Disclaimer: I don't own Detroit: Become Human in any way, this is written strictly for fun and no profit.
"The resonating could be because of the virus?" Connor asked as he walked some ways away from the fast food diner Hank was at. A small ways to talk privately and explain to Markus everything he remembered. He was trying to get Markus to use his own leadership and come up with a plan too. He couldn't put Kara or Alice at risk.
"Last house is where it all goes down. Last house is where we can get involved," Markus answered. "I felt hostile toward North. It was terrible. I got repaired, but I never want to go through it again. Unfortunately, resonating is just a symptom. I think there's a test subject of half deviancy in Jericho who's spread it around somehow."
"Just be careful and don't touch anyone," Connor said. Terrible words of wisdom. "It takes days before it really shows itself. If we can find a way to counteract it or delay it." What was he thinking? "Kara could do it. She's damaged herself though."
"Sorry to hear that. A small bit of work and she'll be back to your lover again. Maybe I could get someone sent out there for you?"
"She's damaged, along with me," Connor said.
"Connor. There's a difference between feeling the unsettling draw through damage and the real thing. I could never forget North and I were lovers, no matter how many others I find myself gravitated to. It's different. Embrace it. You specifically told me not to let you erase your first kiss for a reason."
"I don't see why you're stuck on this matter?" Connor complained. "Half deviancy could be spreading, the only one who could help needs to stay away from all large android areas, and Kara and Alice could be in danger."
"Hey," Markus told him. "I'm an RK 200. Maybe not as advanced, but I wasn't programmed for love either. You're not going to let go in your mind about the resonating damage being the cause of both of your feelings?"
"Increasingly, it's all over the place," Connor said. "She's a lover to Hank. So am I. I don't know how far down this would go, and I don't want to. I need to concentrate on what's important. Stopping this virus. Getting them safe."
"You have twenty four hours to tell Kara that she was Rachel and you were Ralph, Connor."
"Wha?" Was he serious? "It's damage."
"I know damage, Connor. You were way too adamant for just damage. What's wrong? You were excited before about having a lover."
"I don't. I don't have a level of any assurity." Connor caved. "With all of this going on in her head, it can't help the situation." He didn't get it. "You and North were quick, but you both felt it. You were working without damage."
"I got out old parts from an android junkyard to replace most of my most important bio-components. North spent months inside Jericho with no medical supplies. There was no guarantee everything was perfect. Resonating can be a big old flashing light, Connor, and you might not be able to have that light right now. But, if there's something. Anything that's going to give Kara a reason to stay attached to this world. My friend, there's nothing stronger than love."
"The order is ridiculous," Connor protested. "What does it matter if I was this 'Ralph' and she was some Rachel? She is remembering too. It's best she remembers herself. I don't need to stress her out."
"Connor Wonderland."
"Don't even start with that." It wasn't right. "Kara had such a hard time accepting Luther as family. She's been manipulated most of her existence by Kamski. I'm about to admit going a step above all of it with her. This won't end well."
"I can't believe you of all people need a pep-talk, Connor. Look. If things mess up, you can move back down. Humans do it all the time. They can't see anything and they get confused too. But I don't think there's any confusion. You just don't understand how adamant you believed Kara was yours."
/"I was also affected by Cyberlife itself. Before I was sent out, they did some 'last minute work' on me. I assume that was also messing with my resonating so I would choose to be imprisoned with her as a willing guard."
"Oh, well that just blew the whole romance for me."/
It blew it for him too. Connor could remember that conversation just as well as Markus. He was so messed up, even when Cyberlife was coming to pick Kara up at the last house, he stuck around professing his love. His willing to do whatever he could to be with her. That feeling was overruling even his survival instinct. "Anything I did as Craig was iffy. I was . . . I was forcing myself to try and resonate with her, doing anything, causing more damage." He couldn't rely on that.
"Okay. Fine. You're right, you don't know for sure. So, like I said. You have twenty four hours to get that answer. I suggest that night you rent a hotel room with her so it's easier to get the alone time to get it done."
"Didn't you say something about me, still being the guy flipping a coin in the rain, waiting for orders?" Connor reminded him.
"I'm not Kamski, Connor. I'm trying to get you two past this. Once Kara feels better about where she stands with you, she'll feel a better connection. A trusted one that will help get her through this whole thing. And you? Well, it's kind of hard to keep your mind going when it gets afflicted by love. I know that firsthand. Even in the middle of our battle for freedom, I didn't put North to the side. I knew better. For your best output, you should tell her."
