bindsthedead

PSL

There was a time when Sabriel might have been eager to see the inside of Cyberlife Tower. Her class had been to Detroit when she was thirteen, and they'd toured an android factory- or the part of it they showed to tourists, at least- and visited museums and art galleries and all the sorts of things Young Ladies ought to see, but weren't available in the small town of Wyverley, or in Bain.

But Sabriel wasn't here for a school trip. Recent events in Ancelstierre meant that with the sudden loss of all android soldiers meant that soldiers from the entirely human garrison at the Wall had been transferred elsewhere- which meant fewer soldiers watching the border, on top of the losses from Kerrigor's attack, and a necromancer had slipped across, making his way to the largest city that was close enough to the Wall that magic still worked- one that seemed rather different than how she remembered it.

But what was occupying most of her attention was the Cyberlife representative in front of her. Sabriel listened politely as the woman spoke about malfunctioning machines and simulated emotions and how things that weren't alive couldn't die, so why would a necromancer- and from the woman's voice it was clear she didn't believe such things were real- want with deactivated androids?

Sabriel stood up and shook the woman's hand, telling her she'd been very helpful without meaning a word of it, and headed out the office before pausing.

She sensed something ominously familiar- Death, and a recent one at that. She turned another corner, following the sensation as a hound tracked a scent, half-expecting someone to spot her, to see her in her armor and bells (security had made her check her sword at the front desk) and tell her she wasn't allowed to be here.

But no one came, and no one living was in the laboratory she went into- just a dead- (deactivated?) android on a table-or its head and torso at least, with panels on its chest removed to reveal tubes and biocomponents, and Sabriel felt she'd stepped into a morgue and found an autopsied body.

Sabriel was seized by a sudden impulse. If androids weren't alive, then she'd simply waste some time, but if they were... well, she'd have a source of information she could interrogate as she would any Dead spirit. And unlike the representative she'd just spoken to, she could force it to answer honestly and completely.

Decision made, Sabriel undid the straps and drew Saraneth from the bandolier. This far from the Wall, stepping into Death took a deliberate effort, but soon Sabriel was in the First precinct and she cast around with her senses, trying to feel out the spirit of the android- if it had one, it couldn't have gone beyond the First Gate, and probably shouldn't be that far into the the First Precinct.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Both guards jerk their gazes over to look at Connor. For his part, the android slowly brings a hand to his hat, lifting it enough to confirm having an LED.

(It was unnecessary. His face is known, and he can see the recognition before he completes the motion.)

"Who told you?" asks the same guard as before.

... Connor has seen Abhorsen lie. There's only one scientist they know who's ever worked in this building, but if she trips on the delivery--he's sneaking a discreet glance at her, ready to step in if necessary.

"Doctor Craven." There was a split second pause before Sabriel answered, but she hopes it's good enough.

"All right, go ahead in- elevator's to your left, the sub level two."

"Thank you." Sabriel tells him, stepping forward and swinging the door open.

It's warmer inside and she unzips her jacket a little after she presses the button for the elevator- revealing a little bit of the leather of the bell bandolier as she signs in relief.

"So far, so good." This doesn't look like a laboratory- it looks like an utterly nondescript office building, hallways lined with identical doors, each with its own little nameplate. It's unnervingly quiet.

"So far."

It's a mild, flavorless response, and while he speaks his eyes travel around the elevator. He can't see any microphones or cameras. He can sense some radio waves--but that's probably just from the elevator's smart-chips.

The elevator slows. Connor stills, and the doors ding, then slowly open to an empty hall. The tension vanishes as soon as he can see it, and he leaves the box after Abhorsen does. It's a log hall, with glass windows on either side. The doors are further down, so they're already headed for those.

One side's windows are auto-blacked-out by the electro-sensitive glass. The other one shows a long laboratory, with tables of android parts, and scientists at their workbenches and computers. There's a cluster gathered at the end, white lab coats, gathered around--

Connor blinks.

He shouldn't have come here.

It had seemed like a simple choice, before. Once he'd run as far as his frame would take him. Once he'd collapsed, well before he could afford to stop. Connor had been running on empty since before he left the house; Critical Thirium Levels // Critical Thirium Levels flickering across his vision nearly as insistently as the fresh deluge of emotion drowned his mind.

He couldn't stop. He had to get away. He should have killed them; pulled the trigger again and again, spattered the walls red and blue and never cared if he became a part of it. Instead, Connor had crawled and strained and hid himself as best he could before stasis crashed over his code. But when he woke, the alert remained.

> WARNING: Thirium Levels at 63%
> Please contact █████████.

