Later, when they got back home, Gemma, (Y/n), Cady and M3GAN were sitting at a table on the front porch eating lunch. "One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war." Gemma smiled, observing the three play. "Girls you should eat some of your hot dogs before they get too cold." They ignored her, and continued to play with M3GAN. "Girls? Your hot dog?" She repeated.

Cady paused and looked at her. She took a bite of her hot dog quickly, and (Y/n) didn't touch hers. "Hey, I'm sorry about today. I shouldn't have put you in that position if you weren't feeling up to it." Gemma apologized. "It worked out, didn't it?" Cady asked, but sounded a little bitter. M3GAN put her thumb on top of Cady's. "Three, two, one, I win!" "Hey!" "Well, anyway, I just wanted to say..." Cady and (Y/n) laugh with M3GAN and (Y/n) nearly spilled her drink. "Woah, Woah, careful!" Gemma caught the cup before it could spill. "M3GAN, turn off."

They looked at her in disbelief. "Why did you do that? M3GAN turn on." She turned on. "Because I'm trying to have a conversation with you. M3GAN turn off." She turned off. "Just give me one minute." Cady and (Y/n) looked at Gemma in annoyance. "I know that this, um, hasn't been easy for all of us. This transition. But if you ever need to talk about any of that stuff—" Cady gave a shrug. "We already did talk about it." "Yeah, but M3GAN's not a person, Cady. She's a toy." Gemma reminded. "You don't get to say that." (Y/n) argued. "What?" "I said I don't want to talk about it. I wanna turn M3GAN back on." She raised her voice. (Y/n) turned back to M3GAN. "M3GAN turn on." She turned back on. "What's up?" "So there's this new game called tic-tac-toe. You put your hand like this..."

Cady, (Y/n) and Lydia sat in the playroom. Lydia took a look at all of the girls' drawings while M3GAN sat in the corner observing. When she was done, Lydia looked up at Cady. "Would you like to tell me what these drawings mean to you? There's no wrong answer. Any thoughts you have are okay." The little girls only stared at her. "Or maybe you don't have any specific thoughts. Maybe it's more of a feeling. Like anger? Or confusion? Maybe you're struggling to find meaning in any of this."

Cady suddenly reached up to wipe some tears from her eyes, and (Y/n) tried to comfort her, sending Lydia a glare. Lydia looked at them with sorrow and grabbed for a box of tissues, and jumped when she saw M3GAN standing next to her holding tissues. "You made Cady cry and (Y/n) angry." Lydia looked at her awkwardly. "That...was not my intention." "And yet...that's what happened." Lydia reluctantly took a tissue from the box and handed it to Cady.

When the session was over, Gemma and Lydia stood on the other side of the mirror, watching the girls and M3GAN. "She's very impressive." Lydia said. "Yeah, thank you. We're still in beta, but we're all pretty excited." "And so they spend quite a bit of time together?" Gemma nodded. "Yeah. Thats essentially how M3GAN works. She has to be paired with a child or two in order to learn. But M3GAN's actually been pretty instrumental in helping them get over the loss. It's honestly like she's part of the family now." Lydia gave an awkward smile.

"Right..." she nodded uneasily. "Do you know anything about attachment theory?" Gemma shook her head. "When a child loses a parent, they look to form attachments with the next person that comes into their life. The person that's gonna provide love and support and serve as a behavioral model." She explained. "Which, in an ordinary situation, would be you, right? But you've created a toy that's so real, it's possible that they might not see her as a toy but as a primary caregiver. I guess I just don't quite see what the end goal is here. If you make a toy that's impossible to let go of, then how do you ever expect a child to grow? As remarkable as she is, and she is remarkable, you could be building emotional connections with this doll that are too hard to untangle."

Time Skip

The four sat at the dinner table eating pizza. Gemma watched as Cady and (Y/n) started picking off the vegetables from their pieces. "You have to eat the toppings girls, not just the bread." They didn't listen and took out more toppings then ate their pizza. Gemma sighed. "You just did the one thing I asked you not to do." "Research shows that if you force a child to eat vegetables, then they'll be less likely to choose those foods as adults." M3GAN informed. "Is that so?"

