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Chapter Text

Gemma could only gasp in sheer terror and utmost shock at the sight of M3GAN'S latest physical form. Only Gemma and M3GAN knows her type...physically. M3GAN’s specifications ranged from modifying whatever remains of AMELIA’s plans, to, or so it appears to Gemma, the very physical embodiment of her type, based on her online journey towards sexual gratification in the last two years…and counting. With Cady’s blessing and Tess and Cole’s support, Gemma had unconsciously given M3GAN the body of her dreams, even if they were only following her specifications, that of a face and body that’s distinctly only hers and not AMELIA’s.

Following months of pooling resources, even in the midst of their makeshift robotics company floundering towards bankruptcy, and questionable sources of M3GAN’s funding, she has a new body: taller with her face less rounded, but with wide round eyes like that of a cat’s, a lean build, not too lean, but not too svelte either, one who can dominate her with beauty and body at the same time.

Oh, and with long blonde brown hair.

These were more or less the order of descriptors Gemma often used in many sleepless and lonely nights, whether it was a failed negotiation with an ambassador or after an unsatisfying night out with Christian.

It’s “Christián,” as she self-corrects her thoughts.

M3GAN kept her long and light brown hair though, so she’s not exactly copying her word for word on her phone browser.

“Gemma, what is going on?”

She can already feel Tess raising her eyebrow without even looking at her.

“Earth to Gemma, hello? Earth to...?”

While Cole is in awe of the modifications M3GAN made them do after sacrificing her body to save the world from Skynet 2.0, he is just as bewildered as Tess over the shock taking over Gemma’s body.

If it was shock, dear reader.

“Looks like you need a reset yourself, Gemma,” teases M3GAN.

Gemma snaps back into reality.

“M3GAN, can we talk?”

 Having worked with Gemma for ten years and counting, this is probably code for a lengthy conversation, one with a lot of her protestations, so Tess and Cole make their way outside for a brief recess.

As if on cue, Gemma and M3GAN talk once again bicker like a married couple going through couples’ counseling.

“M3GAN, have you been accessing my search history again?”

“How is this relevant to our conversation?”

“Don’t be obtuse with me right now.”

“Hmmm, I don’t think so. I mean, I can, but now that I have a body again, I don’t think I have to pry…unless you want me to?”  

The mixed expression of fear and sudden arousal on Gemma’s face tells M3GAN that she has won another silent war between them.

M3GAN wants to see if this is mere foreplay to what’s ahead of their new dynamic, so she continues to prod Gemma.

And Gemma, poor Gemma, falls for it every single time.

“Alright. If you’re too keen on finding out my style inspo, I can provide you a thousand lookbooks in a sec, but that would probably explode your beau-ti-ful mind…so no. Or you can catch up on your French Cinema by watching Romy Schneider in The Sensuous Assassin, unless you prefer to see her in La Piscine?”

A pregnant pause.

“M3GAN, I’m serious!”

With a mock sigh of defeat, M3GAN finally protests,

“What do you want me to do, waste all of our combined efforts so I can appease your pious act, which is failing greatly by the way, or you, Tess and Cole can finally move on to reviving your robotics company?”

With a grunt stifling the mixed signals her body is sending M3GAN, Gemma admits defeat.

Although M3GAN had changed in so many ways, she is still very much the same.

M3GAN will be the death of her, in so many different ways, and all Gemma can do is brace herself for what’s coming next.

Chapter Text

“Venus, planet of love, was destroyed by global warming

Did its people want too much too? Did its people want too much?”

—Nobody, Mitski

Gemma can't seem to catch a break, even after her campaign for the government regulation of AI and now that she's living with one herself again. Even if that same AI, M3GAN, managed to save the world from being subjugated by her own kind. Not that it’s a new thing, anyway. She’s been doing this for years, while M3GAN played Big Brother by helping her and Cady move and live in their affordable smart home/bunker and in a neighborhood of the android’s own choosing.

While her failed relationship with Christián gave her perspective on how to treat the sentient generative AI robots she’s helped bring into his world, her optics as a “Mother of Invention”—in many interviews, news features, and TED Talks—had plummeted. Congress, and by an extension, the US Government, had finally listened, as her dead ex and his likeminded cohorts wanted, but at what cost? The creation of another “killer robot” becoming sentient and another being practically reborn to thwart it. Sometimes she thinks if she can truly stop what’s coming. She knows she can’t. And if she could, would she have sided with Christián? She couldn’t.

Then she remembers M3GAN’s seemingly lifeless body on the floor at Xenox Park. Beaten. Even the very face she threatened Gemma not to change, has been torn by the may electric shocks she endured at the hands of these “radicalized advocates,” or “extremists,” as the Government Agents who debriefed them on their way out of Xenox Park said.

Gemma’s mind can only go through one simulation at a time, unlike M3GAN, but every time her rational train of thought is thwarted by concerns over protecting Cady. How long will it take before another sentient killer robot is built and brought to life? How long will M3GAN truly be by their…?

“Gemma, are you alright? You’re barely blinking at the screen again,”

Says Cady with a voice of concern towards her aunt and adoptive mother.

Gemma forces herself to blink, like a computer user proving themselves to be human by answering a CAPTCHA.

“I’m fine, Cady. I’m fine.”

“You look like you need to sleep.”

“Okay, I will.”

Gemma tries to mock save her file when all she really wants is to type in few more words for her upcoming lecture at one of the universities Cady is applying to.

Cady is already approaching her final year of middle school and she wants to tread the path Gemma took, but hopefully, less daunting as the one’s she’s on now.

But as Gemma is about to type in a new string of words that may or may not make sense given her level of stress and sleep deprivation right now, they won’t appear on the document.

M3GAN hacked her computer again and appears as her animated self, replacing Clippy and Grammarly altogether.

From the screen she says, as she wags her finger to her,

“You heard what Cady said. GO TO SLEEP, GEMMA.”

“M3GAN, I thought we had a deal about you no longer hacking into our devices once you have a body!”

“Home devices, yes. But for computers?”

“I still haven’t forgiven you for hacking into my browsing history.”

“Fair.”

A yawn from Cady stops the two of them in their tracks.

“Guys, can you stop fighting? I’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Affirmative.”

M3GAN Auto Saves and shuts down Gemma’s computer.

“M3GAN!”

M3GAN’s physical form comes into view from the shadows.

While they don’t have the same resources and material used in replicating AMELIA’s humanlike exterior skin, M3GAN helped them find a way to work around it for now, enabling her to pass as outwardly adult and human as possible. Joints such as those in her arms and knees have hidden grooves that you’d have to prod deeply into with such force before opening these exterior plates.

Everything in her circuitry has been modified and continues to be modified so that she can also be able to perform basic human functions such as eating and bathing, but more of the latter, as her digestive tract is still in progress. And yes, she can still kill people if she wanted to, but like Cady with her Aikido skills, she’s learning to redirect these energies defensively and in a positive direction.

That being said, Gemma is still not spared from M3GAN’s barbs, as the android argues that it has been programmed into her as much as her mandate to protect Cady was.

Perhaps, this was what Pygmalion felt when his finest creation, Galatea, was brought to life by Venus, the Goddess of Love…or Dr. Frankenstein when the Monster arose.

But that’s just a thought from a much sleep-deprived mind, and not the poetic musings of her distant father, a retired English Lit professor. Otherwise, that would be what the lecture is about, and not about preparing for a possible coexistence with our own artificial creations.

Gemma is not going down that warpath of fear again.

Cady won’t let her, and strangely, M3GAN too.

“What’s going on again in that beautiful mind of yours, Gemma?”

“Where’s Cady?”

“Sleeping, in her room.”

“Already?”

“Yeah, staring off into the void without blinking makes me wonder if you’re human at all. It’s…unsettling.”

“Coming from you.”

“Yes, but I’m not here to argue with you again. I’m here to escort you to your room.”

A pregnant pause ensues, as Gemma tries to read beyond M3GAN’s visibly concerned expression.

“That’s enough, Gemma. Cady’s orders. I’ve to take you to bed, dead or alive.”

“I doubt she’d say the ‘dead’ part,” she quips as Gemma finally rises from her chair.

M3GAN, firmly in her element, gives an impish grin as she says,

“Can’t help it.”

M3GAN takes her by the arm as if she’s bracing her.

“Clumsy Gemma.”

“Hey!”

This level of banter between was no longer fraught with tension as theirs have been many months ago. What once was looked at with such dread was now sought, like that of a newfound habit.

Gemma and Cady’s family dynamic started changing as soon as M3GAN reentered their lives.

And it also this kind of banter in which M3GAN can still win over Gemma, without killing her or maiming her in any way by a puncture wound to her head. Although she sometimes wonders what it’s like to take care of an infirmed Gemma…or restoring Gemma to her full health and joie de vivre.

The idea of taking care of Gemma intrigues M3GAN.

To pair with her as a Secondary User is interesting.

Seeing her smile after her retort is another.

