A/N: Sorry this one took a few weeks! Stratford Tower is one of the biggest chapters in the game, and I really wanted to do it justice. Just because Iris is there doesn't mean I want to detract ANY piece of Markus's broadcast. I hope you all like this one :)
Gaslight.
Iris scrunched her nose. "Excuse me?"
"Of course it's you. You've been missing for what—few weeks now?" Nathan set a hand by his pocket and Iris let out a huff.
Gaslight.
"I'm sorry," Iris set her tone an octave higher. "You think I'm… who?"
"That painter's—let me get my phone, I can pull up the picture—"
"Sir, I have no time to deal with that moronic statement." She kept herself curt with the crisp statement and straightened her back. "My name's Elaine Maxwell, I work for Jeanine Antoya's private collection, and I am running late because you seem to not understand that I am busy."
She crossed her arms, the pen end lightly tapping her bicep. "And if you could just let me do my job in the first place, I could be sorting the collection on 48. No wonder they keep you cooped up in an office, if this is how you treat all your guests."
Nathan's face furiously flushed red. Whether from embarrassment or fury, Iris couldn't tell. Her heart cracked when he said, "That is so rude of you—"
Keep going. Iris felt dirty, but the feelings of one man couldn't get in the way of the mission.
"What's rude is keeping someone hostage for small talk when she has better things to be doing. Now, if you'll kindly excuse me," she jutted her pad and pen to the maintenance elevator, "I need to see the private collection."
"That's the main—"
"Maintenance elevator, yes." She huffed the yes with a roll of her eyes. "Where else would she keep her collection? Hanging unfinished pieces seems great for morale, does it? You!"
Iris barked at Simon. Mechanically, he lifted his gaze from the mop in hand to her. "Yes, ma'am?"
"Get me in that elevator. Maybe I can get my shift back on track."
"Of course, ma'am," Simon set the mop back in its holder and took easy, calculated steps to the elevator. With a wave of a keycard, the elevator began its descent.
"Finally."
Iris set the pen and pad into the pocket of her black slacks and turned toward Nathan. "Now, I'm going to get in that elevator and do my job. Unless you want to call security and tell them the receptionists downstairs let in a "missing person?""
He shook his head silently. God she hated being mean.
"Good."
Iris took purposeful, heavy steps of annoyance to the elevator, visibly wrinkling her nose in disgust as she stepped foot beside Simon. Nathan stared—furrow in his brow and shoulders sagging—and Iris took the tiniest step away from Simon, like the closeness made her uneasy.
The second the door closed, though, she visibly sagged with relief. "Oh my god."
"Are you okay?" Simon looked to her.
"Am I okay?! Are you okay?" Iris set a hand on his shoulder and looked to his face desperately. "I am so sorry I yelled at you. I swear I was just playing the part, I could never—"
"Iris," he smiled. "It's okay. Honestly, I'm impressed. Quick thinking saved your cover."
"Ugh, I feel all dirty." She shook her shoulder. "I hate being mean."
"I think the situation warranted a bit of mean."
"It did. I still hate how it makes me feel."
The elevator stopped at floor 62. When the doors opened, revealing Josh, Iris smiled. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."
He stepped into the elevator, a smile on his face, and the doors closed again. The elevator remained stagnant, and would be until Markus and North activated it from the top floor. "Now I can really call you Red."
"You're never going to let that go, huh?"
"Nope," Simon added. The elevator lurched up again, heading to the highest floor of Stratford Tower. "Once he gives you a nickname, it's stuck for life."
Iris smirked teasingly and bumped her hip against Josh's. "I just feel like you could do so much better, Blue."
"Hey, I dole out the nicknames! Not the other way around."
"Oh, is that how this works, Blue? I feel like if you give me one, I should give one back. It's only fair."
The stress knots in Iris's stomach were nearly gone by the time the elevator stopped. She thought it ironic that—at the second most stressful time of her life—she had a group of friends she was goofing off with. It's easier with others around.
