More stuff that was really just too long to fit in the third part. I'm not afraid of having twenty-page-long chapters (most of my other fics do) but it's not what I was going for with this one
succumbo - to lie down under; sink down; give way; succumb; surrender

"In Medias Res"
By Amanda Swiftgold

Part Four - Succumbo

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
"The world wants to be betrayed, therefore let it be betrayed."
--Sebastian Brant

*****

The day was going to be full and busy, which was a good thing, he knew. Roger strode down the hall, keeping his mind on his newest client and the intricacies of the situation; solid, normal things to occupy his mind with, so different from the mist-wrapped memories that weren't his own. It was a good day, everything running smoothly

"Morning, Dorothy," Roger said offhandedly as he passed the android in the hall, proud of how casual and normal that sounded - but when only a wooden clatter greeted his ears, he jammed his heel onto the tile to stop himself and turned slowly. That had been the broom hitting the floor, but otherwise she hadn't moved, hadn't acknowledged him in any way.

Frowning, Roger came closer to the android, eyes narrowing as he peered down at her. Her small form was slumped against a corner in a niche of the wall, the broom she'd been holding now laying at her feet. Reflective eyes still stared blankly at him although he was certainly not what she was seeing. "Dorothy?" What the hell is wrong with her? If she were human, I'd say she passed out! He reached out to touch her shoulder and she fell forward; he barely managed to catch her, stumbling back to catch his balance and keep them upright. Straightening with an effort, he raised his free hand to his lips and bellowed, "Norman!"

The one-eyed butler appeared momentarily, in that way of his always knowing when he was being called. "Master Roger?" he queried, then, raising one bushy eyebrow, hurried over to the younger man's side. "Oh my, what's happened?"

He shifted his grip on the comatose android, dragging her away from the wall a little. "I don't know," he gritted out, although he certainly had his ideas. "Help me, would you?"

"Certainly," he replied, moving to hoist Dorothy's feet with an ease that belied his appearance. "Let us put her on the couch in the sitting room."

Between them, the two men managed to carry her into the room and lay her on the low couch; she looked even smaller than usual, a black and white stain upon the olive-green upholstery. Leaning over the arm, Roger moved to shut the piercing, staring eyes but jerked his hand back upon finding them already closed. "What's going on, Norman?" he demanded angrily, more out of the need to vent than believing his butler had the answer. "Did she short-circuit or something?"

"It's possible," the man conceded. "I will have to examine the circuitry, of course, to be sure, but I would like to wait to see if she comes out of it first. Perhaps Miss Dorothy herself will be able to tell us what happened."

"Maybe," Roger muttered, seating himself on the arm of the couch and letting out a sigh. First the dreams and now this. I can't help but think they might be related somehow... but if she were giving them to me, wouldn't I be sleeping now too?

Scowling, he looked at Dorothy, and then cocked his head to the side in thought. It had been months now since Timothy Wayneright had been killed, since she'd sung at the nightclub and looked so human, acted so human. Why did this now remind him of that? She was just laying there, and yet her face seemed to have color in it she was even making soft sleep-noises and stirring gently as if to get more comfortable where she lay.

Wouldn't you like it if she acted human for you? a little voice inside asked him. And then you could take her to the NightinGale... maybe the thought of her and you wouldn't be so uncomfortable then, would it? You've seen her as a human, in your dreams... maybe those dreams are only your own wishful thinking...

Roger almost physically brushed that thought aside as Norman commented omnisciently, "It seems quite a change, doesn't it?"

"Yeah I wonder what she's dreaming?" he mused, unaware that he'd even decided that was what she was doing.

*****

There was going to be hell to pay for what she did to save Aaron from the Speaker, she knew. The moment they'd returned to Headquarters her boyfriend had been spirited away for debriefing, and though she'd left very stern warnings against them either harming him or his megadeus, she was still very worried about what might happen to him, much more so than she was worried about the tongue-lashing her father was about to give her.

She paused outside the door to his office, hand on the knob although she didn't turn it. A familiar voice - familiar only because it came from her own throat - was singing a song inside. It was her favorite song, a duet from the new Broadway musical 'Call From the Past', though the voice in the office was singing all the parts.

Dorothy bit her lip, opening the door as the alto voice sang,

There's no one else
You're the only one for me
Yes, this time our love's the real thing...

