Chapter Text
I should have pulled the trigger when I had the chance.
Smoke billowed above the rubble nearby, engulfing the air in that awful smell. Emre stood amongst the limp bodies, staring down at his burst rifle. The afterlife was so close within reach, yet he was chained back by the code that invaded his body and the all-seeing eye strapped to his chest.
He had woken up for the first time before the mission started. The AI had finally released him from the forced subconscious state he was in, had deemed him ready to be used.
The first thing Emre saw was the horrible mess of cables climbing his arms, snaking into his very skin. Once the disbelief that this was reality faded away, the incoming panic attack hit. That… creature, whatever it was, had to take control just to forcibly calm him down.
It then explained the situation and made a deal with Emre. Follow my commands and I’ll let you use our body. Our.
But was it really a deal if he couldn’t refuse? The man didn’t know, he simply wanted to stop the entity from banishing him back to that dream prison. Emre longed to feel awake again.
The turkish man numbly walked to where the program told him to go. There were red lines around his vision, like he had a visor permanently embedded in his eyes. He rubbed them, noticing the indented marks along the sides accompanied by strange metal attachments.
The outfit he was wearing was quite mysterious as well. The scarf around his neck didn’t provide any warmth, and on closer inspection, were in fact cables. For the AI’s use, perhaps?
‘Find the black car with tinted windows. Get in and be silent.’
The program spoke through his mind, and the noise was grating. He reluctantly followed the orders, and tried to tame his spiraling thoughts during the car trip.
It was then that he noticed that creepy chirping from his chest. The warbling scanning noises were constant, and he only noticed now thanks to the relative quiet.
What a hypocrite, this thing is the one that needs to shut up.
When he got to the final location, his heart filled with paralyzed dread. Talon headquarters. The very last place Emre thought he would end up.
He was frozen to the ground outside the entrance, limbs shaking and refusing the move.
‘Go inside, human.’
Emre shakily exhaled and looked around, but no one was there. It wasn’t like any person could help him anyways, the entity that tormented him was stuck inside.
“T-This can’t be, I-“ he said aloud, praying that it was a nightmare.
The program made a noise of frustration before engulfing his body, the orange crawling up his limbs the same way it had during the mission.
The next thing Emre remembered was opening his eyes to see a small room, presumably in the Talon fortress. It was sparsely decorated but clean, like a cheap hotel room. The bathroom door was ajar and he walked towards it.
The mirror, he had to see what he had become. Emre was horrified by what greeted him in the reflection.
A red eye, with three dots above and below it. He could feel that it was the source of the machine that held his leash. It stared back like it was a threat.
Emre brought his hands up to the screen and dug his fingers into the edges of the metal. The shock had now faded and been replaced by anger. He yanked his hardest at the metal, feeling it pull at his skin. The man could care less if this thing was attached to his heart, he wanted it gone.
“Get OUT,” he shouted with gritted teeth, and watched as the eye rapidly darted around.
‘Stop it, your attempts are futile.’ The calculating voice responded, but Emre was far past listening.
He gave up on the eye and started yanking at the cables on his arms, uncaring of the sharp pain it caused. The program then decided to act, orange taking over just his arms. They dropped to his sides, limp and useless.
He felt truly helpless in that moment, on the verge of tears and panting.
“Please,” he pleaded with his reflection, “just kill me.”
The eye stopped for a moment. ‘I will not fulfill that wish, Emre.’
“Who the fuck even are you,” he snapped.
‘I am Chernobog, the Finnish god-program designed for global security.’
A god-program?
“Chernobog? Wasn’t it shut down after Anubis?” Emre was skeptical. There was no way a being as powerful as a god-program was contained in his chest cavity. This thing had to be lying.
“I was reawakened,” it said, but did not elaborate.
Emre huffed. What did it matter if it was true? The situation at hand was still inescapable.
“You gonna tell me why the hell Chernobog of all things is working for Talon? And using my body to do so.”
He remembered hearing about the Finnish program’s final action towards humanity. Chernobog had always cared for humans in a way the other god-programs didn’t.
