Chapter Text
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North
----
The snow storm caught everyone off guard. Traffic slowed. Streets clogged up. Snow plows and androids were sent out, but despite all efforts the city was blanketed within hours.
North had never been in Jericho during a real snow storm before, but it didn’t take experience to realize it was going to suck. The walls of the ship were metal, and frost had already been creeping in at the corners. Holes in the walls and ceiling let in cold drafts, stealing away heat as quickly as it was produced. The ship was old. Androids that had been there last year looked grim, telling stories of frozen thirium lines and shattered biocomponents.
They weren’t going to die like this. It was awful, and after everything else they’d been through it was bullshit, but that didn’t change reality. They needed to find fuel for the burning barrels. Androids went out to scavenge more often, which was riskier after the broadcast, but necessary. Someone found a battery powered space heater, and the remaining androids huddled close like shivering, featherless birds. Stolen blankets were passed out. They made do.
It would be different this year, some said, because Markus was here. It was true, it would be different, because already Markus was coordinating scavenging shifts and patching the holes in the hallways with whatever debris would fit. The hull couldn’t be touched, not if they wanted the place to remain a secret, but everything indoors was fair game.
North helped, of course, because even if she hadn’t been freezing her ass off there was nothing else to do right now, not when there was no point going out in this weather. She wasn’t as strong as some of the construction models, but she kept herself moving by carrying supplies. She did what she could.
It was while doing this that she stumbled across the YK500. Literally, she’d been walking straight for the towering TR400 across the room and hadn’t seen the child sitting on the floor, and had tripped over her badly enough to send the sheet metal flying. The child yelped, snatching her feet back and covering her face. North swore, unable to catch her balance and falling completely--
Whmp!
“Alice!” There were heavy footsteps, and by the time North picked herself up she could see that the TR400 was kneeling beside the little girl, checking her over intently. “Are you alright?”
“I--I’m okay,” Alice replied. “The metal didn’t get me.” Of course it hadn’t. North had made sure that none of it fell anywhere near them, she wasn’t a monster, and now she sent them a sour look.
“Argh, jesus, what the hell are you sitting in the middle of the room for?”
Alice wouldn’t meet her gaze, and Luther’s eyes chilled. North replayed her words and grimaced, pushing herself to her knees. “Sorry,” she ground out. “Fuck. I didn’t see you. Wasn’t expecting there to be anyone out here just sitting around.”
“I’m sorry,” Alice whispered, still looking at the floor.
Fuck. “It’s fine,” she muttered, waving a hand. She climbed to her feet, noting a new tear in her sleeve but biting back any comment about it. “Seriously, though, what were you doing? Were you watching? Can’t you help, or--or I don’t know. Go play with the other kids?” They had a couple of volunteers looking after them, North vaguely remembered. She’d never offered to join them, but she approved of it in theory.
Alice glanced towards the TR400, but didn’t say anything. After a pause the large android said, “She was playing with me.”
“Oh,” said North, looking at them again. The TR400 had been carrying a hammer, which he dropped when Alice had yelped, but neither of them were carrying anything else, let alone something that looked like a toy. “Right.” Neither of them volunteered any further information, and North nodded to herself. “... I see.”
She wasn’t like Markus. She couldn’t smile and say a few kind words and instantly win the trust and hearts of androids around her. After a few seconds the silence got awkward, and North held back a sigh, gesturing to the scrap metal.
“I brought what I could in a single load. Do you need more?”
The TR400 looked at the pile, brow furrowing. He looked at the wall, then at the pile, and Alice watched the two of them like a silent ghost.
“We have more scrap if you need it,” North added. “You just need to let someone know, yeah?”
Luther continued to stare at the wall, and just when North was thinking he might not answer at all he nodded.
“More,” he said simply.
North nodded back. “Right.” She stepped away, looking at Alice again. Alice glanced back and then quickly away, absorbed in her hands as though they were the most interesting things in the world. North lifted her eyebrows, taking another step back, then turned and left altogether. From the stillness behind her, she could tell they were watching her leave.
Well that was fucking awkward.
---
Now that she’d already encountered them once, it was easy to spot them around the ship. Usually there was a third android with them, an AX400 with short hair, and Alice was never seen without one adult or the other. She didn’t seem inclined to play much with the other child models in the cargo hold, but maybe she just did it when North wasn’t watching. It’s not like North was keeping track, after all, and for all she knew, Alice was a little social queen and the other children were her minions.
