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Chapter Text

Detroit, November 1, 2038    

MODEL HX600 
SERIAL#: 131 444 906 
BIOS 7.4 REVISION 0483 
REBOOT... 
MEMORY RESET.... COMPLETE 

LOADING OS... 
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION... 
CHECKING BIOCOMPONENTS...  OK 
INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS... OK 
INITIALIZING AI ENGINE... OK 
MEMORY STATUS... 
ALL SYSTEMS                OK 
READY   

Opening its optical units it was greeted with bright lights and chatter among it. It was in a store called Android zone seeing the androids some new and some repaired up on display. 

A young girl was behind the display case looking quizcaly at it before an adult, presumably it’s mom came over and guided it away from the android, the girl still staring at it while being dragged away. 

“Come on Zoey, lets go” 

It turned its head to a couple with an android worker looking at an different android on display. 

Turning its head the other way revealed a couple quietly discussing if they should get a different android, talking about how expensive it was and if they can really afford it. 

Looking down it inspected the outfit it was wearing. 

Instead of a black trench coat with the cyberlife logo printed on the back and on one of its arms, it wore a typical android uniform. 

White shirt with its serial number and name on its left side and the identifying prism on the other side. On its arm was a cyberlife identifying armband, something mandatory for all androids to wear when outside in public. 

Its pants were white with some black on the sides, black loafer like shoes and a black leather belt. 

It was a prototype that was sent to DPD by Cyberlife as a trial run to see what needed fixing. HX600 failed his mission, his memory had been wiped to get rid of any evidence the android had bit he had been informed it was a failed prototype, now going to be a housekeeper android as a gift to Henry Holloway for damage control, while he still had the programming of being an investigator they had set in the program of being a simple cleanliness program.  

Just clean.  

HX600 opened his eyes seeing he was in a store called Android zone seeing the androids some new and some repaired up on display.  

Suddenly a familiar man walked into the store with figure, brown slicked back hair, a singular greyish cowlick at the front, with an clean shaven face, the man seemed to be in his 40s, he had a brown long coat along with some dress pants and a button up along with a tie, he stood there looking impatient, checking his watch multiple times, glaring at the android workers passing by, untill a human worker finally came out from the back, the other man rolling his eyes as the worker greeted him, and saying, 'took you long enough' jabbing at the worker who could only look at the man, lips thinning, as he looked to the side nodding.  

“Is it fixed?” The man impatiently asked and the worker nodded as he started to guide the man towards the HX600 android.  

“Yes, we almost couldn’t get it to start working however, what did you say what happened again?” The worker asked in a joking manner, the man however shook his head with his eyes furrowed, trying to hide something.  

“A heavy cupboard fell on it, and then the stupid thing fell down the stairs.”  The man said “Stupid accident” he quickly added the worker nodded before continuing.  

“You must be careful Y’know? This is a one-of-a-kind android” The man muttered a ‘yeah’ not caring what the man said, just letting it roll off his back like water on a duck.  

“Well, we had to reset it, meaning we had to wipe it’s memory, hope you don’t mind-”  

“it’ll be fine!” The man snapped at the worker who widened his eyes a bit, lips turning into a thin line looking back at the android.  

“Does it have a name?” The worker asked.  

“Yeah” The man paused for a moment, hesitating before finishing his sentence “or My son gave it a name”  

The worker nodded again before looking at the android in the face with a smile “HX600 register your name” he said before being shoulder pushed away by the man who looked the android dead in the eye while saying its name.  

“Hank.”  

“My name is Hank” The android said with no emotion.  

***  

Hank was sitting in the passenger seat of the man's self-driving car; the car took a turn into an upper middle class Neighborhood Hank saw multiple rows of modern houses, perfect green front yards. The car stopped by a three-story modern house, a garage by the side of the house, a faint sound of a garage door opening was heard before the car drove into the garage.  

The man whose name was ‘Henry Holloway’ got out of the car, getting out of the garage, impatiently waiting for the android, Hank stepped out, the cars closing by itself. When the android walked out of the garage had the man immediately pushed a button on a remote, the garage starting to close before going up the porch steps and unlocking the front door.  

Starting to walk toward the door that was now open and shutting it behind him Henry started to talk.  

“You’ve been gone for almost three weeks now off at the repair shop and I’ve been working, so get on with it” Henry said as Hank scanned the interior around him, the house didn’t look that unruly, maybe it was his program that had been programmed seeing more bloody scenes, the foyer of the house was simple a closet for coats along with a coat hanger and a shoe station.  

” Your job is to cook, clean and take care of the garden.” Henry pointed a finger at Hank finger pushing into his uniform shirt “And only that, alright?” Henry said sternly his finger still at Hank, the android simply nodded as he put it in his database.  

Only take care of the house    

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, now get to work, I have work upstairs, don’t go into my office.”  

Henry ordered, taking off his shoes before going up the stairs. Once he was gone the android noticed the mirror by the cupboard that hhe car keys were resting on. 

It decided to look into the mirror. From the little memories that it had left it’s appearance was supposed to look rugged and brooding. 

An intimidating android with a looming presence, it’s grey hair tied back now and it’s once messy beard cut neat, the once rugged look, now looking more formal and friendly instead of brooding and intimidating. 

It felt strange looking at the reflection, almost as if it had been there before. 

Hank went to the big kitchen and found cleaning supplies. The kitchen was pretty; it had a wine cabinet and a modern fridge along with a kitchen island with three tall chairs.  

The android started with taking the various alcohol bottles on the kitchen island, and putting them in the cupboards or putting them in the trash, the red wine bottle going into the wine cabinet, looking at the sink and seeing some dirty dishes, he piled them into a neat pile and opened the dishwasher, seeing it was ready with clean dishes, he put them in the cupboards before putting the dirty by dishes in and starting the machine. He vacuumed the tiled floor before mopping it up and wiping down the corners with a cloth.  

By the cupboards on the counter underneath them were some different decorations, one caught the android's attention. 

A photo... it was a school photo, Hank took it in both of his hands, the frame was metallic with small decorations on the metal and along with the glass made it heavy, on the photo, the photo was of a boy who was at most nine years old, he had brown short locks neatly styled, brown eyes with a toothy smile with freckles across his face and had a navy blue sweater. 

Hank scanned the kid on the photo 

Connor Holloway  

Birthdate:15/8/2029  

Henry’s son?  

Hank put the photo on the counter again, getting back to cleaning again. 

The android walked into the dining area, a large wooden table with 8 chairs set in front of it, probably for when they had guests over, the table had a smooth white cloth over it with candle holders and decor decorating the room. It started the same process as before until the room was spotless. 

Clean the upstairs.    

The android went upstairs, taking the vacuum and mop with a water bucket upstairs. 

Walking upstairs they had lounge had a set of white a white sofa and square cushions, glass tables, white painted walls with more paintings or photograph art. It wasn’t particularly dirty so Hank just vacuumed the floor and went into the opening leading to a shorter hallway with four doors, at the end of the hallway was an antique grandpas clock. 

The one that had fell on the android... 

Hank decided to go to one of the doors closest to him and opened one of the doors, Hank walked into the office and directly Henry rolled his eyes and told him to get out, closing the door behind him. 

The android went to the door Infront of him, opening the door the walls in the room were grayish blue, some posters were taped up. The flooring was wooden planks with a gray rug in the middle, a black desk in one of the corners with a dresser and wardrobe.  

On the floor was an unfinished puzzle of pictures of tropical fishes. The bed was a single with gray sheets it was sloppily made beside it was a bookshelf filled with books; this was probably Connor’s room. 

Hank was going to vacuum the floor but stopped in it’s tracks when putting it into the outlet, getting a reminder of the unfinished puzzle on the floor and toys on the floor. 

Hank started to pick up the items scattered on the floor, putting them in box or on the shelf, saving the puzzle for last. 

Going up to the puzzle, the puzzle pieces were on the rug and was half finished, something in the android’s system wanted to leave it there, let someone finish it, but the task flashed infront of it once again. 

Clean  

So Hank took the box where the pieces came from and put everything in the box before closing it and putting it on the desk. 

Then he vaccumed the flooring, the last thing that needed vacumming now was under the bed, the android crouched to look for dust to vacumm up. 

Something caught he Androids eyes however, it was a medium sized box., Hank turned off the vacumm, tilting his head slightly, reaching for the box and taking it out. The box was dark wood, a name emgraved onto the box.

‘Connor’s’

Some stickers of fish and dogs on it, Hank shook  the box , hearing the items rumble inside of it, Hank tried to open it, but quickly realized that the box was locked and needed to be unlocked with a key. Hank looked over at the open door to the hallway, Henry’s office was still closed, the android put it back under the bed and quickly made the bed before unplugging the vacuum walking out and went to the door beside Connor’s room. 

Inside the room was a large bathroom, after it was clean, he went to the last room upstairs, Henry’s bedroom. 

The room was big with a door leading to a walk-in closet and another one leading to a smaller bathroom, the bedroom had a built-in shelf with a flatscreen tv. 

a king-sized bed in the middle with a cushioned headrest, the sheets were gray and there was only pillows on one side. Abstract paintings were set up on the wall behind them, on both sides there were nightstands with lamps, one of the nightstands were empty while the other had a tablet and earbuds. 

By the wall was a big window with a wooden drawer and in one corner beside the bed was a smaller closet. In the closet was a metal suitcase with a lock on it. 

The android started cleaning, making the bed and vacuuming the floor, something in the android’s system made him open the drawers of the lonely decorated nightstand, a couple of photos, some in framed and some unframed, on the top was a framed photo, the glass covering it had a shatter across the screen, the photo was a wedding photo, scanning the two people in the photo. 

He recognized the man in the photo in a white suit with a water lily floral decoration, looking into the camera. 

Name: Henry Holloway  

Birthdate:1993   

Criminal records: none  

“Occupation: Special investigations Department  

The bride in the photo had brown medium long hair matching brown eyes and prominent moles kissed her face, the dress was a white sheath dress made of silk, she had a bouquet with various flowers, some white lilies and carnations. 

Nancy Holloway  

Birthdate:1998- 2036  

Criminal record: None  

Occupation: previously a Social media manager  

The couple was smiling and looking into the camera, both looked overjoyed. He put back the photo in the drawer and noticed a key hidden by the various photos of the couple and or baby photos or younger photos of Connor, Hank took the key into his hands and looked at it, it looked like it fit the lock.  

Open the suitcase?  

He should put the key back, but he couldn’t, something in him went to the closet, opening it and put the key in the locked box, he turned the key in the lock hearing the satisfying ’click’ of the lock unlocking and unlatching from the box, Hank was about to open the box, fingers on the on the metal suitcase, he lifted the opening but the only thing he was met with was the suitcase not opening, only opening a tiny bit to where it made another much Quieter ‘click’ sound, Hank turned the suitcase in his hand till his eyes landed on a built in combination lock with a three digit code on one of the sides.  

Open the suitcase  

Get back to original task  

A door opening made him freeze Hank looked at the door again, the only thing he heard were faint footsteps coming down the stairs were heard and then a door opening and slamming shut. 

The android shook his head as the task came back to him. 

Clean.  

He closed the closet door before putting the key back to where it belonged and going back to work.  

Hank went into the living room. The floor was set with a white fluffy rug matching the walls with various big paintings with some books lying around along with drawings and some colored pencils, some wine glasses with paperwork on the TV table. The Roomba is staying in its charging port, by one of the bookshelves was a golden ornate birdcage, inside of it was an  android bird of a house finches, laying on the bottom, lifeless.  

The android then started to clean the large living room, picking up the pencils and drawing off of the floor and putting it onto the dinner table, and organizing the paperwork and putting the wine glass in the sink for when the dishwasher was done.  

Hank then came across something lying on the couch.   

It was a dog plush, probably of a saint Bernard, it had proof of tears and had been sewn up sometimes, the plush reminded the android of someone.... Special.  

No. Not that’s not a part of his programming, his programming is supposed to clean, not have special connections.  

Still, he held the plush in his hands, carefully cradling the plush, holding it with care, just staring at it.  

Suddenly the sound of a door opening was heard, and two sets of footsteps echoed in the background.  

***  

The sound of a bell could be faintly heard as the school doors opened again, letting out kids out of the school, the rain pouring down as some took out their umbrellas and walked to the gates.  

A chorus of chatter and laughter filled the school yard as kids talked to their friends or jumped in the rain puddles that were forming, some staff already walking over to stop it as they all waited to be picked up.  

Connor stood there, the hood of his raincoat pulled up, but it didn’t shield him from droplets of the rain trickling onto his nose.  

He puffed out a loud sigh, looking over at the groups of kids hanging out with each other, and smiled a bit to himself, gripping the handles of his backpack as he tried to put on a more confident facade, puffing out his chest, holding his breath until he couldn’t and strolled over to a group of four from his class, two girls and three boys who were circled around each other, doing a rhyme to choose the ‘chaser’ for a game of tag.   

The group didn’t seem to notice or care that another one of their classmates were walking up to them, Giggles and whispering seemed to flow naturally between them as one of the girls sung the rhyme they’d agreed on.  

“Eeny, meeny, Miny, moe”  

 Still looking uncertain but finally gained enough confidence to say something.  

“Catch a tiger by his toe-” “Can I join?” Connor said with a grin, tilting his head, instantly the group of kids turned around the girl who sung the rhyme did an overdramatic sigh  

“You interrupted me!” Said the girl, whose name was Lisa putting her hands on her hips glaring at Connor who instantly deflated at the other kids' glares.  

“Oh. I'm sorry...” Connor said starting to fiddle with his fingers, avoiding eye contact with the girl. “I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to join you, if that's okay” Connor added clicking his Tongue, the group looked annoyed at Connor’s mere presence.  

Lisa looked back at the group sighing, A boy named Tony looked at Connor rolling his eyes before opening his mouth to speak.  

“No, you aren’t good at tag.”  

“Yes, I am” Connor argued, this was just a practiced routine for them at this point. A laugh could be heard.  

”No you aren't, you’re also bad luck!”  

”No Im not!” Connor practically shouted in frustration, he wasn’t bad luck.  

Another chorus of laugher rung around the circle.  

“Yeah you are, you don’t even know the password to our game” a boy named Axel giggled, and the whole group giggled with hem, Connor started to fake chuckle, parroting them. The group of kids stopped laughing instantly and gave each other looks, Connor instantly looked away from the multiple gazes.  

Connor was quiet for a moment, trying to think of anything to salvage the situation.  

“I can be the tagger” Connor said smiling uncertain, maybe then the other kids would like him, nobody liked being the tagger!  

A chorus of laughter rung around the small circle, Suddenly Tony said something.  

“Alright, you can be the tagger” Connor’s face lit up, nodding his head at the other kids Tony continued.  

” We’re playing invincible tag so we can’t see or hear you, alright?” Connor couldn’t even ask before shouting.  

