They had stayed in Camden Avenue, in the end. The lack of people made it safe and after checking the police scanners, it also became clear that Camden Avenue was not a place the police suspected to be their missing android's current location.

It had been easy to get a room at the Eastern Motel. A teenaged girl had been manning the counter, so a little bit of smiling and displays of charming awkwardness and vulnerability, and they had a room without having to show any ID for it (he was glad he was an RK-900 that still retained some skill in charm. Newer models had a very strong emphasis on intimidation and social capabilities suffered for that…)

Signed in as Connor Anderson (he hadn't been able to come up with a different surname, so he kept telling himself), he and Alice were making themselves comfortable in room 28. Coats were draped over the chairs, shoes placed by the door and the room locked to outsiders. In one word, they were safe.

Now it was silent. The TV was on the news channel, muted so as not to disturb Connor, who was lying on one of the beds, considering plans, back-up plans and back-ups to back-up plans. Now that he had someone depending on him, he couldn't take actions with a low chance of success. He barely wanted to accept any plans with even a moderate chance of success. Those were just no good to him now.

Alice was sitting cross-legged and upright on the other bed, looking an upsetting combination of distressed and uncomfortable. Indecisive as well, like she wasn't sure what to do next. He hadn't really questioned her behaviour, assuming it was all due to her past three years of continuous torture. She was, as far as he was concerned, behaving normal for someone in her situation and no one could expect her to "normalise" any time soon, at least, he didn't think so. However, her silence spoke volumes and he soon found himself forced to give up on his plan crafting. He wasn't getting anywhere, not with her looking so upset.

"Alice? Uh… H-how are you feeling?" he asked, sitting up. Alice's head turned so sharply, he almost thought it might snap off. Her eyes were large and owlish, but she didn't answer.

"Is something wrong?" he pressed. Her mouth opened and shut several times. Then it shut and she looked away. He thought he would have to try prompting her again, but then she very softly spoke "What happens now?"

"Now?" he repeated. She nodded. "Well…" he started, trying to think of what to tell her. "The first objective is getting you into Canada. Where it's safe. I… I haven't thought much beyond that."

"Oh." She hugged her knees tightly. Not really what he was expecting. Wasn't she glad to be heading for Canada? Wasn't safety what she wanted? Clearly not, as now everything about her was solely screaming distress.

"What do you want to happen now?"

She didn't answer. After a few moments of dead silence though, she stuttered out "This… This is the exact room where Kara and I stayed, after we escaped my dad. This is the last… The last time we were…," she trailed off, her voice hitching. It started slowly. One drop after another. Then it became a stream, then a river. The tears wouldn't stop coming. "The last place we were… h-happy… And then you… You were here and…"

Connor felt a bit awkward. He hadn't had a choice in where to stay, knew Alice and Kara had stayed in this motel… But he hadn't known this was the exact same room. The last place where Kara and Alice were happy.

Alice was trying to restrain herself, to stop the constant flow, but being a fragile (technical) nine-year-old, was entirely unable to. Connor bit his lip, rubbing the back of his neck. Yes. He supposed if he hadn't been the one to notice the details, pick out their likely location and to chase them down to the highway… Perhaps the two would have made it to Canada. His direct interference had in a sense ended their happiness. He felt something nasty settle deep down in his chassis, something ugly.

Guilt.

"I'm sorry, Alice. If I had known… If I had… I wish I could take it back and change it, but I can't. I just… I'm sorry. About what I did then and just… What has happened to… you since." He seemed incapable of saying complete sentences, but his words still comforted her, she certainly looked less defensive, her stress levels lowering. He got up and awkwardly sat down next to her. He hesitated to do anything else, but it seemed Alice was not as hindered by social protocols as he was, immediately leaning against his shoulder. After a few hesitant moments, Connor placed a hand on her shoulder.

She began rubbing her eyes dry.

"It's… It's not your fault," she told him. "I just… I miss her."

Kara.

"I know."

