8574/Sentinels: On Morality

Sentinels: On Morality
Date of Scene:	29 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye and Sebastion speak on Sentinel morality and protection of people.
Cast of Characters:	Bastion, Quake
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

---

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion is under constant watch, of course. He doesn't seem to be sleeping, which means his rotating shifts of SHIELD babsitters at least have a lot to stare at. He's surrounded, at all times, by three of the 'infiltration' style human looking sentinels. They are emotionless looking people: they look human by all estimation, though they definitely don't act like it. Sebastion doesn't talk to them: they're just robotic bodyguards, or companions, possibly.

This time, though, he actually is sitting behind one of the females, and has her back open, as he pokes around near the upper area of her spine. She doesn't seem reactive to it: just an android being examined. They are located in one of the temporary buildings set up near the huge mass of Sentinels that are standing around gleaming in the summer heat. The standing army, upon arriving, is disturbingly impressive to most people: the sentinels are taller than the short buildings, and stand in creepy rows and rows like a conquering army in a scifi movie.

Quake has posed:
Despite her misgivings, and her discomfort, Skye can't keep away. It's not all business, either. She's drawn to this cyborg that has both met and defied her observations of him. Mostly, she's still struggling with her own inner demons and guilt.

But to further their plan, it only makes sense to find out more, if possible, on how he thinks. Sure, Jessica might have his ear, but they need more than that. And if Skye is going to build a case against Trask, she needs to know how to face his arguments.

No better way that to have a chat with him, right? Added bonus, she can tell herself later it was just the job. Not the other thing.

Skye passes through security checks, and through the maze of the standing army of Sentinels, and approachs Sebastian.

"Hey, can we talk?"

She seems to be saying a lot of that lately.

Bastion has posed:
"Sure. Agent Johnson." Sebastion remembers, from the original introductions. Nothing wrong with that part of his memory. Also, he seems a lot more personable: more human. He gives her a welcoming smile and gestures across at one of the plastic folding visitor chairs that has been in use more than once. The agents watching them also nod at Skye: this won't be private, of course.

Sebastion does stop what he's doing with the human-appearing Sentinel, closes the section of her back, and come around to sit in one of the chairs too. His loss of arm has been repaired, and there's no limp to his movement anymore.

Quake has posed:
"You can call me Skye," she corrects. It's automatic. It's what she says to everyone short of a standing UN council or the like - not that she's encountered them personally. "I.. wanted to talk to you about.. things I guess. I heard you'd fixed yourself."

Mostly. Kind of. It was entirely weird seeing him in a loss organic body with a more organic frame of mind. Then again, she'd dealt with Arnim Zole enough she knew exactly how possible it was. It just wan't how she pictured Sebastian. She'd have to readjust her mental framework.

"Everyone thinks that battle proved they were right about you. I don't know if they are. I'm still trying to figure this out. Like, why didn't you kill him. Iron Man, I mean."

She thought she knew. But more importantly, it was a way to get into the bigger picture here: why X-gene and nothing else.

Bastion has posed:
"Not entirely," Sebastion answers, of the question of fixing himself. "But I removed most of my organic components, yes. I wanted them returned to be given proper burial. I don't want to be mostly robotic, but it's best for now," he says, his voice apologetic, or guilty, maybe. The same way someone might act if asked about emergency cannibalism. He didn't want to, but it was survival, and didn't involve a kill.

"Iron Man is on a protection list given to me by Captain Rogers. I only engaged him at first because I couldn't tell who it was," explains Sebastion. "Additionally, his armor is more powerful than these sentinels can penetrate, it appears, which is good to know: if a stray shot is near him it won't harm him. Might be tactically important later."

Quake has posed:
Might be?

"But what about you? Stronger than you?" She doesn't dwell on that, though, even if it is useful information. "I wasn't aware that you took orders from Captain Rogers. Kinda glad you didn't get into it with Iron Man though. Probably would have ended up with more people hurt."

A pause.

"You don't like hurting people, do you?" She nods to herself. "A lot of people have been getting hurt because of these." A gesture at the Sentinels. "It's really kind of scary for people."

Bastion has posed:
"Stronger than my concentrated attacks? Unknown; I was unable to scan him properly. I have been unable to determine if he is a good person, or not, but I do trust in Captain America's judgement until I can decide for myself," decides Sebastion, with a goodnatured smile. "Take orders? It is more that I believe he is a stalwart protector of humanity. A hero to many, including me," says the sentinel.

