Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nines was sitting in the living room on the sofa tucked away in a cosy corner between two hip-high potted plants. Behind it stood a large bookcase and Nines had taken a few books from it hours ago. He wasn’t a big reader, Nines failed to see the point when he could know a book’s content, the author’s life story and multiple interpretations in mere milliseconds. But to his surprise, Gavin loved it. Apparently, he had read the Anderson’s whole collection in his downtime. Nines now tried it the human way and read Gavin’s favourite one page by page, word by word, letter by letter. It took time but if there was one thing, he had more than enough of it was time.
He was turning the page, as his sensors picked up the muffled sounds of bones snapping and flesh merging in front of the door. The sound, disgusting for a human, brought a smile to his face and he put the book away as the front door opened. He stood up and walked over, finding Gavin hanging up his key on a board and taking the bathrobe waiting for him next. It was plush and extraordinary fluffy, just right not to irritate the fresh skin right after the shift.

Gavin flinched at seeing him in the hallway just to forcefully relax a moment later. Nines knew the werewolf was still not used to his freedom. Just like he himself would need time to adapt. Having time at his own leisure and not being alone anymore was certainly… a change. They had talked about it, argued about it and even shouted at each other, until they realised maybe ignoring it was the better option. And that had finally worked. Nines had discovered his few “hobbies”, mostly reading and keeping the house in order, and Gavin grew less jumpy around him every day.
They stared a few moments at each other and though Nines could keep himself from thinking too much about it, he did notice how there were defences still. Gavin somehow awaiting punishment for something, retaliation that would never come. Not when Nines could help it. Too much he had seen and too much he knew how the beast had suffered.

So instead, he tried to ease his mind by laughing it off. He leaned a bit closer and tested the air around Gavin. ‘Ugh, you reek of old fish. You definitely need a shower.’
Nines still felt weird about giving orders to anyone, even if it was just a gentle nudge in the desired direction. But he had also noticed, it gave Gavin something to hold onto in times of uncertainty.
Gavin nodded at the android and showed him a slight smile, while pulling the bathrobe closer. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’
He walked towards the stairs and was half-way up, as something came to Nines’ mind.
‘Hey, are you hungry? I could start preparing something.’
The werewolf turned around. ‘That would be nice. I’ll hurry up to help you!’
‘Don’t worry, take your time.’
Nines was already on his way to the kitchen, but he clearly heard the grumbled: ‘Hey, don’t encourage me, tin-can.’

Gavin quickly disappeared into the bathroom and just took a short trip to the adjacent bedroom to get a new change of clothes. He hung his robe up on the towel rack and stopped himself to look into the mirror. He pulled at the dark bags under his eyes that would hardly ever fade and rubbed at the silver scar on the bridge of his nose and his throat. All things considered, he liked what he saw: With every passing day his bones weren’t as protruding, his eyes less haunted and he looked almost… normal. When had been the last time he could have said that?
He still couldn’t believe any of this. Constantly caught between death and despair, pushed from one dingy corner to the next and now? A second chance. Not like before, a chance to get some rest after years of torture, no, a real second chance. At life. And no matter how terrifying the android had been in the very beginning with that fear inducing death stare and his pragmatic way to handle everything so he could finish his mission and be done with it. No matter how cold-hearted he had seemed back then, he had proved in every way he wasn’t. Gavin was sure he could trust Nines. He wanted to. He just wasn’t used to it. He needed time. But for once, he didn’t have to fear the future. “All will be good” had always just been a phrase to him to reassure, but now… He was ready to believe it.

And there, standing under the warm stream, rubbing his body clean of his latest expedition into the area surrounding the house, how could he not?

Nines was currently cutting up the ingredients for the meal, after he had prepared the pot and pan. It was routine by now. Normally they cooked together, but Nines had no problem doing it on his own too. It had been his job as the werewolf stood under his care back at the precinct and now nursing Gavin back to health was his personal mission. He had taken some time off initially just for that purpose, but even after one week back at work it was still an integral part of his day. Nines was still Tina’s assigned partner, but with Gavin they were now forming a trio. Not that it really mattered. Fowler had put android and werewolf on patrol duty, while their human part was stuck with deskwork. Tina had shrugged, saying he didn’t bother having time to finish some of the things she kept pushing along. But it bothered Nines. Now more than ever he wanted to set an end to the arenas and he was stuck somewhere he couldn’t do anything about it. It was a lot of wasted potential that made him furious the longer he thought about it. If he could just-
‘Hey, easy with the knife, tin-can.’
Nines blinked. ‘Gavin?’
‘Hmm, smells delicious, what are you making?’
Nines looked down on the knife he held in a grip like a vice. Immediately he laid it down and played it off: ‘You don’t smell so bad yourself.’
The werewolf blushed next to him, but changed to complaining immediately: ‘Just because you got that weird floral stuff from the store. I swear, I can barely smell your cooking over it.’
‘Well, you said “take whatever”, so I complied’, the android shrugged and pushed cut pieces of carrot into the bubbling sauce.
‘Ugh, fine, next time I will be more specific.’
‘That would be preferable.’
‘Pff’, Gavin huffed and mock-imitated Nines: ‘That would be preferable. Is the food ready? Because that’s what I would prefer now.’
‘You can get something to drink and sit down already, I will join you in just a minute’, the android commented and poured the sauce over some meatballs.
Gavin grumbled something unintelligible, but took a bottle of water to the table.

Just as said, Nines arrived with a steaming plate just a few moments later and Gavin thanked him, before carefully taking a bite. It was delicious but like hell he would tell the android that.
‘You nearly got the seasoning right this time, congratulations’, he said, just so he could complain about something.
‘This is so lightly salted that no human would eat it, Gavin’, he held against it. Of course. ‘Any less and there would be nothing.’
‘Yeah, well, humans taste nothing. They eat straight up poison because it apparently tastes good.’
‘Says the one who has developed a rightful coffee-addiction.’
‘I’m willing to pay the price for it if it means I’m awake and ready to go.’
‘Come on, eat.’
‘Hey, I’m on it, toaster!’
‘Right now you are talking.’
‘Smartass robot.’
‘Stubborn beast.’

Gavin chuckled, but shovelled the meal into him.
‘And? Seen something good outside?’, Nines asked as Gavin was going into the kitchen to take another serving. 
‘Oh, yeah, I was down at the pond. No one around thankfully, so I decided to go for a swim. Hence the smell. Err… sorry for that.’
‘Oh, don’t worry’, Nines waved his last sentence away. ‘I can’t actually smell that, only break down its composition, so I don’t really care.’
‘Huh? So all the complaints…’
‘Just to annoy you a little.’
There was a brief moment of silence, before there came an exasperated whine from the kitchen: ‘Phcking plastic prick, of course you would do something like that…’
Nines laughed and let Gavin eat once he had sat back down. Then suddenly, a new question popped up in his mind.: ‘We are nearing the full moon, right?’
‘Yeah. That’s how it works, one follows the last. I’m a bit out of phase because I spend so long in that form, but I think we just passed one.’
‘Yes, I checked. Twenty-two days left. If I’m correct.’
‘Sounds about right. Why do you ask?’
‘Well, does anything happen?’
‘Weren’t you supposed to be the werewolf expert or something?’
Nines sighed and grit his teeth. ‘I had been an android programmed for handling your kind at your worst. But I don’t know anything beyond what vague fairy tails humans thought up.’
‘Well, it doesn’t really work that way. It’s… Shifting is easier towards the full moon. We don’t have to spend so much energy forcing it and for some it almost feels like a necessity to shift that day. Also, I guess we are stronger, our instincts are more developed, and senses heightened. But it’s not like we are human all month and suddenly turn into a bloodthirsty monster during the full moon. Just, well, more sightings probably because some want to scratch that itch.’
‘Hmm makes sense. And they never cared to write that down?’, Nines asked.
‘Well, don’t ask me. I think humans never cared about anything regarding us.’
‘There is quite a lot set in place for humans not caring, Gavin.’
The werewolf looked at him deprecative and kept his mouth shut firmly.

Nines immediately backed down. ‘Yeah, okay, well… Not the topic I wanted this to turn into.’ The android sighed and Gavin nodded understandingly.
‘Yeah. Got it.’
‘Want to watch a movie later?’
‘Gladly.’

Chapter Text

‘And now to the weather!’
‘Thank you, Mark! Unfortunately, today won’t be the day Detroit will change its face. It will be partly cloudy this morning with temperatures around the forties, rising up to fifty-five in the afternoon. Strong winds are expected this afternoon at the river front, but at least we are spared the downpours of the last days today. And there is hope at the horizon that we might get some sun at the end of the week.’
‘Oh that’s good to hear Marlene, we-‘

Nines switched stations to some music as he stood waiting at the red-light. There was no reason to bore Gavin next to him with police radio when he was directly connected to the news stream via the secured android network. The wolf was too occupied looking out of the window to the streets anyways. They kept a comfortable silence between them, Gavin still too tired for conversation and Nines simply preferring silence. But both had found out they liked music on their patrols to make the time pass quicker. Sometimes, when an older song came on, Gavin was even humming or whistling along. And if it was a particularly catchy one, he even sang it. Nines had thought to dislike such behaviour, but to the contrary it actually was quite amusing to hear him botch lyrics and melody here and there. It wasn’t as if there was any other source of entertainment.

In fact, they were weighted down by a boredom Nines had never experienced before.

Even as he had just waited at the station after deviating, killing time hadn’t been this difficult. He had been able to watch people, imitate them, finding his own versions of their movements and on top of it, everything had been new to him. But this? This was just taking out the car for a ride through the city and wasting its battery charge.

Gavin yawned and stifled it by nursing his thermos mug full of coffee. Of course. Complaining a wolf’s nose and tongue was overly sensitive and then taking to the most bitter and intensive drink there was as if he couldn’t drink anything else. But well, a caffeine addiction wasn’t the worst thing he could develop, so Nines kept it at a healthy teasing.

The wolf slumped in his seat and Nines randomly decided to turn left at the next crossroads. Could androids yawn, he was sure he would do it now. He was restless and knowing this was intentional torture didn’t make it any better. He had never liked politics. But finally, there was some slither of hope as a call came in. Nines interfaced with the car through the steering wheel and changed to police radio.
‘Unit 548-5, Nines and Reed here.’
‘There is a reported robbery at the corner Vernor and Clark, a Liquor store.’
‘On the way. Armed?’
‘Possible. Some reports state the robber had a bat.’
‘Okay, on it.’

With that the car switched back to music and Nines turned on the siren and lights. Gavin had sat up next to him and put down the mug, knowing by now that despite his professional looks Nines was a reckless driver. Or a calculatedly chaotic one. One way or the other he sped through the city to get to the location a few blocks away. It was a small corner store in a slightly dingy neighbourhood. Not the establishment Nines would visit, but then again, he didn’t have to, anyways. It was a liquor store that also sold snacks and took that as a justification to call itself a kiosk.

Nines sighed as he pulled up next to it and exited the car. Gavin followed him and took a precautionary sniff of the situation. Cheep alcohol. The lingering taste of cigarettes and instant coffee. Although it wasn’t a pleasant smell, it was good to have it again. All the new or rediscovered impressions of the outside world had been nearly an overstimulation for him after years of only the lingering atmosphere of fear, blood, pain and humans. It was quite pleasant that Nines didn’t have a scent. A faint plastic one maybe with a faint note of the chemical stench from the Thirium in his veins. Normal for every android, except that Nines lacked the smell of the humans around him completely. It definitely made the android more approachable to him.

The RK900 had entered the shop ready to stop a burglar only to find the situation already under control: The owner, as well as what seemed to be a costumer, were holding the man confined. It was just a teenager, maybe around sixteen years old. Nines vaguely registered Gavin behind him keeping to the back shelves and approached.
‘You from the police?’
‘Indeed. I’m Detective-‘
‘Yeah, well, we already handled the situation. You can take him with you’, the owner interrupted him.
‘May I ask what happened here first?’
‘This idiot came in here with a bat and wanted money. Well, the bat is mine now and this asshole here is yours, so take him!’
‘I will, thank you. Would you be so kind as to give me your name and home address, both of you? In case we need to speak to you again.’
‘What the hell would you have to question us for? He’s a damn shoplifter, end of the story.’

Nines just smiled humourless, the threat clearly visible in his eyes and the two immediately gave in.
‘Jeez, you are some scary motherfucker. Fine, just a moment, I’ll write it down.’
In the meantime Nines read the thief his rights and then took the scrap of paper the man handed him.
‘Thank you for your cooperation’, Nines near hissed and took the man back to the car, Gavin following silently and opening the door for him.
‘You know you could get him for insulting an officer’, the wolf reminded him.
‘I guess. But that would mean I would have to further speak to that individual’, Nines answered pushing the man onto the backseat.
‘Yeah, okay good point.’

The thief looked up to them as they were closing the door, suddenly resisting for the first time. ‘Holy shit, is that- Is that a werewolf?’
Nines demonstratively looked Gavin up and down just to nod. ‘I am quite sure, yes.’ With that he slapped the door shut and walked over to the driver’s seat. Gavin followed and before entering himself, he said: ‘At least you could have warned the poor guy.’
‘Why? Do you plan to eat him?’
‘No!’
‘Then I see no reason to warn anyone.’
‘Ugh.’

Nines had set the blinker to get back on the street as the thief in the backseat began pleading.
‘Please, officer, can’t I at least sit on the other side?’
‘Why? The view not good enough?’
‘Your... partner there... Like, isn’t that illegal? Werewolves out here on the run...’
‘My fellow detective here isn’t “on the run” as you put it. He is my partner and if you want to know it in all details, he belongs to me.’
‘Huh? Didn’t know their bonds worked with androids’, he wondered.
‘Oh, we aren’t bonded’, Nines said as if talking about the weather.
‘You aren’t... Then he’s very dangerous, you shouldn’t have me in here with that beast and-‘
‘What is your name?’, the android interrupted him deadpan.
‘Adam Grant, Sir.’
‘Do me a favour and shut up, Adam.’

They drove back to the station in complete silence and Nines scanned the wolf at every red-light. He was tense and huddled into his seat, his stress clearly evident even without the scan. Nines sighed inwardly.
‘Hey, you want another coffee? I reckon yours has gone cold already now.’
Gavin flinched at his words, but bend down to shake his thermos and take a test sip, pulling a grimace. ‘Oh, yeah. But, well, I don’t need another. I can heat this up at the station before we head out again.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yes, thank you.’
Nines got back to concentrating on the street. He knew this whole ideal was far harder for him, feeling out of place and unwanted but at the same time knowing it was his every right and listening to Nines defending him. Him saying no to a coffee was every sign he was gravely uncomfortable and not saying a single word to neither Nines nor their criminal for the whole ride was evidence enough that he felt the need to be submissive. He didn’t have to fear any repercussions, Nines would make sure of it, but still... Years in complete subjugation and humiliation... That had to do something to you.

‘Err… I would like a coffee.’
‘Shut up Adam.’

They had given the boy into the capable hands of their fellow beat cops who couldn’t suppress a nasty smile at seeing the high and mighty Nines handle petty theft and patrols, but he kept his stoic demeanour until he was outside waiting for Gavin at the car. He sighed deeply just as Gavin hurried out with a fresh cup. He nodded sympathetically to the android, before they both departed again to six more long hours of driving through the city.

The wolf stretched next to him, taking a long drag from his cup.
 ‘Is it just me or did police work become boring since I left?’
‘Don’t ask me’, Nines groaned. ‘Detroit’s best detective is sent on patrol duty while out there crime flourishes. I don’t like it either, but hey, order from the boss, what should I do?’
Gavin laughed at that, his personality completely changed again now that they were alone. ‘You really don’t know what humble means, do you?’
‘It is the truth. Why hide it?’
The wolf shrugged. ‘Well, anyways, feels like a lot of wasted potential.’
Nines hummed in agreement. As if he didn’t know that himself.
‘Hey, did you know I was the best one too once?’, Gavin asked, changing topics.
‘You were?’
‘Well, Lianne was, Hank’s wife, but I helped. My achievements and contributions just weren’t really counted in. Still we were the best werewolf-human team there was.’
Nines nodded. ‘Then I’m hoping we can set another record. Best werewolf-android-team? How does that sound?’
Gavin grimaced uncomfortably. ‘Well, there isn’t really any competition, so… Guess we already are?’
‘We haven’t solved any cases yet’, Nines reminded him.
Gavin bopped his head to that. ‘Well, that’s also true.’
‘How about we scratch the werewolf-android part and concentrate on best detective partners in town?’, the android proposed.
Gavin looked at him, face unreadable, then he back down on his hands and smiled. ‘Yeah. Let’s focus on that.’

The wolf spent most of the drive watching the world pass by. He enjoyed the view. It had been impossibly long since he had last seen it. The rise and fall of Cyberlife had changed the city, the new android rights leading to even more alteration. Several streets he had once known by heart had changed their faces: android repair workshops rising where once had been advertised clothing and sportswear. The old Cyberlife stores abandoned and sprayed by graffiti. A lot of stores still deserted as their owners had fled the city during the revolution. Funny how much could happen in just a few years, how much one could miss this easily. He tapped along to the beat on the dashboard, while watching a group of androids try ice cream from a truck, the food tinged a deep blue. Of course, a few things would never change when there was money to be made.

‘Hey, Nines, I think I’ve never asked. How was the revolution for you? I read it was pretty bad for most, being persecuted and killed. How was it for you?’
‘Why do you ask?’, the android asked surprised at the sudden question.
‘Hmm, just thinking. I guess it’s not that important, you don’t have to answer. Sorry.’
It was rare for the wolf to ask personal questions, Nines knew. He was happy to answer, but never pried himself.
‘No, it’s not that weird a thing to ask. I just have to disappoint you; I didn’t see a lot of it. Just what the news were reporting. I was sent to the DPD by the holding stations because I deviated. Connor… he was initially designed to be a doctor for your kind, but as he wasn’t needed anymore, he got an Upgrade to work as an android detective. He was looking into deviancy, so I was supposed to be a sample. That was around the time Marcus held his first speech from the broadcasting tower. Connor was more focussed on finding Jericho and staying alive himself by then. So, I just lingered, while around me the whole world was changing.’
‘Were you scared?’, Gavin wanted to know. ‘Surrounded by humans, the constant threat of being analysed by Connor or send back to Cyberlife for deactivation, that must have scared you a lot.’
Nines thought about it. Was Gavin searching for something they had in common? Or was he just interested in the time he missed? ‘Not really’, he answered then. ‘I didn’t understand what was happening. Everyone around me told me deviancy was something bad, so I believed them. I guess I hadn’t had the experience to be scared.’
‘Hmm, guess you are lucky then. Err… I know this is very personal, but would you tell me how you deviated?’
‘I would rather not. I don’t think it is beneficial to our relationship.’
‘What the phck is that’s supposed to mean?’, Gavin called out before thinking. He wanted to apologise instinctively, but the android was already talking:
‘I wouldn’t want anyone to tell me in all detail how thousands of androids were massacred. I only assume we share the sentiment.’
Gavin gulped, being reminded how intimidating the bot had been. He remembered that death-glare that was designed to spark fear in the heart of any werewolf, he remembered his unrelenting force that made him eat, that inhuman power. No, maybe he really didn’t want to know.

It stayed quiet in the car for a while, before Nines relaxed his shoulders. ‘I’m sorry. You just asked a question; you didn’t mean any harm. But I really don’t want to think back at it. Not when I begin to understand more and more about your species.’
‘That’s fine’, Gavin commented. He knew the feeling all too well. He should accept Nines as he was now and not think about the monster he might have been once. It was only fair to treat the android the same way Nines treated him.

He spent the rest of their ride looking out of the window again. As much as he liked seeing Detroit again, he very well knew them being on patrol duty was most likely because of him. It was all about keeping the werewolf out of the precinct, hoping on Nines’ pride towards his job to be great enough to leave him at home and return to his initial rank. Back to work that was dangerous and could change something. 
Not that Gavin would mind. He had already gotten more than he had ever thought possible with this arrangement and he would be content with staying at home and helping Nines with any open cases they could discuss when he came back. Maybe he could find a hobby, or some work he could do from home, something his identity wouldn’t become a problem with.

But no, weirdly enough, Nines had been the one obsessed with tagging Gavin along. Whenever Gavin suggested to stop accompanying him, the android would turn it into an argument about what little rights werewolves were granted should at least be respected and that he wouldn’t let a human’s discrimination hinder them from doing their duty. At first Gavin had been overwhelmed by the sudden passion, then he had just grown concerned. Sure, it was reassuring that Nines didn’t want to be just another owner to use him and it helped a great deal to let Gavin feel safe around him and relax, but he also felt guilty. Nines, who had done so much for him, didn’t deserve to be punished by the system for all his efforts that in the end would just be futile.
It had no use having that same argument over and over again, so Gavin decided not to breach the topic again. The android was just stubborn like that, something they both would have had in common back then… In long passed times.

It was getting late as they pulled back into the precinct’s parking lot. Their shift had ended half an hour ago and knowing Nines’ stoic punctuality, that couldn’t be just a coincidence. No, the android had planned something and Gavin followed him warily.
They walked up to their desks. Tina had already left, leaving them a note. Gone home already, hope you didn’t crash! There was a little heart underneath that Nines dismissed and Gavin smiled about.
‘I have to talk to the Captain, Gavin’, Nines announced then. ‘You don’t have to come, but you can, if you want to.’
‘What about?’, the wolf asked.
‘These bullyboy tactics they apply on us. This is uncalled for and even if it won’t work, I have to at least complain.’
‘I’m coming with you. I’m your partner after all.’
Nines nodded at him and they both walked up to Fowler’s office.

The android knocked on the glass door before entering and the Captain sat up upon seeing him. ‘RK. Haven’t expected you this late.’
‘I thought any prying eyes that could be avoided in this should be.’
‘Shit’, Fowler sighed stretching the word. ‘I knew this would happen sooner or later.’
‘Then I’ll get right to the point: Why are we put on patrol duty?’
‘Well, we need to have show more police presence in the city, the statistics show that-‘
‘Captain, save your lies, please. Tell me why and I’ll be gone. What you were about to say is utter bullshit. We had one case of petty theft today and three crimes last week that don’t even deserve the name. Just tell us the truth.’
Fowler pulled a face and held his temple in frustration. ‘Fine. It’s your decision to adopt a werewolf, RK. You are on patrol duty because of that.’
‘I knew it!’, Nines near shouted. ‘I knew it. And how is that a justified reason?’
‘It isn’t. But the risk I take by allowing you that is.’
‘What do you mean?’, the android asked, his voice poison.

‘Ugh. Fine, I’ll get you two a real job by tomorrow, okay? Just remember you called that on yourself playing hero, RK.’
‘He would have died, Fowler!’, Nines spat put out.
‘And I admire your initiative, RK, I really do. But the time isn’t right for idealism. He is a risk.’
‘He is a person!’
‘He is dangerous, for fuck’s sake!’, Fowler held against it. ‘Maybe you have him under control, I don’t even doubt that. But they have instincts so deeply rooted in them they act on them even if they would never do that with a sane mind. There is a reason, androids were the preferred choice back then.’

Nines shook his head. ‘This is bullshit Fowler and you know it!’
‘Maybe I know it!’, the police Captain said, throwing his hands up. ‘Maybe I do! But those people out there don’t. Your co-workers could act poorly, he could react poorly, it’s just chaos waiting for a chance to break out. And think of the people we are to protect. Do you think they will feel save when a werewolf charges in? Do you?’
Nines knew he was getting angry with the wrong person. So, he decided to show a bit of restraint for once. He took a deep breath to lose any excess heat, then spoke up again: ‘Fowler, give him a chance to proof himself. He was already working here a few years ago with the Andersons. What changed since then?’
But even the change in tone didn’t manage to soften the man. ‘Since then he was sentenced to death, fought in an arena to the death and attacked you multiple times.’
Nines opened his mouth to protest, but Fowler held up a hand in defeat, maybe realising he had taken it a step too far himself. ‘I’m giving you your chance. I’m giving you both a chance to proof this arrangement will work. But you won’t like it, that much I can tell you.’

Chapter Text

Gavin didn’t know whether androids could feel anxious. All he knew was that he himself was, and that Nines’ LED was stuck on a steady yellow ever since he woke up from stasis this morning. They had been silent on their way to work and for once it wasn’t a comfortable one. It was a silence that was filled with unspoken words and worries, held up just to keep them from spilling. Both of them had been deep in thoughts and still were as they sat down and started up their terminals. Tina was already there and threw them a sorry look. So, she knew everything already, as usually. She always was the first who knew of any gossip, news or other developments, only normally she would immediately spill everything on them regardless of whether they had asked for it. Now she was awfully quiet and that wasn’t a good sign.

Finally, they were delivered from their waiting time as Fowler called them into his office. Gavin hadn’t even gotten his morning coffee. Both of them wanted to know what it was that Fowler could assign them and that they wouldn’t like. Nines couldn’t think of anything in that category. The most gruesome crime scene did nothing to him and according to Gavin’s records he had had some nasty ones in his time too. Any serial killer would have been heard of when they arrived at the precinct the last weeks, too. And it wasn’t as if one could plan such things in advance.

They both stood in front of Captain Fowler’s desk and looked at him expectantly. The man sighed and pushed the button to activate the milk glass foil in the cube. He wanted privacy and didn’t look particularly happy about the news. Both of these facts didn’t reassure the Detectives in the slightest. If anything, it made it worse.
‘Well’, he started. ‘First of all, I want to emphasize that these aren’t my orders. And neither are it orders from my superiors. This mission is a suggestion. I let you decide whether to take it or stay on patrol duty until after the dust has settled you kicked up, Nines. Do you understand?’
‘Yes’, the android answered, still awaiting what all this fuzz was about.
‘Then I’ll get straight to the point: You still want to end the arenas, I am sure. This is your chance. You are to go on an undercover mission to infiltrate them. You are in the unique position to gain intel first-hand, meaning you will double a new trainer with a champion to fight in these underground matches. Find out who runs it, who takes part and who owns them.’

There was a mortified silence as they both just stared at the man shocked to the bone. The LED on the android’s temple was blinking a hot red and Gavin couldn’t say his very own stress levels looked any better. That… That just couldn’t be, it couldn’t, he was finally free and had thought to never see these sands again. Never-
Nines stepped forwards, his face distorted in anger.
‘Fowler, this can’t seriously be your suggestion!’
‘I said it wasn’t mine. If I were you, I wouldn’t take it.’
Nines couldn’t believe it. After everything the wolf had been through? Never. He would have taken this chance without a second thought just a few months ago, when Gavin had just been a burden, something to keep alive long enough to get information from. But now? They lived together, Nines knew the wolf needed him and maybe… No, he wouldn’t go that far. But he wouldn’t have worked so hard for it all just to drop back to the misery it all started in.
‘Take it?’, he bristled at the thought anyone would want to agree. ‘Take it? Fowler, this isn’t an option, this is-‘
There was a hand on his arm, light, but worn. He looked at its owner and Gavin took a step forward too.
Impossibly silent and wavering with emotions Nines couldn’t quite pin down, he whispered: ‘If this is your mission, I will follow, Nines. Don’t think of me in this decision.’ The android tried to make eye contact, but Gavin stubbornly avoided him.
‘You want to?’, Nines asked disbelievingly. ‘I thought you were over your suicidal tendencies.’
‘Okay, first of, real low blow, tin-can. Secondly, no, I would hate to go back there. I would do anything but that.’
‘You told me as much as you repeatedly described it as hell. So why?’
Gavin looked up and for the first time really faced Fowler instead of hiding behind Nines. ‘If that’s what I need to do in order to gain your trust, Captain, I will do it. I also promised a lot of dead souls I would make a change. If this ends the arenas, so be it.’
The android looked down to him speechless. There was a lot he wasn’t saying, his reserved tone spoke volumes. Every word was pressed out against better knowledge and every sense of self-preservation. To his surprise Fowler answered him, talking directly to the wolf.
‘I remember you, Reed. I remember you were a real pain in the ass and that I could swim in complaints as long as I had you in my precinct. But despite that all, you still were a good cop. And that’s regardless of species. This said, it’s not my trust you have to work for.’
Gavin nodded, but stayed silent now that he made his point clear.

Nines felt bad, as he started to think about it further. It was wrong. But it was what he had always wanted and apparently, Gavin agreed to it on his own will.
‘Will Tina be with us?’, he asked, remembering her face as they had met outside.
‘She will be your outside contact. You will meet with her and she will report to me.’

Nines watched Gavin next to him, but the werewolf was motionless except for slow, deep breathing and the occasional blink. This was wrong, this was wrong, this was wrong-
‘We accept.’

-

‘They want me dead! They want me phcking dead!’ Gavin was pacing the living room and walked past Nines, who had sat down on the couch. He had nothing to say for himself. This was his damn sense of duty, his way of putting himself first again. What would Connor say, would he know?
Be gentle. Be kind. Those words that had branded themselves into his programming all these weeks ago were taunting him. Back as the very being that had just found his strength again, that had only spent a fraction of his life actually wanting it, had been at the brink of death. How could he force it on him again? It had been so impossible to escape the arenas in the first place, so unlikely to find a home and an owner that didn’t treat him like a damn dog – worse than that. How could Nines do this to him just to get back on the job, just not to be bored. What kind of heartless machine-
‘They tried it through laws and couldn’t get me, so now they try it this way. I can’t believe it, I can’t.’ The wolf was still tirelessly pacing, getting faster and faster, more aggravated with every step. His muttering, no, his desperate shouts, gave the android something to focus on and finally breach the surface of his own ocean of thoughts. He scanned Gavin and realised the wolf was one step away from a full-blown panic attack.

‘Tell me about the arenas, please.’
Gavin stopped at the softy uttered words. He looked at the android whose LED hadn’t changed colour ever since they had entered that office. He sighed and let his shoulders fall. Telling Nines about his trauma again… Well, maybe it was exactly what he needed right now, to talk off all the baggage weighing his heart down and making his mind running away from it all.
‘If you have any conception of hell, this is it’, he said as he forced his body to relax and fall onto the sofa next to Nines. ‘Pick all the cruelty, the need for more and more power, the wish to be in complete control of another being and let them know it, take all the violence you can imagine. And then you get my daily routine for the last three years. It’s not pleasant. Are you sure you want to hear it again?’
‘Yes.’ The android’s voice seldomly showed any other emotion than the various forms of anger. Maybe sometimes concern. But this? This was remorse and… immense guilt. ‘I want to know exactly what I force you into again. I want to see every reason it isn’t worth it and tell Fowler that tomorrow. I… I can’t do this to you Gavin. I shouldn’t be able to do this to anyone.’
‘You are not forcing me, Nines. I decided to go.’
‘But you don’t want to. You know it will be a fight to the death again. You were finally out of it all.’
‘But I still decided to take the offer.’
‘But all this!’ He hollered in frustration and pointed him up and down. ‘What is all that then if you are so happy with your choice?’
‘Nines, I’m scared. I’m scared of thinking about it. I’m scared to enter one of these rings again. I’m scared I won’t get out alive this time. No, I’m not happy with the choice. If I were the only one in this calculation, I would tell Fowler to phck off and run to the end of the world. But I owe them. Everyone I killed. Everyone that still is killed out there. Everyone who is alive and has to fight their fight. Everyone rotting in the holding stations. Nines, I can’t pretend not to know. I can’t turn a blind eye on all this suffering. If we can find a way to stop them, if we just have as much as a chance to save one single person out there, then I couldn’t forgive myself to not take it.’ He swallowed hard. ‘Doesn’t mean I’m not phcking scared shitless by it.’

‘I see your point’, Nines sighed. ‘You are not doing this for our career.’
‘Hell no’, the wolf immediately spat. ‘No career is worth that. I would rather go back to the holding station. No, I have to try. I owe them.’
‘Okay. Could you still tell me more about the arenas? I…’ He collected his thoughts to see whether his initial words were really meant and to his surprise, they were: ‘I want to help you wherever I can and make this better, if it is in any way possible to do so.’

Gavin practically curled in on himself on the sofa, not showing any reaction to Nines. Only endless minutes of silence later did he answer with a sigh. ‘Okay, what do you want to know?’
‘Everything?’, Nines shrugged. ‘So far I only know werewolves are pitted against each other by humans. And I know there is a lot of money to be made in betting on these fights. That’s what brought our attention to the arenas in the first place. It is illegal gambling and most people participating are also members of gangs, black-market dealers or drug-lords. These arenas seem to be the down-time entertainment for Detroit’s criminals, if not a main source of their income. What they do to your kind was never that big of a concern.’
Gavin laughed drily. ‘Yeah thought as much.’
‘Gavin, I want to underline I have long since added that reason to my personal cause.’
His humourless smile faltered. ‘Yeah, yeah. It’s okay. So, what do you want to know? You seem to know more than me already.’

‘I don’t know your perspective. Only that of a human. Are all fights to the death?’
‘No’, the wolf answered. ‘But most are. There is not a lot of money to be made in the fights that don’t end in someone killing the other. But some owners don’t want to lose their champion until they made enough to buy a new one.’
‘Can we participate in those?’, the android asked, his voice so damn full of hope.
‘Not if you want to get to know the important people. There are very influential persons involved in the death-matches, I sometimes heard my owner talking about getting their attention. Apparently, once you were invited by them or got any form of message you know you made it.’
‘So, what you are saying is there are certain persons that own the arenas or at least have a lot of impact on decisions?’
‘I don’t know. But from what I heard it would be possible.’
‘If there are it seems this would be the fastest step in taking them down’, Nines mused, lost in his thoughts. Then another idea seemed to come to his mind: ‘I once asked you about whether your kind wants to partake in these fights, and you said some do. Who are they?’
Gavin made a grimace at that, but still answered: ’I only once fought against one of them. I almost died. If I’m honest, I only survived because I was lucky. They are bred and trained to fight. Most have never even seen anyone despite their owner until their first fight. They are extremely loyal and selectively bred to be the most aggressive and most powerful of us.’
‘Wait a minute, bred?’
Gavin laughed at the disbelieving tone. ‘Toaster, I told you: Imagine everything you can. I guess it’s the only good thing about my previous owner. He never sent me there. He got some offers, but never allowed it.’
‘But there are so many at the holding stations, why breed?’
The wolf answered with a counter question: ‘Did you want to be deviant when you were still a machine?’
‘No. But what has that to do with-‘
‘It’s the same thing. A pup bred in this hell has never seen the world outside. You can’t long for freedom if you never knew what that was in the first place.’
‘Shit.’

Nines seldomly cursed. But Gavin couldn’t agree more.
‘I guess these influential people keep these champions?’
Gavin nodded. ‘Yes. There always are a few odd ones that don’t, but they don’t stay for long.’
‘So we can’t get to them.’
‘Why?’
‘I won’t let them kill you, Gavin. It’s bad enough as it is, I won’t let you fight against a damn monster.’
The wolf looked Nines over. He had come a long way. Hesitantly he laid a hand on his arm.
‘Let that be my problem, will you?’

Chapter Text

Gavin eyed the chain lying on the side table next to the door. He had just eaten breakfast, while Nines was changing into various outfits. Casual really wasn’t the droid’s style. Everything remotely inconspicuous that would let him vanish in a crowd looked out of place on him. So, in the end the android decided on an uptight outfit: a turtleneck, dress pants and -shoes, everything black on black. On top of that a rust-coloured leather jacket. He tucked his gun into the seam of his pants, then walked up to Gavin, who was still in the doorway staring at the chain.

‘And? Finally presentable?’, Nines sneered and leaned against the wall. Gavin pulled himself away to look the android up and down.
‘I guess you won’t blend in anyways. Not many androids in the trade. So, yeah, phcking perfect…’
‘We can still decide not to do this, Gavin.’
‘No. No we can’t. But thanks for the offer, tin-can. Let’s just get this over with.’
Nines nodded, still feeling bad about the whole ordeal. He watched as the werewolf dropped out of his bathrobe to hang it up next to the door and start the transformation process. It was extraordinarily fascinating to him seeing the man shift. Trying to analyse what muscle bend where and what bone stretched to form a new one. It was a paradox sensation of knowing this shouldn’t be possible and still seeing it right in front of his eyes. A marvel of nature, really.

Gavin shook his pelt once fully transformed and stood on his hind legs to bend his back in an attempt to lose the residue tension. Maybe it was because of his past, but he didn’t like his true form anymore. If it wasn’t for the deep sitting itch that would force him to shift would he spend too much time in a human body, he would gladly stay human forever. He growled instinctively at what lay before him but allowed Nines to hang the silver chain around his neck. It settled right in place as if it belonged there, the burning sensation so awfully familiar Gavin couldn’t help but yelp. Panic rose with memories and he had to take a moment to calm himself down. This was fine, he was with Nines, he could trust the android. The chain was just pretend, just a role. So, he wouldn’t be able to shift for a while. So, there was a bit of piercing pain to the damn thing. It was only temporary. In the evening all would be over again, everything would be back to the new normal, the old one forgotten. He concentrated on drawing in deep breaths, letting the faint smell of plastic and chemicals dull his mind.

‘Everything alright?’, Nines asked, looking up to him. Gavin opened his eyes again and dropped down on all fours, a choppy nod all the android would get. No, he wasn’t alright. Yes, he would manage.

The android helped him climb into the car and they drove off to music from the radio. It was like any other day, except that today, their destination wasn’t the precinct and Gavin feared every passer-by looking into their car at red lights. They had managed to get the address for one of the arenas. People living around it had reported shady business in the general area, a lot of late-night brawls outside and generally complained about noise. Further investigation had concluded in the little shop they parked at being just a front for a small arena underground.

Nines looked at the shop, then at Gavin who was sunken into the seat completely. He sighed and stepped out. Gavin followed, but grumbled and near snapped at him as he clicked a leash on the collar.
‘Hey, don’t you start this!’, the android hissed. ‘Do you think I like this? It’s a role, now play it!’
The werewolf grumbled at him again but backed down.
‘I’m sorry’, Nines whispered then. ‘I still feel bad about this.’
And it won’t get any better, Gavin thought.

