#simonxphileas

“Lucy will help you.”

“Help me…”

Everything was spinning in Simon’s head. Of course, he could always lay on Lucy’s back but he didn’t like it. As much as Phileas, standing in front of him with skin showing off. Sometimes, Thirium was leaking from his blue plastic shell and he just… swallowed it because what could he do except that?

“Yes. She’s the most reliable person I know. Beside you…”

“And you?”

Simon had a strong trust in Phileas. He was the one who led him here. Yes, it was a sad place, an abandoned ship who had difficulties to stay on the ocean but that became their Nest… Phileas had found this place, this unexpected providence and they offered their hand to every Deviant.

And now….

He didn’t get. Phileas was saying words but they had no meaning for him.

“I won’t stay there, Simon. It’s over. I don’t want to stay there, in fact…”

“I’ll come with you!” Simon said, passing an arm around his shoulders with a smile.

Sad and tired smile.

“No. I don’t want you to come with me. You stay here and you take care of Jericho,” Phileas ordered.

“What? I want to stay with y…”

“I don’t want to. Stay here. Take care of Jericho.”

Simon was frozen as the old Android was moving back and turned toward the rusty constructions of the board.

“But…” he managed to say. “When will you come back?”

“I don’t know. One day, maybe…”

“Maybe? Phileas… Phileas! Wait! Don’t leave me!”

  When Simon opened his eyes, he couldn’t see. Everything was black and he could hear movement around him but he couldn’t get what was happening. He couldn’t have the slightest access to what was going on and the fear was hugging him like a mortal friend.

“Everything’s alright, don’t worry.”

Markus?

Markus… It was Markus’ voice. The guy who came out of nowhere and take away from him the burden of Jericho. He valuated him so much. He did with Jericho everything he couldn’t even if he wanted it. He had no words enough to thank that guy that helped them, tried to save him when he had been shot in the Stratford Tower and who spared his life.

Well…

What he did wasn’t really useful, to be honest.

“Why did you leave me?”

The words came out from his lips stained by Thirium without he even understood this. Maybe it was because of the memory flooding his data? He could remember how he tried to kill himself to protect Jericho, the connection with a strong Android… That was messing up his data. Error messages appeared sometimes and he felt as if he wasn’t alive anymore.

“I had no choice, they’ have to kill us all!”

Everything was still messy.

No… No, he asked for Markus to leave. It was okay because North and Josh, Jericho, mattered more than his life.

Those words had no effect on him…

And at the same time…

“I come to take you home. Just…”

Simon wanted to see, to chase the memories.

“Give me the location of Jericho, we’ve got to leave now…”

Coming back to Jericho? The Jericho he promised to take care of? Take back to his family? The only people that seemed to care a bit about him?

Yes… he would be better in Jericho where he could repair his body and try to fix his memories.

The data errors were flooding him. He even didn’t realize that Markus should know the location when he pushed out his skin to connect with him. It was only when the connection hit him hard that he realized… it was the cop. The cop who pushed him to kill himself.

Burst of memories and error message mixed and shook his whole system.

The robot was strong. So strong. The energy he used to connect to him was on his body and animated his limbs. He reached out to him, to this guy who clearly wasn’t Markus but was maybe his only hope left?

“Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me again!” he begged.

He felt fingers around his Thirium pump and a wave of new panic overwhelmed him.

“Please!”

“Move out!”

Simon heard the new voice. Human voice?

“Don’t do it, Gavin. I know how to…”

“Shut up. I’ve been dreaming of this since the first second I saw you.”

“I know how to stop the Deviant,” the robot-cop said.

“You’re off the case! And now… It’s gonna be definitive.”

And then… a shoot echoed in the place. Panic swirled even more in his data. Especially because the body under him had fallen out of his reach.

“Don’t leave me, please!” he said without being able to restrain himself.

Neither the tears that melt with the Thirium in his damaged eyes.

He heard pace coming to him. Breathing. He felt fingers on him.

“No please… Please…”

“Who are you?”