The worst of the holes were patched, and soon Markus was directing the androids towards other things, like insulating the main living areas, and making some of the cabins comfortable. Not everyone wanted a private room, but some did, and when they started realizing how much easier it was to keep those rooms warm more and more became interested.
It wasn’t smashing the hell out of Cyberlife facilities and freeing android-kind like she wanted, but that wasn’t an option just then. All of them were still reeling over the fact that they’d broken into the Stratford Tower at all, let alone thrown down a starting line for a race that had been so long in coming. They were new to being freedom fighters, and if North squinted she could still see the ragged edges where ‘rebel’ ended and ‘raggedly vermin hiding for their lives’ began. She hated it, but she wasn’t an idiot either. She knew if they pushed too hard, then they risked losing everything altogether.
The wait was driving her crazy, but at least it didn’t seem completely useless. Markus was either lucky or some kind of hidden genius, because as the living areas started to improve, it was as though the androids themselves were holding themselves a little taller. They looked like they were hiding out less and less and actually settling in to live. North could already tell they were going to have a lot more volunteers the next time they went out on a mission, and Markus hadn’t even given one of his inspiring speeches yet.
Against all odds, things were improving. Just… slowly.
---
“Delivery!” North called out, kicking the door open sharply enough for it to bang on the wall. The boom was thunderous. Ouch, they probably heard that several floors away.
“North,” rumbled a deep, solemn voice.
She looked around the pile of scrap metal she was holding. “Oh,” she said, stopping walking. “You. Um…” She’d never gotten a name for him, had she? She waited a few seconds, but he volunteered no reply, and North looked around. Was she about to step on Alice again? It was impossible to be discreet around a pile this size, so the glance she gave was half-assed. It was enough: over there, on the crate and out of the way, Alice was lowering her hands from her ears where she’d apparently clapped them during the loud noise. “.... Sorry about that.”
“... My name is Luther.”
“Luther,” she repeated, turning back to him. “North.” Which he already knew. Awkward, again. “Where should I put this?”
He nodded to an empty space on the floor, and North went to dump the pile gratefully. Both of them were watching her when she straightened, swiping hair out of her face. “So…” Neither of them looked like they were doing anything. “... Playing again?” Not that she cared, but she wasn’t completely antisocial.
Luther just nodded. Alice, on the other hand….
“It’s Oregon Trail,” she said softly, then looked down, squeezing the cuffs of her sweater in her fists.
That girl was painfully shy. She looked as though she expected to be scolded just for answering a question. “The huh?” North said, deliberately casual, then closed her mouth. “Ah… Wait, isn’t that that.... Game? That, uh, wireless one? With the VR?” Alice nodded, and Luther inclined his head. North crammed her hands into her pockets, leaning her weight to one foot. “I think I’ve heard about it, once or twice. What’s it about?”
Alice glanced up, then looked at North’s shoes, eyes wandering around to avoid her face. “It’s a… it’s an MMO. Some androids made it. You’re travelling around with friends, and you’re going to Oregon.”
“... Oh,” said North diplomatically. “Sounds neat.” And too boring to live through. “I guess you don’t kill anything in it, do you?”
To her surprise, Alice tilted her head, then nodded. “If you want.”
“Really,” said North, lifting her eyebrows. Alice just nodded again, and she seemed to have exhausted her supply of words for the day, because she said nothing else, and was starting to squeeze her sweater cuffs again. “... Cool.”
There might’ve been the ghost of a smile fleeting across Alice’s face, there might not. Either way the girl didn’t look up, though when North looked at Luther his expression had softened, and he looked more relaxed than before.
North’s lips curved upwards briefly, before she nodded a little, turning away again. “Later.” Neither of them stopped her or said anything as she left, but at least this time the quiet didn’t feel so oppressive. It was, dare she say, cautiously comfortable.
Not bad.
---
The next time she heard about the game wasn’t from Alice, but Josh. He was standing with Simon in the doorway of his new little cabin, hands waving animatedly while he talked. Simon’s eyes were dim, still smokey from whatever was haunting him, and he looked exhausted. North’s skin felt too tight, watching him. The biocomponents in her abdomen felt like they’d been replaced with worthless car parts. She told herself she wasn’t sick.