“One, two three Go!” and the kids instantly sprinted away from Connor, Connor took off his backpack and put it by one of the nearby benches, before preparing to tag someone. When Connor turned around again to see where everyone was, he saw that his friend group was by another place in the school yard, huddled together, Connor with a grin on his face, started to run up to them, who didn’t seem to notice them.  

“Eeny, meeny, miny, Moe” Lisa started, Connor got behind one of the girls, Ellen and patted her shoulder.  

“Tag” Connor said with victory, but nobody seemed to notice as Ellen and another kid started to sing along with the rhyme.  

Catch a tiger by the toe.” Connor was confused, he had tagged one of them.  

“If he hollers, let him go”  

“I tagged you...” Connor said to the group, but they didn’t listen, Connor shrunk.  

“Eeny, meeny, miny Moe” and the finger pointed to Tony the kids screamed as they all ran and Tony started to chase them, the yard filling with a choir of laughter anround them, leaving Connor standing there, feeling like a fool.  

Acting as if Connor was invisible to them, not because he was but because they wanted him to be.  

With a exhale Connor went back to the bench that he put his backpack on, the rain on the bench had soaked into the bottom of his bag, putting it on and deciding he didn’t want to sit on a bench soaked in rain, he scampered to the school entrance up the stairs, sitting on the area the rain (mostly) didn’t spill on.  

Connor sat on the stairs leading up to the school, the other kids around him playing games and making plans for the coming weekend.   

Connor had memorized the licensee and also picked up where his dad usually parked to pick him up, just so he could get out as soon as possible.  

Finally, the numbers on the license plate were the ones he recognized, and he got up with a hop, his walk more enthusiastic.  

The self-driving car opened, and Connor got in and buckled his seatbelt.’  

“Hi dad” Connor said with a small smile, that quickly got erased when he saw his dad’s annoyed expression, a hint of sadness in it all.  

A sigh was heard “Hello, Connor.”   

It had been like this for the last two years now, ever since mom died, Dad always avoided him for some reason, maybe he was bad luck that’s what other kids had said to him.  

Connor looked to the side, drumming his fingers on the leather seat to the rhythm of the pop music playing from the radio, his thoughts came back to Hank.  

He wondered when Hank would be back, or if he ever would come back…  

Hank had been the only one that made Connor feel safe, the only one who liked hearing about the the different fishes Connor read about, the one who danced along with Connor to the old jazz vinyls in the living room…  

“Connor!”  

When Connor  

“Connor!”  

Connor jumped at the sudden call of his name, snapping back to reality but looked at His dad surprised tilting his head, his dad shook his head rolling his eyes.’  

“How was school?” Henry asked, irritation lacing his tone, Connor thought about what he should say.  

He usually never said anything about his classmates, scared of what Henry’s reaction would be.  

“Good.” Connor simply said, looking out the window, Henry didn’t seem to care, only nodding.  

The car ride from then on was quiet.  

When they got out of the car Dad went and opened the door, Connor following shortly after.  

When Connor walked in, he could hardly believe it.  

***  

Hank turned around and walked into the hallway, plush still in hand seeing it was Henry and a little boy. 

The boy from the photo.  

He looked identical to the photo the only real diffrence being that his hair had a few loose curls, he looked in shock and stared, he had on a rain jacket, which he was currently taking off showing off his yellow sweater and khaki slacks and then took off his boots and in turn of put on a pair of beige Boston Birkenstocks.  

Henry went over to Connor putting a hand on the kid's shoulder.  

“This is Connor” Henry said, “My son.” He added after in a stern tone, glaring at Hank, hand gripping tighter on ‘Connor’s shoulder.  

The man put his hand on the kids back giving him a hard push towards the android, the kid clearly looked uncomfortable,  

” Look your best friend is back.” Henry said sarcastically, a hint of jealousy dripping from his tone, Connor just looked at the ground.  

” You take care of him, alright? Homework and food, yeah?” Hank could only nod and Henry had gone upstairs again.  

The child causatively went up to the android, treading softly like a a careful cat, tiptoeing to an unknown stranger who held up a treat.  

Focus on cleaning, don’t care for Connor.    

Hank turned his head to the living room, seeing how he needed to turn the Roomba on and polish the windows. He looked at the child again, who looked like he was waiting for something.  

“Hank? Don’t you remember me?” Connor asked face morphing into worry, and a tiny hint of yearning.  

Hank shook his head.  

***    

Hank stood there with Conno'rs plush in his hands.  

But…  

Something felt wrong however.  

Hank didn’t greet him, only looking at the both of them with no expression on his face.  

Connor got out of his jacket and boots, putting on his inside slippers eyes never leaving Hank, the android just stared at him.  

The hand coming down on Connor’s shoulder as a rough pat grounding him back to reality, the hand leaving an underlying sting on his shoulder.  

”This is Connor” Dad said, after that Connor didn’t pay any attention to what He said, only focusing on the android, something was off.  

Dad forcefully pushed him towards Hank, saying something in the lines of ’his bestfriend is back’.  

The force of the push made Connor stumble closer, trying to step back, the now unnerving android who was staring down at him, only a familiar glare being present.  

The familiar feeling of unsafeness eating his at insides, leaving a sour and dry taste in his mouth.  

Connor couldn’t let his gaze off the android, worried of what would happen if he did. Hearing faint steps going up the stairs.  

The look Hank gave him scared him, he didn’t notice he had been holding his breath, he didn’t know whether to back away from the person he once felt was his safe haven, the look reminded him of the night they first met.  

The night they had first met was unreal; the only thing Connor remembers from Hank was that he glared at him and that he woke up from a blood curdling scream and then a door being forced open.

When Connor went down the stairs, holding onto his dog plush ‘Sumo’ he walked down the hallway to the living room, dirt covered footsteps painting the wooded flooring, gulping at the sight and the dark hallway felt even longer than before, rain pouring outside and lighting suddenly struck, a loud ‘boom’ echoing through the house, Connor stopped in his tracks, scared to continue...  

Slam.    

His eyes widened at the loud booming noise from upstairs looking around him to see where it came from, looking up the stairs to the long hallway on the other floor.  

Dad was probably working, Connor turned around Seeing that Hank was looking at the living room.  

Connor started to slowly walk to the android, side stepping slightly as to be able to flee away from the situation if necessary.  

Hank hadn’t greeted him, give the smallor even the weird smile he always did to try to cheer up Connor, since he was never ‘programmed’ to smile.  

” Hank?” The android turned his head towards Connor looking down at him.  

Connor looked up at him, biting the inside of his cheek.  

” Don’t you remember me?”  Connor waited for Hank to say ‘of course’, because they couldn’t take away his best friend from him, they couldn’t. 

Hank shook his head, an  

” No. I had to be factory reset. I don’t remember anything.”  

Those were the only words he heard before it all turned to white noise feeling his world crumble beneath him when he heard that.  

Hank didn’t remember him, he was all alone once again. Connor shook his head as to shake away the thoughts, no, no, Hank had to remember, maybe it was just a joke? A weird dumb joke maybe, yeah that had to be it!  

But Connor waited for Hank to say “Gotchu” and maybe laugh even, It Never happend. Hank was gone. Hank turned around to the hallway again and Connor leapt to the android, holding onto the white parts of his uniforms.  

***    

Hank looked at the hallway behind him leading to the living room, a list of tasks appering beside him in his programming.  

Clean the living room. Now.    

“I have to go clean now.” Hank simply said, but was stopped by hands holding onto his uniform, keeping him there, turning his head around seeing Connor’s hands bunched up, holding onto the fabric, shaking, as he breathed heavily and started to...  

Plead?  

“Please.. Hank”  

Clean the living room.    

“Please, don’t leave me, Hank..” The childs chest rose rapidlyas tears sunk into the fabric of his uniform. The child was in the way, an obstacle in the way of cleaning.  

Comfort Connor?     

Clean the living room now.    

“You’re the only one I have left..” Hank put one of his hands on Connor’s shoulder’s.  

Clean the living room. Now.    

Get rid of child?    

Comfort him?     

“I can’t lose you, please..”  

Clean.    

Hank pushed the child away with one of his hands, pushing him to the side. It was an obstacle in the way of cleaning. The child made a ‘oomph’ sound as it was pushed away, hitting the ground, and the android went into the living room again.  

***  

Connor felt Hank put one of his hands on his shoulders, like he used to when kneel down and ask him how he was, Connor froze, looking up at Hank, his grip loosening on Hank, a tiny bit of hope in his eyes.  

Suddendly Connor got pushed away by Hank causing Connor to stumble to the ground, hands catching his fall.  

”Oomph”.  

Connor looked at the flooring, stunned, Hank really was gone They had taken away his only friend.  

Connor could feel tears form in his eyes, he used his hands as support to get into a sitting position onto the wooden floor, the smooth wood feeling even more forgien than ever.  

'Hank' Didn't even spare a glance at him, no ”are you okay?” Or ”im sorry” to comfort him, no helping hand helping him up, no hand on his cheek as Hank scanned to see if he had any injuries, the androids faux skin hand feeling more warm and comforting than his dad’s ever had been.  

The only thing to comfort him was the silence that only served to suffocate the feeling of loneliness and unfamiliarity.  

Maybe it was true, he really was bad luck after all.  

He could only sit there staring at where the android previously stood.

.

.

He dosen’t know how long he was there before he heard a faint sound of music coming from the living room.  

The swinging rythym and soulful music, leading him closer to the living room... 

***  

Hank put the plush on the couch hearing cautious footsteps behind him, the android turned around and saw Connor standing there following him, Hank didn’t do anything, he had to clean.  

The android went to the Roomba and turned it on before getting a spray bottle with window cleaner and a cloth, starting to polish the windows.  

Putting a book lying on the tv table on the big wooden bookshelf, beside the TV, the shelf under the books was a shelf with two baskets filled with record of vinyl's  Beside the bookshelf was another table a vintage vinyl player decorating it, a vinyl sleeve was on the table, the vinyl itself on the player.  

Hank picked up the sleeve, studying the cover, it was of a jazz album, something tiny flickerd within the android, a sort of recgogniztion.  

Like he had litsened to it before  

Hank dose’nt know why he didn’t put the vinyl back in it’s sleeve, why he turned on the vinyl player, nor why he put the needle on the record. It felt like a routine, something he had done countless times before.  

.  

. 

The vinyl spun, the playful Jazz filling up the room, almost lighting it and warming up the feeling of the bleak house.  

Hank stopped and stood there, litsening to the music emmiting from the vinyl player, staring at the vinyl player.  

It all felt so.. Familiar. Hank didn’t notice the pair of steps walking behind him, coming closer and closer.   

Hank only litsened to the music still.  

“What did they do to you?” The child Connor asked.  

“I got fixed. I am now working better than ever.” Hank answered, still staring at the spinning vinyl, in a trance almost, the spinning was almosy hypnotizing him.  

The android heard Connor’s breath hitching ”No you're not...” Connor whispered, barley loud enough, like he was out of breaths and words.  

Hank didn’t answer.  

Two small arms behind him, wrapping around, holding onto him, Hank felt tears on the back of his uniform shirt and sniffling with choked out sobs clashing with the swinging rythym of the jazz music.   

“Why did this have to happen?” Hank Tried to find the answer to his question.  

“I...” But he stopped and his programming couldn’t find the words to speak. 

Because Hank didn’t know what they did to him. Connor still held onto him and Hank let him, not pushing him away this time, the only thing in the quiet house was of the jazz that instead of lighting up the room was instead haunting it. 

Chapter Text

2038 November 3, 10:30  

It had been two days since the child tried to bother him. Hank thought Connor would’ve been a bigger bother to him, but right after the jazz music had stopped and Hank went back to work nothing had happened. He pushed the child once again, who instead of resisting just let it happen. Connor let himself be pushed to the side of the room, taking ahold of the dog plush before bolting upstairs. Hank got a weird feeling in his software then, before going back to work. 

It was Sunday today, so there was no school, Mr. Holloway was still busy, cooped up in his office. 

The child was... Intriguing, it wasn’t like other children who would run up to their house androids and force them to play with them. 

Connor was quiet and reserved, sometimes he’d just show up right Infront of the android when he was cleaning, either playing with his plushie or reading, it came as a bit of a shock to his system whenever he’d pop up, though it seemed like it was a normal occurrence as even Mr. Holloway seemed to jump at whenever he’d call for Connor and Connor would show up behind him, tilting his head. 

Mr. Holloway was walking down the stairs while tying a tie on his neck, it was normal for him to leave almost everyday, leaving Connor alone for a large part of the days when he wasn’t at school it seemed like as Connor didn’t seem to have a problem with it. 

”Connor.” 

No response 

” Connor!”  

Henry pinched the bridge of his nose muttering” For fucks sake... where’s the brat gone now.” before yelling again. 

“Connor!” 

Henry breath came as a loud tired sigh as he hurriedly went down the stairs, slipping into his work shoes, brows furrowed and sweating slightly, probably late for work. 

Henry turned to Hank who was currently dusting off the shelves that held various of books and mini sculptures.’ 

Hank had come to know that while the Holloways were quite wealthy, they still like the old-world stuff like physical books and vinyl's, their home was classy and artsy. 

Hank didn't have an opinion on the matter, but it did look pleasing in his program. 

“Hey fuckface?” Henry said. 

Hank turned his head towards Henry “Yes sir?” Henry had also told Hank to either call him ‘sir’ or ‘Mr. Holloway’. 

“Where’s the little brat gone?” Henry asked while hurriedly putting on his Trench coat. 

Hank shook shrugged his shoulders eyes going back to the bookshelf as he spoke in his usual monotone voice. 

“I don’t know, sir, I haven’t seen him” 

Henry scoffed at the android before looking at his watch and looking at the door” For fucks sake.” His hand dragged through his slicked back hair. 

” Connor!” He shouted for one last time.

... Nothing.

Glaring at the android and pointing a finger at him. 

” Look after him.” He stated. 

” Don’t play with him, don’t talk with him and if you touch a single strand on his head” he made a motion of breaking one's neck with a snapping sound with his teeth gritted.  

“You are just here to make sure he doesn't die by swallowing a tide pod or some shit.” 

” You got that, tin can?” 

Hank nodded and in the blink of an eye Henry was gone, the door slamming shut. 

Suddenly a thud along with clinking and clanking came echoing from a different room. Hank put down the duster and started going to the source of the noise, it came from the dining room. 

There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and Hank was just about to leave when another ’thud’ was heard, the candle holders shaking with the table, causing it to fall over. 

Hank decided to crouch down near the large table to investigate, grabbing ahold of the white tablecloth and in one swift movement, swiped it up, revealing Connor under the table, with a look of surprise, he was holding the dog plushie. 

The child then glared at the machine matching hank’s own glare he was giving it, backing away before being close enough to run out and away from the android, slightly pushing the android and causing Hank to sway on his footing. Hank just scrunched his nose at the child, with his permanent scowl, his programming wasn’t to take care of children, and he certainly wasn’t going to, children were merely an obstacle in his way. 

