"What's wrong with him?"

Markus tries to sound calm but there's an edge to his voice that shows that he isn't as calm as he'd like to pretend he was. Connor's state was rather… strange… after all. He could see how dazed Connor was and how he seemed to be having trouble just sitting up. His father, Hank Anderson, was keeping a firm hand on his son's arm just in case Connor decides to topple over in his chair.

"I don't know. He's been drunk since yesterday and I don't know anything about androids. You're his friend so I called you up. Thought you might be able to tell me what's the problem with him but apparently you don't know either. Who the hell am I supposed to call up now?"

"You could take him in for repair," Markus suggests.

"With what money?" Hank growls, "I've had enough trouble as it is paying off my bills!"

"I could assist with that," Markus offers.

"I don't want your charity," Hank answers.

"Then Connor will stay like this."

Hank stares at Markus' defiant look and sees the truth in his words. The older man sighs and relents a lot quicker than Markus thought he would. He thought that he might get more of a fight out of Hank considering all the stories he's heard from Connor.

"Fine," Hank grumbles, "But he's not leaving out of my sight."

Connor blinks lazily at Markus and then glances at his father. His head tilts to the side and stays there as he says, "Me? 'M fine. I can still… func'ion…"

Hank is quick to tell him, "Wrong." Hank moves to stand up, momentarily taking his hand off of Connor's shoulder. Connor is already shifting over to one side to fall over before Hank snatches his arm in his hold once more. His hand steadies Connor's balance and then Hank makes the effort to help Connor stand up. The android gets the gist of it, despite being completely out of it, and complies with the tug of his father's hand. Hank is there the entire time, right by Connor's side as the confused android tries to get out of his chair. He wobbles onto his feet, leaning heavily to his left until Hank pulls him roughly to the right.

That was just standing up. The tough part would be getting Connor into Hank's car and into a repair shop.

Once Markus is finished watching Connor make a fool of himself, he stands up as well and follows right on Hank's heels as the man guides his son to the front door. At some point, Connor leans heavily on Hank's side making the man take a few faltered steps that showed warnings of a fall or trip.

Hank's walk grew slower since he had to support all of Connor's weight just to get to the door.

Markus questions, "Would you like some assistance?"

Hank replies in an instant, "No. I am perfectly capable of taking care of my own son."

"I didn't suggest otherwise," Markus states.

Markus watches as Hank lays Connor down in the backseat. Once he's satisfied with his work, Hank shuts the passenger door behind him and walks to the other side of his car to settle himself in the driver's seat. Once Markus sits on the right side of the driver's seat, Hank starts up his car, and then he glances at Markus as if expecting something.

Markus blinks.

"What?" He asks.

Hank furrows his brows, "Aren't you going to tell me where the repair shop is?"

Markus asks, curious, "You don't know where it is?"

"If I did, would I be asking you?"

"Would you?"

Hank stares at Markus for a long moment before cursing under his breath. He mutters, "Stupid androids" before stating, "I don't know where the damn repair shop is so would you be kind enough to tell me where to go?"

Markus processes the request and nods seconds later.

"Yes, I can do that," Markus replies.

After a long thirty-minutes, they finally arrive at the repair shop. The store that they park near to is not a Cyberlife institution. It was a fairly new store, run and managed by androids, and Markus knew the owners with close familiarity. He had helped them a few times throughout their attempts to establish their own business. Their cause to help fellow androids was noble and Markus was a sucker for those kinds of cases. Of course, he had to give them a helping hand when they needed it. He made sure they had the resources necessary to set up shop until they were able to afford their own.

"CrossWired?" Hank reads the shop's title aloud. He has one of Connor's arms slung around his shoulder and Connor was mumbling something incoherent.

"Would you prefer Cyberlife?" Markus questions.

"I'm not sure," Hank replies truthfully, "but if this place can take care of Connor then what do I care?"

Markus doesn't say anything after that. He escorts Hank and Connor into the repair shop where several other androids are already waiting in chairs lined across the common room. It was 12:00 in the afternoon so Markus didn't find himself too surprised to find the place busy. However, he was rather impatient on getting Connor an examination for his problem immediately, so he contemplated using his authority as a mediator between androids and Humans to charge up at the counter and demand instant treatment.

But Markus was too nice for that.

He goes up to the counter and politely asks, "My friend is delirious. We don't know what's wrong with him and we came here hoping for an explanation."

The desk clerk looks up at him from her computer.

"Name?"

"Name?" Markus repeats, "Mine?"

"The patient's," the opposing android answers immediately. She looks at Connor past Markus' body through the red bangs that hung over her eyes.

"Connor," Markus tells her.

"I see. You said he is delirious?"

"Yes - I'm not sure why - but he's been delirious since yesterday. At least according to his father."

The woman's eyebrows shot up.

"Father?" She asks though her expression shows that she knows she shouldn't pry. That's why she disregards the word quickly and continues, "Is Connor an android?"