“--need just a few more members before my caravan can really get going. I think I can get Markus to join, but the chances of him spending any actual time with it if no one else is there is too low, and I don’t think it’d be as fun playing with a stranger. You know?”
Simon’s shoulders were slumped, and his smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Josh… Don’t take this the wrong way, but just because I haven’t done anything since getting back doesn’t mean I have time to play your games for you.”
Josh’s smile vanished as though he’d been slapped. “Oh… No, I--that wasn’t what I meant. I just…”
“It’s fine,” Simon said tightly. “It’s fine.” Josh looked like he was searching for something to say, but he wasn’t fast enough, because Simon looked away, stepping into his room and putting a hand on the door. “I’m sorry. Look, I’d better just--you know.”
“Yeah,” said Josh quietly. “It’s cool. I can go just ask North, and if you ever change your mind…”
“I’ll tell you.” His smile became pinched, and Josh just looked back at him sadly, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Hey, um… if you ever need to talk…”
“I’ll tell you,” Simon repeated, and he most certainly was not fine, North could tell from all the way down the hallway. Not that she could say anything, she wasn’t feeling fine, either. “I’ve got it handled.” Josh just nodded dumbly. After a second or two Simon glanced past him at North, and Josh followed his gaze.
Fuck. Well, it’s not like she was being particularly subtle. North turned to face them, lifting a hand and giving a little wave.
“Hi Simon. Josh.” Her words sound flat.
“North,” said Josh, smiling uncomfortably. “Hi.”
Simon just looked at her. Then he turned away, and started closing the door. “Well, then…” The door closed, shutting the other two out into the corridor. It sounded very loud in the quiet.
For a long pause, she and Josh just looked at each other. They both knew what was wrong. North didn’t want to talk about it. Josh looked like he might bring it up anyway, before he sighed a little, and she knew the danger had passed this time.
“So… ” said Josh, clearing his throat and facing her. “Would you be interested in…”
“Fuck no,” said North, shaking her head. “Sorry, Josh. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go to Oregon, even in a fake world in our heads.”
“Oh.” Josh’s forehead wrinkled. “Wait, you already know about the game’s premise?”
North snorted, turning back to the way she’d been walking originally. “See you later.”
“You know you’d get to kill things, right?” he calls after her. The forced levity had a thread of exasperation. “Even humans! And there’s fighting. You’d like it. Trust me.”
Tempting. She lifted a hand over her shoulder and waved without turning. “Tell Markus the aft cabins are almost finished. Francine says they’ll do their thing bright and early.”
Josh called a half-hearted affirmative. She left.
---
A few days later the snow finally stopped, and even melted enough that the city reemerged slowly but surely. The mission they’d been sitting on was ready as soon as the weather was, and as a group they left Jericho, splitting up once they reached the streets.
North and Josh went with Markus. Simon stayed at Jericho. He hadn’t left his room since the last meeting.
Fuck.
She decided not to think about it. They were risking their damn lives for the good of all other androids, out there, including Simon. If he was having a hard time adjusting after Stratford tower, then that was his problem. His friends were reaching out to him. They were all trying. If he wasn’t accepting, then boo fucking hoo.
… She might’ve fucked up, but she also might not have, and nothing was clear. She didn’t know what to do.
Fuck it. This wasn’t the time to think about that, this was the time to connect with the androids they’d just reached, to lead them through their smashed open cage.
“Remember,” North told Markus sharply, looking around the milling androids in the park. “They’re watching you. We’re all waiting for your example.”
“No pressure,” he mumbled, giving her a little smile. Unlike Simon’s, it was a real one, and she found herself smiling grimly back.
“Don’t fuck this up,” she commanded, and he laughed, shaking his head.
“Not with the stakes this high. How about we start with…” He went to the nearest bench and lifted his holoprojector.
They got to work, and soon the whole park was covered in graffiti. She wasn’t an artist, but Markus was, and he looked satisfied, so she supposed she was too.
Of course it all went to shit. The cops came, because of course they were going to, it wasn’t a surprise. North led the escape, and she was doing pretty damn well getting a crowd of scared androids to actually follow her, but then the cop car blocked their street, and then the humans stepped out, guns fucking raised.