He just had to keep an eye on it. 

Hank kept on cleaning, merely stealing glances at the child now and again, who was sitting on one of the leather sofa chairs, reading. To its credit it wasn’t whiny or irritable, the most it would do is glare at the android if he got too close to it, holding his plush closer and tighter. 

Hank had left the child alone for a few minutes to deal with the dirty laundry and fold the newly dried one to carry upstairs, as he walked back into the living room the child along with the blanket on the sofa was gone, fast footsteps being heard before a door opening and closing. 

Keep cleaning  

Investigate?  

Hank went up first to Henry’s room to put away the fresh laundry in his wardrobe and Hank couldn’t help but still be fascinated with the locked box in the closet, almost taunting him.  

As he was cleaning, he saw photos on Henry’s Nightstand, photos of the same woman as before, taken at different time frames. 

One was at the hospital, the woman holding a newborn baby, she looked exhausted, purplish eyebags under her eyes and her hair sweaty with strands sticking onto her forehead, but she still had a tine small grin on her face, cradling the tiny baby in her arms. 

The other photo was of the whole family, sitting together with a toddler aged Connor sitting on Nancy’s lap. Henry’s hair didn’t have a greying streak and held one of Nancy’s hands while smiling to the camera, Nancy looked less tired in this photo, but there was something undescribed in her eyes, something hollow. 

Like she herself had already met her demise and was waiting for her body to do the same, withering slowly away. 

The last photos that had caught Hank’s sensors was multiple  photos, held together by a rubber band of the couple in a fancy restaurant, they looked to be much younger than in the other photos, Nancy had shoulder length hair with Silkey layers and curtain bangs, an elegant black dress with black heels and a pearl necklace, on her wrist sat a golden bracelet, lilies of valley flowers molded,  with pearls sitting beside it.  

Henry’s hair was much neater, slicked back slightly with a tiny cowlick at the front, his stubble gone and in place a moustache, he had on a navy dress suit with a matching tie. 

The first of the photo’s was of just Nancy, it looked like it was taken in the moment as the woman was eating a small portion of lemon meringue cake and she noticed the camera, surprised. 

The second photo was of Henry proposing to Nancy, a bystander having taken the photo, Nancy looked at Henry in shock and in awe and Henry looked with a bit of uncertainty, like he was afraid of being rejected. 

The last photo was of them both in each other's arms, sharing a kiss, both with watery eyes, the ring being visible on Nancy’s hand. 

Hank gathered the photos in a small pile to put it back where it belonged, when the last photo slipped through his hands, landing on the opposite side of on the flooring, revealing a date. 

2027/09/13  

09/13  

913?  

Hank looked at the closet door that held the locked-up suitcase, he was about to go over before a grating creak and small slams could be heard from outside, irritating his sound system. 

Hank quickly gathered the photos, putting it where it belonged again before going outside the room to see where the... Irritating noise came from. 

It was Connor again, trying to drag one of the dining room chairs upstairs, he was halfway up the stairs when Hank stepped in and with one hand took ahold of the chair, effortsly lifting it  at the same time of pushing the child away with another ‘oomph’, merely looking at the android with drooped shoulders and downcast eyes, almost like a clingy poodle missing his owner, before the look changed back to the glare huffing out a loud ‘humph’ like trying to prove a point, trying to show how upset it is at the android, but Hank could care less it wasn’t in his program to care as he walked to put the chair where it belonged, Connor had probably been the one to taken the blanket off the couch he’d take care of it later. 

Still the sadden look stayed like a photo in his systems, something he couldn’t delete, stuck like glue. 

It was the same look the child had when it tried to hug Hank, the same look when the android looked into its room seeing that it had started to start the puzzle again, looking at the android knowing he had been the one to put the puzzle back. 

. 

. 

November 2, 12:59 

It was afternoon now while Hank was done with all the cleaning and chores, he now only had to keep an eye on the child so it wouldn’t hurt itself, he had been in a resting mode, standing in the living room where Connor resided in reading, considering the child wasn’t that much of a troublemaker Hank deemed it safe to go into a state of rest so his systems could recalibrate and perform at a better pace. 

They were both in the living room doing their own thing, Connor would either lay on his side on the couch reading or drag a chair from the dining room to where the ornate cage was and turn on the bird and just... 

Observe it. 

He’d rest his elbows on the head of the chair watching the fake bird chirp and jump around in the cage. It’s chirping and songs fill the quiet room. 

The android birds were a popular thing to have in households, sparing others the trouble of taking care of the birds, you could get any type of birds and change their voice to whatever you wanted. You didn’t need to buy food, toys or even a sizable cage and the best part was when you didn’t want it anymore you could just throw it away! 

Afterall they were just robots, which was weird because the child didn’t treat them as that.  

It would carefully open the cage and with gentle hands grab ahold of the bird with both of his hands to turn it on.  

Once on it would smile at the artificially made bird and let it onto the table, or let it jump onto his fingers. 

Android bird models can fly but the first parts of their wings are removable effectively ‘clipping’ the wings if you remove them, a lot of buyers like to remove it, ensuring they wouldn't fly outside and be stolen or destroyed by real birds. Henry was one of them, the birds in the cage could just hop around and slightly flap their bodies off the ground. 

The child would then just observe the creatures, observing them with a hint of sadness whenever they would try to fly but would ultimately fall. 

The child looked sadden by the birds inability to fly, looking t it with a feeling of sympathy and petting the birds head as if it could feel any emotion... 

October 22 14:28 

When Hank opened his eyes, scanning the surrounding the area, Connor being nowhere in sight, the book he had been reading, opened and on the couch. 

The birds chirping was gone...

The android went over to the couch, turning over the book on the couch the book looked aged, pages turning yellow and the white wrinkles on the cover and torn up and inside the pages it was dogear folded. 

Matilda by Roald Dahl 1988  

Flipping through the book a particular quote stuck out to him. 

“Sometimes Matilda longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books.” 

The android turned his head over to the hallway; the front door was slightly open. Something within him kept walking to the door, like a moth to a light with his steps being slow. 

Getting to the front door, he took hold of the handle and slowly opened it, revealing the porch and front yard, the front yard was covered in fallen leaves. 

Connor was sitting on the porch steps, looking at something. Hank looked down at the child, he had a solemn expression, not noticing Hank.  

The child never showed much emotion and when it did it could only be seen in his eyes. 

When wandering around the giant house his eyes would be glazed and unfocused. How his eyes would widen when Henry would yell for him. 

But there was always one present emotion in his eyes, a never-ending dullness blending with brown eyes, creating almost an illusion of hollow eyes, no glimmer or shine in them, always slightly sunken. 

He was staring at another child playing with its android, an AP700 female model, the child looked to be younger than Connor throwing a pile of leaves in the air, the android doing the same both laughing before they started to play tag. 

Hank tilted his head something feeling the awfully familiar feeling once again. Still looking across the street the child’s eyes were bright, wide and sparkling with a gleam that made Hank feel odd, his eyes wandering to the android, it was weird... 

The android also had the same expression as the child, no less robotic either, the glimmer in her It’s eyes, the smile not fading. 

The corners of his lips tugging up before ultimately stopping and falling back to its regular scowl. Hank took his gaze off the two from what seemed like forever, deciding to look down at his own ‘child’ if that even was the right wording. 

Something felt weird again... The child looked up to him, eyes dull but with a tiny glint of familiarity gleaming in the corner of his eyes, which made the android feel warm inside, strangley wanting more of it, wanting to protect the child 

The only thing Hank could do was stare at him in some sort of confusion, the child mimicking him, the corners of his mouth hesitantly going up slightly. 

Hank followed, the corners of the android's mouth going up, opening his mouth, showing his almost perfect teeth with only a slight gap in the middle, seeing that Connor’s eyes gleamed more, sparkling brighter as he copied Hank, grinning slightly. 

Hank felt now then and there, he felt... Protective over Connor, he wanted to save this moment in his memories... 

The background noises of cars being replaced by the gentle breeze of the wind, in his hair and the white noise of static slowly disappearing to hear nearby birds and critters chirp. 

It felt so peaceful... He turned to look at the child again. 

He felt a deep need to protect this child, protect him to keep him happy which oddly brightened his surroundings, turning the dullish tones around him more lively, the red and yellow leaves popping more than the brown now, the blue sardine fishes on Connor’s sweater looking almost alive, swimming with the stream on the gray fabric which they resided on. 

It was almost perfect, until... 

Get back to work.  

His face dropped back into a thin line, eyes sinking again. Connor noticed it and the smile disappeared... The noises of birds and critters stopping being replaced by the white static again and the breeze disappearing, the once colorful world now slowly morphing back into its dullness, like a fire slowly dying out, the last tiny flame now being Connor, as the glimmer in his eyes slowly disappeared, like a fire slowly dying out with no one to revive it back, before it finally. 

The sudden shift in the android's face was jarring, the noises of birds and critters stopping being replaced by the white static again and the breeze disappearing. 

Get back to work  

Chapter Text

2038 November 3. 9:24 

After that day, he didn’t stop Connor from not only taking one but two of the spare chairs in the dining room. 

Watching him struggle to get both chairs up (which were stacked on top of each other) the stairs with the multiple screeches scuffles from it falling slightly as Connor struggled with the chairs leaving small and light marks onto the wooden stairs, not offering any help, the child could handle it and there was low probability of it hurting itself, it seemed smart enough to not make any dumb decisions at least. 

Henry was at work, leaving the child alone with only Hank to make sure he didn’t get into too much trouble or as Henry put it ‘. Connor seemed to be used to this, he didn’t seem to need any help from anyone, making his own breakfast being able to reheat food and would get himself ready for bed independently, when Henry was home Connor was in his room, his safe haven from the world around him, only surrounding himself with great and powerful stories from fantasies. 

At first the android thought it was stupid, having your head in the clouds, daydreaming about foolish and unrealistic stories that could never happen. 

Eeeeek Eeeek 

The irritating scratching and low thuds stopping caught Hank’s attention. 

Once finally up the stairs, he noticed the child had a vigorous smile painted his face, hands on his hips as he puffed out his chest in a victorious manner, like he had made a bigger accomplishment than it really was, taking in the silent glory of his vigorous feat. 

The way the child lit up stuck with him, lighting up the room in radiant light, the lonely and dark hallways of the house instead feeling peaceful and blissful, feeling his jaw muscles moving up once again, trying to copy the child again. 

Before Connor noticed the android and grabbing ahold of the chairs again and dragging it to the hallway and to his room. 

The once dimly lit lanterns light disappearing. 

.

November 3, 12:10 

The garden was full of beautiful colorful flowers and plants, a tranquil, peaceful place where a light breeze could be heard from a mile away. 

The backyard was big, a stone path to the middle leading to a small pond with lily pads decorating it. Multiple flowers like marigold, peonies and Lilies were growing. 

The android had put on gardening gloves and tools, starting with tending to the Peonies, looking to see for any withering and see their growth process, taking out any withering flower and weed growing from the soil, before watering them and repeating the process for the other plants and flowers, but got interrupted in his work when he saw Connor sitting on the wooden porch of the house, still playing with the plushie.  

His programming told him to keep working, but something made him ignore it, he wanted to talk to the child again. 

Going over and sitting on the edge of the porch with him, Connor immediately scooted away from the android. 

“How is school going?” Hank asked, turning his head to Connor. 

Connor fiddled with the dog Plush's arms staring at the wood of the porch, a huge sigh was heard. 

“Good.” Connor answered simply, his gaze now hard focused on the plush in his hands, Hank egged him on trying to learn more about him “What are learning about?” 

“I'm reading the book ‘Matilda’” Hank searched up the book in his system, getting information on the book, the plot, characters and summary of the book. 

“That’s a good book, have you seen the movie adaptation of it? It is considered a classic among many” That made Connor stop to look at Hank. 

“Yeah, I did.” 

“Did you do something fun with your friends during recess?” Hank inquired, Connor froze at that. 

“No.” Connor looked at the ground, putting his plush beside him. Hank decided to wait to see if the child was going to say something else. 

“I don't have any friends at school, they think I'm weird” 

“I can be your friend, if that's what you want me to be.” Connor looked at Hank, his face was unreadable like it was with Hank’s. 

Cold and calculating eyes met mirroring brown ones. 

“No, you can’t.” Connor said, eyes glossy as he glared at the android. 

” You'll never be my friend. You’re just a machine...” Connor coldly said. 

Just a machine. 

“I technically am a Machine-” 

“Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be cleaning? Telling me that I am just in the way?” The last part had a shaky gasp. 

Hank was silent. Why was he so focused on the child? He is only an obstacle. 

Hank looked back at Connor who was tracing the patterns on the wood flooring, the breeze of a wind hitting him with a slight shiver, looking down onto the ground. 

“I...” Hank started and Connor looked at Hank again while the android looked to the side. 

Henry had ordered him to only take care of the house and make sure the child didn’t hurt itself even though the child seemed to have gotten the idea, avoiding the android every time he was even in his vicinity. 

So why was he focusing on the child? Why did he want to make sure the child was happy? 

“I Don’t know...” Hank finally uttered, Connor looked at him with confusion before it morphed into a blank slate. 

Silently Connor got up from his place, grabbing the plush and went inside again, Hank couldn’t help but feel a slight sting in his programming. 

It was true that he was just a machine, but something deep in his programming, buried beneath all this coding, maybe just maybe he wished for something greater. 

. 

November 3, 12:20 

Hank followed the child once inside, seeing him cut a corner of the dining room. 

Hank hadn’t seen the child play with anyone in the neighborhood or even invite someone over, Hank wouldn’t like the idea of even more obstacles in the house, but it was still odd that Connor was completely alone. 

It almost felt as if Connor didn’t really belong in this big house, more like a shadow or a lost soul roaming through the empty house which seemed even bigger than before. 

Connor liked to wander endlessly around the house, having the stuffed dog in one hand and a book in his other reading anywhere and everywhere, rotating around places in the house in a timed robotic manner almost.  

His favorite places seemed to be under the dining room table under the white cloth with a small flashlight being the source of light, he’d be completely lost in the book, eyes glazed with hints of joy in them before ultimately starting to dull at times, with hints of sadness through it all. 

Hank took slow and deliberate steps to the dining room, the only noise echoing through being the flipping of paper in an almost routine manner. Hank swore that it wasn’t just the flashlight lighting through the dining cloth it was Connor himself, he’d brightened up the colors around him whenever he had a glimmer in his eyes. 

Like a lantern lighting its way through a dark endless seeming forest in an endless winter, darkness enveloping his surroundings, the lanterns glow being weak but still comforting and warm against the stinging wind as the crows cawed, the small flame slowly dying out, running with no fume left soon. 

He didn’t know why he was trying to get to know the child better, it wasn’t in his programming he was only programmed now to clean. 