“That is classified.”
Okay, be like that. Stupid fucking machine.
Once Emre was done cursing out Chernobog in his mind he left the bathroom, unable to stand the sight of his own body any longer. The AI gave back his arms again, thankfully.
The turkish man continued to begrudgingly work with the god-program for the next few months. He had a lot to learn about Talon and its various operatives. It helped that he didn’t have to bother with introductions, apparently Chernobog had been piloting his body here for the past several years.
Additionally, he was slowly beginning to take advantage of his cyborg nature. It was becoming more believable that the famous Chernobog was his AI the more he talked to it. The program seemed to know everything, was able to hack into security systems with ease, and could analyze combat situations down to the smallest detail.
Emre begrudgingly realized that, with Chernobog, he was extremely powerful. Almost unstoppable, with the power of a machine and the social awareness of a man.
The program often went off the rails when it came down to missions. It was clear that it had an ulterior motive while working with Talon, but the organization itself was lenient. They were lucky enough that Emre and Chernobog were working with, not against, them in the first place.
Emre could think of so many men who would have prayed for strength like this, the power to obliterate entire troops and buildings. Of course he had the be the one to hold the burden of it, and his guilty conscience never stopped whispering to him.
—
The host often tried to pry information from his parasite, sneaky questions that might reveal the true intention behind its actions. Of course, he was never able to gather anything of substance. Chernobog was too smart, always ten steps ahead.
It acted like a machine, but Emre knew for a fact it had a personality deep down in there. The sometimes snarky or teasing comebacks to Emre’s complaining definitely proved that. Maybe Chernobog thought acting like a soulless machine would make the human take it more seriously?
Yeah, right. Emre hated this fucker no matter what it did. Honestly, the act just pissed him off even more, making it sound so stuck up and pretentious.
But oddly enough, when an old friend came back into Emre’s life, the facade started to crack.
Freja, of all people, had found him hacking a data center in the middle east. The fight that ensued ended up destroying the entire place, but that wasn’t an unusual outcome at this point. When Emre opened his eyes to see red hair and freckled cheeks, he nearly wanted to cry.
“Frej,” he breathed, heart warmed by the relief of a familiar face. The woman blinked and lowered her crossbow, recognizing the change in his eyes.
The heartfelt conversation that followed was intense. Emre understood if Freja decided to kill him right there and then. A small part of him hoped she would.
But instead, the woman decided to stay with him. If he weren’t so worried for Freja, he would have been relieved to have some human lifeline at Talon now.
Apparently, Emre had been gone long enough to cause Maximilien to put him up on a bounty. All he remembered were hazy memories of various different countries in the past month, no clue if Chernobog had ever touched base while piloting his body.
Emre was grateful for the program’s slip-up if it lead to meeting Freja again. The woman had changed since they last spoke. She was more jaded now, hardened by the fall of Overwatch and her experience bounty hunting. But still deep down was the honest woman he used to know.
They caught up on the plane ride back to Talon headquarters. Freja had a lot more to talk about than Emre did, considering she had full access to all her memories. She refrained from mentioning the AI, mostly gossiping about all the fallen members of Overwatch she had encountered on her search.
Freja’s expression suddenly went sad, seemingly remembering something.
“When I was searching for you, I went to Turkiye and spoke with your parents,” she softly brought up.
Emre’s eyes widened and his heart panged with hurt. “Oh… Are they doing alright?”
He tried to curb the desperation in his voice, but Freja would understand if she heard it anyways. She nodded.
“Yes, just missing you of course.”
He exhaled in relief at the good news but was still distraught at the reminder of his family. Who knew when he would ever be able to come home again? Even so, Emre would rather die than let his beloved family see him like this.
“I’m glad,” he said with eyes downcast and brows pulled together. Freja reached over to cover his hand with her own, a gesture of comfort.
“We’re going to figure this out, Emre,” she fiercely looked into his eyes, “Together. No matter how long it takes.”