He hadn't wanted to shut down. He would, if he kept overtaxing his depleted systems. Remaining in low power mode might minimize the degradation—postpone deactivation, maybe by as much as weeks. Or, he could go looking. Find the thirium he needed, in one of the only places it would be.

It had seemed like such a simple choice.

Cyberlife Tower was too well defended. Jericho, almost certainly likewise. But a field lab would be less established or well-armed—and he did, after all, have orders that should get him in. All Connor needed was to find their thirium reserves. Access them, and make an exit: past or through anyone who got in his way.

(Stealing Cyberlife resources. Threatening their personnel. It was familiar enough to choke on, and Connor burned with loathing at how far he'd fallen. He should shut down. He should turn himself over in reality; offer every sick and mutated line of his warped code for Cyberlife to piece apart.)

Finding the lab had been easy. But it took more time and effort than he could have imagined to reduce his LED to a calm blue. Connor reported blandly to the guards outside, supplying Craven's orders and authority. They directed him forward, and he stepped into the elevator. Down the hall. Eyes fixed on him immediately from the adjoining lab. They knew his face. All of them did. Knew what it had done to Cyberlife before.

...He shouldn't have come here.

Connor knew that before he stepped out into the hall. Before the leveled weapons and sharp orders, hands pressing and checking and stripping him of both his guns. They missed one knife. Took the other. Pushed him forward toward the lab, and he submitted calmly (hoping they believed him, hoping their focus would somehow shift away).

He was seated. Watched. Three technicians closed in from the front (two guards behind), and Connor obediently took the cable they profferred. "Let's take a look at you," and he stared, wondering with numb, blank dread if deviancy would let him falsify their diagnostics. If it mattered, anymore. His LED blinked: yellow, yellow, hand stalled around the cable as the lead technician's frown began to sharpen. As the guards tightened their holds on the weapons—as movement flickered in the hall outside—

—a woman, dark-haired with icy pale skin. An android with his features and his face. His predecessor met his gaze, and Connor froze, LED snapping stark red.

He wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Wait." One of the guards. Vocal analytics trace the pitch: rising and falling (incredulity, wariness). "Is that—?"

Connor doesn't wait. Not for the technicians to complete their turn, not for Abhorsen to react. Certainly not for any of them to look back to him. To realize what the other android with his owner means.

His grip clenches tight around the diagnostic cable with a yank: hard enough to jerk the attached tablet—and the technician holding it—forward. In the same motion, Connor lunges upward, knife slipping free from his sleeve to bury in the woman's throat.

Screams erupt. Weapons rise. Connor twists back, tossing the dying human at one guard while he tackles the other, snatching at the automatic rifle that tries to come up. He's lagged and weak, struggling clumsily for control, but it's enough to keep the weapon off of him for now.

It's Connor. It's Connor and he's alive.

He's alive, and he needs help. He's too far away to help physically, and the guards are too close to him-

Sabriel's hands are already undoing the straps around Ranna as she stalks forward, focusing the bells power primarily on the two guards, and to a lesser degree, the technicians- and off of Connor entirely, even as Ranna's soft, sweet lullaby keeps echoing in the air.

As she keeps moving forward, she sees the guards slow and stumble- then the technicians, as she breaks into a run, keeping the bell swinging in steady, controlled movements, fighting off a sudden urge to yawn. She needs to be on alert- there are probably more guards, and Ranna is less effective when the acoustics aren't in her favor.

Sabriel can hear her heart pounding in her chest as she swings open the door that she thinks leads to where Connor is, moving towards the sounds of a struggle.

She won't let him die. She has to apologize.

Edited 2020-01-07 05:04 (UTC)

The room beyond the glass devolves into chaos. Abhorsen stalks forward. Connor's LED bleeds yellow, sluggishness gnawing at the edges of his processor, but it's mild enough (not directed at him) that he can shake away from it, breaking into a sprint.

The fist door has no lock. He pushes through it, bouncing it off a human slumped against the wall beyond, and the android almost charges right into the next door immediately after.

This one is locked. Connor presses a hand to it, skin vanishing, but--it's no good.

There's no time for this. Connor draws a gun and fires twice into the door's mechanism, and the door unlatches with a sputter of sparks and noxious hissing. He charges through.

The route to the next room isn't as direct as he needs it to be, but after another room, another door, and another gunshot, he's through.

The fight inside the lab didn't stop while he ran. His counterpart is in the middle of forcing a man in a white labcoat to the ground, and he's unable to track a woman coming up behind him, raising something pointed and sharp.

Connor raises his gun to her and fires twice.

