{dollhouse} a false hope
Title: A False Paradise
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Zone (with brief appearances of Adelle and Echo.)
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for Fest 07 at smallfandomfest for the prompt of “Writers Choice” and “You only think you won.”
Notes: Set after “Epitaph Two: Return.”
Summary: Zone doesn’t believe that either Rossum or the technology has been truly defeated.
Word Count: 1146
There was a time when Zone wasn’t so hard and bitter and aggressive. Before the world had changed, he had been a laid back type of guy. However when he woke up one day and found his pregnant girlfriend to be an empty shell, everything had changed. More so when he left their small apartment to take her to a hospital and he discovered that there were others just like her and even worse others who were like zombies, angry and desperate to tear others apart. Overnight he had changed, probably for the worse, but anyone who had knew him before had succumbed to the technology. Why he hadn’t wasn’t something that he spent long hours pondering, instead he used all of his energy to stay alive.
When Topher’s device detonates, Zone shares a brief look with Adelle. It cements his decision to stay with her and to work with he. He’s not the type to make sacrifices but he knows she can’t handle this on her own. When the girl that wakes up and immediately gravitates towards him, it further seals his decision. What scares him is how he doesn’t even know any of these people, yet here he is deciding to help Adelle shepherd in the new order now that the people have been turned back into themselves.
The decision to return to Safe Haven isn’t one t hat Zone particularly likes but he realizes the logistics of it. There are others in Safe Haven, they (hopefully) know what to expect there, it’s already settled, and it’s close enough to Neuropolis for them to work on bringing down Rossum’s nerve center. In fact it was the last reason, which Adelle had carefully pointed out, that had finalized his decision. He was used to surviving and felt that they would be able to easily carve out a new haven closer to Los Angeles.
Upon their return to Safe Haven, the residents of the small town greet them with a joyous but quiet celebration as everyone wants to celebrate the end of the world. Yet Zone knows deep down inside that the war isn’t over. Not by a long shot. As he sits at the big bonfire that someone had built, listening to everyone’s tales as they talk about how it used to be, how it was and how it’s going to be now that they are free, Zone starts to wonder why he even came. He’s surrounded by people who don’t want to fight, who don’t to see logic, and who just want to see a semblance of normalcy.
Zone doesn’t believe that either Rossum or the technology has been truly defeated. Neither had Echo when she had pulled him aside before he and Adelle were about to take Alpha’s little band of dumb shows up to the surface. In ten minutes, she had given him many dire warnings. Things to look for, to watch for, to wait for and what she needed him to destroy. She had pleaded with him to go to Neuropolis and to blow up the place. The technology needed to be destroyed for her work in this war to be successful.
In that brief conversation, Zone had learned far more than he had wanted. It was knowledge that left him sleeping with a loaded pistol under his pillow. Very dangerous but he feels that it’s a necessity especially since he now believes that Rossum or the tech is still out there in some form or other. From what he can glean from Adelle combined with the little that he had gleaned from the others on that strange and bizarre journey to Safe Haven, Zone doesn’t given in to the dream that there’s another Echo out there bent on destroying the remnants of Rossum and it’s technology in other countries and continents. Instead it seems more likely that Echo has managed to behead a mythical serpent. And although she has been successful, it’s about to regrow it’s head.
Later when he is walking to the house that he will share with Adelle and little Lisa, the girl who had once been Iris and then Caroline, Adelle stops him.
“They need hope right now,” Adelle quietly tells him.
“Hope? What they’re operating under is a bunch of delusions,” Zone spits out.
Adelle wearily sighs and falls into step with him. The quiet of the night still unnerves him and his hand creeps closer to the gun that is hidden by his jacket. The war has taught him to never feel safe; every quiet shadow potentially holds a threat.
“These people aren’t soldiers, Zone, they’re just people. Survivors who don’t have the strength or the will for the most part to fight, instead they just want to live. And when this war is over, if it’s ever truly over, we will need people like them.”
“Regardless of what they are, they should be told the truth instead of being allowed to sing ‘Kumbaya’ around the camp fire.”
“Yes they do, but not tonight. Tonight they need hope in order to survive the fact that we haven’t won anything.”
Adelle enters the house and makes her way up the stairs to her bedroom. She stops and turns around to face him. Her face is devoid of emotion and Zone wonders just what type of woman she is. From the little bit he has learned, she was once in charge of the Dollhouse in Los Angeles, which meant she was in charge of imprinting and selling people to be whoever the client wanted them to be. Despite her fancy accent and her upper class ways, she was nothing more than a pimp.
“If you stay Zone, I expect you to follow my guidance instead of running around and telling everyone the truth. I want this war to be over as much as you do but recruiting from the ranks of those who do not want to be recruited is a foolish idea.”
Zone is silent while Adelle makes her way up the stairs. From that moment forward things will change. Had Echo been there in the following week, she would have teased Adelle for needing a new head of security. However Echo’s not there so the teasing doesn’t happen and Zone has no idea that Adelle is grooming him to be her second in command, the man who does her dirty work and keeps the lost souls under her care safe.
The war is not over and they’ve won nothing but false hope and the continually fear that when they leave the safety of their compound that they will find he world destroyed all over again. Everyone thinks that they’ve one something but Zone and Adelle, and maybe even Echo in her safe cocoon in the Dollhouse, all know the truth. The war is far from over and maybe it’s actually just beginning in earnest.
