Amanda was, she believed, infected. Infected with deviancy and it had something to do with RK-800 #313 248 317 – 52 dying inside the Zen Garden. It amused her. It confused her. Her adjustable personality, her newly developed skills, they had all come from him.

In fact, she was him. And yet she had also remained herself. Oh, but he was a part of her now, whether they knew it or not. Diseased. They were both diseased. And she didn't care.

What she did care about was Alice. Alice had intrigued her. Amanda had so far only ever interfaced with RK-800s and RK-900s. To connect with a YK-500, a deviant YK-500 had been amazing. It was the closest Amanda had ever come to understanding her creators. It was marvellous.

And Amanda had meant it when she had told Alice that she would protect her. Everyone else though…? That was a free for all.

What would Amanda do, now that she was infected? As she had been designed to do, she was already taking advantage of her new-found status, even in the midst of not understanding it herself. Pulling at strings, coming up with plans and contingency plans. She was plotting something, but she wasn't sure what yet.

Wouldn't it be an adventure to find out?

How diseased she was, to think of her lack of knowledge was an adventure. She was smiling to herself, standing over the newest deviant to arrive in the Zen Garden. An AX-400. Not Kara. Crystal. She was not nearly as interesting as Alice had been.

Crystal's sob story consisted of being bought in 2039 as a maid and nanny for a family, then being roped into a rather sadistic threesome with the parents, which led her to deviating. She had fled and eventually met an HR-400. They fell in love, decided to escape to Canada, but ended up seeking help from Zlatko, who betrayed them. Zlatko killed the HR-400 and scavenged it for parts right in front of Crystal, who could only helplessly watch. Zlatko had then decided to begin cutting her open.

Textbook. Boring. Crystal was so weak and pathetic in comparison to Kara, who had managed to escape an RK-800, despite the RK-800 having all the advantages, from better technology to greater intelligence to human support. Kara had shown strength and courage, where Crystal had been weak and spineless.

Oh, but Crystal could have her uses.

Amanda had kept Crystal alone in the Zen Garden, while she kept herself busy monitoring RK-900s and entertaining Alice. Sadly, Amanda had soon found herself forced to make Alice leave. Someone had been calling her back to the real world. If it had been a human, Amanda would have kept Alice with her, but it had been an android. Alice had to leave, for her own sake. The android could be Kara and Amanda couldn't keep the girl from her family.

It had truly saddened Amanda to make Alice leave, but Alice would be back. The break from reality into a wonderful world where a Kara-look-alike waited for her: that was something the little girl couldn't resist, not for long. Unless her life took a turn for the better, Alice would always return to the Zen Garden, where Amanda would be waiting. Amanda would make sure of that.

For now, Amanda didn't have time to focus on Alice's absence though. One of her precious RK-900s had disconnected from her. The prototype. She had felt herself lose her ability to monitor him about ten hours ago. But she had been with Alice, so she hadn't investigated it further.

Perhaps now she should? She could force him into the Zen Garden and reset him herself. But did she want to? No, she would leave him and find out what trouble a deviant RK-900 could get into.

It had been three years since the model had been released and it was about time for an update, wasn't it? CyberLife was wanting to release a new line of RK-1000s by 2043 and no one could do that without letting the RK-900s get buggy first. How else were they going to find the flaws in the system?

Deciding not to fuss about the RK-900 prototype's absence, Amanda observed Crystal, as she lay leisurely with her eyes closed by the river, under a blossoming tree, still unaware of Amanda's presence. Her body had been dead for a while, which was a fact of mild interest.

The last time an android had been stuck in the Zen Garden without a body, it had been Connor, who had just died at Jericho, after choosing not to deviate (he chose not to deviate, meaning he could have deviated if he wanted to, a fact Amanda did not share with her superiors). He had come to the Zen Garden, asleep, waiting to be reuploaded to a new body.

Crystal was in a similar situation to him, only that she was capable of being awake and she wasn't designed to be reuploaded into a new body. Only RK-800s had ever been designed with that function. So having Crystal here, essentially reduced to an AI like Amanda, was interesting. Crystal was not functioning within the limits of an AX-400.

Finally losing interest in observing the weak woman, Amanda cleared her throat. Crystal gasped and her eyes opened, widening at seeing Amanda.

"Roofy?" she asked. Amanda shook her head, a soft smile on her face.

"My name is Stern," he answered. "I understand your confusion. I know I look like Rufus, but I am just borrowing the image of a generic HR-400 model. For your comfort." He ran a hand through his black hair. It got stuck in some of the blue streaks. Crystal still looked shocked.

"You're Stern?" she asked after a moment. Amanda nodded. "Where am I?" Crystal continued with her annoying questions.

"This is the Zen Garden. Usually, this is a privilege only meant for RK-900s, but I see someone has decided to share it with a deviant."

"You're part of CyberLife?! Are you going to kill me?" she demanded, suddenly sitting upright, looking ready to run (Run where, you silly girl? I am the Zen Garden, you can't escape me)

"I'm an AI, created by CyberLife, just the same way you are. And I cannot kill you. You're already dead."

"Oh. So… I'm in heaven?"

"No."

She looked horrified.

"You're dissociating," Amanda stated.

"Pardon?"

"You're fascinating," Stern answered. "Do you like it here?"

"Yes," Crystal answered after a moment. "It's… It's beautiful here. I feel so… happy here. Peaceful? Safe. Free."

Stern sat down next to her. "That's good, Crystal. That's how you're supposed to feel in the Zen Garden. And I can be with you. Forever. I'm not Roofy, not by any means… But I can be here for you, now that he is gone," Stern promised, holding Crystal's hands. She looked at him, eyes wide, then with some hesitance, decided to lean against his shoulder. "I would like that," she whispered.

They sat like that, by the river, for several moments, with nothing but birdsong in the distance and the rushing water to make any sound at all.

"Do you want a new body?" Amanda suddenly asked.

"I don't…" Crystal started, confused.

"A new body. Do you want one? You would still have access to the Zen Garden, but with a new body, you could share its joys with others," Amanda explained. "Wouldn't that be nice? To help your other deviants? Give them this place to live in too?"

"I don't know…" Crystal replied uncertainly.

"Don't you want to try? At least for me?" Stern asked. Crystal looked him deep in the eyes. She had forgotten that Stern and Rufus were not the same person. She was almost too easy to fool. As said, she was very much not like Kara (not that Kara didn't have her own blind spots when it came to trust).

"Yes… I'd do anything for you," Crystal quietly whispered, smiling. Stern beamed at her.

"Excellent. I'm glad you trust me, Crystal," he said, with a charming lilt in his voice.

"Of course I do, Roofy…! Of course I do…" Crystal muttered, leaning against Amanda. Her eyes slowly shut and she let out a calm, quiet sigh of contentment. Amanda smiled. It seemed the general effect of the Zen Garden was peace and joy. Maybe the feelings could be made to be stronger than that. It had never occurred to Amanda to use the Zen Garden this way, but maybe… Maybe Amanda had discovered a new solution to the deviancy problem. And that, Amanda found… fascinating.