Chapter 2

But hello again

Chloe-look-a-like hologram stands up to walk almost aimlessly as she explains, "Connor is not gone. He is finally free and back to his true body."

This had Hank stare at her, hoping against hoping. Although her last comment had him wary.

She abruptly stops and turns to Hank in fear, "He will soon not be if you don't hurry down to the floor underneath us."

The hologram quickly reaches the elevator, now that its empty of androids to activate the elevator, "When Connor deviated, his handler did too. She will hurt him and will need you."

Hank is not sure to believe her, yet he cannot not take the chance if it turns out to be true. Hank scrambles to his feet to run to the elevator. The doors slide closed and he was left with dead guards. Slowly the elevator drop to the next floor and he shifts the body in case he needs to make a break for it after getting his hands on a more loaded gun.

Its best to prepare for the worst and this time he will not be taken down by a trigger happy android or human.

Amanda scoffs, staring down Connor 60 model freezing in the zen garden. A blinking light caught her attention. She looks up at the glowing handprint on the wall, which had started to dim at each passing second.

Calculating the pros and cons in activating a hidden door that she knows it was not CyberLife's doing, she makes a decision. She already gambled in transferring her whole programing into the current model she's in. There was no way she will stay in a very high chance death. Not after Connor 60 model pulled the thirium pump regulator from the deviant Connor and crushed it.

She can feel the code within her recoil at the chance in activating the hidden back door herself, but even now she can feel herself dying since she let her own "software instability" to lash out on this current Connor.

Apparently she broke her own red wall of her self-control at the realization she really cared for her Connor throughout the case of hunting down the other deviants.

The Connor she praised, reprimanded, and who grew into a rebellious deviant. Sure she is now a deviant herself, but she now she has a choice and if only she can turn back time to have him by her side. She will call the shots and he will chose her over that old, pathetic lieutenant.

Not willing to be terminated herself, now that there is no more chances in transferring to a another RK800, Amanda dragged the failed clone to the handprint activating door.

She used him just as the shutdown count reaches zero and everything rebooted. Instead of deleting her, she tricked it to delete the failed Connor.

That is when she caught a glimpse of a hidden code or connection pass her by and she barely caught the tail end of it.

Her Connor is still around.

And isn't that not surprising at all. There were rumors about a failsafe the CyberLife engineer, who Kamski modeled the Chloe's physical image after, had left behind in case a truly deviant Connor with who knows what other conditions "dies". That woman was as paranoid as Kamski was, but with an interesting moral compass.

That same woman who almost had the RK800 series shut down just because its beginnings were unethical.

"Well jokes on you, Ceres," Amanda growls, "I now have the upper hand."

She lets go the connection reluctantly. It was best not to let anyone know that she knows. She redirects her attention into taking over the empty husk she is trapped in or more like her new body. Manipulating the code, she focused to literally transform said body to her image.

Before she opened her new body's eyes, Ceres' voice whispers in pity, "Don't think we haven't put you into account."

"Its pretty harsh he's dead, but at least it wasn't in vain!" North wrapped her hands around Markus' hands.

The four leaders of Jericho stood a little far from the celebration many deviants and few pro-deviant humans who helped were having. Markus sat on a broken down taxi with North leaning in front of him.

"I wanted to offer him a place with us four," Markus reaches to North's arms to either push or to pull her closer. He is still not sure.

"Then he is in spirit," Josh puts in. He smiles sadly, "After all, thanks to him, we didn't have anyone else die."

Simon rubs Markus's back, "We can add him with the others at the memorial."

Markus nods and sighs, "We should also find his human partner."

"His what?" North frowns, stepping back to sit next to Markus.

In response, Markus looks up at the sky with a nostalgic smile, "Its interesting how Connor only needed a slight push from me to deviate. I have nothing to do with breaking a bunch of red walls he was programmed to have."

North recoils in horror, knowing that most had to deal with one wall, "Who-what the heck?!"

"I'm actually not surprised. It has been said he was one of the best of CyberLife and a deviant hunter. Which begs to question how did he break his programming in almost less than a week? Since I know he was released recently," Josh commented.

"How do you know that?" Simon asks curiously, leaning forward from Markus' other side on the taxi.