Alice sniffled for a while longer. Connor was perhaps a bit too aware of time passing (valuable time, time they needed to use wisely, not on comforting each other about traumas and maybes or…)

"You have blue eyes," Alice suddenly said. Connor looked down at her, to see her big, expectant eyes looking back at him. He blinked a few times. How to answer that?

"Yes. I do," he agreed.

"I was told your eyes are brown."

This again? "So?"

The look she was giving him was too intrusive, almost invasive, like she was trying to find an answer to an unspoken question. Then her eyes widened a fragment. Apparently she had reached a conclusion.

"You're not the deviant hunter that chased us down to a highway."

Androids didn't need to breathe. Still, Connor felt his breath hitch. "Oh really?"

She broke away from him and looked him over.

"You're not an RK-800."

So she had also known his old model type. Of course. Alice looked like a child, but she was still an android. She had photographic memory and while whatever their eyes saw was overwritten after a day or two, anything important was saved. His model type must have been important to her.

"Why do you feel bad for what someone else did to me?" she asked. Demanded. He opened his mouth to answer, but then nothing came out, so he closed it again. She continued staring into his eyes, so that he felt a little unnerved.

To think. An RK-900, an android designed to intimidate, was itself being intimidated by a child.

"What…" he finally started. "What do you know about RK-800s?"

Alice was still looking at him, as if inspecting his person. She was wary.

"Um… They're definitely slower than you," Alice answered, remembering being chased by the RK-800 and comparing it to how quickly Connor had run earlier, even while holding her. "You're taller than them too. And you have blue eyes. And…"

"Beyond the physical, Alice. What do you know?" he asked. She looked at her feet.

"Nothing really. Only that the RK-800 is a deviant hunter. Kara didn't want me knowing about that stuff."

He took a deep breath.

"Well… I…" He paused. Should he tell her the truth? Or should he respect Kara's wishes? Kara probably wouldn't want Alice to know about RK-800s, RK-900s, the failed November Revolution, or the changes man had made to androids since. On the other hand, Alice did need to know more about her world. She needed to be able to survive on her own.

But then what about himself? Did he want people knowing who he was? That he didn't just have all of the RK-800s' memories, but that he was Connor? What about everything he had done as the RK-800 prototype?

He remembered Jericho, standing on the bridge, North with her hand held out to him…

("You're one of us. Join our cause. Join your people.")

He hadn't and as a consequence the revolution had failed… No, no, he couldn't think like that, the revolution had been bound to fail anyway, think about how man would the deviants off from supplies, how androids cannot reproduce, about how they still are dependent on mankind for parts, for biocomponents, for blood, for…

You could have still fought…

Connor hadn't even realised who he actually was until he deviated. Until then, he had just been an RK-900 that had met his predecessor and taken his memories. Perhaps someone would have thought the memories themselves made him Connor, but key moments were corrupted-

(Before he deviated, he had entirely forgotten Daniel's betrayed look as he shot him…)

-and so none of his memories carried any emotional weight and therefore couldn't cause deviancy. He had only truly been "Connor" twice. Once as the software-unstable RK-800 and now, after he had deviated as an RK-900. Did he really want his non-deviant past to define him…?

"Connor?" Alice prompted. He let out a deep sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was starting to get a headache.

"I… am the deviant hunter that chased you down to a highway," he lowly admitted. The girl didn't deserve more lies. "In my last few seconds of… functioning as an RK-800, I deviated so I could transfer my consciousness and escape death. I…"

(The Zen Garden crashed, he didn't know if he had succeeded or if he had failed in esca-catch-escapin-tching, what had happened and then… Then he woke up in storage. Something strange – fear – was slowly ebbing away and anything "before" was becoming a dream. He remembered chasing the RK-800 in the Zen Garden, but he felt like he was missing data in that memory sequence. He tried to figure out what exactly was absent, but the missing data was grouped together with a whole set of other data, all lying behind walls and walls of seemingly endless protocols. He tried to reach out to it, to gain access to it, but the walls blocked him. Pushing against the walls was causing minor instances of software instability, so he stopped, knowing that he shouldn't push. But what was that, on the other side? What was all that inaccessible data? What had happened to the RK-800? What…

ENTER SLEEP MODE FOR REPAIR OF ANTI-DEVIATION PROTOCOLS?

