A/N: Decided to start crossposting this on ao3 for a nice backup copy.
Chapter 20
Early the next morning, North dropped by with Alice.
"Looking a little bored there, Marco Polo."
"Well when the doctor confines you to bed you don't really have many options," Markus said.
"She's supposed to see her guardians today. Simon sent them out on a mission last night," North said.
"What kind of mission?"
"An interview with a drug dealer. The funnest kind of mission," she drawled.
"What's so fun about it?" he asked.
"I heard they tend to get nasty and I LOVE nasty."
Markus chuckled.
"You look like you just love that kind of action."
"Any one who tries to cross me, would get a bullet straight through the head."
"I can see why Simon chose you to babysit."
"Hey," she retorted. "I wouldn't shoot anyone unless I had to."
"Knowing you, you'd probably find some excuse to get trigger happy."
North smiled softly.
Alice chuckled.
"Alice?"
Markus looked up to see who had called her.
A woman with short blonde hair accompanied by a tall brown skinned guy were standing walking towards her.
"Kara? KARA! You're back."
A relieved smile appeared on her face as Alice ran to embrace her.
Kara smiled returning the embrace.
"You got yourself a nice daughter," North said. "She's a nice girl."
The guy next to her frowned.
"Where's my hug?" he asked. "Hmm, no fair you gave Kara a hug."
Alice glanced at Luther with a frown before sticking her tongue out at him.
Kara chuckled.
Once Kara released her, Alice giggled and ran off. The man ran after her.
"Not so fast. You're not getting away that easily."
"So why are you two here? You don't seem like you'd be apart of this kind of business," Markus said to Kara.
"I wouldn't know," Kara said. "I just got out of the hospital. This man was running from these androids in black suits. He told me just to take the little girl and hide. One thing led to another and we found ourselves here."
"Androids in black suits? Cyberlife was after you too?" he asked.
"I guess so. There a reason why they are after you?" she inquired in return.
"My father used to work for Cyberlife before he transferred his memories to an android. Some woman wanted to kidnap him and I just happened to be in the way."
"Small world we live in huh?"
Markus glanced past her and noticed that the man in question had managed to catch Alice and he embraced her.
"So is that your boyfriend?" he asked.
Kara smiled softly.
"No," she said.
Markus had a sly look in his eyes. He smirked in mischief.
"But you like him."
Kara glanced back at the man.
"Yeah...I do."
"He's never going to know if you don't tell him."
"I suppose you're right."
Markus smirked.
"Here I am talking to this with you when I don't even have a girlfriend."
North glanced at him in surprise.
"Or a boyfriend," Solomon supplied.
Kara chuckled.
North glanced at Solomon with an expression akin to curiosity.
Markus sighed before glancing at Solomon.
"You're still on about that? There is nothing going on between me and Simon."
"Sure, sure. Next you're going to tell me there's something going on between you and North."
Markus snorted, missing the panic that lit North's eyes. Her face a faint red.
"I suppose you just got up?" he grumbled.
"Yeah, sorry to reign on your parade," Solomon said.
"Are you alright?" Kara asked in concern.
"Me? I'm fine."
"You look like you've been to hell and back."
Solomon chuckled.
"Yeah, so what did you do before you got here?"
Kara shrugged.
"Don't know. Can't really remember. Luther said I was studying to be a handiman."
"So you do the dirty work, instead of sending an electrician when you have problems with your lights," North said.
"Yeah, I guess you could put it that way."
"Right on."
Luther returned alongside Alice.
"Well I guess we better out. Still have to tell Simon the news," Kara said.
"Catch you later," North said.
"Hey Solomon, what are you doing up at this time?"
"Just got up to join the action. Your son is becoming quite a love guru."
Markus felt his face heat up.
"Solomon!"
"What? It's true."
Carl chuckled.
"Good to see you're getting along with your bed buddy."
"So what'd Simon have you do?"
"He asked me to help care for some of the patients."
"Sounds fun."
"It was boring."
"At least you're doing something."
"Markus, don't be such a sour puss," Carl said. "When has a bed stopped you from pursuing what you want? So you can't get out of bed, big deal."
"Easy for you to say."
"I asked Simon about getting you some paper and a clipboard and he supplied me with these."
Carl took out a bundle that he had placed under his arm.
"Looks like paper, pencils and Carl are these art supplies?" Markus asked.
He smiled.
"What do you think?"
"Carl, you're the best."
He eagerly took the bundle from Carl and set it on the bed.
"That's right, you said you were an artist didn't you?"
Markus glanced at North with a smile.
"You remembered?"
"Of course," she said smugly.
He doodled intently in his sketchbook. North glanced at him expectantly.
She wondered if she could look over his shoulder.
'I wonder if that isn't too close though.'
She attempted to move closer hovering near his shoulder.
"Can I watch you?"
Solomon looked on with surprise.
Markus however just smiled.
"Sure."
She made herself comfortable at his side. Carl glanced at them warmly.
"So what inspired you to become an artist in the first place?"
"My father. People always expect you to be good at something you try or they hate you. I used to get in a lot of fights when I was little because of that always taking out my anger on other people."
North snorted.
"I never would have guessed that."
Markus smiled.
"With art, no one judges you for your skill. I started drawing after my father suggested it might be relaxing."
"Was it?"
"What?"
"Relaxing?"
He glanced at her.
"Yeah, of course. I just started drawing pictures of my father at first. Connor was my model when we got older."
