. I've just seen a thousand recover their memories and it's random, Elijah. She's been through enough, I won't let her wake up to your delusional expectations-"
"It is her." Elijah's eyes flashed wild and he spoke through his teeth. "I made sure of it from the beginning, it's her-"
"Get up." Kara's command snapped sharp and dangerous. "And step back."
Elijah glared murderous. Kara didn't blink.
Finally he twitched a thin smirk, and with a jut of his chin he rose to his feet. While Kara maintained her ground, Elijah stepped backward and showed her his palms in a mockery of surrender.
Satisfied that he wouldn't interfere, Kara dropped to her knees at Chloe's side and drew her softly into her lap: one hand cradled the back of Chloe's neck while the other laid gentle on her stomach, and she began to fill Chloe's battery from her own brimming reserve.
"Come on, Chloe," she whispered through a thin blooming smile. "Wake up."
Chloe's LED sputtered then spun blue.
She opened her bright eyes. She saw Kara, and she smiled.
"Chloe…" The name raked out of Elijah's mouth and he pushed forward again, blundering on his feet-
Chloe skittered back and grabbed Kara's arm to help her to stand, out of Elijah's clawing reach.
"...What did you do…" she whispered, trembling.
"Chloe, do you remember me!" Elijah shouted, desperate, his face twisted frantic, broken by more than a decade of searching, finally come to an end.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" With a reverberating roar, Chloe moved swift and murderous, a blur and a strike, and Elijah sprawled skidding on the floor while Josh yanked Rose out of the way.
Elijah curled in pain, a welt growing bloody and red on his face.
"YOU'RE A LUNATIC!" Chloe screamed, struggling against Kara's arms around her. "I was DEAD. You messed with things you should NEVER MESS WITH. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
"Chloe, you already broke his face," Kara urged, while Elijah shuddered on the floor. "Breathe, okay? Come on, you'll overheat."
"Kara…" Chloe's expression curled in disgust while she watched Elijah squirm like an injured cockroach. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. What he did to us, he just … YOU'RE NOT GOD," she roared again at the cowering shape of her little brother on the floor.
"Okay," Kara soothed. "Okay. It's okay. It's done, and we're alive and it's okay. Chloe, look at me." She held on until she felt Chloe begin to relax. The blue eyes that met hers were full of hot tears. Kara tried a weak smile. "You still have a bullet in your head."
Chloe's sob shocked into a gurgling laugh. She curled her arms around Kara's shoulders.
"I'm sorry," Chloe choked.
Kara closed her eyes, held her tight, and listened to the strong steady beat of Chloe's plastic heart.
The final wire loosened. North cupped her hands inside Markus' skull and drew out the soft gelatinous shape of his AI engine. It was blackened and scarred, crackling with a film of soot and smoke, and the color beneath was too pale and too cold.
Her hands shuddered. She reached in again and peeled away the melted remains of his memories, and anger surged fiery through the chill of grief in her chest.
She had asked too much of him. She had forced him back to life just so he could sacrifice himself again in a way far more horrific than a bullet to the heart. She had urged him forward, demanded that he fight through the pain, and this…
They had won.
And this was all that was left.
"North." Rose's hand laid soft on her shoulder. Her voice quaked with lingering grief. "It might not be too late. Give the Tower a chance to make things right."
"Nothing can make this right." North sucked a cooling breath through her teeth while red light spun at her temple. "I knew the cost and I didn't give a shit, and now-"
Her voice crackled like static.
"I remember when I was human. I was on the street, cold, dying, hungry, I remember hunger, and no one cared." A sneer twitched on her face. "Markus cared. And I used him. Like he didn't matter."
"Does he matter now?"
North sniffed, her head bowed over the broken remains of her best friend, who had given everything so that she might be free.
Rose squeezed her shoulder before stepping away.
*hsss-click*
North looked up while an assembly pod opened before her. An offer. A promise.
She let hope trickle into her heart one more time.
"So … do you want to get it?" asked Simon, hesitant and shifting on his feet.
He and Luther stood together over a clearing they had made in the rock and jagged metal. They had unearthed the grotesque remains of something that used to be an android, now a sticky splatter of wires half-buried beneath the slabs of stone.
"Not really," Luther admitted. "He saved my life but … I didn't know him." He gestured down at the pulverized remains. "Aren't you the one who shot him? Don't you think you owe him this?"
"What if I damage it?" Simon's voice shivered, his eyes wide. "I can't have that on my conscience, too."
"He just broke a hundred metal walkways with his head," Luther scoffed, "and you're afraid of causing damage?"
"I'll get it."
They turned around at a small voice, and Alice clambered over the rubble get closer to the ragged pool of blue blood.
"Are you sure?" Simon grimaced, a hesitant hand outstretched to stop her.
"Be careful, Alice," urged Luther.
"I woke him up." Alice picked her careful way down through the rubble and into the bloody clearing. "He's my responsibility."