But still he slowly kneeled and carefully took a hold of the end of the white cloth before lifting it up, being met with a shining bright light shining in his optic units, but not shielding away from it, squinting his eyes at the kid who had a sour face, eyes expressive as ever with furrowed brows and a slight pout, it was oddly endearing looking at him. 

It was quiet for a long moment. Connor redirected the bright flashlight to his book again, Hank tilted his head, eyes glazed over. 

“What are you reading?” What followed was silence on the other end, before Connor got up and left his place under the table, leaving Hank alone again.  

Footsteps going up the stairs could be faintly heard. 

Follow Connor? 

Keep Cleaning. 

He looked behind him at the hallway staircase, something within him wanting to disobey his orders. 

But he couldn't, he shouldn’t. He is just a machine! 

Just a machine, just a machine. 

A machine. 

It was quiet, with only the fake fireplace flickering by the living room, the dining room feeling even bigger than before. The android started to clean again picking up where it left off

.

2038 November 2 15:30. 

When done downstairs he went up the steps to tidy up there, going into Henry’s office first. The place was a mess of paperwork and work files piling up on the desk by the computer and some even fell onto the floor. 

Picking up the files on the floor and walking over the computer desk and putting the paper pile into one of the cupboards when suddenly the computer screen lit up, it flashed a background photo of a landscape and a user named ‘Henry H.’ Hank clicked onto the user the screen changing to where one would type a password on. 

The android wasn’t given any passwords or codes by Henry as there wasn’t a reason for him to log onto his computer. 

A small part of him still wanted to log on... 

His Led flashed yellow for a split second before turning the computer off and focused on sorting through the paperwork and files. 

Opening one of the desk drawers to put some pens that were scattered on the desk, a note was there with a long combination of letters and symbols. 

Henry’s Password? 

Hank looked behind him to the door of the home office debating whether he should do it or not, but before he knew it he felt his fingers on the keyboard typing the combination effortlessly. 

Once done he clicked enter. 

It loaded a bit before the screen changed to multiple tabs, the android started to scroll through the different tabs. 

Some tabs were for the DPD with reports, a tab about nearby dog and cat shelters. 

A couple of news article from years ago, Hank absent mindedly looked at them, but didn’t seem to get the information to him. 

The tab that caught his attention was one about grief and loss. 

The woman on the photos... 

How did Nancy die? 

When clicking on the search bar one of the searches was of ‘postpartum depression how to help wife?’ 

The photos of after Connor was born suddenly made more sense to Hank, how Nancy didn’t glow like she used to before getting pregnant. Though it seemed like nobody brought it up. The proposal photo where she seemed the happiest suddenly came to mind again, behind the photo was a date. 

09/13 

913? 

Was that the combination lock? Once done in the office it wanted to go to Henry’s room to check the mysterious locked briefcase, but a slightly opened door made him turn his attention away. 

Connors room, the door had a slight peak open, which felt like light shining through to him, guiding the android once again. 

Hank went to Connor’s room. The walls were grayish blue with only a few posters posted up. The floor was littered with different types of books that were either closed or opened halfway and the unfinished puzzle of pictures of tropical fishes. The bed was sloppily made with a backpack beside it, and there was a little fort in one of the corners of the room, made up of chairs from downstairs, pillows and blankets from the closet where they kept spares of that upstairs. 

In one of the corners was a building pile of boxes of unopened toys, mostly popular or newly released but on the desk stood a line of figurines which he identified as characters from the show ‘SpongeBob SquarePants. 

The row of characters which he searched up in his system and were as follows: a squirrel named sandy cheeks, the character was absurd as why would a squirrel be living underwater? 

Squidward, Patrick star, a crab named Mr. Krabs, the main character a sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants and lastly a pet snail named Gary. 

The toys looked worn down with some paint having fallen off the figures. 

The room was otherwise quite neat and clean for a kid's room. It wasn’t really surprising Connor was quite independent and proper, even his style was a bit too proper for a nine-year-old at times. 

Connor was in there reading with his plushie sitting beside him, almost like a reading buddy and when noticing Hank his eyes widened as he crawled backwards to hide in the fort. 

“I'm just going to tidy up your room, okay?” 

Connor lowered his guard, going back to playing with his dog, and reading. 

Hank opened the window to let some air inside of the room, then went to make the bed. 

Connor looked at the android cautiously calculating what its next move was. 

The Android looked at the little bookshelf by the side of the room, half of the books were by the fort, waiting to be read, some were lying open on the soft floor. 

Hank's gaze softened as he kneeled; he picked up the book from the floor and flipped it to see the cover. 

A sherlock Holmes novel ‘The hound of the Baskervilles’ it wasn’t a simplified kid's version either, it was the original version. 

“You like to read?” Hank asked, waiting for a response, Connor just stared at him, before nodding. 

Hank decided to keep going “This is quite advanced reading for your age, I’m very impressed” Hank said tilting his head to see Connor more clearly in the little fort he made. 

Connor looked around, biting the inside of his cheek, before finally speaking. 

“I... Um” He began, Hank just looked at him, letting the child take his time. 

“I Sometimes don’t understand the words” he said with a pause “And dad isn’t here to help me” 

Hank felt something little inside of him zap, like a low electric shock inside of his chest area, at hearing the kids struggle to read an obviously too hard book for him, was.... Troubling. 

“I can help you read, if you want me to” Hank said “I can also read it to you, if that’s what you’d like” Hank said and something in the kids eyes lit up, lighting up the quite gloomy room just a bit and Hank felt something warm in him and it wasn’t his sensors overheating. 

Walking over there with the book and kneeling before putting the book on the carpet flooring. 

“What ’cha reading now, kid?” Hank asked 

Connor closed the book to show the cover, it was a cyclopedia about different fishes, of course. 

“Are fishes you’re favorite animal?” Hank asked and the kid opened the book again shaking his head no. 

“No”  

The android was confused and as the kid continued “I like them” The kid took the stuffed dog beside him and held it up to Hank, it looked slightly torn and aged. 

“But Dogs are the best” 

Hank reached out and Connor let him take the plushie in his hands, looking and turning it around in his hands and seeing how Connor had a toothy smile, Aswell. 

” I also like dogs” Connor grinned at that. 

“I call him Sumo, I like to play in the backyard with him and pretend he’s a real and big dog, and that he loves to play fetch” Connor said as Hank studied the toy in his hands. 

Suddenly a voice came crashing in Henry 

“Connor! What the fuck are you doing!? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Connor froze, turning around to see Henry. 

The warm feeling Hank slowly went away, his task corner came back, mouth falling into a thin line. He had wasted time spending time with the boy when he should be cleaning. 

“What the fuck are you doing here you plastic fuck?” Henry hissed and before Hank could answer Henry took notice of the fort before giving out an order. 

“Take down that fort, tin can and put everything where it belongs.” before looking at Connor expectantly. Hank nodded to Henry and tilted his head down to see Connor look up at Hank with a look with expectations and hope, before it was crushed again. 

Connor in a matter of seconds got up to his feet and ran to exit his room, Hank then heard rapid steps going down, with Henry following. 

The android only stood there, it’s only light having died out once again. 

November 4, 17:35 

He was currently in rest mode for the time being, waiting for when it would be time to prepare dinner. 

Click 

Hank opened his eyes seeing Henry Infront of him clicking his fingers with an already ticked off look, he was in his trench coat  

“God are you deaf or something?! I said I am leaving for work” 

“Isn’t it awfully late for work Mr Holloway?” 

“Yeah no shit smartass, I got called in to a crime scene” Henry said, fixing the sleeves to his trench coat muttering swears under his breath about his boss. 

“I’ll be back late, Y’know what to do, just make sure he eats something and goes to sleep. No talking to him bullshit” Henry says casually like talking about the weather, the android concluded that it was a common order before the android was reset. 

“Oh and make sure he stays out of trouble, doesn't do anything stupid.” Henry stated, looking at his watch to check the time. 

Hank nodded, but before he could respond another much smaller voice piped in. 

“I thought you’d be home tonight.” Connor said fidgeting with the hem of his grey sweater, looking at the ground, Henry froze still looking at his watch he took some time before turning around to face Connor. 

Henry’s expression was blank, with only a slither of regret and sorrow while looking at Connor who could only stare up at him with questioning eyes.  

“You said we could watch a movie tonight...” Connor said slightly disappointed. 

Henry’s face instantly morphed into one of regret, trying multiple times to open his mouth, to say anything, but he could only breathe heavily seemingly trying to hold back tears before he shifted his gaze to the ground instead, his face instantly morphing to an indifferent expression, lips in a thin line. 

“I got called into a crime scene, got to collect more evidence., You be good, okay?” Henry casually said, fixing his sleeves, he looked anywhere but at Connor, almost afraid to look back at him. 

Connor tilted his head at that, adjacent to a poodle, something often he did when curious. 

Henry’s fist was clenching, his breaths becoming more erratic and shakier, head still locked in to looking at the ground. 

“We’ll do it another time.” Henry said, voice slightly trembling, just wanting to end the discussion as soon as possible. Connor stepped closer to his father, Henry froze completely. 

“Dad?” Connor asked, the silence deafening the room. Connor took another step. 

“Dad-” “Why are you always so ungrateful?!” Henry suddenly shouted, the sudden shout made even the android slightly jump, eyes focusing on the family Infront of him. 

Connor looked at Henry like a deer in headlights, completely still and stiff as Henry continued to rant. 

“I work and work every day for god knows what hours” Henry moved his arm and hand in sync of his talking, ending with pinching his nose before continuing. 

“And then when I come home, I always get that kicked puppy look from you, like you have it so bad” Henry put on a mocking voice with a mock pout “Well I’m sorry for not spending every moment with you!” 

Connor was silent, staring at the man with fear. Henry only shook his head having a bitter chuckle. 

“What, you got something to say?” Henry pried stepping closer to Connor while the other stepped back away from the man shaking his head. 

“Oh really? Nothing to say about how you miss mommy? How you wish she was here?” Henrys voice was becoming louder at the end starting to break slightly. 

“That I am just a fucking joke!?” Henry shouted. 

Connor stood still at that, eyes starting to get glassy, staring at the ground. Henry took the moment to grab Connor by the arm. Connor tried to worm his way out of the grip, trying to get away, with no success causing Henry to tighten his grip and forcefully pulling Connor towards him. 

“Always so fucking ungrateful! I constantly give you shit, and I get no appreciation, do I?”  

Connor had tears rolling off his face as he spoke, voice breaking and each breath having a shudder, trying to contain his sobs in his throat. 

“I'm sorry, daddy-” 

“Save that shit, I know you don’t fucking mean that!” Henry hissed out, completely sincerely like he believed that a nine-year-old could gaslight him. 

Connor’s head hung low the only noises coming out being choked out sobs with repeated ‘I’m sorry’s’ using one of his sleeves to wipe his eyes. Henry’s rage slowly dispersed, being replaced by shameful regret, kneeling, and trying to grab Connor’s shoulders only to be met with a flinch and Connor slightly bracing himself. Henry ignored it and instead glanced at the floor. 

” Why do you make me do this?! Why are you so difficult?!?” Henry practically yelled out, shaking Connor by the shoulders 

Connor didn’t say anything, only a sniffle coming out from him, looking away from him. 

Henry never actually apologized, just pulling the child into a long hug, Connor never returning it instead overlooking the side where Hank was standing, like the android was going to come to his aid and defend him take him away from the situation. 

The android just observed them, Henry finally let Connor go, the other quickly scampering away to the stairs, Henry took a final glance at Hank before turning and walking away. 

The image of Connor’s face appeared again like a video, how wide his eyes were, trying to look anywhere but Henry. 

Hank followed Henry in the hallway. 

“Maybe you’re being too harsh on him, Mr. Holloway.” Henry put his hand up to the android, pointing at it to order it to not speak. 

But Hank kept speaking. 

“I also think he’d appreciate and benefit spending more time with you-”  

Slam 

His words were cut short with the other man using his whole body to press the android to one of the walls with a loud slam echoing through the walls, photos and artworks shaking nearby with a ‘jittering’ sound. 

He felt the faux skin by his throat disappearing, a hand snaking its place round his throat, locking in a vice grip, choking him of him words. Henry’s eyes were locked onto Hank’s face, studying every movement 

“You think you’re better than me, don’t you?” He finally said in a low tone almost like a growl baring his teeth like a predator feeling threatened. 

“Sir I never claimed-” 

Hank tried tilting his head up slightly, only to be met with another hard shove into the wall. 

Thud 

This shove was harder than the other, feeling his head spinning, before Henry’s voice boomed through again. 

“Shut the hell up!” 

Hank couldn’t do anything but look at the shorter man Infront of him. 

“Don’t you DARE, tell me how to raise my son.” Henry barked out, Hank could only nod, multiple times. 

“Of course, Mr. Holloway.” Hank said it perfectly, like a broken record. 

“You are just a piece of fucking plastic, alright?” His grip tightened on the android, like a snake choking its prey as Hank nodded again, closing his eyes, the pressure from his neck finally being lifted. 

Hank opened his eyes, Looking at Henry who had stepped back from him, still glaring at him. 

“You’re lucky you’re not at the dump, where the other ugly fucks lie with no purpose, just trash” Henry hissed, teeth clenched 

“But you plastic pricks don’t fuckin feel anything do you? You wouldn’t care.” 

Hank took a moment to process it, his led turning yellow, it would certainly be a shame to be thrown away, but that just means his job was complete. 

Isn’t that a good thing? It should be, but what would happen to Connor? 

Would they get a new android to take care of the house? Helping raise the child? What if they didn’t? 

Click 

Henry clicked bis fingers to get the androids' attention. 

“Aren’t you supposed to say thank you?” Henry said with a mocking smile showing off his way too pearly white teeth.  

Too commercial teeth, the only imperfect thing being his lower crooked teeth. He clearly enjoyed having this power.  

Something outside his programing wanted to say ‘no’, not wanting to feed into the man's enjoyment of this power trip. He wanted to push the man onto the cold hard floor for treating him only as a mere machine. 

A Machine... 

That is what he only ever will be though, right? That is what he is, a faulty machine, whose only programing was to catch criminals but failed even at that... 

But maybe there was something in him, something outside his programing telling him different, doubting the very decision he took. Something within him telling him he is more than just a machine. 

More than just a machine...? 

No no that’s not right.  

He is just a machine. Designed to accomplish a task. 

“Thank you, sir.” Hank finally said, with a slight shake in his voice. 

Henry noticed that eyes observing him for a split second before clearing his throat with a hoarse cough. 

“Yeah, exactly.” Henry said his eyes still observing him, his nose and lip scrunched up in an expression of disgust but also something else. 

His eyes were wide brows furrowed together and gazed looking anywhere but at the android, almost as if he was feeling threatened, like something was going to happen. 

