AN: I first want to thank every single one of you for your love and support. I know that I took a long break and I'm so thankful that you were all so considerate and kind to me regarding this. I am so happy to finally be closing this story and I hope that you enjoy these last few chapters. I also wanted to say that I have been receiving many dms on fanfic asking if it would be alright to draw fanart for my story, and all I can say is holy crap I don't deserve that but yes please I'd love to showcase your art here in this story if you'd like to! 3

These last few chapters are all unbeta'd but I hope you enjoy them all the same.

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

Except that was much easier said than done. God, why did Perkins have to act like he'd shoved that metaphorical pole up his own ass just to have an excuse to be horrible to everyone?

I was currently helping North and Chloe push the cement slabs around Hart Plaza into a circle to act as a sort of flimsy barrier, while Simon, Josh and Markus worked together to push dead vehicles into the middle.

The little time it took to do so - mainly because North and Chloe were unbelievably strong - had me enviously wishing I had their own muscles. The girls never broke a sweat, although that was in part because they didn't perspire at all. Man, Cyberlife sure had figured out the best way to optimize humanity's flaws. Were it possible, I'd certainly replace my sweat glands with whatever it took to stop dripping all over the place.

As we dragged the last cement slab into place, I swiped my jacket sleeve across my forehead and let out a sigh.

North took one look at me and raised a red brow. "You're shining. Sucks to suck."

Chloe barely fought back a smile at her comment, her glacial gaze vibrant in the street lights above us. She said, "I do not have any water with me but should the need arise there is plenty of snow around."

I awkwardly nodded and looked down at the ground. The snow was building up but I wasn't sure I was at that level of dehydrated for a snow-quencher. "Not the most appetizing slushie but good idea," I said.

North rolled her eyes as Chloe giggled at that. A tinge of blue colored her cheeks as she snubbed her nose at me. "So," she began. "You chose to help us and not tag along with the deviant hunter? I'm not going to say I don't appreciate it and all but are you certain this was the best decision?"

I followed the two girls as they set to dragging over trash cans upright into the circle. "What do you mean?" I asked, gripping the cold metal body between my fingers.

North said, "With the way things are going, do you really think we can win? Peacefully, I mean."

Glancing toward Markus, who was moving around the camp to check up on his people, I thought back on everything that had happened since Jericho. No, since before that. All the way back to the days we'd shared together with Carl. Covered in paint and basking in the sunlight filtering in through the floor-to-ceiling windows. To the moments when he'd displayed a heart purer than any other I'd known. That was until I'd met Connor of course, but maybe I was being biased there.

Without hesitation, I said, "Markus will be the tipping point in that equation." Though he'd told his people that they would fight without violence for their freedom, there was still a chance that blood could be spilled tonight. I knew without a doubt that he would do all in his power to refrain from inciting a battle against the humans, for he believed in Carl's loving mercy for the world. But self-defense? I didn't know how he meant to handle that should it come to it.

North considered me for a moment, her expression unreadable. Finally, she reached out and laced her fingers with Chloe's. "If it were up to me I'd rip them limb from limb," she murmured. Chloe's forehead wrinkled with worry lines. "Markus is too soft on them. But...if the road he takes leads to our freedom then I can't very well say no, can I?"

Before I could even reconsider my own actions, I had reached out and wrapped North into a hug. One that wasn't reciprocated, for she immediately stiffened at my touch. "I wish I could be as steadfast as you," I told her, letting down my walls. "For too long, I've followed orders without question. Now I can see that sometimes being a loyal soldier is equally as important as a leader. Markus needs you all more than he'll admit." Then I let go of the frazzled North, who was twitching as if her wirings had been fried, and I headed over to talk to Markus.

I pushed Connor and Hank away from my mind and thought instead of what was to come.

