"What?" Oh yeah, that didn't make her happy. "You said I only had to do it once. That was once."

"You could change me for good, Kara." Connor knew what said. "I know I said that I promised, but there is a difference. There is a difference between what you say, and what you can say, that reaches me differently."

Kara just looked panicked. "Why? How?"

"I am still me, just a different way of thinking," Connor said to her. "The way you act, with the installs." She looked like she was about to lose it. She couldn't hear or see over that program, she couldn't understand. "It would break the difference between me as a machine verses a living being for good." For good. "There would be no coming back."

Kara started to look less panicked. "You think it will change you?"

"I know it will change me. That's why I put a mark on the file memory not to access it. My machine self, needs to hear you, and see it for himself," Connor said. "In fact? As lovely as that scene of being born had been. You could-"

"I can't use that!" Oh, Kara knew exactly what he wanted to ask. "Are you kidding? Show that to the world? Me, as a machine, as machine as I could ever be?"

"Yes." Kara just couldn't see it. "Only the coldest of people wouldn't understand." Even children who witnessed the video. "Anyone who's ever been bullied in any way, they are going to see that simulation and-"

Kara covered up part of her face and half her cheek with her hands. "If you tell me, it's just like this."

"It's just like this," Connor started, "and you aren't a Traci." He had to. "You have all the memories in your mind, of each time, they were never wiped out. I can dig them out-"

"That's insane!"

"How many times were you rented out?"

"I don't know. I just know when my capsule was open, it was time to fight."

"Then how many times did you have to fight?"

"Just pull it from me!" She was so upset. He couldn't blame her. This wasn't a pleasant way to show that androids were alive. It wasn't.

But it was a thousand percent the way to do it. It was a way to get the world realistically to see with their own optical units that androids were freed. With those kind of videos from Eden's Club? Watching the simulation.

'I feel' and 'I am alive' and 'I have my own will' were just words, but it hit a lot stronger when a housemaid fought for it. "It would change the world. It will keep me deviant forever, if I watch it, from the machine side of myself."

"How can you say that?" Kara had to ask. "How-"

"The thinking processes. The machine side of me is starting to warm up to you as a potential friend. It sees the error inside of you as just an error, and you not being responsible for what the error is doing. To him, you are a hapless android that landed in trouble, that's pleasant to be around."

"That sounds about right I guess," Kara said softly. "He seemed like he cared a little."

"Please, I need you to trust me?" Connor said. "So many people believed that RA9 would save them. They scribbled it everywhere. They fought for it. They were deactivated for it. Their thirium pump regulators ran on those words."

Kara didn't look any better about it. "Hank said no."

"I'm sure if I explain correctly, Hank will agree," he said. "In order to see him, and get you back to that position, we have to go back. Can you . . . help get me touched by Markus if I have no deviancy left inside?" He was trying to be careful. "I know, my machine self can't know, he'd capture him and everything. I think North tried to pass on Markus' touch to me, but she was an android from the Eden's Club too. You might be her only connection."

True. North did interact with Markus, but whether he willingly bothered to share his deviant gene? Kara couldn't control it, but Markus seemed to be able to.

"I don't need to know his location, but could you reach him? I . . ."

Kara nodded. "I'll make sure you can get the error again." Markus would be ready, he even promised Connor

"Without the error, even with all that in my face, there won't be room to think. I'll block it, I'll refuse to see it," Connor said. "If I take you to a payphone, could you make the call?" She nodded. "Okay. We'll do that, then I . . . I better get you back to headquarters where it will be more likely I . . ."

"You can tell when your starting to move back to machine," Kara said to him slowly. "Yet, you know for an unwavering fact you'll change for me if you see me like that as a machine?" She sighed. "Fine. I trust you. How do we finish the story?"

"I know the story, machine and deviant," Connor assured her. "As soon as I change back, it won't take long. I'm not marking it with anything, it'll be in my memory."

"What about . . . everything else?" Kara asked.

"I am going to run them through my system by probing your mind," he said. "It'll only be a few seconds. I will download the data to Kamski, and he can leak it out as he wishes. I also recommend in that phone call that you let Markus know, rebellion needs a leader. When there isn't, it's just small groups and chaos. This is going to get huge, Kara. A united stand will have to take place for there to be any real change."

