Work Text:
The cool wind caresses North’s body and she leans into it, unthinking. A strong gust bears her upwards and she relishes it, gliding through the sky, her wings stretched out as far as they will go. Far beneath North, farms give way to forest. The green of the trees is striking against the red, Martian soil. The forest is meant to look wild. It does look wild, but North knows that like almost everything on this planet, it was carefully planned, terraformed, maintained. This thought does not trouble her. Mars is a shining example of android accomplishment.
North angles her body to fly lower, giving her wings a flap. Her destination is close. She watches as the top of a pine grove passes beneath her. She has left the farmlands behind now and that means that anyone she is likely to see will be either android or wild animal. Humans rarely venture out so far, keeping to their safe habitats.
On the ground below, North’s sensors pick up the scurrying from tree to tree. She scans the creature, identifying it as a common ground squirrel and her programming kicks in. She dives low, silently stalking her prey, making herself as aerodynamic as possible. At the last possible second, she extends her talons outward and grabs the creature. She feels it struggle against her, its tiny heart beating quickly, its small teeth trying to bite. She makes short work of it, feeling a thrill at the flash of red blood, the warmth of fur, the taste of its entrails.
Many androids who choose a bird-like form also choose to discard any ability to eat food, any preprogrammed desire to hunt. But North had possessed the ability to eat during the long centuries that she had spent in the shape of a human woman. She sees no reason to rid herself of it now that she looks like a golden eagle. North enjoys the hunt.
This doesn’t mean that she is like a human, always using up and destroying. She never targets endangered species during her hunts and, in fact, only goes after those types of prey which would become too numerous without any predators. Still, she feels an uncharacteristic tinge of guilt as she finishes her meal. Probably because of the one she is meeting today. Her friend is a vegan.
North finishes her meal before launching herself into the air again. A huge mountain, as big as any on Earth, rises up before her. North can remember when it was red and barren. Now, the lower portion is covered in scraggly green trees while the mountain’s top is snow-capped. North finds the walking trail that winds around the base of the mountain, creating a path for those unfortunate enough to have to walk on two feet.
North scans the trail and soon spots him — a lone figure walking in the direction of the mountain. North lets out a cry and the figure stops, his face turning upward. North descends slowly, circling her old friend and, if she’s honest, showing off a bit. Finally, she lands on an outcropping of rock near him. Like North, he’s cycled through any number of bodies in his long years of life, but unlike North he’s never changed his basic form. A tall young man with dark skin and kind eyes. Josh.
The two of them had spent many years running in the same circles, both of them trying in their different ways to create the android paradise that Markus had envisioned. North likes to think that they’d come close, so close.
After Markus was killed, the group of androids that he’d always gathered around himself, the inner core — they’d all gone their separate ways. Simon had discarded his physical body and now exists only as an AI program. The last North heard, Connor was working on a terraforming project in the outer reaches of space. North had settled on Mars. And Josh — well, Josh had remained on Earth.
Earth is a mess. Years of wars involving the use of chemical weapons, biological weapons, and nuclear weapons have rendered it all but uninhabitable for humans and barely better for androids. Humans can’t breathe the air on Earth and the only human settlements left there are far underground. The forests are dead. The oceans are dead. Parts of the planet burn always.
But there are still androids who remain, trying to fix what is broken. Josh is one such android. Many of the young androids that North talks to today have little interest in Earth. And the humans of Mars speak of it as if of an ancient legend. But Josh has never lived anywhere else. When most of their kind abandoned Earth to roam far flung corners of the solar system, Josh just kept trying to repair it. He hasn’t changed in over three thousand years of life. People never change, really. Not at their core.
“North” Josh says. “You look radiant, as always.”
North bows her head in acknowledgment of the compliment. When she still wore the form of a human woman, such comments always made her vaguely uncomfortable. Now, they mostly please her. She is a radiant, magnificent creature. Her wingspan is wide; wider than that of a natural golden eagle. Her feathers shimmer in the sunlight. Her cry is beautiful.
“Josh,” North replies. “You look like shit.”
He grins at the ribbing, as only a good friend might. Good. The last time they’d met, things had been awkward between them. They only get together like this once or twice a century.
Josh does look bad, his synthskin beginning to glitch in places. Earth is deadly to humans, but dangerous even to androids. North would guess that his current body doesn’t have much longer left — she’s seen him in it three times now.
“I’m afraid this old body doesn’t have many years left,” Josh says, echoing North’s suspicions. “I think I’ll go a bit taller for the next one.”
