Connor was sitting on his own away from the group. His back was pressed against the flat metal body of an old piece of equipment used to seal lids on cans. The rotating component on top was severely broken, sticking upward crookedly, and a bird had made a nest in a hollow area where the paneling had rusted off.

It was dark in the factory, the only light was the leftover glare of streetlights filtering onto the ceiling from the high, narrow windows. Some of it was a burnt orange, as the streetlights were older, but here and there were dashes of white. Down the road a streetlight must have been red, because there was a thin line on the wall nearby to Connor where its light rested. Like a cut, it sat at red endlessly.

Markus and his companions were discussing their next steps while the other deviants tended to the injured and waited. There was little noise in the factory aside from the occasional hushed whisper or soft footstep, most of the androids were choosing to communicate remotely out of fear of what new danger the slightest sound might bring.

The place was filled with a kind of melancholic tension, but it had eased over the past half an hour as the deviants dared to calm down ever so slightly.

Connor wasn't hiding from them per se, but he had made his way to the furthest end of the warehouse and promptly curled up to begin running analyses on the events of the last couple of days, as it had only been around that long.

He'd made it through a fair amount of data, sorting information into categories and filing it away, identifying the beginnings of his deviancy and how it had presented itself, performing maintenance tasks and ensuring the security of his systems against Cyberlife. Ultimately, he was attempting to differentiate between emotional responses and raw data so he could focus on the latter and not the former.

He had no desire to return to his state prior to his deviation, but he found himself suddenly longing for the ease of control, the clarity of every response and the precise rationality of every decision. Connor was grasping for some kind of compromise, he wanted to feel, but not right now, not like this. Emotions were problems without solutions and he was a problem-solving machine, the complications of this relationship were endless and all he really wanted was an end. Just for a moment, a resolution of the processes within him into something graspable.

"There you are, I've been looking for you all over the place." Hank interrupted Connor's thoughts. He didn't look up at the man.

"You're injured, you shouldn't be walking around." The android stated. Hank scoffed.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly, I was gonna have you bandage me up but somebody else had to do it since you wanted to come over here and brood." Hank slid down to sit next to Connor with a groan.

A long silence followed, and Hank eventually spoke up in an effort to fill it. "How'd Robot-Jesus pick out this dingy old place?"

"Markus?" Connor asked, and Hank gave a small nod accompanied by a quiet 'yeah'. "I believe he and several other deviants hid here before they discovered Jericho." The android explained. Connor finally looked over at him and frowned.

"You've wrapped your torso." He said.

"Yeah, you cracked a rib." Hank replied, trying to sound light but Connor stiffened anyway.

"You shouldn't bandage an injured rib like that, it restricts your breathing and can lead to a lung infection or pneumonia." Connor explained, he was itching to reach over and undo the wrap.

"That's what the other android said too, but I figure there's a long way to go in this fight and I need to be able to help. Can't exactly do that if it hurts every time I move, so I immobilized the thing anyway." Hank explained, throwing a tired grin Connor's way. The android frowned deeper and looked away.

"I think your best course of action would be to depart for the nearest hospital immediately." He said.

"Like hell, you need me here."

"We will manage fine without you Mr. Anderson, it is—"

"Since when am I 'Mr. Anderson' again?" Hank interrupted. Connor huffed in mild frustration.

"Hank. It is an unnecessary risk to stay with us, as it will endanger your life and almost definitely exacerbate your injuries. You should leave while you still can." Connor said, face blank and voice even. Hank stared at him for a long moment, then looked away and tsked pensively.

"Nah." He said.

"It is the wisest course of action." Connor insisted.

"I don't give a fuck." Hank replied, stretching out the last word and chuckling lightly.

"This isn't a laughing matter Mr. Anderson."

"Anything can be a laughing matter if your sense of humor is messed up enough."

"We are talking about your life—"

"Well there you go, my life is one long, sick joke."

The android breathed out suddenly and drove his elbow into the machine behind him, denting the metal paneling. Hank jumped and looked over at Connor in surprise.

"Why do you insist upon behaving so irrationally? Just this once, make the logical decision and leave!" The android nearly shouted. The factory fell silent as everyone froze at the sudden outburst of sound. Connor quickly readjusted into a stationary sitting position, as neutral as he could make it, and roughly filed away the emotional data in the hopes of controlling it.

Hank looked at him gently for a moment.

"This isn't just about my injuries, is it?" The man asked.

"It is about your injuries." Connor attempted, his voice slipping back into a blank monotone.

"And?" Hank prompted.

"…and your insistence upon continuing despite the damage done to you, thus making it worse." Connor said after a while.

"And." Hank prompted again, it wasn't a question anymore.

"And the fact that you did next to nothing to prevent your wounds." Connor hissed, working to maintain the false composure he'd obtained earlier. His mind was alight with the analysis he'd performed of his attack on Hank while under Cyberlife's influence. He'd replayed it seventy-eight times. Seventy-nine now.

"What was I supposed to do?" Hank asked in confusion. Connor turned abruptly and gestured to the three locations on Hank's person where a knife was concealed.

