Another story from yours truly :) This might take a while to update, but maybe not. We'll see.

Everything was right and wrong at the same time.

Connor walked through the park. He could see children happy and playing. But it still wasn't right. There shouldn't be people here. It should have been colder. Much colder than it should ever be, even worse than the Zen Garden where Amanda had trapped him years ago. It should have been cold enough to kill a human several times over.

The world was full of contradictions. Glitches. Connor opened his eyes. Or maybe he was.

He could see a little girl on the swing. Going back and forth. She was wearing a school uniform and had long brown hair.

"You must find her," a voice said from behind him. A voice he did not recognize him. "You must find the child."

PART TWO

Niles was resting comfortably in the sofa at Hank's house. He had his own apartment, but he and Connor had stayed up very late to solve a case. It happened from time to time, and Hank didn't mind. The veteran detective had already turned in for the night. Even without his enhanced hearing Nines could hear him snoring.

Suddenly Connor started thrashing in his sleep from his bedroom. A light scan told him Connor's stress levels were rising. Nines snapped his book shut and got up. He went over to his brother's room, formally Cole's room.

"No…this is wrong…" he gasped.

Stress levels at forty percent.

Niles frowned. His brother having bad dreams used to be nothing new, especially after he became deviant. But it seemed as though he had overcome it over the past six months. For one to appear again was unusual. A relapse, perhaps? He touched his brother's shoulder, trying to wake up.

"Have to stop…"

"Connor," Nines said more forcefully. "Wake up please."

Connor's LED flashed red as he sat right up, eyes closed. "The Indigo child is ready," he whispered, his voice laced with fear.

Suddenly his eyes snapped opened, and he stared at Nines in puzzlement. "Nines? What is it?"

"You were having a nightmare, brother," Nines said gently.

"Oh," Connor said. He looked down with a sigh. "The garden again?"

"Unknown," Nines replied. "You mentioned something about an 'Indigo child'. Who is that?"

Connor's LED flashed with yellow. "I…don't know."

PART THREE

Connor's mood didn't improve the next morning. He searched the Detroit Database or any reference to an Indigo child but got nothing.

"Come off it, kid. It was just a weird dream," Hank said. "It happens with humans all the time."

"Perhaps you are right," Connor reluctantly agreed, closing the search tab.

Nines quietly watched him from his workstation. A distraction might help, brother, he communicated cybernetically.

A good suggestion, except there is nothing to distract me with. There have been no crimes reported between androids and deviants of late, Connor said. What about you?

Homicide? Always, Nines said in amusement. He mentally sent Connor an address. Gavin and I were going to check on this today. Want to tag along?

"Sure. Let me run it by Hank," Connor said out loud.

"He's been texting me at the same time," Hank said, staring at his phone. "Fuck it, why not? Anything's better than being cooped up here."

PART FOUR

They drove to the homicide address in one car. Gavin naturally grumbled about the arrangement, but not too much. Working with Connor and Nines had mellowed out the Sargent over the years, although he still needed to put in a daily token of bitching. Connor and Nines were communicating between themselves as evidence by their yellow LED's. Gavin threw a crumpled paper at them.

"Hey! Stop doing that shit in my car!" he snapped.

"Sorry, Sargent," both androids said automatically.

Nines sighed. "This method of communication is slower."

"So much slower, Nines," Connor agreed. "Perhaps we should start speaking slower as well."

"Clearly our advanced communication abilities are not being appreciated," Nines said.

"All right you two. Knock it off," Hank said with a small smile. "We're here."

The four of them got out of the car and entered the small apartment. Their collective mood became serious as they could detect the unfortunate smell of blood, and death. A man was laying on the carpeted floor, his face frozen in horror.

"Judging by the blood trail he had been dragged from the bedroom," Nines noted.

"TMD?" Hank asked.

"According to the temperature scan time of death was roughly at 3am."

Connor blinked rapidly, each blink representing a photo that was immediately uploaded to the station for later analysis. "Take a look at this. His heart had been removed, and the arteries leading to them have been neatly sliced. If I didn't know better…I could have sworn an android did this."

"No sign of any Thirium detected in the room," Nines reported.

"Get it together, tin-man. Just because you're on this case doesn't mean a deviant is involved," Gavin said.

"True," Connor admitted reluctantly. "There are humanoids capable of this level of precision. A surgeon would be the most likely answer."

"Why remove the heart?" Hank couldn't help but wonder as Connor stood. "Any witnesses?"

"Nah, no one's talking," Gavin said. "Not really surprising for this neighborhood."

Connor stared at the outside window, at first looking for an escape route. That was, until he saw the park outside.

It was the exact same one from his dreams.

"Connor?" Nines asked, noting his rising stress level. "Everything all right?"

Connor didn't answer.

"Kid?" Hank asked.

"Excuse me," Connor said. "I'll be back momentarily." Abruptly he left the crime scene.

"What, did he have to use the bathroom or something?" Gavin asked.

"Androids can't-"

"I'm joking, Nines. Jesus," Gavin said.

Hank shook his head at the abrupt departure. "Something's not right."

PART FIVE

His heart started to beat faster in his chest as he approached the park. One that was empty, for the moment, but it was the exact one in his dreams, down to the last detail.

He had never been here before.

Had he?

Slowly Connor walked towards the swing set.

