Artificial Willpower

Nothing

Art by _sleepy.moth_! Thank you so much again, my son looks beautiful <3

Doctor Pitch was right. No matter how fed up everyone had gotten with him, he wasn't expendable. Not yet. Not only had he left the meeting with his job still intact, but he had also convinced Director Wilson to allow him to perform the... slightly modified surgery that would hopefully allow complete control over the subjects.

He had argued that by perfecting that technology an issue like Daniel Jones escaping wouldn't happen again. Granted, he suspected she only agreed to keep him busy for a little while, but her reasons didn't matter. All that mattered was that his plan was coming along just as he needed it to.

The next part of his plan might be harder though. It's hard to blackmail someone who sticks to the rules as heavily as Kathrine did, but everyone had dirt somewhere. And Pitch was certain that if he dug deep enough he could find the skeletons in Kathrine's closet.

-

"So this facility... you're the head of security there? You must really believe in this cause if you're willing to get rid of all that and risk that much. I mean, if this doesn't work you could be facing a lot of charges" Apollo said, after listening to the basics of the situation. "Can I ask what changed your mind about the facilities? Why after working there for so long you've decided it's bad?"

Kathrine was silent for a long moment. It was a rough question to answer because even she wasn't sure sometimes how it got to this point. After a moment of collecting her thoughts, she spoke,

"There's a man... Illinois Arch, who had a genius idea and product. He had nothing but good intentions. He really sincerely believed that by partnering with the facilities, he could do amazing things. But his ideas were made into things that he never wanted, and people were hurt. People are being hurt. Illinois Arch faked his death so he could hide for a while, and bring the facilities down when the time was right. Recently one of the subjects, Yancy, escaped. This has sent the facility into a panic and I've had front-row seats of people losing any bit of humanity and morality I once thought they had. Especially the head doctor... the things he's willing to do to catch Illinois and Yancy... It scares me. And I have to wonder if I could become like... him if I stick around much longer. When I got a call from Illinois asking for help, I saw a way out. That place, it sucks the humanity out of you. It tries to hide under a lie of a greater good, but it's such a slippery slope... once we start looking at any humans as expendable, even criminals... how long before we start seeing everyone as expendable?"

"That makes sense. So, Yancy, he was chosen for this experiment due to his crimes?"

"Kind of? He committed double homicide when he was 18, and got a life sentence. He turned himself in, pleaded guilty, and has had nothing but good behavior while in prison. I'm not defending his crime, of course. Don't get me wrong, however, he got his sentence and was going through it with zero complaints or resistance. What really made him a prime candidate wasn't his crime, it was the fact that he had a life sentence and no one would notice if he was gone. The facility doesn't care about the crimes, they just care about flying under the radar and justifying their actions."

"I see, have you met Yancy?"

"Recently I did for the first time. He... it was jarring because everyone at the facility was making him out to be this monster, but he wasn't. Plain and simple."

"I'd love to take this story." Apollo finally said, "I'll probably publish it under a new pen name and take my credit after the whole situation calms down since this one does seem pretty dangerous... but I think exposing it could work!" Apollo rambled, seeming to be thinking out loud now as he brought out his notepad and started scribbling things down.

His eagerness surprised Kathrine a little. She had expected him to hesitate more. Ask more questions. Take some time to think about it. She wasn't complaining though. This was the best-case scenario.

"Thank you so much," she said "if you need any help hunkering down while all this is going on I'll do everything I can to help you"

"I appreciate that. So about Illinois and Yancy. These two are sorta the leaders of this movement you're trying to start?"

Kathrine hadn't thought about it like that, but she couldn't argue with the reasoning "Yes. These facilities took everything from both of them. Yancy is writing a statement about everything that happened to him for you."

"Perfect. I think a more 'pathos' approach would be best for this, and I'd imagine he has a lot of emotions to share about the situation. Oh! Maybe we could even get a video interview... People tend to feel a lot more for what they can see. We can plan that later though, I can get started on a first article exposing the basics first." Apollo said, seeming excited about the project ahead of him.

Kathrine visibly relaxed, seeing the story would be in good, passionate hands. "I'm sure we can get an interview sorted out. Thank you so much"

Apollo scribbled some more things down on a notepad and closed it "No thank you. This is the biggest story I've ever gotten my hands on. I've been looking for a challenge. I'll have everyone and their dog knowing and caring about these facilities in no time, you have my word"

-

"I'm sorry about that Kathrine, I'm sure we could have finished it in time if you let us know it was so soon," Illinois said over the phone.

Yancy sighed a bit, looking at his notepad. He had just finished but when Illinois had called Kathrine to tell her, she had some news of her own. Yancy was only getting one side of the conversation but it was enough for him to understand she had already met with the journalist.

"Wait, he agreed? That's such a relief. Yeah, we can still send you the statement. We wouldn't want all the work Yancy put into waste. I'll scan it in and send it to you. Alright, I'll get right on that, thank you so much again, Kathrine" he said before hanging up.

Illinois seemed quick to notice Yancy's disappointment. "No harm no fowl, Yance. He agreed and we can still get him the statement. Kathrine would have let us know a deadline if she wasn't sure she could convince the journalist on her own" He said, putting a hand on Yancy's shoulder.

"Yeah, sorry. It just feels like I only had one job and I wasn't able to do it" Yancy said, realizing how silly it sounded. He had done the task at hand. And it wasn't a massive mess up.

Illinois seemed to echo his thoughts "No, you did it and you did it well. What you wrote took a lot of emotional energy and time. One little miscalculation doesn't change that. Here, I'll scan this in and send it to her and then I'll make us some dinner and we can call it a night. I think we deserve some rest."

"That sounds good. I'm pretty t-t-tired" Yancy admitted, standing up and stretching, a yawn cutting into his words.

Illinois smiled and got up "So am I. I think we can rest easy and call today a success. The most important part is the journalist agreed. I think we're getting closer to a victory."

Yancy let out a small laugh "Gosh... sometimes I forget that my life got turned on its head only a few weeks ago... I dunno, it's felt like a lifetime. I dunno how long it'll take for us to win but it's wild to think it could be soon..."

"I'm excited. I've been waiting for years now, and it's going so much better than I could have ever hoped. Mostly thanks to you, Yancy. I would have never thought of going more widespread with this if not for you. I owe you one, once all this is over" Illinois said, putting his hand on Yancy's shoulder for a moment before heading over to the kitchen.

Hesitation filled Yancy's mind as Illinois mentioned life beyond this situation. As if Illinois thought things might always be this way. Yancy being free and the two spending so much time together.

He wasn't sure how to explain that a whole life on the run wasn't what he wanted. He didn't know how to explain he felt the need to still carry out his sentence, once the facilities were gone and he could be sure he wouldn't be the subject of human experimentation. He didn't know how to explain that the good deed of exposing the monsters behind closed doors didn't erase the crimes he was sincerely guilty of, and he was okay with that.

So he said nothing.