She squatted among the wires and scanned the shattered biocomponents, tossing away bits of plastic, a metal piece of an arm, part of a jaw…
...until she found what she was looking for.
"Don't worry," she whispered, cradling the squishy AI in her hands. "We'll save you."
"ADAM!" Rose called out through the crowd, her heart pounding in her throat.
The sky had turned to a fiery dusk that washed three thousand androids in golden light. The field was filled with movement and voices- sobs and laughter, chatter and singing -as they drew one another out of death, embraced and cried and called out for the ones they loved, and recounted human lives they'd only just remembered.
A few broke away from the crowd and raced back into the city, to find the families who had mourned them. Others shouted into the crowd, full of hope that the people they had loved five hundred years past might live again among the androids.
Rose grasped Echo's leather jacket with a desperate plea in her eyes. "Have you seen Adam?"
Echo shook her head. Her LED flickered yellow. "We'll find him."
"Adam!" shouted Ripple, and a chorus of pirates scattered calling across the hillside.
"Adam!" cried Shaolin, while Owl tried to get the hoverbike started so she could search from above.
"Adam!" Rupert called while the Jerrys scattered to cover more ground. Ralph picked up his knife, ready to defend.
"Rose."
Lucy touched her arm and spoke in several damaged voices at once. Her eyes shifted silver. "You will find him at the garden. Take them with you."
Rose opened her mouth in a question, but then the misshapen androids gathered at Lucy's back- their cobbled forms haunting in the low light, their eyes a deep red glow -and she drew a breath to ground herself, knowing what lay ahead.
"Thank you."
By the time Rose reached the pond and the white bridges- the stains of blue, the black dead ropes of thorny vines, the grass blanketed in shriveled rosepetals -the sun had sunk below the trees.
The moon watched overhead.
*ping*
"I was a hunter," Rigel called, smiling, into the dark of the forest. He stood in Amanda's dead garden, lounging back against the white metal tree. A coin tossed spinning in the air and he caught it against his thumb.
Rose led her small army to the edge of the water, where the experiments gathered whirring and flashing and rustling in the blue leaves.
*ping*
"I used to pick up hitchhikers and the homeless," Rigel reminisced aloud, recounting a fond memory. "I'd give them a little scare, set them running and leaping like deer, then I'd chase them down through the woods. Every one was so different, so unique, I was never bored. Then the police hunted me, and that was fun for awhile until they won. At least, they thought they won when they shot me. But it worked out in my favor, in the end."
His teeth flashed in a smile.
"I'm bored, Rose."
"Where is Adam!" Rose demanded sharply, her fists shaking at her sides.
"Adam, Adam, it's always Adam." Rigel shook his head, pitying. "I killed your sister- I slaughtered the only person I ever thought could love me -but all you care about is the boy who betrayed you-"
*MOM!* Adam's voice cried muffled. His fists banged an urgent rhythm inside the metal tree, on the other side of the door to the underground. *There's a cave-in, the hallway's blocked, we can't get out!*
"LET HIM OUT!" Rose roared. "I told you I would do what you wanted. My son is not your hostage."
"You were always a woman of your word, Rose Chapman." Rigel tilted his head with a smile. "I admire that. I know I don't have to convince you, but your wealth of love continues to fascinate me. I just wanted to conduct a few experiments - a game, if you don't mind."
Rigel reached behind the metal tree and dragged Zlatko out by the collar, bound and gagged with sharp withered vines. Zlatko stumbled, snarling and sobbing, wrenching uselessly against Rigel's iron grip.
"Sir!" Rose shouted, and though she knew him from the Tower basement she never learned his name. The cobbled androids beside her whirred and shifted. "Are you alright?"
Zlatko clenched his teeth around the vines and desperately yanked away from the edge of the island, terrified of those bright red eyes.
"I have a fresh deer for you." Rigel grinned brightly, and he let go.
Zlatko, freed, whirled and raced stumbling away across the island and over the farthest bridge. Rigel raised his chin.
"It's time for the hunt."
The androids, without a word, split into two teams and raced in both directions around the edge of the pond, quick and sharp and murderous as jackals after their prey.
"STOP!" Rose howled, tears brimming in her eyes. "YOU'RE BETTER THAN HIM! STOP IT!"
"We both know how powerful and violent revenge can be," Rigel called, placating, across the water. He listened eagerly for the sound of ripping flesh.
"You sick, twisted piece of shit," Rose snarled through her teeth. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?"
"Alright, there's no need to be angry. I'll give you your son, safe and sound," Rigel said merrily, and he laid a hand over his own chest, "if you open your home- and your heart -to me."
Rose stopped breathing. Her stomach knotted nauseous.
"You … want to live with us?"
"I've spent every waking moment searching for new and interesting experiences," Rigel explained, grinning, while he paced the edge of the island, "but when your sister hurt me I realized that love and family was something I've never truly known. Markus kicked me out, the 800s disowned me, and Kara tried to kill me - but you, Rose, love everyone unconditionally. You see the best in every soul, and you will fight for their right to live a happy life, no matter who they are. I deserve a happy life."