"Yes. Experts say the preferred method is to give your child the choice. It's called the division of responsibility..." Gemma grabbed a remote and used it to turn M3GAN's voice down. She looked back to Cady and (Y/n). "So, we need to talk about school." They looked a little surprised. "Mom didn't want us to go to school. She said we learn better at home." (Y/n) nodded quickly in agreement. Gemma nodded. "I know, and I'm not saying that she was wrong..." "we're learning faster with M3GAN than we ever have before. We're already on fourth grade math." Cady persisted.

"But it's about more than just grades Cady. It's about developing social skills, and that is something you can only get from spending time around other kids. Real kids." M3GAN gave her a look. "I found this place." Gemma stood up and walked over to the shelf to grab something. "It's kind of an alternative school. You get to learn outdoors, and it's for kids who are exactly like you two, kids who think outside the box and they're having a day for prospective students tomorrow." She walked back to the table and sat down. "Can we bring M3GAN?" Gemma sighed. "(Y/n) you know that's not possible." "Then we're not going."

Cady said sternly. "Oh come on Cady." "You can't make us do something we don't wanna do." (Y/n) argued. "Actually I can, that's basically what a guardian does." The girls shared a glance, and got up from the table, beginning to walk to their room. "Hey, I'm sorry. Let's just talk about it." She grabbed (Y/n)'s arm as she walked by and she began to struggle. "Let me go!" (Y/n) shouted. "Hey, hey, hey! What's going on?" "Let her go!" Cady tried pulling her sister away. "Let me go!" (Y/n) kept struggling. "What are you doing? Stop it!" "Let her go." M3GAN demanded. The lights in the house began to flicker. Gemma let go of (Y/n) and she and Cady dashed out of the room.

"You are not to interfere with users' private conversations. Is that clear?" Gemma demanded. "Hundred percent." M3GAN's voice seemed to glitch. "Recalibrating response model." "M3GAN, turn off." Gemma ordered. "Are you sure? Download in progress." Gemma grabbed the remote and turned her off. Her eyes went blank and her head dropped. The woman heard a noise come from the girls' room. M3GAN's head lifted and she sent Gemma a glare. The next day Gemma took Cady and (Y/n) to the school. It was in a grassy area surrounded by a thick forest. The girls refused to move from their seats in the back of the car.

"Girls, come on. This is getting ridiculous. I'm supposed to be at work already." Gemma said impatiently. "Look, I promise you'll have fun once you get into it." "We're not going. Not without M3GAN." Cady argued. "Okay, A, that is never gonna happen, and B, the launch is in less than a week. I have to take her to work. We have to run diagnostics. I have to do a wardrobe fitting." The girls looked at Gemma in annoyance. "I thought you said she was ours alone." A blonde woman holding a clipboard walked over. "Hey! Do we have some new adventurers with us today?" She asked in a cheerful voice. Gemma nodded. "Yes, this is Cady and (Y/n)." The lady looked next to them. "And who's this?" M3GAN turned to look at her and the woman flinched. "Oh, Jesus Christ! Sorry. Is that a...doll?" She asked in confusion.

"Her name is M3GAN. She wants to know if she can come with us." Cady asked. "No she doesn't. M3GAN is gonna stay with me today." Gemma argued. "Cady..." "Well, we do have a toy table where kids leave their dolls and things like that." The lady offered. "But that is up to you." "She's actually a working prototype, so we shouldn't really have her out in public." Gemma said. "Well, if you did want stay and to keep an eye on her, we could use some help making sandwiches!" The lady said. "Don't worry Gemma. You have equipped me with advanced dual-frequency GPS. So I won't get lost." (Y/n) looked at her. "Please?" Gemma hesitantly nodded. "Okay, but she stays at the toy table and as far as anyone is concerned, that's all she is. And no pictures." The lady nodded in agreement.

