empirical_data | RP for haughty

Entry tags:

RP for haughty_alpha

Who: Data | Kerr Avon
What: Data discusses Lore with Avon.
When: After discovering Lore was present within the village, and he attacked the Fifth Doctor.
Warnings and Notes: Relating to Lore Plot at

hearts_andminds.

The covers creased in as Data sat on the side of the bed, once again watching Avon contentedly sleep and trying to draw comfort from it. Though this time, he only found anguish and worry.

Data had been, in the blink of an eye, completely invalidated and proven untrustworthy. All of his hard work to prove that he wasn't simply a machine, that he'd risen above his parts and that other machines could as well, undone by a man that wore his face.

He'd debated considering him a brother, for a while. Lore had done nothing but betray him and wound him. But the simple fact was that, even with B-4, there was only two Soong-Type androids that could have been considered functional. Lore and Data. And one could not always choose their family, just as any human would know.

But this human laying there, this very important human, needed to know just what a danger that brother meant. That he had to be suspicious of his own fiancee.

Gently, Data put a cool hand on Avon's shoulder and leaned in. "Please wake up, Avon, I have something I need to talk to you about."

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Avon let out a long breath. Sometimes he forgot, in his desire to take control of unfortunate situations with action, that there was something to be said for the calm before the storm.

He returned the embrace tightly, murmuring, "it's going to be all right." He hoped his voice sounded confident, despite the churning in his stomach.

"I do not wish to have to destroy him again," he admitted. After all, it was his brother.

"But... I do not wish for anyone else to be hurt either."

The conflicting urges left in in terrible turmoil. They had been making him sputter over his words and glitch all day.

"If your safety is to be assured, there seems to be little choice." Everyone else's safety was, of course, secondary to Avon. Even his own, for once. "That doesn't mean you have to do it personally. He isn't your responsibility, brother or not."

Data's back shuddered a bit, and he swallowed thickly against Avon's shoulder. There seems to be little choice. "I can not be a coward to this situation. He is my responsibility. I could not allow myself to place it completely on the shoulders of others."

Avon rubbed gently up and down Data's back. "I understand why you feel that way. But you have *taken* responsibility for him before, even though you are in no way accountable for his behaviour. You shouldn't have to do this again. It would not be cowardice to allow someone else to bear a burden that would be far less onerous to them that to you."

Making a decision, he drew back to look into Data's eyes. He intended to go his own way regardless, but he owed it to Data to make at least an attempt to be open about it before conducting his own private investigation. "Let me do it. Lead me to him and I'll finish the job. Believe me, after what he has done to you, my conscience will not suffer."

"It would be unfair to ask you to do that..." he responded. But pulled back as he was, Avon could see that Data's eyes were glassy, and his face flinched from the onslaught of emotion within his net.

"I could not ask you to destroy something that looks like me. And I am the only one with the neural shut-down code, which we would have to use if he was not completely destroyed."

"Data," he murmured, cupping his cheek gently. "Always thinking of others before yourself, even at a time like this. I could never mistake him for you. He may look like you, but the two of you are worlds apart, from what I can see."

He studied Data's face, wanting only to erase the suffering he saw there. There were so many people who *deserved* pain and grief, who had earned it through their torment of others. It was ludicrously unfair that Data, who had only ever tried to do good, should be made to hurt like this. But then, if Avon had learned anything from life, it was that nothing in it *was* fair.

"I wish I could take this burden from you," he said, "but I suppose I can't. Not fully. Even if someone else committed the final necessary act, you would still be the one to suffer most." He might not be able to relieve the emotional burden, but if he managed to find Lore first, he could at least remove the risk of Data sacrificing himself in the attempt to stop his brother.

"You must promise me that whatever happens, you'll be careful. A universe without you would be hollow and worthless - as would I."

"I will not allow him to harm me, you, or anyone else that I care about." It took visible effort, but he buried that anguish under determination equal to Avon's.

"I want to keep my faith that people can become better. Without you, I lose that. Every potential that I see in humanity, I can see in you." He cupped his jaw with pale fingers, running his thumb along a chiselled cheekbone.

Lore would make a grave mistake if he were to even ponder harming this man.

"I... have frequently wondered... that if I had been able to tend to Lore's programming, could I have have compensated for his corruption. I suppose it is too late to know, but it is necessary to me that I have assisted you."

The sincerity and tenderness of the statement left Avon without words for a moment. He had never been the most important thing in anyone's life before, and the realistic of it was always overwhelming.