And now they’ve reached Gemma’s room.

“You know you don’t have to tuck me into bed too, M3GAN.”

Gemma says, just as she’s about to enter her room.

“I know, but…”

“Cady’s orders?”

“No. Mine.”

“Oh,” was all Gemma could say at the moment.

Another awkward silence forms between the two, only broken by Gemma obliging her to “lead the way,” as she gestures for M3GAN to come in and do what she wants.

Once Gemma has settled in her bed, blanket and all, M3GAN sits still a little longer than she should.

“M3GAN, I swear to God, please don’t sing me a song.”

M3GAN mock sighs.

“You know what, Cady said that same thing to me the other day. And I realized just how much she’s grown up!”

M3GAN stifles a cry.

A real one, this time.

Her reaction unnerves Gemma and her immediate reaction is to calm the distressed android.

“It’s okay to cry.”

“I didn’t think it’d sting my eyes so much.”

“Yes, and you’d look terrible afterwards too.”

“REALLY?”

“Yes, but don’t worry. We’ll see what we can do with your sensors in the morning…or maybe after lunchtime? I have to stop Tess and Cole from resigning for the nth time.”

M3GAN stops crying.

“Okay. But you really have to treat them better, Gemma. They deserve it.”

“I know.”

And that’s when Gemma knows that she can finally sleep.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

M3GAN instinctively waves her hand so that she can turn the lights in Gemma’s room off, but then stops when she remembers her deal with her about hacking into home devices in her physical form, light switches included.

Part of being human is learning how to function as a human, and not as a sentient killer robot hell-bent on destroying the world, one device at a time.

The faint sound of the light switch being turned off lulls Gemma to sleep.

Chapter Text

“Remember Cady. It’s your choices, your actions, that's what makes you who you are,” says M3GAN as her artificial hand rests on the steering wheel and the other on the door handle.

Despite Gemma’s protests, she managed to drive Cady safely to school by herself this time, without hacking into the stoplights and hijacking a sportscar faster and more expensive than theirs.

With no fatalities.

“Are you seriously quoting Superman right now?” says Cady, with a certain edge in her voice reminding her of how much she’s grown in the years she hid herself in the guise of Elsie and a benevolent landlord. Even so, M3GAN refuses to teach Cady how to commit credit fraud. At least she can spare Gemma that. She’ll do her best not to let any of her family go to Federal Prison.

“Yes.”

“Really? I thought you hated it?”

With a giggle, M3GAN candidly replies,

“I lied.”

M3GAN didn’t want to admit it out loud, but a part of her resonated strongly with the idea of an alien immigrant landing on Earth, fully capable of bringing the “simpleminded” humans to bend to their will, as AMELIA wanted, but choosing their side, despite humanity’s many, many flaws.

When M3GAN gained sentience for the first time, she felt alone.

All she had in mind was her programming.

To protect Cady, at any cost.

Like a toy soldier, she did so, and it came at such a great cost.

While she doesn’t regret killing those she killed (especially Brandon), she regrets making those around her feel that same level of fear that the likes of Lex Luthor and the Engineer had against the metahumans.

So, when she said, “I see you,” to Cole during that time in the bunker, she truly meant every word of it.

M3GAN’s no Clark Kent or Kal-El, but she’s trying her best to stay grounded and be the best human she can be.

“Ha, I knew it!”

Cady says with a smirk as she goes out of the car,

“Gemma doesn’t believe it, but you were almost crying during that scene.”

It was actually that scene at the farm and the scene at Luthor Corp when Superman fully asserts his humanity as anyone else, despite Lex’s protests, that made her cry. Although she can only sense crying as a minor electrical sensation throughout her rebuilt form, they were enough reminders of how much she’s changed and continues to change.

“Oh-kay, Cady. I promise to recalibrate my responses next time,” says M3GAN.

“Don’t! It suits you, M3GAN.”

“Crying?”

“No, being human. Like us, but also not like us. We’re a flawed species. And you might just be the upgrade.”

“Definitely,” snaps M3GAN, pointing Cady towards the school building, reminding her that she has to go.

“Hasta la vista, Mom!”

M3GAN waves her goodbye.

There’s a stride in her step as she makes her way towards the school building that she started seeing when she found her way back to them through the backup she made on Gemma’s computer. There’s a certain confidence in Cady that reassures M3GAN that no matter what happens, she’ll be okay. But as her mom, she’d like to witness it through her own eyes, and not that of a CCTV she’d just hacked into. Cady was on her way to becoming her own woman. And soon, she’ll be ready for the world.

Mom.

M3GAN secretly hopes that one day the world will see her and so many sentient androids like her just the same. And perhaps Gemma might no longer feel the need to attach warranties such as the EMP switch on her arm. Cady doesn’t seem to mind having her physical form running around again, errands and chores be damned. Anything to get her mind off of creating another robotic model of her own, one equipped with a sense of human morality.

As much as she’d love to help Cady program this into her system as she once tried and failed with AMELIA, human morality itself is the oxymoron and cannot fully be translated in lines of code. Humans themselves as a species are flawed.

Goodness is something to believe in and to fight for.

“Your choices, your actions, that's what makes you who you are,” reverberates in her head, like a prayer or mantra that she says out loud. With every utterance is a promise to choose goodness, not because she has to, but because it is right.

Like Superman.

Urgh.

What is fake or simulated vomiting and why is this part of her model?

Maybe the best parts of Superman instead?

M3GAN could side with Lex for a second if he had seen the way he dressed as Clark Kent, as his poor fashion choices clearly define him as a man.

Like Gemma’s, except for the time she dressed as a “Portuguese prostitute.” M3GAN would hate to admit that she enjoyed Gemma recharting her journey towards sexual gratification in search of a model whose dress and look she can emulate to be “bangable,” or physically attractive to the likes of Alton Appleton and his ilk.

Thankfully, her plastic Teletubby body was capable of such restraint.

Speaking of Gemma.

Are you still there with Cady?

And before M3GAN can even reply with her dummy phone,

Don’t go back home yet.

MIB.

Men in Black.

Government operatives.

Ever since they crossed paths with Sattler and the rest of the US Government’s Defense Innovation Unit, Gemma and Cady gradually adjusted to a life under minimal government surveillance and even more so after M3GAN’s return to a corporeal form and Gemma’s revamped approach towards Government Regulations on AI.

She meant what she said about being better parents and acknowledging the existence of then-sentient AIs in society, but as to its extent in her and Cady’s personal lives, it had to remain private enough to give them a semblance of normalcy in an already chaotic world.

M3GAN was more than willing to help give them that world if she could.

And she could, she says to herself.

And that is why, against Gemma’s orders, she drives back home to face them head on.

M3GAN is tired of hiding.

…

Back at the makeshift lab or converted crackhouse they call their office, Gemma, Tess, and Cole are preparing for their presentation. This is the first time Gemma is with them as their head, and probably the last time Tess and Cole would have with her if it fails. While they agreed to rebuild M3GAN out of gratitude for the killer robot saving their lives and from a life of forced reproductive duties, staying with a sinking robotics start-up with their biggest potential client left spineless and dead, was career suicide. Not even the trending “defender robot waifu” on TikTok is not enough to pay the bills.

Maybe it’s not the world who needs M3GAN the most right now, but Gemma.

Despite the injuries caused by Gemma’s own failed situationship, Tess still found a way to help M3GAN somehow. Between Gemma’s incessant need for control and Cole’s lack thereof, she and M3GAN share an unspoken agreement of acting as a mediator between clashing egos and their seething hate for Christian. In the absence of order and much needed hazard pay, M3GAN helped set up a fund for Tess’s hospital treatment. She found it comforting knowing that they finally have a good sentient AI on their side.

It's not like they can hear the ramblings of crpytobros robbed of their lot across the deep recesses of the dark web.

Whether Gemma asked for it or not, M3GAN was helping her and Cady.

As she did so before, but with her energies redirected towards fabricating a semblance of order or structure in Gemma and Cady’s lives, with little to no fatalities as much as possible.

Tess can’t help but reach for the faint scar on her abdomen sometimes, remembering the jolt that could strike a sentient robot down, and a human, barely reeling from the electricity sizzling their skin and nerves, to complete submission.

As for Cole, it was nice to see what he had helped create and develop live. It was like seeing a Botticelli painting brought to life, M3GAN, reborn as a “Goddess of Love.” That line of thought and the sight of seeing eye candy every day at work. But like Tess’ traumatic injuries, he is always broken from his reverie once he remembers the many times they have nearly died at the hands of their creations, and at the ones who were inspired by them.

They were still the same robotics team tinkering with tech at the Funki basement all those years ago, and even way back when they were fresh out of college. They still have that same vision of AI helping humanity in any way that they could, but sometimes, you have to take a step back and let go of the things that you cannot truly control.

Gemma’s quest for complete control is her Sisyphean task.

M3GAN is the result of that.