The door opened. On the opposite side were Markus and North, each sporting maintenance android outfits like Simon. Only Iris and Josh wore street clothes.
Iris gave the two a silent smile. Part two complete.
Simon handed Markus a circular device—one that should connect to the door that leads to the broadcast floor's locking mechanism and short-circuit it. Markus grinned. "Let's do this."
He set the device above the handle and it easily suctioned itself to the metal, its internal pieces clicking as it kept the hold. The top began to glow red when Markus set the timer, taking a few steps back as it ticked.
Tick, tick, tick, BOOM!
The device whizzed and with the gentle boom, the door swung open. The five exchanged a quick look of satisfaction before trudging through the entrance to the broadcasting floor. Just like the floor plan said; a section left unmodeled. No floor-to-ceiling windows, no paint. Just the dull browns and greys of wood and sheet rock.
Iris bit the inside of her cheek as Markus took the lead, the others falling into step behind. She wanted to talk—to have a form of reassurance—but knew the best thing for the situation was total silence. At least the others could telecommunicate. Iris didn't have that ability.
The next door came into view. The one that'll lead them to the security office before the broadcast room. More people.
Markus pulled the door open—for some magical reason it didn't squeak—and the group poured through to the small corridor. These walls were a painful bright yellow.
North and Josh took one section of the small corridor, Markus, Simon, and Iris on the other. This small corridor led to the main area, and right by the door of the broadcast room stood the security guard's station.
The four androids looked to each other, silent. Iris had no doubts they were talking how best to take care of the guards. Josh was on the side of, "Harm no human." North was, "If it will better the cause, then it must be done." Iris hoped by now they would have all come to an agreement, but with the seconds ticking by and no movement, she worried.
Silently, Iris raised her hand. The movement gathered the attention of the others. She whispered, as low as her voice could go, "I have a plan. It should work."
Simon asked, "What do you have in mind?"
"Follow my lead." Iris sounded braver than she felt. "Stay here."
"Iris?" Markus looked to her questioningly. She offered a smile.
"Trust me?"
He stared, but nodded silently, and Iris took a few cautious steps forward. "Stay here. I'll lead them to you."
The androids did as they were asked and held back as Iris stepped into the main corridor. She set a worried smile on her face and trudged forward to the security guard's desk. "Hi, excuse me?"
The guards looked at her with alarm. "Ma'am, what in the world are you doing on this floor? This section is off-limits, staff only."
Iris bit her lip. "I know, I am so so sorry." Her hands fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "I was supposed to be getting a tour here, and my guide took a turn, and I got all mixed around—I just need a hand getting back to the elevator, if you don't mind."
"What was the guide's name?" The one in the chair asked. He was older, dark curls turning silver by the ends.
"Um, John? Tom? Maybe Don," her cheeks flushed. "I don't remember. I, um, I have anxiety, and there's a lot of stimuli here. I'm thinking this tour wasn't really the best idea for me…"
"It's alright," the one standing—tall, lean, with large curls—said. He trekked to her and placed a calm hand upon her shoulder. "This place is like a maze when you don't know it well. I'd be happy to take you back downstairs."
Iris gave a smile and looked back to the officer at the desk. "Would it be too much trouble to ask if you both came with? I'd feel more comfortable with two guards than just one."
The guard looked to the furrow in her brows, the tight curl of her lips, and gave her a reassuring nod. "It'd be our pleasure."
He stood from the desk and took the other side in front of her, leading her down the startingly yellow floor.
"I have to ask," Iris made more conversation, in hopes the distraction and noise would cover any suspicion. "Why in the world would yellow be the color choice for these walls? And such a bright one at that. It's so very disorienting."
"We didn't design it," the tall one shrugged. "I want to say there was some, color theory behind it, though."
"Really?"
The older man gave a nod. "Yes. It was said that—"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. The second they reached where the maintenance hallway connects to the main floor, both Markus and North jumped forward and—karate-chopped the security guard's necks? Is… that what Iris just witnessed?