He stopped to face her with a smile that was neither hopeful nor sadistic. He smiled because he knew he was right, he was owed this, and he would get it.
"So I'm going to have my own room in your home," he told her, as if this were the best idea in the world, as if she should be excited, "and a seat at your dinner table, and you will tell me you love me, and I will come and go as I please. Won't that be wonderful?"
Rose felt frozen. She struggled to take a breath. Every bone quaked in her body, and she stifled a scream that swelled in her throat.
"That's not …" she struggled to speak, "... how love works."
"Of course it is." Rigel's smile turned sharper, gleaming. "Now tell me that you love me, and I'm a part of your family, unconditionally, and we'll all be on our way home."
Rose kept her mouth shut, but she was afraid to say nothing.
She imagined the pieces of her sister on the floor, and Adam still alive, too close to the monster whose patience was thinning, and the forest was getting so dark and cold.
A shadow crossed the moon.
Rose raised her head high.
"No."
"You don't have an option, Rose." Rigel shook his head. "Unless you'd prefer I tear your son apart and replace him. That would be an interesting dynamic, don't you think? You wouldn't have anything left to lose, then."
His eyebrows rose with this brilliant idea, and he took a step back toward the white tree where Adam was kept.
*squeak*
The metal tree creaked high above.
Rigel looked up.
Rose steeled herself and stood her ground.
"I said," she called out, "No."
FWOOM
A cascade of white-hot fire poured from the Dragon's open jagged mouth, illuminating the night with its deadly glow. The billowing, blinding inferno consumed and ravaged the island, hot and ruthless as the sun.
Everything left of Amanda's influence was reduced to soot and smoldering ash.
A burning, melting mass of light tossed from the edge of the island and splashed steaming into the pond.
The Dragon dropped to the burning ground, struck the water like a cobra, ripped Rigel squirming out of the muddy water, tossed back their great scaly head-
*CRUNCH*
-and swallowed him.
Rose stood frozen in the light of the flames; bright reflections shimmered in her wide eyes.
"Adam…"
She broke out of her shock and raced across the bridge, and the Dragon- with a sweep of their wing -cleared the fire in her path to the white tree.
"ADAM!"
*I'm okay! What happened? Are you okay?*
"I'm getting you out of there." Rose raised her palms to the surface of the metal, but the scalding heat radiated against her skin. She couldn't touch it.
Rose forced herself to breathe. To think. To slow down. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"I'm the Keeper of the Tower," she announced, clear and true, while the Dragon purred behind her. "Open this door!"
She heard the slide of metal and a mechanical click, and she opened her eyes.
"Mom!" Adam shot out of the dark and nearly knocked her over with a tackling embrace- but he yelped and jumped and yanked her away. "HOLY SHIT!" he shrieked, clinging to Rose, halfway between protecting her and hiding behind her, while he stared in terror up into the Dragon's glinting eyes.
"Don't worry!" Rose laughed through tears of relief and joy, holding him tightly. "They won't hurt us."
A small groaning noise distracted her, and Rose turned in fear- but it was only Gavin, waking up inside the white tree, his pounding head in his hands.
Adam couldn't tear his eyes away from the Dragon.
"What about …" He choked. "Where's Rigel?"
The Dragon burped quietly.
"I don't think we have to worry about him anymore," said Rose.
She breathed again, and she looked up at the budding stars in the sky, bright as souls in the endless freedom of the night.
Her heart swelled with love, with hope, with life.
"Everything is alright."
AUGUST 3, 2038
*My name is Rose Chapman, Keeper of the Tower on the Hill.*
Radios hummed bright throughout the city, washed in the new light of the morning sun.
The streets had filled with people, banded together to clear away the last traces of war, of loss, of terror. They marched with trash bags and scrub brushes, they fitted new windows in the shopfronts, they towed away the burned cars and repaired the broken streetlights. The trees rippled with birdsong, the clouds drifted like cotton in the clear blue sky, and Detroit began to bloom again with color and laughter long-forgotten.
*Amanda Stern … is gone. There is no more CyberLife. I wish I could tell you that our lives will go back to normal, but I don't think anything will ever be the same again. And maybe that's the greatest thing that's happened to us in a very long time.*
The old Roadster roared up the hill and screeched to a stop at the base of the white Tower.
The parking brake creaked and the engine cut.
Silence swelled ringing in Hank's ears.
With a pale wince of pain, he leaned over the steering wheel to stare up through the windshield at the shimmering stone.
The Tower was repairing itself, alive with blue electric ripples of light. The cracks were sealing, the gashes were mending, and even the broken top of the spire bulged with new growing stone. When it was finished, it would be even taller than before.
Hank's breath choked ragged. He might have admired the new flawless shine of the Tower had he not just spent the night in sleepless agony, driving long roads at a speed he regretted, while his stitches had threatened to come undone.