A glimmer of hope touched that metal encased heart. He twisted his hand to hold hers in a firm grip, an emotional smile creeping on to his face.
“Thank you, Frej,” he breathed, eternally grateful for his oldest friend, well, now his only friend.
Chernobog chose that moment to shift around in his body, pointedly displeased at whatever was happening. Emre ignored it, hoping the program wouldn’t ruin the one good thing he had in his life now.
—
Freja and Emre parted ways after reporting back to Vendetta. She had been unhappy with the man’s insubordination but too occupied with other events to really do anything about it. Freja cemented her place in Talon, given that her fee was paid by Maximilien. Though she assured Emre that she would’ve continued to help him regardless.
The god-program had been quite restless today. Something about specifically Freja made it irrationally aggressive, like a dog that barks at strangers.
He could feel it looming in his mind every time the woman had made him laugh or casually touched his shoulder. It was incredibly annoying.
Now that they were alone in his quarters, the program was quiet. Emre went to bed that night thinking of Freja's arrival and all the new worries it brought.
The man didn't dream very often, but when he did, it was extremely vivid. Emre knew that Chernobog had some level of control over them as well, but not so much as to control his actions.
It was the one place he was safe from an Override Protocol.
Sometimes after a bad mission the god-program summoned forth a beautiful landscape in his dream that night. It was almost like an apology to him, but not one that Emre would be accepting any time soon.
This time, he found himself on the beach at sunset. Emre circled around, spotting the city nearby and his eyes widened with recognition.
Wait, is this... Havana?
The warm breeze ruffled his wild hair, the pleasant feeling only exacerbating the building frustration in his mind.
Havana had been a fantasy for Emre. He imagined one day settling down with a partner, having a couple kids. The view was a glimpse into wishful thoughts and broken dreams, everything that Chernobog had taken from him.
A future that would never come to pass.
He gritted his teeth, causing the eye on his chest to curiously look up.
'Is Havana not to your liking?' it probed.
Emre sneered. "I don't appreciate being mocked like this."
Chernobog didn't seem to understand at first, but analyzed. Processing... processing...
The human reluctantly took in the view, might as well since the dream wasn't going to end anytime soon.
His breaths slowed, and he eventually relaxed. It may be hard to believe, due to his current predicament, but Emre really was a forgiving man. He didn't want to be so hate-filled and angry all the time.
The god-program noticed the shift in attitude and spoke up again.
'May I join you?'
What...
"I don't care."
Emre wondered what it meant, but knew he was safe against Override. Before him, the orange code materialized into a body that mirrored his own.
Bright, blazing eyes and swimming pixels stared back. He gasped and stumbled back from the frightening creature.
"What the-" Emre's soldier instincts kicked in and immediately readied him for battle. But the form simply gave a wry smile and stood still innocently.
The man recognized that pattern. It was the same thing that engulfed his limbs whenever Chernobog took control. That thing was...
It casually walked past Emre's flabbergasted stare and snapped its fingers to summon a bench behind them both. The AI sat down and folded its hands in its lap, looking at Emre expectantly.
"Chernobog," the human acknowledged. It was somehow comforting to have a face to assign to the entity inside him.
A face to mentally throw daggers at.
"Emre," it echoed playfully. The man hesitantly took the spot next to his clone, skeptically glaring at it the whole time.
This was strange. Why now had Chernobog decided to "spend time" with him? And ask nicely about it too?
"What are you trying to do," Emre pointedly asked. The program frowned ever so slightly.
"I want to enjoy the sunset with my host. It's his favorite place, after all."
The man furrowed his brow and lips grimaced. "So you've looked through my memories, then."
Chernobog looked at its folded hands for a moment. "Not quite. Your memories from before me are untampered with."
"Then, how...?"
The form smirked and teasingly looked at its host.
"Emre searched 'Havana resorts' approximately fifty times on his work laptop during his last year of work."
He scoffed offendedly. "You have my search history?!"
Of course Chernobog has your search history, dumbass. It probably has the entire world's search history.