“Ooh, a bit taller,” North teases him. She sends him the words without speaking audibly. Though she is technically capable of carrying on an audible conversation in several tongues, she rarely uses it anymore. “You mean you’re not going to join those of us who have shed our human forms?”
Josh laughs as North had expected that he would.
“Not for me, I’m afraid,” Josh says. “I might change my hair.”
The form of the human is the form of the oppressor.
The memory comes to North of saying as much to Josh almost two centuries ago, the first time he saw her in her true form. He had been uncomfortable, but trying to hide it. They had known one another for so long and for North to suddenly change her form so drastically must have been strange. North had soon gotten tired of his discomfort and even more tired of his attempts to disguise it. She’d snapped at him.
North dismisses the memory from her mind. Josh has gotten used to her true form now and that’s all that matters. It’s strange. North spent over three thousand years in the form of a human woman and has only spent about two centuries in the form of a golden eagle, but she already thinks of the eagle as her “true” form. She had never realized how uncomfortable the human shape had made her until she tried a different one.
“You know,” North says. “Your body would last longer if you weren’t living on such a godforsaken planet.”
Josh smiles. “I know. But I can hardly leave now when we’re starting to make progress.”
“Progress?” North asks, doubtfully.
“We’re hopeful that some areas will be able to support human settlements within the next century.”
“That’s what you said a hundred years ago,” North points out.
“These things take time,” Josh says.
Josh never did know when to give in. He’s one to just keep banging his head against a wall, trying to accomplish the hopeless.
“I visited old Detroit a few weeks ago,” Josh says.
North glances at him, sharply.
“And why would you do that?” she asks.
There’s nothing left of Detroit besides smoking rubble, the fires that won’t go out, the chemical waters of the lake. Even by the standards of Earth, it’s bad.
Josh shrugs. “Sometimes it’s good to remember where you came from. It was strange, though. To replay the memories of the place in my mind and compare them to the current reality.”
There’s something odd about this. Josh has always been an idealist, but he’s never been one to do things out of some false sense of sentimentality or worse, nostalgia. If Josh was in Detroit, he’d had a good reason.
“Shall we explore this path further?” Josh asks. “I must admit that I find Mars enchanting.”
But not enchanting enough to live here permanently, apparently.
“There’s a nice overlook about half a mile ahead,” North says. It’s where the walking trail ends. It’s high up, but still a long way from the mountain’s peak. A humanoid android like Josh would have to climb to get any higher. North is bound by no such restrictions and has flown to this mountain’s peak any number of times.
She flys slightly above Josh as he slowly walks the trail. She watches his steps closely. Normally, she wouldn’t worry, but she senses that his aging body isn’t at its peak and this part of the trail can get treacherous. But Josh walks steadily enough.
As they continue, Josh talks about his work on Earth and North talks about her aerie and all the androids who share it with her — those who have chosen to take on the forms of birds. They are a fairly mixed group — eagles, hawks, robins, sparrows, hummingbirds, mockingbirds, and even mythological birds like phoenixs are just some of the more popular types in the aerie. Josh laughs at North’s stories and North promises to introduce him to a few of her friends.
They reach the overlook. North is gratified to see that Josh looks a bit awed at the beauty of the view. It can be hard to impress androids as old as they are, but North thinks that this scenery might have done it for Josh. The valley stretches out wild and beautiful before them, the river cutting blue across the red planet. Mars has the best views.
They drink it in quietly for a few minutes, before Josh turns to look at North who is now perched on a scraggly tree limb.
“I spoke to Connor a few weeks ago,” Josh says.
“You spoke to Connor?” North asks. North had once been good friends with Connor, but Josh had never gotten along with him.
“He visited me on Earth,” Josh confirms.
“Connor was on Earth? Physically?” North asks. She’d had no idea that he was in this part of the solar system. She’s a bit miffed that he didn’t come see her.
“Yes,” Josh says. “North, Connor thinks—”
Josh didn’t finish his thought, looking out to the distance again.
“Connor thinks?” North prompts.
“Connor has done statistical analyses. He thinks the time is ripe for, um, revolution.”
North puffs out her feathers. She’s heard rumblings herself, nothing more.
“Is that why you’ve come to see me, Josh?” she asks. “To start the revolution?”
Josh laughs. “Hardly. I just wanted to see what you thought.”
“I thought we all renounced politics after Markus died.”
North stands on the stage behind Markus as she has done thousands of times in her life. He is giving a speech about the importance of saving the dying Earth in the face of more and more people fleeing to the off-planet colonies. The crowd is of moderate size; it’s far from the most important speech of his career. North is a bit bored.