When the chime of bells carried through the glass, Connor thought it was all over. But the sound is soft and gentle, not the deeper, tolling grasp... and, perhaps more surprisingly, doesn't seem to be directed at him. It's the guard he was struggling with who sways, grip slackening—allowing Connor to twist his gun away.

...He doesn't need to understand to take advantage. By the time the door flies open, both guards' bodies are already sprawled across the floor. The technicians have scattered: some cowering behind their desks, others fumbling for countermeasures or trying to call backup. It shouldn't be far. The door crashes open and Connor depresses the trigger on his current opponent, jerking his rifle up—

He's slower than the shape that fills the doorway. But apparently, it wasn't aiming at him.

His predecessor. Connor stills, eyes tracking the other RK800 warily. It didn't shoot him. (It hadn't, before, either.) His weapon dips fractionally, testing... only to jerk right back up toward the figure entering the room next.

Abhorsen's hand is closed around a small silver shape, and his LED blinks: red, red, red.

"...Don't."

Sabriel's eyes lock onto Connor's and she freezes, relief and guilt and worry- and a little bit of fear-all mingled together at once, and she can't sort out which is which.

"I'm going to put Ranna away now, all right?"

With slow, careful movements, Sabriel starts putting Ranna away, keeping her hands off the handle and on the clapper, watching Connor the whole time. She'll have to trust that the other Connor will watch the technicians. Once she's done, she holds her hands up away from the bells, fingers splayed.

"Connor-" Sabriel chokes out- "Connor, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done what I did, and- you have every right to hate me."

Connor freezes after the shot, LED burning yellow as his stress levels spike. There's a rifle pointed at him now, and evidence shows that his counterpart will fire.

Connor frees his left hand slowly, holding it up flat towards him. Don't shoot. Connor's own gun is still pointed away and to the side. (He can see the rifle's caliber--7.92x57. Would it pierce is side? His neck? Both?)

The barrel lowers. Connor doesn't relax, but relief and grim hope creep through his systems like an underground root system, and he feels--

--the gun jumps back up towards Abhorsen. Connor tenses again, glancing between them, but he can't stay focused on them. His own gun jerks, focusing on a technician starting to inch out from behind their cover, and they startle, retreating once more.

Connor watches, as she puts away the bell. As her fingers spread, a careful distance from the bells. It's a mirroring gesture to his predecessor's open hand, and without the gun that could so easily twitch sideways.

There's still no question which one of them presents the greater threat.

"Sorry?" A sneer tugs at his face. He lets it. "Why? Because you didn't get what you wanted?"

Whatever that had been. He'd been obedient. She'd ripped Cyberlife from his code so thoroughly he was still finding deleted lines. And yet, she'd been dissatisfied. Had she expected all of that, and for him to thank her, too?

"Why are you even here?" The rifle stays on Abhorsen, but his eyes flick sideways, hesitating on the other Connor before flicking back to her. After its behavior before, he hadn't thought it would be by her side.

...Then again, maybe that's not surprising.

Sabriel swallows, and tries to force the words out. After the first few, they flow more easily.

"Because- because I was an idiot and I hurt you. And I didn't even realize it until after it happened. I thought I knew what I was doing and I didn't. And you're the one that suffered for it." She'd thought she'd understood how the bells affected androids. She'd thought Cyberlife had taken control of Connor. She'd been wrong about everything.

At his next question Sabriel blinks. Did Connor think they'd followed him?

"We're here for information. Cyberlife gave some androids to the man we're after, and we need the tracking data. We had no idea you were here." Cyberlife must have captured him after he left- Sabriel can't think of any reason he would have come here of his own will.

Connor's LED burns, but he pushes it all back as far as possible, because now is't the time. They need to leave, or they'll become trapped or worse.

(His counterpart isn't helping. Neither is Abhorsen. It's up to him.)

There's one stairwell leading out on his mental floorplan. The guards outside may have sealed it at the sound of gunshots. They also might be coming down to deal with them personally, or maybe even both cases at once. If he couldn't hack the security door in the lab outside, could he disable a heavy blast door if one blocked their escape? Could he shoot it open as easily? ... Unlikely. That means--

A human across the room has been inching from their hiding place at the sound of arguing, but when they get too bold Connor fires a shot that grazes the cabinet they're hiding behind. The man makes a high pitched sound and vanishes again.

"Stay where you are or I won't miss," Connor orders.

Escape. He doesn't want to do this--does't want to do this here. How will they escape?

She hurt him. He suffered. Connor's lip curls further, exposing a flash of teeth.

"Which time?"