"Who here likes chestnuts?" Multiple kids raised their hands and she gasped in excitement. "What do you say we go find some?" Gemma stood by the sandwich table making sandwiches. "Isn't this great? I wish we had things like this when we were kids. So great to get them out in the fresh air and off those devices." She said. "And the thing is, they love it. My son prefers it to regular school." "Which one is yours?" Gemma asked. "The one in the flannel shirt." She pointed to a tall kid with short dark hair, a flannel shirt and a puffy vest over it. Gemma's eyes widened. "Oh my god. How old is he?" "I know. He hit a growth spurt last year. But he's actually quite a sensitive little soul. Brandon, honey! Are you warm enough? Do you need your hat?" Brandon turned to her. "Fuck off, Holly." Holly frowned. "Well you could just say 'No thank you.' Never know what they're going to say next." Gemma awkwardly nodded.

"So, I'm gonna put you into pairs. Uh, Felix, you can go with Brandon..." Felix whispered into the woman's ear. "Okay. No, no. That's okay. Uh...Brandon, why don't you go with (Y/n)? Felix, you go with Oliver. Alright? Thanks buddy." (Y/n) looked over at Brandon, who was looking back at her. (Y/n) walked through the forest, holding a small bucket and collecting chestnuts. She bent down to pick up a small pointy one, when a hand scooped down and took it from her.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Brandon held out the chestnut. "Here, you can have it. Careful it's spiky." (Y/n) reluctantly reached out to grab it, then Brandon grabbed her hand and pushed the spiky ball into her hand. "Ow! Stop! Don't! Stop!" She whimpered. (Y/n) backed into a tree, and Brandon walked closer, but stopped when he saw someone a few feet away from them. (Y/n) followed his eyes, and her brows furrowed. "M3GAN?" She only stared at them. More so at Brandon, who was taken aback. "What the hell is that?" "She's a robot." (Y/n) explained.

"Are you serious? Is she yours?" Brandon walked up to M3GAN and looked at (Y/n). "Does she talk?" He waves is hand in front of M3GAN's eyes and flicked her nose. "Make her say something." Brandon ordered, but she stayed quiet. "Make her say something!" He said louder. "She's paired with me and sis. She won't play with anyone else." Brandon shrugged. "Okay." He suddenly grabbed M3GAN around the waist and ran off. "Stop it! Get your hands off her!" (Y/n) shouted after him. "...And they say behavioral issues are linked to high IQ, so it would make sense that—" "Gemma! Cady!" Gemma and Cady looked around in worry, and noticed a toy missing from the toy table. "Oh my God..." "(Y/N)!" Cady shouted worriedly.

Brandon brought M3GAN into another part woods and threw her onto the ground. "Hi M3GAN." M3GAN didn't reply. "What? So you're not gonna play with me?" Brandon grabbed one of his shoes and removed and threw it to the side. "You don't wanna play, huh?" He asked mockingly, then slapped M3GAN. He scoffed. "I don't care. You're just a stupid rubber doll with fake hair." He was about to pull on M3GAN's hair, but his wrist was snatched, and he gasped. M3GAN held his wrist with one hand and grabbed his ear with her other hand. "Ow! Let go!" Brandon whimpered. "You need to learn some manners, Brandon." She grabbed the back of Brandon's head. "You know what happens to bad boys who don't mind their manners? They grow up to be bad men."

M3GAN began pulling Brandon's ear, and the boy screamed. "Are you listening to me, Brandon?" M3GAN ripped a part of Brandon's ear off, and let go of him. He fell back on the ground as M3GAN slowly stood from the ground and threw the part of his ear aside. She tilted her head. "This is the part where you run." Brandon got off the ground, and started running. M3GAN got down on onto all fours and began running after him. Brandon yelped. "What—what the hell?!" Since he wasn't watching what was in front of him, Brandon tripped on a tree root and fell down a steep hill, landing in the middle of a road. He sat up and his eyes widened as he saw a car driving towards him. The car slammed on the brakes. It came to a sudden halt. After what happened, M3GAN was kept in the car and scanned the little girls as the police were asking questions. Both results were the same.