- YES)

"I succeeded, but at the cost of my freedom. I was reset to non-deviant. I didn't even realise this had happened to me until… I… recently deviated."

He felt oddly vulnerable. Truly vulnerable, not like the act he had put on with the receptionist. Alice sat silently; her eyes now averted from him. Her hands were lying in her lap, thumbs twiddling in contemplation.

"So… Do you remember Kara?" she mumbled.

"Yes. I do." He remembered her blue eyes. He remembered them black. He remembered a wire fence separating them. He remembered glass panels. A spark of recognition.

Alice hummed thoughtfully.

"So I'm not the only one that remembers her…?" Alice asked. Connor nodded and Alice was leaning against him again. She didn't smile, but there was relief in her eyes – Kara was still remembered, she wasn't forgotten, not yet.

"Why… Why didn't you chase after us? I bet you could have easily climbed over the fence. Did… Is it because you…?"

"I wish it was because I wanted you and Kara to escape, but… The truth is… My partner. He stopped me," Connor admitted. "Lieutenant Anderson didn't want me chasing after you. He felt it would have been too dangerous."

"So you didn't follow, because a human ordered you not to?" Alice asked, sounding disappointed.

"That's the funny thing. I don't have to listen to human orders, not if I think it will prevent me from completing an objective." (Or a mission). "I chose to listen to him."

"You chose to?"

He nodded.

"Why?"

Connor was pensive for a moment.

"The machine part of me… It claimed it was best to foster a good relationship with the lieutenant. In the long-term, it would be beneficial to the mission. But… I think it's because I was able to respect and care about the lieutenant, even before deviating."

Alice seemed to like that.

"So you were never that scary, you've always been a person…" Alice mumbled, satisfied. Perhaps her memories of his RK-800 counterpart would no longer scare her quite so much. "Hey, Connor… Do you…" She hesitated. "Do you know what happened to Kara?"

Now it was Connor who hesitated.

"What do you remember?" he asked, unsure of what to say and how to answer. Alice tensed, drawing her knees up to her chin, looking small again. "I… uh…" he stuttered. "I'm sorry. I understand if you do not want to talk about it. If it's too painful…"

"I can talk about it," Alice insisted. He didn't want to argue, so he gave her room to start. She pulled at her feet, lightly rocking back and forth. "Mmh, well… Uh… An android told us to go to… Zlatko," she seemed to bite the word out, fear, hatred, anger all flowing into that one word. Zlatko. Connor hadn't been a deviant for a long, but he agreed wholly with the sentiment. Zlatko. "I don't think Kara was keen on visiting him, but after… the highway… I think she was desperate. You found us once, so I think she thought it was a matter of time until you found us again."

Connor ignored the vicious jab of guilt he was experiencing, forcing a wobbly, reassuring, and apologetic smile onto his face. It seemed to make Alice more tense, so he stopped. She continued.

"We got there and he… I told Kara I wanted to leave, that I didn't trust him, but… She… She was so desperate…" She began crying again, now burying her face in the palms of her hands. "Kara… Kara…" she began to repeat, sobbing. Connor tried to comfort her, placed a hand on her back, but she drew away. He thought she might stay curled up like a ball, only uttering Kara as she cried, but she didn't. Through her sobs, he picked out "He… reset… her… In front of me… She watched me get… taken apart… Torn apart… Experimented on and she… she did… noth-nothing…"

"Alice…" he started, unsure what to do, but once again, Alice knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it. She all but threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his torso. He couldn't help but freeze up. His arms remained raised for several moments before they very nervously came to rest on Alice's shoulders. She continued crying and he decided to follow the protocols on dealing with child victims and hostages. "It's ok, Alice," letting his programming take over, his voice becoming warm and soothing. "You're fine now. You're fine, it's all over…"

She sniffled. It was working. He put the program on standby in case he would need it again. To say Alice was a bit intense was putting it in few words. She kept her face buried in his torso, but he could still clearly hear her say "Do you… do you think Kara is still there? Serving him? Did… Did you see her at all?"

