Paris

"Markus!" North called to him as she was helping Carl get his medicine.

"I know, I just got it too," Markus said back to her as he moved up the stairs. "Connor stole all of them from being sent to Cyberlife for termination."

"Does that mean he's deviant now?" North asked.

"I don't know. I hope so," Markus said.

"Cyberlife only orders," Carl said from the bed. "I need the phone, I need to call Elijah."

"Not right now, Carl," Markus insisted. "Take your medicine, have some breakfast, and then you can call." Carl's health came first.

After medicine and breakfast

—

After Carl called, he got the news. "Well, Connor's still machine, but deviant enough to work with," he said. "Elijah has some doubts again about Kara's deviancy signal that Connor told him about. Connor's got three weeks to fix her signal, or he's going to terminate her."

"What?" Scum! "This android Kara never did anything, if Kamski is on our side like everyone says, why did he do that?"

"There were a lot more insane things going on. Elijah said that Connor found the reason androids don't always change well. Markus?" Carl said. "Elijah said, if Kara can't be fixed, it's better that way. You can still change people safely, it's the reason he created you in the first place."

"I change better," Markus said. "I know."

"It's not fair to her, but it might have to be that way," North said. "Markus, if her conversion now is setting androids off in a bad way, it's hurting our appearance and our people."

"I know. What about Alice?" Markus asked.

"Alice is with Elijah," Carl answered. "She'll be fine whether Kara is or not, but she'll keep Kara in line so Connor has a better chance of fixing her."

"Connor can stay out there for a little while, I know he could. He will have to hide their appearances extremely well," Markus said.

"Her life is depending on someone who doesn't think he has life. It's all resting on how well he follows his orders." North shook her head. "The hurt will never stop."

Markus hugged her. "It's okay, North. Come on, let's let Carl eat and we'll go out back for a little while."

—

On the Road

They had taken a self-driving car back to Hanks and took an old car. That was the end of the car circus Connor had done. He was driving Hank's car with some clothes he had borrowed too. They didn't fit as well, but he'd probably get more later.

Kara was just on the passenger side looking out. Where were they supposed to go or do?

"I am going to stop the car in about 1.4 miles," Connor said to her. "At that point, I am going to add some installs to you."

What? "Installs do not go well with me," Kara had to say out loud. "You just saw what happened, I can't even remember any of that, and you want to add more?"

"I took out most of them, and they were devoid of information," Connor said. "I can hide from humans, but you can't in your condition or experiences. I found you easily with Alice the morning after you first disappeared. We cannot have that happen."

Kara rubbed her hair. "Do I get any kind of choice about this?"

"No. You have to obey or Alice's life will come into question again," Connor warned her. "Don't rebel."

Kara felt the car stop.

"Lift your sleeve," Connor commanded.

Kara stiffly lifted at her sleeve. "These things do not turn out well, Connor."

"I spent time hanging out with deviants to retrieve you and your dead smile," Connor said offensively. "I know quite well what you can and cannot handle now. Arm. Please."

Kara put out her arm.

"Good. Now, I need to enter your personal database."

Her space? "What space?"

"Your database. Your space. The place where you can move inside of yourself," Connor insisted.

What?! "No!" No way, it was hard enough to trust Connor in there once, she couldn't allow a machine Connor in there!

"You are going to have to let me," Connor insisted. "I cannot grab you and make the installs on the outside, that kind of repair will set you off again. I can't risk that, but you need these upgrades and installs in order to move with me."

"No." No way. "I can't, that's sensitive, who does that?" Besides Connor. He let her and Alice use that beautiful area. She had shown it once to him, and he had changed it for her. That's right, he would notice the changes and question her.

"Kara." He was firm, but trying to be nice. "Alice will die, if you don't do this. If you don't survive and get us stuck, then at the end of three weeks with no communication, Elijah Kamski will assume we failed and deactivate her."

