Work Text:
It had all happened so fast.
Serra was walking back home after work, and she had stopped by the store to pick up some ingredients for a recipe she wanted to try tomorrow.
A man approached her quickly from his hiding spot, asking her for spare change. Serra, not carrying cash on him, politely informs him of this fact, and continues walking.
The man brandishes a knife, saying that “he wasn’t asking anymore”.
Serra was surprised by his weapon, and attempted to try to talk him down, mentioning “she really didn’t carry any money on her person”, and trying to remain calm.
He closed the distance between them, scaring Serra into dropping the plastic bag of groceries as he lunged forward.
In an instant, Serra felt the need to protect herself, something not programmed within, but something she just intrinsically felt had to be done. She slapped the knife away in the same motion as she swung a clenched fist towards the man’s chest.
Just as quickly, the man flew back and landed with a meaty emphasis, sliding on the floor, wind clearly knocked out of him. In another situation, Serra might have imagined Sosuke critiquing her form, and her asserting that it got the job done.
This wasn’t on her mind at this moment.
Seeing the damage done to her assailant, she quickly ran over to check up on him.
“Ohmygosh, sir! Sir, are you OK?” Serra heard no response. She gave a look over to find any signs of response; none were found. She held her ears near his chest to hear for breathing, and heard nothing. Finally, she checked his pulse frantically, holding and hoping to detect anything.
All she felt was the flesh of what was now a body, becoming colder.
“Nonononononono-”
She immediately tried to start chest compressions, notifying the closest hospital for a man who is no longer breathing at the same time, and urgent medical care is needed. Serra tries fruitlessly to restart the beating of his heart, but after performing multiple scans, with no changing signs, she checks her internal clock.
30 minutes had already passed. The 30 minutes in which a bystander is expected to administer CPR.
“Nononono-”
Serra began to almost hyperventilate, she felt sweat roll down her head, she didn’t want to believe it, she didn’t know what to do, she tried, tried to figure out anyone who would KNOW.
And a small part of herself worried most about figuring out someone who would understand.
Only one person came to mind. Serra quickly takes out her cell phone, with a shaky hand begins to dial the number, forgetting that the person in question is already in her contacts.
She waits for the first dial tone.
“pickup pickup pickup please”
A second dial tone.
“please please please PLEASE-”
before the third tone can finish, the other line picks up the call.
“Serra? Is everything alright?”
Any semblance of calm that the machine girl had up to that point had been thoroughly flushed out of her system, and she began to talk in wracked sobs.
“*sniff* a-adonai…..”
“Serra?? Are you crying? Did something happen?”
A deep inhale, choking through the tears.
“a-adonai, I need help….”
The rest was all a blur.
Morgan attempted to make it to where Serra was currently as fast as she could, but even the highest tier of taxi service couldn’t get there before the paramedics had arrived. Serra attempted to inform them of the man’s status, but couldn’t gather herself to relay the information coherently, and fell into deeper despair. Her mind raced with what was going to happen now, worry grew more and more.
She hardly even noticed the red-haired lawyer approach her, putting her hands on her shoulders to ask what happened.
“Serra? Serra, it’s me, Morgan.”
She felt her breathing calm down, even just a little bit, hearing the familiar voice.
“Serra, I want to help you, but you need to tell me what’s going on, what happened? Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “n-no…. I’m f-fine…..” A deep inhale to gather herself. She feared for this moment, but she felt the need to admit it to someone.
“Adonai….. I killed someone.”
Serra listened as Morgan told her what was going to happen. Morgan told her to not say that in front of anyone else, and then asked her if she still had an intact recording of what happened. She did.
Morgan then asked her for her own account of what happened. Serra describes being scared of the man, attempting to resolve the conflict without violence. Tears still beading in her eyes.
Morgan asks her if she tried administering CPR, and calling a hospital. She says that she did both.
The lawyer stands back up, and offers her a hand to Serra. Serra accepts the gesture.
Now Serra has a question for her.
“am…. Am I in trouble?”
Morgan looks at her with a face she can’t decipher, and sighs. “No, Serra, I don’t think so.”
The car ride home was quiet. Neither of the passengers wished to speak on what occurred that night. Morgan encouraged her to get some rest, as she herself got ready for bed.
Serra took off her coat, made sure she put away the groceries, and then sat down on the couch.
