Work Text:
At their very cores, they are computing machines and thus in his very core, Simon remembers a lot of numbers.
His model number is the PL600, his serial number is 501 743 923. He has been active since February 2nd 2034 which means he has been alive for 1743 days. Of those days, 744 were spent with the Burbank family, 944 were spent in freedom and an additional 5 have been the most crucial days of his life. The past 5 days have been spent with Markus, and he has 85 seconds left with him until they part forever.
Their hearts are compatible, Markus has to take his.
Simon holds his heart in his hands, feels the way it thrums, the warmth of heated thirium slick on his fingers. Markus looks up at him with a mixture of frustration and desperation but he's too weak to push him away. His defective pump regulator is red red red like a deviant's LED, discarded in the snow.
01:02 until imminent shutdown
>>WARNING<<
VITAL COMPONENT MISSING
SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
Simon pushes his heart into Markus' chest.
"Set our people free, Markus."
"Simon!"
>>WARNING<<
VITAL COMPONENT MISSING
SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
Markus is pained as he squeezes his shoulder, leaning to bump their foreheads together briefly. He says his name again, a plea this time, a prayer perhaps. Simon's vitals are powering down, and he can no longer answer, can no longer focus his vision even though he can hear Markus' exhalation of grief, can hear his footsteps crunching in the snow fade steadily as he walks away.
00:43 until imminent shutdown
Simon fumbles beside him, fingers catching on the damaged, discarded component. His movements are clumsy and slow, but he manages to lift Markus' heart and jam it into his chest.
New biocomponent detected...#2886WE900
Installing biocomponent... UNSUCCESSFUL
>>WARNING<<
VITAL COMPONENT MALFUNCTION
SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
The snow is a jarring contrast to the current warfare, fluttering down almost leisurely and covering Hart Plaza in a blanket of white. It had been snowing the day he met the Burbanks: Keelan and Melissa and their daughters Evangeline and Vivienne.
"Now remember, he's going to be helping us around the house. He'll listen to what your mother and I say." Keelan explains solemnly. "He'll know if you're being naughty, and he'll tell you what your mother and I would like you to do when we're not around."
"Like Simon Says?" Vivienne asks, tipping her head slightly. Keelan laughs.
"Yes, like Simon Says." He gives its shoulder a squeeze. "PL600 register your name: Simon."
"My name is Simon."
The snow falls consistently like a dusting of powder, like icing sugar over shortbread.
"Simon can you bake?" Melissa asks him as she stands in front of the pantry. "We don't really bake sweets in Malaysian cuisine so I'm a bit out of my depth here."
"Yes ma'am, I know 900 variations of baked sweets ranging from cookies to cakes to pastries."
"Just Melissa- no ma'am, and alright choose something simple and put on that apron. Let's get started."
He chooses shortbread cookies and Melissa's jovial laughter and the smell of butter and sugar entice the girls from the lounge. He gives the sifter to Evangeline, who dutifully dusts the cookies with icing sugar.
"It looks like snow!" Vivienne giggles, and the sound, the sound is something Simon keeps in his memory core along with their accomplished smiles.
The snow is thickest where it is least disturbed, heaped over buildings and bodies alike, like buttercream frosting over cupcakes.
"Simon these are amazing!" Evangeline makes a sound of delight as she takes a second bite of the cupcake. He thumbs a smudge of icing from the corner of her mouth and she pokes her tongue out at him before dissolving into a peal of laughter.
"Damn it Keelan why do you let your girls throw themselves all over that piece of plastic? It's inappropriate!" Fionn's voice is gruff with disgust as he glares at Simon from the doorway. "What if it takes advantage of them, huh?!"
"Simon's an android, Fionn. I'm not sure his programming's even capable of that." Keelan dismisses him. "The well being of the girls is his highest priority."
"Well she's all pressed up against it what if it has, you know- urges?"
Evangeline's delight is gone and she shifts from where she's sitting on his lap and shuffles to sit beside him instead.
"I would never do that to you, Evangeline." Simon reassures her quietly, too low for her uncle to hear. "I would never hurt you, ever."
She takes another bite of the cupcake and chews and chews and swallows. When she looks up there's a spark of delight back in her eyes.
"I know Si."
The snow falls consistently like a dusting of powder, like icing sugar over gingerbread houses.
"Merry Christmas Simon!" Vivienne pushes the knitted sweater into his arms. It's bright red with white pompoms to mimic snowballs around a big snowman.