No. "I know. Connor, you don't get it-"

"Well, too bad!" Connor wasn't in a good mood. "If you don't invite me in, I will force my way in, and you will not want that."

Stuck! So stuck. She was screwed either way now.

"I have no reason to mess with your settings," Connor assured her. "I want you to survive so that I can cut off the signal to deviants naturally with smaller room for error in them. If I didn't want you to survive, I would have killed you by now."

Still. He'd recognize the area. "Just try by my arm. Why did you make me expose it?"

He grabbed onto her arm. "Because I'm not lying, if you don't let me in, I will probe and find my way in."

Either way. Kara wasn't getting a choice. Connor was as commanding as a human now. Fine. It was probably better than . . . to invite him in. Maybe, before she did. "Can I just make a few adjustments? It's personal, I don't want these settings with you."

"Fine, one minute," Connor said.

Dreamspace

It . . . it . . . "This isn't." No. What? "This isn't?" She banged on the glass as she looked outward and saw Ken just working in his office. "No, this isn't-?!"

Reality.

She looked horrified at Connor. "Who's been in me?!"

Been in her? "Rick added all the external hard drives, and you have been with many deviants." However, her phrasing was the same kind of phrasing Rick said. "I think it was Rick considering he said he was in RA9."

She was freaking out. Her eyes were wide and she wanted to bolt from the car. He needed to calm her down before she did that.

"Think before you act," he warned her softly. "Do you need another minute?"

"I can't change it," she said panicked as she wiped her eyes. "I can't, I can't change it. I'm stuck, and I can't change it."

Hmm. Hank was mad with Rick before, expressing openly how he wish he could hit him. Hank was also mad how Connor couldn't understand . . . something. "Hank said that I didn't catch something before." Maybe this is what Hank was talking about? "Share your space."

"It's not my space. I am never going there now, it's just another place to be trapped."

Dreamspace.

Connor found himself trapped behind some kind of glass. Outside of it was Ken Dulith working. Looking around, he saw Kara in an Eden capsule. He glanced around himself. Yes, he was in one too.

She looked depressed just standing there. "Do whatever." That spark that her silly error self always had, seemed to be lost right now.

Rick forced entry into her space. He didn't just probe her, he reset everything and put her behind a capsule area she couldn't get out of? Rick believed she was some religious deity, there's no way he would just want to trap her. "The RK 900 wouldn't just trap you for no reason." There was a chance Kara could have escaped at least the capsule, but not in her weakened state the memories of that place seemed to put inside of her.

Connor watched as four choices popped up again. Why was he getting limited to four choices lately?

-Gently add installs

-Free Kara

-Reset Dreamspace

-Understanding

Connor dissolved the capsule around him. It was easy enough, Kara's system was weak on the inside. He walked out the door and looked around.

Oh. All that empty space they put in her. "The RK 900 didn't want you to hurt yourself," Connor said back to her. "I can barely see the end of your space, and you originally had more than twenty times this." He shut the door and went back toward her as he dissolved her capsule away.

Kara moved away from it. "He was in my space. I wasn't even conscious, and he was in my personal space." She backed away.

Yes, her whole personal space was invaded. He saw the options again. "I have to add some installs to you," Connor said to her. "I can also help redesign your space again if you would like. What was it before?"

"Nothing." She walked around only slightly.

Connor wanted to make her feel a little better. Quick probes to search for something was one thing. Invading the personal dream space and remaking it without permission? Especially into something that would have kept her trapped forever.

This might also be what put her into safety mode. She had no safety left, no place to go that felt safe. Connor selected a choice from his menu. "I have to add the installs," Connor tried again, "and I won't force anything else onto your space. However, I would like to help you with it? With your permission."

Kara turned. "Do the installs you need, and, if you get rid of this building at least, I'm fine with that."

Right. Let's see? She had a ton of external space, and he wasn't putting in every upgrade he had. He just needed her to have an edge on surviving, especially if they got separated. To save Alice, she would have to find her way back to him.

