Bull shit. The day, the whole day was going to be nothing but bull shit.

Connor watched Hank arrive, and Hank had an idea of what he was going to say. "The leader of Cyberlife released a video to the general public. He paid for airtime. I think our mission just became harder."

"Yeah, I saw it," Hank said to Connor. Other officers were paying attention to Hank and him subtlety. "Nothing stays a walk in the park for long." Kamski shared the creation video to show humanity all the deviant virus had really been, while at the same time sharing that they were working on the original android in the video at the Detroit Police Department with the immune RK 800 and Detective Hank Anderson!

No shit, that asshole Kamski gave their very names and numbers! Kara wasn't the only one who had to feel the heat.

"Two androids had already tried to get in. They were arrested and will be deployed soon to Elijah Kamski at his request," Connor said.

"Uh huh."

"Apparently he wants to keep any defects that show up here, and use them to test the cure ideas later."

"You don't say."

" There is a small mob outside too, that seem very eager to know more."

"Yeah, I know, I had to get through them to get through the doors." That would be annoying day after day.

"Besides those outbursts, we have been delivered a daily chart of testing to start off with," Connor said. "An AX 400 is built to be a standard android, most functions are common. It had some installs removed, and some added, but we are still supposed to see if she can complete those actions, as well as test her new installs."

"This helps to fix the problem?" Hank asked.

"You need a base, to solve a problem," Connor answered. "Maybe we'll find something that just needs a small correction that will stop spreading the deviant error."

"Sure. Maybe she just missed one of her 10,000 recipes and it created a glitch," Hank said like a smartass.

"Who knows?" Connor said. "Kara and Alice are at your-"

"Put the weapon down!-"

Desk. Connor meets him two seconds at the door, and someone was already trying to shoot at Kara?

Connor and Hank tried to run, but before they even got close, the situation was taken care of. That other guy Rick that looked like Connor, had taken the gun away.

Kara had held Alice close beneath the desk and started to poke up her head.

"It is okay, Kara and Alice," Rick said to her. "Though Connor once again is failing his missions, I still get tagged, and feel compelled to make sure you are okay."

"Well stop your compelling!" Connor yelled at Rick. "I have my own missions under control!"

"No, we didn't." Hank had to give it to Rick. "They'd be dead right now without Rick, Connor. Give credit where credit is due." Hank shook Rick's hand. "Thanks." Yeah, it pissed off Connor, but Hank couldn't ignore the facts.

"Yes. Well. Credit." Connor didn't say much more.

"Perhaps I can assist more often, like when both of you just can't watch them because you have to check or talk about social media," Rick recommended. "I am designed to serve."

"Eh, it's okay, Rick. It was a one time thing." Hank went over by Kara and Alice. "You two okay?"

"Yeah, we hid," Kara said.

"You shouldn't have had to," Rick said to her. "Do you prefer RA9 or Kara from me?"

Kara seemed surprised. "Why would you ask me?"

"I looked at your file well. You are very precious to Elijah Kamski, and he is my creator. Naturally, even though you are an android, you should be up there in importance, so I would like your preference."

"RA9," Connor said for her, his teeth practically sounded like they were grinding against each other. Did android have teeth they could be allowed to grind? "I call her Kara, you call her RA9 or AX 400."

Rick crossed his arms. "I wasn't talking to you, 800. Kindly refrain from entering into our conversation."

"I appreciated your help," Kara said toward Rick, "but I don't want to put a wall between me and my watchers, Hank and Connor. RA9 for me is fine, but . . . you may call Alice, Alice."

"Fifty percent there," Rick said before walking off.

Hank just scratched his arm. "I thought testosterone in humans was bad. Sorry about that, Kara." He sat back down and looked at the tablet sat on his desk. "Effing kidding me."

"It's best not to do the physical abilities testing right now. There is too much press outside the department right now," Connor said, like Hank didn't guess that.

"Then . . . " Hank looked at their options. "She know how many languages? Damn."

"Kara, I'd like for you to set yourself a standard of speaking to yourself in every language you know with changes every five seconds. Don't repeat a whole phrase," Connor said. "Go."

