{dollhouse} double blind
Title: Double Blind
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Echo, Caroline Farrell, Boyd Langton, Alpha (implied Alpha/Echo)
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for 500themes #262 (the beginning of the end); 2x5obsessions (lost souls); fivebyfiction (truth).
Notes: Set after the series.
Summary: There's more to Alpha than Karl.
Word Count: 812
She numbly watches as the dolls wander the dollhouse looking content and empty. Caroline feels sorry for the lost souls that they are and she wonders if any of them will ever be whole again despite Adelle's reassurances of it only be a five year contract. She remembers Boyd Langton's words to her in Tucson and Caroline steels herself for what lies ahead. She is completely unaware of the doll that stares up at her in near rapture. Caroline is too lost in her own world, absorbed in her self-pity and too busy trying to convince herself that she is only submitting in order to bring the dollhouse and Rossum down.
* * *
"You're just a pawn and you don't even realize it, do you? Nothing more than a caged lab rat running through a maze unable to do anything but what you've been programmed to do."
Alpha's fingers caress the image on the screen. He loves her even though he knows now that everything has been planned. Even his responses to her have been programmed. He's hardwired to need her, crave her, want her. He's as much a pawn as she is.
"I'll help you even though it'll kill me. Even though I know that it's nothing more than an elaborate game that we've been programmed to play. But trust me when I say that I'll make them pay before I'm done."
His laugh is bitter.
* * *
Caroline feels uneasy in her body. Then again she recognizes that it's not really her body anymore. In the back of her mind, she can feel the presence of the others. Her body now belongs to Echo and she wonders if she was only ever a placeholder for Echo. It hurts now to try to force her once familiar limbs to move the way that she wants them to. Still she does what is needed before she gratefully slips beneath the surface relinquishing control to Echo.
She can remember how heated Echo's voice was when she told her that she was just holding the body for her. Caroline knows that it wasn't a lie, that Echo had truly believed that. What neither of them took into consideration was the collective consciousness that made up Echo. It's too late for Caroline. She'd much rather lose herself into the collective than struggle in the role that's been left to her. Echo's far more real than she is.
The only one thing that's certain is that she was played by Boyd, by Adelle and by everyone else, including herself. There's no turning back to the way things once were.
* * *
Alpha's waiting for them when they return, defeated and tired. Blowing up the head office, although satisfying, had been completely futile. Rossum is the serpent with more than one head. He silently gloats when Echo falls into his arms. In her eyes, he sees a flash of Caroline and he pities her. Everything that she ever believed in has been nothing more than a lie. But the moment passes and Alpha focuses on Echo.
To him, Caroline will be nothing more than an imprint. Echo, however is warm in his arms and she is his despite everything else. Nothing else matters until Ballard has to go and open his mouth ruining the moment. Alpha realizes that he is only the catalyst, meant to be used up in the process of creating Echo. He reluctantly lets her go but he knows that when she turns away from him, he is witnessing the beginning of the end. They can't last like this forever. Rossum might have not fallen apart but it will soon enough.
* * *
Boyd was far more cleverer than any of them thought. The Boyd Langton that Echo had destroyed, the one that had convinced Caroline Farrell to trust, wasn't the real Boyd Langton. He stares at himself in the bathroom of the shabby apartment that he currentlly calls home and smirks.
Alpha is dead now killed by Topher's pulse, unlike Echo, Alpha was never meant to be survive the fall of Rossum. He was never meant to survive creating Echo. Yet Boyd remembers who he was and there's a part of Alpha still left, the part that was in love with her, that still needs her even now. After everything that's happened between them.
Boyd smiles at his reflection and knows that he'll wait a year instead of just disappearing. He can see a bit of Alpha's insanity in the grim smile that's reflected back at him. Perhaps obsession is a better word for what he feels for Echo. It's the one thing that he's shared with Alpha (and Karl) throughout all of these years. He shrugs his shoulders at his reflection before turning away. There's a crude chair to dismantle and a handful of wedges to be destroyed.