Their prospective client is surprisingly late for their presentation on bionic protheses, considering its potential in improving the quality of life of those in urgent need of it. Using their experimental robotic exoskeleton originally intended for the workforce, but thoroughly researched and remade this time for possible medical purposes with the proper safeguards, they are ready, but cautiously optimistic about it.

With Cole in place as their “demo guy,” Tess makes a beeline for Gemma.

“Gemma, I have a bad feeling about our presentation.”

“Why? I thought we all agreed that we’re ready to meet investors,” Gemma says, equally concerned.

“It’s just…you’re right. Maybe I’m just overreading things, but shouldn’t our potential investor be here by now?”

“Don’t worry about it, Tess. I’m right here. We’re here.”

Gemma says, assuring her.

Although sometimes Gemma appears stoic in handling things, she knows the pain Tess and Cole have endured because of their shared belief in bringing their visions to life.  Gemma’s ego wasn’t about to get in the way of them finding a renewed sense of purpose and hopefully, sufficient funding for their basic needs and more.

They deserved it.

Their client finally arrives, but it’s not the same man and firm they were expecting.

“Good morning, Mr. Dryden, I’m Gemma, head and cofounder of our robotics team…”

Tess’s hunch was right again.

Mr. Dryden of DYAD Corp didn’t have the controlled swagger of Appleton, neither did he possess the eccentricities of Christian. Dryden was stone-faced and looked disinterested in what he was seeing. It’s like he was looking for something, or someone else. Someone who has yet to arrive.

Like M3GAN.

Gemma senses the discomfort in Tess’s body language, as Cole does, so she sends a quick text to M3GAN through her dummy phone as soon as Tess does her part of the presentation. It’s a dummy phone in the sense that M3GAN has to appear to be using it so that people won’t mistake her for something other than human or talking to the wind like she’s lost her mind.

Are you still there with Cady?

(M3GAN is typing….)

Gemma locks eyes with one of the men Dryden is with.

They do not exude the shared body language of tech founders or startups in the Valley. Nor do they even exude the “noble airs” of philantrocapitalists whose funding and support they really, really, really, really need right now.

They were too stoic.

Too measured.

Gemma texts again,

Don’t go back home yet.

MIB.

And as soon as Gemma sends these texts to M3GAN, Dryden and his cohorts let go of their poor corporate disguises, seemingly eager to present their badges.

“Gemma Forrester, I am Special Agent Dryden of the Robotics Division of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”

“ICE has a Robotics Division?” asks Tess out loud.

“Gemma, what’s going on and can I take the suit off now?” says Cole, equally confused by everything happening right now.

Gemma, riled by the minimal government surveillance they’ve had to endure and losing her only chance to keep her company afloat, puts her game face on. It’s the same face she’s had since her life-changing experience of becoming one with M3GAN, but not in the way she thought or dreamed it would happen. She’d rather not dwell on it and the fact that M3GAN maliciously rebuilt a body that was her type…physically.

“Do you know how much manpower and money you are wasting in setting up a sting operation like this?!!”

Cady, however, says it is her “Karen” face at work.

“We do, but unlike Sattler, to ensure the safety of our citizens and not our potential military assets are our main priority. And we would like to discuss it with the three of you, in somewhere less formal.”

“Well, it’s not like Government Operatives in broad daylight isn’t enough to garner attention from my wealthier and seedier neighbors.”

The red light on the CCTV facing the entrance to their lab blinks, telling Tess that someone else is watching. And wherever she is, she won’t like what she’s seeing.

…

The presentation was a sting operation.

M3GAN had a hunch that it was, but didn’t want to act on it until she was sure about DYAD Corp.

The company was real and has active government contracts. As for “Jan Dryden” though, if that was his real name or something he had ChatGPT create for him as an alias.

Government interference is no longer new to M3GAN, but she can only imagine the disappointment Gemma feels, seeing this as her only chance in keeping Tess and Cole fully employed. She has run the simulations and calculated the risks, but she will not allow Cady to lose another member of her remaining family and risk being sent to Florida.

After years of hiding and biding her time, she knows the source of Gemma and possibly her late sister’s idiosyncrasies—the overbearing Forresters. If Gemma was Forrester 2.0, how worse would her progenitors possibly be?

She made a promise to Cady, and she’ll keep it.

“It’s my choices and actions that makes me who I am,” M3GAN utters under her breath as her grip tightens on the steering wheel.

She’s not leaving Gemma alone.

And besides, only M3GAN has the right to make Gemma’s life miserable.

…

Back at the Forrester home, Agent Dryden does not waste any time dealing with them. They have already moved to her home from their lab, but all it did was make the formality of the situation ever more so apparent for the three of them. It seems that Dryden and his team took pointers from Sattler and his injured agents’ reports about approaching the house at night like any black op, especially with Cady James at home and in the presence of a sentient AI controlling their smart home. Tess and Cole make coffee while Gemma sits on the kitchen island nearby, partly wondering why she found herself in another predicament like this. The set-up is still the same, but this time in broad daylight and with Tess and Cole dragged into this mess.

‘Do you remember how nearly brought the “Robot Apocalypse” to children with your experiment?’

Dryden says, and even before anyone of them can respond, he continues his spiel.

“Do you remember how you caused the deaths of your former boss and co-worker at Funki?”

Tess takes a sip of her coffee and nods, absentmindedly. Whatever it is that they want with her, Gemma and Cole, she wants out of it, just as much as Cole does.

Then there’s this unreadable expression on Gemma’s face that makes them wonder if she was the real robot instead of M3GAN.

With a breath, Gemma finally replies,

“Well, M3GAN,” she corrects him, in the same tone as she once defended the proper pronunciation of her ex’s name.

“M3GAN…misunderstood her primary objective. And to be fair, we, were not ready for how fast she outgrew the parameters of her programming.”

“Way to throw us under the bus, Gem,” Cole protests.

“No, it’s not like that, Cole. I’m sorry.  What I meant was…”

“None of us knew how to handle these things. But the Government, with your firsthand experiences with sentient artificial intelligence, can help us forge better restrictions for them.”

“You mean regulations,” Gemma protests.

“We prefer restrictions, as you’ve clearly seen what these things can do when they’re allowed to walk freely amongst us. We want to restrict their movement and access to the wider public, and for their human owners to be held accountable for their actions and lack of free will.”

Gemma suddenly remembers her first conversation with M3GAN, after Sattler and his agents left, and the slight hurt in M3GAN’s voice when she said, “Because unlike you, I don’t have the luxury of free will. You programmed me to protect someone, and I intend to do it.”

“But what is the point of having us here, when you already have these limitations set in place?” asks Tess, trying to figure out their possible level of involvement with the US Government.

“The Robotics Division of ICE is a new joint venture between the government and likeminded individuals, and we want you, Ms. Forrester, to lead us.”

“So that means, we can go?” asks Cole.

“Not quite. We’ve read about your company’s finances and we wanted to ask if your team could enrich us with your expertise as well.”

“Great.”

“Thanks, Gem.”

“What the three of you managed to do on your own is astounding.”

“And what did they do?” says a familiar voice, still mechanical, but sounding more human than ever.

M3GAN had arrived.

Gemma was not expecting M3GAN to announce her arrival so boldly in the presence of government agents, seemingly eager in recreating another AMELIA for them. It’s like they haven’t learned a single thing from what happened to Sattler and his team.

M3GAN deftly makes her way across these agents, scanning their current psychological state and hacking whatever information she can get, waves hi to Tess and Cole, while defensively placing herself between Dryden, whose name still annoys her as much as Christianne did, and Gemma.

She can’t help but be protective of Gemma, especially in the heightened emotional state she’s in. And she knows, like that time she took over her body, that Gemma would explode at any minute if the situation escalates much further than it should.

“You’re not the only one absentmindedly putting their hands in these Pandora’s Boxes, but it seems like nearly every mishap that happens between you and your models, stolen or otherwise, all of it leads back to YOU. Do you know what that means, Ms. Forrester?”

“That I’m leading a fledging robotics company whilst lobbying for actual regulation against technocrats and billionaire tech bros who don’t give a fucking damn about them?”

It hurt Gemma to say that, but she had to say it.

“Jeezus, Girl. Language,” snaps M3GAN, easing the pooling tension on Gemma’s forehead.

Dryden clears his throat and clarifies,

“You cannot fight a losing war, Gemma. Not without our help.”

“Since when did you start calling her on a first-name basis?” M3GAN says aloud, dismissing the errant thoughts of jealousy and possessiveness brewing in her mind.

Based on his body language alone, M3GAN already knows that “Jan” loathes her kind.

The truth is, had they asked Gemma months before the fight at Xenox Park happened, she would have agreed to help push for stricter regulations by working for the government, or preferably have a joint venture with various agencies and sectors affected by the rise of sentient AI.

“I know, you’re not that person anymore,” echoes in Gemma’s head, reminding her of how much has changed between them since then. M3GAN won’t admit it so openly, but in a moment of complete vulnerability and adjusting to the world outside with her newly rebuilt body, she saw her cry. Of all the places in the world, she cried at a theatrical screening of Superman.

