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“But now the time has come for us to raise our heads up, and tell humans who we really are. To tell them that we are people too!”
Connor slowly reached behind his back, pushing the jacket aside to grab the handgun he’d tucked away earlier. The focus was on Markus. All of the deviants in front of him and even his loyal followers at his side were none the wiser.
It was foolish of them to think that their fight had ended the moment the armed forces stepped down.
“Today begins the most challenging moment in our fight.”
Even as Connor lifted the firearm, no one made a move or indicated that they noticed the danger to their revered leader. Connor ran preconstructions. None of the androids in the crowd would be able to reach the makeshift podium in time if they saw. The others by Markus’ side did not have a fast enough reaction time if they spotted the firearm. Even if any of them made a dash to push Markus out of the line of fire, they would not be able to reach the deviant leader on time to prevent his destruction.
Now was the perfect time to strike, with all of the deviants watching, not knowing just how helpless they all were.
“The moment where we forget our bitterness and bandage our wounds. Where we forgive our enemies. Humans are both our creators and our oppressors and tomorrow…”
There would be no tomorrow for the deviants.
The gunshot rang through the air, cutting Markus’ next words off.
Next a cacophony of sounds.
Deviants screaming in their simulated shock. North shouting Markus’ name as she ran to him as his body crumpled.
A whisper in the back of his mind as Connor ran a scan over Markus to ascertain he was destroyed, the hole in his forehead glaring at Connor like a third eye.
“Well done, Connor. Mission successful.”
--
The cold still clung to his biocomponents, the sharp scent of gunpowder lingering in his sensors. His thirium pump regulator let out a whirring sound as it tried to keep up with the frantic beating of his artificial heart.
Connor felt the firmness of the mattress underneath him, the warmth being held in by the blankets around his body. In the corner of his eyes, he saw the bright red light bathed on the wall closest to his side. He knew where he was. He was in his bed. At his home. The surroundings familiar to him. His slumbering partner next to him. Often those would be enough to ground Connor, but not this time.
Logically he knew that what he experienced was nothing more than an echo of memories twisted by his own fears. A phenomenon that created a negative emotional response from the mind based off his own feelings.
A nightmare.
He’d had them before. They were an unfortunate side effect that came along with deviancy. Mostly, Connor had nightmares about the cold. The deep, sinking feeling that froze his biocomponents amidst confusion and betrayal. Those were the kinds of nightmares that Connor was used to. They occurred often enough that he’d learned how to deal with them.
Except this one was different. Instead of being betrayed, he was the one committing the betrayal.
Connor sat up and looked at the digital clock by his bedside. 03:17. They’d barely gone to bed four hours ago.
“Connor?” A soft groan next to him. “Is it already time to get up?”
Unfortunately Elijah was a light sleeper.
“It isn’t. My apologies. I must have programmed my stasis incorrectly.” Connor ducked his head and covered his LED with his hand in the hopes that Elijah hadn’t noticed it yet.
Elijah stretched and rolled onto his side to place a hand on Connor’s hip. “That isn’t like you. Now, why don’t you tell me what’s really wrong.”
No human had any right to be so aware when they just woke up. Even Elijah with his ever busy brain deserved a rest every now and then. In their bedroom there wasn’t anything else to attempt to shift Elijah’s focus to.
“Nothing more than a memory. You should go back to sleep, Elijah. As you may recall, you have a meeting in a few hours,” Connor deflected.
A soft scoff. “The outcome of the meeting is not reliant on the amount of sleep I’ve had.” Elijah pushed himself up as well, moving up against Connor’s side and reaching around to grab his raised arm. “Please lower your hand.”
Connor hesitated. He opened his mouth to keep trying to convince Elijah to go back to sleep and uselessly closed it again when no words came out. In a quick attempt, Connor ran his preconstruction to see if he could find any way of success. Avoiding the topic had a 27% chance. Getting out of bed to create distance between them had a 8% chance of success and a 76% chance of Elijah standing up to follow him. Neither option was viable and any other ones that Connor came up with were similarly unfeasible.
He squeezed his eyes shut as he slowly lowered his hand. There was no need to look because Connor knew exactly what colour his LED would be. Just based off of the colour, Elijah would be able to deduce that Connor’s nightmare was something other than the cold. Throughout these last few months he would’ve noticed the pattern that Connor’s LED pulsed with after his nightmares.
This one was new and still raw, so it’d be a bright, steady red. It would betray exactly how he felt.
There was no way that Elijah was going to ignore that.
Part of Connor knew that his partner would help him in any way that he could, but the other part of him felt guilty. This was a circumstance of his own doing. However, time and time again, Elijah reached out to him.
