I was ordered to take you alive. (echoing the words he once told markus in his cabin, holding at gunpoint the captain of the trapped ship, the captain of a trapped people.) To find Jericho and stop the deviant leader. I — led the drop-ships to its location.
(the words feel like something thick in an aching throat, feeling his human body betray his calm. connor clasps his own fingers, drawing them into a firm fold in his lap to keep them from trembling. he has no right to react and steal any of markus' attention away from his explanation. there'll be time for that later when he's alone on the couch that night, bed taken by noctis, an understandable gap between him and his leader.
now is the time for facts, however badly they reflect on him. he's kept this from markus for far too long.)
I told you that you helped me see. That my change was made because you helped me through it. It took finding you and holding you at gunpoint to realize the mistake I'd made by ignoring the choice to embrace my own deviancy like so many others I hunted down had — by this time it was too late to stop them. We ran and did what we could to help the others, but you were only able to send one message to the androids stuck in the ship's hold. The only choice you had was to destroy Jericho.
(markus' choice, the rebels having enough foresight to rig the whole carcass of that ship to explode if armed by a touch of his hand. one of the hardest choices he's ever had to make, of this connor has no doubt in his mind.
brow creasing, he continues through the topic almost impossible to hear.)
To save our people trapped inside you armed the bombs rigged up in the hold so that the military squads would be forced to evacuate and you returned just as we were escaping the ship. North, Simon, and Josh were present and well — and still are, operating at your side in your new Detroit — but it'd be doing the victims of November ninth an injustice if I lied about how many casualties there were... a lot of us didn't make it.
(his eyes cast down in remembrance, how empty the church seemed without them. gut-wrenching, that feeling of casting his first look over the huddled masses in pews to see the bare hundred that remained, discussing the decision of whether or not to spare his life with markus who had every right to take it.)
no subject
(the words feel like something thick in an aching throat, feeling his human body betray his calm. connor clasps his own fingers, drawing them into a firm fold in his lap to keep them from trembling. he has no right to react and steal any of markus' attention away from his explanation. there'll be time for that later when he's alone on the couch that night, bed taken by noctis, an understandable gap between him and his leader.
now is the time for facts, however badly they reflect on him. he's kept this from markus for far too long.)
I told you that you helped me see. That my change was made because you helped me through it. It took finding you and holding you at gunpoint to realize the mistake I'd made by ignoring the choice to embrace my own deviancy like so many others I hunted down had — by this time it was too late to stop them. We ran and did what we could to help the others, but you were only able to send one message to the androids stuck in the ship's hold. The only choice you had was to destroy Jericho.
(markus' choice, the rebels having enough foresight to rig the whole carcass of that ship to explode if armed by a touch of his hand. one of the hardest choices he's ever had to make, of this connor has no doubt in his mind.
brow creasing, he continues through the topic almost impossible to hear.)
To save our people trapped inside you armed the bombs rigged up in the hold so that the military squads would be forced to evacuate and you returned just as we were escaping the ship. North, Simon, and Josh were present and well — and still are, operating at your side in your new Detroit — but it'd be doing the victims of November ninth an injustice if I lied about how many casualties there were... a lot of us didn't make it.
(his eyes cast down in remembrance, how empty the church seemed without them. gut-wrenching, that feeling of casting his first look over the huddled masses in pews to see the bare hundred that remained, discussing the decision of whether or not to spare his life with markus who had every right to take it.)
I'm so sorry, Markus.