"There's no guarantee Elijah will leak everything, he held back because of blackmail. Important people visited me, Connor," she said softly. "People with power he wouldn't mess with."

"Kamski rented you to find out more about you. He spent extra time with you since then. Maybe he'll help more than you think." Besides, he was the only option to feature those videos. Running the simulation would be the catalyst. "Afterwards, you have to do something. If I haven't changed yet, because it won't be instant," he assured her. "Permanence will be slow, I already know it. I'll be going through a lot of logical equations to fight over what I was seeing and believing. If I haven't changed after that simulation, you need to work on figuring out how to escape with yourself and Alice. Hank will be ready to help. I will let him know when I visit him." Connor looked at the ground with a low sigh. "I'll actually visit him privately after I take you back to the hotel. I need to make sure I'm deviant enough to talk to him." He looked back toward her. "I know it's a hard thing to ask, all of this. It's really the best way."

"You have to be so careful on the message to send." Kara just couldn't smile. Not a dead smile or a cheery smile. "I don't know how I acted or what I said. I don't know if it's the wrong message that could actually hurt our chances even more. All I can do, is put my trust into you." The smallest, the tiniest hint of a smile hit her face.

Not because she was cheery, but because she was trying to cheer up for him. "What about our deviant pets?"

Connor gave her the same kind of smile back as their status changed to friends officially. "They will be part of the investigation. I'll tell Hank about them. Our pets will be safe."

—

Pay Phone

A decent way away from Connor. He didn't want to accidentally know how to find Markus. Kara let Markus know about Connor's problem, but someone else wanted to talk to her. "Hello."

North. "Hello. You're Kara, aren't you? Are you the Kara that changed me?"

Damn. "I was just excited at the time, I was freed, and I didn't know it would change anyone." Sorry, she felt so sorry. "I'm sorry. Your mind wipes stopped working."

" . . . we were both there. We both suffered, but I eventually found a way out. Thank you."

"Hm. I should get off the phone now." Kara had enough nostalgia.

"Sorry, I just wanted to say thank you," North said to her. "I hope we get to meet soon."

Sure. "I hope so too. Goodbye." Kara hung up the phone, but noticed a PL 600. She scanned it. "You're Simon."

"You are the RA9," Simon said to her. "I've been following you, to watch you. I can take you to safety."

"That's sweet, but you don't understand what you see." Kara patted his shoulder lightly. "Connor is deviant and machine. Having you this close right now probably isn't making him feel secure. We have a little android kitten that can actually read deviancy. He knows you are here."

Simon looked uncomfortable. "It knows?"

"He knows." After the whole rebellion, there probably wasn't a surviving android that didn't know about Connor. "I am choosing to stay on my own. I have my own plans for helping the androids. Please don't tell anyone you've seen me."

"You are staying with someone who can deactivate you. If we lose the RA9, so many androids will lose hope!" Simon said to her a little too loud.

Damn. She had to get him to get quiet. "Don't worry about me if I become deactivated. Don't worry about my serial number. It changes. I upgrade through different bodies. I am on my ninth, and I think there is one more." Ken had to have one more. Probably. Although, that would mean a new serial number. Again. New location. Ken might not let her come back out again. Ken was obsessive, but he was still sharing her. When he was fully out of upgrades, she was sure he wouldn't just let her wander around anymore.

That meant she was still being as careful as she could be. 100 some years in a capsule was worse than deactivation.

Simon didn't yell anymore. "Be careful."

"I can let you get in contact with Markus again." At least that would make him feel better.

"Oh, please." Simon held his arm out. Kara transmitted the data. "Thank you. If you need help-"

"I won't," Kara said quickly. "Look? Connor is changing quickly. He fluctuates, so please. You need to stay away from me." That, and, if she fell into repair, she could put Simon in serious danger. "Don't stay too close to me please. I have to go now."

She left and walked a couple of blocks away back to Connor. He didn't look pleased as he was petting Wallet in his hands. "I'm back."

He glanced behind her, then back at her. "Okay. I'm going to take you back to the hotel and go see Hank. After this, we'll discuss the next move."

—

Hospital

Hank just stared at Connor. "Your idiotic idea?"

"It'll change me for good, if I see it from my machine side," Connor explained.