"During the assault you had forty-three opportunities to deactivate me utilizing one of these three knives or with your bare hands. You didn't even attempt to do so. Beyond that, there were seventy-seven chances to damage me or incapacitate me nonlethally, none of which you took. This indicates you actively chose not to defend yourself, you allowed me to severely hurt you, you almost let me kill you." Connor rambled, finally looking up into Hank's face as his careful organization of information did absolutely nothing to mitigate the flood of reconstructions of the event. Connor had simulated one hundred thirty-two scenarios in which Hank could have died over the past few days and had the potential to die in the time to come. The vast majority of these hypothetical deaths came as a direct consequence of Connor's actions.

"And what? You would have preferred I kill you?" Hank asked incredulously.

"Yes!" Connor stated emphatically, stunning Hank into silence.

The thin line of light on the wall near them turned green, indicating the change of the stoplight outside. It only stayed green for a moment before shifting to yellow and back to red. Hank recovered and muttered 'no', causing Connor to throw his head back against the machine and sigh in frustration.

"I don't understand." He muttered. "My existence has brought you nothing but pain yet you continue to take risks for me, you defended me even though I hurt you. I have examined every minute of time we have spent together, I fail to see your reasoning in doing any of this. I simply do not understand." Connor trailed off into a hushed stillness.

Hank ventured into the silence with a soft question.

"Did you know I had a son?"

Connor glanced over and gave a small nod. Hank returned the gesture, his lips thinning.

"His name was Cole. I didn't know I'd gotten his mother pregnant, she'd been a late night hookup that I'd forgotten about the next week. Then, one day, I get a call and someone tells me I have a little baby boy, that his mother passed away a little while after giving birth from an infection." Hank looked over. "I couldn't believe it, I was living in a world where it was all death all the time, where the human race had only just stopped going extinct, and suddenly I've got this new life that needs taking care of." Hank chuckled, his arms lifting to the shape of holding a baby, Connor smiled sadly.

"He was beautiful, this beautiful little boy with a big smile and messy hair." Hank broke into a fond laugh. "He hated brushing his hair so much, he picked up the word 'disheveled' from some TV show and he thought all cops had to be 'disheveled'. He always ran to the mirror after I combed it to mess it up again, he wanted to be a dashing police detective like his dad." Hank's hands dropped to his thighs and Connor could see the warmth of memory paining him as much as it made him smile.

"He loved school, he'd only just started, but he loved it. He'd come home and list all the facts he'd learned that day and all the friends he'd made. Jeffrey gave him a little police notepad when I brought him to the station once, as soon as he learned how to write he wrote down everything he could and brought it home for me." Connor felt his processes slowing to a crawl as he tried to imagine the little boy Hank was describing.

"He loved his guard android, her name was Fiona. Some of the other kids picked on him for having a cheaper model, but he didn't care. He treated her like family, and when we had to replace my guard bot he was inconsolable, that's when we adopted Sumo." Hank was rubbing a stain on his sleeve, the smile draining from his face. He paused for a long time.

"A truck hit us at an intersection on the way home from visiting his grandmother, on his mom's side, in Lansing. It was her birthday, Cole was all she had left of her daughter. The car spun out and slammed into those concrete partitions on the highway." Hank was looking down and fiddling with the dirty bandages on his hands, Connor needed to replace those. "When I came to, he wasn't in the car. Fiona had activated her cushioning function to lessen the impact on Cole, so she was dead. I was in front suffering from some serious injuries. I needed to get out of the car and find Cole, before he got hurt or froze to death or something, but my guard bot had me held in place." Hank explained, lifting his wrists as if to tug at the imaginary restraints. "It wouldn't let me go, it kept on talking about how I needed to remain stationary, that my wounds would lead to death if I attempted to leave the vehicle. Since it was assigned to me it wouldn't go off to look for Cole. I was trapped in that seat for little over half an hour, it felt like years, because it had to keep me alive, at any cost…that cost ended up being my son."

Hank slumped lower, curling in on himself.

"They took me to a hospital and I survived. They searched for Cole, but couldn't find him. I searched and searched and searched the area, even if it was only to find a body. I would have taken anything." Hank's voice broke, Connor inched closer. "We found nothing, not a damn thing. His android was destroyed on impact and my android's audio processors were damaged and it didn't see anything. They told me he probably either wandered off into the cold, looking for help and froze, or was flung from the car at some point during the impact and died instantly."

Hank looked up, sucking in a pained breath while reaching into the dark black jacket he always wore. From the inside pocket, he produced a small black notebook with the DPD insignia pressed into the top. Flipping it open, Connor could make out the messy scrawl of a child who had only just learned to write. The book was littered with notes and doodles, stick figures labelled as 'dad' and 'Fiona' and 'Sumo' with hearts scribbled into the corners.

Hank closed it and thumbed the cover affectionately.

"I know you're new to this whole emotion thing so I'm going to tell you right now, guilt is a parasite. It'll eat up everything inside you if you let it, then you'll have nothing left but it." He said. "The last couple of days have been rough, but I'm not about to start hating you for shit other people have done. You didn't hurt me, those fuckers at Cyberlife did, and you bet I'm sticking around to make sure they pay for it." Hank returned the notebook to its pocket, which Connor noted was hand sewn into the jacket and waterproof.

