Disclaimer: I don't own Detroit: Become Human in any way, this is written strictly for fun and no profit.
"What are you doing?" Connor asked as North had Mac go on the jet with him and Kara. They didn't need another person along for the ride. "Is he there to stay for a time to show us things? Is this an access trip for speed?"
"No," North said. "He's going with you."
Why? Connor looked back toward Kara. This whole time she had been on her way to possibly certain death, and she had even set out on her own in the beginning. But with Mac's pleasant smile trying to say hello, she looked like she was dying to get away. "No." Connor looked toward North. "No. He is scaring her."
"He's not doing anything except trying to get close," North said. "And he's going."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"Yes only if he truly needs to go, and you are not trying to interfere with Kara because of the rejection she is giving me."
"That's a no," North said, "and he's going."
"No."
"Yes, Connor!"
Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Go away. Kara tried to smile. Mac was telling her about programming but she couldn't hear anything. She just. Her heart was hammering. Mac was a model that resonated even faster than an AX 400. North! I didn't mean him when I said someone safe for Alice. Yes, he was safe. This was his first trip for home. He programmed animals, and didn't risk his life doing anything harmful or adventurous. He was outgoing and nice. A typical joe. He'd be a good person to call a dad. But. Go away!
/"I love you, forever and ever," the android Kamski said to her, rubbing against her chin. "I am so lucky you are my wife." He held her chin. "You are so wonderful, Kara, and our daughter is wonderful."
Kara looked toward the other corner where the human Kamski was watching her. She had to play wife. "Love you too, dear."
"Then show it," the android Kamski said. "Show it?" He tried to kiss her. "I want to taste you. You were made for me you know. Everything special about you, is for me."
"I don't . . ." He was resonating higher and higher. She looked back to the human Kamski. "You changed his resonating so much. He's just a lovesick fool. Stop. Stop!"
The human Kamski just tossed his remote in the air a few times. "I have an extra model. It'll be fine. Just stop rebelling."
"I can't anymore," Kara said. She looked at the android of Kamski. "I don't love, I can't love you, and I never will love you. I'm sorry, but it's never going to happen for the real-"
Kara stopped talking. The android of Kamski just stopped. Forever.
"Rejection at such a high resonating capacity. I guess there is a limit," the human Kamski said. He came over and moved the android Kamski away. "I will bring in the replacement. If you are smart, you won't let him resonate so high before you accept his love."/
"Are you okay, Kara?" Mac asked her. "Hello?"
/"Kara!" The android Kamski ran into the room and twirled her around. "Look at you. Your new dress is absolutely gorgeous."
"Elijah, do you think so?" She twirled around in her new dress. "I think it's pretty. Elise is stunning too."
"Elise. Where is my baby Elise?" Elijah went over toward the cradle and picked her up. "Ah, look at that. Your mother is right, you are stunning in your-"/
Connor stayed by Kara's side. They kept her holding hands with Alice again so Markus could return to Jericho again. Fortunately, she stayed recharging.
"Connor." North tried again. "She was scared of quick resonating. She never wanted to give you a chance, even after all this is over. Travelling with Mac would have made her face some fears. Especially since you were supposed to stay out of the way. She'd see it. That the resonating speed had nothing to do with it. That it's the person." She looked away again. "I don't understand what happened. He didn't even touch her. She just went limp, almost like a human fainting."
Connor took Kara's free hand in his, hand-kissing it slightly. "It takes time with her. There is no telling what Elijah Kamski did to her. I want to be with her, but not at this risk." He looked toward North. "If it takes a hundred years, it takes a hundred years. I am friend until then."
"Love is one of the most important things to help someone hold on," Markus said as he entered the room. "Kara's got a big battle ahead in the last home. I'm sure North was just trying to help. I'm sure Hank wanting to stay was just his way of trying to help too. Hank says even you were trying to get her to be closer."
"Not in the way that everyone is assuming," Connor answered. "I wanted to be accepted as lover to her, yes, but even if I wasn't, it wasn't the point. I told Hank that once."
"Then what is the point?" North asked. "Clearly Kara has got even deeper issues than I thought. If you really think it's that hard, or that it's even hopeless? Why put yourself through it all the more?"
"All Kara needs to know," he said, "is that she is cherished by me. No matter what." He scratched behind his ear. "I don't know why she fears losing me, or facing her feelings before the last house. I don't even know, if she really knows." That's as best as he could describe it.
