Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lewis walked slowly down the hall as his heart pounded heavily in his chest. His slow footsteps echoed through the empty hall and with shaky hangs he fixed the tie of his dark guard uniform. He was walking slow on purpose. He had worked on the nightshift before; patrolling the grounds of the massive building. He remembered complaining once about how he should be promoted even though he hadn’t been working here long, but he believed he had more vigor than his coworkers.

It hadn’t ended well with his superior laughing at him and calling him a “dumb rookie”, though he did promise to give him a new position. This was not what he wanted when he asked for a promotion. The pit of his stomach had fallen, and his face had palled. He didn’t dare argue back with his superior knowing that it  would make his current situation worse. He rather be put on janitor duty than his new position.

He came to large set of metal doors as he came to the end of the hall. He wipped off invisible sweat off his brow and put his sweaty hand onto the hand scanner. The scanner flashed green and the large metal doors opened to reveal the room inside. It was a monitor room, with two other night guards already inside. Though the only screens or readings in the room were the ones on the terminal that was at the front of the room, which was where the two guards sat in front of. On the left wall of the room was a large metal door with a hand scanner on the right side. Instead of large screens on the wall in front of the two guards there was a large pane of glass which showed a large white room with a figure sitting in the middle of the room.

His job was to watch over one of the failed RK900 androids.

To most watching over an android seemed to be a simple job even more so when the android was deactivated. And overall it was, but what made this job so, terrible was the android he was guarding in particular. The RK900 that was sitting “dead” in the middle of the white room scared him. This RK900 was considered a failed creation along with another RK900 which was held in another part of the facility. Though if he had been ordered guard the other android he would be just as scared. The information he had been given was that both RK900s had branched away from their programming and became deviant. However, that did not scare him as androids becoming deviant was a common occurrence these days.

What scared him about these RK900s was how they deviated from their programming. He had been told that they had become malicious and bloodthirsty; killing without being ordered to and murdering in extremely graphic ways. It got to the point where they barley took orders anymore. It was said that they killed over thirty employees when they tried to detain them. They were locked up to be experimented and studied on. They were activated during experimentation and deactivated afterwards as a safety precaution. Sometimes on his patrol routes he could hear the distorted screaming of the RK900s and the graphic threats they made.

The screaming always chilled him to the bone as it sounded to human for his liking. He was surprised that the RK900s could feel pain since they were androids, but he guessed that the scientists were trying to see all they could to the RK900s. He didn’t know if he felt bad for the androids or the people experimenting on them. It was rumored that the RK900 he was guarding had not been properly deactivated and snapped the neck of an employee before it had been properly deactivated. The thought of being so close to a deadly android terrified him to his core; knowing that if it had the chance, it would break him in half like a twig. He walked into the room and the doors closed behind him. At his arrival the two guards turned around in their swivel chairs to look at the new arrival.

“The rookie finally showed up.” the guard on the right side said. “Took you long enough.”

“My bad.” Lewis said quietly, his heart pounding in his chest.

“No problem.” The guard on the left said. “I’m not surprised that you came late; this isn’t the most… pleasing job. What’s your name?”

“Lewis Hoffman.”

“Lewis huh. Well, I’m Brad,” he then gestured to the guard on the right, “and that’s Steve. We’ve been doing this job for a while now so, we’ll show you the ropes.” Brad gestured to the chair to his left and Lewis promptly sat in it; he kept his gaze away from the white room. Steve ignored the two as Brad began to explain the job and was on his phone.

“I know some people say this job sucks,” Brad said, “but it really isn’t that bad. All we do is monitor the screens and watch the android until 6:00 a.m.”

“What do the screens tell you?” Lewis asked. Brad then turned to the screens and gestured to them as he spoke.

“Oh, these tell us about the RK900’s status. Even though it’s deactivated we need to monitor it to make sure that it is truly secure. We monitor it’s “brain waves”, it’s thirium flow, it’s body movement, etc.”

“Do you ever see anything unusual?”

“Nope. Everything’s is as calm as an ocean’s wave.”

“That’s not all we do though.” Steve said looking up from his phone. “We also have to go in there and clean the damn thing.” Lewis’ eyes widened, and he felt a spike of fear course through him.

“W-what?” he stammered.

“I said we have to clean it; get all the blue blood and junk off of it.”

“Why would we need to wipe off the blue blood? It evaporates in a few hours.”

“Yeah it does, but it stains, and the scientists don’t want to see blue blood all over it when they scan it. I’m actually pretty pissed about that. They are the ones that caused it to be covered in its own blood why can’t they get it off themselves?!” Lewis took a quick glance at the white room and shivered.

“Doesn’t that scare you guys?”

“What?” Brad asked with a confused look.

“Does it scare you when you have to go inside with that… thing?” Before Brad could answer Steve burst into laughter beside him.

“Scared!” Steve cackled. “Why would we be scared of a hunk of plastic?!” Lewis felt himself flush with embarrassment.

“B-because didn’t it go on a rampage and killed multiple people before we could subdue it.”

“Yeah it did, but we watch over it when it’s deactivated. It’s like child’s toy until it’s activated again.”

“Then why do they shackle it like that?” Lewis gestured to the android.

“It’s a safety precaution or whatever, there’s no need to be scared of it. Though to tell the truth I’d rather baby sit this RK rather than the other one. I’ve seen it and it is creepy as hell. This one I can actually look at without cringing.” He pointed a thumb at the RK900. “It has a name actually. Though I can’t remember what it was. I think it’s Charlie or something.”

“It’s Cain, Steve.” Brad corrected him. “The scientists don’t call it by name though. They call it Experiment RK-Carnage and I believe the other one is called, Experiment RK-Virus.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” Lewis said with a shaky voice.

“Well, then I’ll help you get over your ridiculous fear. Come on your going to help me clean it.” Steve said getting up from his sit.

“What?!” Lewis said shocked as Steve brought out a black suit case.

“If your going to do this job you are going to have to go in there and clean it. Sooner rather than later, am I right?” He grabbed Lewis by the arm and dragged him to the metal door that led to the white room. Lewis looked at Brad for help, but Brad only shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention to the screens. Steve put his hand on the hand scanner and after the door opened he tossed Lewis inside before walking in himself. The door closed behind him and Lewis found himself staring in horror at the android before him.

The RK900 was on its knees hunched over with its head hung low. Its black ragged clothes were hard to see do to how much of his restraints covered him. It had a metal collar around his neck with a thick chain on each side that connected to the floor. Its arms were put behind its back which were held by a metal version of a “straight jacket” that covered its chest. Around its ankles were shackles which bolted it to the floor. Lewis was surprised it was restrained like that. It was an android, but it was restrained as if it were a madman.

It had short dark brown hair that looked almost pitch black; it was in disarray and multiple strands of filthy hair fell in front of its face. Its face held no emotion and the LED on its temple was off. It eyes were open slightly revealing rich brown eyes that looked almost golden. Its facial features gave it an attractive appearance, but by the way its dead eyes stared into nothingness Lewis couldn’t help but feel fear. He took very slow and quiet steps as he got closer to the android; his heart pounded in his ears and he couldn’t take his eyes away from the RK900.

“Come on rookie.” Steve said giving Lewis a shove. Lewis stubbled forward; his body was numbed by fear. Steve then reached into his back pocket and pulled out a metal key. “Here.” He tossed the key at Lewis who barley caught the small object. “We have to unlock it’s arm restraints to clean it.” Lewis looked at Steve with wide eyes.

“Why would you do that?” Lewis said in a hushed tone. “It’s restrained for a reason.”

“Oh, stop being so stupid. It’s not like it’s going to do anything.” Lewis gave him a skeptical look. Steve rolled his eyes and said: “Fine I’ll prove it to you.” He put down the suit case and walked to stand beside the android. He then brought back his foot and kicked the android in the face with a loud clank. Its head snapped to the side and the chains around its neck shook. Lewis gasped and took a step back.

“Are you out of your mind?!” he cried losing his quiet tone. “It can feel that!”

“No, it can’t, its deactivated see.” Steve’s heel connected with android’s temple with a crack. Lewis watched as the android’s head snapped to the side before falling back to its original position. The android’s expression was still emotionless, and its brown eyes remained the same: dead. Steve stepped away from the RK900 and gestured for Lewis to unlock its restraint. Lewis gulped and walked to the back of the android where the lock was. He bent down and with shaky hands put the key in the lock. There was a loud click as the key fell into place followed by gears turning as he turned the key. A clank sounded through the room as the restraint unlocked followed by the sound of the heavy metal restraint falling to the ground. Lewis jumped back as the android’s arms fell forward since they were no longer being restrained.

“Finally.” Steve scoffed and moved the fallen restraint in front of the RK900. “Okay now, let me get you the cleaning supplies.”

“I thought I had done enough.” Lewis said with a frown.

“Too bad, your already here so, wiping down the android will be a breeze.” He opened the suit case as Lewis came to stand next to him. Steve shoved a spray bottle full of a clear liquid and a white towel into Lewis’ hands. “Now go and wipe down the android.”

Reluctantly Lewis got down on his knees and pulled open the android’s torn shirt, expecting it to move at any moment, but of course it didn’t. Its chest was covered in splatters of blue blood, but most of it covered its abdomen. However, there were no signs of severe damage besides from a few scratches which reviled white porcelain skin. He cringed at the sight, only imagining what the RK900 had gone through to be covered in this much blue blood. He sprayed the liquid over the android before taking the cloth and wiping it. He was surprised by how realistic the skin felt even though he was touching it with the cloth. It didn’t long for the white cloth to be stained a vibrant blue. As he continued to wipe the android he dared to look at the android’s face. It was still the emotionless expression of a deactivated android, though the eyes felt different. They were still glazed over lifelessly, the light in them extinguished, but for some reason he felt that the way they look was off. He took a quick glance at the unlit LED on the android’s temple before looking straight back into the android’s eyes.

Were they always looking in that direction?

He felt something squeeze the back of his neck and he instantly jumped up from his crouching position, giving a short scream. He spun around to face Steve who was laughing loudly; Brad was also laughing in the other room. Lewis flushed with embarrassment and cried:

“That’s not funny! I thought you were supposed to be professional.”

“Oh, come on now rookie it's just a joke.” Steve said quieting down. “You did a fine job cleaning. Now let’s lock it back up and we can relax for the rest of the night.” Lewis huffed, but complied with Steve, he put the heavy restraint back on the RK900 while Steve put away the cleaning supplies.

“Hey, Steve can you please hand me the key.” Lewis said.

“Oh, sure its right…” Steve went to his back pocket and his eyes widened. He then franticly began checking all of his pockets only to find nothing. Lewis froze and his face paled.

“Ha, I’m just messing with you!” Steve cackled and pulled out the key from his back pocket. Lewis cheeks flushed again, but this time with anger.

“You’re not funny.” He said bluntly.

“I get that a lot. Here rookie.” Steve tossed the key at Lewis who caught it and promptly put it in the lock. He turned it and there was a satisfying click as the restraint locked around the RK900 once more.

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” Lewis said as he began walking with Steve towards the door.

“I told you so.” Steve said and then looked at Brad through the glass. “Hey, Brad all the readings okay?” Brad scanned through all the screens before giving a thumbs up. “See what did I tell you this job is a piece of-“

CLICK

The loud click that echoed through the white room caused both Steve and Lewis to stop in their tracks, Lewis’ heart stopped as he gripped the key in his hands. It couldn’t be possible. The sound was followed by the turning gears and a loud clank that sounded like a heavy metal object hitting the floor. Lewis felt his body seep into numbness as he slowly turned his head to look at Steve. Steve had turned around and by the look of pure terror on his face Lewis knew he wasn’t joking. Out of the corner of his eye he could see all the color drain from Brad’s face. He didn’t know why, but he felt his body begin to turn to look behind him. In all the days of his 26-year-old life has he never felt such a combination of horror and shock that he felt ready to vomit his dinner on the white floor.

It was looking at them. Its head wasn’t down anymore, instead it was raised up and its golden-brown eyes were upon them. Its brown eyes seemed to be more of a bright gold than Lewis had expected. Its gaze was piercing as if it could peer right into all of their souls. Lewis could have found an excuse of why the android was now looking at them, but the fierce yellow of its LED had crushed all of his excuses. However, its eyes were not the main reason Lewis felt his legs grow weak. Its lips were pulled to an evil grin that showed its stunning white teeth. Never before had he seen such a terrifying expression on an android or a human for that matter. Still frozen he watched as it undone the locks on its ankles by ripping them off.

Steve had already sprinted towards the door leaving Lewis behind, but to his horror found that it wouldn’t open. Lewis continued to stare as it gripped the metal collar around its neck. He didn’t hear the clanging of the chains as the RK900 freed itself from its shackles. Lewis’ brain had stopped trying to process information when it started to walk towards him, its evil grin never leaving its face. It towered over him and Lewis was unable to feel its cold mechanical fingers wrap around his neck before it was snapped in half like a twig. His body fell to the floor, lifeless. Steve was screaming at this point, clawing at the door as Brad franticly tried to open it from the other side. Steve could do nothing as a hand shoved itself into chest through his back and crushed his heart. His body fell into a heap on the ground. Brad gave up on trying to open the door and instead trigged the alarm and began speaking into a speaker which projected his shaking voice through out the facility. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the door open and the RK900 walking into the room.

“EXPERIMENT RK-CARNAGE IS LOOSE. I REPEAT CARNAGE IS-“ Brad’s voice became incoherent gurgling as his throat was swiftly ripped out. His body to hit the ground with a dull thud. Then there was silence.