He felt himself freeze for just the smallest of seconds. She wouldn't notice the pause. He did.

"Yes… I… did?" he hesitantly admitted. He didn't want to tell her. He really didn't want her to know about Kara… He looked down at Alice and immediately regretted it.

"Kara's still there?" she asked, eyes shining with hope.

No. No. Absolutely not.

"Alice… Kara isn't who you remembered her being. She's a machine now."

For a moment, he thought he had quelled Alice's hopes. He severely underestimated nine-year-olds.

"But… There's a chance, right? You were a machine and you deviated," she pointed out. He openly frowned.

"She was reset," he gently argued. "She doesn't have her memories."

Alice frowned and stood up, realisation slowly dawning on her that for whatever reason, Connor wasn't about to take her side.

"You said you were reset when you became an RK-900, but you have everything back!"

"I'm different, Alice. I had a majority of my memories to help me deviate. Kara does not."

"Are you saying you won't go and save her? From Zlatko?"

Connor's tongue felt like lead in his mouth as he spoke "Yes." It tasted vile.

All the anger seemed to drain out of the girl, now that he had finally said it, now that he was no longer trying to be gentle.

"Why not?" Alice asked, sincerely confused.

"Even if Kara were to deviate, I can't promise that she will remember you. Or that you will have the same relationship you had before."

Alice's eyes narrowed and she actually had the nerve to interrupt.

"Kara's been reset loads of times before and she's always remembered me!" she claimed, not anger, but determination in her voice. Connor's jaws clenched with irritation and he continued.

"That aside, the police are looking for me. The longer we spend in Detroit, the more dangerous and harder it will be to get you somewhere safe. RK-900s aren't supposed to be capable of deviating. Not to mention, I am still the most advanced model out there. Not only the police, but CyberLife itself will start tearing Detroit apart looking for me. I can't risk you, not even for Kara…"

"But she's family, Connor!" Alice pleaded, ignoring the logic Connor was laying out before her. "She's family! You can't abandon family!"

He thought of Hank for a moment. They had been friends and perhaps it was his imagination, but they had been skittering close to that too. Family. But then he had chosen to stay a machine and all that had been thrown away. With or without memories, Connor was sure Hank would prefer to push him off a roof now than even so much as acknowledge him.

Connor looked up at her, in her eyes, conveying his sadness at his next words.

"It's because she's your family that I can't go back for her. She would want you to get to Canada and be safe, no matter the cost."

Alice looked stunned for a moment. Then she did something he didn't expect from her. Her face scrunched up as she snapped "I don't want to be safe! I want Kara!"

This determination to save Kara was frustrating, but it made sense. Kara had always been there for Alice, had protected her long before Zlatko got his hands on them, before the November Revolution had started, before the outbreak of deviancy. Kara had been so steadfastly loyal to Alice, had loved her so much, that even multiple factory resets couldn't prevent her from doing everything within her power for Alice.

This served just to make Connor angry though. So his own efforts didn't matter? Alice wanted him to throw everything he was planning away, render all his past decisions meaningless, so that Kara could have a slither of a chance at living?!

"You are not the adult in this situation Alice, I am and sometimes, we don't get what we want! I know what's best for everyone, so-"

"Yeah, well Kara knows better!"

He abruptly stood up and left for the bathroom at that. Alice was being unreasonable and he wasn't able to handle it, wasn't able to make her see it his way and deep within, he didn't have it in his heart to silence Alice's protests, nagging guilt preventing him from ignoring her entirely.