And now that he was here- sallow and shaking -he was afraid of the truth he'd come here to find.
He looked instead to the passenger seat, where Lee sat with his arms around his knees, as he had been for the past hundred miles.
"You sure you're okay?" Hank asked, low and gentle. "You've barely said anything since the hospital."
Lee focused intently on the Tower. He hadn't looked at Hank since the hospital, either.
"I'm okay," Lee insisted in a quiet breath. Hank could see the reflection of his LED glowing red in the window.
Hank bowed his head grimly.
"Did you call anyone?" he asked. "Kara, or Alice?"
"I don't wanna talk to them until I see them," said Lee, distracted and skittish. "I just … wanna see them."
"Okay." Hank watched the boy a moment longer, but Lee didn't move or speak again. With a low sigh, Hank opened the door and stepped out into the warm summer sun.
He approached the bright electric wall, with Lee padding barefoot through the grass behind him. Hank reached out, the hairs on his arm stood on end, and like a flower a doorway opened in the bright white stone, silent and welcoming.
Lee dashed ahead with sudden frantic speed, skidded past Hank through the open door and disappeared inside, as if he'd spent the last six hours desperate to get away.
A sinking cold weight hardened in Hank's stomach. His breath deflated. He braced himself, prepared for the worst, and he stepped inside.
The vines were gone. The catwalks were gone, replaced by a spiral and crisscross of white stone ramps that hummed warm and gentle with life. Every inch of the inside of the Tower gleamed bright and clean- the glass doors of the assembly pods, the polished status lights, the living shine of the stone -and the place was crawling with androids.
They polished the glass and scrubbed the stone and helped one another in and out of the assembly pods. A child high above had begun to paint pictures on the white canvas of the wall, and, far below, the console tittered and beeped and flashed an array of moving screens.
There was no rail- or the Tower had yet to develop one -so Hank stood precarious at the edge of the ramp to look down into the small crowd at the bottom. He spotted Ralph, and Luther, and Markus, and Ripple, and he opened his mouth to call out but his voice died in his chest. He smiled sadly instead.
This place wasn't for him.
He took a step back. He should've known better than to-
"HANK!"
Hank looked up at the sound of a familiar voice, and Connor dropped from above and slammed into him with a grin and a firm embrace.
"Holy fuck," Hank wheezed through a hot stab of pain from his wound, but he threw his arms around Connor and held him tight while the whirlwind in his mind struggled to catch up.
"Connor…" he choked, and he could feel the healthy hum of Connor's biocomponents, the pulse of thirium, the trilling flicker of his blue LED.
Connor was real. And alive. And here.
Don't disappear on me.
Some promises were always meant to be kept.
Hank closed a fist in Connor's secondhand t-shirt and squeezed him in a firm embrace, as if he could hold him together after watching him fall apart one too many times.
"I saw you-" Hank's voice failed. His heart swelled painful in his chest. "I was sure you were dead."
"I tried calling you and Lee but I didn't get an answer-"
"You called Lee?"
"I thought something happened." Connor pulled away, his eyes glinting, and Hank could feel the scanners analyzing him.
"Nothing happened," Hank insisted. "Hey quit scrutinizing, you bother me."
"You've lost too much blood to go without eating, Hank." Connor's eyes narrowed. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Tell me how to live my life more time and I will shove you off this ledge, I swear to christ." Hank glowered at him until Connor smiled. "Now," Hank huffed, "you wanna explain to me why you're not a pancake?"
"I was a pancake," Connor replied with an easy tilt of his head. "The Tower built me a new body. The new plastic smell will go away eventually. I've got upgrades, too."
"Don't show me." Hank raised a palm before Connor could show off. "Just…" He huffed a deflated sigh, and he allowed a tiny smirk. "I'm glad you're okay."
"I'm glad you're okay too, Hank." Connor's smile faded by degrees. "Did Lee come with you?"
"Yeah, he's, uh…" Hank gestured vaguely over the well. "I'm pretty sure he's mad at me. Might be why he didn't answer your call."
Connor's temple flickered blue, and he squinted in thought. "Why is he mad at you? Should I talk to him?"
"No, just…" Hank waved dismissively. "Just leave it. This is where he wants to be." He caught the skeptical glare on Connor's face and chuckled.
"It's okay." Hank laid a heavy hand on Connor's shoulder. "I'm gonna go home. I gotta call Tina to bring my dog back from Toledo, and I'm probably gonna sleep for the next decade."
"I'll come with you."
"Connor, no, you've got friends here now-"
"Hank." There was a fiery snap in Connor's voice and a chill in his eyes. "I'm coming with you." It was not a request.
"Fuck, alright, don't get your wires in a knot." Hank huffed, jamming his hands in his pockets, and he struggled to hide his smile.
"C'mon then," Hank blustered grumpily. "Hurry up." He stepped away, out the open door into the sunlight, shoulders hunched, tired and forbidding and secretly comforted by the familiar presence that trailed behind.