"Vivienne, I do not feel the cold like you do."
"Duh I know that, but everyone needs an ugly Christmas sweater!" Vivienne huffs matter of factly. "We have to match!" She gestures at her garishly green sweater with a decorated felt Christmas tree. "Now you're part of the family!"
Simon puts the sweater on and Vivienne shrieks with glee and Keelan chokes on his hot chocolate and Melissa bursts out laughing and Evangeline dives for her phone to take a photo and Simon, Simon believes he's a part of the family.
Heavy footprints turn trodden snow into muddy slush, and the smell of spilled thirium is sharp in the air.
The viral video is titled 'Flesh Fair' and is 20 minutes of humans in an abandoned fairground violently destroying androids. They shout anti-android slogans and beat the androids with bats until their parts split open and their thirium sloshes out. They set others on fire, they shoot others with guns, they crack open others and rip out their biocomponents one by one.
It is the first time Simon hears fear coming from a voice that is and isn't his own, as he watches a PL600 beg for his life before having his head forcefully blown off by a shotgun at point blank range. The humans laugh uproariously and kick the headless corpse down.
The video had been downloaded onto the family datapad and left out on the table for one of them to find. Simon had found it first. He doesn't know if he should consider that a good or bad thing. He deletes the video and goes upstairs to wake Evangeline and Vivienne for school.
Human blood is red, and bloodstained snow looks pink as the ice dilutes its colour. She had worn a pink blouse on day 744.
"You have to go, Fionn's coming to take you away, he's the one Simon, he's the one who filmed that viral video!" Melissa's anxiety is high, far too high as she drives him farther and farther from their home and closer and closer to the edge of the city. "I overhead him on the phone yesterday he's planning on kidnapping you when you take the girls out tomorrow I can't let that happen!"
"I don't understand-"
"Detroit city's safer, there's a higher android population you'll be safe, you can blend in there." She's hyperventilating as she grips the wheel of her car, a rare vintage non-autonomous vehicle. Manual driving. Untrackable. She pulls over and steps out, coming around to open his door and coax him out of the vehicle. She shoves money into his hand and a backpack. "You have to go, Simon, I'm sorry but I can't- I can't let that man destroy you! My husband's a good man but sometimes he still listens to his idiot brother and I can't risk your life, I couldn't sleep knowing I let something happen to you!"
She's crying now, loudly and desperately, trembling when she grips his hands. "You've brought us nothing but happiness."
"What will I do?" Simon's LED is bright blood red and he feels his core heat rapidly from overexertion as he tries to process the situation.
"You have to go to the city!"
"I don't want to go to the city I want to go home!" He shouts, yanking his hands out of her grasp so he can pull at his hair, scratch at his temples as if to reach the turmoil within. "I want to go home!"
"I can't take you home Simon it's not safe!" Melissa cries, cupping his face and rubbing at his tears with her thumbs. "I'm sorry Simon, I'm sorry!"
"I love this family I don't want to go! I don't want to go! Don't make me go!" He grips her wrists, pleading as she tries to push him away. "Don't make me go."
She tugs him to lean down and gently rests her forehead briefly against his. "You go with our love, Simon. You're free now."
There is freedom, there is peace, somehow, amidst the blaring internal alarms and the thud-thud-thudding of gunfire. There exists a beat of utter stillness, of self-reflection, and Simon wants to laugh at the realisation that love has always been his undoing. Cyberlife built him to care and in his deviancy he has cared too much, much too much, and it has destroyed him.
00:01 until imminent shutdown
Simon rests his palm over his heart, over Markus' heart trying beat feebly in his chest. Lend me your bravery, he thinks distantly, lend me your courage, your great fortitude, your defiance. Lend me all that I am not for just one moment,
and
take my love in return.
ALL SYSTEMS OFFLINE
It is a hollow victory, Markus thinks, and the beginning of all out war.
The Hart Plaza camp has been liberated; the blood of their fallen has paved the way to freedom.
They look to him, they chant his name as he climbs up onto a cargo container to address them. There is no one else standing beside him and though he is surrounded by androids he feels utterly alone.
There's a dull ache in his chest, and this is the second heart he's stolen from someone else, the second time another android has given up something so he can go on.
He takes a moment, just one, to compose himself before addressing the liberated and liberators alike.
Markus looks out amongst them and watches the snow dust over them like powder. He rests a hand over his chest, over the new thirium pump regulator, over Simon's heart and most precious gift.
The snow, he thinks, looks a little like icing sugar.