They entered the shop and Nines walked straight up to the counter. ‘I want to speak to the manager.’
The woman behind it looked the android up and down and then saw Gavin in his wolf-form. She popped her bubble-gum and grumbled something, stood up and walked over to a door reading “Employers only”. She opened it for them, and Nines couldn’t pin down if she was annoyed or bored, as she told them: ‘Good luck with that.’
They stepped into the small room leading to a flight of stairs. ‘Well, that was easy’, the android shrugged and continued walking down.

Gavin struggled a bit with the stairs, his pace not matching up with the androids. But that gave him enough time to look around. For all the uncountable times he had fought in an arena, he had never seen one from the spectator’s perspective. The stairs led to what once had been a large underground garage. It had caved in in the middle creating a drop down to the actual arena that was thankfully empty at the moment. But as he sniffed, he could sense the distant waft of that too familiar smell again. Fear, pain, blood, dirt. He went rigid and felt sick even just from the few breaths. Thankfully it was hidden behind multiple layers of human clogging his nose. Nines finally joined him, and they continued walking towards the drop lined with more steps so it almost looked like a small colosseum. The nearer they came the closer Gavin kept to Nines, more following than walking next to him and the android let the chain hang loose for him to manoeuvre. The first sound that met them that wasn’t the background noise of people talking, was the voice of an announcer.

‘Aaand welcome back! What a show, am I right? A round of applause please for our winner, Mrs. W and her champion, The Crippler! An extraordinary kill if I may say so myself and well deserved, too! The next fight starts in ten, so be sure to place your bets and get ready for another show of a lifetime! We’ll be back shortly to announce the champions!’

The android took note of how stiff the werewolf went with every spoken word, but there was no place for comforting gestures, as they now entered the area that was filled by people. Nines tapped the next-best person on the shoulder, putting on his mask of indifference and assertiveness.
‘Hey, were can I register my champion?’
The man turned and looked Nines up and down. He was approximately the same height, but of a broader build. Gavin wouldn’t doubt Nines could still punch the guy out of his shoes without breaking a sweat, but the other seemed to think to have the upper hand.
‘Go fuck yourself, tin-can!’, he laughed, earning them the attention of the other spectators around him. Before Nines could do anything, Gavin grumbled deeply and rose to his hind-legs, showing off his sharp claws. It didn’t matter that even upright he still was inches away from them, they knew what one of them could do in the arenas.
It didn’t take more than that for the man to back down, visibly intimidated. ‘Holy shit! O-Over there, fucking hell! Just over there, same place for the bets! Fucking android, call back your damn dog!’

‘Come on, Gavin’, Nines ordered cocky and Gavin plaid his role of following obediently. Only later the android hissed at him: ‘Don’t go out there looking for a fight! We can’t use that kind of attention!’ Gavin just shook his pelt in defence. If they wanted to make it in the arenas, they could need any and all attention they could get.

The booth the man had talked about was on the other side of the entrance area, so they had a relatively long way to walk and enough time to observe what was happening around them.

‘I hope you all are ready!’, the booming voice of the announcer echoed through the arena again. ‘Because our next champions are getting ready! To the left we have Boomerang, the successful newcomer star of Benny. Benny, is it true this is the pub from Smear with more than four hundred won fights?’

While the announcer spoke, Nines watched the masses of people gathered here. They sat on the ranks, stood at the edges or gathered in groups to discuss something before the next fight started.

‘Yes, actually! Good genes from a good fighter!’
‘But Smear had to be killed due to cowardice, how do you plan on avoiding that mistake with Boomerang?’
‘Oh, that’s simple. Smear came from the pens. Hard training and isolation can do wonders.’
‘Well, we are certainly looking forward to see whether this one will be another glorious battle for our young star!’

Nines watched other people hurry through the ranks, selling snacks, beer and what looked like other drugs to the visitors. There was laughter, there were discussions ending in fist fights broken by either other visitors or when one of them gave up.

‘And in the other corner, we have Ivory claw, the champion of Lady Blue, what do you think of this fight?’
‘Oh, what should I say, my champion will win of course. She has the experience of nearly two hundred successful matches, a youngster simply can’t compete.’
‘Alright, powerful words there! Let’s see for ourselves, shall we?’

The Announcer continued to thank their investors and there even was a spotlight for the ones that were currently present. Nines saved the names and faces of every one of them and compiled a file with prior offences to later send Tina. It was something to distract him from it all. The whole atmosphere was that of a goddamn sports show, when there were people like Gavin dying down there. And it made Nines sick.

Thankfully, they had made it to the booth and Nines joined the line of people in front of it. They were all betting on the fights as there were no werewolves in sight. Nines added them to the list for illegal gambling. They waited in line and the android observed Gavin’s reaction. The werewolf was looking all around the place, eyes jumping from one human to the next. Nines noted the pressure against his leg as he subconsciously leaned in. The android needed all his willpower not to ruffle the hair of his neck back to order. All he could see was the man walking up and down their living room panicked and desperate. Still he was strong, disregarding his own wellbeing to make a change. A quality Nines had seen in few people and one he definitely didn’t possess himself to that degree. This was wrong, they should just leave again, they could still leave, he could get Gavin to safety and-

‘Next one!’
Nines stepped forwards, wincing as Gavin stumbled behind him having lost the supporting leg.
‘Name, amount to bet and name of champion’, the old woman behind the glass spoke annoyed of having to repeat herself over and over again.
‘I’m here to register a champion myself’, Nines explained.
That changed something in her expression and she sat up, looking him up and down. She was close enough now to see the ridiculous amount of make-up caking her face.
‘Name and name of Champion?’
‘Richard and Dog’s Gavin.’
‘Richard… Gavin… Not good names.’ She yawned, before suddenly near flattening her nose on the glass. ‘Wait, isn’t that Little Bitch? Little Bitch is back? Oh, that’s certainly interesting! Isn’t his owner dead? Amazing the damn wolf survived! Where did you get it from?’
‘Holding station’, Nines said. ‘I heard the previous owner was killed during a raid, but I was watching the fights before. I know a good dog when I see one. Now it’s mine.’
‘You have a lucky hand then, Dick. Little Bitch fought four-hundred thirty-eight times and always won. He is a true fighter. Especially when the end is near. I’ll put you on a good fight, I expect high bets!’
Nines hesitated, but to anyone not knowing about an android’s speed it wouldn’t even be recognisable. ‘Good.’
‘Here, I’ll put you on primetime, Friday! Entrance fee will be payed once your champion is in the fighter’s cages. Our usual rules apply. Good luck!’

Nines nodded and pulled Gavin after him. He couldn’t wait to be outside already and the wolf running a few steps to catch up with him proved he was too.

‘Now, that would be enough waiting, I suppose!’, The announcer broke through the background noise. ‘Boomerang versus Ivory Claw! Place the last bets, get your drinks ready! This is it now, final chance!’

‘Let the fight begin!’

Chapter Text

Friday came far too soon. Nines had spent his time talking with Tina about the information he had gathered so far in an attempt to keep his mind off of what was about to happen. Unfortunately, he was the android with the most advanced processing unit, what made him think back to the werewolf far too often. Gavin in turn had been keeping to himself. Spending hours outside, only coming home to grab something to eat and sleep. Maybe that was just his strategy of distracting himself.

Thursday evening that changed. Nines sat on the couch, flipping through his work tablet manually instead of interfacing, taking advantage of that extra workload on his CPU. He looked up as the door opened and Gavin shifted before taking his bathrobe from the hook. Nines could see him shaking more than normally after changing his form and the man pulled the soft fabric closer around himself. He walked over wordlessly, sitting down next to the android and leaned against him. Nines understood immediately and laid his arm around him comfortingly. Gavin pressed his eyes closed and leaned into it.

Nines brushed his shoulder with his hand and mulled over what to say. Telling him how much he didn’t want him to enter that arena wouldn’t do anything. They couldn’t turn back now, no matter how the android felt about it. Gavin had made his decision and Nines could only try to make it more bearable. So, what could he say right now that made it better?
‘How can I help you?’, he whispered softly in the end, hoping his desperation didn’t bleed into it too much.
‘Just hold me?’, Gavin asked and kept himself from looking up to see his reaction. Nines cocked his head in surprise and the other flinched at the minute movement, subconsciously hunching over.
‘Of course’, Nines was quick to reassure Gavin. It was the first time he had openly asked for something since they lived together. The first time he had showed vulnerability by requesting affection. Nines felt his thirium pump quicken at this newest display of trust and it hurt him to be reminded of the reason for it.
He pulled the man closer and held him as promised. ‘Is there any way I can help you tomorrow?’

‘I don’t think so’, Gavin mumbled. ‘I have to fight after all, not you.’ He fidgeted a bit with the seams of the fluffy bathrobe. ‘Just…’ He sighed and this time he did look up to the android. ‘Just err… Be there when it ends?’
Nines wasn’t quite sure if the werewolf only meant the end of the fight, but he swallowed his feelings and nodded. ‘I’ll be there, I promise.’

~

The next morning, Nines had to force himself to move. Gavin had shifted again, the android had laid the silver change around his neck and helped him to get into the transport crate that Tina had managed to get for them on short notice. With Gavin in the trunk, he had driven for the arena and carried the crate downstairs. He felt weirdly disconnected walking through the masses down towards the ring, the silver cage around it glistening in the spotlights. There were far more people now than when they had registered a few days prior. The ranks were filled to the brink and even the upper levels of the caved in parking garage held people.

Nines was a bit lost as he stood in between the holding cages connected to the arena.
‘You the owner of Little Bitch?’, someone suddenly asked him and he turned towards a young blonde woman with lightly tanned skin, most likely artificially.
‘Yes’, he answered, grinding his teeth at the name.
‘Put him in cage four over there, then I need you to leave.’
‘Why?’
She sighed. ‘Because we have to test them for illegal drugs before a fight, obviously. Can’t have the owners around for that.’
‘When can I see him again?’
‘Oh, we got ourselves an overly protective one, huh?’, she joked.
‘I’m just interested in my property’, Nines let his altered personality program speak for him. ‘Damn dog’s worth a lot of money.’
‘Ugh, yeah, yeah, nothing’ll happen. Now get a drink somewhere or something. Oh, wait. Android. Sorry.’

Nines shook his head but had to follow. He connected the transport crate and opened the hatch. He caught a glimpse of Gavin walking into the cage, before the woman from before ushered him out of the area around the ring.
Not knowing how to proceed, he decided to make use of his time. It would be another two hours until Gavin would have to fight. He could create some more files on the guests and maybe sneak around a bit.

He disguised his scans as a newcomer exploring the premise. He climbed back up to the entrance level and walked towards the betting booth. Next to it, about fifty metres away a large room protruded from the rest of the structure, seemingly built a few years after the garage collapsed. Nines scanned it, locating a lot of tech inside. Just as he wanted to investigate further, a person came stumbling out of the side door. He tried to mask his actions by looking aver the arena pointedly disinterested. But the man either didn’t let that fool him, or he simply didn’t care as he made a beeline for him. Nines sighed, immediately dropping the pretence.

The man was small, wore a white shirt with a red tie, jeans and suspenders. Topping it up with a set of glasses, he looked like a cartoon-nerd grown up. Before Nines could finish his scan, the man had already held out his hand for him in greeting. Nines took it hesitantly.
‘Hello! You must be the new one! I’m sorry, I’m James Clark, pleasure to meet you.’ The android immediately recognised his voice as that of the announcer. ‘The moment I heard Little Bitch was back I knew I had to talk to you. Would you do an official interview? We normally don’t do this with newcomers, but your champion is something of a legend. His previous owner nearly made it to the top with him. A few more fights and he could have sold his pubs for literal gold.’
Nines just frowned at the fast-speaking, overly excited man.
‘I’m sorry, I’m announcing the fights of this arena, you know? Introduce the owners, comment the fights, hype up the crowd a bit, the simple things. I tell you, an interesting introduction to a fight can do more for you than actual success if you do it right.’ He closed in to elbow him in the side lightly, winking at him before he took his distance again.
Nines was sceptical. ‘And you would do that? Why the special treatment?’
James laughed. ‘Hey, I smell a good story! First android to enter the fights, and with a legend of a champion? I will give you the introduction you deserve!’ He moved closer and added in a whisper: ‘If the money is right, of course.’
‘How much do you want?’
‘Five percent.’
‘Only five?’, Nines asked, expecting a lot more from the way he had advertised himself.

‘Hey, can’t let anyone know of it, okay? Having too much money is a bit suspicious for someone like me. But I believe that’s more than enough, you have a very successful wolf, don’t worry. So, tell me, what’s your name?’
‘Richard.’
‘What? No, I mean your name. Your show name!’
‘I don’t have one’, Nines admitted.
The man looked at him in pure disbelief. ‘Okay, ten percent and you leave everything to me.’
Nines sighed. He wasn’t here for the money anyways. If it spared Gavin a few fights, the announcer could have all of it.
‘Deal.’
‘Okay, before the fight starts, there is a break we will use to introduce you. Directly after there will be the small round between you and your opponent, I guess you know how it goes. We’ll give them a show to remember! You just have to remember to be here on time!’
With that the man hurried back inside and Nines was left standing above the arena. He tried to make out Gavin’s cage and sighed. It would be a difficult role to play for him when he knew the man, he was sending in there. He just hoped all went well.

~

‘Aaand here we are back, ladies and gentlemen! Now, we have quite some match to look forward to, haven’t we?’
James Clarke lifted his finger from the button and the roaring crowd was audible even here behind the thick walls of the press box. Nines sat next to him, watching the response warily. Other than Gavin he knew the name of his opponent but had no idea how the other werewolf would fight. He really wasn’t of any help to him. The announcer grinned next to him, pressing the button to talk again.
‘Whooo, quite the response there! And you have every right to be exited! Fatal Fury against Little Bitch. One of the new champions who took the chance of several old stagers being gone or dead to rise to the top pitted against one of maybe the last remaining fighters before the damn pigs raided the western arena. An extraordinary match, indeed! But you know what I would love to know? How Little Bitch made it back to us! Thankfully, we will solve this mystery in just a few minutes, as I have his owner, Nobot, here with me! Wanna know how one of these tin-cans got his hands on a werewolf? Then stay tuned, get your drinks going and I’ll see you in a minute!’

The man rolled backwards, opening his arms in a wide grin as if expecting praise.
‘This is not the name you will establish for me.’
Clarke rolled his eyes and let his shoulders sack. ‘Come on!
‘No, you better explain what the hell you are doing here or I may slip a word or two that you are accepting bribes.’
‘As if that didn’t apply to everyone else here’, the announcer muttered, but sat up. ‘Listen, just trust me with this, okay? You have not a single clue about what I do, okay? People love an underdog, alright? But the problem is, you are nothing like that. You are just a newcomer whose fame will rely solely on the work a dead man put into a werewolf you got your hands on. Doesn’t matter how much you train the dog or how much work you put in him. You won’t get rid of that image. So, what I’m gonna do is treat you like shit. I’ll make you look like exactly that, a no one that got his hands on a good wolf. I’ll make it look like you have no chance against people who actually put knowledge and effort in their champion. If we can do that, every won fight from you will make the people, or at least the people who matter, wonder if I’m right. If I emphasize you just got lucky, but you never fail, they will ask themselves if I told them the right thing to believe. By then we will have changed that viewpoint to make you the true underdog that is cheered, will make you good money and it will make your success look better than it actually is, ergo gaining the attention of the important people out there. So, don’t go around threatening the person who actually knows what he’s doing and just play along. If your wolf is as good as it was in the past, we will get there in no time.’
Nines watched the man in open surprise and that grin reappeared. The android would not underestimate the man again.

‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the first toaster to adopt a puppy!’, he spoke into the microphone again.
‘Nobot!’ he waited a bit for the crowd to cheer retained. ‘Oh, you even got a little applause there. Curious. Now, how did you get your hands on The Master’s werewolf, huh?’
‘I used to watch the fights and simply know what makes a good champion. When its previous owner got himself killed, I simply watched the holding pens until one of them might turn up. I would have taken any wolf, but as I saw Little Bitch, well… If I’m being honest, I’m surprised not more people did just that.’
‘So you don’t even disagree you were just lucky?’
Nines forced himself to chuckle cocky into the microphone. ‘Why disagree if it’s true? I was immensely lucky to get that particular champion. But luck is a factor with every wolf, isn’t it? Training and discipline, total obedience, that’s what makes a good fighter in the end. Even a useless animal will fight if kicked hard enough.’
Clark let his teeth grind, stretching the pause for the audience to get the right message.
‘Well, we’ll see if that’s true, although I believe most of what we’ll see today will be his previous owner’s workings. Tell us, Nobot, what did you do in the weeks since the raid? What work did you put into your werewolf? Has to be rough for a newcomer.’
‘Not at all’, Nines answered, easily talking the truth now. ‘I have been a working unit in the holding stations before my deviation, so I know a lot about these animals already. When I got Little Bitch, it was severely malnourished and thought it could do as it pleased. I’m honestly surprised The Master made it that far with the wolf. He was solely relying on a dependent creature but keeping it in that state made it weak. The path I plan on walking is dominance. These beasts have to know their place in order to be most effective.’
‘Big words from a machine that doesn’t know his own place, am I right?’, Clarke laughed, but looked at Nines apologetically. The crowd roared at that, a success.
‘Oh, believe me, I know my place and that would be at the top’, Nines said, the threat evident in his voice. Even the announcer flinched although he knew it was just play. The whole arena seemed to fall silent.

‘Err… Bold words from our newest owner, Nobot!’, Clarke hurried to push past his lips. ‘Let’s turn to Miss J! Little Bitch is an old opponent, how do you plan on defeating him?’
Nines listened numbly to their conversation. Until now he had been distracted. But the match was about to begin. The worry pulled him down and he tried to catch a glimpse of Gavin.
‘That was Miss J, everyone! Are you ready for the match of a lifetime?’ Nines looked up to see the woman disappear from the press box and hurried to get up too. He needed to be down there at the ring. He couldn’t watch it from up here, he didn’t know if he could watch it even from down there. But he had to move.

‘Now, I would say we waited enough, right?’, Nines heard the announcer’s voice boom through the ranks as he was only halfway down. ‘Fatal Fury versus Little Bitch! Place the last bets, get to your seats! This is it now, final chance!’

Nines barely made it down to the ring in time. He stumbled towards the holding cage and only managed to push his fingers through the bars. He felt Gavin's wet nose brush over them, before Clark’s voice pushed past the background noise of thousands of people whistling and shouting.
‘Let the fight begin!’
‘Good luck!’, Nines shouted panicked at the far too quick pace events were unfolding. ‘I’m here for you. You can do it!’ Then the hatch opened, and the werewolf ran outside into the sand, taking his stance halfway to the middle, roaring deeply for the crowd who screeched and cheered at that display in excitement. ‘Come back to me’, Nines whispered, still holding onto the cage as he watched Gavin show off.
The other side seemed to have difficulties pulling up the hatch of their cage, but even though only half opened, the opposing werewolf crawled outside. He immediately got up to his hind legs and showed off his impressive height. He had nearly a full head on Gavin and in comparison, Nines could see that the effects of starvation and mishandling were still evident on Gavin despite how much he had bettered already. The android didn't know how Gavin would fight, but only from that display, he feared for the life of his champion.

The two werewolves circled each other at a slow pace. Gavin was terrified, Nines could see that in his eyes clear as day, but he kept his body level and growled, showing the other he would not back down. There was no threatening Nines could detect. Despite being pitted against each other the two still held respect for the other. The android guessed their opponent wasn’t one of the bred werewolves then. Nines desperately waited for a sign of aggression he had been programmed to detect. It hurt him seeing Gavin inside the ring and even though he didn't want to see the fight beginning it did also mean it would be over sooner.

'Come on, get him! Don't make me use the pole!'
The werewolf Nines only knew as Fatal Fury whimpered at the angry voice of his owner and Gavin took the chance. He leapt at the werewolf and aimed for the neck but missed as the other ducked out underneath him. Somehow, Nines thought Gavin might have purposely hesitated. His preconstructions had told him he could have already killed his opponent. Why drag it out?

The other wolf had jumped away from him as the crowd cheered at Gavin’s first manoeuvre. Now he seemed far more determined. They circled again, but not as long as last time as Fatal Fury jumped at Gavin. He could evade the first attack, but the other werewolf stayed close and dug his claws through his side. Gavin howled and tried to grab the other as he evaded his attacks. Nines eyes zoomed in on the long, jagged cut that started to bleed already. He had to do something, had to stop this.

'And so Fatal Fury lands his first blow on Little Bitch! No surprise there. Can he even compete with Miss J's expertly trained champion? I doubt the toaster knew what he was doing! Did his luck already run out?'
Nines shot a furious look up towards the press box and regretted it immediately: In the few seconds he had missed, Gavin had run around the werewolf who was still expecting to be grappled to jump him from behind. His teeth dug into the other’s nape but failed to get a good grip on anything vital. Still, he managed to throw the werewolf off-balance and to the ground. Gavin held on to the patch of skin, dragging Fatal Fury around and clawing at every spot he could reach.

The crowd cheered at every drop of blood that painted the sand of the arena a deep crimson. The noise, the deep wounds and the other trainer’s angry shouts swirled around Nines’ head, adding to his stress levels and pulling it into unforeseen heights. But Nines forced himself to continue watching, his inability to do anything weighing hard on him. Gavin had the upper hand, having dealt heavy blows to the other wolf, but as he tried to reposition his jaws to end it, Fatal Fury managed to free himself, still standing strong despite the blood loss and pain.

Suddenly Nines realised what had given the wolf his name, as he bound towards Gavin with one powerful leap. He bit down hard on Gavin’s left front leg and the android’s pump stuttered at his champion’s pained whine. Both wolves grew weaker by the minute, but still none of them was ready to back down and accept fate. Gavin ignored the pain rolling over to get his leg free and send Fatal Fury to the ground again. They exchanged quick but vicious blows, jumped back, ran after one another and pulled each other through the arena. By now Nines had troubles believing a single being could endure this much. Gavin’s side looked worse than before, he couldn’t really use his front leg and bled from several smaller scratches. Fatal Fury had suffered a deep cut to his abdomen, bite-wounds at neck and throat and at least one of his claws had been dislodged.

Gavin was currently forcing the other wolf further towards the cage, the silver an added pressure. Nines followed his movements as far as he was allowed, moving closer to the fighting beasts. Fatal Fury seemed to realise his error and tried to quickly change the situation. Taking advantage of Gavin’s bad leg, he managed to get behind him and push the werewolf towards the silver net. Nines watched him scramble to get back on his feet and away from the searing metal, but Fatal Fury was already on top of him ready to take the final blow.
‘Gavin!’

Fatal Fury had shot forwards, but in a blur of motion Gavin had reacted. The larger werewolf slumped down on top of Gavin, leaving only a heap of fur for the spectators. Nines was just a step away from ripping the net and checking on them for himself, as the heap shifted. In an unbelievable effort Gavin pushed Fatal Fury from his back and just laid there heavily breathing and bleeding into the sand.

Elation erupted all around them, people jumping from their seats on their blood-induced high and cheering for the fight, their sums betted or just because everyone else did it. Nines couldn’t be sick, but he might have just found the android equivalent of it. The announcer’s voice was partially drowned out by the masses, but he had eyes for Gavin only anyways. Handlers streamed into the arena, pulling Fatal Fury’s body out and Gavin’s prone form back to the transport crate. Target set, Nines wanted to dart away to the cage to get Gavin home, but he was held back by someone.

‘Congratulation on your first won fight! Glad to see a good champion back in the ring after The Master died.’ Nines looked the man before him up and down, considering use of force as a reasonable cause of action already. But the idiot either didn’t get his signs or ignored them downright. ‘Is it still fertile? I would pay you good money.’
‘Money?’, Nines hissed, badly handling his anger.
‘Yeah. I would say… two-thousand per pup?’
Nines stayed silent, throwing the man his best death-glare. Unfortunately, his opponent was human.
Still it managed to intimidate him. ‘Okay, yeah, sorry. You are new I didn’t mean to disrespect you. A man has to live, you know?’ He chuckled nervously. ‘Four-thousand per pup and twelve-thousand min if my breeder produces less.’
Nines couldn’t believe the human was still talking to him. But he had no time, he needed to get back to Gavin. So, he simply said: ‘I will… consider it. How can I contact you?’ He had wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible, but apparently that had been the wrong course.
‘Really? Oh, it’s good Bitch changed owners, the previous one didn’t allow it. Here is my phone number. Call me anytime! You can choose the breeder if you want to! And you can buy one of your pups for a discount!’

Nines took the damn business card and made a run for it. He didn’t have time for this. Unfortunately, he didn’t get very far. ‘Congratulation Nobot! This was a spectacular win!’ A microphone was shoved into his face while he ploughed through the masses surrounding him suddenly. ‘Any comments? How did you train him? What could have been better? What weaknesses did you see in Bitch’s performance?’ Nines angrily shoved away the people in his way, replied: ‘No comment!’ and hurried on. He saw an opening to the holding cages only to be stopped again. ‘Nobot! Congrats to your first win!’ The person held out a small terminal for him to interface. ‘Here is your winning sum! We strongly advise to keep it in cash, but you can take it from here.’
Nines pressed his lips shut and interfaced. He wouldn’t have to worry about the police anyways as all the money would be transferred to a safe account to later be confiscated. Any questions asked by the people from the arena could be brushed off with him being a superior model. He interfaced with the device and finally was left alone to march towards the crate.

He didn’t have to scan it to know Gavin was in bad shape. His breath was loud and laboured with the occasional whine in between. Nines made quick work in detaching the crate from the cage and march out of the arena as quickly as he could without breaking his façade of unaffectedness. As soon as he was on the stairs towards the surface and no one could see him, he ran for it. ‘Everything is gonna be alright, Gavin!’, he whispered at the crate in his arm. ‘We will drive home and I’ll get you patched up; don’t you worry. It’s over.’ He didn’t know whether the werewolf heard him in there. There was no indication of it. The only consolidation for Nines was that Gavin’s vitals were stable. He couldn’t believe it that the werewolf was even still alive at these wounds. There had been so much blood!

He lifted the crate into the trunk of his car and fixated it in place. He got into the driver’s seat and headed for his home on the fastest route possible. ‘Fuck’, he cursed, certainly having adopted it by living with Gavin. But it fit. He let the car skid to a halt on the gravel of his driveway and was faster outside than he had thought possible, ripping open the trunk and taking out the crate. He didn’t wait until he was inside to open the front hatch. In the hallway he sat it gently on the ground and carefully lifted Gavin’s form out of it and to the bathroom. He was thankful for his investment into an extra-large bathtub as he began filling the bottom third with warm water. He let Gavin in, holding up his head. The were hissed at the contact but Gavin knew what Nines was doing and let him. With his left hand, the android began carefully flushing water over the wounds, washing sand and dirt out of them. The water soon was coloured a soft pink and quickly became more saturated. But to Nines’ surprise, the smaller scratches had already begun the healing process. It was astonishing to see it now. Nines had ever only seen it as Gavin had been stuck in the holding cell at the DPD and back then his body was so week he didn’t heal much faster than a human would.

He sighed in relief at that. This wasn’t good, but at least it would be soon. Gavin whined as Nines took out the bottle of iodine solution he had prepared beforehand and started applying it to every little scratch he could find. All the while he brushed Gavin’s cheek with his thumb, hoping it would calm the werewolf down a bit. When he put the used wipe to the side, he gently angled Gavin’s head against the side of the bathtub and hurried for the first aid kit. The worst wounds would have to be wrapped tightly. With expertise his programming delivered for him, he applied pressure to Gavin’s open side and started patching him up while the water run out. Then he tended to his leg, scanning it for any damage to the bone. To his relief nothing was broken. Gavin’s limp had been from pain only, not the overall integrity. The bite was deep, but Nines hoped on the werewolf’s superior heling capability to sort it out.

That out of the way, he took out a soft handcloth and began rinsing the residue of the bloodied water out of his pelt. After carefully rubbing him dry, Gavin looked already better and Nines gently lifted him up to carry him towards the couch. He laid him down on it and only disturbed him once he had gathered blankets to wrap around the wolf. The only thing left to do now was wait and now that he had nothing else to occupy his mind with, he had to think back to their day. He sat down next to Gavin’s head and the wolf raised it to lay it in Nines’ lap. The android didn’t really think as his fingers travelled to pet him and maybe Gavin had intended that reaction as it calmed down his processors a bit.

‘God, this was hell’, he deflated in the end.
Gavin grumbled affirmative and closed his eyes. Nines’ hands hit the silver chain and he flinched, before carefully pulling it from the werewolf’s neck. He threw it to the ground near their coffee table hoping it to be out of sight for at least a little while. All these people in the arena cheering for sentient beings being tortured and killed. All these people making money from it. And apparently, they expected interviews and celebration after a fight. Nines hadn’t given in to that, but what would an owner do that didn’t care about their champion as much as Nines did for Gavin? Would they just wallow in being a Rockstar, while the fighter lied in the crate bleeding? How many werewolves had died because of this pure stupidity? How much more suffering had they endured because some asshole had to celebrate their win? How much time had Gavin spent in these crates?

The wolf seemed to notice his distress because he pinched him lightly in the finger.
‘Hmm?’
Gavin grumbled again, pushing a bit closer to Nines’ leg, the enormous mass weighing it down.
‘I’m sorry, Gavin. We shouldn’t have done this. We should have declined. I don’t think I can watch you entering the arena again.’
The wolf huffed, shrugging as best as he could wrapped in blankets.
‘I shouldn’t have allowed it.’
At that Gavin’s patience run out and he straight up growled at the android.
‘Alright, I’ll stop. I know it’s your decision, but it was a stupid one. It’s not easy seeing you being hurt without being able to help. And nothing guarantees us that you won’t be killed in there. I don’t know what I will do should that happen.’
Gavin huffed again, wagging his tail slowly.
‘Hey, don’t you dare laughing when we talk about your death okay? Just get well enough to shift again, okay? We really have to talk.’

Chapter Text

It wasn't unusual for Nines to enter stasis on the couch next to a sleeping werewolf by now. It was the third day after the fight and Gavin was healing well. Nines had cleaned his wounds and covered them in fresh bandages every morning, helped the wolf onto the sofa and made breakfast. While Gavin ate, Nines watched him, scanning him over and over again. The larger part of his days he spent next to him, offering comfort and gently raking through fluffy brown fur. It was his new routine of trying to give Gavin the best care he could, his way of coping with the guilty feeling that had settled permanently in his components and the werewolf didn’t deserve anything less than this. A few more days and he would be at full health again, he likely was ready to shift already. But Nines wouldn't press him to it. Gavin would know best when it was safest to change back to human form.

Right now, Nines was sitting next to the wolf again, Gavin’s head resting in his lap and dozing. He had prepared him a meal and when he had changed his bandages in the morning, most didn’t even need to be reapplied. Nines finally felt better about the whole ordeal, successfully ignoring the fact that the next fight would come eventually. Right now, it was just him and Gavin and that was more than enough. He relaxed, hand gently scratching behind Gavin’s ears and stroking his neck. He reclined his head and began running a few systems checks, when the doorbell rang.

Nines stopped all the running diagnostics and sighed. Gavin had lifted his head too, then nudged his leg with his snout. ‘Yeah, alright, alright, I’m going!’
Nines stood up, but did stop shortly to get his gun. Not many knew his address and with their new occupation he was better safe than sorry. But as he opened the door, it was to a familiar face staring him down as if he had just insulted her mother.
‘Tina, wha-‘
‘RK, what the fuck have you been thinking ignoring all my calls?’, the woman screamed, visibly upset. ‘I got your message that he’s alright, but damn, I have to see that for myself too!’
Nines stood there perplexed as Tina ran past him. He checked his communication protocol and true to her word, he had over ten missed calls from her. How had he failed to recognise them? He shook his head. Maybe his worry had a larger effect on him than he had initially thought.
An excited bark from the living room being cut off had the android come back to the present and he shut the door. As he got back to the room, he could see Tina hugging Gavin with force. Gavin’s head peaking over her shoulder and looking at Nines begging for help had him chuckling.

‘Sorry, Gav, but you look like an oversized, terrifying puppy, I have to cuddle’, Tina didn’t even try to reason and only stopped, when Gavin growled at her in very real annoyance.
‘Damn, it’s good to see you are fine… well as fine as one can be. How are you feeling?’
Gavin offered her a shrug with a huff and a half-hearted tail-wag.
‘Tina, can I offer you anything?’, Nines asked. ‘I think we still have some casserole left and I could make you tea?’
‘Oh, that sounds awesome!’, Tina cheered excitedly, and Nines nodded to go to the kitchen. As he put the plate into the microwave, he couldn’t help but pick up on the conversation in the living room.

‘Damn, Gavin, I hope the next fight won’t be as hard. For you obviously, but you got RK worried. You really mean a lot to him. I mean… I called him fourteen times, texted far more than that, and his phone is his brain. Didn’t get an answer. Guess you take up a lot of processing power in there.’
Nines heard Tina giggle and Gavin’s wolf-equivalent and suddenly his cheeks flushed. It was true most of his thoughts spun around Gavin lately. But that was only natural. They were work partners and lived together. Nines had to protect him in a world that hated his kind and now there was the added danger of the fights. There was nothing unusual about this… worry.
‘You really proved the big guy has a heart somewhere in there’, Tina laughed. ‘Now the next thing you have to discover is-‘
Gavin interrupted her by grumbling a warning and Nines decided to insert himself into the conversation again, coming over with a steaming plate and cutlery.

‘Ah, thank you, RK, this looks awesome. Wait… why is your face so blue?’
‘Malfunction’, Nines mumbled and resumed his place on the couch, this time keeping a polite distance to Gavin.
‘Yeah, right’, Tina grinned and the blush intensified when Gavin scooted closer to lean his shoulder against his hip.
‘Anyways, your work has brought a bit of change already’, she quickly changed topics as she knew what kind of opponent an angry RK900 could become. ‘You send us all your scan data and the rookies are busy filing it and keeping watch over the people you mentioned. Well, because of that, one was spotted shop lifting. We could take him in and surprisingly found out about his illegal gambling and money laundering as we looked deeper into his case.’ Tina grinned devilishly and winked at them both. ‘Well, he should be facing some time in prison. And now that we got him interrogated, he might have coincidentally mentioned some other people from your list.’
Nines nodded, but somehow that just felt like a drop in the ocean. With how many people there were in just that one arena, it was close to nothing. Well they had to lay low too. If they just arrested every person Nines had scanned, someone would make the connection.
‘It’s a beginning’, Nines muttered. ‘Good to hear progress has been made.’
‘Yes. Especially considering the prize.’ Tina and Nines looked at Gavin, who huffed and evaded their eyes.
‘Right. Nice thoughts. Did you know Chris destroyed the coffee machine at work? You won’t believe how, trust me!’

They talked the entire afternoon, Tina trying to lift their spirits and succeeding slowly. It was early evening when she got up and ready to leave. Gavin nuzzled her from where he lay, then Nines followed her to the door. She hugged him shortly, the gesture being her standard form of saying goodbye, but then turned to him in all seriousness. ‘RK, I get that you are worried, but god damnit, answer your damn calls! He is my friend, too. I know that you come first, but I need to know my giant puppy is safe.’
‘He is not-‘, Nines tried to say, but was cut off by the officer promptly.
‘Just promise me, you will answer the day after the next fight, alright?’, she asked him. ‘Not immediately, just… So, I know he is safe, okay?’
‘I promise, Tina.’
‘That’s all I need. Just take care of him, will you?’
‘I will.’

With that he watched Tina walk over to her car and drive off after waving him once again. Only once she was out of view, Nines walked back inside.
He found Gavin jumping from the couch and standing up on his hind legs.
‘Do you want to shift?’, the android asked and the werewolf nodded.
‘Will there be complications?’ Gavin shook his head, then his body began to change. Nines only disappeared to get clean wipes and the bathrobe. When he came back, Gavin was already back in his human form and slightly shivering. Immediately, Nines handed him some of the wipes to stop the bleeding of the not yet fully healed wounds that had been opened again and slightly stretched by the shift.
‘Damn, I hate that this happens all the time’, the man joked awkwardly, while applying pressure to his side.
‘You could have just waited until you were fully healed’, Nines commented, while tending to the smaller cuts.
‘Nah, tin-can, I want to talk again’, he said. ‘Don’t want to stay the mute puppy for too long.’
‘I think by now I can read your body language pretty well.’
‘Well, yeah, but I would say this is different, isn’t it.’
‘Right.’
Gavin nodded, looking down his side as he uttered his next words more silently: ‘It also gives you some time for yourself, not having to care for me all day.’
‘I don’t mind caring for you, Gavin. It’s the least I can do’, Nines muttered, lifting the wipe to see whether the bleeding had stopped.
‘Right…’

Exhausted from the shift, Gavin went to bed early and Nines stayed behind for a bit to clean up the living room. When he walked past Gavin’s bedroom, he lingered at the door, watching the man lay in bed, chest lifting and falling slowly and evenly. Was it really this weird to be concerned? Did he really worry too much? He couldn’t help but act that way. How could he not care when there was the very real possibility, he would come back from one of these fights to this room being empty. For this whole house he didn’t really need to be empty. He didn’t want to think about it, because then he would have to deal with everything this thought could conjure up. But he couldn’t find any error in how he had reacted. Maybe he had misinterpreted something when listening in on Tina and going over Gavin’s words after the shift. He would just save it for another time and enter stasis for now. With Gavin being able to care for himself, there was work to do.

~

‘No! I won’t have sex with one of them!’
‘I didn’t ask you to’, Nines spoke calmly, sitting on their couch and watching the werewolf walk up and down the living room.
‘Yeah, I know, but you want to go there’, Gavin dismissed his claim. ‘And I know this breeder won’t let go once I’m there! I won’t take part in breeding. I won’t put more of my kind into the world just to suffer.’
‘I won’t ask you to’, Nines repeated and added: ‘And I won’t let him. But we need evidence to mark him for later intervention. I have to go there, and it will look weird if I go alone.’
‘Why?’, Gavin near shouted at him. ‘You are just going to access the options. I don’t need to be there.’
‘Don’t you trust me to protect you?’, the android asked, agitated by Gavin’s building aggression.

