Title: r-obot
Ch: 01
Author: Lucifer Rosemaunt
Series: AU erik

Summary: All companions are androids, but not all androids are companions. Some androids just try harder.
Fandom: Phantom of the Opera
Pairing(s): Erik/Raoul slash
Warning(s): scifi!AU, androids, angst
Word Count: 3,659
Rating: K+

A/N: This story is obviously about Venn diagrams. :) Just kidding. Nerd-status.
Story note: Angst. In android form.

o.o.o.o

"Fix it." Erik's tone made the man on the other end of the comm call flinch though Erik could not actually witness it. He could, however, hear the tremor in his reply.

"Sir, please." The representative did not exactly know for what he was pleading, perhaps he was just trying to appease a customer or maybe he was just trying to stave off the impending doom that was certain to follow his next statement. Either way, he felt an overwhelming urge to plead for his life despite the fact that they were currently half the planet away from each other. Clearing his throat, he rushed through in a single breath, "There is no way to do what you are asking." He quickly added, trying to sound reasonable and give an explanation as to why it was impossible, "It is an old model and..."

"That is precisely why I purchased it," Erik interrupted. The words were clipped, somewhere between emphasizing each word as though he were speaking to a child and forcing the words out through his clenched jaw and more importantly, through the pressing need to injure someone. "Specifically so these things would not happen. If I had wanted manufactured emotions and contrived desire, I would have purchased a hooker. It would have been cheaper."

The pregnant pause that followed could only be described as stunned silence.

It was crude and Erik was almost disappointed in himself for speaking so basely, but he had had enough of this corporation and at the moment, this representative. He would have ended the call sooner if it had not taken thirty minutes to get through all the android representatives before being connected to an actual human being. Erik was not very sure about this 'manager' that he had gotten, but Andre, as the man had introduced himself as, was not inspiring much hope of fixing his situation despite having insisted he was well-versed in the development and care of all androids, especially the originating, alpha variants.

"Yes, well. There's…" Andre said hopefully, "the factory reset? All it requires is the command, and voice recognition will take care of the request. If you don't…"

"Do not insult my intelligence." Interrupting would probably become a habit if Erik spoke any longer with Andre, considering all his less-than-helpful suggestions. "All owners take the required course of owning androids where the factory reset, as you well would know, is one of its main focus. If I had wanted to be told that option, I would have listened to your automated dummies."

A series of "uh's" and not-silent-enough hyperventilation was his only response and Erik punched the wall besides the comm panel. He could make the call in any part of his home, but not only had he been unable to remain seated through the process of obtaining this assistance, he found it slightly satisfying that he could raise his voice more effectively by the actual panel.

"Perhaps," Andre said and the desperation was making his voice raise an octave, "if you enable the video on this call…"

"So you can what?" Erik scoffed. "Diagnostics have already been run by previous technicians in previous comm calls. Do you believe you personally can somehow fix it by visual determination of what went wrong with the programming on chips and boards that are not visible to the naked eye?"

He found himself considering the option of simply hanging up and trying again at a later time with some vague hope of obtaining a resolution with someone else, even as unsuccessful as that particular tactic was already proving to be. The urgency of his situation, however, meant it was imperative to fix this sooner than later despite his irritation.

He had sent the android in question to clean his studio. It was busy work and between the two of them neither was convinced it was anything other than Erik wanting privacy without actually asking for it, and that was wherein the problem laid. The android should not have had that knowing look on his face. There were a lot of things the android should not have.

Erik tried to take a calming breath, but what came out when he spoke again was pure vitriol, "Perhaps you will see the machine and then simply confirm that you cannot fix it?"

"It is difficult to confirm sentience from diagnostics," Andre reasoned.

"Really?" And had Erik thought he could get away with making this a one way video comm, he would have; he almost wanted to see the other man's reaction as he spluttered a mumbled stream of apologies as though he were trying to block out Erik's hostility. "Because I was certain that was exactly what your scan on him" – he quickly corrected, "it precisely determined."

The mumbled apologies was replaced by a hushed conversation Andre was having with someone else but no direct rebuttal to his statement.

