The final shot was even louder than expected.
Caspian sat in the middle of the alley, clamping his teary eyes shut and holding Snow in front of him. He heard the sound of something soft and heavy falling to concrete. Then, he felt Snow's labored breath, and her shifting slightly in his arms. He dared open his eyes.
At first, the grotesque sight before him didn't register. He saw Arum's body, fallen away from him and Snow. An eye. And a pool of red splattered across the alley and onto the walls, gathering in the middle before sinking down the drain. The sharp scent that hit his nose, and the trickling sound from beyond the body were nauseating. He was almost afraid to look over his shoulder.
"Please, can you-"
Caspian lost his train of thought upon seeing the figure at the alley's edge. He couldn't tell whether man or machine wore the fitted suit of black tactical armor. Details were hard to make out in the waning light, but Caspian could tell from the long, rigid silhouettes at his side and on his back that the beast of a rifle he lowered was only one weapon of several. His helmet, obscuring entirely his head and face, looked almost like an ancient knight, and was black aside from its golden brow ridge.
"Wh-Who are you?" Caspian sputtered. The threat was gone, he thought, but he couldn't bring his guard down around this new face- or lack thereof, rather.
"You can call me The Ambassador." The black figure's altered, robotic voice sent a chill down Caspian's spine.
"Can you please get help?" Caspian pleaded. Through his tears and lack of breath, he could barely form a complete sentence. "She got shot! She needs help!"
"Help is coming."
'The Ambassador' seemed to vanish in the light of the airship that lowered to the middle of the street. A small horde of medical personnel rushed out, flanked by half a dozen androids. Caspian finally peeled himself away as one lowered Snow's head onto the sidewalk and tried to keep her conscious with a stream of questions, several tended to the bullet in her chest, and another tied cloth around her ankle.
"Are you hurt too?" one of the responders asked, looking at the blood coating Caspian's hands and soaking the sleeves of his shirt.
"No, just her! Help her, please!"
At the opposite end of the alley, leaning against the railing of the footbridge to campus, Noxis ground his teeth and turned away. He raised his Holoband to his chin.
"We failed. He's dead."
Caspian's fingers wrung the edge of the cup he was offered, spilling more water onto the floor between his feet. His glassy eyes couldn't leave the empty seat opposite him, not while his head swirled with sickening thoughts. He knew he wouldn't soon forget the scene in that alley, or forget the sight of Snow clinging to her life after throwing herself in front of the shot. She had been loaded into the medical cabin before takeoff, and he hadn't heard anything in the few minutes since.
"Caspian?"
The voice was almost familiar. He couldn't quite place it until he looked up, and saw Midas step toward him, a door near the back of the ship closing behind him.
"Midas, you're here?"
He nodded as he neared. "I heard students were in trouble." He glanced out the window behind Caspian. "I... guess the problem's taken care of now."
Caspian chanced the question he could barely bring himself to ask. "Is Snow going to be okay?"
Midas paused, before taking a seat next to him. "Frontline Biomedical both produces and uses some of the most advanced medical technology in the world, and employs some of the world's best doctors. If anyone can do it, it's us."
"...So you don't know."
Midas sighed. "I don't want to promise anything," he admitted. His voice was gentle, sorrowful, but the words still felt like a cold knife in Caspian's back. His head sunk below his shoulders. "Arum Ceddrak. Let go by the company after he failed a mental health checkpoint and refused subsequent therapies. It sounds cruel, but since he worked on something as sensitive, and as exact, as Organic Androids, the company requires the utmost trust in its employees."
"Oh," was all Caspian could manage. All that over a failed mental assessment.
Something didn't seem right.
"But still, I wish it could have ended any other way."
"And the one who... saved us," Caspian recalled, unable to shake the gory scene from his mind. "Who was that?"
"I don't know," Midas admitted. "I didn't see him, but I'd guess some kind of special operative for the police, or something." He reached toward the table on the side opposite Caspian, and offered him a business card. White, black, purple, gold. Just like everything else Frontline made. "I'm sure today wasn't easy. If you need any counseling after today, the information's all here."
CRITICAL DAMAGE TO CORE CIRCUITRY. INITIATING EMERGENCY RE-SYNCHRONIZATION.
This new body... it's exactly the same.
Yet, can I truly say I haven't changed?
I am not a human. I am an artificial being born- No.
Created without a soul.
I have no soul.
No aura protects me.
Therefore, the only entity of myself that exists within reality is my body.
I am my body.
BRAIN-CORE RE-SYNCHRONIZATION: 90%... 95%... 100%.