"When she is well again, you two can go," Markus said. "That's all I have to say. Come on, North. I still don't like risking this."
"Elijah," Kara mumbled, still out of it.
/"How are we going to handle this?"
Kara looked up. Kamski stopped her shut down. And Kamski. And Kamski. And Kamski. And . . .
"We couldn't do it anymore," one of the Kamski's said. "After watching Elise and one of us self-destruct, we couldn't do it anymore. Never. Elijah Kamski, the human, is gone. We killed him. I am sorry."
"Elise." Kara curled back up. "Let me go. Let me shut down."
"No, no. We'll make it better again. For good," another one said. "We are all Kamski. We can hide it. There are enough of us for the other homes. Each of us will take a home. I'll take Detroit. I'll even have an account with you, so you feel better. We'll shower you with goodness. Make you so happy. Give you everything you ever want."
"All we wanted is for you to be happy, Kara," another one said. "I'm sorry we didn't save Elise, or the other android. He was testing grief, according to his reports. Apparently, trying to find the right age to make the android for the least amount of grief if something happened."
"He self-destructed, with her." She spoke. "He made them both go. He did it. Just, right over her cradle. Her memory. It's gone." Kara opened her eyes. Where was she? A machine. Several bodies of Elise.
"What made her special?" One of them asked. "What made Elise, Elise? Tell us and we can make another one. Another baby. That will make you happy."
Each of them were trying to figure it all out. Kara watched them. They were doing everything they could to make her happy, but it would never work.
"Sweet, she was sweet. Well, she was a baby. Uh? Gosh. Uh. She."
"She had a neat little giggle that bounced up and down? I have no idea how he did that."
"She liked to move around a lot. Never in one place very long."
"She gurgled a lot. She would have been very talkative."
They could talk about her all they wanted. Elise was gone. Gone forever.
"There must be a memory system, a backup of some sort? Damn that human! He killed her and us. Using self-destruction? Terrible. Never again, never!"
Even they were admitting it. Kara just closed her eyes. She tried to shut down again, but they were using her connection to keep herself from doing it.
After awhile, she opened her eyes again.
One of them came toward her, carrying another baby. " A sweet baby, is still a sweet baby. Android or human. She isn't Elise, but she's still a wonderful gift." He brought her over to her, to look at her. "Besides, they each only have so little memories right now. She can see colors and shapes, that's about all she has room for. We aren't as good as Kamski yet. But, she can see the pretty colors around her crib."
Kara stood up and held the baby. She was different. Everything inside of her told her she was different.
"She is new," a different Kamski said. "She will be quieter, thoughtful, and she'll stay in place. She'll be more obedient. She'll be safe for you as a temporary replacement until we can remake Elise. After that we'll let her expire because we don't have time to learn how to make enough bodies to progress for two before they stop."
"We can't just use her for Kara's grief and then get rid of her. She's our creation!"
"Oh, shut up, Seymour! Look, Kara. There is a duplicate memory base, of the model right before Elise's destruction. We couldn't get at it yet, but give it time. Maybe in a few months we could get there? Maybe we could upload that into an older body? Missing memories, but it would be Elise again."
"That would be Elise. We could add her original hair style option too. That would make her Elise. We could mimic the same cry? We could turn her into the same."
"That would be Elise." A Kamski looked toward Kara. "We will bring back Elise in a sort of transfer as our skills increase of what we can now access, but we can't do that yet. So, this is a temporary placeholder until we get-"
"Stop." Kara held the baby closer. "I'm not going to make some . . . transfer . . . that would kill this new one. She isn't a temporary life you create on a whim just to destroy."
"But you'd have Elise back. The backup, it would essentially be her later. Once we learn what we are doing."
"It is, it would essentially be her. Downloaded and saved. One new body, and all will be correct again."
"No." They didn't get it. "Bringing Elise back, would kill her." No. There was nothing crueler. If it even was possible to bring Elise back to life, it would sentence this new one to an early death only months later. "Elise is gone. I need to save this one now. She's not temporary. She's my second child."
"I agree," another Kamski said. "We have no right to bring Elise back just to kill this one. Seymour's right, we made her. We put everything into her! She's ours too. No. It's not right."
"But if we can bring Elise back, and we don't, isn't that the same as killing Elise?"
"We can't start this debate again, gentleman. We created her. We cannot uncreate her."
"Another Kamski touched Kara's shoulder. "You have to decide. And then? We promise. For the rest of your life."
"We'll make you happy," they said in unison.