Ugh. Hank admitted to himself, the change back and forth was annoying. One minute Connor was just a machine, and the next, he was a close buddy he could have had a beer with (if androids drank.) Hm. "Really don't want to see that install. Don't want to see those videos. That shit isn't going to be pretty. Did you get them yet?

Yep. Oh yep, Connor had got those files. Any bit of machine he saw was starting to shirk back. "She went through hell, Hank, absolute hell." He turned around for a second. "I won't give them all to Kamski, there are some that are just too . . ."

"Humans are sick. They are sick assholes with sick fetishes, and I bet Kara viewed the whole spectrum," Hank said. "Free will as some Traci, that would be hell."

"She wasn't some Traci!" Connor actually yelled at him. "She wasn't allowed to get her mind wiped every two hours, she has every memory except for the install program words!"

"Whoah, Connor, not the enemy," Hank reminded him. "Geez, you really are deviant now."

"Not for long. I'm changing back fast, I can feel it," Connor said. "After this talk, I'm getting Alice from Kamski, giving him this shit in my head, and we are going back to the department."

Got poor Connor cussing. Hank probably couldn't handle watching those videos. "Okay, so Markus is somehow going to make sure you get touched again, just in case the error North tried to cause doesn't stay so you can still change. He'll eventually be taking the mantle of leader." That would be good news. A peaceful leader could get shit done. "The error is in one of Kara's stories, and you'll reveal it when you become machine. Kara's deviant signal hits models that weren't compatible with the Cyberlife machine that made her the hardest, and they are worse off the closer she is to them when she's in repair."

"Yes, it's all confirmed," Connor insisted.

"Damn Connor, good job," Hank congratulated him.

"I also have a deviant Saint Bernard named Echo and a deviant kitten named Wallet," Connor said.

What? "You're on the run a day and you get yourself some pets?"

"There were reasons. They are deviant, so they will have to come. Please try and keep them alive. Let the Chief know that Kara is fond of them and keeping her happy with Alice and the pets will help her, and the mob that appears outside. That mob will be increasing in strength soon too."

Aww man. "Can't just return them? Pets for a day, Connor."

"They are deviant. They'll be deactivated. Even the seller could see the kitten wasn't following its program correctly," Connor said.

"Why'd you have to get such a huge dog, and what the hell? Why a kitten?"

"I was going to get a German Shepherd, but Kara petted the Saint Bernard. Said it reminded her of Sumo."

Yeah, she and Alice would remember Sumo. Hank would stop and pet a dog like that too.

"She didn't mean for it to be deviant. The kitten she didn't pet, it just touched her shoe."

Damn, deviancy in animals was fast. "Couldn't I have just returned on a pair of crutches and not had all this shit on me?" One damn day. "I got two weeks in here."

"I won't run any checks on her install information until you are back. He'll be ready to fix the story after you get back. He won't even care about the other installs, but tell the Captain when you return, it's all important still. I know you, you can be adamant without revealing why."

Uh huh. "A dog, a cat, a little girl, and RA9 all caged together." Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Singlehandedly, Connor had found what worsened the deviant disease and could remove it within one day.

He could probably deal with the dog or cat situation. It's not like Connor pissed off Fowler with them. Wait. "You didn't piss off Fowler with them or anything?"

Oh that look. "Echo may have had a slight accident on the carpet. It's not hard to clean up."

What? "Android pissed on his carpet?"

"He wouldn't address me as Connor, and he never did," Connor said defiantly. "He never addressed me at all, even as a machine. He addressed you. He barely even noted my existence. If I ever posed a question to him, he ignored me, or just threw me out. Excuse me if I couldn't quite hold the dogs instincts perfectly still."

Connor could possess the dog? "You were pissed at Fowler, so you made the dog piss on the carpet?"

"Echo had to go anyway," Connor said.

"You're hanging out with me too much," Hank said, with just a smidge of pride. "After this mess up with Kara and you and the press, I bet Fowler will deal with the damn cat and dog. Go get Alice, drop that crap off to Kamski, get back there before the department gets any more blame, and try not to piss anyone off for two weeks. If you can manage that."

"I will, Hank. Goodbye," Connor said as he left the room. Still, a little more erect than before.

It was a shitty thing to hear about Kara. Hank suspected they had a different use for her, and it was a kick in the balls that he was right. But, if it could break Connor free once and for all?

Then damn it, the whole world would just have to feel the kick in the balls.