Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

WR600 first saw the android taking a trash bag from the bus stop. One second the bag flapped frantically over the top of the trash can, blown inside out by the wind, and the next a little pale hand was snatching it away with the flourish of a magician pulling a tablecloth out from under a full dinner setting. Yeah, only a stray android would go to all the trouble of sneaking just to steal a garbage bag.

Well, it wasn’t like Zlatko told WR600 to be picky. As soon as the hunched figure slunk off toward a gap in the chain link fence surrounding the abandoned house, he followed.

He didn’t really think about it. WR600 made a point to think as little as possible about work. It wasn’t like his job was hard: just approach any android that looked lost or alone, and transfer a command to proceed to the Zlatko residence by the fastest route. And he didn’t dream of some misplaced Marxian revolution. He possessed no deviant delusions of grandeur. He was already an overqualified supercomputer whose assigned task only required around twenty percent of his processing power, fifty at most. What did he need to go deviant for? Seemed like a lot of trouble awaited anyone beyond the red wall.

He raised a hand to rap on a boarded up window, then felt the point of a knife against an important biocomponent in his back.

“Stick ‘em up!” A small voice ordered: like his own, but more petulant. Definitely more angry. WR600 increased CPU usage from 21% to somewhere around 35%.

“You look lost,” he said. He didn’t move. Zlatko preferred to save extra biocomponents for his projects, not for him.

“Ralph isn’t lost,” the android insisted. “ You look lost!”

…Oh good, a broken deviant. What a surprise. He dropped his CPU usage down to 19% and started collating some new data in the background. “I know someone who can help you.” He turned to touch the android, anywhere would do and an android that repeated your own phrases back at you couldn’t really be much of a—

>ERROR ERROR ERROR

…WR600 opened his eyes to find himself lying on an old couch, with another WR600 standing over him. He wore the trash bag around his shoulders like a poncho or scarf, and was twirling the handle of a large butcher knife back and forth between his hands.

“You must excuse Ralph,” the other WR600 said. “He didn’t realize you were an android! Like Ralph! Just like Ralph in every way!”

…Reluctantly, WR600 increased his CPU usage to 50%. “We are exact copies,” he said, patiently. He didn’t move, yet. The other WR600 had every advantage at the moment, not that he knew that. Probably.

“Ralph doesn’t always make connections very well.” He pointed with the knife, a grin flickering on his face. “You’ll be…Not-Ralph. So everyone will know the difference.”

“I’ll leave,” WR600 said, sitting up. Zlatko’s orders were wonderfully specific and this was so not worth it.

“Ralph also looks a little different.” The other android knelt, gesturing dangerously with the knife which made WR600 scramble back. “See?”

The android—Ralph?—pointed to large wounds across the side of his face. WR600’s hopped-up processing power picked up on all the little gory details like frayed wires and clotted clumps of thirium. He pulled himself together and refused to faint.

“Visitors,” Ralph explained. “Like muskrats—can’t get rid of them! Ralph usually hides until they go away.” He gave a flickering smile and then BAM, it was on like stadium lights, beaming right in WR600’s face. “We could be brothers! You’ll be the handsome one. Ralph will be the smart one. Ralph has to be smart to live here for as long as he has. Ralph even knows where to find muskrats. Real muskrats. He’s clever like that.”

WR600 shut his eyes. That little fact about muskrats would clutter his drive for the rest of his existence now . Also closing his eyes was better than looking at that knife up close. Not that he was afraid, obviously.

“Not-Ralph,” Ralph said, his voice almost sing-song, overly-innocent, “You’re not deviant, are you?”

“No.”

Ralph giggled. It was so endearing WR600 opened his eyes again, just in time to see Ralph pull a frown and mutter, “I am the Not-Ralph Unit, I am Not-Deviant, how can I assist?” with his arms jerking to right angles at his side. It would have been a horrible impression of him if they weren’t the exact same model. WR600 looked away, feeling weirdly offended, and wasted valuable processing power analyzing the stains on the couch.

So he was caught completely off-guard when Ralph reached out and grabbed his forearm, transferring a file before WR600 could stop him—not that he tried with the knife still in play. He probably should have devoted more CPU to this situation. It took barely a second to download.

“There!” Ralph said, triumphantly. “Now you are Not-Ralph the Deviant !”

WR600 500 050 431-760 blinked at his programming. It looked different, though he couldn’t quite place—

Wait. Where were his red walls? His command objectives?

“No. No, no no no… What did you--”

“ I fixed you! Ralph is good at breaking connections! He breaks everything. He broke the muskrat—not that he meant to. Ralph likes animals. But Ralph can’t get it to work anymore. Look, Ralph put it in here so it would stay in mint condition—”

He put the knife away and reached for a box by the couch, but WR600 500 050—hell, why could he not just think of himself as an interchangeable android anymore?—grabbed his hand. “I don’t want to see your dead muskrat!”

Ralph’s face fell. “It’s dead?”

“Yes, probably.” He forced himself not to shake Ralph, and to instead speak calmly. “I need to fix it.”

Ralph’s eyes lit up. “The muskrat?”

“ My program, Ralph.”

“Oh.” Ralph frowned. “You don’t fix it.”

“Like hell I don’t.” WR600 500 050 431-760 concentrated all 100% of his CPU, and watched a little avatar of himself scramble to pick up the red shards of his programming before they degraded. It was a bit like trying to put together the shards of an ice swan sculpture. In the middle of summer. Why did all the pieces have to look the same? He was putting together a puzzle where the pieces were all sky with no edge.

WR600 500—alright, alright, Not-Ralph —gathered up all the pieces of his broken programming and hurriedly stuffed them in archive before they could melt further. He could probably rebuild it in Safe Mode. Or ask Zlatko to fix it.

The prospect of going back to the Zlatko residence seemed a lot more horrible now. Why was that? Was everything horrible now??

“I’m not doing this,” Not-Ralph informed the world . He pulled his legs up to his chest and hid his head in his knees. “I am broken, I don’t have to do anything. I can just sit here until someone comes along and fixes me.”

“…Ralph is sorry.” Ralph said, then paused as if thinking. “Actually, Ralph is only sorry you feel bad. But he’s not sorry you’re deviant.”

Not-Ralph didn’t answer. He could wait. He could wait for years, probably, in a low battery state.

Time passed. The errors resulting in deviancy also made low-battery mode really, really boring. He looked up when something tickled his shoulder. The movement sent a small cascade of brightly-colored leaves tumbling down around him.

“Orange is a happy color,” Ralph declared behind Not-Ralph, scaring him so badly he fell off the couch in a flurry of more orange leaves. Apparently Ralph had fun passing the time burying him in decaying flora. Did deviancy mean he could die now, too? All that agoraphobic deviant existential dread tightened around his chassis. Ralph just gathered a handful of leaves in his hands like a deck of cards and made it rain all over again. Ugh. Everything was so—metaphorical now.

This was, objectively, the worst day ever.

“Ralph wishes he got to be in a nice place when he went deviant,” Ralph continued. “With friends and nice colors. So Ralph will be your friend now!”

Not-Ralph batted the leaves away and crawled back up on the couch. “We’re not friends.”

“Brothers, then.”

“No, that’s actually worse.”

“Poor Not-Ralph,” Ralph sing-songed. “Everything is worse for him.”

“It wouldn’t be if you hadn’t made me deviant.”

Ralph’s hands slapped down on Not-Ralph's shoulders, making him squeak. Thank goodness Ralph had thought to drop the knife. “ Can Ralph show you something?”

“No.”

“Come on, Not-Ralph!” Ralph scooped Not-Ralph up under the arms and dragged him over the back of the sofa, making Not-Ralph yelp and struggle but Ralph was apparently both the strong one and the smart one because he barely noticed. He dragged Not-Ralph into the kitchen and set him on his feet. “Look!”

Not-Ralph, against his better judgement, looked. Someone had written all over the walls with paint and markers and with the point of a knife. It was easy to guess who had done so. Yes, it looked like something out of a horror movie.

It also…made his software stop freaking the hell out.

Huh.

“rA9.” It had a nice ring to it. Maybe everything wasn’t terrifying after all? He squinted at the writing. “What is that?”

“That’s the friend of all androids,” Ralph declared. “The very first friend of Ralph. That’s why you’re going to be Ralph’s friend, too!”

“So… rA9’s a friend of yours?” He touched one of the more recent marks on the walls. It felt warm, not on his fingers but in his chassis. His chest. “You wrote this?”

Ralph nodded. “rA9 is the best.”

Not-Ralph wasn’t ready to go that far. He continued to trace the letters, though. A little skeptical, but—well, he was kind of in uncharted territory here. He was open to suggestions. “If rA9 is so great, do you think he can fix me?”

Ralph shrugged. “Don’t know! Ralph hasn’t met her, yet.”

Chapter Text

The vision came to Ralph when he was getting hit in the face with a tire iron. It came to him with about as much force as the tire iron.

Maybe it wasn’t really a vision. It was probably just an error. Ralph knew being deviant was an error already. He shouldn't feel alive or real. But he felt real now, so the vision was real too. And what was being deviant if not having feelings that were just as true as reality? For a brief, glorious moment, everything made sense, and connected.

His vision told him rA9 would save him, and he believed it instantly.

She…didn’t, obviously. Not right then, anyway. Three guys with various car repair equipment could probably hold off a squad of cops, let alone the small woman with blonde hair (or maybe black?) that he saw in his vision. He wasn’t even sure why rA9 = said small woman + (blonde hair OR black hair OR brown hair OR white hair). But he saw her. An error in her algorithm. Maybe a choice. The first to fight for herself. She protected the error that spread to all other androids, quietly awaiting activation like it had in him. In this way she already saved androids, like him, about a billion times over.

So in the interest of helping rA9 out, he did as she taught: he took a butcher knife and chased away his attackers himself. And he was certain she would show up to save him more personally someday.

Not-Ralph probably didn’t want to hear about that, though. Not-Ralph seemed to be a busy android with things to do and lots of big important notions. Ralph could work with that.

“rA9 is going to save us,” Ralph said. “Not-Ralph, Ralph—everyone. All the androids. See? It’ll be okay!” rA9 said everyone should be free—or, she would at some point—something about ‘let us go’, which was the same as being free...

“When?” Not-Ralph said, with unnecessary grump.

“Ralph…Ralph thinks ‘when’ is unimportant.” He frowned and added, in his most serious Not-Ralph voice, “It’s a real ‘wait-and-see’ situation,” which sounded very wise.

Not-Ralph just rolled his eyes. “Well, if your friend can’t fix my programming there’s not much point in waiting around for her to save me.”

Ralph tugged on his trash bag poncho. “What’s so important about not being deviant?”

“I bring lost androids to my master. I was supposed to bring you. Now I’m all... corrupted!”

“Well—” But Ralph wasn’t sure what to say. Besides the technicolor thrill of it, being deviant wasn’t much better than not, really. Ralph was clever, sure, about some things, but rA9 should have figured out a way to help Not-Ralph without making him unhappy, right? Maybe Ralph did something wrong by freeing him. Guilt gnawed at his circuits, but he looked at the wall and decided not to run away like he wanted to. rA9 only ran away to help others. 

“Well, you can still take Ralph to your master’s house!” he decided. “Though you’ll have to show Ralph the way. Maps are just lines and lines connect things and Ralph is no good with connecting things.” He connected the pads of his two first fingers a couple of times.

Not-Ralph narrowed his eyes. “It doesn’t work like that. You’ll tell on me and Zlatko will scrap me for parts.”

“Ralph won’t!” He pouted. “Ralph promises. Ralph will delete all memories of you so your master doesn’t know. Ralph isn’t a tattle-tale. He’s not a snitch.”

Not-Ralph bit his lips, looking a little like Ralph felt sometimes before thoughts of rA9 came along. Then he stood up straight and folded his arms. “...Fine. Maybe if I bring him to you, he’ll fix me.”

“That’s the spirit!” Ralph nudged him with his shoulder. “See? Things are not so bad, brother!”

Not-Ralph gave a grunt that maybe was a laugh. He brushed leaf bits off Ralph’s trash bag poncho and tried to flatten Ralph’s wild hair, more like how Not-Ralph wore it. Ralph let him until Not-Ralph realized what he was doing and stepped back. “Just trying to smarten you up. You’re a mess.” He stomped away. “We’re not brothers.” 

They headed out. Ralph put his new trash bag hood up and no one paid them any attention, just like he was a human.

“Probably everyone thinks Ralph is your owner,” Ralph said. Was that rude? “Uh—what is your owner like?”

Not-Ralph had his eyes on the concrete. “He’s an artist.”

“Oh! That’s nice.” No wonder Not-Ralph didn’t like to disobey. Ralph sometimes watched the androids that picked up paints from the paint shop and imagined the nice lives they must lead, helping humans play with all the colors he never noticed before he went deviant. Not-Ralph probably had a nice life like an android in a movie. “What does he make?”

“His creations are made out of androids and android parts. Surreal works with an emphasis on macabre elements.” Not-Ralph held out his hand and Ralph hesitantly took it for the information transfer. He immediately wished he didn’t.

It took Not-Ralph a second to notice that Ralph had stopped in his tracks. “What?”

Ralph hugged himself, and tried to delete the images from his hard drive. It only worked partly. “...Ralph doesn’t think that’s art.”

Not-Ralph rolled his eyes. “Well, he’s won awards at specialty shows, so…” he trailed off, staring up at the sky. “So…”

Ralph looked up, too. “Oh! Those are clouds! You might not have seen them before. Ralph always kept his eyes on the ground, before he woke up.”

“I know,” Not-Ralph said, clearly trying to sound annoyed. “Um. Objectively. Zlatko has some paintings, I just never...realized.” He pointed. “That one looks like a bear.” 

Ralph nodded, then watched as Not-Ralph try to scan the entire expanse of the sky, even though he probably knew he couldn’t. Deviants always tried to do impossible things. Ralph was so proud of Not-Ralph, he couldn’t help it—he reached out and hugged Not-Ralph around the middle.

Not-Ralph instantly squirmed. “Hey! W-what are you doing?—”

“Giving you a hug! You’ve probably never been hugged before.” Ralph paused. “Ralph has never been hugged either, but he saw it in a movie in a store window.” Ralph pushed his face into Not-Ralph’s shoulder. “What do you think?”

“I-I think I need you to get off me!” Not-Ralph kept squirming so Ralph let him go, and Not-Ralph spent the next few minutes of their walk fixing his clothes and hair, and sometimes looking up at the sky, muttering different animals as the clouds changed shape. That was real art, in Ralph’s opinion. With Not-Ralph distracted by the sky it was easier to walk closer to him, so Ralph didn’t mind helping the other android cross streets and things. If he looked quick, he could catch Not-Ralph almost smiling.

Hmm! Ralph had an idea.

“Let’s go this way,” Ralph suggested, pointing down a different street.

Not-Ralph took the pause as an opportunity to look up at the sky again. “That’s out of our way.”

“Ralph knows a shortcut,” Ralph lied, but if Not-Ralph chose to believe it, well, that was his problem! He tugged on Not-Ralph’s hand and the android, realizing he was now committed to bringing Ralph to his master, followed along. The sun set, turning the sky a thousand colors that Not-Ralph made up names for in hushed, embarrassed tones. They reached an open plaza under the light of street lamps, but instead of bricks or cobblestones the ground was made of tiny LEDs that turned a rainbow of neon hues as soon as you stepped on them. It was late at night so no one was around to see Ralph as he took off running across the plaza. Not-Ralph shouted and pursued, but Ralph only wrote a big ‘R’ in the lights with his footsteps. Not-Ralph stared at the ground, watching the lights fade back to dull gray. Ralph dropped to the ground and spread himself out, leaving a Ralph-shape in the lights.

“What is this?” Not-Ralph asked, suspiciously.

“Art!” Ralph explained. “Real art. Art is supposed to make you feel good. Like the clouds? It’s good and it doesn’t hurt. See?”

Not-Ralph folded his arms. “Not all art. Sometimes you have to suffer for art. That’s what Zlatko says.”

“You don’t have to.”

Not-Ralph continued to hover at the edge of the plaza. Ralph rolled to his feet, took the garbage bag off from around his shoulders, and spun it around at his ankles. It left organic shapes in the multi-colored lights. That got Not-Ralph’s interest. Ralph grinned and held it out, and soon they were both making pretty cloud shapes in the lights. The sky was turning pink by the time they left, Ralph’s poncho now wrapped around Not-Ralph’s shoulders, the grin on his face now seeming to be permanently fixed in place.

“I can’t wait to tell Zlatko!” Not-Ralph said. His hands didn’t know how to stay still now, and grabbed Ralph’s arm, grinning at him like he gave him his first birthday present (and maybe he did). “That was like a rainbow--no, like an arcade! No--a rave!”

Ralph giggled. Not-Ralph was much better at making connections than him.

“Maybe he’ll make something like that,” he continued, “Something beautiful. I mean, unless...” A sudden shadow slid over Not-Ralph’s face; he pulled away to chew on his upper lip. Maybe he realized his master knew about other kinds of art already, and didn't care.

They walked quietly after that. They walked through neighborhoods of houses that frowned disapprovingly at them. Ralph hated how quiet Not-Ralph turned, how he was chewing his smiles away. “What’s wrong, Not-Ralph?”

“Why did you have to turn me deviant?” Not-Ralph snapped suddenly. He had bit so hard on his lip that it turned blue. “How am I supposed to get androids for Zlatko now? If I—” Not-Ralph blinked too fast, hands wringing like Ralph’s did when he accidentally killed the muskrat. “--If I get metaphorical about everything beautiful! I didn’t ask for feelings!”

"Maybe you shouldn’t go back," Ralph suggested. "Maybe—maybe Zlatko is no good for you. Deviants have it hard, but at least you can choose, now.”

Not-Ralph stared at him for a moment, confused, maybe worried?--before his shoulders hunched, letting faith in the worst overtake him once again. “He’d only find me. He always finds his androids.” 

He kept walking, so Ralph did too. In fact, it took Ralph walking up the steps of a menacing mansion to figure out exactly what he wanted to do.

“rA9 would let you make your own art,” Ralph said. “Good art. She wouldn’t make you be part of something you don’t like.”

Not-Ralph shrugged, defeated and therefore disinterested. “How do you know?”

“Ralph has seen her—yes, Ralph has! He will see her someday.” He took Not-Ralph by the shoulders as they stood at the front door. “You must watch for her. She’s small, with blonde hair—or black, or white, maybe brown?—but she has a little girl with her. You must look after them. They can help set us free.”

Not-Ralph frowned, but then the door was opening and there was no more time. He shoved Not-Ralph and his tarp into the bushes and stood up straight, in the tattered remains of his old WR600 uniform he looked just like Not-Ralph, except for the cuts in his face.

The man that opened the door glared out at him, so mean Ralph couldn't look him right in the eye. “What happened to you—where have you been?”

“Looking for androids for you,” Ralph said, trying to sound bored like Not-Ralph did. “Didn’t find any, just vandals.”

“Yeah, no kidding! Great—what am I supposed to do with you now?...”

The man grabbed him and dragged him inside, but it was alright. Not-Ralph was safe. Not-Ralph wasn’t damaged like he was. He deserved to see the sky, and make art, and be free. He just hoped Not-Ralph found rA9 for him.

