Masterful and Relentless ["Eliane", Alastair]

Alastair's gaze seethed with the anger that his words simply did not contain. He was not a man that easily conveyed emotions with his words, it was the rest of his body language that gave him away. Still, his blood ran hot for a woman with such a clear disdain for her own life and the lives of others. She was a shell of a person, a body given life by some means beyond his comprehension, but that was no excuse for such a nihilistic way of thinking.

"Those two statements run contrary to one another, living as you please would prohibit dying senselessly."

If she was intent on forcing the issue then he would be unable to stop her, but there was always the hope that the first part of her program ran tantamount to the latter. Because, for all the frustration that she might cause him, Alastair wanted her to bend rather than break. To believe that there was a chance at redemption for even the most malignant of beings. Looming over her with the handcuffs ready, he was willing to take the chance that he could get them on her and restrain her long enough for her to be taken to that waiting cell.

"So come with me. There will be plenty of time for further debate later."

Much like the 'real' Eliane, this one was all too quick to pick at his strengths and call them weaknesses. He was stronger because he cared. Because he knew from experience that failure would weigh on his conscience. That was what defined him. He was cursed to be cold when his heart ran hotter than any furnace, his passion to do the right thing regardless of the cost.

"If I did not believe that you could change then perhaps we would not even be having this conversation. I choose to believe that you can be more than what you were created for, that you can break free from this mould of misery and malice. There is darkness and emptiness inside you now, but ask yourself if it always has to be that way?"

Boring into her with his gaze even as she could not pick her own from the floor, Alastair was only more convinced by her repeated denials that perhaps there was a way to alter her programming. That her wish to die was also stemming from a fear that he might be right. Perhaps that was ignorant of him to be so hopeful, but he would burn himself to ashes before he let that stop him. Besides, if this Eliane was only a fragment of the true one then it could only contain a fragment of those insidious desires.

"You should be the one that decides how you spend your life. I am offering you a path that does not result in it ending, the only requirement is that you try."

Alastair was not exactly brushed up on machine ethics, nor was he particularly knowledgeable about the actual creation process of the Ovides beyond a few documents that Eliane had been able to provide and that he had struggled to digest. He was a wilful man, but not exactly the sharpest of knives in the drawer.

"If the only way you will change is if the change is forced upon you, are you sentient enough to want that change to happen even if you lack the means to currently do it? So that you could potentially change who you are now?"

Was that logical or stupid? He did not know any more. If this Eliane refused to be saved then would he be risking more lives by spending more time trying to change that? The conclusion was fast arriving, as the gears turned in both their heads. It was quite eerie how similar she looked to the real Eliane, or even Arlette. What might those girls have become if they had not been forced down this twisted path? That was a question that did weigh on him, but not enough to distract him as the blade within this Eliane twisted just a little.

If her answer was negatory then he would shut her down and end this charade.

He had never made the mistake of calling her human, of giving her that level of humanity that this version of Eliane lacked even more than the other one. Clones by whatever means had already shifted beyond the constraints of the normal person in one way or another, but her words did sufficiently serve to dehumanise her enough for them to proceed.

"Very well. I will leave the judgement of your sentience to those more informed on your creation."

Alastair's eyes began to gloss over, a pure pale sheen, as an orange halo slowly materialised above his head. Der Feuersouverän was not a subtle Vollständig to activate, after all, as his whole body began to emanate an overbearing heat. He did not smile, nor frown, there was no emotion to feel for such a thing anymore. Then, unceremoniously, his sword punched forwards and down to embed her in the floor proper. His heart burned hot, half expecting her to explode in response to the attack and ready to guard against that, but if not then he would not hesitate to reach down and calmly disconnect the head from the shoulders.

It would be foolish to send such potentially valuable information to the inferno, after all, but he also doubted that Lady Duvalier would make such a mistake again after all this. He would leave it to Bauher and Arlette to determine what to do with the remnants, they were the closest to a council of peers that he could imagine.