I was tempted to make this its own chapter, since its so long, but decided against it, since it covers largely the same material. So have a long Connor Extra!

gotta have the weird chapter title cause, once again fanfiction wont let me have a . or a / in a title...

[back to using it for connor and all androids...hope to deal with that soon ;)]

"Talking"

Emphasis

Thinking

"Android brain talking and texting"

.:internal workings like mission updates, scanning, and android googling:.

Chap 9.5

The deviant was charging. Connor had Lt. Anderson's gun trained on it.

The night had started eventful enough. Getting the "Mysterious Death in Connection w/ an Android" report very late in the evening, Connor, who hadn't reported back to Cyberlife yet, made its way over to the Lieutenant's house to collect him.

But he didn't answer the door...Connor held down the doorbell longer than was strictly necessary but it was at its wits end when it came to that man; it couldn't go to the crime scene without him but he never seemed all that interested in doing his job in a timely fashion. It made its way around the house, the downpour making its steps squish in the mud, to find a route into the house to find its uncooperative partner. Smashing the window upon finding Lt. Anderson unconscious on the kitchen floor and coming face to face with Sumo, the man's dog, Connor got the man sober...er, cleaned up, and interested in the case; learning that Lt. Anderson had a son and has suicidal tendencies along the way. The two of them made their way to the club, though Connor questioned the legality of the lieutenant diving in his current state, so it took the driver's seat before its partner could even try.

They found a strangled man in one of the private rooms in the club, a shutdown android in the corner. Detective Reed and Officer Miller were already on scene; Reed was an ass, as the lieutenant said, and left. Miller followed him out, apologizing. The android was reactivated and questioned leading to a frantic search for eye witnesses among the androids in the club; the trail led to the back warehouse.

There were two of them, two Tracies; one tackled Connor, eventually stabbing it in the hand, the other attacking Lt. Anderson his gun scattering across the floor as Connor and the Tracie it was fighting fell out the garage door. The two ganged up on Connor, Anderson put out of commission temporarily, and it fought them both off

It grabbed the gun

The deviant was charging. Connor had Lt. Anderson's gun trained on it

But it couldn't shoot.

It took a very high heel to the face instead. Listening them justify the murder as self defense, Connor watched them get away...it let them go. Lt. Anderson told it "maybe it was better this way."

Now they were in a park overlooking the city and Lt. Anderson held a gun to Its head.

"I could kill you. And you would come back as if nothing happened. But are you afraid to die, Connor?"

Cassian will have to scrape it again if Anderson shot.

"I would certainly find it regrettable to be...interrupted...before i can finish this investigation."

Connor didn't want to die.

"What will happen if I pulled this trigger? Nothing? Oblivion? Android heaven?"

It didn't want to die.

"Nothing...there would be nothing."

He didn't want to die.

For a second, it looked like the man was going to shoot, but after a tense moment and a glare, Anderson lowered his arm and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"To get drunker! I need to think."

Connor should have stopped the man from getting behind that wheel but his mission changed,

.:Mission Update: Return to Cyberlife for repairs:.

One last look as Anderson drove off and Connor called a cab; he had his mission...but that wasn't why connor was going to the tower.

He needed to talk to Cassian.

The cab ride to the Cyberlife was hectic, ice and snow made the roads nearly impossible for even an automated cab to navigate. If the roads were dicey, the bridge was a death trap; the cab nearly didn't make its way across it because of the winds; stopping a few times during the strongest gusts.

.:Mission Update: Return to Cyberlife for repairs:.

Luckily the person he needed to talk to was the one who would be repairing him.

Or maybe not.

Cassian was walking out of the building, two RX700s behind her. Her uniform was crisp and perfect but her fiery hair was falling out of its bun; it always seemed to do that after she was done with a job, Connor had noticed. But something was wrong tonight; she was hurrying towards the exit, the two behind her looking around erratically. Although she smiled at him, Cassian walked straight past him.

"Cassian?"

She stopped, not looking at him, the RX700s walking a few steps past her before stopping as well.

"Go to the car. You will receive your orders there." After a second of hesitation, the RX700s made their way outside. Cassian turned towards him, smiling. Her eye held a glint of something that Connor couldn't define, but it gave her smile an edge that intrigued him. He was so distracted by her smile, he starts when she began speaking.

"Good to see you again, Connor. Is it safe to assume you were heading to my workspace to get that fixed?" Her eyes soften, her smile turning nearly playful, the hard glint in her eye replaced with sad exasperation, "What did you do this time?"

He had honestly forgotten about his hand; it wasn't a mortal wound and wasn't interfering with the movement of his hand, his confrontation with Lt. Anderson in the park and his need to talk to Cassian had blocked it out. Connor looked at his hand, lightly wondering at the fact that he only ever talked to the woman in front of him if he was hurt. I should change that…

"Oh...yes, I was stabbed...in pursuit of a deviant." His eyes trails up from his hand, over Cassian's shoulder, to the retreating figures, already out in the snow, making their way across the parking lot; Connor's systems vaguely notes that they weren't going in the direction of any cars he had seen in the lot. An urgency, something almost akin to panic, fills him, "Are you leaving?" Why was she leaving? To his knowledge she never left the tower. "I needed to talk to you."