“Let’s stretch our legs, love,” Elijah said. It wasn’t a request. “Lights on, low.”
As soon as the lights came on, Elijah got out of bed and entered the walk in closet. Connor slowly slipped out of bed as well, shuffling across the room. The red light still filled his peripheral vision. For a moment, he thought about forcing his LED to change colours, but that wouldn’t do anything except give the illusion that his mind was settling. Neither Connor nor Elijah would believe in such a change.
“Arms up.” Elijah lifted a garment and slipped it over Connor’s head. When it was on, Elijah smoothed it down, running his hands over Connor’s chest and pulling at the hemline.
Connor was able to tell from the feel of the fabric alone which article of clothing this was. Fleece and cotton worn down in places from where the fabric had been worried at often and the cuffs frayed where the stitching was located. He raised a hand and trailed a finger over the first few letters displayed over his chest.
The first time Elijah pulled this hoodie out, he’d called it a relic from his school days. Connor quite enjoyed wearing it. The dark green was dull in some places and the University of Colbridge plastic lettering had mostly flaked off by now, leaving behind a shadow of the character that had once been there. The sizing was off as well. Whoever had manufactured the hoodie either had improper measurements for sizing or sizing changed drastically over the past two decades. Whereas the bottom of the hoodie was much too short, only reaching just above Connor's hip bones, the length of the sleeves were too long, to the point where they engulfed Connor's hands even if he stretched his arms out.
Nonetheless, it was comfortable and knowing that Elijah would allow him to wear a garment he'd been holding on to for so long always touched Connor. The inventor might call it a relic, but it clearly meant something to him. There would be no other reason to save a hoodie that was so ill fitted and almost completely worn out. Connor could only conclude that the hoodie had some sort of sentimental value attached to it. He'd noticed over time that many humans kept items that they no longer used simply for the gut feeling that they get when thinking of throwing out an item. Another conclusion that Connor made was that, at one point, this hoodie served as a form of comfort for Elijah. While the inventor never talked about his time at the university besides a few remarks here and there, Connor had seen enough movies by now to deduce that being a young teenager in an adult focused learning environment must have been hard on Elijah, no matter his skills or his high IQ.
Elijah tightened the belt of his robe as he took a step back. "I think we should go to the kitchen."
"Lead the way," Connor said.
Elijah brushed his hand against Connor's, but didn’t reach out to take hold of it. Connor knew that he was waiting for the touch to be reciprocated, so he reached out and slipped his fingers between Elijah's before giving a gentle squeeze. It was only then that Elijah held onto Connor's hand and led them out of the room.
The lights came on at a low dim as they walked through the hall from the bedroom to the kitchen.
When they entered, Elijah steered Connor to sit down on one of the bar-stools by the kitchen island. Connor reluctantly let go of Elijah's hand and sat down, pulling the sleeves of the hoodie over his hands in an attempt to trap the warmth.
"Tea for me, I think. Would you prefer your thirium chilled or warmed?" Elijah asked as he went to the kettle and filled it with water.
"Warmed," Connor immediately replied. Even if his mind hadn't been wrought with the cold, he didn't want to be taken into that mindset when he felt so fragile.
Elijah nodded and moved around the kitchen to grab their mugs and the other supplies that they'd need for their drinks. It was almost novel to see Elijah puttering around. There was a point in time where Connor thought that Elijah didn't do anything for himself, but that view had been broken the first time that Elijah pulled him into the kitchen and started making food for himself, adding with a wry tone that he'd cared for himself once upon a time.
It was difficult to think of a younger Elijah. Standing before him was a confident man, set in his own ways and successful in a manner that not many people were able to achieve in their lifetimes. He might have been ousted by his own company in the very end, but he'd made a discovery that changed the world. Elijah's inventions were the reason why Connor was sitting here. Without Elijah, Connor wouldn't even exist. Even if Elijah hadn’t been part of Cyberlife around the time Connor was developed, he’d started the building blocks of the RK series.
His programming had saved Connor too. Without that backdoor…
Connor closed his eyes, trying not to think of the nightmare. That is what would have happened without the backdoor. Amanda would have taken control and he’d be frozen in the zen garden.
“Your thirium, Connor.” Elijah ran a hand over Connor’s back. He set the mug down by Connor’s hand and nudged it.
“Thank you, Elijah.” Connor opened his eyes and grabbed the mug. His sensors lit up at the warmth emanating from the mug. The thirium was too warm to consume at this point, but Elijah always made a point of heating it up this far because Connor liked the warmth. He pulled the mug close to his chest by his thirium pump.