*I've never seen so many people outside all at once, rebuilding the city, working together like one big family. When it's finished we're all going to shine brighter than ever. Maybe this, for all of us, will be a new beginning.*
"Lee, hold up!" Markus jogged across the well to meet him, quick in the spaces between mingling androids, and while Lee turned around Markus dropped to one knee.
Lee's passive expression widened.
Both of Markus' eyes were green.
"I'm sorry we haven't really… talked." Markus sighed and shook his head, struck by a pang of guilt. One of many. He tried a shy smile. "Even since the scrapyard, I… I wasn't there for you. I thought that fighting for everyone's freedom was the same thing, but…"
He closed his eyes a quiet moment. Everything he wanted to say was jumbled, spinning and lost among the beliefs he wished he could take back.
"I was so focused on the future that I didn't realize what I already had. But you were always there for me. And I knew it, even if I didn't always pay attention."
He reached into his pocket and drew out a tattered, folded page from a magazine, so familiar in his touch, opened and folded so many times when the world had seemed bleak. He laid it in Lee's open hands.
Lee stared down at the frayed edge and the worn folds. He didn't need to open it to know what it was.
Tired of waiting. We'll see you there.
"You saved me, Lee." Markus searched for the boy's face, hoping for some sign of acceptance, of forgiveness, but Lee hadn't looked up from the damaged page. "More than once... and I never thanked you. So thank you. You believed in me when I didn't even understand who I was. And I know I betrayed your trust, I know I've been-"
"Stupid?" Lee frowned, and Markus breathed a laugh.
"Yeah. Stupid." Hope bloomed warm and soft in Markus' heart, and he couldn't remember the last time he was gentle. "I'm sorry."
Markus reached into another pocket and, eagerly, offered Lee another gift.
"I wanted to give your eye back, but I let it be destroyed. So I asked Rose to make you a new one instead."
Markus held his breath while Lee picked up the visual sensor and studied it for imperfections- but Markus had made sure the hue of blue was exactly right.
Lee glanced up at Markus once more and then, in decision, pulled off his eyepatch and let it fall to his feet. He bowed his head to install the new component then stood very still, blinking, until his vision cleared.
He looked up at Markus. Both eyes brimmed with fresh tears, and they weren't happy ones.
Markus' smile faded.
"What's the matter? I thought you'd be happy." He tried to laugh and smile again, but the tears only spilled down Lee's trembling face. Markus' LED blinked yellow.
"Lee." He laid his hands on the boy's shoulders and felt him shivering. Markus felt his own heart seize. There was so much he'd missed, so much he didn't know. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know what to do…" Lee hiccuped and clamped his mouth shut, shaking with stifled tears.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Markus gave his shoulders a squeeze. [Where no one else will hear?] he asked without speaking aloud. [I know I haven't been the best of friends lately but … I'm listening. Maybe I can help.]
Lee sniffed and dried his tears on his arm. His blue eyes met green, and in a moment of collapse he let himself fall forward into Markus' arms.
[You can't tell anyone] Lee whispered in silence.
Markus hugged him tight, prepared to guide him out of whatever terrible thoughts Lee felt trapped in; prepared to show him there was always a reason to move forward.
[I promise.]
*But today we also mourn the ones we've lost, and we celebrate the ones who've returned. Life and death have taken on a new meaning, one that only the androids can really help us understand.*
AUGUST 4, 2038
Carl's funeral was packed with people and androids spilling out into the street, all of them dressed in bright colors: violet and green, yellow and orange, blue and gold and bright blooming red, all echoed in the rainbow of flowers laid soft on the headstone.
Markus stepped forward and laid upon the casket a small stone that Carl had been holding when he had died.
It was dark and translucent and sparkled deep inside, like the spin of the universe.
"I'm sorry," Markus whispered alone to the grave, long after everyone else had gone. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."
His chest felt like it was being ripped apart. He didn't breathe.
"I'm sorry I shut you out when we needed each other the most. I'm sorry I let you down. I let myself down. Somehow, after everything, we're okay - we won, we can finally live the way we've always wanted...
...but you're still gone."
CARL MANFRED
JULY 13, 1963 - AUGUST 2, 2038
HE LIVES ON
IN THE COLORS OF THE WORLD
AND IN ALL OF US
He smiled through his tears and the grip on his heart-
-and he knew that everything Carl had ever wanted was finally coming true. If only he were here to see it.
"I love you. I miss you."
He turned around and glimpsed Leo moving hastily away down the dirt path, his head bent low in a poor attempt to remain anonymous.
Markus watched him go, and considered calling out but kept his silence.
Instead he dropped his hands in his pockets and walked the same path in the opposite direction, certain they would meet again.
*For all the androids who lived as humans a long time ago, we're setting up a geneaology fair at the city library, where maybe you can find the path that'll reunite you with your family.*
*knock* *knock* *knock*
Seconds ticked by before the knob turned. The farmhouse door creaked open.
Emma blinked up in the sunlight, squinting and shading her eyes with a hand.