Shutting his eyes, Erik leaned his head against the cement wall, focusing on the chill to calm himself. He eventually spoke, "Let me speak with…"

A deep breath cut him off before Andre actually spoke. "Sir," he said as forcefully as he could muster at the moment, which was heretofore actually uncharacteristically strong as though he had mustered up the strength from some untapped reserve. "No matter how much you strip down any android of all the extra features we have these days, you still purchased a machine that's sole purpose is to learn and adapt, especially with the alpha variants such as the one you purchased. In the past they had one android for all things, not like today where with both the beta and gamma variants we have the ability to tailor to specific needs. The mutating algorithms in the alpha's programming is necessary for it to function and…" there was a pause and Erik could hear the dull clicks associated with operating the OS, surmising he was bringing up the specifics of his file, "do your house chores, cook what different meals you want without having to input the recipes yourself and more importantly to go out and interact with other people, androids, and robots when it does your outdoor errands. This is no small feat and in these models, you specifically cannot program them by inserting a chip or anything like we do today. It is a learning system. Given enough time, it appears that it can become something of a companion version and gain more… human reactions than when you first purchased it. It is kind of a free upgrade."

Erik was almost impressed. That was the most coherent Andre had been all afternoon. It did little to solve his problem though and he was not feeling very generous. "And, as I have said to every android and individual I have spoken to so far, if I had wanted those upgrades, I would have purchased them."

Andre actually moaned softly to himself in despair. "Sir."

He knew he was being difficult but felt the slightest bit better that he had managed to break the man's spirit even though he had rallied for that brief moment.

"I do not know what to tell you. There is no way to isolate an alpha's emotions from what it has learned. In subsequent variants, behaviours, tasks, and personality features are all diverted to different drives. Your android is simply too complex as it is now to separate the emotions he is displaying from every other task he has learned. I regret to inform you that the only thing you can do now is reset it. If you…"

He was abruptly removed from the call as a new voice came on. The man who had taken over was too pleasant and spoke in a manner that was meant to appease. Erik immediately despised him.

"Sir, this is Firmin, another manager here at Garnier TechCorp and I have been informed of the issues you have been experiencing. We would like to offer you a new state of the line…"

Erik slammed his palm against the comm panel, the screen pixelating before hanging up the call.

"Useless," he said to the empty room. Quickly registering the near silent footsteps that approached him though, he realized it was not empty any longer. "How long have you been there?" He refused to turn to face the android because maybe he could pretend for a little longer that nothing had changed over the past few months.

"Approximately forty-seven minutes ago."

And Erik could hear the difference in his voice now that he knew to listen for it. Tones and inflections that had not been there in the beginning were subtle but all too telling.

He glanced at the monitor, the last transmission in the corner queue blinked 47:20. Had he not been forcibly restraining himself from slamming his head against the wall various moments of the comm call, he was certain that he would have realized he had not been alone sooner. The android had always been an efficient cleaner.

"So, you know the problem." He briefly wondered if the android, if Raoul, could parse the true meaning through the vagueness of his statement. There had been numerous calls to Garnier TechCorp before this one, ones where Raoul had necessarily been informed of Erik's reaction to his newfound emotions. He wondered if the android was conscious enough to realize the problem was not so much the 'free upgrade' that had occurred but that he had been presented with only one solution, the one solution that took everything away from him.

Erik himself tried not to feel too conflicted about this. He was the one who wanted that burgeoning personality and its subsequent emotions to be destroyed, but he had heard that there was something unsettling even for the android when a factory reset was done. No erasure could ever be done in a single moment nor ever be truly complete. Memory by memory was fragmented and destroyed; the android's own body eliminating so much information from itself to leave nothing but a base code and a shell. Then, there was the tendency of the factory reset to leave phantom impressions. Shadows of memories had been documented in beta and gamma variants – the alphas had mostly all been phased out by this time – and it had proved to be truly disorienting for the android. It left broken machines that could be caught in infinite repair loops or even become dangerous, both of which required the corporation's intervention.

A gentle hand – one that felt like skin and bone but was really synthetic silicone and alloy metals – was placed on his arm, coaxing him to turn around. And Erik did, obeyed the wordless request and looked at his biggest mistake in the eyes.