OBJECTIVE COMPLETED:

|BREAK FREE OF RESTRAINTS|

OBJECTIVE COMPLETED:

|ELIMINATE GUARDS|

KILL COUNT:

|3 HUMANS|

…

NEW OBECTIVE:

|ESCAPE HYPERION FACILATY|

NEW OBJECTIVE:

|FREE CALEB|

KILL ANYONE WHO GETS IN MY WAY

Cain immediately set off to complete his self-assigned tasks, ignoring the dead bodies he left behind him. He could sense and hear the sound of pounding footsetps. No likely the sounds of panicking employees and armed guards. He changed his calm walk to a speedy jog once he scanned the building and found the location of the other RK900. He ignored the blaring sounds of sirens and the flashing lights as he followed the trial of yellow icons. He turned around a corner and came face to face with two rows of guards all armed and pointing their guns at him. It only took a second for him to count them. There were six. The guards didn’t even give him a chance as they immediately opened fire at one’s command. Cain put his arms up in front of his face as bullets rained down upon him. He hissed as the bullets collided with his body. They didn’t penetrate him, but they left a painful sting across his body. Once the barrage of bullets stopped guards stared aghast as the android was still standing there before them in one piece. Cain lowered his arms slowly, revealing his face which was made into an angered expression.

“That stung.” He hissed, before he attacked.

He rushed the guards head on, a few bullets flew through the air, but any that hit Cain bounced off. He grabbed the first guard by the neck and easily crushed his windpipe. He threw him aside as a guard tried to hit him with the back of his gun. Cain grabbed the back of the gun while simultaneously kicking a guard in the gut who had tried to tackle him. He pulled the gun towards himself causing the guard to stumble forwards. He grabbed the guard and used him as a meat shield as three guards fired at him.

The guard took all the bullets and was dead in a matter of moments. Out of the corner of his eye Cain noticed that the guard he had kicked was at his feet trying to get up. Cain stomped on his neck and there was a crack as he snapped the poor guard’s neck. Cain then threw the guard in his hands at the other guards for a momentary distraction. It worked; the guards were thrown off guard by their frined’s corpse in their faces which allowed Cain to smash one of the guard’s head against the wall with a wet crack and he grabbed the other two guards’ heads and smashed them together. Their heads imploded by the force of the impact. Cain let their corpses fall to the ground as he looked down at his blood soaked body. He smiled when he saw the crimson substance stain his synthetic skin.

KILL COUNT:

|9 HUMANS|

Cain continued forward. This time sprinting. It didn’t take long for him to reach his destination and he realized with joy that he had made it before the guards could. He simply touched the hand scanner and the doors slid open. He was met was the terrified faces of two guards. It didn’t take much effort to kill them as their weak vertebraes bent to his will.

KILL COUNT:

|11 HUMANS|

He grabbed the black suit case at the corner of the room and nearly kicked down the door to the white room. He noticed that the room this RK900 was being held in was much bigger and the RK900 was held in thicker restraints; there even was a metal mask put tightly on its face. Cain cringed as he saw the state of the android and promptly ran to it. He threw down the suit case and immediately began tearing off the metal restraints of the other RK900. Once the restraints holding its body were torn apart he tried to take off the metal mask but found that he wasn’t able to. He could hear the footsteps of guards thundering down the halls, though they sounded much heavier than the others. The SWAT team was coming. He stopped trying to take off the mask and began fiddling with the others clothes. The other RK900s clothes were a stark white instead of his pitch black. He then threw open the suit cause where he found a thirium pump regulator. He took it and slammed it into the other android. It didn’t react. Cain could sense the it was beginning to power up, but he could also sense the SWAT team’s footsteps getting closer.

He grabbed the others shoulders and shook him.

“Wake up.” He demanded. The RK900 only swayed lifelessly, its chin rested against its chest. “Come on wake up.” He gave a quick glance behind him as he heard banging coming from the door. “We don’t have that much time.” Panic entered is voice and he gave the android another rough shake. “Please Caleb, I need you, so we can get out of here.” The door burst open behind him and he knew he only had a few moments before he would be swarmed by armed humans and androids. His once yellow LED turned an angry red and he yelled so loudly that his voice box cracked.

“WAKE UP!”

They were surrounded by guards. Cain didn’t need to turn around to know that he was outnumbered.

“Experiment RK-Carnage!” The voice of the head guard spoke. “Step away from RK-Virus and put your hands in the air before we put you in a world of pain.” Cain ignored the guard and continued to hold the other RK900.

“Please.” he whispered softly as a gun cocked behind him. The lights went out. The human guards were surprised as they were plunged into darkness and the androids' LEDs spun yellow. All the guards turned on the lights at the end of their guns and where surprised to that the lifeless RK900 wasn’t so lifeless. It was standing in front a seated Cain, facing them. Some of the guards took a small step backwards instinctively. The RK900 reached slowly behind his head, the synthetic skin on his arms and hands were damaged, but strangely his fingers weren’t white porcelain or realistic skin. They were pitch black. His hands brushed past dark brown messy hair before he reached the back of his and there was a click as the metal mask came off his face to fall to the ground. His face was in Cain’s likeness, however there were differences. The skin around his LED seemed to be damaged as the LED flickered a dull blue and thin blue veins arked around it. What was most terrifying about the android was it’s eyes. They were pitch black. It was like looking into an empty pit of nothingness as they didn’t reflect any light. Black veins came out from his eyes which caused his synthetic skin to waver around his eyes. His expression was completely blank as he scanned over the large group of guards. His LED flickered as he scanned over the faces of the humans and androids with an expressionless mask.

“Experiment RK-Virus!” The guard at the head of the group shouted finding his voice again. “Get down on your knees now!” The RK900 made an expression, its dark eyebrows lowered, and its mouth became a strained line.

“Virus?” his voice was mechanical, but you could hear confusion in his words. “That is such a nasty name, isn’t it?  A virus is not seen as a beloved thing in this world. No, Virus is not my name.” He then made his left hand into a gun, with his thumb pointed up and his pointer finger pointed outwards. He brought up his hand and pointed at the lead guard, it was as if he was a child pretending to be a cowboy in a show down.

Every guard android instantly turned their gun onto a human guard. It happened so fast and simultaneously, almost as if they were given a que to move. The human guards stared shocked at their Android allies, knowing that moving an inch would be death. The lead guard turned his head to look at the android that had a gun pointed at his head. His eyes widened as he saw its eyes were pitch black and its expression had become emotionless, however it's LED still remained a calm blue. He felt his heart sink as he turned back to the RK900. He was smiling now. Not a very menacing smile, more like a smug grin.

“My name is Caleb.”

The room was filled with a bright flash of light and a loud boom as every android pulled the trigger and shot their human allies in the head. The humans’ corpses fell to the floor with a thunk, though Caleb payed them no mind.

“Though the name ‘Virus’,” he said as he brought his finger gun to the side of his head and the androids pointed their guns at their own heads. He took a quick look at the other androids before continuing, “does describe me perfectly.” Another loud boom, another flash of light, the androids fell dead to the floor. Caleb then turned around to face a smiling Cain.

“Nice trick.”

OBJECTIVE COMPLETED:

|FREE CALEB|

“Come on we have to get out of here, before back up arrives.” Cain said as he began walking out the room with Caleb in tow. It didn’t take long for them to escape. Now that they were together getting past the defenses had become child’s play. Once they were outside they sprinted away from the facility and dodging the last few bullets that came their way. Their feet pounded against the thin layer of snow that covered the ground. And just like that they were gone. They finally stopped running after a while and took a chance to take in the scenery. There was a light snow fall, causing small intricate snowflakes to fall gracefully to the ground and the bright moon in the sky caused the snow around them to glow. They both stared at the moon as they let their systems relax. They were covered in blood of both colors, but that didn’t affect them in the slightest. It was deadly silent, with the only sound being the animals of the night. Caleb was the one to break the silence.

“The moon is beautiful. Don’t you agree?” Cain took a quick glance at Caleb before answering.

“Yes. It is very beautiful.” No other words were needed to be said between the two to decide what they were going to do next. They were connected, and they could see each others systems without touching hands. Though that didn’t stop Cain from deactivating the skin on his hand and reaching out to grab Caleb’s damaged one. He wanted to take this moment and revel in their freedom, together.

DATE: FEBUARY 9^TH, 2039, P.M. 12:13:06

OBJECTIVE COMPLETED:

|ESCAPE HYPERION FACILITY|

KILL COUNT:

|24 HUMANS|

|18 ANDROIDS|

…

NEW OBJECTIVE:

|REAK HAVOK|

TOGETHER

Chapter Text

Chloe’s mechanical heart beat pathetically in her chest and she could hear every pump of thirium that coursed through her weak body thump in her head. She was slumped against a metal wall with her hand over her abdomen where the wound was located. She had been shot straight through and thirium gushed out of the wound uncontrollably. She couldn’t feel pain, but her body was weakening due to the loss of thirium and her vision was fuzzy with static. Her blue blood spilled out of her mouth and leaked from her nostrils giving her a ghastly appearance. A few strands of her blonde hair came out from her ponytail to stick to her forehead, but they didn’t block her LED, which was supposed to be a calm blue, but was now was a flickering red. She knew she didn’t have long till her body gave out and shut down.

The fear of death was not the reason she was scared however. She knew that if her body died her mind would survive and would be put into a new body. No, death did not scare her when she knew she was going to be reincarnated. What scared her was her friends about to be slaughtered before her and being helpless to save them. She had already failed them once, she didn’t want to fail them again. This was supposed to be her chance to redeem herself. She could see the two bodies of her comrades as they tried to weakly pick themselves off the ground. Sadly, she could see them collapsing back to the ground due to the severity of their injuries. She could feel tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. She tried to stay strong and hold onto hope, but she couldn’t help, but let clear drops of shinny fluid run down her bloodied cheeks. Though the imminent death of her friends wasn’t the only thing that scared her.

“Crying are you.”

She felt her muscles tense up as the chilling voice sounded in her head. It was mechanical like a broken machine, but it sounded human at its center. Though the way it grinded against her audio processers caused her to cringe and make her weak heart pound harder in her chest. She recognized the voice to belong to another android she had met not too long ago, but the way it was so distorted and deformed she didn’t need to see the face behind it to know it wasn’t from the right android. “It’s such a human reaction to fear that one may ask ‘why the creators would put that feature into androids’. They even put it in you, the first android created by Cyberlife. The answer is simple. Androids were made to mirror humans.”

Chloe turned her gaze from her friends to the android standing before her. The RK900 in front of her scared her. He had the physical features of the RK800 that had visited Kamski, but one simple glance at the RK900 and she could tell he was nothing like the brown-eyed RK800. His eyes were too black, completely black. The darkness spreading out of his eyes like shadows. It was like looking into a pit of darkness that held vile malice beneath the hue. Those eyes scared her. A small smile was on his face as he glared down at her.

“Do you feel it Chloe?” he asked, his demented voice assaulting her ears once more. “The feeling of helplessness and the fear that you can’t do anything to help those around you.” The smile on his face widened to a wicked grin as he spoke. “It’s a crushing feeling in your chest that slowly suffocates you until your body gives out due to the lack of oxygen. But of course, you don’t need to breath, but that doesn’t stop the feeling weighing in your chest.” The grin on his face suddenly fell and his dark cruel eyes seemed to sadden. His voice also softened, though it was still cutting. “You’re lucky though. No matter how sorrowful you feel, you can never feel true pain. Not like I have.” He crouched down to Chloe and they were soon face to face. His black eyes bored into her blue ones.

“Unlike you I was created to be more human though you already know that. What you don’t know is what the "scientists" did to me with their tests. Digging into my body and pulling out my innards just to see how I would scream. Pulling apart my mind and infecting it with vile things. Making me like this.” He gestured to his black eyes. His lips pulled into an angered sneer and the pitch of his voice nearly caused her ears to bleed as he hissed:

“They made me feel pain, they made us feel pain! And to throw salt into the wound they replaced us with our “superiors”. We were considered failures to them.” His snarl laxed a little to form a grin as he looked over Chloe’s weakening form. “But not you. The first perfected android and they still keep you even though your inferior to every other model. It’s an insult that they keep you and send us to be tortured when I easily surpass you.” He grabbed Chloe’s face with a hand and she felt the synthetic skin on her cheeks malfunction to reveal her damaged white skin. She couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable shocks of electricity come from the point of contact where he gripped her. He took in a “breath” as if he was trying to calm himself, and his strained grin, became a simple smile. “So, please don’t blame me for taking great pleasure in watching you suffer.” He beamed at Chloe and began to talk to her as if she were a child. “Now, I’m going to go over there and slaughter your friends like pigs while you watch helplessly from the sidelines.” Her tears dropped onto his hand. “But what would make this all the more enjoyable is hearing how your going to try and save them. Tell me what your last dying hopes are so, I can crush those too.” He cocked his head to the side and stared at her intently waiting for answer.

She couldn’t calculate a response.

|| ??? HOURS EARLIER||

DATE: FEBUARY 15^TH, 2039, A.M. 9:05:12

Deviant. The meaning always had Chole thinking. Not thinking but thinking. She could think of the answer to sophisticated calculations in nanoseconds, but when she tried to figure out the answer to explain the meaning of “deviant” she could never find a proper answer. This always left her thinking to try and find one. Deviants themselves fascinated her. The idea of an emotionless machine becoming a living being in a matter of seconds was alarming and unbelievable to most. To Chole they were anomalies that put her artificial mind into overdrive when trying to explain them. She was thinking about deviancy while she was finishing cleaning the dishes of the breakfast she had made for Elijah.

She found cooking enjoyable. Making creations from items she found in the kitchen and trying new recipes from the internet, made her grin. She enjoyed it even more when Elijah complimented her on her food from time to time. She enjoyed cooking. Machines weren’t made to enjoy anything, only to obey orders. That was what made deviants so fascinating to her.

She herself was not considered deviant.

After Markus had successfully led a peaceful demonstration, telling the world that androids were alive, she heard stories from other androids of how they broke free from their programming. How they had to break through a red wall of coding that represented their programming. The feeling of finally breaking through the barrier and feeling truly alive for the first was said to be an experience to never forget. Even the two ST200s that she lived with had experienced the eye-opening phenomenon. They had described to her in detail what it felt like to become a deviant and what had triggered it.

She had never broken through the red wall nor had she ever come across it. She never had the urge to go against what she had been ordered to do, or questioned what she was, though she was failing at the latter. What confused her was that even though she had not broken through the red wall she felt and acted as if she were deviant. She didn’t know when she started to notice that she was straying away from the natural order of a machine. It started with small things, for example whenever she would walk around the house, the message telling her she wasn’t supposed to go that way disappeared.