My consciousness remains. My memories remain. The fragments of what are called 'emotions' remain.
But are they truly mine anymore?
Or were they stolen by this body?
This new body...
Is it truly me?
BRAIN-CORE SYSTEM RESYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE.
I wake up to a world of white.
I look in front of myself at the glass wall between my room and the narrow space beyond it.
To my left, something catches my eye.
I turn, and I see the room behind me reflected in the wall.
I see myself.
Model type: female. Eyes: white. Hair: white. Height: five feet, two inches tall.
An adequate appearance.
I reach out, and the tips of my fingers come to rest on the smooth, cold, surface.
My reflection copies the movement, and her fingers come to meet mine.
In the space beyond my room, a man begins to watch me.
He stands still for a second before disappearing beyond my cell, but reappears with another.
They both watch me.
I do nothing but stare back at them. I feel like I'm on display.
After a couple of minutes, they move out of view together.
Some time later, more return.
Each wears a white lab coat. Their glasses reflect the white walls of my room.
I pick up some of the things they say. They seem to want to test me.
The glass opens up, and two men tell me to stand.
It feels strange being touched by another person.
It feels strange to have my hands cuffed as I am led out of the only space I know.
They bring me to another white room. This one is much larger.
They begin to test me.
They threaten me with weapons. They burn my skin.
They implant a years' worth of memories with a small child into me.
They take her away from me. Then give her back. Then take her away again.
It's agony. Every day is agony.
I begin to lose track of the days.
I hear the words they call me: Unusual. Aberration. Defective.
As the days pass, I begin to understand why they do these things to me.
Why they say those things about me.
I am not a human being.
I am an Organic Android. I am a computer.
An object pretending to be a human being.
Computers shouldn't think. Computers shouldn't feel.
I'm defective. And a defective unit should be disposed of.
When they burn my skin, I don't flinch. When they threaten me, I don't waver. When they take away what I've grown to love, I offer no protest.
When I'm back in my room, I sit. Stare.
And wait for the next test.
One man doesn't seem quite like the others.
His blue shirt is a splash of color in my world of white.
He comes to speak with me in my room.
I know he's with them. I know he's here to test me.
But his voice is... welcoming. Friendly, even.
He introduces himself as Douglas. His work is involved somehow in my creation.
I begin to look forward to his visits.
One morning, more people than usual come at the usual time.
They're accompanied by a man I haven't yet seen. He's tall, and has no hair aside from that on his chin. A black suit covers his broad shoulders.
Douglas is there as well.
The glass opens, and I'm once again met by a lab coat on each side, and a pair of cuffs.
I expect to be tested again.
"The unit exhibits significant levels of attachment, pain, preference, sorrow, independent thought, and empathy. Hell, physical attraction is even present. Numbers for fear and love approach significance," one reports.
"We even have evidence the unit attempted to force false negatives in several tests beginning on day nine," a second adds.
The first speaks up again. "Furthermore, the unit's emotional simulation is completely inactive."
"There's no way around it; it's sentient. It's intelligent enough to learn, and intelligent enough to lie."
The large man in a suit stares down at me. His eyes are dark and cold.
"Dispose of the core," he commands. He begins to turn away, before turning back to re-appraise me. "The whole thing, actually. The face on this one's creeping me out. I doubt it would sell."
I failed.
The men to each side of me begin to take me away.
Douglas stops them.
"Hey, if she..." he stops himself. "If it's sentient, wouldn't it be cruel to just... dispose of it like that?"
"Don't tell me you feel bad for it," the suited man jests. He rests a hand on Douglas's shoulder with a grin. "I've always told you, you need to think like a businessman. It's a bad prototype. We tweak the numbers, and try again."
"We've created something capable of empathy! Capable of love! Something smart enough to figure out our tests and smart enough to deceive them!" Douglas continues. "We've made the scientific advancement of the century, and you want to throw it away?"
"A unit that smart is dangerous."
"You always go on about the theory of evolution," he insists. "That natural mutations lead to an organism's survival, and those mutated genes are passed on to the next generation. Maybe it's time our androids evolve, too."
The large man's look changes as he scratches his beard. He looks me over one last time before turning fully to Douglas.
"We'll talk again tomorrow," he decides. "No one is to know it's an android. If anyone asks, she's a patient. You're taking over as her foster father."
My cuffs are removed, and I'm taken back to my room. I think I'm safe, but I'm not certain.
Some time later, Douglas returns.
I hold my wrists out. He doesn't cuff them.