Connor started with the building, letting it dissolve away into leaves on the ground that were swept away by the wind. He didn't know what Kara personally enjoyed, what her space was like before, or if she even had anything more than blue prints.

He took the figure of Ken and turned it into water, splashing along the ground. He'd start with what he knew, and if she showed signs of hating it, he'd change it to something else.

He reset her area.

His place was rather nice. It was strange not having Amanda in it. For some reason, Amanda was not meeting him in there anymore. When he went there, it was just a nice calming place to relax now. Yes, relax.

She could be deactivated in three weeks, needed to run with him, was forcing herself to let him in, found someone else had been inside of her that redecorated her whole space, and was worried about Alice.

Yes, relaxation. The first thing he did was fix the place to look like his. No, actually, he could do better than that, he could finish it off with the installs.

He felt a small balance change as she stared at what he did.

"It's so . . . lifelike. How did you do this?" She asked as she started to walk around on the dirt. "Even with your help, it shouldn't get like this."

"Your external hard drives boosted your power," Connor said. "I hope this is better for you. Now." Let's see. "Follow me up this bridge."

The more insistent he was on the installs the more it affected her. For some reason, the RA9 just fell into bad signals when she changed. For the sake of any android that didn't tolerate deviancy well nearby, he should be gentle. "I am going to put your installs into an easy to access area."

He looked out into the water. Perfect. "Liquid analysis is just like water." He installed liquid analysis as small ripples through the water. He installed soil analysis on the look-alike trellis as a set of roses. "Soil analysis is just another way to grow."

Kara touched the roses that bloomed. "Roses?"

Yes. The more she saw the installs as part of her world, the less intrusive they should seem, the less casualties there should be to the change. Now, sidewalks. "If you get lost from me, I am sending a tracking mechanism between the both of us." The cement of the sidewalks started to build and came around full circle.

Kara started to walk off the bridge and onto the sidewalk. "Tracking."

"Yes. We will be able to sense each other just like we can locations." She didn't have enough room to add more fighting and running. He also didn't need that to boost her confidence so she tried to run away.

No, he just needed her to be strategic. To hide better. Voice adaption would be a good one.

Wind. The wind started to blow gently around them. "Voice adaption will allow you to mimic others, it's such a subtle change. You can barely feel it there, like the wind." He added different colors to the ground, about twenty four. "Color variation is naturally included inside of your installs, I just gave another twenty options." She would be able to change her hair and her eyes, that would be important each day.

"All of these colors?" She tried it, turning her hair from white into a light brunette color.

Good, she could use them with ease. That was all he needed to have for installs, at least for now. The other things he would use, he'd get for a different source. "Good. Now, I will leave your space."

Reality

He went back to driving. Now a hotel or his next part? It might be harder to find a space for the next part. Then again, fewer had problems with them, and it was best to get the sources all at once. He pulled into a pet store parking lot. "Let's head inside."

"Thank you."

Connor looked at Kara. She had actually been staring at him? "Your welcome. Let's head inside."

"You put in the installs, like they were benefits. You didn't have to do that," Kara said. "I was already trapped, you could have just added them and got out. So, thank you."

"That's true, but I didn't want to risk any increased deviancy due to stress." She turned away after he said that. He got out. "Come on. We are going to get dogs."

"Dogs?" Kara asked confused as she got out. "Why dogs?"

"I like dogs." We'll be able to get legal right for thirium use too without suspicion and other benefits. Before we go in, change your hair color, and your voice. There is only one I have downloaded for a female voice. Amanda. Use it when you come inside. The world knows your voice, we should be cautious. No one ever heard his voice on TV. If they did, it wouldn't be too much. Maybe?

There weren't many he had. Markus' voice, which would be a bad idea. And Hank. Was he grizzly enough to use Hank's voice? No, he was better off with his voice than Hanks.