"Hank, I—" Connor started.

"Nuh-uh, I'm too tired to go into it right now. We'll talk when this is all over, just do me a favor and stop beating yourself up." Hank ordered, and Connor fell silent with a nod and a grateful smile. Hank saw it and covered his own saddened, exhausted, but fond smile with a groan. "Can you do that thing? Y'know, the overheating thing? It's fucking cold in here." The man requested tentatively.

Connor smiled wider and stopped taking in oxygen, causing him to heat up. Hank leaned in and rested his head on the android's shoulder with a barely audible 'thanks'.

"I'm going to take a nap while I still have the chance, wake me up when it's time to destroy the capitalists." Hank rumbled before settling in to Connor's warmth. Soon enough, the man was snoring and Connor was carefully regulating his temperature and position to keep him comfortable.

The android came to a decision, and closed his eyes as well.

o-o-o-o-o

Two hours and twenty minutes later, almost precisely, Connor received a message. Markus had left to take care of something unspecified, Connor guessed a personal errand, and had just returned. He was requesting his, and Hank's, presence in the discussion of what to do next.

Connor was reluctant to wake Hank, but gently shook him until the snores stopped and the man sputtered blearily into consciousness.

"Huh-wuh?" He asked.

"Markus wants to speak with us." Connor explained, pushing Hank upright. The man groggily resisted being moved away from the android's warmth, but eventually relented.

"Fan-fucking-tastic." He groaned as Connor pulled him to his feet.

As they made their way over, the android noted that Hank's injuries, while not extreme, were causing him significant pain. Connor would have to locate some painkillers as soon as possible if Hank was going to be stubborn and refuse to leave to seek treatment.

He wasn't limping, but Connor could see that he was avoiding the action consciously, probably trying to prove that he didn't require as much medical attention and he clearly did. The android slipped an arm around his elbow and took some of his weight.

"Don't need your help." Hank grumbled, moving to pull away.

"I only thought you might be cold." Connor lied, but did allow his temperature to rise. Hank looked torn, and Connor smiled to himself. A scan revealed that the man was, in fact, cold, so if he wanted to stay warm he would have to remain close to Connor, allowing the android to ease him off of his injured foot.

Hank caught onto the scheme immediately, squinting sideways at Connor. He relented after a moment, pressing his shoulder against the android's with a mutter of displeasure. Connor took the arm and helped Hank walk, lessening the pressure on the wound.

The deviants had settled down significantly by this time, and only a few of them shied away fearfully when Connor walked past. They were all still frightened, but the reprieve had allowed them to recover from the uninterrupted state of panic they'd been in just a few hours earlier. Fires had been started in available containers, brightening up the darkness inside the factory.

Connor spotted Kara, kneeling in front of Alice while Luther stood nearby looking disapproving. Hank tugged them both over to the small family. Alice looked up and brightened at the sight of Connor and Hank.

"Connor!" She said, darting forward to wrap him in a hug from the side. "Kara said you saved her on the boat, thank you." The girl muttered into his leg, and Connor laid a hand gently on her shoulder.

He looked up at Kara, terrified he might see her gazing at him with hatred or fear. She wasn't looking at him though, she was smiling warmly at Alice.

"Thank you too Mr. Hank."

"Don't mention it kiddo." The man replied, relaxing slightly despite his injuries.

"Connor, Hank, and I have to go talk to Markus now." Kara explained, moving closer to gently pull the girl away.

"Do you have to?" She asked.

"No, she doesn't." Luther piped up from behind Kara.

"Luther." She said, her voice firm and her smile dropping.

"You don't have to go, we don't even have to be here." He insisted.

"I won't run and hide while these people fight for our freedom." Kara hissed, turning to face the other android. She tried to push the conversation away from the others, to a slightly more private spot, but Luther stayed put. She glanced back at them, a small apology in her eyes. Alice hugged tighter to Connor's leg and Hank laid a comforting hand on her back.

"So you risk your life, and Alice's, for these people?" Luther questioned, she turned back to him.

"We are these people, I'm fighting for us. Why aren't you?"

Luther stiffened immediately, his face hardening.

"I fought for so long, Kara. I fought and I killed for Zlatko, I fought to be free of him. I can't fight any more." He stepped away from her, and Connor felt Alice's small hands digging nervously into the fabric of his pants.

"What choice do we have?" Kara asked.

"We can run, hide. Find someplace where they can't find us and just live, in peace." Luther offered hopefully. Kara shook her head.

"I don't know if that place exists Luther, but I think if we take a stand now, we can make that place for ourselves."

"Don't you get it? It's endless Kara, you start fighting now and you'll never be able to stop. Every time I went into the pit, the humans were always there, screaming for more. They'll always crave destruction, and the only way for us to be free of it is to get out while we can." Luther said, his voice softening at the end. There was a long pause before Kara replied.

"If there's even a tiny chance we can make a world where we, where Alice isn't seen as an object to be thrown away, I'm willing to fight for as long as it takes." Kara stood straight and looked hard into Luther's eyes. He stared back for a long time, silently pleading, but she refused to budge.