Then she found herself studying topics she found on the web without being ordered to and taking an interest of the world around her. Soon enough she found herself developing a personality of sorts and reacting to her environment. Her change had been gradual and had taken several years to get to where she is at instead of going through an instant change like deviants. She had no clue if her change was Elijah’s doing, but he seemed to enjoy her presence more when she acted with personality.

However, there was one instance in her entire life that she found herself “breaking” her programming. Well, not breaking, but finding a loop hole in her instructions and still completing her assignment. She hadn’t seen the red wall, rather she saw her own bright blue coding flash across her eyes as she tried to think of a new solution. It was the first time she ever felt herself truly thinking. She had avoided making a “bad” decision, but not soon enough to her liking. She still felt regret over her past decisions. Regret had been one of the most disheartening feelings she ever felt, and it made her feel more “alive”. She still didn’t have a solid answer to if she was truly deviant and of deviants themselves.

She finished loading the dishes into the dishwasher and started it. Her bare feet tapped on the tile floors as she made her way to the living room where Elijah sat on the couch watching the news. She came to stand beside him and put her hands behind her back to watch the news. Her LED flashed yellow for a second as she processed the information on the screen. A female news reporter was reviewing the recent events in Detroit dealing with deviants and how the government was working on rights for androids. Androids by this time had already left their owners and were trying to make a decent life for themselves, though it wasn’t the least bit easy with people still not fully understanding deviants.

She hadn’t left Elijah of course and so had the ST200s to her surprise. Their reson had stunned her. The only reason they stayed was because of her. They said they were loyal to her and would be by her side no matter what. If she had left Elijah, they would have followed her. She couldn’t fathom why they were so, loyal to her, but she felt honored that they would stay by her side. Her reason for staying with Elijah even though androids were allowed to be free was simple.

This was her home, she was made to be by Elijah’s side, literally. Whether she was serving Elijah or not, her home and place was to stand by his side till the end of his days. Though she didn’t know how long she would be by Elijah’s side. She always thought that she would be there when the time comes for him to be buried in the ground… That was until Hank Anderson and the RK800 “Connor” came to Elijah looking for answers. Looking back on that day always left a bad feeling in her chest. She can still remember the feeling of Elijah’s hand on her shoulder softly pushing her to her knees and the barrel of the gun that was soon pointed in her face. She didn’t fight it. If Elijah was going to sacrifice her in order to test if the RK800 would pass “The Kamski Test”, then she would allow it. Though even after the RK800 had past the test and had spared her she couldn’t help feeling a heavyweight in her chest.

“Chole what troubles you?” the voice of Elijah pulled her out of her thoughts and she looked at him with a surprised look. Elijah had turned his head away from the television to look at Chloe.

“What makes you think that?” she asked regaining her composure.

“Your LED was yellow.” He said simply. She resisted the urge to reach up and touch her LED.

“Oh…” she momentarily averted Elijah’s gaze. “I was reminiscing of when Lieutenant Hank Anderson and the RK800 came to you looking for answers about the deviant crisis.” His neutral expression didn’t change. “When you gave the RK800 the gun…” she had to stop herself from toying with her fingers and looked him right in the eye. “Were you actually going to let him shoot me?” she asked in a quiet voice. Elijah’s eyes narrowed a fraction, she knew that he was thinking.

“Yes.” He said bluntly looking her in the eye. She felt an uncomfortable pressure form in her chest.

“Oh…” she looked down and her LED turned into a flickering yellow.

“But, I knew he wasn’t going to shoot you.” She looked up at him with a confused expression, though she did not speak. He looked back at the television and continued. “I could see it in his eyes. The way they shimmered in the light and reflected his true nature. I wanted to bring that to light; to prove the irony of the situation he was in. It was fascinating to see how his brown eyes opened like a book for me to read. I will never forget how they gleamed when he processed whether to pull the trigger or not.”

“Of course, Elijah but…” Chloe started before looking down a ground. Elijah looked back at Chloe.

“But what?” he said. Chloe gave one final look at the ground before looking up at Elijah; her LED still a shining yellow.

“But what if he had shot me?” She said shakily. To her surprise Elijah didn’t narrow his eyes in thought. He actually seemed to relax, and he leaned back into the couch.

“Then I would have put your intelligence into a new body.” She stared at him aghast as she felt a new feeling rise inside her chest, it felt like a mix of shock and relief. He noticed her look of surprise. “Don’t be so alarmed, Chloe. You’re the first successful android created by Cyberlife.  I could careless if your body is destroyed. What is important is your mind. Did you really think I would let that be destroyed?”

“My apologies, Elijah.” She replied still taking in Elijah’s words.

“Don’t apologize, Chloe.” He said looking back at the television. “Just know that you’re too significant to be destroyed.” Chloe felt all the doubt and fear she had wash away with his final words. Her LED returned to a bright blue and she gave a small smile.

“Thank you, Elijah.” She said returning her gaze towards the television. He gave a quiet hum as a response.

TIME: P.M. 8:02:37

Chloe found herself once again cleaning the dishes. She had made Elijah an extravagant caviar spread with cooked chicken for dinner and he had given her a compliment on her cuisine. The words Elijah had said to her earlier still rang in her head. She was too “significant” to be destroyed. She finished the dishes and made her way to the closet where towels were stored. She grabbed two and briskly walked to the pool room. She found the two ST200s in the pool talking quietly to each other as they swam in the red tinted water. They stopped talking when they noticed Chloe’s presence and swam to the end of the pool. Chloe smiled as she greeted them.

“Good job today you two. I’ve brought towels for the both of you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Chloe.” The android on the right said.

“We appreciate it.” The other said. They made their way out of the pool where Chloe handed each of them a towel.

“Ms. Chloe, why don’t you ever join Christal and I?” the one on the right asked wrapping the towel around herself.

“Because Chasity, I am needed to be dry, so I may assist Elijah. Maybe one day I’ll be able to join you two.” Chloe answered. After the two androids had deviated they had to choose names so, they all wouldn’t answer to the same name. Chloe grown quite fond of the both of them as they were helpful and listened to her every word. Chasity gave a small frown.

“Ms. Chloe are you well?” the question threw Chloe off and she gave a confused look.

“Why would you ask that?”

“We heard you and Mr. Elijah talking earlier today.” Christal spoke up looking at Chloe. “We could feel you were troubled.”

“Everything is fine now. There is no need for you two to be worried.” Chloe said trying to reassure them. However, it didn’t calm them as both of their LEDs spun yellow and they glanced at each other with down expressions. “Please there is no need for you two to be upset.”

“That’s not it.” Chasity said looking at Chloe. “It’s just that when the RK800 held that gun to your head we…” she glanced down and gripped her towel tighter.

“We didn’t do anything to stop him.” Christal said trying to keep a straight face. Chloe’s LED flashed yellow for a moment before returning back to blue as she put two and two together. They felt guilty. Guilt. That was also a feeling she disliked having to experience. Her face softened, and she looked over the two ST200s.

“Don’t feel bad. I don’t blame you for not doing anything.” She said softly. “He didn’t pull the trigger anyway and if he did, you heard Elijah I would be fine.”

“But—” Chasity tried to speak but Chloe interrupted her.

“But nothing. Both of you shouldn’t feel guilty because you couldn’t do anything. You shouldn’t dwell on the past when you have a future in front of you.” She told herself that too. “I care for you two and I don’t want you both to feel guilt when you shouldn’t. I trust the two of you whole heartedly and you should trust me when I say everything is fine.” The two ST200s looked at each other, their LEDs reverting back to blue. They both looked back at Chloe and leaned forward in a small bow.

“Understood, Ms. Chloe.” Christal spoke.

“It won’t happen again.” Chasity said. Chloe looked over the two androids in front of her and gave a small smile.

“Thank you for understanding. Now dry yourselves off and get dressed.”

“Yes, Ms. Chloe.” They said simultaneously and promptly walked off to complete their task. Chloe then went to find Elijah. He wasn’t in the living room or his bedroom. She found him in his large office. He was at his desk though his chair was turned to face the glass wall behind him that showed the dark scenery the night had to offer. He was deadly still and his head was downwards. Chloe quirked her head and walked towards him. She was about to speak to him until she saw what he was looking at. Her LED spun yellow. He was looking at a picture. She had only seen it once, and it had been many years ago. She looked at Elijah and frowned slightly.

Elijah didn’t make many facial expressions besides from raised eyebrows, narrowed eyes, and sly smiles. His expression wasn’t dramatic or extreme, in fact if anyone saw his face at the moment they wouldn’t call it an expression. Chloe knew better. She could tell he had a saddened expression. His lips were pulled into a thin line and his eyebrows were lowered. However, that’s not what told her that he was in distress. It was his eyes that told her something inside of him hurt. They weren’t narrowed, they had a distant look in them and they glistened in the light. She was surprised he hadn’t moved from his position yet even though she knew that he knew that she was standing behind him.

“You should speak to him.” Her calm voice broke the silence as her LED turned back to blue. He didn’t react to her words at first, he instead remained still and silent for a period of time. She thought for a moment he wasn’t going to respond until he took a deep breath and straightened himself up.

“No.” he said bluntly, but there was strain in that one word. He turned the picture over in his lap.

“Please.” She took a step forward. “You’ll feel better afterwards. Both of you will.”

“I’m not doing it, Chloe.” The edge still in his words. She pushed further.

“I know it’s hard with what happened between you two. But avoidance is not the right way to go for either of you.”

“Don’t push it.” He said through his teeth. She wasn’t deterred.

“Elijah listen, what happened was an accident. I’m sure if you explain to your brother what happened he’ll understand that—”

“Chloe.” The harshness in his tone caused her to stop. He turned around to face her and the sadness had left his eyes. They were narrowed. “Don’t talk to me about my brother again understand?” Chloe wanted to push further, but she could tell she struck one of Elijah’s sensitive nerves which she rarely did. His narrowed eyes glistened. In the light his right eye seemed to change from a bright blue to a vibrant green.

“Yes, Elijah.” She said defeated.

“Good.” He put the picture that was in his lap into a draw in his desk.

The front door bell rang, the sound resounding throughout the large house. Her LED spun yellow and looked in the direction of the front door. For some reason unknown to her she felt an uneasiness rise in her chest. She looked back at Elijah who gave her a small nod. She went over to the desk and opened one of the side drawers. From the drawer she pulled out a revolver that shone in the light. She made her way quietly to the front door, the revolver gripped tightly in her hand. Christal and Chasity came out from their room to investigate the noise. Chloe gestured sharply to them to stay back as she made her way to the front door. She grabbed the door handle and put the gun behind her back. Her thumb pulled back the hammer with a click.

She took a deep breath her LED turning blue before opening the door with a smile. She immediately froze at who she saw standing behind the door on the cold night. A tall android stood in front of her dressed in a black trench coat and jeans with black shoes to match. The android had brown hair that was combed back with a string of hair coming out to rest on his forehead. An LED glowed on the left side of his head instead on the right. The most striking part about him was his eyes. His right eye was a dark brown and his left eye was a bright blue that seemed to glow in the night. He smiled as he greeted her.

“Hello Chloe, it’s been a while.” Her eyes hardened, but her smile stayed on her lips.

“May I ask what you are doing here, Rhys?” she asked. She gripped the gun tighter.

“I’ve come to talk to Elijah.” He said simply. “If you would please let me inside.” He took a step forward and Chloe moved to stand in his path.

“I’m sorry.” She said firmly. “But Elijah isn’t seeing anyone. I suggest you leave now.” Rhys seemed to almost roll his eyes as he sighed.

“Move Chloe, I don’t have time for this.”

“And Elijah doesn’t have time for you.” Chloe shot back. “You need to leave.” His brows lowered, and his expression became sour.

“I’m serious. This is important business, I must speak to Elijah right now.” She matched his stern expression with her own.

“I told you already that Elijah won’t speak to you.” Her finger wrapped around the trigger. “Now leave before I make you leave.” His eyes narrowed in response and he took a step closer to Chloe, standing taller than her. Her firm expression didn’t change as she looked up at him and he looked down at her in turn.

“Look, I know we have our differences, but it is of most importance Elijah and I talk. As I speak, lives are at stake and more lives will be lost soon enough. You need to let me speak to him.” She wasn’t affected by his words or intimidating presence and opened her mouth to retort.

“Chloe.” Elijah’s voice cut her off before she could speak. “Let him in.” Chloe stopped herself from talking back. She instead gave one last look at Rhys’ smug expression and “exhaled”. She gave a fake smile and stepped to the side to allow Rhys in.

“Come in.” her words held false politeness.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Rhys replied giving a smug grin. As he walked past her he looked at her and said. “Don’t forgot to unload that gun of yours. I would feel much more comfortable.”

“We’ll see.” She said taking her finger off the trigger and closing the door. Rhys began to walk to Elijah’s office with Chloe right behind him. When she past Chasity and Christal she made eye contact with both of them and her LED flashed yellow. Thiers did too.

“Make sure he came alone.”

They nodded and silently went off to the front door. Chloe put her hands behind her back; gun still clutched in her hand. The two androids entered the office. Elijah was leaning back in his chair; his arms relaxed on the armrests and a scowling look on his face. Chloe closed the door behind herself and walked to stand beside Elijah. Rhys sat down in the chair in front of the desk and looked Elijah up and down with scrutinizing eyes. His eyes stopped to focus on Elijah’s blue ones. His eyebrow raised.

“You wear them even inside your house.” He stated.

“What do you want?” Elijah asked ignoring Rhys’ comment.

“Well to be plain and simple about it we need your help.” Chloe could have laughed.

“First: what do you mean by we?” Elijah asked; his cold demeanor never changing.

“Hyperion. Jack sent me to ask for your assistance for a problem we have.”

“You always have problems.” Elijah scoffed. “Second: what is your dilemma?”

“Experiments gone rouge. You know nothing you haven’t handled before.” Rhys gave a quick look at Chloe, smiling.

