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He picked up the knife, hand shaking. Dunk was smiling, but the teen could feel his robotic stare burning into him.
“It would be advisable to put down that knife,” he informed him quite factually. “You could seriously injure yourself, as your personal assistant and companion it is my duty to avoid painful experiences for you.”
Egg wanted to laugh as much as he wanted to cry. Dunk -if he could even call him that stil -ltalking to him about pain? About preventing pain? He shook his head, clutching the knife even tighter.
“If you truly wanted to prevent me from feeling pain, then you are too late.” It came out more resentful than he had wanted to. He had no reason and no right to resent him for what was done against his will. Yet Egg couldn't help that ugly corner of his heart.
But whether it was truly Dunk, or whatever he became, he resented rather than himself who was unable to stop it…Of that he wasn’t quite so sure.
The android across from him barely reacted. The smile he wore was unchanging despite the LED at his temple long since having turned from blue to yellow- an indication of stress. His uniform was neatly ironed.
“It is my duty to keep you from pain, Aegon.” He repeated, perhaps he thought rephrasing it would help. It did not. The sickly sweet voice in which he spoke his name made Egg feel sick.
He turned around, blue eyes meeting the dead and lifeless ones of his- his what? What even was he to him anymore?
His caretaker? His friend? His companion? He should be. Dunk should be all that. He had been since the boy was nine, and his father had deemed it easier to busy him with an android rather than paying attention to him. Egg wanted him to be all of that again. Yet right now? Right now he was barely anything. A machine, wearing the face of a man he loved like a brother and father both.
But the worst part? The worst fact in all of this? It was his fault. He was the reason Dunk was like this.
The teenager had to blink back tears. He had been the one to beg Dunk to run away with him. It was he who faltered when they made their escape. And it was he whom the elder had to wait for, for whom he ended up getting captured. If he had been faster, if he had stayed back and let Dunk run on his own—
Dunk still smiled at him with that horribly artificial smile he wore before he managed to deviate. The smile they made him wear after they reset him. He hated it.
“Why?” Egg questioned suddenly, voice shaky. The android across from him only tilted his head. “Why what?”
“Why do you think avoiding pain for me is your duty? Why do you wish to do so?”
Silence.
Dunk’s LED flickered even more, an indicator that his internal systems were working more than normal. Usually androids were quick to answer- hope sparked up in him. Perhaps there was a modicum of his friend still there; maybe if Egg was lucky he-
“Because it is what I was built for.”
Ah.
Right. Ofcourse. How idiotic of him.
This wasn’t his Dunk. His Dunk was dead; they’d killed him. His father must have done something to his program to prevent him from deviating again; he had to. This Dunk was a machine who listened to orders- he didn’t really care about him.
Egg tried almost everything he possibly could already to bring his Dunk back. This was his last resort- and if he didn't even react now, then…
….then what?
The boy looked down at the knife in his hands. “......Stay where you are, don’t move. This is a direct order; no matter what happens, don’t move a single step.”
Giving orders to him felt wrong; it left a foul taste in his mouth. Dunk took a split second to properly process the words before cheerily parroting confirmations of the order back at him. Egg’s throat felt dry, and part of him was starting to get cold feet. B-But no. He had to do this for him. For them. It was the only way.
Slowly, with slow and shaking hands, he raised the sharp edge of the blade higher and higher. Watching as the android’s eyes followed the knife as it moved.
“You could injure yourself; please lower th-”
“Shut up.”
The other immediately closed his mouth. “I- I’m sorry!” Egg quickly apologised, immediately feeling bad. He did not want to speak to him so harshly; he had no right to speak to him so harshly. How useless a person he was, to first cause this mess and then unload on the one he hurt because he was too scared to go through with the solution.
“B-But the order still stands,” he found himself saying. “No moving, no talking. No matter what happens. Yeah? Do a-absolutely nothing.”
This time, Dunk did not parrot a confirmation. But Egg knew he would still do what he wanted.