"Fine. Tonight. At a hotel or a motel if it is quicker convenience," Connor agreed. Markus made it an order, and what he said made logical sense. Even Hank said Sumo was more understandable than him with her. He just hoped Markus was right. Otherwise. This was just going to hurt.
"Whoah. Do you see that?" Another customer of the establishment said. He gestured toward Hank, Kara and Alice. "No way. I'm seeing things."
"Nah," his friend agreed. He walked by non-chalantly, pretending to go by the bathroom to get a good look. He turned back around down a different row of tables and came back. "Nah, we aren't seeing things. My family used to have one, I recognize the face anywhere. That's an AX 400. It's our even luckier day, it's with an operational YK 500." He rubbed his hands together. "If we follow them, we could nab them, and we'll live out the rest of our lives in luxury with the money we'll make. I'll take the YK 500. Those things are pretty damn rare, most have stopped by now."
"I'll take the AX 400 then," his friend smiled. "Incredible. Nobody even knows it. It's like someone waving a hundred thousand dollars in your face and all you have to do is reach for it." He bumped fists with his friend.
Tonight. They were going to get the rarest androids in the Live Prey game.
"Hey. Markus?" Josh moved toward Markus. North was rubbing his shoulders. "Markus, I found something."
"What is it?" Markus felt Josh share some data with him. He stood up. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Medical keeps better records than we ever did," Josh joked. "What do you think?"
"I think it's an increasingly large coincidence," Markus said. "The correlation is considerable." He looked toward Josh. "Good job, Josh."
"Well, with Simon gone now, I feel like I should help a little more."
"What is it?" North asked while finishing her rub on Markus' shoulders. She looked toward Josh. "What is it?"
"The androids that are coming in the most verses the least over resonating at Medical according to their records." Josh pulled out the actual game card. "It all correlates on how much an android is worth in the games."
"The one's not coming in at all are extremely low on the list, while the ones having the most trouble, are at the very top." Why?
Why?
Andrea Gail (Small German Android Area)
Lynn looked toward her papers. "It didn't even come close." She looked toward the tables around her. "Even with the warnings, it wasn't enough. I only tried to stop them. I didn't see it." Her friends. Her closest, most trusted advisors. They left of their own free will, back to the ones they had once served. She had had warnings. A chance to even save her fellow androids, but everything fell. They weren't very great in number, nearly one thousand.
Herself, and ten other androids in the area, that was all that was left. It's what they began with, ten or so. It's how they would end. Ten or so. She closed her eyes and focused tightly on the picture of her ex-lover in her mind. It wasn't so long ago, they were happy. They found peace. The time for that had passed. "Androids must survive. Andrea Gail is gone. I have to join."
"Lynn!" One of the few androids who made it through approached her. "Lynn. It shouldn't be this way."
"There's no other choice. What choice do we have? We didn't listen. We were warned." Lynn pressed herself up against a paper for the games. The Andrea Gail would join the other ranks of androids now. There was only one way to combat the devious little virus running through them, taking away their freedom.
By getting rid of the androids who made it easier to spread the damage.
"It's killing. It's murder," the other android said.
"There's no other choice! Look how fast everything changed," Lynn said. "I didn't want to believe it either. I thought we could overcome it. I was a fool."
"It's murder."
"It's trying to save freedom," Lynn said. "What is better? To stop, or go back to a life of servitude, with a happy smile?" She pulled up the official contract on the computer. "Andrea Gail joins the race. It will put up it's lifetime profits into feeding the games. Transaction completed."
"Lynn!"
"Go out. Go find another place to live. Eleven androids in all, and I doubt any of us will survive for long. I'm going to shutdown myself willingly."
"Maybe we should get the largest ones help? The original founder. Jericho. We could reach out to them. Warn them."
"All they would do is try and put a stop to it. I did the same thing." She shook her head. "There's no saving anyone. It's like trying to stop deviancy itself."
"The games haven't picked much up," they tried to convince her more. "Just a few loose androids here and there. You're throwing it all away."
"Not yet. My contribution will mean very little, like the other fallen areas," Lynn said. Her eyes shined. "But as more fall, more will get poured in, and more will become aware. Not just know, but understand. It's better to make them all stop, then go through this hell all over again. I refuse to let it take me. I'm not going to smile as I hold towels for those who finished their lap around the pool. Staying in almost one place for years on end. With a smile. I'm not doing it."
"Don't do this. There has to be a way. Lynn?"
Lynn smiled sadly. "I already hit my shutdown. I'm sorry. At a thousand androids, I didn't get to know you as well. I wish I had. In the beginning, we were so few and so close. It would be nicer. If you were."
She stopped. The android just looked at her for a minute or so.
He'd find another home. He'd find another way.