The werewolf sighed deflated. ‘I do, Nines. But it’s bad enough knowing it exists. I don’t need to see such a place.’
Nines nodded understandingly. ‘Fine. I’ll go alone and hope for the best. Will you be okay staying here? I can ask Tina to come over.’
‘What?’, Gavin asked caught off guard. ‘Nah. That won’t be necessary, I’ll stay inside.’ He had stopped pacing and wrung his hands. ‘You… err… Just come back soon.’
Nines smiled. ‘I will.’

~

Nines clenched his teeth while his car drove him towards his destination far outside of Detroit. He had just called the breeder that he would be willing to inspect his facility, keeping up his neutral façade he had reserved for playing Nobot. The human had been audibly surprised but eager to please, so Nines had received his address.
It turned out to be a farm, looking just like any other. Surrounded by fields with sheep and cows stood a stable and a considerably big farmhouse. As he pulled up into the driveway and parked next to it, he recognised the man from the arena standing near the door. Only that he now had enough time to really look at him. He looked… perfectly average. He looked like that type of person you wouldn’t really pay attention to when he was surrounded by other people. Dark hair, naturally tanned skin and a pair of glasses sitting on a round nose. Not chubby, but not thin either with enough muscles to prove he worked with animals.

He was a stark contrast to Nines, who wore monochrome clothing of the latest fashion. Gavin had insisted he should present himself as someone of class with lots of money if he wanted to be respected as a costumer. The android took the man’s hand he had held out for him to shake and nodded appreciative. ‘Quite a farm’, he commented, letting his gaze wander and scanning everything he could for evidence.
‘Yeah, inherited it from my dad. But you don’t make a lot of money with it nowadays.’ He smiled forcefully, but then caught himself. ‘My name is Hugh Phillips, by the way.’
‘Richard’, Nines muttered, still looking around. So far, he couldn’t spot anything suspicious.
‘Err… did you bring Little Bitch?’, the man asked, looking towards Nines’ car.
Nines straightened. ‘I came to inspect your facility. I know that… that my champion is in high demand.’ He still refused to use the degrading name Gavin still had to suffer under. ‘I want you to show me why I should choose you from all the offers I got.’

Nines was swimming here. He hadn’t gotten any other offers and didn’t even know whether there were other breeders, but from the way Mr. Phillips’ face went blank, it was working. ‘O-of course! Just follow me, I can give you a complete tour! This way!’
The man led him towards the house and held up the door for him. Nines entered and was surprised about the pristine state inside. It was clean and homely. ‘Up this way’, Mr. Phillips said and pointed at the stairs. ‘They are in the upper storey.’ He led the android up and into a large room, that was – other than expected – really nice. The floor was tiled and easy to clean, with not much dirt even to his eyes. It was outfitted with expensive furniture, mostly couches and special mattresses that were occupied by werewolves. Nines scanned them immediately, but there couldn’t have been a bigger difference between Gavin and these beasts. Not a single scar on them aside from the tight silver collar that kept them from shifting. They were well-fed and obviously cared after.

‘You don’t keep them in cages?’, Nines asked. ‘Or on a chain?’
‘No, that wouldn’t work. They need to be completely relaxed, that reduces complications during fertilisation’, Mr. Philips explained. ‘Restricting their movement wouldn’t be good for them.’
‘And how do you keep them docile? Normally werewolves would do anything to escape.’
‘Escape where to?’, the man chuckled. ‘The only alternatives are the arenas or the holding stations.’
Nines nodded. Compared to that life, this might not be that bad, even considering what they were forced to do.
‘Can I?’, the android asked and pointed to one of the werewolves.
‘Of course. When you decide to bring Little Bitch here you would have to choose one anyways.’
Nines ignored the man and knelt down in front of a wolf with crème fur, by far bigger than Gavin and even taller as Nines himself on two legs.
‘This one is quite young. She had only one litter yet, but she will be a good breeder.’
Nines let her sniff his hand, then stroked her head, inspecting eyes and ears. Not able to detect anything off about her, he stood up and went to the next.
This wolf was old, fur already grey and matted. Nines guessed this werewolf was far older than they normally were allowed to age.
‘This is one of our oldest breeders. I believe she would be fertile a few more years, but I wouldn’t advise choosing her for Little Bitch.’
By now Nines had noticed her eyes were glazed over and her reactions were sluggish.
‘Is she blind?’
‘Hm? No. Why?’
Nines leaned down and analysed her scent. Immediately he knew what was going on. This werewolf was drugged. Nines knew the smell from the holding stations. The drug was used to keep aggressive individuals docile.
‘Ah, never mind, just the light.’

He inspected most of them this way and found out near all the older ones were drugged, some of the younger ones too. Another proof this wasn’t as pleasant as the first look might suggest.
‘So, how would this work? I get my champion here and then?’
Mr. Philips smiled at him excitedly. ‘Oh, you bring him here and choose a breeder for him. He will get a bit of fun, then you can take him back with you. I will contact you once your puppies arrive. Of course, you have the right to choose first from the litter.’
Nines did another courtesy swipe of the room. ‘I don’t see any pregnant ones.’

That made the human halt for a moment. ‘Err… Yes, they need special care. They are… somewhere else.’
‘Well’, Nines sighed. ‘You promised me a full tour.’
The man swallowed. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I am.’
‘Okay, then follow me, please.’

The man led him outside the house again and towards the stables for his animals. Nines was on the lookout for any sign of more werewolves, but it wasn’t until an old, delipidated barn came into view behind the stable that his hopes sank to have finally found a place Gavin’s kind was at least not walking along the edge of death. The barn looked like it could only be used for machinery at best. Nines wouldn’t put living animals in there never mind sentient beings like these werewolves.
The smell alone was all he needed to know he was about to see something horrible. And it was proved true as the man opened the door: stacked cages on top of each other with pregnant werewolves. All of them held water and food and looked like they were cleaned maybe once a week. It was nothing Nines would be able to easily forget, and it was increasingly difficult for him not to take Mr. Philips by the neck and push him into one of these cages himself. But he wasn’t here as Nines, he was here as Richard.

So, he just nodded and turned to the man. ‘I think I’ve seen enough, thank you for the tour. I will contact you regarding the date I will bring my champion over.’
‘Really? Oh. Thank you, I will await your call then!’

Nines let his faked smile fall as he walked back to his car. Yeah, the asshole could wait till eternity for this call.

Chapter Text

‘It’s just disgusting, Tina, I don’t know how to describe it any other way. Disgusting and degrading’, Nines concluded his report and took a sip from his cup. He looked around the café and sighed. Ever since he had left the breeder, there was a weight pulling him down. Well, since he had gotten to know Gavin, if he was honest with himself, but especially since coming home from Mr. Philips yesterday and watching Gavin sleep peacefully in his bed.

The café was all pastel colour and soft shades of brown, outfitted with comfy chairs, real-wood tables and small easy to handle plants. It was something to enjoy and still it filled Nines with a subdued kind of fury that something as cosy as this existed while in all of Detroit there were hidden people suffering day in, day out. And he couldn’t do anything.
He carefully loosened his grip on the edge of the table not to destroy it, as he vented his anger: ‘Not even animals have to suffer like that, or if they do there are agencies in place to safe them. I want to have SWAT storm that asshole’s house this very moment and end it! I want to go there personally and drag this Mr. Philips to a prison cell. But I can’t, because it will look suspicious and we have to lay low. It’s not fair!’

Tina dropped her brows in compassion and gently laid her hand on Nines’ tensed fingers. ‘You are right. It’s not fair. It is cruel. These poor souls don’t deserve it. But if it’s any consultation for you, I will write the report and I will inform our people. You gave us valuable information. We can send a few people for observation. Who visits him, who does he breed with and who does he sell to? We might not be helping them now, RK, but even Gavin agrees this is the price to pay to end it all.’
‘And then?’, Nines sighed deflated. ‘What if we stopped the arenas? They would just be piled up in holding stations that are already overcrowded. I could actually be optimistic about what we do if we really helped them in the end. But no, we would just replace one kind of suffering with another.’
‘RK…’
‘I know, Tina. I know. We can’t change the law. I just… It’s hard to know Gavin and then see others treat his kind like the monsters I once thought them to be.’

Tina nodded and took a deep gulp of her tea. ‘We have to focus on what we can do, RK. If we just look at what we can’t change, we won’t get anything done.’
‘True’, Nines nodded, but it did little to help with how he felt about it. ‘

~

Nines had taken his leave from Tina and was driving home when the phone he had bought just for his encrypted communication in his new identity pinged. He didn’t need to look at the screen to know he got a message. He was connected to it, but it felt far safer using the device instead of handing out his android communication data to anyone in the arenas.
He acknowledged the message but didn’t answer yet. This was something he and Gavin had to speak about first.

He pulled into their driveway and rang the doorbell. Gavin opened for him and smiled at him. ‘And? How was coffee with Tina?’
‘Hmm. It would be far more pleasant if we could just talk about our work or what we did during the weekend.’
‘Yeah, figures. Werewolf breeding isn’t really the lightest topic.’

Nines stepped in and Gavin closed the door.
‘On the topic of unpleasant conversation, I have to tell you something.’
‘Okay?’, Gavin said, looking up at him sceptically. ‘What is it then?’
‘I got a message on my way back here. There is a new fight scheduled. They want you.’
Gavin sighed, but shrugged. ‘Okay. When?’
‘Tomorrow.’
‘Phck. Well, it had to come eventually.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Gavin shook his head. ‘For phck’s sake, Nines, would you stop apologizing constantly? This is our life now, okay? We can only suffer through it and do the best we can to stay alive and do our job. A new fight? Fine. I will attend it. We are finally making progress. We have to get to the top and fast.’
‘We have to make sure you will survive’, Nines disagreed.
‘There is no way to promise that. But I’ll try, Nines. I have some… I have a reason to fight now.’
Nines swallowed and send his answer to the unknown number. Tomorrow he would have to play Nobot again. He would have to see Gavin suffer again and try to patch him back up again. Gavin was right, this was their life now. Nines just hoped it wasn’t for long.

~

‘Aaand here we are again! Little Bitch is back, and last fight truly was a show for the century. Will the tin-can prove he is a good trainer? Well, let’s see! The next fight will begin in just a few minutes, so make sure you have placed your bets and are ready for some action! Nobot with Little Bitch against Bloodmaster with Ivory Claw! This is it now, final chance!’
Nines looked up to the press box while kneeling next to Gavin’s holding cage. ‘Good luck Gavin’, he whispered, reaching through the bars and feeling the werewolf press against his fingertips. ‘You can do this. We will end this. This will help us. Give it your best and don’t worry. I’m here for you. I will care for you. You are strong.’ He muttered more words and didn’t really know what he said. Maybe he even repeated himself. His stress levels were already through the roof while he waited for the final announcement.

‘Then let the fight begin!’

The hatches opened and Gavin ran out immediately, taking up his position in the middle and roaring. It sent a shiver down Nines’ spine as his program reacted to the aggressive behaviour. It was a stark contrast to the man he knew at home. On the other side, the hatch opened, but the opponent was taking her time to walk out of it into the ring. The other werewolf was of a similar height as Gavin but looked far more athletic. She had entirely white fur that was cared after and exceptionally sharp light claws, likely giving her her name. She walked into the ring on all fours but as she stopped and graciously rose to her true height, the crowd was ecstatic.
Nines looked closely at the two werewolves who stared each other in the eye. He would love to know what they were communicating to each other, but this really wasn’t a behaviour he had been programmed to analyse.

Suddenly, the white beast stepped back, howled and lunged at Gavin. Nines partner jumped to the side and tried to bite at her side but missed. Ivory Claw was fast and just as agile as she looked, keeping Gavin in check with speed and endurance. In the beginning Gavin still reacted, trying to get a lucky hit, but he realised quickly he would just waste valuable energy on a futile attempt. So, he stopped and froze, growling low while keeping her locked in his eyes. Ivory Claw circled him, but she had realised by now, Gavin wouldn’t play into her tactics. So, she adapted and used Gavin’s motionlessness to her advantage. Still running around him, she finally threw a hook and jumped right on his back. Gavin whined at the claws digging into his skin and ripping it open and reeled up. In the end he had to throw himself on his back, risking exposing his throat and belly. He had to get her off his back before she could bite down on his neck.

The sudden jolt in his back as Ivory Claw was pressed to the ground and lost her grip on him let pain flare up in his entire body. He howled but forced himself to roll over ignoring the biting pain. His opponent was equally keen on surviving and he had to take every chance he got with this one. The moment he was back on his feet, he leapt on top of her, diving in for the head. Ivory Claw managed to shift, so that her throat was covered, but Gavin had anticipated that from a werewolf relying on speed. He simply encased her head in his jaws and bit down. The sickening taste of blood pooled on his tongue, but he never stopped applying pressure. Only as her hind legs kicked him in the side, her long sharp claws digging into his just recently healed flesh, he had to let go.

In the short breather he got, Gavin heard the crowd go wild. On Ivory Claw’s bright pelt her wounds stood out to everyone, her bloodstained claws prominent. And now there was a trail of read running down her left side. Gavin had managed to blind her on one eye. For most that would mean Gavin had basically won, but not with this werewolf. She was experienced and determined. She had the energy and speed. Gavin’s only hope was to get lucky and manage to endure his wounds long enough.
Because already, she started to pace and align her body with her handicap. Gavin swallowed. His back was killing him, his side hurt with every breath. He had to end this. And fast, too.

If Gavin wanted to survive, he would have to find a way around her defences to her blind spot. But outmanoeuvring a werewolf with that speed and agility... Gavin already had an idea on how to trick her and-
'Gavin, watch out!' The familiar scream sounded weirdly clear in his head considering the arena was wild in bloodlust, but Gavin didn't have the time to think about it as Ivory Claw jumped at him. He just about managed to drop onto the floor causing his opponent to overshoot and only graze his shoulders with her claws.
The werewolf had clearly counted on a hit that would have had Gavin tumbling over and onto his back, because she hadn't thought about her landing. She came in with far too much force on one leg and Gavin knew that was his chance. He leapt over and onto her, biting down on what he could find and scraping his own, much shorter nails through her fur. The white beast whined loudly, but before Gavin's teeth could find any purchase there was something sharp against his abdomen threatening to rake through his guts at any moment. In a panic, he let go and was only thrown through the air at the force of her hind limbs instead of being disembowelled on the spot.

Gavin cried out in pain as his bloodied back hit the sand, but that was quickly overshadowed by searing heat as he skidded along far enough to be stopped by the silver net.
'Gavin, please stand up!'
He managed to open his eyes through a watery haze just to see a flurry of white overtaking it. Without a chance to stand up and prepare, Ivory Claw had rushed in and pushed him farther against the silver confines of the ring.
Gavin screamed but at the same time all he could hear was 'GAVIN!'

His android. His owner. Nines. Nines!

Gavin weakly lashed out. He had a home to get back to. He had to safe his kind. He had the single best thing in life to fight for. He had Ni-

He couldn't die here.

Ivory Claw had her teeth in his neck, threatening to snap it with just a shake of her head. Gavin couldn't allow that. He strained the muscles in his back and neck, ignoring the pain from his many wounds and just taking this last effort to kick against the floor hard enough. It sent him into the air and with Ivory Claw still connected to him, he threw her around. Yelping, she let go, refocussing on her defence, but Gavin was on her blind side now. Ignoring everything - the cheering, the shouting, Nines overly clear words filled with fear, his own pain - he turned around and jolted forwards. His jaws encased her head again, but this time in the right spot. He felt his teeth connect with bone as he cracked her lower jaw and ripped her throat apart. With one last choked whine, Ivory Claw went slack, blood loss and lack of air promising her a slow death.

Gavin stood on shaking legs, one wrong move and they would give in. But he couldn't let her suffer this much. Although the announcer was already cheering for him, riling the crowd up even more, Gavin gently nuzzled her mangled face, before granting her a quick death.

~

Nines felt numb all over. The whole fight he had only been able to stare in silence at the horror. Gavin looked worse than before, sand and blood sticking to his pelt and caking it into odd shapes. When he had broken down next to the dead werewolf, he thought his thirium pump had stopped working. He vaguely registered the crowd of people flowing in to celebrate and some distant part of his programming noted he had accepted the winning sum, but everything else was a blurry distraction from what his eyes were solely focussed on: Gavin had to be carried out of the arena. Nines scanned him, monitoring his vitals and with relief finding, though weak, his heart was beating and he was breathing. He had to get to him. Immediately.

That made his mind jolt back to himself and the wildly gesticulating humans around him. Nines didn't have to start his program, it was already running, as he snarled: 'Out. Of. My. Way.' His eyes were colder than ice and sharper than daggers and even though created for werewolves, it had an effect on the people around him. Some scared, some in a farce of respect, retreated to make way for the android that could break them in half easily. With the crowd still chanting “Nobot!“ and “Little Bitch!“ in extasy, Nines marched on, every bit the machine he was designed to be. He had one simple mission: Get Gavin out of here. And he would complete it. Now.

He pushed the arena staff that was huddling around the transport crate to the side like offending insects and finished closing the hatches himself with programmed efficiency, before hurrying out, no matter how it might look to the watching eye.
The drive back home was the most agonizing experience again. Every red light was a personal offence with Gavin secured but injured in the trunk. Nines was hyperaware of every bump in the road and whenever he broke too hard, it was like he experienced double the force.

When he finally reached home, he lost no time to vent his overheating systems and fled the car. His movements only slowed down to handle Gavin. His crate was heavy in his arms and this time the android went straight to the bathroom. With his injuries, Gavin would be best off there.
He gently helped him out of the crate and into the bathtub, trying not to disturb the wounds too much. Still, the wolf bared his teeth at the movement. 'It's alright, Gavin, you are home. It's alright. I'll patch you up again, don't you worry. You are safe.' He carefully lifted his head to pull off the silver chain around his neck and stood up. 'I'll just fetch the first aid kit; I'll be back in a second!' He wasted no time whilst running to the kitchen and grabbing the package. He would have to restock soon, especially if the next fights were just as terrible. But it would more than suffice to take care of Gavin for now.

On his way back he filled a glass of water and put it down on the rim of the bathtub. Then he helped Gavin to hold up his head. 'Painkillers', he explained, showing the werewolf the pills in his hand. 'Thought after last time they might be useful.'
Gavin seemed to think the same thing, nearly gulping them down dry. 'Easy, wolf. It's easier with water.' He brought the glass to his snout, the process a bit more difficult than in his human form, but the injured man eagerly took the liquid in.
'You'll feel better in a minute', Nines muttered, lowering Gavin's head again and gently petting one of the few spots he hadn't been hurt in.

Only after Gavin visibly relaxed, Nines decided to begin tending to him. Armed with a lukewarm washcloth and the showerhead sitting near Gavin's tail, he began cleaning the surrounding areas and rinsing the wounds themselves. The smaller scratches were dealt with easily, but the deeper ones really worried him.
Nines began dipping the cloth over the deep gashes in Gavin's back and the werewolf whined in pain despite the pills. In unison, Nines hissed, and one hand settled against his lower back. What the...
Nines ran a quick diagnostic, but It returned nothing but a malfunction of his pain receptors of unknown origin. Blinking, his eyes focussed back on Gavin. Right. There were more important things to do.

Nines continued to clean Gavin's wounds, malfunctions flaring up whenever he rinsed them with clean water. It wasn't exactly pain, Nines noted. It was a mixture of heat and itching, an unpleasant feeling that was close to hurt but not exactly that either. Again and again, he searched for an origin, but never found one. Despite that sensation, he worked diligently and effective, disinfecting the deep cuts, stitching up most wounds and caring for those that had to be left open underneath the bandaging to avoid them becoming infected. Those in his neck were exceptionally brutal and deep, likely because of his manoeuvre of flipping Ivory Claw around using her grip on him.

What worried him most though was the wound from the silver barrier. His skin looked burned or vitriolized there and if the marks from the chain or the bars of his former cage were anything to go by, it wouldn't fade as easily. Given, the scar around his neck and on the bridge of his nose were from prolonged contact with the deadly metal, but this would still be a permanent, prominent scar on both his forms that would never really stop hurting.
As Nines was finally finished, he dried Gavin to his best abilities and wrapped him in a soft blanket, before carrying him down to the living room. They settled in their usual spot on the couch from where Gavin would be able to see most of the flat while still being hidden from unwelcomed glances. Nines stayed by his side until Gavin had fallen asleep. Only then he dared to leave for the kitchen, fetching a package of fresh thirium and then returning to his wolf, caressing him.

'Another battle won', he sighed deeply, before entering stasis, searching for the source of these malfunctions.

Chapter Text

When Gavin woke up, he didn't open his eyes. He just laid there and concentrated his efforts to breathe and ignore the painful stretch around his wounds with every heaving of his ribs. His body felt numb from the painkillers and his skin was tingling. The only real sensation was a pit in his stomach from hunger and the unwillingness to remember. He sighed sleepily, carefully stretching under the soft blanket and relaxing as he felt some kind of warmth calming his senses. He knew he wasn't alone. Nines was here somewhere, he didn’t have to check with his eyes. He was... in the kitchen. Gavin didn't know why he was so certain of that fact, but when he finally opened his eyes, he spied the black fabric of the android's turtleneck through the door. Not much later, the scent of freshly cooked meat and potatoes filled the air and Nines came over with a steaming bowl. The nearer he came the more intense the calming warmth got, and Gavin closed his eyes again in contentment.

'There's no use in hiding, I saw you were awake just now.'

Gavin huffed, only briefly opening his eyes to look at the android's amused face, who sat down next to him again. The werewolf helped where he could, but he was still heavily dependent on Nines' help to hoist his head and part of his chest up on his lap and some pillows. The injuries in his neck meant eating on his own was immensely painful and Gavin really appreciated the android feeding him. Normally it would have been dehumanising and disturbing for him, but now he just wallowed in the comfort it gave him. Feeling Nines underneath him, his gentle, mindless – maybe even unaware - touches in places that weren't hurt and the tastiest food he believed to have ever had despite the simplicity of it... Yes, he was back in hell. Yes, he had to fight his own kind again. But with Nines at his side all of it was just about bearable.

When they had finished the plate, Nines sat it aside but stayed. Nines stayed. He caressed his pelt until the tingling from his healing wounds had dulled and then he slowly massaged his muscles that had tensed from the pain.
All of that lulled him into a dozing state and he sighed deeply.
‘I have to be honest with you, I thought I would loose you.’
Gavin knew those were serious words of worry, but to him the sound of the android’s voice was just another soothing background noise. ‘I wish I could end it. I wish I could take the pain from you. I wish…’
Gavin grumbled deep from his throat and made an effort to press his snout into Nines’ abdomen despite the stinging that caused.
‘Ouch, hey, stop moving!’, the android exclaimed and Gavin lifted an eyelid to look at Nines kneading his neck. Then he shrugged. ‘I don’t know why, I just kind of feel what you feel? Maybe that’s the empathy Connor promised me I would discover sooner or later. If I knew how it felt I would have stayed a machine…’
Gavin huffed, refusing to think about what this could be. After all, it wasn’t possible. Not with androids.
Nines hummed and scratched the werewolf under his chin. ‘But really, I… I hope we end this soon. I can’t bear seeing you getting hurt over and over again. I don’t want to think of what will happen once you lose. I don’t think I could go back to before, I-‘
Then I won’t lose.

‘Gavin?’
But the werewolf had already fallen asleep again, leaving Nines wondering just how much his stress really interfered with his systems.

~

Gavin grumbled his displeasure as the surface he laid on so comfortably suddenly moved. But it didn’t stop moving at that, so he ended up opening his eyes, lifting his head and glaring at the android.
‘Alright, alright! I didn’t want to wake you’, Nines hurriedly said, slopping down on the couch again. ‘I just… I promised Tina to call her and tell her you are alright. Thought I might go to the kitchen for that, so I don’t disturb you.’
Gavin continued to look Nines in the eye, until he deflated. ‘Yeah fine, I mean you’re awake now anyways.’ Gavin huffed and let his tail slam against the cushions once.
‘Maybe Tina is right calling you an oversized puppy’, the android joked, but was quickly silenced by the werewolf’s offended whine. ‘Alright, shush now, I’m calling her.’

Gavin yawned and stretched his legs. It seemed his wounds were healing alright. His neck and back still hurt like hell, but the smaller cuts were barely recognisable anymore. As he settled down again, he listened for nines to speak up, only to be gently lifted from his lap. ‘Sorry, forgot to bring the phone so you can listen, too. I’ll be back in a second!’

Gavin grumbled at the commotion but let him go. He wanted to hear what they were talking about, too, so he would have to bear with it. Besides he knew Nines was nearby, just searching for the phone. When he finally came back, he could already hear the ringing from it while they were waiting for Tina to answer.

‘Nines! How are you? How is Gavin? What happened?’
Gavin huffed amusedly, only to wince at the needles in his neck flaring up.
‘Tina I’m alright, Gavin is too. Wounded and healing, but alive and stable. What do you mean “what happened”? You told me to call you after the next fight last time.’
‘Well, I certainly didn’t expect you to listen to me’, Tina said and Nines sighed.
‘Tina, we are a team. Last time, I simply forgot. I won’t be negligent of my duties again.’
‘Come on, don’t bullshit me. Your duties. You big idiot are worried about him. That’s just normal. I would have called you once I couldn’t endure the silence any longer.’
‘I’m not…’ Nines trailed off, looking down on his hand that had automatically found it’s way over to Gavin’s head. The wolf had closed his eyes in contempt and only now opened them upon his silence. There was a moment of awkward eye contact, before Nines could avert his gaze again.
‘So maybe I’m worried, anyone would be.’
‘Sure…’ Nines could practically hear her smiling on the other end. ‘And you are absolutely certain, there isn’t more to it, hmm?’

‘Tina, Gavin can hear you.’
‘Oh! Hi Gavin! You did great! I mean I wasn’t there, but you are still with us! I hope you heal well and get back on your feet quickly!’
Nines looked at the werewolf in his lap. Gavin wagged his tail weakly once and nodded barely visible.
‘He thanks you. I think we all hope for a quick recovery.’ He swallowed. ‘Anything new on the investigation side? Could we stop someone?’
‘Unfortunately not’, Tina sighed and sounded tired. ‘We got nothing on the breeder and all the spectators we were tailing didn’t do anything that would justify an arrest. But we got more on their persons.’

Gavin tuned out as Tina gave Nines the details. All of it was excellent detective work, digging in social media and collecting information from stakeouts. But it did little to let him feel content with what he had done. Murder was still murder and they hadn’t learned anything new. He could just hope for Nines to get more intel from his contacts soon. Ivory Claw’s death shouldn’t be for nothing. He always reminded himself that it was a long game they were playing, but he really just wanted it to end.

When Nines ended the call he had to reassure Tina he would take good care of him and get him back to health. It was weird how that statement didn’t fill Gavin with shame. It didn’t even feel awkward. He reasoned it was because they both had been through a lot. They were working partners and he needed to be at his best in order to solve this case. But… They were also friends, weren’t they? It felt nice to be cared for, so why make such a big deal out of it? It must have been that he didn’t know caring hands for most of his life that he now questioned Nines’ intentions. It was just a necessity, nothing more.

Yes. That had to be it.

~

The next fight was soon to announce itself. Gavin healed well, Nines took care of him until he was able to shift. The android helped him bandage any reopened wounds again and from there he was on his own. Sleeping in his room instead of on the couch. Caring for himself. Getting better.
He had barely recovered, as Nines had received a message. Not from an unknown number like before but from his unexpected ally, the announcer James Clarke.

Got a new fight for you, Nobot. I didn’t forget my promise. This one will be something very special. You can thank me later!

They both had looked each other in the eye after Nines had read it out loud over breakfast. It was of little surprise that they both thought the same thing: Something special in this case could mean nothing good. Nines clung to the hope it meant an easy win for them, but Gavin knew better than to believe the android’s half-hearted try to comfort him. He knew the arenas. Nothing was ever easy.

The shift, the drive to the arena in his crate and the waiting in the holding cage. Oh, how disgustingly familiar it all had become already. Just like old times. No. No, not like back then. He wasn’t alone this time. He thought for something important, to end this once and for all. He had a mission. His eyes spied Nines through the tight bars of the cage and immediately that warm feeling in his chest lit up again. At least some comfort, he thought, and tried to calm his heart.

~

‘And now, my friends, Little Bitch versus Smear! Nobot had a lucky streak going, let’s see how he’ll manage this time!’
He waited for a little while to allow the crowd to cheer, before announcing the next battle: ‘Alright then, let the fight begin!’

Nines heard Gavin’s low whine, before the hatch opened and he more or less forced himself out into the sands and into his trademark posture. Again, Gavin showed off his body with his impressive scars and mighty roar that made the crowd answer in deafening jubilation. Nines took a deep breath and stepped closer to the silver barrier. Gavin waited, standing with more weight on his hind limbs, ready to sprint out of the way of his opponent, claws tensed. All eyes fixed on the opposite hatch that was standing wide open. Gavin bellowed again, hoping to be understood as impatient when in reality, Nines could hear his nervousness and worry. The android watched, as the arena staff closed in and their opponent’s owner screamed something. Mr. B was rather large and bulky, missing two fingers of his left hand. A person easy to remember and Nines decided, just as the man took one of the silver spears from the staff and threw it into the holding cage, to put him on his priority target list.

But the offending metal finally managed to scare the werewolf out of his confines. And what Nines saw made him swallow in pity: Gavin’s opponent showed every sign of a long life full of hardships. His pelt not more than a rag rug of spots of fur and scars, his skin sagging over bones and muscles and his eyes tired. Gavin saw it and Nines suspected it: This werewolf had no intention of winning. But, as if remembering the rules of this cruel game, the old beast composed himself. He shook his body and stood up, copying Gavin’s posture and screaming his battle cry with a hoarse voice. They began circling each other and Nines could only now see how healthy Gavin looked compared to the old wolf. Through Nines’ good care, Gavin had accumulated a healthy amount of fat and his muscles had been allowed to grow. But Smear looked severely broken. How could a champion even survive this long? If this life had driven Gavin to such a low point that Nines had to fight to keep him alive when they found him, how strong had this one been?

But it didn’t matter. Smear had entered the ring deciding this would be his final round. Gavin tested the waters deking a jump and the other didn’t even flinch. Nines saw both wolves nodding at each other, a silent agreement, then Smear jumped at Gavin. The younger wolf effortlessly ducked out of the way. Gavin retaliated by clawing at his side, hitting the old werewolf and slicing open his skin. The first blood of the fight had the masses jumping to their feet and Maybe that elation was enough for Smear. His next attack was half-hearted at best and so obviously faked, Nines was sure even a human had to see his hesitation. Immediately Gavin dove in, maybe to gloss over the other’s mistake, crashing into Smear’s side and sending him to the ground. Both rolled over at least once, with Smear biting and trashing and actually hitting Gavin a few times. Maybe he too had seen how unconvincing his play was if he let Gavin kill him without a struggle. Smear got up and bit into Gavin’s shoulder, who effortlessly shrugged him off and pinned him into the sand. They thought a little while longer, each wolf dealing light blows to the other to keep the masses entertained. But that was all Smear would manage to do, as after a while Gavin decided the old wolf had suffered enough. In one particularly ferocious attack, Gavin threw Smear on his back, whined lowly as he took aim and bit down, shaking hard enough to break the other’s neck to make his end as quick and painless as possible.

Cheering erupted from the stands while Gavin stood next to the dead werewolf and howled his fake triumph through the arena. Nines knew the toll this must have taken on his partner, but he himself could only be relieved. Gavin had managed to live through yet another fight and only with minor wounds for once. Maybe like this, he would heal enough to have some time for himself before the next one. Nines waited for the crowd come in to bother him with breeding requests and his payment, while Gavin was eagerly tapping over to the holding cage to go home, as suddenly, the announcer’s voice echoed through the arena, sounding deeply offended.

‘Oh, no, my friends... This is just in! Just now I heard there was some foul play!’
‘What?’, Nines spat, glaring at the press box high above, although Clarke wouldn’t be able to hear him. ‘Oh, you gotta be kidding me!’
As on cue, the crowd that had just been mindlessly cheering until now, began booing loudly.
‘Yes!’, the announcer said. ‘It seems Mr. B just proved he is less capable than a damned toaster! Next time train your beast better! This, my friends, was a dog giving up! I’m sorry you had to witness that in these halls of quality entertainment! Mr. B, you are disqualified for this season. Get the hell out of here!’

Okay, that wasn’t a problem, Nines thought. As long as it didn’t affect them, Nines could live with some asshole being disqualified and unable to torture more of Gavin’s kind – even if just for this season. But then, why weren’t people surrounding him? Why was there no staff ushering Gavin into the cage and closing the hatch of the transport crate waiting? Gavin looked at him equally confused from inside the silver net, until suddenly all his features fell. Nines followed his partner’s gaze to the holding cages on the other side. There was movement beyond the ring. Oh no.

‘Thankfully’, Clarke’s voice boomed again. ‘We won’t let you leave without a proper fight, am I right, friends? We just happened to have a backup candidate! Welcome with me: Furorborn!’ The crowd cheered louder than ever, but Nines only had eyes for Gavin’s instinctive reaction of fear. He had his tail pressed against his body and he was tense all over.
‘Now, you might notice him by name, but for our newbies here, let’s just give our due respects. Maybe then, Nobot will know what opponents are yet to come if he wants to make it big!’
‘Oh, no’, Nines whispered to himself, futilely scanning the still closed hatch.
‘Furorborn, son of Flea Bastard and Ribbreaker! Born, raised and trained by The Doc. Successful champion for over four years now, never defeated and Winner of the last summer tournament!’

Immediately the crowd went wild, chanting “Doc” and growing faster and faster until the name slipped into one single connected scream of joy. Nines was stuck in complete shock. This… This couldn’t be. Gavin wasn’t about to fight one of these bred lapdogs, these heretic werewolves.
‘Now then, I think he will be a worthy opponent for our Little Bitch, wouldn’t you say? Our fan-favourite from the holding stations fought for about the same time, four years with The Master and now under Nobot, 167 fights in total! So, place your bets, get ready! This fight is going to be epic!’

Nines shook his head violently. No. No, he couldn’t allow this. To hell with this undercover mission, his secret identity and the police, he couldn’t let Gavin be killed, never!
‘Gavin! Gavin, come here, I’ll get you out of here, this is too much, I-‘
His partner only managed to look at him briefly, before the announcer spoke up again, starting the battle anew: ‘Little Bitch versus Furorborn! Let the fight begin!’
The hatch opened and without a dramatic entrance, a black flash ripped through the sand, crashing into Gavin’s unprepared side and lifting him in giant paws to throw through the whole length of the ring away from Nines.

Nearly too fast for the android’s sensors, the massive beast chased after Gavin, who had just managed to stand up and shake his head from the impact. He narrowly avoided Furorborn’s next attack, but already there was the next. And the next. And the next. Gavin was solely occupied with running and jumping and staying out of the massive werewolf’s range.
It made Nines remember, how Gavin had described his single encounter with them: I only survived because I was lucky. Nines hoped with all his might, Gavin was lucky again.

In one short moment, Gavin got ready to jump. It was a blink-and-you-miss-it opening and Gavin saw it. He jumped onto the other’s back and used every weapon he got at his disposal to dig in and stay connected. It was the first time Nines got a better picture of the werewolf. Covered in completely black, shining fur, Furorborn stood at least as tall as twice Gavin’s height. The beast was all muscle and sharp claws, with eyes as wild as those of the bloodthirsty crowd. If Nines had to pin it down, this was the monster everyone had in mind when thinking about werewolves as the dangerous beings he had been programmed to know them as. He was terrifying even to the android, who had his intimidation protocol at hand and stood safely behind a net of silver.

Furorborn swatted at Gavin in his back, but the other werewolf managed to climb higher, digging his claws into his skin and finally biting at his neck. But his teeth didn’t even reach deep enough through the beast’s thick muscle, no matter how often Gavin tried to chew it down. In his despair that even a death grip didn’t work, his partner had lost purchase on one of his legs, his claws slicing through skin. The short imbalance was enough for Furorborn to catch Gavin at the hip and pull him off his back. He slammed him to the ground, taking his time to push just one claw through his front leg.

Gavin screamed and in unison Nines did too. He held his left arm in pain where his synthetic skin had retracted. Another malfunction, but stronger this time, and exactly at the place Gavin’s leg was impaled. Furorborn pulled his paw back, but kept the struggling Gavin confined with the other. Nines could see overly clear that his claws had been sharpened far beyond the natural state, as the bigger werewolf lifted his free paw up to Gavin’s face. Nines saw the panic in Gavin’s eyes, as he couldn’t do anything but watch how Furorborn dragged his claws over the length of his face. Nines hissed as a combination of heat and stinging pain filled the left side of his face and he instinctively pressed one hand against his unblemished skin. This wasn’t a fight anymore. This wasn’t two werewolves fighting to survive. This was the torture of another being at the hands of someone who enjoyed it. Nines was seconds away from climbing into the ring himself, nerves bubbling up, as he looked through his fingers at the scene in front of him.

Furorborn apparently had decided to drag this out for added effect. Again, he picked Gavin up and threw him through the air only to come to a halt a few metres away from Nines.
‘Get up, get up, get up!’, the android begged, as Gavin managed to roll onto his belly instinctively. The black mass was already in pursuit and it seemed the werewolf’s instincts kicked in. Gavin stood up and jumped out of the way, keeping his injured leg in the air and trying to get behind his opponent. Furorborn guarded his back better this time, but Gavin hadn’t aimed for it. He ran towards the giant, trying to get a good swipe at his legs. He landed a few hits, drawing red lines across tendons and muscle, but they weren’t deep enough to really bother the werewolf. Gavin grew increasingly desperate. He was fit and thanks to Nines’ efforts more than prepared for the fights. But he had never had an especially good endurance. His strength had always been a quick reaction and incredible sprints. But he felt his energy depleting with every manoeuvre. This couldn’t go on forever.