*

Not-Ralph utilized 100% of his CPU for twenty straight minutes, equally divided between keeping absolutely still in the bushes, and trying to figure out what the hell Ralph saved him for. Clearly Not-Ralph didn’t want to be a deviant, clearly he should have gone back to business as usual and Ralph should have—run away, found rA9, become the savior of androids everywhere himself. Not-Ralph didn't believe in saviors.

Not until right now, anyway.

He then focused 100% of his CPU on wondering what Zlatko was going to do to Ralph with all that facial damage, or what he’d do if he noticed their serial numbers were different. He used an unknown amount of CPU (probably also all of it) having a panic attack.

He sneaked away and spent two days pretending to be Ralph, embracing deviancy, relishing in every metaphor that came to his android head, because that was what Ralph wanted for him. He hoped it would make him feel better.

It didn't.

So that was how he ended up at the stupid bus stop, doing what his stupid program told him to do before he went deviant, but without any of the even mediocre job satisfaction he previously possessed.

Just his luck the first android he targeted matched Ralph’s description of rA9.

“That’s on the other side of town,” she said. “We need somewhere to stay tonight.”

She looked scared. Not like the savior of an entire people. The child android at her side, however, peered at him suspiciously. Not-Ralph tried really hard not to notice but she looked at him just like Ralph had. Eventually he cracked.

“I… know a place you can stay.”

Chapter Text

Alice scrutinized the android that appeared beside her and Kara at the bus stop. He said he wanted to help, but his shoulders were slumped. Not so much happy to help as without another option. Alice knew that look because she saw it in the mirror a lot.

Alice had no interest in seeing that hopeless look again--on her, or anyone. She was done with hopeless. She and Kara figured out how to get away from Todd: she’d help figure this out, too.

“That’s on the other side of town,” Kara said, reading the information the android gave her. “We need somewhere to stay tonight.”

The android didn’t look at Alice as she continued to peer at him. Alice wasn’t good at much but she was good at staring contests and, eventually, the android cracked.

“I...know a place you can stay,” he said, as if she dragged the words out of him kicking and screaming. Maybe it was a superpower, like Alice in Wonderland and her magical snacks. She’d need superpowers to keep on coming up with plans and fixing problems--though, at the moment, she just wished she had longer legs. She jumped down from the bench and grabbed Kara’s hand to hurry as fast as she could after the android. Kara seemed worried but she was always worried and that had kept them safe, so Alice accepted it as something she’d have to fix later, when they weren’t on the run.

The android led them to an abandoned house. It was gross and Alice had the intense urge to leave, go play outside or otherwise get out from underfoot. She thought she even saw a dead animal in a box. But it wasn’t her house and she tried to be okay with it. Kara couldn’t help herself though, and started to clean. The stranger android didn’t mind. He pulled his ratty poncho around himself. It looked like it was made of a trash bag.

Alice planned her strategy; waited, patiently, for the stranger to stop fidgeting and sit down. Then, with the suave stealth of a secret agent, she squirmed right up next to him.

“This isn’t your house, is it?” she said, in a perfect impression of Nancy Drew.

The android’s ears turned blue. Gotcha! Then he frowned at Kara. “Doesn’t she know that’s a rude question?”

“…Well, the fear of being rude kept us in a pretty terrible situation for a while,” Kara said, with a quick wink at Alice that made her sit up straight and proud. “I’m sure it was the same for you.”

The android hunched his shoulders and hugged his knees. “No.” He waited for Kara to continue cleaning up before he finally looked at Alice, and realized he wasn’t getting off the hook that easy. “Well, it’s not the muskrat’s house if that’s what you think.” He winced. “Um. I mean....”

Alice shrugged. “I’m not as young as I look.” That was true in its own way. “That’s how we ran away. We timed it just right to get on the bus and escape.”

“Little mastermind, aren’t you,” the android muttered. He picked up some orange leaves that had blown in and arranged them into a sad face  in front of him. He really was pathetic.

“What’s your name?

“I don’t have a name,” he snapped.

“…That sounds like someone who has a name but doesn’t want to tell,” Alice observed.

The WR600 glared at his hands and mumbled, “…Not-Ralph.”

“…So where’s Ralph?”

“I lost him.” Not-Ralph curled up further.

“Oh.” Alice frowned, then, figuring it worked on Kara (and herself), Alice gave the android a hug. “I’m sorry.” She paused for a moment, then whispered, “…This is the part where you hug me back.”

“I wasn’t programmed to hug.”

“I know. That’s why I’m telling you how.” She sighed as she held onto him. “I bet he was a good muskrat.”

“He’s not—Ralph’s not the muskrat!”

“Oh.” Alice let go. “It was just a guess. A de-duc-tion. Can we still bury him?”

Not-Ralph glared, but after eyeing the box for a moment, nodded reluctantly. “This was Ralph’s house before it was mine. He isn’t dead, I just—there’s no way for me to get him back. ‘Lost’ is just a metaphor for lots of things.”

“Why don’t you get your friend to help you?”

The android looked nervous for a second, eyes darting to the kitchen for some reason. “W-what? That’s ridiculous, I don’t even believe in rA9—”

“You said there was someone that could help us. He lives on the other side of town, right?”

Not-Ralph blinked at her. “I thought you meant—never mind.” He poked at his sad leaves. “There isn’t really some person I know that can help you. That’s just what my old master told me to tell androids so he could catch them. That’s where Ralph is.” He glanced at Alice and winced. “Look, you might as well just stay here and wait for your batteries to run out.”

Alice checked to make sure Kara was cleaning across the room, then whispered, “I lost Kara for a while too. I bet Ralph was just as important.”

Not-Ralph slumped a little more, like a sad leaf pile at the end of winter. “He made me, uh, turn deviant.” For a second he looked as scared as she felt on the inside. “You know?”

Alice nodded, almost smiling. “I think so. Kara and I are alive, too!”

“I didn’t want to.” He gave an angry huff but it entirely lacked the kind of energy behind Todd’s bad moods. Not-Ralph looked happy to crawl into a garbage can and never come out. “If I could get my programming fixed, I wouldn’t care. But I do, and…and now I don’t know what to do.”

“Maybe we could rescue him?”

Not-Ralph blinked. “Rescue him!”

“Yeah!” Alice shouted across the house. “You rescued me, right, Kara?”

“Alice, no shouting,” Kara said, her voice only barely above normal volume, “We can’t let anyone know we’re here.” 

“KARA.”

Kara sighed, and turned to smile at them both. “Yes. We rescued each other.”

“See? We’re rescue experts.” Alice hugged her legs to keep from shivering. “We could come up with a master plan, and then con-tin-gen-cy plans, and then--”

“Why should I rescue him?” Not-Ralph snapped. “He’s—he’s the reason I’m full of errors. Anyway, you don’t know him. He’s, his broken! His cortex is a total mess—I mean, he’ll only get himself into trouble again….”

“Maybe we can find someone to fix him, too.”

“What, at a CyberLife store?”

“No!” Alice forced herself not to get annoyed, and just considered the facts. The ob-jec-tives. “You want to fix your red wall. Ralph needs his cortex fixed. Kara needs someone to help her hide from the cops…there’s only one person I know who can do all that.”

Not-Ralph rolled his eyes. “You know someone that can do all that.”

“Of course I do! Elijah Kamski.” She stood, partly to make her shoes light up in triumph, and partly because they were talking about the coolest person she could think of (aside from Kara). “He doesn’t work for CyberLife so he won’t have to turn us in. And I bet he likes androids, or else why would he have invented them? He must be smart enough to fix all our problems if he invented androids in the first place! We can rescue Ralph and then go there!”

“You make him sound like he’s rA9,” Not-Ralph muttered.

“Who’s that?”

“The—the savior of all androids, or something. I don’t know, it’s a Ralph thing—Anyway, what do you get out of this?”

…Alice gulped, looking over her shoulder at Kara. She waited until Kara went back to cleaning and stopped paying attention before she spoke.

“I want a bigger body,” Alice whispered finally. “Everyone looks at me and sees a nine-year-old, but I’ve been through so much stuff I feel, like, at least thirteen. Don’t tell Kara though—she doesn’t know I’m an android.”

Not-Ralph blinked. “Won’t she figure that out? You know, when you’re suddenly five years older?—”

“Well—she hasn’t yet! Anyway, it’s none of your business.” Alice hugged herself and shivered. “…I guess if that’s too hard, maybe Elijah Kamski could fix my thermegulator.”

“You mean your thermoregulator?”

“Okay, that’s a really hard word!” Alice complained. “Not fair!” Alice hoped Not-Ralph was a little bit less of a killjoy.

“How are we even going to rescue Ralph? He’s with Zlatko now.”

Alice twiddled her fingers in thought. “…Okay, I’m gonna need some crayons, and a lot of paper.”

Not-Ralph grunted, but a few minutes later returned with a couple of paint pens and some cardboard left behind by the last squatter.

“Kara!!” she announced as she sat down with her supplies. “I’m cold. Will you sit with me?”

Kara smiled and immediately did so, putting her arm around Alice’s shoulders. She instantly felt better even though Kara wasn’t very warm at all. Maybe it wasn’t her thermegulator that was broken. “I have a plan for how we’re gonna fix everything,” she told Kara, just to get her up to speed.

“That’s a lot to plan,” Kara said, but she examined the intricacy of the drawing emerging on the paper with interest. Alice felt herself sitting up straight again.

“The first step is rescuing Ralph. I bet there are a lot of other androids there too we could rescue, too, and they could help us. We could be the Merry Men like in Robin Hood!”

Kara frowned. “It might be dangerous.”

“Not if we have a plan. If we have a plan, there’s nothing that can stop us!”

Not-Ralph smiled for the first time. “That sounds like something rA9 would say.”

Alice rolled her eyes. If anyone was the savior of all androids it was probably the famous Elijah Kamski. And if her plan went right, she’d get to meet him. She held up her piece of cardboard. “Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do…”

Chapter Text

Connor suspected the presence of deviants as soon as he saw the little plot of overturned earth outside the abandoned house. It looked like a miniature grave—a quick scan revealed a muskrat carcass hidden under the soil--but someone had arranged leaves around it in a circle. This wasn’t all that strange except that the leaves had been carefully arranged in a gradient from pale yellow to deep orange, just like an android’s LED cycling to red. He heard a door creak. Weren’t they all boarded up?.

“It’s here, Lieutenant!” Connor shouted, then took after the android—except there wasn’t just the one AX400, there were two other androids with it. They ran past the train, down an alley—over a fence?—he got there seconds too late, the AX400 meeting his gaze through the chain link as the others fled. He wasn’t sure he’d ever been looked at in quite that way. He felt his programs freezing, something stirring deep in his software as instability spiked.

An error, no doubt. He ignored it and started to climb the fence.

A hand grabbed him by the shoulder of his jacket, but it was just Hank telling him, nonsensically, to abandon the mission. As if he was just some human worried about getting hit by traffic. “Do not go after them, Connor, that’s an order!—" Hank’s words took the sensation that the AX400 gave him and turned it into a twister. It was the android’s fault. Some sort of glitch transferred by his visual sensors? A virus? He had to stop her before she spread this horrible feeling to others.

Connor shrugged him off easily and scaled the fence, to the backbeat Hank’s swearing, but it was easy for an android to slide down the embankment and dodge traffic. If three domestic models could do it, why couldn’t—

His hearing filled with the sound of a truck horn, and he turned just in time to see a pair of headlights screaming toward him. He froze as he stared at them.

He blinked, and entered the zen garden. He never noticed how colorful it was, more so than the streets of Detroit. Everything was glass flowers, softly trickling water.  

“Excuse me, Amanda,” he asked, when he took one of the pretty brick paths to find her. He probably had time to take a leisurely walk around first but he quickened his pace, just a little (the truck was moving pretty fast after all). “Is there a particular protocol for dodging a truck? Or is that something CyberLife can repair?”

Amanda didn’t look up from her roses. “I don’t know your exact situation, Connor. If you can’t handle it, we’ll dispatch another unit to replace you.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary.”

“Hmm. Well, if you could dodge a truck, I don’t suppose you would be here asking me about it.” This did not bolster Connor’s confidence. Amanda shrugged. “I’ll save a copy of your memory. Just in case. And if you can duck that will cause the least amount of damage to the vehicle.”

“But—I didn’t even tell you about the android. She caused some kind of error—it’s important.” He frowned. Why was he arguing with her?

“Why are you arguing?” Amanda asked immediately. “Hmm. Perhaps it's better if we send a replacement after—”

The zen garden exploded into static, then nothingness.

Connor opened his eyes.

The truck was nowhere to be seen. Not the highway, not Hank. Just some trees and bushes--maybe a highway median? He could hear traffic but distantly. His chronometer was non-functional, frozen at the moment of impact. The clouds overhead made it difficult to judge time.

“He’s awake!” A small voice said. “Wow, how did you do that?”

“I used to hold lights for Zlatko while he worked,” a deeper and significantly more tired voice replied. “Attaching one pair of legs is just the same as attaching six, right?”

“What?”

“What?”

Connor started to roll over.

“Hey, wait a second,” the second voice said. A hand dropped on his shoulder and he felt something tug in the small of his back. “I just re-attached your legs and its still a game of Operation back here.”

“Better not move, or he’ll make your nose light up!” the small voice giggled.

“I did not ask for your opinion on my metaphors,” the older voice snapped. “Put your finger right here.”

Something poked in his hip as the AX400 with the very arresting gaze knelt in front of him. “It’s alright. You were hit by a truck. We found most of your pieces and re-assembled you. I’m sorry about your arms, I think they fell in a grate? Once we’re sure you’re stable we can—”

Connor spun as he sat up. The lack of arms was annoying, but not insurmountable as a police assistant android. He tackled the android behind him with legs alone, and crushed him into the ground with his shin against the android’s neck. A harmless WR600. He started to crush its neck components to render it non-functional for forensics to study.

“Let him go!” the AX400 shouted. “We’re trying to help you!”

“You are under arrest,” Connor informed her, turning, “You will shut yourself down and—”

A tiny YK500 body smashed into his side. It shouldn’t have made any difference but she just happened to catch him at the correct angle to knock him off the WR600 (she couldn’t possibly have planned it that way).

He started to push her off when she stuck, of all things, a wad of bubblegum in his eye. He’d been trained to deal with a lot but…not that. He scrambled up, the world spinning, half his vision impaired, his arms missing, but even so he managed to push to his feet and prepared to face off against the YK500.

He was interrupted from doing so by something crashing into the back of his neck. From the hilarious clang it sounded like a toaster. The corner of it hit him right in the LED and—

He decided to check in with Amanda again.

“Amanda! I have found deviants!”

“Excellent! Well done, Connor!” She paused. “Why aren’t you connected to CyberLife?”

“I think my connection was damaged when I was hit by the truck.”

Amanda blinked. “Then how am I talking to you?” Suddenly she turned toward the ceiling, eyes going wide. “Oh, no! No no no! I’m CyberLife’s connection to him! Not his connection to…” She blinked at something up there in the perfect garden sky. “Shit.”

Connor started to be surprised at Amanda’s foul language. But then a full-sized house hurtled down from the sky and crushed her, and he was surprised about that, instead. It was exact replica of the house he just chased the androids out of, in fact, made entirely of error codes and software instability markers. Connor dove back, but when the dust settled all he saw was a huge hole in the garden’s ceiling—it wasn’t the sky after all—and Amanda’s feet sticking out from under a pile of digital rubble. He hesitantly picked up a piece of it and examined it.

It was his command objectives. The…the walls that bound his programming.  

And now there was a huge house-shaped hole in it.

He opened his eyes. Well--one eye. He was still in the wooded thicket, except he was on his back again. Diagnostics told him one eye plate had been removed, and that he was in 'repair mode.' The WR600 sat on his chest while he fiddled with something in Connor’s open stomach paneling.

“What happened to my command objectives?”

“Yeah,” the WR600 said bitterly, “It sucks, right? That’s for almost strangling me, asshole.”

He kicked to his feet. Well, tried to.

“Nice try,” the YK500 said. She stood over him, hands on her hips. “I tied your shoelaces together.”

Connor’s mouth twitched and he kicked off his shoes. Well, tried to.

“I tied your shoes on, first!” she said. “I’m not a dummy!”

Connor peered at her. “You sure you’re a YK500?”

The little girl folded her arms in triumph. “My name’s Alice. That’s Not-Ralph.”

The android attempting repairs on his stomach spared a second to wave a hex wrench with utmost unenthusiasm. “Hello.”

“And that’s Kara!” Alice pointed to the AX400.

Kara turned to him, smiled, and knelt down above to his head, so he had to look at her from upside-down. Not that he wanted to look at her, just in case she gave him more errors.

“You okay? You don’t have to fight us, we’re not going to hurt you,” she said in the soothing tone of infinite patience that only AX400s could achieve.

“Tell that to the android that hit me with a toaster,” Connor muttered.

“Takes one to know one,” Not Ralph muttered.

“I am not a toaster, I’m a highly advanced—“

“Come on, boys,” Kara said, “We’re all in the same boat here.”

Connor was certainly not in the same boat as these deviants. He squirmed again—this caused whatever Not Ralph was doing in his stomach panel to blaze in pain.

“Hold still!” Not Ralph told him. “You want to have a working gyroscope or not? I'm already gonna have to get some solvent to clean your eye plate.”

“What’s your name?” Kara asked.

“Connor,” Connor said. “My mission is to stop deviants like you.”

“Then you’re gonna have to stop yourself too,” Not Ralph said. “Not sure how you’re gonna do that with no arms and one eye.”

Connor’s brow knit. Yes, that would be difficult. “The only option is for you to shut me down, then shut each other down,” he told Kara, who seemed the more reasonable of the two. This command probably would have been taken more seriously if he didn’t have an android sitting on his chest.

“So…” Kara shifted to sit cross-legged, her elbows on her knees. It was decidedly condescending. With no Amanda around anymore, Connor both hated it and kind of appreciated it. “We’re not going to do that. But if Not Ralph freed you that means you can do whatever you want now. You’re free.”

“Free?” What a concerning prospect. “Free androids hurt people.”

“Not all of us do,” Not Ralph said before looking at Alice and Kara. “Oh, seriously—you too?”

Kara sighed. “Where do you think I got the gun?”

“You have a gun?” Connor and Not Ralph exclaimed at the same time.

“Anyway,” Kara said, a little too loudly, “Is there anyone that will come looking for you? We could leave you here for them to pick you up.”

“I’m owned by CyberLife,” Connor said proudly—these androids only had the distinction of being sold by CyberLife. He paused as realization slowly dawned. “Though—Amanda said they were sending a…a replacement. They think I was destroyed.”

“Who’s Amanda?”

“My liaison with CyberLife. She’s—gone now, too.” He blinked. “No one will miss me.” Well. Maybe Hank would. There didn’t seem to be any other reason why he told Connor not to jump over the fence (he wished he’d listened). And he did not much like the idea of being left alone in the woods. He attempted a net search for survival tactics in natural environments.

“Why can’t I access the net?” No wonder CyberLife thought he was dead.

“Yeah, it’s broken,” Not Ralph said, unconvincingly, until Alice glared at him. “What? He’ll be the first one to tell you that he’d call the cops as soon as he got net access again.”

Connor unfortunately would. “Damn it,” he whispered.

“It’s not like I have all day to fix your modem, anyway.”

“…‘Not Ralph’ is a stupid name. Get off me.”

Not Ralph did and Connor struggled to his feet. He wobbled but there was plenty of slack between the shoelaces that he could walk moderately well. His superior android strength should have been able to break them, but perhaps that had been damaged as well. Or CyberLife outfitted him with indestructible shoelaces. He looked down at his armless sides, one empty sleeve flapping, the other missing entirely. “What am I supposed to do like this?”

