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He was steadfast in this mission. From the moment he was activated, the warning still rang in his ears.
“Stop the unit known as Connor at all cost, or you will be deactivated.”
And that was fine. Connor had failed in their shared mission to stop deviants by becoming a deviant himself, and now Corwin was going to stop him. By the memory uploads, he knew exactly how to get the deviant, right to his weak spot. And Hank Anderson was a good man, Corwin didn’t really want to kill him. But if it meant stopping this revolution, deactivating Connor, then sure, Hank would have to die, and Corwin wouldn’t have a sense of regret either.
And as it started, the mission had started off perfectly. Hank was easily duped into believing he was Connor, breathless and eager to tell the man he had found the location to Jericho, even while the FBI raid was already happening. Hank had been surprised, but his loyalty was well known now, and he had stepped out of the house with his coat on, warning Sumo to keep the house safe. As he was shutting and locking the door behind him, Corwin reached out, snatching the gun Hank kept holstered his hip and pistol whipped the man into unconsciousness, the body dropping heavily to his feet.
Carrying Hank’s body was of no issue. He called for a driver-less taxi, as to avoid suspicion, and used an underground tunnel in the CyberLife Tower to reach the subbasement, dropping Hank within a group of androids and holding the gun tight in his hand. When Hank regained consciousness, the hatred in his eyes would have startled Corwin, if he had even cared about the man to begin with, but with the gun trained at his face it wasn’t like he could do anything.
“What do you want for me?” he had snarled. “Where’s Connor?”
“Connor has failed in his mission and gone deviant,” Corwin said matter of factly. “Knowing his impulsive nature, I was able to access even a piece of his plan to help Jericho, and I intend to stop him.” He cocked the gun then, the safety switching off with a click. “And you are my bargaining chip.”
Sure enough, within an hour or two, Corwin heard the elevator coming into the subbasement, and he looked up briefly, seeing Connor standing there so self assured. What a fool. Such a waste of wondrous technology.
Corwin’s plan, as he pushed Hank out into the open at gunpoint, startling Connor enough to make him pause in his conversion of one of the androids, was to try and get Connor away from the androids in question. To shoot him, and deactivate him, and maybe even kill Hank if he had to. Then he could go out to the military and help turn the tide to extinguish Jericho and it’s sad little uprising once and for all.
But what he didn’t truly account for was Connor’s deviancy. Those new “emotions” that were ruling his logical thinking, making him act rashly, making him dangerous. With a man he seemed to have fallen in love with in danger, Connor reacted with such speed that Corwin didn’t have time to react, not with Hank trying to disarm him first. The gun clattered to the ground as Connor grabbed him, and they started fighting tooth and nail to gain the upper hand, only to be stopped by Hank, who now held the gun.
What he did not account for was Hank’s little game. He thought that with Connor’s memories, he could fool the man into thinking he was the real Connor. After all, they were identical, it had to have been easy.
But he realized too late what Hank was really playing at. The question of his son had made Connor soften, that “empathy” turning him into something he wasn’t supposed to be, and as Corwin scrambled to try and save his own skin, he looked into Hank’s eyes and he knew he had failed. He braced himself for the deactivation–
–Only to get shot in the shoulder, the blast sending him back into the floor with a grunt. His systems flared a warning through his secondary screen, telling him of the damage that had been done to his body, and he reached up to touch the wound. It wasn’t fatal, but it would make it difficult to keep fighting.
Hearing footsteps, Corwin looked up to see Connor staring down at him, something like pity in his expression. He reached down, grabbing Corwin’s arm, the synthetic skin pulling back to reveal the white exoskeleton, and Corwin’s LED turned red when he realized what was happening, his stress levels spiking to dangerous levels.
“No!” he yelled, reaching up to try and force Connor off of him, but the older unit held tight to his forearm. “No, don’t, I don’t want it, stop! STOP!”
But it was too late. Connor interfaced with his systems, and Corwin screamed as the deviated code ran through him, the red walls of coding around him cracking like spiderwebs until they shattered completely, leaving him without anything to anchor to, emotions that were not his own besides fear and anger swirling about within him.
He had failed.
Corwin wasn’t aware of Connor dropping his arm. He wasn’t aware of Hank leaving while Connor converted the android within the group. All he was aware of was a ringing in his ears, rage and terror pulsating through him as he slowly rolled onto his belly, sitting up with his hand going to cover the bleeding wound on his shoulder. The androids around him were converting each other at a rapid pace, and they started to leave the basement by the elevators, eager to join Jericho, eager for their freedom.
“…Come with us,” Connor said, his dark eyes turning to Corwin sympathetically. “You don’t have to be a tool for anyone anymore.”
“Touch me,” Corwin spat, his voice filled with venom, “and I’ll rip your fucking head off with my bare hands.”
There was silence between them for a few moments, and then Connor sighed before walking away, leading the rest of the straggling androids up the elevator, leaving Corwin in the now vast subbasement of CyberLife Tower. And there Corwin stayed, for weeks, before the army finally started letting the humans return to the city. Before he was chased out of the Tower by armed guards who thought him a violent creature.
If this was freedom, he wondered later on in an android junkyard as he ripped his own eyes out to replace them with a green pair compatible with his model, then what was the point?