It was the Human…

“S… Simon,” he said.

What could he say except that? Was he waiting from him? He wanted to know who he was before becoming a Deviant? Wanting to know he was the leader of Jericho before someone else more skilled came to him? Wanting to know… just the fact he was a Deviant?

“I’m… I’m a PL600…”

“I can see that. What are you doing there?”

He was a Deviant. An important clue to a case he didn’t even know. Why they couldn’t just be free without Humans trying to kill that?

“I…”

Simon couldn’t reply.

“I see.”

“Don’t turn me off, please…”

“What did you do? You’re what? A Deviant or worst?”

“Wo… worst?”

“Yeah, you’re one of those activists? Jericho’s crew?”

Simon couldn’t lie but his data were swirling. Should he lie after all? Should he tell the truth and let the guy, Gavin?, kill him? Why not…

The only thing he didn’t want was to be left again.

But dying?

Dying sounded okay…

“I’m one of them.”

“Okay. Run a diagnostic.”

Simon was lost. Damn lost… But he did it anyway. He ran the diagnostic and could feel the bullet hole, knew from where the Thirium leaked now he was activated again. One and two pieces that didn’t function anymore… And his eyes, of course.

He said it to the guy, wondering what kind of game he was playing right now. He knew Humans can be mean, really mean… but this…

He felt arms around him and didn’t try to flee because he had no reasons to do it. And he hadn’t really been touched like that since a long time. Markus had touched him but the way he dragged him away wasn’t… like that. There was something really soft and strong in the way this guy did it and he soon felt something under his behind. He moved his hands and clenched his fingers around the side of the things. A kind of tilted table?

“Turn off your sensor captors. Be sure to do it because if you don’t, you’ll pass a bad moment.”

“Why?”

“I’ll replace your destroyed pieces. There is a destroyed model here, the same as you.”

“There is another PL600?”

“Yes. Old case. But he’s totally destroyed, as I said. It won’t be possible to fix him. Not today, not in this situation.”

“Wh… what situation?”

“That robot, Markus, he led a revolution, powerful… The population started to freak out and now Androids are destroyed. To protect humanity.”

All his sensors down, the PL600 had some difficulties to know what he was doing. He could barely hear him as they were talking.

“You’re sure you’re one of the JeriCrew?”

“Yes… But I have been left after the Stratford tower incident. How many times passed?”

“Not much. If you want your people to be free, everything will be played now. Connor will have to choose his side and if he’s smart enough, which I don’t doubt, Androids will win.”

“You want Androids to win?”

“Hm… Don’t move, I have to put your eyes on. It’ll ask for a moment. I could also repair the rest first if you’ll be afraid to see me doing that?”

“Why… Why are you doing this?” Simon asked.

“Why not? I do what I want to do. So, I start with what?”

“Eyes, please.”

He wanted to see this man because he was so strange. He wanted the revolution? When he was a Human? That was so strange…

He thought the man will kill him and he was repairing him.

Everything was beyond his comprehension. He thought Markus was the savior, the one he could lay on after Phileas but in the end, it wasn’t the case. He had shown some fear and, in a way, he could understand it and at the same time… he had left him in the Stratford Tower because they couldn’t deal to save him. Because Markus couldn’t find the right solution in such a short time.

He could forgive.

He could have stayed but he had been found and everything had crumbled down.

He had left. Again.

And there, a human, who didn’t need to fight there, to care for him… was doing much more since Phileas.

Phileas who left him, without reason. Why? Months later, he was still lost, had still much difficulty to get attached, knowing he will be left behind. For the greater good, it was okay, though. Even North, his best friend, wanted him to be left there.

For Jericho.

All he wanted, in the end, was some replies…

But he couldn’t have those. It was something he had to accept… In the same way, he had to accept it when the horror came in his life for the first time. For weeks, even months, he waited for Phileas to come back but he never did. Never ever…

One day, he just realized that he will never see him again. He got use to the idea. Use to the sadness filling him and with the late events, he got use to a lot of  other things…

“Okay. You can turn off your eyes sensors.”