"Yes." It didn't even have to shame to look a little guilty at the breach of privacy. Oh, right, privacy between them wasn't a thing anymore.
Emre just annoyedly sighed, hand coming up to rub at his forehead. Every time he talked to this thing he learned about another crime it committed.
"Just... please don't do that again. If I want a certain dreamscape I'll just ask for it, deal?"
The form immediately perked up at that and nodded. It looked almost cute in that moment, and Emre killed that thought instantly.
"Anything you'd like, I'll provide."
Emre brushed off its weirdly enthusiastic words and refocused on the sunset and waves lapping at the shore. The rhythm was soft and hyponotic, and he felt his eyes slowly close in content. The human felt the ghost of a touch around his shoulders gently laying him down on his side as his consciousness slipped. The dream faded and morphed into reality.
The next time he opened his eyes he was in bed of tangled sheets. Sun filtered through the blinds and lit up the sparsely decorated room.
Emre groaned and flopped his head back on to the pillow.
Just five more minutes...
--
Later that day he met up with Freja. The woman was quite determined to learn more about Emre’s parasitic AI, and spared him no questions during their interrogation.
“What do I refer to this thing as?” Freja asked, eyes narrowed and glaring at the eye from across the table where they sat.
The man sighed, “Its name is- mmh!”
He pawed his mouth, shocked at the lips that suddenly refused to move. Freja gasped, observing the orange code that had taken over the lower half of Emre’s face in that moment.
It faded away after a few seconds, leaving Emre’s jaw hanging open still.
“I… guess it doesn’t want me to tell you?” he slowly said.
Makes sense, I suppose. If the knowledge that a god-program was here got out it would surely put me in danger.
Emre’s upset was dampened by the realization. Freja looked conflicted for a moment but continued on.
“Interesting,” she muttered, mind already at work deciphering why the program’s name was classified.
Suddenly, a noise erupted from both their communication devices. Talon required them for a mission nearby. Freja sighed and got up from the dining table.
"Looks like we'll have to pick this up later. Come on."
Emre nodded and followed her out the door.
--
The objective was to guard a payload of weapons disguised as just another car on Rialto's streets. They stood in one of the alleyways, watching and listening.
The first hour was uneventful, until the pair got ambushed while relocating. The agents were in black suits and wielded pistols with silencers on them.
The dogfight they had in the alley was rough. Chernobog had to summon its life-stealing siphon blaster a few times just to stave off the need for an Override.
Freja could hold her own in a fight, as Emre knew she would. But right at the end, when one agent was left, he landed a cheap shot on her leg, causing her to double over in pain.
Emre quickly shot him dead and darted to catch Freja with gentle hands on her shoulders. The woman groaned and leaned into her friend.
"Frej, you alright?" The man cautiously said, visually checking her for other wounds.
She looked up to Emre and gritted her teeth through the pain. "It's nothing, I'm fine."
They were very close now, faces only a foot apart due to their height difference. Chernobog's screen, which was eye level with Freja, suddenly shone bright. The electronic whirring inside got louder as it abruptly initiated an Override Protocol.
Emre gasped in shock before it took over completely, trying his best to fight it.
"No, what-" he tried to say, but the words were drowned in territorial lines of code.
When his eyes opened again, they were bright and cold. Freja immediately pushed away from him, frightened.
The program growled in Emre's body, hands shaking for a moment before subsiding and giving control back to its host.
The man came back to himself with a sharp breath, nearly stumbling over. Freja held onto her crossbow with a firm grip and watched his eyes.
"What the fuck," he mumbled out through hyperventilating breaths. Her eyes were still narrowed and on edge.
"Are you Emre again?" Freja harshly questioned.
He nodded and raised his hands in surrender. "Yes, it's me, don't shoot."
The program has never Overridden outside a life threatening situation before... what the hell?
She wearily sighed, leaning on the nearby wall. "Jesus Christ, that scared me."
"Me too," he huffed, glaring down confusedly at the red eye.
"I guess it doesn't like me very much, eh?" The edge of Freja's lips ticked upwards at her own dry joke.
