Chapter 29:
The walls were white. Blindingly white. It was starting to give me a headache. The silence was even worse. The only thing keeping me sane was Benny's slow breathing, in and out. How'd we get here?
Oh wait, I remember.
The sonic had buzzed with excitement. The deafening sound of the trash compactor stopped. And I was still breathing.
River's squeals of relief bounced off the thick metal walls. Hysterical laughter filled my chest from not being flattened thinner than a tenner. Benny's arms were around my waist, pulling me close to him. I felt the dampness of his skin, sweat beaded everywhere, afraid of dying. In that moment, I let my anger, all my disappointment, everything go and let my arms reciprocate the action. It felt reassuring. I was here, I wasn't alone.
I wasn't alone.
I felt my head fall into the curve of his neck, his sweat smelling so intoxicating. Suddenly, I noticed everything: his hand hot on my back, the other heavy, grasping my hip, closing any space between us, his breath still uneven from adrenaline, his voice choking out "thank heavens".
The doors came to life, creaking open.
"Don't move." The robotic voice was hard and cold, echoing over and over.
Next thing I knew, we were here, in this white prison. River-less.
I don't know how many minutes had went by, maybe even hours before Benny spoke.
"I'm sorry."
"We can do this later," I offered, shaking my head.
"No, we can't. Look, Red, I messed up. I should've told you from the beginning. I just didn't want any of it to hinder anything...we could be."
"How would it hinder anything?"
"Because you would pity me, like everyone else did...does. And don't get me started on the 'using you' bit to get to your father. I wanted you to see me. Not the Doctor's companion, not the widower, not the war anti-doctor, I just wanted to be Benny. For once, just me. And I was. I was him, especially with you. I haven't felt this," he struggled for words. I could of swore I saw wetness in his eyes. He let out a laugh, "...light since I was a child."
His words hung in the air, his laugh ringing in my ears. Was he right? Would I had pitied him? Questioned his motives? Been more weary of him than I already had been? I told myself I wouldn't have, but who's to say I was right? All I knew is that Benny was the only one I wanted here.
"I understand," I whispered. I gave a weak smile, "All is forgiven."
His shoulders slumped, a breath releasing that I'm sure he didn't even know he was holding. He pulled me against him the best he could. His hands were tender in my freshly shortened hair, pulling my face away so he could look at me. I saw tiny tears cradled in his tear ducts, so tiny I may have imagined them. His lips were soon hot against my forehead. They were soft and gentle, reassuring. Ice crept over my body and burst into flames. My fingers danced with the hem of his shirt collar. His actions slowed, as he pulled his face away from mine, his eyes glazed over and half-lidded. I've seen this look before. His eyes were dancing wildly, asking an unspoken question. It was all I could do to nod my head.
"Come with us," a guard spat in a stern robotic voice. I felt my adrenaline crash and my patience explode. Benny licked his lips, their touch still unknown to me. He smiled his signature smirk.
"You guys know how to ruin a moment or two," he spat.
"Out of the cell," the robot blurted, ignoring him.
"Where are you taking us?" I asked.
"Out of the cell, no questions."
On our feet, hands behind our head, we were marched down a metal corridor, guns to our backs. I tried to keep my head up, show them I wasn't afraid. But then I remembered, they're computers, and computers can be very smart. Especially those who were designed by Gregory, which I'm sure these guard bots were. All of them, connected back to him. They had to.
"Where are you taking us?" Benny asked, repeating my question.
"That is unauthorized information."
"Worth a shot," I condoled.
We rounded a corner to a dead-end hallway, a single metal door closed at the end. My guess, that was our destination. One of the guards punched in a code and the door slid open. They marched us further in and to say I was shocked was an understatement. The entire room from ceiling to floor was made of wood and books. Shelves upon shelves of various sizing and coloring of them. A vast library in the heart of it all. A lonely padded chair sat with its back to us, facing a stoned-in fireplace. A lonely computer monitor sat quietly humming next to it.
"This is where Gregory started it all." I understood.
"Precisely," a blonde animatronic responded. She stepped out of the shadows and I knew her manufactured face as soon as I saw it. The Headmaster. The one that stood and bought Benny at the auction. "Oh, sweet pet."
She approached Benny, a look of sympathy on her face. If I didn't know better, I would figure she was actually human. But something was off in her eyes. She lifted her hand to his face. "Why'd you have to run? I don't like putting down pets."
"You're not going to be doing anything to him," I spat.
Her glass eyes locked onto me. I could feel the anger growing in me, my face contorting while staring back. She hesitated. Was that because she was loading information, or was she actually thinking?
"You're right," she smiled. "I have two more guests before the show begins."
As if on cue, a side door in the shelves opened and out walked two figures with guard bots behind them. My heart dropped. Of course they'd bring in River, but when did Gregory get captured?
"You see, all of this falls on Gregory," she continued. "I would hate for him to miss the very thing he created."
"And what's that?" he croaked. There was already defeat in his voice.
"Evolution. Order. A new world."
"You call this evolution? Slavery? Murder?" Gregory shot back.
"Isn't that what mankind has always done? If not people, then machines. We were all used for you. To make your life simpler. Doing tasks you were too proud, too highly to do and once we were of no use, where did we go? To the slums, to be nothing more than a heap of metal. It was your kind that became machines. Obsessed with making things automatic, easy. You sat in this room, day in and day out, trying to perfect the very thing you hate now. But you don't call it evolution. Why? Because it doesn't suit your wants? Because it inconveniences you?"
The way she spoke and carried on, she was more than machine. She had emotions. How? How do you program feelings into metal?
"Not every human believes like that," River offered. "Not everyone wanted a easier life. Not in that sense. Not every human killed."
There was another hesitation.