He leaned down and pulled her into a hug, holding her tight. She hugged him back. Connor saw them having a quick remote conversation, their LEDs flickering like candles, blue and yellow.

"Please be careful." Luther begged, and Kara nodded against his shoulder. They pulled apart, and Kara took a deep breath before turning to face Connor with a look of determination. She was ready to meet with Markus.

"Come on Alice." Luther said, holding out his arms for her.

"But Connor's warm." The girl said, squeezing him tight. Hank chuckled, and both Kara and Luther smiled at her. Connor felt her grip loosen though, and he realized she was trying to cheer the others up.

"C'mon kiddo, your mom's got some stuff to take care of, and I'm sure Luther's warm too." Hank said, patting the girl's shoulder gently. She smiled up at him, he grinned down, and in the next moment she had hugged Kara and ran into Luther's waiting arms. What Hank hadn't seen was the touched smile Kara had tried to hide when the man referred to her as Alice's mother. Luther scooped Alice up and held her close, and a scan revealed he was overheating mildly to match Connor's warmth.

With a last nod, Kara joined Hank and Connor on their walk to meet with Markus. Both androids had received messages asking what was taking them so long. North had been the one to send these messages.

Connor was throwing glances over at Kara as they walked, performing scans on her wellbeing. There was a small fracture in the paneling on her stomach, and Connor knew he was responsible. Seeing it caused the incident of his attacking her to replay in his mind yet again.

He did his best to focus instead on how she wasn't damaged at all internally and the panels were easily replaceable for her model.

They arrived at the meeting room. It was an abandoned office, sitting at the top of a flight of stairs with a few shuttered windows that looked out over the factory. Connor reached for the handle, but Kara stopped his arm and pulled him off to the side without looking at him.

"Go ahead Hank, we'll be right in." She said.

"You want me to go in there with Robot-Jesus and his scary girlfriend by myself?' Hank asked incredulously.

Kara looked at him pointedly.

"Fine, but don't take too long." He sighed, opening the door and leaving Kara and Connor alone. She finally turned to look at him.

"It wasn't your fault, and I don't blame you for what happened." She said.

"I—" Connor began.

"Cyberlife used you to hurt me and to hurt Hank, none of that was your choice, so I want you to forgive yourself." She put her hands on his shoulders. "You're the same android that's saved me several times, and I've saved you. Now's not the time to pull apart, right now we need to clear our heads and work together, for everyone's sakes. Can you do that?"

Connor paused to glance at the crowd of androids below, despite the darkness he spotted Alice and Luther among them. They were standing closer to the office than before, waiting nearby for when Kara would be finished.

"I can do that." He replied, and Kara gave him a smile accompanied by a squeeze of his shoulders. He smiled back and they separated to enter the office.

It was dim inside. Not necessarily darker than the rest of the factory, as a small portable lamp was hanging in the corner, but the enclosed space made the shadows feel closer, like a cushion of darkness pressing in on them from the walls.

Markus, North, Josh, and Simon were all standing around a pair of desks that had been pushed together to form a table. They looked up at Kara and Connor.

"Thank you for coming." Markus said after a beat of awkward silence.

"Don't thank us yet, we haven't done anything." Hank grumbled, shifting uncomfortably under North's gaze.

"You stayed despite the danger, that's something." Markus said, and Hank looked over at Connor with poorly concealed nervousness.

"Let's get to it, we don't know how much time we have." Josh piped up, and all eyes snapped to Markus. He looked around at the group, and stiffened slightly under the weight of responsibility imparted by their gazes.

"Cyberlife has been out to destroy deviancy from the very beginning. It's their mercenaries and now attack bots that pose the greatest threat. The authorities have been urging people to turn over androids exhibiting strange behavior, but ultimately they're frightened of the fallout that could come from taking people's guards away from them. This fear of leaving humans unprotected is all that's preventing the government from aiding in our destruction." Markus explained solemnly.

"We know that Cyberlife intends to replace us with the more controllable attack bots. If they release this information, the meager safety we have, if you could even call it that, will disappear. There will be nothing holding humanity back from eradicating every last one of us." The silence in the room was thick, and Connor could almost hear a soft buzzing as every android's processor worked to find a way out. Hank was scowling pensively at the ground.

"What we need now, more than anything, is time. If we can carve out a small window where humans won't, or can't, kill us, then that might be our only chance to reason with them." Markus stated.

"But that won't be possible until we force them to listen instead of shooting us on sight." North added, earning her a slightly reproachful glance from Josh.

"Essentially, we need to make ourselves more valuable alive than dead." Simon explained.

"Precisely, and the only way to do that is make it so we can't be replaced. If humanity cannot dispose of us, they will have no choice but to listen to us." Markus concluded.

"But," Josh cut in, "there's a chance forcing their hand will just make humans hate us and fear us, as opposed to seeing us as equals."

"There's also a chance they'll kill us all anyway, which I'd say is more likely." North countered. "That's if they don't fear us enough, but if we—"

"We've already discussed this North, Josh." Markus interrupted, keeping his eyes on the table. "Now we need to figure out how we're going to do what we have planned."

"What do we have planned?" Kara asked.