Chernobog was strangely silent, choosing deliberately not to respond. Emre felt the irritation build up inside.
'You gonna explain what the goal of that was? You scared the hell out of Frej,' he mentally berated it.
It continued the silent treatment, just whirring and processing. Emre tried to look as apologetic as possible when he responded to Freja.
"I'm... sure that's not it. It just needs to warm up to you, maybe?" God, Emre felt like he was defending his dog after it bit someone. So embarrassing.
She hummed and stretched out her leg, the few minutes of rest had been enough to walk again.
"Let's regroup and get a health pack from the other team," the woman said, pulling up the location on her navigator.
Emre nodded and followed her lead, but his mind was astray. What had caused that overreaction from the AI?
--
Host status: Unconscious
> Initiate Dream Sequence.
Loading…
The scene unfolded before the program. It summoned Havana once again. Emre had complained about it last time, but it could detect the way it made his eyes were drawn to the surroundings.
The human appeared and Chernobog observed as he took in his surroundings. Oh how it loved seeing Emre’s reactions to various stimuli. The data was greedily collected and stored for future analysis.
It decided to manifest using the form from last time. It crept next to Emre, hoping to start some kind of interaction with the human.
He whirled around and immediately glared at Chernobog. “You. I have some words to say, you bastard.”
The god-program blinked. Ah, the incident from earlier. There was a ninety percent chance Emre would bring it up in this dream. It simply stood silently, waiting for Emre to react.
“You nearly hurt Freja while on the mission today,” he continued, jabbing a finger in the program’s face as he stepped closer. Interesting. Emre was usually never this aggressive towards his parasite. It seemed Freja had been stirring his emotions up in all kinds of different ways.
Something that immensely bothered Chernobog. Yet it couldn’t pinpoint why.
“That Override was not intentional.”
Emre backed off at that admission. His brows furrowed.
“Not intentional? How is that even possible.”
The digital clone frowned in thought. “When Freja got too close, it was… upsetting.”
The human didn’t know what to say to that. He crossed his arms and huffed.
“What is it about her you don’t like? You never get like this around the other Talon members.”
She makes you smile and laugh.
“Her physical contact bothers me. I am simply keeping you from getting distracted by her.”
Emre narrowed his eyes at the cyptic words and then seemed to realize the meaning. “You think she’s trying to seduce me? Or that I’m into her?”
He let out a dry laugh and Chernobog winced at the possibility. If Emre really had been trying to court that woman… just the thought of her hands on him angered it.
“I can assure you her intentions are only pure, she’s a dear friend. And my feelings for her are none of your business.”
Oh that was the last straw. Did ‘my feelings’ refer to platonic or romantic ones? The god-program growled and pounced on Emre, hands gripping his upper arms.
The human let out a shout of surprise. “What the-“
“She cannot have you,” it hissed. “No one can. I am the only one.”
It belatedly realized that this was indeed an overreaction. Chernobog jolted and lightened the grip on its host. How had it lost control so easily?
Emre stared at it, wide-eyed. The program caught a glimpse of the way his eyes trailed down his face at the closer proximity. He suddenly gritted his teeth and the program could feel the anger welling up. Oh no, this was going to be disastrous.
“What right do you have to control my emotions, you fucking parasite,” he shouted, ripping himself out of the grip of his clone. “Go straight to hell, Chernobog. Don’t fucking talk to me again.”
The human stormed off and the god-program stood in silence for a moment and watched.
Relationship status: Fucked up.
It disappeared to let Emre have the dream to himself. The program decided to stay quiet and analyze, searching for a way to gain forgiveness from its host.
Sure, it didn’t need to have a good relationship with the man to use his body. Chernobog would be in control no matter what. But seeing him interact with Freja made it realize that there was so much more to be had here.
Could the god-program one day receive a charming laugh from its human? Loud and abrupt with a little snort at the end. One of Chernobog’s favorite things to hear. It decided that it was a mission worthy of pursuing alongside the main directive.
New objective: Improve relationship status with Emre.
Current progress: 10%