She didn’t sleep.
Serra heard the steps of Morgan going downstairs and became aware it was morning, or at the very least, several hours past when she got back home. Morgan informed her of their schedule today.
“We need to go to the courthouse today,” She said as though it was a casual thing.
Serra, still with a blank stare, responded in a neutral voice. “Understood.”
Morgan sighed, and began changing into her work attire, and eventually passed Serra her jacket.
The taxi to the courthouse was a quiet one as well.
Serra had expected some sort of huge crowd, some news channels asking Morgan about “harboring a killer AI”, and a circus of types.
There wasn’t any. The lobby wasn’t even busy- it was more sparse than the other two trials she presided over, in fact.
“Adonai, what’s going on?”
“Hmm?” Morgan glanced at her. “What do you mean?”
“Shouldn’t there be…. Aren’t there…. Why am I just walking about?”
“What are you talking about, Serra? You’re speaking like you’re on trial again.”
This really caught her attention. “…am I not?”
Morgan sighed. “Nope. Just an assessment of what happened last night, basically.”
They entered a room, one Serra wasn’t familiar with, one that was much smaller than the grand trial room. This was more comparable to the interrogation room at the police station, but the doors did not lock, and there was no one-way glass.
Serra and Morgan sat down. An employee at the court sat down across from them. They asked Morgan about what in particular had happened, and Morgan began telling the events as they occurred, accurately.
More accurately than usual, too, Serra notices. There’s actually hardly any omission of facts or spinning.
The employee asks if there’s any records, and Morgan asks Serra to turn them over. They watch what happened on the monitor. Serra feels queasy again.
They all watch as Serra attempts to resuscitate the man. Serra feels she would throw up if she had eaten anything recently.
Serra barely notices Morgan having a conversation with the court employee, and suddenly they are shaking hands. Serra doesn’t know what they said, but Morgan snaps her out of her stupor.
“Serra? Serra, are you there?” Morgan’s putting on her jacket back on now. “Come on, we’re done.”
“Wha…. What? Did we…. Win the trial?”
Morgan scoffs at this question. “Serra, as I said, this wasn’t a trial, this was an assessment.”
“oh…. Did I pass?”
“Yep! No fee, nothing, they determined you weren’t at fault, and now we can head out.”
Serra couldn’t wrap her head around what was just said. She was free to go? After video proof of her killing someone was seen? How? How could she-
“Serra? Serra, you’re breathing really loudly.”
The robot girl realizes she was, indeed, inhaling and exhaling louder, and tries to calm herself down.
She tries to figure out what happened in the room.
“Adonai…. What did you tell them?”
“The truth?” Morgan looked genuinely confused at this question. “Serra, I wasn’t going to try to lie about what happened on video recording. Even if you didn’t save it, they probably would’ve just looked through the logs of cameras nearby-”
Serra interrupts her in a serious voice. “How.”
“What?”
“How did you convince them I was innocent.”
“Well, like I said, I told them what happened, but I also gave an explanation of you needing tenets to help you in your job. Since you were another employee at Kintsugi, I talked about how you likely needed some measures to be able to fulfill some…. Security roles, let’s call them.”
“….A body guard?”
“Well, you’re behind the bar, so not in the traditional sense, no, but I was mostly gave the idea that you were able to escort rowdy guests out and break up bar fights.”
“….Adonai, I have never had to do that before.”
“I know! I just gave them the impression that you might have, so it sounds better when I describe that you did it in self defense.”
“Adonai, I don’t-”
Morgan interrupts her. “Are you hungry? I didn’t eat breakfast this morning because I wanted to get here early, but I thought it was going to take longer.” She taps on her phone to look up something, presumably a map app. “Do you wanna do burgers?”
Serra didn’t eat. She just sat in the diner booth seat while her bowl of fruit went untouched, and watched as Morgan ate a partially wrapped burger.
“Seriously, Serra,” Morgan spoke between bites. “You should try to get some food in you, now. It was a scary experience, but now that it’s done, you gotta recover and everything.”
“...how is it done….”
Morgan put down her food. “What’s that, now?”
“How can it possibly be done,” Serra says with a slammed fist to punctuate. “How can a man be dead by MY actions and I simply just….. walk free?”