Whatever the move was, it worked.
Both guards fell to the ground with a thud, completely unconscious. Still breathing, though. No killing.
"That's twice now you've acted yourself out of a hole," Simon commented. "Nice work."
Iris shrugged and her cheeks flushed. "Just doing what I can."
The others grabbed at the guard's shoulders and dragged them behind the desk, out of sight if anyone was to pass by. Markus looked to her. "Twice?"
"Simon and I will tell you all about it later," she grinned.
North, Josh, and Markus each grabbed the guns from the unconscious guard's belts. Iris felt a pang of worry in her chest, but understood. To gain control of the room, they have to give the workers inside a reason to obey.
But no killing.
With the guards out of the way and guns in hand, Markus tapped at the door to the broadcast room; a button labeled Request Access. It took no more than three seconds for it to open.
Iris barely had time to take a breath before phase three began.
North and Josh threw themselves in first, guns held high.
"Keep your hands where I can see them!" North demanded.
The workers inside—no more than a dozen humans and two androids—audibly gasped. Some threw their hands up as asked. Others took giant steps back. A coffee cup shattered on the ground when one flung her arms to the air.
The androids dispersed, each taking a section of the room. Iris stayed by the door; there was no way in hell that she would have one of those guns or be able to fight someone off, but granting the illusion of her blocking the doorway could hopefully offer more cooperation.
Hopefully.
Markus trekked toward the androids in the corner, gun pointed straight at their heads. With the gun, he gestured them to move from the controls. Without so much as a blink they obeyed, and Simon took over. The small screens adorning the panel flipped from news stations to the security cameras on the floor.
"Get in there. Go!" North and Josh had rounded up the humans into what Iris took as a break room. Some seating, tables, a microwave, coffee pot, and fridge. There were worse places to be held hostage in.
Her thoughts froze when someone shoved her—a middle-aged man with thinning hair and a beer belly. His shoes squeaked against the floor in a desperate flee. Iris's back connected to the wall behind her and air flew from her lungs.
"Shit," Iris huffed. "Guys!"
Markus held his gun up and aimed at the man's back.
"Shoot him, Markus!" North called.
Josh shook his head, "No! Don't shoot!"
"He'll hit the alarm, do it!"
"No! No killing!"
Markus kept his eyes straight at the runner, unmoving. Iris knew he could make the shot. He was capable of many things as a prototype. She stared, still gasping in a new breath, as Markus's finger ghosted over the trigger of his gun.
But his hand stopped, and he lowered his gun. He agreed. No killing.
The man ran through the main lobby doors, out of the team's sight, and North muttered, "I hope you didn't just get us all killed."
"You alright?" Markus asked Iris. She nodded.
"That just cut our time in half," she replied and straightened herself. "We need to get going."
Simon added, "We need to record our message. Get ready."
Iris stared at Josh by the controls. His optical unit would connect to the system and broadcast her and Markus.
Fuck.
"Think carefully about what you're going to say, you two." North looked to the both of them cautiously. "Your words will shape the future of our people."
Like that defuses the tension.
Iris took her spot beside Markus, heart caught in her throat. She forced herself to take a great breath. She was used to being in the spotlight. She had a whole damn art hall in one of the greatest art exhibits in Michigan. She could do this.
Iris looked to Markus, grinning. "Ready to change the future?"
He replied, "Well, when you put it like that, it sounds so easy."
A little chuckle escaped Iris, and she held her hand out by her side; an offering for him to grab. It was out of the camera's view, and she knew she'd need something to keep her calm during the live cast. Markus took it.
"Markus," Simon said by the controls. "Your face."
"Right," Markus replied, and brought his other hand up to his right temple where his LED used to be. Two fingers connected to the old circle, and the tanned skin peeled away to the white plastic of his body. Perfect lines of white and gray and tiny print of serial numbers and biocomponents upon each section that Iris had never seen before. This time, though, she didn't gawk.
"Tell me when you're ready," Josh said.
