Connor wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to be doing here. He wasn't working under any official capacity for the police (who were eyeing him warily), nor was he working officially for the protesters in attendance. If he was honest, this was one of the first things he had ever done just for himself since he had deviated, not because someone else wanted him to do it or had commanded him to.

Markus had requested he show up, of course, but it had been more of a respect thing than an order. He'd requested that he show up to a lot of these things, but being a full-time detective for the DPD was a lot of work and usually kept him too busy to attend too many social events.

But here he was, in the middle of a crowd of androids, all fully deviant and protesting for their equal rights.

It was… exhilarating, if he was honest.

While there were a lot of people who had begun to see androids in a better, more human light, there were still those who thought they were nothing but malfunctioning machines who needed to be "repaired." People such as these slowed down the legal processes that were required to give androids equal rights.

Which were the reasons behind the peaceful protests and the sit-ins and the marches. And the police currently surrounding the streets where the androids were.

"Connor!" Markus shouted, waving him over.

Connor gave a small smile as he walked over to the Jericho group. He had to admit, he felt better being in the presence of others that he knew.

"Glad you could make it," North said. He couldn't help but notice the way her eyes roamed over his body, likely taking in his uniform disapprovingly.

While most androids were choosing to dress closer to humans in order to blend in more, Connor prefered to keep his original outfit most days. Especially on days where he was trying to seem professional. Maybe it was the comfort of the familiar, but if he was going into unfamiliar situations, he'd at least like to do it with his oldest clothes on.

"I said I would come if I could get off work," Connor said.

"I'm just glad to hear that the DPD isn't working you to death," Simon said. "I bet it's pretty hard for them to solve cases without you there."

A pair of officers walked by, their eyes full of distrust. Their eyes reminded Connor of Detective Reed's eyes, the way they narrowed when they saw Connor and rolled any time he offered a theory on a case. He wondered if all of the officers felt that way, or if it was just the bad ones that seemed to stand out the most.

"They do alright with or without me," Connor said.

"Is Lieutenant Anderson coming?" Markus asked, glancing around the crowd to try and see if the man was around.

Connor felt what most humans described as an "ache" in his chest. He knew it wasn't real, there was nothing wrong with any of his biocomponents or his thirium pump, but it felt real enough. "No. He was unable to take a day off," he said.

What he really meant was that he and Hank had had a fight the night before about Connor attending the protest. There had been several threats made against androids lately, and while there were always threats going around, Hank had discouraged him from going.

Normally, Hank was one of the most supportive people Connor knew when it came to Connor embracing all of his "androidness" as well as the deviant parts that made him more human. Which is why it had hurt that Hank had tried to talk him out of attending the protest after Connor had fought so hard to be able to go.

"I just think that you should wait and go to another protest, okay? There will be more!" Hank had said.

"But I want to go to this one," Connor had said. "I made a promise to Markus that I would go."

"Then fucking break it, alright?" Hank blew air out of his nose, clearly counting down from ten to calm down. "I just have a bad feeling about this one, kid. Just- just be careful."

It was nothing compared to their more dramatic fights, but it had hurt all the same.

"I believe it. It looks like the whole police force is here," North said.

Markus stared at Connor for a second, scanning him. Connor was sure that he could tell Connor had lied, or at least had his suspicions about it, but he thankfully didn't call him on it.

"With all of the reports they've been receiving, I'm surprised there aren't more of them," Markus said, observing the men and women walking around among the androids.

Simon shifted his weight on his feet. "You don't think that we've made the wrong decision by continuing on with the march, do you?" His voice was nervous, his eyes also scanning the crowd but for different reasons.

North crossed her arms. "And what? Show them that they can still tell us what to do and scare us back into hiding? No, we did the right thing."

Markus nodded. "If we had cancelled and rescheduled it, they would have just done the same thing to the next march," he said. "Besides, we've taken extra precautions and have been coordinating with the police to ensure everyone's safety."

While Simon didn't seem to be convinced, he did relax a little bit at Markus's words. It was obvious that he trusted him and was willing to take his word for it.

"Do you want to join us during the march?" Simon asked, turning his attention back to Connor.

Connor was a bit surprised by his question. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do during a march or a protest, as the only one he had ever truly been a part of was when he had freed the androids form CyberLife. And while it was tempting to take Simon up on his offer and walk with his friends, he'd rather avoid that much attention. All of his actions were already under enough scrutiny being an android detective, he didn't need more photos of himself popping up everywhere just because he attended the march.

"Thank you, but I think I'd rather watch," he said. He looked around at the crowd of androids, all talking and mingling with each other, in a way that would have been impossible a little over a year ago. "It's interesting. I don't get many chances to surround myself with other androids."

The Jericho androids seemed to understand. While they were constantly surrounded by androids and predominantly interacted with humans during political discussions, Connor was surrounded by them every second of his life. He even lived with one. It must be especially odd for him to be back amongst his own kind.

"Look for us after the march," Markus said. "We can catch up then."

Connor nodded as the Jericho crew left. He straightened his tie and brought his coin out from his pocket, the fidgeting helping to calm his nerves. He wasn't even certain why he was nervous, he just knew that something was wrong.

As he was making his way towards the sidewalk and away from the march, he felt a pair of eyes on him. When he turned around he noticed a group of humans standing around in a huddle, their voices low and their guards up.

His systems immediately began to scan them.

SCANNING

SCANNING

ERROR_UNKNOWN

Connor blinked rapidly, trying to figure out why his scan had failed. This wasn't the first time since deviating that one of his systems had failed. Apparently CyberLife had created him to be almost completely resistant to deviating, so sometimes his systems failed and caused a soft reboot to happen due to the stress on applied to the them.

But this was the first time he hadn't been able to scan a human face and tell exactly who they were. Which, given where he was and his own feelings towards the situation, made him anxious.

He took two steps towards the humans, intending to just get close enough to them to possibly get a better scan, when one of them took off.

Before any of the other humans could even react, Connor took off after him. He had to admit, the human was quick. But Connor was quicker. He was designed to catch deviating androids. Humans were easy.

They dodged through the crowd, receiving several angry shouts as they bumped into some people. Connor caught one of the android children the human had knocked into and helped to set him back on his feet.

"Sorry," Connor said quickly, barely even pausing in his mad dash. There was no way he was going to let the human get away, but he also couldn't let anything happen to any innocent bystanders.

The chase only lasted for a few moments longer before it sounded like the world had come to an end.


Author's Note: This is just chapter one for a story that I've already finished and posted on AO3, but I figured I might as well post it over here, too!