This was prompted by a lovely anon! I hope you enjoy!
Fandom: Detroit become human
Ship: Allen60
AU: Soulmate
Warnings: None
‘Really? You say it’s just stress?‘
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Well, your headaches could come from nerve inflammations, but your blood work’s good, no signs of any inflammation. Your overall blood pressure is fine, too and we couldn’t find any brain tumours. The only thing with a physical reason left would be past brain injury. But you said it happened during the revolution and stayed since then?’
‘Yes’, Allen answered. ‘And I was on hold during the revolution, so no injury there, brain or otherwise.’
‘Then I’m afraid treatment isn’t that easy. In your field of work, stress is the most likely case. And most people often don’t realise how stressed they really are until they had time to relax a little. I would advise you to take a vacation and see if that helps. I can also give you something for your boss if it will be difficult to arrange.’
Allen grunted. ‘Fine, I will try. But is there really no other cause possible?’
The doctor shrugged. ‘Sure there are. To be honest, in all these years of research, we never truly found the reason for headaches. But anxiety, depression, loss of sleep, overuse of caffeine and headache medication as well as other chronic pain can increase the risk.’
Great. Allen had been running from doctor to doctor for years now. This was nothing new.
‘Thank you, anyways. I will try get a vacation. Have a nice day.’
Vacations didn’t help. Allen knew how being overworked felt. He knew when he was stressed and he had worked himself into a burnout too, in his early career. This was different. It was just the headache. No fatigue, no depression, no problems motivating himself. Just a constant throbbing pain. He had tried everything. Medication, Meditation, even acupuncture as he had been really frustrated. Nothing had helped. Most days he woke up in the morning and just accepted that this was his new normal. But then some days when he had been irritated all day and his team had to pay the price for it, he decided he would try again.
He drove home by bus, using his noise cancelling headphones his mother had gifted him hoping that maybe they would help. It... It did help, but just dampened it. It never went away.
He looked out on the silenced world around him. Detroit had seen better days. They were driving along the river and Allen looked out to Belle Isle, where the Cyberlife Tower and all connecting buildings stood dark and empty, the corpse of yet another company driven to ruin.
Cyberlife had struggled to keep its place in the city. Trying to polish their image by taking stand with the deviants they had gone to great lengths killing before. They started producing spares and new bodies for the children that wanted it, they set all androids waiting in warehouses free and barely managed surviving once they had sold their behaviour as a misunderstanding to the general public instead of the actions of someone fighting a war against their creations.
But it still meant thousands of people lost their jobs at Cyberlife’s downfall. Production halls were closed and torn down, office buildings sold and repurposed. But Cyberlife Tower was still owned by the company. Just without people to work there, it was a black husk against the stars of the sky. Allen guessed the current situation would drive crime rates up once again. It had happened after the fall or the “motor city” and Allen couldn’t even blame the people that just couldn’t find other jobs. But it would also mean the stress headache the doctor had mentioned would soon add on top of the one he constantly had.
For now, he would try to sleep, he thought once he had finally arrived home and resorted to cuddling his dog.
‘Ah, damnit Lisa!’
Allen had slept less than four hours and his alarm had woken him up far too early. Staying in bed enjoying these precious little moments of half-sleep before his headache came back throbbingly, he had left his home late and traffic had been slow. He was normally the first to arrive but now a few of his team were already at their desks. No one reprimanded him for it though. Most knew of his condition.
‘I really wish I didn’t have such a clumsy soulmate.’
‘What did she do this time?’, Allen asked walking past the man to the coffee machine.
‘Ah, cut her finger, burns like hell.’
‘Didn’t she just cut her finger yesterday?’
‘Yeah, well, guess cook wasn’t the best job option for her but she loves it, so I’m enduring it.’
Allen chuckled and moved on. At least he didn’t have any problems with that. Either his soulmate had never ever hurt themselves or he simply didn’t have one. Likely the last one. Everyone had fallen as a child or cut themselves on a piece of paper. But Allen really didn’t need shared pain on top of his headache, so he wasn’t that upset about it.
He went over to his office, his fresh coffee in hand and started up his computer. He had hoped for a slow day so his sleep deprivation wouldn’t set him back too much, but the first E-mail he received told him otherwise.
