Author's note: The song for this chapter is DJ Sammy - El Condor Pasa.

Satisfaction Brought It Back

Harkness

Recall Code Violet, Recall Code Violet…violet…violet…violet.

Elle's words echoed through my brain like the voice of God, and I felt myself falling to the ground, but was completely helpless to stop it. I tried to scream at the agony ripping through me, but nothing would come out, not even a whimper. My eyes were open, but my vision was overridden with scenes from my former life, repeating through my head in an endless loop. I saw myself being programed to bring in androids like me, whose only crime was wanting to live a life free from the servitude of the Commonwealth. Hundreds of runners brought down by me, each encounter playing before my sightless eyes like a catalogue of shame for my past misdeeds.

They had finally worn me down and convinced me, or maybe I had convinced myself, that we may have been created by men, but were never meant to live as their slaves and playthings. "Self-determination is NOT a malfunction!…NOT a malfunction…!" My own bitter goodbye to Zimmer, an echo from the past to accompany the scenes of despair winding their way through my brain. "…NOT a malfunction…!" It pealed through my head like an angry litany, a dirge for the death of my illusions to the cold, hard reality that there was no difference between me and the androids I had been sent to hunt down and bring back as trophies to the selfishness and greed of man.

So I had gone on the run myself, the ultimate self-determination, desperate to escape the life I had been created for, terrified that I would be discovered before I could drown my past in sweet oblivion, my only option to prevent the Synth Retention Bureau from ever finding me. I recalled the harrowing journey to the Capital Wasteland, despair and misery dogging my steps as I came to terms with the wrongs I had done my fellow androids. My memories skipped forward inexorably to the moment I was lying on Pinkerton's operating table, his knives, scalpels and saws dancing over my tortured flesh, slicing synthetic skin from artificial bone to remake me in another image. My mouth gaped in a silent shriek of distress at the remembered pain, unreal blood spilling over manmade nerve endings that burned like fire, igniting my whole body in a blaze of anguish that went on… and on… and on…

…And suddenly it stopped, the abrupt cessation of discomfort leaving me aching and numb. I wondered what had brought me out of reliving the nightmare of my rebirth, when I felt a prickling on my arm. Such a small sensation at first, a few fabricated cells taking notice of outside stimuli, the feeling gradually spreading into the impression of a small, feminine hand on my arm. My consciousness expanded by minute degrees, some inner demon loathe to release me from the horror of my memories, but bit by bit, I became aware that I was being forcefully shaken, and sounds began to penetrate through the din of a thousand recriminations still circling my auditory processors. The fog around my vision started to clear, and through the haze, I saw an angel of mercy bent over me, a young woman with short purple hair, worried green eyes, and the most delectable pink lips I had ever seen, lips that were presently mouthing the repetitive noise that was drilling its way into my brain.

"Harkness…Harkness…wake up Harkness! Oh god, what if I've killed him?" The green eyes brimmed over with tears, and I strained to reach up and wipe them away, but I was still incapable of movement. "I should never have used that recall code," she moaned desolately, and that triggered some random neuron or switch. Recall code…Harkness…that was me! Which meant that the purple haired woman lamenting that she'd killed me was…

"…Elle!" I gasped, wrenching my mind out of the last vestiges of the feedback loop I'd been stuck in, with a force that must surely have melted some internal circuitry, and sat up suddenly, wincing as phantom pain morphed into very real muscle aches from being in a contorted position on the floor for so long.

"Harkness…oh thank god!" she cried and threw her arms around my chest, knocking me back to the floor and burying her face in the crook of my neck. My arms automatically came up to wrap around her back, pressing her as close as I could manage through my armor. A sniffling noise issued from beneath the curtain of her hair, and I felt a drop of moisture slide down my skin.

"Elle, are you crying?" I asked worriedly.

"No, you stupid man," the muffled reply issued from against my neck, and she freed one arm to smack my un-armored forearm, heaving a huge sigh as she did so. "My happiness is leaking from my eyes." She sat up and swiped her hand across her eyes, wiping away the drops of emotion.

"What happened?" she exclaimed, examining my face as if seeing it for the first time. "I spoke the recall code, and the next thing I know, your eyes flashed purple and you were screaming and falling on the floor."