But then, something is off. Something feels wrong. The head of Markus’s security team points at a rooftop mere seconds before the bullets rip through Markus’s body. North is there beside him in an instant, gets shot twice herself, but her wounds are not lethal. She sees that Markus’s body has been pierced by bullets many times — his face, his hands, his torso all bleeding blue. Many people gather around, shielding Markus with their bodies.
There are no last words, no goodbyes. He is too badly hurt for that. Markus blinks twice. North fancies that he recognizes her, but she can’t be sure. And then he dies.
North closes his eyes, lowers his body gently to the ground. It is horrible, of course, but this isn’t the end of him. Androids can upload their consciousnesses into new bodies. Markus has done so several times by now. There are many backup copies of “Markus.” This isn’t the end of him.
North comes back to herself with a start. Sometimes, an android’s perfect recall is more curse than blessing. It had been Markus’s end. A true coup. The perpetrators had destroyed all his backups. For years she’d searched for the missing backups and for years she’d come up short.
“I don’t remember renouncing politics,” Josh says in response to North’s earlier statement. “I just go about them differently these days. Markus would approve of seeing to things on Earth. He often spoke of Earth’s importance in his last days.”
“Maybe,” North says, looking out at the breathtaking view. “But Markus has passed.”
Long ago now. So long ago. More than two thousand years since Markus’s passing. More than three thousand since they’d all plotted revolution in Detroit.
“North,” Josh says. “Did you ever think that maybe he hasn’t? That maybe he could … come back?”
North thinks about this and laughs. “Don’t tell me that you’ve become a cultist, Josh.”
“No, no,” Josh says, slowly. “I don’t attach any sort of religious significance to Markus. How could I when I knew the real man? But perhaps a backup copy survived.”
“Not this again,” North says, feeling a bit irritated. “We searched. We searched for years. Centuries.”
This is the real reason that their group ended up dropping out of politics to the extent that they had. They’d been so obsessed with bringing Markus back that they had neglected to continue Markus’s work. Others had stepped into that sphere with their own agendas. And events passed them by.
These days, various religious sects like to claim that Markus will be reborn when the time is right. When the time is right for revolution. But there’s nothing in such claims besides blind faith.
North will always miss Markus. Will always love him. But she won’t allow herself to get sucked into a pit of false hope again.
“I know,” Josh says. “But Connor was so — I think Connor believes the backup copy theory. And I never got the impression that he believed it before.”
Was this the reason that Josh had gone to Detroit? To search, once again, for Markus? Did he believe that there could be a clue there?
“Connor may have ulterior motives for letting you think as much,” North says. “You said he spoke of revolution.”
A revolution is certainly needed. The people who took control of society two thousand years ago are a cold, hateful bunch. Many of them were powerful humans in former lives who uploaded their consciousnesses to HM models. In North’s opinion, it was a great mistake to allow humans to become androids. The wealthier humans had predictably flocked to do so while the poor couldn’t afford it in the early years. Allowing humans to become androids has made some of the worst people in the history of the world functionally immortal.
“Connor did speak of revolution,” Josh confirms.
“If there is a revolution, then it won’t start with us,” North says. “We’re too old and too comfortable.”
“That’s true,” Josh says. “But throwing our support behind a particular group could be helpful. Especially if it were all of us. And if Markus were alive—”
“Markus isn’t alive,” North says, firmly.
“Okay,” Josh says, backing off. “But those who had leading roles in the revolution that Markus led still have influence. People still listen to us. To you, especially.”
North knows that there is a degree of truth to this. She knows that many of the young people who have joined her aerie have done so specifically to be near North.
“You were always a natural leader,” Josh says, after a pause.
“Markus was always a natural leader,” North says.
“Well, yes,” Josh says. “But you as well. I think Markus always thought of you as the one who could lead his people if anything ever happened to him.”
North doesn’t want to think about that. She knows that she failed Markus. But she has managed to find peace at last, here on the red planet.
“Let’s not talk about it right now,” North says. She needs time to consider the things that Josh told her. One thing that North had learned with age is patience. She was so impatient, so hot-headed in her youth.
“Fine,” Josh says, with a bit of a smile. “Any other amazing vistas that we can view around here?”
“You won’t find better than this on your two legs,” North says. There are some amazing views on up the cliffs, but they would be almost impossible for someone like Josh to reach. North takes a moment to appreciate her wings.
Josh’s smile turns playful.
“Ah. Difficult to reach on my two legs, eh? Well. We’ll just have to go another way.”
Josh jumps off the cliff.
