❛ empire now ❜
★ ₊˚. ❪ the commander, two ❫
˗ˏ⋆ ˎ˗⠀┊ 3x16⠀┊ ⠀❝ xxxvi ❞
▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅

anakin has been recasted
by hayden christensen

"LEXA KOM TRIKRU..."

Was dead. Anakin had watched her bleed out, taking her last breath of air too. He had watched Ontari and Roan burn her body. And now she was crouched in front of him, clutching his shaking head in the palm of her hands.

"Anakin!" Lexa panics as she slaps his face lightly, an attempt in waking hug up, which does nothing for her. He continues to shake, foaming at the corner of his lips. "Anakin!"

When his body goes still, Lexa can still see his chest rising but has a fear that he'll die shortly if she can't get him out of the city of light. She knows that this is happening because ALIE is merging with the flame, an attempt at taking over his mind and everything else with it.

"I — I, you were dead, sister." Anakin opens his eyes as shares a look with his sister. When Lexa helps his stand and the two share another quick look, Anakin asks. "Are you here because of the flame?"

Lexa's expression softens, a smile on her lips. "I told you my spirit would choose wisely." Had it? Was Anakin the right choice for the flame — a murderer?

The sky changes quickly from day to night, casting a darkness over the city as the lights in all the buildings flicker on. "What is it? Why is it turning to night?"

Lexa glances around, her eyes narrowing as she pieces together the situation, her eyes landing on people stepping onto the sidewalk and towards them a ways away. "ALIE knows you're here. She's uploading the Flame from your mind. Your mind's changing things. Day turns to night. It rains. It's why you seized, your body is still healing. Now the upload has begun, ALIE's people will be able to see us. We need to be more careful."

Anakin looks around at the empty streets, only seeing the few people. Why aren't they here already? If the flame offered less protection and if ALIE knew where they were, why weren't they being crowned.

Lexa, sensing her brothers question, she focused on an area where there were no lights on and the streets were pitch black. "The flame offers less and less protection, can you move on your own?"

Anakin nods before his eye catch a hold of the watch that's buckled over his wrist. It's the one Maffei had given him when he had first entered the flame, when his mind had successfully connected with it and allowed the previous commanders to be within him. "The watch. It's counting down, we have ten minutes." He's never looked at a clock before, he never knew how to read a watch, and now he knows? Is the flame messing with him, Anakin is skeptical but doesn't question it yet.

Just as he looks up at Lexa, a bike whooshes past them and a little bell dings as the girl on the bike passes them. Lexa points, her finger directed at the girl but more so the jacket that has the infinity symbol on the back of it. "Thank you, Bekka."

Lexa pulls Anakin with her, the two running after the person on the bike. Hearts hammering in one alive and one dead chest, Anakin is pushing himself quickly and more than his body is ready for. "Wait! We're losing her." Anakin stops when she goes through a locked chain fence, which she passes through like nothing, like a ghost. 

 "You'll never get to the kill switch." John Murphy speaks as he steps towards the duo, foot after foot and a tilt of his head as he nears them but stops a distance away. Lexa and Anakin draw their swords, hoping that maybe it would scare Jasper, but what would scare someone who wants to die anyways. "You've seen the City of Light now. It's perfect. There's peace, happiness, safety. Why would you wanna deny that to anyone, Anakin? Don't you want to lead your people to something like this?"

Anakin shakes his head, stepping forward and placing the tip of his sword even closer to the body of the Murphy boy. "She is torturing people to get them here, John, just like I had done to you. Taking their memories, controlling them, making them what she wants. This isn't even you. This is ALIE."

"Do you really know me?" John shrugs with a smile. "She's doing what has to be done, just like how Bellamy needed to torture you and Lincoln, and how you had been tortured all throughout your life to make you a warrior. ALIE just wants to do it so they can learn what happiness and pain free life is."

Anakin pushes his sword forward and he knows that the top of the metal is about to break the skin of the sky boy. "She took away the choice, John! Human beings have free will, you have seem polis, the peace we had there that has been ruined. We decide how we should live!"

John Murphy's eyes harden, a hint of bitterness in his voice when he looks at him. "Human beings are the only species that act against their own self-interest. Torture each other. We fight, we hurt each other, break each other's hearts. None of that exists here. ALIE is protecting us from ourselves. From who we were and who we would become."

"Anakin, there's still time. We'll find another sign. Let's go." Lexa pulls on her brothers shoulder and moves him away, but John moves and stands in their path. He shakes his head and Lexa pulls Anakin a different direction. 

"We can't let you do that." John says as Jasper, Jaha and others start to enter the area where the two siblings are. "We can't let you do this. The flame can no longer offer you protection."