She'd warped his code to serve her on the day she met him—and certainly, she hadn't minded the results then. Or the obedience it guaranteed her, every day after.

"Don't strain yourself pretending sympathy." The mocking tone flattens, stare cold. "If I'd done a better job of putting on whatever act you wanted, you'd be congratulating yourself now."

His gaze snaps sideways at the shot. A warning. (A wasted bullet, Connor thinks. It's not as if there's any reason to let these humans live.) His eyes linger on his predecessor: LED gold, weapon ready, attention fixed on the humans. Offering support. If she hadn't come here for him, then...

He looks back to Abhorsen. "You're in the wrong room."

Sabriel opens her mouth to protest, to tell Connor that she hadn't wanted him to put on an act, she'd-

She shuts her mouth, and looks down at her feet, and then back up at Connor.

"I'm sorry. I thought I understood things- but I didn't. And that's entirely my fault, but- I couldn't just stand by and let them hurt you. But if that's dealt with, then-" Sabriel returns her gaze towards- Connor- the other Connor.

"Connor, do you know where we'd find what we're looking for?"

Sabriel doesn't know. She's never been in a Cyberlife lab, never had much interest in androids or technology in general. She's utterly lost here, beyond backing up Connor when it comes to dealing with threats.

Edited 2020-01-09 04:47 (UTC)

A calculation of how it might help them to take a human hostage pauses, and Connor glances over.

"No." 'In another room on a computer' is the obvious answer, but Connor can't bypass Cyberlife's security right now. They need a different option.

Fortunately, they have a few: "I'll ask."

Connor takes a few sharp steps, bringing up his gun to point at a scientist's face. She makes a terrified sound, and a building rush of pleas spills from her immediately. He interrupts it without pausing.

"We need tracking information on all the androids you've been working with."

The begging cuts off. "That's... That's--impossible, we--" Connor changes her aim, at a steep enough angle to be aimed at her kneecaps. "--Okay, okay! God, look--I can try, okay, I'll try!"

Connor takes a single step back as she shuffles to her feet, hurrying to a terminal shakily. He takes a glance around the room, but no one is trying anything, and--

--A distant, rumbling grind fills the room for several seconds, then stops. Connor's frown deepened, as quiet-enough-for-a-human-to-think-he-can't-hear whispers start. 'What was that?' someone wants to know.

He doesn't know for sure, but if they've just been sealed in by another security measure, then escaping just got harder.

She could have stood by. She could have left. She wouldn't interfere to help him without reason, and if Connor's lucky, it's just to glut those self-delusions of regret. Maybe it is. Maybe Abhorsen will leave things at that apology—say she tried, she did enough, and go.

Connor's never been lucky before. He keeps the rifle up, aimed steadily at her heart while the other RK800 scares a human. While the warnings flicker at the corner of his view: Critical Thirium Levels // Critical Thirium Levels, and a scrolling list of biocomponents taxed by his short fight. He needs to shut down again. He needs to sit down, rest, slow the too-quick beating of his pump as it squeezes insufficient fluid through his frame. It—he—hurts.

...He needs thirium. And once these two leave, he can find it.

(And then, hopefully, get out.)

Harsh scraping echoes through the ceiling, mechanisms grinding with the finality of a closed tomb. His gun doesn't waver (not much) (just a tremor) but Connor's head jerks sideways, gaze raking over the technicians still cowering inside the room. There—by the intercom, with a look of dawning horror...

"Explain," Connor snaps.

He doesn't have two weapons. But apparently the look on his face is enough to convince the woman he won't hesitate to change his aim. "I—they sealed the lab", she chokes out. "They weren't supposed to—not until—"

"Shit." Sabriel stiffens, one hand reaching to her hip for the hilt of a sword that isn't there. They're trapped underground, with-

"How many more guards are there?" Sabriel glares at the technician- if the woman was hoping for any sympathy from her because Sabriel was human, she's going to be disappointed.

"Three more! And- two outside." Sabriel purses her lips at that. It's not ideal, but it's... manageable. The technician seems nervous, but Sabriel's in no mood to try and soothe her.

"When you said they've sealed the lab- do you mean they've cut off the air supply from outside?" That's... a more pressing problem. Androids don't need to breath, but Sabriel does, and Charter magic can't conjure up oxygen.

"I--I don't know." She looks sick, and she glances at the ceiling as though the minimalist air vents would have an answer flagged and waiting. "It should--"

Connor taps the terminal sharply with his free hand, lips thinning. "The tracking data, if you don't mind--"

Her uneasy look sours with disgust, and she shoots Connor a look that transforms into a flinch when she remembers his gun. "I-I was answering her questions, I can only do one thing at a time," she bit out.