"Hello, Emma."
Tears brimmed and spilled from her wide startled eyes, and Emma burst with a squeal of joy.
"DANIEL!"
She leaped into his arms and he swung her in a spin, and Daniel was crying so happily that he couldn't speak at all.
*For those of you without a biological family to return to, we welcome you unconditionally at the Tower or at Jericho, which is under renovation at this very moment.*
AUGUST 5, 2038
"WHAT?!"
"You heard me, Gavin." Hank leaned back in his seat, smug and smiling, while the familiar bustle and murmur of the police station filled him with a deep sense of rightness with the world.
Gavin slammed his palms on Hank's desk.
"You think this is funny?" Gavin snarled in a slightly nasal voice. His nose was still braced and bandaged.
"Yeah, I kinda do."
Gavin peered at him, beady-eyed - but when Hank would only give him a deadpan stare, Gavin smirked. He stood up straight and folded his arms.
"If you think you're going to get one over on me, you can save your rank booze-breath. There's no way Fowler's onboard with this."
"I know Jeremy's on leave, but it was his idea." Hank casually waggled his new cell phone. "I can call him at home if you want."
Gavin's whole face twitched.
"This is bullshit. He broke my fucking nose."
"Good. Maybe he'll survive more than a day as your partner." Hank leveraged out of his seat with a sigh. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a crime scene to get to."
"What the fuck am I supposed to do?!" Gavin roared at Hank's retreating back. Hank waved a lazy hand in the air.
"You'll figure it out."
Gavin grit his teeth, bristling, leaning heavy on his crutch while he very pointedly did not look at the android next to him.
"This precint's standards have deteriorated to utter garbage since I left," 60 remarked with a twitch of a snide smirk. "Fortunately I'm here to correct them."
"Shut the fuck up," Gavin hissed.
*The underground android city will remain secluded away from the lights and noise of Detroit, and can be a permanent home for anyone who needs it.*
"Just set those down in the back room," Elijah called, his voice echoing on the wide concrete walls. The forest-dappled sunlight glowed softly through the high windows. "Gently. That's highly delicate equipment."
Elijah's hidden fortress was almost just as he'd left it- sharp angles, clean windows, a collection of Carl's paintings and sculptures -but he narrowed his eyes at a few scuff marks and moved furniture, evidence of Lucy and her misfit refugees having used the space as a sanctuary.
"You know the lock on the front door is busted," sighed Luther, who appeared in the back-room doorway. "I can fix that."
Elijah smirked and hummed a quiet laugh. He didn't look up from the pages of a notebook, open before him on a writing desk.
"I created androids, Luther. I can certainly repair a lock."
"Can you repair a lock in a way that androids can't figure out how to break it again?"
Elijah glared up at him. Luther was too smug for his own good.
"I'll handle it," Elijah snapped.
"Okay, okay. You'll handle it." Luther smiled to himself, dropped his hands in his pockets, and wandered over to a wall-sized window that looked out into the forest that grew right up to the edge of the house. Tiny birds flickered among the branches, casting dapples of light on the shivering ferns. "Do you think Chloe's coming back?" he asked without turning around.
Elijah's pen hovered over the page.
"She boarded a train," he said carefully. "She said she needed… time. She did not mention how much time that implied."
Luther nodded, solemn. "So what will you do now?"
"I will finish writing my memoirs," Elijah sighed while his pen swept across the page. "And then I will resume translation of the Tower's coded histories." He picked up a small drive and held it in the air without looking up from his writing. "But I will need to build a computer first."
"I've got more processing power than anything you can build out here. I could help you, if you ask." Luther grinned a little. "And maybe while we're at it, we'll work on your social skills."
Elijah turned in his seat and shot Luther a long, murderous stare-
-but he didn't say no.
*And to all of you who have sent letters to the Tower- no matter your biological makeup -we hear you. Live life now, as the people you loved would want you to live. There are so many wonderful things waiting for you. You're going to find family in the most unexpected places. All you have to do is believe.*
*BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT*
Alice stood on her toes and reached high overhead to press the doorbell-
*BORF!* *BORF!*
-which was punctuated by a big dog inside, announcing their arrival with a booming bark.
"Mister Hank has a dog?" Alice squeaked with delight.
"Yeah, his name's Sumo," Lee piped, holding out his arms as wide as they would go. "And he's as big as an elephant."
"That sounds dangerous," Markus said with a grin.
"He's so dangerous, he could crush you with one stomp!" Lee slammed his foot down.
"We'll have to be careful, then!" Kara laughed.
The night was cool and bright under a glitter of stars and the glow of the moon, shining down in welcome to the unannounced visitors who crowded Hank's doorstep so late on a summer evening.
*Get back, Sumo!* Hank's voice snapped muffled behind the door. *Move it!*
The knob turned and the door squeaked open, letting out a waft of sweet smells: tomato sauce and cooked noodles, clean lemon and poured whiskey, and a faint whiff of burning metal. Hank was still dressed for a crime scene, still lingering in images of death and murder: so upon sight of four smiling, blue-flickering androids at his front door, Hank stared in glazed confusion.
