you can always be reprogrammed.
Was watching season 3, got reminded of an old wip and... anyway, have some Cryptor angst.
Cryptor didn’t have fear. Cryptor didn’t have weaknesses or soft spots or any kind of manipulable flaws. He wasn’t supposed to. Cryptor wasn’t one to back down, and he certainly wasn’t one to ignore. It had been only a few weeks as General and he’d already proven himself more powerful than anyone could have imagined. But there was one thing. One thing that had ever really shaken him.
You can always be reprogrammed.
That’s what he’d been told. The moment he started having doubts, feelings, ideas, the first moment he stepped out of line, and that was the response from those above him.
You can always be reprogrammed.
In that one moment, he felt a glimpse of fear like he’d never felt before. No matter what he did, no matter how he prepared, in an instant, everything he thought he was could disappear. Something about it struck him so much deeper than anything else he had ever heard in his life. And every time he thought he might try something different or veer from his routine, there was always this voice at the back of his head that would stop him, whispering to him, softly.
You can always be reprogrammed.
And so he followed orders, and did his best, because reprogramming by the Overlord was surely something that no one could ever wish for. He had seen what they did to Borg. A lifeless, flimsy, unconscious puppet, every action predetermined by someone else’s will. He couldn’t become that. He wouldn’t be a drone. He had more of a mind and a will than the standard nindroids on the force. He didn’t want to risk losing what little independence he had.
And so he listened, and followed orders, and nearly conquered the world. He wasn’t even sure if that was what he wanted anymore, but he didn’t want to be reprogrammed, so that was what he did. He had tried so hard to stay safe and yet…
When he woke up, it was years later. The memories from the intervening years came back slowly, but one thing was clear.
He had been reprogrammed.
All that time worrying, following orders, becoming ingrained into this system, living in this anxious mindset for nearly his entire life, thinking that if he kept the Overlord happy that maybe he could keep his life...
And it wasn’t even the Overlord who had reprogrammed him.