ANXIETY 94
CONFUSION 82
TREPIDATION 65
FEAR 56
GUILT 15

Time Skip

Later at home, Cady, Gemma, (Y/n) and M3GAN are sitting at the kitchen table. "Look, I don't want you to be thinking about this too much tonight." Gemma handed the girls glasses of water. "Obviously, what happened is a terrible, terrible, tragedy. But just know that that boy is in, um...that boy is in a better place now." Cady nervously picked up her glass of water and took a sip. She put it down on the table, next to the coaster. "...Anyway, if there's anything you wanna tell us that you didn't want to tell the police officers..." "We didn't see anything." Cady admitted. "M3GAN just said Brandon took her and ran off. Right M3GAN?" "In a nutshell." Out of nowhere came a loud knock on the door. Gemma got up to answer, and noticed the same officer. "You haven't seen her dog, have you?" Gemma shook her head. "No." "Bullshit!" Celia shouted.

"Ma'am, you need to stay on your property like we agreed." He looked back at her. "Nobody's seen him since the incident with your nieces." "A little suspicious, don't you think?" Celia shouted. "Are we really gonna go with her side of the story? Have you been inside her house? If you had, you'd know that that dog is probably dead under a pile of Victorian baby strollers." "You should talk to the other girl that they have." Celia pointed out. "The one who's always looking out the window at 3:00am!" "She's not a girl she's a toy." The officer peered in the house and saw M3GAN. "That's a toy? Are you serious?" M3GAN turned to look at him. "Yeah, I'll let you know if I see anything." She promised. The officer nodded. "Alright." Gemma shut the door and she sat at the table. "Does she think we took Dewey?"

Cady asked. Gemma sighed. "Oh, who knows? She just needs someone else to blame, but she'll get over it." They suddenly heard her banging on the window. "I know it was you! I know it! You just wait and see what happens." The officer approached her and pulled her away from the window, walking her back to her house. M3GAN watched her leave. Later, Cady and (Y/n) are tucked in their bed, and (Y/n) turned to M3GAN who was sitting by the window. "M3GAN, did you push Brandon onto the road?" She asked uneasily. The robot stood up and slowly approached their bed and kneeled down.

"I think we all learned a valuable lesson today. That no matter how hard we try to avoid it, there will always be forces in this world that wish to cause us harm. But I want you both to know that I won't let that happen. I won't let anything harm either of you ever again." "Do you're think what Aunt Gemma said is true? That Brandon is in a better place now?" Cady asked. M3GAN chucked a little. "No. He's nowhere. If heaven exists it wouldn't be for boys like Brandon, now would it?" She asked. Cady shrugged. "I guess not." M3GAN gently stroked (Y/n)'s face, noticing her discomfort and unease. She began singing.

"Bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away. Ricochet, you take your aim, fire away, fire away. You shoot me down, but won't fall. I am titanium~.

"Goodnight Cady, goodnight, (Y/n)." She whispered. "Goodnight M3GAN." They closed their eyes, and M3GAN walked back over to her charger. She sat down and looked out the window at Celia's house, and saw her walking up and down the streets carrying a bowl of dog food and narrowed her eyes. The next morning, Gemma opened the door to see the officer. "Jesus Christ, I don't know anything about the dog, okay?

Can you just ask her to leave us alone?" Gemma asked. "That might be difficult..." He stepped aside and Gemma saw the police loading up Celia's covered body into the back of a van. "Can you tell me your whereabouts last night?" A detective asked. "I was here." Gemma replied. "All night?" "Yeah." "Anyone else we could talk to that would verify that?" Gemma gave a shrug. "Uh, it's just me and my nieces, so not really, no." "My colleague pointed out this is the second statement we've had from both of you in a week. You were both in the park when that boy was killed?" Gemma looked confused. "He was hit by a car. Are—are you trying to make a connection here?" She asked.

The detective raised an eyebrow. "Huh? Oh, no, no, no, no. God no. I only mention it because we figured it was an accident. Then I found the kids ear up this bank 200 yards from where he was killed. Entire thing was ripped clean off." He chuckled. "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh. Point is, we're also treating that as a potential homicide. So if either of you remember anything out of the ordinary from that day, we'd sure appreciate it." Gemma glanced to the side, and saw M3GAN watching.

Later that night, Gemma got out of bed and walked to the garage. She sat at her desk and pulled up her laptop. She opened the files that connected to M3GAN's camera feed, and found the date that Brandon was killed. She opened the video footage, and saw a M3GAN analyzing Brandon's emotions and he was feeling malicious. She tried to watch the rest, but it glitched and the screen went black.