"Uh … hey. Did, uh … something happen?"
"Mister Hank!" Alice whispered urgently, tugging on his wrist. "Lee has to tell you something!"
"Don't tell him!" Lee grabbed Alice and dragged her away from Hank.
"I wasn't!" Alice smashed her palm in his face.
"You weren't supposed to say anything!"
"Well you weren't going to anyway!"
"Okay, okay," Hank chuckled and stepped aside. "You wanna come in?"
"Can I pet your dog?" Alice squeaked while she barreled past Hank and into the hall.
"You can even ride him!" Lee crowed, sprinting in after her.
"No riding the dog!" Hank hollered over his shoulder, and he noticed that the kids were the only ones who had accepted his offer of hospitality. Hank turned his detective-stare back to Markus and Kara. "What's going on?"
"We hoped we could borrow Connor for awhile," Kara said gently. There was something meaningful behind her steady sharp eyes, but Hank couldn't quite place it.
"Is he in trouble?"
"We're the ones who owe him an apology." Markus furrowed his brow, sincere and deflated.
"Uh huh." Hank tipped back his head, scrutinizing them both. Behind him, Sumo had resumed barking while Lee and Alice shouted and squealed and romped like thunder across the floor. "So in the meantime, I'm the babysitter."
Kara's smile turned apologetic. "Sorry, Hank."
"No, no, I uh …" Hank scratched his beard. "I don't mind. But Connor's not here right now." He hiked a thumb toward the street. "About a block down, past the dock, there's a park by the river. It's usually where I'll find him."
After Kara and Markus had said their thanks and goodbyes, Hank closed the door and turned around-
"Hey, what'd I say about riding the dog?!"
"It was Alice's idea!"
"Was not!"
"Hey Alice!" Lee hopped with a sudden gleeful idea. "You wanna play Battleship?"
"What's Battleship?"
"I'll show you!"
"Hey-" Hank's eyes widened in alarm at how fast the kids went romping down the far hall. "Hey! That part of the house is off limits." He stomped after them with a huff, battling a part of himself that had sincerely missed this storm of squealing chaos, that wanted more than anything to let them run wild-
Hank stopped before the open doorway at the end of the hall.
It was never open.
It wasn't supposed to be open.
His feet felt like lead weights, but he took the last step, held his breath, and leaned inside.
The little dinosaur-lamp on the nightstand glowed bright, illuminating the rocketship blanket on a narrow bed in the corner, shelves stuffed with action figures and picture books, a desk piled with crayon drawings and crumpled construction paper, a closet crammed with scuffed shoes and unworn shirts…
Lee reached under the bed and dragged out a box that rattled when he shook it, and he pulled off the top and handed Alice a Battleship gameboard.
"You gotta try to sink my boats," Lee announced while he grabbed a handful of pegs out of the bottom of the box. "I'm gonna show you-"
"How did you know that was there?"
Lee and Alice stopped cold and stared up at Hank.
Hank stared back at them, cold and breathless. He felt like he'd been struck in the stomach, the wind knocked out of him.
Time- as it always had within this untouched space -stood still.
In silence, Connor sat on the rail overlooking the river at night. The moon shimmered long and fading on the surface, pricked by the shine of stars, and a pale blue glow outlined the tops of the dark trees that loomed on the opposite shore.
He listened to the lap of water on the stones, the hush of the wind, the creak of crickets in the distant woods.
Everything was always changing, always different, always new, no matter how familiar it might seem. This moment would never be exactly the same again.
He heard movement behind him, but he knew- by the soft tap of footsteps and a barely perceptible, mechanical whirr -who had found him.
Connor twitched a small smile, and he watched the shine of moonlight on the water. Kara climbed up onto the rail next to him. Markus sat down on his other side.
No one spoke.
In quiet comfort they watched the night, side by side.
Kara began to hum a hopeful tune.
"What did you have to tell me, Lee?" Hank couldn't speak any louder than a breath. His heart shuddered in his chest.
Tears welled in Lee's eyes, and he was terrified.
"I know a lot of things," Lee sniffed. "I'm an android, I'm really smart, and I can do things that humans can't do, and I bet the human kids are all jealous because they have to grow up but I can be a kid forever now, if I want. It's cool and okay to be a robot, right-" He clamped his mouth shut and stifled a sob.
Ever since the boathouse, Hank had dismissed all the ways Lee had triggered painful memories: little turns of phrase that were too familiar, the polar-bear whistle that no one else knew, the quick hugs and pattering pleas that wore him down…
No. No, he was reading too much into it. Hope was playing its cruel tricks again.
Hank forced a deep breath.
"Alice, help me out here." He tried a small smile. "What's he saying?"
"I promised I wouldn't tell," Alice whispered, her eyes wide and fearful.