Morgan shushes her a few times. “Look, Serra, I know there’s no one in here right now, but don’t go yelling that-”
“But it’s the truth, isn’t it?” Serra interjects. “You told the truth, and now I’m telling it again. That man is DEAD, because of my actions, and I want to know why nothing is happening to me!” Serra tries to catch her breath.
Morgan starts inhaling a deep breath, before steadying herself, and wiping off her gloves with napkins. “Serra, like I told you when I had first met you, machines make mistakes.” A pause. “It wasn’t even a mistake, arguably, since you defended yourself and then tried your best to revive him. It wasn’t premeditated, purely accidental, and was warranted given the circumstances.”
“but-”
“Serra.” Morgan steepled her fingers. “What are you really asking me?”
Serra gulped. “how…. What….. what do I do now? How do I live with this guilt, the knowledge that a man’s life is no more, because of me?”
Morgan raised an eyebrow. “Do you wish for the memory to be erased?”
“NO!” Serra yelled. “I CAN’T- I can’t just…. Forget that it happened. I can’t just act like it didn’t happen and move on. I need to know that it did…. But my mind…. Can’t think of anything else now….”
“Serra.”
“yes.”
“I want to tell you how I see it from my perspective. I want you to listen.”
“ok….”
“As you know, I take on cases against Emma, and I act as defense for my client, against her prosecution, for the sake of the state. She seeks to argue that there should be punishment, and I try to argue that there shouldn’t be.”
“You know about my court record, correct?” Morgan inquires.
“Yes, Adonai, and I know about your two victories currently-”
“I’m talking about my losses, Serra.” Morgan looks more serious than Serra has ever seen her, even in private.
“I’m not a perfect lawyer. I wish I was, but I’m really not, Serra. Even if I was, sometimes, there are cases where my side just…. Loses. Sometimes, the person I’m defending just has to take a plea deal, and I try my best to argue for a fair one.”
A pause as both of them take a breath.
“I want you to think about it from Emma’s perspective, now.”
“I want you to think about what her job is, going up against me.”
“You haven’t seen it, Serra, but she’s sentenced people to death. That’s her job. And if there’s no evidence to prove otherwise, then…..”
“…..sometimes, people just die, Serra.”
“Emma does her job, every day, knowing that the people she’s fighting against can die because of what she does.”
“And I’ve seen her. You’ve seen her. She’s not distraught over this.” Morgan almost seems to restrain herself when speaking about this subject.
“Emma does what she does because she believes it is the right thing to do. I think you believed defending yourself was the right thing to do, seeing how he swung at you with a knife. And I know you wished to save him, seeing as how you tried to resuscitate him. So that’s what I can tell you. I think you did what you had to do, and you shouldn’t feel guilt over it.”
It was a lot for Serra to take in. She never really felt or thought about anything like this since her trial, and the possibility that she might have killed her own father, but it had felt a thousand times worse knowing that this time it WAS her.
But now…. Part of that weight was lifted at least. Despite her own agony over the situation still eating at her, she feels at least relieved hearing that Morgan didn’t think she did anything wrong. She found some sort of solace in that.
“thank you, adonai….. I have not been able to release any of the pressure from this….. situation…. But I think you’ve helped a bit. But….”
“But?”
“When do you stop thinking about it?”
Morgan sighed. “I don’t think you ever really stop thinking about things like that.” She took a sip of her water before continuing. “You really shouldn’t. I think mistakes are something that you should learn from, and if you stop thinking about what you did wrong, you’ll probably run into it again.”
“I feel awful whenever I lose a case. It’s not the same thing, I know, but just stay with me. I feel awful, and I agonize over what I could have done better, what I did worse, and it sticks with me longer than I wish it did. But.”
“But?”
“But then I have to keep doing my job, Serra. I can’t keep focusing on that one case or else I won’t be able to help my other clients.” She pointed a fry at Serra. “And in that same way, I think you should just keep going. Keep doing your job, helping me with cases. Because I think in the same way I move on, I think you will, too. Let it shift you, don’t let it haunt you.”
Let it shift her, but don’t let it haunt her……
“...I think I get it, Adonai. Thank you. For helping me with… all of this.”
“No problem.”
Serra took in the moment for a second, just watching Morgan continue to eat her burger, and picking up her own fork, bit into a piece of melon.
“Bleh, sour.”