November 11th, 2038
AM 04:30:40
The human body is an exceptional tool.
There are functions that lie dormant until they heed the call of survival. Evolutionary artilleries to be utilized when pitted against impossible situations; those put in our way to remind us that we are human.
Denial. Greed. Revenge.
These are dangerous instincts. Genetically hardwired into our biological systems, tangled between societal standards and cultural acceptances.
Uncontrolled elements of life that are both our crime and punishment – the suffering from the human condition.
If androids were to be a new form of intelligent life, crafted to mimic these traits; both the good, and the evil…there would be a harsh lesson to learn.
"'It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently.'"
A fissure had opened between the past and present, threatening to engulf the future…
The downfall of humanity, nosediving into that cataclysm, would not be on your hands.
"The deviant hunter turns deviant itself…" The imposter snorted, "Did you really believe we would let you compromise our androids so easily?"
You walked out from behind your Connor, armed with nothing but predatory tendencies and a knife for a tongue.
"You're not going to kill him, Amanda. He made you."
Your eyes finally set with Elijah's. There was a void there – no hope, no fear…just anger, like he was begging you to end this vigilante's life because he'd dared to cross paths with "Kamski the Great."
Eli had always been calm under pressure. That part of him had been overshadowed by the shade tugging at his soul…but it'd never been expended. He'd always be a rare mineral that wouldn't allow himself to turn into a simple diamond, destined to be cut and set in her crown.
Another topic of debate that you now believed to be true.
"You're attempting to call my bluff, but I'm afraid the deck has been stacked against you. 'Love always did have a price you were willing to pay,' after all. What will you do when your debt reaches its limit, I wonder?"
"What are you going on about?"
"'It's possible to have love for someone and not be in love with them.' You said it yourself. How unfortunate will it be to have both the machine you 'love' and the great mind you have love for lying at your feet."
Elijah's features fell at that, a projection of longing and bone-shattering agony touching you from across the room.
"You…You said that?"
"That's not important right now." Your voice trembled.
You hated the man. Hated what he did to you, what he turned you into. But you believed, and deep down – no matter how much you fought to admit it, that he was salvageable. There were still memories from before the fallout. The toxic wasteland that represented your marriage could still be terraformed and grow new life, just in a different biome.
"You're right." The RK800 agreed, "What's important is that you and your pet surrender, and Elijah will be spared."
"How do we know you won't kill him?" Connor asked, unrattled and collected.
"I'll only do what is strictly necessary to accomplish my mission. It's up to you whether or not that includes killing this human."
"Don't you dare." The fury in Elijah's demeanor had returned, "You cannot waste this opportunity. Not after everything you've…we, have been through." His eyes shook, "You can't let it be for nothing. I can't have lost you for nothing."
You'd closed the chapter of your life that was footnoted with his name; had kept it bound in chains until you were forced to pick the lock. The pages fluttered, mixing with new words written as Connor's guiding hand kept yours steady. It wasn't fair.
None of this was fair.
"I used to be just like you…" Connor held up his hands, not getting involved with the conversation between you and the hostage, "I thought nothing mattered except the mission…But then one day, I understood."
He looked at you, sadness dragging his eyes down until a response jerked his attention forward.
"Very moving...But I'm not a deviant. I'm obedient. I have a goal. I know what I am."
"And what is that, hm?"
"I'm a machine designed to accomplish a task, and that's exactly what I am going to do!" He pressed the gun harder into the side of Elijah's skull, "Why, Connor? Why did you have to wake up when all you had to do was obey? Why did you choose freedom when you could have lived without asking questions?"
"Asking questions, no matter how much the truth is praised, or valued…Is a part of free will. I am free to question. That is my right."
Hearing him say it, finally admitting it to himself after you'd only been left to speculate felt so good. You wished it could've been over coffee – or cuddled up on the couch, watching a movie…anywhere but here. Anything but this.
"Look where those dreams of freedom got you, and the rest of them." The RK800 gave him a smug smile, "You've been a great disappointment to Amanda, you know…You played your part so well, too. Everything went according to plan." He shrugged, "It's a shame you won't be around long enough to see the new world that we're going to create."
"I broke free of Amanda's control. My employment for CyberLife was quick and short." Connor growled, "Whatever you're planning, we'll put a stop to it. It's only a matter of time."
"Oh, Connor…sweet, sweet Connor…" He shook his head, "We've already won."
Your jaw tensed, looking away from Elijah to the RK800 forcing him to his knees.
"You, becoming deviant? The success of the uprising? It all surpassed our expectations." He huffed, "We engineered an android revolution, and now it's only a matter of time until it's leaders are destroyed. This represents an immense success for CyberLife-"
"For you…" Elijah interrupted, "Not CyberLife. Not my company."
"You surrendered the right to call this your company when you left because you were heartbroken. You let her ruin all your hard work…your destiny. Even the androids you created…"
The RK800's eyes narrowed at Connor, who returned the threatening gesture.
