Hello
Just saying thank you for reading this story! Hope you enjoy it! And again chapter 3 ended up being too long and had to be split. (Maybe I should just make this the standard, haha)
Disclaimer: I do not own Detroit: Become Human or anything else you recognise.
By the time Markus and Connor arrived at Elijah Kamski's residence, it was lunch time. Neither of the deviants quite understood why Kamski decided to live so far away from the company that he had created but neither of them were humans either, they'd never truly understand. Connor spent the entire trip in the automated taxi with his eyes fixed on the window and his LED whirling yellow. Markus was concerned but left him to his thoughts.
As the taxi came to a stop, Connor noticed his fingers playing with his coin again. As much as it helped with his calibration, he had noticed that since becoming deviant, it also became his nervous tick. Every time Connor felt nervous or anxious, he found himself flinging the coin between his hands or rolling it over his fingers. It was strange that it calmed him down, but Connor didn't want to question it.
The two androids kept their silence strong as they hopped out of the car and began the walk up to the front door. As they walked, Connor thought back to the last time he was here.
-As Lieutenant Anderson walked up to the front door, Connor felt something twisting around his biocomponents. It tightened as they got closer to the door. "I have a bad feeling, Lieutenant. We shouldn't have come here." Connor didn't think about what his words implied, only that it was the truth.
"Bad feeling, huh? Should get your program checked. Might be a glitch..." The Lieutenant's voice struck a pain inside Connor. Was the lieutenant implying that Connor could be a deviant?
That was the first time Connor considered the possibility. Every other time, he always made an excuse for himself. Saving the cop back in August was because an android was supposed to put humans first, same when he saved Hank's life and broke into Hank's house. He was supposed to follow orders, that was why he didn't chase the AX400 and the little girl across the highway. When he shot the deviant in Stratford Tower, it was to protect the countless human lives that the deviant would've killed. Looking back now, it was clear that the reasons were meaningless excuses, lies to comfort himself.
-"Fascinating... Cyberlife's last chance to save humanity...is itself, a deviant..." Kamski accepted the gun Connor offered. His last words struck a cord with Connor and the and lied felt the need to deny it.
"I'm...I'm not a deviant." Connor cursed himself, surely he could have said that more convincingly.
"You preferred to spare a machine, rather than accomplish your mission. You saw a living being in this android. You showed empathy." Kamski returned the gun to the drawer. Connor's eyes tracked his every movement.
"A war is coming...you'll have to choose your side," Kamski turned back around to look Connor in the eyes, daring him to deny what both of them could see. "Will you betray your own people or stand up against your creators?" Connor had opened his mouth, an answer formed on his tongue, one that required no thought and all programming. He was glad when Kamski didn't give him a chance to answer, able to preserve his decision until later. "What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?"
It was at this moment that Connor registered Hank's presence. "Let's get outta here." Connor turned to follow Hank out of the house, ready to leave the place that made him question and think. Ready to get out of the place that threatened to give him questions and thoughts outside of his programming. But before he could reach the door, Kamski added salt into the wound. "By the way...I always leave an emergency exit in my programs...you never know."
Connor remembered wondering, for the entire car ride back to the precinct, what Kamski meant by that and why it was so important. Looking back, he was glad that Kamski had told him about the emergency exit otherwise neither Connor or Markus would be standing here right now.
When they reached the door, Markus raised his hand to knock. He never got there, as the door opened to reveal a Chloe. Connor sucked a short gasp. There was no way of knowing if that was the Chloe or a different one. Did he almost kill the woman in the other side of the door? Or was it one of her sisters? "Hello," her voice brought him out of his thoughts.
"Good afternoon. My name is Markus Manfred and this is-" She cut him off.
"Hello Connor. Elijah has been expecting you." Markus glanced at him, one eyebrow raised as if silently asking Connor to explain. Before he had the chance, Chloe stood aside the door and motioned for them to enter. Markus and Connor walked into the entrance way and Connor noticed that everything looked exactly the same as the last time. His attention turned to Chloe who had closed the front door and was standing in front of them. He waited for her to say that she'll let Kamski know they were here, but she didn't.
"Elijah is in his study but has set up the formal living room for the two of you. If you would like to follow me..." Chloe turned sharply and moved through the same door as last time. Connor stared holes into the back of Markus' head. Had he arranged a formal meeting with Kamski? Or had Kamski anticipated this meeting?
His thoughts hit a wall as his vision caught up to his surroundings. To get to the formal living room, they had to pass through the red pool room, which didn't sit well with Connor. His eyes fell on the exact spot where the Lieutenant and himself were standing mere months ago. His legs refused to work.
-"What about you, Connor? Whose side are you on?" Kamski's stare was as deadly as his own. He began to understand how Ortiz's android had felt facing him.
"It's not about me, Mr. Kamski. All I want is to solve the case." Connor noticed that he had the full attention of both the humans in the room. It was unusual to be aware of all of the attention.
"Well, that's what you're programmed to say...but you...what do you really want?" Was Kamski implying that Connor and his programming were two different things? Connor was his programming, nothing more nothing less. But the question had rattled Connor. "What I want...is not important." Kamski winked at Connor with a knowing look in his eyes. He didn't like it.
"-onnor? Connor?"
-"But what is it really? Piece of plastic imitating a human? Or a living being...with a soul? It's up to you to answer that fascinating question Connor. Destroy this machine and I'll tell you all I know. Or spare it, if you feel that it's alive, but you'll leave here without having learnt anything form me." Sometime during his speech, he had a gun shoved into his hands. The gun was lined up perfectly with the Chloe's Central Processing Unit. It would be painless but instant. Connor felt something squirming underneath his skin.
"Okay, I think we're done here. Come on, Connor. Let's go. Sorry to get you out of your pool." Hank's voice was a relief to Connor. He wanted nothing more than to leave Kamski to his games.
"What's more important to you, Connor? Your investigation, or the life of this android?" It didn't matter, it shouldn't matter what was important to Connor. Nothing was, his orders were to accomplish his mission and his mission was to stop deviants. Why was he hesitating? "Decide who you are. An obedient machine...or a living being endowed with free will..." Connor wasn't supposed to question things like that. He was a machine, there was nothing else, so why did he feel like there was more?
"That's enough! Connor, we're leaving" Hank's voice had been swallowed by the conundrum inside his processor.
"Pull the trigger-"
"Connor don't..."
"-and I'll tell you what you wanna know." The voices weren't registering anymore. Shoot or don't shoot. Succeed or fail. Machine or alive. Mission or decision. Jericho or Chloe. Connor's finger hovered over the trigger, considering the outcome. He had to do it, Amanda would expect him to do it. Cyberlife designed him to do it. Humanity needs him to do it.
He can't.
"Connor!" Two eyes, one green and one blue, disrupt his memory. He blinked several times until he had freed himself form the past. He didn't need to decide anymore. He was free from that. Free from failure.
"I'm-I'm sorry, Markus. Chloe." Her eyes held recognition. She knew what had happened. It was highly likely that she was only here because Connor chose not to shoot. The two of them knew that he meant two different things. The three androids let silence consume them as they continued through Kamski's villa.