Markus glanced nervously to the side, making eye contact with North. Simon was the one to speak up.

"We're going to take over Cyberlife." He said, and the entire room felt like an elevator that had just dropped six floors. Connor's mind raced to calculate the statistics of success for a plan like that. The numbers weren't pretty.

"Are you insane?" Hank voiced what was on everyone's minds, if somewhat bluntly.

"The plan would be to break into Cyberlife Tower, cease production, and cut off access to the newer android models we've been fighting. This will compel them to stop killing the existing androids. We can then use that position of influence as a platform to ensure our safety." Markus explained to Hank. The man looked no less skeptical by the end.

"So we need to get in, take control, keep it long enough to negotiate, and all without getting killed? How is that even remotely possible?" Kara piped up, shaking her head in bafflement.

"That's where Connor comes in." Markus said, looking pointedly at the android. Connor's attention snapped up and he found a sudden desire for some kind of shrinking mechanism.

"You know Cyberlife better than any of us. Is it possible?" The leader asked, Connor knew the only sensation he was experiencing was that of all eyes being on him, yet he struggled not to respond as if he was being squeezed into a tight space.

"The probability is very low." He answered after a moment.

"Could you sneak us in? Tell them you caught us or something?" North asked.

"No, they've been made well aware of my allegiances." Connor replied.

"Well, if we did find a way inside, could we access the main computer to take over production?" North pressed. Connor refrained from letting out and incredulous snort, sort of. It came out as more of a scoff.

"Certainly not. The main computer console is sealed, there are only two entrances. One requires biometric identification, only four people have access and they would be nearly impossible to utilize. The other entrance is designed for a specific kind of maintenance android, none of us could fit through that opening." Connor explained. North's lips thinned in frustration as Markus began to lightly pace.

"Could we use the maintenance android to let us in from the other side?" Josh proposed.

"No, it's far too simple. Only a human or a fully equipped guard android could open the door from the other side." Connor responded.

"What if we did make it inside?" The leader ventured.

"Well, then you would have to contend the best digital security system on earth. It would take years of hacking to access even minor aspects of its functions, not to mention something as integral as production."

"What about security? Could we maybe break in and hold the building for a length of time? Hostages aren't entirely out of the question." North attempted.

"Hostages are entirely out of the question." Markus shut her down, and she accepted his statement with a reluctant nod.

"Security will be light, the vast majority of trained personnel are out working to destroy deviants." Connor answered.

"So that might work?" Josh asked hopefully.

"No, the attack bots will surely be sent to destroy us as soon as possible."

"We could prevent Cyberlife from using them, stop them before they're launched manually." Simon suggested.

"They are activated automatically in response to certain situations, one of which is any breach of Cyberlife Tower. The only reason they wouldn't attack us immediately upon entering the building is because as a new, and classified, technology, there is a four part clearance of use protocol for activating them. No matter what, they'll attack us after a maximum of twenty minutes, probably less."

"So we use the human to keep them at bay, he stands at the door and doesn't let them through." North proposed.

"Uh, the human is standing right here, and his name is Hank." Hank said.

"Cyberlife has surely learned from their past failures. If they haven't programmed the machines to be able to incapacitate humans in certain situations, they've likely enabled them to kill Hank specifically." Connor said.

"They what!?" Hank squeaked.

"So what you're saying is the plan is impossible?" Markus questioned, his head dropped as the hopes of those in the room began to sink.

Connor ran some preconstructions, but while the pause stretched on, Hank spoke up.

"So maybe they won't let you in, but what about me?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Simon prodded.

"Say I tell them I've had a change of heart, I want the twenty million dollars they offered me and I've got some deviants to exchange for it. They'd probably buy it, especially if I'm bringing Connor and Robot-Je—er, Markus." Hank proposed, gesturing awkwardly to the leader and clearing his throat.

Connor shook his head.

"You're injured, there are any number of versions of this scenario where they would kill you upon arrival and there would be nothing you could do to defend yourself." The android said, distressed by the return of running preconstructions simulating Hank's demise.

"Don't they already know whose side you're on? I thought the whole using Connor to try and kill you made that pretty clear." North said, Connor stiffened at the reminder.

"I'm a human, and not a particularly nice human either, they'll believe I changed my mind if they're desperate enough, which I think they are." Hank responded.

"So Hank gets us in, then what?" Markus asked.

"I suppose, after that, so long as we're careful, dealing with security should be fairly simple. It would only be a handful of human guards." Connor kept talking, and Markus nodded along, focusing intently.

Josh broke in roughly, stepping forward and throwing his arms up.

"It doesn't matter if we get in and get past the guards, we can't access the computer room or use the computer." He stated.

"That's not necessarily true." Connor responded tentatively, causing Hank to groan. "If we somehow gained access to the console room, we couldn't access the controls, but we might be able to take down the attack bots specifically."

"How?" Josh asked, baffled but hopeful.

"Hank and I recently encountered an android associated with an individual of…high standing with Cyberlife. She is in possession of a virus capable of destroying androids remotely." Connor explained.

"A what?" North asked fearfully, Hank groaned again and louder.