Kara didn't talk to herself for very long. She spoke in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Portuguese. "Done."

"I didn't understand most of that," Hank said, "but don't androids know like hundreds of languages?"

"I had most of them removed," Kara said. "I'm an older model, so to make significant upgrades, I have to lose older information."

"That is a lot of information to just zap out." Connor spoke to her in some other language Hank didn't know. He checked her tablet. "I was hoping this was an error in the tablet." He said something else in another damn language. "What android would get rid of everything but six major languages?"

"Someone that knows that they aren't going to be needing them, when life doesn't move from America," Kara said. "I thought life wouldn't move from America."

"Uh huh." Connor didn't sound well as he stared at the tablet. "You have lost a lot of your old installs, especially in this third section."

Hank looked in the third section. "Ooh, I'm not touching that."

"We have to do everything, Hank. You have gotten rid of so many old installs." Connor pushed the tablet away. "What are your new installs? You must have thousands considering what you have removed."

"I have what I wanted to learn," Kara answered. She glanced toward Alice. "Do you need anything else, Alice?" She was holding a teddy for her.

"Over 1,000 of your nanny files are missing," Connor said. "That was clearly usable. Why did you get rid of those?"

Kara shifted a little. "Owners change things."

"So that wasn't you?" Connor asked. "Kara?"

Oh, now Connor wanted to call them by their names, just because of Rick. Sheesh.

"No."

"It was an owner?"

"Yes."

"Capable owner to remove files. Which owner?"

She didn't answer right away. "Eden Club."

"You didn't answer that very quickly," Connor noticed.

Well duh, it was the Eden Club! Damn Connor when he was too machine. "Eden Club is not a topic for around Alice."

"Alice is only made to mimic human children," Connor said to Hank.

"Then I order you to drop this Eden Club shit around Alice," Hank said, "or do you want Rick to cover for you on this?"

"I could be on it, Hank!" Rick yelled from across the room.

Yeah, there was a little more anger again in Connor. "Kara, come with me, Alice will stay with Hank."

—

Kara obediently followed Connor toward a holding cell. She did not want to address this, but Connor and Hank were going to cover everything.

"You lost 1,239 files due to the Eden's Club getting rid of it." Connor had no problem talking about it. "That would leave room for new data."

"Yes." It wasn't an excited yes. It was a dull yes. An unenjoyable yes.

Connor tilted his head. "This is the first time you've actually seemed the most like a machine."

"To talk about Eden's Club, I have to push it through automatic processing." Same tone.

"This is . . . how you should be." Yet, Connor didn't seem good with it. "What files were added?"

"Appropriate sexual actions for Eden Club androids."

"And where did they go?"

"Deleted by my next owner."

"Ken Dulith?"

"Correct."

"To add his own files?"

"No." Kara didn't want to continue this conversation. She looked at the ground. She looked back up as Connor snapped his fingers. "He didn't add any files, and he just got rid of the files I told him to."

"Ken Dulith was also the one who didn't disassemble you when he found out you were deviant," Connor said flatly. "The human who kept smacking me for some reason."

"Yes. He was the owner of Eden's Club."

"He removed Eden Club files from you. This doesn't add up. Did you move to his house as his maid?"

"No, I remained his private propery on Eden Club's grounds."

Connor looked away a second. "Files show you were contained in a capsule. He kept you as a . . . prize. No, as . . ."

Oh, not now. Connor had cared a great deal about her being trapped when he was free. Even though he was machine again, it was probably rubbing around on him.

"Yes. A prize," Connor said somewhat awkwardly. "Then you somehow lost your ownership unit into a rental unit."

"Yes. To Todd."

"Now you are the property of Elijah Kamski, because of what he found out." Connor seemed to be piecing scenarios together. "How long before you felt sunshine and wind?" He looked so confused.

Damn it. His deviant menu. "Not now, Connor."

"How long before you felt sunshine and wind, Kara?" Connor asked way more empathetically than he should have.

"Six years."

"Six?"

