Disclaimer: I don't own Dollhouse.
Chapter 4: When They Reach the Brink
August and Everything After
(When the Levee Breaks, When the Phone Rings, When Desperate and Dying, When They Reach the Brink, When August Comes, TBC)
Taking place a year after Epitaph Two: Return, in the year 2021 the world is beginning to rebuild itself. Echo and Alpha have reached the near end of their mission to destroy all remaining Rossum imprints. Adelle has taken over the Rossum enterprise, Tony and Priyah have found peace in California, and Mag and Kilo have taken over the old L.A. Dollhouse.
August and Everything After
Chapter 4: When They Reach the Brink
Los Angeles – Dollhouse – 2021
In the back room near Mag's office beyond where the chair was once placed, Echo walked over to the far wall and entered a code into a small wall-mounted box. The wall opened and original imprints sprang from the hanger and began to rotate. Mag sat in her wheelchair behind her.
Mag: "Are you really going to bring him back?"
The hanger stopped rotating and Echo pulled out an imprint. She then looked at it for a moment and spoke.
Echo: "I have to try. Alpha is all I have left."
Echo moved to the door, but Mag blocked her path.
Mag: "What are you talking about? You have all of us. Besides, how are you even going to use that? Well? The chair is gone."
Echo sighed and looked away from Mag before returning back to making eye contact. She then pushed Mag's chair aside and walked past, before looking back to Mag.
Echo: "I have to try."
As she walked out of the room, she saw Whiskey walking out of the office with two sandwiches. Echo stopped in her tracks and reached out to stop Whiskey.
Echo: "What is that?"
Whiskey looked down at her hands and then back at Echo before speaking plainly.
Whiskey: "Two sandwiches."
Echo shook her head, not really knowing what she was expecting. She then ran back to the room where the chair was once kept, where Alpha was still being tested. She then handed the imprint to Kilo.
Echo: "He can help."
Kilo read the imprint now in her hands. It said Topher Brink 2.0. Kilo set it down on the desk near the computer.
Kilo: "The chair is gone. I can't use this."
Echo became clearly frustrated.
Echo: "I know you are still imprinting. You can do this."
Kilo's eyes drifted to the necklace of zip drives across Mag's neck and then returned coldly to Echo before she continued.
Kilo: "Then, I won't."
Echo was now fuming.
Echo: "What?"
Kilo: "What will you tell him? That you spent the last year destroying his life's work? That Alpha is good now? –and do you expect him to believe it? I know, how about that his tech destroyed the world? That he died saving it? –I'm sure he'd be more likely to believe that."
Echo calmed down again and looked down at the imprint in Kilo's hands. She then looked at Alpha.
Echo: "What else is there?"
Kilo's eyes quickly shifted from Echo to the window that revealed the Dollhouse's lower quarters. Whiskey then walked across the floor to the living chambers, with two sandwiches in her hands. Kilo returned her gaze to Echo, but gave no response.
Echo followed Kilo's quick glance to Whiskey and then spoke directly to Kilo with clear suspicion in her voice.
Echo: "What is she doing?"
Kilo: "What?"
Echo: "Why two sandwiches?"
Kilo: "Maybe she's hungry."
The judgment in Kilo's voice against Echo's paranoia was more than obvious, but Echo seemed unphased. Echo put a hand on Kilo's shoulder rather forcefully.
Echo: "Hungry? She's a doll."
Echo then pressed her arm against Kilo's shoulder as she walked passed her and out of the office. Kilo turned quickly to follow her as she saw her moving down the stairs from the window.
Kilo: "Echo, wait."
Echo walked quickly through the lobby and into the back where the sleeping pods where kept. Kilo ran after her. Mag rolled out of the room Alpha was now occupying and watched as Kilo ran from her office. She rolled in her wheelchair to the edge of the room and watched the two girls run out of her eyes' reach before rolling back into the other room while giving a large sigh.
Echo reached the pod room where Topher's shrine was still standing as it had been during his last night among the living. Whiskey walked through a door at the end of the room. Echo stood and watched her in confusion for a moment and Kilo caught up to her.
Kilo: "Look, Echo, I need to tell you somethin-."
Echo continued to follow Whiskey without acknowledging Kilo and stopped outside the entrance to the pool. Without looking back to Kilo, Echo spoke plainly.
Echo: "What did you do, Kilo?"
Kilo took a breath and put her hand against the back of her neck.
Kilo: "I just needed a body. I couldn't just build one from scratch, but there were enough pieces, and, and at the time, I, I had the technology."
Echo looked back to Kilo with a gaze of disillusionment. She opened the doors.
At the far end of the pool sat two dolls with their legs hanging over the edge and dangling in the water. They were eating sandwiches.
Echo: "Topher."
To be continued in Chapter 5: When August Comes
A/N: Sorry everyone, for the long delay.