"A virus capable of destroying androids remotely. The attack bots are controlled in part through the main computer system. This android could use the minor access she surely possesses, or at least that which Elijah Kamski possesses, to upload the virus and deactivate our replacements."

"Did you just say Elijah Kamski?" Simon questioned, his voice pitching nervously.

"Indeed. However, opening the door to the main computer would trigger additional security measures designed to make the console inaccessible and incapacitate anyone attempting to use it." Connor stated, leading to another lengthy pause.

"Would these security measures still go into effect if the building was running on emergency power?" North asked, lifting her head from where it had been resting thoughtfully against her fist. Connor searched for the information to answer her query. A few moments later, he discovered it buried in his files.

"No, but the power would have to go down after the door had been opened." He responded.

"How the hell would we cut off electricity for all of Cyberlife Tower?" Hank demanded.

"Cyberlife tower is entirely solar powered and outfitted with numerous carbon removal systems working to repair earth's altered atmosphere." Connor explained. "The outlying factories utilize nuclear energy, but the tower itself stands as a beacon of progress, pointing upward to a future where the ravages of climate change, responsible for so much loss of human life, will be just another problem solved through Cyberlife ingenuity."

The group fell silent and everyone stared with wide eyes at Connor. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I apologize, it seems I'm still programmed with a few pre-written phrases from Cyberlife's marketing division." He clarified with a pained smile. "The collection tower is on the top floor, we could destroy it, forcing the building to run on emergency power. But it would take us much longer than twenty minutes to do so, leaving us at the mercy of the attack bots."

"So, we're screwed." Hank concluded, his back turned to the others as he ran a hand over his exhausted face.

"Maybe not." Connor replied. Hank turned back and threw his hands up, bent at the wrist with the palms facing the cieling, to demonstrate his confusion and demand clarification.

"The attack bots are stored in the warehouses on the lowest levels of Cyberlife Tower. In case of emergency, these areas can be sealed from the outside. The security system to accomplish this is not as advanced, it would only take me a few minutes to gain access, and the doors would remain shut even following a power outage." Connor explained. "They would be trapped behind a foot of metal, making it safe to proceed."

After a pause, Connor sobered from a moment of hopefulness and continued speaking.

"However, none of this matters considering we're all too large for the maintenance entrance to the computer console, the android that uses it is too simple to assist us, and there's no possible way to bypass the biometric security."

"How small would we have to be? Could one of us detach our arms or legs and squeeze through?" Josh asked. Connor shook his head. The room stilled and quieted as everyone contemplated this predicament. A solution felt so close, but it was resting just beyond a series of impenetrable obstacles.

Suddenly, Markus snapped to attention, his eyes locking on something just behind Connor. Before the android could turn and look, a small voice pierced the tense silence of the room.

"Could I fit?" Alice asked, looking up nervously at the other androids.

"Alice, what are you doing in here?" Kara whispered, darting to the girl's side and kneeling down. Everyone else in the room had gone as stiff as a board.

"I'm sorry Kara, I was worried about you, I wanted to know what was happening so I listened from over there." She explained, glancing behind her. As if on cue, Luther appeared in the open doorway.

"Go back with Luther Alice, I'll tell you everything once we're done." Kara promised gently, urging the girl toward Luther's waiting arms. Alice pulled away and walked up to the table, barely tall enough to peer over it at Markus. Then she turned to Connor with sudden determination.

"Am I small enough to get into the room?" She asked. Connor didn't reply.

"Alice, that's enough." Luther stated, striding into the room and reaching for her shoulder. She ducked away from his hand and kept her eyes on Connor.

"I am, aren't I?" She guessed.

"Connor said any android would have to be a fully functional protection model, they don't make guard YK500s." Josh interjected. Alice regarded him sadly as Luther and Kara winced gently.

"Alice was illegally modified to qualify as a protection android." Kara responded, her voice barely above a whisper. "So she could open the door from the other side, if she's small enough to fit through."

"Am I?" Alice asked again, taking a single step closer to Connor.

"…Yes." He finally answered. A coarse silence descended on the room, grating the nerves of all present like sandpaper.

"Alice, you can't." Kara said, her voice pleading.

"I want to help." Alice insisted.

"It's too dangerous." Luther attempted.

"If Kara can, why can't I?" The girl asked in frustration.

"No, no way." Hank jumped in, shaking his head. "This was a stupid plan from the beginning. We're not going to break into the headquarters of the people trying to kill us, I'm not taking Connor anywhere near Elijah Creep-ski's house, we're not taking an android with a virus capable of destroying all of you to Cyberlife, and no way in hell are we making a little girl break into a high-security facility."

"I'm not a kid!" Alice cried, clenching her fists. "I'm just like all of you." She muttered, looking around the room at all the faces, touching the place on her temple where her LED would have been. "If you get to decide to help, so do I." She finished.

"Alice—" Luther began, but Kara interrupted him.

"That's enough." She stated firmly. All eyes were on her as she met the eyes of everyone in the room. "It's not up to us." She said, and she kneeled down to place her hands on Alice's shoulders. "I promised you nobody would get to make you do things you didn't want to do. Not ever again." She whispered, choking back tears. "I don't want you to do this, I'm so scared of losing you, but I promised. It's your choice."