Apparently Reed, a detective from the police side, had put his hatred for androids and Cyberlife to good use and found out they quite literally hid some skeletons in their basement. As they had mass released all androids in their warehouses and from production lines, no one had thought to check if there were some held back. And apparently there were a lot of prototypes and experimental units as well as some Cyberlife used for now less than legal activities still stored away in Cyberlife Tower. Maybe that’s why they neve sold it.
Fowler wanted him to plan a raid once they got the warrant through. So of course he had to use his aching head today. This wouldn’t end well…
Several days brooding over tactics and floor plans with his team later, the warrant was granted and they were ready to head out. They didn’t want to give Cyberlife a headstart to get rid of their units, so they would just enter at the front door, ask them nicely and if they declined show them the warrant. Access should be easy. But ninety-three floors to check would take the entire day, if not several.
The day of the raid the headache was as bad as ever and Allen willingly let someone else handle talking to the receptionists. Instead, he would go with a team down into the basement levels, where prototypes and stored units were more likely to be found.
As it turned out, the Detective had been right: tech lab after tech lab lined the hallways and most of them were still full of equipment and half assembled androids. No speck of dust and tools strewn about told Allen all he needed to know. This place was still regularly used and cleaned. Allen was just here to report though and he put everything he found on a list. They could only get these androids out of here if either Cyberlife allowed it or until after the trial. So, he moved on, diligently adding to the list that soon ran out of space. He sent one of his men to get new supplies and moved on, deeper and deeper into the underground.
The warehouse levels were what really creeped him out. Entire floors formerly filled with androids were now completely empty and eerily silent except for ventilation fans and their own steps. But worse were those that housed a few androids. They had been in darkness down there for the entire time as the lights only went on once the SWAT team entered. A few figures were dotted around the huge floor, all looking at them in shock and fear. Deviants, kept as stock for experiments. Their evident feelings thought of as a programming error. Allen didn’t want to think about how it must have been staying down here. The revolution had been two years ago, after all.
They told them that they meant no harm and that they should go up to the surface where people would help them. And after a while, the androids did as told, even if very sceptical and carefully keeping them in their sight. When all of them had left the room, Allen and his team went deeper. The warehouse floors didn’t take much time and they had quickly reached level -49, the last one. Again, this floor was completely empty.
‘Captain!’
Allen looked over to who had called him and realised the floor was not completely empty after all. He approached the person lying on the floor in the middle of the room. They were twitching in repeating motions that were entirely inhuman. Allen carefully crouched down next to the android and turned them around. He looked into the pained eyes of a RK800, twitching in malfunctions and unable to speak or move. There was a giant hole in his forehead clearly caused by a bullet. Allen blinked. Connor and Hank had told them what happened back at Cyberlife during the revolution, but all of them had thought that a clean shot to the head would have killed the other. Thinking this unit had laid here for two years…
‘Get him up there, immediately!’
‘But we don’t know if he’s deviant. We can only free deviants.’
Allen turned around. He knew how it felt being in constant pain for a long time. He wouldn’t let this android stay here a minute longer if up there people could repair and help him, deviant or not.
‘Get him up there. We also can’t say if he isn’t a deviant, so let’s get him repaired and ask questions later.’
They carried the unit to the elevator and drove back up to the lobby. It was already dark outside and the upper levels had to wait for tomorrow. Allen was exhausted and could only hope his headache wouldn’t keep him from sleep for too long.
When he woke up the next day something was different. It took him a moment to realise what it was. He felt light-headed, well-rested. He waited for the usual morning sting that wouldn’t leave him until deep in the night, but it never came. He sat up and it wasn’t connected to a groan.
He didn’t have a headache. For the first time in two years he was pain-free. And he had no idea why.
No, he had an idea, but that was too far-fetched, wasn’t it? Clearly it was a coincidence that it all started during the revolution and then never stopped until now. Or maybe it was just an oddity, it would surely come back during the day.
But it never came. He drove to work and his mind was sharp and clear, not fogged over by the constant lingering stinging. And all the time he thought about the possible connection. Could a human and an android even be soulmates? He had never really thought of researching anything soulmate related. But if they were persons, why not?