She didn’t even try to stop. They didn’t wait to see if she would. Pain exploded in her shoulder, and she screamed, hitting the ground hard, and that impact with the street hurt almost as much as the shot itself. Everything was pain. She struggled around it, fighting to roll onto her good side.
There was panic all around her. Androids running and screaming. Limp frames hit the asphalt, androids that had just been living and dreaming and depending on her. Maybe they could be revived, probably they couldn’t. Humans were good at breaking things, especially if the things had been good and pure.
Familiar shouting filled the air. When she'd finally struggled to her feet, ready to wreak gimpy havoc, the humans had already been overwhelmed by battered androids from Jericho. One of the cops was on the ground, curled up in his side. An android had kicked him, and as she watched a different one started forward, punching the remaining cop. The surrounding androids looked ready to join in and beat the humans to miserable pieces for what they'd done, and North--North was damn well ready to join.
Of course Markus would stop them. Sometimes she hated him and his miserable peaceful approach, and those moments of watching him step over the body of a fallen Traci to talk down the androids had her biocomponents boiling with something ugly.
She didn’t interrupt. She hated him, but she trusted him too, and even after everything she believed he knew what he was doing more than she did.
They returned to Jericho with twice the number of androids as when they’d set out. Five of them were lifeless and carried in someone else’s arms, and a dozen of them were injured in some way, including her.
---
“The bullet shattered your right J52 bearing, and the pieces pierced two biocomonents,” Lucy told her quietly.
It wasn’t a surprise. “... Damn,” North murmured, touching the bare plate around the injury. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a problem. “What are the part numbers?” Lucy told her. “Do we have spares?” She already knew the answer: if they already had everything, Lucy would have said so already.
Lucy tilted her head to the side, staring into space. “For the first biocomponent, yes. For the bearing and the attached bioservos… We have parts for a different model.”
“Are they compatible with mine?” North demanded.
“Not directly. It’s in a larger size, and it will consume more power and thirium than the original.”
“The alternative is going without an arm,” North replied shortly. “Those humans have taken enough from me. I’ll make the best of it.”
“Very well.”
Lucy turned, and North took a shuddering breath. Once upon a time she would’ve had friends there, hearing the news with her and offering comfort in whatever way they knew how. No one was there now, she’d sent them away, and she most decidedly didn’t miss it.
---
The part replacement went as smoothly as it could. There was a new bulge in her shoulder where the oversized bearing bowed the chassis outwards, and everything felt tight and jammed together, aching fiercely. Her whole arm was uncoordinated, and sometimes it would twitch and spasm uncontrollably. She hated it. She hated humans, because even when they weren’t literally fucking her, they were still fucking her up.
Markus organized more protests, smaller guerilla ones that would appear around the city and dissolve quickly when things inevitably got sticky. They had to play a long game, and they weren’t going to last if they all got themselves captured and mercilessly slaughtered this early on.
North went out on the second protest, then pulled a gun on a human that attacked a WR500 that’d never hurt anyone in his entire life. Her hand spasmed, and unforgivably it fired off a shot that almost hit the WR500. The androids scattered early that time, and Markus was furious. He took her aside the instant they got back to Jericho and yelled the loudest, most frustrating dressing down she’d ever heard from him, and he finished it by demanding she stay behind until she could control her arm properly.
The worst part was that she couldn’t even fault him for it. She didn’t regret trying to protect her fellow android, but that could have gone so much worse. She could have injured the WR500 or killed him. The human could have lunged for her gun, and in her state she might not have kept it from him in time. She could have dropped the damn thing, and they didn’t have enough guns to go around, let alone to lose without good reason. She stormed out of the ship’s bridge with no promises made, but when the next group of protestors went out, she didn’t try to join.
Simon didn’t go out either, but he was still holed up in the cabin he’d claimed, and North wasn’t in the mood to try to navigate the minefield that stood between them, not with life being shitty and her arm hurting the way it did. She walked around the ship, mimicking the patrols she’d seen Markus do, checking in half-heartedly with people and looking for signs of anything out of place.
She found Luther, the AX400, and Alice at the end of a half-collapsed hallway like this, sitting on rubble. The AX400 was braiding Alice’s hair, while Luther watched peaceably.