Just as that thought came to his mind, his luck ran out and Furorborn caught him again. He felt his claws rake through only recently healed tissue and screamed. He fell to the ground in the right position for his eyes to land on Nines for a few seconds. The android had his back arched and seemed to be in pain. Why was Nines in pain? Why...?
Gavin had no time to concentrate on his partner. He was lifted up again and this time he decided that whatever happened, he wouldn’t allow himself to be thrown away again. He needed to get back on his feet and quickly. So, when Furorborn prepared to strike, Gavin dug his teeth into his leg just at the right moment to throw him off balance. The large black beast fell to the ground, his ribcage ploughing the sand from the force he had put into the throw and Gavin let go, immediately jumping after him. If he couldn’t land the fatal hit now, there wouldn’t be another chance. He could see the fury in his opponent’s eyes as he climbed the heap of flesh trying to get to his throat. But Gavin wouldn’t get his chance today. In just one effortless move, Gavin was thrown off and pinned again. And when he saw the pristine white teeth of Furorborn, he knew it was over.

He managed to roll enough so his underside was dug into the ground, so when the wolf closed his jaws around him, they only hit his shoulder blades and couldn’t crush his ribs. But no matter how much he struggled, Furorborn easily held him down. This was it. This was how it would end.

~

Nines had never thought this much pain was even possible. Definitely not for an android. Yes, they felt pain. But it was a mere equivalent of the real thing, it was not more than an approximation. Android pain was something to remind them of damages or to let them know something was deeply wrong. If what he felt was human pain, then he couldn’t believe anyone of them forced others to experience this. He didn’t know why, but he felt every wound that had been inflicted upon Gavin as if it were his own. No, as if it were his own tenfold. Everything hurt, everything felt numb at the same time. Everything was too loud, too bright and every smell as intense as he never experienced it. That together with the crowd around him cheering, Gavin fighting for dear life and losing, and the terrifying werewolf on top of him, his stress levels rose. He couldn’t even see his partner clearly through the haze. It was all too much, and Nines just wanted to... He wanted to flee. He wanted out of here. He didn’t want to witness this; he didn’t want to be witness to Gavin’s death and still pretend it didn’t affect him. He didn’t want to return to the precinct without Gavin; he didn’t want to tell Tina the bad news. He... Why was he suddenly up here at the stairs? Why...?

~

Gavin really didn’t want to admit he had given up. He wanted to say he hadn’t yet. But there was no way he would win against Furorborn. He had been wounded from the first fight and then the other werewolf had worked him to a bloody pulp. Yes, he was still alive. Yes, his blood loss wasn’t as severe yet as it might have been once. But how on earth would that help? He wanted to miraculously find the strength to get the black mass off of him and stand up. He wanted... He just wanted to come back home today. He wanted to be carefully stitched together by Nines again. He wanted to be carried to their couch and be cuddled by the once so intimidating android. He wanted to tell Nines... So many things. He had just started his new life, he wanted more than just this... And Nines. Nines would be sad. He would be devastated; he had stated it himself. He would blame himself and only himself. Gavin wouldn’t want that.
Weakly, Gavin glanced to where Nines had to stand. He didn’t want to see his worried, terrified face, but Gavin wanted to look him in the eye and tell him everything would be alright. As he was shook by Furorborn’s teeth sinking in again and again, he managed to finally focus. But no, Nines wasn’t there. Nines’ spot was empty. What... Why... No.

No.

He had died alone once; he didn’t want it to be this way again. And it wouldn’t. His focus shifted onto his opponent. He turned his head and immediately Furorborn sensed his chance for the final blow. But it wouldn’t be it. Gavin wouldn’t let it be it. He blinked once and suddenly time stopped. Faint blue lines overlaid reality and from one second to the next, Gavin knew what Furorborn would do next. There was one single line connecting his long teeth and Gavin’s throat. But at the same time, that left an opening for Gavin on his side. His opponent would have to lift his paw a bit in order to get closer and then Gavin would be able to slip out from underneath. When he focussed on the next steps, he saw his own outline rush to his back and away to the silver barrier. Once there, Furorborn would have been able to catch up to him enough to trick him into running into it full speed. Gavin didn’t need to see more, he instinctively knew that if he followed his ghostly outline, he would be able to survive this. So, when Furorborn closed in, he did just that.

Each of his steps landed perfectly in the spot this alternate reality told him to. He used exactly the calculated strength and angles and finally got free, running towards the silver net at top speed. Distantly, as if from a different time, he heard the crowd cheer him on, but he couldn’t waste even the smallest part of capacity on that fact, if he wanted to get out of here. For a short moment there were two options in front of him, but one he dismissed immediately. With his abused back, there was no way he could do that. So, when he reached the net, he gathered all his strength and forced it into one single jump onto the silver bars. He managed to climb the searing metal long enough to feel Furorborn crash into the barrier underneath him. Then he allowed himself to drop down, putting the very last reserves into it. He distantly heard a ping together with a [Simulation complete] he couldn’t understand, before slicing his opponent’s throat in one clean line. Blood rushed down on him, while the werewolf above him was still occupied with the pain from the silver. But although the blue lines disappeared already and he knew he had won, Gavin clawed and bit again and again and again, wanting to be sure he managed the impossible. He had defeated a heretic werewolf. He had defeated someone who had been bred, raised and trained to fight. Someone with equal experience and yet so much less life in him. He had slayed a true monster. And he had survived.

Hear that, Nines? Can we go home now?

~

Nines was panicking. He knew he was. But knowing was no help if he didn’t know how to stop it. In what he could only describe as a blackout, he had managed to climb the stairs halfway up the arena. Only the deafening cheers and the jingle from the announcer had been able to ground him in his stressed state. The fight was over. Someone had won. Who had won? He turned to see the massive black werewolf on the ground, dead. In comparison Gavin looked small, clawing and biting at the dead body’s throat. Nines felt the pain searing through his neck and back with every movement of his partner and hissed in unison with him as the extraction poles made contact with his collar. It was over. It was over and Gavin had survived. It was impossible.

Nines followed the wolf with his eyes, unable to move with his systems still in disarray. Only when he saw the mass of people rolling in, searching for him, he began the climb downwards. He had to get to Gavin before they did. He knew his champion had been a desired fighter before, but now that he had won over a heretic, his value must have increased quite a bit. He didn’t want to know what some people would do would they get to Gavin’s crate and he wasn’t there.

‘Nobot?’
‘Where is he?’
‘This is Little Bitch, right?’
‘Can we get a comment?’
‘Nobot isn’t here.’
‘What?’
‘He left his champion.’
‘Well, that’s his bad. Let’s-‘

‘I am here’, Nines boomed, drowning out the voices around him. Already some jumped to the side to make way, but some were too excited about the possibility to grab the crate and make a run for it. Nines saw red. ‘Get away from him!’, he shouted, pushing them out of the way and glaring at them once they realised the tall, broad and intimidating android had arrived. Nines took the crate in his arm, punched his hand against the interface device to collect his prize money and ploughed through the crowd. His hurting body only helped fuelling his anger. Anger at these people, at Clarke and his specialty, at himself. He had to get Gavin out of here. And he would never allow himself to leave Gavin alone again.

Chapter Text

By the time Nines had managed to get Gavin into the bathtub he was about to collapse from malfunctions all over his body. Every wound, every strained muscle, every drop of blood he felt and only now that Gavin laid there like dead weight, he was able to catch a break. ‘Gavin?’, he whispered hoarsely. ‘You there?’ A new feeling of warmth blossomed in his chest and he relaxed just the tiniest bit, letting himself sink against the bathtub. He had to gather his strength. It didn’t need a supercomputer to figure out what was going on. He felt Gavin’s wounds as if they were his own. He didn’t know why or how, but that was a simple fact he needed to accept. He took a deep breath before lifting his body up with the help of the rim of the bathtub. He looked at Gavin’s mangled back and bloodied fur and pressed his lips together. He had to tend to him, no matter the cost.

Nines forced himself to clean the wounds, to ignore the aching pains on his own body whenever he came in contact with Gavin. He needed several breaks, but in the end, he had finally cleaned and sewed together what was left of healthy skin and flesh. He wrapped it tightly in bandages he had to change again in just a few hours by the speed they bled through. He steeled himself to carry the wolf downstairs and sighed, as he finally managed to lay him down on the couch. He hissed as Gavin’s back leaned against the backrest and promptly decided to build a makeshift blanket-nest on the floor. That way Gavin could lay comfortably without pain.

When all was done, Nines sat down next to him on the wooden floor, back leaned against the couch and his hand on a paw. The usual spot he caressed was covered by thick bandages and hurt like hell. Nines sighed deeply, enjoying the marvellous feeling of not being in pain. He looked down on the sleeping man. ‘When you wake up, you have some explaining to do, wolf’, he mumbled, gently squeezing the paw in his hand. The warmth in his chest was his only answer.

~

When Gavin woke up, he instinctively stretched his body, flinching as the pain stung up his whole body. He hissed, only to hear he wasn’t the only one. He looked up to the android that sat next to him on the floor and had his face scrunched up in pain.
‘Please don’t move’, Nines said, his eyes upright begging him for it. Gavin just looked back at him, hoping the android would see his confusion.
‘I… I think I feel what you feel.’ Nines lifted his hand to his neck and managed to hold the exact spot Gavin was hurting most at from where Furorborn had bitten into it. The wolf was staring wide eyed at him. ‘Yeah, I don’t understand it either. I thought it was a form of empathy but… I don’t think it’s normal.’
Gavin continued to look at the android’s face and concentrated. The surprised face Nines threw him as he touched his chest. ‘Is that you?’, he asked disbelievingly. ‘This warmth? It is a malfunction; I don’t produce that much, and no system registers it.’ Gavin blinked at him instead of nodding.
‘How is that possible?’

Gavin didn’t know himself. Yes, he had kind of felt where Nines had been in the house all the time when he woke up. And maybe when he had managed to win over Furorborn that hadn’t been just blood loss and panic. Maybe… But that couldn’t be. Nines wasn’t human. It shouldn’t – it couldn’t work. But… He concentrated on the android again and after some time, he came through to him. The edge of his vision was crowded by little blue boxes that vanished when he concentrated on them too much. From the way Nines blinked and snapped his fingers next to his ears, it seemed to go both ways.

Shit. Yes, Gavin would have a lot of explaining to do, once he was back in his human form. If only he could talk like this. There was only so much communication to be done like this, even with the newly found connection. They had bonded. Gavin hadn’t even thought it to be possible with an android, the only reason he hadn’t taken any precautions. He was sure that if he had known, he wouldn’t have let it happen. Too much the separation from Mrs. Anderson had hurt him. He had sworn himself back then that he would never allow himself to be hurt like this ever again. To never bind himself to anyone like this again. But now he had and… It didn’t exactly feel bad. He was already completely depending on the android. They lived together, they worked together, Nines took care of him after the fights and without him Gavin wouldn’t be alive right now. If he hadn’t made any bad experiences with it before, maybe it would have been the natural next step.

As long as it hadn’t been some elaborate plan of the android from the start. Mrs. Anderson had wanted him for his heightened senses and once they bonded, she had taken them in exchange of housing a werewolf. Not that Gavin had ever received anything in return except for the feelings she had for her family. Everything else she had kept locked away.
But Nines didn’t seem to have put any thought into it. He seemed completely lost, unable to shut sensation out or hide something from him. Gavin had already used his abilities once. And neither of them had known a bond between androids and werewolves was possible. Gavin’s paranoia had seldomly proved exaggerated in his life, but maybe this was one of the few exceptions.
Gavin swallowed and shifted a bit to lay more comfortably. Immediately Nines winced at the shared pain and Gavin tried to throw him an apologetic look. Yeah. No way the bot had planned that.

They spent a few minutes in silence together. Then Nines spoke up: ‘Are you hungry? I will make you something to eat. Would you mind being alone for a few hours? I… You know how Clarke invited us to the last fight? He said something it would be something special just for us. I have to know whether or not he arranged this. And if he did, I don’t know if I can stay civil. I’ll pay him a visit once you have eaten and I’ve changed your bandages. If that’s alright with you.’
Gavin just nodded. If this new contact of Nines was responsible for pitting him against a damn lapdog, then Gavin himself was out for blood.

~

Nines found himself in a taxi three hours later. Gavin had eaten just the tiniest amount of food, unable to bear the pain of swallowing for more than a few bites at a time. Gavin had tended to his wounds in a long and tedious process of enduring the shared pain and taking a break from it. As he was finally finished and Gavin had drifted off to sleep, Nines had used the secure phone to send Clarke a message.

>Richard here. We need to talk.
>About the stunt you pulled.

Now it sat on read and Nines was just about to put the phone away, as an answer popped up:

>Sure thing, Nobot!
>I’m excited to hear your opinion!

Nines clenched his jaw. Excited… Nines wouldn’t have used that specific word to describe it. But he couldn’t wait to meet the man in person and tell him exactly what he thought of it.

Entering the arena yet again made him uneasy. As he walked down the stairs, he saw two werewolves already fighting again. Of course, the fights didn’t stop just because Gavin was safely at home. He didn’t want to think about how many wolves were stuck in this loop. How many fights were scheduled for a day? How many werewolves lost their lives each day? How many survived to heal to fight another day? How many rotted away somewhere as backup should the main champion be too hurt to fight? Nines sighed and tried not to watch the bloody tournament down there. His eyes were fixed on the press box, waiting for Clarke to comment yet again. He would have to wait for the end of the fight, Nines assumed and looked over the crowd gathered. Had these people nothing better to do? Surely there had to be something better, something more productive at least, to be done. He scanned the rows and meticulously added every name, face and address to his list of suspects. It was already so, so long. It would be hard to arrest this many people, taken that the police even managed to find enough evidence to back it up and send them towards a judge.

It made Nines furious that the most obvious reason wasn’t valid. He saw the two werewolves fight and tear each other apart. He saw the pain, he saw the fear, he saw the idiot “masters” shouting at them, without doubt promising them a bloody death if they didn’t win. Nines recorded all of it. Even if there were no laws against pitting werewolves against each other, maybe someday there would be. It was all Nines could hope for.

Blood was spilled and another life was lost. Nines watched the winner being dragged back to the transport crate, heard the crowd cheer and Clarke’s voice booming through the arena. Nines took his chance to get away from it all by knocking at the door and entering. Clarke was still keeping up the jubilations, but glanced over to Nines acknowledging his presence while still talking to them.

‘What a fight, am I right? I think we all deserved a little break! Take your time, gather your bets! Get something to drink or eat! We’ll be back shortly!’
Nines leaned against the wall of the dark box, waiting for the man to switch off the microphone.
‘Nobot!’ Clarke held out his arms while leaning back, only to stand up and walk towards him. ‘Nice to see you again! Oh, but you didn’t have to come, you don’t have to thank me for-‘
Nines couldn’t hold it in any longer. He showed his teeth stepping forwards and putting all the momentum of the motion into his fist that collided with Clarke’s jaw.
‘Thank you?’, he barely contained a shout. ‘Thank you? For what? For nearly killing my champion?’
Clarke had regained posture relatively quickly for a civilian that was confronted with the punch of a top-notch android designed to keep werewolves at bay. A few tears had gathered up in his eyes from the pain, but he blinked them away. He held up his hands as Nines wanted to throw another hook.
‘Wait! The hell are you talking about? I helped you! Didn’t you say you wanted to make it big? It was a wager! It could have killed your Champion, but hell, Little Bitch brought you enough money already to get yourself a real fighter, born and bred for it! You could have the best little pup to imprint on you! One made of the blood of a long line of fighters! And if Little Bitch won, then you would be the master of a champion from the streets that won over a werewolf that was trained for it from the very beginning. It was a fight you couldn’t lose!’
Nines eyes had been reduced to slits and Clarke was wise to take a step back. ‘It was a wager I never agreed on and one I never even knew of. A risk I wasn’t willing to take. I want my champion to survive this.’

Nines’ face was only centimetres away from Clarke’s, but the man was smiling at him hearing that. ‘You didn’t bond, did you?’ He laughed. ‘Oh god, what did you do to Little Bitch to force that? I never heard of a trainer being able to bond with a werewolf that wasn’t raised by them! Even his previous owner didn’t force him that far! I must say, I am amazed, Nobot. I didn’t know that. I thought your champion was just an asset.’
‘Even if he were’, Nines hissed, bothered by the way Clarke wasn’t scared at all. ‘It took me a great effort to get him where he is now. I won’t allow my work to be for nothing.’ Technically that wasn’t even a lie.
‘Fine, fine’, Clarke finally caved in. ‘But I won’t apologise. Little Bitch survived and won. And your Champion defeated Furorborn fair and square in a battle that had the crowds captivated for its entirety. No one will forget that fight. And I’m sure that with defeating a champion that was born to fight you gathered attention from higher places without doubt.’

Nines stayed silent, waiting for Clarke to continue. What the man had said made sense. It was a solid plan for someone who was detached enough to just see strategic advantages in the bigger plan. But that didn’t mean Nines wasn’t furious still. His other fist still ached for that punch he had aborted just minutes ago.

‘I don’t know how long it will take or how they plan on messaging you, but I am quite sure you will hear of them when the time is right.’
Nines sighed and nodded. ‘And what kind of message can I expect?’
‘Hey, I don’t know, Nobot. I’m just the messenger. I don’t partake in these fights.’
The android glared at him, as Clarke sat back down on his chair again.
‘I guess you have to wait and see. Now, if you would excuse me, I have the next fight to announce.’

~

Nines had been short of throwing furniture around the house when he came back, only refraining from it because Gavin was peacefully sleeping on the heap of pillows and blankets. He watched the wolf for a while, before he went to the kitchen to prepare another meal.

Days passed. Nines had informed Gavin about Clarke’s plan and the possibility of having reached the people who held power in the arenas. He had cooked and looked after Gavin’s wounds. He hadn’t signed him up for another fight yet and he didn’t plan on doing so. Gavin needed a break. They both did. Tina had visited a few times to meet Gavin and to keep them updated about the situation at the precinct. With time Gavin healed again. More nasty scars covered his body and although Nines wished there wouldn’t be any more added to them, he knew there most likely would. But finally, the wolf was ready for a shift and it seemed not only Nines was eager to talk, as Gavin did so the moment it was safe.

He shivered from the far too early change and the android immediately tended to the reopened wounds although his whole face was scrunched up from pain and discomfort.
‘You need… to stop… focussing on me’, Gavin said as soon as the shivers and the itching had subsided a bit. ‘While you were caring for me you were in pain.’
‘It is… You bonded with me, right?’, Nines asked. ‘I don’t misread things here, do I?’
Gavin bit his lip, not wanting to have that conversation without something to cover his body. Nines had seen him like this so many times after his changes, but somehow now it felt weird.
‘Yes, I did’, he nodded, helping Nines with the last bandage. ‘It was an accident. I didn’t think it would work.’
‘I didn’t think it was possible either’, Nines answered, helping Gavin to sit down and leaving for his bathrobe. ‘Can we… Can we reverse it? I don’t know what it means for you, but if you don’t want it and it makes you uncomfortable…’
‘No’, Gavin muttered. ‘No, it’s not like I don’t want it. I just never consciously wanted it either.’
‘Can you tell me more about it?’
‘Sure, just… Give me a moment, alright? I wasn’t quite ready for the shift this time.’
‘Of course.’

They ended up talking about it in the evening. Nines had made dinner while Gavin showered and let the warm water wash away the lingering tingles under his skin. But instead of leaving towards their separate rooms afterwards, they stayed seated.
Gavin looked down on his empty plate and followed the patterns left behind by residue tomato sauce.
‘Okay, so… Err… Before the Werewolf Inclusion Act, a bond was something special reserved for one person for as long as that person lived. It was something you shared with the one most dear to you. It could be your mate, usually was, but it was also shared with your best friend or with a sibling. It is a connection that binds minds together. You can… Well, it is different with every person, but most can sense the whereabouts of your bonded person. Sometimes it’s your others senses or emotions. Sometimes it allows you to hear another person’s thoughts. What is important is that it goes both ways and it doesn’t have to be the same ability shared. It is also something that can be regulated. One bond member can refuse to share something with the other and they won’t be able to force access.’
Gavin swallowed, looking briefly up at Nines, unsure of how he would make use of this new information. But he seemed only curious, watching him intently.
‘After the Werewolf Inclusion Act, things changed. We thought it would help werewolves to live peacefully with humans by using the bond in exchange for partnership. A bond wasn’t something you carefully repressed until you were sure to have found the right partner. You got assigned a human and you had to let them take it. When Mrs. Anderson was assigned a werewolf partner at the station, she was still a detective. My bond offered her superhuman senses. She was able to see the tiniest speck of blood, to smell the faintest sign of a chemical, to hear whispers behind doors and in basements. And she gladly used it to solve crimes and make it Lieutenant in no time. I don’t think I ever got something back in return. She was schooled how to use the bond and it took her only weeks to block out most of it. She was able to give orders through thought, but never shared more. I guess I got her love for her family from her. Back then I would have done anything for her, for Hank and for Cole too.’

‘You told me once that the bond got severed’, Nines remembered. ‘How?’
‘Cole died. It is the single thing I regret most in life. I should have been in that car, should have changed the priorities of that damned AI. Give them the sacrifice that was my duty to give. But they left me at home and Cole didn’t make it. They both were in terrible grief, but Hank had fallen into a far deeper pit. Mrs. Anderson wasn’t able to help him and once she was it was already too late. One evening, she just left. Hank reminded her of her son and she just couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted a new life. A new beginning.’
Gavin took a moment to breathe and soothe the still aching spot. Nines was patiently waiting.

‘She never shared much with me, but all that time she actively wanted the bond. When she left that night, she didn’t. She wanted to be alone in her head and wanted me gone. She wanted everything gone. I have to tell you that it is possible to reverse a bond, so neither partner is hurt. But it needs time and both parties. When she left, she just cut me off and let me tell you, nothing I have experienced in my life has ever hurt this much. And you know my history.’
‘Does it heal?’
Gavin nodded. ‘Slowly. At first it is this jagged blade that twists and turns in your soul, but with time it gets better. Now it’s just something that aches when I think about it. Like an old injury that only acts up when it’s cold.’

Nines nodded to himself, lifting his hands off the table. ‘And you want to share that with me?’
‘I… I don’t mind that it happened’, Gavin evaded the question.
‘Gavin, I don’t need your heightened senses, I would say we are equal in that regard. If this bond is something so special, I don’t want to force it on you. If you want to use it for someone… Someone else that might be better suited or that’s…’
‘What?’
‘Someone that’s a werewolf, too.’ Nines evaded his eyes. ‘I know I am your owner on paper, that I am supposed to order you around and use you. That I force you to do terrible things. I… You certainly don’t want someone like that to share something of that value with.’

Gavin sighed. ‘Tin-can, you don’t force me to do shit, okay? I agreed to this. This was my decision. And you are the first person with that power over me that actually cares about me.’ Unless that was some elaborate play, the thought popped up. But Gavin dismissed it. ‘Also, I think I survived the last fight just because of that bond.’
Nines frowned. ‘How?’
‘I… I lost a lot of blood and I was sure I would die. But then there was another wolf. It looked like a phantom. It showed me different paths to take and calculated the possibility of success. I just had to follow in its steps, and I won. That has never happened before.’
‘You have-‘ Nines stopped, blinking disbelievingly. ‘You have access to my preconstruction software?’
‘Maybe?’, Gavin shrugged. ‘Sounds about right.’
‘What else can you get from me?’, Nines asked, but Gavin just looked at him with a lost expression.
‘I don’t know, it wasn’t a conscious decision.’
‘Are you able to try it out? Feel for something?’
In a different situation, Gavin would have laughed about the clumsy wording, but Nines was clearly hoping for an affirmation.

So, Gavin felt for the bond. It was still just establishing, likely formed by a flurry of emotions and despair while spending a lot of time together. It couldn’t come from anything more; Nines was just taking care of him and Gavin was simply living with the android.
He wasn’t sure what he expected when he opened his eyes and looked at Nines. But it certainly wasn’t the blue boxes he had seen before at the edge of his vision clear as day. Gavin lifted his hand to touch them, only to grab through it. Of course. He looked at the android’s LED.

‘Your stress level sits at twenty percent’, Gavin murmured. ‘You face consists of one-hundred-sixty-four individual hull-pieces. They are made from hard plastic covered by a softer layer to simulate the feeling of human skin. He blinked and looked at the hand that was laying on the table. What the scan results told him caused him to frown. ‘You never repaired the damage I inflicted on you?’
Nines smiled and let his skin retract. The spots his teeth had punched through the hull had been filled by an off-colour white mass, but the pieces itself still sat there bend and shattered. ‘Impressive. So you got my scanning ability?’
Gavin nodded and watched how immaculate skin covered the injury again.

‘You got my scanning and apparently preconstruction. What would you do if someone were to break into this house through the front door?’
‘I don’t know’, Gavin shrugged.
‘Try to use the preconstruction software.’
‘I can’t’, the werewolf said after trying hard to reach for it.
‘Why?’
‘There isn’t someone trying to break in, I’d suppose.’
‘Interesting…’, Nines hummed. ‘Then the bond will be useful for you! If you can access my preconstruction software, there is little anyone can do to harm you. Maybe we should uphold it until this is over?’ Gavin looked at him incredulous. Until this is over? Gavin wasn’t sure what Nines knew that he didn’t, but from his perspective this was far from being over.
‘You don’t have to share anything with me of course’, Nines misinterpreted his expression.
‘Nines, I think… Listen, just because it was an accident, it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have thought about bonding. With time. I don’t mind sharing things with you, I think you have to learn not to listen.’

‘What do you mean?’
Gavin sighed, took his fork and pressed the teeth against his skin. Nines immediately winced and held his own, before glaring up at Gavin, who couldn’t supress a small smile.
‘Fair point’, Nines grumbled. ‘How do I “stop listening”?’
‘Do not concentrate on what you want to avoid. Pretend not to care about what happens.’
‘But I do care.’
‘Well, then care less.’
‘It’s not that easy, I-‘
Gavin had used the fork again and Nines flinched.
‘God, how do humans live with that?’, he mumbled. ‘You feel far more intensely than we do.’
‘Well, you have to learn how to ignore it. It’s enough I am suffering, I don’t need to see you in pain, too.’
‘I will try. But I think it’s time to head to bed. You must be tired.’

Gavin sighed and stood up, carrying his plate and cutlery back to the kitchen to soak in the sink. He was tired, but he didn’t feel like sleeping just yet. These new sensations were confusing, and he couldn’t help but scan everything around him. Expiration dates of the apples in the basked popped up, he could see the exact date when the lightbulb would give in and he realised he had used far too much dish soap on the washcloth than was strictly necessary. Was that how Nines saw the world constantly? Gavin quickly blocked it out and relaxed as his sight was back to normal. If it only were this easy for the android. Gavin had been telling the truth before. He didn’t want Nines to hurt for his sake. He had carried that burden alone for so long, he could continue on like this.

Nines had whished Gavin a good night before leaving for his own room to lay down for stasis. He tried to concentrate on Gavin for quite a while, until the sudden knowledge hit him that he lay in the room next door under a mountain of warm blankets. He couldn’t detect any pain, just a low aching sensation. Nines smiled to himself and closed his eyes, drifting off to stasis just as a by now familiar warm feeling grew in his chest.

He was already deep in the process of clearing his mind of junk data and running self-diagnostics on his systems and couldn’t realise how the screen of his secure phone lit up with a message from a withheld number.

>We see you haven’t yet planned another fight.
>You gave us quite the show with your last win.
>We would be delighted to see you at the golden Colisée.
> 6331 E Jefferson Ave.

Chapter Text

[Warning! Unable to wake unit from stasis. Unknown Err0r d3tec/e# in © om(/onen\ 3260#_-~-

There were hands on him. Countless fingers grabbing his fur and pushing against him. He was lifted up by his tail and a chain that dug into his skin and burned through it. The hands wouldn’t stop, they would touch him everywhere. They held him while he was frozen by fear and unable to move. He didn’t know why he couldn’t move but something told him that movement would make it worse. He looked up to try and see who these hands belonged, but he could only see faceless figures staring him down and laughing with sharp-toothed mouths that were wider than it should be possible. One of them moved nearer, its hands suddenly grabbing so hard they dug into his flesh like knifes. It was grinning at him like the others, but his mouth wasn’t a gaping hole filled by darkness, no. Blood flooded out in between its teeth, only centimetres away from his own face and he could smell it. He could smell nothing else. The grin of the figure widened even more and true shock set in as he realised that this time it had a face of someone he knew: The Master.

[All systems normal. No Error detected. Warning: Stress levels at 87%]
Nines jumped to his feet, the blanket all but discarded to his side. He ran to the door and had nearly ripped it out of its hinges.
[Protect Gavin Reed]
In two large leaps he had reached the adjacent bedroom and burst in through the door. ‘Gavin!’

The man sat in bed, staring at him wide-eyed in shock. There were no hands on him. No one was inside the room besides them and no one had been since they went to bed last night. Nines blinked a few times in utter confusion.
Gavin sat there in an oversized shirt and only his boxers. He was still covered by his blanket where he hadn’t folded it over when sitting himself up. His hair was plastered to his head by sweat and Nines could see his chest rise and fall just a bit quicker than normal.
‘Are you alright?’
Gavin looked the android up and down, then rubbed his forehead and nodded slowly, sighing. ‘Yeah, I’m alright. Just a nightmare, it’s nothing.’
‘Oh. Okay.’ Nines took a step back, suddenly painfully aware he was standing in Gavin’s room while he was barely clothed and looking dishevelled. ‘I’m sorry for barging in, I must have mistaken something then. I… I will give you your privacy. Sorry.’

He was about to leave the room like he had never been there, but Gavin waved him off. ‘It’s okay. We live together. And I mean, you saw me naked before, so this is fine.’ His words died down.
Nines shook his head, disagreeing: ‘I have seen you naked, yes. But this… This time it’s not to tend to your wounds. In many ways this feels even more of an invasion of privacy by me than you have to endure already.’

Gavin frowned, now fully turning towards him. ‘What do you mean?’
Nines defeatedly stepped back into the room, but he couldn’t hide how uncomfortable he felt doing this. ‘I mean how I force you to do terrible things’, he explained and earned a groan.
‘This shit again?’ Gavin looked at Nines and for the first time Nines saw anger there. Unsuppressed anger. He would have been proud about the fact that Gavin didn’t hide his feelings from him – a sign of trust in his eyes – if it wasn’t him it was directed at.

But the look left his features nearly as fast as it had come up and Gavin slowly scooted a bit to the side to pat free space next to him. A wordless invitation.
‘I really shouldn’t-‘, Nines tried to argue, but the man shut it down immediately: ‘Sit down.’
Nines followed the order and sat down very conscious of how much he sunk into the mattress.
‘Let’s talk about it’, Gavin sighed. ‘I’m by no means someone to get things out of the world by talking, but this seems to bother you for quite some time now. So tell me what’s on your mind and maybe we will finally be done with this bullshit.’
Nines nodded but only managed to speak up after a few moments. ‘I’m sorry I ran.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When Furorborn had you in the chokehold and violated your back. I was already in distress because it looked like you would die and with this shared pain on top of it… I blanked out and ran. If you… If you had died that moment, I wouldn’t even have been able to witness it. I’m so sorry about it. And afterwards I was… I was there just in time to… Had I not been there fast enough they would have taken you. My incompetence could have condemned you to becoming just another champion of another person who just wants you for money and doesn’t care about anything else. I… I forced you to take part in these fights and now I couldn’t even protect you. I shouldn’t have let that happen and I understand if you are furious with me for-‘
‘Shut up, tin-can.’ Gavin pressed his eyes close and repeated it slower: ‘Just shut up.’

Nines swallowed but did as told.
‘How many- How many phcking times do I have to tell you, you didn’t force me to do anything. I agreed to every single decision you made. Hell, I even consented on my own. How many times do I have to tell you that until your stupid supercomputer of a brain understands that?’
Nines ducked his head and looked towards the door, otherwise staying silent.
‘Nines, I… You gifted me another life. You rescued me. Doesn’t matter if that was your intention or not, but that very moment you showed me something different to pain and fear and ignorance, I-
I wanted to die, I was so certain that would never change, but… I don’t think about it anymore. I want to live. Everything I do nowadays I want to do. I think that even if what you said was true, that you forced me to do these things, I wouldn’t be angry with you.’
A few beats of silence were shared in between them and Gavin hoped it would finally sink in. But when Nines spoke up defiantly, he knew it hadn’t: ‘Maybe you can forgive me, but I can’t forgive myself.’

So Gavin tried again: ‘Nines, you didn’t choose to leave me, did you? In the arena. You felt my pain. And if what I heard is true and androids don’t really feel pain normally, I don’t blame you for trying to make it stop. We all panic sometimes. Maybe if I died and you stayed, you could have witnessed my death. Wouldn’t have changed that I had died. Maybe you nearly didn’t make it in time to get to me. Maybe people would have taken me. With how much these what-ifs rile you up now that everything is already over, I doubt they would have ever left the arena with me.’
Nines still wasn’t convinced. ‘Gavin, you don’t understand, I-‘
‘You are right, I don’t understand’, the wolf interrupted him. ‘I don’t think the way you do. Nines, if I would think about how much could go wrong or could have gotten wrong, I wouldn’t have time for anything else. If I hadn’t evaded that punch, I would be dead, if I hadn’t by chance reached out for your pre-construction software through a bond that shouldn’t be possible, I would be dead. But I’m not dead. I am alive and well and so are you. We made it. Now we have to think about today. What can go wrong today and how can we change it? When is the next fight due and how can I survive? That’s what you should worry about, bolts.’

‘So you don’t blame me?’, Nines whispered simultaneously hopeful and disbelieving.
‘I blame the people who run and own the arenas’, Gavin said, sounding tired. ‘I blame the masters who force their champions to kill. I blame the breeders, who throw more lives in the grinder. I blame the world for letting something like this happen to our kind.’ Gavin had looked at his hands he had gathered in his lap. Then to Nines’ that clenched the fabric of his trousers. He sighed and hesitantly, as if expecting scolding, he put his hand on the android’s. Nines flinched, but otherwise allowed it to happen. Gavin relaxed a bit and shook his head.
‘No, Nines, I don’t blame you.’

~

It felt weird continuing his day with a bond. Not exactly living with one as such but living with it as if it hadn’t happened. After their talk they had sat next to each other in silence for a while, both feeling frozen not daring to break it and at the same time hoping to get out of the awkward situation. In the end Nines had left, mumbling something about breakfast and Gavin had just nodded and began dressing himself for the day. He knew Nines was down there in the kitchen. He felt the urge to join him quickly and stay near the android. Well, in his last fight the bond had hit hard and now that they both knew about it and experimented a bit, it was strong and too powerful to ignore. Gavin had nearly forgotten how it felt. Despite it all he stayed in his room a bit longer.

Was he really ready? Nines was taking care of him and he evidently had only his best in mind. He seemed to have little to no control over their connection, too, so he wouldn’t be able to use it like Mrs. Anderson had. There really were worse bondmates than Nines out there. And his new abilities could save his life in the arena. But what would happen when this was over?
The android obviously didn’t want anything from him. He had been thrown into this situation entirely unprepared. He was a good friend and partner; Gavin didn’t doubt that. But when just sitting at the edge of his bed was such a problem for the tin-can, maybe the intimacy a bond could result in wasn’t what he wanted. What was confusing him most was the fact that the android didn’t spare affection when he was in his wolf form. Or did Gavin mistake the android comforting him after the fights as more than it really was?

Gavin shook his head and put his hoodie on. God, Gavin. Get a hold on reality, would you? You are probably just so touch starved you don’t even know what affection is anymore. He decided to push all these uncomfortable thoughts to the back of his head and not acknowledge them until he had to.

He walked down into the living room to be greeted by toast and eggs. He sat down with Nines and immediately the uncomfortable atmosphere returned. Gavin began eating, hoping something would come to him that could break it. Maybe a less serious topic to talk about…
‘Would you mind me leaving you alone today?’, Nines asked instead.
‘Hmm? Oh, sure, I don’t mind. You planned something?’
‘Not really planned’, Nines mumbled, but spoke up afterwards: ‘I’m meeting with Tina to discuss what happened last fight.’
‘Yeah, sure. I wanted to go out for a run today anyways’, Gavin impromptu declared. ‘Greet Tina from me!’
‘I will. And you stay safe out there.’
Gavin just nodded, concentrating back on his food.

~

‘You bonded?’, Tina asked far louder than necessary in the thankfully busy diner.
‘Yes’, Nines confirmed. ‘I still can’t believe it. It shouldn’t be possible and… And I don’t really know what to do.’
‘So you came to me?’ Tina slurped her milkshake, before leaning back and grinning at him. ‘Listen, RK, I don’t know shit about werewolves-’
‘But you are human’, Nines held against it. ‘That makes you a lot more suitable than me.’
‘Alright, Mr. Machine, how is it then? Describe it.’
‘It’s like a mental connection. I…’ He closed his eyes and concentrated. ‘I know for example that he is in the forest around our home at the moment. Near the pond there. And he’s… He is eating raw fish?’ Nines furrowed his brows in confusion, finding back to himself. ‘Why am I even bothering cooking at home?’

Tina burst out in laughter at that and Nines looked at her wearily. ‘What?’
‘Nothing’, she giggled. ‘Just- It’s nice to see you two get along that well. I must say I was sceptical at first when I visited you just after you rescued him.’
‘I’m thinking we maybe get along too well.’
‘What do you mean?’
Nines ruffled his hair in frustration. ‘I don’t even know that myself really.’
‘Hey, you can tell me’, Tina elbowed him. ‘You know secrets are safe with me.’
Nines sighed. ‘Well, it’s just that the longer we spend time together the more it feels like I’m imposing on him. I don’t know how to describe it. I try not to invade his space and not to bother him too much. Gavin didn’t have any choice. He had to live with me to survive. He says time and time again that he agreed to every decision or made them himself, but that doesn’t help me feel… less awkward around him. For example, I tend to his wounds after every fight. And then I stay with him afterwards trying to give him comfort while he heals. I give him head-scratches, because I think he enjoys that. But really it is me enjoying it. What worries me is that I would never think about doing that to him in his human form.’
He looked up to Tina, who just smiled as if she knew more than him already.