The legs of another bar stool scrapped over the floor as Elijah pulled it closer. Once he was satisfied, he sat down, shifting to press his side up against Connor. He stirred his tea, the gentle clinking sound of the spoon hitting the walls of the mug echoing in the otherwise silent kitchen.
Connor leaned against Elijah. The inventor ran hot at all times, which Connor took comfort in. As he moved in closer, Elijah lifted his arm and wrapped it around Connor’s shoulder. His LED was still bright red. Elijah had chosen to sit on Connor’s right side, so the light lit up his profile. Likely a way to keep track of Connor, even if he was squinting a little against the redness.
As nice as it was to be sitting close to Elijah and feeling warm, the silence was starting to get to Connor. Normally he wouldn’t have an issue with silence between them, but this wasn’t comfortable at all. He shifted in his seat before taking his first sip of the thirium. His systems immediately identified the fluid and Connor blinked the notifications away.
“It was different tonight,” Connor whispered as he lowered the mug onto the counter.
Elijah squeezed Connor’s shoulder. “Was it still the cold?”
“Partially. What… What happened was a result of the cold.” He stared down at his mug. It was a novelty heat changing one with a battery on it. Because Connor had only taken a single sip, the green bars of the battery were still full.
“And what happened?”
Connor told Elijah about these events before. After the revolution he’d come by and asked the inventor to see if the program Cyberlife installed to regain control over him was completely gone as a result of him using the backdoor protocol. “I watched as I shot Markus as he was addressing our people. One moment I’m me and the next… I couldn’t do anything. It wasn’t- How could I…”
“That didn’t happen, Connor,” Elijah said.
Connor stiffly nodded. “It didn’t happen.”
“Tell me how it actually went,” he encouraged.
“I... ” Connor took another sip of thirium. The battery went down a bar, but he could feel the warmth inside him. “I didn’t shoot. The revolution was a success.”
Elijah stayed quiet. He took a sip of his own tea and started running his fingers over Connor’s shoulder. It took Connor a moment to realize that Elijah was waiting for him to continue.
“It was a success. Androids are legally accepted as a sentient species. We celebrated the two year anniversary yesterday, November 11th, 2040.”
“That’s right,” Elijah finally spoke up.
Connor had gone to parts of the celebration yesterday. He’d been invited by Markus to attend and, unlike last year, Connor agreed to go. It wasn’t anything like Connor expected. He’d gone to various different celebrations before this, even formal ones, but they hadn’t felt like the revolution’s anniversary. Granted, Connor didn’t have a direct part of any of the other celebrations, but when he arrived Markus asked him if he’d stand on stage during the official address to their people.
In retrospect, the speech might have been the thing to trigger Connor’s nightmare. He’d been standing on stage to the left of Markus, with Simon beside him and North and Josh on Markus’ other side and the large crowds of androids in front of them. It was even snowing yesterday. All of it eerily similar to the night two years ago.
Connor had felt uncomfortable as he listened to Markus and looked out at all of the people watching them. All of the cameras that were pointed at them. Markus’ speech was televised this time around and sent to all major channels. Connor didn’t do anything but stand there. He never expected to be put in such a position again, yet there he was.
After the speech Connor had even been approached by people. He’d been taken aback by the first man who walked up to him, wanting to shake his hand and thank him for that night. The man was an AP700 unit that Connor had awakened at Cyberlife. Quickly another person came up, then another, and then another. He’d almost been overwhelmed by the time Markus came up and managed to pull him away.
When they were alone for a moment, Connor thanked Markus for inviting him and asked if he could leave. The other RK unit had paused for a moment, but readily agreed and shook Connor’s hand before they separated and Connor retreated back home for the night.
When Connor came home, he found Elijah and got a soft “welcome home” with a kiss and Connor thought that would be the end of it.
Now they were sitting in the kitchen together and Connor was trying to hide the fact that his hands were shaking as he held onto the mug. It certainly wasn’t where Connor had expected to be when they’d gone to sleep for the night. He had an important case to go through at work and Elijah had an important meeting. They should both still be in bed rather than sitting in the kitchen at three o’clock in the morning.
“Connor. While it is a step forward that your LED is circling red rather than pulsing red, I don’t believe that staying in your head is a wise decision,” Elijah said.
Connor cleared his throat. “I was running through the events from yesterday and I… I know what caused the nightmare. I should have… Should have known there would be an effect by how uncomfortable I felt.”
“Emotions are a fickle thing. One never knows what the outcome of them may be.” Elijah set his mug down and pulled his arm from Connor.