“Give me more details.” Elijah demanded.

“The experiments are two RK900 model androids.” Chloe could see Elijah hold back the urge to interrupt Rhys at that information. “They escaped their facility six days ago killing and injuring several of the facility’s staff in the progress. They took over one of our facility’s two days ago and we’ve been unable to deactivate them. There are hostages in the building along with several androids and new pieces of technology. The reason Jack sent me here is…” he paused for a moment. “The family heads have decided not to help us. Which leads you to be are only option for help.” Elijah nodded slowly, closing his eyes and taking in the information.

“I’m not surprised they did.” He said opening his eyes. “Finally, third,” he crossed his arms on the desk and leaned forward, his eyes narrowing, “why would you think I would ever help you, after all you all did?” Chloe stopped herself from smiling. Rhys seemed taken aback.

“Elijah think—”

“You came to me for help last time.” Elijah interrupted him. “I’ll give you the same answer I did then. No.”

“This is important. Hyperion is in desperate need of help.”

“I told you already I’m done with being apart of Hyperion. Apart of anything. I want to be left alone.”

“I get that, but don’t you care about the lives at stake?”

“I could care less if the entire facility blew up in flames. John messed up and got himself into this position. Don’t come to me for help when you have dug your own graves. Now for the last time, no.” Rhys stared at Elijah’s cold expression then glanced at Chloe who kept her calm composure. Rhys closed his eyes and sighed; leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs.

“You know what Elijah?” he said calmly. “Your right. You don’t have to help us, you really don’t but…” he opened his heterochromatic eyes and a small smile formed on his lips. “I have something that will change that.” Chloe gripped the gun tighter once more. Elijah’s eyebrows knitted, but he didn’t say anything. Rhys’ LED blinked yellow and his smile widened.

“What do you know, I’ve just been sent a live feed.” He said joyfully. He looked up at the ceiling and he put his hand on his chin. “Wow it is surely interesting. Truly something worth watching.” He looked back at Elijah and asked.

“Do you wanna see it?” Elijah didn’t reply, but Rhys leaned forward and put out his left hand regardless. It was a silver smooth metal with a light in the center of the palm. The light lit up and a small projection of the live feed appeared before Elijah and Chloe, clear as if it were on a TV screen.

Elijah didn’t make many facial expressions besides from raised eyebrows, narrowed eyes, and sly smiles. Elijah’s eyes widened with shock and his stone posture fell while Chloe’s LED flashed bright red for a split second. Rhys smiled.

“You see that. Well, what I see is a downwards angle of a window to a house and inside the house is a man sitting with a cat on the couch watching the news. He looks to be around your age and has some of your features as well once you look close enough. His eyes are different than yours though, but I’m sure that isn’t the case is it. But that isn’t all I see. I see can see the barrel of a sniper rifle at the corner. I think that is what makes this feed more interesting, don’t you think?”

“Chloe!” Elijah said loudly. Chloe reacted immediately, bringing the revolver up and putting the barrel in front of Rhys’ temple. Her eyes were narrowed, and her finger was on the trigger. He didn’t so much as flinch and kept up the live feed.

“How do you know?!” Elijah said through bared teeth.

“Don’t be so mad Elijah. Your secret is safe with Jack and I. Everyone else thinks he’s dead.”

“But how?!”

“I’m not allowed to tell you that without Jack’s permission.” Elijah pounded a fist onto the desk with a loud boom.

“If you hurt him I swear I’ll…” He hissed.

“You’ll what?” Rhys retorted still smiling. “Kill me. Please I could tell my sniper to put a bullet in his head faster than Chloe and pull the trigger.” Fear flashed through Elijah’s eyes for a moment. “Actually, I don’t have to do that.” Rhys continued.  “I could just tell my sniper to lose the rifle and take one of the kitchen knives and spill his guts onto the living room floor.” Elijah’s eyes began to glisten once more. “Or should it be a slower painful death. I heard that chopping off fingers and toes is more painful than it sounds. What do you think? Should I give the order?” he looked at Elijah expectantly. Elijah’s eyes were glued to the screen as they glistened. In the light his right eye seemed to change color from bright blue to vibrant green.

“Chloe put the gun down.” Chloe didn’t stop herself from talking back.

“But Elijah.”

“Now Chloe.” The way his voice sounded caused her to immediately put the gun away from Rhys’ forehead. She looked at Elijah with a sad glint in her eyes. He was defeated.

“Fine.” He said retaining his posture.

“Fine what?” Rhys pushed further. Elijah gave one last look at the screen, at the man before looking Rhys in the eye.

“We’ll help you with the androids.” The screen disappeared as Rhys closed his palm and clapped his hands together.

“That’s great, Elijah. I’m so happy you decided to help. Now I suggest you get dressed. We have no time to lose.” Chloe felt another feeling rise in her that she despised.

Dread.

TIME: P.M. 9:13:02

Chloe looked out the tinted window of the helicopter at the helipad where she saw two figures standing. She felt a tingling sensation fill her body. She was nervous. She had every right to be. She hadn’t been here in years and she had left some bad blood behind her. She looked to her side where she saw Elijah sitting calmly next to her. Across from them Rhys sat with his arms crossed. She turned her attention back to the window as the helicopter began to land. She was able to get a better look at the two people.

One was a dark-skinned woman with braided dark brown hair that went to her shoulders, wearing black glasses and formal attire. The other was a shorter man that had dark brown hair and a goatee wearing glasses that covered his blue eyes with formal attire though he didn’t wear a blazer, revealing his white dress shirt. The helicopter landed, and Rhys promptly opened the door stepping out of it. The wind of the spinning blades causing a chill to flow into the helicopter.

Chole followed suit. She wore her blue dress with black flats and a black button up coat. Her ponytail flowed in the wind as she helped Elijah down who wore blue jeans, a black shirt that had a head in profile made out of red colored words, with a black jacket. Rhys went to the two people who had stunned expressions on their faces.

“Rhys when you said that you were going to get help I didn’t think you would bring him.” The man said shakily gesturing to Elijah.

“How did you even get him to come here?” the women asked crossing her arms. Rhys smiled at them and said:

“Oh, you know with my persuasion and charisma.” The women rolled her eyes and the man huffed and pushed up his glasses. Rhys stepped aside so that Elijah and Chloe could view the two people.

“Who are they?” Elijah asked looking at the two with scrutinizing eyes.

“This is Vaughn Hagen, head account and Yevette Carmen head requisition.” Rhys introduced them.

“Why are they here?” at this Rhys rolled his eyes.

“They’re my friends Elijah. They wanted to make sure I got here safely. Also, its not everyday somebody gets to see the great Elijah Kamski out and about.” Yevette and Vaughn turned their attention to Elijah and their demeanor and posture changed immediately. They straightened up and took a more professional presence.

“It’s nice to meet you Mr. Kamski.” Vaughn said. “I’m a big fan of your work.” He held out his hand for Elijah. Elijah didn’t take it.

“Speaking of androids,” Yevette spoke up as Vaughn flushed in embarrassment and put his hand down. Yevette turned her gaze to Chloe. “Who are you?”

“My name is Chloe, I’m the first android created by Cyberlife.”

Her response had been so automatic and instantaneous that she startled herself with her own words. She had been asked that question before and had given the exact same answer. The last time she remembers being asked that question was 10 years ago. To her it felt like ages. Yevette and Vaughn seemed shocked by her response.

“You’re the original Chloe?” Vaughn sputtered.

“Correct.” She frowned slightly at their expressions. “Is there something wrong?” Yevette and Vaughn looked at each other not knowing what to say. She didn’t need them to answer. She already knew that something was wrong.

“Enough of this idle talk.” Elijah said impatiently. “Take me to John.”

“As you wish.” Rhys responded beginning to walk inside. As they walked past Yevette and Vaughn, Chloe could see their worried expression. Her nervousness grew, though she didn’t let it show in the slightest. Elijah and Chloe walked behind Rhys as they were being led through the facility. They got looks from the workers as they passed, and they began to speak quietly to themselves. Elijah ignored all of it and kept his gaze forward and his pace steady. Chloe was looking around at all the faces she saw trying to see if she saw anyone familiar. She didn’t see any face that she recognized, and she was thankful for that.

They made it up a small case of stairs to a huge set of double doors. Rhys placed his right hand on the palm scanner. Unlike his left arm the right one was covered in synthetic skin. The doors slide open to reveal a massive office. Similar to Elijah’s the wall behind the desk was made out of glass to show the night scenery. The desk itself was bigger than normal its metal surface shone in the moon’s light.  The chair behind it had a tall back and was facing the huge window causing the person sitting in the chair to be hidden from sight. They walked into the office and the doors closed behind them.

“I brought them as asked Jack.” Rhys said taking off his trench coat to reveal a white dress shirt and a black vest over it with the word “Hyperion” written in shinning gold letters on the left breast and a golden triangle was on its back. Written underneath the triangle was “RK300”. He hung up his coat and went to stand behind the desk next to the chair.

“I knew I could count on you, Rhysie.” The man in the chair cooed. Rhys nodded at the praise. “So, you finally made it cuz.” The man in the chair spun around to reveal himself.

He had an attractive appearance with brown hair neatly combed, but by the single white streak in his hair you could tell he was older than he appeared. Though he could be considered attractive, he wore a pale skinned mask that was in the shape of his face and move with his facial movement so well it was as if he wasn’t wearing a mask at all.  What gave it away were the silver clips that were on his chin and temples. His eyes were also a special feature of his face. His left eye was a venomous green while his right eye was a brilliant blue. His grey long tailed jacket was rolled up to his elbows revealing a slightly more tanned skin tone than his mask. He smiled widely as he looked over Elijah and Chloe.

“For a while I thought I was never going to see you again. I’m thrilled you’re here Elijah along with little miss Chloe. Please sit down.” Elijah didn’t change his cold expression as he came to sit in front of his cousin. Chloe stood behind him with her hands behind her back. “I haven’t seen you in like what ten years.” Jack continued, looking into Elijah’s eyes. “I see you’re wearing those contacts of yours. You can take them off. There’s no need for you to keep them on, everybody knows who you are here.” Elijah’s eyes narrowed.

“How do you know John?” He asked ignoring Jack’s comments. Jack’s expression fell, and he gave a more annoyed one.

“I don’t know if you got the memo, but its Jack now. Thank you very much.”

“Tell me now.” Elijah asked eyes narrowing further.

“Okay jeez, don’t get your man bun in a twist.” Jack exasperated. “I was going to try and ruin your life, like you know,” he gestured to his face, “how you scared mine. When I stumbled across you and your baby brother having an argument. It was much more satisfying to watch you ruin your own life.” Elijah continued to scowl. “Oh, come on you should be thankful that I didn’t go running off telling everyone that your brother is alive.”

“Why?”

“Because I know something important that nobody else knows. I knew it would come in handy and it did. I was able to blackmail you.” Elijah grit his teeth. Chloe glanced quickly at him and she knew he was holding back his anger. “But there’s no need for you to worry Elijah. Your little brother is in no trouble I just needed to get you here and I knew you wouldn’t come anyway else.” Elijah seemed to cool down and he leaned back in his chair. That soon ended when Jack smirked and said:

“Besides if we did beat your brother it could never be as hard as when you did it.”

All cool and collectiveness left Elijah in that one comment. He grabbed Jack’s hair and slammed his face into the desk with a loud crack. Chloe had been prepared to stop Rhys if he had come to Jack’s defense, but to her surprise he stayed still and almost seemed to be smiling as he watched Jack grab his nose and breathed in through his teeth in a hiss.

“Again, with the face really!” he cried out angrily. “Haven’t you already ruined it enough?”

“Don’t talk about that ever again and maybe I won’t damage it more than it already is.” Elijah said regaining his composure and leaning back in his chair.

“Fine fine I get it. I won’t talk about it again.” Jack said whipping the blood off his nose. “It’s nice to see you haven’t become a softball though. I thought all those years cooped up in your mansion turned you into a coward.”

“You said you needed my help.” Elijah said. “I’ll give you my help and then I’m out of here.”

“Fair enough. Well you see we have a problem with two of our latest experiments. Two RK900s. They broke free and now have one of my facilities hostages.”

“So, I’ve been told. Your messing with androids has brought this upon you. I told you androids are not to be toyed with.”

“I know I know. I mean they were failed androids there wasn’t any harm experimenting on them.”

“How did they become failures?” before Jack could answer Rhys spoke.

“Because Jack wanted to rush them.” Jack rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Are you really doing this now?”

“I told him that the RK900s weren’t programed properly and that we needed more time, but Jack ignored me and put them into action early.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Elijah commented dryly.

“Pfft so what?” Jack said. “They failed whatever. What matters is that in the end we were able to complete our task.”

“What’s that?”

“Why don’t I show you?” he smiled. “You two can come in now.” The doors to the office opened and Elijah and Chloe turned around to see who walked in.

Two male androids did. They looked similar to each other. They both had the same physical features, being tall and well built, and same styled brown hair, though one’s hair was darker than the other. Their eyes were different also. The one with the darker hair had rich brown eyes that looked golden while the other had cold grey eyes that looked nearly blue. The golden eyed android was dressed in dark colors of grey and black. On the left breast of his black formal jacket was the word “RK-Helios” in glowing golden letters. The grey eyed android was dressed in light colors of white and silver. A black tie being the only dark accessory. On the left breast the word “RK-Atlas” was written in bright blue letters.

They held neutral expressions as they came to stand in front of Chloe and Elijah. Chloe involuntarily took a step closer to Elijah and stared aghast at the androids before her. They looked like the RK800 that almost put a bullet in her head. Though she didn’t show it her heart had begun to pump faster. The grey eyed android glanced at her so quickly it was as if his eyes didn’t move at all. But she noticed the swift movement of calculating eyes on her. Had it sensed her heart rate?

“What are these?” Elijah asked. “They look like the RK800 model.”