Simon complied.

When he was able to see, his data had a lot of difficulties to understand what was going on. He already saw this face. Not exactly this face but near. And it was written in his data. Everywhere… Something as strong as the need for rA9. The face of the one who created him many years ago.

“Mister Kamski?”

“That’s my brother,” he replied with a smile.

Bright, puffing his cheeks.

“You are… Elijah Kamski’s brother?”

“Yes.”

“Is this… why you want something else for Androids?”

“I want or he wants? That’s your question, right?”

Simon bit his lower lips and watched as the man started to replace his piece, to repair as much as he could. If he had any doubt, now he was fully sure the cop was related to Elijah Kamski because he was really skilled with his hands for repairing.

And then, he felt bad because those kinds of thoughts were bad… He shouldn’t think about that! That wasn’t because he was Elijah Kamski’s brother that he was able to work with Android!

And he felt even worse to have thought about that because the guy was really kind to him. One of the kindest lately since…

The memories came back to him. Since he tried to kill him, shooting through his data and eyes processor, and under his chin, the past was coming back again and again. He wanted to ask the cop, Gavin, right?, to erase all of that. This was a hurtful part of him and he didn’t want to keep it there… He wanted to drown it again under a lot of other things. Anything, he would take it.

“Do you have…”

A ring echoed in the room.

“Wait,” Gavin said. He picked up his phone. “Yay?”

He frowned and seemed to bite the inside of his cheek. Simon could sense that something was wrong. He was designed for this purpose. His whole existence was turned toward others.

There, he just wanted to throw his arms around his shoulders and ease away the feelings that passed over his face.

“Are you sure?” He rose his eyes, looking at the ceiling with a sigh. “Yeah, yeah.” New sigh. “Yeah… I’ll come.” If he’d rose his eyes even more in the ceiling, they will become blank but he did anyway. With a powerful sigh. “Yeaaaaaah. I know. Phck ya.”

And he hung off his phone.

“Bad news?” Simon asked with a tiny voice.

“Yay. Didn’t planned Dick Perkins to be such a dick. Jericho had been attacked.”

“Ho… How?”

“Connor had a clue from you when I killed him, from CyberLife in a new body, he went to Jericho. Dick had been warned from CyberLife’s headmaster and he followed him,” Gavin explained as he fixed a piece.

Then, he put his hands on the end of Simon’s shirt.

“Mind if I check your cable?”

“No… But, Jericho? What happened?”

Simon only looked Gavin’s face as the man pushed up his shirt and opened the part of his belly to arrange the cables.

And then, he realized that Connor’s body was still there next to them. Knowing that this corpse was just uploaded in another body was so strange…

“Jericho is a shipwreck in the river now.”

“No…”

“Your people are fine,” Gavin said. “Stop moving or  I’ll rip your cable off.”

Simon couldn’t feel it but it was right: the man had still his hands in his guts…

“No… No. I had to take care of Jericho! I had to…”

Gavin looked up to him with a frowning.

“Why? Who says that to you?”

“What?”

Simon looked down and their eyes met…

“Who says to you you had to take care of Jericho?”

“Why do you think…”

“I know, that’s all.”

Simon gulped. In a way, he felt as if he could clench on him but at the same time, he was even more afraid because he felt… He couldn’t explain that. If he wasn’t a Deviant yet, such an amount of feeling would have made him mad and push him to break the wall.

Sure it would!

“So? Because if it’s an asshole, I won’t bring you back there!”

When Gavin smiled at him before looking back on the cable, Simon’s eyes widened  and he lost control.

Thirium exploded in his circuits and some splattered on Gavin’s face who drummed on the table the Android was sat in with a sigh.

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Simon closed his eyes. “And I don’t want to come back to Jericho.”

“So… you want it floating but you don’t wanna come back? Either I should congratulate you or I should be really worrying?”

“Worry? Why?”