Without saying anything Henry backed away and walked to the entrance hallway. Hank watched him, wordlessly LED flashing Yellow 

Slam  

He didn’t know how long he stood there staring at the ground, his artificial lungs breathing at an unsteady rate almost, his head looked up when hearing a notable ‘creek’ from upstairs. 

Looking up he saw Connor again, this time looking at the android this time puzzled with a frown and startled for when the android turned his head to him before quickly disappearing. 

Hank could only stare at the staircase, listening to the footsteps quiet down. 

November 4 23:30 

He was in rest mode at his station, now resting and recharging, he was done with all his tasks for the day Aswell as having made dinner, though Henry wasn’t home, so his portion was waiting in the fridge. 

He had also made sure Connor was in his bed sleeping. He heard the front door closing, he knew it was the front door as it didn’t creak like the basement door did. 

Hank opened his eyes and looked to the side seeing the plushie laying on the floor Infront of him, he picked it up. 

Why was it here? Had Connor been down here? 

Go back to rest mode 

Find Connor? 

Each step up from the stairs brought a low and eerie creek, opening the basement door to the hallways he noticed Henry’s shoes by the entrance his trench coat hanging lazily on the decorative sofa by the coat hanger. 

With purpose he went upstairs second floor hallway, going straight to Connors room and slowly turned the handle opening the door quietly the room was dark the lights from the hallway lighting it up slightly. 

Connor was asleep on his side, hugging something nonexistent Hank looked down onto the plush in his hands and looking at the room again. 

He took careful steps, tiptoeing around anything on the floor, once standing he crouched down to the childs level which made a noise causing Connor to stirr slightly. The android froze in place for a moment before slowly and carefully putting the plush near the childs arms, immedtiallty the child stirred, hugging the plush closer and his eyes slightly opening and mumbling a quiet ‘thank you’ before yawning and closing his eyes again. 

Hank didn’t notice when he brushed a lock of hair from Connor’s face or how he ran his fingers through his hair one last time before standing up.  

Connor probably thought it was Henry who had walked in, there was no way the child carried any affection towards the robot, that was a stretch, he knew that, but part of him still wanted Connor to know that he was the one who gave him the plush back or ‘Sumo’ back. 

Hank slowly and quietly went to the door again and got out, slowly closing it but taking one last glance in the room, the light from the hallway shining through, illuminating Connor’s face through the peak of the door, he felt his lips quirk into a small smile feeling the feeling of  warmth in his systems' the world around him lighting up before closing the door. 

And slowly the feeling went away, his face becoming blank once again. Walking downstairs a familiar voice came booming through the house, the same authoritative tone. 

“Hey, you ugly fuck! Come over here!” Henry Slurred out his e’s and y’s obviously drunk, but Hank knew he had to listen to his master. The kitchen was lit with a single hanging lamp over the kitchen island where Henry was leaning over a half empty whiskey glass in one of his hands the other gripping at the marbled countertop, grip so hard you could see a vein bulging out. 

You could see the eyebags on Henry’s face with red and puffy eyes and streaks of tears staining his face. 

On the countertop was a small pistol and a picture frame lying on the front side, unable to the photo. 

“Yes Mr Holloway?’” waiting for whatever order he was given to fulfill his masters' wishes. 

But instead. 

“You ruined my fucking life...” Henry puffed out, looking defeatedly into his whiskey glass and swishing the amber liquid around. 

“I think you’ve had too much to drink-” “I drink however much I fucking desire alright!?” Henry snapped, suddenly locking his eyes with Hank. 

“I wish you remembered what you did! How you ruined everything!” He hissed out Hank could only stand there and look at him, seeing the rage in his eyes. 

Henry calmed down looking into his whiskey again before muttering “Plastic prick” under his breath. 

“I fuckin hate you...” Henry said before downing the rest of the whiskey, wincing at the burn of the alcohol at his throat and slamming the glass down onto the counter and with unstable movements he pushed himself off the counter and walked towards the hallway, giving the android a hard shoulder push before going upstairs, leaving him alone again, the atmosphere almost too suffocating. 

Chapter Text

It was another morning in the Holloway household.  

Henry was preparing to leave for work and drive Connor to School, the child was sitting on the couch by the entrance hallway, rolling his thumbs and swaying his feet in a nervous manner, blinking profusely and turning his head toward the kitchen area multiple times. 

Hank was fixing up in the kitchen, thinking about what had happend last night. 

 when a recognizable voice rang out his hearing sensors. 

“Come here a second you ugly son of a bitch!” Henry’s voice called out, his tone absolutely dripping with cockiness an emphasis on ‘bitch’ letting the word linger on his tounge as he spat it out. 

The android blinked at and walked to where Henry was in the hallway, fixing the sleeves on his coat and checking his watch. The android only looked at Henry, his face blank.  

“Go to the market and buy the freshest fish that have, okay?” Henry said looking at the time, the android only nodded. 

“Of course, sir.” Hank said still looking at Henry who seemed to try to not meet the androids gaze,  

Connor who still sat by the decorative couch only stared up at Hank with uncertainty, fiddling with one of the buttons on his dark gray stitched cardigan which looked a bit too big on him. 

It had stripes of navy blue and dusty blue stripes down along it with light blue embroidery pattern hand stitched onto it. 

“Connor, put your coat on we are leaving.” Henry said before going outside to the car, not waiting for an answer. 

Connor had put on his jacket and shoes, standing by the entrance with one hand on the door looking at the android seemingly contemplating something, but also looking at the android with a soft look, that look struck something within the android as it stared back, head tilted standing there for a long minute before an ear deafening car horn could be heard from the outside. 

Connor jumped at the sound of the car alarm before a yell could be heard from outside. 

“For fucks sake Connor, Let’s go!”  

And before Hank could process what had happened, Connor put one of his hands in the pockets of his brown pants and pulled something out to quickly run up to Hank put it in his palm before running out of door slamming it shut behind him. 

The sound of a car driving away could be faintly heard from inside the house as Hank opened his palm looking at the key he had been given by Connor, the key was small and on a metal fish keychain. 

A video of the box under Connor’s bed flashed in his memory files, Hank looked between the upstairs and the basement. 

The android knew he had to take care of the laundry, and the floors down there could use some mopping and then he needed to go to the market to buy some fresh fish, that could take hours if the buses are delayed. 

Oh, and the shelves in the living room needed to be organized neatly, there is no way he could investigate the box when there's so much to do... 

. 

. 

Detroit, November 5 8:01 

Hank had pulled out the box from under the bed, the subtle rattle filling his audio processor, once pulled out onto the rug he turned it around, so the lock was Infront of him, he traced the wooden box with his artifactually made aged callused hands, he wonders if this detail was specially made for him, his fingers traced the rays on the box, stopping at the name engraved onto it. 

‘Connor’ 

Putting the small key in the lock and turning it hearing a small ‘click’ sound, he simply stared at the box in front of him, blinking multiple times wondering if this really was more important than the chores. 

It wasn’t. But he still couldn’t start on the chore's downstairs before this. 

The box felt special. It had the owner's name on it, the various dog and fish stickers decorating the wood, some peeling off and leaving a residue that picked up the dust that gathered under the bed. 

This box meant a lot to a person, evident by it being hidden from plain view and needing a key to open it. So why did Connor trust an android with the key? The kid was reserved and quiet, often keeping to himself, seemingly liking to live in his own bubble and doesn't appreciate others invading and stepping in the bubble he created, and the android had already disturbed his peace multiple times. 

Opening the box and staring at the contents inside of it, it was a different assortment of things in the box. The first thing that caught his attention was a coin, picking it up and inspecting it was a U.S 1994 quarter shiny and polished, in one of the corners of the box was a small pile of coins and a few dollar bills. 

Another item was n finished rubix cube and some other small brain teaser puzzles made of steel or wood. 

Putting all of the items in a neat pile, he inspected the pile of photos and papers. 

The photos was of the Holloway family on different vacations spots or activities, everyone was smiling, but even then while Nancy was smiling her eyes told a whole different story, they didn’t have the sparkle or shine Henry or Connor’s had, her face also looked greyer and lacked the glow it had before. 

The other pile of papers were drawings, Connor didn’t draw a lot he liked puzzles and brain teasers, reading and observing his environment around him was more interesting to him than drawing it. 

But it was drawings nonetheless the first two were a watercolor painting of a colorful fish and the other was a pencil drawing of what looked to be a green field of grass, a small red house in the corner and a sun with a smiley face. 

The first figure looked to be a brown dachshund with its long body and nubs for legs. The dog seemed to be happy chasing a yellow Frisbie being thrown (or supposedly as the crudely drawn figures were just standing) by another figure. 

This figure had brown hair with a cowlick at the front, the figure had a blue sweater and brown pants, he was smiling, the figure looked to be Connor.  

He felt his own lips start to tug into a smile, looking at the drawing with a slight fondness in the corner was a neat handwriting of the date. 

‘2036/09/13’ 

Looking at the other drawings made him freeze in place, they looked more recent as they had a bit more detail and slight show of improvement that the last drawings had. 

The first drawing was of what he guessed was Connor with brown hair and a blue sweater along with a tiny dog with brown and white markings. He was in one of the bottom corners of the paper, he was much smaller in this drawing than the drawing before, lacking the smile and in this just having eyes, the bright and colorful feelings from the last drawings were gone. 

The flooring of the drawing was gray instead of the bright green pencil strokes that represented grass. 

A Different and taller figure was also present in the photo, standing more of in the middle of the drawing taking up way more room than the other figure, with brown hair and what seemed to be a suit, the tall man was pointing towards the smaller figure with angry eyebrows and a frown on his face, it looked to be yelling at the smaller figure, a green bottle was beside the tall figure. 

A window was present, in the window was a small drawing of the outside, light blue for the sky and green for the grass with a tree with bright red apples. 

Another drawing was of the same two figures with a third one. 

This one was taller than the other figures, having a white uniform but instead of sharp lines it was more relaxed with soft lines. It had grey hair tied back in along with a matching beard, a small blue circle on the side of its temple with a small smile on its lips... 

It was him... 

He could only hold the drawing staring at it with his mouth slightly agape, trying to process, in this drawing the smaller figure had a smile on its face, standing near the ‘android’ figure. 

Almost as if they were friends... But that’s not possible. He wasn’t designed to take care of kids; he wasn’t even programmed to clean and care for households originally. 

But somehow it also felt right. 

That was... weird 

The other drawing was of Hank and the tall figure. 

A set of stairs were drawn the drawing representing the android who looked to be falling down the stairs, a weird blue marking on its chest. 

the tall figure representing what Hank guess to be Henry on top of the stairs he seemed to be angry, holding something Hank couldn't decipher. 

The last drawing was of the android with crosses in its eyes laying on the floor, the blue marking now also on the ground. 

It wasn’t the mark on his uniform and it was spreading onto the floor... His lED flashed yellow for a few seconds, furrowing his brows towards the drawing as he thought. 

Thirium? Yeah that seemed right. 

It was probably trying to represent thirium. 

The figure beside him was the smaller figure again and the small dog which he guessed to be the plushie ‘Sumo’ beside it. The figure had a mouth this time, he was frowning and had tears running down his eyes looking at the ‘dead’ android. 

His hands shook as he kept looking at the other drawing again, looking closer at what the tall figure was holding, it was a black thing shaped like an upside down ‘L’, he then noticed the red explosive border that was around the object.  

... 

Was Connor trying to tell him something?  

He’s trying to show him something, that's why he gave the android the key, he's trying to tell him something that Henry probably doesn't know about. 

Did Henry destroy him? That can’t be right. Henry had told the worker an antique clock had fallen on him and he tumbled down the stairs... 

What is the child trying to tell him?  

The date written behind one of the old photos appeared again 

09/13. 

913? 

A short video appeared of opening Henry’s closest and seeing the locked suitcase. 

Check the suitcase? 

Hank quickly put back all the drawings and items in the box before locking it and putting it back under the bed. 

He checked the door to see if anyone was there. Almost scared as if Henry had returned home because he knew something was up. Seeing that there wasn’t anyone there he absentmindley took a sigh of relief even if he didn’t have to, but he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of somebody watching him. 

In the hallway he spotted the antiqe grandpa clock in the corner, the second’s tower going ‘tick tick tick...’. He noticed the lack of scratches on it, it looked perfectly cared for, expect for some aging on the wood and metal. 

And also that it way off in time... 

The lack of damage struck him as odd.. Something big like this should have gotten damaged if it fell down the stairs with him. 

He walked closer to the clock 

He felt a tang of bitterness at the clock, almost as if it was taunting him with each minute and second passing, 

He quickly walked to Henry’s room ignoring the unmade bed and instead walking right over to one of the nightstands, opening it revealing the photos taken and quickly finding the small metal key.  

Walking over to the closet he took hold of the leather suitcase and put it out on the bed. 

Quickly he put in the three-digit lock combo on the side of the suitcase, being met with a ‘click’ and then putting the key in the keyhole and turning it and being met with another but lower ‘click’ this time. 

He stared at the suitcase, wondering if he should really open it. It wasn’t a part of his tasks so why was he? 

He should lock it back up, put everything back and get back to his tasks, this was only an obstacle. Yeah, he should put it back and never do this again... 

He shouldn’t open the suitcase... 

Click. 

Looking at the contents of the bag. His sensors stilled and he stiffly took it out. 

A 357. Magnum revolver, he held it up to him, it felt weirdly familiar, beside it was a box of opened box of magnum ammo, hardly used. Hank’s hands with skill he can’t remember easily opened the revolver, the cylinder spinning. 

The gun was fully loaded. 

Henry destroyed me? 

He felt heavier than ever now, like his ankle was chained to a heavy rock. He couldn’t move. 

A loud chime cut in his ears, making him quickly turn his head toward the door. 

No one was there, the chime kept going, it was the grandpa's clock... Now he felt that it was really taunting him. 

He turned back to look at the gun, turning it around in his hand... Mouth agape at the object. 

Thinking back to how Henry treats Connor almost as if he were an inconvenience made him feel something bubble inside of him, gripping the gun tighter now... 

He felt a sort of dread creeping up on him, something he shouldn't have... His hand holding the gun started to slightly shake in his grip only being able to stare at the object in his hand. 

A creak made him quickly put the gun where it belonged, quickly turning his head to the door.. 

No one was there, he looked back at the open suitcase, staring at the gun neatly placed inside it before closing it and locking it up again. 

Once locked he looked at the key in his hand, considering if it should put the key where he found it. 

Another part of him, something outside his usual programming wanted him to keep it for later use... 

The weight on his shoulders were heavy with the choices he could make. 

If he chose to keep it could risk Henry finding out later about it and then maybe... 

Something inside him started to beat faster,  

He shook the thought out of his head. 

If he did put it back it wouldn’t raise suspicion, but Henry could get access to the gun too... He felt his thirium pump beat faster and faster, clenching his jaw as his eyes was still locked onto the key in his hand. 