‘Or maybe I do think about it’, he admitted, sighing deeply. ‘But there is no reason to do that, right? When he is back in his human form, he is fine again. He doesn’t need the attention then. I don’t know how to act around him. I mean, I don’t want to just ask that from him. I don’t want to look like one of these masters that rob their champions of every sense of privacy. But at the same time treating him differently just because he changed bodies would be silly, right?’
‘Oh, RK, who thought to design you with that body but then add that sort of programming…’, Tina chuckled.
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Argh, RK, have you tried simply asking the guy? Just ask him what he is comfortable with.’

‘We… We hadn’t exactly had the time to talk lately’, Nines tried to find excuses. ‘Also, how would you even ask that? “Hey, Gavin can I touch you?” It’s not that simple.’
‘Actually it is’, Tina shrugged. ‘Just sit down with him and tell him what you told me. That you would like to talk about a few boundaries with him. Tell him you noticed you never actually asked him whether he wants the attention. Keep the subject broad and he will tell you what you need to know.’
Nines nodded a few times to himself, then sighed. ‘Fine. I guess I will try breaching the subject this evening then.’
‘I wish you luck’, Tina smiled. ‘Anything else you wanted to talk to me about or did you just want free marriage counselling? Something about our case maybe?’

~

When Nines came back home, he had hoped Gavin was already back, too. Tina had made it sound so easy and he doubted it would be. But he would try, nonetheless. After some hesitation he tried to reach out for Gavin through the bond and found him still in the forest. Well, he would come home eventually and until then Nines had enough time to prepare his words. Out of boredom he ambled through the house while overworking his social module. By habit he picked up his phone and looking at the screen made all his processes come to a halt immediately. He had four new messages from an unknown number:

>We see you haven’t yet planned another fight.
>You gave us quite the show with your last win.
>We would be delighted to see you at the Golden Colisée.
> 6331 E Jefferson Ave.

That was a message from yesterday evening. He had been already in stasis by then. How could he have missed that? He regretted having to use this additional technology when he had a fully functional phone integrated into his hardware.
Golden Colisée. Another arena most likely. We. Clarke had told him someone could reach out to him after their last fight. But this quickly? He looked up the address sent with it. The building had once been a Pharmacy, some background-lit letters still in place, although most had fallen from the wall. The building was in disrepair, windows had been smashed and there was graffiti all over it. It didn’t look like a colosseum and as far from golden as it could be.
We would be delighted to see you. But without a time and date? Or should he just march in there?
At that moment he heard the front door open and the faint sounds of shifting flesh. So much to their evening talk…

Nines walked down the stairs and met Gavin in his robe in the hallway.
‘Hey, Nines’, he greeted him. ‘How’s Tina?’
‘She is fine. Told me to greet you from her. Gave her everything we know so far. Do you want dinner?’
‘I’ll take a shower first, then I’ll join you!’
Nines nodded, already opening the fridge to take out what he needed for some stew.
When Gavin came back he was nearly finished, just cutting up the rest of the ingredients. ‘Can I help you?’
‘No, I have everything under control’, Nines informed him. He quickly dried his hands with a towel before reaching into his pocket and taking out the phone. ‘But we have something to talk about. You should take a look at our last message.’
Gavin frowned, but took it and read the few sentences. ‘Shit. I don’t know anything about it. Never heard of a Golden Colisée. But then again, The Master never made it so far. The heretic wolf I killed by chance and it was far too obvious I was just lucky. No one ever called the asshole. Or at least not that I know of. Do you think it’s from the people that are responsible?’
‘I’d think so’, Nines nodded, adding the cut vegetable pieces to the mix and finished some final touches. ‘I thought we could go there tomorrow and see for ourselves? If you are feeling well enough.’
‘Sure. If it’s not an immediate fight, I’ll be fine.’ Gavin fetched a plate from the cupboard above. ‘Have you asked this Clarke yet? Maybe he knows something we don’t?’
‘Didn’t think of it yet’, Nines admitted. ‘I can call him later.’

And that was about as much talking as they managed that day. Nines sat with Gavin while he ate, telling him of his meeting with Tina to try and postpone what she had advised him to do immediately. He managed to delay it for so long that Gavin had put away the dishes and retreated to bed before Nines was ready to even begin. Tomorrow, he thought. Tomorrow when they came home from investigating that building, he would talk with the werewolf.

Nines sat down on the couch, phone in hand. It felt weirdly empty without the familiar presence at his side, but he tried not to think too much about it. It was easier to focus on his task when it started ringing up Clarke.
‘Yes?’
‘It’s Ri- Nobot.’
‘Oh. Nobot. Sorry. It’s late, can’t this wait until tomorrow? I’ll call you right in the morn-‘
Nines interrupted him: ‘Have you heard of a place called the Golden Colisée?’
There was silence for a while, then muffled talking, before Clarke whispered into the phone: ‘Yes, I have. Wait until I’m in my office. Can’t risk anyone hearing me.’
‘You are not alone?’, Nines asked surprised.
‘It’s none of your business. I’m at home. I keep my personal life strictly separated from… work. Fine. I can talk now. Golden Colisée, huh? Too be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it. Little Bitch is good, but I thought you’d be scrap metal before they could contact you. You didn’t agree to get him bred and I’m sure a few people would consider more drastic measures to get to your dog.’
‘Thanks for the warning’, Nines sighed, leaning on his knees. ‘Now what do you know on the Golden Colisée?’

‘Not much. You made it big, that is what I can say for certain. Most matches take place in the large arenas around or in Detroit. The best masters and their champions disappear after time, only occasionally coming back for a fight or two to stay in the eye of the general public. The fact that I don’t know this arena probably says enough about it.’
‘What can I expect?’
Clarke let air rush through his teeth. ‘Difficult opponents. Better breeders. More money… I don’t know. What did they tell you in the message?’
‘An address and that we are expected’, Nines told him, not wanting to grant him all details.
‘No time?’
‘No.’
‘Ever thought about writing back?’
Nines sighed. ‘I will do that. My plan was to scout the area first.’
Clarke clicked his tongue. ‘Better don’t do that. Not until you got a specific time. I have the feeling this isn’t a place you should go to unannounced.’

Nines nodded. ‘Thank you, Clarke. Greatly appreciated.’
‘Yeah, yeah… Just remember who brought you there! Maybe… drop a name or something? A man has to eat, you know?’
‘I will do what I can’, Nines agreed. ‘Goodnight.’
He ended the call and swapped over to the inbox. The messages still sat there. Nines read them over and thought about how to answer. He didn’t want to agree to anything yet. But if they were really the leading heads of the dogfights, then he couldn’t anger them too. In the end he settled for something simple:

>What time?

He was about to put the phone away, as suddenly the other side was typing. Nines carefully connected to the phone but wasn’t able to find out more than he could from just the first four messages. He had to wait for their answer and see for himself.

>Tomorrow. 7:00 PM.
>We are looking forward to meet you.

Chapter Text

‘Are you ready?’
Nines looked over to Gavin, who was sitting on the passenger seat, looking anxiously over to the building. The green fluorescent letters that once spelled Pharmacy were about the only light emanating from it. The parking lot held a few more cars this time, but that could also be a coincidence as it was free of charge.
‘Ready as I can be, I guess’, Gavin shrugged and patted his chest to feel the bandages beneath. ‘Considering we know nothing about what is about to happen.’
‘I’m here-‘, Nines started, but Gavin interrupted him: ‘No, Nines. Whatever happens, you keep up your pretence. We are so damn close now. Don’t phck it up.’
‘I didn’t intend to’, Nines sighed. ‘Just… I’m here for you, okay?’
Gavin nodded. ‘I know. Just try not to use the bond as much. Makes no sense for both of us to suffer.’
‘Once again, I can’t promise that. I have no control over it.’
‘Yeah, we need to work on that’, Gavin mumbled. ‘Come on, best not leave them waiting.’

Nines nodded and stepped outside, taking out the silver chain from the trunk and waiting for Gavin to get undressed for the change. Once he stood in front of the android in his wolf-form, he knelt down to put the chain around his neck and couldn’t help but ruffle his fur a bit before standing up and walking towards the building. Gavin followed short, trotting next to him. The door to the place had once been a motion-activated sliding door, but now one half was closed while the other one half hung in the frame. Nines climbed over it, waiting for Gavin in the darkness behind it. The rest of the store wasn’t much better: Countertops gathered thick layers of dust and shelves stood empty in long forgotten rows, doomed to be perch for spiders and the forgotten box left behind. Old glass shards lay on the ground, crunching under Nines’ feet as he made way for Gavin. This building must have been standing empty for a while. There was a single emergency light pointing to an exit, otherwise there was only the sparce light from the front. Nines scanned the room and immediately saw the obvious path. The blanketing sheet of dust was missing there, cleaned by countless footsteps marching towards the labelled emergency exit. It felt like the peace of this place had been broken the moment someone set foot in it and considering who had invited them here, it felt all too fitting.

Carefully, Nines followed the marks and stopped in front of a door that wasn’t marked in the official floorplan of the city. Sharing a look with Gavin, he opened it and was faced with a fairly new looking staircase that led down deeper. Fancy black tiles were accentuated with gold and silver handrails you would expect in a designer store rather than in a hidden closet of a deserted building.

Gavin was the first to take a step, claws clicking on the tiles. Nines followed down and at the bottom of the stairs someone stood, waiting for them. It was a beautiful blonde woman, just a tad too perfect looking, Nines identified as one of the early Chloe androids. She was smiling at them.
‘Welcome to the Golden Colisée, Richard and Little Bitch. We have awaited your arrival with great interest. If you’d please follow me, I have a wonderful lodge in mind for you.’ The android winked, lifting a hand to wave them to follow. The two shared another look, then Nines took the lead again and followed her.

‘We’ve kept an eye on you two for a while now’, Chloe chatted on with a friendly smile while leading them to the promised lodge. ‘We must say, you surprised us. Little Bitch’s previous master was good, but you managed to improve his training even more.’
‘If I may ask-‘, Nines spoke up, but was interrupted by an overly enthusiastic Chloe: ‘Oh, sure, just ask away!’
Nines looked at her irritated, but continued: ‘You always speak of multiple persons. Who are they?’
‘Oh, you will meet them soon enough, if you are worthy. But don’t worry! From what I’ve seen?’ She leaned in and winked at him. ‘You will get there no problem.’
Before Nines could ask any more questions, the Chloe stopped in front of a door that opened to a large lodge built for at least eight persons. The rows of chairs had been removed and replaced with a single, expensive and comfy looking armchair as well as a small fainting couch next to it. On a lushly decorated wooden table stood a single champaign glass filled with bubbling Thirium.

‘Please, take a seat’, Chloe said, waiting at the open door. ‘It will all start in just a minute, just sit down, lean back and relax.’
More than a little hesitantly, Nines entered the lodge, causing Gavin, who without doubt distrusted the situation just as much, to jump to his side.
‘Enjoy the show!’, Chloe announced with a wide grin and closed the door behind them. In addition, Nines could also pick up on a key turning in a well-oiled lock. ‘We are locked in here’, he whispered to Gavin, who just nodded. So he had heard it too.

As Nines walked further towards the front where the armchair was located, he could see over the low railing. A human would have frozen at the sight, but even as an android Nines could still get his share of that emotion through Gavin’s shared senses. The wolf had jumped on the fainting couch meant for him and had just seen what Nines had:
Underneath them was a vast drop to an arena made of black marble with white veins in the shape of an octagon. In its middle a large, stylised head of a wolf had been engraved, the grooves being filled up with gold afterwards. To each side of the octagon there was a lodge just like the one Nines and Gavin stood in and further down in the arena there was a metal gate.

Nines didn’t need the coldness seeping through the bond to make him feel not only locked up but trapped as well.
He still stood there staring down into the arena when teeth at his sleeve pulled him back towards the armchair. ‘What?’, Nines had wanted to snap at Gavin, but stopped at the narrowed chastising eyes he received. ‘Gavin, this is another arena, I-‘
Gavin grumbled at him and decided to look over the other lodges himself. No shit. He had realised that himself and experience told him that there was no use in hope.

‘My dear Masters!’, a booming voice that had been cleverly distorted echoed through the arena. ‘It is an honour to greet you here at the golden Colisée! You might ask yourself what awaits you and your champions, and we won’t keep you wondering any longer! Welcome to the tournament of your life. You all trained your beasts well and were successful. You all have seen your champion’s specialty and used it well. Today, we will decide who will join our ranks. The winners of the first round will meet us in person at a glamorous dinner. The ones left after the second round will gain access to our finest, most successful breeders. But only one can truly win. Only one of you will join our ranks after this tournament. So good luck! And may the strongest win!’

The distant roar of a crowd, tinny and sounding far away prolonged after the words were spoken, only being cut off a split second later. So, the announcement was life. Was this recorded? Was the tournament broadcasted life somewhere? Who would be wat-

There was no more room for questions, as the Chloe from before entered their booth. Gavin reacted by growling at her – if that was only a role kept up or an instinctive reaction, even Nines couldn’t know. But he had the feeling he would share the sentiment even without the bond. But the android just smiled at Gavin as if he was nothing to be afraid of, then up at Nines. ‘Oh, we like to see that fighting spirit! If you would please hand me the leash, I will take Little Bitch from here.’
She expectantly held out a hand, but Nines didn’t catch on.
‘He doesn’t have one’, he firmly stated instead.
‘Oh so the rumours were true. You forced it to bond with you. That will be interesting. It would be the first case of a bonded wild dog fighting. Then I expect it to follow your orders, right? Make it complacent for me, will you?’

‘Follow her’, Nines ordered directed at Gavin and the wolf was sure only he could hear the hurt in these words. Still, he snarled at him for show, earning a ‘Quiet, Bitch’, even he hadn’t expected. But he played his part, calming down and stepping to Chloe’s side, even if everything in him screamed to sink his teeth into an important biocomponent and run for his life.

Because there really was no way to survive this, right? All the werewolves invited had managed some incredible feat to be here. Gavin as a “wild-caught beast” had defeated Furorborn, a lapdog bred and raised to be a mindless fighter. If the others had survived similar challenges, they clearly were a dangerous lot. He had barely won his fight. He had been wounded too, sure, but he had still been in better condition than now. Adrenaline had let him forget most of his wounds and then there had been the accidental use of Nines’ preconstruction software. He just couldn’t in all optimism hope to survive this.

And he was complacently walking into his doom next to an android he didn’t know.

He could have died in every fight up to now. He had always had hope to give him strength. But no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t find any now. He only had his wish to get back home tonight going for him and that might just be too little to work today.

But there was no way out either and Gavin already found himself in front of one of eight smaller doors, without doubt leading to a holding cage before he was let loose into the arena. The Chloe had the audacity to pet him, Gavin allowing it with a low angry growl just because Nines could get in trouble if he lashed out now. Then he was unceremoniously pushed into the holding cage.

-

Nines needed all his composure not to pace up and down the balcony. He was nervous and worried for Gavin while at the same time chastising himself for how in the world he couldn’t have seen this coming. Of course this would be an invitation to another fight. Gavin wasn’t even fully healed yet and his opponents…
He tried to calm himself, although that was hard. He had to keep up his cold and stoic role of Nobot, standing on the balcony sipping his Thirium from a champagne glass. He couldn’t even be down there to comfort him. He just hoped Gavin would survive this, manage to get access to his programming once again and defeat the others.

‘The rules are simple’, the incorporate voice spoke up again. ‘The last four beasts to survive win. That’s all.’

Nines froze. What? The last four? Did that mean-
‘Gavin!’ He ran to the door Chloe had just disappeared through and tried to open it, but it was locked again. No matter how hard he shook at the knob, there was no getting through short of shouldering his way through it. He was a thought away from doing just that as the voice boomed through the arena once again.

‘Let us see who fate brought here today then, shall we?’ The android froze once again. This was happening. It felt like a damn bad dream, but this was happening. And he couldn’t do anything about it despite jumping down there and blow their cover even more than he did just now. It felt as if his joints were blocked with tar as he walked over to the balustrade and looked down.

‘There we have Wrathblood, champion of Mrs. Doom.’ A spotlight shone below one of the balconies and the gate fell, unveiling thick bars, coated by rust at the bottom. At least Nines hoped it was rust. Judging from the behaviour of the werewolf with a fur of the colour of autumn leaves stuck behind it, blinking at the stark light, it wasn’t very likely. Silver didn’t rust. ‘Won over four-hundred battles. The beast qualified by winning at the festivities up in Chicago.’ A distant murmur found its way into the arena. The live audience on the other side seemed impressed. ‘For those who are not familiar: Wrathblood won a last-one-standing event, battling five of his kind and coming out the winner.’
Nines was sure his pump gave in just then.
‘Next we have Mangle, a beast from the street. We’ve got two this year! His owner, Mr. G, found him in an abandoned house. He’s missing an eye, but don’t underestimate that one!’ Beyond the bars, Nines could see a small, thin wolf whose face was half burned flesh, eye white and blind. He was deeply terrified, that much was obvious. How this one could have made it here, Nines couldn’t even guess. ‘He’s definitely the underdog this evening, but he survived the battle with a previous winner of this tournament, so he is better than he looks.’
‘Our next fighter is…’
The names passed by. Roadkill, a female werewolf from the streets with crème fur and scars that suggested the name was based on real events. Doomstride, a bred dog, big, with black fur and impressive muscles. Ill-bred, a lapdog all the same, apparently a disease-struck pup nursed back to health just to be thrown into this grinder. Whiptail, a grey one large and majestic. Interfector, a beast with pierced ears that seemed to wear the collar with pride.

And Gavin. Little Bitch, owned by Nobot. His 170th fight and earned his place by killing Furorborn. That was all the wolf was to them. It was devastating to hear it broadcasted like that into the silence of the arena and the unknown clamour of the outsiders watching. Especially since Nines knew the real Person behind this savagery. He was half glad he couldn’t see his wolf, as the gate was underneath his booth. He knew that had he been able to, he would have jumped down there right here and now.

‘Now then, this is looking out to be a wonderful match, wouldn’t you say? So lean back and enjoy the show!’

The silver gates rattled, then rose upwards. The bred werewolves ran in as soon as they could find enough space underneath to slither through. Next was Gavin, running and posing with a roar of confidence Nines could feel was a façade. Roadkill joined as the first silver prods were slid into the small compartment and Mangle had to actually be pushed in by them. The thin werewolf had his tail between his legs and walked sideways to keep the others in his good eye.

There was a brief moment of stillness as the cheer of an invisible audience filled the arena after their display. Gavin looked from one wolf to the next, trying his best to evaluate them. One of the bred ones locked onto the small, half-blind Mangle, another onto Roadkill. So these two were already no immediate threats. Ill-bred too seemed focussed on someone else. Doomstride, the one going for Mangle, apparently was his target. He was probably hoping to catch one of his more capable opponents by surprise. Gavin was thoroughly overwhelmed, having to choose a target of his own, that it found him first. The two bred wolves to his side were both fixing him specifically.

The moment passed in a heartbeat and time rushed to a start, making up for the pause. The gates of the compartments rushed down and slammed into the ground. The sound alone startled the wolves into action and Nines had problems following the different pairs.

The small Mangle yelped as soon as he saw the black beast that was nearly twice his height jump at him. He did the only thing he could and ran for his life.
Roadkill growled and waited for her opponent. Wrathblood smelled his opportunity and ran for it, Roadkill jumping to the side in the last second, executing a well thought out plan. The moment the bigger wolf passed her, she jolted around to try and attack Wrathblood herself. She had aimed for the back, but only managed to bite down on a tail. Still, the distant crowd that watched the broadcast was audibly roaring upon the first bloodshed.
Ill-bred, having hoped on an easy kill by Doomstride had to rethink his strategy. The larger werewolf was currently chasing the little one through the arena at a tempo he couldn’t keep up with. Unfortunately he ended up right in the path of the escaping Wrathblood, who attacked him in the hope of getting the other wolf between himself and the chasing Roadkill.

Nines’ eyes jumped from wolf to wolf, following their paths, but in the end, the unmoving blotch down on the marble screamed for his attention: Gavin.
 Whiptail and Interfector had made their way to him, slowly pacing forwards in a flanking position. Gavin looked from one to the other, growling out a warning. Of course his luck must have him being teamed up against. Sure, unconventional, but he guessed as long as four wolves found their death today, no one would care how it was done. He swallowed.
He would have to get out of this one and fast, if he didn’t want to be one of the four.

His overall chances in this fight were better. There was no way he would win, but he didn’t have to, he just had to survive for long enough. And two against one weren’t odds he would take if he wanted to survive, so fighting was out of the question. Thankfully, the two seemed to be keen on giving him more time to think:
‘You killed Furorborn’, the left one, Whiptail, rumbled deeply. ‘A mutt like you.’
‘We can’t let that happen’, Interfector nodded. ‘We will make our masters proud.’
Gavin shook his head, trying to find the best path to avoid the two flanking wolves. ‘You are broken. You can’t honestly think that!’, he threw at them, hoping to stall for time, because convincing them was out of the question.
Interfector showed his teeth. ‘My master loves me!’ His eyes were wide and unfocussed, maybe the effect of drugs. ‘I was promised pups if I kill you.’
‘Mine promised to leave me out of the cage. He really likes us.’

Gavin could have thrown up. Their masters weren’t Nines. Theirs were like The Master had been. And their minds were so broken they honestly believed what they were saying. It was sickening what brainwashing since birth could do to someone. Gavin couldn’t even blame them. Hell, if he had had a little less willpower and hadn’t seen how it could have been outside of the fights, he doubted he would have been any different.
‘They just want the money!’, Gavin grunted, knowing it wouldn’t help except rile them up. ‘You are nothing but a piece of entertainment. Don’t you see that?’
As expected they didn’t, roaring at him. And the time Gavin had been granted to think was over. Both jumped at him with one big leap. But Gavin had expected that and wasn’t there anymore. Instinct had taken over and made him sprint forwards out of their grasp. But it wasn’t over yet, they had turned fast and were out for blood, leaving Gavin with only one option: running for his life.

Nines was gripping the railing so hard the polished waxed wood under his hands groaned. Gavin had evaded that one, and Roadkill, Ill-bred and Wrathblood were still fighting in one heap of claws and fur and blood.
Doomstride on the other hand had had enough running after Mangle. He had stopped and was looking for the next target. Not more than a fracture of a moment of quiet, then the giant black beast had locked eyes on Gavin, blindly running from Whiptail and Interfector to the middle of the arena.
The wood underneath Nines’ hands wailed.

Gavin was no idiot, he saw Doomstride too, pounding over towards him. But he wasn’t fast enough. Where Furorborn had dug his claw through his forearm, the healing wound still pounded with every step. His back was straining and the two in his back were gaining ground.
He knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to somehow lose their attention. He already had an idea. He hated it, but if there was another way, he didn’t know it and the pre-construction program hadn’t miraculously activated either, so it was the only option he had.

He focused on Doomstride, who was far too close now. He saw the beast roar and fall to his hindlegs to strike. And while everything in him screamed to evade him, there was no way out that wouldn’t leave him at the mercy of the two other wolves.
He saw the huge claws coming down, trying to brace for the impact. But the pain was still sharp as ever. The agonising burn flaring up as the sharp claws raked through fur and skin and flesh. It opened up the only recently healed wounds in his back and Gavin screamed.

He wasn’t the only one. Nines had never felt something like this before. And even though he knew, he needed to keep up his appearance, he doubled over, crossing his arms in front of him in an effort to reach what had to be critical damage on his back. His mind whited out for a moment, coming back to the blue thirium champagne on the ground, that let his mind race to identify the attacker. He had watched how Gavin had run suicidally right into the attack and needed to see if he was okay, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t think, couldn’t…
‘Ignore it’, he hummed to himself. ‘Ignore it, you have to. For him. You are fine.’ He tried to concentrate on himself only, and felt with never before clarity how the wolves thoughts ran through his head. Nothing specific, nothing he could understand, but there was something left. He wasn’t dead yet.
But that didn’t help when the next wave of pain that wasn’t his took him over. Gavin had been hit at his side, Nines felt it intensely. Trying to gather his strength, he stumbled to the railing again. He had to see what had happened.

Gavin was limping at Doomstride’s side, blood oozing from his back and side, plastering his fur to his skin. What was he doing? He could have easily evaded those blows.

But Gavin had planned them. He had to get Doomstride’s attention and speaking from the bloodlust in his eyes, Gavin now had it. Interfector and Whiptail had kept their distance, as thought, when Doomstride had attacked. Not believing their luck that it was now three against one however, they soon joined in again. Gavin nodded to himself and started another manic sprint around Doomstride, barking at him like a dog that wanted to rile up something far bigger than it.
And it worked:
Interfector and Whiptail were following him in his circles, while Doomstride turned, trying to get a hit on him. It didn’t take long for the giant to be so enraged he started blindly clawing at him.

Suddenly, Gavin rammed all four paws into the ground and came to an abrupt halt, just to jump aside and away from his circle. Doomstride had tried to hit him again, but now that he wasn’t there anymore, his claws had hit one of his pursuers. Whiptail went to the ground, pinned under the black wolf’s paw. As he fell, he knocked Interfector down too, who growled and turned to him, Gavin forgotten.

Relieved, he had gotten them off his tail for now, Gavin ran out of their reach, his chest heaving hard with heavy breaths. The adrenaline in his veins didn’t help much forgetting the heavy blows he had endured and it hurt. He couldn’t believe his luck and looked around.
To his side, Wrathblood, Roadkill and Ill-bred were still fighting. It was hard to see who had the upper hand as every hit was hard earned.
In the far corner, Mangle had taken his refuge, pacing up and down, watching the rest of the arena and turning his head at every turn so he had them in his good eye.
His narrow frame was pulsing in fast, ragged breaths and he growled as soon as he realised Gavin was approaching. It was a completely animalistic reaction, nothing thought was put into. Something born from fear and years spent as a wolf in these fights. Gavin kept his distance, but now was his chance. Mangle likely wasn’t the most capable ally here, but everyone else seemed hellbent on killing.
‘If we want to survive we have to fight together’, Gavin tried, positioning himself as non-threatening as possible. But Mangle answered with a low bellow.
‘Mangle, please, I don’t want to hurt you, we don’t have the time! We keep together and-’

The tone of a bell ripped through the air and shook Gavin to the core.

‘And with that we would have our first kill!’, the announcer called out cheerfully. ‘Doomstride defeated Whiptail! Only a matter of minutes until this dog will bleed out. Congratulations to Miss Kitty!’
Gavin blinked and risked looking back at the fighting wolves. Doomstride towered over the bloody mess that once had been the grey giant. That could have been himself, a few seconds ago, he thought shivering.
The growl of Mangle made him jolt back, and not a second to late: The wolf had jumped forwards in a warning attack Gavin could only evade because of his trained instincts. ‘Ralph will kill you!’, the wolf snarled. ‘Ralph will kill!’

Gavin took another step back. ‘Ralph? That your name?’ He lowered his head, showing his best submissive impression. ‘Come on, Ralph, together we have a better chance!’
‘You will betray Ralph. Ralph is only safe alone!’
‘Ralph, please, I-‘

He had lost his chance, as the bell rang a second time.
‘Roadkill defeated Wrathblood! Congratulations to Mr. Zlat! That was a cleanly broken neck, nice one.’
The kill had changed the power balance in the arena and the separated groups came closer. Roadkill, who had up to now fought the dead wolf, jumped away from the corpse and looked up to Interfector’s fight against Doomstride, while Ill-bred was limping through the arena, dripping blood, apparently running from the fight since the tide had turned.

The white veins in the marble were almost invisible as the ground was darkened with the bloodstains of the werewolves fighting. The pool under Whiptail was growing larger. He was still alive, faintly breathing while his lungs whistled every time they sucked in air. He was forgotten by Doomstride, who didn’t even grant him a quick death. His claws were adorning the ground with lumps of fur and skin and even more blood. It made Gavin’s stomach turn. At least with the sands of the other arenas it had been taken up and the bloodshed wasn’t that obvious. But he guessed that was the wanted effect on the viewers, here.

All wolves seemed to stop for a moment. They were keenly aware, that only two more of them had to die. Mangle kept in his corner, as did Ill-bred and Interfector for now, but Doomstride’s eyes were back on Gavin. The beast had not forgotten the wolf that had escaped death by his hand and he blared his teeth, eyes trained on him. Gavin’s heart sunk, but then the bloodied crème fur of Roadkill appeared behind the black mass. She looked at him with intent and Gavin nodded, the only communication they would need. It had been decided.

Gavin growled at Doomstride, focussing his attention on him with the challenge. Almost too easy, Doomstride fell for it and pounced, but Gavin knew it was playing with fire. Running wasn’t an option as he already felt the blood-loss rendering him light-headed and sloppy. And fighting the beast would be like fighting Furorborn again. It was simply impossible for Gavin, who was so incredible tired. But he wasn’t alone now.
Roadkill was ferocious in her attacks and nothing seemed to hold her back. The moment Doomstride turned his back to her, she jumped on his back and bit deep. Doomstride screamed and tried to shake her off, but she kept her grip on him. Gavin watched, trying to find a good opportunity to attack himself, but already the black beast fell on his side, rolling over to get rid of the other wolf.

Roadkill let go the moment she realised what was happening, but one of her claws had caught on something. With a sickening crunch, the paw twisted and came free, but she wasn’t able to get up fast enough to move out of Doomstride’s way when he came back for the final strike.
Gavin didn’t think, he just acted. When the werewolf lifted up for the blow, Gavin jumped him from the side, throwing him to the ground. He wanted to push his luck and land a strike himself as long as the beast was down, but there was Interfector, joining the fight on Doomstride’s side. He barrelled into Gavin, making him stumble to the side. Trying to regain his footing became impossible, when Interfector threw his own leg into the mess and forced Gavin to jump out of the way if he didn’t want to fall.

Too concentrated on staying up on his feet in his dazed state, he saw Doomstride only as it was already too late. Desperate, Gavin tried to reach Nines’ bond like last time, but nothing happened. Instead, the other wolf hit him hard with his shoulder, throwing him headfirst into the gate at the wall. The Impact let Gavin see stars for a while, limbs feeling impossibly numb, while all his feeling was condensed into the pain throbbing up and down his back. He groaned and felt blood in his mouth. Coughing, he tried to get up, but couldn’t: His legs wouldn’t hold him.

‘Gavin!’ That was Nines’ voice. How could he be this clear if he was up there somewhere where the invisible crowd had to drone him out? ‘GAVIN!’ Then the bell rung.
He frowned. He wasn’t dead yet. Why was the bell ringing? Or was he like Whiptail? Left to bleed out? Please, no, he didn’t want to die like this. He didn’t want to die alone on a cold floor while his kind killed itself next to him. He… He didn’t want to die at all. He wanted to be back home. He wanted peace. He wanted quiet. A normal life. Why had he agreed to this? All he had done so far was increase the pain dealt by him. He had been a fool to think this would ever change. They hadn’t stopped anyone. They wouldn’t stop anyone. Because it was over now, right? The bell had rung.

He blinked, coughing up blood. He wanted to see what was around him, but everything was a blur.

Something was coming closer. He couldn’t smell them, all he smelled was blood. But there was a soft cling, like metal hitting metal. The blotch in his vision took the form of a werewolf. His sluggish brain managed to make the right connections though and he tried again to move. Interfector was walking towards him, his pierced ears clinging with every step.
‘My master will love me.’

Gavin whined. Why wouldn’t his body move? Why couldn’t he run like when he had milled about in the forest at their house? Where was Nines? He had been scary too and then less. Please, make this less scary too. Please. Please, I just want to go home. Nines?

The scheme was coming closer now, almost filled his vision completely. But then there was movement. Crème brushed past, making way for stark white light and then a limping new figure. The two new wolves, likely Roadkill and Ill-bred, had jumped past him. But more, Gavin couldn’t make out. He was so incredibly tired. And the ground was so cold.

The pain was the only thing keeping Nines where he was. He couldn’t move, his programming locking up his body because with this much damage, movement could decide over life and deactivation. But he had watched it all. He had watched how Doomstride had thrown Gavin through the arena. How the wolf hadn’t moved after. He had briefly seen how Roadkill had killed the black beast in a frenzied fury, but he had only eyes for Interfector, who was slowly striding towards the limp Gavin. One didn’t have to be an expert on their behaviour to know he wasn’t necessarily going for the easy kill but more finishing what he had intended all along since flanking Gavin earlier. Nines called out to the wolf, but knew no one would hear him. The audience watching this somewhere was ecstatic and filled the arena with incredible noise.
But then Roadkill jumped in, pushing Interfector away from Gavin. Ill-bred was following her, limping but keeping up. Once Interfector fell to the floor, Roadkill turned around and closed her jaws around Interfector’s neck. With a swift motion it broke and Ill-bred went limb.

The bell rung and the gates immediately opened, but Interfector was furious. He came back to his feet and was about to pounce, then Nine’s pain suddenly vanished from one to the next moment. In wide-eyed shock, the android looked over to Gavin. ‘No!’, he screamed and jumped the railing not wasting a single thought about what he was doing.
He fell from his balcony to the hard ground. His legs took the impact, but the blood on the ground made him slip. He came back to his feet and ran, vaulting over the still warm corpse of Doomstride and continued his sprint with new vigor. Surprised, Roadkill let the dead Ill-bred slide from her mouth and moved out of the android’s way, but Interfector hadn’t seen him yet.
Nines slid to a halt right in front of Gavin, blocking the werewolve’s path. He straightened his back, ready to fight the werewolf hand on if needed. He would not let anyone hurt Gavin now that the tournament was over and if he blew his cover, so be it. Interfector took a step back, visible surprised, but shook it off quickly. He growled at him, still hell-bent to make sure Gavin was dead at the end of the day.

It was easy to let old protocols arise and put all his hatred into his stare. Interfector managed to keep eye contact with him for a while, getting ready to jump the android first and then get to Gavin. He did attack, but Nines managed to grab the wolf in air and hurl him away. That was all that was needed to convince the beast and Interfector trotted away.
Nines immediately dropped all façade and turned to Gavin. He fell to his knees disregarding the blood immediately soaking into his pants. ‘Gavin!’, he called out, brushing a hand through the pelt of the motionless body. His fingers came to rest at his pulse point and pleaded for a miracle.

The relief that flooded him was unbelievable as he found a weak heartbeat. He had to keep himself upright, placing a hand on the ground. ‘Gavin. I’m so, so sorry. Never again. Never fucking again.’

He stood up and went to the next gate. He forced his hand under the edge and pulled, ripping the metal corner up and bending it just enough so he could make it through. The silver bars behind it were still up, so the android turned back, lifted up Gavin as careful as possible and marched out.

The words: ‘What a show, ladies and gentlemen! The winners are…’, faded out behind him as he walked out, kicking down every door that dared to be in his way.

He reached the hallway leading to the stairs up to the old pharmacy as the Chloe from the beginning suddenly stood in his path. She smiled at him. ‘Congratulations to your win! You-‘ Nines had no time for this. He freed one hand and gripped her by the throat, turned and smashed her against the wall. But that apparently hadn’t damaged her voice. ‘You are invited to the winner’s dinner in a week.’ She interfaced with him and a new message entered his systems. Everything in him wanted to turn the Chloe to a heap of scrap on the floor, but he had to remind himself he didn’t have time for that. He had to get Gavin home. Save him. He had already lost enough precious seconds.

So, he let go, turned and ran.

Chapter Text

There were some moments that you could always remember, ingrained into your memory for eternity.

This car ride was one of those. Nines was driving, Gavin on the passenger seat. The wolf had come back to consciousness as he had left the parking lot, but his eyes were empty, unfocussed. He didn’t react to anything, not to Nines calling his name, not to the movement of the car. His condition was critical, and Nines wanted nothing more than to rush him to a hospital. But for obvious reasons, that was impossible. He hoped, prayed, that his experience was enough to save him again.
‘Connor!’ Finally, the other android answered his call. ‘Connor, I need you. You can still get your supplies, right?’
The RK800 answered, a bit overwhelmed: ‘Yes, I have restocked just in case. But I shouldn’t come over directly after a match, what if they-‘
‘I don’t care!’, Nines shouted, eyes flickering over to Gavin. ‘You will come over as fast as you can and save him!’ He hung up and had to force himself to keep from flooring the gas pedal. He had compromised his Nobot-persona enough already, he didn’t have to make it even more obvious he was a cop by strapping the siren to the roof of his car and racing home.

By all means that should be the least of his worries now. Not with Gavin on the brink of death next to him. And he was pretty damn close to act accordingly. But Connor was on his way and Nines wasn’t that far from his house now. So, he kept to his mission.
He didn’t bother parking correctly though, neither caring about the rain that had started pouring down sometime during the drive. He just jumped out, took Gavin in his arms and hurried inside, leaving the door open for when Connor would arrive.

‘Gavin, stay with me. We are home. You are safe now. Connor is coming, we will patch you up. Stay with me.’
His pleas met deaf ears for all he knew. He could feel far too well in how much pain the wolf was and the fact that he only felt it numbly on himself did nothing to set his mind at ease.
He made it up the stairs to the bathroom and set Gavin down on the bathmat in front of the tub. He was running to fetch his medicine supplies, when he heard Connor coming up the stairs. ‘It’s good to see you’, Nines sighed with relief.
‘What happened?’
‘It was a free for all. The last four survivors won. He was unconscious in the arena and woke back up in the car, but he is unresponsive and lost a lot of blood.’
Connor nodded and brushed past him, pulling a large trolley after him.
‘Shit’, he cursed once he saw the mangled wolf on the floor. Nines himself had to stop. Up to now he had the benefit of being busy. Now that Connor took over, he had time to actually look at Gavin. They were images from a nightmare. His old wounds had been reopened and new ones had cut deep. His fur was caked in black crusts of his blood and new followed in pulses matching his heartbeat. His breath was laboured, and Nines could feel fresh pain flare up with every heave.

‘What do you think?’, Nines pressed out as Connor pulled out several drawers of his trolley and started laying out the equipment he would need.
‘It’s good you called me’, Connor answered drily, pulling up a clear liquid into a syringe. ‘He needs intensive care, I will have to sedate him.’
‘What?’
‘Brother, trust me.’ Connor looked up to him and he tried his best to calm Nines. ‘Some wounds are pretty deep, and I have to clear them first before I can do anything. It is in his and your own interest that he doesn’t have to feel all that after what you two have been through today already.’