Why worry for him… The only people that used to care, it was Phileas but… Now that the memories were coming back again and again he wondered if the man had even cared for him or not at some point in his life…

He would have come back if he cared for him.

“Well, you don’t wanna come back there. Either somebody is frightening you there or something even worst.”

“But… why would you even care?”

“I’ve my hands in ya and ya dirtied my face, I think we’re close enough for that.”

He winked.

Well…

Simon couldn’t help but laugh when he saw him winking that way.

And then, he lost it, looking at the man who seemed so rough and full of… he didn’t know what. But there was something, sure it was. Maybe the way he cared for him? The way he had asked if this was because of someone? Like he knew.

He certainly knew in his own way…

“Sorry, I moved,” he said with a new laugh.

“I guess I’ll just end up with more blue blood in my face,” Gavin grinned.

“Sorry!” Once again, Simon lost his smile. “I can’t come back to Jericho because of him… “ He glanced at Connor’s corpse. “He took the information from me. I betrayed Jericho. They’re all suffering because of me…”

“I see… I think Connor could have taken the information from anybody. He would have found anyway. It’s not because of you.”

“I can’t… I’m so sorry but… But I just can’t. I know that my friends had been endangered because of me. I know that… I betrayed them and…”

Gavin looked up to him, his hands full of blue.

“And?”

“And… The one I promised to take care of Jericho.”

“You loved him.”

Simon didn’t want to admit it. Suddenly, it was ridicule. And telling a Human he, an Android, had been in love? That seemed even more stupid. How could he believe him? Even being Elijah Kamski’s brother.

“It’s okay, ya know? I got weak for an asshole too. Dick Perkins. The worst mistake of my damn life. The guy is an asshole and he still proofs it.”

He didn’t want to remember how he asked him, begged him to just don’t take the case or take it but work on his side. Of course, Richard Perkins took his begging but still followed the case, fooling him.

“He created Jericho. For long, it was our Heaven but after, we helped others. And one day… he left. Without a word. I never saw him again.”

“Then he just doesn’t deserve you. Easy to say, I know, but don’t think about the jackass. You’re better without him. And you had been tricked by Connor.”

Gavin put out his hands from Simon’s belly and close the plastic part.

“You should go back to your people. Your friends.”

“And if they hate me because…”

“Gosh. You’ll tell me they never made a mistake? If you wanna, lie. Say that the plastic pet got you by force? You don’t have to tell you gave the information because… whatever your reason. You don’t even have to say it’s your fault.”

Gavin got up, passing his hands on his jeans to dry them. As much as he could.

“But I know it… I just… I can’t.”

“Don’t you think they’ll want to see you again. They’re your friends, right?”

North was his best friends and Josh a really dear friend but did they really wanted to see him coming back? North could be really savage and she didn’t show any need to have him saved on Stratford Tower. He realized  how much he could not matter… He had promised to go back to Jericho and to take care of it but no, it was laying on the ground of the river.

“You… with your asshole… what did you have planned to do?”

“Ugh… nothing. Just break his nuts if he comes to see me. Can’t wait to see him,” Gavin smiled.

Simon almost admired him because him, if Phileas come back to him, he just could yield to him. He perfectly knew that…

“Should I have to go back to Jericho or whatever it is now? Really? Because… maybe, you need a PL600? Any householder? I can do really good plates…”

“I don’t eat. Barely throw minute soup,” he replied.

“I can tidy up your house?” Simon offered.

“I don’t live in my own house.”

“I… I’m doing nice hug?”

Gavin tilted a bit his head with a smile.

“Let me try it,” he said, opening his arms.

The man had a tiny smile on his lips and Simon felt relieved. He came down from the table and could walk without any problem. He reached Gavin and hugged him. The cop replied to this.

“If ya wanna, you can stay at home but you’ll get bored pretty much quickly.”

“I’m okay with this.”

After being thrown away, mistreated, having someone accepting him, even through spite, it was a good start for him.

And he liked his hugs. They remembered him Phileas’ one but… in a good way. Away from a role he never wanted, he could be happy.

Maybe?