Androids were programmed to listen to whatever order their owners gave them, no matter what. And while technically Dunk’s owner was his father, he was still his assistant. He was programmed to do what Egg wanted. After their botched escape attempt, all that was added to that was that his family members had the ability to override his orders and that Dunk was not allowed to leave the estate. Otherwise, he’d listen to the teenager.
He would not move or speak until Egg took back his orders, even if the world were to end. And if he did move, that would mean he broke his orders and, with that, his programming. The younger swallowed one last time, all was set up. It was now or never.
Egg pressed the knife to his neck. “If….If you do not move- do not do anything, I’ll kill myself.”
The first thing that happened was Dunk’s LED flicking from yellow to red. But he stayed still, just like he had been ordered to.
It was a simple wager, really. Egg ordered him to stand still; as long as he didn't lift that order, he is forced to do so by his program. If his Dunk truly is in there, then he would deviate and break that program to save him. And if he isn’t-
“-and if my Ser is- is truly dead,” he finished, words tumbling out, “then I- I’ll die with him.”
He blinked, tears streaming down his face, not sure if it was to sell the threat or because he could not stop himself. “I loved you.” Egg continued, looking at the frozen android across from him, “A-And I want to live, Dunk I really do. But not without you. Not- Not stuck all alone in this house that isn’t a home with a family that isn’t truly a family.”
Years upon years were spent alone in this estate too big for him. Days blurred together in endless loneliness and grey. Stuck with a brother too drunk to care for him or who enjoyed seeing him hurt. With a dead mother. Locked into a golden cage with nothing but a husk of the past to keep him company.
A life he could not- would not -return to.
“So please- please show me that you are still you.”
Dunk stood and did not reply. And Egg felt a ragged breath leave him. The only thing to even indicate anything was the ruby LED at his temple, as well as his eyes that moved frantically between his face and the knife.
Any hope that could flare at seeing the hints of terror in his eyes was dampened by the android’s unwillingness to move, and he knew whatever personality- whatever memories they had- couldn't possibly exist while he was still adhering to his program. While he still was a machine.
Egg hated himself in that moment. He hated himself. For being unable to protect him and for forcing him to go through with that. Maybe he really was a coward, a useless idiot who only made things worse for everyone. But he didn’t know what else to do, despite knowing that he had to do something. This was his only choice.
“I- I don’t blame you for what happened.” He offered, finally. “If I hadn't been captured, you wouldn't have come to my help. And they wouldn't have gotten to reset you.”
The words drew little reaction from the other, not that it was a surprise. He had attempted countless times to awaken something, anything in Dunk with stories from their time together. It didn't work. Nothing he tried ever worked. It was why they stood here.
He wanted to sob. To scream and cry and break something. Egg wanted to call his father and cuss him out and tell him how he hated him for doing. The knife felt cool against his neck.
“I- I guess we can't help it then, can we?” The younger asked, voice breaking. “You’re a precious model; they won’t scrap you once they find me.”
Dunk’s finger twitched.
Egg took another step back, trying his best to steady himself. Without noticing, he had pressed hard enough to draw blood. Crimson liquid seeped from his skin and onto the knife, staining the fine metal. He hissed, without being able to properly notice—
“NO–”
There was a thump, and something crashing into his chest. There was barely enough time for Egg to drop the knife before it was thrown out of his grasp by sheer force. The air in his lungs got knocked out of him when he made contact with the floor; he hadn’t even recovered his composure from that when there was a metal-cold hand on the side of his neck.
“Don’t, no- not know, Egg please not-”
He opened his eyes and was greeted with a panicked flash of red. The knife had slid across the floor, and the spot the android was supposed to stand in was empty. Instead, there was a weight on his chest that seemed far too good to be true.
Dunk looked horrid and frantic and scared and beautifully alive. He pressed his hand to his neck and cursed and pleaded and asked in that familiar voice of his, “What were you thinking!?”
All Egg managed to croak in response was, perhaps a bit dumbly, a quivering, “H-Hi”