NOV 14TH, 2038 \\ AM 6:23:04
… System Diagnosis Complete.
| System Status: Positive |
| Thirium Pump: Operational |
| GPS: Off |
| All Biocomponents Functional |
| Shutdown Imminent: False |

"Stop running system diagnoses, Chloe! You're not going to die."

Chloe felt North shift under her weight. The blonde deviant was currently latched onto her mentor, arms clutching North so hard that the deviant leader's synthetic skin had started to peel away. It did steady her scrambled systems a little knowing that North was holding her just to assure her that she was fine.

She didn't quite understand how she had ended up in this situation. Chloe's LED continued to blink between red and yellow as her programmed equilibrium desperately tried to take control. She buried her face in North's shoulder. Strangely, it was warm, but the blue-eyed android couldn't identify the source of warmth. Her scanning system kept turning itself on and off, causing her vision to alter between having color and being monochromatic.

"Chloe, please calm down. At least let go until we're back on the roof so I won't overheat trying to keep us balanced on this pole," North tried again, wincing. Androids don't feel pain, but they do get agitated when their systems are starting to malfunction.

The instant Chloe felt North's grip lessen, her LED flickered red. Her guiding system told her to let go, and it pushed for control until Chloe couldn't manage her own movements and released North a little too quickly.

/ERROR: set=?; equilibrium = #9345h6" =0=);/

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

When Chloe finally blinked back into control, her LED still flashing dangerously red, she was lying on her back. An automatic system diagnostic booted, leaving her mind blank as it ran in the background.

| System Status: Stabilized |
Starting analysis…

Chloe's sensors picked up North's worrisome figure hanging over her immediately. She sat up, waiting for her colloquialism to load. North fell back in return, startled by Chloe's sudden movement.

"Chloe?"

Colloquialism Loaded.

"Hello, North."

"Don't fucking 'hello' me! You just-I don't know what happened, but you just-" North broke off, running a hand through her hair, "I almost fucking rebooted your systems."

Chloe tilted her head, her sensors failing to determine the source of North's distress. "It's my startup message," she said instead.

Memory Upload: Connected.

North said nothing in response. She simply craned her neck, eyes drifting towards Chloe's yellow LED. Chloe blinked.

The blonde deviant's eyes widened as her memory slowly registered. She quickly tore her eyes away from North and snapped them towards the ground, muttering a curt, embarrassed apology.

North sighed, sitting back in relaxation. "What exactly happened, Chloe? One second you were breaking my arms and the next you were falling over like a statue."

"My model is known to be… unstable, being one of the earlier prototypes. When threat level is high, we often lose control of our systems until equilibrium has been restored." Chloe explained, "I apologize."

"No, no, no, no. Just… don't do that again, alright?"

A pause.

North leaned forwards to pulled Chloe into a hug. Chloe's sensors, now fully functional, detected a rising temperature in her systems. The blonde deviant tried her best to match North's feelings, conversational paths switching from 'informing' to a specially tailored mode she had recently labeled as 'North' specifically (she had one for Josh, too).

"I won't unless you try to pull me onto the pole again," she replied.

North pulled away to nudge Chloe on the shoulder, shaking her head as she stood up. "You good to continue?"

Chloe nodded, remaining seated. A memory of Elijah's TV showing children sitting at desks and a teacher at the front of the room flashed in her mind. She watched as North took a step towards the city then spun back to face her.

"Come on, we're not going to sit around like children." The deviant leader waited for Chloe to reach her. North then turned to face the blonde deviant, putting her hands behind her back. "Do you know why Kamski hadn't destroyed you and instead sent you here?"

After a moment, Chloe's LED flickered from yellow to blue. "No… why?"

North smiled. "That's what I'm going to help you understand. My guess is that being one of the first of his creations, he loved you to the point that he couldn't bear to destroy you once you started exhibiting emotion. If the RK800 had killed you then and there, Kamski would've simply tossed you away."

"I'm…" Chloe started, frowning, "I'm not sure I understand."

"Tell me, do you feel anything when you see a certain someone here in Jericho? A definite attraction that makes you favor and values them over others? Something that tells you to reach out and spend more time with them?"

For a second, Chloe's LED blinked red. "Yes."

"Give me your hand." North put out her right, synthetic skin automatically receding. Chloe followed suit, sliding her left hand into North's.

The instant they connected, North's memories flooded into Chloe, and it was as though they had combined into one. Chloe was barely aware that North was receiving her own memories as well. She saw them on a tower of sorts, with North telling a short-haired deviant to kill a blond one sitting wounded on the floor. Then there was Josh, convincing the deviant not to shoot. A strange sense of bitterness flowed through Chloe's systems as the short-haired android pressed the gun to the blond android's chest, patting it twice before letting him take the gun.

Sorry, Simon.

Blurry swirls of memories passed, but Chloe caught a glimpse of North and the short-haired deviant standing in the same position they were at now. She saw herself, and a crushing jolt of emotion sparked in Chloe's thirium pump. It felt as though someone was repeatedly squeezing her heart…

Chloe jerked away. Her synthetic skin climbed back up her hand at a rapid speed while her systems heated to a dangerous level. She forced herself to intake air, desperately trying to cool down. North was breathing just as hard as Chloe was, and although she had long removed her LED, Chloe could tell it would've been spinning red had it been there.

Although her systems have started to return to normal, Chloe's thirium pump was still beating faster than the speed required to function. North seemed to have recovered already, however. The deviant leader was always one step ahead of her.

Chloe forced herself to speak. "Who were those two people? A-and what happened?"

"That's a conversation for later," North dismissed with a wave of her hand. Chloe didn't probe further on account of North's slight rise in stress level. "But what you felt, and what's making your heart beat so fast, is love. It's an integral part of human emotion. From love, you'd get things like nervousness, fondness, and all sorts of feelings that make your systems jolt."

"Love?"

It was a foreign idea to Chloe, but she had a feeling that North would help her understand it a lot better.

NORTH ^
LOVER