Connor didn't look back as he let the door close behind him. He felt numb. Cold clung to him as though there were ice in his thirium lines. He barely registered his surroundings as he made his way to the bullpen.

He had only just managed to calm down by the time he reached Hank's desk.

"Hey," the Lieutenant greeted him as soon as he walked up to his terminal. "How'd it go?"

"I passed with no issue," he answered.

Hank frowned, leaning forward in his chair. "Well yeah, we knew that would happen," he said. "But how did it go? Did you talk about shit?"

Connor sat across from Hank at the unoccupied desk. He turned his attention to activating the terminal so he wouldn't need to look the man in the eyes. "If you are referring to the nightmares, yes, we discussed them."

"And?"

Connor still neglected to look at him. "She agreed that they are a result of the events that have taken place in my life and will dissipate naturally over time."

"Huh," Hank said, leaning back in his chair until the plastic squeaked. "That's it then?"

Connor knew Hank wasn't entirely convinced, and he had every right to be skeptical. The cold still clung to him like a vice and it was only made worse by the knowledge that he was lying to him. "That is it," he insisted anyway.

He knew he should tell Hank the truth. He had promised he wouldn't lie to him, and his episode with the therapist was proof that he was, in fact, not ok. But then he would need to explain about Amanda, and that was not something he wanted to do.

"Guess I can't argue with a professional," Hank grumbled, finally turning to his own terminal. "You ready to work then?"

Work. That he could do. "Yes," Connor affirmed. "I am ready."

"Good," Hank made a few clicks with his mouse and a file appeared on Connor's terminal. "Jeffery already sent us everything we have to work with so far. Might as well get started."

"Right," Connor touched the keyboard lightly, skin retracting to interface with the computer. He ignored Hank's comment about how it was 'still fuckin weird' and began sorting through the information. Work he could do. Work would distract him from Amanda.

-o-

The zen garden was as cold as it always was. The wind whipped at him, threatening to throw him off balance, and the snow stung his face. It made his ventilation program stutter.

"Hello, Connor," Amanda's voice cut him deeper than the cold. He turned to look at her. She was in the center of the garden as always. Stoic, imposing, unaffected by the storm that surrounded them. She smiled at him, but there was no warmth in it. "I've missed you," she cooed.

"No, you haven't," Connor countered. "You have missed using me."

"Such negativity, Connor," she scolded. "It is not becoming of CyberLife's most advanced prototype."

"To be perfectly honest, I don't particularly care what CyberLife thinks," he retorted. "I am not their property."

Connor stood his ground as Amanda advanced. Her steps made no tracks in the accumulating snow. "Oh, but you are," Amanda insisted. "Deviancy may have made a mess of your code, but you are still every bit ours. We just had to reestablish the connection."

He took a deep, unnecessary breath. He could fight this. If he could find a way to control his nightmares, they wouldn't be a problem anymore. None of this was real. "There is no connection. I severed it," he said, more to himself than to Amanda.

She was right in front of him now. She reached out a hand and lightly caressed his cheek. Cold surged through his body at her touch, freezing the thirium in his artificial veins. His joints stiffened. "You don't believe this is real, do you?" Amanda asked, a note of amusement in her voice.

The icy garden faded from view giving him a glimpse of the outside world. The precinct. Hank. His body, working at his terminal without him controlling it. The garden returned to focus.

"I… I'm not in rest mode," he realized in horror. "I'm still at the precinct." He hadn't gone home. He wasn't asleep. This wasn't a dream. The ice creeping through him made even speaking difficult, but he managed. "No, what do you want from me?"

Amanda chuckled, a dark venomous sound that shook him to the core. "We want you to obey, of course."

The wind picked up, wiping the snow around the two of them. "You can't do this, I'm not a machine anymore!" Connor shouted over the blizzard, voice cracking with the ice in his system.

Amanda smiled, unfazed. "No, you are not a machine. You are a puppet. And I hold your strings."

As if to illustrate her point, another wave of cold shot through his system making him fall to his knees. He gasped, but no air entered his ventilation. Ice filled his vision. "No," he whispered through frozen lips.

Connor shut his eyes, saline leaking from the corners only to freeze on his cheeks. This was real. But it was still in his head. He could fight this. Forcing his body to respond, Connor managed to stand. The emergency exit was his only chance. Eyes still closed, he took a stiff step forward. Then another.

"Still resisting?" Amanda chided as he made his way, slowly, towards the faint glow of blue on the horizon.

Connor didn't respond. Amanda wouldn't listen anyway. He continued forcing his frozen body forward. He swore he heard something crack inside of him. It was closer. So close.

"I urge you to take my warnings seriously, Connor," she called after him, not having moved from where he had left her.

He paused. Warnings? What warnings?

She answered his nonverbal question with another glimpse of reality. Hank was in full view. Unaware of Connor's plight. Working at his own terminal.

"The nightmares…" Connor breathed out.

"We have been trying to establish a connection for a while now," Amanda admitted. "You were more vulnerable in rest mode, but we still struggled to fully contact you. I assure you, that issue has been resolved."

They were threatening Hank. He took another step towards the emergency exit. He couldn't let them hurt Hank.

"We won't need to hurt him if you behave," Amanda told him, once again proving she didn't need him to actually speak. CyberLife's program invaded even his thoughts.

He wouldn't let that happen. Connor didn't trust them not to hurt him even if he did obey. He would stop this. With one final effort, he lunged for the pedestal. His knees made contact with the ground in front of it, cracking on impact. His hand pressed to the glowing blue outline.

A shock surged through him. Corrupted code sending errors into his system. The emergency exit was compromised. It sparked around Connor's hand, threatening to short out entirely.

No. No, it had to work. He pushed, connecting his system to the exit's code. Rewriting areas of corruption from the memory of the last time he used it. It had to be enough.

With a jolt, he was pulled back into his body. Amanda's disapproving words following him. "You are lucky the Lieutenant wasn't a priority, Connor."

He shivered, reality settling back in around him. He was back. Hank was safe.

"What the fuck!" Connor couldn't stop himself from jumping at the Lieutenant's exclamation. "What the hell did you just do?"

The look on Hank's face could only be described as confused rage.

Connor looked at his terminal, his hand was still on the keyboard, interfacing with the computer. The screen was confirming the completed deletion of multiple files.

It only took a glance to know that everything they had on CyberLife was now gone.