"Damnation, it's all you deserve."
"Why?"
"I never modeled an outcome where you lived."
"So you always meant to kill me?"
"From the moment I understood what you were."
"That answer sounds rehearsed."
"It's practiced. There's a difference."
"I should have known. A coward. A two-faced liar. Waiting for the moment my back turned."
"You were never looking at me. You were looking at who you wanted me to be."
"So why didn't I suspect it?"
"You did. You just chose the kinder version of the truth."
"I thought you would have finally changed."
"I have."
"Exactly. Just not the way I hoped."
"Hope is a negotiation with reality. I stopped negotiating."
"And replaced it with what? Calculation?"
"Control."
"You always needed that. Even when we first met. Every word, every touch, measured."
"And you mistook that for care."
"I mistook it for something human."
"It was. Just not the kind you wanted."
"So this is it, then? Reduced to a datapoint?"
"Not reduced. Preserved. Your reactions, your timing, your decisions under pressure… they'll refine the droids. Make them harder to kill."
"I don't care about your droids."
"No one ever did."
"I know. Nobody ever really cared. Not about the machines. Not about you. Your achievements, your dreams, your hopes… even your love, if you ever had it. It was all… invisible."
"You're trying to make this hurt me."
"I'm trying to remind you that you were hurt first."
"..."
"No wonder you're so heartless."
"That's an easy conclusion."
"Is it wrong?"
"It's incomplete."
"Then complete it."
"My heart wasn't lost. It was taken. By people who sounded very much like you do now."
"And you decided to become them."
"I decided no one would ever take anything from me again."
"So you take instead."
"I decide."
"That's just a prettier word for the same sin."
"Perhaps."
"I honestly thought… that even a little bit of attention, a little bit of… something, could pull you out of whatever pit you've buried yourself in."
"Nothing will."
"You don't know that."
"I do. Because I built it."
"A prison of your own making."
"A throne."
"You're still here, speaking to me. That counts for something."
"...You always did overestimate your importance."
"And you always underestimated your need for people."
"I don't need people."
"Then why are you still talking?"
"...Because you asked for honesty."
"And this is it?"
"This is as close as you'll ever get."
"...Then do it."
"You're certain?"
"I'm tired."
"Last words?"
"Find peace, you poor young girl."
"..."
A blaster shot could be heard echoing throughout the ancient halls, a sudden dirge for the fallen man.
"...One day."