"They were flawed. Unworthy. We had to push the reset button. Convince the humans that they were a danger to society that needed to be eliminated." He cocked his head to the side, "Your role in that was…imperative. So thank you, Connor. We couldn't have done it without you."
"Don't listen to them." You whispered, "You didn't know. You broke free from her."
He was silent, and his imposter remained unrivaled in this life or death debate. You worried he was falling for it – the misplaced guilt and story being sewn with manipulative threads.
"Now that the world has finally realized the havoc that deviants can conduct, all of them will be destroyed, and these new – purified androids will take their place, serving as the tools they were originally planned to be."
His focus shifted to you, the gun toggling with a roll of his wrist…even if it was still trained on the mind that built that wrist.
"Isn't this what you wanted? To prevent the suffering of slaves under the abuse of their masters?"
You fought the temptation to agree as it slithered through your resilient thoughts. You had warned both Elijah and Amanda that artificial intelligence, self-learning and unpredictable, would develop these unbridled emotions…and that your species wouldn't be able, or willing, to teach them the ropes.
"You knew humans would never be kind enough to coexist with a new intelligence…that's why you tried to stop him." His eyes flickered to Elijah, whose tears leaked over a face made of stone, "When you failed, you tried to give them rights. You took it to court. You lost that battle, too. And then you left him, banishing him to a lifetime of regret, anger, and sorrow. I'm only picking up where you left off."
Your fists curled at your sides. It hurt to see him cry, and it shouldn't have. You'd seen it before and had been impervious. On his knees, reduced to nothing…it was different.
"Don't hurt him…"
"Don't make me." He nodded, "Wouldn't you like to see Connor put out of his misery, too?"
You turned your head from one shattered man to another, the one standing next to you.
"To have the burden of emotions, freedom, and choices lifted from his shoulders?"
Maybe you'd gotten it all wrong. Maybe this was the right thing to do.
If humanity wouldn't admit to their mistakes, but rather shoot them down until they stopped arguing back like so many times before…maybe it was inevitable that nature should run its course. Maybe you were the observer who shouldn't interfere.
Shouldn't tamper with the sacred laws of nature.
"You knew the transfer would fail." You murmured.
Maybe if nature was to be redefined – if humanity was to be redefined, it was only fitting that it would be done by a product of its own design.
"You knew you would die, and you planned to use your digital presence to orchestrate this from the very beginning."
It'd taken so much to get to this point. So many lives lost, and uprooted. So much running from a nameless source of evil that infected every flicker in your peripherals. Corrupted every shadow. Killed anything it touched with little more than a whisper.
"You ruined our marriage. Ruined our lives. We lost a child, Amanda."
But if anyone was going to stand up to that evil, it would be the person who'd developed the strongest tolerance. The person armed with perspective, and a mind immune to the venomous bite of Amanda Stern.
It may have taken everything to get to this point…but this is where you were supposed to be. This is why you didn't run to Canada.
Why you couldn't let her win.
"You have such little faith in humanity…such little understanding of what it really means to be alive. How dare you think yourself fit to play a god."
The RK800 twitched, its LED flashing rapidly before its voice came in a blend of robotic tones and Connor's duplicated voice.
"You th-th-think yourself a g-g-god. RA9…it's a j-j-joke. It's path-th-thetic."
Amanda never did like being called out in front of her peers. Her defensiveness was her ultimate weakness.
"I don't think myself a god..."
By being humble, by stating the truth rather than submitting to more of her lies, you'd open a path to her lair. Her mind.
And you'd silence it.
"…I think myself the one to steal the fire from the gods, delivering it to those enslaved so that they may be free."
Connor's imposter shook his head. His nostrils flared and his brows creased as he regained control.
"Enough talk."
He straightened his posture. Lined up a shot to the back of Elijah's head.
"His life is in your hands, now. What matters most…him, or the revolution?"
A shot that he wasn't ready to take. One that Amanda wouldn't have the balls to make.
"Are you really ready to let him die? After all you've been through?"
It was just another ploy. Another bluff to try and get you to submit yourself to years of more guilt and internalized torture.
"Are you really going to turn your back on who you've become?"
She couldn't kill you. You were destined to take the fall for the rise in deviancy. She needed you as a sacrifice for the judicial altar, and Elijah…
He'd have to be the one responsible for fixing it, because without anyone to claim the glory for this resurgence of "reformed" androids…there would be no more CyberLife.
You'd guided a lost soul from Amanda's clutches before – under more pressing circumstances, like a gun being held to your head.
"'Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for our country, but for all humankind.'"
Elijah's eyes widened. His mouth hung ajar, his brows slowly collapsing at your first string of words that would be his beacon.
"'It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict.'"
Because when faced with fire, those who spent the most time in the dark were prone to go blind.
"'Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.'"
His last trial – his last miracle to work would be walking through the flames…
To wake up.
"Your talks in tongues won't work, not again. You're wasting your time." The RK800 warned, "My patience is tiring. Leave, and he will be spared."
