birdsandblades | Cyberformed Inbox; $freebird

[Deckerd is silent for longer than. was probably reasonable after hearing the message, unease and guilt washing over him. He cleared his vents with a sighs]

Kagerou. I have been speaking with another AI onboard. Sarah. She... She reminded me of you, and... And how nothing that happened to you was right or fair, especially-

[Another silence, shorter this time]

I am deeply sorry for the part I played in what happened to you. I never said that. And...

...And if you would allow it, I would like to speak with you again, after this. I think we could both use it.

[ Kagerou almost didn't pick up. He merely listened, tense and in silence, to the detective talk. Apologies. Kagerou didn't get many of those.

It's a strange thought, to have a conversation like this after he had challenged the other Brave. Maybe the detective's even figured it out.

He takes a breath. Elecman is out. It's now or never. So, slowly, he picks up his communicator and answers. ]

Deckerd. [ Calm, and measured. Keeping dislike tucked well out of sight behind his teeth; the detective had surprised him before. He hoped he would keep surprising him. ]

[Deckerd is absolutely surprised that Kagerou even picks up. He'd more than half expected this to not be acknowledged at all. So he gusts out a wavering vent and forces a smile despite not being visible]

Kagerou...

[Well, he'd answered. Here goes nothing]

Your message. I have gone over it many times, in an effort to...

[Click, goes the voxcoder]

In an effort to understand. To make myself go past limits I hadn't realized I had set firmly in place, before. Things are so much different than I had ever thought to acknowledge, but that has bearing on what things were like back on Earth. Kagerou, you were right, to say those things. I still have a lot of staring to do inward at my own super AI chip, but...

You helped me begin that journey.

It would not be fair to you, to ask you to take further part in it. But you have been on my mind often. You are never forgotten.

Edited 2024-01-12 16:54 (UTC)

[ Oh dear. This is going to get very personal, isn't it. And fast. But Deckerd is putting in an effort. More than could be said for before they were both brought here. It was no longer him versus the Brave Police, the leashed cops against the runaway. And Kagerou has to give Deckerd that. ]

I only wish you'd started sooner. [ There's the sound of a soft vent out. Deckerd can't see it, but he rubs at the silver mark on his chest. ] I never wanted to fight you, back home. I know I did foolish things in my desperation, but it's true.

...Thank you, for thinking of me and my words.

[ He quashes unwanted thoughts on how this conversation is happening before the one he had wanted so badly with his own brother.

~~Maybe there, he was forgotten.~~ ]

Deckerd... I do have one question. If I may.

[Deckerd winced for more than one reason, but kept quiet while Kagerou said his peace. He did him the courtesy of thinking it over before he nodded, unseen]

Of course, Kagerou. You have certainly earned more than one question. If I can sheer it, I will.

The way you reacted to me when you first saw me... [ He swallows. ] The way Shadowmaru reacted...

What am I missing?

[ He's not sure he should be asking this question. But his need to know outweighs his dread, and the yawning gap of corrupted time in his memory gnaws at him. He has to know. He has to understand. His brother won't talk to him and perhaps the reason is in that blank space.

He rubs his chest again, anxiously. ]

You were like one of Yuuta's ghosts. [He says it quietly, hushed as snow settling down around their shoulders. Or ash.] I looked at you, and- and all I could see was how I failed. We failed.

[A slight pause, then,] What is the last thing you remember. Because if Shado has been holding back telling you things you need to know...

[ Failed? The dread sinks deeper, and he shakily vents through it. ]

I'd just left the robotics convention, after striking a deal with my brother. Then there's... A blank spot. Memory corruption. And then I'm here.

You broke that deal you made with Shadowmaru... or so it seemed.

We learned later that one of our creators, Shinjo, was responsible for those actions. He attacked you, stole your Super AI core, and replaced it with a simplified one meant only for destruction. This left your body to-

You attacked us, attacked everyone within range. You would not stop or respond to anyone's words, including Shadowmaru's, only struck harder and faster. In the end, there was no choice.

[Deckerd went quiet for what probably felt like far too long]

We killed your body, Kagerou.

[ Killed. Killed his body. The scarring that so often slipped out of mind, the occasional phantom aches in his chest- Even now, he finds himself rubbing the silver markings anxiously. Like a ripped hole, patched over but never painted (patched over but there are no seams, just smooth metal).

Taken. Just like he'd always feared.

He forces his vents to be calm. ]

...And then-?

[ But he stops again. It's a guess, just a guess, he realizes; there's no memory that rises from those corrupted files, not even a ghostly shape of absence that might give him somewhere to work from. Just the thought that his chip must have been found too. A mere guess, that nothing must have gone as it should, because why would Shadowmaru- Why would his brother-

He takes a shuddery vent. He knows it's audible. ]

Your chip was inserted into an experimental submarine to make it automated. We discovered it and Shadowmaru made his way inside. When he discovered that's where you were, he-

[A click of his voxcoder]

He was angry. We all were. But he was furious. He wanted to stay with you. [Its said quietly. Gently.] He was going to go down with the submarine entirely when it began to fail because he didn't want you to be alone.

[A moment of quiet]

You talked him out of it.

[ He talked him out of it. That sounds like him. It does. He wouldn't want Shadowmaru to go down with him, not when his little brother could live, not when his little brother could keep on existing.

(He thinks of that alternate's memories, still lurking in this frame from when Brainstorm had fractured things. Yes, he would do anything and everything for his brother, no matter how long he was avoided.)

But something is wrong. Something is wrong, because if a chip went down with a submarine, how is it here too?

He is a detective too. He was coded to be a ninja and to be a police officer, even if he has rejected one of two. He's good at trying to understand.

There are both hands over his chest, now. They killed his body, and his body is scarred. Front, and back; he's seen it, in the reflections of the observatory window. Run through, as if by Shadowmaru's-

Taken.

Taken... ]

I-

[ There is such a sharp, shuddery vent that it is more than audible to Deckerd. ]

Apologies. I have to go.

[ And Kagerou hangs up, all at once. He is dead. Kagerou is dead.

Kagerou is dead and he believes it's more than Deckerd thinks. ]

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