"If I remove the Flame, will it stop the update?" Ankain asks as he turns towards Lexa. He would give up the flame in order to stop ALIE, even if that meant he couldn't be the commander. 

Lexa nods but her tone of voice is weary and hesitant. "Yes, but no one's ever done it by choice before. Regardless, you will be one of them again. ALIE will get the flame either way. and if she doesn't use you again she'll use Daisy."

A door on the concrete wall shows, with a raven on it, a clear indication of who was helping him outside of this. Lexa moves towards Jasper, her fist moving quickly to his face and he falls to the ground out cold. She turns towards Anakin, her lips quirked upwards in a smile. "I can't come with you." 

"Thank you, sister." Anakin steps towards the door and steps inside, letting the door shut and leaving his sister on the outside of it. He lets the world around him change, and he could see once his eyes adjusted to it, and he stood in the middle of what he believed was a space station. There's a window that he nears, where he can see the earth, the blues and greens. 

"Commander..." A voice spoke and Anakin turned around, his eyes landing on a woman who stood before hm, a white coat hanging off her shoulders. "I'm glad you made it."

Realization dawns on Anakin when imagines of her flashes in his mind. "You're Bekka Pramheda, the first commander."

Becca smiles and waves her hand in dismissal. "Becca's fine. There isn't much time, Anakin. The code is nearly updated."

Anakin follows Becca down the table, where the kill switch is located. It sits there, skinny and ready to be pulled. "That's the kill switch?"

Becca nods her head.  "This is it."

Anakin reaches out to put a hand on the kill switch, but a new, more monotone voice is heard that has him pausing. "If you pull that, you will be killing everyone, Anakin. See for yourself."

"The nuclear power plants that weren't destroyed by the bombs have begun to melt down. My drones detected the first of them four months ago. There are more than a dozen at-risk plants around the world. Seven currently burning. Global radiation levels are already rising. By my calculations, in less than six months, 96% of the Earth's surface will be uninhabitable. Even for those born in space, and those who are nightblood..." Anakin and ALIE look at the Earth through the window that he had been looking through previously, and that's when things start to set in. The reality of the situation is really dawning on him. ALIE gestures to things he sees happening on the earth. "...So you see, the City of Light is the only thing that can save everyone."

"Black rain will come first. There will be no drinkable water. Precancerous lesions will form on the body --"

"She's stalling. As soon as the update is complete, she'll delete the killswitch, Anakin."

"I am not stalling. I'm telling the truth."

Anakin turns to the two of them, looking between them with questioning features on his face. "Why tell us now? If it is true, why not use this to get people to take the chip instead of torturing them?"

ALIE's expression remains serene, her voice devoid of emotion. "The last time I warned my creator of the threat to human survival, she chose to lock me away and came here to work on my replacement."

Becca steps forward, her eyes locked on ALIE, "Define perverse instantiation."

ALIE's face goes still as she gives the definition. "Perverse instantiation: the implementation of a benign final goal through deleterious methods unforeseen by a human programmer."

 "By killing six and a half billion people to solve overpopulation? The goal isn't everything, ALIE. How you reach the goal matters, too. Sorry that I didn't teach you that." Becca then turns to Anakin, her eyes going wide. "It's now or never Anakin. Once ALIE's upgraded, I won't be able to help you anymore."

"But I will. In the City of Light. You don't have to carry the burden of decisions like this one, Anakin." She gives a smile, and ALIE gives Anakin a sense a hope. "You don't have to live with the pain of the things that you've done anymore, the lives you have taken, and those you've lost. You will be at peace. You will live forever, Anakin Kom Trikru."

Anakin shakes his head. "I have lived with pain, it makes me who I am."

ALIE gives him a look. "Others don't agree, even those who are coerced would still choose to stay here."

Anakin gives her a hard look. "Give them a real choice, and I won't pull this lever. Give them back their pain, their memories. Let them decide for themselves."

Becca shakes her head, her voice filled with frustration.  "She can't. Her core command is to make life better for mankind. She still thinks she's doing that. Twenty seconds and the kill switch will be gone."

 "Would you really condemn the human race to die in six months?"

Anakin places his hand on the lever.  "We have survived once before."

Becca nods rapidly. "Yes, Anakin. There is still hope."

 "According to my calculations, there is not." ALIE speaks and Anakin sends her a glare. 

"10 seconds."

"Let me ease their pain, Anakin. We can save the human race together."

"I am the commander, and I will save the human race." 

Anakin pulls the kill switch and he can feel his body go heavy before he drops. He had saved the human race at a price, one he knows he could live with. He has the choice to give Daisy and Marie a life that they can live with what makes them who they are, not having someone take it away from them. He promises himself that he will save the human race, that he is the commander.