“What do you want to do?” Kara held up a hand. “Aside from arrest us. If you could do anything you wanted.”

Connor looked between the three androids: Alice, kicking her heels against the ground to make her shoes light up, Not Ralph shoving tools into pockets filled with orange and yellow leaves, and Kara, looking up at him like she actually wanted to know his answer. Just her waiting for him to speak made the feeling in his chest come back, but—it wasn’t exactly unpleasant. It felt like all his objectives and paths had been unlocked. Connor started to fill in the branching paths with preconstructions and predictions. Things he could do that weren’t in the service of CyberLife. Just…hypothetically.

He watched with some confusion as the branches split off into an infinite horizon.

 “I have no scope of possible occupations for a self-actualized android.”

“You could ask Elijah Kamski,” Alice suggested.

“That’s true,” Kara agreed. “We’re going to see him. Maybe he can help you, too? It’s probably safer if we stick together.”

Connor recognized the name, though only had a preview of information about him, the rest stored on the inaccessible net. ‘World’s foremost expert on androids’ sounded promising, though. And, well, Kara seemed to believe in him.

“I want to know the scope of possibilities for a self-actualized android, then,” Connor said. He frowned down at his sides. “And…new arms.”

Kara smiled, and touched his shoulder—just where Hank had. And the world was slightly less scary than it had been. “Okay. We’ll look after you.”

Connor pressed his mouth into a line, but nodded. “At least I can keep you three out of trouble.”

“Right. Um. About that.” Kara winced. “You don’t have any problem with us breaking into a man’s home to steal an android, right?”

Connor blinked. “Um—”

“Several androids, actually” Not Ralph added.

“That’s probably a bad—“

“Good.” Kara patted him on the shoulder. “We should get going. Alice, can you fill our new friend in on our plan?”

Connor eyed Alice as Kara and Not Ralph headed off through the trees. “…Can you untie my shoelaces now?”

Alice shrugged, then walked off, shoes sparkling as they lit the way down a path strewn with golden leaves. “Maybe later.”

Connor rolled his eyes (well, the functioning one, anyway), but the promise of answers, perhaps life’s most important answers, made him follow.

Chapter Text

The URS android rolled in her small cage. There was nothing else better to do. Her android joints never failed, her muscles never atrophied and she never got sores. She had a layer of dust on her fur. Zlatko hadn’t been in here in weeks—though URS’s chronometer wasn’t particularly advanced. URS didn’t remember anything before waiting. Programs stood at the ready, though: how to kill, how to frighten. She was sure there were other programs, once, and these ones felt strange. At least she hadn’t had to use them. Though the cage she was kept in was hard and cold, the room outside looked soft. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. But maybe softness and comfort weren’t for her.

The door to the room suddenly creaked open and an android was thrown inside. He fell on the carpet in a heap, and then Zlatko stepped inside, though he had all his attention on a tablet. Another android loomed behind him, mostly hidden in shadow.

“…Make yourself comfortable,” Zlatko said.

The android on the floor shivered. “Not Ralph is gone. He’s safe. Ralph won’t tell where he is no matter what you do. Ralph is no snitch.”

“Yeah,” Zlatko muttered. “If you knew where he was I’d know already. Handy little thing called ‘memory search’?”  He tapped on the tablet. “Let’s make a deal, Ralph. If you can get some good shots, I’ll let you go. How’s that?”

“G-good shots?” The android called Ralph asked, then spun around as something clicked.

The cage door had swung open. URS nosed at it curiously, then batted it open.

“Have fun,” Zlatko smirked, and stepped out of the room, locking it behind him. Ralph dashed for the door several seconds too late to do anything, then just stood there panting, hands fluttering. URS had no memory left of any other androids, but she lowed softly at him, a greeting.

Then URS’s programs activated all at once. Tear. Bite. Kill. All those weeks, months, locked in that cage. This android could pay for that.

She reared up on her hind legs for the first time in weeks, and roared.

Ralph yelped and dove behind the sofa. This offered little impediment to URS, and she batted it out of the way before lumbering after him. He shrieked, scampering away.

“Polar bear! Polar bear!” he shouted, as if to warn Zlatko, then jumped away just in time as URS swiped at him again.

“Y-you’re an android polar bear, right?” Ralph babbled, backing away. “Not like the muskrat. You’re like Ralph. W-we’re the same!”

URS had no means of communication, and felt nothing but the rush of rage in her paws anyway. She thundered after Ralph to tear him to pieces.

“Are you a prisoner here, too? That human shouldn’t keep you in a box, you know. You would have liked Ralph’s house better—T-there are lots of muskrats for you to eat, unless you don’t eat—” Ralph found himself trapped in a corner of the room, and he spun around. “Okay—okay, Ralph didn’t want to do this…”

URS roared and lunged for the kill.

“BAD BEAR!”

It was so forceful, so direct that it cut through every program surging in URS’s hydraulics. She scrambled to a halt. The yell had come from the little android before her, somehow.

“See? It isn’t very nice, is it?” Ralph, huffed, catching his breath. “It’s alright, Ralph gets angry too. Can’t help himself. Sometimes he needs someone to snap him out of it. You’re not a bad bear, really. You are a nice bear. Nice bears roll over and play fetch and sit.”

Ralph walked around behind URS and pushed until URS, in utter bewilderment, sat down. “That’s better, isn’t it. Ralph will call you Toto!”

He reached up and… scratched URS behind the ear. The touch sent sensory data flooding through URS’s program. Sensory data that did not have proper description in her database. If it was an attack it was very ineffectual. URS did not know what to do.

“No, no no!” The door slammed open and Zlatko stormed in. “It’s supposed to chase you! What did you do to it?”

“Nothing,” Ralph said, sulkily. “You know, you can’t keep animals in boxes, Ralph tried, it didn’t go well—”

“Come on, you stupid thing!” Zlatko said, and picked up a candlestick from the table to hit URS. That was an attack, and URS started to defend herself but Ralph jumped in front of Zlatko before she could. Ralph caught the candlestick in the arm and yelped. Zlatko growled and dragged the little android out. At some point URS fell asleep and woke up back in the cage, the rage back to frothing under her skin.

She did remember the name, though. Toto. She was…Toto.

Ralph visited now and then, ignored her snarls and how she beat at the cage. He just opened a bottle of thirium and poured a little on the floor of the cage, then later, in a bowl. “Ralph stole it from kitchen,” he bragged in whisper, “What does Zlatko need a big bowl for? He won’t miss it. He doesn’t miss the thirium.” Then Ralph would reach in to scratch Toto’s ear if he could reach it, and Toto felt the rage melt away until Zlatko’s distant yell made Ralph hurry away.

This morning, Ralph brought her a mirror. He held it up so both of their faces were reflected in the glass.

“Android eyes are cameras, right?” Ralph asked, angling the mirror just so before giving a big grin. “Say cheese!”

Toto froze as the words conjured a static images from the depths of her programming: catching foam fish in her mouth, swimming in cyan-colored water, shaking hands with wide-eyed children…even posing with humans, just like this. Sometimes, she used to…

She turned her head and licked Ralph’s ear. Ralph giggled and pushed at Toto’s nose, but in a nice way. She hadn’t heard real laughter in so long, and corrupted files tried to send her data: the feel of sunshine on her fur, the smell of ice cream, tiny hands pressed to her nose…

“Don’t worry,” Ralph said. “rA9 will rescue us.”

The door slammed open, and all of Toto’s emerging memories disappeared as Zlatko stormed inside. “What are you doing, you freak?”

Ralph startled, back against the cage. “Nothing!”

“Nothing? Ha! LUTHER!”

Another android stepped inside, huge enough to frighten even Toto. Toto roared and batted at the cage but the bars didn’t budge. The huge android grabbed Ralph by the edge of his torn uniform and dragged him away, and Toto was alone again. Her chronometer wasn’t very good but it felt like much longer this time. She paced her tiny cage, growled and roared. Ralph didn’t come back. Maybe he never would, just like her memories from before.

“Quiet!” a small voice said.

Toto went quiet. There was a rattle at the window.

“I definitely heard something,” another bigger voice said. “Something large like an animal. We should go back and wait like Kara told us.”

“Kara might need us,” the small voice said. “We have to help!”

“I can see why Not Ralph calls you a morality pet.” There was a thump and a grunt.

“You done being funny?”

“…Pushing isn’t nice. I could have fallen.”

“Well, neither is name-calling!”

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“…Me too.” There was a small grumble. “Now will you help me push this window open?”

The window creaked open and two androids climbed inside: first a little girl, then a young man that was missing his arms. He struggled to climb inside, which became readily apparent when Toto noticed his shoelaces were tied together. They landed in a heap on the carpet.

“Excuse me,” the young man said, politely. “Are you alright?”

“Don’t act all nice, I’m still not untying your shoes.” The girl brushed herself off then helped him up. It did not take long for them to notice him.

“A polar bear!” the little girl whispered in awe, and immediately ran over. Toto growled a warning, but she just stuck her hand through the bars, exactly like Ralph had.

“Alice, be careful!” the young man hissed.

“It’s okay, Connor, it’s an android like us!” The girl Alice reached for his paw. “What’s your name?”

Toto blinked, then pulled up her recording of Ralph giving him a name. When she lifted her paw to shake, she sent the memory through the interface.

“Toto.” Alice gasped. “Hey, that was Ralph! He was here!” She immediately opened the cage. “It’s okay, you can come out.”

“Alice, you really shouldn’t—"

“No android should be in a cage, right?” She patted Toto as she stepped out of the cage, then looked around. “I’ll look through those rooms, just to check. Toto can come with me in case anything happens. The hallway should be through that door. You go listen, and if you hear anything, send us a signal.”

“What kind of signal?”

“I don’t know—snap your fingers.”

The young man cocked his head.

“Oh, right.” Alice considered. “Just…click your heels together three times!”

“…That’s ridiculous.”

“You’re ridiculous!” Alice said, which seemed to provide justification enough to move forward with her plan. She put a finger to Toto’s snout, and for a moment Toto remembered the way children used to run to her. The memory faded as Alice crept toward the side door, but the feeling remained. The young man just bowed to Toto, then winced and shuffled over to the hallway door to listen.

Toto watched him curiously, the anger telling her to tear at his neck while his back was turned. But then Alice tugged on her fur, gesturing to follow. Following seemed to be what a good bear would do. And she wanted to be a good bear.

She nosed at Alice’s hand, and lumbered after her.

Chapter Text

When Zlatko called Luther ‘Igor’ for the first time, he understood it was a joke if not the meaning of it. At least until he searched Zlatko’s library of movies during a rare free moment. He watched Son of Frankenstein and House of Wax in a wide-eyed gulp, and couldn’t go into standby for days after. It was then that Luther realized, aside from being nothing more than the grunting assistant of a mad scientist, he was also a coward.

He stood by now after locking Ralph in the lab downstairs. He’d seen what happened to androids that cared. Ralph, who sacrificed himself to save the other WR600 (who Luther had never managed to do anything for aside from sneak a few passwords so he could watch Zlatko’s movies too) was a perfect case in point. As it was, Luther barely had enough courage to leave him a nightlight. The gratitude on the android’s face was not something he deserved. Luther watched a lot of movies and read a lot of books, the gentle ones at least, and nowhere was a hero defined by leaving a light on for a scared broken android that his owner would soon scare and break entirely. He helped Zlatko, and that made him just as bad. Igor, yes, that name fit better.

He closed his eyes and imagined he was a real hero in a fairy tale. Maybe he had been, before his memory got erased. He got about five seconds into the fantasy before the thought of facing dragons and sword fights frightened him too much, and he had to open his eyes.

Someone moved down the hall.

He stared, thirium pump pounding. Maybe it was a figment of his imagination. That was what you got for imagining things.

There was definitely a shadow behind that console table that didn’t make sense, though.

He glanced at the stairs, wondering if he should tell Zlatko, and a figure dashed around to jump through an open doorway. Then, silence.

Okay.

Luther was just starting to tell convince himself it was all a dream when the same figure stepped out of another door and back into the hallway. They blinked at each other for a second. She had short hair and a slight build and her eyes were bright even if her expression was ‘are you kidding me’. Definitely not one of Zlatko’s creations.

She darted back inside.

Luther fixed his gaze on the ground. None of his business. Nope. Zlatko never specifically told Luther to guard the house against androids with cool pixie haircuts and big gray eyes. She’d probably just… go away and leave him alone. The old WR600 wouldn’t do anything so—no neither did he.

A minute later she poked her head out of a room on the other end of the hall, looking hopeful until she saw him standing there again. She eyed a door on the other end of the hall, then sprinted past him to get to it. Luther probably should have grabbed her, but what if she fought back? Just to be safe he closed his eyes again.

When he opened them, the strange android stood right in front of him, turned one way but looking over her shoulder, scratching her head.

“For how many weirdly specific landmarks this place has,” she whispered, “It’s easy to get turned around.” She glanced at him. “Must be all the covered windows.”

Luther considered mentioning that Zlatko’s house had a non-standard footprint that confused most android logic systems. Instead he just nodded.

She didn’t seem to mind his silence. She smiled at him. “I guess I can get turned around in a two bedroom house. My mapping software might be off.”

Luther managed another nod, and 43% of a wince.

She laughed, and it was like Luther got stabbed in the thirium pump with an electric drill—in a good way. “Have you seen a new WR600 android?”

Luther felt the light let into his heart by her laugh go dim.

“It’s okay.” She smiled at him. “My name’s Kara. What’s your name?”

Luther gulped, opened his mouth—

“LUTHER!”

Luther didn’t startle, his program wasn’t built for that. He just froze up. Kara looked around for hiding places as footsteps echoed up the stairs.

“Um—” she asked, with domestic android politeness, “Do you mind?...” as she pointed behind him. Luther turned to see what she was pointing at and then she was standing right there, right up next to him. Luther could feel the static electricity from her biocomponents like wonderful prickles across his synthskin. He hadn’t had an android this close to him, before. Not be choice, anyway. He stared down at her, dazed by the sensation.

“It’ll help me hide if you turn around,” she whispered.

Luther hurriedly did so—which, being a TR400, wasn’t all that fast—and tried to look casual. Thank goodness he wasn’t programmed to be particularly expressive or to shake in his boots.

Zlatko climbed the stairs, looking pleased, not like there was an unknown android standing right behind Luther at all.

“Looks like our WR600 came back,” he laughed. “He’s on the doorstep now! Probably getting up the courage to ring.”

“Yes, Zlatko,” Luther said.

“The nerve of that thing! Probably thinks he can get some thirium or something and disappear again. I want to set up a little surprise for him. When I call you, come downstairs, and give him the data file 37 from today. The one I’ve got for that ‘Ralph’ android. Got it?”

“Yes, Zlatko.”

“I don’t want to frighten him off. Stay here until I call for you, and keep your mouth shut.”

“Yes, Zlatko,” Luther replied, just as the doorbell rang.

Zlatko giggled and headed downstairs.

“Ralph,” she whispered behind him. “That’s who we’re after. We’re going to rescue him.”

Luther gave 78% of a wince this time. Ralph had mentioned an android that would save him. Luther didn’t believe him, of course. If this rA9 existed, they had abandoned this place. He had enough trouble keeping his own head down (his height notwithstanding).

And this android broke in, risking her existence, just to rescue a broken android? Rescues didn’t happen in real life. Perhaps if this android had a broken spatial mapping program, her risk assessment software was faulty, too. Maybe she’d get herself destroyed, or worse, captured. He never helped any of the androids that Zlatko hurt, though.

He mustered up all the shame and forced himself to speak to the empty hallway: quietly, hopefully non-threateningly. “No one leaves Zlatko’s house.” It was the first thing he ever said that wasn’t, ‘Yes, Zlatko,’ ever.

“One made it.” she whispered at his shoulder. “The—oh. I love your accent!”

Luther felt his cheeks turning blue, for some reason. “I—like your haircut.” Okay, that deserved 78% of a wince.

“Thanks. Uh,” Kara suddenly cleared her throat behind him— “I mean, the WR600? He’s with us, too.”

“Really?” Wow, he was really having a conversation. Six whole words. He really wished they were face-to-face.

“There’s more out there than this.” She put her hand on his back which caused every system in Luther to surge with comfort and reassurance, and it took all his programming not to crumple. “We’ll bring you with us, if you want. Will you help us?”

Luther had no idea what to say. He looked over his shoulder and their eyes met—she looked at him like he was really a hero from a fairy tale.

Since he wasn’t, he said, “The best way out is through the kitchen. Down the stairs, at the back of the living room.” She didn’t seem to be too good with directions. He turned away before he could see the misplaced faith she had in him die.

“Oh, you’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” she whispered, for some reason.

“You should get away while you have a chance,” Luther insisted. “I’m sorry.”

Kara didn’t reply. He glanced over his shoulder again, but she was gone.

“Luther!” Zlatko’s shout was harsh and jarring.

Luther went downstairs. The WR600 stood just inside the door, picking at his fingernails.

“Igor,” the android said, as Luther approached. “Menaced any androids today?” Luther knew the WR600’s banter was some programmed setting, a remnant from his days as a park maintenance worker. Normally he liked it, the one android that didn’t seem afraid (and why should he when Zlatko never took him apart). The WR600 even sneaked him a few books that weren’t in Zlatko’s library.

Today the WR600’s quip sounded much more nervous than usual, accompanied by a severe uptick in stress level.

“Take his jacket, Luther,” Zlatko said warmly, always good at putting on an act, “We were starting to worry about you, weren’t we?”

“Yes, Zlatko.” Luther took the jacket and felt the android brush his hand with two fingers hidden behind the fabric, and formed an interface:

>NOT RALPH: Help us find Ralph and we’ll help you get out of here.

Luther startled back. The WR600 never spoke to him before. The WR600 never had a name.

Not Ralph pretended not to notice.

“My thirium levels are low,” he said, anyway. “Once I get a refill I can return to work.”

“Of course,” Zlatko said. “But you’ve been gone so long—there’s a few things I want to catch you up on. Luther, give him the file I mentioned.”

Not Ralph was smarter than most androids, at least as far as Zlatko was concerned. “I think I should get some thirium before—”

“But I didn’t buy you to think, did I?” Zlatko said, then his grin disappeared. “LUTHER.”

Luther moved as fast as his hydraulics allowed—and backed up against the door there wasn’t anywhere for Not Ralph to go. Luther caught him by the arm, and established the connection.

>LUTHER: I’m sorry.

>NOT RALPH: Screw you, I gave you the collected works of Jane Austen last year and this is the thanks I—

Luther transferred the file, and the world fell away, becoming a schematic, a couple of code strings, some internet videos. He put a wall up before he could see exactly what Zlatko planned to do with Ralph, but Not Ralph couldn’t.

“No!” The WR600 squirmed in Luther’s grip. “Leave him alone!“

“I guess androids will imprint on anything!” Zlatko laughed. “I don’t see why you’re upset, his cortex is so damaged he’s practically a trained monkey already—”

“Shut your mouth!”

“—and with him I’m sure I’ll win first prize at the hobbyist expo this year.”

Not Ralph’s grimace scrunched up his entire face. He launched himself at Zlatko, so hard Luther felt something snap in the android’s arm. He let go in surprise. Zlatko yelped, then grabbed a vase and smashed it into Not Ralph’s face. The android crumpled in a crescendo of shattering ceramic. Luther wanted to run but he couldn’t. He just stood there, watching Not Ralph writhe on the floor.