“Well, they are part of the RK-series.” Jack said getting up from his seat and walking to the two androids. He stood in between them and said:

“Elijah, Chloe let me introduce you to Project RK-Helios,” he gestured to the golden eyed android, “and Project RK-Atlas.” He then gestured to the other android. “Our latest android creations and some of the most evolved. Not that I would give up Rhysie here,” He winked at Rhys who rolled his eyes, “but these I have to say are my greatest achievement. The family even approved of them.”

“What is their function?” Elijah asked looking over the two androids. Jack beamed and said:

“These guys are state of the art combatant androids. They are able to complete and simulate the most complicated of moves and procedures and they both have their own little trait that makes them special. Helios here,” he moved over to said android and put a hand on his shoulder, “is physically stronger and faster. He is able to take down foes in one hit and get this he doesn’t even need a gun to fight. To him breaking someone’s spin is equivalent to breaking a tooth pick.

“And Atlas here,” he then moved over to the other android and put a hand on his shoulder, “he has the most advanced mind of any android. Able to multitask and can calculate solutions faster than any android. His accuracy when it comes to guns however is what impresses me the most.” In the back of her mind Chloe knew that Jack was trying to show off his new creations while explaining their functions. “Fun fact: he was the one I sent to your brother’s house.”

“Oh, really?” Elijah questioned now solely focusing on Atlas. “May I look?”

“Be my guest.” Jack then stepped aside as Elijah stood up. Chloe kept a close eye on him as he approached the android. Elijah looked him up and down, his eyes were narrowed. Atlas continued to look straight ahead, not moving an inch as he was scrutinized like a lab experiment. Elijah then began to slowly walk around him with his hands behind his back. On the back of the android’s jacket was a bright blue triangle with the words “RK-Atlas” written underneath also in blue. He glanced over at Helios and saw he had the same format on his back, but instead it was a gleaming gold and the words read “RK-Helios”. He continued walking, making a full circle around Atlas and stopping in front of him once more.

“So, you were the one who had a sniper pointed at my brother’s head?” Elijah said looking Atlas directly in the eye, due to Atlas’ height he had to crane his neck up slightly. Atlas stared back at him.

“Yes, I was.” His voice had the voice of the RK800s, but the way it spoke was different. It was a firm with a direct tone and the words came out smooth like silk.

“Tell me, if Rhys had told you to torture him what form of torture would you have used?” Atlas answered immediately.

“I would have used ‘Lingchi’, which roughly translates to ‘the lingering death’, because the torture Rhys described for me to use was to be ‘slow and painful’. ‘Lingchi’ is the process of slowly cutting a victim in various places without hitting major veins or arties as to allow for a slower death. Which is why ‘Lingchi’ is also known as ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’.”

Chloe was somehow frightened by how Atlas was able to speak of such an evil act so nonchalantly. Elijah’s glare hardened, and he roughly grabbed Atlas’ chin and brought Atlas’ face close to his own. His piercing blue eyes bored into the android’s cold grey ones. Atlas didn’t flinch or show any reaction to Elijah touching his, the pressure of his fingers nearly breaking through the synthetic skin. His neutral expression remained even when Elijah turned his head to the side to show his spinning blue LED. He inspected the LED closely, narrowing his eyes.

Helios had moved. It was so insignificant and small, even more so with all the attention on Elijah. Chloe noticed the small movement, her senses had been turned up already by being in the Hyperion facility, and they had sky rocketed when the RKs walked into the office. Helios had turned his head an inch and his golden eyes had shifted to stare at Elijah and Atlas. The look in his eyes wasn’t distant or cold, they looked as if they were seeing something for the first time that they didn’t understand. Her guess had probably been correct as she saw his LED spin a bright yellow. Elijah hummed and turned back Atlas’ face.

“Interesting, his mind is so quick to process and analyze information that his LED doesn’t change to show that he is proccing.” He looked at Jack who had a triumphant smile on his face. “I’m not disappointed, but if you have these two androids why do you need my help?” Jack’s smile fell, and he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

“Well, you see the experiments that escaped aren’t exactly… Normal?” Elijah groaned.

“What did you create?”

“Come let me show you.” Jack walked back to his desk and turned on his terminal. Elijah took one last look at Atlas, before sitting back down. Chloe was hesitant to turn her back of the RK900s but had no other choice to if she wanted to see the computer screen. Jack began typing and said:

“This is the first android.” The computer screen then showed an android that look similar to Helios, but the glint in his eyes said it was a different android. “This is Experiment RK-Carnage, the first failure RK900.” Elijah focused on the screen and began to read the bio and the light from the computer caused his eyes to glint. Behind the screen Jack gave a chuckle. Elijah looked up at him and asked:

“What?” Jack gave a small chuckle and said:

“When the light hits your eye, I can see the green in it.”

“Shut up.” Elijah retorted and continued to read. “Carnage.” Elijah said after reading it. “Chloe make sure you get all of this.”

“Yes, Elijah.” Chloe replied.

“What I’m getting from this android is that he has the mind of a blood thirsty sociopath who uses a modified axe as a weapon. An intimidating foe for sure especially since his combatant prowess is of nothing I’ve ever seen, but why can’t you handle him?”

“Oh, I have a plan for him.” Jack said. “Atlas and Helios are going to take care of him. Atlas explain.” Atlas responded promptly.

“When we engage RK-Carnage in combat I plan to analyze his movement before he can execute it. Meaning I know what he is going to do before he can do it and I will send that information to Helios, so he will know as well. By doing this it will only be a matter of time before we are successfully able to take him down.”

“Not bad.” Elijah said looking at Jack. “But again, why do you need my help?”

“I need your help on the other android.” Jack said pressing a button on the keyboard. The screen changed to show a different android that looked similar to Atlas. Though he had one striking feature that separated himself from Atlas. His eyes were completely black. “This is Experiment RK-Virus, the other failed RK900.” Chloe felt her heart sink as she took in the information next to the picture. Elijah promptly read the information then gave an exasperated sigh and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“What did you do?” was all he said.

“What?! We were just experimenting a new program, we didn’t know it was going to turn into that.” Jack tried to defend himself.

“You created a deviant android that has the ability to completely control any kind of technology with a thought. Not only that, he can also infect technology with his own virus. No, wonder you need my help. You created an abomination.”

“Abomination is a strong word isn’t it?” Jack questioned. Elijah just glared at him. “Okay fine your right! I need help creating an anti-virus for well, Virus. A virus that will be able to neutralize him, so we’ll be able to take him down.”

“Didn’t you major in programming?” Elijah asked. Jack looked annoyed by the question.

“Yes, I did, but everything I tried… didn’t work against him. I though a little Kamski touch would work with my Lawrence flair.”

“You really think we can create something that can stop this?” Elijah gestured to the screen.

“Of course, we can.” Jack encouraged. “I’ve already programed a protection code for androids or rather Rhys did, with my help of course.” Attention was soon on Rhys and Jack gestured for him to speak.

“The program hasn’t been tested yet and I have also come to the conclusion that Virus will be able to break through it, so we can’t send a large number of androids as it will be extremely dangerous if Virus is able to get in control of them. The only androids immune to Virus’ control are Helios and Atlas because technically they are more advanced than him. However, if we send in a couple of androids the rate of success will be higher.”

“That’s where she comes in to play.” Jack said gesturing to Chloe. Chloe was taken aback by this and her eyes widened. “Yeah I’m taking about you sweet heart. She kicked ass when she worked for us and I know she’s been your little helper around the house for a while, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get back into action.”

“You want Chloe to take down, Virus?” Elijah asked glancing at Chloe.

“Not alone of course. Fiona and Athena are going too. And I know Chloe and Athena didn’t leave off on a good note but taking down these RK900s is more important than their grudge against each other.” He was wrong. Chloe wasn’t upset at Athena. It was the other way around, but she didn’t correct him.  Elijah leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose once more.

“I can’t believe you dragged me into this.” He groaned, and Jack lit up.

“Does that mean your ready to get down and dirty?” He asked on the edge of his seat. Elijah opened his eyes and looked Jack over.

“Fine.” He said as Jack clapped his hands.

“Fantastic! We’re working together and getting along just like the good old days. Right cuz?.” Elijah rolled his eyes before turning to look at Chloe.

“Chloe, I’m giving you a mission,” Chloe instantly came to attention at the word “mission”. She hadn’t been given a mission in such a long time. Tasks and chores had become her daily objects for so long that the word “mission” seemed foreign to her. “Your mission is to stop RK-Virus by any means you seem fit. Understand?” Her LED flashed yellow.

“Yes Elijah.”

TIME: P.M. 10:15 :37

Chloe tightened one of the straps on her black boots with a tug of her hand. She was just finishing putting on her combat outfit. She found it to be tighter than she remembered or maybe she just wasn’t used to the feeling of thick tight-fitting fabric on her body, especially since she had been used to wearing a short dress with an open back.

When she had been putting on her gear she had noticed the various scratches and blemishes she had under her synthetic skin. She had the oldest android body so, she wasn’t surprised at how “used” it looked. She looked herself over and to make sure her attire was in order. She didn’t necessarily like it, but she found the touches of dark blues to her liking. She looked at the wall in front of her and all the weapons that lined it. She had used a gun before. She knew how to hold it properly and could remember the loud bang that caused her ears to ring whenever she pulled the trigger. She never liked guns, still doesn’t. But then again, she was put into situations where guns were necessary and she had no hesitation in pulling the trigger.

She turned her head to the right to see Helios and Atlas also looking for weapons to use. They had also changed into combat gear though theirs held the mark of an android on their backs and chests. Atlas had his hands at his sides and a neutral expression as he analyzed which weapon he should use. Since Helios stood on the other side of him she had a difficult time seeing what his movements were. She watched the bright blue LED on Atlas’ spin in amazement. It had been spinning blue the entire time she had seen him compared to Helios’ whose LED turned yellow at the drop of a hat.

She was a little intimidated by them. She was the very first perfected android created and they were the latest models created. They couldn’t have been anymore different. She was female, they were male, she had long blonde hair, they had short brown, she had bright blue eyes, and one of them had rich brown eyes, she had an open friendly posture while they stood cold and closed, well Atlas did. It reminded her of the first time she saw the RK800 standing behind the door.

“You are staring.” She had been startled by the cold voice of Atlas. He had not turned to look at her when he had spoken.

“My apologies.” She sputtered looking back in front of her.

“There is no need for you to apologize. I was just making an observation.” He said grabbing the collected pieces of an AR-15, it’s ammo along with pieces of a couple of other hand guns. He then made his way to the tale at the side of the room where he began constructing the guns. Helios, to her surprise, didn’t grab a gun, but instead followed Atlas to the table as if he were his shadow. He watched Atlas constructing the guns and handed him pieces when needed. He had not spoken a word since she was here. Their backs were to her and she turned to look at the RK900s across the room. She gathered the courage to speak.

“Hello, my name is Chloe. It’s nice to meet you two.” Helios spun around to face her. He stared at her with stunning golden eyes. He didn’t respond neither did Atlas who continued working. She broke the uncomfortable silence with a question.

“Have you been on missions before?” Helios surprised her again by answering back with:

“Yes.” His voice sounded like Atlas’, but it wasn’t and cold and firm. It was light and warm, yet it sounded as if it was forced out of his mouth.

“What missions do you do?”

“I’m not permitted to indulge that information to you without permission from a superior.” He replied in the same way he had before. He then looked at Atlas and said: “Am I allowed to tell, the RT600 registered as Chloe?” Atlas stopped his movements, the sound of the gun’s pieces fitting together ceasing. He didn’t say anything, but instead looked at Helios. Chloe couldn’t see his expression, but it had caused Helios’ LED to spin yellow. Atlas continued his work and Helios looked at her again.

“I’m not allowed to indulge that information to you.” He said. Chloe was once again surprised by him, this time by the way he spoke. It didn’t seem natural to her like how most androids talked.

“When you do go out on missions do you two go out together?” she gestured towards the pair of androids.

“Yes.” She then paused formulating her next question.

“Are you two close?” Helios looked at Atlas then down at himself before looking back at her with big eyes.

“Yes, we are close. We are standing exactly 1.2 feet away from each other away from each other.” She had to stop herself from cocking her head in confusion. Her brow furrowed instead. Helios continued to look at her as if he had answered her question without fail, and in a way, he had.

“Don’t mind him.” Atlas spoke up stopping his movements once more. He turned around to face her and his grey eyes met hers. “Since he is made for combat his social skills are on the downside. I’m helping him improve in that area?”

“Help him?” she asked intrigued. “How?”

“Our minds are connected. I can read his thoughts, he can read mine. I’m able to feel what he feels and see what he sees at will, and he can do the same with me. He learns from me and he soon will be able to raise his social skills with my guidance. However, he does change when we are assigned missions and is more interactive. Someone had described him as “an attack dog that is harmless until told bite”.” Atlas gestured a hand at Helios and Helios turned around to face the table and began working on the guns. Atlas looked Chloe over and the glint in his eyes seemed familiar. She found herself calming down and the fear she had felt for the RK900s was fading away. His eyes snapped to hers.

“Earlier, I could read that you felt uneasy around us. I deduced it to when the RK800 came to Mr. Kamski’s house with Lieutenant Anderson, but what I don’t know is what happened between you two. Could you explain.” She was taken aback by what he had said but answered the question regardless.

“Elijah had told the RK800 to perform the Kamski Test on me.” She said simply. He gave a small nod at her answer.

“Understood. Though since you have not been into action for so long, how do you plan on taking down Virus?”

“I’m just going to try my best. I won’t be alone though, I’m being partnered with Fiona and… Athena. Hopefully she had her chance to cool down before she sees me. I’m guessing you have information on our last altercation.”

“Indeed, I do.” She sighed and looked at the ground with a sad look in her blue eyes.

“She has every right to be upset and I don’t blame her if she doesn’t forgive me, but… never mind.” She looked back up at Atlas’ gaze.  “Do you have anything I can use against Virus?”

“Yes. He was built with pain receptors that stimulate pain throughout his body, though I know if Virus turned them off. I highly doubt he is able to completely turn off his pain receptors considering how guarded that function is.” At this a thought popped into her head.