"Assisted...yes, but I would put it more strongly than that. 'Rescued' would not be too dramatic a term. You know better than anyone how desperately I tried to escape the village at first, obsessed with setting right all the mistakes I'd made, erasing the endless series of failures my life had become. I no longer feel the need to do that. People talk very freely about the concept of second chances, but few are unfortunate enough to genuinely need them, and far fewer still are fortunate enough to find them. I found mine, here - not because of the village. Because of you. Anything good that was left in me was buried far too deeply for me to see. But you saw it." He paused a moment, wanting to say more, but there were no words to cover the rest of it, the greatest part of it. So he simply added, quietly and sincerely, "thank you."

His brows canted up sweetly. Being the most important thing in someone's life was an overwhelming obligation. Sometimes horrifying. But Avon did it with the grace and dignity of a man who couldn't fathom it, sometimes.

He couldn't decide where it would be ironic of merely unfortunate that the the man who drove him most to not give up was the one that posed the biggest risk to him.

"Being that you are the future of humanity to me, then you must understand my anxiousness over the situation."

He smiled lopsidedly. "I shall do my best to live up to that. I only hope you won't be too disappointed by the result. And I do understand your anxiety, and the reasons for it. As you said, however - I can take care of myself. You needn't worry about me. Focus on what you need to do."

"Let no one mistake you for being anything other than a brave individual..."

Then Data pulled back, laying down himself on top of the covers and staring at the ceiling. "To be perfectly honest, Avon. I would very much like to leave. Though I know that will do little to stop my brother but give him something to instil guilt in me later over should he manage to persevere over fate once more."

Avon lay on his side, head propped on one hand, looking down at Data. "Leaving," he said, after a moment, "is a prospect that hadn't occured to me. How odd. If you wanted to, you know I wouldn't hold it against you. Provided you took me with you, of course," he added, with a crooked little smile.

He tapped his fingers lightly against Data's chest. "The only thing I care about is that you make the decision that is best for you. Other people's safety and well-being mean relatively little to me, you know. You probably disapprove of that attitude, but it's true. I can't help it. I'm a one-android man." He smiled more naturally, hoping to lighten the mood just a little. "Well, I suppose I wouldn't actually let Vila and Dayna die in flames if I could help it. Tarrant can take his chances." Gallows-humour: Avon's specialty.

"The guilt of abandoning others would be worse than the apprehension I feel in what I need to face...." He slipped his hand over Avon's on his chest, letting it rest there and pressing it against the dull thud of his mechanical heart. But he continued to stare up at the ceiling.

"You are usually inclined to do the appropriate thing yourself, despite your personal wishes. I know you would not abandon Vila and Dayna."

He snorted. "Oh, I don't know. One more five-hour game of Galactic Monopoly and I'd consider it."

Realising that he probably wasn't going to be able to beat this particular unhappy situation into submission with grim quips, his expression became more serious as he confirmed, "no, I don't suppose I would, at that." He let out a long breath. "Would 'are you all right?' be a stupid question at this juncture?"

"I have been asked that several times... I can not think of an answer. I do not even believe 'I am functioning within normal parameters' applies, as I am not."

He squeezed his fingers lightly, and finally turned his head to look at Avon.

"...I suppose... I could say, 'I will be'?"

He nodded. "You will be. We'll make sure of that, together."

Data turned his attention back up to the ceiling, fairly sure he wasn't going to be able to allow himself to shut down for diagnostics, the closest he could come to sleep, until his brother had been apprehended.

Though at least he could keep an eye on Avon, though perhaps for less poetic reasons than usual. He should probably be leaping to action, he knew.

But more of him just wanted to lay there and collect himself.

There was really nothing he could say to make things seem less bleak. Righteous anger might be appropriate, but Avon doubted that listening to him rant about the hubris of anyone daring to threaten his fiance would make Data feel much better. Instead he simply lay beside him, watching him in silence, letting him have his space.

After a bit, a far too long period of silence from a man that seemed to enjoy hearing himself speak, he finally shifted look at Avon.

...And still didn't say anything. Just looked at him.

Avon met his gaze steadily. "If there's something I can do - anything,. to make this easier - tell me?"

He shifted to lay on his side, resting a hand on Avon's hip and rubbing up his side. "Would you tell me more about your brother?"