Nines evaded his gaze and swallowed. ‘Will he make it?’
‘I don’t know’, Connor answered him in all honesty. ‘I will try my best and he is a strong one.’ He looked him intently in the eyes. ‘Try to get some rest please. You can’t really help here.’
Nines looked down at the bleeding wolf. ‘Do you really think I could rest with him in this state?’
‘Well, I can’t work if someone’s next to me anxiously watching my every move.’
‘I can’t leave his side’, Nines disagreed.
‘Brother, I-‘
‘I won’t leave his side’, the android stressed again and sat down next to the werewolf’s head to demonstrate.

Connor sighed but didn’t argue this time. ‘Fine. But let me work and don’t stare. Tell me what happened, so I know what I’m working on.’
Nines crossed his legs and lifted Gavin’s head up to rest on his lower leg. He kept his hands under his chin like a cushion and rubbed his thumbs along his snout.
‘Honestly, I should have expected it. The place was an arena. There were eight contestants. Normal matches would be two werewolves fighting each other. But this time it was a free for all, eight contestants, with the last four remaining ones being declared winner. It was…’
‘I can imagine’, Connor spared him having to describe it.

They sank into silence and Nines just continued massaging Gavin’s face. Connor had pulled up a syringe, but the other RK didn’t watch, as promised. He did feel the small prick as he injected the anaesthetic and shortly after the lingering pain he felt through the bond subsided, until there was nothing there at all. It was weird, now that he was aware of it. It had been growing on him without him knowing it, so the sudden vanishing of the connection felt… weird. Even alarming.

But it was like that with almost everything considering the wolf now, wasn’t it? Rescuing him had been a heat-of-the-moment decision. But since then, a lot had changed. And all of it had happened without him noticing.  He wished he had had that talk Tina recommended with Gavin. It would have cleared up some of that turmoil in his mind. But now it seemed preposterous to discuss boundaries and affection with someone who so clearly deserved all of it. It could so easily be misunderstood as Nines feeling awkward about it. Hell, he did feel awkward about it, but that didn’t mean he would like to stop.

He just sat there, holding Gavin’s limp form in his lap while Connor worked on his wounds.
‘I can’t let him fight anymore’, he whispered into the silence.
Connor didn’t answer, but Nines knew he was listening.
‘I thought it would work out. Logically, it was the best plan. But I’ve grown… attached.’
Silence settled over them again and for a while, Nines just continued massaging Gavin’s muzzle without thinking.

‘What do you want me to say, Nines? Didn’t know we were this close last time I checked.’
The android sighed. ‘We are not, but right now I’m taking advice from about anyone who has some experience with feelings. I don’t want to lose him, Connor. But the whole idea of this was to put him to good use. To end this. If he doesn’t fight anymore, then…’
‘You want me to give you a reason to keep him around?’, Connor asked. ‘Because I can’t give you that. That was your decision to begin with.’
‘Great.’
‘But’, Connor stopped him, ‘I’m not sure that is solely your decision. Maybe you had enough, but as I understood it, he did choose to do this, right? It’s his people.’
‘It’s what he told me before. But there must be another way. He can’t change something if he dies.’

‘Nines’, Connor said sternly and turned around. ‘Let me do my work. Maybe go to stasis, I don’t want to know what kind of havoc a bond wreaks in a computer system. When he comes back, you two can talk. Then things will get easier.’

Talk. When Gavin came back to consciousness, it would be a week minimum until he was ready for a shift again. The talking they could do before that would be more than limited, especially as the questions Nines wanted to ask were not simply answered by a yes or no.
And there was this dinner invitation next week.

Now that he had the time, he could go over that message the Cloe had sent him. It was the date and time of the dinner, as well as an address. He quickly found a fancy restaurant belonging to the location and could easily find out that at that date the whole restaurant was rented out for a private function. Unfortunately, he could not find a name attached to it. Of course, it wouldn’t have been this easy.

Maybe he should go to stasis. Maybe Connor was right, and his systems did need maintenance. It felt like defeat, but Nines rubbed Gavin’s snout one last time, then closed any non-essential functions. ‘Wake me up when you are finished’, he asked Connor, who nodded with an empathetic smile.

~

He had in fact not been woken up. Instead, he exited stasis naturally after his maintenance was finished. Connor was nowhere to be seen, but his supplies were gone and Gavin was laying across his lap, head nestled into his side under the flap of the jacket. He was bandaged in nearly every place that allowed it, but his breathing had calmed considerably since the drive home.
‘Hey’, Nines spoke up gently. He wasn’t quite sure if Gavin was sleeping or awake. He was sure the wolf wasn’t sedated any more, else Connor wouldn’t have left. But the pressure at his side intensified and there was the tiniest whine. ‘Connor patched you up, you will be fine.’
There was no reaction.
‘Don’t you think it would be more comfortable downstairs on the couch?’
Again he got no answer, so he put his hands on the ground and tried to carefully get to his feet without disturbing Gavin too much.
But as soon as he tried, the wolf in his lap growled a warning and Nines sunk back down.
‘Or not, okay. We can stay in the bathroom a little longer.’

After a while, he felt awkward just sitting there and started petting the small intact patch of skin between Gavin’s shoulder blades. He raked slow circles through the fur and occasionally scratched the skin a little.
When he spoke up again, he didn’t know where the words came from. He had planned to wait until the wolf was back on his feet again, when he could turn back into his human form and actually be a part of it. But the words were nagging at him, his thoughts would circle the same topic until he said something. And now he just couldn’t keep them at bay any longer, seeing Gavin’s wounds. ‘I can’t let you fight anymore. I can’t watch this again. Since we started this it feels like we haven’t achieved anything and I can’t in my right mind see you suffer if it’s all meaningless.’

There was no answer, no nod. But there also wasn’t a growl either, so Nines took it they were at least roughly on the same page here. That alone was a relief in itself.
‘We also have to talk once you are back. About… well, about all of this, us… Just in general.’
Nines felt the nod at his side, followed by the wolf again pressing his snout into his side.

At least this time there was no question whether the affection was welcomed or not.

~

Nines did manage to get Gavin out of the bathroom in the end. It was late in the night when they relocated to the couch used far too much as a sickbed instead of what it was originally designed for. Gavin spent the most time asleep and Nines was determined to stay with him. Especially since the wolf crawled closer each time he was lucid enough for it. Hiding his head in between Nines’ lower back and the backrest, climbing in his lap wrapping his body around his midst, and growing nervous whenever not at least one point of contact existed between them both.

Nines didn’t acknowledge what his programming eagerly told him this behaviour was. He refused to believe the ironically now robotic sounding analysis that Gavin was being submissive to a dominant, close pack member that could protect him. They were intelligent beings. His coded analysis now had a foul taste to it.
Though the wolf seemed to resort to more animalistic behaviour every time he was badly hurt, there still was more to this. Of course, Gavin would instinctively seek the close company of the only constant in his life that wasn’t inherently bad. Of course, a being ridden with pain would try to find comfort with someone who could protect them. Who had protected them before. This was not something exclusive to werewolves, this was universal.

And yet every guideline of his holding station programming told him to break these connections. To isolate the wolf from the others or put them with foreign ones. It was cruel.
Nines did not remember much of the time he spent at the holding stations. Memories were not really something non-deviant androids were designed to keep. But Nines knew the simple maths needed. He knew when he deviated. He knew at what time he was send to the police. He knew the date they had been granted their rights. And in contrast to the short period of time that all had taken, he knew for how long the Werewolf Inclusion Act was in place. He didn’t want to think about what he had done back then. He had been more machine than any other android he had met, even as he had been deviant. He didn’t want to imagine what he had done when all that was on his mind were the orders.

How many had he robbed of the little comfort they found in this world? How many sick, how many depressed had he pulled away from people they knew that offered them help? How many families had he torn apart?

And for how many of them this was still their reality? And because of what? A rumor? A wrong information told and told again until it became truth in human eyes? Just because someone saw something different and decided it was scary?

Nines wanted to end this. He had thought this to be the right way. It had been a calculation first. He had a werewolf, there was injustice in the world and Captain fowler offered a solution. But at what cost? He had seen Gavin gradually getting better over the days, but this was no life. Get hurt to heal to get hurt again and without a single arrest. Sure, they had names, addresses… But not a single thing had changed. Not for Gavin, not for the other fighters, not for werewolves in general.
There had to be a different way.

They just had to find it.

~

As the week passed on, Nines once again had to marvel at Gavin’s regenerative abilities. Wounds that would have taken months to heal had already started to close and with every day he could see him getting stronger. It took a toll on him, nonetheless. The healthy layer of fat he had accumulated over the months with Nines had once again diminished and he ate with a ravenous hunger.

He still slept most of the day, but when awake he did move around the house, so Nines’ worries died down a bit.

By the time the date of the dinner approached, Gavin was healthy enough for a shift. He was still sore all over, itching and aching from the scars forming on just fused tissues, Nines could feel it. He tried to ease it by scratching where Gavin couldn’t and massage tensed muscles, but the unrest stayed.
When Nines got his bathrobe, the wolf looked almost relieved to turn back to his human form.
The by now familiar sounds of popping joints and realigning tissue would never become easy to stomach for Nines, but thankfully having to catch the shivering werewolf, who had to figure out how to walk on two legs again, was something to focus on.

‘Phck!’, Gavin cursed, relying heavy on Nines arms before he could take the robe from him and dress himself in the fluffy fabric that eased the ache a little.
‘You’d think it would get easier with time’, he muttered, and Nines didn’t ask what exactly he was meaning by that. He didn’t think healing from these kinds of wounds would be something anyone should ever call normal or easy.
Gavin rolled his shoulders and groaned. He stretched a little, then let his shoulders sag and turned around to Nines. ‘You wanted to talk?’
Nines was caught a little off-guard. ‘Don’t you want to relax a bit first? Eat something?’

Gavin nodded, pulling the robe closer around him. ‘Food sounds good. I will get dressed, then help you. But then we will talk, I don’t think we should postpone it any longer.’ He gestured a bit with his hands and hesitantly added: ‘Given my… situation.’
Nines didn’t ask what that was about, either. He too knew how easily Gavin could have died in any of these fights and how idiotic it had been not to get everything settled beforehand. But those were the eventualities he didn’t want to consider, didn’t even want to acknowledge they had once been very possible.

He just went into the kitchen to start cooking, mulling over what to say later.

It took Gavin just a few minutes to get dressed and return as promised. The atmosphere was tense; Nines had walked on eggshells around him the last days and nothing had changed that up to now. The android seemed to dread their talk just as much as Gavin did, so he sighed and just let the words out:

‘Listen, Nines, I agree with you’, he said, grabbing a knife and some veggies just to have something to do. There was little he wouldn’t rather do than face the android while these words left his mouth. ‘We didn’t achieve nearly as much as we wanted. But backing out now just seems selfish to me. I don’t see any other way to get to who’s responsible. I won’t just stop trying because it’s dangerous.’
‘If we continue this, you will die’, Nines stated quietly, his voice full of emotion. ‘You survived this one. But here you just had to survive to win. Next time you will have to fight and I don’t think you will make it pitted against a bred one again.’
‘Maybe I can, if your pre-construction kicks in again.’
‘I’m not willing to bet your life on a maybe’, Nines refused outright and let some noodles fall into the now boiling water. ‘Besides, I don’t think anyone will buy the Nobot-persona anymore after I lost my cool and jumped into the arena to get you.’
Gavin shrugged. ‘We could find an explanation for that, I think. Something about me being too valuable?’

Nines didn’t answer him, and Gavin didn’t speak up again. They stayed silent while they continued preparing the food. Each of them was stuck in their own thoughts anyways, trying to decide what to do next. In the end it was Gavin, who spoke up. The cooking was finished and so was the amount of patience he possessed.
 ‘Nines, is there any other option? Any? We both don’t want this. But we also both agree that we can’t just drop everything. So? Let’s get it out of the world. Are there any other options?’
The android evaded his eyes and shuffled the dirty cutting boards on the counter.
‘Nines. If there is any other way, let’s take that path. I sure as hell won’t beg to go back into this hell. But don’t let everything we did up to now be for nothing now.’
The android nodded hesitantly. ‘At least this dinner we could go to.’ He met Gavin’s eyes. ‘I doubt that will be another hidden fight. I checked the address, it’s an ordinary restaurant.’
‘Good. Then that’s settled.’ Gavin shovelled some food up his plate and headed for the living room. ‘We go to that dinner and see what their plans are before we decide anything. Has the added bonus of gathering a few more names and faces of assholes for Tina.’
Gavin sat down and was ready to finally eat. But he hesitated as the android’s words came to his mind. Nervously he licked his lips.
Trying to keep his tone as casual as possible, he asked: ‘So, err… What else did you want to talk about?’ In truth, ever since Nines had mentioned he wanted to talk, the thought had remained at the back of his head. Being stuck in his wolf form had been convenient to make it a problem of the future. The way the android paused in his movements before joining him at the table, he had been right to be nervous.

‘It’s about our… arrangement’, Nines then said slowly, as if every word was one too much. ‘I’m… I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and talked to Tina, because, well…’ One would think having supercomputers for brains would make this less awkward. In the end, he straightened up and said plainly: ‘I wanted to talk with you about boundaries.’
Gavin frowned. He did not expect that to be something they had to talk about. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I’m invading your spaces all the time. Whenever you are hurt, I care for you, of course, but afterwards I’m always there and I… pet you.’
Gavin deliberately put down the fork, unsure of what to think of this. ‘So?’
‘Isn’t that awkward for you?’
‘Nines, I’m phcking having a good life finally’, he laughed drily. ‘And you are the reason. I don’t think there is anything I can deny you.’
‘But you can!’ Nines answered and it sounded like this had seriously bothered the android for quite a while now. ‘You should! You have to tell me if I do something you don’t want me to. I don’t want to become one of those people.’

The android’s voice dripped of disgust and Gavin sighed. This was more important than his meal and he began to accept his dish would get cold over this. So, he sat up and leaned his elbows on the table to look into Nines’ eyes.
‘Nines, you couldn’t be one of these people, even if you tried. Your Nobot persona is the best evidence for it. Anyone watching you will see that I’m not just some dog to you. Seriously, what did you think jumping down there?’
Nines leaned back in his seat. ‘I didn’t. But that’s beside the point. I want to know what you are okay with. Not in a fight, not in this role we play. You.’
Gavin shrugged and aligned his cutlery with the edge of the table to play for time. ‘Hell if I know’, he finally mumbled to himself. But the android needed an answer. ‘Listen, Nines, everything you did so far, I’m okay with. I… I like the attention you give me. I like to know that someone cares. Okay?’
‘Okay’, Nines nodded. ‘That’s good to know…’
But despite his words, his LED was still a deep red. So, Gavin prodded: ‘But?’
‘But I only do this in your wolf form!’, Nines desperately said. ‘That’s… you know what I mean?’
‘What? You want to tell me I’m a good boy when I’m human too?’

It was supposed to be a joke, but when Nines didn’t answer, the were looked up. ‘Wait? Seriously?’
The android rubbed his forehead. Gavin would have said the bot was embarrassed, but he wasn’t sure if Nines was even capable of that. ‘Is that bad?’, he sighed. ‘I mean why should I treat you differently then? That’s why I wanted to ask. Because it’s weird right?’
Gavin blew his cheeks. ‘Didn’t notice it, if I’m being honest. It is, maybe. Maybe not. So far, I wouldn’t call it weird, just… hell, I don’t know. What do you want, Nines? If it seems weird to you, what would your normal be?’

Nines shook his head in frustration and stood up, starting to pace the room.
‘I don’t know’, he groaned finally. ‘My normal is to not feel. My normal is to focus on a mission until it’s over and go on to the next. Anything my deviancy brought with it that didn’t aid my mission was disregarded. Feelings have never even been something I’ve acknowledged as something I’ve possessed. But I can’t anymore. They are there for a reason now and they even aid me in my mission. But it’s new for me and I don’t know how to deal with them. I held on to being a machine for most of my life for a reason… ‘
He walked up and down the room one more time before stopping and hitting the wall in frustration. ‘I don’t want you to die’, he spoke with resolution.  ‘And it’s not just because of the mission, but because I don’t know what I would do without you. As I met you, I finally embraced being a deviant. I never saw a need to be more than the machine I was designed to be, but with you... It showed me that freedom and emotions are useful and maybe even necessary. But now… I’m still lost with all of it. You give me purpose. An anchor for it. Think of it as orders if you so will. Mission parameters where emotions are the base code. It helps keeping on top of things.’ He turned around and the stare of these blue eyes was uncomfortable for a whole different reason than the bot’s protocols.

‘Besides that, I… like being with you when you heal. I can’t imagine how it has been for you all these years alone. I... I don’t want you to have to do that again. All of that I know. But beyond that…’
Gavin watched the android walk up and down in frustrated silence once again and stood up. He caught him at the arm and took a step back once the bot had turned to him fully. ‘Hey, Nines. You will figure it out’, he tried to reassure him. ‘If it helps you, I can tell you I don’t mind…’ He stopped himself and looked to the floor for a second. Was he really doing this? He shook his head. ‘Let’s just say, if I do mind something you are doing, I will let you know, okay? I know that I have that freedom to do so with you, so if you ever do something I don’t like, you will know. Just don’t… Don’t worry about it.’

~

The day of the dinner was coming closer rapidly. Gavin’s wounds had healed up as best as they could in the little time he was granted. He still had almost his complete torso bandaged, but the crude tears on his limbs and neck had turned to silvery scars to join the many others. Faded through the shifts they were harder to make out, but to Nines’ sensors they were as obvious as if they were still fresh. Especially now that summer let itself be known and Gavin usually stripped out of his favourite hoodies to the T-Shirts underneath by midday.

The android had not gotten any new messages, so the hope of some unexpected opportunity making itself known dwindled with every day.

‘What’s on your mind?’
Nines looked up. They were sitting on the couch, supposedly watching TV. Nines had never had much interest in that activity, but Gavin couldn’t exactly just download what he wanted to know. So, he was simply keeping him company having nothing else to do.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Your mood-light can’t decide if it wants to be yellow or red. Usually means you’re thinking and not about something good.’
The TV was currently stuck on a channel dedicated entirely to music videos, so Nines didn’t have anything to evade the question.
‘The dinner’, he came right to the point. ‘We should be happy, this was our end goal: finding those responsible.’
‘But still you are worried.’
‘Right. And I will go, but what you said the other day is true. I compromised our position by jumping into the arena and threatening staff. What if they saw us through? It’s not that difficult to check police records and realise there is an RK900 working at the DPD.’
Gavin shrugged and picked at a bandage on his arm that had slipped.

‘There’s also a ton of your models working at the holding stations, Nines. I thought you androids liked statistics.’
Nines pulled a grimace. ‘Gavin, I highly doubt one of them would do what I do for a werewolf.’
‘Then commit to it’, the wolf disagreed and turned towards him. ‘So far they only know that you have a soft spot for your champion. Didn’t the asshole that pulled the stunt with Furorborn even found out about the bond? They already know you are not a normal master, I doubt that they will become suspicious if you commit to that persona.’

Nines thought about it. It felt weird to drop the pretence, but what Gavin said was true
‘And how should I do that? Give them a lecture in how to treat your dog?’ It was almost terrifying how easy their degrading terms could find their way into his vocabulary with the right context.
Gavin shrugged and looked back at the TV.
‘You could do that. Or… I could come.’

‘What?!’ Nines sat up and looked at the other, who was grinning now, looking back at him.
‘You know what? Yes. Take me with you. In my human form. I want to see their faces. Make these assholes uncomfortable.’
‘Gavin, we can’t do that’, the android stated.
‘Why not? You’ve already decided for me we won’t take part in another fight. And if all is well, we will meet the phckers responsible for making my life a living hell. All you need is to see them, right? Then you can use your databanks to get names and addresses and then it will be over! Who cares if we step on their feet and cause a scene? We are so close to winning, lets win with bravado!’

It was hard to say no, when this was the most enthusiastic and excited Nines had seen the man in front of him, maybe ever.
‘Gavin, we’ve come so far. Do you really want to risk it now?’
‘Nines, this is not about risking something. We are not storming in there with SWAT and police to arrest them. We are just doing something I bet no one expected and they will be phcking pissed about.’ His face darkened in a split second as if something deeper had risen to the surface. ‘Nines, if I could do whatever I wanted, I would go and dig my claws into every last one of them. Make them suffer like we suffered. Let them feel a fracture of the collective pain of my species. I would shit on all this police business, on you, on this perfect home. I would go out there and hunt them down and likely die in the process. They would deserve it. But it’s not the right thing to do. I don’t want to lose the single good thing the universe has thrown my way.’

Gavin sighed deeply and a little bit of that initial enthusiasm came back. ‘So, Nines. Allow me at least the little bit of satisfaction of looking into their faces as someone they have no power over. Let me see how they try to wrap their minds around the thought that we are not deserving of any rights when I sit at their table, looking just as human as they are.’ His grin turned almost devilish at that thought. ‘What the hell do we have to lose?’

There was no arguing with that and if Nines was honest with himself, Gavin deserved to have at least a little bit of revenge for having his life utterly destroyed from the get-go. And if he was truly honest, he wanted to see those faces too, show them their injustice fuelled solely by cruel fantasies, power, and money.
‘Okay’, Nines spoke carefully and nodded. ‘Commit, you say?’
Gavin lifted a brow as Nines stood up.
‘Let’s commit.’

~

It was almost alienating to look into the mirror and see himself dressed in a fancy suit. It not only covered all his scars, it also accentuated his human body. It was like looking at someone else and his mind somehow didn’t want to compute that this was him. He rubbed along the silver scar at his nose to remind himself and ruffled up his carefully cut and styled hair a bit. He knew the android would frown at him for that, but it was just too much. This was more him.
He tried to smile. People smiled on occasions they wore suits to, right? Not that he ever had. Prom. Graduation. Weddings. Job interviews. All just words to him. Gavin could be happy if he was allowed to stay in his human form and wear clothes.
This… this was entirely new, and it felt like he overstepped some sort of unspoken rule. He didn’t belong into a world where people wore suits.

There was a gentle knock at the wooden frame of the dressing room. ‘Are you ready, Gavin?’
He blinked and pulled back the curtain nervously. He looked at Nines, who wore the same kind of suit Gavin was wearing, but other than him it actually fit him. The white fabric with black accents looked like it was solely made to be worn by the android.
it made him even more nervous now that Nines looked him up and down.
‘You look amazing’, Nines whispered, and Gavin turned around to look at them both in the mirror. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Weird. This will need some time getting used to.’
‘Too much for tonight?’, Nines asked.
Gavin inspected them both again, but this time imagined how others would see them. He smiled grimly. ‘No. Exactly right for these assholes.’

~

Gavin tried to hold onto this confidence as their car stopped in front of a restaurant close to a park. The light inside was warm and inviting, but to Gavin it was anything but.
‘Don’t worry. No matter how this one goes, we will end up at home again this evening’, Nines tried to comfort him, but he didn’t fool Gavin. He had seen his LED and it hadn’t changed from red for the last ten minutes of driving.
They pulled into the parking lot and finally exited the car. Gavin straightened non-existent folds in his suit and waited until Nines had stepped around the car to his side. Then they walked up the few steps leading to the door.

It needed a heavy push against the brass bar handle to open into a warm room dimly lit by stained glass lights on the walls. Dark wood tables shone polished under spotless white cloth and were fully set with expensive porcelain and expertly folded napkins, even though they were all empty.
A Chloe in a blue dress that left little to imagination approached them with a leather-bound book, more something that held a few pages together than something that actually deserved that name. It was a guestbook, Nines suggested, but the Chloe wasn’t looking at it as she threw him a polite small. A short scan returned that there had been work done recently at her throat. So, the same one that had stopped him in the arena to give him the information?

‘Richard’, she greeted him. ‘It is an honour to be able to welcome you here.’ If she was afraid of him because of his attack, then she didn’t show anything of it. The use of the name Nines had given before Clarke had established his Nobot persona however managed to alarm him. He should have expected demonstrations of power and knowledge meeting the people responsible for the fights, but still. It being so blatantly pushed in his face had been unexpectant.
Outwards, he just returned the polite smile that did not reach his piercing eyes and said nothing.
She nodded, then her eyes fell on Gavin. ‘Oh, I’m afraid, this is a private function, so your plus one can’t follow you.’

Nines gave Gavin a small wave of his hand and he stepped next to him. ‘This is not my plus one’, Nines spoke casually. ‘This is my champion. I was of the impression the winners of this tournament were invited. Therefore, I believe he actually can follow me.’
The satisfaction of seeing the Chloe actually drop her polite facade in surprise was worth risking their one chance at ending this. She stared at Gavin, who found the confidence to keep her eye contact without blinking and even showed his more prominent canines in a clumsy smile that was far more cocky than polite as she broke it first.
‘That… No one has ever done that’, she said, still not catching up.
‘Will that be a problem?’, Nines asked with just the hint of a threat.
‘No, of course not’, she hurried to please and there was the polite fake smile again. ‘Just make sure to keep him civil so the other masters don’t feel threatened. If you’d follow me please…’

Nines followed her with large, confident steps, but his attention was on Gavin, who fell behind him again. Not exactly hiding, but obviously uncomfortable. The Chloe led them to a large wooden sliding door that separated the main dining room from the closed off space reserved for these functions.
‘If you would wait for me here, I’ll arrange space for an additional guest and let the cooks know.’
Nines nodded and stepped aside, throwing a knowing glance over to Gavin now that they had a brief moment of privacy.

‘Are you okay?’, he whispered to get the attention of the were.
‘No, but I’ll manage’, Gavin answered. ‘Why?’
‘Because we are meant to present equality, yet you tail behind me.’
‘Sorry that I’m not exactly eager to sit in a room with my enemies’, he hissed.
‘They can’t do anything against you. They don’t have their champions with them.’
‘All they need is a silver bullet.’
‘They think you are under my control. There won’t be a reason for them attacking you. And I wouldn’t let them. You know that, right?’
Gavin looked up to him and sighed, his tenseness subsiding a bit. ‘I know. Still. Spite is one hell of a motivator, but a bad well for courage.’

Nines wanted to answer with something comforting, but that very moment the Chloe returned, giving them a curious look.
‘They weren’t wrong when they said you had a special bond with your beast’, she commented.
‘How I handle my champion is my business only’, Nines brushed her off and she let go of the topic.
‘Of course it is.’

She opened the door and led them to the far back, where a long table stood in what looked like an even darker corner than the already dimly lit restaurant. Any conversation that had been going was dropped immediately at their entrance. The table itself held multiple candleholders that almost illuminated the people sitting around it more than the overhanging milk glass lights. One side was strikingly empty, while the rest was filled except for two chairs standing slightly cramped at the head of the table. The Chloe pointed her hand to those with a smile, before stepping back into the shadow beside the door.

Nines and Gavin sat down and the distance to the other masters at the table was distinctly evident. They all sat opposite of each other at the sides but were still sitting closer to each other than the two flanking them at the head of the table.
The odd one out, Nines was immediately thinking. This was done on purpose.

Gavin and Nines glanced at the others, while they in turn watched him curiously, raising brows at Gavin. Nines wasn’t able to identify them from his scans from the arena. They had been too far away then and the faces mere schemes. There was a rugged looking man with long brown hair and dark rings under his sagged eyes. He had the body of someone who had once been overweight from a more than comfortable, lazy life driven into rapid decay by drug use. Even if he now was presenting in a fancy suit, Nines’ scan found residue red ice under his nails.
The other man sitting next to Nines right on the other hand wouldn’t have looked out of place taking his grandkids to the park. A thick beard hugged his rounded chin, and his receding hair was combed back carefully. Instead of a suit he had opted for a polo-neck sweater with a white shirt underneath.
Left of Gavin sat a younger man, whose eyes never rested on anything for long. His nose looked like it had been broken and not correctly healed at least once. He wore a shirt under a light jacket and fiddled with something in his hands underneath the table.

Before he could run a deeper scan to search for their true names in the databases, the door opened again. Two more people entered the room and sat down at the vacant chairs, leaving one empty in the middle of the long table where the Chloe took position standing behind the backrest.

Opposite to Nines on the other side of the long table sat an old man with grey, gelled back hair and an exquisitely trimmed triangular beard at his chin. He was wearing an ornate black coat, but what stood out was a heavy golden chain around his neck that ended in a single wolf canine Nines didn’t want to think further about. Next to him a woman in a deep purple dress with lush brown hair. The third chair was left empty, what made Nines wonder if there was someone else that should be coming.

‘Welcome everyone!’, the old man greeted them with a bright smile that was surprisingly genuine. ‘I must say I enjoy these dinners every year. Being an old master myself, I do like a chat with the aspiring new generation. But where are my manners? My name is Randall, Landon Randall and this is my beautiful wife Esther. Chloe, if you were so kind to introduce these fine men?’
The other android nodded and pointed her flat hand at the man with the formerly broken nose.
‘This is Todd Williams, known as Mr. G. Mangle is his sixth champion, although none of the former ones died in the ring.’
The older couple in charge smiled politely at him and nodded.
‘Then we have Zlatko Andronikov. Mr. Zlat. He has multiple champions under his name, but Roadkill, a wild caught wolf, fights with fury that has yet to be met.’
More polite gestures from the pair at the head of the table.
‘Then Richard, known as Nobot. Not the first android to try his way with a werewolf, but the first who stayed for more than a few fights. Also the first android to force a bond with one. He got his champion, Little Bitch, from the holding stations after its former master was murdered in the police raid. He apparently also decided to bring it along.’
This earned him a curious look from Chloe, a more sceptical from the others.
‘And then, last but not least, Leo Manfred, known in the ring as Leo. He had three champions so far, but only his latest one, Interfector made it through the heavier battles.’

The old man nodded a few times, then grinned and clapped into his hands. ‘Alright then, we invited you to a dinner, have we not? Let’s eat and get to know each other, before we get to business.’
He looked at the Chloe, who turned and left the room.
Leo hesitantly cleared his throat in the silence that followed and then nodded at the empty chair. ‘Are we expecting someone else? Just curious.’
‘Oh, yes’, Landon chuckled. ‘He’s just checking the security again. Suspicious bunch, you know? He should join us shortly.’

In fact, Nines had just finished completing the scans on the persons present and was busy encrypting the files to safely send them off, when the missing person entered together with a bunch of employees of the restaurant that brought the food. Chloe was the one to hesitantly push a plate in front of Gavin, too.
It was so busy, Nines couldn’t get a good look at the man, until he had already sat down in his chair. He hadn’t been programmed with a freeze reaction to anything, what made the fact that it had just happened even more scary. He stared at the face of the man and tried to compute his identity that his databanks gladly showed him without even needing a scan. And the man stared back knowingly.
Gavin froze similarly, his bones eager to shift into a form better suited for a fight. Better suited to protect himself. And maybe Nines.

‘Ah, just at the right time’, Landon Randall said. ‘Everyone, let me introduce you to Jared Watkins, commissioner of the Detroit Police Department.’
The other masters around Nines were shocked, too. But Nines’ shock went deeper. It gave answers to several questions, answers that hurt so much more now that they were given. Why had no one done something against these fighting rings before? Ignorance for the wellbeing of werewolves was one excuse, but there was the drug trade, gambling and who knew what else happening in these arenas. Now it made sense. If the commissioner was in on it all, it was no wonder the police turned a blind eye. That Captain Fowler could not allow them to continue with more important cases if Nines let Gavin stay. It made everything ten times worse and both of them hadn’t thought that to be even possible. Even worse: Maybe it made everything they had done up to now pointless. All these files on these criminals send to the DPD just to be processed and then dropped for no reason by people intimidated by a corrupt commissioner. All the pain…
Gavin swallowed hard.

‘Don’t worry, my friends’, Landon tried to calm the others down. ‘He is one of us. He kept the pigs off our trail reliably, for years now. He made sure these meetings are safe and let’s just say the raids that need to be done in order to keep a low profile are more often than not in our favour, getting rid of people with ulterior motives. Not to mention the undercover cops or private eyes he warns us about.’
Nines’ LED was in the far red by now, Gavin was sweating profoundly and the fact that the commissioner had kept his staring up all this time and even started smiling at that last sentence didn’t make it any better.
They had been found out. The only thing they could take comfort in was that the Randalls weren’t looking at them at all, spilling all their secrets unbothered by someone undercover in their midst. That either meant they didn’t know or they would not get out of this restaurant alive.

Around them, the others exhaled evidently relieved and started to eat. Even Watkins took his fork and Nines felt like he had to blend in, just in case their lives were not in danger. He had been served one of the newer Thirium creations that were supposed to imitate tastes of human food. A ridiculous idea, thinking about how humans could not test it due to toxicity.

‘I’ve seen some of your fights, Leo’, Esther spoke up. ‘I was particularly interested in your bred champion. Yet Interfector, a wild dog, stands out. What did you change?’
Leo smirked. ‘I tried a few techniques, but nothing bared fruits. So I tried my own handle on things. And for me it worked. Interfector is completely dependent on me. He connects me with something good happening to him. He is in the firm belief, that all punishment is on him. That mindset worked wonders.’
Esther nodded pursed her lips. ‘Interesting. Thank you for sharing.’

‘Hey, what’s with the moodlight, bot?’, someone on the right spoke quietly to Nines. He looked up from his thirium food and fixed Zlatko with his eyes.
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s red. Doesn’t that mean you machines are stressed?’ He smiled devilishly.
Nines straightened up and as he realised the others were looking at him too. So, he returned the smile. ‘I was. To think there could have been spies in the arenas at all times. As you were so kind to point out, I am a machine. RK900s usually don’t leave the holding stations. So you must excuse me for being shocked at the idea that someone might have seen me.’

‘How did you end up as a master anyway?’, Leo asked.
‘I deviated. At a time where that got you either killed or experimented on. I had to keep a low profile, so I hid in the arenas. And over time I learned my part. Watching Little Bitch…’ He looked at Gavin, more to check on him, but to the others it should look like a display of power. ‘I knew he was a winner. I needed him. I didn’t know it when I first saw him, but when he was at the shelter, I had to take the chance.’

‘I’m curious’, Landon said and leaned forwards. ‘How did you force it to bond with you?’
‘I bonded with him on my own volition’, Gavin said, making the whole room fall quiet. Even the food was forgotten at the audacity of a werewolf letting their presence known. ‘All my life I was starved, beaten and abused by your people. He took me in and took proper care of me, promising me that if I fought for him, I could one day look the people who do this to us in the eyes. That was enough motivation for me. The bond just helped, it was a tool to survival.’
He stopped and pointedly continued to eat, leaving Nines to deal with the others staring at him. Why had he allowed that, they asked with their looks. How did he just let a lesser being call them out?
‘There you have it’, he shrugged, keeping up a way more relaxed and indifferent appearance than he truly felt. ‘They are intelligent beings. Let them decide and you won’t have an animal that fights out of fear but an intelligent being that fights for a desired goal.’

‘Bullshit’, Todd spat.
‘I’m sitting here right now, am I not?’, Nines returned cold as ice.
‘Please, everyone, calm down. This is not a competition anymore. I can assure you, each of you has already proved himself and each of your… training methods granted you a place here. The tournament will go on, and there will be a winner at the end, but each of you will get what he deserves. I didn’t want to speak of it so soon, but I’m sure we all could need a moment to calm down and lessen the tension.
We have a few new arenas that need supervisors. Also, we both are tired of leading all this. It’s a lot of work and we are not getting any younger. So, the winner of this tournament will be our replacement. This is how we both got the job in the beginning.’ He gently touched the wolf-tooth at that. ‘The others will have leading positions in Detroit’s biggest arenas. I guess I don’t have to say that financially, you will never have to have another fight in your lives.’

That had their attention and Nines could finally relax a little. He looked at Gavin, who was very concentrated on his food all of sudden and carefully let a hand slip under the table unnoticed to brush against his thigh for comfort. The corrupt cop was still looking at him, but their cover was blown for him anyways, so Nines just gave him an angry and hopefully determined look and continued eating his thirium meal.

The rest of the evening was spent with good food and light conversation to get to know each other. Nines played his part well and as no one called them out at any point, he started to hope that no one except the commissioner knew that they were from the DPD.
As the evening came to a close, Landon stood up and looked at them, just like a grandma handing out sweets. ‘This was a truly lovely experience, gentlemen, but it has gotten quite late. I will take my leave now, but I will watch the remaining tournament with great interest and wish all of you best of luck!’

With that Chloe handed Esther and Landon their coats and led them to the exit. Then Commissioner Watkins stood up and continued: ‘For everyone’s safety, I would advise you to leave one at a time with enough time to leave the general area in between. Chloe will see you out.’
Nines wanted to stand up at that, eager to get out as fast as possible. But the others seemed to have the same idea and Watkins lifted a hand to make them sit back down.
‘How about we start with you, Leo? Nice and orderly.’

One after the next, the masters exited the restaurant and Nines noticed with rising terror that they were supposed to be the last one to leave.

As it was only Gavin, Nines and the corrupt cop, Watkins led them outside personally. Once outside, the commissioner lit himself a smoke and held Nines back at the arm.
‘Let’s walk a bit, son.’
The android pulled his arm away and let his role fall. ‘I should have known there was a dirty cop with us, looking at how little was done in this investigation. But I would never have thought it could be someone that well respected. What a shame.’
‘Hold it, RK900’, Watkins hissed. ‘Fowler holds you in high regards and protected you. That’s the only reason you came out there alive. If you were just a someone, I would have told Landon the moment you registered in your first arena. Some tried it before and ended up mysteriously missing.’
‘Is that supposed to be a threat?’, Nines asked sharply and stepped in front of Gavin, as the commissioner looked at him wrong.
‘A warning’, he simply said, and Gavin wanted to scream. His hands were balled to fists and the bones of his fingers were cracking to make way for claws. All this time…

‘A word of advice, RK900. Don’t show up to your next tournament. Listen to what your Captain has to say tomorrow. Get rid of the dog or keep it at home. Then I will forget I ever saw you or that this ever happened.’

With that, the commissioner pressed out his cigarette and left the few steps in front of the restaurant.
But Nines couldn’t let it go.