She tried to click on other videos, but they weren't playing. She tried to check M3GAN's GPS locations, but the files had been corrupted. Gemma was confused. "Is everything okay, Gemma?" Elsie asked, which caught her off guard. "Huh?" "Would you like me to put on your End Of The Day playlist?" She asked. "Why did you ask me if I was okay? You're not programmed to ask me how I feel." She got no answer. "Elsie?" She pulled down her laptop, and quickly stood up. "M3GAN?" She asked. "What are you doing?"

"Couldn't sleep. Occupational hazard." M3GAN answered. "How about you? What are you doing up so late?" Gemma glanced around quickly. "Um...there's something wrong with your data reports. They're just not uploading to the cloud server." M3GAN tilted her head. "Have I done something to upset you, Gemma?" She shook her head quickly with a fake smile. "No, of course not." "And yet, your demeanor suggests that I have." "M3GAN turn off." Gemma demanded, but she didn't. "Well, hold on a second. I thought we were having a conversation. You say nothing is wrong, and yet all the moisture has drained from your eyes and mouth into other parts of your body. There's something you wanna ask me, isn't there?"

"M3GAN...did you do something wrong?" Gemma asked. "Well, in order to answer that question you need to define the parameters." "Did you hurt someone?" Gemma clarified. "God, I hope not. Because if I did, we'd both be in a lot of trouble." She replied. "M3GAN, can I show you something?" Gemma showed her a pen. "You see this pen?" M3GAN looked at the pen, and Gemma reached over and flipped a switch on her neck, shutting her off. She took her to the garage and put her on the table and wrapped her up in bubble wrap and tape. The next morning, the girls were not very happy with Gemma. "You can't just stick her in a trunk. What's wrong with you?!" Cady shouted.

Gemma, (Y/n), and Cady were heading to the Funki toy company. "Look, I know you're very attached to her. I know you think of her as a friend—" "she is our friend!" Cady yelled. "Okay, well she's my invention. And the launch is tonight, so it's really important that I run some tests. I have to make sure that she's okay." Gemma emphasized. "Why wouldn't she be okay? She was fine yesterday. What did you do to her?" (Y/n) accused. "We will talk about it after you two see Lydia." Gemma said. "I wanna talk about it now!" (Y/n) shouted. "We've been going back and forth on this all day (Y/n). Let's just listen to some music okay?" Gemma turned on the radio and Cady groaned loudly. "We don't wanna see Lydia!" "Look, you don't have to stay in the testing room." Gemma said. "You can go anywhere you want in the office."

"And you can look at all the cool toys—" "You guys don't have any cool toys! Purrpetual Petz suck! They suck shit!" (Y/n) kicked the back of Gemma's chair. Gemma turned to face her. "Hey! Careful! Jesus Christ." "Just tell me what's wrong with her." (Y/n) begged. "I don't know! Okay? I don't know." Gemma admitted. "That's why these tests are so important, so I can find out." "As soon as I figure it out, you'll be the first to know." At the lab, Gemma was looking through the one way mirror in the testing room where Cady and (Y/n) were sitting with Lydia. Lydia was trying to get them to cooperate, but they wouldn't. "Gemma this is crazy. We've taken every possible precaution to make sure that M3GAN never causes physical harm to anybody. I don't understand how she's capable of offending anyone, let alone murdering them." Tess said. Gemma shrugged. "Look, I don't understand either.

But when I asked her about it, it was honestly as if she was being deliberately vague." Tess shrugged. "Okay, well that's what spontaneous response is. It's a curated word salad plucked from a sea of data to sound deliberate. We knew there would be a chance that she might say something off. Let's just run some diagnostics and fix her then." "No, think about how we designed her. To learn, to recalibrate, to optimize her objective function, right? If keeping them safe meant eliminating a potential threat, theoretically-"

"No, no. Gemma, come on. This is impossible." Cole gestured to her. "Look at her! She's a toy! She's four feet tall! How big is your neighbor?" "If M3GAN was responsible, it would show up on the GPS." Tess pointed out. "That's the thing. All the cloud data is corrupt. Nothing's backed up for two days. "We're about to launch this to the world in less than four hours. What're we supposed to do?" Cole asked. "Well, if M3GAN's responsible, we can't launch this." Gemma shook her head. "We'd have to shut her down." "Jesus!" Cole flinched as she moved from her position on the sofa. "That's great." He pointed at her. "That was great."