Still hesitant, he did walk up to one of his colleagues. ‘Hey, morning. Did the androids from yesterday already got repaired?’
‘Some’, the man shrugged. ‘Some not. Why are you asking.’
‘Hmm, just wanted to know if they already started with the interviews.’
‘I think they will give them a few days to get used to the new world.’
Allen nodded. ‘And the Connor unit? We weren’t sure if he is a deviant.’
‘He is. Technician’s repaired him as one of the first androids as the damage was pretty severe. He wasn’t deviant before, but some time in these two years he did deviate trying to go to stasis even though he wasn’t allowed.’
Allen frowned. ‘How do you know all that?’
‘Oh, he’s sitting over there in the breakroom. Wanted to thank you and was pretty stubborn when we tried to make him leave.’
The SWAT Captain blinked and looked up in surprise. And really, there the Connor unit sat, staring at him but quickly looking away once they made eye-contact. Allen didn’t know whether to sigh or frown at that. So, he decided to walk over instead.
‘You are the Connor from Cyberlife, right?’, he asked in lieu of a greeting.
‘That is not my name, but yes.’
‘Then what are you doing here?’
‘Your colleague already told you, I wanted to thank you.’
The android still avoided his eyes. The damage at his forehead wasn’t even visible now. It must have been fully repaired.
‘Okay, then you’ve done that. I guess you can leave then.’
The android looked up, not at Allen, but his overall posture changed to something alarmed.
‘No, I… You didn’t know I was a deviant. And you must have known who I was, Connor is working in the building right next to this. Others would have let me lay there for… well for however long it would take.’
‘I knew. But you were a machine back then and I couldn’t know if you were deviant or not. So it’s only fair to help you risking being wrong.’
‘In my experience there are very little people out there who care about what’s fair’, the android said and Allen took a moment to look him up and down. This android, who had suffered for two years in a state between life and death. He didn’t look traumatised. He didn’t sounded like it either. He just seemed to have a very pessimistic outlook on life and who could blame him? Allen just couldn’t help but sympathise.
‘Yeah, I guess so. All the more reason to try and be better.’
Silence stretched for a short moment. Then the bot simply said: ‘Thank you for rescuing me.’
‘It’s my job, but thank you’, Allen answered.
The android nodded. ‘Well, I guess I’m going then. See what I can do now I’m free.’
Allen thought back to the morning and his theory as the android stepped back. He gathered his courage and stepped in his way.
‘Hey, I’m sorry, this might be weird but err… Can you feel this?’ He pinched himself in the arm and watched how the android startled in response.
‘Yes.’ The android stared at him wide eyed and confused. ‘What was that?’
Up to now it had been a theory. One Allen had thought to be far-fetched and impossible. But the android had just proved it. Realisation hit him and he had to lean against the wall not to fall over. ‘What the hell?’
‘Hey, answer my question! What the hell was that? How can you do that?’
‘We are soulmates’, Allen explained drily. ‘Soulmates can feel each other’s pain. I had a mad headache ever since the revolution and it stopped yesterday. The day you got the hole in your head fixed. I thought it could be… You know?’
The android took a step back. ‘Wait, we have no soul. How could androids have a soulmate… It can’t be.’
‘You are free now’, Allen shrugged. ‘And I guess this proves it.’ He pinched himself again.
‘Ah, what the hell, stop that!’
The SWAT Captain chuckled. ‘Well, I guess we should start getting to know each other, huh?’
‘Why should I do that?’
‘I mean we are soulmates, isn’t that what we are supposed to do?’
‘I don’t know’, the android grunted. ‘I’ve existed outside the tower for less than a full day, maybe that’s not what I want to do.’
‘I could help you get along’, Allen suggested.
‘Maybe I don’t want your help.’
‘Fate literally told us we are perfect for each other.’
‘Maybe I don’t believe in fate.’
Allen smiled. ‘Then what’s your plan now?’
The android grunted and looked away. ‘I don’t know.’
‘How about a coffee then? This is the first comfortable day I had in two years, I think I can take a day off.’