"Yes," Markus says. He takes a step sideways so that Hank can approach the desk. Sure enough, Connor was still there mumbling a bunch of nonsense, while his LED was glowing a bright red. That was one of the obvious signs that he was an android. Why explain when he could just show the evidence to her?

"I see," the woman notes Connor's LED and then turns her gaze back to her computer, "I believe I can set up an appointment today. You'll have to wait though."

Hank starts, "We will not wait while my son is…" He doesn't get a chance to finish because Markus interrupts him.

"That'll be fine."

The woman nods and gestures towards a few empty seats with her eyes.

"They'll call for you when it's your time."

Hank glares at Markus as the deviant leader moves away from the counter.

As much as Markus wanted to have his friend fixed up and healthy, he knew he had to respect those who had been waiting before him. Everyone in the room didn't look too good, to begin with. Some androids were missing limbs, eyes, and others had scars in their plastic that did not look easily fixable. Almost all the androids in the room that still had an LED had a cautious yellow or a bright dangerous red.

They wait for two hours.

Hank had attempted several conversations with his son during that time. Markus had even tried it once but all he could make out were strange and unsorted facts. It was as if Connor was reciting the dictionary or maybe that was exactly what he was doing.

At one point North had called Markus to inquire about his location. He had informed her of what was going on and his wife seemed relatively upset to hear about Connor's condition. She offered to meet up with him there but he had declined it. At the moment she was with a few of her newly founded friends and Markus didn't want to take away her fun.

And now Markus sits inside an examination room with an android across from him. The man wears a long white coat like all traditional doctors and hooks something up to the back of Connor's neck. It attaches Connor to a machine where all the occupants in the room could see a command list pop up on the monitor hanging in front of all of them.

It's a blur but the doctor seems to find what he's looking for.

"It seems that Connor's system had something attached to it and attempted to adjust itself after it's absence."

"What do you mean?" Markus asks because he genuinely did not understand how that could even come to pass.

"How do I put it…?" The doctor hums in his thought. "Think of it as an upgrade. Connor received an upgrade and then had it taken from him. His body didn't take it too well. Now, I would like to know what exactly it was that had been taken from his systems, but I don't make it a personal practice to prod into the personal lives of my customers unless it's necessary to understand how certain health conditions come to be."

"Can you fix him?" Hank asks impatiently.

"I believe I can," the doctor is not at all fazed by Hank's abrupt nature. "However, I will need to shut him down in order to start the process."

Markus narrows his eyes.

"No memory wipes," he lays out.

"Don't worry. I don't do that unless my patient is in critical condition." The android gets out of his chair and approaches the delirious Connor. Connor leans heavily on Hank's shoulder, blinking heavily, and then his eyes shift to the man who hovers over him.

The doctor reaches out a hand and touches Connor's shoulder. The skin of the doctor's hand recedes to show the bright white plastic underneath. Connor looks up into his eyes, captivated by the sudden touch, and then the two seem to be off in their own world.

Markus knows exactly what's happening. He's done it to others before.

Two minutes pass and Hank is tapping his foot against the hard white tile floor underneath them.

Connor's shoulders stiffen.

Markus sees the action and is already prepared to fight. He stiffens too, ready to throw a punch at the doctor should he have done something awful to his friend, but then his eyes focus on Connor's erratic blinking.

Connor's head flops forward.

He stops breathing.

Hank is shaken. He stands up, ready to roar, but Markus grabs a hold of his wrist to calm him.

The doctor doesn't make a move. His hand is still on Connor's shoulder as if searching for something that did not want to be found. It stays like that for another five minutes until Connor gasps and jolts upwards. He shoots out of his chair, bonking his head against the doctor's chest, and then one of Connor's hands fly to his head.

"What?" Connor breathes, looking around the room in a panic.

His eyes then settled on Hank and Markus. Immediately his posture slackens but he still looks as if he's shaking. Markus is half tempted to make a move to comfort his friend but Connor's father is there first. He's already at his side with a supportive hand on one of Connor's arms.

"You scared the wits out of me kid," Hank's worry echoes throughout the room. "Are you alright? How do you feel?"

"I feel… fine," Connor squeezes his eyes shut as if wondering if his own words were true or not. "What's going on? What happened?"

"You were completely loopy since yesterday," Hank explains. "I called Markus over and we rushed you to a repair shop."

"Kamski…" Connor mutters.

Everyone in the room hears it.

"Kamski?" Hank asks.

Connor's LED glows a cautious yellow.

Markus finds it is his turn to ask a question by saying, "Kasmki? The creator of androids?"

Connor looks alarmed and looks up at his human caretaker and then right at Markus.

He draws back his composure, straightening his posture, and pulls back his slumped shoulders.

"It's nothing," he says.

Hank seems to be okay with that answer. He seemed to be just happy that Connor was returned to his original state because he was already ruffling with his hair and telling him all about their strange day.

And Markus watches Connor with narrowed eyes.

Because when Connor had said 'nothing' Markus had detected something that Connor doesn't usually do.

Connor had lied.

And why?

He didn't know.