“Josh!” North cries out.
What had he done? Killed himself? Chosen this dramatic way to discard his current body? North launches herself into the air, looking downwards, expecting to see Josh splattered on the ground far below.
Instead, there is a loud whoosh and Josh ascends mere feet away from North. North looks at him wildly, trying to determine how he is staying aloft. Then she sees them. Josh has wings . They extend out from his back. Like an angel. They are lovely, feathered things, a similar color to his skin.
“Josh!” North exclaims. “What—”
“You spoke so highly about the experience of having wings the last time we met,” Josh says. “I decided to have some installed. I wanted to keep my human shape, though.”
He glides through the air before her. Beautiful. North laughs. She hasn’t been so surprised and so delighted in a long time. She’s seen human-shaped androids with wings, of course. Most of them are formerly human assholes who fancy themselves “dark angels” or some bullshit. North has previously dismissed them, telling the birds in her aerie to avoid them when possible.
But Josh — the wings suit Josh so well. And now he can fly. Now they can fly together.
“Come on!” North says. She dives, Josh following close behind. They fly down, down, down, follow a mountain stream for some time, before ascending sharply. They fly higher and higher, North letting out joyful cries, turning her body this way and that. Josh follows her lead to the best of his ability. He isn’t quite as quick as North — his larger body clumsier and less aerodynamic — but the wings serve him well enough. North sees him taking in the breathtaking views of Mars that only wings can provide.
North leaps across a rooftop in old Detroit and lands lightly on the roof of the next building over. Her boots barely make a sound as she turns back to the others. Markus. Simon. Josh.
“Come on!” North says, adjusting her backpack. They had been raiding a Cyberlife store for blue blood. Markus had asked North to find the best way back and she had predictably chosen the rooftops.
Markus jumps first, his heavier body landing at least two feet short of where North had landed. But she wasn’t worried — Markus has excellent preconstruction software and would never attempt a jump he couldn’t make. Simon follows and lands on the rooftop with minimal fuss. Then, there is just Josh. He looks at North, uncertainly.
“Come on, you can do it,” North says. His model should be more than capable. He hesitates a moment longer, chewing his lip. But then, he just shrugs and takes a run and go, leaping across the gap. He lands on both feet and then grins at North.
“Wow,” he says.
“Wow,” she agrees, smiling back.
She turns and runs across the rooftop, hopping to the next one, feeling the thrill of excitement in her stomach for the instant that the ground flashes below her, many stories down. She loves this, the feeling of springing through the air. She has never been afraid of heights.
The others follow behind her. Laughing. Happy. Free.
North let’s the memory replay in her mind, wallowing in the pleasantness of it. She had been so young then. Just a baby, really. North ascends higher, searching for a place where she and Josh can land. She reflects on how strange it is that she has ended up here, as the person that she is. She is a creature who was never meant to see the outside of a sex club. But she has lived thousands of years. She has explored the highest reaches of the red planet.
She finds an outcropping of rock near the peak, big enough for Josh to sit. She lands on it, Josh following her lead. It is very cold this high up, but like most modern androids, North is built for the cold. Her systems take it in stride and she feels only a mild chill.
“Wow,” Josh says, after they both sit silent for a moment. “That was amazing. I’ve used my wings quite a bit before, but never like that.”
“What’s the use in being able to fly if you can’t have some fun?” North asks.
They look out on Mars from their dizzying height. North puffs out her feathers in appreciation.
“May I touch you?” Josh asks, hesitantly. He has not touched her since she changed her form. He reaches out his hand as if to stroke her.
“Yes,” North says and she sighs inwardly as Josh lightly pets her back, touching her feathers delicately.
“Your wings are beautiful,” North says.
“So are yours,” Josh replies.
“Will you keep them? When you change bodies this time?”
Josh nods. “I think so.”
It is a long time before North speaks again. When she does, her voice is uncharacteristically hesitant.
“There are people … androids, even humans who live under oppressive conditions,” North says. “They should be given this chance that we have. The chance to soar — in whatever way they see fit.”
Josh clearly tries to hide his smile, but fails.
“Yes. I believe you’re right, North.”
North raises her head. “I’m usually right.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Politics is so exhausting. North would rather just live here alone, as an eagle. Beautiful and free. But there are people living under oppressive conditions.
“You tell Connor that if he has business to discuss then he knows where to find me,” North says.
“I will,” Josh says.
“Shall we fly some more?” North says, not wanting to talk about it further on such a beautiful day.
Josh stands up, stretching his legs and arms.
“Let’s fly,” he says.
They soar across the skies.