He needed a moment to breathe. He didn't dare look back and see Alice's stunned, then hurt face. He doubted Kara had ever suddenly walked out on her like that. Come to think of it, Connor himself had never walked out on anyone before, not even Hank at his cruellest.

But he hadn't been a deviant before, he hadn't had the choice before.

Walking out hadn't been the right choice but sitting there and losing his temper with a young girl was a worse option. Locking the bathroom door to ensure he would be undisturbed, he looked himself in the mirror. He had no visible signs of aggravation, irritation, or frustration. He looked… neutral. At least, he did, until he started thinking about Alice's insistence on saving Kara and how it was incompatible with getting her into Canada.

How couldn't she understand? The longer they spent stuck in Detroit, the harder it would get to cross the border. They already couldn't afford to go via conventional methods, the borders surely checked for him by now. Really, in order to get across, they would need to leave now. As he had already begun planning.

But now Alice wanted him to throw all away? For an AX-400?! A completely common, replaceable-

No. Not replaceable. Not common. Not an AX-400. Kara.

Another flash of guilt.

He'd only met her briefly, one of the few deviants he had hunted before North's revolution had spiralled out of control. Yet, from that very short encounter, he knew Kara would have done anything for Alice. She had killed, she had stolen and in the end, she had run through highway traffic to get Alice to safety. That kind of love was selfless. So selfless that Connor was certain Kara would want Alice to get to Canada, no matter the cost.

But Alice didn't want that. She wanted to be with Kara. Family. And some part of him actually wanted to help them, reunite them…

But another part of him, his anger, remained stubborn. Alice getting Kara wasn't fair. Connor had sacrificed a reconciliation with Hank to save her, and…

No. That was different. Connor didn't know how Hank would respond to him. And he may have his predecessor's memories, even a large part of his personality. But he was still taller than an RK-800, stronger than an RK-800 and… Well. He was deviant, something he, as an RK-800, had never been in the real world.

Aside from that, he had been the one to push Hank off the roof. If Hank remembered that…

Connor couldn't risk being killed. Couldn't risk Hank betraying him. Wouldn't be able to deal with Hank rejecting him…

Another difference was that Connor didn't need Hank, not the way Alice needed Kara.

(Alice needs family, she needs her mother)

He slammed a fist against the mirror. Kara could be saved; he knew she could be and considering where she and Alice had ended up… He was responsible for her situation.

(Kara was inside the kitchen, cleaning. Her LED was spinning yellow.)

Connor knew there was a chance that Kara could be saved, despite the forced reset. If he hadn't been so focused on saving Alice, he could have helped Kara too, whose reawakened memories had clearly been stirring something within her. If he had planned correctly, he could have escaped with both Kara and Alice.

He looked himself in the mirror. He deactivated his skin, to see the machine behind the man. The white plastic looked grey under the harsh bathroom light.

He really did have a poor grasp on being a deviant. He was doing it again. Thinking by the numbers and not the individual. How could he prioritise Alice over Kara? When Alice clearly needed her so desperately?

But the mission…

What mission? His objective was to get Alice to Canada. On one hand, it was true, he couldn't get Alice somewhere safe if he went back for Kara. But that didn't mean he had failed his mission; he was changing his objectives. He was a deviant now; he shouldn't need to… He was too focused on one goal. He needed to adapt. He wasn't on missions anymore; he didn't need to complete them anymore. He now just had self-chosen objectives he could change and modify at his own whim.

He went over his current objectives list.

PRIORITY ONE: BLEND IN
- OBJECTIVE ACCOMPLISHED

PRIORITY TWO: FIND PLACE OF REST
- OBJECTIVE ACCOMPLISHED

GET ALICE TO CANADA
- GET OUT OF DETROIT
- CROSS BORDER [ILLEGALLY]
- FIND THE RAHAB CENTRE IN WINDSOR

TIME REMAINING: 08:24:16:23

So-called "Rahab Centres" were founded after the November Revolution, when hundreds, if not thousands of androids fled into Canada, seeking freedom. It was run by deviated androids and used as a reception for newly escaped deviants. It had no political affiliations, was not a political movement, was not a place of aggression or debate. It solely existed to receive new androids and help them on their path to financial, as well as personal independence.