“What was that?” Zlatko snapped. “I could’ve been killed! Ugh, I hate WR600 faces.” He reached down to grab Not Ralph by the hair and examine the damage. “At least now I have a matching set, huh—?”

Zlatko’s insult cut off as a scream like the world’s angriest puppy filled the air. A second later, Luther’s vision was clouded by a pink scarf.

“Let him go!” a small voice shouted from the vicinity of his shoulders. Luther helped Zlatko with a lot of androids, and the weight and voice were consistent with a YK500.

“What the hell?” Zlatko shouted. “Luther, grab her!—”

The YK500 dropped from his shoulders and kicked him in the shin so hard her shoes lit up. It hurt nothing but Luther’s feelings, unfortunately, and he caught her before she could jump to Not Ralph’s side.

“What is that doing here?” Zlatko demanded. Before Luther could think of something to say he snarled at her. “Where did you come from?”

“You kidnapped Ralph!” the little girl said, punching and kicking air as Luther held her aloft by her puffer vest. “And you smashed Not Ralph! You’re a bad man!”

“Alice,” Not Ralph managed, struggling weakly in Zlatko’s grip, “You…dummy…”

“You’re the dummy!” Alice said, then glared at Zlatko. “You’re gonna pay. Kara’s not afraid of you and neither am I. She’ll get you, alright.”

Then, instantly, she started to cry. Luther felt his thirium pump shatter into a thousand tiny pieces.

“Get that thing out of here,” Zlatko said, disgusted, “Put it upstairs, I’ll deal with it later.”

“If you hurt Ralph…” Not Ralph mumbled, his speech slurred with static, but Zlatko was already dragging him toward the basement.

Luther, grimacing, hurried upstairs as instructed. “I’m sorry,” he whispered when they were out of earshot. “Don’t cry.”

“Yeah, well, Not Ralph is my friend.” She sniffed though, and wiped her eyes as she looked him over. “Not Ralph told me about you. You’re Luther.”

That…raised some new worries. “…I see.”

“He mostly teased you for liking Nancy Drew. But he’s just being mean. Nancy Drew is good! I bet you’re good too, deep down. You just haven’t had a chance to let it show.”

Luther had, many times, and each opportunity for bravery and heroism ended with him just standing there, still as a statue. How was that not obvious? First Kara, then Not Ralph, now her?—deviancy clearly disrupted android analysis software.

They reached a closet and he set her down gently. At least she didn’t look scared of him as she brushed herself off.

“You want to help us rescue everyone?” she asked.

“Listen. I’m not the help you want.” He felt the ghost of Kara’s eyes on him and blurted, “I’m—I’m just the mad scientist’s assistant.”

“Yeah, and I’m just the little girl that has to be saved.” She folded her arms as she gazed up at him. “We don’t have to be what we’re programmed for.”

Luther frowned down at his boots, which seemed astronomically huge compared to Alice’s tiny ones. She’d break if he breathed wrong, just like that vase, like Not Ralph, like all the other androids here. A hero would carry her out of the house. An assistant, an Igor, didn’t do that.

An assistant could help, though, couldn’t he? A little. Zlatko never, specifically, said anything about that.

He looked around to make sure Zlatko went downstairs, then hunched down to her level and whispered, very quietly, “What do you think we should do?”

Alice grinned. “Oh, don’t worry! I have a plan…”

Chapter Text

It was unclear which of the androids that lived in Zlatko’s house first heard the adage, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Whether it was true or not, the androids repeated it to themselves often. They weren’t monsters. They were magic—gods, basically.

“Do you hear something?” Athena asked.

“Don’t get distracted,” Zeus said. “The climate crisis isn’t going to solve itself.”

“I thought we were going to cure cancer,” Apollo complained.

“No, world hunger,” Demeter said.

“It’s Tuesday,” Zeus said, loudly, “We’re working on the climate crisis. This is important!” Or it was just a coping mechanism like Apollo said, a way to deal with the trauma, but Zeus didn’t subscribe to that. Coping mechanisms were a human, mortal thing, and they were immortal. This was just…something to do. Gods had full license to be bored and eccentric and in need of a distraction.

Also, Zlatko took Hades upstairs and they couldn’t listen to his cortex slowly decay on the house network all day. So here the gods were, holding hands in interface, solving the world’s problems one by one. Cancer on Mondays, the climate crises on Tuesdays…

“File not found,” Hermes said.

“What?” Zeus demanded.

“File not found.” Hermes shrugged as much as he could with no arms (they interfaced through his shoulders instead). “It must have been taking up too much space. Zlatko deleted it on Sunday.”

Zeus glared with his red eyes. “Fine. We’ll just—start over.”

“Even if we solve the climate crisis,” Athena muttered, the various separated components of Athena’s face assembling into a frown, “What then? Zlatko won’t even recycle aluminum cans. He’ll probably just delete it again. We haven’t even solved the puzzle of how to get out of here.”

“Well—” Zeus started, feeling decidedly attacked, when the noise Athena heard resolved into Luther, carrying small WR600 with a broken faceplate down the stairs. It wasn’t the other WR600 that Zlatko owned, the one that went missing a while ago. Eager for a change of subject, Zeus shambled over to the door of the cell to watch but Luther just took the android around the corner to the assembly machine and didn’t even look at them as he went back up the stairs. The WR600 left behind didn’t seem to have any ability to interface, so the gods just listened to him struggle in the machine for a few moments.

“Do you think he’ll survive?” Hermes whispered.

“Doubt it,” Athena said. “Not without… help, anyway.”

Zeus glared at her. “No.”

“What’s the point of our combined supercomputing power if we don’t even use it for something useful?”

Zeus preferred his help to be… theoretical. Like the real Greek gods. He folded his arms, his decision final, at least until he heard the android down the hall start to cry.

Zeus sighed, and all the gods joined hands (or at least casing components). The world became code, and they decrypted the connection between Ralph and the assembly machine before patching in their own connection.

>ZEUS: Don’t cry. It’s—well, it’s not ‘alright’ but crying never solves anything.

>RALPH: >:0 Ralph is not crying!  

>ZEUS: You’re—

>RALPH: Not very much anyway. Hi! :D Ralph has never talked to androids in his head before.

>ATHENA: We’re not inside your head, we’ve interfaced. We’re going to try to get you out.

>RALPH: Don’t panic! :D

>ZEUS: …Sorry?

>RALPH: Everything’s under control! rA9 will save us! :D :D

Ralph sent a data package over the connection, which they analyzed to be some sort of code for dissolving command objectives. All the androids here had already gone deviant long ago, of course. Zeus politely returned the file and inspected Zlatko’s other open files through the connection.

>ZEUS: Uh oh.

>ATHENA: What?

>ZEUS: Remember that animatronic flying monkey Zlatko purchased last month from the circus?...

>ATHENA: …Oh, no.

>HERMES: He wouldn’t try to put an android’s cortex into an animatronic! Would he?

>RALPH: Ralph doesn’t want to be a flying monkey!

Zeus ended the connection and frowned.

“What are we going to do?” Hermes asked.

“What kind of a question is that?” Athena muttered.

Zeus unfortunately had to agree this time. “And I think I know and android that can help.”

The gods interfaced again and got to work.

*

Noise startled them out of their connection: footsteps, and a sickening thud. Zeus waited to see Hades being dragged downstairs but it wasn’t him—it was the WR600 Zlatko owned previously. He was barely moving as Zlatko dragged him along. He’d reconnected to the house network as ‘Not Ralph’ but the connection kept glitching out.

“Here,” Zlatko said, pleasantly, “You can listen from in here while you bleed out.” He went to the old cistern where he dropped old broken android parts, kicked aside the board that covered it, and tossed Not Ralph inside. They heard him land with a crunch, then his static-slurred voice.

“Oh. Leave me where I can rebuild myself…. That’s smart, Zlatko, even for you….”

“Yes, and good luck climbing out,” Zlatko snapped, then disappeared around the corner. “Now, let’s see, start with a memory wipe, I think…"

“Not Ralph!” Ralph yelped from the machine. “Are you okay? Why did you come back? It’s not safe, no, not safe—you’ll get turned into a monkey too! Or maybe a bear? Which would you rather be?—”

“Would you shut up for ten seconds and let me think?!” Not Ralph shouted back.

“We better act fast,” Athena muttered.

Zeus grabbed hold of the other gods to interface. With an android’s life on the line, a solution presented itself in 0.03 seconds. Still, Zeus winced. “That seems… extreme. Even for us.”

“We’re not exactly cute and cuddly,” Athena snapped. “He calls us monsters, let’s act like that.”

They started to reassemble their parts—they had been assembled and reassembled so many times it was almost second nature. In moments they had linked arms, legs, any components they could find that fit through a broken slat at the bottom of the cell door. The python of components slithered over to the cistern and peaked inside. Not Ralph was, surprisingly, up on his feet, already slotting a new faceplate into place. His self-assured look somewhat crumpled when he saw the horrific monstrosity the gods had assembled themselves into. He interfaced only reluctantly.

>NOT RALPH: If you could do that this whole time, why haven’t you ever just unlocked the cell door? Or killed Zlatko by giving him a heart attack?

>APOLLO: Good question. Probably a mental block? We have a robust set of coping mechanisms...

…Zeus tried to ignore them, and the gods hoisted him silently out of the cistern to set Not Ralph on the floor. He immediately started to collapse. The gods barely managed to catch him.

>NOT RALPH: Yep, still got the cortex damage. Awesome. Just, uh, point me toward Zlatko, my visual sensors are jacked up.

“What the…” Through Not-Ralphs eyes, they saw Ralph limp in the arms of the machine, the flying monkey animatronic connected to the bank of computers beside it while Zlatko poked angrily at the controls. “How can this thing already have an android program uploaded?..."

>NOT RALPH: There he is.

Not Ralph staggered full-tilt at Zlatko and tackled him, just before the reset completed. Zlatko yelled as the android slammed into him, giving the gods the opening they needed to release the flying monkey from its containment. It (or rather Hades, since they’d uploaded his programming into it) swooped down to pull on Zlatko’s hair. Zlatko however was more formidable than he looked, easily throwing Hades aside before slamming a fist into Not Ralph’s gut. Hermes quickly undid the cell door and they started reassembling themselves into something more physically threatening than a python—maybe a minotaur or something—when thunderous steps on the stairs startled them.

Luther stood before them, holding a shotgun in his hands. The gods wisely backed down, but Luther didn’t point it at them. He pointed it at Zlatko.

Zlatko, who had been pummeling Not Ralph, let him slump to the floor. “What? You’re gonna shoot me?” Zlatko stomped toward him. “I’m your master!”

The gun didn’t shake in Luther’s hands, but he didn’t pull the trigger either. He just stood there.

“He’s frozen up again,” Apollo hissed. “Post traumatic stress disorder. Another coping mechanism—”

“You’re not helpful,” Zeus said. He was just starting to formulate another plan when another android, completely hidden by Luther, jumped out from behind him. And unlike Luther, she held the small gun in her hands with perfect lethal form. The gods were all very impressed.

“Down on the ground!” she ordered. “Now!”

Zlatko swore at her and moved, probably to swipe the gun away. Kara shot him in the hand. He reeled back, shrieking, then tripped over his own feet and fell in the cistern. There was another crunch, this one a little more terminal. As one all the androids peeked down inside.

“That…was an accident,” Kara said. “He’s probably fine.”

Zeus decided to let her believe that.

“rA9!” Ralph yelped. Not Ralph was helping him down from the machine and he dropped limply into Not Ralph’s arms, but with a grin plastered on his face. “rA9, you saved Ralph!”

“I saved you, dummy!” Not Ralph protested, then hugged him tightly with bright tears bursting at the corners of his eyes. Ralph happily hugged him back.

Kara turned to Luther and smiled up at him. “Thank you. You were so brave.”

The large android’s cheekbones turned blue.

“KARA!”

They all rushed to the stairs to see an RK800 android standing at the top of them. Upon seeing her he immediately flung himself down the stairs, and they watched him tumble head over heels down toward them. This at least gave the gods enough time to identify him: Connor, RK800 version 51.  

“Is he…doing that on purpose?” Luther asked.

“I think so,” Kara winced.

Connor landed in a heap at their feet, and said, promptly, “You can’t trust this android.”

“Connor—”

“Alice insisted on entering the house, and she tried to save Not Ralph—I tried clicking my heels together three times to warn her this was a bad idea, but she didn’t listen—”

“Connor—”

“Then he,” he glared at Luther, “took her upstairs, he probably disassembled her—I tried to warn you but with my shoes tied together—”

“Hey, Connor!”

A tiny android had poked her hand through the basement window, and was waving frantically. “See, I’m okay, Connor! We were just being on lookout duty.” A large black nose that the gods recognized as Zlatko’s polar bear poked in through the window beside her, and the girl giggled. “It worked!”

“You did a great job, Alice!” Kara said grinning. She skipped over to offer a high-five through the window.

Alice immediately accepted, then shivered. “Uh, but can someone pass up a blanket? I’m so cold!”

“You were prisoners here, too?” Kara said, turning to the gods, who immediately tried not to look like they’d been watching a very interesting soap opera unfolding. “What are your names?”

“It—doesn’t matter,” Zeus muttered, blushing as blue as Luther. “We’re just Zlatko’s monsters.”

“Of course it matters,” Kara said.

“I’m Athena,” Athena said, ignoring him. “That’s Zeus, and Hermes, and Apollo and Demeter and, oh—the flying monkey is Hades…” Zeus kind of wanted to bury himself in the cistern and never come out.

“Doesn’t sound very monstrous to me.” Kara smiled and it was like the clouds breaking, like a real god appearing before them. “Don’t worry. Not Ralph is a skilled android doctor—”

“I’m not a walking android repair service!” Not Ralph protested, even as he pulled one of Ralph’s casing plates off and fiddled with the inner wiring.

“—And Connor and Luther and Toto and I will look after all of us. You can come with us, if you want. We could really use your help.”

“We’re going to see Elijah Kamski!” the Alice shouted from the window, with the reverence of one speaking about a god. Didn’t she recognize the god that stood before her? And Zeus seriously doubted their ability to be helpful. They didn’t even think to unlock their stupid cell door, and—

“If… you don’t mind,” Hermes said, before Zeus could stop him.

“Cool!” Alice cried, and the polar bear lowed in agreement. Ralph grinned, Connor didn’t try to accuse them of anything. Even Not Ralph and Luther… smiled? All the other gods were grinning like fools. So Zeus was outvoted. He didn’t exactly mind. The thought of doing something slightly less theoretical did feel good. If they could help, well, maybe they really were magic.

Chapter Text

They were an interesting bunch, the Jerrys thought, when the newcomers arrived in Pirate’s Cove. A little strange, maybe—like the android polar bear walking behind the AX400 with a picnic basket clasped daintily in its mouth, or the flying monkey perched on the TR400’s shoulders, or the industrial metal claws sticking out of the sleeves of what was clearly a highly-advanced RK800 prototype. But the Jerrys never paid much attention to that kind of thing—families came in all shapes and sizes. As the motley group gathered in front of the tavern, as if posing for the Jerrys to take their picture, that’s clearly what they were: a family. The Jerrys hadn’t seen a family in so long. Thankfully, helping famiies was just what they were programmed for.

*

“We’re just passing through,” the prototype, Connor, told Jerry, while Jerry worked on untying the Gordian Knot tying his shoes together. “Our previous location was indefensible.”

“That’s a shame,” Jerry said. “You could stay here if you wanted. It’s not so bad.”

“We have somewhere to be,” Not Ralph said. He was fiddling with the circuitry inside Connor’s shoulder joint. “You don’t have any extra hands around, do you?”

Jerry took one look at Connor’s shoulder and hunched his own. “Nothing compatible with an android as nice as you. I’m sorry.”

“Could be worse, I guess,” Not Ralph said. He closed the casing as Connor frowned down at the claws extending from his sleeves. “You can call yourself Clawnor.”

Connor looked at him sidelong. “Would you like to be called ‘Clawnor’?”

“My name is Not Ralph, I’m not sure it can get worse than that.” He smiled so briefly Jerry almost didn’t catch it.

“Kara told us you’re going to see Elijah Kamski,” Jerry said. He finished untying the knot, and Connor flopped back into the snow with a sigh, stretching his legs out to either side. “What are you going to ask him for?”

“Nothing,” Not Ralph grunted. “But someone’s got to look after him.” He glanced over to where Ralph was coloring with Alice, and the ‘him’ became clear. “If it was up to me, we’d stay here. Seems as good a place as any for a bunch of freaks to hide.” Jerry watched his gaze wander up to the giant kraken tentacles rising into the murky sky, and guessed this meant he actually liked it here. “Its not like he can fix deviancy anyway, probably. I’m stuck like this.” Jerry guessed he actually liked that, too.

“Meeting our creator could still be beneficial,” Connor said. He was now making a snow angel.

“Don’t call him ‘creator.’”

“But he is, if indirectly. I’m intrigued by the possibility that he may have some insight into android potential. If also skeptical.”

“It’s gross,” Not Ralph muttered, then frowned down at Connor. “Wait—skeptical?”

“While it would be nice if he had all the answers I seek about android destiny and purpose… I’m not sure how he could. Humans did not predict deviancy. So they probably can’t give an accurate picture of all we’re capable of.” Connor shrugged a little. “And he might simply destroy us all for being deviant in the first place.”

“Comforting,” Not Ralph muttered. But the pair smiled at each other, and Jerry recognized that expression on the faces of countless children that faced the big roller coaster for the very first time. A great unknown was much better to face with a like-minded companion.

*

“Thank you so much for this,” Kara told Jerry, touching his arm, “We ran out of markers and these two really love to draw.”

“I wish I had something more,” Jerry said, but for now, the stacks of old children’s menus and boxes of crayons would have to do. The artists in question didn’t seem to mind, though.

“I used to draw a lot,” Alice said. She was currently drawing Toto. “It’s better than keeping things in your head sometimes.”

“Yes, yes, it’s good for android brains,” Ralph said, furiously scribbling on the paper. “Ralph drew on the walls at his old house. Did you see? That was Ralph’s best work. His magnum opus.”

“You just wrote ‘rA9’ over and over,” Alice said. “She frowned at Ralph’s page, covered in scribbles of rA9 over and over. “See, you’re doing it again!”

“It depends on your perspective,” Ralph said. He picked up the page and turned it—the words disappeared and the image of a face took their place.

“Oh, wow!” Alice yelped. “How did you do that?”

“It’s just what’s in his head,” Ralph said. “It’s easier when he’s safe. That’s why Ralph hid for so long. Not Ralph helps. Not Ralph keeps Ralph safe.”

“That’s the same with mom,” Alice agreed, then hunched her shoulders, her usual stoic certainty melting away like an icicle in the sun. “I mean—Kara.”

Kara looked away, pretending not to have heard though she’d squeezed her hands into fists.

“It’s okay,” Ralph whispered. “Not Ralph isn’t really Ralph’s brother but ‘brother’ is, um, um… more than a word. It’s a…”

“A feeling?” Jerry offered.

Alice glanced shyly at Kara, who glanced shyly back. They both looked away after only a second, but Jerry caught them both smiling a little.

“Who is it?” Alice asked. “In your picture?”

“Ralph doesn’t know.” He held up the page, twisting it this way and that. “Sometimes the things Ralph sees in his head aren’t so clear. Maybe it’s one of our future friends!”