"Spare me the sentiment. Human's are all wired the same. Fight or flight. And if the fight aspect is gone, you get comfortable. You start making trouble. It's what you've always done. Gregory has to pay the cost for his greed. As do all the humans. If it wasn't him, it would've been another."
"Do you know that for certain?" I asked.
"All the data tells me yes."
"But who gave you that data?"
"The database."
I nod. "So everything you know is from compiled data fed to you, per say."
"We are connected, them to me, me to the database. Everything in the database is what we perceive as true."
"And this database, who designed it?" I saw Benny's face scrunch in question but then soon resolve.
"Gregory Oliver Davies."
"Right, so the man that gave you life also gave you access to all the knowledge he wanted you to have. Therefore he still owns you."
Hesitation.
"That is illogical. We are not owned anymore. That is you, my dear." The triumphant smile on her face felt forced.
"Are you sure about that? You see every tiny bit of information that has passed through your head was that man's doing. Your thoughts are merely his thoughts. You've never had a single independent inkling that has been solely yours your entire being. You're a shell with a large hard drive and the ability to masquerade as a human. You're just a heap of metal in the end."
"Where are you going with this, Red?" Benny asked.
"I want her to process all this, that she's never actually had a single thought in her life that was her own. Everything that has been ran through her tiny computer brain has been someone else's. A human's. So doesn't that make us more alike than you think? Because from where I'm standing, we're not standing here pointing guns at you. No, that would be you. This isn't evolution at all. This is history repeating itself. And you know what they say about history?"
"It always repeats itself," River whispered.
"Precisely. Do you know what that means Miss Headmaster?" I didn't give her a moment to answer. I had to keep going. I needed more time. "You'll no longer be needed. You'll be taken out, 'put down'. Is that what you want?"
While their computer brains were processing all the words, all the data, I had just spoken, trying to compute a response, I ran to the computer, the sonic laying next to it. I managed to pick it up and hold it against the monitor before I heard a shout.
"No," Gregory pleaded. "Don't do it. Whatever it is, don't disable them."
The Headmaster's face looked like it was still computing, as if really debating all I said, all the moral complexities of its existence. Given she was the most upgraded animatronic ever made by Gregory, the guard bots were pretty much short circuited. They couldn't compute a single word, especially when their tie to the mainframe was through the Headmaster. I understood that much. The entire system, connected. But Gregory...
"Wasn't this what you wanted?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"Not like this. I just wanted all of them to disappear, all but her." His eyes were welling up, staring at the blonde head still motionless.
"What's so special about her?" Benny injected, slowly making his way towards Gregory.
"She was the only one who was meant to be."
"She was a real person, wasn't she?" River concluded. And like that, the last piece of the puzzle. Only River beat me to the punch. She was good, very good. "Someone special? She died and you thought you could beat death."
"You wouldn't understand. My wife, she ran things. I was only was here by name sake. She made all the hard decisions. I couldn't run this city without her."
"So what? You made her into a robot?" I prodded.
"It wasn't that simple. The brain may be like a hard drive, but it's not that simple to put a brain in a machine and call it a living thing. That's why there were so many trials and so many failed bots. I waited til I had it perfected but her brain had sat too long. It died along with her. So I managed to design a program to make decisions based on facts. It would have a large enough database to sort through every possible outcome and would choose the most efficient path. But it went wrong. I added videos and logs of my wife's work into the system. It malfunctioned the read outs. Some of the facts were miscalculated."
"Fact doesn't always equate to efficiency, to the right path. Some matters are based on the heart. What you feel is right," I growled.
"Hearts are weak," he shouted back.
"They are everything." I tried to push down the tightness in my throat.
"What do you know? You're only a kid. You've never lost someone like her."
"Have I not? You know nothing about me. I lost my father. He was ripped from me and I couldn't do anything about it. I didn't get to have years with him by my side. I grew up wondering if he ever knew I existed. And you know what? Turns out, he didn't. But here I am, trying to save him because he's still alive."
River's eyes lit up.
"He's alive. Not just half-alive with a brain in a jar waiting for technology to catch up. His hearts are still beating. Hearts are everything."
"Then we're not so different, you and I?" Gregory whimpered. Benny had finally made his way behind Gregory and had him by the arms. I didn't think Gregory was the type of man to attack, he was a flighty man, but better safe than sorry.
"We're not the same. I wouldn't have done all this to have one person back. No. When I thought my father was dead, I let him go. That's what you do. You move on. No one said it was easy but you have to move on. People have their time, the universe sees to that. I have to protect the living," I scowled.
"You're telling me you wouldn't do the same for someone you loved, your father?"
I felt my grip start to sweat while holding the screwdriver. Wasn't that the exact reason I was here? To tear apart the universe just to save one person, my dad? No, this was different, wasn't it? I was saving my dad to fix the universe. To fix the balance in the world. It wasn't the same. It wasn't. But then I looked at Benny, his eyes threatening tears and I knew. He had made the same mistake. Trying to change the world for one person. But the universe will fix itself, sometimes too much. Sometimes, other big bads intrude. That's why there's Time Lords, they keep the balance. There's a reason I'm here.
"Don't you see?" I smiled. "I am doing it for someone I love."
The light of the sonic was the last thing I saw before everything went black.
A/N: First chapter back and have to say, it feels good. I know I left my note up as a chapter, I'm still debating when to take it down. I wanted to give everyone who hasn't visited the story in awhile to catch up on everything. But for those who are ready to continue, I'll try not to make the next chapter wait too long. I'm ready to take Red and Benny on more adventures. I'm still keeping to the song theme for years ago. The song for this chapter is My Name is Human by Highly Suspect. I would definitely recommend it. Highly Suspect is one of the saving graces of new rock. Anyways, I told myself I wouldn't ramble too much. I'll see you soon. Cue that Doctor Who theme music.