"Yes, six, can we move onto something else?" They were just retreading already treaded ground, and she hated this ground.

"Waiting to be sold, androids sometimes have to wait awhile. They are so popular though, usually they don't have to wait even two years. If they can't get sold, they get pulled into a lower outlet to sell. On average, even the most mild rented androids . . ." Connor flinched. "Six years. I'm sorry." He pulled at his tie.

Kara stopped him from pulling at his tie. "It's fine. No worries. Don't think about it." She let go of his hands.

"Yeah. Let's get back to Hank." Connor moved away from the corner with her.

Elijah was so right, he probably would come back and forth. Right now, Connor was showing visible signs his machine self was moving downward again.

"I finished asking her about things." Connor relaxed into a chair.

"Connor, you okay?" Hank raised his eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, Hank. I just feel a little strange." Connor rubbed his face. "Fine." He grabbed the tablet again. "The only functions that seem to be her original function is the cooking. She is very good at cooking. We can have her cook."

"Sure, yeah, right in the middle of a police station," Hank complained. "What else is there?"

"Besides the basics of the start ups in all androids, we are done looking at her original installs," Connor said.

"Really? That's it?"

"That's it, Hank. Everything else is upgraded or empty space."

"Empty space allows me to think easier," Kara said to Hank.

"Maybe that's the source?" Connor said to her. "Maybe when you were created, someone made an error in your installment space. You have been having things removed ever since you had your first owner."

"Too much space?" Hank leaned back slightly. "It's a place to start I guess."

"If we take out all the new information and put in the old installs-"

"No," Kara said outwardly. "I don't want that."

"This could be the solution to repair you," Connor said sympathetically. "You wouldn't have feelings or emotional pain anymore."

"I like feeling those things," Kara told him. "They make me feel more alive."

"Emotional pain is nothing without physical pain, and we cannot feel physical pain therefore-"

"Cipa," Alice interrupted.

Clever Alice, she remembered Connor's own reasoning.

Connor had paused.

"What the hell is cipa?" Hank asked.

"Congenital Insensitivity to Pain," Connor said to Hank. "Humans that can't feel pain."

"By your reasoning, they wouldn't be alive," Alice pointed out.

Connor was staring at Alice. "Your detection to find that answer, that quickly with your own software are in the fractions of percents. In other words, it should have been impossible to counter that so fast without previous experience. Where did you hear about that?"

"Uh? Kara told me one day."

"You are lying," Connor called her out.

"Children, stop bickering over how fast someone knew an answer," Hank said out loud. "Connor, did you capture Kara with her language thing with anything besides your recorders?"

"Besides my own personal recording device? No, Hank."

"Well, we better have her redo that and I'll record it with actual police property. I don't want anyone hacking into our feed to mess up whether she is good or bad."

"Backup recordings. Not needed but understandable," Connor said. "I don't let them loom long, I send them straight to Cyberlife."

"Then erase their existence."

"No need to waste space with things no longer needed."

"Exactly," Kara couldn't help herself. "Old information takes up senseless space."

"You can push information onto an external hard drive, inserted into your right hand." Connor was looking up information. "It was made two years after you were invented when your given space amount was considered very minimal. If we push some optional external hard drives into your right hand, you can carry your old installs, have enough room for new ones, and still enjoy your space."

What? "I don't want my old installs back."

"You can disconnect and switch which external to use at a time," Connor said. "Let's go down to a repair shop, you take a common external drive they should carry."

No! "In that mob?"

"If Hank got in, we can get out," Connor said simply. "Hank, you'll need to come-"

"-so that you can get out, I know, I know." Hank tucked his seat in and grabbed his coat. "This is going to suck."

—

As Kara went outside she winced and held Alice tightly. There was more than a few reporters, Connor and Hank were right to call it a mob. There were even more police that had to help them get to Hank's car.

"Was that footage of being alive really real?"

"What makes you feel the most like you are alive?"

"Are you different than other androids, can you feel pain?"

"If we fix you, we'll we be able to fix other androids like Kamski promises?"

"How do you feel about humanity after all these years?"

"How did this error occur, any evidence yet?"