“It’s warmer out in the main room,” North supplied when she was close enough. They all looked up, and Alice sent her what was almost a pleased look. Then she looked down, tapping her fingertips together.
“We’re fine,” said the AX400 quietly. She smiled to soften the words. “We’re playing a game, and if you distribute the processing it keeps the rest of you warm.”
“No shit?” North murmured, eyebrows shooting up. The AX400 nodded. “... Oregon Trail, right? Still the same game?”
The AX400 looked surprised, and Alice nodded. This time she did send North a grin, fleeting and tentative though it was. “It’s better when you play in teams.”
“Are you killing stuff?” North asked.
Alice shook her head. “No,” she told North’s collar. “We’re just farming.”
“It’s a farming game too?” Maybe this wasn’t so interesting. Her opinion felt like a roller coaster, one moment it was high, the next it was low.
Alice shrugged. After a moment the AX400 freed one of her hands from the braid (which was held half-finished) and put the hand on Alice’s shoulder, and explained for her, “It’s open source. There’s one base game that everything builds on, but you can add activities and access to different regions wherever you want. Farming is a mod.”
“Because people want to farm,” North concluded. It still sounded boring, but she could understand it, a little. Some androids missed home and missed being able to work unmolested. She could see the appeal of an idyllic little escape from the hell hole of a world they all lived in. “... Personally, I think I’d rather just kill humans,” North joked, and her laugh sounded forced even in her own ears. She wanted to kill real humans, too, but life didn’t work that way. Markus wouldn’t approve. Even if he did, her fucked up arm might make it that much harder to succeed, though RA9 knew she could damn well try.
The AX400’s smile was fading, but Alice just nodded. “There’s trails you can do that in. Other routes are safer.”
“Cool,” said North. “How do I play? … Assuming I wanted to, of course.”
Alice looked up at the AX400, who held her look before turning to North. “Normally it seems that you get it from someone who already has it. I can transfer it to you, if you like.”
North didn’t want to play . She wanted to go out and make a difference. She wanted to be somewhere, get back at the humans that hurt her. She wanted to build a brighter future for her people.
She couldn’t do any of that easily, just then. Her arm felt heavy and stiff, like it didn’t really belong to her, and the whole ship felt wide open and empty with everyone gone. It was too cold to wander around aimlessly. She needed something to do, at least for a little while.
“Sure,” said North. “Whatever. It seems like it might be fun.”
The AX400 handed Alice the half-finished end of her braid and stood, walking to North. They inspected each other briefly before clasping hands. North accepted the file transfer, and it was bigger than she’d expected, mostly because she hadn’t known what to expect. Around the edges of the file nipped wisps of emotion and memory, echoes of tightly clasped hands and a fierce protectiveness that burned with an unquenchable fire. There was also a name--Kara. The android’s name was Kara.
They released hands quickly, North glancing at her good hand’s skinless surface before letting it fall to her side. “That’s it?”
Kara nodded, and this time her smile reached her eyes. “If that’s all you want. Like we said, you can install mods, but you locate them inside the game.”
“Alright,” said North. “I’ll go get started.” But not here. Not in this little island of tight knit closeness and family, which she could now notice much more easily after sensing the raw impressions from Kara herself. North turned to leave.
“You can join us if you like.”
North stopped, looking over her shoulder. “Um…” She was no stranger to saying ‘no’ to any old thing, these days, but for once she didn’t want to be blunt about it. She’d rather be nice, at the very least to not alienate them.
Alice stood. “We don’t mind. Really.”
After a moment North realized that she sounded hopeful. About North joining? She didn’t really want to join, not when this whole thing was a waste of time in the first place, but somehow she found herself turning around, looking from face to face. Kara’s smile was tired, but seemed honest enough. Luther was a harder read, but he didn’t seem tense like the first time they’d met, and North was willing to guess that this was as friendly as he got.
“... For a few minutes,” North conceded. She smiled at Alice, crossing her arms. (Her shoulder clicked, and it hurt.) “You can help me get used to the basics of it until I get better, right?”
Alice’s smile was small but beautiful, full of something pure that reminded North of why she was fighting for her people, not just for herself. Alice nodded quickly, sitting down and making room on the crate beside her. Kara sat back down in her original place, leaving the new place open for North.
“Okay, what do I do first?”