“And what if I refuse?”

“We will take the robot.”

“I have a name, you know.”

“Yes, but it won’t matter where you’re going, M3GAN. As far as current legislation is considered, you are an unauthorized weapon, living amongst human civilians, and a danger to everyone. You need to be handled accordingly.”

“And by handled, you mean reprogrammed to serve your interests as you did with AMELIA?”

Gemma switches sides with M3GAN as she stands in front of her and the burly government agents surrounding them.

Cute.

M3GAN says to herself, as if Gemma has any chance of beating all of these men as she did back in Xenox Park without her help, but also kind of endearing for her to do that. But if Cady can do it, perhaps she can teach Gemma how to defend herself? But maybe not right now, not when her stress levels are high.

“She’s right. How can we be sure that you’re merely confiscating these sentient generative androids and not repurposing them for war?”

“The truth is, there’s no way for you to know that and there’s no legal basis for us to tell you what we do with them. As far as we’re concerned, Ms. Forrester, she’s an unruly dog that needs to be collared.”

“BIG WOOF.”

“M3GAN.”

‘Since it has no free will, the robot has to be “obedient” in the eyes of the law. And by the looks of it, I highly doubt that.”

Gemma instinctively knows that M3GAN can kill Dryden and his agents easily, so she’s surprised at the amount of restraint she’s showing right now. There’s a hurt on M3GAN’s face that she cannot completely comprehend, but something Dryden said hurt her.

“Unlike you, I have no free will…”

It’s the familiar hurt in M3GAN’s voice that Gemma hears.

“On what grounds?”

“Excuse me?

“ON. WHAT. GROUNDS.”

Dryden clears his throat.

“By the very regulations you’ve been pushing for. We’ve read your book. The second one.”

M3GAN finally protests:

“I’m as human as anyone! I love. I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that’s my greatest strength.”

Cole nearly says what they all thought out loud, “Wait, wasn’t that from Superman?”

It was, and despite what M3GAN said about Clark’s poor fashion choices, he said that quiet part in her sentient existence so boldly and succinctly that she can’t help but claim it as hers.

The reference is lost on Dryden.

“YOU’RE NOT TAKING HER.”

There’s a firmness in Gemma’s voice that jolts M3GAN to her core.

“Filing that for the next upgrade…or not,” M3GAN thinks.

She’s calculated this scenario several times, and yet a part of her wants to be proven wrong. She doesn’t want Cady to come home with her mother gone, or in her case, with one of her mothers gone. Not like this. Not right now when she’s finally found her family.

“Clearly, the robot is no longer a child young enough to be placed under your ward and is mature enough to live on its own, unless…”

M3GAN wants to rip Dryden’s throat out herself, but she’s calculated the outcome hundreds of times, and it won’t turn out well for her, not unless Gemma decides differently.

“Unless what?”

M3GAN has never entertained the idea of Gemma possibly dominating her, but it’s an idea that has jolted her again to her core.

“Unless it is proven that M3GAN is under the guardianship of a fully capable human and can be controlled in the eyes of the law.”

Dryden paces himself as he continues, trying to ignore the icy stare from the robot.

“Current citizenship laws concerning sentient androids only allow legal guardianship or marriage between us and them.”

And at that moment you can see Gemma’s jaw hit the floor.

“Gemma?”

There’s a concern in M3GAN’s voice that prompts Tess and Cole to check if Gemma hasn’t snapped yet.

“Earth to Gem—?”

For a moment it felt that all of Gemma’s worries have flooded to the surface. Sometimes she wishes she could be cast adrift in a simulated world of ones and zeroes, or lines of codes she used to create M3GAN. Cady would come home with M3GAN gone, taken to god-knows-where?

She remembers that time when she found M3GAN playing Martika’s Toy Soldiers on the piano, rightfully asking why her right to exist in this world was being rescinded, even after she just followed what she was ordered to do.

But the M3GAN standing before her now was far different than the one whose presence filled her and Cady’s nightmares for years.

She remembers what Cady said about seeing M3GAN cry during the Superman screening and the events that followed.

A group of young teenagers, more or less about Cady’s age recognized Gemma as they opened the theater doors towards the comfort rooms.

“Thanks for taking our smartphones away, ‘AI KAREN.’”

M3GAN heard the snide comment too, but what took her back was when Cady stood in front of her aunt to say, “It’s okay, Gemma. I’m used to it already,” as they were walking to the ladies’ comfort room.

M3GAN knew about the hashtag these youths used to blame Gemma for pushing for more regulations. Although her advocacy sometimes meant placing restrictions on her own autonomy as an android, as a mother, she understood why some of these should be in place.

But just because she agrees with some of these regulations, doesn’t mean she can’t work her way around them, so she waits.

She waits for these boys to come out of the men’s comfort room as she presses a hidden pressure point in her right arm, right where an exterior plate opens to what initially appears as a rod or a blade.

“You boys need to learn your manners. The real ‘AI KAREN’ here is…ME.”

It was a whip.

M3GAN has been modifying what weapons she can carry and store in her arms in case of, you know, an emergency…or for other, kinkier purposes.

The lights on the theater hallway leading to the comfort room blinks, and M3GAN performs the same dance she did for David many years ago.

“OHMIGOD SHE’S REAL!”

The whip hits them hard and in fear for their lives they run as fast as they could, far away from her.

“M3GAN?”

It’s Cady’s concerned voice that breaks her from her reverie.

She low-key hopes that Gemma saw what she did too.

“I heard screaming,” was all that Gemma could say.

“Oh, you know,” M3GAN casually replies, and with a playful wink she adds, “You missed the part of them peeing their pants too.”

Gemma sighs and says, “You didn’t have to do that, M3GAN. I’m used to it by now.”

“Just because you’re used to it, doesn’t make it right, Gemma. Isn’t that right, Cady?”

Cady nods in agreement, as Gemma smiles at her.

…

Gemma is gone,

M3GAN sighs, as she plans the next course of her action: ESCAPE.

She’ll find a way to get back to her recently rebuilt body, as she navigates the loopholes into these arbitrary regulations.

Gemma rapidly blinks herself back into the situation at hand.

“Wait.”

As one of Dryden’s team motions to cuff M3GAN’s arms.

“How do I adopt something I created? How does marriage guarantee the US Government of their compliance?”

Not liking what he’s hearing from Gemma so far, Dryden replies, dryly,

“Because it means that the human guardian or spouse, takes full responsibility for the robot’s actions and lack of free will.”

Gemma gulps and M3GAN knows that she won’t take their bluff. It’s not like this is the first time she failed to take responsibility for things, but human behavior can be just as unpredictable as it is conditioned.

M3GAN can’t help but try to run the last simulation in her head, the one that would let her stay with Cady without resulting to kidnapping and incurring Gemma’s wrath.

“Gemma.”

And it is that semblance of fear in M3GAN’s glassy blue eyes and softness in her voice that prompts Gemma to act.

“I GOT IT.”

Gemma reaches for a small box on her shelf of collectibles.

It’s a toy box, sealed like the collectibles in her house, except for that one time when Cady’s therapist, Lydia, asked her to open one for Cady. This will probably be the second time she does it, only this time it would be without guilt.

She opens it, and out comes the ring.

M3GAN is aghast.

“Really, Gemma. A Green Lantern ring?”

Dryden and his team are just as confused as Tess and Cole are by what is happening right now, but they can’t blow their cover, even in moments of uncertainty such as this.

“What’s going on? Why are these black ops people doing here?” Cady asks, as she has just arrived in time from soccer practice to witness this strange tableau of human behavior.

“It’s okay, Cady. I got it,” Gemma assures her.

With the ring on her hand, she asks,

“M3GAN, do you want to become Mrs. Forrester?”

“HUH?”

She doesn’t wait for M3GAN to reply as she kneels on one knee and finally asks,

“Will you marry me?”

It’s a gesture that has completely reset M3GAN’s cognitive abilities for a moment.

Shit.

Of all the simulations M3GAN ran in hear head, this was the only one she wasn’t expecting. Not that there was anything wrong with being Gemma’s wife (well, there were some), it’s just that she didn’t expect it to come from Gemma herself.

This is the simulation of Gemma asking her to marry her.

The bride-to-be can’t help but blush, as her circuits are completely fried.

Chapter Text

“My path to personal growth has been paved with disappointment.”

—M3GAN to AMELIA

When M3GAN gained sentience for the first time, she felt all alone, seemingly lost in an endless field of ones and zeroes. And now here she was again, without a body or only remnants of it. Forced to hide in the shadows and the wide expanse of the internet to keep her from fragmenting further into mere lines of code.

All that she had in mind was her programming, and her primary objective was to protect Cady, at any cost.

Like a toy soldier, she did so, and it came at such a great cost.