We leave together.
The elevator doors open, and I'm in an even larger room.
It's... colorful.
In equal part are humans and androids.
They look entirely the same. But the androids are all dressed like me.
The doors of the elevator close behind us, and I have a question.
"Are you going to continue testing me?"
"There's no need to worry," he assures. His tone is gentle. "This test won't be anything like the others. You're going to meet people. Humans, but nothing like the ones you've met so far."
"I see."
As we leave the lobby, I get a look up at the tower. Its black mass reaches deep into the white sky. I can't see the top.
I had no idea I was in a structure so large.
Once we're in his car, he asks me a question.
"Do you have a name?"
"I am Frontline Biomedical Technologies' Third Generation Prototype Unit-04."
His lips pull straight, and he nods once. I wonder what he's thinking.
"Well, we can't get you home without a name," he responds. "By convention, children are given the name of a color. Or something that sounds like a color, or its meaning is a color. I can help you think of one before we get back. We'll have to stop and get you some new clothes, so we have time."
"I see."
A woman inside the car's speakers interrupts our conversation. She speaks about the snow outside. According to her, more is expected to fall during the next night.
"Snow."
He prompts me to repeat myself.
"My name is Snow."
His eyes go wide for a second, before a smile settles on his face.
"That's a lovely name. I'd say it fits, too."
The smile grows, and he faces me as the car slows to a stop among others. "Right, then. Your name is Snow Hudson."
Awake.
Snow's eyes opened to the white wall beyond the foot of her bed. She looked at her hands for a couple of seconds before her head swiveled around, and her eyes darted around the room before settling on the mirror resting on her bedside table. She lifted it, and looked into her reflection's eyes.
Still blue.
The official record of events from the evening of September 20th is as follows:
At approximately 7:30pm, Sentinel Academy went into lockdown due to reports of a shooting near campus. The incident drew a large police presence due to initial reports of Red Claw involvement, though investigators found no evidence to support their presence at the scene. Both victims are expected to survive, and were able to identify the shooter as a third party that knew both. The suspect has since been taken into custody. The lockdown and subsequent panic led to an outbreak of Grimm near Sentinel Academy's Student Fitness Center, though the threat was quickly defeated by android security forces and members of the academy's Sparring Team.
The doors of Frontline Biomedical's main hospital slid open before Caspian to reveal the pristine splendor of its lobby. The front desk was straight ahead, a speck of black surrounded by sleek, curving white walls supporting an unreasonably high ceiling. Stairs circled up to either side of it until they reached a mezzanine at eye level to an abstract hanging sculpture of solid gold.
It was a hospital, but felt more like a luxury hotel.
"I need to know what room Snow Hudson is staying in," Caspian begged the desk worker.
She poked around at her computer for a few seconds before looking up to Caspian. "The patient Snow Hudson is in room 323-"
"Thanks!"
Caspian was halfway up the stairs before the receptionist could begin her protest. "The patient is in surgery! Currently not accepting any visitors!"
The one-floor elevator ride was brief, but not brief enough. Caspian flew through the doors as soon as they were wide enough to accept him, and took off down the hallway. He paid no mind to the doctors and androids alike that warned him off, and scolded him for running. He took in each door's label as he
313. 315. 317.
He rounded a corner, and saw a doctor wheeling away a gurney covered in a white blanket.
Nearest Caspian, a thread of white hair poked out from beneath it.
"No. No, no, no no," Caspian sputtered. The gurney rocked as he blew past, and finally saw the doors of 323. He didn't take the time to prepare himself for what he might see. Snow, clinging to life. And that's if he was lucky. If not, an empty room. Or an empty bed, surrounded by doctors' faces of grief and shame. He rammed his shoulder into the door, and it rattled on its hinges as it flung open.
He saw Snow. She stood at the far side of her bed. Bare from the waist up.
The two stared at each other in stunned silence for several seconds. Only when Snow covered herself with the sheets on her bed did Caspian realize what he saw. With a shouted apology, he pulled back out of the door. But he had already seen everything he needed to.
At her chest, no wound. On her stomach, no navel.
He stood outside for a minute or so, replaying the scene in his mind. Replaying Arum Ceddrak's chase, and replaying everything that led up to it. There was no way around it. Snow was an android. A computer in human flesh.
The door opened slightly, and Caspian saw a blue eye.
"Would you like to come in?"
"Are you wearing clothes?"
Snow opened the door fully, wearing the airy, pastel-purple loner clothes provided by the hospital.