She felt almost betrayed, by her father, by the singer, by everyone - after all, she could hardly be as perfect as that, could she? No, not her. She would be yelled at for being merely human, for choosing her own path, choosing who to love. Being jealous over someone else singing a certain song seemed very petty indeed, and yet the emotion was there, unwilling to be denied.

Never felt that love is so right
The world seems such an empty place
We need someone we could give our all...

"Ah, Dorothy," Timothy Wayneright said to his daughter, turning the large chair around to face her. The panorama of the city was spread out behind him displayed far below the skyscraper office, shining in the artificial light of the dome. "You are certainly in some trouble, young lady. I want you to explain your actions!"

The young woman standing before the desk cut off her song, eyeing Dorothy with an almost simpering smile. "Hello, dear sister," she said brightly.

"Don't speak to me." She turned away abruptly, her bobbed russet hair swinging around her face as she faced her father. "I will not tell you anything with her here."

The man sighed, rubbing at his temples briefly. "Really, Dorothy, you must stop being so callous to your own twin sister!"

Only you, Father, could bring out such feelings in me... I love you, but I wish I did not! Looking over her shoulder, she saw the piercing gaze of the young woman who looked exactly like her but would never age, never change. No, that android was not even like her, but dressed in brightly colored, wispy clothing as opposed to the ascetic style that Dorothy preferred. Nearly seething, she clenched her fists and hissed, "That thing is not my sister, and if this is all you have to say to me I'm leaving right now."

"You will stay right there," Wayneright said firmly before looking at the figure behind her. "Could you please wait in the hall, my dear?" She nodded, giving him a little curtsy. "There's a girl." Her father then looked over at Dorothy, scrubbing a hand through chestnut-colored hair. When the click of the latch on the door sounded, he immediately shouted, "What do you think you were doing, young lady? That megadeus went rogue and was to be destroyed! What is the meaning of saving it?" His eyes narrowed for a moment. "I cannot believe that you've changed your mind and feel sympathy for the megadeii."

"I feel no sympathy for machines," she responded coldly, "even ones you've given 'feelings' to. I did it to save Aaron, and that's the only explanation you need."

Wayneright scowled darkly, an expression that almost made Dorothy take a step backward. "I'll thank you to hold your tongue," he commanded, voice dripping with derision as he went on, "you realize that little Aaron Soldano and his rebellion has jeopardized his father's standing in Paradigm? After all, there are many more potential financial backers for the project"

"And what about you?" she shot back. "Deny it if you like, but I am one of the rebels too, Father." Don't think about the futility... no, I will die before I see my father destroy humanity and rebuild it in his image.

"Only my love for you lets me ignore your youthful shortcomings," he replied, leaning back in his chair with a sigh.

Dorothy remained still as a statue. "And my love for Aaron demands that I not stand by and let you destroy him," she replied simply.

He brought his fist down hard on the desk, rattling pens and his half-empty coffee cup. "Foolishness!" he roared. "This - this is more important than your childish 'love'. And soon," his voice grew low, almost dreamy, "soon, there will be a great cleansing and it will no longer matter. Miguel and his ratty little son are out of favor" He shook his head, clearing the mist from his eyes. "I advise you to forget these feelings, Dorothy. You are to be saved for Alex Rosewater-"

"Saved!" she screeched. "You talk like I'm some possession - I won't have it! Father - he's half my age!"

Wayneright continued on imperturbably, "-and I will not hear of you leaving home again, do you understand? Now, your sister will escort you home; I have too much to do. So soon," he whispered. "Go, Dorothy. Now."

'So soon,' she thought, trailing a hand along the wooden paneling of the hallway in her mansion home. The android version of her, having gone along with her from Wayneright's office, still trailed along behind her, saying nothing but not leaving her alone either. He will be ordering the megadeii into place soon. And then they...

"Why do you rage so?" The voice came out of nowhere, startling her. "You must have realized by now that there's no way you can stop a project this enormous. You should concentrate on what you can do - saving your 'beloved' from the rebirth, perhaps."

"I don't have to answer to you," she muttered, turning down the hallway that led to her room. At least she won't follow me in there, though I'll effectively be imprisoned, she thought with a tinge of despair. God, it was all falling down around her

The android took a larger step, turning to face her as she walked down the hall, moving backward. "Why do you fight? You are in a privileged position - you may help shape the world as you see fit. Why not take advantage of it, shepherd? Why be a sheep?"

