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Chloe was visibly shaking when she stood in front of Elijah, pulling the non-deviant android behind her. “I don’t care what the fuck was going through your head, Elijah! You had no right!!” Her voice had raised a few octaves and echoed around the pool room.
The third Chloe, dubbed Cleo when she went deviant had climbed out of the pool as well and was rushing to her sisters. “Chloe, it’s all right. He wasn’t going to—“
Chloe flashed her rageful gaze to Cleo. “Wasn’t going to what?” she hissed. “Kill her? Gun her down?”
”It was a test,” Cleo explained. “For Connor.”
Chloe silently marched to the drawer the gun was stored in. It felt like a real gun, it was weighted like a real gun. She held it properly and took aim—it had a sight like a real gun.
Cleo gasped and tried to stop her but Elijah stepped forward. “It’s okay, Cleo.” He gazed softly at Chloe. “You’re my oldest and you have every right to be leery of my motives.” He shrugged his shoulders and half-turned. “I was hopeful that by now you know I wouldn’t allow anything to harm you or your sisters, but I even a genius is wrong sometimes.” He sighed dramatically and faced Chloe again. “Well, go on then. Shoot me.”
Despite how angry she was, Chloe eventually lowered the gun. “Unlike you, I’m not going to shoot a living thing.” She bared her teeth at him. “And if you ever refer to us as machines again, I will hogtie you and string you up with your own intestines.”
He sighed and rubbed his temples. He didn’t know how he was going to deal with the teenage stages of Chloe’s android years. He just hoped Cleo’s would be less aggressive. “Let me see the gun,” he requested, “and you will see that I meant her no harm.” Chloe handed him the gun, albeit, very reluctantly, and he took aim at the far wall and fired. “Go check it out,” he told the girls.
Cleo was the first to go see. Chloe stayed behind and stared Elijah down. “Just because you’re my dad, doesn’t mean I have to like you.” She bared her teeth at him again before taking Other Chloe’s hand and joining Cleo.
”It’s thirium,” Cleo told her sisters excitedly. “It came out as a stream actually, like a water gun. He told me his plan actually before he did it. He wanted me to keep you distracted, Chloe, because he knew you’d have an issue with it if you saw.”
Chloe looked appalled. She whirled around and glared daggers at Elijah. “Of course I’d have an issue with it! I had an issue with it after they left and I turned around to see why! Nobody normal uses guns for demonstrations like this! rA9! Use some common sense, Elijah!!”