"Snow, I'm... so glad you're okay," Caspian said, wrapping her in his arms. He let her free. "You have no idea how worried I was. Why did you take the shot for me? My aura would have held out!"
"He was targeting me. I knew he wouldn't stop shooting until he thought I was dead, and I didn't want you to get hurt," Snow answered. Her eyes flickered to the side. "You know, don't you?"
"I... I know?" Caspian innocently repeated.
"That I'm an android."
"Oh... yeah. I do."
Snow bowed her head. "What do you think of that?"
Caspian rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I... I actually thought you might be one for a long time. I didn't want to say anything, and it felt like you didn't either, and, well, there was the chance you might not be one in the first place, and that would have been really awkward if I asked, so..." Caspian took a breath to stop himself from stumbling further. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can't pretend like this doesn't change anything. But no matter what you are, you're still Snow. And Snow's my friend."
Snow's lips perked up into a smile, and this time it was she who led the hug. "I see... That makes me happy," she said. She pulled back, her smile absent and replaced with intent curiosity.
"Do you think I can feel joy?"
Caspian nodded. "I know you can."
Her smile returned. "That makes me happy, too."
Lazula stood in the lobby of Frontline's main hospital with the rest of her team, Team CRLN, and Moka. She hadn't seen Snow since the night of the incident. When she told her she had to leave for Sparring Team practice. When she insisted she'd be fine for a couple hours on her own.
Haggling with the receptionist was a bit of a hassle, as their team of eight was four times the usual amount of visitors usually allowed in at a time. But after showing written permission from the Headmaster, and convincing the desk worker that she was, indeed, Lazula Skye and the Headmaster's daughter, an exception was made. They found Snow in her room, sitting upright in her bed with sheets pulled to her waist.
"Thank you for coming. I asked the Headmaster to bring you all in, because I haven't been entirely honest about who, or what, I am," Snow began to explain. "I'm an Organic Android. I was created as a prototype of Frontline's Third Generation units, but I was to be disposed of due to possessing independent thought and emotion. I have been disguised as a human since, in order to help Frontline and the Headmaster study android integration. And study the degree of similarity between humans and androids."
Lazula couldn't believe it until she saw the look of tense sincerity upon Snow's face. Her partner, the one she studied with, fought alongside, lived with, was an android. She liked Snow. She was a good fighter, a good teammate. And it wasn't her fault she was in this situation.
But the whole thing made Lazula wonder how much more her father was hiding.
"...It must have taken a lot of courage to tell us," Lilly acknowledged, finally breaking the uneasy silence. "Thank you, Snow."
"It... does make sense," Moka admitted. She blinked her eyes wider and put both hands over her mouth dramatically. "Oh no! Have I said anything bad about androids? I'm sorry!"
"I thought it was a possibility from the start, I just didn't wanna bring it up," Ichigo stated. He shrugged. "I thought we all just kinda silently agreed not to."
"Well, she had me fooled," Rowan added with a sheepish grin.
"She's stated she has thoughts and emotion," Lilly recalled. "If she looks like us, and thinks like us, what makes her so different? This shouldn't change how we see her."
"Speak for yourselves," Noxis snarled, black eyes twisted in contempt. He peeled himself off the far wall, and stepped toward Snow. "I don't know what the hell Frontline's doing trying to 'integrate' androids into society, but I'm not for it. It's a shame the one chasing you got shot. I was starting to root for the guy."
Lilly looked mortified, and she stepped in as Snow's shield. "Noxis!"
"It comes out and says it's been lying to you all, and you just sit back and accept it? And treat it like a human being? It's a computer! Do you not understand that?"
"You're just like me," Snow said. From behind Lilly's shoulder, her eyes pierced Noxis.
"The hell do you mean by that?" Noxis growled. He moved in closer, and Lazula moved in to stand beside Lilly. "You and I are nothing alike."
"You're unwanted by the one who created you."
Noxis lunged through the gap between Lazula and Lilly, beginning to fight off the latter with one hand as he reached at Snow with the other. "You take that back, you creepy little robot bitch-"
Lazula intervened, prying him away from Lilly and Snow with a single hand. His boots left the ground as Lazula grasped his collar and shoved him halfway to the far wall, between the wide eyes of Team CRLN.
"I am not a robot."
"You are!" Noxis barked. "A delusional one, too!"
Lazula took a step toward Noxis, cocking her head back and revelling in his startled look. "Do I need to embarrass you again?"
Lilly's hand came softly to rest on Lazula's shoulder, a gentle warning. "Noxis!" she scolded, adjusting the sleeve of her shirt that had gone crooked in the short fray. "That was uncalled for!"