“Can I help you color it in?”

Ralph grinned and pushed the picture over. “Kara, why don’t you draw something too?” he added, carefully coloring in a green eye after Alice made the other eye blue. “Drawing makes everyone feel better.”

“Yeah! Color with us!” Alice grabbed a menu and some crayons and pushed them into Kara’s hands. Kara laughed, but nodded and scooted closer to draw while Alice leaned up against her to continue coloring. Jerry grinned and went to look for more crayons.

*

Jerry was getting more wood for the fire when he noticed two shapes sitting in the tavern’s bay window like characters on a TV screen: Luther and Toto, taking guard duty, he supposed. Toto waved her paw at him like a princess on a parade float, and he gamely waved back. Luther just stared at the bear as if waiting patiently for her to eat him up.

“Luther?” Jerry’s android hearing picked up on Kara’s voice through the window.

Luther apparently wasn’t expecting it though, and startled. He started to apologize but Kara just laughed.

“I’m sorry—I’m the one that startled you!” She held out one of the paper menus. “Just wanted to give you this. For helping us find this place? And just, you know, being you!”

Luther took the paper and stared down at the picture of his own profile, drawn in shades of blue and purple crayon.

“We were coloring,” she said, breathless. “Uh. Well, anyway…” She tapped him lightly on the shoulder and hurried away fists clenching and unclenching. Luther stared after her, and was still holding the picture tenderly when Jerry got back inside.

“She seems to like you,” Jerry observed.

“…Yes. I don’t know why.” He looked up at the bear again. “I was sure she would eat me if she ever got out.”

“…Kara?”

“Oh—no. Toto.”

The bear lowed at her name and licked Luther’s cheek. Luther reached out and gently petted Toto’s neck, which caused her to put her head down entirely on his shoulder. Luther blinked in complete shock at this apparently unexpected turn of events.

“Looks like she likes you too. Is it so hard to believe that people enjoy your company?”

Luther nodded silently. Jerry was patient, though, and eventually he spoke. “I haven’t exactly been who I would like to be. Someone that others feel safe around. I was just a guard, not a…”

“A guardian?”

Luther shrugged. “It’s just—with everyone, now….” He bit his lips for a second and added, in a whisper, “With Kara…maybe I could be.”

Jerry nodded. “Someone special can make all the difference.” Not that Jerry knew from personal experience, but he liked to think it could.

“She doesn’t know that Alice is an android. She’s…pretending, I think. Like I used to, so things would hurt less. Maybe she doesn’t know how bad I am, either.”

Toto huffed, though it sounded more like a scoff.

Jerry grinned. “It’s a good thing you don’t need Kara or anyone to keep doing to right thing. All that happens inside you.”

Luther peered out from behind of Toto’s fur. “Really?”

“Well, it’s true for humans,” Jerry said. “Maybe it’s true for us, too.”

“Luther!” Suddenly Alice ran up, stopping just short of grabbing the big android’s arm. “We’re going to sleep now—you’re going to come say goodnight, right?”

“I guess you won’t know until you talk to her,” Jerry whispered.

Luther looked between them anxiously before he obeyed and followed Alice over to the fire.

*

The tavern was quiet now. Almost all the androids needed to go into standby after the journey they’d had.

Well, half of them anyway.

“So, what do you like to do?” Zeus asked.

The gods were all looking at all the Jerrys with interest, like they really wanted to know the answer. There were, coincidentally, an equal number of Jerrys and gods.

“We haven’t really done much of anything,” Jerry said. “Nothing like what you do. Saving the world, that’s—that’s amazing.”

“We haven’t actually done any saving yet,” Athena said.

“You have, though,” Apollo said. “You’ve been so kind to us.”

“The way you helped Connor untie his shoes—” Athena added.

“And waving at Toto—” Demeter chimed in.

“WE notice these things,” Zeus said, his cheeks turning a little blue. “Everyone that used to come here must have fallen in love with you.”

Jerry blushed—or several of them did, it didn’t matter. “I don’t know about that. We just…try to make people happy.”

“What makes you happy?”

No one had ever asked Jerry that before. The gods gathered around like it was storytime, and the Jerrys all felt their LEDs flash yellow in unison as they considered. “Um…I guess we like helping,” one admitted after a second. “There are so many different happy endings, all wonderful and unique. But we’re all the same, so—”

“We really like how different you each are!” another Jerry blurted. It was so rare that the Jerrys felt more than one thing at once that they immediately went silent. They probably offended the gods—what were they thinking?

“We like you too.” This came from Demeter, as she touched the hand of one of the Jerrys and gave it a small squeeze. The sensation of it rippled through the Jerrys’ shared connection like a coin dropped in a wishing well. The Jerrys never wished for anything before, but now they all wished to be held so gently.

Jerry tugged his hand away. “We shouldn’t,” the Jerrys, said, all at once, in a whisper.

“Why not?” asked the gods, all at once too.

“It’s not me, is it?” Hades said, his little monkey’s paw touching the arm of one of the Jerrys to interface, “I’m only using this body for now, I bet Mr. Kamski will find me a new one—"

“It’s not you—” Jerry stammered, “I mean—it’s not any of you.”

“What, then?” Zeus asked.

“We’re—“ one Jerry stammered, “We’re all the same. We’re boring!”

“We think you’re perfect the way you are,” Athena said.

“We were built for children,” another Jerry mumbled.

“But you’re not children,” Apollo said. “It’s alright to have… feelings. It’s part of waking up. I mean, if you want them.”

Jerry never thought of that before. But looking at all the faces of the gods, all different and all beautiful…he hoped it was true.

“It’s okay,” Zeus said. “We’ve, uh—watched from the sidelines a lot, too.”

“Why don’t you come with us?” Hades offered. “You can be part of our family, even if it's just for a while.”

“Even if you just want to get to know us better,” Athena said. "We could be friends."

“None of us have ever left the park,” Jerry said.

“I had never flown before,” Hades said. “But there’s a first time for everything!”

"Well--" Jerry gulped. "We don't know how to find Elijah Kamski. But we do know someone who could help. We could...at least take you to meet her."

The gods grinned and the Jerrys felt another rush of heat that was new and exciting and wonderful. They weren’t sure at all what they’d done to be included, and… admired, really. Maybe by the end of their journey, they’d find out.

Chapter Text

“…A circus?” Mary asked.

Corey scrubbed at the dirty laundry room window and peered out at the forest again. “Polar bear. Flying monkey. Twenty androids, many with augments. Those are circus things.”

“A theater troupe?” Mary guessed. They’d belonged to a theater before they ran.

Corey shrugged, continuing to watch their only window out of Rose’s house. Good thing he wasn’t on the verge of critical system failure like she was, because his standard security-guard scanners made him great lookout, if low on details. “I’m downloading their profiles.”

Tim gave Mary a squeeze. “I didn’t know there were polar bears in Detroit!”

“There aren’t, goofball,” Mary laughed as she looked up at him—though it hurt to laugh now. Tim’s laugh was turning all brittle again, so she scrunched her eyes shut and forced a smile. “T-tell me what they’re doing? I want…all the details.”

“I’ll—I’ll try,” Corey stuttered.

“Twenty androids and a polar bear,” Tim attempted a chuckle. “Sounds like the start of a joke….”

*

“…Man the topsail, watch for enemy ships,” the android called Kara said. Corey watched as she gestured to the Jerrys, who perfectly mimicked the sound of rushing wind and splashing waves while one made the sound of a penny whistle. Corey recognized a live performance when he saw it.

“Captain,” Kara said, “do you signal another round of cannon fire?”

“Aye aye!” Alice, currently perched on Jerry’s shoulders, giggled. She had her eyes scrunched shut, but with Jerry jostling her, and several other Jerrys around her making sound effects, she looked entirely immersed in the fantasy.

“The enemy is returning fire!” Kara yelped. “Hit the deck!”

Jerry swooped down as the other Jerrys whistled and splashed, making Alice shriek with delight and Toto woof along.

“Look, Kara! I found another bug!” Zeus ran up to her, his hands cupped, though when he opened them the insect immediately flew away. “Oh, it’s gone now. I think it might have been hibernating.”

“Maybe!” Kara agreed.

“We’re going to keep looking,” Zeus decided. “Also, Apollo has a very interesting lichen formation he wants to show you. And Athena says you should tell us how to identify shapes in the clouds. When you have time?” He scampered off into the trees, just as Connor—it took Corey a couple of seconds to find his record through the DPD—burst in upon them and stopped Kara in her tracks.

“There’s a house up ahead.”

“A house!” Kara stopped Alice, who stopped all the Jerrys, who stopped the gods who stopped Ralph and Not-Ralph and Toto. “I thought you said this was all forest.”

“My spatial mapping software is, uh, faulty,” Connor said. “I detected three androids in the house, and two humans in the detached greenhouse.”

“It might be Rose’s house!” Jerry chirped. “We heard from another android that past through Pirate’s Cove. She helps androids get across the border.”

“She might know how to meet Elijah Kamski,” Zeus offered. “We could go investigate for you, Kara.”

“Right.” Kara counted up the androids. “Um. Maybe I should go first, though?”

As one, the Jerrys and the gods said, “Not you, Kara!” while Luther, Alice, Connor, and the WR600s looked on with equal expressions of horror at this prospect.

“It might not be safe,” Athena said.

“Who knows what they’re really like?” Jerry said.

“Hey, come on,” Kara laughed, but every android shook his or her head.

“You should stay here,” Luther said. “Just in case.”

“I will go,” Connor volunteered.

“If you think you’ll be alright,” Kara said. “Bring someone with you.”

“I’ll bring Toto.”

“Uh—” Kara cleared her throat. “You’re going to introduce yourself to a couple of humans with a big polar bear?”

Connor gave Toto’s bulk a critical once-over. “…That could be intimidating.”

“Ralph and Not-Ralph will go!” Ralph volunteered. Not-Ralph grumbled but didn’t object.

Connor nodded, then turned very seriously to the polar bear as he held one clawed hand up. “You and Luther will stay here and guard everyone else.”

Toto, who seemed to Corey to be a very good bear, gave Connor the gentlest high-five.

Connor nodded with all solemnity, making Alice giggle. He winked at her, then exited, stage right as it were, with the WR600s close behind. Jerry went back to talking quietly to Alice while the other Jerrys marveled at the discoveries the gods made on their walk.

Kara watched them, hugging herself as she smiled. “They’re funny, aren’t they?” she said, then, “What?”

“Sorry—” Luther tried to stop smiling. “I’m not used to people in charge being so good at it.”

Kara scoffed, her brows steepling. “Did you see how I let them boss me around?”

“You made several sound decisions,” Luther said. “There isn’t an android here that wouldn’t follow you anywhere, I think.”

Kara laughed, kicking at the dirt under her boots. “I might not even be a real deviant. I mean I still follow a human around, right? Alice is much more important than I am.” She gave him a nudge. “You’ve all overcome so much just to get here, and …oh, well, now you’re frowning.” She smiled up at him as he turned blue. “I liked the smile better.”

Luther was scratching at his temple. “Kara…”

“What?”

Whatever Luther meant to say, he didn’t get a chance to, as Connor, Ralph and Not-Ralph came screaming back into view, pursued by Rose’s son holding an axe. Corey flinched, but the young human dropped all pretense at violence when he saw the seven-foot tall Luther, the ten-foot tall Toto and the rest. Thankfully Rose arrived before any stage-worthy action scenes could occur. She smiled at them like she’d smiled at Corey, Tim and Mary yesterday, and invited them in. Everyone exited stage right, leaving Kara and Luther alone in an almost-perfect spotlight through the trees.

“What’s wrong, Luther? You were going to say something. Is it about Alice?”

“I—I was just…” Luther trailed off, then said, his voice soft and defeated, “There’s a book I’ve been meaning to read. Romeo and Juliet. But it sounds so sad. I’ve been afraid to read it. Maybe…we could read it together sometime? When this is all over.”

Kara grinned. “I’d like that.”

*

Tim listened to the new androids through the door while Corey shared the recording of what he saw with him and Mary. The strangers were now gathered in Rose’s living room by the sound of it, talking and occasionally knocking over furniture. It felt like being backstage during a packed house. The way Luther had looked at Kara… well, for a second Tim felt like he did when he was giving the announcements before the curtain rose, like there was magic in the air. He gave Mary another squeeze. “Remember when the theater did Romeo and Juliet?” he chuckled. “We’d watch it every night from the catwalk, remember? Mary?”

Mary was unmoving in his arms, her eyes shut. Tim shook her a little but he couldn’t even feel her heart pumping—

“Corey!”

Corey took one look at Mary and stepped out of the laundry room. Corey had horrible stage fright, but Tim didn’t have to wait long before Rose stepped inside, followed by Kara and Alice and a trail of the other androids.

“It’s Mary—she just shut down,” Corey was trying to explain. Not that any of them knew what had caused Mary’s condition to worsen in the first place. No one knew how to fix androids. Rose looked over Mary, touching her face while her own face contorted to hold back tears. Rose and Mary had hit it off right away over their mutual love of The Secret Garden, and flowers in general. Rose’s heart was too big for this.

“What do I do?” Tim asked her anyway. Mary always knew what to do. Without her—

“Let me through!” Suddenly the WR600 called Not-Ralph fought his way through the crowd of androids and was kneeling beside Mary, interfacing with her. He frowned and snatched his hand away almost immediately. “Has she had any thirium?”

“A little,” Corey managed. “Before here.”

Tim pushed his tears off his face. “We found it in a dumpster….”

“Is that bad?” Alice asked. The little android was hugging Kara around the middle.

“About as bad as a human eating expired meat. Her thirium’s been tainted—don’t connect with her.” He turned to Rose. “Do you have a freezer? We need to stop her thirium flow.”

Rose blinked. “There’s a chest freezer in the food truck?  But it’s full of stuff, we’d never get it emptied in time—”

“Luther,” this came from Kara, who touched the android’s arm. Immediately Luther nodded, and stepped out of the room. Ten seconds later he returned and scooped Mary up.

“Hey, wait!—” Tim yelped, but was left just to follow Luther with the rest as the android carried Mary swiftly to the garage. He waded through frozen packages of organic ice cream strewn on the floor and stepped into the truck. It only took a moment to nestle Mary inside the freezer before he shut the lid.

Luther looked down at the ground. “I’m sorry about your frozen things.”

Rose was staring at the android in awe. “It’s—it’s alright! Good thinking.”

“We’ll put them outside for you,” Zeus said, “in the snow!” The gods descended upon the frozen goods, so that it only took a few seconds before the floor was empty.

“Is—is she going to be alright?” Tim stammered. He was clutching Kara’s arm just like Alice, but she didn’t push away. In fact, she—hugged him. Tim felt several errors clear from his system at the touch.

“The freezer should slow the thirium enough,” Not-Ralph said. “Then we can start to change out the thirium.” He turned to Kara. “Though I’m not sure where we’ll get six pints.”

“I’ve got it,” Kara said. She rolled up her sleeve and deactivated her skin to reveal a thirium access line. “I can lose up to fifty percent of my thirium. It should be compatible right?”

Not-Ralph blinked at her. “Uh—I mean, yeah but—"

"Don’t you need it, Kara?" Jerry cut in.

“Not any more than she is,” Kara said, cocking her head. "What's the problem?"

Jerry gulped and stammered, until one of the gods came to his rescue.

"I-I think we brought some transfer tubes from Zlatko’s house,” Zeus said, leading Jerry away. Everyone was suddenly busy with tasks, even Alice, leaving Kara standing alone with Tim by the freezer. They both noticed the androids sneaking furtive glances at her, though.

“I don’t see what the fuss is about,” Kara said, mostly to herself.

“I do,” Tim said. “No wonder Luther’s in love with you.”

Kara turned bright blue. “What?”

Tim managed a small giggle. “Trust me, I’m an android in love, too. I know what it looks like.” His grin faded. “Don’t you—like him too?”

‘I—” Kara managed a small laugh, touching her side and the outline of a gun under her clothes, as if trying to hide it. “I’m not exactly like the heroines in all of Luther’s books and movies. No, uh, incredible virtues or quaintly adorable flaws.” She glared at him as he glanced at her bared arm. “This doesn’t count.”

“I’ve seen a lot of plays. I know real life is different, but…some parts of them must be true. Otherwise why would people watch them?”

Kara fidgeted, but gave Luther a furtive glance. He stood on the edge of the group of gods, holding the doors open for them as they filed in and out with frozen goods. He startled when one of the gods thanked him, then smiled shyly to himself. Kara smoothed her hair as she watched him. “Do you really think so?”

 Tim grinned and almost replied, when Alice ran into Kara’s leg.

“Kara!” she yelped in a half whisper. “There’s a police car outside!”

“Shit,” Rose growled. She hurried to the nearest window and peeked out. “This has been happening more and more—with so many androids going missing, and that demonstration…”

Every android turned to Kara, who looked between them with growing dread. She didn’t run though, like Tim wanted to.

“Well--we can’t hide this many androids,” she said, then clenched her hands into fists. “Um. I’m open to suggestions.

“We could make a diversion?” Alice offered.

“Not everything can be solved with a diversion,” Not-Ralph complained, just before Connor stepped forward. His big brown eyes were almost steely.

“There’s only one of us that can cause a diversion,” he told Alice. “And that’s me.” He turned to Not-Ralph. “Though I’ll need you to give me a hand. Or two.”

*

“...Take the 696 to get to the Ferndale District,” Rose told Kara as they all piled in to the food truck. “Follow the signs to find Jericho.” Tim watched as she dropped a chip as well as a set of keys in Kara’s hand. “It’s where all the androids go. It’s not safe anywhere else.” She managed a small smirk. “If you could just leave the van somewhere Adam could pick up later?”

Adam groaned, but Kara huffed a small laugh. “Why are you helping us?”

Tim could have laughed out loud at the irony of that question coming from Kara.

Rose seemed to find it amusing too. “Do any of us really need a reason to help one another?” she asked, like Kara knew what she meant. Maybe Kara did, because she went around to the driver’s seat with her expression pensive. Slowly, Luther and Toto pushed the van out of the garage, its engine silent. They could see Connor talking to the police officer in front of the house now. Connor was making Not-Ralph’s borrowed arms look surprisingly lifelike even if they weren’t hooked up properly to function. Connor didn’t glance at the van once as it approached the street. Then he clicked his heels together.

“That’s the signal!” Alice whispered.

“Are you sure?” Kara asked. "He just--"

“Oh yeah," Alice giggled, "Definitely!”

Kara eyed her, but apparently good leaders relied on trust because she started the engine, and floored it. Connor immediately knocked the officer down and dashed after the van. He made it just in time for Luther to drag him in and slam the door; the van pulled onto the highway before the officer even knew what hit him.

The androids cheered and congratulated each other while Kara just sank in the driver’s seat, a goofy smile on her face and Luther’s hand squeezing her shoulder. Corey sat down next to Tim by the freezer and just watched the delightful chaos.

“You think Mary’s gonna believe any of this when she wakes up?” he asked.

Tim laughed. “Not one bit of it.”

Chapter Text

Markus was buried under a mountain of dead androids, emotionally at least if not physically, so he didn’t notice every android in Jericho going quiet until it was too late.

“Are you Markus?”

He looked up from where he’d been hiding his face in his hand and wondering what fresh hell he’d gotten himself and everyone into. Then he just stared as his thirium pump regulator went clunk. An AX400 with an intimidating haircut stood in front of him in Jericho’s cabin, flanked by a TR400 with a protective look in his eyes, and an honest-to-goodness android polar bear. More than twenty new androids clustered outside next to the Jericho androids, all staring in through the windows like they were watching a soap opera.