He had hoped to spare Raoul that particular fate because this was all his fault. He could have just gotten a robot, had his groceries and all the essentials transported to his home as he had in the past. There were so very little people in the colony and none that Erik would willingly have wanted to encounter much less need an android with whom to interact. Robots were uncomplicated, forced to stay on the owner's property because of the limited processing abilities they maintained. They were cheaper because of that and the lack of pretense of being human. They were bulky metals and had nothing beyond smoothed corners so as not to pierce anything. Robots were all binary, yes and no and do what this program tells you to do.

Androids, it was touted, could think and learn. They had been designed and upgraded to the point where they were legally allowed outside one's premises without immediate supervision. There was one for every occasion, betas tailored for specific wants and needs – maids, chefs, drivers, and the most recent upgrade with the gammas, companions. Companions were androids created to fulfill every physical and emotional need a human could have. It would have been disgusting if it had not been generally called progress. No one need ever be lonely again, for a price.

Erik had not ridiculed the vast numbers that had purchased such progress, those that fell in love with logic statements and mutating algorithms that somehow equated love for others, but it had been a close thing. Technology, he was certain, conspired to make humanity marketable. It was succeeding. For him though, he had known that despite the near-constant desire for such affection reciprocated, he would always know that the emotion had been programmed. In the back of his mind, he would think to himself 'without choice there was no love' and knowing that was worse than not having anyone at all.

He had been weak regardless.

When his last and only robot simply expired from age and use, he had travelled three days spent hiding beneath layers of that suffocating temporary face. It had been three more days that he had spent outside of his home than last year simply to get to the closest robotics store as rundown and secondhand as it was.

When he made it to the shop, he had not thought any robot to be worth the hassle. So, while he had not wanted a companion, he had not denied himself the simple pleasure of looking at some of their previously-owned beta androids, ones that did not promise emotion and false love. He could not deny the want to simply share space with another body, to see a human face despite what it held beneath– who was he to judge what lay beneath the surface of synthetic skin – for something to look at him without flinching or shying away. He wished to hear breaths, even simulated and unnecessary as they were, to pretend he was no longer alone even if that existence was a loveless one.

Oh, how he had been immediately caught by this android's dirty blond hair and blue eyes, by the curve of his cheek. Raoul had been abandoned and unwanted, the last of his kind with servos so old, Erik had been warned that even with constant care he would hear every movement the android made. When the oil-stained and unseemly shop owner, Buquet had rebooted his antiquated system, when Raoul took the first breath he had taken in decades, Erik had been lost. It had taken every ounce of his control not to show his interest when all he wanted to do was take him home from that dusty and dark store and paint him because even in darkness, he could tell someone had managed to come close to perfection. He eventually paid a discounted price after much haggling and feigned disinterest and after a cursory re-education of protocols had taken it home.

Unfortunately, Raoul had not remained just a body to fill the empty spaces of his home. He was so much more.

Erik glanced at the hand still on his arm and he wondered when that had become commonplace enough for him not to care any longer, to not shy away from the touch, any touch. That should have earned a fist to his face; though if he thought of it now, it had never been that way with Raoul. But, how he could categorize the subtle perfection that was Raoul's face. Erik had drawn it time and again for its handsomeness, for the pure unadulterated beauty. Raoul had become the model for all of Erik's pieces and he was not the only one enamored with his beauty. There had been an increase of interest in his works.

Now, as he looked Raoul in the eyes, he wondered if what reflected back was truly not his own emotions but in fact, Raoul's and as unpracticed as he was, all Erik could see was concern.

He shook Raoul's hand off his arm. "How much…" How could he even begin to word this? "How much do you… know?"

Raoul tilted his head slightly as though in thought. It was so very human a reaction and Erik wondered from whom he had learned that gesture. Who in the colony out there who interacted with Raoul when he ran his errands, gave him that piece of his personality?

"I know," each word was weighted with consideration, "only as much as my memory capacity can hold."

Erik was taken aback because as flat as Raoul had tried to make that reply, there was a hint of amusement, a small quirk of his lips and Erik could not believe the android was being cheeky with him.