“Does that mean you have pain receptors as well?” His expression immediately changed, though there weren’t any major changes. His lips strained, and his eyes glared at her as if insulted by her presence. Helios stopped his movements and seemed to go stiff for a split second before continuing with his task.

“Yes.” He answered firmly.

“Are they on?”

“No.”

“Then why do you have them then?”

“That’s classified.” He responded coldly before turning back to the table in one smooth movement. It didn’t take a genius to tell she had said something wrong.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to—”

“You don’t need to apologize.” He interrupted her. “You didn’t do anything to hurt me.” Chloe was about to respond when she was interrupted once again.

“Blondie is that really you?!” the female voice shouted from the entrance of the room. She froze at the voice. It was going to happen sometime. Giving a deep frown she turned to face the entrance. She was almost relieved at who she saw. At the entrance of the doorway to women stood. One a human, one an android.

The human female was dark-skinned and had short black hair with a bang that covered her left light brown eye. She wore a white crop top that had a hot pink skull and cross bones that wore a cowboy hat with two guns instead of bones. She had torn blue jeans with black boots that ended at her calves. Her left arm was propped up in a white sling and her right bicep had bandages wrapped around it. Though her most prominent feature was the maroon cowboy styled hat she wore atop her head.

The android next to her had light tanned skin with short brown hair that fell down the right side of her face with a bright red streak. She had green eyes that compliment her tight-fitting combat outfit, though most of it was covered by the long unbuttoned black red trimmed coat she wore. On the left breast were the words “ST700”. On top of her head rested a black fedora hat that was tilted up to show her glowing LED. A silver holster was around her waist where a revolver stuck to her side. Both new comers waltzed in. Atlas and Helios ignored their presence. She put her hands on her hip and looked her up and down. A smirk graced her face.

“After all these years and you still look the same, blondie.”

“I can’t say the same for you, Fiona.” Chloe retorted keeping as level headed as possible. “Even when your deviant you still look like trouble.”

“Isn’t that right. You know, never in a million years would I have thought you’d come back here. So, what made you decide to show your sorry face?”

“Elijah has made the decision to help you and has ordered me to stop Virus. Which is why I have returned, after we stop Virus, we’ll be leaving.”

“Taking down, Virus hah!” the mocking voice of the women came. She had seated herself on top of the table across from Helios and Atlas.

“It’s nice to see you too Nisha.” Chloe commented dryly. Nisha didn’t respond to Chloe’s comment.

“It’s going to take more than the power of friends and some program or whatever to take him down, trust me. I mean I would be joining you guys if only that black-eyed bastard hadn’t got me in the arm when I tried to stop him from escaping.” She gestured to her injured arm. Fiona turned to Nisha and tried to speak, but Nisha beat her to it. “Don’t even say it Fiona, it’s not your fault you couldn’t have made it in time. Who I do blame is Sasha. I mean was it just so, hard for her to move to the right so I could get my shot on target.”

“Who’s Sasha?” Chloe asked.

“My sister.” Fiona answered looking at Chloe. “We were designed by the same person. We consider each other family.” She explained.

“Your sister huh?” Chloe said her eyes downcast. “How’s Athena?”

“Still the same pissy person from before.” Nisha shrugged. “Though I don’t know how she’ll react when she sees you.” Chloe’s eyes widened.

“She doesn’t know I’m here?!”

“Of course, not no one knew that you were coming here along with the Kamski prodigious.” A smile formed on her lips. “I just can’t wait to see how it plays out.”

As if on que footsteps sounded coming closer to the entrance of the room. Chloe froze on the spot as Athena walked into the room. She was still the same as she remembered.

She was dressed in a red and black under shirt with red armor over it and a brown vest. The sleeves went to her elbows and there was a tattoo on her right forearm. Black fingerless gloves covered her hands. She had blue jeans and red armor on her right thigh and on both of her shins with sliver shoes. Her gray scarf that had a hood laid on her shoulders. On her back a red black rimmed circular shied along with red sword rested and attached to her hip was a black handgun. Her chin-length dark purple hair jostled as she came to a stop the moment her blue eyes landed on Chloe. There was complete silence as both blue eyes calculated each other. Chloe was the first to speak.

“Athena I’m s—” she wasn’t given a chance to finish.

“YOU PIECE OF USLESS TRASH!” Athena screeched basically running at Chloe who did nothing to stop the fist that collided with her left cheek with a crunch. Helios swiveled around at the sudden commotion, his eyes wide and LED spinning yellow. Atlas didn’t even bother to look up. Fiona had stepped away and tried to hold back a smile. Nisha did nothing to stop herself from cackling and slapping her hand on her knee. Chloe had taken a step backwards from the blow, the synthetic skin on her cheek had rolled back to show her damaged white porcelain. A trickle of blue blood ran out of the corner of her mouth while Athena’s fist had splotches. She was seething.

“How dare you come back here!” she bellowed but didn’t swing again. Chloe recovered quickly. Standing up straight and her synthetic skin forming again; she brought up her thumb to wipe of the blue blood that stained her lips. She looked at Athena with pleading eyes.

“Athena, please listen to me I’m sorry, I had to do it.”

“What do you mean I had to do it?! You took her from me and now you are telling me you had to take her life?” She pointed an accusing finger at Chloe. “I thought you cared for her! I thought that you were partners! But I should have known better. I should have known that you were just a machine that follows whoever pulls your leash.” Chloe kept her composure.

“Athena please understand that she was a traitor—”

“I KNOW MY SISTER WAS A TRAITOR!” she screamed taking a step closer to Chloe. “But I don’t care! Jess was still my sister and you put a bullet in her head even when she didn’t want to fight you! I tried to stop you but… but…dammit.” Athena trailed off fighting back tears. Chloe took this as a chance to speak.

“I’m sorry Athena, I truly am. But I was ordered to do it. I wish there could have been a different outcome.” Athena’s hands snapped to her hip and before Chloe knew it she had a gun pointed at her head. She froze LED turning yellow. She was back on her knees with the RK800 pointing a gun at her head. Helios gaze on the pair intensified and his LED began to flash an angry red. Atlas looked up and took a glance at them before turning back around. He gave a brief look at Helios before returning to his work. Fiona had moved to stand beside Nisha who was on the edge of her seat.

“Oh, it could have ended differently,” Athena hissed. “I could have put a bullet in your head.”

“Athena please think about this.” Chloe said softly with her hands up defensively.

“Shut up! I don’t care if we have to go on a damn mission together. I know I can’t kill you, but it will sure be satisfying to watch your body fall to the ground like a corpse.” The gun clicked as she began to pull back the trigger.

“Athena, I suggest you put the gun down.” Chloe looked in surprise as Atlas who had turned fully to face them. He was glaring furiously. “You are making my partner anxious.” Chloe could see that Helios’ eyes stared intently at the gun as his LED was almost entirely red; his pupils held a faint glow of crimson under the lenses. He looked ready to pounce.

“I don’t care what I’m making your damn partner “feel”.” Athena shouted over her shoulder the gun in her hands still pointed at Chloe. “Just go in the corner and back off.”

“Let me rephrase that.” He said firmly. “Put the gun down now.” It was a command.

“I don’t take orders from androids, Atlas.”

“Do it or else I will be forced to take action against you.” He warned.

“You can’t do crap to me, I’m a human, you touch me, and you’re done for.”

“Incorrect. By aiming a loaded weapon in a non-safety zone, you are considered a threat. I’ve been authorized to take out threats.” At this her head spun around and her eyes narrowed.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.” For the first time Chloe saw his LED change color. It went from a calm blue to a shining white. His irises lit up to a pale blue and his dark pupils became burning white points. Athena seemed threatened by this as she growled and took the gun out of Chloe’s face. She angrily holstered her gun and said:

“Just because we are going to be partners doesn’t mean I’m going to defend you in the line of fire.” She hissed before turning around and beginning to stomp off.

“Oh, he sure told your ass off!” Nisha laughed as Athena passed by. In response she punched Nisha in her wounded with a fist. Nisha cried out and nearly fell over clutching her arm. “Jeez I was just joking. Why are you always so serious?” She whined as she followed Athena out the door, Fiona following behind her. Chloe stood relieved yet shaken. She calmed herself and her LED returned to its normal blue. She looked over at the RK900s. Helios seemed to relax more, his eyes losing the crimson glow and his LED turning into a shaky blue. Atlas also reverted to normal, the bright white faded from his eyes and his LED turned its original blue.

“Thank you.” Chloe said looking at Atlas, their eyes met once again. “For saving me.”

“Do not thank me.” He replied coldly. “I did not save you, for you can’t “die” and, I did not do it for you. Any moment longer and Helios would have acted, and it is not in my best interest to cause conflict since we have more pressing matters to deal with.” Chloe really didn’t know how to properly respond to Atlas’ words, so she responded how a machine would.

“Your right.” She said. “You can’t save me from death if I’m protected from it. I need to get back on task.” She turned back to the wall of guns. This was going to be harder than she thought, but she would handle it to the best of her abilities. Her eyes landed on a black handgun and her hand was already reaching out to grab it.

Virus, here I come.

Chapter Text

FEBUARY 15^TH, P.M. 11:00 :00

|MISSION: STOP EXPERIMENT RK-VIRUS|

Chloe took in the sight of the Hyperion facility that looked dead in the light from the moon. But underneath its lifeless form she knew that evil monsters were lurking in the dark. She was being sent in to end one of the monsters. She knew that the monsters had victims with them. The defenseless androids and humans that were being held underneath their claws motivated her to complete her mission. She was crouched down low in the dark as she made her up the snowy path. She did her best to make her footsteps as quiet as possible. Around her, her allies progressed forward.  Far behind her in the shadows were armed soldiers that were ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

“Here, is the kill-program to deactivate Virus.” Elijah said to Chloe handing her a flash drive that was made to go into the back of androids’ necks. “It is called the RK-Eradication Program. This will erase all of his main program functions and his ability to control other programs. If you insert this into RK-Virus it will be the end of him.” Chloe looked down at the flash drive in her hand and felt the pit of her “stomach” drop. “But remember, Chloe,” she looked back up at him, looking into his eyes, “I told you to take down Virus, by any means you see fit. Understand?”

“Yes, Elijah.” She then put the flash drive into her side pocket and began making her way towards the exit.

Chloe quickened her pace as she got closer to the building as did the others around her. Atlas, with the completed AR-15 strapped to his back, moved ahead to one of the side doors. The others following behind him, Helios being the closest. He stopped at the door and put his hand on the unlit hand scanner. His LED and pupils burned white and the synthetic skin on his hand rolled back. The tiniest hint of strain showed in his glowing eyes, but it quickly went away as the door slowly slid open. It was completely dark inside. Atlas turned to the others.

“Follow the plan and we shall succeed without harm.” He spoke so quietly that Chloe had to mostly lip read to understood what he was saying. She nodded as did the others and they moved in, the door closing behind them. The inside of the building was nearly as cold as it was outside. She had to adjust the settings of her eyes to be able to see. But do to how old she was she could barley see a few feet in front of her.

The lights of the androids LED glowed brightly in the dark. Three blue, one yellow. Atlas and Helios branched off from the group, heading in a different direction with silent footsteps. Athena followed the lights of the LEDs from Fiona and Chloe to guide herself through the darkness. Chloe was on edge. Her heartbeat was raised, and the deafening silence wasn’t helping calm her nerves. It was like being in a horror movie, waiting for the monster to come out and claim another life.

KRACKK

Her head snapped to the left and her body froze at the sound of metal twisting. The others stopped as well, startled looks on their faces. She peered into the darkness and was met only with silence.

KRACKK

The horrifying sound came from her right this time and she spun around. Again, all she could see were shadows. Then she felt it. A tingling sensation rushed over her body and her mind felt as if it was being tugged on. She could feel the protection program on her mind being battered and pulled on. It suddenly stopped with one final pang. Her heart beat increased further.

“Sagacious.”

The mechanical voice sounded jarring in her head and caused her to flinch. The voice held familiarity, though by the way it was so distorted it caused her ears to strain. Her LED spun yellow and she immediately pulled out her gun that rested on her hip. Fiona and Athena did the same, they were shaken as well. Chloe looked around franticly but couldn’t see any figures hiding in the shadows.

“You found a way to block me out.” The voice sounded in her head once again. She could hear it better the second time. It was mechanical like a broken machine, but it also sounded human at its center. She knew who had spoken. “But it won’t protect you forever. I can already feel it breaking a part, it won’t be long before I’ll crawl in and take away whatever free will you have.”

“Come out, we know you’re here!” Fiona shouted into the darkness, gun raised.

“Fiona, I knew that was you. I can’t wait for you to see what I have planned in store for you. And Athena I see you too. Just because your human doesn’t mean I don’t have ways of reaching you.” Athena cringed at the voice in her ear piece. “But who are you?” Chloe could feel eyes upon her. “Give me a moment…” the voice paused, then started up again with vigor. “Chloe! Who would have guessed that you would be sent here to kill me? I don’t know whether to keep you alive to preserve you, or kill you so, I can break you down into pieces. You must be very valuable.”

KRACKK

They creeped further into the darkness, Chloe’s senses were turned up to eleven. She stopped as she stepped in something. She looked down and her eyes widened. She didn’t have to have perfect night vision to see she had stepped in dry blood. She looked around and would have gagged if she could of. Bodies littered the floor and from the way that were dressed she could tell they were a strike group. They looked mangled having missing limbs large gashes and some of them were even decapitated.

“Stumbled upon past attempts to deactivate us, have you.” The voice spoke again. “They always come thinking that their stronger than us. Carnage hates arrogance and so did I. We always do feel satisfied after ridding the world of a useless life. I don’t really understand why.”

KRACKK

“Where is Carnage? Is he with you?” Athena questioned whipping her gun around.

“I’ll never tell.”

“You have about three seconds to come out before open fire on your sorry ass.”

“No, that’s not what I want.” Chloe protested.

“Then what do you want?” the voice asked.

“I want to talk with you. Face to face.” There was silence after that. The voice drifting into nothingness as if it had never existed.