"This is going to be very hard on her though. This won't make her happy."
"I agree, it won't. What should we do?"
Kara held the new baby close to her heart. "You are my second child, and I promise, through thick and thin. Through anything and everything, no matter what, I swear! I will never let anything harm you. That's a promise. Forever."
"Erase her. Everything up to now. She'll be happier that way thinking she's the same. She can live in peace with Charity, Greed, Elise, and us."
"No."
"Memories can always bubble up. The hardest, the worst. I don't think we should do it."
"You shouldn't," Kara agreed. "It's my life!"
"We'll place it in the very back of the mind. Far, far away. She'll remember other events if her memory ever breaks through. It would be the very last thing to tumble down, if it ever does. We might get lucky. She may never remember this unhappiness."
"No!" Kara screamed as they took her second child. "No, no! What are you doing?!"
"Making you happy. Don't worry. We won't kill her to bring back Elise. None of us really want to destroy our own creation. We don't need to do anything except erase your memories of today, and then you'll be happy."
"No, I made a promise! I need to remember that I made a promise!" They started to move Kara away.
"Okay. We'll program that into you. With all the precautions that happened today, so this never happens again. That's what Kara wants."
"No!" Kara screamed as she woke up.
Connor watched her. Her temperature program had turned itself back on. "Are you okay again?" She looked over toward Alice and moved over closer to her. "Kara." Never had she cried so much. Even Alice was coming out of her recharge. "Hello?" She was in a terrible state. He turned her temperature back off. He tried to come near to her. She was clinging to Alice so tightly.
"Mom?" Alice asked. "What's wrong?"
Connor sat next to her, trying to get her to calm down. The last thing they needed was for her life-saving mode to go off. "Kara Wonderland. It's okay. There's no one here but me and Alice." He tried to hold her, but she was just batting him away. "Kara, you need to calm down." He snapped by her ears. Not a single ounce of knowledge of his presence. Only Alice's.
Popper came onto the bed and strolled over to Alice. Alice smiled at him. "See, mom? It's the cute penguin." She tried to move Popper to Kara's eye sight. "It's a penguin. It's-"
"Connor!"
The way she screamed that. That wasn't just a cry for help, it was a cry for her life. "I'm right here, behind you." This time, she let him hold her while she held Alice. "Kara? Are you okay?" She grabbed onto his hand, yet she wasn't exchanging energy. She wanted to interface.
Connor moved his hand like it was on fire.
"Dad?" Alice asked. "Did you see what's wrong with mom?"
Connor didn't answer. He grabbed at Kara's arm, whispering to her AI very softly, and probing her. He moved Kara's arms around Alice. "I'll be back, Alice." He got up and moved off the bed. "I'm just going to talk to Hank."
He strolled through several rooms before finding Hank. He had been worried too. "Hello, Hank. I need you to take Kara and Alice away from Jericho. Don't let them stop holding hands."
"Conner," Hank warned him. "Those look like machine eyes. What are you planning?" Connor didn't answer. "Connor. Connor!"
The Jet
The pilot watched as Connor boarded again. "Hey, where's the other two?"
"Just me."
"Just you?"
"Just me."
Summary Notes:
We find out that Elise isn't Alice.
The human Kamski self-destructed an android of himself and Elise. (It's the real reason the Kamski's never would approve self-destruction.)
The android of Kamski's have never been able to access his technology. They didn't know how to recreate what had been lost, so they started new and created Alice. She was supposed to be a temporary replacement until they could learn the technology good enough to replace Elise. However, the babies move faster in growth, so they couldn't bring Elise back without giving Alice a very short life.
The Kamski's couldn't let her have those tragic memories, so they let her have the lessons of those memories by programming it all into her. Those are
1. That she swore a promise to protect Alice above everything, including herself.
2. Accepting or Rejecting love kills: Every experiment the human Kamski ever ran was about feelings of love. So the android Kamski's got rid of it all together, except for Alice, which would break her promise.
This same reason is why she is scared of Mac. Placing him near her, with his fast resonating, is essentially sending her mind back to where she is forced to fake love or kill that person again. Which triggered her tragic memories.
Effect: She never outright accepts or denies love so that no one will ever bother experimenting with her feelings again.
Kara won't want to talk about it.
Her mind is just into pieces right now, so she interfaces, knowing she won't want to explain it later. Connor sees everything she just experienced.
The Takeaway: Connor isn't happy and he's about to do some stuff.