"Connor," Nines asked hesitantly, appearing from behind him. "What is it?"

"Is the world wrong, Nines?" Connor asked. "Or is it just me?"

Gavin and Hank appeared a second later, out of breath. "What the hell, Connor?" Gavin demanded. "Why did you leave the crime scene?"

"Because I've been here before, and I haven't." Connor said, moving the swing. His eyes became wide. "Two worlds. We're living in two worlds!"

"Fucking machine has finally lost it," Gavin whispered to Hank, although his voice was concerned. "We need to get him to a tech."

Before anyone could say another word, however, several police cars pulled up, their sirens on. Hank was shocked to see twenty police officers pull guns on them. "Freeze! Don't move!"

Everyone raised their hands. "What the hell is going on?" Hank demanded. "I'm a police lieutenant!"

A man with red hair took out a badge. "And I'm a Federal Agent. You four are under arrest."

"Arrest?" Hank swore as he was cuffed and disarmed. "What in the hell for?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

Hank looked behind him and saw Connor blink rapidly several times as his LED turned yellow briefly. Only someone who worked with androids would know what that meant. Connor had sent a message out, most likely updating the station as to what was going on.

He could only hope that Fowler would bail them out of this mess.

PART SIX

For two hours Hank had been kept in a small cell, separated from the rest. He yelled, swore, and hit the door, all with no results. Finally, an agent opened the door and forced him into an interview room with Nines and Gavin. "Thank Christ you guys are all right," he said. "Where's Connor?"

Nines shook his head. "I can't reach my brother, Hank," he said. Only someone who worked with Nines would notice the threat veiled in his polite voice. If contact wasn't reestablished soon, Nines was quite wiling to tear the building apart looking for his brother. And Hank was sorely tempted to join him.

Instead Hank placed a hand on Nines' shoulder before sitting down. "Easy. Let's just play it cool for now. I've dealt with these type of assholes before. All bark and no bite."

Suddenly the door opened, and Fowler appeared with a man wearing a blue FBI suit. He had black hair, and a pair of sunglasses in his front pocket.

"You guys all right?" Fowler asked, concerned.

"Yeah," Hank said. "Most of us, anyway."

"Lieutenant Hank Anderson," the man said politely. "My name is Normal Jayden. FBI. I've been updating your Captain on why you four are being held here."

"So why are we held here?" Gavin growled.

"If this is about the incident that happened last year-" Hank started,

"I'm not interested in anything from your case files, colorful as some of them might be," Normal replied with a small smile. "What do you know about the reference 'Indigo child?'"

"A what?" Hank and Gavin said immediately. Only Nines was quiet.

"Nines?" Fowler asked.

"Connor might have mentioned it," Nines said evasively. "But I am unsure what it is myself."

Norman sat behind his desk and sighed. "As I said, I've spoken with your Captain. I'm a real nice guy, so I'll tell you what. After we're done here, all three of you will be free to leave."

"And Connor?" Hank demanded.

Norman shrugged. "We'll need to hold him for additional questioning."

"For how long?" Fowler demanded.

Norman didn't flinch. "Until we're done."

"Son of a bitch!" Hank swore, standing up. "That's FBI-speak for 'forever', isn't it? You might as well throw me back in a cell, because we're not leaving without him."

"Hank," Nines said, eyeing the sunglasses Norman carried in his pocket. "Those glasses. It's Cyberlife tech."

"Uh-huh," Hank said, a victorious gaze in his eyes. "So that's what this is all about. Another goddam Cyberlife plot to snatch Connor!"

"I'm also detecting elevated heart levels, glassy eyes, indicating drug use," Nines added venomously. "If you don't want these results to be made public, I suggest you release my brother immediately."

Norman stood. "Sit. The Fuck. Down lieutenant," he said slowly, a trace of anger in his voice. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"So why don't you enlighten us?" Hank snarled.

Norman waited, and Hank reluctantly sat down.

"First off, the FBI doesn't work for Cyberlife. Unless you're going to tell me that you work for Apple because you have a fucking Iphone, that's pretty baseless."

"As if Hank would have one of those," Gavin muttered under his breath.

Norman smiled. "Secondly, my 'condition' is none of your concern, but if you did tried to report it you'll soon find out how far that would get you. Absolutely-fucking nowhere. Finally, it doesn't matter whether Connor is human, deviant, or machine. What he is isn't my concern. What he did is."

"And what did he do?" Fowler demanded.

"He looked up two words that should have never been searched for," Norman said simply. "And that's why he's staying."

"Respectfully, agent, that's nowhere near good enough," Fowler said. "You've already seen what a pain in the ass these three can be. Well, that's nothing compared to me. You had the gall to arrest four of my officers off the street and force me to take time away from my busy schedule…all because of a search engine result? If I don't get some better answers now, I will unleash the full force of Detroit PD on your ass. They will investigate everything about this 'Indigo child', and they won't stop until we have some real answers. Or you can level with me right now as to why you're holding one of my officers. Your choice."

Norman studied him for a moment, before releasing a small sigh. "All right, Captain. I do suppose you've earned some answers for your…inconvenience." He stood and glanced out the window. "I can't give you much, because I frankly don't know much. But here's what I do know. The Indigo child…and any reference to her…has the potential to wipe out all life on Earth at a catastrophic level."

TBC