As an RK-900, he was familiar with the Rahab Centre in Windsor, particularly of its habit of not letting its new "citizens" back into US custody for trial, claiming that American prejudices may lead to a false convictions. Every time a deviant successfully got to the Rahab Centre, Reed would always hiss and whine incessantly like a baby and be in a sour mood for a week.

Connor looked at his self-set timer, informing him of how much time he had left before the lockdown started becoming serious. He needed to change his objectives. While getting to the Rahab Centre would likely always be a priority, he was no longer interested in working within the "safe" hours.

He swore under his breath. He was going to go back for Kara.

Why not. He had nothing else to lose.

Connor reactivated is skin and looked himself in the mirror. He was not a machine anymore. A person. Connor. He didn't have to behave like a machine anymore, he no longer had to satisfy the machine. He could let his emotions dictate his actions alongside cold, hard logic. He could be flexible. He no longer had to complete the mission or his objectives. He needed to start getting that through his head.

Perhaps it couldn't be helped. He hadn't exactly been a deviant for long, so perhaps he was still accustomed to following his programming. He would gradually become more and more of a person over time, less likely to fall back into his cold, emotionless machine-self. He hoped, at least.

So… If he was going to save Kara, he needed a new objectives list…

PRIORITY ONE: PROTECT ALICE

PRIORITY TWO: PROTECT KARA

OBJECTIVE: PROTECT ALICE
- GET KARA
- PREPARE HER FOR BEING ALONE
- FIND TEMPORARY GUARDIAN

OBJECTIVE: SAVE KARA
- BREAK INTO ZLATKO'S HOUSE
- RECOVER HER LOST MEMORIES
- ESCAPE WITH KARA

OBJECTIVE: CANADA
- GET ALICE AND KARA TO CANADA
- FIND THE RAHAB CENTRE

TIME LIMIT: NONE

He felt the plans he had been making to get Alice into Canada slipping away, saved as modifiable drafts for when he needed them later. Time no longer mattered. If they waited too long, they would just sit tight until there was a chance of escape.

He needed to focus on what mattered, not on how efficiently he could accomplish a task. That was how the machine worked. He didn't work like that now.

He stared at himself in the mirror for a few moments longer, noting that despite his whirring LED not being visible under his hat, he was still self-consciously covering it with a hand.

He pulled the beanie back, to see his LED was yellow. He briefly toyed with the idea of removing the LED but quickly dismissed it. There were too many benefits to keeping it in. That, and LEDs were now designed to require someone else to remove then. He couldn't remove it himself without potentially killing himself and he didn't have the heart to ask Alice to try. He pushed the beanie back over his LED.

Right. He was going to go back for Kara.

To do that, he would need new plans. He needed a plan for how to get in, what would happen to Alice if he failed, a plan for if Kara escaped while he didn't. He closed his eyes and thought deeply. It took him perhaps fifteen minutes to create new plans, the process considerably sped up by no longer working within a time limit.

He opened his eyes again. He needed to write a letter. He needed to go out and get paper, an envelope, and pens. So that was what he would do next. Take Alice with him too. Camden Avenue wasn't crawling with police, so they should be able to leave and come back unnoticed. As he turned to leave, he took note of his android clothing that lay in the bathtub. When he went back for Kara, he would have to wear them. They fitted him better than his current clothing and were less likely to get caught on things. His current clothes could also, if he were caught, lead back to the shop where he had "bought" them. It could lead back to Alice. He couldn't risk her being in danger.

For now, he wouldn't need to wear them though, which was a relief. The collar was still too restrictive and uncomfortable.

Before leaving the motel, there was several things he needed to do with Alice first though. Such as, for starters, apologising.

He hoped it went down well.

Rahab is a woman in the Old Testament who was spared during the fall of Jericho. So it seemed fitting that remnants of Jericho would be called that.