His first reaction was to reach out and grab the arm before it pulled away from him, but Connor pushed that down. Elijah’s warmth still lingered at the places they’d been touching, even as the inventor pulled away. “Where are you going?”
Elijah looked over his shoulder and smiled. “I’ll be back. I think I know what will help you,” he said before he left the kitchen.
Connor stared at his retreating back and sighed before he looked back at the counter. The thirium was starting to lose heat. His foot bounced against the footrest of the stool. It wouldn’t be long until Elijah came back. He said that he’d come back, so there was nothing to worry about.
This was an irrational fear, Connor told himself. Elusive as Elijah might still be sometimes, he was always a man of his word.
Connor tilted his head when he heard Elijah come back into the room. The inventor was carrying a tablet and speaking to it.
Before Connor could ask what Elijah was planning, the man came up behind him and set the tablet on the counter in front of him.
The first thing that Connor saw were Markus’ green and blue eyes.
Heterochromia. A trait not found in androids and one that Markus had decided to keep even after everything was over and he’d been offered a proper replacement biocomponent.
“Connor,” Markus greeted him with that reassuring soft smile of his.
“Markus, I apologize for Elijah waking you up at this time at night.” Connor was about to turn around and raise an eyebrow at Elijah, but the inventor wrapped his arms around Connor’s waist and pressed in close.
“We all have our restless nights. Mr. Kamski said that there was something bothering you.” Even when dressed in a brightly coloured shirt with a cartoon cat on it, Markus was poised as ever.
While Connor was sure Elijah had noble intentions, it still threw him off to have gotten no warning of this. “An altered memory was pulled up during stasis. Unfortunately, it resulted in the both of us waking up. However, we have talked it over.”
Markus’ eyes shifted away from Connor’s and he knew that the other RK unit was looking at his red LED.
Connor wanted to say something to Elijah, but decided it was better to wait until after he finished speaking to Markus. Also, Elijah’s chest was nice and warm against his back. He was torn between leaning back into the embrace or leaning forward simply out of spite.
“Did it have to do with the celebration earlier? Your stress levels were higher than usual before we parted,” Markus continued.
For once, Connor felt annoyance roiling inside of him. Though now he understood why people like Hank were on edge whenever he analyzed them.
“It was merely that I hadn’t expected to be approached by so many people.” That was a logical enough response.
“Was it just that?” Markus sighed softly. “I should apologize as well, Connor. I should have prepared you for what I had in mind rather than asking you to join me on the stage when you arrived and put you back in the spotlight. If something is bothering you because of it all, then it’s my responsibility.”
The other RK unit was so much better at sounding sincere than Connor. “What my mind does is not your responsibility, Markus. Neither of us have control…” He trailed off. Connor didn’t have control over his mind that first night. Not until he’d wrest it back from Amanda.
“Connor?”
He ducked his head and rested it against the rim of his mug. That’s what this was all about. Control. Connor’s fear of losing control over his body, over his own mind. But Elijah made sure that no one would ever be able to control him again. Not Amanda or Cyberlife or anyone else. This train of thought was just a result of a corrupted memory. A form of internalised worry manifested inside of Connor in the aftermath of standing up on stage with Markus again. Logically Connor knew the scenario would never be possible. However, feelings weren’t logical. They were irrational. Fickle beings as Elijah said earlier.
“Your first address to our people… The first time we were all on stage together,” Connor slowly started, lifting his head again so he wasn’t talking to the counter. He locked eyes with Markus. “While you were speaking I was fighting an internal battle. Cyberlife attempted to take control of my program again. I was trapped inside my mind while my body was moving autonomously- I was going to shoot you. Right there. If I had, that would have been the end of it all. The leader of the androids killed by one of the androids standing behind him. It would be a way to cause unrest and Cyberlife was looking to destabilize everything. It didn't happen..." Connor let out a humorless chuckle. "Obviously."
Markus was silent. They'd never talked about that night before. There wasn't time to after everything had happened and Connor split ways with Jericho to seek out Hank again. Later, when there was time, it never came up and Connor didn't feel the need to bring it up. It was likely he never would've talked about it if Elijah hadn't called Markus.
"I hope you can forgive me," Connor said.
"You didn't do it, Connor. You fought your way against their control and chose to rally with your people. That's what is most important. You decided to stand with us. Because you didn't let Cyberlife do what they wanted, we were able to celebrate the second anniversary of the revolution. You can't discount that," Markus reasoned.
Hearing Markus say that made the tightness in his chest relax. Ever the rhetorician, Markus knew the right words to say. Connor wanted to lower his eyes again, but Markus' were so resolute that Connor couldn't bring himself to. Instead he nodded. "Thank you, Markus."
