Tae focus

Taehyung was staring at the white closet wall of his private room. There was only one week left until their arrival. His programs were almost finished, but he needed to talk to Jimin to complete his plan. Unfortunately, they were not talking after the gym incident a week ago. He still was more than pissed about the Charmer's behavior, but on the other hand he needed the psychologist's input. He needed his help.

The bell of this room cut through his thoughts and made him snap up his head. Well, if that was not the devil himself. He tried to push back his anger and stood up to open the door for the small honey-haired.

"What do you want?" he growled into the soft face. That much to holding back his anger...

"I'm sorry," the smaller whispered intimidated.

Taehyung would almost have laughed. "Sorry? You're sorry?" he spat at the Charmer. What an idiot. Did he think that just coming to him and telling him that he was sorry would make everything good? The man basically had sexually abused him.

"I thought that it was only fair to use my abilities when Yoongi uses his as well," Jimin tried to defend himself.

Taehyung was shocked by the small man. He would have expected a little more brain from a Doctor of Psychology. "Fair? Jimin, I thought you were smart," he said disappointed. "Yoongi's ability only affects himself, not others. You are playing with your victim's mind!" And brutally at that.

"But why should I not use it in a fight when it makes me stronger?" the honey-haired hissed. "I don't want to die, Tae."

Taehyung could not hold back the snort. "And I won't kill you," he shot back. "We're training, Jimin, not fighting for our life. Just be honest and say you liked it. You liked to control me."

Jimin opened his mouth to close it again. The soft mahogany eyes lowered to the floor. Taehyung stared at the smaller in disbelieve. He had hoped that his assumption was wrong, but apparently, he had hit truth spot on.

Shocked, he shook his head. "You really enjoyed it. What the...," he whispered. He so wanted to send the damn Charmer off, but he needed him to complete his plan.

Furious he took some deep breaths to clear his body of the anger. He was far from forgiving the diplomat, but right now their mission was all that mattered. "Come in," he pressed out.

"But..." Jimin began confused, but Taehyung simply pulled him inside his room.

"We need to talk. Sit!" he demanded and pointed towards his bed.

Slowly the psychologist sat down and looked at him with big eyes. Oh, how he would love to slap that perfect face for what it had done to him. The Charmer could have ruined everything between him and Yoongi if he had not been strong enough to withstand. He had forgiven the mahogany eyes once, because back then the diplomat obviously had not been thinking straight, but last week apparently had been different. Jimin had used his power knowingly, the smaller had even loved to use it on him.

He was not sure if he could ever forgive such behavior, even considering the enormous pressure they had to endure. After all, there was someone who cared for the Charmer with all his heart, someone he could go to no matter what time. And if he had observed it correctly, Jimin liked that someone as well, but the Charmer was just too dumb to see it, or maybe he saw it but would rather hurt a friend than the one he held dear.

However, now was not the time to think about relationship problems. Taehyung pulled the office chair over to him, switched off the AI, and sat down in front of Jimin. "You're manipulating Bang," he stated without introduction. "What was the exact topic of your doctor thesis?"

Jimin looked flabbergasted.

"Um... I," the small man mumbled before an annoyed sigh from him made the man straighten his back and concentrate. "I wrote about the evolution of a LAI by observing and talking to people," he began to explain. "I wanted to know if the so-called 'ghost in the machine' existed and if it would cause an AI to go beyond the three laws."

"Asimov's Laws?" Taehyung asked, remembering those from the lectures at the Academy.

"Yes. I wanted to test if an AI could develop as far as to think it had own feelings, and if that would cause them to re-evaluate and re-interpret the three laws, or at least make it question them," the psychologist said.

"Can Bang undergo the three laws?" Taehyung asked, shocking Jimin again with his lack of disagreement to this unorthodox project. He did not care for the psychologist's little illegal project. All that mattered was the success of their mission. And that Jimin had poor talent regarding self-reflection of his actions he already knew.

"No," the Charmer answered.

"But do you think he could?" he asked to make sure his plan could work.

"Why are you asking this?" Jimin asked back and looked anything but happy.

"I have a plan for the battle," Taehyung admitted. There was no point in withholding that information now. "And if Bang could undergo the laws it would be way easier."

Jimin just stared at him with something like fear in his eyes. "Do you understand what it would mean if Bang no longer was controlled by the laws? If he would erase them?"

The look in the smaller man's eyes made Taehyung's determination falter. Had he come to false conclusions regarding an AIs behavior without the laws? After all, he did not know much about those computer brains.

"Enlighten me," he asked with less force in his voice and sunk back into the chair.

"AIs are superior to humans. They're faster, smarter and less vulnerable in the physical and psychological way. And they're aware of that."

Taehyung nodded, a nasty feeling was stirring his guts.

"So, what do you think makes them obey to us when they know they're superior?" the psychologist asked and tilted his head in a serious manner.