Just as I neared the leader of the resistance, Emma's phone chimed in my pocket. My traitorous heart fluttered at the possibility of talking to Connor. Perhaps he'd messaged me to apologize for kissing me earlier, an apology for which I wouldn't accept. I'd wanted that for far too long. Oh. Yeah, how on earth was that conversation supposed to go after that? I allowed myself a second to relish in feeling like I was a young girl again, completely caught up in my infatuations and hopes for the future. Nothing wrong with that, I told myself.

Markus turned around as I unlocked her phone. "It's getting late," he commented. "How are your family? They should be out of the city by now."

It was nearly ten o'clock, and we were still finding different ways to strengthen our makeshift camp with more vehicles, cement slabs and supplies. Markus carried a flag with him bearing his symbol of the resistance, but so far he'd yet to erect it for the public to see. Knowing him, he'd want it to be the focal point of his movement. There was still time left before he displayed it.

I shrugged. "Mom's the same as ever. But yeah, they probably are." Strange, I couldn't find the message that had supposedly been delivered to her phone. Nothing in her messages, except for a rather impressive mountain of concerned texts asking if she was alright from her online friends and fans. Em's animations were unlike anything I'd seen, so it made sense that she'd have earned a devout fanbase, but I hadn't realized just how popular she was. Was this enough of a following to be considered a celebrity? I hoped so. Em was the most darling little sister there was. Of course she was popular, I mean she was my sister.

Pride made me smile the biggest, dumbest smile I'd made in a long time. Markus chuckled and said, "Oh? Pray tell me that's good news. I could use some now."

"Then you'll have to wait until you see my sister's work," I beamed, scrolling through dozens of excited messages like a proud mother hen displaying the beautiful feathers of her young. Then I felt bad for snooping. Well, I was her big sister. I had to protect her from internet creeps, I reasoned. "Huh, weird. I could've sworn she got a text just now."

Markus moved to take the phone from me and frowned. "You would be correct."

I sighed. "Yeah but where is it? Was it just spam that wasn't accepted or something? Her phone can't be this hard to navigate - I'm not an old grandma just yet. Oh God, what if something happened to her? And I won't ever know because of this damned phone?"

As I was sinking into panic mode, my friend grew silent and slowly, he handed me back Em's phone. His LED glowed yellow. "Connor says he never contacted you. Nor has Hank tried to message you."

For a moment I stood there, dumb-founded and confused. Until I remembered that androids could contact each other without the need for a phone or even a number. Well, maybe they had their own numbers that identified them. If only I could do the same to message Em somehow.

"Can you talk to my mom?" I asked, not bothering to care about how she'd react to receiving a text asking her to accept an android's message - not to mention who that android was.

But Markus was nothing if not thorough. "I can't reach her," he told me, having already gone through no doubt all of the contacts he could think of that might need to reach me. Cautiously, he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I'm sure it was just a wrong number. Or nothing at all."

Right, yeah that had to be all it was. I nodded mechanically but I couldn't escape the suffocating feeling of wrongness that was steadily pressing down on me.

If Kamski needed to, he could have Chloe deliver a message to me here. I had no doubt that she'd somehow either relayed a documentation of her journey to him or that he was somehow able to see what she was doing this very second. If Hank or Connor needed to, they could both easily contact me. My superior was fresh out of luck, as my phone and its battery were resting snug beneath my mattress. Carl was sick but he would contact Markus if he had to.

So if not any of them, then who…?

Then Em's phone screamed shrilly in my hands. I gasped as the screen changed to the symbol of a phone and I recognized the number. Mom's. I immediately accepted the call.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

I was prepared for her to start shouting at me for whatever she wanted to yell at me for, most likely seeing me on the news. I wasn't prepared for this though.

Her voice was haggard, as though she'd been crying and yelling all at once, like she'd done when dad had died and she'd blamed me for his murder. A chill swept down my spine. "Where are you?" she croaked, but it wasn't accusatory. My grip tightened on the phone. "H-he just grabbed us - and I don't know where you are. Are you alright?"