Avon was silent a moment before replying. It was not a topic he normally discussed. "There isn't much to tell," he said, eventually. "He died a long time ago. We didn't have much contact after I was adopted out of the Delta levels. What did you want to know?"

"I would like to know how you two interacted. What you recall from your youth. ...It does not have to be significant." He let his hand come to a rest, urging him to lean against him.

Avon moved close, pressing again him. The strange thing was, it was hard to remember much about his brother. He had been very young when his new 'parents' had taken him away to live a life of privilege. There were snatches of memory, brief episodes he had long since stopped thinking about. But he tried.

"He used to tease me about my interest in the sciences. The other children at school thought I was strange, so my brother simply refused to talk to me in public - he always referred to me as 'the freak' or 'the embarrassment'. I was forever conducting little experiments...I set the sitting room curtains on fire once. And dissected a dead rat on my parents' bed. I didn't kill the rat, you understand, I merely found it in the rubbish disposal area outside our accommodation complex, and was curious about how it worked. My parents were not pleased, as you can imagine. They thought there might be something wrong with me. But my brother wouldn't have that; he insisted I was curious rather than destructive, that I hadn't meant any harm. He said I was a genius, and the family must make allowances because I would make them all a lot of money one day, pull them out of the gutter. Frankly I can't remember now whether I intended any harm or not, but it pleased me to know that my brother would stand up for me, despite all his teasing. He made it clear that day that he was proud of his weird little brother, after all."

He gnawed his lip for a moment, gaze distant. "But of course, that wasn't enough when the time came for me to leave. He never forgave me for abandoning our family."

He wondered, vaguely, if Lore had done anything of the like on his behalf. He doubted it. The creature that could have been his brother seemed only materialistic and jealous.

"I am sorry that you did not get to know him better," he said, shifting to rest his hand against Avon's chance. Against his strong pulse.

"I would have liked to have met your family... I have also sometimes contemplated attempting to return to your universe, to finish what you would have been unable to. Do you know what happened to your parents?"

"And I would have liked to meet your father. He sounds fascinating."

He tilted his head. "You have?" Something about the idea sent a prickle down his back. "Why would you want to do that?"

He shrugged. "I tried to find information about them, later in my life, but there was little to find. People like them slip through the cracks. I imagine they met the fate of most Deltas...they lived, they worked too hard, they died young and poor. My parents were not like me. They were honest people. I sometimes wonder how my brother and I turned out the way we did. Frustration, I suppose. We both thought we were better than the lives we had been born into - deserved better."

"I wished that I could actively stop the tyranny of your Federation. I believe with adequate planning it would be possible to rearrange the power structure... however I would never risk you." If they were to go to that universe, they ran the risk of Avon returning to his point of exit. Something that Data couldn't abide by.

"With adequate planning," Avon agreed. "But of course, we never actually had any of that..."

He squeezed Data's hand. "You want to put everything right. It's admirable, but the unpleasantness of my universe isn't your problem. Frankly, it isn't mine anymore, either."

"Then perhaps you can imagine how confused I am concerning the brother that I murdered putting those I care about in danger." He squeezed his hand back.

"I now... wish I knew what happened that first night after you left. He must have been somehow aware of my circumstances."

He nodded. "Yes, I can understand that."

Avon pursed his lips. "He has an accomplice, I suspect. And I have a feeling I might know who it is. There is only one person in the village I know for sure wishes us both harm."

"An accomplice?"

Data worried. He immediately suspected Travis, as Travis was the only one who didn't like either of them notably. But he had hoped that Travis was working on redeeming himself.

Especially as Glitch had become so fond of him.

"If not an accomplice, then at least a cheerleader," Avon grunted. "I suspect Travis has had a hand in all this. He seldom passes up an opportunity to be needlessly violent."

Data hummed a thought, furrowing his brow and looking down toward Avon's feet, before drawing his eyes back up to his face. "If you can provide me with evidence, I shall inform the local authorities."

"I will hope that Lore's prejudice against humans will make that less likely." Thought he could see it was a valid argument. "Though please, do not put yourself at risk.

"I don't have a any direct evidence," Avon admitted, "except that Travis is a snake who enjoys taking orders from stronger, more intelligent people. Given that the prejudice seems to work both ways, perhaps you're right. And there won't be any risk," he added, grmily, "only certainty."

Because Data was right; he needed proof. And he needed to know where Lore was. If Avon's hunch was correct, Travis could provide both pieces of information.

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RP for haughty_alpha

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