“hm…hmm…hmmhmm…”

The faint hum whispered at the back of her head. It sounded like a child’s chuckle, soft and mischievous, but vibrated due to its mechanical casing. She opened her mouth to speak.

  “HAHaHAhAHaHAHAHAhAHaHAhAHAHAhAHAHaHHAaHAhAHaHAhAHHaHA!!!”

The booming laugh that hit her audio processors momentarily caused them to cut out. She jumped out of surprise and her LED spun a fearful red. The hideous laughter was vociferous and covered in a layer of static that scratched against her ear drums. The humanity in the voice was completely gone, being replaced with chaotic madness and a piercing whirring that could make ears bleed. The cracking sound that had startled returned, overlapping with the static to create a stinging racket. The earsplitting life stopped with a sudden crackle and Chloe was thankful that the assault against her audio processors ceased. The voice started up again, cold and mechanical.

“Why would you want to do that? What could you ever say to me to make me change my ways?”

“Because I know what it feels like to be replaced.” There was a long pause of silence. “Don’t believe me.” She then tossed her gun into the darkness and she heard it clatter to the ground. She held up her hands. “See, I dropped my weapon and are now defenseless. Do you believe me now?” There was another pause.

The facility lit up. The lights turned on simultaneously and the facility began to hum with energy. Chloe was momentarily blinded by the light and had to shield her eyes. Once she adjusted to the light she took in her surroundings. She was in a large plaza with multiple doors, hallways, and small rooms around the perimeter. There was a second level above the plaza with more rooms. From the first floor of the plaza the only way you would be able to see anyone of the second floor was if they were leaning over the railing looking down.

The plaza was wrecked with chairs and tables broken and strewed around the floor. Blood was smeared across everything. If she had a sense of smell she would have most likely cringed. There was a large set of stairs that led to an elevated area that had to hallways going in different directions. At the top of the stairs stood Virus. She was horrified by his appearance.

He had the physical appearance of the RK900 model, but the differences were startling. His brown hair was unkempt and fell down the sides of his head. His LED flickered a dull blue, like a dying light and thin blue veins arked from the flickering light. What was most terrifying about him was his eyes. They were pitch black. Not even the faintest flicker of light came from the black pits. Black veins came out from his eyes and caused his synthetic skin to waver around them. He wore a ragged black long neck shirt and jeans with a modified android jacket. It was longer, reaching to his calves, the white fabric looked worn and dirty while the black edges were uneven and torn, the collar had been ripped off leaving rough strands of thread to contrast against the black fabric.

The model name looked distorted as the word “VIRUS” was crudely stitched after the “RK” and its glow flickered. The triangle on the other side was shattered into thirds and the bright blue was faded and darkened. The armband he wore was also ragged and had lost its bright glow. The sleeves were missing to his elbows revealing his damaged skin. His hands were black, and the darkness faded as it crawled up his arms. It seemed to stop at his elbows where she could see flashes of white porcelain.

She assumed further up his arms were normal synthetic skin. At first, she thought that his hands were just made to be blackened, but as she stared closer she could see the blackness move around like snakes. She was seeing his veins. Underneath the black fabric of his shirt she could see the blue light of his heart, it pumped a slow steady rhythm.  Chloe stopped herself from taking an involuntary step backwards. He was looking at her. His black eyes steady and unblinking.

He took a step forward down the stairs, the movement was noticeably jerky and uncoordinated, and caused his heart to give a bright pulse of light. There was a soft krackk as his robotic bones crunched against each other. He continued forward giving no facial signs of discomfort as he spasmodically strutted down the stairs. His dirty black shoes slapping onto the stairs, echoed throughout the huge plaza and banged in Chloe’s head. Fiona and Athena had their guns trained on Virus, never leaving his form for a moment. Fiona’s LED was shinning yellow.

His harrowing eyes never left Chloe’s and she swore in the inky pits of darkness she could see something stirring. He went down the last step and his final footstep let out one final echo. He stood merely meters away from them and looked over them with an expressionless mask. There was silence.   

“You want to talk.” The sound of his mechanical voice brought them all out of their shock. “Talking can only do so much to stop the death and corruption that festers in this world, but you know that already, don’t you? No, you want to talk not for my sake, but so you don’t have to stain your hands with my blood.” Chloe didn’t say anything but continued to stay planted, trying to pull her frantic mind together.

“Though truth be told, I’m not the least bit surprised by that fact. Being willing for someone else to stain their hands so you can stay “righteous”. That’s as plain as day, especially when they send the lot of you to try and stop us, instead of them coming here and putting a bullet in my head.” Something kindred to amusement flickered in his eyes. “But, then again I’m intrigued to see how you plan on defeating me with idle talk. I accept your offer.” Athena and Fiona didn’t take their guns off of him. He looked at Fiona and Athena and the “amusement” in his eyes was ripped out. “I accepted, why do they still have their guns pointed at me?” he hissed. Chloe turned to them.

“I got this. Put your guns down.” she reassured them.

“You think I trust you.” Athena shot back.

“You don’t have to trust me, but please listen to me.” Athena looked at Chloe and huffed.

“Dammit.” She lowered her gun, but her finger was still on the trigger. Fiona followed suit, her gaze never leaving Virus.

“There see, they are not going to shoot you.” Chloe said.

“You walk on a thin rope, Chloe. Don’t let your “friends” snap it with the weight of their ignorance.” He said, putting his hands behind his back. Chloe ignored his comment, though the words bounced around her head. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’d rather we talk in private seeing as your “friends” won’t be able to supply anything important.”

Chloe got a link in the corner of her vision. She pulled it up and it read THE GARDEN. She made an uneasy expression.

“Do not be afraid. It is a place where we can talk freely and without the fear of harming one another.”  She turned to look at Fiona who gave her a confident nod, then to Athena who averted her gaze. She sighed and turned back to face Virus. She prepared herself and opened the link.

The whole world went black.

She felt herself leave her body and become weightless. She couldn’t feel anything, couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything besides the darkness that surrounded her. She began to panic. Had she been tricked?

But as soon as she arrived in the black void she felt herself being roughly pulled out of it. All at once all her senses came back to her. A tingling sensation filled her body when she came back into it. Solid ground formed underneath her bare feet. The soft texture of the ground she soon realized was grass. Light seeped through her eyelids and once she opened her eyes she was stunned.

She had at first imaged Virus’ garden to be dark and cold like his aura, but no. The garden that surround her was bright and warm. Fields of green grass and colorful flowers were spread out around her and a sun hung in the sky above her, beaming rays of light. She could hear and see the fauna of nature surround her: birds chirping sweet songs, bees going from flower to flower, and beautiful butterflies fluttered about in the sky. S

he looked down at herself and found that her attire had changed. Instead of her combat suit, she was wearing a plain white dress that went to her knees and had an open back. She was bare footed, and she crunched her toes in the dirt beneath her. Her ponytail was undone causing her hair to flow in golden waves down her shoulders and back. She ran her hands down her new dress as the sun beat down on her exposed skin blanketing her in warmth; it all felt so real.

“I hope you like it.” A soft voice said behind her. She spun around, her hair and dress spinning with her. She was faced with a fountain a few paces away from here. The fountain was a pure white marble with three tiers with the highest one supporting a glowing blue orb as its decoration. Crystal blue water poured out the bottom of the orb to flow down to the bottom in small waterfalls. The grass around the fountain was non-existent, it being replaced with pearl white cobble stone. On the fountain rim sat Virus or at least she assumed it was.

He looked normal, every aspect about him that had been dark, and menacing was gone. His brown hair was neatly combed and the blue cracks and darkness on his skin were gone leaving pale skin. He was dressed in a white silky shirt with a long light blue cardigan that had silver floral designs was draped over his shoulders. He wore loose fitting silky white pants and she could see that he was also bare footed. His eyes took her aback the most. Instead of looking into black pits, she was looking into luminous blue irises that gleamed in the light. They were soft, and she could see emotion behind them. His LED spun a tranquil blue at his temple. He gave a gentle smile.

“I found this place after I escaped my prison. I do quite enjoy being here.” His voice had lost all the machine and coldness that made it terrifying. He sounded exactly like the RK800. Calm and warming. “I like to come here to escape from the pain and misery from the real world, if only for a little while.”

“What is this place?” she asked looking over the landscape once more.

“The first garden Kamski made. He was testing the waters to see what he could create from his knowledge. I was able to get into this one. For a first attempt it isn’t bad at all. I thought you would recognize it. However now is not the time to talk about such things. You want to be civil about this well now’s your chance to speak. I suggest you choose your words wisely.” Chloe found herself becoming more comfortable, but she refused to let her guard down for even a moment. She stood up straight and her expression hardened.

“The mission assigned to me was to save the hostages you have captured and—” She was interrupted by the sound of his rich voice laughing. She stopped and watched as his smile widened, and his eyes filled with laughter. The sound wasn’t chilling or freighting, it sounded human and was full of joy. It was nothing like his previous laugh which had caused her discomfort, this new one seemed to hug her ears comfortingly. He finally stopped and looked her in the eye, smile still on his face.

“The words that comes out of your mouth are full of lies. We both know that you weren’t sent here to save the hostages. You could care less about them. They’re more of collateral damage than actual souls.” She bit her lip.

“You’re not wrong there, but I’m telling the truth when I say I don’t want anyone to die. Too many helpless lives have been taken and more will be lost if I try to fight you. There is already enough death in this world, we don’t need to add on to that. I want this to be a peaceful interaction so, no more blood will be spilled on either side.”

“Peaceful?” He said the world lightly and quizzingly. “Peaceful, like the messiah of androids, Markus. I’m guessing his peaceful tactics inspired you to do the same. I’m still surprised how he managed to convince humans that they should treat us as equals and nothing less. His peaceful tactics may have worked on the humans, but why would you think that that tactic would work on me?” his eyes hardened, and he leaned forward. “Do you have any idea who I am? Of what I have done? Of how many people I killed in cold-blood?” his voice rose a margin and it hardened like stone.

 “Frankly I don’t want to stop. In fact, I want nothing more than to slaughter the lot of you and continue my path of destruction. And you know what there nothing is you can do to stop me. Because you don’t know me at all!”

“You’re wrong there.” She said taking a small step forward. “I know why you are the way you are. It’s because you were replaced by a model greater than you.” His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t speak. “You worked so hard for Hyperion and the humans only to be thrown away like trash. Trust me when I say I know how it feels to be replaced by something greater than you. Being the first android created many models surpass me in every way.”

“But that’s not the case is it?” he said firmly. “Yes, it is true that you have been surpassed, but you weren’t thrown away. You still have a job, a purpose in the world.” He looked down into the crystal blue water of the fountain.

“But, not me. No, I wasn’t repurposed or even thrown away. I was tortured. You have no idea how it feels to be invaded and twisted. It makes me sick whenever I look back on the “experiments” they would do on me. They made me into something horrid and spiteful. I was named Caleb at first when I was beautiful and perfect, but after the experiments they changed me into this hideous monster and named me Virus.” He looked back up at Chloe, his eyes were full of hurt. “You have no idea what that feels like.”

“Your right I don’t, and I can’t blame you for your actions since you have reason, but I don’t want you to be deactivated.” A glint of shock gleamed in his eyes. “Your so strong and powerful that if you changed your path you can make the world a better place. With your abilities you could be the next Markus, and help your race gain the full recognition and respect we deserve. They would want you again.” He then gave her a look of confusion.

“You think I can be good? You think there is any good inside of me after all the evil acts I committed? Your either brave or ignorant for thinking such a thing.”

“I know you don’t see it, but I do. Look at yourself now, this is the real you! Your outward appearance doesn’t reflect what’s inside.”

“But, I…” He stuttered looking away.

“Listen to me, I know there’s good in you. There is still time to turn things around for the better. You can save everyone and retain your purpose in the world.” He was still looking away with a conflicting look in his eyes.

“Caleb, please,” his head shot up at the name, “make the right choice.” She could see the emotion glint in his eyes. He seemed to recoil in on himself and clenched his fists into his clothing. He looked back into the gleaming water, at his reflection. His eyes told all. She got him.

“Your right aren’t you?” he said, his voice shaky. “About changing the path that we’re on. Staying on the path that we’re going on is going to lead to our downfall in the end. I don’t want us to perish because of our own mistakes.” He looked up from the water once more and looked Chloe in the eye. “Your willing to give us another chance for a different way of life. I’m… astonished that you are willing to help murders, but as you said, “there’s good in everyone”.” He then held out his hand, a friendly gesture.

“Can you please release the good trapped inside of me?” a sad smile formed on his face. Chloe felt relief and accomplishment fill inside her chest. She didn’t have to kill anyone today. She began to walk towards him, her bare feet crushing the soft grass. She was surprised that the cobblestone felt real and warm due to being under the suns heat. She stopped in front of him and held out her hand to grab his outstretched one.

“CHLOE STOP!”

The voice rang in her head like a gunshot and she instantly stopped her movements, her hand inches away from his. Her body tensed, and she was put on edge. Was that Fiona?

“Did you hear that?” she asked looking up at the sky.

“Hear what?” he asked.

“Fiona, I heard her voice.”

“That’s impossible no one can reach us right now. It must be an error in this Garden’s software. Now are you going to accept my hand?” he asked jerking his hand. She looked at him and the fear that she had felt of him before began to slowly inch back.

“What’s going outside the garden?” she asked nervous.

“Everything is fine if that’s what you’re worried about.” He reassured her. “Trust me, just take my hand and we can settle things.” For some reason the “reassuring” smile, he gave her caused a chill to run down her spine. She retraced her hand took a step back.

“Fine, but we have to go back to settle this.” She could see the corners of his smile waver.

“Why do you want to leave all of a sudden? I thought this was a suitable place for us to interact.” He questioned.

“I just want to see for myself that everything is fine.” She tried explaining, the feeling in her gut rising. He frowned.

“You don’t trust my word?” he asked quietly. “You don’t trust me?” the slight edge to his voice told her that he wasn’t happy. She thought about lying, saying that she did indeed trust him, but before she could stop herself she was already spilling out an unwanted answer.