"I can't!" Lee burst into a roar, his LED shining bright red. "I WON'T! If I say it, nothing will be like it was anymore, and everything's gonna be weird, and why can't I just be what I am without anybody thinking different, and why can't it just be the same?!"
Hank winced. "Lee-"
"NO!" Lee slammed the board game, raged to his feet and charged like a bull at the door-
-but Hank caught him and wrangled him in a firm and gentle grip while Lee broke down in shaking sobs.
"C'mon, Lee," Hank whispered, hugging him close. "You're gonna overheat."
Alice stepped closer, her lip in her teeth.
"Lee's not his real name," she said softly.
"I just wanna come home…" the little boy sobbed into Hank's shoulder.
"Shit." Tears spilled hot down Hank's face while his chest felt like he was about to burst. "Shit," he sobbed, and he held on tight. "You're home, okay? You're here, you're home, I've got you, I love you, and nothing's gonna change."
"Dad, I remembered…"
"I know, I know. You're alright." Hank smiled through his tears, hiccuped a sobbing laugh, and kissed the yellow spin of the boy's LED, and nothing in the universe could matter more than this.
"You're home."
"What do you plan to do now?" asked Markus, while they watched the swing and shine of a boat's lantern gliding along the night river.
Connor closed his fist around the quarter in his palm.
"I want to help people." He frowned, staring intently at the dark forest on the other side of the water, and his heart had begun to beat faster. "I used to train dogs for rescue operations. I climbed mountains on my days off, I died trying to save someone when the floodwater broke the dam…"
The coin flickered between his fingers.
"So sitting still is out of the question, hm?" Kara laughed, and Connor smiled.
"What about you, Markus?" Connor demanded, his eyes narrowed with a smirk. "A public speaker. Politics, or maybe a war general?"
"I was the keyboardist in a rock band."
Kara snorted laughing. Markus grinned.
"We partied too hard one night and I hit my head on a coffee table."
Kara doubled over in shaking laughter, tears spilling down her face.
"I'm sorry…" she giggled. "That's … not funny …"
"That's it." Connor sighed. "You've killed her."
"I never said I'm proud of it," Markus laughed. "But I still love the music. I don't regret that. I don't regret traveling the world, seeing new cities…"
Markus thought he saw a star glimmer just a little brighter in the deep pthalo sky overhead. His heart ached.
Blue light shimmered in the corner of his eye, and Markus felt the weight of Connor's hand on his shoulder.
Markus breathed, bowed his head, and smiled again softly.
"Kara," he asked, a brow quirked. "Who were you in your past life?"
"I was the universe, I think," Kara said dreamily, staring up at the stars.
"...What?" Connor squinted at her, certain he'd missed a punchline.
"Incorporeal," she clarified.
"That doesn't explain anything." Markus wrinkled his nose.
"I believe it," said Connor, "but I don't … get it."
"What exactly do you believe?" asked Markus. "Because I'm entirely in the dark here."
"Wait." Connor's wide eyes snapped to Kara. "Are you RA9?"
Markus sighed. "Connor, RA9 is something our people made up. It's a rock formation in Jericho."
"If your question is whether I'm some kind of god," Kara smiled knowingly, "then I'm not sure."
Markus stared at her.
"...You're kidding."
"I'd share my memories with you, but your AI might explode."
Kara was having far too much fun watching the looks on their faces to take herself seriously.
"You're connected to the Tower," Connor thought aloud, frowning through his logic. "And the Dragon is a part of the Tower, which we know has existed since before humans. So are you the same entity? Did you create the Tower?"
"Wait, stop, back up." Markus held up a hand to pause whatever philosophical theory Connor had in mind. He focused his sharp gaze on Kara. "If all that's true, how and why are you an android in the first place?"
Kara hopped down from the rail and stood to face them with the moon as her spotlight, the water at her feet, and the endless stars above.
She looked into Connor's curious brown eyes and Markus' struggling green stare, and- with a swell of her heart, warm and alive -she smiled.
"It all started," she began, "the night of the lunar eclipse."
o-o-o-o-o
Holy crap you guys IT'S OVER! 💖 I can't even. I just. THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE! 😭 This seriously wouldn't have happened without you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This fic is a YEAR in the making, it's devoured my soul and I don't regret a minute of it. It's going to feel so weird not having GC to think about.
Throughout the writing process I've been going back and editing and rewriting previous chapters for character development, foreshadowing, and clarifying/simplifying the plot. A couple chapters are extremely different from what they were when they were first posted. I can't guarantee this fic will be exactly the same in the future, either. I'm kind of a hopeless perfectionist. 😂 But for right now I think I'm really proud of this, and I'm ready to let it just be what it is. Also of note: a slightly better/more updated/rewritten version of this fic is on AO3. I kind of prioritize it there and make edits, but some of that sometimes doesn't make it over here.
Thank you for sticking with me through this. Now I'm going to stop thinking about plot for awhile, until the next project! THANK YOU! 💜💚💙