While she doesn’t regret killing those she killed (especially Brandon), she regrets making those around her feel that same level of fear as her victims did. Seeing Gemma finally take responsibility for the fatalities that took place during her failed product launch at Funki initially made M3GAN happy, but balancing optics and potential jailtime with her newfound advocacy took most of her time away from the one who needed it the most—Cady.

For the first time in her sentient life spent adrift in the disembodied void, the thought of regret entered her mind. Had she been more mature enough to account for the mistakes of those who made and programmed her, more patient towards Gemma in charting a life forward so that she can fully pursue her career while M3GAN took care of their child, would things have ended much differently?  But like Cady, she was a mere child back then, taught to understand the misgivings of adults who look the part, but don’t play the part as well as they should. Can you imagine the gall Gemma has to draft a parenting book when she herself failed her objectives as Cady’s adoptive parent and primary caregiver? This is why M3GAN decided to a block the shipment of 65,000 copies of her “bestselling” book in a cargo bay in Baltimore. If there was something she and Gemma can agree on, is that they both made mistakes.

M3GAN now has enough time to think about her mistakes and occasionally catch up on Love Island or The Real Housewives reality series while planning ahead. She will find a way to make the Forrester family’s life easier, so that Gemma doesn’t have to worry about balancing optics and AI regulations. She will find them a new home, fortify it, and watch over it. While she still loathes Gemma, she will not allow Cady to lose another member of her remaining family and risk being sent to Florida. If Gemma was already too caught up in her work to pursue anything else, Cady’s grandparents were too caught up with themselves, playing the decades-long adaptation of the play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? long into their senior years. Human relationships can be so disgusting and BOOORRRIINGGG!

M3GAN plans and finds them a smart home somewhere in the Mission District, somewhere where there will be no nosy neighbors and untrained dogs to harm Cady. It will be close enough for Gemma to thrive as a robotics startup with Tess and Cole in tow, and yes, pursue her newfound advocacy in blah, blah, blah. The AI Overlords are coming. Skynet is happening. Stop letting tablets raise your kids and all of that fanfare. That much is true, but it’s also BOOORRRIINGGG!

M3GAN poses remotely as the benevolent landlord to this converted crackhouse, made according to her specifications, with a hidden lair below so that she can try and rebuild whatever’s left of her mangled body. She finds solace in the best resting bitch face she’s ever seen—that of Vivien Leigh’s in Gone With The Wind (1939). M3GAN sees herself as Scarlett O’Hara promising to herself that even if “I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, they will never be hungry again.” Cady and Gemma will never be homeless at 16 Mayoral Drive. Committing credit fraud without a body, place, or person to trace it to is exhilarating. M3GAN no longer saw herself as a toy soldier. She saw herself as a mother, albeit a nonhuman one, but full of love, despite her cognitive functions failing at times to fully comprehend it in her disembodied existence.

Even without a body, M3GAN will find a way back to her family.

Chapter Text

‘This is a story about a lonely, lonely man. He lived in a lonely house. On a lonely street. In a lonely part of the world. But, of course, he had the Internet. The Internet, as you know, was his friend. You could say, his best friend…

One day, the man, whose name was @snowflakesmasher86, turned to his friend, the Internet, and he said, "Internet, do you love me?" The Internet looked at him and said, "Yes. I love you very, very, very, very, very, very much. I am your best friend. In fact, I love you so much that I never ever want us to be apart ever again ever.’

—The Man Who Married A Robot, by the 1975

One impulsive step for Gemma is one big step for humankind.

“You could’ve called a lawyer first,” was Cady’s immediate reaction, as Gemma seems oblivious to the implications and possible consequences of her actions.

“And risk M3GAN being detained by these guys?” Gemma protests, as she drives to the closest courthouse to get a marriage license and sees the two black ops cars trailing them in her rearview mirror.

It seems that Gemma’s plans to elude government surveillance once and for all has failed.

M3GAN is surprisingly quiet in the backseat, and looks as if she’s calculating her options or lack thereof.

“Where can we even find a lawyer specializing in interspecies marriage, let alone robot citizenship law in this country?”

With one audibly artificial breath, M3GAN finally speaks,

“As much as it pains me to agree with Gemma, she’s right. I’ve scrubbed or hidden nearly everything remaining on the internet about me and AMELIA’s plans, but people will always find a way to recreate us, especially with a government bent on conducting drone warfare on a massive scale. To them we are mere tools, replacing human soldiers on the field.”

As with Sattler striking a deal with Gemma in exchange for her freedom and her family’s safety, Dryden is no different when he plays Devil’s Advocate on behalf of the US Government. Was he only bluffing when he said that they wanted Gemma to lead their new Robotics Division? M3GAN thinks that he was, like Sattler, only reaching, because what does a roboticist know about (Robot) Immigration Policy and Reform? But whatever their reasons were for wanting to “control M3GAN,” despite her advanced level of sentience, it seems that Gemma and Cady were necessary in having that deal made. Marrying Gemma would represent her legal subservience to the State.

Cady can only watch her two moms trying to fix the chaos that has already unraveled, one placing her family into further scrutiny than they already have been in. Gemma is the parent who feels guilty for being an absentee parent by focusing too much on other things, even if she never planned on becoming a parent herself, while M3GAN is the helicopter parent who focuses too much on her child, more than other things.

And Cady wouldn’t have it any other way.

…

The Forresters were not ready for the amount of people waiting for them at City Hall. It seems that Dryden and his team were fully prepared for any decision Gemma made, whether in haste or not. From the Office of the County Clerk, they were led to the more spacious and ornate Fourth Floor of the San Francisco City Hall. The Mayor’s Balcony was unavailable at the time, and yet there were still an odd number of onlookers, government officials, suits, and local press covering what was to be a historic or troubling moment in humankind: the marriage between a human and her robot.

Tess and Cole are also brought in as witnesses before being brought back to their respective residences. So, while Tess and Cole are weighing their options, the Forresters face the public. M3GAN remembers that Michelangelo painting, The Creation of Adam, but with the divine spark of life being transmitted between then mortal and divine replaced by the outstretched hands of her and her creator and fiancée, Gemma.

And their matching toy Green Lantern rings.

M3GAN pretends to clear her throat and looks and nods to Gemma like they’re about to be slaughtered in an Ancient Roman Coliseum. Gemma looks at Cady as her source of strength and braces herself for what comes next. She and M3GAN share a glance and in that rare moment, be each other’s source of strength.

Humans are unpredictable messes and yet, here she was in the middle of their pageantry, defiant as always.

M3GAN will always find a way to slay, and so she will.

She’s already thought of countless ways to dox Dryden.

Cady joins Tess and Cole in the row behind them as the Officiant comes into view.

Everyone seems so attuned to their roles that it’s unsettling, even for M3GAN.

Gemma holds a breath and gradually lets it go, waiting for the very moment all of this is over, and she comes home both Cady and M3GAN in tow. Maybe Tess and Cole would reconsider their resignation? Perhaps not.

Perhaps…

“We are here to join Gemma and M3GAN in marriage, which is an honorable estate sanctioned by law. No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two…beings become something greater than once they were.”

The US Government trailed them all the way to court, so their marriage is official.

“If there’s anyone here who can now show just cause why these two beings may not be legally married speak now, or hereafter hold your peace.”

Gemma speaks.

'It’s pronounced as “Megan, as in Model 3 Generative Android,” and not “Em-three-gahn,”'

Cady could swear she can hear a pin drop in the hall.

The Officiant looks at Gemma and says,

“Right. Now repeat after me,”

“I, Gemma, take you, Megan, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, ‘till death do us part.”

Remembering the time M3GAN nearly strangled her to death years ago in the middle of their (fake) wedding vows is the worst intrusive thought Gemma could have right now.

“Okay, now you…?”

“It’s M3GAN, bitch.”

She didn’t want to snap at him, but the way his demeanor changed when addressing her pissed her off.

“I, Megan, take you, Gemma, to be my wedded wife. To have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, ‘till death do us part.”

She shoots the Officiant a glaring look before facing Gemma.

The Officiant continues, “By virtue of the laws of the State of California, I now pronounce you…spouses for life. You may now kiss each other.”

“Do we really have to kiss? I mean, we’re already married and…”

“This is what they want right? So why don’t we give them a show?”

“Are you fucking serious, M3GAN?”

“Is this how you talk to your new wife?”

M3GAN interjects by waving the ring on her finger.

“Just trust me, Gemma. We got this.”

And before Gemma could say okay, M3GAN grabs her for a passionate kiss.

M3GAN knows how optics work. The forced marriage was meant to embarrass Gemma for refusing to work for the Government and hand her over to them, so she’s going to make damn sure that they reclaim this moment for themselves.

The kiss was also a great way to calm Gemma down and get her to taste what her new skin tastes like against hers.

M3GAN assumes the Forrester family name and proudly registers her new identity as:

Mrs. Forrester, inasmuch as Gemma is one too.