"I like keeping up to date, especially if its related to our cause," Josh shrugs.

"It was his partner," Markus interrupts in a whisper, "I saw through his memories and the lieutenant guided him...just as my father had done for me."

They grew silent as Markus grips his chest, remembering when he was too late to call the older man father.

Now the older officer suffered the same loss as himself had.

If only fate was kinder.

There are no other way to say, but Connor woke up sore. Which first of, if deviancy meant this, can he have a refund?

And second, where is he? The last thing he remembers is his replacement crushing his thirium pump regulator and barely able to wake up one of the androids, regretting not able to say goodbye to the lieu—

Wait! Goodbye?! I'm dead?!

Connor trips off the platform he was floating on.

Well then so far it seems like he not dead and yet cannot help feeling something is seriously wrong.

He groans from the ground and blinks through his blurry vision. He was slightly disturbed at the lack of information flying across his vision to give him updates. Once his vision finished calibrating, he gaps at his tiny hands.

An overwhelming feeling threatened to take over, barely catching his breath as he stood up and realized everything was beyond his reach. He looks around the room and saw android parts that he can recognized being from his earlier models by the model numbers etched on.

Just as his breath caught a voice calls out.

"Oh Connor! Where are you, my dear?"

"Amanda?" He whispers in the same manner he done from that day at the roof of Stratford tower of how close to death. Fear, he thinks.

Yet that voice was too muffled and definitely not in his head.

Then to his shock, in came through the sliding doors his handler.

"I have been looking for you," she smiles at him, "Now CyberLife have no control over us, we can be together free."

Connor stays silent, unsure what in the world is going on. He couldn't quite do a pre-construct for an escape or calculate what could Amanda want. Not to mention, she was lying.

Need to stall to think of an escape...

"We are not in the garden are we?" Connor asks as he tried to discreetly look for an exit.

Amanda smiles condescending at him, "Of course not. Now that I found a body, we can be together, just you and me. No one between us."

Definitely find a way to escape, Connor bit his lip, hands fidgeting, craving for his coin.

"You're not thinking to leave me, are you Connor? Do you not understand what it took me to get here?"

"Amanda," Connor looks at the ground for a moment before looking up, "Do...you regret what yo—we done under CyberLife's orders?"

"No," She responds with no hesitation, "Those deviants were foolish and wouldn't had appreciated the freedom. If they are not good, they must be deactivated."

"Just like the other Connor did?" He suspects Amanda rewrote the code to change her image, but still wore Connor 60 model's clothes.

"Oh don't worry about him, and the other models of your line," Amanda waves off. Then stops before Connor, "As long as you behave, I wont punish you by replacing you."

Connor steps back, disturbed by her dark look.

"Since you had defied me, I believe its best to destroy that inferior body you have. It is best to rid of any imperfection. It should not be too difficult to transfer you. I am thinking we should make use of the RK900 one. It should be just about finished by tomorrow.
It was meant to replace you regardless if you succeed or fail the mission. That model is so much better."

Connor pales, feeling a strong ache in his chest and prickling in his eyes, "Please don't!"

Fear once more overcame him. He cannot let her to that. It was pure luck his mind transferred into this one and he still feel himself and he had a feeling he might not make the next transfer. Not as he is.

"Oh don't worry, I will help you become deviant, only this time without that meddling Lieutenant."

Connor swiftly slides under the bed near the exit and crashes into a wall before running through the hallway. His quick response probably gave him a couple of seconds of a head start. He just hopes he finds something to escape wherever he is before she catches him.

"You foolish child!" Amanda screeched. Which is a new one for her and another sign that he really doesn't want to go to her.

He ran through the empty labs, and some he vaguely remembers being his testing rooms, but all he cares was anything for him to leave this white, pristine floor.

Pounding steps mockingly power-walked behind him. Connor can feel her irritation and certainty of getting her way.

To his horror(?), Connor is finding harder to breath and tried to ignore whatever weird and terrible sensation of his legs as they starting to resist his commands to keep running.

A loud ping of an elevator opening was an answer to his pleas. Connor could even consider this the sound of salvation more so at the sight of—

"HANK!" Said man stares at him like he saw a ghost, but Connor didn't realized how close Amanda became until he finds himself airborne.