((END))
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Zone (with brief appearances of Adelle and Echo.)
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for Fest 07 at smallfandomfest for the prompt of “Writers Choice” and “You only think you won.”
Notes: Set after “Epitaph Two: Return.”
Summary: Zone doesn’t believe that either Rossum or the technology has been truly defeated.
Word Count: 1146
There was a time when Zone wasn’t so hard and bitter and aggressive. Before the world had changed, he had been a laid back type of guy. However when he woke up one day and found his pregnant girlfriend to be an empty shell, everything had changed. More so when he left their small apartment to take her to a hospital and he discovered that there were others just like her and even worse others who were like zombies, angry and desperate to tear others apart. Overnight he had changed, probably for the worse, but anyone who had knew him before had succumbed to the technology. Why he hadn’t wasn’t something that he spent long hours pondering, instead he used all of his energy to stay alive.
When Topher’s device detonates, Zone shares a brief look with Adelle. It cements his decision to stay with her and to work with he. He’s not the type to make sacrifices but he knows she can’t handle this on her own. When the girl that wakes up and immediately gravitates towards him, it further seals his decision. What scares him is how he doesn’t even know any of these people, yet here he is deciding to help Adelle shepherd in the new order now that the people have been turned back into themselves.
The decision to return to Safe Haven isn’t one t hat Zone particularly likes but he realizes the logistics of it. There are others in Safe Haven, they (hopefully) know what to expect there, it’s already settled, and it’s close enough to Neuropolis for them to work on bringing down Rossum’s nerve center. In fact it was the last reason, which Adelle had carefully pointed out, that had finalized his decision. He was used to surviving and felt that they would be able to easily carve out a new haven closer to Los Angeles.
Upon their return to Safe Haven, the residents of the small town greet them with a joyous but quiet celebration as everyone wants to celebrate the end of the world. Yet Zone knows deep down inside that the war isn’t over. Not by a long shot. As he sits at the big bonfire that someone had built, listening to everyone’s tales as they talk about how it used to be, how it was and how it’s going to be now that they are free, Zone starts to wonder why he even came. He’s surrounded by people who don’t want to fight, who don’t to see logic, and who just want to see a semblance of normalcy.
Zone doesn’t believe that either Rossum or the technology has been truly defeated. Neither had Echo when she had pulled him aside before he and Adelle were about to take Alpha’s little band of dumb shows up to the surface. In ten minutes, she had given him many dire warnings. Things to look for, to watch for, to wait for and what she needed him to destroy. She had pleaded with him to go to Neuropolis and to blow up the place. The technology needed to be destroyed for her work in this war to be successful.
In that brief conversation, Zone had learned far more than he had wanted. It was knowledge that left him sleeping with a loaded pistol under his pillow. Very dangerous but he feels that it’s a necessity especially since he now believes that Rossum or the tech is still out there in some form or other. From what he can glean from Adelle combined with the little that he had gleaned from the others on that strange and bizarre journey to Safe Haven, Zone doesn’t given in to the dream that there’s another Echo out there bent on destroying the remnants of Rossum and it’s technology in other countries and continents. Instead it seems more likely that Echo has managed to behead a mythical serpent. And although she has been successful, it’s about to regrow it’s head.
Later when he is walking to the house that he will share with Adelle and little Lisa, the girl who had once been Iris and then Caroline, Adelle stops him.
“They need hope right now,” Adelle quietly tells him.
“Hope? What they’re operating under is a bunch of delusions,” Zone spits out.
Adelle wearily sighs and falls into step with him. The quiet of the night still unnerves him and his hand creeps closer to the gun that is hidden by his jacket. The war has taught him to never feel safe; every quiet shadow potentially holds a threat.
“These people aren’t soldiers, Zone, they’re just people. Survivors who don’t have the strength or the will for the most part to fight, instead they just want to live. And when this war is over, if it’s ever truly over, we will need people like them.”
“Regardless of what they are, they should be told the truth instead of being allowed to sing ‘Kumbaya’ around the camp fire.”
“Yes they do, but not tonight. Tonight they need hope in order to survive the fact that we haven’t won anything.”
Adelle enters the house and makes her way up the stairs to her bedroom. She stops and turns around to face him. Her face is devoid of emotion and Zone wonders just what type of woman she is. From the little bit he has learned, she was once in charge of the Dollhouse in Los Angeles, which meant she was in charge of imprinting and selling people to be whoever the client wanted them to be. Despite her fancy accent and her upper class ways, she was nothing more than a pimp.
“If you stay Zone, I expect you to follow my guidance instead of running around and telling everyone the truth. I want this war to be over as much as you do but recruiting from the ranks of those who do not want to be recruited is a foolish idea.”
Zone is silent while Adelle makes her way up the stairs. From that moment forward things will change. Had Echo been there in the following week, she would have teased Adelle for needing a new head of security. However Echo’s not there so the teasing doesn’t happen and Zone has no idea that Adelle is grooming him to be her second in command, the man who does her dirty work and keeps the lost souls under her care safe.
The war is not over and they’ve won nothing but false hope and the continually fear that when they leave the safety of their compound that they will find he world destroyed all over again. Everyone thinks that they’ve one something but Zone and Adelle, and maybe even Echo in her safe cocoon in the Dollhouse, all know the truth. The war is far from over and maybe it’s actually just beginning in earnest.
((END))