"No, see, I don't think you get it. Let me make this crystal clear..."
He gestured to his head.
"The tech I have is alien. It's sentient. And over time, while I've become a superhero, he's become a hero, he's made an identity for himself, he's chosen a name."
, it trilled proudly in Jaime's head.
And Jaime was proud of him. Proud that the bug had learned, had chosen not to be what his masters wanted him to be. It had gone from parasite to symbiote to... to friend, really.
"You're right. I'm powerful. If I let loose, I'd be powerful enough to level cities, to probably take down this entire crew, and maybe even destroy this ship--not that any of that would get us home." He'd learned that much from the fight with the Spectre, from the options Khaji had given him, that he COULD do that.
"Khaji Da didn't start the way he is now. If I'd let him have his way, he'd have gone after anything he considered a threat, and he would've destroyed it. Even now, he still needs my help, reigning him in, helping him realize the right thing to do--because he wants to do the right thing, but he doesn't usually know what it is on his own. When to fight, when not to. He might never learn it. He's not human, he doesn't have a human conscience, just a vague desire to do good. I'm his conscience. Ironically enough, I'm the Jiminy Cricket here even though he's the bug. But it takes a lot of willpower to do it, for it to get through to him. If he wants to do something, and I sort of want to do it, even though it's wrong, he KNOWS."
A deep breath.
"If I stopped doing that, if I gave in, if there was no one to keep either of us in check, my enemies aren't the ones I'd be the most afraid for, because we WOULD place our survival first and foremost. And the means we would fight any threat to us, and we would take them down."
He tapped his temple. "Just to be clear: Khaji classifies you as a threat."
Jaime had a face prone to smiling. He was a goofy kid. But the look he gave Vincent was not a nice look, and his eyes didn't need to glow, he didn't need to look any different for it to be clear that an alien intelligence was in there with the teenage boy, that there was something potentially...sharp behind his eyes.
He was the magic button. The switch that told Khaji: Don't fight, Fight, Pacify, maim, or kill. And if they started doing the last one, if he ever started to rationalize it or like it...he wasn't sure they'd ever be able to stop.
It wasn't a threat, the way he said it, as he didn't want to hurt ANYONE, much less this guy. He was just laying out the truth, evenly, honestly:
"I have faced reality. The reality is that my reservations are the only thing that's keeping you alive right now."
no subject
He gestured to his head.
"The tech I have is alien. It's sentient. And over time, while I've become a superhero, he's become a hero, he's made an identity for himself, he's chosen a name."
, it trilled proudly in Jaime's head.
And Jaime was proud of him. Proud that the bug had learned, had chosen not to be what his masters wanted him to be. It had gone from parasite to symbiote to... to friend, really.
"You're right. I'm powerful. If I let loose, I'd be powerful enough to level cities, to probably take down this entire crew, and maybe even destroy this ship--not that any of that would get us home." He'd learned that much from the fight with the Spectre, from the options Khaji had given him, that he COULD do that.
"Khaji Da didn't start the way he is now. If I'd let him have his way, he'd have gone after anything he considered a threat, and he would've destroyed it. Even now, he still needs my help, reigning him in, helping him realize the right thing to do--because he wants to do the right thing, but he doesn't usually know what it is on his own. When to fight, when not to. He might never learn it. He's not human, he doesn't have a human conscience, just a vague desire to do good. I'm his conscience. Ironically enough, I'm the Jiminy Cricket here even though he's the bug. But it takes a lot of willpower to do it, for it to get through to him. If he wants to do something, and I sort of want to do it, even though it's wrong, he KNOWS."
A deep breath.
"If I stopped doing that, if I gave in, if there was no one to keep either of us in check, my enemies aren't the ones I'd be the most afraid for, because we WOULD place our survival first and foremost. And the means we would fight any threat to us, and we would take them down."
He tapped his temple. "Just to be clear: Khaji classifies you as a threat."
Jaime had a face prone to smiling. He was a goofy kid. But the look he gave Vincent was not a nice look, and his eyes didn't need to glow, he didn't need to look any different for it to be clear that an alien intelligence was in there with the teenage boy, that there was something potentially...sharp behind his eyes.
He was the magic button. The switch that told Khaji: Don't fight, Fight, Pacify, maim, or kill. And if they started doing the last one, if he ever started to rationalize it or like it...he wasn't sure they'd ever be able to stop.
It wasn't a threat, the way he said it, as he didn't want to hurt ANYONE, much less this guy. He was just laying out the truth, evenly, honestly:
"I have faced reality. The reality is that my reservations are the only thing that's keeping you alive right now."