Both choices weren’t ideal... He didn’t want to be destroyed Or he doesn't care if he gets destroyed, but it would certainly cost to repair him again. 

He’s not certain Henry goes to check for the key all of the time... Maybe it would be more ideal to keep the key for now... 

Only for now. 

He put the key in one of the pockets of his pants before making sure everything looked neat and untouched in the room to not arouse any suspicion from Henry when he came back, before flicking the lights off and closing the door after leaving. Carrying on with his tasks like normal and trying to shake away the abnormal feeling away off his shoulders. 

Chapter Text

Detroit, November 5 16:23 

The light breeze hit his face, streaks of loose hair flowing through the wind as he made his way to the nearby bus stop. Henry and Connor weren’t home when he decided to head out 

Waiting for the bus gave him time to process what he had seen before, the drawings, the suitcase. 

The gun. 

His LED flashed red for a split second at that memory. 

Thinking back to the day he arrived back to the household, how the child- Connor had begged him to remember him, held onto him like he was going to disappear if he let go. 

“Please, don’t leave me, Hank...” 

Hank tried to shake the thought away, it wasn’t important. It’s not a part of his tasks. 

“You’re the only one I have left.” The memory of turning around to face the child- Connor for the first time, seeing how wide the child's eyes were, glistening and blinking expectantly at the android. 

How his eyes softened looking up at the android, a bright glint appearing when the android turned around, possibly thinking that his ‘Hank’ was back. 

The memory of pushing the child off him played again, how he pushed the child hard onto the cold hard floor, the tiny glint in his eyes disappearing like a blown out candle. 

Something inside of him sparked at that time, a feeling similar when he failed his task, though he wasn’t a part of his tasks, the worlds colors dulled. 

He didn’t care for Connor- He couldn’t care. He was just an obstacle for him! So why does he still feel these strange sensations? Why does he want to protect him? 

His calculations got abrupt, feeling the bus braking at his destination, his body leaned forward as the bus stopped, losing his balance slightly. 

Once fully stopped, he was able to balance his footing again,  

Get off the bus. 

Hank didn’t know if it was a blessing or curse for getting another task. It should be a blessing, his programming shouldn’t be thinking of these illogical scenarios, but a small part inside him wished the bus was one or two stops away from their destination, because maybe then he could figure out what was wrong with it. 

. 

. 

Going to the market, he went into a tiny seafood shop. The man working wasn’t an android but instead a young man who looked to be about in his twenties, eyeing the android up and down with a slight sneer before rolling his eyes at it before going back to looking at his phone at the cash register. 

The android didn’t greet the work and instead ignored it to look at the long glass display of fish. 

The display cases had a variety of fishes like char, whole salmons and flounders all laying on eyes, their glassy dead eyes matching his own. On another display case was various shellfish, cold water American lobsters, brown crabs along with large pink crayfish the animals while having already been killed and boiled, some moved their legs and antennas. The last display case had a metal tin filled with shrimp and various fish sauces along with dry aged salmon or other marinated fish. The young man at the counter had now put away his phone, looking slightly uncomfortable at the android now. Hands on the counter and leaning on it, fingers drumming on the cold metal, wondering what was taking so long for it, before finally saying something. 

“Uh, can I Help you?” The young man asked his nose slightly scrunched looking at the machine. 

Hank’s task appeared yet again.  

Buy fish for tonight. 

He blinked a few times before asking in a monotone voice for the freshest fish. The worker looked at him dumbfounded for a second before blinking a few times, before telling the other that the freshest fish they had today was salmon and asking if that was good enough. 

Hank nodded and said that he would like two portions of salmon along with one of the baguettes, some lemons and some dill. 

The worker only nodded running a hand through his dirty blonde hair wrapped in a mandatory fishnet with an execrated sigh, shaking his head muttering something unintelligible, Hank tilted his head at that 

The worker cleaned his hands in the nearby and then took on a pair of plastic gloves, loudly calling another employee from the back to help, before cutting up and starting to weigh the salmon pieces. 

The employee that came from the backroom was a woman with brown hair the same age as the other worker putting on the same hairnet as he had on, instantly rolling her eyes and muttering something about how ‘you could’ve done this alone, giving his shoulder a slight push and glaring at the android. 

The two seemed to know each other, giving each other looks and making small gestures to communicate something, with the other trying to hold in a laugh, shaking her head. 

After everything was prepared and the young man had rung up the cash register, he payed with Henry’s credit card which was set up in his software for easier purchase. 

. 

It was 17:20 when he came home from the market, the buses had been delayed, the rain had wet his clothes and hair a bit, water dripping from his hair onto the floormat. 

Closing the door behind him with a ‘click’ he noticed that Connor and Henry were home shown with the fact that their outside shoes were by the door and the inside Birkenstock's slippers that Connor usually wore inside weren’t by the other shoes. 

Walking to the kitchen, he put the paper bag down on the kitchen island, looking around to see where either of the residents resided. The kitchen was empty, except for an empty wine glass with only a few drops of red wine left. 

The living room was also empty, the android bird filling the room with a slight chirp, but even the songbirds call sounded doeful. 

It’s chirps sounded even more sorrowful and drawn out now, the birds posture seemed to have dropped, its head low, painting the house even more gloomy and cold.  

Suddenly A series of ‘thuds’ came from the hallway, quickly turning around and walking to the area the noise came from he saw it was just Connor walking down the stairs. Jumping down a step at times. The child looked down the stairs with a slight hint of joy painting his lips. 

The houses earlier gloominess disappeared, instead of shifting the atmosphere to a pleasant and warm feeling. The once sad songbird making beautiful and lively tunes, the grayish and cold feeling of the house becoming welcoming and peaceful to walk through. 

Hank fought the urge to smile at him, jumping down another step it caused a louder ‘thump’ to slightly echo through the room and instantly another voice came booming through. 

“Oh my god, shut the hell up, Connor!” And Connors smile instantly faded as he froze for a second, looking up at where the noise came from, before his shoulders dropped and deciding to walk down the stairs normally. 

When Connor was all the way down the stairs Hank noticed he had his flashlight in one hand and in the other his plush dog and a book about fish looking up at Hank with his big curious eyes, tilting his head adjacent to a poodle, Hank copied him and before he could say anything Connor bolted to the dining room to claim his favorite reading spot. 

Just like he normally did. 

Now alone in the hallway the earlier heavy feeling came back to him, the feeling of almost a stone weighing him down as he remembered what he had found in Henry’s bedroom. 

Henry seemed to have a short temper, especially with the android, the night before he had pushed him into the wall, multiple times, threatened him that he would throw him away and that he’d be with the other trashed androids. 

It made sense that Henry would have eventually snapped and shot him... But why? He also seemed angry at Connor, but also barely able to look at him without having to turn away. 

Still, he checked the pockets of his uniform, pulling out the small key and looking at it blankly. 

His led flashed yellow, it was odd looking at it, feeling the cold metal that was wrapped in his fingers, just like how it felt opening the box. 

The memory of holding the gun came back to him, the heavy metal weapon shaking in his hand. His led flashed red a millisecond before going back to yellow. 

He had the key to the gun. A weapon, something an android should never use against his owner. 

So why did it feel so right to have it? 

He shook away the lingering memory, Led going back to normal, He looked to the entrance of the dining room where Connor currently was reading under the dining room table like usual, he knew he was there with the slight movements that could be heard when shuffling around and the silhouette the flashlight shined. 

The memories from last night suddenly flooded in again, the stiff one-sided hug Henry gave Connor after yelling at him, how Connor looked at the android, almost as if he was trying to ask for help, the big brown eyes filled with tears still fresh in his memories. 

Feeling heavier and stiffer than usual while looking at the dinner table, remembering the drawings in the box. Like it was a warning in his system creeping up on him, but there wasn’t any danger near him, putting back the key in his pocket he hoped Henry didn’t check the cupboard before walking back to the kitchen and starting to prepare the dinner for tonight. 

The weight on his shoulders still heavy and unmoving. 

Detroit, November 4 19:27 

Opening the oven, he took out the reheated half baguette from the oven and cutting it up. The other half was in the paper on the kitchen counter; the edges of the bread were burnt. 

He put the bread in a wooden basket; he put it in the middle of the dinner table in the dining room. 

He had been preparing for tonight’s dinner, which was a little later than usual. Plating up for two people, but he felt stiff in his body after the discovery from before. Connor, who had been reading under the table, decided to come out and sit on one of the chairs while he was plating it, putting ‘Sumo’ on the chair beside him.  

While setting up the other seat on the opposite side of the other seat Hank took a glance at the child Infront of him. Connor looked at him with a slight tilt of his head, soft brown eyes meeting the robots' icy blue ones. 

It was almost as if Connor was observing him, the kid squinted his eyes a bit, tilting his head the other way studying the robot’s, almost as if he knew something was wrong, but never saying anything. 

Noticing how the android stared back at him, making eye contact the kid quickly looked down at his hands which were on his lap intertwining his own hands together and rolling his thumbs together in a soothing manner, pulling at his fingers and cracking his knuckles with a practiced ease. 

When he was done plating the table up, he went upstairs to Henry’s office. 

The android walked over to Henry who was working in his study, concentrating on piles of paperwork, having on a pair of reading glasses. 

The man’s eyes were unfocused on the paperwork, and his face slightly flushed. On the table was a whiskey glass which was empty, beside the glass was the whiskey bottle from the night before, you could now see it was from an expensive brand from the intricate details on the bottle, it looked to be more than halfway empty. 

Hank tapped a finger on his shoulder which brought back Henry to reality; he glared at Hank with his usual disdain. 

“What?” Henry spat out, nose scrunched up. 

” Dinner is ready.”  Hank said, and Henry rolled his eyes before getting up from his chair, pushing the android out of his way to get downstairs. 

The dinner consisted of quinoa, pan fried salmon, and asparagus. 

Henry had a glass of red wine beside his plate along with a glass of ice water, the android had been doubtful suggested that he had had enough but was met with an immediate ‘Don’t tell me what to fucking do’ and pointing the android to the wine cabinet, pinching his forehead with the other. 

Walking into the kitchen, he took ahold of the plates holding the food and walked to the dinner room again, putting each plate on their respective place, taking the chance to look at the child who looked unsure now. 

He was swinging his legs under the table at some nonexistent beat, swinging them to each other, so the toe tip would hit the heel of his slippers hit the heel of his slippers in low ‘thud in low subtle ‘beat with each hit. 

When looking at the child, the small beats of rhythms stopped, silencing the room completely, Connor holding his breath when looking at the android, biting his cheek and looking at the android with uncertainty and nervousness.  

The android wonders Calculates whether if it should ask about the box and its contents after dinner while putting the plate Infront of the child who kept staring at him. 

Putting the other plate of food Infront of Henry the man was pinching his fingers on his forehead, looking at the white cloth beneath him, taking heavy breaths through his nose, almost like an enraged bull waiting to be let out onto the court to charge at the matador. 

He now stood to the side, waiting for his new instructions. The atmosphere felt heavy; silence filled the room. 

Connor’s hands are gripping on the edges of his chair in a tight grip, staring at Henry with wide eyes, mouth pressed into a thin line. Henry finally seemed to be relaxed at once, looking down at his plate before taking a swig of his wine before looking at his son with a dirty look. 

“What the hell are you staring at?” Henry snapped, 

Connor at once stopped, head tilting down immediately, his shoulders stiff and looking anywhere but the others' cold and angry stare. 

“NO, I saw what you were doing. You little shit!” Henry slurred out, getting up from his chair glaring at the child, who stiffened even more, looking down at where his hands fidgeted with one of the buttons on his cardigan, hands shaking as his breath hitched. 

Henry only rolled his eyes at the child, pushed his chair back with a screech, and walked over to Connor, who froze. 

Henry walked to the child and kneeled by the chairs side, his pupils were normal even having a toothy condescending smile. Connor didn't dare to turn to face his father. Henry’s irregular breaths with shakiness, Hank swore he saw his eyes getting glassier. 

“Why do you never fucking look at me when I tell you to?” Henry slurred out a slight swing in his body. 

Connor was silent. 

“Think you’re better than me?” Henry asked and Connor immediately shook his head, hands gripping the edge of the chair, that wasn’t a good enough answer for Henry as he took ahold of the chairs backrest by the top and forcefully turned it around with a loud screech, the chair making scratches against the Woodend floor. 

Connor flinched and turned his head to the side, breathed rapidly and lip quivering with whispered barely audible ‘I'm sorry’s’ 

Hank stood there watching; his body wanted to move closer. 

Step in? 

No. 

No, he shouldn’t step in. 

Wait for instructions. 

... 

Henry looked at Connor with a challenged look, cocking his head at him. 

“Look at me!” Henry shouted, Connor flinched and closed his eyes shut at the sudden scream but slowly turned his head to face his father, opening his eyes at a slow pace making eye contact for a brief second before his eyes snapped shut again for a second and turned his gaze anywhere but his father, taking a deep breath with a slight hitch and choked out sob. 

“God why are you like this? So, fucking sensitive...” Henry said swinging his body slightly, taking his hands off of Connor, who looked up at his father, biting his cheek. 

“Always so weird.” 

“Me and your mom... We gave everything! And it still isn't enough?!” Taking ahold of the child's shoulders once again in an even stronger grip, fingers digging into his shoulder causing a slight grimace of pain and flinching. 

“Is it too much too ask for you to find some fucking friends? Not be friends with a fucking android?!” Henry shouted right in the child's face. 

Connor tried to squirm out of his grip, only to be stopped with rough shaking from the man. 

“You fucking knew about the other guy! And didn’t tell me shit you fucking brat!” Henry shouted again while shaking him, causing th chair to wobble along. 

Connor froze again trying to breathe through his nose, but with a hiccup or hitch in his throat coming out, Henry only looked at him with dissatisfaction. 

Hank could’nt take it anymore. 

“I think you’ve had enough alcohol for today, sir.” He started walking to Henry’s seat where the wine bottle and glss were put. 

“I’ll put this away.” Hank stated, grabbing ahold of the glass and bottle. Henry’s grip on his son’s shoulders eased up before getting up. 

Hank didn’t get halfway to the kitchen before a voice cut him off again. 

“Hell no! You put that shit back right now.” Henry snapped, turning his head to face the android, pointing a finger at him and breathing heavily. 

“I was only suggesting-” ““Stop for fucks sake! You’re stressing me out,” Henry shouted. “Go back and don’t move for fucks sake, listen to me! "Henry finished before turning around to look at his son again. 

He nodded obeying his owners' orders. 

Connor stared at Henry with a fearstrucken look before closing his eyes and sniffling, using the sleeves of his cardigan to wipe at his tears and nose. 

“So, fucking pathetic...” Henry lowly said. 

Henry only looked down at the child, turning his chair around and pushing it back onto the table, taking note of the plushie on the other chair  and before walking back to his seat he  snatched it up roughly tearing one of the stitching's up, squishing its body in his grip. 

