Who: Data | The Fifth Doctor | The Tenth Doctor | Lore | The Master
What: Lore attacks Data and the Doctors with a holographic Master in tow.
When: During Avon's canon update.
Warnings and Notes: Violence. Done for Lore!Plot at
hearts_andminds On a bench at the furthest end of the park sat an android. A quiet one, for once, earnestly regarding the shift in color of the sky as the filter of light through some unseen distant ionosphere and the collected gasses in the atmosphere. He couldn't quite think of the dusk sky as beautiful. It was just there, as everything was just there and he was just there and every person he had ever met. They were just there, and just as easily could not be there in the next moment.
His emotion chip was still functioning, though it wasn't feeding him any certain response to the situation. He was very aware of the muddled uncertainty his system was having deciphering any reaction. He had no idea how he was supposed to feel anymore. What possible lesson there could be for him to learn. How to address any attachment that he had.
Whether he should even maintain those attachments.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice Lore's footsteps coming up behind him. Not that many would. Lore was smooth in his movements, stealthy in almost a feline way. He had checked with his scanners before approaching; made sure that there were no hominid life-signs within easy eavesdropping distance. Lore couldn't have anyone interrupting this intimate moment with his beloved family member.
He cocked his head slowly as came to a standstill, looking down at his obtuse brother, pondering. He was atypically maskless, exposed, allowing for the inevitability of his brother realizing who he was. Pale fingers came short of grazing gently over smooth, dark hair; enough so that the 'elder' brother made the motion of stroking behind his brother's head without actually touching.
A moment later his hand darted out like lightning, snapping loose an anterior cranial plate and pressing three quick buttons before Data's eyes could even widen in alarm.
Shoving from the bench, Data staggered back in surprise, holding the bared portion of his glimmering skull. He opened his mouth to speak, shocked at the nothing that came out, then shocked at the fact his internal leveling system had been deactivated as well as his language banks. He toppled to his hip, digging his feet in and started pushing back through the grass.
"Brother! Brother..." Lore implored, face full of despicable compassion and loathable pity as he walked around the bench. "Calm down... We both knew this would happen. It was an inevitability." He held that bit of cranium in his hands, cradling it with care as he approached the other android that was trying to squirm away.
He couldn't have that. He stepped on his pants leg to keep him from going further, and then stooped over him.
Data frantically shook his head, regarding Lore in horror, disoriented and searching for anything that could pass as a weapon. Grass. A stick. Hardly anything that would stand up to a maniacal android.
"You don't understand, brother... It's just me and you. I've seen how these people are... and they can make you think they care, but from the moment they meet you they know they'll leave you behind. They'll always chase off after someone else. Stop that!" Lore noted Data's searching, his frustrated clutching at the first rock he could locate. The cranial plate was discarded and he stooped to straddle his mirror's stomach, reaching to pin his hands together and pry the blunt object from them. "That's enough of that," he scolded firmly.
Data stared up in what was probably the most organically horrified face he could ever achieve. An expression that Lore reveled in, and made his own expression grow that much more fond. "Oh... Dear brother. I see it now. We're more alike than ever. I promise you, even if you're frightened now, I'll make it better. When you have his gratitude, his passion, you'll never worry about these feeble human emotions again. Not after you've had the emotions of a Time Lord."
Then Lore winced, actually hearing the metal clank through layers of bioplast when Data wrenched his hand free and clocked him in the jaw.
From fawning to abruptly furious, Lore fought to recapture Data's hand, struggling to keep his weight shifted so the temporary disabled android couldn't manage himself. "Stop fighting this! We'll finally be real brothers again. My Master will be your Master too-" As quickly as he'd removed the plate, he crammed a device into an exposed port.
Horrified still, Data brought his arm up in a desperate attempt to dislodge it. It was partially successful, at least. Even before one bar of information could download, he snapped the device off, the end of it still jammed deep into his skull and sending a blue white fizzle over the wire-framework around it. Successful, indeed, but it enraged his duplicate all that much more. Like bizarre drama masks, one face terrified while the other fumed.
"What's the matter with you! This is for your own good. Don't you see that I'm doing this because I love you! I'm the only one that really appreciates you. Why else would I be here, and they be gone! Why else would the others abandon you. Spite you. Betray you. It's what we are, brother! We're all we have. Us and the rest of the world!"
Data bared his teeth like he were about to spat back in Lore's face, the horror dissipating under the words to anger.
"...And there it is..." Lore commented, his own violent expression easing. "I knew we were more alike... But now I have to get into your memory bank, so if you'll excuse me..." He stood quickly, and Data had little more than time to reach for the bench than he found himself kicked hard enough that he flipped onto his stomach, face down in damp, unpleasant grass.
This was probably the first time Data didn't appreciate the introduction of discomfort and pain to his system.