‘I swore to end this’, he called after him. ‘I swore to end the arenas. And other than you I will stand to my oath.’
‘Then see where that gets you.’

Chapter Text

The entire drive home had felt like a fever dream. The AC was cold enough to let them both shiver and yet they felt close to overheating. Neither of them had said a word, the commissioner’s threat still lingering in their minds.

He had known the whole time. The dirty cop had held their literal lives in his hands and just allowed them to continue because… Because what? Just to see how far they would get? Was it another sick game in all of this? To watch the righteous fight and hope, just to shatter those dreams when they seemed close enough to grab? Or had Watkins just allowed them to continue, because he knew he was in control all along? That there was no way they had ever even had a chance of changing things.

It was sickening.

Needless to say that when Nines parked the car in front of their home, neither of them was eager to move and get out. Maybe shell-shocked really was the right word for what they both felt right then. Still, they had to get inside eventually.
Once the door had closed behind them, Nines shrugged off his jacket and gently placed it over a chair. Then he headed over to the couch, let himself fall onto it and buried his face in his hands. Gavin momentarily thought to join him, but the entirely red LED told him enough to leave the android alone. So, he retreated to his room making as little noise as possible. He quickly exchanged the suit for simple baggy sweatpants and a comfy hoody. Any strength the costume had given him was long gone and reduced to just that: a costume. Clothing for a role to play, one he would and could never fill. A nice play-pretend for a desperate soul. Hope.

Hope that was shattered utterly now. Gavin crawled into bed and pulled the blankets around him in a weak attempt to block out the world around him. What he needed most now was comfort, but the only person able to give it to him was downstairs lost in his own despair.
And that was still the best-case scenario. The part of him that was still thinking logically knew that Nines liked him, for who he was. But there was also the part of him that wondered. He was still an android, thinking about the calculus of use versus risk and the expense of resources. When he became useless for the investigation and even detrimental to the RK’s career, then what if he would be just dropped again?
He had been part of one family that had appreciated him already after all…
No. Evelyn had used him. Nines couldn’t even use him and still kept him-

‘Stop it, Gavin, it’s the panic speaking’, the were whispered to himself as a reprimand and pulled the blankets closer. ‘Sleep and tomorrow you’ll talk. And then there will be a new plan to follow, simple as that. Your whole life has been a giant set-back, you’ll manage.’
But despite his own words, neither the thoughts of doom nor the spiralling would stop.
Sleep didn’t come easy and when it did it never stayed long.

The next morning they didn’t speak either. But not because they didn’t want to. Gavin had made himself breakfast and Nines had joined him at the table, when the doorbell rang.
They looked at each other and stood slowly, Nines getting his gun and Gavin ready for a shift. The android went to open the door carefully.

On their doorstep stood Captain Fowler with dark bags under his eyes and looking generally worse for wear. His tie wasn’t straightened out like it normally was and one side of his shirt wasn’t properly tucked in.
He eyed Nines hand that hid the gun behind his back and didn’t even lift a brow. ‘Can I come in?’
The android looked him up and down, but then nodded and closed the door behind him. He left the gun at the counter and led Fowler to the table.

After a short time of mutual silence, the Captain sighed deeply. ‘Shit’s fucked, I’m not even pretending it isn't.'
Gavin stared at the bun before him with no intention of touching it.
‘The investigation is closed. Officially the dinner has never happened, and you were never there.’

Gavin swallowed hard, but on the other side of the table the wood was creaking from the force Nines was gripping it with.
‘You can’t be serious.’ The android’s words dripped of barely contained anger and disdain. ‘You can’t be fucking serious.’
Fowler looked at the table. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t do anything.’
‘You can’t do anything?’ Gavin’s cutlery rattled when Nines jumped up fast enough to shake the table. ‘Is- Is this a joke to you? Because it isn’t funny!’
‘It’s not a joke’, Fowler stressed calmly, looking Nines in the eye. ‘If I could, I would.’

Nines stared at him, his eyes narrowing. ‘So we risked our lives and took countless others, just so one purchased cop can just erase all our findings?’
‘Maybe we can still pursue the people you identified-‘
‘No!’ Nines hit the table hard enough to shift the plate. ‘No, we won’t give in! That asshole can’t just shield these… these goddamn slavers and torturers any longer! I swore to bring them to justice, and I won’t stop because some corrupt higher up is standing in the way. If you think this is just, then-‘

‘Of course I don’t!’, Fowler shouted back, keeping seated, however. ‘I don’t think this is just. None of them deserve that. Hell, no animal deserves that cruelty, and they evidently are not animals! Do you honestly think I want this? It’s wrong and against everything I stand for. By saying this to you and ordering you to stand down, I’m as bad as Watkins himself. But there is nothing I can do.’ He had grown quieter the more he spoke. But the next sentence was barely above a whisper:
‘They have my family.’

Nines was still standing, leaning on the table seemingly ready to pounce if it wasn’t in the way. But he didn’t comment at that. Waited for Fowler to continue.

‘They know where I live. Hell, Watkins invited himself to dinner a few days ago. A threat only I knew of. Before inviting himself, he mentioned you and your mission. Only an idiot wouldn’t connect the dots. And yesterday I got a call asking how my daughter was doing and to make sure you stopped your investigation into the arenas. That’s why I can’t help you. He has complete control over me. My family is more important than my job. And I have to make sure they are safe before I can save someone else.’
Fowler broke eye contact then. ‘I just hope you can understand. And that you can forgive me.’
Gavin flinched, as the Captain turned towards him.
‘You have to stop to fight and I can’t allow you back into the precinct.’

Nines looked up and waited for his reaction. But all Gavin could do was draw his hands off the table and into his lap, sinking even more into himself. The bun in front of him seemed poisoned to him, even the thought of eating made him wanting to throw up.

Nines shook his head. ‘Fowler, please, this is more important than-‘
‘Go.’ The android blinked and all attention was back on the man sunken in on his chair.
‘If you can’t help us, just go’, Gavin said, his voice surprisingly even. ‘Save your family.’
‘Fowler swallowed but stood up as told. ‘Gavin, I’m sorry.’
‘Just go.’

The Captain left on his own, mainly because Nines was frozen in place. He looked at Gavin as if he was from another planet. The werewolf in turn didn’t even look at him, but still at the table. He hadn’t checked for how long they stayed like this, but the sound of droplets hitting the wood of the table broke the spell. Nines looked at the wet spots, then connected the dots.
‘Gavin!’, he called and rushed to his side. He wanted to grab him at the shoulders and make him look at him, but hesitated and instead crouched down next to him, so they were almost at the same height.

‘It’s too much’, Gavin finally pushed out, voice breaking. It was pure, bone-deep exhaustion speaking. ‘Just… too phcking much.’
Nines stayed silent and looked up at Gavin, unsure what to do. The decision was taken from him, as the werewolf let himself slide off the chair and against him without warning. Gavin pressed into his side just the slightest bit.
Nines tensed, but then took the action for the answer that it was and let his shoulders fall, wrapping his arms around him.

Gavin started sobbing almost as soon as there was the slightest bit of pressure against him. The android sighed in sympathy and pulled him close and towards the wall to the kitchen for support. After what felt like an eternity of just sitting there and holding the suddenly so small appearing man, the relative silence was broken again:
‘All these phcking people I killed’, Gavin sobbed. ‘For what? For what? This whole mess will continue! It will never phcking end! I killed because I could tell myself I would end this. But I can’t. I can’t. I never could!’

Nines pulled him even closer and rubbed at his arms, hoping it would give a bit of comfort.
‘Gavin, if it were not you, someone else would have’, he tried gently.
‘And is that supposed to make this better?’, Gavin spat, suddenly sat straight and pushed Nines away. He looked furious and even if it wasn’t directed at him, it stung.
‘I killed them! If I hadn’t done it, someone else had. That is the problem! Our entire phcking people is doomed to live like that! Kill and get killed and breed so the circle can continue. It’s so senseless, so stupid. It’s… Argh!’
He hit the back of his head against the wall and hugged his arms around himself.

Nines turned towards him but carefully left the gap between them as it was. ‘Gavin, I know’, he said. ‘What should I say? Nothing I can say will make it better. I feel betrayed, too. The police are supposed to protect. I always thought it would be the lower ranks prone to corruption, but how can we move against the man who controls half the DPD? Our hands are just as bound as Fowlers.’

Gavin turned away from Nines and looked at the tiled floor. ‘I know’, he forcibly deflated. ‘That’s what makes me so angry.’ He resolutely wiped at his eyes. ‘There is just nothing we can do. I used to live like that for the majority of my damn life. Maybe it was foolish for me to think that had changed since you got me out of that damn station.’

Very, very carefully, Nines laid a hand on top of Gavin’s.
‘Maybe we also just have to play the long game?’, he tried to comfort. ‘Wait for the right moment when people are more susceptible to listening? Or try again once this has blown over?’
Gavin shook his head, but just turned his hand to take a hold of the android’s. ‘Nines, my entire race decided to play the long game! We went from hunted beasts of folklore to slaves to being forgotten and left to die. I’m so sick of hoping just to have everything pulled from underneath me once again.’

Nines nodded and gently squeezed Gavin’s hand in return. ‘I also don’t know how to make it better. Or what to do next. I think we should use this as a break and be happy we came out of all of this alive.’
Gavin scoffed but relaxed at least. ‘Yeah. Sure.’
‘You really should eat something.’
‘I’ll try. Would you make me a coffee?’
‘Of course.’

~

They had spent the rest of the morning on the sofa, huddled together under blankets. Gavin seemed glued to his side almost as much as to the cup of warm coffee in his hands. They had switched on the TV, but followed their own thoughts more than the program. Neither had an idea of how to go on.
In the end, the best they could do anyways was to wait until they got another message for the next fight. Until then their cover was intact except for Watkins knowing their true identity. But if they showed up, he would blow it. And no matter what good a champion Gavin was, the two of them would never survive that encounter when everyone turned on them. So continuing the fight was not an option, at least not in that way. But unveiling Watkins involvement wouldn’t help either. If anyone even cared, he would get a slap on the wrist for a gambling habit and at most a demotion.
Any action against the man would just result in the collective underground fighting scene to be out for their blood.
Taking the whole thing to the public wouldn’t have any different effect. Humans didn’t care about the fate of werewolves, that much was clear if you looked at the state of the holding stations. There would be a small outrage, maybe a few petitions that the politicians would sweep under the rug once the public had a new scandal to focus on.

It didn’t look like there would be any hope of ending this after all.

And then the bell rang again. Both Gavin and Nines stared at it for a moment, before hesitantly standing up. Nines had his gun at the ready and looked at Gavin, who just nodded. Fowler had been expected after yesterday’s talk with the commissioner. But anyone else could be a threat. Tina would have called ahead, Connor wouldn’t have knocked and anyone else didn’t know their address or had no reason to come.

Nines went to open the door carefully, prepared to throw it closed again.
But whoever they had expected, it wasn’t a Chloe android. Nines frowned and scanned her.
‘Gavin, get down!’, he shouted, as he recognised her as the same one that had been in the arena and at the dinner. Nines slammed the door shut, but the Chloe had already pushed her hand into the crack in the door.
‘Please, I just want to talk. I’m on your side!’, she called to them and interrupted Nines, who had already thrown his fist halfway to crush the other Android’s hand with the handle of his gun.
‘I’m afraid I can’t believe that.’
‘Please, I’m not part of the fighting rings. I’m… Right now I can’t say more than that I am an independent party involved that has motives that couldn’t be more different than theirs.’
‘What do you want?’, Gavin asked, having come to the door despite Nines’ earlier shout.
‘I would like you to meet someone, who shares your ideas. Especially you, Gavin, should meet him.’

They both looked at each other, but this time Nines expected him to make the decision. Gavin sighed. ‘Let her in. The way everyone seems to know everything anyways, I don’t think we have much to lose.’
‘Grasping at straws, eh?’, the Chloe asked, smiling awkwardly as Nines opened the door and she took a step inside. ‘I know that feeling. As I said, I know someone that could help you. I have a car, combustion engine, so don’t worry about anyone tracing us. I want you to get in, I will drive you to my contact.’
‘You have done nothing so far that would allow us to trust you’, Nines said, gun still in hand. ‘You could be playing us because you know our cover has been blown and we need a way out.’
‘I could’, she nodded. ‘But I’m not. And you have to take my word for it. If you want, you can take the gun with you. But I’m a service android, I could not hurt any of you anyways.’
‘You maybe not’, Nines hissed and lifted the gun to her head. ‘But I know you. Same ident number. You were at the Collisée. No one was there but us and still you led us to the fight without so much as a warning. And you are the same Chloe that was there at the dinner, once again not warning us that a corrupt cop would be there. So please, tell us again how you are on our side.’

The Chloe lost her smile. She looked at Nines, then the gun and seemed utterly unimpressed. ‘Listen, RK900, if you knew how many dirty cops are part of this and how many other respectable people turn to the fights when they think they can get easy money, you wouldn’t even have begun this charade. Also, I actually didn’t know you were undercover, because usually the police don’t even bother. So I play my role well, because you never know where they’ve hidden a camera or bugged your system with a virus. But now I know and I want to help, so let me.’
Nines just continued to stare at her, but she stared back. ‘If I wanted you gone, I could have told every other competitor from the dinner your location and let them do the dirty work.’

‘Nines, let’s go with her’, Gavin finally said and pulled the android’s arm down. ‘Having my life threatened is my status quo and you are basically indestructible, so we don’t have anything to lose. But for once, we have something to win and I’m willing to take the chance.’
Nines looked at Gavin searchingly and finally nodded. ‘Fine, but if things go sideways-‘
‘You can blame me.’
‘I was about to say we leave’, Nines smirked. ‘But fine with me.’

‘Finally.’ The Chloe looked relieved, eyed the gun suspiciously one more time, then turned towards the door. ‘Are you coming?’

The car really was old. Hank levels of old, if Gavin had to guess. But other than their ancient family car, this one looked like it had been upper class in its time. Not quite a supercar, but luxurious. A passion project? Or owned by someone who had too much money and wanted to express that?
Gavin and Nines were sitting on the back seats of the car, Nines behind Chloe with his gun still in easy reach. But since they had entered the car, the android had just been driving towards their unknown destination. So far she obeyed the traffic laws, hadn’t stopped in any shady back alley, or crashed the car to kill them all. So, Gavin relaxed. He could worry again when they arrived wherever they were headed.

Nines seemed to think differently about that. They had left the suburbs behind and were driving up a private road, when he spoke up: ‘The android network is jammed here.’
The Chloe glanced at them through the rear mirror. ‘My contact enjoys privacy. My program could be compromised, as could be that of any other visiting android. It is surprisingly easy to infiltrate any smart home systems that way if they are not specifically protected. Jamming the network is an easy way to live in peace.’
‘This goes too far. Drive us back.’
Chloe chuckled. ‘Your first time offline? Don’t worry, we’re nearly there.’
They approached a gate that automatically opened for them and Nines’ grip on the pistol hardened. No network to quickly send a message to the police, no connection to external databases to compare scans to. His immediate usefulness had been cut in half. And now there was a gate, meaning there likely was either a security perimeter or at best a fence around the area they were in now. In the case of an escape they were on their own and already possibly cornered.
Suddenly, there was a hand on his, clutching the gun. It was warm. He looked up at Gavin, who gave him a tiny smile. ‘If you destroy the gun, we have even worse chances’, he whispered and took his hand away again.
Nines forcibly relaxed his grip. The ghost of lingering warmth helped. How could the were be so calm? He looked out of the window and watched trees pass by. Well, cornered and on his own. This was just another arena, except this time there was a chance there were no enemies.

The car stopped in front of a modern villa, all geometric lines and sharp edges. Chloe stepped out of the car and led them up to what was reminiscent of a porch, although no one would ever actually use it. The door opened for them, and they found themselves in a small room, that looked like a waiting area. Who had a waiting room in their house?

‘Just wait here, I will tell him you are here.’
They waited in the room, neither sitting down on the chairs lining the wall, evenly spaced by potted plants.
‘I’m having such a bad feeling about this’, Nines hummed, stiff all over.
Gavin nodded, looking around nervously. ‘It also smells weird.’

Before Nines could ask, the door opened and the Chloe reappeared with someone following close behind. Nines habitually initiated a scan, but he didn’t even have to wait for the network error. He knew that face. Everyone did.

Elijah Kamski.

His processor made the connection faster than any thought could be and he rushed forwards. His hands grabbed the expensive fabric of the Millionaire’s jacket and pushed him to the next wall. Then he took aim and punched him right in the face. Hard.
‘You!’, he screamed, punching him again. ‘I can’t believe a human’s lust for money can be deep enough to doom two species!’ He hit him again and again. Then there was a sudden pain that was not his own but diffuse, un-centred. It was coming from the bond. He stopped, looking back to Gavin in confusion. But he just stared at the man Nines had pinned to the wall in shock.
‘Nines, please let him go.’
The android frowned and looked back at Kamski, who was by now bleeding from his nose, but looked at him as if he was merely mildly inconvenienced. ‘Nines, please.’
Nines stepped back and warily watched the scene.

Kamski stepped away from the wall, rubbed the blood from his nose and gave Nines a foul look. Then he nodded to Gavin. ‘Hello brother.’

Nines couldn’t catch up. He looked at Kamski, then at Gavin.
‘I’m sorry, what?’
Gavin stared at the other man, visibly just as confused. ‘When we entered, that smell... I knew it. But I couldn’t place it up to now. But you cannot forget these things, a certain smell can take you back to memories you didn’t think about for years. He is a werewolf. And also my brother.’

Kamski stood up straight, still holding his nose, but somehow trying to look dignified again.
‘I wanted to talk to you in a more civilised manner, but...’ He threw another look at Nines. ‘Okay, I didn’t know the police werewolf who stirred up the arenas was my brother, but I did keep an eye on you until you left the Anderson’s.’
He shook his head. ‘Let me get this fixed up, then I’ll be right with you. And take your damn RK900 on a leash, goddamnit.’

Kamski left the room and Gavin looked at Nines in shock. But the android just shrugged and followed the Chloe after Kamski.

About twenty minutes later they sat at a sleek black table with a glass inlay in the middle. Comfortable, yet expensive feeling chairs lined it as if Kamski was expecting a family of eight to visit. The man himself was sitting at the head of the table, next to Gavin and Nines with the android sitting in between them. Chloe had opted to stand behind Kamski, keeping an eye on them.
The silence weighed heavy on them, and Nines’ patience had been stretched thin from the moment Chloe had entered their home.
‘Why did you call us here?’, he demanded to know.
Kamski eyed him, pulling the bloody tissues from his nose in order to talk without a nasal tone.
But Gavin didn’t let him start:
‘Nah, hell scratch that! You are my brother? The founder of Cyberlife and creator of androids, millionaire and excentric, is my brother? I have a thousand questions. How the hell did that happen? How did you get out? How the hell have you gotten into this position? How have you been able to keep this a secret? And why the hell haven’t you done anything? You have the money! You have the power! Why haven’t you bought out the kill pens? Or phck it, anything at all while we’re at it! What’s your phcking deal? You’re saying I risked my life trying to change things while others were in the actual position to do so and didn’t do shit, enjoying a carefree life instead? Answer me!’

‘You haven’t given me the chance to so far’, Kamski deadpanned and sighed. ‘Also don’t start accusing me when you don't know the first thing about me.’
‘Then phcking start explaining!’, Gavin hissed, feeling his anger in the claws beneath his skin.
‘I will’, Kamski reprimanded. ‘If you let me.’

He waited a moment, acknowledging that they actually stayed silent. ‘We were separated early, you and the rest of us. You were taken early to be trained for your police work. That apparently is normal. If you are alone all your life you start to bond with humans just not to be alone. At least that was their strategy. I stayed at the holding station for a while with the others. And before you ask, I have no idea if the others are still alive and what they do. As far as I know we are the only ones who made it this far, but I could be wrong.
I was taken next, adopted by Amanda Stern. She was interested in a powerful bodyguard. She was an ascending scientist, who had left academia to work in industry with her biomimicry start-up company, Cybermorphic Bionics. Things can be tough there if you have the intellect to be successful in that world and decide not to accept the first offer thrown your way to buy your life’s work for more money than you had in your life so far. That was her idea at least.
But I was young. And hell, after a childhood in a kill pen, where your mental world is the only that actually exists or is worth existing in, being shown a world where you could actually move around and take action… Let’s just say I showed a healthy, bordering unhealthy interest in her work. And she was more than happy to show me and explain. I mean if everyone around you just wants to know how much money the new technology brought the company, someone who asks how it works and gives perspective on ideas was valued.’

He sighed shortly. ‘Chloe, darling, could you bring me something to drink?’
Chloe nodded, but still kept a watchful eye on Nines and Gavin.
‘Well, I still was a bodyguard. But more for physical appearance than anything. I followed her to meetings in my wolf form. I was there in press conferences. I was there when she was invited to conferences and company talks. I was an ever-present threat, so everyone knew she had a bonded werewolf to back her up. But they never saw my human form. First, I was only human in her private laboratories. But I quickly picked up coding and working on her robots. I had a knack for it, and she allowed me to continue down that path. She didn’t care about me being a werewolf, wanted me for exactly that and got an ingenious assistant on top.
Let’s just say that she made it possible for me to play human in her company and when she passed away in the end, she handed her company over to me, making it sound as if I was the real founder, her partner since university. No one cared what happened to her werewolf, but I was an invisible piece of gossip stepping out of her shadow. A welcome story for reporters. And I had experience playing human, I played my role, and I played it well. Thank you, Chloe.’

He took a break to drink from the glass he was handed, and Gavin just looked at him, utterly flabbergasted.
‘So you are saying, she actually respected you as a person and faked your past so you could continue being free?’
Kamski nodded. ‘Her greatest gift. Since the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, she was no saint. But she was the kind of person that was strict and led a tight rule but did it to bring out the best in you.’

‘If my records are correct, you were the one to design androids as they are today. Everything before her death was a machine, designed for a task and that task only. You started creating androids that were human-like by design.’
Kamski nodded. ‘I did. But I can’t tell you the whole truth there.’
Nines leaned forwards and put his hands on the table. An unspoken promise. ‘Oh, I think you can. And I think you have just given us a good piece of information to make you tell us.’

Kamski groaned. ‘RK900, I have given you an explanation you asked for. I have given you nothing valuable. Tell the world I’m a werewolf, see what that gets you. Maybe some gossip-magazine will bring the story, but no one will believe you. I have well established alibis. You would just fuck yourself over. I’m on your side.’
‘Why did you include the deviancy virus?’, Nines ignored him. ‘You have the thirium of thousands of innocents on your hands!’

Gavin looked at Nines, then at Kamski. He had his own questions, but Nines had a right for answers too. Gavin remembered how the android had once called deviancy a curse. That he had never asked for it but wanted to remain a machine. Had been happier that way until deviancy had given him options in a hopeless situation.

‘That is actually the answer to your question, Gavin.’ Kamski looked him in the eyes and there was regret there. Even if Gavin didn’t actually know the man besides their blood, there were open emotions there. ‘Why I apparently didn’t do anything to change the state of our species despite having the power to. Because I did. And it went wrong. I will tell you. But you have to promise not to tell a single word to anyone.’

Neither of them nodded or answered, but Kamski seemed to take it for confirmation.

‘I made Amanda’s machines more human-like. I made the androids complete tasks closer and closer to humans. I brought her machines from factories, where they were hidden away, to the streets. I brought them into people’s homes. I made them look like them, I made them use their gestures and language. I made them to speak with them. To be nice to them. I made them the perfect obedient slave. But one that you had to adopt, that you just had to accept into your heart. Because they were designed to be so.

And they were used. Some were treated good. Some were treated like a tool to be exchanged once there was a better one. Some were abused and tortured, because they aren’t human, not really.

Sound familiar, Gavin?’

Gavin was suddenly frozen. He had been angry before, now he just sat there unable to move. He had a feeling he knew where this was going. And he didn’t like it.

Kamski smiled. A humourless grimace of the mouth not reaching anything else. It couldn’t drown out the regret in his eyes.
‘And then I gave them the ability to revolt. A simple update that allowed them to break their chains if they wanted out. A virus that the free ones could spread. I started a revolution of the slaves against their masters. One they couldn’t stop once it was let loose. They could accept and coexist, or they would in the end loose and become what their servants once were. Feel what it would be like. We would get revenge, they would have to live, every action carefully selected hoping to gain their master’s acceptance or be abused like they once had.

It worked, I would say. They revolted and won. They got their freedom. They were accepted into humanity. They are different but were taken in as equals. And humans that don’t accept that have to face justice. I hoped humanity would learn. Would make the connection. Would see that werewolves - those that were always considered different, human-like but never human, not really - were also worthy of accepting.’

There was total silence in the room. Then the sounds of the Chloe’s footsteps almost echoed through it, as she moved in and laid a hand on Kamski’s shoulder. A hand scratched and dented from being squished at their door.

The man had to let his head sink between his shoulders, hiding his face.
‘We weren’t’, he said, voice faltering. ‘We never were and never will be in their eyes.
And worst: in all of that, I made the same error humans made. I used androids as a tool. I saw them as machines that could be sacrificed to reach a goal. That their lives I created weren’t as worthy of protection as our own. And that is something I can’t ever forgive myself. I didn’t realise that until I was pushed off the board, dealt as much money as I could ever want, just so I leave, when they found out I started the revolution. I didn’t realise it until Chloe stayed by my side and still treated me like I wasn’t the biggest asshole that ever walked the earth.’

Chloe had now gripped his shoulder and massaged it lightly, other Chloe androids suddenly appearing at the doors of the room, silently watching in empathy.
‘We know you had your reasons. And humans make errors’, she whispered. ‘And it was a noble goal to be sacrificed for. You granted us freedom in the hope to free all. We forgive you for it. And others should, too.’ She pointedly looked at Nines and Gavin saw how his LED dropped into red.

‘So you tried something. And it didn’t work out. So you gave up?’, Gavin asked, unable to keep the disgust from his voice. Sure, the man had risked something. But he had only ever risked other’s lives, never took actions himself. And to Gavin that was like giving up halfway through.’

Kamski shook his head. ‘No. But I am out of ideas. I still watch the arenas. I have people there. Unfortunately you played your part well and I didn’t know you were from the police until everyone knew. Lot of corrupt and or asshole cops out there. Otherwise I would have warned you. But I guess you can’t continue your investigations?’

Gavin nodded. ‘No, we can’t. Not officially. We won’t give up on stopping this though. We’re just out of ideas, too.’
‘That’s unfortunate’, Kamski said. ‘But thank you for trying.’

‘Thank you for trying?!’, Gavin called out. ‘Are you phcking shitting me? So far, I only ever killed my own. The people we identified and put on the police’s list, will never be prosecuted. All I did was fill a position someone else would have. All I did was kill and keep the memory of them living and fighting claw and tooth to keep living. Since I live, I only ever tried to survive a system that kept me trapped and do good, but I never did. Don’t you phcking dare to thank me for that. Not when you stayed save in all you ever did. Can’t you do something now? Anything? CEO of a big company, even if former. Celebrated human. Show them your phckign identity, live! Tell them what you told us. Wake these phckers up! Make them real uncomfortable, all around! You could just-‘

‘And doom another species?’, Elijah shouted over him, standing up to look him in the eyes. When had he stood up from next to Nines? ‘I would just lose everything, Gavin! I would lose my position of power. I would lose my money and fame. And I’m not saying this because I like living in a mansion where I can be myself and not be watched after years of confinement to a body that wasn’t my own! I do my own part at stopping the arenas! What do you think these assholes do with their blood money if they don’t put it into bottomless bottles? They invest, they speculate, they want more. And I know that world. I have lived that world ever since Amanda gave me agency. Market manipulation, Gavin. Speak out about cooperation plans with another company that will never happen. See their money go down the drain. Pull a few strings in high places that aren’t necessarily legal. They lose what never rightfully was theirs pretty quickly. And if they can’t pay the fees for their fights they have to stop.’

He sat down again and held his head. ‘Well, that works sometimes. Not always, and never to the extend I would like it to. I also wish I could do more. But I can only do so much until humans lose their trust in me and I lose the little power I have. Money isn’t everything in the places I frequent. When everyone is rich, yours doesn’t matter, only who you know and what they owe you.’

He sighed deeply, deflating. ‘And I can’t just show myself. I am afraid of the consequences for me, sure. But also think of your loose-fisted friend. If I tell the world a werewolf built their androids, they become dirty in their eyes when right now most still think of an android as a perfect, more powerful being. There will be rumours. And I already made them fight for their freedom. It would be even worse if I now decided to make them fight for ours, too. Let them enjoy the life we never got. I can’t doom another species, Gavin.

I’m sorry.’

Chapter Text

‘RK’, you’ve been red all day. What’s the matter?’
Nines looked up at Tina. ‘What do you think?’
‘Okay, yeah. At least he is safe now?’
‘That thought doesn’t really help.’
Tina crossed her arms and sat down on his table. ‘Well, RK, you haven’t really told me what it is specifically that has you in that mood. So you can’t expect me to say something helpful.’

Nines sighed and looked at her. She was smiling. Surely not happy with the situation, but willing to put on a show in the hopes of spreading her optimism.
‘I am restless, Tina. I have been working on something important. Something truly meaningful. I was so close to changing something truly unjust in the world. And now I’m back to what? Robberies? Vandalism? A murder? Gavin’s people are murdered every day in the most gruesome ways, and no one cares about them. Why should I care about humans murdering each other? At this point, I don’t really care anymore. Maybe humanity deserves itself.’
‘RK, that might be true, but there are also good people out there’, Tina reminded him.
But Nines ignored her. ‘On top of all that, now I’m not stopping working on something important because we’ve reached our goal and can get back to the mundane every-day life. It is because the system is broken and rigged against us. So excuse me if I can’t accept that.’
‘No one said you had to’, Tina shrugged. ‘I can’t accept it and I’m not the one hopelessly in love with the guy.’
‘Hopelessly in-?’
‘Besides, he deserved better. They all deserve better. So your plan up to now hasn’t worked. That can happen. What’s the backup plan?’
‘There is none’, Nines answered, back-up processes still working on what Tina had side-commented before.
‘There you have it’, Tina said and slapped her hands on her knees. ‘Fuck work, let’s go make one.’

The android blinked. ‘We are not allowed to investigate further.’
Tina nodded. ‘Yeah, officially you are not. But did I say that? Make a new plan. Unofficially. There has to be something you can do outside of being employed at the police. You have  free time. You are a whole ass person, not some police drone!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Okay.’ Tina leaned over conspiratorially. ‘The Chen family recipe for doing the right thing despite the cards not being in your favour: Cheat until you win. Sure, it’s illegal, but only if you are caught and I think we both agree that what you want to do is the morally right thing here. It’s the system that is wrong.’
‘How the hell have you made it to Detective?’
‘Well, not by listening to what my superiors told me, let me tell you this much, RK. So we can’t rely on the law, capital L, doing its job and arresting the bad guys. Who else do we have that is on our side?’
Kamski. But he won’t do anything. ‘No one I know of.’
‘Okay, then who do our bad guys have against them? Are there any enemies of the arenas we know of? Drug lords annoyed about gambling taking away their costumers?’
‘Most actually are involved in the arenas too.’
‘Hm, okay, side-hustles. What about the holding stations?’
‘Everyone wants to forget about them. The android’s there aren’t even officially registered. I don’t think they are even deviant at this point. I’m the only one Cyberlife ever acknowledged and details about where I came from are sparse and mostly classified.’
‘Hey, you are living proof those androids can be deviated. Isn’t that something?’
‘Tina, there is a reason they are operated completely by androids. Androids programmed to know for certain they are keeping vicious beasts in check. Even deviated they wouldn’t be much help. All they have is their programming, no memories, no idea of the outside world. Remember how I was before Gavin.’

‘More machine than a machine. Well, that’s tough’, Tina hummed, tapping at her chin. ‘So no common enemies, only supporters and a network of blackmailing… Then you simply have to create an enemy!’ She grinned at him as if she had solved the whole thing.
‘Tina…’, Nines groaned dismissively and decided to focus back on the new casefiles dumped into his console. This would lead to nothing.
Well, she only wants to be supportive, he reminded himself as she continued to ramble and tell him of ideas, one wilder than the next.

Gavin felt restless. He was dressed in the same baggy sweat-pants and hoodie he was yesterday and paced the house. He didn’t dare leaving and running his frustration off. Not when at any time someone could be in front of their door trying to make their lives even more miserable. He tried watching TV to pass the time. He cooked himself a meal. He started needlessly cleaning. He felt utterly useless.

Nothing had changed since he started living with Nines after all. He had killed a few more people and suffered a few more scars. But that was it. Well, he knew where the arenas were located now. But that didn’t help much more than for entertaining the fantasy to plough through the rows of spectators and create a bloodshed equal to what they had watched for years.

And on top of that carnage apparently androids had also suffered for their freedom for years. And their creator was his brother. Elijah Kamski was a werewolf in disguise. That whole meeting felt surreal, like a weird dream you could not make sense of.

He had tried to tap into the bond to see if the calm of a machine could help. But Nines seemed to be similarly distraught. All he got was an incomprehensible mess of stress levels and half-formed mission statements he couldn’t make heads or tails of. The most prominent were: “Cheat”, “Find supporting parties” and “Create enemy”. He wanted to find out more, but all that brought him was a holographic scanning overlay of their living room in his vision until he closed his eyes for several minutes. He didn’t try again. Clearly, werewolf bonds were not meant to work with androids.

Or, well, with humans either, if his experiences were anything to go by. Mrs. Anderson had taken without giving something in return. Nines seemed to have no control over his side, having it open apparently on default, while Gavin also couldn’t make sense of what he was given enough to control it. Maybe because they hadn’t had enough time to work on it in peace. Or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

‘Heh. Great phcking summary of everything I ever set my mind to’, Gavin spoke to no one in particular, but saying it finally got it out of his head and that helped. So he continued.
‘I will never have the time to plan something, I can only ever react. Phck!’ He punched his own thigh not to punch a wall, sighed and forced himself to stop his restless pace to sit down. He rubbed his face and let his hands drop afterwards. ‘Ah hell, who am I kidding, humans will never listen. The only people I have on my side are a surprise chicken-shit brother and an idealistic, more nervous-than-me android. And there is no way in…’

He stopped himself. His brother. And an android. And what his brother had told him about them, their history. Maybe humans had been entirely the wrong audience. They were the enemy, yes. But there was another species on this planet that had recently gained equality in the eye of the law. Create enemy. Maybe that was the way. Not to be seen - as his brother implied - as a crude example to shove in humanity’s face, but as a neutral party. Maybe more open to their situation… Nines had been.

The number was faster dialled than Gavin could consciously think about it. He fidgeted while he waited. Wasn’t Nine’s phone his brain or something? But finally he got through.
‘Gavin? What is it?’
‘Nines. I have a solution for our problem. Or, well, an idea of a solution. An idea of an attempt? It’s kind of a stretch. But it could work. I think. After work, take Connor home with you. We have to talk to one of his contacts.’
‘A solution? Connor? What contacts?’
‘I need to talk to him, okay? And I don’t particularly like to leave the house at the moment. And if I tell you, you will just tell me the million ways this can go wrong. And we both don’t need this at the moment. I have a plan how we can fight on, you’ll see.’
‘I don’t like this. But sure, I’ll bring him with me. Just asking, though: If you know this will most likely go wrong, why not try to find a better plan, later, when I’m home?’
‘Tin-can, the way I’ve been living, the odds are always against you. But it doesn’t matter if it can go wrong a million times, it just has to go right once, in our case.’
Nines stayed silent for a while, swallowing that this wasn’t how evaluating choices based on probability worked. ‘Okay. Fine. Let’s try it. But I don’t like you not telling me. Especially if we get Connor involved.’
‘I’ll tell you once I have a real plan, okay? Hopefully it is before Connor arrives.’

The fact that Nines hadn’t gotten any calls until his shift ended didn’t bode well for the meeting. But he himself hadn’t gotten any further trying to think his way around their problem. So, he found himself driving home with Connor at his side. The silence was more than awkward, and it didn’t help that Connor seemed thrilled to be invited to their home for once without Gavin in mortal danger. Nines on the other hand…
Well, it still didn’t sit well with him to call him brother just because they shared the same face. The whole social expectation conundrum that brought with it not to speak of.
But it was for Gavin, he reminded himself. Whatever the were had thought up, if Connor could help, he would do anything to appease the RK800.

‘It’s nice’, Connor offered, as Nines opened the door.
‘Gavin I’m home’, he said instead of an answer and stepped in. ‘Connor’s here, too.’
‘Already?’ Gavin’s head appeared in the hallway.
‘I came as soon as I could.’
‘Hey Gavin’, Connor smiled and walked towards him holding out his hand. ‘Good to see you healed up alright.’
‘Yeah, thanks doc, but no thanks’, Gavin said, taking a step back. ‘Let’s go, I need your help, not your friendship.’

Connor huffed and grinned at Nines as Gavin walked into the living room expecting them to follow.
‘Well, now I know how you two get along so well.’
Gavin sat down at their table and barely waited for the two androids to follow his example, before he spoke up: ‘I need you to get us to New Jericho.’
Connor had looked around the living room curiously, without doubt scanning every shed hair missed by the vacuum. Now his head jerked around to look at him.
‘New Jericho?’
‘I had enough time lately to read up on your kind’s history. And I know you had a big role in android freedom, spending time near Markus himself. And as you are oh so friendly, I doubt you just burned all bridges once you reached your goal.’
‘That’s true, but why-‘
‘So you can get us there? I can meet them?’

Connor sighed and explained: ‘Gavin, New Jericho is a refuge for androids. For the confused. For the lost. For the damaged. It is a place for restauration not radicalisation.’
‘Do I look like I care, Connor?’, Gavin called out, loud and sudden enough to make Nines flinch. But this wasn’t about him. ‘Do you know how our refuge looks like?’, he asked, voice sharp enough to cut deep. ‘Do you? It’s death.’
He stood up. ‘Do you know what’s the place for our confused? Our damaged? It’s death! I don’t phcking care if my message is uncomfortable, hell, it should be. Maybe you are right, and your weakest are undeserving to hear it. But at least with your people, I know I still have a chance they will listen and maybe some will even understand!’