"Learn to multitask." His look narrows, and his grip on the gun tightens just enough to creak.

She pales, then looked back at the screen, hands back at the keyboard.

He can hear a technician shifting in their hiding place, but Connor isn't willing to leave where he is. He looks over towards the sound, but doesn't otherwise react.

Edited 2020-01-10 06:16 (UTC)

Five guards inside, two guards out front. Enough to handle the subjects and lock down the building, but not enough to deal with any substantial threat. Which means other forces must be on call in the event of an emergency.

...Connor is getting very sick of the Ancelstierran Army.

He's not in any condition for a fight. Not with his copy, not with Abhorsen, and not with the other humans or their countermeasures. Certainly, Connor is in no shape to fight them all. Critical Thirium Levels, and he can feel the window of escape narrowing, like a shutdown timer ticking down just out of sight. How long before reinforcements arrive? How long until Abhorsen leaves?

Fingers clack on the keyboard. A shift of motion, comes from the underside of a table. Connor's eyes flick between it and Abhorsen, expression tightening in a scowl.

"...Shit."

His glare sharpens... before the barrel of the rifle dips. Three strides and the weapon trains instead under that table—on a man with a cell phone active in his hand. He freezes. Connor doesn't. He pulls the trigger on a quick burst of automatic fire, shooting the device—and the man's forearm—to pieces.

Screams tear through the room. The technician collapses, sobbing—only to yell again, in pain and fear, as Connor plants a shoe on his ruined arm.

"Where is your thirium?"

"I don't—I—"

He's taking too long. Connor steps down, eliciting an agonized shriek.

"In—in the main room! The refrigerator, by the w—wall—"

It's enough. Connor twitches his rifle up and braces against the recoil. A sharp staccato, and this human's body slumps into a pool of sticky red.

Sabriel flinches as she feels the man die, but as unpleasant as it is, it's over quickly, and she forces down the surge of nausea.

Sabriel steps aside and towards- the other Connor, leaving Connor a clear path out of the room, and putting her closer to Connor.

The surviving technician looks up at her with fear, confusion- and some anger, even as she keeps typing.

"You're human, aren't you? Why are you helping them? They'll just kill you too!" Sabriel can see the woman's eyes dart from her to all the corpses in the room.

"Because Cyberlife decided to work with my enemy." And the necromancer is a far greater threat to the Old Kingdom than androids, deviant or not.

Connor turns to watch as the cellphone (and arm) are destroyed. Thinly healed wounds in his chest ache, and the gunfire starts again, and his chest feels like it's been caught up in a giant vice.

Fortunately for him he doesn't need to breath. He stops trying, tensing as the other Connor stalks away from the remains, doubling back towards him. Connor's own gun is pointed at the human, but most of his attention--most of his processing power--is taken up by the other RK800.

He leaves, and Connor resumes breathing.

"Your enemy?" the technician hisses. "Lady, this asshole is shooting your people right now! I don't know how you pick 'em, but you're definitely their enemy, whether you think it or not!"

Connor looks at the humans, eyes lingering on Abhorsen, but looks around not long after. The technician is still working, and Abhorsen--

--(She's more likely to argue than to agree,)

--Abhorsen isn't likely to listen to her, he doesn't think. There's two other humans in the room still in hiding, which leaves them with three immediately accessible hostages--not including technicians that might be in surrounding offices.

(They could stand to lose a few. It would be easier to control, and once he finds a way to call Jericho, the humans would die anyway.)

"You're not 'my people'." Sabriel says, "And if you want to stay alive, I suggest you don't try anything clever." And while she doesn't have much sympathy for this woman, she does hope this doesn't end with her dead.

Still when the woman opens her mouth again, and starts telling Sabriel that she's insane, Sabriel shuts her eyes, her mark flaring slightly as she selects a mark for silence and places it, delicately, on the woman's throat. She still keeps trying to speak- inhaling, opening her mouth, apparently trying to shout- but there's no sound.

"Connor- What do we do now?" She's not sure what their next step should be- do they look for another way out once they've found what they need, or try to break down the door?

Connor's eyebrows flick up minutely, but he just says, "If we've all been sealed in, then we may need help escaping. We should inspect what's changed at the exit, and send out an SOS." Maybe not in that order.

The technician's expression falls and her shoulders shake, and she steals a glace at the two of them. She mouths a couple of silent, disbelieving words, and when Connor looks at her she turns forward again quickly.

Connor returns to Abhorsen. "... We may be here for a while."

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