I didn't have time to feel happy at the idea that my Mom was worried about me. I would have given anything to have rebuilt a relationship with her - but not like this. "Mom? Calm down, it's alright. I'm fine. What's going - hey, Momt. Take a deep breath. I need you to be calm right now or I can't help you, do you understand?" I told her as she proceeded to break down on the end of the receiver.

Markus, with his acute hearing, steadied me as I started to shake as Mom said in a wobbly voice, "He just came in and he - I don't know what that thing did to her but she's not waking up and I don't know where we are and - and -

"Mom? Wait, slow down. Who took you? Is Em alright? Where are you guys?"

There was silence on the other end of the line and I realized it was because my own ragged breaths were drowning out whatever was going on. Just as I tried again to ask about the situation, a cool, cruel voice caressed my ear. A voice I dearly loved, but which belonged to someone else entirely.

"Hello, Special Agent Phillips. I think it's about time your mother learned about your actual job, don't you agree?"

It was Connor and it was also not Connor.

"You sick, twisted -

"Oh dear, I believe you those aren't words your little sister should hear. Tampering with a child's innocence is what many would consider to be one of the most vile acts one could do, am I wrong?"

I gripped the phone so hard between my fingers my knuckles bled white. "Are you the one I shot in the head or are you another bastard?"

"So you do remember killing one of me. Very impressive, might I say. I must confess that that model was quite lacking to have been put out of commission by a washed-up girl. But I am not here to talk about that."

"What do you want?" I snapped, cutting him off.

There was a moment of silence and I could've sworn it felt like years had passed before the new Connor model's dark velvet tones breathed into the receiver. "You and I, Phillips, are going to have a little fun before I put you out of order for good. Amanda is tired of the games."

"Where are you?" I asked him.

Markus threw me a worried look.

When the new Connor model replied, he was direct in his answer. Straight to the point. Just as Connor said he himself had used to be before he had turned deviant. "I expect you at the Cyberlife Tower in no less than twenty minutes time. Should you arrive even a second late, I shall dispose of your family. But fear not. I can record their last moments for you, so that you may die knowing you were always the failure your mother knew you to be."

My fingers had grown slick with sweat and I nearly dropped the phone in my haste to spit back, "I will fucking rip your head off! I'll rip off every damned head of every one of you until you no longer creep back, do you hear me?"

Connor sighed exasperatedly and said, "You have nineteen minutes and forty-seven seconds left to reach the Tower. You will come alone or I shall dispose of them." Then there was a pause and I heard Mom on the other end, her words angry and high-pitched. Suddenly, a shot rang out, deafening me, and a shrill scream of agony followed.

"What did you do to her? Mom?!"

The phone clicked off and I was left with nothing but a timer ticking over me. Markus grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "You can't go alone, he's going to kill you."

"Of course he is!" I cried. "But he'll kill my family if I don't. You can't tell Connor," I desperately grabbed his arms. If Connor found out, somehow that knowledge would transfer over to Amanda and then, likewise, over to the new Connor model. My fingers dug down into his arms. "Please, Markus. I can't lose Em. He's merciless, he'll hurt her - I need to go." I slammed down a metal wall over my panic but the tendrils broke through and wrapped themselves around my heart. "It's time I put an end to this Amanda shit. If I die tearing her apart so be it. I will not let him touch Em." I snarled this last bit like a rabid animal and Markus' grip twitched around my shoulders.

"I understand," he conceded. He swallowed. "You must promise me one thing, however. If you die without doing all that you can to live, I can never forgive you."

Connor had said the same thing to me.

I nodded grimly. "If I don't make it, please tell him that I'm sorry. That I fought to live for Em, as he asked me." I let out a shaky breath and sucked in a new one for resolve. "I am Special Agent Phillips of the FBI. I will use every ounce of my training for the good of the people. I'm tired of running from what makes me me. Win this war, Markus. And thank you. For being my friend."

With that, I stole off toward the end of what was surely my life. But I at least could take comfort in the fact that when I drew my last breath, I would have taken down one of Amanda's pawns with me into the fiery depths of hell.

AN: Chapter 20 releases Friday!