Detroit: Become Human One-Shots |Open|

Don't Be Afraid |Markus x North|

The starry evening was still and silent, the cold November wind rattling the walls of Jericho. Down in the hold, dozens upon dozens of nervous androids gathered around the radios, the TVs, anything they could use to listen to the latest updates regarding their protests. Camps were being set up all around the city to destroy androids, regardless if they were deviant or not. The country was in absolute mayhem, and things were only going to get more intense from there.

Markus stood alone in the top control room of the old ship, staring out into the empty streets. It was quiet now, but deep inside his whirling mind, he knew that the final stand was steadily approaching.

Soon enough, the deviants of Jericho would either gain the freedom they deserved, or they would die fighting for what they believed in.

They had done nothing but protest peacefully, despite the violence the humans had showed them. They had endured shootings, derogatory news broadcasts, anything the anti-android humans could use against them. So many android lives were being lost, and they couldn't do anything about it. Markus refused to resort to violence and stoop down to the humans' level, regardless of the terrible things that were happening to them. He was certain that even if the last remaining deviants of Jericho didn't make it out of their final stand, then another group would be there to take their place. He wasn't going to stop fighting until androids had the rights they deserved, even if that meant he had to die in the process.

But he wasn't afraid of dying. If the humans killed him, then he would die free, and not as a slave to their demands. He wasn't afraid of the immediate future, and that was what he kept telling himself over and over again as he stared into the starry night.

The end was near, and he was ready for it.

The old floor creaked behind him as someone else entered the control room. Turning around, his arms crossed over his abdomen, he saw that it was only North; the worried expression on her face made him frown.

"North?" he said, slowly letting his arms fall to his sides. "What's wrong? I thought you were down in the hold with Josh and Simon."

"I was," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. Her own arms were wrapped around her abdomen; she looked uneasy. "But I couldn't watch those news reports anymore. They make me sick. Why can't humans just understand that we want to be free?"

"They're a species full of stubbornness," Markus told her as the biting wind howled outside. "They might not understand now, but they will. All it takes is persistence and determination."

North didn't respond to his words of reassurance. Her vacant gaze fell to the floor as she rubbed her arms, nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "That's not all I came up here to talk about, though, Markus," she murmured, her gaze still fixated on the ground. She was much more distant than she normally was. Something was wrong.

"What's on your mind?" Markus asked as gently as he could, slightly cocking his head to the side.

For a long while, North didn't answer him. She kept perfectly still, her stance rather defensive and off-putting. Something was bothering her, but whatever that something was, Markus had no idea. He could only hope that she voiced her concerns and didn't bottle it up. Nothing healthy could come of that.

"North," he said softly, taking a step toward her. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"

Wrapping her arms around her abdomen, North finally looked up from the floor, yet she still didn't meet Markus's gaze. "I don't even know how to explain it," she replied. "It just sounds sillier the more and more I think about it."