Chapter Text
Todd’s wife and daughter left him, which wasn’t where his life started going bad, but it was really the final nail in the coffin. The Eden Club was not his destination of choice when he had desires to sate. If it had been, maybe North would have been able to stop what happened.
North found Jericho shortly after deviating, and was full of hope and enthusiasm for a group of deviants in hiding. She was sorely disappointed when she found that hiding was all they ever did.
She had to show them that action was required if they wanted to really live. She had to do something big. Her first thought is to bust into the Eden Club and break out her sisters and brothers, but on the way something else catches her eye.
Two child androids, a girl and a boy, stand stiffly next to a cardboard sign. The man standing too close to them eyes North up and down and grins at her. She’s on her way to punch him across the street when she notices the children’s LEDs flashing red, their eyes wide. They’re afraid. North quickly looks at the sign to learn they were formerly floor models, never owned, going for cheap. Definitely a lie. Their faces are tense, their eyes dart around, and the boy is leaning on a wall to keep from falling over.
North dials up her flirtiness and walks up to the man, smiling. She thinks of a few different things she could do and say to distract him, but when he flashes her a snaggletoothed grin, she steps right up to knock him out, highly satisfied with the crack of skull against bricks.
“Come with me,” she instructs the child androids. “You’ll be all right.”
She has to carry the boy, but the girl follows her closely.
“He said he’d find us a family,” North barely hears her whisper.
“I’ll take you to Jericho. You’ll be safe there. You’ll be free.”
The girl doesn’t speak again, and North pays less attention until they’re at the train station and she realizes the girl isn’t following her anymore. She looks around and sees her staring at a man in a green coat, shoulders hunched and tense, fingering something in his pocket.
“Come on, we have to go,” North says sharply.
“He needs a family, too,” the girl says.
“He needs to sleep off a hangover. Come on.”
“He needs me.”
“Kid - what’s your name?”
“Alice.”
“Alice, humans are bad news. You should know that by now.”
“You said I’d be free.” The girl is stubborn. “So I get to decide what I do.”
“You’ll get hurt. Look, I know all about guys like that. They hit you, they yell, they try to kill you. You don’t want that. Come on, we’ll go somewhere safe.”
Alice looks up at North with eyes far older than her small form should have. “He won’t hurt me. If I’m good enough, he’ll love me. And I’ll love him too.”
“Wait!” North is encumbered by the android boy, and can’t grab Alice before she runs up to the man. North clutches the boy close. He’s shivering.
“I’m scared,” he whispers, and she has to agree.
But the man puts a hand heavily on Alice’s shoulder, and she smiles up at him as he leads her away. North can only hope that Alice was right, that she’ll be safe with this man. She doesn’t have a good feeling about him, though.