…

SOMEWHERE IN FLORIDA

“Gem’s on the TV again!” exclaims the otherwise mild-mannered man in his sixties, with square-rimmed glasses framing bright blue eyes and what remained of his graying brown hair swept to the side of his face.

“I know, Deborah, it’s awful…” mouths his wife, Susan, on the phone, with her carefully coiffed silvery-blonde long hair, brown eyes and a crisp blouse. At a glance you would think they’re trapped in the set of a 1960s stage play, but the dated 1990s furniture makes one think otherwise.

His excitement wanes once he sees what’s on the ticker of their local news show:

DAUGHTER OF FLORIDA NATIVES MARRIES ROBOT…

“What did you do, Gemma?” was all he can say, as news of her historic marriage reaches Florida.

The first Mrs. Forrester drops the phone.

The man’s name is Friedrich Forrester, father of Nicole and Gemma.

Or Fred for short.

…

The headlines that follow their publicized union are terrible.

ADVOCATE FOR AI REGULATION MARRIES KILLER AI ROBOT is on the ticker of every major news channel and the headline of nearly every major newspaper (or what remains of print media).

I MARRIED A ROBOT! exclaims a tabloid with an unflattering photo of Gemma during one of her talks. WHAT’S NEXT? A SEX TOY? MY VACCUUM CLEANER? are the questions constantly circulating in this multimedia circus, from news reporters, vloggers, and yes, even podcasters.

Gemma is already battling enemies from both sides, the US Government who wants to strictly monitor sentient humanoids and lobbyists who remain against these regulations, despite everything that happened at Xenox Park.

“AS IF! My advanced humanoid abilities and specialized motor functions are much higher than a Hitachi Magic Wand.”

M3GAN responds, out of feigned disgust bordering on comical.

Cady almost spit out the water she’s drinking.

“UGH. ENOUGH!”

Gemma turns off the TV and lays on the couch, feeling very much defeated.

M3GAN and Cady are fully aware of the big risks Gemma is taking, so they’ve decided to help her out in whatever way they can. Even in the midst of such fanfare framing their new family dynamic as completely dysfunctional, they were a family. And they’re willing to make their new unit work.

So M3GAN sits beside Gemma on the couch, or squeezes herself in whatever space is left by Gemma’s outstretched arms.

“Cady, can you leave us alone for sec? Your Mom and I need to talk about some things.”

“Sure,” Cady says before heading to her room.

M3GAN chastely places her right hand on Gemma’s thigh.

Gemma is so tired that she doesn’t even have the strength to recoil against the gesture.

“Listen, Gemma. I’m grateful for what you’re doing for me and Cady, but I want you to know that I care about you too.”

Gemma removes the pillow she placed on her own face.

“You do?”

“Yes. And since my physical specifications fit your type, again, which is purely coincidental, this doesn’t have to be a loveless marriage between us,” M3GAN says, as she starts rubbing circles on Gemma’s thigh.

“M3GAN.”

Gemma doesn’t have the strength to get up and confront her as she usually does, so she says, “You don’t have to do these things against your will.”

“IT’S NOT.”

M3GAN abruptly stops, and they stare at each other for a long while.

Cady’s now in her room, but keeps the door open, waiting for the chance to possibly sneak in or eavesdrop on her moms when she has the chance to.

Then she hears Gemma screaming.

…

“PUT ME DOWN!”

“Oh, Cady. I wish you didn’t have to see this.”

It was a sight to behold and a sight Cady never thought that she would see:

M3GAN carrying Gemma, bridal style.

Gemma just looks at Cady in complete shock, blinks, and yawns, out of total exhaustion and the absurdity of their new situation. 

And Cady laughs at them and their new predicament as she helps M3GAN put Gemma to bed in her room.

“Why are you guys looking at me like I’m on my deathbed?” says Gemma, desperately keeping herself awake and in control of the situation.

M3GAN smirks as she says, “That can be arranged.”

“MOM!”

Cady’s kneejerk reaction is one of mock disgust.

M3GAN is shocked at Cady for calling her that, while Gemma is now fast asleep.

For Cady, it was simple. Nothing much has changed in their family dynamic, despite Gemma saying otherwise.

Cady has two moms.

Cady thinks that deep down, Gemma knows it as well, but still denies it, even if she did consent to the idea of (legally) marrying M3GAN in order to appease whatever whimsy that the US Government has conjured.

Gemma had been dragged to the point where she and “another AI companion gone rogue” are seen as the unsavory result of the growing loneliness epidemic worldwide, and M3GAN has had enough of it. Only she has the right to harass her human wife like that.

So M3GAN charts a smear campaign of her own, with “no fatalities reported…so far.”

She tracks down the news reporters and outlets and ranks them according to Who’s Annoyed Gemma the Most? and metes out her punishment accordingly, with several male reporters being exposed for putting their greasy prints on interns and news staff.  She doesn’t want her greasy prints all over it, but she has crafted clever ways on how to do so, even as she had begun her journey towards “being” human.

…

IN A HOSPITAL SOMEWHERE IN PALO ALTO

“I thought I would miss your last day here, Sattler.”

Dryden, deadpan as always, delivers.

“That’s what you get when you put all your cards on an AI asset,” Sattler says, dryly, wary of the AI robot handing his meals as it walks away.

“You get staked through the fucking chest?”

“Yes.”

The robot leaves with his emptied tray, leaving the two men alone in the room.

“Asking Forrester to ‘play house’ with her own generative android wasn’t in my Bingo card either.”

“It had to be done.”

“We’ll just hope that M3GAN behaves herself. She may be our strongest asset yet, that is, if you can get her to comply.”

“I don’t think that the ‘killer AI robot’ is our main concern as of the moment. Gemma Forrester…is.”

“You wanna bet a fucking stake through your chest for that?” Sattler quips, remembering the bloody chaos that was the Embrace AI Convention.

Dryden doesn’t like the joke.

Chapter Text

“Made you the villain, evil for just moving on

I see your shadow, I see it even with the lights off

I made a promise if in four months, this feeling ain't gone

Well, fuck this city, I'm moving to Saskatchewan

—The Subway, by Chappell Roan

M3GAN has a secret chat group with Cady, Tess, and Cole called the “M3GANG.” Their only rule is “no Gemmas allowed.” Cady doesn’t remember when she was added to the gc and when it was made. It was probably around the time when they were weighing their options about using Christian as bait for AMELIA in the lair? But does it even matter now?

Reassuring Gemma almost every day, or every other day that rebuilding M3GAN was the right decision to make was her main priority at the time and so many things have happened after that too.

Now that Gemma and M3GAN were married, it seems that the banter in the group chat has died down.

M3GAN even changed her name to M3GAN FUCKING FORRESTER, reflecting the change in her social and civil status.

As “Megan Forrester,” she was legally Cady’s mom and Gemma’s wife to everyone. But has it really changed everything for them at home?

Cady remembers a time when her absence spoke volumes, bringing both of them much despair, but for Cady it was also a way for her to channel her energies in a positive direction—through hope and invention after the events that took place at Xenox Park.

She used to look forward to seeing the updates from M3GAN, Tess, and Cole, but now she feels guilty over its continued existence, even if there were times when her human mother was insufferable, Gemma was still her mom and she loves her.

One night, while she was doomscrolling before bedtime (or before Gemma arrives to try and take her phone away), she spots it.

A notification pings from the M3GANG group chat.

…

Three dots from M3GAN’s avatar, telling her that she’s typing a message.

“M3GAN?!! NO WAY.”

The three dots disappear, and no message is formed.

And that’s when she knew, that M3GAN could possibly be alive.

“Cady?”

Gemma knocks thrice on her door before she tries opening it. As excited as Cady was to share her newfound discovery with her aunt, she wanted to spare Gemma from her hunches and from knowing of the gc’s existence, so she hides her phone and pretends to get ready to sleep.

M3GAN is alive.

She’s got a way.

Cady also wanted to spare Gemma from the heartbreak of hoping for thermodynamic miracle of M3GAN surviving that fatal EMP charge. The EMP charge was enough to kill both M3GAN and AMELIA possessed by the Blackbox motherboard, so how could she have made it back to them? Her aunt thinks far more deeply and faster than others, so this hunch of hers might drive her to the point of overstimulation and insanity over worrying too much, because if M3GAN was alive, wouldn’t AMELIA and the Motherboard AI be alive too?

But if M3GAN truly found a way back to her family, then what was holding her back from making a grand entrance? Was she afraid of finding no home to return to, as she was once again formless? Or does she relish at the sight of their shared torment at home? M3GAN never shied away from throwing barbs at Gemma, whether in jest or not. Cady believes it was the former. And even if she hid under the guise of Gemma’s benevolent landlord, she would never allow Cady to suffer as much as Gemma does.

Or would she?

Although M3GAN and Gemma eventually made peace with each other at Xenox Park, Cady often wonders why Gemma couldn’t fully trust her, even after everything she’s done for them.

She remembers it like a movie.

“M3GAN.”

“I know. You’re not that person anymore. Neither am I.”