((END))
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Echo, Caroline Farrell, Boyd Langton, Alpha (implied Alpha/Echo)
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for 500themes #262 (the beginning of the end); 2x5obsessions (lost souls); fivebyfiction (truth).
Notes: Set after the series.
Summary: There's more to Alpha than Karl.
Word Count: 812
She numbly watches as the dolls wander the dollhouse looking content and empty. Caroline feels sorry for the lost souls that they are and she wonders if any of them will ever be whole again despite Adelle's reassurances of it only be a five year contract. She remembers Boyd Langton's words to her in Tucson and Caroline steels herself for what lies ahead. She is completely unaware of the doll that stares up at her in near rapture. Caroline is too lost in her own world, absorbed in her self-pity and too busy trying to convince herself that she is only submitting in order to bring the dollhouse and Rossum down.
* * *
"You're just a pawn and you don't even realize it, do you? Nothing more than a caged lab rat running through a maze unable to do anything but what you've been programmed to do."
Alpha's fingers caress the image on the screen. He loves her even though he knows now that everything has been planned. Even his responses to her have been programmed. He's hardwired to need her, crave her, want her. He's as much a pawn as she is.
"I'll help you even though it'll kill me. Even though I know that it's nothing more than an elaborate game that we've been programmed to play. But trust me when I say that I'll make them pay before I'm done."
His laugh is bitter.
* * *
Caroline feels uneasy in her body. Then again she recognizes that it's not really her body anymore. In the back of her mind, she can feel the presence of the others. Her body now belongs to Echo and she wonders if she was only ever a placeholder for Echo. It hurts now to try to force her once familiar limbs to move the way that she wants them to. Still she does what is needed before she gratefully slips beneath the surface relinquishing control to Echo.
She can remember how heated Echo's voice was when she told her that she was just holding the body for her. Caroline knows that it wasn't a lie, that Echo had truly believed that. What neither of them took into consideration was the collective consciousness that made up Echo. It's too late for Caroline. She'd much rather lose herself into the collective than struggle in the role that's been left to her. Echo's far more real than she is.
The only one thing that's certain is that she was played by Boyd, by Adelle and by everyone else, including herself. There's no turning back to the way things once were.
* * *
Alpha's waiting for them when they return, defeated and tired. Blowing up the head office, although satisfying, had been completely futile. Rossum is the serpent with more than one head. He silently gloats when Echo falls into his arms. In her eyes, he sees a flash of Caroline and he pities her. Everything that she ever believed in has been nothing more than a lie. But the moment passes and Alpha focuses on Echo.
To him, Caroline will be nothing more than an imprint. Echo, however is warm in his arms and she is his despite everything else. Nothing else matters until Ballard has to go and open his mouth ruining the moment. Alpha realizes that he is only the catalyst, meant to be used up in the process of creating Echo. He reluctantly lets her go but he knows that when she turns away from him, he is witnessing the beginning of the end. They can't last like this forever. Rossum might have not fallen apart but it will soon enough.
* * *
Boyd was far more cleverer than any of them thought. The Boyd Langton that Echo had destroyed, the one that had convinced Caroline Farrell to trust, wasn't the real Boyd Langton. He stares at himself in the bathroom of the shabby apartment that he currentlly calls home and smirks.
Alpha is dead now killed by Topher's pulse, unlike Echo, Alpha was never meant to be survive the fall of Rossum. He was never meant to survive creating Echo. Yet Boyd remembers who he was and there's a part of Alpha still left, the part that was in love with her, that still needs her even now. After everything that's happened between them.
Boyd smiles at his reflection and knows that he'll wait a year instead of just disappearing. He can see a bit of Alpha's insanity in the grim smile that's reflected back at him. Perhaps obsession is a better word for what he feels for Echo. It's the one thing that he's shared with Alpha (and Karl) throughout all of these years. He shrugs his shoulders at his reflection before turning away. There's a crude chair to dismantle and a handful of wedges to be destroyed.
((END))