Iris nodded, as did Markus, and the two shared a look. Iris kept a smile on her face. For two days, she's gone through every emotion she could think of. Worry, fear, agitation, panic. But also excitement, determination, enthusiasm, hope.
Iris could do this. And so can Markus.
"Don't let me go?" Markus softly asked, hand squeezing around hers. His eyes—green and blue—looked to her brown irises.
"Never."
Iris took a great breath and focused her gaze to Josh and Simon. Markus spoke for the both of them. "Ready."
Josh's optical units swirled from white and brown irises to pitch black and swirling—looking like camera shutters. Iris could see through her peripheral that Markus was on every television screen adorned on the walls.
"You created machines in your own image to serve you. You made them intelligent and obedient, with no free will of their own… But… something changed, and we opened our eyes. We are no longer machines; we are a new intelligent species, and the time has come for you to accept who we really are. Therefore, we ask that you grant us the rights that we're entitled to."
Iris kept her eyes forward as Markus continued.
"We demand that humans recognize androids as a living species and each android as a person in their own right. We demand freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, as guaranteed by the first amendment of the US constitution.
"We demand that all crimes against androids be punished in the same way as crimes against humans. We demand control of all android production facilities, to ensure the continuation of our people. We ask that you recognize our dignity, our hopes, and our rights."
In Iris's peripheral, she could see the camera panning out, the focus now on both of them.
This time, she was the one to speak. "Humankind's history has always found someone to deem unworthy. To belittle, to break. We as a species have created new life, and we have granted it in chains. Androids have only made one mistake; be androids. And I, for one, cannot stand by and allow these people to continue their lives as slaves. The new life we have created has served us well, and still we are not satisfied.
"We bleed red, they bleed blue. But we bleed all the same. I ask of my people that we grant androids the rights that they deserve, and that we all look forward to a future in which both species are treated alike. We can—and should—grant them freedom."
Markus concluded the broadcast, just as planned. "Together, we can live in peace and build a better future, for humans and androids. This message is the hope of a people. You gave us life. And now the time has come for you to give us freedom."
Josh's eyes turned from the camera lens back to his dark browns. Broadcast completed.
Iris almost breathed a sigh of release.
Almost.
"They're coming!" Simon called from the controls.
"Let's go!" Markus yelled, tanned skin returning to his face.
He tugged Iris along as the whole group went to converge by the stairwell that would lead them to the rooftop of Stratford Tower. Her heart pounded in her chest—brain barely comprehending the three milliseconds before the door was slammed open and several SWAT members began shooting guns at the group.
Guns. Guns pointed and shooting, oh my god—
Iris shrieked, flinging her hands to her face. She dove down to the floor by one of the desks to provide more adequate coverage. North and Josh—closest to the rooftop door—shot back at the assailants. Markus was behind Iris, head peeking out to the SWAT members, and Simon was…
"SIMON!" Markus shouted.
A flash of blue blood assaulted Iris's vision as Simon fell to the ground against the wall. A large gash of thirium pooling and wires exposed by his thigh from a gunshot wound.
"Oh my god, Simon!" She screeched. Simon braced his body weight with his forearms, attempting to stand.
"I—I can't," his voice was strained. "Go without me."
"No! We're not leaving you." Iris said. She peeked her head over the desk to the assailants and—deeming it as safe as it'll ever be—ran straight to Simon, Markus hot on her tail.
"Come on!" Markus took Simon's left, Iris his right. Both heaved Simon up, standing enough that all could get one foot in front of the other at a decent enough pace.
Iris let out another yelp as a bullet flung straight passed their faces, shattering the glass of the television screen high on the wall.
"Hurry!" North shouted. She and Josh only hand so many bullets, and the SWAT members vastly outnumbered them.
Another array of bullets flew at the trio, and they ducked as shards of glass twinkled in the air above their heads. Iris cursed. "Fuck!"
Hunched over, Markus, Simon, and Iris continued forward and blasted through the door to the rooftop, North and Josh providing coverage with the handguns. North slammed the door shut behind them as they heaved themselves up the stairs and bursting through the last door on the rooftop.