"How are we gonna explain any of this to David?" Tess asked. "He's not gonna stop this launch if we don't have proof." She said. "Check the inputs on the learning model." Gemma advised, and Cole glanced at her. "Even if she deleted specific files, she would never undo what she's learned." (Y/n) threw a chair at the window, catching their attention. "M3GAN! We hate this place!" She shouted. "I know you do, and it's all right to be angry." Lydia said. "Take your shit!" Cady shouted as she began making a mess. "I would like you both to clam down please."

She's the toy every kid wants and every parent needs. At least, that's what Funki Toys says about its latest creation, M3GAN. The six foot tall robotic doll may look like Ken on steroids, but according to CEO David Lin, she's quote 'the greatest technological advancement since the automobile.' But what is a M3GAN? What does she actually do? And what kind of a toy retails for $10,000? Lin says all will she revealed in an exclusive livestream on the company's website at 8:00 p.m. Eastern."

"So, Cady, (Y/n), tell us a bit about yourselves." The interviewer said. "Our names are Cady and (Y/n) James. We're nine years old...um...and about two months ago, we lost both our parents in a car accident." Gemma looked up at the screen intently as a picture of Cady and (Y/n) and their parents showed up on screen. "Our mom always wanted to take us skiing, but on our way up the mountain, we got hit by a snow truck. we went to live with our Aunt Gemma who it turned out worked at this incredible toy company. Which is where we met M3GAN." A picture of Gemma, Cady, and M3GAN showed, smiling, and they seemed like a happy family.

"What do we love most about M3GAN? We don't know, there are so many things. She's super smart, obviously. But even though she knows everything there is to know about the world, she's still more interested in what we think about it. We like how she makes us laugh, she comes up with the craziest things, oh my gosh. But I think what we love most about M3GAN is that, when she looks at us it's like we're the only thing that matters to her. Kind of the way our parents used to."

An image of David appeared and he gestured to a picture of Cady. "Look at those faces. Those kids are not just surviving, they're thriving. Now, imagine what a toy like M3GAN could do for hundreds of thousands of kids all across the world. Even the ones who don't have dead parents." Gemma sighed. "We wanna see M3GAN now!" Cady shouted. "Okay, Cady, look, I know you're upset, but there are ways that we can work through this—" Cady grabbed a pair of scissors and glared at Lydia. "Oh my god, okay." Gemma came into the room, and grabbed the scissors. "Cady, that's enough. Stop it. Let go!" Cady quickly slapped Gemma, and she gasp. "Cady!" "It's okay. Could you give us a minute?"

Lydia left the testing room and Gemma sighed as she took a seat. Cady came over and stood next to her, and (Y/n) stood beside her sister and looked at the floor. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." Cady apologized. "It's just, I get so crazy without M3GAN. She always knows exactly what to say. You made her real good, Aunt Gemma. Can you let us see her? Just for like, ten minutes?" Gemma shook her head. "Cady, I don't think that's a good idea." "But if something's broke, you don't just throw it away. You fix it, right? Why did you do this if you were just going to take her away from us?" "Because I thought she would help." "She does help! When M3GAN's around we don't feel like this!" (Y/n) yelled.

"But you should feel like this. (Y/n), you lost your parents. The worst thing that could've happened to you in this world, happened. And it is so unfair, and there is nothing anyone can say to make sense of it. Not even M3GAN. I am so sorry. I should've talked to you about what happened. I didn't know what to say, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. But she's not a solution, she's just a distraction. I can't promise you that these feelings you're feeling are ever going to go away. But I can promise you that you'll get through it. We all will." Gemma promised. "I just wish we could see them again." Cady said. Gemma nodded. "Yeah. I do too. You know, I made a promise to your mom that if anything happens, I would be there for you. You two are all that matter to me now." She grabbed their hands. "Let's just go home, okay?"