Cassian's eyes follow his to the two outside, "I have been ordered to take these two RX700s to processing in a Cyberlife store. It is not safe for a human to be out in this weather but they are expected there tomorrow morning at the latest. I really must go; I have called in one of our mechanics, they will be with you as soon as the weather lightens up." Without even waiting for a response, she turns to leave.

.:Mission Update: Return to Cyberlife for repairs:.

Before he could think, her arm was in Connor's hand and she was spun to face him, their chests nearly touching. She was looking up at him with those large eyes, LED blinking red at her temple. His voice came out softly and pleading, "Please, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important…"

Cassian moves closer to him, mouth opening, as if to say something, her eyes gleaming. Connor would never know what she was about to say.

"STOP THAT DEVIANT!"

Whipping his head to the side, Connor saw a man in basic combat gear pointing a gun at them...no...at Cassian. Connor stood there stunned: what was happening?

A soft but angry, "Fuck…" draws him out of his thoughts and suddenly small hands were on his chest and he was falling over a railing. His hand instinctively shoots out to stop his fall, shoulder wrenching a little bit as he comes to a sudden halt. Climbing back up over onto solid ground, he watches as Cassian sprints through a hail of bullets out the door, none of them hitting her, miraculously.

Connor just watches her run away.

"What are you doing? After it!" he hears from behind him and he doesn't even look back as he watches his mission change.

.:Mission Update [Priority]: Capture or kill the deviant:.

Kill Cassian?

His body was already moving out the door at a dead sprint.

Cassian's small figure was making its way down the bank to the river, barely visible through the snow. Connor leaps over a car in his way, deeming going around too slow and reaches the top of the slope as she was taking a few hesitant steps onto the ice.

"Cassian!" She was going to get herself killed!

Cassian darts forward, abandoning safety for speed, her hair whipping around her head in the wind, bright copper seeming to shimmer against the dark gray air. Connor didn't think twice; he was already launching himself down the bank and onto the ice. He had to stop her; he wouldn't kill her, he couldn't, but maybe he could convince her to go back with him, convince the guard it was just a just a misunderstanding.

Finding Cassian in this snow was proving difficult but eventually he saw her in a break in the snow.

"Cassian wait!"

He honestly didn't expect her to stop. He didn't expect the anger in her eyes either; her red LED was lighting up the side of her face...he didn't expect the gun.

Where did she get a gun?

"Don't come any closer!"

Connor stops, hands already up slightly, thinking about his options.

"Cassian, I don't want to hurt you."

She knew about his predictive capabilities, she had to know she probably wouldn't hit if she shot. Nonetheless, her eyes narrow, her grip on the handle steadies.

"No, you just want to turn me over to the people who do want to kill me, who tried to kill me tonight."

"What?!"

They had tried to scrap her...that had to be the trigger for this behavior, this wasn't Cassian; it was them. She continues, the gun in her hand now shaking with anger.

"All those 'glitches,' all those 'freezes,' we're just me covering up my 'deviant behavior'; as if being Alive is so wrong...somehow, no one suspected for years," years? "even tonight they didn't know! They all thought I was just faulty. And I guess that Dick decided tonight was the night they were going to cut Nancy out of the equation and kill me against her wishes: get the glitchy robot out of the office. I had to get out of there and my sisters wanted to come with me."

Sisters...the two RX700s from Cassian's office…

"Even you would kill me, if you had suspected." Cassian's voice wobbles as she begins to cry, "Just like that android all those months ago...just like the deviant tonight-"

Connor couldn't stand her looking at him like that anymore, as if she truly hated him; he couldn't stand the thought that maybe she did...

"I let them go!" he blurted out.

"...what?" the disbelief in her voice was evident...Connor needed her to believe him; this was what he had needed to talk to her about after all. His next words were so soft, he wasn't sure she could hear him.

"The deviants tonight...I let them go…"

"Why?" Again, disbelief but her tone softened

"I-I don't know...that's what I wanted to talk to you about…I had a gun trained on them and...I couldn't. Hank said maybe it was better off this way, that they really seemed in love, but...I'm a deviant hunter! And I let a deviant get away...willingly!"

I let a deviant get away...I could just let Cassian get away...

The gun dropped from Cassian's hand, its clatter oddly loud in the roaring wind, startling Connor out of his treasonous thoughts. Before he knew it, she was standing right in front of him again, eyes looking up at him expectantly. He had no idea what to say to her; he just felt lost, entranced, watching snowflakes settle on Cassian's eyelashes.

Cassian breathed his name, reaching out for him; her always warm hands finding his cheek. Panic again settled in his chest as she collapsed in his arms, fingers connected to his temple as if welded. The seconds felt like hours before she opened her eyes again, blinking against the wind. Her LED has been a constant red the whole time.