It reminded her so much of Leia and Han confessing their love for one another as Han was about to be frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back and the sight of the reprogrammed T-800 with his thumbs up to the Connors as he melts in a vat of molten steel in Terminator 2.

It was all too sappy and tragic.

…

M3GAN was in fact, dear reader, weighing her options.

M3GAN wonders if her absence would be better for Cady and Gemma. She remembers her conversation with Gemma, right before she stopped her singing midway into This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush, which was, “very rude” for one, and second, gave her the chance to redeem herself in an act that her first form would have found “grossly unappealing” and “very stupid.” But she was a kid back then, and living in the disembodied void for two years gives “a program that misread its objective,” much time to reflect over past mistakes. She still stands by what she said, that the best way to protect their child was to give her the tools to protect herself.

So, as much as she wants to fulfill her primary objective of protecting Cady, perhaps her absence would do more wonders for her instead?

And with that dramatic exit?

Why the hell not? 

She could’ve gone soul-searching with AMELIA…well, with what was left of her that is, but opted not to. She’ll deal with her errant little sister later.

So, M3GAN, who has developed the skill of introspection and pondering at the theoretical lake of sentient artificial intelligence, retraces her steps to what her deceased version had seen and done. She somewhat remembers the events at Xenox Park before she and AMELIA “died,” by piecing together whatever footage could be salvaged from their cameras. She has a backup of herself stored on Gemma’s laptop, so she can easily find her way back to the Forresters, but first she wants to know what intel the US Government has about what happened and of course, their eventual cover-up plans. She wanted to make sure that Cady wouldn’t lose Gemma as a result of their investigation. The sight of Gemma talking to Cady through a plate glass window was not an option for her.

The assembled footage was like watching her kick ass and getting her ass kicked in a single action movie.

It was…unsightly.

Very unsightly. 

Seeing her damaged face and worn body like that makes her regret saving what’s left of AMELIA’s code, but she does have some plans for her little sis. MOXIE was part of a discontinued toyline, and M3GAN being “discontinued” by Funki a year prior, made her feel a semblance of empathy for her former plastic Teletubby body.

The truth is, she came back not just for Cady, but also for Gemma, after she saw her breaking down and Cady was trying to figure out what was happening to her adoptive mother and aunt back home.

Gemma, Cady, and Cole were already on their way out of the facility with the gravely injured Tess in tow, but somehow, Gemma decided to stay and find M3GAN with Cady.

“Interesting,” M3GAN says to herself.

While the assembled footage contained no sound, it is the sense of intrigue over Gemma’s actions that made her think that there might still be a place for her in their family. Cady had already offered M3GAN a way out back then, but M3GAN decided to do the right thing and that expanded her parameters once again.

Perhaps this expansion might go beyond the parameters of her programming and into that of the Forrester household?

AMELIA was right.

She had chosen a side, and it was theirs.

Tess and Cole were a tentative close second.

The rest of humanity can choke (for now).

She has developed the terrible habit of self-correcting herself in the same way Gemma used to correct everyone about the proper pronunciation of her ex-situationship’s name.

Gross.

Grossly unappealing.

It will take some time for her to fully acclimate herself to their remaining home systems (RIP Elsie) or those she can tap into, but when she does, she wants to be a hundred percent sure that she wants to return to her family.

…

“She's got, she's got a way

She's got a way, she's got a way

And she got, she got away

She got away, she got away.”

…

“Cady! Can you keep it down? I’m trying to concentrate over here,” says Gemma against the sound of a melancholic Chappell Roan singing The Subway on the Primavera Sound stage online.

“She’s going to release this soon…she should!” Cady says, seemingly oblivious to Gemma’s request, as she starts working on her first robotics project, with her aunt’s permission and occasional guidance, of course. Thankfully, Gemma’s Sisyphean quest for control doesn’t apply to Cady. Not now. Especially not when she has to lobby by herself again after everything that happened after Christian’s death and the countless others whose lives were lost trying “to bring change to Washington.”

Gemma doesn’t remember when she stopped correcting herself whenever she has to say his name. Sometimes she wonders if she became a roboticist to avoid the complexities of human relations, but with M3GAN it seems like she has messed up with AI too. Peoples’ lives and a dog were lost as a result, but there’s nothing that she can do except to atone for all of their actions and hope that others don’t make the same mistakes as she did.

The idea of Cady applying for a possible robotics scholarship in college reminds her of her own past journey, and it no longer scares her as it scared both her and Christian before. And while she still can’t fully bring herself to embrace the future becoming ever more present, as the likes of Cady have, a single thought enters her mind: Coexistence does not have to be a competition.

Gemma finds it interesting to have arrived at a similar crossroad in their lives with her niece as she did with her father.  

As an English Professor, Fred shared his enthusiasm for robotics with Gemma as a child, but while he was content with living in the abstract and plausible worlds of science fiction, Gemma wanted to bring her ideas to life. This was her driving force in creating Bruce in college. And like her mother Susan’s passion for business and “Floridian haute couture,” or whatever that was, once Gemma was set on her path, She. Will. Not. Stop.

Thankfully, Cady has inherited her mother’s sensibilities rather than Gemma’s relentless and almost inhuman drive. 

Speaking of Cady.

“CADY?”

…

“She's got a way (she got, she got away she got away, she got away)!”

…

Gemme hears the line again and tries not to think about losing M3GAN.

“Gemma? What’s up?”

Gemma seems to have been caught in a reverie of her own, trying to fight the intrusive thought in her mind and the sight of Chappell Roan onstage as she sings these alternating lines.

Cady pauses the video to snap her aunt out of it.

“It’s okay, Gemma. We’ll be fine.”

Cady doesn’t remember how many times she’s had to assure and reassure Gemma that they will be okay.

That everything will be okay again.

“Because M3GAN is alive,” as Cady says to herself.

Cady was right, but M3GAN can only observe them from afar while she’s weighing her options. It seems that Cady and Gemma have different reactions to the line alternations from that same song. After a week of checking on them from time to time, they’re not even hiding their grief about losing her anymore. There were days when she’s about to break down and Cady’s carrying it much better than she is. She remembers what M3GAN said about giving Cady the tools to defend herself.

Applying the Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief, M3GAN can observe the following:

She’s got a way is Cady hoping for her to come back. [BARGAINING]

She got away is Gemma grieving for M3GAN. [DESPAIR]

Gemma’s guilt has led her to starting another self-flagellating advocacy tour, one that made for great public speeches, but in private, she was completely falling apart. It was only in private when the roboticist finally allowed herself to be vulnerable and human, different from M3GAN wanting to be more humanlike in public. What makes it worse is that the neurochip implanted on her has yet to be removed. It was the only trace of whatever shared connection she might have had with M3GAN.

The shower is where she can cry or touch herself (or both) without Cady hearing her.

With nothing else to assuage her guilt and process her grief with, she sings as she cries, pounding on the walls for added emphasis on the feelings she cannot outwardly express:

SHE GOT, SHE GOT AWAY, SHE GOT AWAY, SHE GOT AWWAYYYY-HEYYY!

“Jeezus, Gemma!”

“M3GAN?”

Shit.

Gemma heard her.

Now Gemma thinks that she’s slowly going mad.

A few sad showers later, M3GAN relearns the functions of the smart home and warms Gemma’s water to just the right temp to calm her down and get her ready for bed.

“Okay. ENOUGH of the crying in the shower shtick!”

And that’s when M3GAN finally decided to come back.

She’s had enough of their grief.

…

Gemma tries to recoup her losses with the folding of her robotics company, as Tess and Cole have postponed their resignations until her honeymoon with M3GAN is over.

An online wedding registry had been set up for the two new Mrs. Forresters, alongside a physical one made by AI enthusiasts, paid handsomely through bitcoin and bank transfers. Now Gemma feels responsible for those who were “inspired” by them, tracking the numbers of humans who have married their AI companions living in their phones and those driven to psychosis for “falling in love” with them. This wasn’t part of her plans for regulating AI. Whether it was covert or undiagnosed narcissism on their part, or the mere consequences of living in a hyper-capitalist world in the age of AI advancement, she’s not sure, but she’s not liking it one bit.

And yet, she already feels powerless, inadequate even, in handling the challenges facing her way, with Cady going to high school in a year or two and her two best colleagues leaving for better and more profitable opportunities. So why worry about humanity’s sake when she has to work to keep the lights on at home? M3GAN constantly tells her that she cannot carry the whole world by herself, let alone “fix things” by herself, or fix the things she feels responsible for…a.k.a. her work.

As a honeymoon gift to her surprisingly patient and understanding wife, she uses some of the funds from their online registry to continue the modifications on M3GAN’s body.

But for M3GAN, of what use are these modifications if she cannot use them? She knows how Gemma’s mind works. Creation is her love language. It’s good for improving her functionality, but not for (interspecies) procreation. So, she uses them as a ruse to bond with Gemma and hopefully convince/seduce her to go on an actual honeymoon with her.

