Deviant Behavior (Connor x Reader)

Lex Talionis

"Neither did I, Markus. And I'm not coming with you."

The police were getting closer. He was getting nervous. The others were starting to panic.

"I would be disappointed if I had been asking..." He waved his hands, and the store fronts behind you started to crack, "I'm sorry it had to come to this."

The androids that'd stood there like statues were awake, and breaking out of their cages.

Chris turned on his heel, putting his back to yours and taking aim.

"Take them alive."

The connection to your will to live buried deep in your being was strong. There was no latency between the need to act versus the want to remain neutral. It was a matter of survival.

The time for negotiations had come and went. Chests ripped open with each trigger pull.

It wasn't something you wanted to do...not again, not so soon. To end lives that'd just begun; the lives you'd fought for on more than one occasion in more than one format. And to be honest, you weren't sure how it came to this. How the distrust between you and your distant followers had been fed pure fear and had grown fat with discord.

Maybe you'd been wrong. Maybe androids weren't capable of true freedom – because they'd enslaved themselves to impulse and misunderstanding.

Their physical capabilities left little for contemplation, however.

Your arms were held by two hands a piece, four five-fingered padlocks barring your resistance. They dragged you to Markus's feet, kicking the back of your knees to force you into submission.

You spit blood off to the side, lifting your neck up to stare down the android revolutionist with a gun in your face.

"This is your idea of freedom?" You laughed, breathless, "Sending your people to their deaths to prove a point? Over, and over, and over-"

"Enough talking." North whispered over his shoulder, "If she's not with us, she's against us. We're running out of time."

"He can't kill the woman who wrote Revised Article 9. That's just ridiculous." Josh looked around as the sirens grew closer, "Simon wouldn't want this. He paid with his life so that we could get this far..."

"Simon gave his life for our cause." North corrected.

"What difference does it make?"

"He's a hero!" She shouted, "He died for the revolution – and he won't be the last!"

"I don't want a revolution that spills blood!" His voice cracked, and so did the unified front that was once the face of Jericho.

"Then live as a slave!" North threw her hands out, pointing at him after, "Because if you're not willing to fight for your freedom, maybe you don't deserve it!"

"North, don't you dare-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Markus yelled, shoulders heaving.

How dismal.

"You don't have to do this..." Chris pleaded during a pitiful attempt to pull away from his captor as he watched with tears in his eyes, "No..."

You'd been so wrapped up in the infighting that you'd forgotten your life was in the hands of the group arguing. That your life was what they were arguing about.

And Chris's life.

Chris, who wasn't choking through his sobbing because of his current state. He was hanging on a thread because he was worried for you. Couldn't stop switching between your face and the others'.

"C-Chr-" You tried to smile, tried to say his name – but ultimately, failed at both.

"Please..." Chris looked up to Markus, "Please..."

His words had no breath behind them. Just squeaks and cracked begs for mercy.

"They killed our people..." North put a hand on Markus's shoulder, fist curled and lips soft, "They slaughtered them like animals."

The gun shook in his hand.

"She's too important, and she won't help us if we hurt her partner." Josh reasoned, "Think, Markus. This isn't what Jericho stands for."

The angel, and the demon. Both on the shoulders of the deliverance.

You squeezed your eyes shut. Took a sharp inhale that hurt as it pushed your aching chest forward. Found Chris in a watery sheen. He'd succumbed to his despair.

Through all the military tours and shots taken in the line of duty, this is how he was going out. This is how you would go out.

The end of the line.

"'An eye for an eye and the world goes blind...'" Markus murmured, "We won't punish a crime with another crime..."

He lowered into a crouch.

The right corner of his mouth was pinned to the side, like he was regretting the mental stress inflicted on you and Chris. He looked at his shoes, sunk in the snow. Rubbed the back of his neck with the gun's sights, eyes closing as he shook his head.

When they opened, and returned to yours...they'd lost the humanity that represented hope. Mercy.

Empathy...

Gone.

"...But the debt will be paid in full."

"NO!" Chris yelled.

It was the last thing you heard...

And a lunging body – paired with a flash, was the last thing you saw.

Behind the Scenes

(Links on AO3)

Written to "Rivals" by Sam Tinnesz

Lex Talionis

"The most common expression of lex talionis is "an eye for an eye", but other interpretations have been given as well. Legal codes following the principle of lex talionis have one thing in common: prescribed 'fitting' counter punishment for a felony. In the famous legal code written by Hammurabi, the principle of exact reciprocity is very clearly used. For example, if a person caused the death of another person, the killer would be put to death."