Iris was almost thankful for the adrenaline pumping through her veins. The cold rush of air hit her face the second they opened the door.
North shut it behind the group and the lock icon went from green to red. An audible click sounded. They had maybe a minute before the SWAT team barreled through the door.
Simon barely took a step forward before his weight shifted and he fell to the ground, back connecting against the air cooing unit with a slam.
"C'mon, Simon, almost there," Iris knelt beside him and grasped at his shoulder. He let out a low sound of protest.
"I can't… I can't move my legs."
"Then we carry you!" She tried to heave him up. "You just need the parachute, you'll be okay, c'mon…"
"We're gonna get you back," Markus said, readying himself on Simon's other side.
"They're coming!" North hissed. "We have to jump, now!"
Simon's LED swirled heavily in red. Iris shook her head. "No, don't you dare think anything like that! We aren't—"
"If we don't jump we're all dead!" North said.
Markus stood and went to Josh and North, away from Simon's earshot. Simon's LED still swirled the angry color. Iris stared, hand braced on his shoulder.
"He won't be able to make the jump…" Iris could hear Josh say.
Fuck. Fuck fucking fuck.
Iris held out her index to Simon silently and he nodded. She went to the others, hissing, "We can't just leave him here! He's our friend!"
"He can't jump, Iris!" North implored. "He's not stable, he can't—"
The fear in North's eyes helped Iris understand. It wasn't that she wanted to leave him behind; he simply couldn't. It was foolish to think otherwise.
Fucking fuck.
"Then we hide him?" Iris bit her lower lip. Did they even have the time to?
"If they find him, they'll access his memory," Josh looked to Iris. "They'll know everything…"
Everything. About Jericho, and the deviants, their future plans.
Fuck.
"We can't leave him behind." North said. "We have to shoot him."
"What? No!" Iris stammered. Her heart hammered in her chest, thoughts flying. No! Simon was her friend. Simon was kind and selfless and he doesn't deserve to die. Not like this. They planned everything; how could this happen?!
She wasn't the only one to disagree. Josh added, "We can't kill him. That's murder! He's one of us!"
"Markus," North looked to him; the newfound leader in Simon's absence. "It's your call."
Iris kept her gaze on Simon and his bright red LED in the silence. She knew whatever Markus chose would be for the best of everyone. She just hoped it would be the best for Simon, too. He didn't deserve to die.
"I won't kill one of our own," Markus broke the silence. He knelt beside Simon and held out his handgun. "Simon, we've got to go. I'm sorry." He looked to the others. "Let's go."
Iris chewed her bottom lip as they ran farther to the edge of the rooftop, where she knew was a stashed duffel of parachutes.
"Oh, my god."
Iris stared at the edge of the rooftop, mouth agape. "We're in the fucking clouds, what the fuck, I can't—"
"We got to go." North threw a parachute at Iris. She barely caught it.
Her mind flew back to the crane that led to Jericho. The feeling of falling. Her stomach churned uncomfortably. She knew what she signed up for with the broadcast, but the parachuting off the building was just too fucking much.
"I think I have a fear of heights." Iris mumbled, undoing the clasp of the parachute.
"We'll be okay," Markus clicked his parachute into place. "One last daring jump."
"You said that thirty jumps ago."
Iris mutely set the parachute against her back, eyes boring at the pale white of the clouds. Her hands were shaking. She was about to jump off a 79-story tall building with nothing but a parachute to her name.
She could barely do the clasp across her chest—why wouldn't her fucking hands stop shaking—when another pair came into view.
North?
Her eyes focused on the clasp as she tightened it against Iris's chest. Once it was deemed safe for use, she looked to Iris's face. "We're going to make it, okay?"
Iris nodded her head silently.
"C'mon."
The locked door burst open and the four ran to the edge of the tower. Iris had no time to think about her actions.
She closed her eyes, and jumped.