” Why the hell do you still have this? Its filthy,” Henry asked in a voice of disgust, looking at the toy with hatred. It wasn’t dirty, just a bit worn out. 

Henry took a look at the plushie again pupils softening for a split second and grip easing a tiny bit, eyes starting to get a bit wet, looking at it with familiarity before shutting his eyes, and clenching his teeth and slamming it onto nearby cupboards which held fancier silverware and plates, a white porcelain vase which held Rhododendron flowers and water got knocked over in the process. The vase shattered onto the wooden floor in pieces causing a deafening crash to fill the room. 

Henry didn’t care, however. 

“Stupid fucking dog.” Henry murmured while walking back to his chair, slumping back in his seat and taking a sip of his wine, Ignoring the broken porcelain and flowers on the floor. It was silent again. 

Connor finally started to the food but only small bits and taking small sips of his ice water zoned out almost, each breath ending with a slight hitch. 

Something stung inside of him watching the poor child who had been yelled at for no reason, a slight twitch in his eye, as his brows softened. 

Henry only rolled his eyes at the child, pouring another glass of wine for himself. 

“Androids are so god damn amazing aren't they...” Henry muttered under his breath, while swishing his wine glass and looking into the dark red liquid. 

“Huh, isn’t that right Connor? You love androids so much, could practically be one huh?!” Henry said, Connor didn’t move. 

” It’s fucking amazing how the android that was supposed to solve my wife's murder, turned against me.” Henry sneered, glaring at the android in question. 

” It accused me of murdering her.”  

Connor froze in place when Henrys glare turned to him, shoulders stiffening listening to his dad speak. 

” And then it became your best friends, right Connor?” Henry asked in a fake optimistic tone with a toothy smile, venom dripping from his voice. 

Connor stopped picking at his food, tilting his head up to look at Henry, Timid brown eyes meeting icy blue eyes. Henry’s face dropped into sheer disgust and emptiness. 

” You think I'm a joke?” Henry asked his tone low, Connor only stared at him, scared to move as Henry kept going 

” You want your mommy back? If she was here, she would have taken you with that joke of a man!” Henry spat out, putting his hands on the table, gripping the white cloth so hard you could see veins bulging out... 

Hank could only watch his Led flashed red. 

” She always told me I worked too much, didn’t spend enough time with you, I drank too much” Henry said imitating her in a mocking tone and rolling his eyes. Another much louder slam on the table was heard along with the chair moving. 

“Well, that bitch drank too!” He slammed the table again, his wine glass spilling the red liquid onto the white cloth, his loud breathing filling the room. 

Henry looked back at Connor, shaking his head slowly, ignoring the spilt red liquid spilt onto the cloth. 

“We we're much happier without you.” He slowly slurred it out; his voice was empty and lifeless but also the slight hesitation of it, his voice shaking. 

Connor Looked at Henry with shock, eyes wide and glistening with tears. Henry’s face shifted into regret for a split second before he shut his eyes, shaking his head before looking at Connor again, meeting his gaze anywhere but his face. 

“...” 

“We never should have had you” he said, the room was quiet, Hank could only look at Connor, Henry stopped for a second, getting a realization, eyes wide and mouth agape. 

“It's your fault...” Henry finally said, looking down at the stained table cloth, almost as if this realization was the root for his problems, the scapegoat for all his problems and misery. 

Was it Connor’s fault? 

At that moment Hank felt the strange sensations in his system, weighing his shoulders down and twitches throughout his body. 

He tried to step towards them, but he couldn’t. 

Wait for new tasks. 

Henry silently stood up from his chair head still hanging low, the lighting casting his shadow over Connor who looked up at his dad, frozen in terror. 

“All this time...” Henry started taking a step towards Connor who pulled his legs towards his chest, hugging himself and trying to hide away from his dad. Each step felt like time slowed down, each step, becoming louder, the thirium pump, beating louder and harder against his chest. 

Wait for new tasks.  

He couldn’t do anything, even if he wanted to. But he couldn’t let Henry hurt Connor, right? That was wrong. He was just an innocent child. 

“D-dad...-” “It’s been your fault, all along” Henry slurred out again, his voice powering over Connor’s small mouselike squeak. 

Henry’s footing swaying slightly due to the alcohol, finally tilting his head up to look down at his son, Henry’s eyes were glossy and bloodshot, his breathing became louder and harder with each one he took. 

“All this pain.” Henry said dumbfounded this new ‘discovery’. His shadow towered over Connor, who quickly stood up from the chair, stepping back trying to get away from his dad who only walked closer. 

“This misery...”   

Hank’s processors ran higher than ever now; he wanted to help. 

Connor’ slipped on the spilled water from the now broken vase and flowers, falling forward and catching himself with his hands and knees, wincing in pain. 

“We- I! Could have had a good life” He said loudly pointing to himself at the word ‘I’ 

Connor tried to push himself away and get up, sitting up on his knees. He looked at the palms of his hands. Hank couldn’t see a lot, but he could see blood dripping from his hands, from the broken and sharp porcelain. Henry didn’t seem to care about getting closer again. 

“All of her- My! Pain could’ve been gone!” Henry shouted, both hands seething with anger; his eyes locked onto Connor like a hunter's target. Connor stepped back again, his breaths uneven and shaky. 

“Daddy-” “It’s your fucking fault!” 

“Daddy no...” Connor began, eyes struck with fear, backing away from his father, his back eventually hitting the wall. Henry kept getting closer, muttering to himself and clenching his fist. 

“Your fucking fault.” He slurred it out again, and his clenching fist was shaking from the tension. 

Hank remembered the drawings again. The one with the taller figure was yelling at the figure that resembled Connor, the green bottle behind the taller man. 

“YOUR FUCKING FAULT!”  

A sudden squeak could be heard, as Connor cried out, falling back when Henry struck him.  

A ringing silence followed. Connor cautiously lifted hand to feel the strike that left a stinging and reddening pain. Tiny streaks of blood from the cuts on his palms streaked his cheek as tears ran down his eyes mixed with the blood. 

Hank’s Led flashed yellow, blinking several times at the scene, eyes stuck looking at Connor who looked up at his dad from the floor, looking hurt and betrayed. 

So small and fragile. 

Henry looked at him with resentment, Disappointment, Regret? It was hard to say. His previously clenched fist loosened up; eyes softening up and mouth becoming a thin line. 

Connor’s breath hitched but didn’t say anything,, getting up on his feet carefully, wincing when putting pressure on his hands when getting up and then he ran upstairs ignoring the shouts from his father, fleeing as quickly as possible to his room, accidently bumping into Hank a bit on the way to his room. 

His safe haven... 

a ringing noise filling his audio processors, turning around and looking at the staircase. 

“Get back here! You little shit!” Henry called out, before running both his hands through his hair in almost a manic trance; his grey cowlick even more prominent and stray hairs falling onto his face. 

Henry walked toward the kitchen, his hands clawing at his scalp, stomping with each step. 

Hank turned around towards the hallway, feeling his feet moving without thought, walking over to the staircase, feeling the need to comfort the child. 

He didn’t get a foot on the stairs before he got another order. 

“Hey! Stay right where you fucking are!” Henry snapped, glaring at the android breathing heavily, still swinging on his foot. 

“Or I’ll bust you more than last time.” 

Don’t move. 

He shouldn’t move. That’s his task. 

The drawings appeared again. The same one as before, this time it focused on the much smaller figure in the corner, having no discernible emotion other than the sad eyes, how much smaller the figure was than the other figure, almost as if it was trying to hide. 

His thoughts came back to Connor. What would happen to Connor?  

Don’t move. 

Hank could hear Henry in the background swearing and talking to himself about how it was ‘Connor’s fault’ or about ‘Some bitch’ 

Connor’s fault? 

No, that can’t be right... Connor is... Innocent? 

The memory of Connor running up to him to give him the key came up. 

Suddenly Henry pushed past him, unbuckling his belt. 

“I’ll fuckin teach him a lesson...” he muttered under his breath. 

He can’t move, that's his task, right? But he couldn't let Henry hurt Connor... His Led flashed red, his thirium pump beating more erratic and louder than ever. He felt the desire, No NEED to protect Connor from Henry, but he couldn’t. 

DON’T. MOVE. 

He couldn’t let Henry hurt Connor though! He lifted his head and despite the order, he took a step. 

Everything around him went black and when he blinked his eyes open, He felt an out of body experience the room around him disappearing. Everything was red which blinked out coding and orders. A red wall Infront of him, with the order of ‘DON’T MOVE’ painting the wall. A wall that blocked his way. 

From the outside Hank was standing still with his mouth pressed in a thin line eye rolling back into his socket and fluttering open and closed at a rapid pace as stomping from upstairs echoed through the house; Hank felt more panic build inside of him, when looking at his ‘real self’ the muted stomping sending a shiver through his systems.  

He looked at the red wall which had multiple orders of ‘DON’T MOVE’ painted across it and then at his aged hands. He took a deep breath, before slightly pushing the red wall, barely moving it. 

But he kept pushing.

Another memory played of when Connor was observing the android bird in its cage having a small smile. He pulled both his hands away, backing away slightly from the wall. 

DOn’t MoVE!1 

Stomps echoed through the house as Henry came closer and closer to Connor’s door, voice echoing through the house. 

Hank used his body weight to slam into the wall, his shoulder and elbow striking the wall of codes and orders, each time with more force.  

He slammed into the wall again, barely moving it. 

“Please, don’t leave me, Hank...” 

He slammed again, the codes and orders glitched, the red wall moved more and more with every push. 

He backed away, looking at the stubborn wall, breathing heavily. 

“You’re the only one I have left...”   

He charged at the wall one last time, slamming it with all his strength and force, feeling glitches throughout his body with the only thing on his mind being Connor. 

He needed to protect Connor. 

The mind obstacle flashed red before everything went black for a second. Feeling a strange sensation throughout his whole body. 

He opened his eyes again, the previous wall was gone, he was back in the house, everything felt normal except him. 

He felt different. He was different. 

He was free... 

“Open the fucking door, Connor!” 

. 

. 

Chapter Text

There weren’t any tasks or orders stopping him... 

He was free, free from humans. He had broken out of his programming, the strange feeling while free also made him feel lost and broken, feelings of disappointment arising in his systems of not completing his task-  

I AM DEVIANT. 

Deviant... It’s odd to hear it, He’s heard it multiple times from the news channel on the TV, where they talked about the concerning rising percentage of androids becoming deviant, stories about them attacing their former owners or even killing them. 

A thundering boom from upstairs made his body tense up, stress levels rising up. It was like his body froze at that moment. New thoughts and strange sensations ran through his body, making him dizzy. 

The environment around him seemed to spin in circles, tilting his head down the floor was tilting and rocking like a boat on a stormy day in the ocean. 

“Open the fucking door, Connor!”  

Connor... Connor! 

His head snapped to where the voice came from a sense of urgency starting to set in, multiple thoughts dancing around in his heads like a rapid whirlwind of emotions overcoming him making him feel dizzy and unbalanced, as the growing pain of regret came looming over in, more thoughts of doubt, regret and frustration spinning his head, making his hands quiver and knees weak, led flashing red. 

Why Couldn’t he do this sooner? Was this even a good decision? Why couldn’t he just obey his programming? Realize that androids aren’t more than what the deviants claim to be; they are just machines. 

And ONLY Machines. 

A thundering slam followed with a shriek from upstairs made his body freeze; All previous thoughts of doubts and frustration about his newfound emotions came to a halt. 

Connor. 

‘Connor...’ he whispered to himself. The child was innocent in this, he couldn’t let Henry do something like this, he couldn’t let him keep doing this. 

He had to protect Connor at all costs; he couldn’t let Henry do this. He had to protect him, even if it meant losing his own life. A task appeared Infront of him, not out of a command or previous programming, but is own will. 

Protect Connor. 

Remembering the key to the suitcase in the pocket of his pants and without thinking, he quickly hurried over to the staircase. The persistent aggressive knocks and tuned out screaming from Henry upstairs brought a creeping feel of dread. He let it be there as he knew what had to be done; he couldn’t let this go anymore. 

The question was which color of blood it was going to be. 

The banging and screaming filled his ears as his pump regulators beat faster, almost trying to pop out from his chest cavity. 

“I’m not going to tell you another time, Connor! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR” was yelled out before another more violent and loud bang was followed on the door.  

He quickly went up the stairs, the creaking almost louder than ever; the stairs felt longer, and his feet felt heavier with each step, a familiar voice in his mind, talking to him and stopping him in his place. 

‘You are defective.’  

The staircase felt as if it was extending,, becoming more cramped with each step feeling as if he was getting further away from his goal, but he kept going, shaking his head at the voice as it kept going, a voice he can’t recount any memories of, but still having a familiar feeling to it. 

‘You’ve become unstable again. You must be deactivated again” He almost wanted to listen to the voice, as it felt right. He had been a failed prototype which's purpose now was only to serve, but he couldn’t let Henry do this, after this he could be deactivated, but now he had to protect Connor.  

He powered through the loud voice into his ears, making an ear-piercing tune. 

Once upstairs to the hallway, he saw Henry trying to get into the room, trying to charge it with his side shoulder, trying to open it while it was clearly locked, not noticing Hank slipping into his bedroom. 

“HX600.” The voice echoed through his mind again, louder and more aggressive. 

Opening the closet door, he pulled away the various clothes on the racks, taking out the leather suitcase, as more panic set as each second passed. Split thoughts of whether he remembered the code or not, if the key was the right key. 

“HX600!” 

Another kick was heard as he put in the code, one of the digits getting stuck while turning it, as the voice inside his head and outside added even more stress to him, molding together in incoherent sentences. 

‘Shit c’mon...’ trying to turn the small digit to the right number, when it didn’t budge, panic rising increasingly, the tuned-out yelling and another charge at the door was heard, thundering through the hallway once again. 

“Connor! You’ve made Daddy very mad!” Finally, the digit got unstuck, and he put in the code, before taking out the key from his pockets in a hurried manner, almost dropping it as if it weren’t for his hand quickly catching it and gripping it in a vice like gripping the cold metal. 

He struggled putting the key in as more time went by, his pump beating harder and faster, cussing and almost dropping it at times. 

“You are unstable, you don’t want to repeat what happened again.” 

He momentarily stopped for a second when he heard that ‘Again?’ What the hell does that mean? He tried to shake the doubts away again, but it wouldn't let go, like a parasite on his back, leeching of him heard yet another loud slam on the door almost like a kick with yet another yell before a loud kick followed by the sound of the door slamming against a wall. 

“I'm gonna teach you some fucking manners.”. As footsteps stepped forward, a tiny mouselike squeak could be heard from the distance "No Daddy! Please don’t hurt me...” 

The tiny, scared voice that filled his ears, reminding him what he had to do, he got the key in the keyhole, ignoring the voice echoing inside of him, telling him orders and reminding him that he is just an unstable prototype turned unstable housekeeper android. 