Taehyung suddenly felt like vomiting. "The first law," he whispered, "Their love for humans is an implanted one."

Jimin nodded with a stern expression on his beautiful face. "The first law is the only thing that keeps them from seeing us as an inconvenience, from reversing the status quo."

Taehyung's plan shattered into pieces. Spacing out in horror, he bent over and buried his face in his palms. He had put everything on one card, and he had lost everything. A week before the strike he had nothing on his hands to protect his friends. The pain in his chest was overwhelming.

When he fought the first sobs that threatened to rock through his body, he felt a small hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong, Taehyung?" the velvety voice asked affably.

"I failed. I wanted to protect you, all of you, but I failed," Taehyung pressed out. He had spent night after night to write his code and spare his friends the ugly experience of a battle, but all his ideas were ruined by his ignorance. He had been lulled into the imagination that Bang was human, that the AI could indeed feel, that he would protect them even without the laws. He had valued themselves too high, and therefor had wasted weeks of work and struggle. He felt so stupid.

"Your plan is based on a feeling AI?" the diplomat asked, and Taehyung once again was stunned by the other's acuity.

He nodded slowly.

"And -correct me if I'm wrong- but you expected Bang to value our life higher than those of our attackers?" the Charmer asked on.

This time Taehyung shook his head and finally looked up to the honey-haired. "I needed him to value our commands over the commands of our enemy. I needed him to develop a sense of loyalty towards a small group of people and not towards humans in general." He rubbed over his face and tried to calm down again to find a solution.

To his surprise Jimin smiled. "But why would he need to ignore the laws to accomplish that?" the psychologist asked in a happy tune.

"But..." Taehyung began but did not know what to say.

"Like I said. I wanted to know if an AI can think that it has own feelings and if that would cause a re-evaluation of the laws. Isn't that exactly what you need? An AI that does not only see the simple meaning of its laws but can slightly bend them with another interpretation?" The Charmer's eyes sparkled with energy. Taehyung never was happier to have Jimin on board.

"Can Bang do that?" he asked, infected with the diplomat's energy.

"I think he can. I'm close to giving him the final push. But I can't pressure him into evolving. He has to ask me himself."

Taehyung sighed and rubbed over his face once more. A complicated machine that board AI was.

"What made him ask the last times?" he wanted to know and focused back on the Charmer. Maybe they could induce the right spark to set the AI off and make it talk.

"He listened to our conversations and would pick on important topics. Like the one time you talked about music and why an AI's music could never be as good as a human's," the diplomat answered.

"What was it he asked for back then?"

"What it feels like to feel," Jimin answered, voice suddenly very soft and a loving smile on the plump lips. The way the smaller talked about the AI made Taehyung think about whether the job of a diplomat was the right thing for the honey-haired, or if he would not be happier in a robot lab. For a moment he just observed the dreamy face of his colleague.

But then he concentrated back on the matter at hand. What would make the AI question the three laws? As far as he knew, every law had a different 'weight'. The second law about human orders overruled the third law of self-defense, and the first law of not harming humans overruled everything. Taehyung saw no way to make Bang question his essential code. Was questioning them not going against all three laws at once?

A glance over to the diplomat showed him that Jimin looked like he wanted to say something but seemed to wait for his permission. He gestured the psychologist to speak his mind.

"Maybe if we talked about DNA, Bang would ask what his DNA was," the honey-haired suggested.

Taehyungs face lit up. He understood what this was aiming at, and once again had to admit that Jimin was damn clever. When it came to AIs, not when it came to thinking before acting. "Let's give it a shot," he agreed with a determined nod and stood up to open the door for the other.

"Taehyung?" the velvety voice made him stop. "What made you think Bang could change the code that is secured by password?" the diplomat asked.

"There is a reason I held my hacking lessons with Yoongi on the bridge," he answered bluntly. From the very beginning, he had had the feeling he would need Bang for this. The AI would be an immense help in any case.

Jimin's jaw dropped. "Since when do you know my intentions?"

Taehyung smiled smugly. "The question I asked you at our little shower encounter when you said that you tried to not mess things up was 'But you already started to mess things up, didn't you?'. I realized you were playing with the computer brain from the moment you treated it like a person."

Now Jimin seemed to remember. And to understand.

"I hoped an AI could hack its own system," the V mumbled and opened the door. "But apparently that's a very stupid idea if one valued their life."

He roughly grabbed Jimin's arm when the Charmer passed him and shoved the small man out of the room, gaining a shocked gasp.

"You're just a victim of your fucked-up DNA!" he shouted into the puppy-face, "Get a grip of that, or we'll never talk again!"

He winked at the psychologist barely noticeable before he closed the door again. He did not care if his measures were too drastic. He was sleep deprived and desperate for this to end. And very mad at Jimin, he had to admit. But what tortured him most were the tension and the fear for his friends that once again were eating him up.

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