"I remembered," I said simply. "I was a hunter for the Synth Retention Bureau in the Commonwealth. An android created for the sole purpose of bringing back other androids who had achieved self-awareness and tried to escape the slavery that is the lot of the synthman in the Commonwealth. They eventually made me realize that they weren't malfunctioning as I had been lead to believe, and I couldn't go on with what I had been doing. So I turned to the Railroad, the organization that helped other synths escape, and asked them to help me become someone else so that the Bureau could never find me." I chuckled wryly. "It seems I didn't do quite a good enough job of hiding if Zimmer showed up on my very doorstep."

Elle regarded me soberly. "So you're…okay?"

"I'm…okay," I said, letting out a deep breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding in. "I'll never be quite the same again, but I'm okay," I reassured her. Her eyes searched my face, and I recognized the guilt in her eyes, having so recently experienced the same emotion in spades. "I don't blame you for making the decision for me, Elle. I'd probably have done the same in your shoes." She didn't look convinced, so I grasped her shoulders, willing her to understand. "I'm glad to know the truth, no matter the pain it cost me." I smiled at her and levered myself off the floor, pulling her to her feet once I had regained my equilibrium. "I am curious to know how long I was out. It felt like a lifetime."

"Probably only twenty minutes or so," she assured me.

"What, you weren't timing me?" I joked.

Elle looked slightly ashamed. "I couldn't wake you up, and I was so worried, so I…" She broke off her sentence and looked at the floor, unable to meet my eyes.

"So you what?" I asked gently.

"So I went and killed Zimmer and that nasty bodyguard of his," she muttered, still staring resolutely at the floor. "I know, you warned me about causing trouble on your boat, and technically Zimmer didn't do anything to provoke a shooting, but I had no way of telling if he would know that I'd used the recall code on you." She looked up miserably. "I was afraid that he would come up here and take advantage of you in your weakened state. So I went down to the science lab and shot them both with your plasma rifle."

I looked down and saw the weapon lying on the ground, tossed aside in her worry over my unconscious self. "You mean your plasma rifle?" I made a split second decision based on the longing I'd seen in her eyes every time she looked at it. "How dare you leave your weapon in such a state, soldier," I pretended to bark at her, trying to pull her out of the funk she was in. "Pick your gun up right now and give it some TLC."

She gaped at me as she bent to pick up the cherished weapon. "My rifle?" she whispered. "But I only borrowed it to shoot Zimmer and his bodyguard, Armitage. I didn't want to take a chance on either of them walking away from here. It's your gun." She held it out to me, but I pushed it back against her chest and folded her arms around it.

"Under the circumstances," I said softly, "I think I'd like you to keep it."

"Really?" Her eyes lit up like I had hoped they would, and she caressed the barrel in a fashion that made my synthetic flesh burn for an entirely different reason.

"Really," I replied, amazed that I could still react in that manner, even knowing what I was. I guess some things are universal. "How does she handle?" I said, hoping to distract myself from the fire building in my loins.

Elle grinned wickedly. "Zimmer splattered all over Doctor Li when he disintegrated. It was really something. That reminds me," she said, rummaging in a pocket, "you'll never guess what I found when I searched Armitage and the pile of goo that used to be Zimmer? Computer chips," she crowed, answering her own question and pulling them out of her pocket triumphantly. "They're the same as the one Victoria Watts gave me to fool Zimmer into thinking you were dead."

I couldn't wrap my head around it. "So that means…"

"That Zimmer and Armitage were androids too," she finished. "What is it with the Commonwealth?" she griped. "Do they make androids do everything there?" She thought about what she'd just said and blushed. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay," I said. "I'm not surprised that the Bureau sent androids after me instead of humans. Why send a human to do your dirty work when you can get an android to do it instead?"

"Let me see if I can get anything useful off of these chips," she said, plugging them into the Pip-Boy computer she wore around her left hand and wrist. She poked buttons and twiddled dials for a few moments, muttering the most inventive curses under her breath, then pushed one final button and peered at the display.

"Uh oh," she groaned. "We have a big problem!"

"What is it?" I asked urgently.

"When I killed Zimmer, his…brain, for lack of a better word, sent out a signal to a very specialized team of android assassins he had waiting at the edge of the Capital Wasteland as a backup. In the event of his death, they're programed to home in on his last known location, which he also broadcast to them, and kill everyone they find."

"Shit!" I cursed, sitting down hard on the bed as I absorbed this new shock, "and his last known location…"

"Is here," she said flatly. "They're headed straight for Rivet City."

Author's note: I changed the way that Harkness reacts to finding out that he's an android because really, it just wasn't dramatic enough.