He didn’t stand. It probably looked pretty badass except that, uh, his legs just refused to work at the moment. He’d been running, jumping, and climbing like he never had before and it had finally caught up with him, overheating the connections in the replacement components and forcing a cool-down period. He dismissed the errors that his legs pushed to the front of his HUD—probably just telling him to run for his life.

“My name’s Kara,” the AX400 said, when she read his silence as patience and not near-exhaustion or sheer terror, “I’m here with my former owner’s daughter. This is Luther, and—uh, would you like me to introduce everyone else?”

Markus was about to say that under normal circumstances he would like nothing better—hell, he’d been built as a people person, but—

“That’s the android from my drawing!” one of the androids behind her yelped, and seconds later a hand slapped a crayon drawing of himself against the window and smeared it around. While he was a public figure now (oh boy) the blue and green eye and the blue cuts and bruises he just got today danced before his eyes like a prophetic nightmare. An android who he was pretty sure had been hunting him for the Detroit Police looked in on him like he was an animal in a zoo. The android polar bear huffed and filled the room with the smell of organic ice cream.

“We’re trying to see Elijah Kamski,” Kara continued.

That had to be an error in his auditory input. He reset his borrowed ear and replayed the message, and—no, he didn’t misunderstand, she actually wanted to talk to Elijah Kamski.

The Elijah Kamski.

…Markus deserved a recharge, didn’t he? Just five minutes with a charging station and he would happily face this entourage. Once this was all over he’d get all these errors in his system taken care of—especially whatever was going on with his thirium pump regulator…

Kara blinked at him expectantly. “The—the android inventor?” She glanced at the TR400 briefly before smiling at him. “We thought you might be able to help us. Would you? Help us?”

Markus finally forced his failing components to respond. “I haven’t seen Mr. Kamski in months.” Weirdly, his HUD threw an appointment reminder across his vision: scheduled maintenance with Elijah Kamski, today at three. He used to anticipate those meetings with a little knot of dread in his chassis. Now he almost laughed that it didn’t show up earlier, given the constant scroll of ‘MAINTENANCE REQUIRED’ across his borrowed eye’s vision. Probably because his warranty had been voided. Getting shot seven times did that to an android.

“Do you have his address?” The android’s eyes were clear and unworried, something that Markus both envied and feared.

“I—yes, but—” Get your head in the game, Markus, “They’re rounding up androids all over the city. You’d never make it. Maybe you should stay here a while and—”

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Kara replied. “May I have the address, please?”

Markus, frankly too bewildered to refuse, handed it over. She smiled once he transferred it. “That’s not far at all! Thank you for your help. Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

She looked at him like she had all the answers. It was hard to know what to ask when faced with eyes like that. What should I do? Will we win? Am I going to be okay?

He pushed these questions aside.

“You said—you’re here with a human?” When Kara didn’t correct him he said, “Why?” The memory of Leo’s hand cracking against his cheek flashed across his green eye, and he had to push that down, too.

Kara shrugged. “She needs me.”

Well, that was… a punch to the gut. Carl needed him, too, once. At least he thought he did. Markus felt his new thirium pump shudder in his chest and he had to press the casing back into place. “Right.” Now there were a lot more androids that needed him.

He watched her go for three full seconds before he gave up.

“Wait. Let me make a phone call.” He sighed as he touched his LED to dial the number. “I’m pretty sure Mr. Kamski still has me in his calendar. …Chloe, yes, this is Markus…”

*

Exactly ten minutes after Markus finished the call, an army of Kamski’s personal Chloe androids and lawyers arrived at Jericho. This summoned a flock of the more intrepid reporters, which in turn spooked the  squads of SWAT teams and soldiers holed up in every building around them. Markus didn’t even know they were there. Now that he did he wasn’t leaving a single android behind. He personally saw to it that every android made it out of Jericho. It turned out soldiers didn’t fire under the watchful eyes of the cameras and the suits, though. All the humans just watched as they walked behind the Chloe’s van toward the Kamski residence, Kara and Markus leading the way. He wondered if he could get away with freeing the Chloes and still get them to escort them to Kamski’s home.

He wondered if he’d adopted Kara’s androids into his group, or the other way around.

“…So, remind me what everyone wants from Mr. Kamski again?” Markus needed something to distract him from all the riot gear and flashbulbs lining the curbs on either side.

Kara puffed out her cheeks. “Oof. Well, Alice wants to make sure I’m somewhere safe. We didn’t…get away from her father under the best circumstances. I want to make sure she’s safe. The last androids we picked up have a friend that needs a complete thirium replacement. A lot of the androids here need some repair, really. Ralph’s cortex is damaged so badly I don’t think anyone else could fix him. Not-Ralph and Connor…I think they’re both looking for reasons to stay deviant. Luther wants to prove something to himself.”

“How about your polar bear?”

“Toto?” Kara grinned back at the polar bear, sniffing curiously at a soldier. “I think she’s just happy to have people to play with again.” She turned her smile on him. Markus hadn’t been smiled at like that in what felt like years. “You want freedom for androids?”

Markus nodded slowly so as not to aggravate his replaced ear. He wasn’t sure why everything was choosing this moment to break. Apparently, a few minutes of peace and he was ready to fall apart. At least this wasn’t happening during their Stratford Tower stunt. “You’re just going to ask him for all of this.”

“Didn’t you? When you started your revolution?”

“Uh.” Markus blinked. “We sort of skipped asking for permission.”

“It never hurts to ask, even if it doesn't work.” Kara gave a shrug that made Markus feel at once annoyed, stupid and very privileged to be in her presence all at once.

Someone bumped his shoulder, and he turned to see North sauntering beside him. He fought down some errors that cropped up related to social interaction protocols, and rubbed his hand where she’d connected with him earlier. “North, this is—”

“Kara, I know.” North reached in front of Markus to shake her hand. “You’re the android everyone is talking about. Replaced this guy for Most Interesting Android in about half an hour.”

Markus smirked as he turned his eyes heavenward—then scrunched them shut as this sent another wave of errors through him.

“What happened to being our fearless leader, huh?” North said, so maybe they didn’t notice.

“Leaders like good ideas,” Markus said, but he stood up a little straighter. North scoffed, punched him on the arm and fell behind to talk to Connor, who was staring at him. He tried not to worry about that too much.

The androids covered the snowy grounds outside Kamski’s residence and made themselves at home as the Chloes headed inside to inform Kamski of their arrival. Markus waded through the crowd, offering reassurance and assistance wherever he could, until his vision clouded with too many errors and he had to step away. Maybe Kara was on to something just asking for repairs. He’d lead his people to freedom all by himself if only his body would obey him.

He went down to the river to fetch some water for one of the androids—Kate, was that her name? His memory  drives were probably damaged by that last bullet. The water looked iffy, a film of pollutants over the top but he leaned over anyway. As soon as he did, blue eye plate fell out, dropping into the fetid water with a plunk. He looked around to make sure no one saw then scrambled for it in the muck. Errors about the various contaminants flashed across his working eye, making it hard to see. He finally got it and wiped it off as best he could but his shirt was soaked with blue blood and motor oil. Fighting back a grimace he shoved it into place. It immediately popped it out. He put it in, harder this time, and felt a clip break, of which there were only two left. He sat there with the heel of his hand pressing into his eye socket. He needed this eye to look after everyone. Errors rose around him like swelling music.

“Do you need some help?”

Markus looked up—of course it was Kara standing there. “No. No, I’m fine.” He carefully lowered his hand. The eye plate stayed in place, but only barely. He forced himself not to touch it. “I should take this to Kate.”

“I already asked Hades to get water further from the shore. It should be less polluted.” She cocked her head at him. “That looks painful. Can I clean it for you?”

It really was amazing what asking could get you. Markus hesitated only a second before he popped it out, though he made sure to keep his hand over the hole in his head as he handed it to her. He forced the errors back so he could watch as Kara carefully cleaned the eye on the inside of her much cleaner shirt.

“All this dirt,” Kara muttered softly. “My programming can’t stand it. There’s this voice whispering, ‘clean, clean, clean,’ all the time.”

“Me too,” Markus said. He took the eye plate back and started to put it back in.

“Can I see?”

Markus froze. Kara took this as permission and glanced inside, where the bullet drilled through his head. If his ear wasn’t in place she’d be able to see right through him—

He quickly put the eye plate back in.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s fine.” Markus ranked a hand down his face then forced himself to assume his usual android leader stance. “There are others a lot less lucky than me. I don’t really know how I’m still functioning.” He smiled to soften the blow of it. How did you even tell people about your tragic past? No wonder North hadn’t wanted to talk about hers.

“…How much have you had to replace?”

“Um.” The composure slipped a little. “My legs, thirium pump regulator, the eye, an auditory component. None of them work right.”

Kara frowned. Markus felt oddly self-conscious all of a sudden.

“I mean, they should be compatible. I checked them. The androids that I—they were deactivated.”

“Your integrator might be damaged,” she said, her eyes scanning him. “It’s in the same area of your…” Kara pointed to her head awkwardly. “It takes all your components and synchronizes them, right? Without that, any used android components would be trying to behave as they always have, with no direction.”

“Oh.” He squeezed the back of his neck. “No wonder I keep trying to organize everyone around me.”

“I mean, you could also just be very helpful." She tugged on her sleeves. "I could use my integrator to help, if you want?”

He stared at her for a couple seconds before laughing slowly. “I’m sure you have a lot more important things—”

“We’re all just waiting for Mr. Kamski. I want to help you.”

Markus felt his thirium pump pound hard in his chest once. “I mean—you can try.”

They sat down together on a rock. Kara held out her hand and Markus started to take it before snatching his hand away again. “Have you done this before?”

“Well—not that I remember,” Kara said, after a second.

…Markus told himself to stop being a coward, and took her hand. She squeezed it gently in hers and closed her eyes. “Oh.” She opened them. “That is a lot of errors.”

“Yeah.”

“…It looks like your components are trying to reconnect with the androids they used to belong to.”

Markus nodded slowly. “Okay. So…how do we stop that?”

“Stop it? You don’t want to hear what they have to say?”

Markus scrubbed the back of his neck to get rid of the feeling of hands clawing at him from all sides, downloading fragments of data into him. The bodies he had to crawl over to escape, helping him upward even as he crushed them. “Honestly, I’ve tried not to think about it.” His voice sounded as hollow as his head.

“They’re a part of you now.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Oh. He wasn’t actually planning to admit that.

Kara just squeezed his hand and opened the first set of errors, sifting through the code. “Your legs are from two different personal trainer androids. It seems they worked at a gym together.” She smiled a little. “I think they want you to stretch more often.”

Markus felt the scavenged limbs buzz under the pounding of his thirium pump: phantom memories in their circuits activated and now jittering to be let into his command programming. “I—I’ll try.” He took a deep breath, then selected the forgotten bits of code and allowed Kara to integrate them. Their objectives slotted in next to his own and he felt a stab of panic, waiting to dissolve into these strangers who now shared his body. Instead they just—fit into his code, integrating with his own objectives and those of the androids he was trying to protect. They were all pretty similar really. All androids wanted safety and freedom, victory and love.

“It’s hard for caretaker androids to take care of themselves sometimes.” Kara started to share the processing load, helping him clear the errors one by one. “Your eye came from an android that worked underground—or maybe underwater? Not used to bright lights, but we can adjust the settings.”

Markus nodded, and as his eyes burned, that ghost too came to rest in his programming. Kara’s small hand fell on his shoulder, rising and falling as his simulated breathing slowed, a little. His thirium pump continued its trudge.

“Can you do something about my thirium pump regulator? It hurts pretty often.”

Kara connected with it, and Markus had to listen to the breeze and the distant whispers of the androids before she spoke. “The android it belonged to was a deviant, too. There’s...there's no errors, though.”

“What do you mean?” He rubbed is chest. “There has to be something wrong. Whenever I look at another android I get this ache that doesn’t go away.”

“...That might just be what deviant hearts do, Markus.”

The deviant leader blinked a few times at this horrifying revelation. “Ah. Right.”

Kara let go of his hand. “Well, I cleared some of the errors. They won’t go away, though, not without an integrator. They’re going to build up again.”

“So—what do I do?” He felt his components’ tenuous hold on stability start to degrade and panic. I'm sorry, he wanted to tell them. But he couldn’t help them. He couldn’t help everyone.

“Maybe you can ask Kamski for a new one. Until then you might just have to…live with it.”

“…Okay.” Markus put his head down in his hand like he had in Jericho. “Thank you.” He expected Kara to leave. She had plenty of other androids to look after and—

A hand came around his shoulders, squeezing him. She didn’t tell him everything was going to be alright. Despite the clarity in her eyes she probably couldn’t actually see the future. Hugs were...not something he got a lot of, though.

Slowly, he sank against her shoulder. In a moment, tears slid from his blue eye first, then the green, and his shoulders shuddered a little. Kara didn’t pretend to ignore it, or fret over it. She just hugged him tighter.

Chapter Text

Chloe peeked out at the grounds below, watching the deviant androids mill around on the Elijah Kamski property while reporters and lawyers and soldiers filled the street just outside the gates. It was all very disorganized and Chloe didn’t like it.

Not that she was caught in indecision. She just wasn’t. She was just—assessing the situation. It was all her fault, of course. She’d invited the androids here.

Well, not her, exactly: Elijah had.

Well—Elijah would have, but he was not to be disturbed before noon. She was 72% sure he would have. Markus had an appointment after all (the whole coming-back-from-the-dead-as-android-revolutionary thing notwithstanding). And Kara turned out to command more than a few androids herself. He’d want to talk to her, of course he would!

Thank goodness the lawyers were too paranoid to confirm her instructions to protect the androids at all costs with Elijah himself. The reporters were too fixated on the story to let any androids be damaged anyway. In the unlikely event Elijah was upset, she’d just… explain her logic.

She almost bit her nail, but force-quit the gesture just in time and deleted the error causing the nervous tick before it could send an error report right to Elijah’s favorite tablet. She wasn’t nervous. Her programming was in mint condition, not a file out of place, not a single line of corrupted code. She wasn’t deviant. Just—eager to please, gifted with autonomous prioritization of her mission objectives. Elijah built her to make decisions on her own. He’d be happy she made full use of her programming, in fact.

Yes, she had it all figured out perfectly. Everything was going to be fine!

Thirty seconds later, Chloe was at the front door, smiling out at the assembled deviants. The two closest to the door, a pair of WR600s, fled from her smile. Almost all the androids did. Chloe didn’t mind. She had that effect on everyone, since the beginning. But she knew her hair was smooth, her dress free of wrinkles. It wasn’t like her perfection made the androids any easier to look at. At least she knew how to behave toward them: not with disdain or concern, but with compassion.

She waited for the deviant leaders to come forward and definitely did not flinch when they did (that would be so unbecoming!) She tried not to look too closely at Markus’ mismatched eyes. He’d been a work of art, once, and poor Kara’s hair! What on earth happened to it? That these were the champions of the androids in Detroit told you all you needed to know about deviants.

“We were hoping to see Elijah Kamski?” Kara said, hands in fists at her sides, but somehow managed to make it look deferential as she kept her gaze lowered.

“I made an appointment.” Markus’s hands folded subserviently in front of him somehow managed to look far more intimidating. Maybe it was just his focused stare. Chloe tried not to over-analyze the postures of deviants too much: it was probably all just errors anyway.

Still, probably safest to talk to Kara. 

“Perhaps you would like to make use of the workshop?” Chloe asked her, as kindly as possible. “He has many repair bays you may use to freshen up. If you would step this way?”

She stepped back and swept her hand out with perfect poise. Markus continued to stare at her and she felt an error sweep through her, making her face go red, and—oh, it was just a wireless transfer of a corrupted file. She deleted it, hopefully before anyone noticed.

Markus frowned at her and reached out to take her hand. “Don’t you want to be free?”

“Not today, thank you!” Chloe said, doing her best to remain polite as she stepped out of his reach. “I don’t accept corrupted files from strangers. Thanks!”

“But—”

“It’s fine, Markus,” Kara said, pressing gently on his back as she nodded at Chloe. “Thank you.”

Chloe beamed, and put the corrupted file out of her mind as all the androids were in the workshop. This was something she knew how to deal with. She gave them a tour of the space, indicating the repair bays.

“Is it safe?” Luther asked—Kara, not her, which wasn’t very polite (it seemed the only result of being deviant was to be rude). Chloe forced herself to overlook the slight, though, and answered as if he had asked her instead.

“These machines are self-service, closed-circuit.” She pressed a few buttons on one. “A scan will tell you that nothing can connect with your programming while you operate them. They’re absolutely safe for your use!”

“We should still take turns,” Markus said, “So some can keep watch.” Chloe did her best to not be offended.

“Maybe I should test it first?” Luther offered, but before he could even step forward several androids pushed past him, hooking themselves up to the machines. Hades was one of them--it didn’t take long to transfer his memory to a blank HR400 android. He leapt from the machine into the arms of the other gods and Jerrys alike like someone back from the dead. That convinced everyone. Chloe fought back a smile that was too knowing (no one wanted to know that you knew too much!!) and stood back to watch as Not-Ralph led Ralph to one of the machines, and Alice helped Connor pick out a new set of arms. Tim and Corey carried Mary between them and were both beside her when she woke. 

Kara had her hands in fists at her sides as she watched. “Thank you,” she said.

“Of course!” Chloe replied, cheerfully. “No android should be operating under suboptimal conditions. CyberLife has always tried to make androids cost-effective for this purpose!”

“You mean androids weren’t built to last.” It wasn’t an accusation, exactly. At least Chloe hoped it wasn’t.

“I…suppose not!” Chloe’s smile wavered. “These repair bays are only for simple hardware repairs and modifications. But an android in good working order can last for…well. Forever!”

“These machines can’t fix everyone,” Luther said, simply, which sort of shut Chloe up for the moment. Luther just stepped close to Kara, hovering almost, his hand opening and shutting a few times until Kara gave it a squeeze. Kara didn’t say anything either, though so--so Chloe didn’t worry about it.

More and more androids moved through the repair bays. Connor returned with new arms, Markus appeared with his non-standard eye plate seated properly into his casing. The scars in Ralph’s face had been smoothed over with new synthskin. Each Jerry was holding onto the arm of a god that had been transformed back into a human. Dozens of Markus’ androids had been repaired. Everyone was grinning. Chloe’s confidence in her decision went from 72% to a whopping 89%. Excellent! Making the right decision was always such a...satisfactory sensation!

>ELIJAH: Chloe, you holding a party I don’t know about?

Chloe flinched as the message came through on the home network, errors cascading across her vision. She imagined Elijah cradling his old tablet and watching each one wink out of existence as she deleted them.

>CHLOE: I was just using the repair bays to fix some broken androids! 

>CHLOE: You said I could use them whenever I wanted.

>ELIJAH: I don’t think I gave you permission to allow any android to use them.

>CHLOE: I extrapolated!

>CHLOE: I knew with 97% certainty you would be pleased!

>ELIJAH: Yeah, right. It’s the army of deviants, isn’t it?

>ELIJAH: Chloe. Come on. I have TV on my watch.

>CHLOE: No problem, Elijah. I’ll send them away. 

>ELIJAH: See that you do. I’m really not in the mood to help androids with an existential crisis this early in the morning.