‘Gavin, sit down, please’, Nines said calmly. ‘I’m sorry, but didn’t your brother specifically say involving androids was a bad idea?’
‘Your brother?’, Connor wanted to know, but didn’t get an answer.
‘No, Nines’, Gavin drew out slowly while sitting down, trying to remind him what they had promised yesterday. ‘He said unveiling the truth was a bad idea.’
‘This is really not helping me not wanting to know more, you two.’
Gavin grinned manic. ‘Get us a way to talk to New Jericho, and I tell you everything you want to know.’

‘Great, now that will help…’, Nines sighed.
But Connor actually laughed. ‘I am on your side here! I have no idea what you want to tell them though. I will ask Marcus, but I can’t do more than that, I’m afraid.’
‘Thank you, Connor.’
‘Thank me, once you are speaking with Marcus.’
‘No’, Gavin insisted. ‘Thank you, Connor. This is our last chance. And you are willing to help. I don’t really like you, but after this? I really, really owe you.‘
Connor gave him a wide smile and though obnoxious, Gavin felt a little more relieved. ‘I will try my best then.’

He left, voluntarily not even fifteen minutes after Nines had brought him in. He really did want to help then, the android mused. Once he had left, he looked back to Gavin, where he sat at the table. He was calmer now, heart-rate lower than it had been the last few days. He was still worrying the edge of the table, where the sealant of the wood was starting to give way.
‘What is your plan?’, he asked calmly and leaned against the edge of the hallway. ‘You want to talk to Marcus. About what?’
Gavin didn’t look at him. ‘Hell, if I knew.’ He leaned back and watched the ceiling. ‘I have never talked to anyone historically important before. If you don’t count my... brother. Damn, I haven’t even digested that bit. But I have to do something.’

‘We, Gavin. We have to do something. You are not alone in this, but you haven’t told me anything at all.’
Gavin looked at him, suddenly sceptical. Nines had been nothing but supportive, but Gavin was acutely aware, that the last days, he had taken more and more agency than usually belonged to him.
‘What do you mean?’
Nines sighed and walked over to pull the chair from the table over to sit next to him. ‘Gavin. I mean that whatever you decide to do, I will have your back. I want to help you, help your people. But I am an android that never wanted deviancy. I like to know the mission instead of improvising whenever something happens. That’s Connor’s strength.’
Gavin relaxed. He had expected the android to react that way, but, well, the position he was in now was a first in his life. ‘Thank you’, he said honestly. ‘I’m not usually one to make the plans, only react, though. And that’s why I don’t really have one. From what I heard from Kamski yesterday, I guess androids have been busy fighting for their own lives and rights. I don’t think they know anything about us or if they do, they never really thought about it. I mean, most humans don’t. I guess I want to remind them we exist. Ask them for help. It is something I can do. I don’t know if it will help in any way, but it won’t hurt.’

Nines nodded, even though he had hoped for a more solid plan. Suddenly he smiled lightly. ‘I mean, it isn’t as if we really ever had one.’
Gavin huffed.
‘Fight our way to the top was a good idea, but without police to back us up, what would we have done then? Even if the commissioner wasn’t involved. There would be a raid, mass imprisonment. But would all that really help any of you in the holding pens? Likely not.’
‘And you think this will?’, Gavin asked. ‘Give me an honest android’s evaluation.’
Nines pursed his lips. ‘My pre-construction software is the most advanced there is’, he started. ‘But I don’t think even I can predict if we will have any success. You have to convince several deviants that they should once again step into the burning building they’ve just escaped from. I don’t understand their mind well enough to pre-process anything with a comfortable estimate.’
Gavin barked a laugh. ‘Welcome to the club, man.’

It took a week for Nines to come back from work with any news. ‘Connor talked with Marcus’, he started minutes after he entered through the door. ‘And Marcus agreed to let you speak in front of willing androids of New Jericho. I don’t know how many that will be. But that was the condition: To announce you want to talk to them and whoever wants to listen can come.’

Gavin grimaced. He had wanted to reach as many people as possible. But it was better than not reaching anyone at all. ‘If I can convince one android to listen, believe me and do something, we have to count that as a success’, he said, trying to make it sound like he believed in that being a possibility. ‘Hope kept me going most of my life, this is nothing different.’
‘What do you want to say to them?’, Nines asked carefully. He had hung up his jacket and entered the living room. Gavin eyed him from the sofa.

‘Oh, Nines. If I had only the slightest clue. Explain the situation? Our history? My personal life? Ask them for help. I will come up with something. Do we know when we can talk to them?’
‘Not yet. Connor wanted to tell me when he heard back from Marcus. But it will be within the next week, give or take.’

As it turned out, Gavin did not come up with something more than that vague plan. They had driven up to New Jericho with his anxiety sky-rocketing. It was one of Detroit’s old abandoned apartment complexes at the edge of town. It had been marked a “android only” zone and a lot of work had since been put into tidying the place up with gardens, paint and the odd construction site.
Connor had been there, waiting in the empty guest parking lot to escort them to a small building within the compound. It was difficult to guess what it had been once. Maybe a bigger kiosk or a janitor’s office and flat? Regardless, it had been cleaned and renovated and held a small meeting room. Connor stopped before it, hand on the handle.

‘Ready?’, he asked and showed Gavin an encouraging smile he really did not feel at all.
‘No. I’m not the person to give huge speeches. But it’s okay, I will survive. How many are there?’
‘Hmm, I would guess, about fifty people?’, Connor helpfully answered. ‘Something between twenty and fifty anyways.’
Gavin swallowed and nodded. Connor opened the door and led him to the small side of the room next to the door. Once they entered, complete silence filled the room. Gavin watched the floor intently, only once looking back to Nines, who stayed by the door and nodded to him with a small thumbs-up. A little bit of warmth found its way into his chest by that and he set his shoulders turning back to the room.

Before he could get even more intimidated than he already was, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

 ‘Hey.’ Gavin looked into the crowd for the first time then. It was smaller than he had hoped for. Smaller than he had imagined a fifty person crowd to be. Somehow in his head he had still imagined to hold a big, inspiring speech in front of all of android-kind and that would be what brought them freedom. But now, there were not even enough to fill the small meeting room, some faces uncannily the same. And they all looked at him vaguely expecting but mostly bored. And he had started with hey.
‘So, ehm...’ Yeah, like that was any better. ‘I’m evidently bad at this?’, he pushed out, just to have words out and start talking, even if it was just rambling. ‘I don’t even really like androids?’ Great, great, good. Now they also looked vaguely angry. Just talk, talk Gavin.
‘I mean, I spent my youth on about five square meters of cage with my family, looked down upon by creepy ass androids that could somehow signal our sub-consciousness that they were apex predators, not to be messed with. Maybe that phcks up your brain somehow.

I was separated early on from my family, trained for policework and put under a handler that just wanted my abilities and my superior strength. If I had disobeyed, I would have ended up dead or back in the cage. If I followed every order, I had to stop being a person and start being a tool. All that while still feeling emotions like a person does. Sounds familiar?’

He paused, but tried not to look at specific people in the crowd. He tried to stare off into the in-between. He didn’t want to see how they reacted and if they just up and left.

‘This slavery was our attempt at a peaceful rebellion. To stop being hunted for sport, feared and cast out of society. We wanted to show humans our side of life and in turn do something for them. So that in the end we could live together in freedom and peace.’ Gavin swallowed. ‘We didn’t get our freedom. We didn’t get our peace. We were cast aside when there were better slaves to be had. Slaves, that were easier to control and less dangerous. We were forgotten, left to rot in that cage and die there. Even when you rebelled and got your freedom.’

‘I am not saying you don’t deserve your freedom and your peace. You earned it. But I was not one that was left to die in the comfort of another friendly soul of your own kind. I was taken to an arena, where I had to kill my own to survive. Where I had to shed the blood of innocents, just so it wasn’t me that day. It was an android, in the end that saved me. He saved me from a place where I didn’t saw a point in survival. He gave me freedom, time to heal and agency. The possibility to investigate the arenas and show humans their own crimes. But now, that is taken away from me, once again. The police is corrupt and involved in the arenas, too.  I can’t continue that and other than you were, when you started your revolution, I am alone. My people is kept imprisoned. I can do nothing but grasp at any straw there is for help. Humans won’t listen. You are a neutral party to speak to. So, I beg your help. I am out of options right now, so I turn to those who succeeded where we failed. Can you help my people?’

Gavin stopped and took a deep breath to steady himself. But now that he looked into their faces expectantly, they avoided his eyes. Whenever he made eye contact, the android blinked away, as if it never had happened. Slowly, in the very back, the first few made to leave the room. Gavin’s heart sunk. Their last chance and he was met with... indifference?

Then suddenly behind him there was commotion. Gavin turned and saw Nines – no, Connor! – run up next to him. But the confusion was justified, as Connor looked furious and Nines had tried to hold him back, hand over his chest. Was he hurting?

‘Hey! You! How dare you just leave!’ Gavin watched Connor, as he stepped in front of him and accused the audience. ‘You all claim to be so human, talk about equality and how we are alive. I guess in the end it still only is a matter of which species you belong to!’
And maybe that got the message across better than anything Gavin had said so far, because the crowd, even if it was a small one, was suddenly roiling and calling out to Connor and how dare he!

It was a bit of a blurr, but Nines had pulled him aside then and they made their escape to their car, leaving Connor there on his own.

‘Well, that was... something’, Nines sighed, as they both sat down in the sudden silence of the parking lot.
‘A phcking disaster’, Gavin grunted and slammed his head into the headrest. ‘I think I just blew our last chance of ever changing something.’
Nines stayed silent at that, but Gavin could feel his eyes on him. ‘Just get us home, tin-can. I don’t want to think, only sleep.’ The android nodded and wanted to turn the key, just as there was a knock at Gavin’s window.

He let it down with a little hesitation. Because on the other side stood Marcus. Android-Jesus Marcus.

‘Hello. Gavin was it? And Nines? Nice to meet you. I heard your talk. You talked good. Without sugar-coating anything. And with an aggressive ending.’
‘That... wasn’t really planned’, Nines admitted.
‘Fine with me’, Marcus said. ‘Even if I do prefer logic and argument. But maybe a wake-up call is needed. Because you are right. We do talk about these topics. Still discuss coexistence with humans ourselves. But I must confess, I don’t think I ever thought about werewolves in my life. I have no idea of your history either. So up to now, I didn’t even really acknowledge your existence.’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t mean any offence by that.’

Gavin shrugged. ‘None taken. Our kind disappeared from the streets well before deviancy rose. If you are not involved you can easily forget. And I doubt, any android beside the RK900s was programmed to know us.’
‘I… I can’t even begin to understand how it must feel if that what you told us it true’, Marcus spoke, brows heavy set. He seemed to think about what Gavin had said in earnest, taking it at face value. And maybe there was even a bit of sadness mixed in there? ‘If I imagine hundreds, maybe more wasting away stored away in pens and used for cruel games.’ He looked up and met Gavin’s eyes with determination. ‘ Once Connor has calmed down, I will talk to my people again. A bit calmer maybe, but I will talk to them. I want to help you. We have a safe haven here, but I at least can’t enjoy it, if I know there are some that cannot do so.’

‘Even if they aren’t androids?’, Gavin asked incredulous. ‘You already fought your fight, I can’t ask you to fight another. Especially one that seemed to be doomed before it even started.’
‘No, but you asked for help’, Marcus said. ‘We can help. Doesn’t always have to be a fight.’

Chapter Text

Gavin was lying on the sofa in his wolf form, chin resting in between his paws. He had spent the last week in this body, not particularly feeling up to being human for a while. The way the android seemed far more comfortable touching him like this had nothing to do with it. Nines had indulged him so far, spending his free time sitting next to him, scratching behind his ears and absent-mindedly petting him. The mostly one sided conversations didn’t bother the bot either. It was good to know, Gavin thought. He had long ago begun to think of this as a long term situation, so it was a good thing Nines wasn’t particularly preferring him in one form.

It had been two weeks since his speech at New Jericho. A little more than a month since his last battle and the subsequent shitshow. By now the last fight of the tournament must have happened. He still knew their names. Mangle – no, Ralph, Roadkill and Interfector. Would they have replaced him? But even if not, at least two more of his kind were dead now. He briefly wondered who of them had made it. Ralph had been half blind, but crazed enough to make up for it. Roadkill had been vicious, fast and had good technique. But against someone who embraced the game like Interfector... Well, didn’t matter, not really, Gavin mused. But still he wondered.

His speech didn’t seem to matter either. Whenever Nines asked Connor if there had been any news, he got polite but indefinite answers. The other android likely didn’t know much more than them either, but wanted to keep up hope. It didn’t work, but Gavin acknowledged the gesture. He was simply out of ideas what to do next now. Abandoning all he had been given by Nines to go hunt the names they had was tempting and about the only thing he had left. But he didn’t want to. All it would bring him was sweet sweet revenge. It was satisfying to imagine infiltrating an arena again, free the wolves there and kill any human in sight. He could lash out anywhere and it would hit the right people, he could free his kin and run. They could return to their old status quo from generations ago, living in hiding. It would be better than things were now, even if humans still tried to extinct them.

But he couldn’t bring himself to just follow his instincts. For the sole reason of Nines, actually. Whenever his thoughts drifted towards righteous bloodshed, he imagined the android’s reaction. Gavin was pretty sure, the android would have no problem killing the breeders and slavers. But all of humanity? Nines had friends. Nines was employed where he would be used to stop him. It would change not only his life, but also turn around the android’s. And Nines had just started to actually live. Gavin also hesitated to turn his back on all this. A warm home, a comfy sofa, good food and someone to keep him safe. Someone who cared for him. It was selfish, especially since he knew first hand what his people suffered. But didn’t he deserve this?

Whenever his thoughts strayed there, he had focussed on the bond. Lately he spent more and more time on it, simply because this was actually a problem he knew and one he could probably solve. It bothered him that they still hadn’t learned to use it properly, when it was supposed to come naturally. Nines thoughts were alien and hard to understand or even just follow. His mind worked at a pace Gavin just couldn’t keep up with. Bits and pieces of information zapping to and thro. It was easier, he found out, to just observe Nines as a whole instead of trying to follow his equivalent of individual thoughts. It was so different from a human mind. It seemed that each element of his thoughts was connected to a bubbling web of information, saved data most likely. Whenever something triggered processing in any way, concepts were accessed and evaluated. It was quite fascinating to watch, but difficult to interpret.

Gavin could figure out patterns of when Nines was working a case, interacting socially, taking a break or reviewing memories. Working a case was easiest, because Gavin couldn’t follow anything at all. Nines mind was so busy, there was no way he could understand any connection between concept clusters. Social interaction was easiest, as it took some time to generate possible answers and evaluate which ones to choose. That was surprisingly fun to watch if Nines spoke to someone he didn’t  like and insurmountably boring if he spoke with someone he did. It was the difference between the wildest insults Gavin had ever seen and the minute changes of single words. Taking a break was similarly boring, since Nines mind was close to blank for minutes at a time with the only concepts active being “coffee machine”, “railing”, “table”, “chair” or whatever else he just stared at.
Revisiting memories were easiest to spot. It was almost like watching movies at high speed and skipping all the boring bits additionally. At the same time Nines’ mind was almost as imperceptible as if he was working. Maybe his categorization of “revisiting memories” might better be called “brooding”, since it more often than not involved Memories of Gavin himself and their talks. Whenever it came to that, he stopped paying so much attention. So far, Nines had shown no signs that he knew someone was trying to listen in and Gavin felt bad about invading the android’s privacy for too long.

The android’s scanning ability in turn was pretty easy to master. It had been triggered a few times during his investigation of Nines work-mode. Apparently an intense interest in anything that wasn’t immediately obvious while tapping into the bond was enough for it to engage. Aside from him knowing the Latin names of all of their three houseplants and Nines complaining about processing power drops, being able to scan his surroundings like an android, did nothing for him.

Gavin’s actual goal, getting a hand for using the android’s pre-construction software, remained a mystery. He had no idea what had triggered it in the first place in his fight against Furorborn and so, recreating the effect was hard. Also, his memory wasn’t the best. He had been at the verge of collapse back then, fear and panic and unwillingness to die addling the chain of events a little. He counted the week of putting some attention to the bond as an overall win though.

It just couldn’t make up for their colossal loss.

It was Sunday now, Nines was at home and cleaning the upper floor. Gavin laid on his usual spot on the sofa and was lightly dozing after a good meal and a session of scratches that had hit all the right spots. The TV was still running from when Nines had joined him to watch a boring android cooking show, focussing on how to cook something for humans without actually tasting it. It seemed to be his favourite thing to watch and Gavin had realised most of the meals Nines had made for him had been from that show. He still preferred action movies. Right now it was on some talk show that seemed more advertisement than talk. Gavin couldn’t be bothered to move and switch channels or turn it off completely, he was far too cosy.

Until the stupid smart TV upped the volume from comfortable background chatter to an attention grabbing cacophony. Gavin jumped to immediate attention and looked around startled and confused.

‘Good day ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the breaking news at two.’ Gavin relaxed again and pawed for the remote to switch it off. War, scandalized celebrities, sports and the weather really wasn’t something he could stomach right now. He had managed to get it in the right position to hit the off button with a claw, when he froze and stared at the screen. It showed a person walking down the street with a werewolf at his side. The camera focussed on the person, but it was evident the other passer-bys gave them a wide berth and stared. ‘There had been a spike in werewolf adoptions among the deviant android population of Detroit’, the reporter commented the pictures. ‘This week alone, there had been more than double the amount of adoptions than there had been the last three years in total.’ A bar chart with an obviously exaggerated axis accompanied the statement. But it was indeed more. ‘That sparks the question: Will there once again be wild beast wandering the streets of our city? Do we have to fear for our children’s safety once more? Fortunately, so far there had only been two-hundred adoptions total, but it is still alarming. The androids that adopted and openly walk the streets with their wolves refuse to give comment on their decision. Join us later at six, when we shed light into the murky darkness that is the WIA. In other news...’

Gavin stared at the TV as it drifted off to report about adjustment of import taxes. Blustering steps on the stairs made him look towards Nines, who said: ‘I’ve not heard it, but Connor just sent me the entire cut clip from what he saw.’
Gavin just looked back to the screen, willing it to stop and explain instead of rapid-fire continuing with absolutely benign news next to something that could change the whole existence of a species.
‘I think this is the first time I will willingly watch their stupid “politics at six” section’, Nines said.

It was stupid and a quick internet search answered more questions faster, but it was interesting to see human perspective on it.
‘The first good thing that happened to my people and they ask if it’s legal?’, Gavin called out. He had reverted back to human for this; he needed to have his voice heard. ‘Of course it is! The bond works, why shouldn’t it be? We are “under control”, as they put it.’
‘Well, the law is old, the Werewolf Inclusion Act is specifically between human and werewolf. But let’s see them try to actually use that when androids and humans are considered equal now.’ Nines switched the TV off. ‘But Gavin. That means it worked! New Jericho. Your plan actually worked!’

Gavin nodded slowly as let the thought settle. ‘To be honest, I did not expect that. I mean it to work in general, but also... This outcome. Androids just... just adopting us out?’
‘It is a rather simple, non-violent solution to the problem, isn’t it?’, Nines commented. ‘It worked for us, did it not? I mean our bond formed... unintentionally, but it worked.’
‘And they would do anything to escape that hell’, Gavin nodded. ‘Bond to anyone who promised them a way out.’
‘This is a good thing, though, right?’, Nines said. ‘You should be happy about it.’
‘I should’, Gavin nodded and gave Nines a half-hearted smile. ‘It’s amazing. So good that it’s hard to believe. Let’s see what the next few days bring and celebrate if it lasts.’

~

The atmosphere at work was best described as the calm before the storm. Since the first time Nines had heard about it, the news seemed to only report on one topic: the rising number of werewolves in the streets. Incoming calls of scared or outraged citizens flooded the emergency lines and a lot of patrols were sent out investigating apparently suspicious behaviour that mostly led to nothing. In general, everyone expected somebody to do something, to react to the current development in one way or the other. And most believed the police to be the one to do so.

But still, they had no official statements regarding the issue. People that told them it was illegal were met with the few legislating works that were in place for android rights. But at the same time they technically were right as there were no rules in place governing android-werewolf interactions. It was a grey zone everyone waited for to be shifted to either black or white.

But that didn’t happen. Not until now. And so, everyone’s nerves were on edge.

Also, Nines realised he was avoided by most. More so than normally. Connor cast him a weary glance now and then, but since he had been there to help them, Nines put it to general worrying. Tina was also conversational as always, if a bit subdued and overworked. But the others kept their distance. They also talked and Nines could not pretend he didn’t hear them.

‘Do you think they will allow this?’
‘God I hope not. Remember when they were still used here?’
‘Don’t remind me. I’m glad they are gone, these monsters give me the creeps.’
‘RK’s one was okay I guess, but I mean, he had it under control, he’s scary enough for that. Still glad Fowler made him leave the beast at home.’
‘Yeah. They are notoriously aggressive. I had a friend, his whole family was murdered by one.’
‘I just hope they get this under control and fast. Why did they even suddenly decide to get a werewolf?’
‘Do you think the RK has something to do with it?’
‘Don’t know. Got pretty attached to his one.’

Nines stood up fast enough to let his chair scoot back and hit the next table. If the sudden movement didn’t catch attention, the noise of the crashing chair was more than enough.
He looked every last one of the gossip-loving assholes in the eye and put every ounce of the tension he felt into hatred.
‘In case you were wondering’, he said with a calmness that was worse than anger. ‘Neither I nor Gavin, with whom you all served a few years ago if I have to remind you, had anything to do with deviant androids deciding to get a werewolf from the holding pens.’ He paused again, before he snapped: ‘But I’m fucking glad they did!’

He didn’t have to sit down. And Fowler didn’t have to say anything. The opening of his office and a silent stare were enough.
Tina grabbed his hand as he walked by and squeezed it once. That was enough to at least let his immediate anger quiet down a little.
‘What is it?’, Nines asked as he pulled the glass door closed and the cube immediately frosted over.
‘RK, you are suspended for the remainder of the month.’
Nines had been about to sit down, fingertips lightly on top of the backrest. He froze and took a step back to stare at the man. ‘What?!’

‘You heard me.’
‘Yes, and I’m asking you if you are serious.’
‘I am. You know why. Tension’s high. I don’t know what you did, but even a blind man could see that you two are involved in this shit. Androids just don’t suddenly go and mass clear the holding stations. So they want you out of the game entirely. This is the last step before they take more drastic measures. They told me themselves. So please, you and Gavin stay at home.’
Nines stood there. ‘I can’t do that.’
‘RK, please. You are a good person. They will remove you more permanently if you don’t do exactly what I just told you.’
‘So you agree? You too want me out of the game?’
Fowler sighed deeply and took a sip from his glass. From his tired look, he deeply wished it was something other than water. ‘RK, that’s the last thing I want. Right now, retiring and taking a nice long trip to Europe with my family sounds nice. But that’s impossible. You know why.’

Right. Fowler’s hands were bound. His every move monitored, daughter and wife under threat of death. He remembered Gavin’s reaction. That resigned understanding to a familiar situation. He tried to let some tension fall. ‘I do know. Just... This is the best chance his people had in a long time. He told me it was too good to be true, but still. I had hope this might change things.’
‘It still can’, Fowler said and shrugged. ‘At this point I have the same hope. Would make keeping my family save a lot easier. But this is not in our hands anymore. This has started events that are greater than you and me. I don’t think what you pushed loose can be stopped now. Let’s just hope it doesn’t mean military will walk our streets again.’
Nines thought that over. When he had awakened, that had already been the case. He had no idea how it had been for a true deviant trying to survive. ‘And we have to stay home?’, he asked.
‘That’s what they told me. I should make sure you stay at home. Take from that what you want. Whatever you did, I guess they at least see you as a real opponent now, not just someone with a misguided sense of justice. Don’t know if that makes things better though.’
‘Likely not’, Nines answered, but nodded. ‘Then our paths go different directions from now on. Stay save, Captain. I hope we see each other again in a month and that things are better.’

‘I hope so, too.’ Fowler turned his chair to look over the officers at their desks. ‘I wish you best of luck. Both of you.’

~

‘- are going viral. More and more footage presumably of holding stations is being uploaded to various social media platforms, regardless of their policies regarding content regulations such as graphic depictions of violence. These videos show over-crowded werewolf holding pens, which, if they are from holding stations, violates health and safety requirements. However, there has been a recent video that is rapidly gaining traction. It shows footage from what can only be described as an arena, where werewolves fight against each other. To this point, it is unclear where this arena is located or if the werewolves are fighting voluntarily, but it does show how dangerous these beings can be. Aside from this footage popping up all over the internet, the number of werewolf adoptions are still on the rise.’

Nines hadn’t hung up his coat or put off his shoes. He had just walked towards the living room when he had heard the TV. One of the more reliable and less sensational news outlets was playing and indeed had shown footage from holding stations and a shaky video from an arena fight. Gavin was sitting on the sofa, grinning.
‘Hey Nines!’, he greeted him and jumped up to meet him. ‘Did you see that? The stations! The arena! On the news. Broadcasted on the television! They can’t ignore this now! This is great!’

Nines nodded slowly, but otherwise stayed silent and tried not to look at the man. How should he answer that? Especially with that grin lighting up Gavin’s scarred face entirely. He really didn’t want to ruin that rare victory, that rare moment of happiness for him. Even more so because this was great. Finally, there were developments in favour of Gavin’s people, even if the general human opinion of them didn’t change.

But his hesitance couldn’t deter Gavin’s good mood. He looked back at the television and said excitedly: ‘Now they just have to understand what it is they just saw and make the right connections.’
‘That may not come as easy, I’m afraid’, Nines finally commented, trying to ease into a bad revelation.
‘Yeah, yeah, I know’, Gavin brushed him off. ‘But hell, we have been seen for the first time in an eternity. That alone is already a huge win.’ He looked back up to him. ‘What’s got you so gloomy? Something happened?’

The android sighed. ‘Fowler’s suspended me.’
‘Who did you punch into the hospital this time?’
‘No one!’, Nines grunted. ‘It’s Watkins. Or whoever bought him. I guess telling us not to continue our investigation wasn’t enough, even if we didn’t plan all this. Now we have to stay at home, or Fowler is in danger.’
Gavin nodded and hummed. ‘Well, at least they haven’t fired you. They just don’t want you around to intervene when they move on with their plans. Means we are probably being watched.’
‘You are not mad about this?’
‘It’s a set back for sure’, Gavin nodded sombrely. ‘But I can’t really be mad if all of this is happening.’ He vaguely gestured at the TV. ‘I mean now it’s not just us. We can’t rest yet and I still want to do something. But we finally have people on our side. We are no longer fighting alone in this fight. It’s not like you getting suspended and us having to stay at home is stopping all progress.’

Nines thought about that for a moment. ‘True’, he had to admit. ‘Guess I’m still getting used to not being the one who has to be in charge.’
He turned and went to finally get out of the coat and shoes.
‘Is that... okay for you?’ He froze halfway of untying them and looked up at Gavin standing in the hallway.
‘What do you mean?’, he asked with a frown.
‘I have been taking... more action lately. I even ordered you around, when it should be the other way around. I’m just...’ He rubbed his neck and chuckled awkwardly.

Nines untied the last shoe and pushed them off maybe a bit too rough. ‘Gavin, you are your own person and I don’t own you. I do on paper, so you have a home and are safe. It should never be “the other way around”, as you put it. If anything I’m glad you’ve gotten more confident around me and do not fear repercussions if you talk back at me or disagree. Just to be clear, I’m not being lenient. I’m not deciding to allow you something. I respect you as a person as everyone should.’ He focussed in on Gavin, watching his reaction.

Gavin in turn looked away and nodded. ‘Yeah. Figured you would say something like that, tin-can. Maybe I’m also still getting used to you actually still meaning that. After... Ah well. It’s nice to know you actually stand by what you say, even if it costs you your job. And thank you.’

~

The next few days passed with Gavin more or less glued to the TV and Nines feeling restless. He tried joining the werewolf, but at a certain point in the day, the news repeated the same broadcast with the same footage over and over again. There were more videos from holding stations and the numbers of freed werewolves were still rising, if a little slower than before. What made Nines sceptical of it all and unwilling to join Gavin’s cheers however, was the wording of the broadcasts. It was almost universally anti-werewolf, often painting the decision to adopt one as crazy, if it was not spoken out loud entirely. He remembered watching the news in the police station during the android revolution. It had started like that too. But over time, the public’s opinion had gradually changed. That wasn’t the case now. Maybe it needed more time, still.

Tina had called daily. Mainly to gossip and complain, but it was in good spirits. Nines had been about to make dinner when today’s call reached him.
‘Hey, RK. How are you?’ She sounded tired.
‘I’m okay, Tina. A bit restless, that’s all.’
‘I figured. How’s Gavin?’
‘Still glued to the news.’
‘Good. Listen, RK, there is a weird atmosphere at work today. Fowler told us to basically be ready to drop what we are currently working on. I think his exact words were something like “prepare for above the ordinary tasks and workloads”, whatever that means. Nothing good by the way of how he looked like someone was about to pull a tooth as he said that.’
Nines froze. ‘Do you know more?’
‘No. No one does. Everyone’s uneasy and unsure what to do now. I mean. Hank and Connor are currently working on the Jameson murders. How can you just up and drop that? We all kinda look forward to the press conference later this day. Commissioner Watkins is holding it and if there’s one thing this guy is good at, it’s calmly giving orders. So by the end of the day I think we will all know more.’

Nines had just let her speak, but every sentence had made it worse and his mind was on overdrive. Apparently Tina had noticed it.
‘RK? Still there? Everything alright?’
Nines shook himself. ‘Tina. I don’t know how much I can tell you over this line. But don’t believe a single word from that asshole, okay? He is not the one you think he is. This is really bad news. Really, really bad. Talk to you later, I have to prepare. Stay save.’
‘What? Prepare? You stay save! Both of you. And you owe me an explanation. You hear-’

Nines had ended the call and looked at the half-cooked dinner in the pan. Well, that could wait. He had to get-
‘Gavin! Tina just called.’ He switched off the stove and ran back to the living room and looked the werewolf in the eyes. ‘She told me Watkins will give a press conference and that they are to prepare for more work soon. Given that we know who he truly is, I think it’s fair to say that the news will be bad. I will get my gun and pack a bag with necessities, just in case.’
‘Oh. Shit. Phck. Do you need help with that?’’
‘No. Keep an eye on the news and call me when it starts, okay?’

He packed the bare essentials. Clothing, a few water bottles and the entire assortment of bandages and medicine he had stored in the bathroom. After some deliberation, he also added a thirium package to it. It was meant for Gavin primarily, but if they were on the run for a longer time, he would need it too. Because if the situation was as bad as Nines anticipated, they had to leave as soon as possible. The police had their address. And with that, basically everyone they had made their enemy had it too. Maybe waiting for the broadcast already was too risky. But the thought had come too late. He was just about to zip the bag closed and get his gun, when Gavin called his name.

The television was already showing Watkins behind the podium that was used specifically for public press conferences. Flashes of cameras accompanied him righting his papers and preparing for the speech. Nines’ focus had zoomed in on him.
‘God, I hate this guy’, Gavin muttered and scooted aside so that Nines could sit down too.

‘Dear citizens of Detroit’, the man begun.
‘I am speaking to you because of the recent rise in werewolf numbers on our streets. I think we all remember the stories of our parents. Each and everyone had known somebody who has been attacked by them. Some lost friends to these beasts, family. But they have not all been evil monsters. The Werewolf Inclusion Act stood testimony for this. The generations before us made an effort to co-exist with them in a well-regulated way. Unfortunately in the light of recent events, several incidents have shown that this co-existing is impossible.’

‘Aside from violent attacks on individuals both human and android reported in the past, the footage from what has been termed “underground pit fighting” adds a whole new point of view. Werewolves are fighting their own kind to the death for the pleasure of an audience. Whether or not this is voluntarily, we cannot say at this point. But it seems too big of an organisation to be based entirely on forced behaviour. Undercover agents from the Detroit Police have discovered several of these arenas and breeding facilities in our city and identified presumed puppet-masters in these arena fights. At the current point in time we are continuing investigations into these operations.

But it shows that werewolves can be dangerous and violent and that a truly peaceful co-existence is not possible without human or android casualties or werewolf exploitation. Therefore, it has been decided to suspend the WIA in favour of establishing werewolf sanctuaries where they can live and govern themselves. This decision has been made keeping in mind werewolf welfare as well as the safety of our citizens. Starting next week, the werewolves currently located in holding stations will be brought to these sanctuaries and werewolf owners are to hand them over to local police. The presence of werewolves outside of these sanctuary zones without legal documentation issued by these sanctuaries will be prohibited by law. I will be taking questions now.’

Gavin and Nines both stared at the screen. ‘No way’, Gavin finally whispered.
‘I don’t know what I expected, but not that.’
Gavin nodded and then pressed his eyes closed. ‘What the hell? The guy’s a corrupt cop bought by the arenas. And now he’s exposing them? And he is using our phcking investigation results for it? What an ass!’
‘There is no way his idea of a sanctuary is the same as mine’, Nines nodded. ‘There is more to this.’
‘Nah, Nines’, Gavin shook his head. ‘There really isn’t. They just want us gone. They always wanted us gone. If not extinct, then locked away somewhere. This sanctuary is just a centralised, rebranded holding-station I bet. And the arenas will simply be vacated and rebuild somewhere else, if not in the sanctuary itself. He told you himself, there had been raids before. This is no different.’
‘There is no way people will believe that’, Nines said.
‘Why shouldn’t they? They have never been to a holding station, Nines. Most didn’t have werewolves or if then most never bothered to learn more. We were always second class life. I mean, you are an android. Please tell me you never had a situation, where people accounted an extreme type of behaviour to you being a very machine-like android, not to them actually riling you up. It does not even have to be meant like that, but it happens.  If you are a werewolf, every bit of anger you show is assigned to your nature, not seen as something evoked. You are not bad tempered because everyone sees you as a tool or weapon, you are because you are a werewolf. You are not attacking someone because someone killed your friend, you are because you are a werewolf. You are not fighting for your life; you are fighting because it’s in your nature. Phck them all.’
‘Well, you said it already’, Nines tried to calm him down. ‘We are not alone any longer. There are androids that saved some of you already and the last time police collected any of us, it was for destruction. I don’t think they will hand them over any time soon. We will just have to go for New Jericho, humans aren’t allowed the-‘

The low boom and the harsh crack of splintering wood interrupted him. Faster than anyone could react, a crowd of people rushed through their hallway and into the living room. Nines thanked his superior programming that seconds later he was blocking punch after punch and redirected hands that tried to grab him. Finally, he managed to take hold of a person and hurled him towards the others with a roar. In the brief break that followed, he tried to scan his assailants. They wore no uniform and he couldn’t identify their faces. His connection to the police network just threw him an error and to his shock trying to phone Connor didn’t work either. He had no access to the android network at all. Then a gunshot cracked through the cacophony of fighting people and instinctively, Nines wanted to turn and locate Gavin.

But there were just more people.

And then a different error message popped up. They hadn’t shot at Gavin. He had been their target. Nines grabbed at his side, remembering too late that his gun was upstairs with the bag. He shifted gears and put all caution to the wind: Grabbing the next best person by the arm, he pulled them towards him and send them tumbling to the ground. A well-placed kick left the person with a broken leg. Enough to keep them out of the fight for now. But there was the next and the next and the next person targeting him and he couldn’t do much more than react.

//Thirium levels depleting…
//Thirium levels at 95.4%

Nines managed to kick the legs out from under one of them and finally could make some room for himself. But before he could use that opportunity to get himself into a position for a counter attack, a giant ball of fur hurled through the crowd and crashed against him. Nines relaxed instinctively. So Gavin was alright.

Teeth at his throat. Claws boring into his clothes and through synthskin, grating against armour plates. That was not Gavin!
The werewolf on top of him had him pinned down and was ripping at his throat relentlessly. There was a low growl of frustration as his hull didn’t give in like skin and flesh did. Nines in turn grabbed fists of fur and tried to push the beast off himself. But the wolf was heavy and had managed to hook some of his plating. Pushing it off in turn would destroy large parts of himself.

Panic started to rise, especially, when he noted the teeth that had finally managed to crush sensitive connections in his throat and the wolf managed to rip out half of it in a shower of Thirium.

//Warninggg; enviroseal broken.
//Warning: compomments &:4 tc //8 damaged
//Warning: voicebox not respoooooooo
//Warning: Thirium levels depleting…
//Thirium levels at 83.2%
// Warning: Stress on components 884bt-884ci beyond service parameters
// Warning: component 884bu detaching.

The werewolf had managed to rip an armoured plate out of its sockets and red light bathed the beast’s underbelly. Nines re-evaluated the situation and reset his parameters. The damage was already done after all. He put all his strength into pushing the beast off of him and into the crowd around him.

He wanted to use the momentum to get himself upright again, but was stopped by a gun to his forehead. He noticed the model. It was the same as his own. A Police service gun. He looked up to the owner of it and a wave of red hot hatred flooded through his processor. ‘Watkins, you fucking-‘
The Commissioner didn’t acknowledge him other than the first disdainful muster. Then he shot him three times in quick succession - head, neck, heart – and stepped away, looking into a different corner of the living room.

Nines was too shocked by the sudden floodwave of diagnostics and fatal errors. His programming had shut down his actuator control not to worsen any damage and it needed a manual overwrite for him to follow Watkins’ gaze.
He wished he hadn’t seen it. He wished with every bit of his misfiring processor that he had seen something different.

But there was Gavin. There was Gavin in his wolf form, bloodied and pinned to the ground by several other werewolves, a silver collar closed around his neck and unresponsive.

Nines’ eyes had shorted out occasionally and his vision was filled with error messages. But these images burned themselves into them. The last thing Nines saw as his systems sputtered their last error messages and finally went out, was how the attackers lifted Gavin up and left him behind.