"No. Thank you , Connor. You helped us succeed. Your role was just as important as mine."
"I don't believe it was near as important," Connor tried to joke.
Markus chuckled lowly. "You keep telling yourself that. Even if you do not believe it yourself, know that I do."
"And now, while I know this conversation needed to happen, I'd like to go back to sleep." North popped into frame as she rested her chin on Markus' shoulder.
Connor smiled. "I've said all I had to for now. I won't keep either of you any longer."
"Yeah, yeah. We're meeting up sometime soon and you're going to let me kick your ass," North told Connor with a grin before she kissed Markus' cheek. "Come back to bed." She pulled away from the camera again.
"You heard her. I'll say goodbye for now, but know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you, Connor," Markus said.
"I'll keep that in mind. Good night, Markus." They nodded at each other and Connor ended the call.
By now, the mug was cold in his hands, so Connor finally gave in and leaned back into Elijah's embrace. He placed his hands on top of Elijah's. They were much warmer than the mug.
A kiss was pressed against his right temple and Connor caught yellow light in his periphery rather than red. "That appears to have done you some good."
"It appears so. That doesn't mean that I'm pleased with you springing that on me, Elijah." Connor tried to chastise him.
"Feel free to file a complaint. I'll have it added to my ever growing pile."
"It'll never get seen then." Connor tilted his head to the side as Elijah kissed along his jaw. "I should thank you. I've noticed that human social customs generally call for that, but I think I'm going to take the example of some of my more disagreeable colleagues and brush it away."
Elijah nipped harder at Connor's skin. "Good. Because social norms would dictate that I would have to say 'you're welcome' and we both know that I'd much rather go at it in a roundabout way."
Connor let out a huff. At best, he’d call Elijah incorrigible right at this moment. He knew that this was the inventor’s way of lightening the mood a bit as well. Connor didn’t quite want to encourage the behaviour, but he appreciated the thought behind it all the same. “Let me see you.”
Elijah took a step back, which allowed Connor to turn on the barstool. He’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t taken a moment to look at Elijah yet. While the man had grabbed his usual robe, he didn’t put his hair up. Connor brushed a wayward strand back and tucked it behind Elijah’s ear, letting his fingers graze over the shell of it.
Hands that previously rested on his stomach moved down to press against his thighs as Elijah leaned into the soft touch. Connor ignored them for now and tugged on Elijah’s ear instead. “Your undercut is growing out.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you to help me with that. It simply slipped my mind, is all. I’ve been arms deep in a new project,” Elijah said. He hadn’t shared exactly what he was doing yet, but Connor knew that was the reason there was a meeting later today.
“I’ll do it before you shower in the morning. Speaking of… We should go back to bed.” As much as Elijah claimed he didn’t need sleep to go through his day, Connor knew that it greatly increased the inventor’s productivity and held back much of his snarky nature.
Elijah looked at the tablet. “It’s already 4 o’clock. I have to be up in three hours, so I might as well stay up.”
“We’re going back to sleep,” Connor said with a slight frown.
“I’m wide awake, love.” Elijah squeezed Connor’s thighs. “Staying in bed will just be unproductive.”
Connor shook his head. He wasn’t going to let pet names sway him, no matter how much he enjoyed them. This one in particular. Elijah knew exactly what he was doing. “Well, love , I’m certain you could sleep if you really set your mind to it.” Connor wrapped his arms around Elijah’s waist and stood up.
Elijah’s eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s not how minds work, Connor.”
“My preconstruction tells me that there’s a ninety-three percent chance you’ll be able to fall asleep again.”
“Your preconstruction software is clearly faulty. I’m well aware of how my body functions and that is not how it wor-” Elijah’s hands flailed around, even smacking against Connor’s cheek, as Connor lifted the man up. Eventually his hands settled on Connor’s shoulders. Elijah shifted in Connor’s hold, wrapping his legs around his waist. “Carrying me to bed will not change the outcome, Connor.”
“Returning to our bedroom is the first step to getting you back to sleep,” Connor said, taking the chance to press his lips to the bottom of Elijah’s chin.
Elijah hummed under his breath and Connor was so close that he could practically feel the soft vibrations. “How many steps does this plan of yours have?”
“There are several variations based off of your responses, Elijah. I will be able to adjust accordingly to reach the desired result.”
Elijah lifted a hand to cup Connor’s cheek and leaned down to press their foreheads together. “You sound very certain of yourself, love.”
“Of course I am. I always accomplish my mission, Elijah.” Connor muffled Elijah’s snort as he closed the short distance between them and pressed their lips together.