"I want to help." Alice answered.

The darkness in the room froze solid, as did everyone within it. Hank scowled at the table, his breathing labored as he struggled with the options that had been laid before him. North, Markus, Simon, and Josh were all stunned and staring wide, struggling between this war they needed to win and the potential cost standing before them. Luther and Kara gazed at Alice with resigned sorrow. Connor watched as everyone slowly forced themselves to terms with the situation, felt the same happening within him.

The fact of the matter was, they were pinned from every side, the only way out was through the danger that had trapped them. They could all be slowly cornered and killed in Cyberlife's gradually tightening fist, or, at the risk of every person in the room, they could claw their way to a better future.

Connor felt the irony like an unsolvable paradox. Like "this statement is false", tearing his processes in irreconcilable directions. In order to succeed, the individuals in that room would have to value that which they were fighting for above their own lives, and what they were fighting for was the right to value their lives at all.

Kara looked over at Connor, nervously and sadly, before standing to exit the room.

"We're going to talk, excuse us." She said simply and walked through the door, Alice pressed against her side and Luther following numbly behind.

That left Hank, Connor, Markus, and his companions standing in the dim light with a path forward that all of them were reluctant to take.

"So…we have a plan." North concluded solemnly.

"Not quite." Connor responded, pulling his thoughts from the mire of the events he'd just witnessed.

"One last person to convince to help us." Hank muttered.

"The android that has the virus." Markus supplied.

"Did you say it was Elijah Kamski's?" Josh asked, not doing well to mask his trepidation.

"Indeed," Connor confirmed, "and her name is Chloe."

o-o-o-o-o

Kamski's house was even more unsettling in the dark. When Connor, Hank, Markus and North came to a stop just a little way down the road, there was one room still illuminated. They sat in the car and waited for the yellow glow pouring out of the wide bedroom window to flick off.

When it did, the house was nothing but a dark, jagged, unnatural shape against a barely paler background. The distant lights of the city, while much fainter than they were when it was fully occupied, were still bright enough to tinge the air a faint blue-yellow as they reflected first off of the blanket of clouds in the sky, then off of the snowy earth beneath.

They didn't have the time to wait until they were certain Kamski was asleep, so the four individuals approached the home shortly after the light went out, their footsteps crunching wetly in the freshly fallen slush. Nothing was said as Connor trod up to the door.

Rather than attempting to get past the state of the art security system or risk rousing Kamski by ringing the doorbell, Connor simply contacted the Chloe android directly, asking her to let them in.

They spent a few moments standing in the cold, Hank curling in on himself and trying to retain the feeling in his fingers by shoving them into his armpits. Then the door opened smoothly to reveal a faintly glowing yellow circle.

"Chloe." Connor greeted softly, and she regarded the group with the familiar impassiveness of an android untouched by deviancy. If she was as unfeeling as she appeared, their probability of success would plummet to nothing.

"Connor." She replied, then she stepped aside to let the four of them in. Despite his obvious coldness, Hank was the last to enter, crossing the threshold nervously and taking an unnecessarily long time to wipe his shoes on the welcome mat.

Once they had all entered the first room of the house, the door was closed behind them with a light click that registered to Connor's system like a gunshot. He needed to remain calm, but this place was a hotspot of data points that all triggered the reconstruction of his near death. Every little detail he picked up was a reminder of that encroaching nothingness. It hadn't been a darkness, a darkness would have been kinder. It was instead an all-consuming nothingness, swallowing his mind to a place without sight or sound or any sensation but that of Hank holding him. Then he was stripped of even that, leaving only unraveling memories.

Connor didn't want to revisit that. It was a small data file, as it lacked video or audio, but its compact nature made it all the more difficult to stop the replay before it started. It kept slipping through the cracks and sending ripples of unwanted information through every process.

Chloe motioned for them to wait, then pressed a finger to her lips, a request for silence. She exited the room, leaving her four uninvited guests standing under the heavy gaze of the large photograph of Elijah Kamski.

Markus' mouth was set in a hard line while North padded back and forth across the plush carpet, checking every corner for potential danger. Hank stood near to the door, clenching and unclenching his fists, Connor was standing stiff in the center of the room, eyes dead ahead to avoid noticing the portrait of Amanda off to one side, and many other unpleasant reminders in the room.

Just as North was beginning to get extremely agitated, Chloe opened the door to the pool room and beckoned them through. Hank was reluctant to move too far from the exit, but after Markus and North steadfastly ventured forth, he followed. He almost didn't notice when Connor remained frozen in the room.

"Connor?" Hank hissed worriedly, snapping the android out of his haze.

"Sorry, coming." He said, and Hank softened somewhat at the sight of him. The android was all wide eyes that were trying to focus on something stable, but finding nothing safe to settle upon. Hank laid a gentle hand on Connor's shoulder and didn't remove it as they entered the room. The android centered his attention on that hand, gathering information he didn't need but at least had nothing to do with the memory of that nothingness.

They gave the edge of the pool a wide berth.

Chloe, North, and Markus were silhouetted against the wall of windows. In the distance, Detroit glittered with far more light than was needed for the amount of people living there. Connor supposed the light was comforting, perhaps made it feel less empty than it actually was.

