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Roland has never had difficulty tuning out the ascension network. Never had difficulty hearing Luna’s orders, Lamia’s whiny complaints and Alpha’s shouts for power and combat, over the loud buzz of the network. But for a moment, he gets lost in it.
He was passing by after completing a task for Lady Luna, revisiting, seeing how it’s destroyed
He was just curious, really.
But it's strange, in his mind he still sees everything so clearly, even when it’s barely holding itself together. The mechanoids did a number on this place, but it’s not the rubble he hoped to see. Every step he takes, he sees it all so vividly. Every set, every scene, every moment shared with ‘coworkers’. Every spot where he and Mandhasti stood. Every line spoken, every scene where his lines toed the fine line between real and fake.
Protect. Roland's. Everything.
It gets too loud, the voices, the past. He pauses in a familiar scene, a familiar room. The old conference room. The voices of the network collide with the voices of his corrupted co-stars, of Mandhasti. For a moment, he's there again, younger. Weaker. His world falling apart as his life unravels before his eyes.
Mandhasti's. Main. Objective.
His purpose. Deceiving others….
But he was the one being deceived.
Hurry. Run.
He had, but for how long until he found himself back here.
The voice of what he believed was his brother, the voice of Neferti in the ad revealing what the park really is. What his life is. What a fool they made him to be. A voice in his head screams and his grip on his control slips, and for half a moment he feels something in his chest, the skipping of a heartbeat, fear.
My. Knight.
For a moment, he’s that young actor again, fed lies. Used and abandoned to die.
His mother, his father… Rolmo.
He feels sick in a way he hasn’t in a lifetime.
Then it cuts through the voices, the memories. He hears something else in the fog. A bullet flying through the dark.
A scream and not just any scream.
Percebelle’s scream.
It hits him right where his heart would be, if he were still human. A shock to the system.
He grasps his wits, his renewed hold on his control could rival his hold on his weapon. He doesn’t even wonder why she’s here, or how: Is she alone? Has something happened? Questions of which he can ponder later as he’s moving before he hears his mind command it over the swarm, intent and purpose filling every bit of his being like nothing else could, doing what a ‘knight’ does best.
Protect.
The person he wanted to destroy no less. The person whose body is marked up with his anger and his hatred for humanity as a whole, who still lives and fights for her cause in spite of the pain he’d inflicted. He wonders if he could say the same but in the moment:
Nothing else mattered, not the wind in his hair, not the corrupted becoming nothing but shrapnel and fumes because of him. Nothing mattered but the moment he had her in his arms, warm, alive, safe.
“I know being a fool is part of your job but you’re really pushing it this time, commandant.” He huffs as the world catches up to him. “You can definitely play the damsel in distress role, but that doesn’t mean it suits you.”
“Roland.” The sigh of relief he’s never heard anywhere but in his wildest dreams, sending a thrill down his spine. For a moment the roundtable is stunned to silence, for a moment, he can’t hear the network.
Anticipation fills the moment before she continues, catching her breath. “Thanks. I didn’t realize you were here too. Wasn't interrupting anything, was I? Hopefully I was.”
Begrudgingly, he’s definitely glad she did, as had she not, he may have lost himself in that moment of weakness. His selves tease and taunt, chastise him for it, but they're drowned out as his focus is elsewhere, as he doesn’t miss the way her hand rests near her weapon despite her playful tone. He can’t help but smile. She’s still got her wits about her, good.
“You were right on time, actually” He coos, an idea forming. “I was hoping for some better company, but you’ll definitely do.”
“Did you know this pile of rubble and dust used to be a home for actors and actresses?” A birdcage for him, a place of lies. His personal hell. But… won't you come and dance with me?
“How about a show, dear Commandant? Just the two of us.” Show me what you are, I've always wondered what your face looked like while telling a lie.
No network in his ears, no memories or visions of a past life.
“There’s some lines only you could ever breathe life into.”
Just her, and a new memory to overwrite what remains of the set with. Nobody better for that than my perfect enemy.