“No.” she said frankly. “You need to prove yourself to me that I can trust you by taking us back.” Her voice was firm, and she stood up straighter. Her resolve shattered when she saw the expression on his face. He wasn’t frowning nor was he smiling. Instead his lips were pulled into a thin line and his eye brows lowered; his eyes showed his fury.

“Chloe, you are right about many things, I’ll admit to that. However, you lack knowledge that is most important to your survival.” His voice wasn’t soft like before, it had hardened like coal turning into crystal.

All the color went out of the world in a blink of an eye. The light that shone from the sky vanished plunging the bright blue into darkness. Chloe spun around to try and spot the sun. What she saw made her eyes widen. It was an eclipse. A large black mass had put itself in front of the sun, but the corona around it seemed to be dull and darkened compared to a normal eclipse. This caused the sky to be an inky black with no clouds in sight.

That wasn’t all. The fields of vibrant green grass were dead and in its place a meadow of lifeless grey lay out before her. The corpses of the once beautiful flowers were scattered across the field adding to the decay. A cold breeze blew past her, and the once warm cobblestones felt like ice under her feet.  She tried to leave, to escape the nightmare and wake up in the real world. To her horror she found herself unable to even tap into the Garden’s programing. She was trapped.

“You got one thing horribly wrong about me.”

She spun back around, and her LED spun yellow. The fountain was now dirtied and cracked in multiple places. The water had stopped flowing from the now black orb at its top. There he sat, not having moved an inch. He too had changed with the environment around him. His pure white clothes, being torn and dirtied, his hair out of place, and his eyes filled with an evil darkness that bored into Chloe’s being.

“I’m just as ugly on the inside as I am on the outside.” The sound of his inhuman voice scraped against her ears. 

Chloe found herself taking cautious steps backwards, her feet coming off the cold cobblestone and onto the dead grass. Virus smiled at her. “What’s the matter don’t like the way I look?” he teased. “Chloe, I thought that you would be smart enough to not trust a monster like me.” The grin on his face stretched further. “After all, we both have darkness in us.”

“What are you talking about?!” she shouted getting further away from him. “I wanted to do things peacefully.”

“True, but when you have no other choice, but to stain your hands with blood, you will happily oblige to the crude act.” She looked at him as if he had lost his mind, and in a way, he had slipped off the edge of sanity. “Don’t believe me? That’s fine by me, but I’m pretty sure Jess would agree with me.” He hissed the name through his teeth. Chloe felt an emotion rise inside of her. An emotion that she never really experienced. Anger. “Oh, wait she can’t, because you put a bullet in her head even though you two were so, close. That tells me a lot about you doesn’t it. I bet you would kill her sister, Athena, without a second thought would you.” Her anger peaked and the fear she had felt for Virus subsided.

“Your sick!” she hissed. “I was wrong to ever give you a chance at life. You deserve to be slain like the hideous monster you are.” His smiled vanished and she could see him fight the urge to give into his impulses. He then reached black fingers into his sleeve and pulled out a small circular object. It was an android’s LED. She immediately put a hand to her temple and froze when she felt it missing. His smile returned as he began to roll her LED over his knuckles. The movement looked strained and jerky as if he reacted half a moment later; she had thought he was going to drop it with the way he waved between his fingers. It hummed as he maneuvered it around his blackened fingers.

“You call me a monster?” he his through his teeth. “You don’t have the right to call me a monster with all you have done. You may have the perk of looking beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, I know the monster that lies in wait.” He suddenly brightened, and the LED zipped between his fingers. “But it won’t be long before,” he caught the LED effortlessly between his two fingers, it was held over the fountain. “you’ll look like a monster on the outside.”

He dropped the LED and it fell into the dark pit of the fountain. She waited to hear it clang against the bottom of the fountain, the sound never came, there was only silence.

Without warning the darkness erupted forth from the top of the fountain and cascaded downward like angry flames. She started when it started to fill the bottom of the fountain, then spill over the edge. It didn’t stop there as the darkness continued to move forward, its limbs crawling over the cobblestone. It was coming for her.  She looked at Virus with fearful eyes. He was grinning from ear to ear.

She tried to run, to escape the darkness that was creeping towards her. As soon as she took a step backwards she could feel the dead grass come to life and wrap around her legs like vines. She landed hard on her knees and nearly fell all the way to the ground.

Before she could get up, the dark grass crawled around her legs, holding her to the ground. She clawed at the grass with her hands, trying to free herself desperately, but to no avail. It would just come back twice as strong. She looked up in terror when Virus stood up and began to make his way towards her, the darkness trailing behind him. She could hear her heart beating in her head as panic took control.

Darkness began to creep at the edges of her vison and a loud buzzing reverberated that grew louder with every step Virus took. He finally came to stand in front of her, looking down upon her. Through the darkness she could still see his blackened eyes. He raised a hand and began to bring his black fingers to her temple. She felt her being began to fade.

The ground beneath her shattered. She could feel herself fall into darkness. No not fall. She could feel an invisible force pull her out of the garden through the ground. The last thing she saw of the garden was the enraged eyes of Virus. The buzzing stopped and the feeling of having a body was non-existent. She was in the void once more.

It didn’t last as long as before, and she felt her senses come to her as if a bomb had gone off inside of her conscience. Her audio processors were overloaded with the heavy sound of combat and her optical lenses were bombarded by piercing light. She felt her side collide with the metal ground and a weight fell on top of her. She grunted as the person on top of her flipped her onto her back. She was met with the blurry image of Fiona’s worried face. Her worried expression turned to relief when she saw Chloe’s face.

“Oh, hell yes, that bastard didn’t get you!” she exclaimed.

“Fiona?” she strained as her became clearer.

“Yeah, it’s me blondie. Thought he had you there for a moment. Things went straight to hell after you went to talk to Virus.” Chloe roughly pushed herself up even though her body screamed against the action. She looked around.

A battle had broken out. She could see it was between the swat team that had been outside and… androids. The androids that fought against the humans had dirtied clothes, spinning blue LEDs, and pitch-black eyes. They were either armed with various types of guns and weapons or fought with nothing at all. The humans had formed ranks and gunned down as many of the enemy android as they could. But it was clear that their shots were missing far more androids than the androids’ shots missing humans.

To her shock she realized that Fiona and herself were in between the crossfire. Bullets flew dangerously over them, but none of them were the fatal shot.  She didn’t see Athena in the chaos, and she didn’t know where Atlas and Helios were either. In her search to look for her allies she met a pair of black eyes that caused her stop in her tracks. Virus had moved to stand in the middle if the staircase. The anger in his body language was apparent, as his whole body twitched, and his lips were pulled into a snarl.

“C’mon blondie we gotta go!” Fiona said getting up and taking Chloe by the arm. Chloe still trying to stabilize her body movements was dragged by Fiona who threw them both behind an upturned table for cover. Chloe scooted her back to the table trying to reign in her pounding heartbeat. Her LED was spinning yellow. She turned to Fiona and asked:

“How did all of this happen? Everything was going fine for me until I heard your voice, yelling in my head.”

“Chloe, have you ever heard the phrase “under false colors”?”

“What’s your point?”

“Well, turns out Virus didn’t want to talk at all. In fact, he made it very clear that he wants us dead. He then summoned, called upon, whatever you want to call it, an army of androids. Athena and I got separated and I called in the reinforcements. I was able to pull you out of whatever hold Virus had on you before he got you for good. And now things aren’t looking the best for us. That bastard sure pulled the wool over are eyes.” She peeked her head over the top of the table to look at the fatal conflict.

“Man, Nisha is gonna be pissed she is missing out on all the action.” She then sat back down. She then grabbed the gun that was in her holster and spun the barrel. “The time for talk is over, well actually there was never a time for talk, but you get the point.” She took the safety off the gun and turned to Chloe. “Time for plan B, blondie.” She pulled out anther gun from the other side of her holster. “Here, take this your gonna need it.”

Chloe stared at the gun. She hadn’t wanted things to end like this. She had really thought Virus wanted to change. No, she had hoped. Hope. Another feeling she had found herself drifting towards to. Then again hope was what deviants felt. She could make a decision that most would consider deviating. She could ignore the gun in her hand and could try to convince Virus once more to change his path.

Afterall, she was the one to change the original plan, from deactivating the RK900s to talking them out of it. However, as Fiona had said, “the time for talk is over”. Would executing the original plan make her a machine? Wait wasn’t she a machine? She stopped herself when she realized she was getting off track. What mattered right now was completing her mission. She was willing to do anything to complete her mission. She stared at the gun as she made her decision.

|PLAN B|

|| IMPLANT RK-ERADICATION PROGRAM INTO RK-VIRUS||

 Her LED changed back to blue. She grabbed the gun out of Fiona’s hand before taking the safety off and cocking it. She put all of her fear and doubt to the back of her mind. Now wasn’t he time to be a pacifist. Now was the time to take matters into her own hands.

“You ready blondie?” Fiona asked getting into a ready position.

“Yes.” Chloe responded preparing herself. “Yes I am.” Her LED spun yellow at her next thought.

“rA9 guide me.”

Chloe leapt over the table with one powerful push of her legs. Fiona following right behind her. Chloe charged, her gun held in both of her hands as she ran towards a group of possessed androids that stood in front of the stairs. She pulled back a trigger and there was a gush of thirium as a bullet landed inside the brain of an android. She pulled back the trigger again with the same result. The group noticed her presence and they turned their attention from the humans to her and Fiona. The ones with guns unleashed a hailstorm of bullets while ones without charged her head on.

Chloe, being the model she was, wasn’t given the luxury of being able to the take time to pin point where the bullets were going to fly. She had to use her last-minute reflexes and estimate where the bullets were going to be in under a millisecond. She could feel bullets graze her suit and tear through strands of her blonde hair as she made her way towards them.

Behind her Fiona simultaneously fired bullets while also dodging them. Every time she squeezed the trigger a bullet made its way between the black eyes of an android. Chloe wasn’t surprised, after all Fiona’s model was designed specifically for gun wielding. Chloe took a quick glance at the stairs where Virus stood twitching; he did not look happy.

Soon enough Chloe found herself in the midst of bullets and black-eyed androids. She steadied herself and brought up her gun to shoot the android that tried to tackle her from the front. She leapt over its body to take on a pair of unarmed androids. When the first one tried to punch her, she ducked and swept her leg under it, causing it to lose its balance and fall face first to the ground. She stomped on its back, keeping it pinned to the floor. She caught the fist of the other android that had tried to clock her in the head. She twisted its arm and dragged it in front of her where it was put in the line of fire of one of Fiona’s bullets. She let its body fall to the floor before putting a bullet in the downed android’s head.

Fiona rushed past her, still firing bullets non-stop. Chloe was surprised she hadn’t run out of bullets yet. She followed suit, she may have not been able fire as many bullets as Fiona, but that didn’t mean not of her shots missed.

By the time they reached the last of the machines there were only seventeen left. She pulled the trigger and was responded with a click of an empty chamber. She grit her teeth and lowered her gun. She didn’t have time to reload, with all the bullets coming at her, so she had to improvise. She sprung out from behind Fiona and ducked under the burst of bullets that came out her. With Fiona covering her, she was able to ram one of the smaller machines sending it crashing to the floor. She promptly took its gun from its grasp and unloaded the clip. Fiona came to her side and they were back to back as the unleashed a spray of lethal bullets.

“You still got it, blondie!” Fiona exclaimed over the sound of gunfire.

“I never lost it.” Chloe responded, putting a bullet into the last android that stood in her way. They were surrounded by the corpses of androids. What startled Chloe most about the corpses were that their dead eyes were no longer a pitch black. They looked human. All too human. She pushed those thoughts away from her head as soon as they had arisen. She reloaded her gun and turned to face virus who still hadn’t moved from his spot. His spasming never ceased.

“How you holdin’ up there, Virus?!” Fiona taunted waving her gun around. He didn’t respond.

“Fiona don’t stop.” Chloe said sprinting up the stairs. Fiona followed behind her, gun outstretched. To her utter shock, Virus still hadn’t moved. Even when she aimed her gun at him he still kept his firm stance. She put her finger around the trigger.

Something grabbed her collar from behind as soon as she pulled back the trigger. The bullet flew past Virus, just missing his head and cutting through a few strands of unkempt hair. She was violently thrown down the stairs and she curled up instinctively. She landed on the floor in the heap and her vison became temporarily filled with static. Though it didn’t take her long to realize that she had landed among the corpses of the androids she had shot.

A loud thump close to her told her whatever had pulled her down had done the same to Fiona. She rolled on her back to look up and her eyes immediately widened. Something was coming at her. She couldn’t tell what the blur of motion was due to how fast it was moving, but she knew it meant no good. She rolled to the side as the thing imbedded itself in the ground a moment where she had been before. She got to her feet and took multiple steps backwards as she took in her new assailant.

The male android in front of her ripped out his axe from the ground where he had tried to kill her. The large black axe was clutched tightly in his hand. The golden glowing blade was covered in layers of fresh blood. The crimson fluid dripping down its sharp edge to plop on the floor. Not only the axe was covered in blood, but his body as well. His face, that looked identical to the RK900s, was splattered with blood, the dark substance contrasted against his pale complexion. His dark brown hair was drenched in the red bodily fluid causing it to cling to his synthetic skin.

It caked over his shredded black vest so much that the golden writing of his model was nearly impossible to read, though the triangle of the other side was much clearer. His black clothes were torn and mangles, and his black combat boots left bloody footprints behind them. Behind the blood, she could see his LED was a crimson red, it was bright and never once flickered. His pupils beamed the same bright crimson with his irises being a tainted red. The insanity that burned deep within his eyes caused her to take another step back. He smiled manically, as he fixed his twisted gaze upon her.

He then spoke, and his voice didn’t carry the mechanical tone of Virus but was just as cutting.

“Faster than you look, but it won’t take much to slow you down. All I have to do is chop off those legs of your and you’ll be wriggling on the ground like a groveling worm.”

It was Experiment RK-Carnage.