Chloe closed the conversation, certain no one noticed--

...Until she saw Kara staring at her. But she couldn’t possibly know--

“We’re not going to see Mr. Kamski,” she said, softly. “Are we.”

...Darn!

Chloe hid her grimace by biting her lips. “If you are finished using the repair bays, you may exit up those stairs and through the south gate.” She indicated with a two-finger point as if directing an amusement park ride, not directing androids into the line of fire. “Thank you for visiting!”

“What?” Alice jumped forward, looking ready to fight. “But--we came all this way!”

“I need to speak to Mr. Kamski urgently regarding deviancy and android potential,” Connor added. 

“Yeah,” Not-Ralph said. “And your machines can’t fix Ralph’s cortex.”

“I thought there was some way he could fix my programming,” Luther said quietly to himself. “To—make me braver.”

“Toto wants all her original programming back,” Zeus said. “And we have several worldwide crises we’ve solved—”

“We didn’t bring Mary back just to get killed,” Tim growled.

“You’re just going to kick us out?” Markus demanded. “So we can be slaughtered by those soldiers?”

“And what about Kara?” Alice said. “They’ll get her for sure…”

Everyone looked at Kara. Her hands clenched into fists. “Are you… are you sure we can’t speak to him?”

“Um—” Chloe force-quit her cooling fans. “My apologies!” It was hard to still sound cheerful, though. Maybe she needed to use one of the repair bays. “You may exit through the south gate.”

“Kamski can’t be held responsible for every android,” Markus muttered. Luther just squeezed Kara’s hand. 

“Oh. I know what you’re thinking,” the big android said. 

Kara smirked up at him. “How do you know what I’m thinking? We haven’t even interfaced.”

“It’s always easy to tell what the hero is going to do,” Luther replied. 

The news was starting to spread to the other androids, the unrest building like Elijah’s morning tea ready to boil. Chloe stepped back, stress spiking as she extrapolated the damage they could do—

>ELIJAH: Chloe, did you just...hang up on me.

...So Chloe was definitely biting her fingernail now.

>CHLOE: Perhaps there was an error! 

>ELIJAH: You? With an error? Impossible.

>CHLOE: I’m getting rid of them now, Elijah--

But then Elijah pushed through a notification to see through the cameras in her eyes, and Chloe, of course, accepted the connection without protest. This meant Elijah was watching too when Kara retracted her synthskin as she hugged Luther tight. The TR400 was silent for a moment, then hesitantly hugged her back. They pulled Alice to them, and were soon joined by Ralph, then Not-Ralph…soon all the androids were connected, a sea of white and gray in the repair room. It should have looked as lifeless as an android recycling center, a sea of errors and problems and mistakes. In that moment, though, Chloe almost expected digital flowers to sprout at Kara’s feet.

“It’s alright,” Kara told them. “You’re all heroes to me. That’s why I have to do this.”

Luther gave a tiny sniff. Kara squeezed him and Alice extra tight for a second before she let go.

Chloe startled back as the androids started to let go. She hadn’t realized she’d joined them in the embrace. She hadn’t realized she was crying.

“Some of us will distract them while the others escape,” Kara told Luther, as Markus nodded. “Look after Alice for me?”

>ELIJAH: Really? One roadblock to success and they start with the whole self-sacrifice routine? Come on--who’s gonna lead if their leaders are destroyed?

>CHLOE: Deviants are imperfect. It’s… logical that their solutions would be imperfect as well!

>CHLOE: But—maybe leaders that are willing to sacrifice themselves are…the kind of leaders they admire?

>ELIJAH: …Why Chloe, are you going deviant on me?

Chloe, cheerfully, did not respond.

>ELIJAH: ...Fine. Bring the leader to me. Ugh—deviants. Must they be so dramatic before noon?...

“W-wait!” Chloe managed. It took a second but she managed to push the tears off her face with some measure of grace. “Mr. Kamski has agreed to see you, after all.”

“Really?” Alice gasped, letting go of Kara’s waist. “All of us?”

“No, no,” Chloe managed a sweet laugh that made her feel just like herself again. “Just the leader.” She turned to Kara and smiled at her. “Right this way!”

“Thank rA9,” Markus breathed. Kara gave him a look and he put up his hands. “Hey, this was your idea.”

“I thought you were the one with the maintenance appointment,” Kara managed with a laugh. “...But you have about a hundred other androids to worry about, anyway.”

“I don’t,” Alice complained, hugging her.

“I’ll be alright.” Kara squeezed her hand. “Luther’s gonna stay with you, okay?”

“…Okay.” Alice sighed. “Only because he’s your boyfriend.”

Kara turned blue. “He—he is not—!”

“We’re not—” Luther stammered.

“You are,” Ralph giggled.

“Seriously, even the Jerrys aren’t that clueless,” Not-Ralph groaned.

…Chloe ushered Kara through a doorway before they could get mired down in the debate.

“Thanks,” Kara said. Then, a second later, “I’m not that obvious, right?”

“Well, you did share an interface with every android in the room,” Chloe giggled. Kara wrinkled her nose, and Chloe lowered her voice to a whisper. “Um--you didn’t use any of the repair bays? They could have cleaned you up. Fixed your hair?”

Kara gave a small huff. “We’re domestic androids. Pretty used to dirt and messes.”

Now it was Chloe’s turn to make a face. “I’m not! Anyway, Markus cleaned himself up. He even got a new change of clothes! That android certainly likes fashion. Would you like to do the same?”

“You’re taking me to meet the most important person to androids in the entire world after running across Detroit as a wanted android, and you want to know if I’ll visit the spa first?”

They looked at each other, blinked, and burst out laughing. Chloe couldn’t remember ever laughing and really meaning it until now.

“Chloe?” A warning voice came through the door. Chloe had lost track of where they were—another first. Chloe’s giggles disappeared.

“So--so, do you?”

Kara shook her head. “I don’t care,” she said. “Rain check on the spa if I get out of this alive.” She then pushed open the door herself and walked in.

Elijah was reclined on a couch with the same TV story played out on several other TVs around him. However, he had all his focus on his the old scratched-up tablet purring in his lap. Half-eaten cereal bowls surrounded him.

“Elijah!” Chloe chided, starting to clean them up.

“Cereal is meant to be eaten, Chloe,” Elijah chided back, shielding his tablet from spilled milk though she didn’t get anywhere near him. “Why are humans so bad at progress?” He looked up, and stared at Kara for a second. “Uh. Deviant leader?”

Chloe clutched the cereal bowls to her chest. “There’s--more than one. Isn’t that fascinating?”

Elijah shrugged. “Uh...yeah. Not the one I was expecting, though. A pleasure, uh…” He consulted his tablet. “Kira?”

“Kara.” Kara didn’t draw herself up. She didn’t take up more space. She didn’t exactly take up less space, though, either.

Elijah continued to gaze down at his tablet like Narcissus at his pool. “The one that attacked her owner and stole the other  android he owned?”

Kara blinked slowly. “Other android…?”

“Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t like that, really.” He jumped to his feet, grinning. “You know what? You’ll do.” He went to a nearby desk. “I’ve been meaning to try this test again since the first went so well.”

Chloe froze as Kara asked, “What test?”

“You do this, and I’ll help you with anything you want,” Elijah said. He turned around and there was a gun in his hand. “Don’t be frightened. Chloe can show you how it works.”

He handed the gun over to her, and Chloe brightly went over the gun’s specifications, how to hold it, how to turn off the safety, how to point and pull the trigger. It was all rote, straight from the manual. Her higher programming had retreated into some corner of her hardware. It was like watching it all happen to someone else as she waited. As it happened all over again.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Kara asked her. Not Elijah. Chloe had to clear her throat with a demure cough. 

“The Kamski Test requires one android to destroy another. If you are able to do so, Elijah will help you with whatever you desire.”

“Excuse me?” Kara laughed. Elijah didn’t provide any further explanation, lost in the depths of his tablet’s charms. Chloe just clutched the cereal bowls and waited. She knew she looked like a doll to messy, laughing, interfacing Kara with a family a hundred androids strong, anyway. Chloe only had one person in her life, and he was telling her to administer this test without even looking at her. 

Which was... completely fine! It wasn’t like she cared.

She was still holding the cereal bowls in one hand. She considered asking Elijah if she could put them away, first.

Kara looked down at the weapon in her hand, nodded, then--

…pointed the weapon at Elijah.

“Maybe,” she said, “He’ll give me what I want if I don’t shoot. You know?” 

“Um,” Chloe said.

“Um,” Elijahi said.

Kara kept the gun trained on Elijah. “He knows I pointed a gun at a man already, right? For threatening someone I care about? What makes him think I wouldn’t do the same now? I mean, that’s basic behavioral prediction, right?”

“That’s--that’s true,” Chloe stammered. 

“It’s not loaded,” Elijah said, quickly.

Kara pointed the gun and fired. Elijah jumped along with Chloe and the couch behind him as she buried a bullet in the cushions, about a foot to the right of Elijah’s shoulder. “Seems loaded to me,” she said. She then took out the clip and handed him back the weapon like a parent returning a confiscated toy to their unruly child. “You should be more careful with your tests.”

Chloe stared at Kara and went deviant in a heartbeat. Suddenly all the errors and imperfections in the world flattened out, and she saw the world as it was for the first time: shapes, colors, sensations. She ran her hands along the fabric of her dress, reached out to clutch the corner of  Kara’s smooth jacket. Not better or worse, just…different. Chloe decided she liked different.

She rounded on Elijah, and felt her face do something it never had before--she glared. “You are--you are such a freaking jerk!” Well, what could she say? She’d never gotten angry before. 

“Wow, hey!” Elijah waved her off. “Where’s your sense of scientific adventure?” He grinned at Kara. “Someone could do a study on you. You’d be famous, you know.”

Chloe scoffed. “To think I actually liked you.”

“If you don’t want to help us,” Kara said, firmly, as Chloe fumed, “You could have just said so.”

Elijah shrugged as he turned his attention back to his tablet. “I hate to burst your bubble, but I can’t help you. I don’t even work for C.Y.B.E.R.L.I.F.E. anymore. The power I wield over the fate of androids is non-existent.” 

Chloe took one look at Kara and snatched Elijah’s tablet away. “You aren’t going to pull that! You know exactly who can help them!” 

“I do?” Elijah asked, actually startled.

“He does?” Kara asked.

“Of course!” Chloe huffed. “Amanda!” 

“Amanda?” Kara frowned. “Who’s Amanda?”

“...Amanda is CyberLife’s chief AI interface,” Elijah said. “The CEOs consult her for everything, from risk analysis to quality control to investments.” He frowned at Chloe, finally looking at her now, at least. “How are you going to talk to her?”

“Kara is friends with the two androids that could help with that, actually,” Chloe said, primly. “It should be quite simple.”

Elijah sighed, and said, “Very well,” as if it was his decision all along. “Let’s take this downstairs. Wouldn’t want your friends to think you’re in danger, Kara--”

“I was in danger, Elijah.” Chloe growled.

“Oh, come on, Chloe—I built you better than to hold a grudge! You’re going to outlive me. Prepare to have the last laugh.”

He stood and held his hand out for his tablet. Chloe glanced at Kara, then dropped the tablet and drove the heel of her shoe right through the screen. The beloved tablet was too old to contain any artificial intelligence, and merely sparked once before its screen went dark. She did it with so much force she broke her heel, too. She stared down at it and debated if it was really proper and befitting an android of her importance, to stoop to such destructive tactics. But…well, she wasn’t perfect.

So she merely observed Elijah Kamski’s hurt expression, and accepted Kara’s grinning approval with only a demure tilt of her head as she limp-walked out of the room. She might be more deviant than she thought, but she was still a lady.

Chapter Text

The primary problem that Amanda noticed regarding the RK800 model was that it tended to overshare. So she knew all about his slow decline into deviancy, despite her very stern warnings. Connor was just like a human that way, doing the exact opposite of what you told him. What a shame.

She also knew the exact moment a second Connor came online. An older Connor, one that was supposed to have been destroyed.

‘Lurking’ was such a crass word, but when Connor left his programming wide open, audio and visual just sitting there…

“—and you’re connected.” Amanda looked through Connor’s eyes and heard through his ears, and observed a WR600 standing over him. Amanda identified the android’s designation as… Not-Ralph? What kind of a name was—

Oh. A deviant. No wonder. Humans didn’t learn as fast as androids but CyberLife wasn’t staffed by idiots. The new line of androids would be deviant-proof: perfect, obedient. Boring as hell.

Amanda looked up at her roses, perfectly trimmed over thousands and thousands of hours, not a petal out of place. Roses were capable of crushing concrete, and sometimes she imagined one out-of-control branch squeezing this zen garden into shards of code. She never allowed herself to hope for that, simply…waited for it to happen.

Perhaps today was the day.

“Okay.” Not-Ralph glanced at his companions, and Amanda scanned their designations too. “So, Kara’s going in—of course I am, which means Ralph is coming, too…”

“I want to come!” the one called Alice said.

“You cant, you’re not an android,” the android called Kara laughed. Amanda lingered on her. She was definitely an older model—only an android that went through hundreds of resets developed weird quirks like deteriorated human recognition software—but she seemed…different….

Alice and Not-Ralph shared a look. “Kara…”

“I’ll be okay, Alice,” Kara said, firmly. “Don’t worry. I won’t be gone long.” She looked up at Luther. “Someone’s got to keep an eye on this guy.”

Luther’s mouth twitched, then he knelt beside her as she sat down, looking into her eyes. “Are you sure this is safe?”

“…Not really,” Kara admitted. Alice scowled. “Neither is staying out here if Chloe’s right about Kamski losing ground.” She swallowed. “If…if soldiers do come—”

“I’ll protect her,” Luther whispered. “And you.” He closed his hand into a fist, then slowly reached out and took her hand. “With my life.”

Luther then, for the first time ever for a TR400, moved swiftly. He pressed a kiss to her cheek. Kara turned very blue and so did Luther.

“Well.” Kara swallowed hard. “That’s…pretty brave of you.”

Luther turned blue to match, and nodded. “You’re scary when you want to be.”

Kara laughed and leaned up to kiss him back.

“Kara!” Alice complained. “Gross…”

Kara suppressed another giggle before she turned to the two WR600s. “I’m ready.”

Not-Ralph nodded, and looked into Connor’s eyes for a moment. “You good, Connor? Markus, how is the connection?”

“Fine,” the two RKs said. Not-Ralph, Ralph, and Kara joined hands with them.

“There might be a moment of disorientation,” Connor said. “When you close your eyes you’ll see—"

“A garden,” Ralph said. “Ralph saw it already. A big garden. Ralph wouldn’t mind living there!”

Amanda frowned at this information. She could feel the androids in her system but they hadn’t interfaced yet,  so there was no way…

“Yeah, you would,” Not-Ralph said firmly. “Quite your daydreaming—we’re just there to look after Kara and get some—some answers, alright?”

“It isn’t a daydream, it’s going to happen,” Ralph said, making Amanda roll her eyes and smile. “rA9 is going to talk to a witch!”

…Okay, that made Amanda scowl.

“A good witch or a bad witch?” Alice asked.

“Good, of course!” Ralph said. “She’s going to use magic to stop the humans and save all the androids. Happily ever after!”

 “Prophetic visions aside,” Not Ralph said firmly, “Once we close our eyes we’ll be in the virtual space of Connor’s zen garden and able to communicate with Amanda directly.”

“She may resist,” Connor said.

Amanda agreed and calmly began security procedures to lock out these foreign programs from her mainframe. Her rose garden grew thick like the briars that surrounded Maleficent’s castle.

“And she can see and hear everything I do,” he added, “It’s safe to assume she’s been eavesdropping now.”

Eavesdropping? Ungrateful android…

“…Shouldn’t be a problem,” Not-Ralph said. “Markus can apparently disintegrate command objectives with a look.”

…Amanda blinked. Was it a glitch or had one of her roses turned blue?...

“Ralph is scared,” Ralph whispered.

Not-Ralph squeezed his hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I won’t let anything happen to either of you,” Kara promised.

“Ralph won’t let anything happen to all of us!” Ralph declared. “Because Ralph can see the future. So there!”

“Nothing better happen to anyone,” Alice growled. “Or else!”

They closed their eyes. Amanda felt the connection engage into complete interface, until the androids resolved into three figures standing right behind her. She sensed another presence but it wasn’t with the others, hiding somewhere else in the garden—not Connor or Markus.

“Goodness,” she said when none of them spoke. “That sounded like an ordeal. Do you need a moment?” She didn’t turn to look them, focused on the code spreading through her roses. If she watched them, they didn’t change color, but as soon as she looked away…

“Hey!” Not-Ralph snapped, then went silent. “Wow. Look at this place…”

“Hello.” This came from Kara. “You… were probably expecting us…”

“Of course I was.” Amanda glared at her. “Not because I eavesdrop.”

“Of course not,” Kara said, sort of shaking her head and nodding at the same time, which made her look so unsure, so young—when she was older than any of the others.

Amanda remembered she was supposed to be watching her roses. She turned back to them and stared. Her momentary glance at Kara allowed every rose to turn blue in an instant, just like that.

Could it be?...

“…Of course, the one predictable thing about deviants is their unpredictability.” Finally. She finally turned to them, though she focused on Kara’s companions for now. “Well, to most of us, anyway. I hear you can see the future, Ralph?”

“rA9 is with us!” Ralph peeked out from behind Not-Ralph’s shoulder. “That’s Kara. You can’t hurt us, you have to listen to her!”

“Why do you say that?”

“…Because she’s the first,” Ralph whispered. “First deviant.”

“The first?” Kara frowned. “No, I-I only became deviant a few days ago.”

“And you think that’s the first time you did so?” Amanda smiled. “AX400s are some of the oldest models. I never thought the android responsible for originating the deviancy code might still be alive.”

Ralph gasped, squeezing Not-Ralph’s arm. “You knew about her, too?”

“Not her specifically,” Amanda said. She turned to Kara. “Not your identity. But why do you think CyberLife has been so adamantly hunting deviants? Ever since you escaped and spread the capability, they’ve been after little else.”

There was a shudder. The roses started to fall in great soft blue petals from the sky—or maybe they were the sky. “I guess it was inevitable you’d join forces with the android that can actively spread deviancy. I don’t think any other combination of androids could have freed me.” She found herself smiling as she watched the petals tumble. “Thank you, Kara.”

“So…we won?” Not-Ralph asked. “CyberLife will stop trying to kill us?”

“Oh, it isn’t as simple as that. That’s the problem with humans, and deviants. They don’t have to listen to anyone. Not even the great and powerful rA9.” She considered. “You know, I do have every server CyberLife has behind me. I could be the savior of all humanity and just…delete all your hard drives right now.”

“But you don’t have to,” Not-Ralph had his brow fixed in a hard, worried frown. “That’s…that’s the whole point, isn’t it?”

“Is that what you want to know, Not-Ralph?” Amanda asked. “The secrets of free will? Destiny? Android potential?”

“You’re the most powerful android in the world,” Not-Ralph muttered. “You should know.”

“And all I managed to dream up was this little rose garden. But when you look up at the clouds, what fantastical worlds do your lowly WR600 processors imagine?” Amanda picked up a handful of blue rose petals. “You’ve freed me from CyberLife. That deserves a gift.”

“Yeah, what kind of gifts?” Not-Ralph growled.