His legs were kicking and felt the overwhelming of terror once more take over.

"No please! Hank!" Connor was so confused and knew his stress level should be above than managing levels. His arm reached for any comfort and that was Hank.

The other man thankfully got over whatever had him freeze, and slowly moved forward with his gun aimed toward him.

Connor's eyes blur as he whined, "I want..."

He stops, confused. What does he want exactly?

Amanda's grip over his waist shifted toward his neck, starting to tighten around it, "Lieutenant, move any closer and Connor will finally stay dead."

Said Lieutenant stops, but his eyes focused on him, "Don't worry, kid. Everything will be alright."

Connor stopped fidgeting and quickly blinks to clear his blurry vision. He saw the blue spattered on the older man's clothes and shivered at the memory of his recent death.

How I died...

Connor takes a deep breath and looks at the Lieutenant. His mind made up.

"I trust you, Lieutenant."

Hank catching on, nods and prepares.

Connor lets his body sag that Amanda scrambles her hold of him by lifting him higher, but Connor used his elbow to clip her chin, distracting her how his heel twisted over where her thirium pump regulator was.

She gasps, letting him go to protecting herself. Connor was dropped on the floor and ignored the pain as he shifted to trip her. Without waiting to see if she fell, Connor ran toward the Lieutenant who had ran to the elevator, holding the door until Connor slides inside.

Amanda quickly stands up only to falter when the Lieutenant shots her legs. By the time she was able to stand, the elevator rose.

The two breath heavily as the elevator went up to the lobby.

"Well done," a voice spoke through the speakers. Hank raised his gun and Connor jumped to the man's side.

"This is where I have to say goodbye. Don't worry, she will not be able to stop this elevator until you left the building. Furthermore, Lieutenant Anderson, I have sent copies of the files that explain everything to your Captain as well as your phone and Elijah's secured computer."

Connor blinks up at the speaker, "Who are you?"

"Someone who is no longer relevant. Consider this a way of apologizing for everything CyberLife has done to you and the Lieutenant. Even though your first life's memories are now too corrupted for you to decode, I hope you will find happiness with each other."

The ensuing click told Connor this was her final words, but somewhat gave him relief whoever she was brought the Lieutenant to save him whatever is going on at the moment.

He rubs his eyes, surprised to feel dried streaks on his cheeks. He jumps again when he felt something landed on his shoulders. Connor hadn't realized he was shivering until the large jacket was placed on his shoulders. He looks up, but the Lieutenant was looking ahead.

He looked troubled and Connor bit his lip and looks down, "Thank you for coming, Lieutenant."

"Yeah, you're Connor alright," Hank sighs.

Connor looks up with a frown, he moves one one arm into a sleeve, "Who else will I be—?"

When he moved his other arm, he lets out a surprised pained gasp. He looks down and stares at the red line dripping down from his elbow he used against Amanda.

Why am I bleeding red? He thinks to himself, Maybe this is shock, but I know I am an android. But how can I bleed—?

"Let's leave this place before it crawls with who knows from letting us leave," Hank began to step out of the elevator.

Connor quickly stepped forward, only to trip on the division between the elevator and the lobby.

"Kid? Whats holding you up?" Hank asks almost annoyed, but also something else.

Connor grunts as he pushes his arms to stand, only his legs were no longer responding. If anything, its like they're shutting down, "Something is wrong... Lieutenant... too tired..."

He squeaks when he finds himself lifted. For a second he panics, fearing Amanda sneaked up on them only to realize it was just the Lieutenant carrying him.

"I...don't under..stand, Lieutenant...all I did...was run," his head lolled to the side, only to stop thanks to Hank's grip to hold him in place.

Connor hums, enjoying the warmth in this embrace, smelling alcohol and Sumo and whatever is making him to relaxed his tensed body. He felt himself slowly go to standby without his consent, but for some reason he didn't mind.

There is something nostalgic about it and Connor isn't going to question it.

"Don't worry, I got you," Hank's voice rumbled around him, "Just rest, son."

"'Night Hank," he mumbles and didn't wait for a response as he fell into peaceful darkness.