"I'll never see you again… Will I?"
Wattson looked at the hacker sadly. Her words prompted him to pause his work on looking over the blueprints and surveillance footage of the compound, so as to shift his attention to her instead.
"It is dangerous," he replied, "but I'll be careful. I promise."
"No…"
The engineer shook her head. "After you rescue your sister, you're going to go away- aren't you?"
She looked down at her hands. Crypto groaned softly… He hadn't even thought about that. Even locating Mila had seemed like a distant dream - an improbability - until very recently. That had indeed been his plan for the past six months: find her, use the money he'd earned in the Apex Games to escape to a civilization beyond the Outlands, outside the reach of the Syndicate.
That was when he'd believed that their cruelty to Mila and himself was a rare exception. Now that he'd seen how deep their corruption ran… He wanted to fight. First and foremost, he still wanted his sister safe and sound. Once that was out of the way, however- running just didn't feel like an option anymore. Somebody had to stand up to the corporate network and break this cycle.
Fight or run, though- whatever he did, one thing was certain: things could never go back to the way they were before. The Apex Games, the personal connection that he'd built with Wattson there… Those things were in the past for him, now.
He let out a heavy sigh. The engineer hid her face behind her hands.
"You could come with us," Crypto suggested. "You'd be safer that way- when I get Mila out of the Outlands, you can go, too. I'll catch up to you after the Syndicate has been taken down."
"But I- I can't just leave," she replied sadly. "People need me."
"There will be people in need of a great engineer wherever we go," the hacker pointed out. She shook her head, and once again obscured her face from view.
"And you, Revenant? Where will you go once this is over?"
Crypto addressed the assassin in an effort to take the focus of the conversation off of Wattson. He hoped she'd feel more comfortable that way- beyond that, he wasn't sure what else to do.
"It will never be over for me," the simulacrum answered. "Hammond has facilities all over the Outlands, even beyond it… I need to destroy all of them."
At his words, Wattson lowered her hands so that she could look at him with a sort of melancholy curiosity. "Do you ever think of doing something else- besides killing and destroying?"
"No," he responded simply, in an emotionless tone. Crypto opened his mouth, ready to tell him off if he threatened the engineer or harassed her- but he remained silent after the short answer.
"Why not?"
He didn't answer- he didn't know how to answer such a question. It wasn't something that had ever occurred to Revenant. Unlike a human, he'd come into existence knowing his directive - his purpose - and he didn't want it to change.
"You're free now," Wattson mused. "You can do anything you like- it doesn't have to be what they built you for."
"You don't understand," the assassin growled. Humans never did… they were directionless, and inexplicably content with that.
"There is a lot that I don't understand," she replied with a shrug, "but I think I understand more than you think I do. My family depended on the Syndicate for- a lot of things, for- food, shelter, protection… They gave us a comfortable life, and we served them well; my papa, and I, after he passed. More than that, they- they saw something in me, at a time when others thought that I was broken and I'd never amount to anything. They gave me everything I needed - all the tools, the resources - to be a great engineer, a great inventor, and…"
She shuddered. Her gaze fell downward, toward her feet on the floor.
"I helped them design weapons, and tools to hurt people with. It wasn't supposed to be like that, at first- I invented non-lethal devices, just to inconvenience adversaries, and subdue them without causing harm. I thought I was making the universe a better place- but all the executives at the Syndicate had to do was scale up the power…"
Crypto looked up from his screen, focused on her for a moment, head tilted. "The Ring…?"
"When I designed the Ring," she said with a quick nod, "it was only supposed to be uncomfortable, like your legs falling asleep, or your skin feeling too warm in the sun. They changed my design- they increased the voltage, and they brought the wavelength closer to the resonance frequency of water molecules, so it could make peoples' blood boil in their veins. I never wanted any of that, I swear; I- I'm not a bad person. I couldn't undo what they did, but I joined the Games so I'd be at the side of everyone who had to suffer because of my invention…"
Wattson blinked back tears. The hacker moved his computer aside so that he could reach across the table and take her hand.
"I know you're not."
Crypto's voice was barely above a whisper, yet his tone carried a distinct, fierce determination.
"I looked the other way for so long," she continued shakily. "I had to, at first, because I couldn't… function in society; it's too crowded, too noisy, and you can't do a lot of things that are expected of you if you don't behave exactly how other people think you should. And they're so quick to judge you if you make a mistake! The Syndicate protected me from that. They made sure I thrived, and so I was loyal to them, and… Do you see, Revenant?"
She turned toward the assassin. "We are both scions of the oppressor, but we don't need them anymore. Once the Syndicate falls, we can do anything- be anything. You don't need to go chasing after Hammond Robotics… We could build a better world, one of our own design. I know what I'm going to do: fix the power grid, so the less fortunate citizens can stop fighting over generators and batteries…"
"Natalie…"
After saying her name, Crypto's words trailed off. It was an idealistic view, he wanted to tell her; something that wouldn't happen without overcoming huge logistical hurdles. If they successfully overthrew the Syndicate - which was already a huge if - there would likely be a great deal of civil unrest as independent militias and criminal enterprises scrambled for control. He'd much rather that Wattson came with him, far away from the Outlands, than stay behind in a lawless place.