"Did he support you too?"
"Connor? Yeah in his own way. He never really understood the appeal of art."
"Oh."
"My other brother, Leo had other priorities. He was more interested in playing football than doing art projects," said Markus bitterly.
The corner of his lips curled in a smile.
"Carl got mad when he arrived home with a broken collarbone."
He chuckled.
"Sounds like a fun time."
Markus frowned.
"No, unfortunately Leo gets hot-headed when he's hurt. He cries just like a little baby. He's lucky he had two brothers to help him out or he would have drove Carl up the wall."
"So what are you painting anyway?"
"Nothing in particular. I mostly paint what I feel."
"It looks like you. Why do you look so angry in the picture?"
"I was just thinking. Can humanity ever truly be free?"
"Are you usually so introspective?"
"Well losing your legs puts a lot of things in perspective. When I had my legs I always took it for granted. I never thought I'd lose the ability to walk and I never thought I'd feel so useless."
"You're not the first person to say that."
"Even if I feel useless it's not entirely due to the lack of my legs though. I just reminds of how little control I really had over the things in my life."
"Hmm."
"I can't believe I thought for a second every decision I made was my own but people just manipulated me to go the way they wanted to. Every time I was discouraged from pursuing something I really desired...and I quit. I thought I was a free person, what a joke. No one really can have control can they? Even if it's at their fingertips."
North sighed.
"Well even then, you should still do what you can. You think it will amount to anything if you wallow in despair."
Markus snorted and let out a sigh.
"I suppose you're right."
He smiled.
"I'm glad we had this talk, North."
She got up.
"Well I better go."
She turned and walked away. Carl joined her as she headed in the back where a red punching bag hung from the ceiling.
"I think you raised a poet."
Carl snorted.
North put on her boxing gloves that laid on the barrels against the wall.
"You could say that but Markus is used to expressing what's on his mind."
North snorted.
"He's sheltered. Not even grounded in reality. Not everything is gonna work out if you just try."
"Perhaps but at least he's trying to cope with it. How long can you brood before it ceases to have a meaning?"
North turned to the old man, a glare on her face.
"You-"
"I've been around longer than you have. You think you've said that and done that. Don't be naive," Carl said. "Stewing around in your own despair is only going to hurt you in the long run. Believe me I know."
"What would you know?" she snarled. "You're an android."
"Correction, I am now an android. I guess you don't find it odd when an android develops sentience."
"That's why they are deviants."
"Perhaps but most deviants have preconstructed personalities and never retain those personalities with time."
"How would you know that?"
"I think the real question want to ask if why would I know that?"
North raised a brow.
"It's because I studied deviancy. Me and Kamski were the ones responsible for it. We had developed preconstructed personalities for every android unit. House units would always have a paternal or maternal tendency towards the children of their owners. This is due to the information that is programmed in them. Thus any android could judge what to do with that information and act out by carrying on their 'personality'."
"Yeah?"
"So theoretically androids shouldn't have sentience at least not genuine sentience. Only some deviants began to exhibit genuine sentience based off of just their outer perceptions and some went through complete personality changes merely due to the way that the program altered itself to adapt to these outside perceptions."
"So you're one of those deviants?"
"No, I'm not. I lost my sentience long ago."
He smiled and glanced at North smugly.
"Have you figured it out yet?"
North snorted.
"I'm not up for your little guessing game."
Carl chuckled.
"I was a human once. You think Markus just decided to build a robot based off his old man?"
North jabbed at the punching bag.
"We decided to make this body after my body was beginning to deteriorate. I had got in an accident and couldn't use my legs. Elisha caught me in my home drinking my life away and offered to take care of me if I worked for him. His son made this body."
She continued to punch the bag even as Carl was talking.
"I could've given up then but if I had I never would have met Markus and Connor. I remember when we first met. Markus was a bright young boy always asking questions, he was curious about the world. Connor however was more shy, more down to earth, very intelligent despite that. You say Markus is naive but you're not giving him any credit. What he lacks in the real world, he makes up with his curiosity."
"Hmm..."
"Maybe he needs someone like you to guide him in this world."
North sighed.
"He don't need someone like me," she said bitterly.
North removed her boxing gloves setting them back on the barrel before she headed out.
Carl merely glanced at her retreating form sadly.
Around the same time, Markus was just about finished with his painting.
"Can you show me it when you're finished?" Solomon asked from his left.
Markus looked up and smiled at him.
"Sure, just gotta finish the final touch."
After he was finished he handed the painting to Solomon.
"Wow!"
Markus let out a strained chuckle.
"Geez, it's nothing that impressive."
"How modest," Solomon chimed back. "So says about a million other artists."
Markus frowned.
"Hey, that's not true and I'm not being modest. What do you even like about it anyway?"
Solomon glanced at the painting in front of him. It was a picture of Markus wearing a frown, his eyes set ablaze.
Markus had painted it with a red, orange and yellow scheme. It was a color scheme, Solomon had associated with power and one of anger.
"It's very expressive. It seems powerful somehow."
"That's what Carl always tells me."
"Maybe he's right and maybe you shouldn't be so modest about it."
Markus rolled his eyes and sighed before Solomon handed him back his painting.
Carl returned sometime later.
"Are you finished your painting?"
"For now."
He took the painting off his lap and handed it to Carl who looked at it with awe.
"Guess you finished it huh?"
"Yeah," Markus said.