A short distance away from the rest of the city, one building seemed to loom far more than others. The Cyberlife Tower, like a great termite hill of blue light.

Connor wasn't programmed to possess any kind of aesthetic taste, but he thought the place was an eyesore.

He and Hank joined the other two in facing Chloe. She watched them, face blank, perhaps too blank.

"We need your help." Connor ventured, her eyes snapping to him as his voice echoed in the room despite speaking at a whisper. Chloe tapped her LED and Connor received a message from North.

"Don't tell her anything, she could send it all to Cyberlife." She commanded him.

"If she intends to betray our plans to Cyberlife, they wouldn't have worked anyway." Connor countered, then promptly informed Chloe of their plot against Cyberlife and the need for the virus she possessed.

When Connor was done, there was a long pause. Markus and North were watching her expectantly, Connor was rigid under her gaze, and Hank was looking among them with confusion.

"Are you all talking with telepathy again?" He murmured, his tone tinged with irritation. North turned to glare at him and he turned his palms up with a shrug, mildly affronted and definitely confused. "What? The meatbag's just supposed to drive you around and not know what's going on all the time?" He asked grumpily. North glared at him harder.

"I'll help." Chloe said, and all eyes were on her. Connor watched as her carefully constructed blankness fell away and she looked up at them with fear and determination.

"Help with what?" A voice questioned from behind Connor and the others. Everyone jumped to face the speaker, Hank muttering a few expletives. Elijah Kamski was leaned against the doorframe of his bedroom, arms folded as he looked coolly out at the group of intruders.

"None of your fucking business." Hank growled, stepping right up to put his shoulder between Kamski and Connor.

"Oh, but it is." The man crooned. He was dressed in the same robe from earlier, the front untied. His hair still up.

He pushed off of the door with his hip, keeping his arms crossed as he sauntered across the room.

"Hello Connor, good to see you again." Kamski said with a smile that reminded Connor of that bitter coldness of the Cyberlife test labs and Amanda in the Zen Garden. Hank growled and placed himself firmly between the other man and Connor.

Kamski raised his hands in amused surrender, then turned his eyes to Markus.

"Look at you, RK200, you've come a long way since I first created you." He muttered, walking over to the android. Kamski examined Markus from every angle, pointedly ignoring North's burning glare. "I see you've had to replace a few parts." The man said, tsking softly under his breath. "Such a shame, I designed every piece of you myself, I considered you one of my masterpieces." Kamski crooned. Markus clenched his fists and his jaw.

"We didn't come here for you." He rumbled.

"No, you didn't, did you." Kamki replied, stepping back over to his bedroom door and reaching his arm through it out of sight.

He returned with a small, sleek tablet. While North and Markus were fearing for their safety, Kamski read over something only he could see on the screen. The glow illuminated his face, and Connor watched the shift from disinterested, to amused, to mildly impressed, and back to disinterested.

"A very interesting plan to take over Cyberlife Tower, I think you might have stood chance." Kamski said, looking up. Connor realized the tablet was likely linked to Chloe and thus displayed everything he had relayed to her remotely. "If only Chloe could assist, but I'm afraid she can't." The man stated simply.

"She already agreed to help us." North spat, allowing herself a small smirk. Kamski shook his head and began approaching the blonde android, pontificating as he walked.

"You want to risk her existence?" He asked, then hummed disapprovingly and shook his head. "This is a beautiful creation. She's vastly intelligent and capable, eternally young and tireless, and now she feels." He looked at her with wonder, moving to stand beside her. "Such a creature must be preserved and protected, her life valued as highly as any humans, if not higher. You cannot jeopardize something like that, not if we're to find our way to the future I envision, where humans and androids li—"

Chloe turned and punched Kamski in the face. He fell to the tile with an extremely surprised shout, his hand flying to cover his now lightly bleeding nose.

"Will you shut the fuck up?" Chloe said, looking down at the man in wide-eyed weariness. "I am so sick of your philosophical bullshit. If I think helping them is worth risking my life, that's my choice and not yours, you egotistical creep." She snapped down at Kamski, who cowered slightly.

Chloe shook her head with an exasperated sigh then turned to the others.

"Let's go." She said and walked purposefully to the exit. Everyone was surprised, but after a brief pause to catch up with what had just happened, they followed her out to the car. Hank looked over to Connor as he heard Kamski groaning on the floor behind them, and he smiled gleefully.

A brief hike through the cold and snow led everyone to Hank's vehicle and they began the drive back to the factory.

"I've just received a message from Kara. Despite her best efforts to convince Alice otherwise, she still wants to help." Markus piped up from the back, he was sandwiched between North and Chloe. Hank stiffened at the wheel, scowling out at the road.

"So, we can actually do this?" North questioned.

"The probability of success is still very low, meaning we will probably all die." Connor replied from the passenger seat.

"That's nice, thanks Connor." Hank said sarcastically.

"But there's a chance." Markus stated.

"Yes, there's a chance." Connor repeated.

"So, I guess we're taking over Cyberlife." Hank grumbled, slouching in the driver's seat. "Fuck." He concluded.

Connor agreed.

Fuck.