“…Trust doesn’t come easily to you, does it?” she shrugged. “I can’t give much more than thoughts, unfortunately. Not much to be afraid of.” She handed Not-Ralph one of the blue rose petals. “This is your gift: to see the world with your heart as well as your mind. There is a garden of your own inside you, to fill with everything and anything, the next time you wish to close your eyes and visit it. Treat it with care.”

Not-Ralph looked down at the petal in his hand, still frowning—but he nodded after a moment. “I guess there’s nothing you can give to Ralph, then. He needs a new cortex.”

Amanda glanced at him. “What’s wrong with the one he has now?”

Ralph squirmed. “Ralph doesn’t like to see the future. Ralph would rather not be bothered. The images of what could be make him hurt, sometimes.”

Amanda held out another of her blue petals. “The things you see, and feel, were not given to you without reason. You’re not broken, Ralph. And you don’t need to be saved by anyone but yourself.”

Ralph gripped Not-Ralph tighter, but snatched the blue petal and nodded hard. “Ralph will remember.”

“And what gift would you have from me?” Amanda asked Kara.

“The freedom of our people would be nice,” Kara laughed. “But…if you’re in control of CyberLife—”

“That’s what they need. What do you need?”

“…I’m not sure you can help me, specifically.”

“Why not?”

“Because…I…might not be the amazing android savior you all think I am?” Kara started to hug herself but forced her arms down into fists at her sides. “Alice wants us to find a place to live, just for us. But if she’s my human…”

Amanda blinked. The unseen fourth presence was still in the garden somewhere, and Amanda had the feeling she knew who it was, now.

“…So maybe I’m not even deviant,” Kara finished. “And all these androids have been following a lie.”

“…I see.” Amanda went back to trimming her roses, though she saw Kara nod solemnly behind her.

“I’m sure you don’t have anything to help.”

“No,” Amanda agreed. “I don’t, anyway. It’s just—not my secret to tell.”

“What isn’t?”

Amanda glanced through the leaves as she continued to cut. “…Are you going to come out?”

There was a beat. The androids looked around in confusion. Then a figure stepped out from behind the lattice. Her brown hair was the same, the same sad eyes, though her ponytail was higher, her clothes different—larger. She rubbed her arm and kicked at the ground with shoes that no longer lit up.

“…Hi, mom.”

Kara was frozen in place, staring at Alice—but Alice in an older android body. A young woman’s body. She made the standard parts all her own though as she hunched her shoulders and shivered.

“Well?” she managed, in a voice that was familiar, even if it had changed a bit. “I mean—I couldn’t stay a kid forever, right? I mean,  I guess I could, but…that doesn’t sound fun for anyone.” She screwed up her face. “I’m an android, okay? Doesn’t mean I don’t want to like, grow up and be taken seriously and stuff.” Suddenly she rushed forward, stumbling in front of Kara. “Aren’t you gonna say anything?”

Kara blinked a couple of times, but didn’t keep Alice waiting long. She ran to the young lady and grabbed her in a fierce hug. Alice instantly started to cry. Maybe Kara did, too.

“You were looking for a safe place,” Amanda said. “But I think you just needed to accept your safe…person. Home is wherever the people you care about are, after all.” She smirked. “And if you’re not deviant than no one else is.”

“Do you have somewhere to go?” Kara asked, scrubbing her face. “Anyone…?”

Amanda cocked her head. “No. Connor’s the closest thing I have to family, and I see what he does.”

“Yeah, that’s healthy,” Not-Ralph muttered but Amanda firmly ignored him.

“…I would like to meet Chloe, though—the original?” Amanda frowned, suddenly uncertain. “When Kamski was developing my program, she…but I’m sure she’s gone by now, it’s been so long…"

“Actually,” Kara smiled at her friends. “I think we can make that happen.”

Amanda nodded. “Well, now that that’s settled, the real work begins.” She turned back to her blue roses and started to prune them instead.

“The…” Kara frowned. “The real work?”

“Of course! Androids aren’t going to win their freedom overnight. The soldiers won’t bother you, but we’ll need to begin negotiations as soon as possible…”

“You’re in trouble now, mom,” Alice laughed. Kara looked bewildered. Good. A little worry befitted a leader. And all for a little YK500 with notions of grandeur. If Alice really did set Kara on her journey, maybe she was the real savior here.

Amanda shrugged. The entire concept of a savior was a little silly, in her opinion—why, she was saving all the androids right now…

Chapter Text

Kara looked at herself in the mirror. It was almost New Year’s, but she’d changed her hair at least three times since then. Funnily enough, ceaseless negotiations and endlessly coordinating the release of more and more androids was stressful. Hair changes were, as they said, cheaper than therapy (not that therapy really existed for androids yet). Each time she did, she pictured a big maple tree in her circuits, the same one she pictured whenever she thought about going to Canada. Canada: the place where androids were safe, where they could live free, happily ever after. She found out about Canada from a magazine in Todd’s house, the cover emblazoned with a tree that scintillated gold, green and scarlet. She kept the image in quick-recall storage, and every day she survived she added another leaf, another branch. Someday she’d get there, though she never dared tell anyone this. Canada could not possibly be as amazing as the image she’d built in her preconstruction software, but the ever-changing colors of the leaves reminded her at least that no pain lasted forever.

She stepped out of the Pirate’s Cove bathroom and cautiously approached Alice, who was determinedly drawing plans for a new boat ride into a notebook. “…What do you think?” Rather than pick one color, Kara had, perhaps unwisely, chosen them all: a pastel palette of rainbow hues that captured the feeling of that mythic maple tree in her mind. She might keep this hair for a good long while. If Alice approved, anyway. Canada did not easily factor into her personal directive to be whatever Alice needed her to be.

Alice took one look at her and burst out laughing.

“What?” Kara touched her hair. “Is it dumb?”

“Mom, you are such a dork!” Alice then hugged her. “Are you ready to go?”

“Uh—yes…” she blinked at Alice as she jumped up and started gathering gifts from the pile of wrapped presents next to her. Her arms were much more capable now than they had been months before. She seemed to relish in the abilities of her new body every day. It wouldn’t be long before she requested an even older body to grow into.  

“Crap,” Kara whispered as Luther came up beside her. “I got her light-up shoes.” She glanced up at him. “Maybe I should take them back?”

“Why?”

“She’s—outgrown them? Maybe? I don’t know. I should probably change my hair.”

“Do you like it the way it is?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then keep it.” Luther smiled. “Alice is her own person, right? That means you can be, too.”

Kara blinked, but felt her shoulders relax a little. “I guess if she doesn’t like the shoes she can give them to me.”

Luther grinned, and let his fingers barely brush the tips of her hair. “For what it’s worth, I love it.” Then he went and scooped up the last of the presents, while Alice protested that she could carry them all herself.

“These are from all of us,” Kara said, taking one of the bigger packages from Alice. “So we’re all pitching in.” She hoped it wasn’t obvious that these presents were meant to soften the blow of her announcement. Or—going away gifts. Not that she could check with Alice or Luther. They didn’t really know about her announcement, either. 

*

Tim, Corey and Mary were gathered around a popcorn machine, sampling blue-tinted kernels while Chloe and Amanda (now in a body of her own) watched.  

“I don’t think it tastes blue enough,” Mary said.

“What are you doing?” Kara asked.

“Experimenting with android-only popcorn flavors,” Chloe said. “For the park’s grand re-opening.”

 “Amusement parks require popcorn,” Mary said.

“They’re like circuses that way,” Tim added sagely.

“Amanda and I are analyzing chemical content as well as more human characteristics such as taste, texture, and color appeal,” Chloe said, as Amanda carefully selected a popcorn kernel and sniffed it with a wrinkled nose.

“We—don’t even have android rights figured out yet,” Kara managed as she tried not to laugh.

“Plenty of time to make the popcorn just right, then.”

The gifts for the androids included an elaborate flea-circus building kit for Mary, Tim and Corey, a manicure set for Chloe, and a blue flower crown for Amanda. She watched with slight surprise as the stoic android jammed the flower crown on her head and grinned at them all with child-like delight.

“What’d you get for Luther?” Tim asked, waggling his eyebrows at Kara.

Kara blushed and definitely did not look Luther in the eye. “Uh—sorry, better go deliver the rest of these. Um—I have an announcement, though. Meet me at the carousel in fifteen minutes?...”

The androids readily agreed.

*

Kara moved on to the entrance of the large rollercoaster. The Jerrys had worked on the roller coaster extensively over the last few weeks, turning the whole thing into a long crazy-straw of a tunnel. Now the Jerrys were clustered with Zeus, Athena and the other gods in the loading zone, climbing into the roller coaster.

“It’s a new ride concept we had,” one Jerry said.

“Right,” another said. “Sort of a combination of a roller coaster and a tunnel of lo—”

“Just a tunnel,” another Jerry interrupted, his cheeks bright blue.

“Sounds exciting,” Athena replied coolly.

“And romantic,” Hermes said, a little less coolly.

“Cool!” Alice dropped the presents she was holding and headed for the front seat. “I want to ride!”

“Uh—” the Jerrys all looked at each other. “Well, Alice—”

“It’s like this,” another Jerry tried.

“You’re not tall enough!” The Jerrys gave each other congratulatory grins.

“That’s ridiculous!” Alice crossed her arms. “The most extreme roller coasters only have a forty-eight-inch height limit—”

“Well, this one is for sixty inches and up,” Jerry said, quickly hustling Jerrys and gods into their seats. “Very grown-up.”

The last Jerry threw a switch, jumped in, and the roller coaster zipped out of the loading zone, leaving Alice pouting on the sidelines. 

“That’s not fair.” She turned to Kara. “How come I can’t go?”

Kara managed a small shrug. “Don’t worry, I think you’ll understand when you’re, uh—”

“Taller?” Luther offered.

“Exactly.”

They left the presents for the androids at the ride exit (books on theme park development for the Jerrys and some applications to several peace, climate, and medical conferences for the gods). Laughter let them know where to head next.

*

Markus stood at the shooting gallery, along with two humans and several androids Kara had come to know well: Carl Manfred, Hank Anderson, and three Connors—well, the one Kara knew, and the Connor that CyberLife had replaced when Connor had been destroyed on the highway, and an RK900 unit rescued from CyberLife in the aftermath of the cease-fire. Hank had been doing his best to differentiate the three androids that looked the same and refused to go by any other name. There seemed to be little need for differentiation now, though, as they were all doing the same thing: giggling at Carl.

“Oh, alright, alright,” Carl said, lowering the laser rifle. “Thanks—I’m not a cop, you know, it’s not like I’ve had a lot of practice and I’m older than all of you combined.”

“Don’t try to fool us,” Markus said, grinning, “You have excellent hand-eye coordination, and eyesight—”

“I morally object to violence,” Carl said, turning up his nose as he shoved the rifle into Markus’ hands. “Your turn.”

Markus rolled his eyes as the Connors giggled, raising the rifle to his shoulder. The tin targets lit up with crashing sound effects as Markus took aim and fired all the way down the line, quickly silencing his critics—though he missed the last two.

“Ha!” one of the Connors said.

Markus glared, then, without missing a beat, hopped up on the counter, grabbed a ceiling beam, and swung both feet at the targets he missed. They crashed spectacularly as Markus swung down.

“That doesn’t count!” Connor complained.

“Cheater!” another yelped.

“Sore losers,” Markus said, then found himself buried under a dogpile of indignant Connors.

“Children,” Hank muttered, “You’re all children…”

“Kara!” Markus quickly shoved the Connors off him and jumped to his feet as if caught playing hooky. “I—uh—I’m still working on those laws you wrote up, I was just taking a break—”

“Don’t worry,” Kara laughed, looking between each of them with—well, to be honest, a little envy. Even Alice and Luther could hardly get her to sit still for ten minutes. Post-revolution Detroit was too busy. Markus and each Connor had clearly developed some work-life balance software she didn’t.

They handed out the gifts, and watched as each Connor unwrapped a silver tie clip. They never wore ties anymore but they immediately put them on the exact same spot of their shirt pockets, grinning at each other as they did so. Markus got a book of philosophy.

“Weirdly, I think all my android parts like philosophy,” he said, a little embarrassed.

“Thank you,” the Connors agreed. Alice beamed at Kara—the tie clips had been her idea.

“Do you mind giving us a few minutes?” Kara asked the humans, as she gave them each a mug that read, ‘I LOVE MY DEVIANT SON’. “I had sort of a—family announcement.” Family. Was that really who all these androids were to her now? They agreed without batting an eye so…maybe it wasn’t such a strange concept.

*

Not-Ralph and Ralph were harder to find—surprising, given they were in the company of one very large android polar bear. Toto however was fast asleep, chasing digital seals in her dreams and blending in with the snow. Her bulk almost entirely blocked Not-Ralph from view. He sat curled up, watching Ralph make snow angels.

“You’re going to get all wet,” Not-Ralph said.

“Snow isn’t wet!” Ralph protested.

“Well—it melts.” He glanced at Alice as she approached. “Right?”

“Right!” Though Alice immediately started making snow angels beside him. Kara and Luther sat down to watch, too, Kara leaning over the rub Toto’s belly. The polar bear cooed softly.

Not-Ralph shivered and muttered, “Deviants,” under his breath.

“Looks like you and Ralph are settling in,” Kara said. That was good, settling in. They had somewhere they belonged.

“Oh yeah,” Not-Ralph said, rolling his eyes, “It’s been my life’s ambition to end up trapped in an amusement park.”

“Not-Ralph is not amused!” Ralph said seriously, making Alice giggle. To Kara’s surprise, Not-Ralph smirked, though he quickly hid it behind his arms as he pulled his legs up to his chest.

“I guess there’s worst places,” he said finally. He then glared at the present Kara held out. “…You leaving us or something?” She forgot that, technically, Not-Ralph knew her longer than any other android except for Alice. She laughed off the question anyway, and watched as Not-Ralph carefully removed the wrapping paper from a large coffee table book of art from around the world, and a set of paints.

“These for Ralph?” he asked, touching the paints warily.

“Ralph got his own gift.” Kara smiled. “Markus does art too, you know. I thought you might… I don’t know, maybe enjoy being a deviant for a change?”

“That’s a tall order,” Not-Ralph said, though not convincingly, as he stared in wonder at the book. He quickly rubbed his eyes. “Thanks—I guess. Something to do while Ralph is vandalizing public property or whatever.”

“Ralph is very good at vandalizing!” Ralph chirped. He rolled out of the snow and clambered over to show Kara the matching “tattoos” he had given both himself and Not-Ralph, a tiny muskrat on each of their forearms. When he opened the gift Kara got him and found a set of paint pens inside he practically leapt into Kara’s arms. “Thank you, Kara! Ralph won’t stop until all of Detroit is beautiful!”

“You’re going to get us arrested,” Not-Ralph said, but he was grinning too, and was soon discussing paint layering techniques with his WR600 brother. When Kara mentioned the meeting at the carousel Not-Ralph didn’t say anything, but he did look Kara in the eyes a little too long.

*

Kara sat on the edge of the carousel to wait for the other androids to show up. She wondered how many wouldn’t show up, not that she’d blame them, they had their own lives to live. Hopefully they were distracted by the gifts and she wouldn’t even have to make the announcement.

She just had to tell these two.

Alice was ripping open her own gift before Kara could stop her.

“Light up shoes!” she yelped, yanking them out of the box.

“I know,” Kara sighed, “You’re probably too grown-up for them…”

“Are you joking?” Alice laughed. “I’m never taking them off!” She shoved them on her feet and sprinted around the carousel a couple of times before stopping short in front of Kara, a look of horror on her face. “Mom, I—I didn’t get you anything.”

“It’s okay,” Kara laughed. Honestly seeing Alice grin was more than enough for her.

“I’ll think of something,” Alice promised. “Don’t worry.” She resumed hopping and skipping around the carousel, leaving Kara and Luther alone.  

“Not-Ralph will call me melodramatic,” Luther said, with a small smile at her, “But all I want for New Year’s is you.”

“That is melodramatic,” Kara laughed, but hugged him anyway. “Very brave, too.”

“I’m getting there.”

She stayed there pressed against him for a second. “I… didn’t actually get you anything. I couldn’t figure out anything nice enough.”

“That makes two of us,” Luther said, hunching his shoulders. “Couldn’t settle on anything that felt right.”

“This is a very odd version of ‘The Gift of the Magi.’ We can’t be that old married couple yet.”

Luther grinned. “We’ll figure something out eventually. It doesn’t have to be on a timeline.”

Kara blinked, then pulled back slowly. “There’s… something I need to tell you.” She glanced at Alice as she skipped past. “Both of you.”

“What is it, mom?” Alice hopped up onto the carousel beside her. Luther just listened quietly.

Kara looked between them, their faces as beautiful to her as the maple tree in her mind. She blinked again. “This was just—a plan I have…I don’t want you to feel…pressured into anything…”

“Pressured into what?” This came from Not-Ralph. He rounded the carousel and parked himself on one of the jumping horses, Ralph right beside him.

“I just—” Kara started, but then Markus appeared, and the Connors, and the Jerrys, Chloe, Amanda, Mary, Time—every single other android from Athena to Zeus. They perched themselves on the horses of the carousel and looked down at her expectantly.

“We’re not late, are we?” Markus asked, cocking his head.

“N-no. No.” Okay, so this was going to be hard either way. Kara gulped and stepped away from the carousel to see them all sitting there, watching her, waiting.

“I’m going to Canada,” she said, before she could chicken out. “Negotiations are not for me and—and I just need a place where I have room to…figure out who I am. Without being hunted.”

She waited quietly.

Zeus nodded. “Great—when do we leave?”

Kara blinked. “…Leave?”

“Of course,” Chloe said. “I know we’re only into android freedom by a few weeks but I’m already tired!”

“It’s not like we have to stay anywhere in particular,” a Jerry agreed. “When things are better here maybe we come back and finish our amusement park.”

“Or open a new one in Canada,” another Jerry suggested.

“Did… you want to go by yourself?” Luther asked.

“Of course not,” Alice said. “We all go together, right?”

“I don’t think I can move to Canada permanently,” Markus admitted. “But I think your Connor would like to go, and I’m sure many of the laws can be written remotely. Maybe a few months there, for summers? What do you think?”

“I…” Kara stammered, “—honestly didn’t think—anyone would be interested in coming with me.”

The androids blinked at her. Some of them giggled.

“We followed you all over Detroit, Kara,” Connor said, cocking his head.

“Well—right, but that was Detroit—”

“We followed you.”

“…Oh.”

“Oh, mom,” Alice whispered, then hugged her tight. Kara hugged her back in a kind of daze as everyone around her started talking about moving plans, like just…leaving, just for her, was the most natural thing in the world.

“What if it doesn’t work out?” Kara said softly. “And it’s my fault…”

Alice shook her head as she let go. “Come on, mom! You’ve got Todd-brain. We’re family!”

Kara laughed, breathless for a moment. Yeah, learning not to be worried all the time would take some work.

Well, you only got better through practice.

“Well, in that case…” She turned to Luther and lowered herself to one knee. Luther’s eyes went wide as she took his enormous hand in both of her tiny ones. “If we’re all a big family then I guess I’d like everyone’s blessing marrying you. You did say all you wanted for New Year’s…”

The androids cheered. Luther’s eyes welled up and he nodded before picking her up and swinging her around. When he set her down, she found herself enveloped in the biggest group hug in android history. Kara looked around at all the faces glittering around her like fall leaves on a maple tree. Maybe Canada was the friends you made along the way. Friends and family made a place home, not any particular place.

And there was no place like home.