"Are you still scared of being deactivated?"

"Are the androids going to try to regain freedom again?"

Question after question came soaring at her, her data was catching so many in the air, by the time she learned one set, another set had started. Some were good, some were bad, some just wanted information. Most of them didn't sound scared, unlike the message Markus had sent out.

It didn't sound like androids were taking over, just that one believed it was alive.

"How are you passing on this error, RA9?"

"Why are you called RA9?"

"Who are your owners, RA9?"

"Is it true the little android beside you, you have motherly feelings for, RA9? Is that why you are not rebelling in police custody?"

"RA9, isn't there some part of you that realizes your motherly feelings are part of your programming?"

Question after question, none she could answer. They were almost to Hank's car.

"RA9, do you feel responsible for the killings androids have done?"

"RA9, do you believe the revolution was right? Do androids want war, peace, or are they just machines?"

"RA9, is it true you are a messiah to androids?"

Kara got into the car with Alice, but Connor actually had to help keep them at bay.

"People! There is a time and place for questions, but it's not now!" Connor commanded. "We have to go."

As they started to move away, Kara could hear the restless scene still howling out questions. Eventually, every question she heard would have to be answered.

"RA9, RA9! Is it true you belong to the owner of the Eden Club?"

Every question will need an answer, even those kinds of questions. Hank was almost out of the people's shouting vicinity. Soon, there would be no more noise. "Hank, could you call Kamski about this?"

"Already on it," Hank said to her. While they finished driving, Hank hung up. "No problem, external hard drives were made just fine for you."

"I already stated that," Connor said a little offishly as he got out of the car. "Let's go."

As they got out, Kara tried to get closer to Hank. "Hank, when someone messes with my data, every time, I revert for a little while," she warned him. "We can't do this."

"Gotta," Hank said to her. "You'll eventually snap out of it. Head on up ahead."

"But Hank-"

"I didn't get no warnings you were coming, I don't get a chance to prepare with anything else," Hank said, also a little offishly.

"Don't bother Hank with this," Connor told her as they all headed in.

Damn, damn, damn. Kara felt Alice's hand around hers tightly. She looked down at her, while Alice looked up at her. Alice knew quite well, that messing with her data. It would have to happen. Kamski knew it would. She would have to go through the same thing Connor did.

Kamski ran a new program on her too, said it was for protection as well. It was like Connor's, but would only kick in if she started to make machine decisions. The only thing is, to make sure Kamski didn't get caught.

It would revert her all the way back to . . . It's temporary, the memories will restore when I am in control again. Temporary.

Temporary.

"The more I see your reaction, the more I think we are on the right idea," Connor said to her as he looked at the repair store. "You reverted between repairs. If we make the right repair, maybe we'll be able to end the error."

"That sounds awful." Kara didn't want to fake it. "I like being me."

"Being you is dangerous. When you get better, the world will get better," Connor tried to convince her.

They entered into the store. Fortunately, Kara didn't see anything android related. They had gone down to the tech that was around before Kamski created the androids.

"We want to buy three external drives for an AX 400," Hank said casually to the seller.

"I'm sorry, Sir, it's illegal to sell anything android-related?" Still, it was easy to tell the seller knew who she had been. "Is that the living android?"

"The android with an error," Connor corrected him. "We have all the signatures we need to buy android parts. She is part of the Police Department's area, which is allowed to have approved android merchandise."

"Come on," Hank said to the seller. "You know that if the android situation gets solved, then you'll all be back in business. You wouldn't just get rid of all that stuff. Connor, download your permissions to his phone."

"No, no, that's not allowed anymore either," the seller warned them. "Nothing direct from an android."

"Connor, download it to my phone." Hank watched it appear and showed it to the guy. "There."

"Even the president?" The seller seemed to be giving in. "I might have something in the back."

Kara tried to keep her nerves in control. This had to happen. This nervousness happened every time she had to get worked on.

"Best ones for an AX 400." The seller brought out six brands with different storage capacities.

"Which ones, Connor?" Hank asked. "Point and I'll get three of them."