"I saw that an unknown entity was trying to take over the Sentinel power. I was there to disarm and land the Sentinels; I don't regret my response. I agree: the sentinels have been used poorly, and have done a great deal of harm. I'm feared just for what I am, because of it. I'm very frustrated; it's going to be a difficult road to show Sentinels can be used with responsibility."

Quake has posed:
Skye very carefully does not tell Sebastian at this juncture that Captain Rogers is on Team Shut-Down, because they really don't need the cyborg shifting his judgement or ignoring that protection list just right now. That's a future us problem.

"He's a good man,"Skye acknowledged, aware of the irony of the differences in how the two of them mean that. "There are a lot of good people. Like Jessica. She speaks really highly of you. You're very important to her."

A nod.

"But who uses you? Who judges them? See, I've been trying to think about that. How much good you could do. All the help you could be. I guess I just don't understand how all this happened."

This totally ambiguous on purpose, to allow Sebastian to interpret. Not just to see if he'll answer, but what he imagines that question to be addressing.

Bastion has posed:
"What do you mean by 'uses' me?" Sebastion asks, following up on the part of the conversation that is most relevant to him, perhaps. "Who judges which people? Captain Rogers and Jessica?" he asks. "I have met them. I trust my instincts with people." There's a faith, and a clarity in how he says it: a confidence of a true believer.

Quake has posed:
"Uses you," Skye repeats. "You know, made you. Made it so you decide to kill people or not."

She deliberately calls them people, not differentiating between humans and mutants, let alone getting into what she is. "You didn't create yourself and decide to kill people, so someone told you to. Why do they want you to do that? Why are they using you?"

Bastion has posed:
"Oh," Sebastion says, with clear discomfort about the topic of being made. He's very clearly uncomfortable with the topic, and looks away from her. "I don't know what happened to me. I believe I was human first, though. And became this. I don't know who did it to me. I know Trask's people found me. I don't know what my purpose is. I hate being a Sentinel. But I have to find some good in it, somehow. I've decided to try to make the Sentinels good. Something better can come out of this, I hope."

Quake has posed:
"Found you?" Skye keeps her voice as inflectionless as possible. "Are you sure you were found? Not made by him? I mean, he does have those factories. He is making more. How'd he just have all these things lying around like he was waiting to find you. Doesn't that seem just the tiniest bit weird to you?"

She shakes her head, like she's pondering it. How the world is /just/ /full/ of coincidences like that.

"And if you don't know your purpose, why are you helping kill good people? I saw you talking to the other units. Why aren't you stopping them?"

There is nod for the other. About hating being a Sentinel. "Did you know what Sentinels were? It's kinda cool."

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion snorts and shakes his head, "It's been floated to me that I'm some kind of advanced future tech. Maybe something infected me. It's not insane; I have some blueprints in my head about things like that," he says, with some cautious tone to his voice. "Cyborg adaptations for humans," he specifies, watching her carefully, as if expecting a bad response.

"Everything Trask has is woefully behind what I have in my body or my head. So I'm related to his things, but, for example, my arm - it's nowhere near what I had." He releases a slow breath.

"What do you mean, helping kill good people? My sentinels, under my control, have never killed anyone," he says, abruptly scowling. "When I was shot, they went loose, that's true, but I did not tell them to do that."

"I didn't know. I thought I was a human. If you opened your arm today and saw metal, and realized your dreams about weird, alien metal cyborg tech now were real, that's what it was like."

Quake has posed:
"Totally not insane," Skye has to admit. She's not exactly immune from the walking, talking advanced tech thing herself. It is, ultimately, how she became what she is. "I've met someone like you before. He put his mind into a cybernetic body. He really wanted to be human too. I think. Only a better human. He.. it didn't end well."

She listens to his explanation about Trask. "Oh, so you're like the first one, then, huh? That's neat. I don't trust Trask, though.. Huh?" A pause, seemingly, when he asks about helping Trask. "I just mean did you ever stop to think why he keeps making more of you? You said you don't want to kill people, but he keeps making more of you and they keep killing people. So, isn't that helping him? Wouldn't a good man not want to stop making things that kill people?"

"and what do you mean none of them killed anyone. We've seen them. They've killed a lot of people." Her head tilts to one side. "Only you don't think they're people, do you? You just think.. I don't know, what do you think? Because I didn't get it at first when you said I was good. I think I do now, but why am I good and someone else not? Why is Jessica good and someone else not."

A sigh. "It wan't metal with me. It was my genes. They're not human. Not fully. When the missing parts were supplied, my powers awakened. I hated it at first. I didn't want to become this. That man I told you about who put his mind into a machine? He forced me to become this."