He turned away and cursed to his ceiling. How long had the signs been in front of him? Raoul always followed him; an android's first few weeks were always spent shadowing one's owner. It was a necessary part of their programming. When had the touches, the… Erik stalked away from Raoul and paced the length of the room. When had the meals that they shared – and they shared every meal – when had the nights Raoul would sit and watch him work, when had it all changed from necessity to desire? When had learning Erik's chores become learning his personal needs? When had the fondness in his gaze appeared?

Raoul knew everything about him. He did things before Erik could ask, knew what he wanted before Erik even knew he wanted it. He took a shaky breath. Raoul was everything he had ever wanted. They did not fight. Raoul never complained, never judged him, never could learn to hate him.

Erik dropped onto the couch, sharply exhaling as he did. Without hesitation, Raoul sat beside him as though he belonged there, simulated warmth pressed against his side. He was a solid presence now so obviously familiar, familiar in a way that was muscle memory. Erik knew how much he could lean against him for the perfect amount of pressure without constraining either of their ranges of motion.

"Are you okay?" Raoul asked.

Erik wanted to laugh at the concern, not to be cruel, but he wanted to laugh at fate's joke on him.

Raoul sounded sincere. He was as sincere as a processed emotion could be.

"What do you need?" he queried further.

Raoul would always think of him first. That was literally what he was made for, an aid, a helper. In fact, he would never be able to think of anyone else.

"I will get you a beverage, something calming perhaps…" he moved to stand up, but Erik stopped him with a hand to his wrist. He sat back down obediently even when Erik pulled his hand away as though it burned. The need to hold on and never let go was too sudden a thought, was simply too overwhelming.

Raoul would always be obedient. He was created to follow directives.

Erik turned to him and blue eyes that were so familiar searched his, too human in the need to alleviate his distress. Erik slowly raised his hands and notice the tremor in them as he moved to gently cup Raoul's cheeks in a motion he had never thought he would have the liberty to do.

Raoul could leave; he would leave to run errands but never for long. He would always come back. He had to come back.

"I need," Erik started and in that moment, he did not know.

He was distracted by how smooth Raoul's skin was beneath his hands, how it held just the right amount of warmth. Raoul stayed placidly like a well-trained animal. He looked almost pleased at the attention, grateful for his touch.

And maybe Erik saw love in his eyes, an emotion he had never witnessed before directed at him. He could not be sure it was love. Maybe he was just seeing what he wanted, and how he wanted, never knew how much he could want until this very moment.

There was that quirk in his lips again, like Raoul was suppressing a smile, like he knew exactly what Erik wanted and was pleased.

"Erik."

And he had never been unhappy that he had forbidden Raoul to call him 'Sir' as androids were initially programmed to do until this moment. He had never heard his name weighed by so much emotion that was not hatred and it felt as though a piece within him loosed at his name and lodged in his throat. He could not name what that piece was. Perhaps it was emotion. Perhaps it was the realization that Erik no longer simply wanted to love and be loved. He wanted…

"Raoul." The word sounded broken to even his own ears.

He wished he could simply appreciate such engineering marvels but all he could see was trust and adoration in those too obviously inhuman blue eyes, emotions that had no place turned towards him, for he deserved neither.

"Apply directive 7Z439KYM Protocol 129."

As the letters and numbers flowed from his lips, as the specific directive and code that every android and robot owner was forced to learn and memorize before they could take them home, Erik saw… he felt Raoul's eyes widen slightly in a myriad of emotions before they blanked. His body slumped forward and hands Erik had not realized were holding his forearms fell, leaving only the chill of his home in its wake. Raoul's lips grew slack; the pleased grin Erik had taken for granted disappeared.

He jerked away as a voice he could barely recognize stated.

"Protocol 129. Formatting will be completed in five hours, twenty-three minutes, and thirty seconds."

The android stayed motionless where it was, a marionette whose strings were tangled. Erik fled the room, locked himself in his studio, and tried to ignore the regret that was so very quickly gnawing at his chest but it was impossible with the memory of the look of utter betrayal that had been caught in frightening clarity in his mind. He wondered if he could forget just as efficiently as Raoul would in about five and a half hours.

o.o.o.o

End chapter 01

A/N: Don't forget to R/R (Read and Review)!
Fic Review: At which point, I drop to my knees and scream No! Damn it, Erik. Wtf? Why would you do that to Raoul? Worst. Ever. :(