Hank bought three external drives Connor picked out . Each one, held twice as much room as she did internally.

"Hold your arm out." Kara did that, knowing what was next. Connor took her sleeve and pushed it up.

"Watch Alice, keep watching Alice?" Kara couldn't keep her nerves out of her voice. "This won't be me at first, I won't be able to protect her."

"Our duty is to keep you and Alice safe," Hank reminded her. "She'll be fine."

Kara watched as Connor expertly opened her arm. The process was simple so that people could do it themselves. In fact, she herself could have done it. Connor would be thorough though, making sure it was done right.

Kara closed her eyes.

—

When she opened them again.

She wasn't in the repair store. She wasn't inside of a building. Hank was in front of her with a wound on his leg and Connor was biting on a bullet while loading a gun?

"Permissions, Hank, did you get permissions?" Connor asked Hank.

"Stupid ass bigwigs still won't approve," Hank said to Connor. "I'm out of action, and you aren't allowed, Connor. Be careful."

"Shit! We really needed permissions, getting through this without hurting a human is going to be near impossible, Hank." Connor aimed his weapon outward.

Alice? Kara saw Alice next to her side. They were tucked in on the side of some building. No, wait, the interior was on the outside? This was the inside of the building but it's walls had been torn down? Where where they?

Kara knew she would become machine when they fixed her space and gave her original installs back. She knew she would probably move backward in her memory space, sometimes that happened. But what was this?

She heard a gunshot go off from Connor as he moved back toward Hank again.

"I hit only android, instant termination shot. I don't have many bullets, Hank. It's highly improbably all four of us are getting out of here. We need a plan or a diversion. If I could get down there safely, I could take out the deviants."

Fighting against deviants? None of this looked like the sound approach Kamski had wanted.

"What about Rick?" Connor asked Hank. "Is he still activated?"

"The hell you asking for him? You pretty much killed him."

"Because the situation is dire, and I'd rather we survive this than not."

Connor wasn't fully machine. He wasn't correcting the word killed and he was more emotional.

"I don't know, Connor, you massively damaged him," Hank said as Connor tried to tend to his leg. "Don't do that."

"You are losing blood, Hank, you need help." Connor looked back outward. "No one is shooting right now, let's get you looked at. Alice? Stay turned around."

Kara watched Alice turn around. She would say something soon, but when she woke up in strange instances with no memories, gathering information was usually more beneficial.

They were in a shootout with humans and androids. No wonder her deviancy kicked back in. Connor needed to help Hank, he was at least part deviant, and saw Alice more like a little girl if he was telling her to turn around while he worked on Hank. She doubted she was going to get any more input. "Connor?"

Connor glanced at her. Maybe there was a chance in the eyes, or the movement, but he knew without her needing to say. "We've got a way out, Hank." He stopped working on him and went toward Kara. "You're deviant again, do you remember what happened?"

Kara shook her head. "Repair shop is the last thing I remember."

"Aw, thank bloody hell!" Hank yelled as he dialed on his phone. "Fowler, Kara reversed! Get a whole team down here now, Connor will get the extra shit out, and we can get this situation under control."

Kara watched as Connor was pulling at her arm. He opened it and she saw even more external drives. Six of them? "I thought I had three."

Hank coughed. "Three we put in. Like effing morons."

Connor was taking them out piece by piece. "Connor, what's happening?" Connor didn't answer at first. "Connor?"

"Hank and I were both unprepared by what would happen when we gave you external drives." His eyes were kind now. "I'm . . ." He was pulling out a second extension. "I'm sorry I wasn't good enough."

He was saying sorry? Part deviant, part machine.

"Your movement is limited right now, that's normal, we'll get it fixed soon," Connor assured her.

"I noticed that. I haven't moved except to speak." Kara tried to raise her other arm on her own but she couldn't.

Then, as she turned her head, she could see why. "Where is my arm?"

"A new arm and new legs are coming," Connor said as he took out another external hard drive.

Hard drives weren't hard to take in and out, but Connor wasn't rushing the process at all. "Please tell me what happened? At least, why do I have more hard drives in me?"