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion gives her a confused look. "They're weapons. It's the hand on them that matters. The ones in my control haven't killed anyone," he says, slowly, puzzled. "The ones that aren't in my control are. I don't see why you're saying mine have killed under my order. It isn't true." His jaw clamps down and he gives her a dark, steady look.

His reaction meshes well with an innocent person being accused of murder, though. He's unhappy about it.

"I don't trust Trask. He wanted to disassemble me. But I don't think he has as much power as I thought he did, and he can't hurt me anymore," Sebastion says, though his tone is offended, firm, from being accused of murder. He ignores her other questions, and sits back.

Quake has posed:
"Everything is a weapon, Sebastian. Thoughts are weapons. So are words. Guns. Knives. People. I'm a weapon. Being a weapon isn't bad, it's what you do with the weapon that's important. Knights had swords, but they were charged with upholding peace, and protecting the innocent. They were supposed to be an example for all. If they'd gone out and stabbed everyone they met just because, they'd hardly have been knights." Skye shrugs. "Biggest part of being human is recognizing that."

Again her head tilts at her. "You've never had any of yours kill someone with the X-gene? Because they're people, Sebastian. Just like me. Just like Jessica. And Trask took your blueprints and his are killing. How is that okay if they're using the same programs you have?"

"I don't trust Trask either," Skye admits. "I think he's using you. And I guess he'd say we are too. Maybe we are. I don't know. I just know you could stop all this. Only I don't understand why you're letting anyone kill other people. Not when you're different too and we accepted you."

"*I* accepted you. So did Jessica."

Bastion has posed:
"I told you, that my sentinels, under my control, have not killed ANY living thing. Period," Sebastion says, with a wrathful, upset, emotional shift. "I have gone out of my way to be extremely kind, even to creatures I judge as perhaps being evil or dark. I have taken Trasks' sentinel weapons AWAY from him and made them dormant, instead of killing. I came out here to stop the Sentinels from harming people. I have given Trask /nothing/. No blueprints, nothing."

"How dare you say I've killed, or lecture me on it." He gets up from his chair, and flips his wrist and hurls it across the room. He stays turned away from her, and does nothing else.

"Leave."

Quake has posed:
"Woah," Skye offers, hand out - both in a calming manner, and also in prepartion to defend herself is she must. "We - I.. some of us at least thought these /were/ your Sentinels. It's why so many of us are confused. I get it now. I'd be pissed too. I'm sorry. Shit."

She does back up slowly. Not quite a turn tail and run, but willing to leave. Yeah. This didn't go quite as planned. How had they missed that memo? And if these weren't Sebastian's Sentinels, where were his?

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion glowers a little, and looks over his shoulder finally after his explosion. "I came to convert them, to give them to SHIELD," Sebastion says, more evenly, trying to calm down. "To stop them from going down and killing people." He turns away again, folding his arms, upset. "I can control them, but I don't want to have to."

Quake has posed:
Skye remains the distance away, hands held loosely at her sides now, ready to defend if necessary, while he mind carefully recalculates what she thought she knew. "Then I guess we really do want to help you. What if we made it so they stopped looking at people like they're objects to kill? Changed how they see the world? You see the world differently. Ugh. I'm making a mess of this. I was jsut trying to understand so we can figure out how to stop them. Trask will just keep on making them and if we keep trying to stop them in bits and pieces, they'll just keep getting better and stronger and smarter.. it would be so much easier if we could get Sentinels to fight his. Most humans can't. It's why they're so dangerous."

Bastion has posed:
"I can make these sentinels do anything necessary," Sebastion answers, his voice more controlled, though he's holding in emotions under it. He's very emotional, for a robot. "But I won't make them kill innocent people," he says, still without turning, but lifts his right hand to press it to his face.

"I can continue to take Trask's sentinels away from him, because when there's a fight, people suffer. I don't want anyone crushed under a sentinel that falls to the ground. I may have to go to the factories, and disarm Trask fully. I'm not sure how much time I have left before I die, but I want to try."

Quake has posed:
"I was thinking make them not kill any people, and have them attact the Trask Seninels. We know he's trying to hurt people." She gives an awkwardly crooked grin. "They'd be really good at fighting one another and no people would be hurt trying to stop any more Sentinels. Then we could find a way to stop Trask, but if he's too busy fighting us, he won't be able to make better ones."

When he suggests going to the factory itself, the grin only grows. "I could flatten a factory. He can't build in rubble...Wait, before you die? I knew you were injured, but dying?" Now she's concerned.

