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Amanda would be disappointed and Connor knew it.
From the moment Hank left him alone on that roof, the android had known how she would react to finding out how he'd failed to capture that Divergent by making the choice to rescue Hank from falling off that roof.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
His survival rate was over 80% and his processors knew that — Despite the lieutenant's weight and age — he would still be able to return to the roof on his own, and even if he fell he would still survive, with a few broken bones or fractured ribs, But it certainly would have survived without serious problems.
It was a failure.
It was the second time this had happened. Images of the AX400 racing through traffic were still eerily clear in his mind. He could still vividly remember himself running through the cars. "Almost getting run over." and eventually being distracted for half a second by a car, until he lost sight of both of them in that lane.
Strangely, Amanda didn't scold him the first time.
He hadn't seen her since the successful interrogation of the HK400—Carlos Ortiz's android—but he could tell they'd have a lot to discuss about he's failures...
But for now?, He would just patiently wait for the self-driving car to reach its destination.
Since that chase after Rupert, Hank hasn't seen the old Lieutenant for the rest of the day, only seen him sign some papers and then bid him farewell, Connor was quick to assume he should have gone back to his house, and even though he knew Hank probably wouldn't be happy to see him suddenly at his residence, he knew it was still what he had to do anyway.
Any and all cases related to dissenters were on them.
And as his mission, Connor shouldn't fail one more, so he'd be picking up Hank, in complete silence... hands neatly in his lap patiently just waiting for the cab to reach its destination.
It was so silent.
The only real noise he heard seemed to be coming from the window and the tires, thanks to his advanced auditory processors he could hear the sound of the drops hitting the car's metal surface much more clearly.
Calm and constant.
Strangely it felt almost comforting.
Just sit back and watch the drops glide across the glass slowly, until they gather other small scattered drops and make it get bigger and bigger, And then... Watch it slide with much more speed. It looked silly, almost like some childish curiosity watching simple drops of water sliding across a glass window.
But he was strangely calm.
It was interesting.
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Connor wouldn't even need to open his eyes to know where he was.
It was awkward for a moment — More accurate: 0.12 seconds — The heat radiating from the car suddenly disappeared, and instead, a faint cold breeze made her limbs want to shiver.
— Connor Really doesn't know why the techs implemented weather sensitivity in the Zen Garden version, which contrary to the belief many humans believed: Yes, Androids can “Feel” Thermal Sensations, both cold and hot, although it acts like " Tremble\shudder" Were it just a way for their systems to warn that their Biocomponents were at a temperature below the recommended level and that if they did not find a way to warm them up to an acceptable temperature again, then they would be forced to shut down, or to enter into a stasis mode, Depending on the occasion.—
But the Zen Garden wasn't a physical space... Connor shouldn't be Feeling the breeze.
But here he was, shivering gently in the gentle breeze of a wind that wasn't even physical.
His eyes focused once more on the familiar garden, everything being perfectly in the same place, Perfect and beautiful as it always would be.
The only difference was the weather. connor He noticed, Instead of the beautiful glowing blue of the sky, it was just a scorched gray, Dark clouds against a lifeless sky, No color, No... heat.
It looked so morbid...
Its optical units recognized colors in the sky in addition to gray. Light and faint tones between pink and dark blue were also present. His processors informed him that apparently the color aesthetic could represent the "afternoon" in the garden...
Although it felt darker than anything else, almost melancholic.
The garden has never been like this before. Even in the earliest memories that the "-51" model rescued from its predecessor were vaguely corrupted or lost forever, He still remembered clearly: his Amanda's garden never showed signs of changing weather.
It was permanently blue, clear and vibrant blue ever since.
It just felt "wrong" how melancholy and dismal the Garden looked.
The raindrops fell softly from the sky and smeared gently over his face, slowly running down his cheeks, Same thing with his clothes, the gray blazer darkening softly where the rain hit it.
It was very strange how different it looked.
Somehow...the drops falling from the sky didn't look like the raindrops in Detroit. As ridiculous as it was, Connor knew clearly that it wasn't the same thing.
He had experienced rain falling on his skin before. Whether looking for Jimmy's Bar, or during that Chickens Feed break with Lieutenant Hank.
It was raw.
False.
Not surprising though.
The garden was beautiful, beautiful, and almost resembled what Connor imagined to be a kind of "paradise", as the humans called it, even though it was nothing more than thousands of lines of code and programming with zeros and ones...
Nothing there was real...
Despite that... Unperturbed, the android began to move in search of Amanda through the seen garden.
Even the sound of the soles of his shoes echoed in the poses he stepped on. The low sound of "scleth" strangely made him want to walk slower as he walked along the bridges and stone paths of the unreal garden.
Usually Amanda would be in the center of the garden, deeply busy tending the beautiful bed of roses that bloomed there radiantly, though Connor was aware from afar of the woman's presence below a sheltered spot, drops of rain avoiding to reach her through the roof on his head.
Connor started walking towards it.
Knowing what would come.
As more of his calm, collected steps approached, his eyes vaguely caught a bluish gleam in the corner of his eyes where they followed him.
A pillar.
A strange carved stone pillar in the corner of the garden, Glowing temptingly a shimmering blue.
The outline of a hand was what caught his eye though.
Strangely...it looked the exact size of yours.
Has it always been there?,That pillar? Connor had never repaired it.
Not even the day it was activated.
Connor almost wanted to touch him.
But he didn't.
As curious as that was, it wasn't his focus, Amanda and he would have a serious talk and she didn't like to wait too long when he was on in the garden.
He kept walking...
Ignoring the gray, lifeless rain that falls from the fake, artificial sky.