He couldn't bear the thought of shattering her dreams with his harsh words, however- and so the hacker went silent.
"I'm not free," Revenant finally answered. "Not until every last remnant of Hammond has been obliterated."
"Because they experimented on you, and took you apart, and- and…?"
The assassin didn't respond. Wattson figured the quiet was enough of an answer on its own. It occurred to her that the experiments had likely been going on since before his artificial neural network had become independently sentient. Hammond Robotics had been tied to his existence from the very beginning; he had no frame of reference for what a life not influenced by them would look like.
"You've never known anything else, have you?" she said sadly.
Revenant ignored her, instead focusing on Crypto's laptop screen, which the hacker had inadvertently turned toward him when he'd moved it aside. Crypto had been watching the cameras with a view of secure doors within the compound, and writing down the access codes that Syndicate employees had used to unlock them. He'd also been marking the locations and fields of view of the cameras on a blueprint of the building.
"You missed three of them, skinbag. Here, here, and here." The assassin pointed out the locations of the unmarked cameras on the blueprint.
The programmer snapped to attention to rectify his mistake. "Thanks," he said quickly.
As he was working, the door clicked and swung open behind him. Torc stepped back into the room.
"Where's Cade?" he asked with a frown as he glanced around. "Isn't he supposed to be keeping an eye on Revenant? Well- I suppose that Ms. Colomar is handling that remotely, as it is…"
The scientist spat the woman's name out like it left a bad taste in his mouth. He made it clear that he was still displeased at her having interrupted his work earlier.
Crypto shrugged in response to the question. His tone was distracted when he answered, clearly more focused on what he was doing at his computer: "He rushed out without saying anything- fifteen, maybe twenty minutes ago."
"Ah, he may have needed to recharge his cybernetics," Torc replied. "It tends to be a bad thing when one's internal organs shut down on them. Well- good news for you, my friends! I've made arrangements for you to stay here for the night… Hopefully being well-protected and surrounded by friends will allow you to get some quality sleep before you go breaking into Syndicate prisons!"
"Is it getting that late?" Wattson asked with a frown. "Oh- I should let the others know that I'm okay; they'll be worried about me… I need to stop by my workspace, too, and check that everything is in order with my inventions…"
"Natalie…" Crypto sighed. "You can't go back. It's not safe."
"But I- I can't just leave my inventions!"
The engineer clasped her hands in front of her, a tense expression on her face as she rocked back and forth in her seat. The others, she figured, didn't understand how much the devices that she designed and built were a part of her- an extension of her own consciousness, her energy, her soul. They only saw machinery and circuitry. Others who could see what she did - the patterns, the connections - were exceedingly rare.
"I can see about getting you an office space," Torc offered. "We've managed to accumulate a considerable amount of resources over the years. Maybe you could come up with some new inventions here!"
She forced herself to look at him when he spoke, only to quickly glance away when it became distressing. He was trying to be kind and helpful… she really should answer him, she thought, but she couldn't produce the sounds. It was too much- the eye contact, the need to exhibit and interpret body language, the process of translating her thoughts from her own complex, internal language into words… the realization that she might never again see the devices that she'd dedicated her life to creating…
"Just give her a minute," Crypto said quietly.
Torc nodded. "Of course."
Truth be told, the hacker wasn't too enthusiastic about spending the night here either- albeit for a different reason. He wanted to go to the compound as soon as possible. Mila shouldn't have to spend another hour there, much less an entire night. As he took the time to allow raw emotion to give way to reason, though, he realized that it was for the best. Going in exhausted, with a half-finished plan, was more likely to get himself killed than it was to help his sister.
He'd finish researching and strategizing, get some sleep, then go over his plan with the others the next morning, and see how it sounded after he'd had time to think it over.
"Tell you what," said the scientist. He took a small set of keys, attached to a little black placard, out of his pocket and set it on the table. "You know your way around here- how about I leave you to it? Help yourself to the kitchen- oh, and I believe there's pizza in one of the conference rooms, though I'm not sure which one. In the meantime- Revenant, what would you say to coming upstairs with me and patching our server into that Syndicate camera network?"
Crypto nodded as he picked up the keys and slipped them into his pocket. Torc held the door open and smiled hopefully at Revenant, who hesitated- only for a moment; then he got up from the table and waited for the skinbag to lead the way.
He didn't like this, taking orders from humans- and he didn't make the distinction between human and cyborg. Both were his enemies… In fact, the assassin would have had a difficult time naming a living thing that wasn't.
He owed Torc and Crypto at least this much, though. It was… almost surreal, being able to experience the environment around him without the constant interference of that virus cutting through his own thoughts and senses. Obediently, Revenant followed the scientist out into the corridor- guarded, ready for the man to turn against him at any moment, as was inevitable of humankind.