Dorothy shook her head violently. "We have no right to dictate how people should live; we have no right to decide that Paradigm Corp alone should be the gods of the world. We have no right!"

"All gods are things humans have created to control them," her double replied simply. "It is merely time for renewal winter becoming spring. This doesn't excite you?"

"What do you know?" the young woman replied warily, twisting her pale fingers together in front of her. She was beginning to feel very leery of the android, wishing to be rid of her but knowing that was impossible. After all, she was the perfect daughter, and if Wayneright had told her to follow Dorothy and keep her from scheming, she would.

"More than you think," her companion replied predictably.

She reached the door of her room and opened it. "Leave me, now," Dorothy commanded, in a very bad mood at the moment, not that she would ever have felt pressed to be polite to the android her father kept trying to make her believe was her sister.

Pausing, she replied, "I can't do that. I was told to accompany you everywhere."

"I don't think so!" Dorothy said in a freezing tone, turning to step inside and slam the door quickly. However, she came face-to-chest with a man and stopped cold, eyes widening a moment before she realized who it was. "Aaron!" she gasped.

"Hullo, Nightingale," he said over her head, speaking not to the young woman but to her 'twin' standing behind her. His father had been involved in the creation of the android, and so Aaron had met her often enough before, though liking her was a different story.

The android suddenly frowned. "You-" she began, but in a quick gesture the dark-haired man had spun Dorothy around behind him and reached out with something in his hand. There was a bright arc of electricity, and the heavy metal body of the young woman's look-alike suddenly froze up, hitting the floor with a hard thud.

Aaron flicked off the taser and then turned back to look down at his girlfriend. "I thought your babysitter might be around," he said with a half-smile.

"What are you doing here?" Dorothy demanded, closing her hand around his arm. Her normally serious face broke into a sudden smile of relief.

He brushed her hand away gently, though, and bent to pull the disabled android into her bedroom. Catching his breath for a moment afterwards, he shut the door behind them and leaned against it with finality. "After they debriefed me," he told her finally, brushing dirt from his black pilot's jumpsuit, "filed my memories and all, they knew - well, of course. I - I don't know. I disobeyed orders, I was to be - reprogrammed-"

Dorothy sighed, leaning her head against his chest and holding onto him tightly. "But you ran away and came here," she finished.

"Well," Aaron began, a little sheepishly, "I also stole Big O." As she jerked her head up to stare at him incredulously, he finished, playing with his messy hair nervously, "I was able to get out using, the, uh, subway. He's hidden under it, under there did you know there's a tunnel connecting to your house? I got the idea to come here, seeing that"

She pulled away from him and stepped over the body of the android, sitting down hard on the bed. "God, Aaron," she murmured, "I guess this is it, isn't it? Father says they're going to start soon, and"

"I was thinking," he replied on the heels of her words, "and, Dorothy, if there's any other way - stay alive?"

The redheaded woman looked up into his eyes and then nodded slowly. "Until there's no other choice," she said. He didn't look very satisfied with that answer, but finally nodded. "You may be safe here, I don't know if they'll look here"

"They'll look if Nightingale here is able to tell them," he responded, nudging her with his toe. "What should we do with her?"

Closing her eyes, she fell backward onto the bed wearily. "I don't know too much about androids, but I think we should be able to - I don't know, jam her drive and immobilize her that way. She has this box in my father's lab; let's just put her back in it and put the box-" In the fire, Dorothy thought, but didn't say it.

"I could bring it down under the subway too," Aaron said musingly. "But, Dorothy she'll still be - awake, I guess it is. How long are you going to keep her there?"

"Forever," she replied uncaringly. "You don't live with it." No sympathy for machines, Dorothy... none at all. It doesn't really feel, not really...

He regarded her quietly for a while and then asked her, "Even if she goes insane?" When she didn't reply he sighed softly and moved over next to her, leaning down to kiss her softly. "Rest that busy mind," he told her fondly, though his voice was not very light in tone. "Just let me take care of it."

She laid there in the darkness, listening to him moving in the stillness and then quietly slipping outside. I wish you knew how I felt about this, she thought to herself, but not even you, dearest one, could know a thing like that...

If you were wondering, yeah, the 'sister' android from this memory is the same as the killer android from the episode R-D (in my reality, at least). I don't think her name is R-D, thanks to a theory I can point you to if you like.