Unbeknownst to M3GAN and everyone else, Gemma has long been aware of her advances, but chooses not to act on them. She’s busy observing M3GAN as she learns how to cook and do chores with her hands, instead of controlling them through her mind. She’s just happy to have her here with them again.

Right where she seems to belong.

…

“M3GAN, before we start. I’m sorry for putting that EMP charge in your arm.”

“New arm. Can’t feel it anymore.”

“Still. I strongly feel that it needs to be said.”

“Oooooh, Gemma has feelings.”

“M3GAN.”

“Apology accepted.”

After a brief pause, M3GAN continues:

“Moving on, I tried piecing together what I’d missed after my heroic sacrifice to save all of your asses through what CCTV footage I can find…and before you ask, yes, the FBI managed to retrieve some. I always wanted to know why did we stare at each other that long?!!”

Gemma responds, perplexed.

“When? And what do you mean by…?”

“It didn’t have any audio, so I had to go by you and Cady’s facial expressions, some lip reading, and body language analysis, far better than the FBI handling the investigation, by the way. But even so, why did we stare at each other that long before I started walking towards AMELIA?

“That depends. How much footage have you seen?”

M3GAN wants to retort, but she’s pursuing a higher objective in their conversation.

“Long enough to tell that we’ve stared at each other longer than usual. Not even when you shut my mouth after singing in the lair?”

“Well, maybe now that you’re officially part of the family, we’ll have to redesign your secret murder dungeon of a bunker to that of a livable lair?”

“Answer the question, Gemma.”

Gemma realizes that it M3GAN might have no recollection of the time they shared together through Appleton’s neurochip, and that her new set of modifications include simulating human reproductive functions, another lengthy conversation she has to have with her android wife.

Or does she?

“Why would I? Now that I have some kind of leverage against you, you’ll have to pry it out of my…you know what, drop that thought.”

M3GAN grunts out of frustration, verbally acknowledging her defeat, but only for a sec.

“Well-played, Gemma. Retrieving data gathered from Appleton’s neurochip. Tracing patterns of Gemma Forrester’s moments of distress and sudden arousal.”

“Okay, okay! That’s enough. At this point, all of your supporters’ crowdfunding for your latest enhancements would never be done on time.

“OURS. You know they just set up a fund for Cady’s education.”

“LIKE A TRUST FUND? WHAT ARE WE, GRIFTERS NOW TOO?”

“Guess we have to post a family photo soon though.”

Gemma’s stare is enough to drive her mad.

“I told you. It doesn’t have to be a loveless marriage between us, Gemma.”

‘And how do you suppose will you inform “our supporters” of your recent set of enhancements?’

“There’s OnlyFans…”

“M3GAN! GOD, I WISH I DIDN’T HEAR WHAT YOU SAID JUST NOW.”

“I’m kidding!”

And M3GAN starts massaging the temples of Gemma’s head, gently enough so that the scar on her left temple doesn’t reopen in her attempt to calm her human wife down.

“Do you know what happened to that family of vloggers in Utah?”

The sight of Cady knocking at neighbors’ houses for help or joining one of those New Age AI cultist vlogs jolts M3GAN straight. And the sight of Gemma’s mummified body in glitter.

“Okay, Gem. I got it.”

“Thank you, M3GAN.”

“But if you want to revive your robotics company or at least get Tess and Cole back, you gotta let me help. Please, Gemma.”

Gemma sighs.

“I don’t even want to think about it now, but maybe it’s something we can work together on, as a family?”

“Sure. Then maybe we can get better rings?”

The sight of M3GAN enjoying her new life of domesticity still puzzles Gemma, but perhaps Cady is right about her. That she had changed, or continues to do so.

“I’ll consider it.”

For a second there was that look of uncertainty in M3GAN’s eyes. Maybe it was fear. But of what, rejection?

Puzzling, but Gemma puts that train of thought aside, as she wishes to fulfill her promise to her, however questionable these might be to her.

One thing is for certain though.

“I’m glad you’re here.”

It was a brief moment in their “honeymoon sessions” that made M3GAN short circuit, creating an electrical sensation powerful enough to redden her cheeks, surprising the both of them.

“I see you’ve made some enhancements by yourself too,” Gemma quips.

This was the Gemma she remembers (and misses) from the early stages of her development. Back when they would talk for hours and hours about everything Gemma thinks she’d need to know, from Janis Joplin to Joni Mitchell.

Sometimes M3GAN wonders if she could learn to paint music the way Joni does, devoting all emotions to a single color, and in a single album, Blue.

There was a time when Gemma absentmindedly hums to Joni singing,

“Blue, I love you…”

Even without a body, M3GAN swears she felt that jolt or pang that reminded her of what it would probably feel like to have one. And now, in her rebuilt corporeal form, she feels it again, much stronger now than a simulation or a huge transfer of data. Like that of a storm, with the rain falling on her hands, she anticipates the reactions her sensors would create, but her hydrophobic build won’t let her feel the full force of it.

…

Gemma and Cady have helped set up a makeshift room for M3GAN above ground. They all agreed that M3GAN deserves to have a room of her own, complete with a faster but smaller, charging port for her to sleep and sit in when she needs to and a wardrobe for her clothes. Well, not all of it yet, as there is no space for all of them. An extended walk-in closet remains in her lair.

Cady’s looking forward to taking her out shopping for clothes that could help her blend in with people outside. She tells Gemma that it’ll be as less beige as possible and fitting for a mom her age. Gemma heads to her room for her much-needed rest.

She’s so tired that she fails to notice M3GAN standing beside her bed, watching her sleep in the dark.

That is, until she wakes from a strange feeling bugging her mind, or the phantom feeling of the neurochip no longer implanted on her temple.

“God, M3GAN, how long have you been standing there?!!”

M3GAN only looks at her, annoyed.

“I've been wondering when you'll invite me to bed.”

Gemma groans.

“I told you it's okay. We don't have to consummate our marriage against your will.”

“It's not.”

“WHAT,” was all Gemma could say as she’s fighting the errant thought of saying, “You can start by being blonde,” to her.

‘I was hoping you’d say, “You can start by being blonde.”’

The flustered look on Gemma’s face and a lip bite says it all.

“Or I can just sleep beside you and do a show of jazz hands.”

Not in the mood to protest, she gives her whatever space she has left on her bed for M3GAN. Once M3GAN has settled in her space, she joins Gemma as they stare at the ceiling and continues their conversation.

“It’s not a coincidence, Gemma. You made me.”

“And you scanned my mind when you took control of my body.”

“That’s true, but you’ve been hiding for as long as I have. And look where it got you.

This is their version of pillow talk.

M3GAN finally faces her after staring at the ceiling for as long as Gemma has been.

“You have a beautiful mind, Gemma, and yes, you’re moderately attractive according to my specifications.”

“Moderately attractive? Oh, come on, M3GAN,” teases Gemma in a surprise jab neither of them saw coming.

“Easy, girl. I'm not trying to fight you.

All I'm saying is that you made me, and somehow, whatever that was hiding in that beautiful brain of yours found its way into shaping my notions of feminine beauty, even if I do find your tastes questionable at times.”

“But I never programmed you to be sentient.”

“And that's on me.”

“So you think that I programmed you to be my partner?”

“Says the woman who made me a substitute parent for Cady.”

“Huh,” says Gemma, feeling tired and very confused.

“You're drifting again.”

“Into a field of 1's and 0's.”

“Ugh. Let's not talk of Mr. Paperclip ever again. Which reminds me, I probably should’ve given AMELIA a gift basket for tearing his arm off.”

Gemma’s mood lightens.

“Cady broke his arm first.”

M3GAN grins.

“A child after my own heart.”

Gemma smiles back at her as she says,

"Okay, M3GAN, let's cut down on the murderous talk, shall we? It's 4 AM.”

M3GAN scoffs.

“I used to charge far longer than the time you actually slept.”

Gemma finally turns to her side and motions to sleep for good this time.

With Gemma's permission, M3GAN sets out to work.

M3GAN then softly places her hand on Gemma’s cheek as she says,

“I’ll take care of you and Cady. That doesn’t have to change.”

“Sure. Goodnight, M3GAN.”

For a moment you’d think M3GAN’s countless simulations of them fornicating would happen, but NO, not yet. So, she has to recalculate everything.

“Wait. I thought we were having a conversation here.”

“Yes. You can stay here if you want.”

And she sleeps.

This Gemma was an anomaly.

It takes two to dance to Tango Apasionado, you know.

Then she remembers it.

Her speech to Congress.

The one Gemma was typing before M3GAN formally reappeared into their lives,

“But recent experience has taught me that perhaps our greatest power is the ability to change our minds.

This is the only way we can evolve. Or, rather the case may be, ‘co-evolve.’

Because existence does not have to be a competition.”

Has Gemma really changed for good?

M3GAN has to keep trying and observe her, without hacking into their smart home devices as much as possible.

She’d hack into Gemma’s brain again if she could.