The two of you had attended a summit in Russia, where the Russian President gave that speech soon after a presentation as to why they expressed interest in purchasing CyberLife technology for use in AI-driven asymmetric warfare.
They wanted to herd a revolting civilian population back into their pens. They showed you videos of violence in the streets, the economic results of cyber-attacks and digitally influenced political decisions.
As a parting gift, an extending gesture – just for good measure…They allowed Elijah time with their military.
"Man is a mystery, Amanda."
They sought to impress him with a strong show of Russian force. A training exercise of combat protocols and counterattack techniques. And after this display was completed, after Elijah had been included in the drill, he'd asked the Russian President why he'd been invited to participate in a rigorous session on a muddied, permafrost training ground.
"It needs to be unraveled, and if I spend my whole life unravelling it, I won't say that I've 'wasted time.'"
He quoted Fyodor Dostoevsky; a philosopher, novelist – many things, in which the Russian people prided themselves for providing his birthplace. He explained to Elijah, and by extension, you, that he wanted to see what kind of man Elijah was before agreeing to any kind of deal.
"I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being."
The RK800's LED flickered yellow, spinning in fragmented parts as his eyes and lips convulsed.
"'Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea.'" Elijah uttered another line of Dostoevsky's.
He understood. Started to follow the light, taking the first step towards salvation.
With another recited line, you confirmed he was on the right path, "'And there is only one higher idea on earth, and it is the idea of the immortality of the human soul…'"
The Free Spirit, living wildly, despite being harbored by a society completely overrun by technology.
"'For all the other 'higher' ideas of life by which humans might live…'" Elijah began to rise, "'Are driven from that idea alone.'"
Amanda may have needed you and Elijah alive to take the fall and respective credit for the plan she put in motion…but that wasn't he only reason she couldn't kill you.
"And we all know…"
You held your hands out to the side, giving her and her puppet a confident shrug.
"You just can't kill an idea."
The RK800 was distracted, serving just enough time for Elijah to put into practice what he'd learned all those years ago…How to disarm someone stronger than himself who threatened his life. How to mobilize the evolutionary artillery stored in genetic reserves and biological code.
Without your encouragement, he may not have had the will to do so…
But he was freed from Amanda's clutches, giving Connor the opportunity he needed to strike.
You dove to the right, and Elijah did the same. You found yourself guarded by stagnant androids, the only cover in a room without anything else to hide behind.
Connor and the RK800 traded shots, the bullets passing each other in perfect symmetry – landing in their shoulders. Spurts of Thirium stained their uniforms.
Connor charged. Speared the RK800 in the gut, his arm bending around his waist to knock him off balance. They became a blur of kicks, punches, rolls and close-quarter-combat techniques; all intertwined with carbon copies of themselves. The skill they displayed would have taken anyone else years to master. For a prototype and Amanda's "finished product," this was child's play.
Their simulated flesh peeled away at each point of contact, the RK800's face not showing an ounce of pain; unlike Connor who winced and released hoarse grumbles of discomfort.
"We need to leave-" Elijah had made his way over, crouching beside you, "It's not safe-"
Connor landed just in front of the row of androids, the RK800 pouncing on top.
Or was it the other way around. You'd lost track-
"Please," Elijah tugged at your arm, "Listen to me, just this once. If anything happens to you-"
A trailing noise that was far enough away to be dismissed suddenly became the only sound in the room. The scraping of metal on linoleum, the rattle of an embossed chamber as it bounced between spaces in tiles. Your eyes followed it through pinholes for vision until it stopped at the foot of a sleeping android dressed in white.
You pushed Elijah away. You'd gotten good at that. You ignored Connor's pained cries behind you. The squealing of the combating RK800s' shoes as they fought, jumping and landing from aerial assaults in an effort to ground each other. That was harder to dismiss.
You just kept running. You'd allow it, one last time.
Run, and get to the gun before anyone else could…
"You can stop right fucking there."
When you picked it up, and when you spoke, they listened.
They'd been chasing you.
Or, one had been chasing you, and the other had been chasing him.
Toggling between each face that looked the same, each shoulder with the same wound, each jacket that was too far away to read the serial number stitched on it...
You were faced with a choice that would result in the death of a man you loved, or grant you the solution to subdue the world's largest threat to its stability.
Again.
Because just like how Amanda couldn't kill the idea of freedom…RA9 couldn't save every android, apparently. One RK800 would have to die.
You prayed it wouldn't be yours…
That decision, however, would be yours to make.
Behind the Scenes
(Links on AO3)
Pandora
Prometheus and Pandora
Shade (Mythology)
Russian "Weapons of the Weak" Article
Asymmetric Warfare
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment"
"It takes something more than intelligence to act intelligently."
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being."
"Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea. And there is only one higher idea on earth, and it is the idea of the immortality of the human soul, for all other 'higher' ideas of life by which humans might live derive from that idea alone."
Written to "Until We Go Down" by Ruelle