Bastion has posed:
"A factory is not what you think of as a factory," Sebastion says, turning back around finally to face her. Two of the mannequin-like humans that are, supposedly, sentinels, also look at her, as well. Did he direct them?

"A factory is a place where a Mold sits. A Mold is a giant sentinel that uses materials to create sentinels," he explains, conversationally. "A Mold is mobile, the factory itself is just a shell. So, he can build in rubble." He lifts his hands a little.

"Yes, without repairs to my head, I'm likely to die. I'm having trouble thinking. I was shown diagrams by the Avengers, I know it's true. Without my parts, that's it. I hoped to find them here, but they're not a match for me," he says, pointing at the nearby human-sized sentinel infiltration units. "I'm doing my best to do what I can before it ends, for me," he says, brusquely.

Quake has posed:
Skye ohs. It's clearer now.

"No so good with turning that kind of factory to rubble. I'm EMP bursts and hacking. Computer viruses. that kinda thing." Yep, she knows she's telling him that. There's a small sigh. "dammit. I don't know what to do. But we want to stop them. If.. if I could get them to agree to fix you, would you agree to change their programming? Make it so they can't ever kill people again?"

So the definition of 'people' was going to have to be dealt with. That was okay, they could make a case for mutants.

Bastion has posed:
"Who's 'them'? I don't have a lot of trust anymore. I trusted the Avengers," Sebastion says, and frowns a little. "But there's a lot of fear of me. I understand that too. It's natural. I'm afraid, myself." He nods a little as she tells him about EMP and hacking. There's no fear there: it's like he doesn't automatically realize that would be a problem for him. He's a human, perhaps, still in his reactions.

Such as being accused of being a killer.

"I trust myself. I'll fix myself, with the parts. And I can convert them right now. I'm not going to yet, because if someone attacks me, I want them to protect me, if I can't protect myself." The fear thing.

Quake has posed:
"Okay.. but that's going to scare people," Skye offers carefully. "I'm afraid too. I was really afraid when I became me. I spent a lot of time thinking I wasn't human anymore. I didn't know what I was. It's taken me time to figure things out.. Just.. if you trusted us some, and we trusted you some, we could meet in the middle and you'd be better. You said you can't fix your head."

He could do everything but that if his programming was a corrupt end run replicating itself and multiplying its mistakes in Sebastian's brain.

Bastion has posed:
"My plan is to try to make a secondary version to correct things on," Sebastion says. "And overwrite in sections. My organics should help buffer it," he says, and then scowls and shakes his head, "I have an image of it but lack words. Maybe it's the computer in my head." He ends up having to shrug.

"Everything I do scares people. I'm exhausted. I may as well do what I want to, if I can't ever avoid being scary."
Sebastion looks around at the sentinels near him, and then up and around the ceiling and the building, as if scanning.

Quake has posed:
"Totally grok that. Computers are my thing." Though that sounds eerily shades of Zola. Only maybe in reverse.

"You scare them because you have a lot of power. And Trask's Sentinels" She is /very/ careful to make it clear it isn't Sebastia "Have made them think you're scary too. Just if you do what you want, aren't you just.. I'm trying, Sebastian. I'm trying really hard here. People like me want to make them believe in you too, but you have to help. You're only scary because they don't understand you."

Bastion has posed:
"I have continually tried to show I want to help. To protect people. Even the bad ones," Sebastion insists, with some frustration. "And still I am blamed. One sentinel is the same as the rest. Well. It may be hopeless. Yet we try." He lets his hands hang by his sides, and just looks at her quietly.

Quake has posed:
"Keep trying," Skye says tiredly. She's still as conflicted as when she arrived, with a side order of sympathy for the.. whatever Sebastian was. "People want to believe. They's just as scared as you are to believe in things. That's why people like us - like you - have to be better. We have to take chances when others can't and believe the hard things first. Being a superhero isn't about stopping the bad guys. It's about being afraid and doing the thing anyway."

"I'll see what I can do."

Bastion has posed:
"I'll do what I know is right," Sebastion agrees, in an ominous, but self-confident way. He nods at her, and watches her quietly.

Quake has posed:
"That's all any of us can really do," Skye says finally. Because she most certainly isn't in a position to dispute that. She'd disregarded how many orders, and how many proper chains of command to do what she believed right? That she'd been right didn't change the fact that she'd gone on gut instinct and not on authority. And, ultimately, wan't that what she'd argued to Hank would save them? Letting Sebastian.. be human?

"If you need me, let someone know. I.. I trust you." That, with a crooked little smile. "Should let you get back to work I guess. Thanks for talking to me."