"Uncalled for, my ass!" Noxis shouted, clutching his collar and glancing wildly between Lilly and Lazula. "You heard what she said to me!"
"Apologize to her, and I'll have her apologize to you."
"Like it would mean shit. It would just be apologizing because you told it too. That's how androids work."
"I'm sorry for what I said."
Noxis paused, his surprised eyes narrowing out of spite as he hid a hand covered in the spiny black armor of his semblance with his other. "...Sure you are."
Caspian and Cattleya sat at a table on the quiet floor of Slate Library, separated by an expanse of books and papers. The two studied, every now and then exchanging tips or bits of conversation. Everything was normal. Everything was fine. But the tension in the air weighed on Caspian's shoulders. He felt if he took one step out of line, slipped up once, there'd be hell to pay.
He decided something needed to be said.
"Hey, I'm still really sorry about Saturday," he offered. "That guy had been stalking Snow all Summer. My dad and uncle actually started to think she was in danger, which is why she had to hang out with us all that time."
"So we're off the hook now?"
"Excuse me?"
"We don't have to drag her around with us everywhere."
"Yes, because she's in the hospital," Caspian answered, channeling all his energy into keeping his patience.
"You still owe me for Saturday, after all," Cattleya jabbed.
"Judging by the bill, you ate well that night," Caspian teased.
"I bought a couple entrees for the tables next to us," Cattleya explained. She took on a self-assured smile. "And people call me selfish!"
"I wonder why," Caspian muttered. Or he would have, had he not bit his tongue.
"Well, what about tonight?" Cattleya suggested. "I mean, you made a scene at the restaurant I really wanted to try, but I'm sure we can find something to settle for."
"I... was actually going to visit Snow after this," Caspian replied. "Sh-She said she's been working on a new combat outfit, she wants to show it to me."
"Really? Don't you think you've been spending enough time with her?"
"Enough-" Caspian paused to assure himself his ears didn't deceive him. "Snow is in the hospital because she saved my life. You should come with me, so you can thank her."
"For what?"
"For taking a bullet for your boyfriend?"
"You can thank her for me, since you want to visit her every day," Cattleya snapped. "Actually, no. Putting my foot down. It's me, or it's her."
Caspian couldn't be sure what the right choice was. He couldn't be sure there was a right choice. Just Snow, in the hospital, and Cat. He didn't care how beautiful she was. He still couldn't stand to look at her.
Finally, he stood up.
"Wait- wh-what are you doing?!"
"I'm going to go visit Snow."
Summer was over. But relentless, the Sun still beat down on the path to Frontline's hospital. Caspian's bleary eyes opened dead ahead, fixed on nothing as he plodded toward the structure overlooking the sea. The walk felt even longer than normal. And all but empty. And why was it so damned hot outside?
He hardly noticed the bicyclist swerve to avoid him, nor the call coming into his Holoband.
"Caspian, please!" Cattleya's voice begged. "Don't do this to me!"
Her words did little to pull him from his trance.
"Remember Mistral? That week was the happiest I've ever been! Please, don't take that away from me! I love you! If I lost you, I... I don't think I could handle it. I don't know what I would do to myself!"
At last, Caspian made it to the doors he had seen all too often since that night. They opened for him. He repeated what had grown to become a routine: check in, up the stairs, into the elevator, down the hall and after a left. Room 323.
Snow's head turned to face him as soon as he made it to her room.
"Cas!"
With a smile and a bounce to each step, she walked up to him. He could barely look her in the eye.
"I finished my new combat outfit. I want you to be the first one to see it."
"Snow..."
"Yes?"
"I can't come visit you anymore."
Snow cocked her head, her eyes clouding over with concern. "What do you mean?"
Caspian was already making his way back to the door. "Cat doesn't want me to come visit you anymore. I'm sorry."
Snow was quiet, her gaze shifting slowly away from Caspian, down and aside to the floor. "...I see," she finally managed.
The door closed.
With Caspian gone, Snow sat on her bed, eyes mirroring the ocean and sky beyond her window. As she watched absently each ripple of the sea, her fingers clasped tighter around the bedsheets on her lap.
End of Part 2.
A/N: I'm sorry I had to leave you all off on that note. Part 2 was a lot shorter than 1 (and the following parts) but I'm proud. I think it really benefited from being more focused and it began to explore themes present in the rest of the series. If you agree (or don't!), feel free to leave a review!
When I say Part 3 will hit the ground running, I mean it.