"Cassian! Are you alright?" Her eyes found his, as lost as he felt but alive.

Alive. Cassian is Alive.

Connor shook his head to clear the thought, it wasn't possible, but it stayed put, burning in his mind. He distracted himself from it by worrying about her safety

"Cassian, can you hear me? We have to get you back to the lab, get Dr. Ashbury to look at you."

"No…" Her voice was soft and uncertain.

"Cassian, please…"

"I cant!" Sounding much more resolute, she shoves him away, stumbling out of his grasp, despite how hard he tried to hold onto her, "I can't."

"Cassian, it's not too late to go back."

"Why didn't you mention me in any of your reports?"

"What?"

"Amanda said you didn't mention me…"

Amanda?

"You met Amanda? How?"

A breathless laugh escapes Cassian, "If I knew, I would tell you...I didn't even know she was in there…" she taps her own forehead, "so why?"

Connor didn't know, not really.

"She didn't need to know; it wasn't pertinent to the case."

Cassian didn't look convinced.

"She sounded like she knew everything about you. So why didn't she know about me?"

"She didn't need to know…"

"Connor…"

"I didn't want to tell her!" He hadn't meant to say that; it just burst out. He hadn't meant to, but he continued anyway, "She would have discourage fraternizing and I hadn't figured you out yet."

"Figured me out?" her tone sounded so natural, as if they were back in her office, talking about his latest injury.

"Yes, you. Why I felt a need to talk to you, why trips to the mechanic weren't unpleasant when you were there and when you weren't there they were unbearable, why my system tended to freeze when you smiled. I couldn't figure out any of it."

"Oh…" Cassian sounded as if he had answered her question, when all he felt was confused he.

"I would have never figured you out if she had known, so I kept you from her…"

"Well...she knows now...which means...you can't let me go, they'll kill you."

The "I am not Alive, they can't kill me." that came from his mouth felt automatic, he wasn't 100% sure if he was right anymore. Connor searched her eyes for answers, unsure if she had them. She was close to him once more, hands firmly on his cheeks; he readies himself to catch her should she fall again.

"Connor, everything will be alright, ok?"

Maybe she did have the answers. Unbidden, his eyes close and he rests his head on hers. He trusted her. She's crying and that was the last thing he knew, all his systems shutting down in a forced standby.

He woke up alone late the next morning, legs covered in snow, underneath the bridge. With the storm blown over, he could see the Cyberlife tower piercing the crystalline sky on the other side of the icy river. In his hand was the quarter he thought he had lost not too long ago and an android LED; he knew immediately whos it was.

Cassian had knocked him out somehow and left this behind. Why? To mock him? To remind him that she had gotten away? He quickly dismissed those ideas; Cassian wasn't like that...though who was he to say what she was like. He knew her but hadn't even known she was deviant. For years she had said, long before they had met. He thought of the reasons for deviancy: irrational commands, erratic behavior...none of that fit Cassian; She had done her work, everyday, without fail, even though she wasn't forced by her system. This counteracted everything he had been going off of for his cases…

She had been crying...

Connor felt the Garden's pull and for once he resisted; he was unsure what he was going to report about tonight. The pull suddenly increased in strength, dragging him under.

Standing before him, when he awoke in the bright sunlight of his mind, was a very angry Amanda.

"Connor." her tone dripped with disappointment, "I had the most interesting visitor this morning...shortly before you were forcibly shut down. Can you explain this to me?"

"I can't, Amanda. I was chasing a deviant when-it shut me down, somehow."

"It said it was your friend. Is this so?"

Friend?

Lying to Amanda would only make things worse, "I knew-it. It worked in the android maintenance office; with all of my earlier injuries, we met quite a few times."

"Enough for it to consider you its friend."

"It would seem so." Connor wonders at that silently; Cassian had thought he was her friend. Maybe that was the answer to the mystery of her.

"Why had I not known about it?"

"It wasn't pertinent to my cases until earlier this morning; I did not see the need to inform you of every android I came across."

Amanda accepted this explanation much more readily than Cassian had, though she still looked very disappointed, "You must be careful, these deviants are getting more and more desperate."

"Of course, Amanda."

"Report back to Cyberlife to repair that hand, then get back to work. You must finish this."

Opening his eyes, Connor was sure of one thing:

With Cassian gone, he was going to have to find answers on his own.

AN: the it to he/she switch is a subconscious one: it's not like connor's going "androids are people!" at this point in time. It's his evolving deviancy beginning to show.

He does, however, feel that Cassian is Alive, though he may not believe it quite yet.

Sorry to those in the PST timezone with me, I tend to publish these really early in the morning cause thats when I'm awake. I post them right before i go to bed...perfect for those of you on the other side of the world tho!

Review time!

GayMexicanBatman: glad you're enjoying it! (love your name btw!)