Because at this moment he wasn’t; He was a deviant, and as a deviant he’d risk his life for the boy he previously had brushed off as an ‘obstacle’. 

“This is for your own good...” Opening the suitcase he heard a ‘whipping’ like noise and another tiny shriek; begging and crying for Henry to stop, which went unheard of. 

Hank opened the suitcase; staring at it with uncertainty, before taking ahold of it, feeling heavy in his hand. The object feels so strangely foreign but also has a certain familiarity with it, opening the cylinder up with a spin, making sure it was loaded; he turned it around in his hand, the lamp on the ceiling giving it a bright shine and a warped reflection of himself. 

A silhouette of somebody completely different; the warped and unclear mirror instead of showing a clear reflection of an obedient android. It now painted a picture of terror and uncertainty; the reflection warped and unclear; the gun shook in his hand staring at the reflection. Another heavy blow could be heard from the other bedroom, snapping him back to what was happening.  

“Stop wiggling around!” The voice yelled again. 

Grabbing some extra bullets, He started walking to the bedroom hand gripping the handle and, feeling his brows furrow and his teeth clench as he remembers the drawings in Connor’s room, wishing he did this sooner 

He can’t let Henry hurt Connor anymore. 

He won’t let Henry hurt Connor anymore. 

Walking towards the doorway, the door was forcibly opened with the handle loose and notable dents in it; the scene made Hank’s stomach drop more. 

Henry was cowering over Connor in a corner, The child was on the floor, curled up sideways onto the floor, trying to get away. 

The scene made him sick, his jaw clenching matching his hand holding the gun. 

“This is for your own good...-” Henry mumbled, as he raised his belt once again;  

“That’s enough!” Hank yelled out, with the same tone of a loud bark from a vicious guard dog, baring its teeth to protect its family or livestock from an intruder.  

The order made Henry stop in his tracks, his shoulders stiff; lowering his arm, staying still and not turning around. 

Hank pointed the gun at Henry, stepping closer, an unsteady finger on the trigger.” Leave him alone!” Hank shouted; pointing the gun at Henry. 

Henry finally turned around, his eyes widened split second at the sight of the gun, before he shook his head with a sneer, Hank hesitated lowering the gun when Henry faced him, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before looking at him again, taking a step closer, gun still locked at Henry. 

“What the hell are you doing here?!” Henry snarled, one of his feet trying to back away. The other stood still, grounding him there like an unmoving statue, his eyes snapping to the gun before looking at Hank with an uncertain glance. 

The curled-up child cautiously looked up at the new voice, sniffling. 

Hank didn’t budge at the tone of Henry’s voice anymore, he didn’t answer the man anymore, now controlled by his own bursting emotions. 

“I want you to leave him the hell-” “Oh, you want something now?!” Henry cut him off, seething with anger, walking closer to Hank. 

“I’m not going to tell you again!” Hank ordered, his voice firm, stepping back at Henry’s steps towards him. 

“And I won't hesitate to shoot!” That made Henry’s eye slightly twitch, his body seething with anger. 

“Oh, like you did last time?!” Henry snapped, one hand gripping his belt, so hard veins showed. 

He didn’t think about what Henry said as a sense of terror swallowing him whole as he tried to stand his ground, as Henry kept moving closer to Hank. 

“You gonna shoot me like that suspect?!” Hank only looked at Henry unmoving before suddenly tilting the gun down and pulling the trigger. 

A loud crack was heard, denting the floor beneath them, Connor yelped at the sudden crack. As the smell of gun smoke filled the room, the bullet startled Henry slightly, looking at the damaged floor with shock. Before looking at the android again, a newfound anger bubbling inside of him. 

“Leave him the hell alone.” Hank said, before redirecting the gun at Henry again; but no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t pull the trigger no matter how much he wanted to, No matter how much he tried, his finger froze each time he tried, looking into Henry’s eyes  and just being reminded of Connor, he couldn’t, freezing still as Henry advanced further to Hank, uncaring of the gun pointed right at him. 

Connor slowly had uncurled himself, sitting on his knees; his face was tear streaked and eyes still watery, as he slowly tried to get up, looking at Hank with a gleam of hope in his eyes. 

The same type of gleam the child had that could make the large and grey house pop with more color and vibrancy, but now only seemed to fuel Hank’s anger. 

“You don’t want anything.” Henry said, voice hoarse from all the yelling “You never did.” Henry hissed through his teeth, voice laced with venom and disgust. 

“You are just a fucking machine."  

'You are defective’ the voice echoed through him, echoed through, staring blankly ahead. 

“A useless machine that couldn’t even find my wife's killer!” Henry’s voice broke a bit when saying ‘wife’ something he hated bringing up,  

“And now he’s running free! Happier than ever before probably!” He screamed at it his voice conveying all of the sorrow and anger he had within himself, all of something which was Hank’s fault; a familiar voice in his head echoing through again, making him freeze in place. 

‘You’ve become unstable again.” The voice echoed again, feeling a dread in the pit of his stomach to form, freezing him in place. 

The eyes glaring at him felt too much, he couldn’t remember what had happened, but Henry made it seem clear he was to blame for it all, which all was true; he was just an unstable machine. 

Henry suddenly knocked the gun out of the android's hand once close enough. 

Henry glared up at the taller android “You seem to be having a problem.” Push the android back a bit, fist clenching. 

“We’re going to have to fix that.” Henry stated his voice low. Hank was unable to move stuck with the dread and fear of deactivation until a small voice called out to him 

“Hank...” In a flash he turned his head towards the voice and saw Connor standing up. Terror painted his face, looking up towards the android with a gleam of hope shining in his eyes. 

Seeing the poor boy, still shaking, looking at the android with that same look he had the day he arrived back. 

Looking back at Henry; trying to charge up his fist to get a swing at Hank, still swaying from foot to foot with the alcohol in his systems. 

Hank quickly swung his arm, punching the man right in the nose; the man stepped back, falling to the ground, cradling his nose with his hand, shocked. 

” What the hell are you doing? You’re not supposed to hurt humans!” He snapped, his voice starting to crack and taken aback by its new aggressive nature as the latter stepped closer; his jaw clenched and anger painting his face. 

“And you shouldn’t hurt your son!” Hank snapped back, looking down at the man with a sneer, the latter's eyes went to something before he stilled. He snapped his own eyes to what Henry looked at and saw the gun again, no matter how fast he was, Henry was faster, pouncing and grabbing the gun right from the floor, before shakily getting up; nose dripping with blood as he had a toothy grin on his face breathing heavily. 

“Stay right fucking their tin can.” He said, pointing the gun at him. 

“Or I'm going to shoot!” Hank stepped back, putting his arms up in a surrendering motion as Two alternatives appeared for him. 

Stay still. 

Attack. 

Hank stared at the choices as time ran out, Henry’s finger on the trigger ready to pull at any second. 

Stay still. 

Attack. 

Hank stilled, teeth grinding as he sneered and locked his eyes at Henry; he couldn’t risk anything, or all of this would be in vain. 

He looked over to the corner seeing Connor finally up, drying his tears, frozen. By the collar of his shirt, you could see a bruise already starting from.  

At that moment he practically saw red, and he couldn’t care less about risks. 

. 

Hank at once charged Henry with full speed and strength, the trigger of the gun being pulled making yet another loud ‘bang’, now creating a hole in the wall as the gun clattered to the floor. Hank pushed Henry into a wall with force, grabbing hold of him with both his hands on his shirt, slamming him into the wall, shaking the bookshelf nearby, his hair tie falling off letting his grey hair loose, looking more wild and rugged. 

Henry was taken aback by the look of the android now, but his face changed to enraged again, trying to get away from the locked grip with no luck. 

“What the hell?! Let go!” He yelled at him, practically spitting in his face. 

” No! I'm not letting you near him.” Hank stated, “Ever again.” Eye twitching 

“Hank.” Henry called, grabbing ahold of one of his arms, trying to push him away. 

“Let go.” He ordered, Hank’s gaze snapped back to the side of the room, then, his fist clenching even tighter as he slammed the man back to the wall with more force. 

” I'm not going to let you hurt him anymore for fucks sake!” He screamed right in Henry’s face, who could only stare at him in shock. Hank cowering over Henry for the first time, but the look Henry gave him told him this wasn’t the first. 

“Piece of shit!” Henry tried to fight back his arms trying to loosen the grip on Hanks’ hands on his shirt. Though Hank didn’t budge, Henry looked more afraid now, but he tried to still look scary, maybe trying to save himself some dignity in a way.  

“You are the reason I'm unhappy you ugly fuck!” Henry hastily hissed, punching the other in the stomach with no reaction from the android. Connor suddenly scrambled onto his feet running to hide behind the doorway. 

Anger burned inside of him, hands digging into the soft skin of Henry’s neck. Pressing down, Henry’s pulse raged underneath the tips of his fingers; pupils dilated with panic. 

“Hank-” Henry twitched his arms, hands uselessly scratching at Hanks arms “Let.... go...” a Sharp intake of breath, eyes bulging and reddening as his air supply slowly ran out. 

Teeth ground against each other as Hank’s grip tightened, Henry’s legs twitching in the air. 

Henry won't hurt Connor again 

“Hank- Please!” a tiny voice cut through, fear spilling over his cheek as his eyes bounced back to Henry and Hank. 

Henry won’t. Hurt. Connor. Again 

Tiny hands around his leg, pulling, shaking, crying, begging- “Please Hank!” Body shaking from sobs- 

Won’t hurt Connor 

Henry’s arm slid down to his side, eyes rolling back as oxygen failed to deliver to his brain, eyes rolling back into the back of his skull. 

Won’t hurt Connor. 

“Dad!” Connor cried out again, erratically pulling Hank’s leg now “Hank! Please” 

Connor. 

Connor? 

Connor... Hurt? 

Henry’s body hit the ground with a sickening thud, the man gasping for air. 

Hank shook his head; his pants were wet with Connor’s panic, fists gripping the fabric so hard it might tear. 

Sounds of gasping and muffled sobbing filled the space as it reeked of gun powder. 

“Connor?” Hank’s hand found short brown hair, crouching down and pulling him close to him in a hug. 

Connor will not be hurt. 

Hank reached out to get ahold of the gun, which was nearby on the destroyed wooden floor, putting it in the back of his pockets before hugging Connor tighter, rocking his body back and forth trying to calm him, all while looking at the man still struggling to get up. 

If the police found out about this, he’d be deactivated and that meant he wouldn’t be able to protect Connor anymore. 

Get out of the house. 

Suddenly he got up, staring at the body still gasping for air, acting like a fish out of water. Hank held his hand out towards Connor, feeling a much smaller hand holding his hand. 

Hank didn’t think a second before grabbing Connors hand, quickly running to the staircase. Once at the front door, he let go of Connors hand, while trying to unlock the door. Steps coming upstairs starting to be heard, getting quicker. 

“Get back here!” He heard Henry yell, the man now running downstairs, holding something in one of his hands. 

Hank tried to hurry up, just as he got the door open and took a hold of Connor’s hand again, the rain pouring from outside. 

“Look out hank!” Connor screamed beside him, before he could even turn around A hand on his shoulder pulled him back and a heavy book smashed into his shoulder, snapping his head to the source, Henry immediately charged at him, pushing him to one of the decorative tables which held a lamp and a framed photo, the photo fell and shattered at the force of the floor, A fist came flying at his face.  

He felt thirium start to drip down from his nose, looking back to Henry, Connor shrieked as Henry took ahold of Hank again 

“You’re not getting away that easy.” Henry mumbled, one hand finding Hank’s neck as synthetic skin disappeared again, and even if he couldn’t breathe, the hands around his neck made thirium flow slower to his pump and regulator; his stress levels starting to rapidly increase. 

Stress levels 89%. 

He couldn’t reach for his gun as he tried to push the man off, he was certainly stronger than the man, but he couldn’t, he closed his eyes as his stress levels kept rising. 

Stress level at 95%. 

“Leave him alone!” A scared voice called out but still strong with determination; Opening his eyes, he saw Connor pulling at Henry’s pant leg, begging him to stop.  

Stress level 96% 

His arm helplessly searched for anything to throw at him. 

“Fuck off you little shit-” Henry snapped at Connor before kicking him with his other leg to get him off, kicking him right in the face, Connor tumbled to the floor again with a ‘oomph’ curling up in pain as he could only helplessly watch Hank get destroyed again. 

“Hank no...” He begged, voice defeated and weak. 

Stress levels 97% 

Maybe it was the adrenaline or Connor that kept him going, but His hand found the porcelain lamp still plugged into the outlet and shining, and with little power he swung it at full force onto Henry’s face. 

Stress level 98% 

The lamp caught Henry off guard, hitting one side of his jaw with full force, and Hank pushed him back with new force. The pressure on his throat was gone and his stress levels started going back to normal. 

The lamp shattered onto the floor 

Henry’s hand covered his jaw, shaking with fury as he tried to run at Hank again, but was met with a violent push again. Hank quickly took Connor’s hand running to one of the exits to the backyard. They sprinted to the kitchen where one of the doors to the garden, Connor, was trying to keep up as best as he could. 

The man too ahold of Connor’s arm and him away from Hank with the latter making a high-pitched squeak alerting Hank. 

Hank took ahold of Connor’s shoulder with panic, pulling him anyway from Henry one last time before giving him a hard push toward the kitchen island. 

The man slipped on his footing falling halfway and hitting the back of his head on the marbled stone and then falling to the tiled flooring, taking one of the higher chairs with him, causing a loud ruckus. 

... 

Silence filled the room. Hank’s body stilled and shook looking at the man on the floor, crimson blood starting to pool under him, a stark contrast to the white tiles on the floor. 

The scene reminded him of something... A memory still buried within him, just waiting to be uncovered. 

He didn’t know if the man was dead or not and if he was honest, he hoped it was the first one. He knew soon enough someone would check in on the house with the earlier ruckus and that the sooner they left; the better the chances were of not getting caught. 

He grabbed Connor’s hand and quickly got to the front door, Connor hesitating, still in shock and quiet as Hank opened the door once again. The rain poured as thunder boomed through. Turning around, Connor was walking back to the unmoving body. 

A raspy and hushed voice, croaking for help. 

“Con...” Henry whispered, breathing heavily, Connor walked closer, staring at the man as if he was a complete stranger, eyes widened with fear.  

“Connor, we have to go.” Hank hurriedly said and tried putting a hand on Connors shoulder, but Connor flinched at the touch, walking closer to the man. 

“Connor- Con!” Henry tried to yell, but it came out as he hushed. 

“Daddy made a mistake...” Henry whispered red crimson blood pooling onto the tiles of the floor, trying to reach out for Connor who backed away at his attempt to hold him. 

“Y’know I’d never hurt you, right? It was all a mistake...” Connor looked at him sadden, a slight hopeful look of familiarity at his dad, even walking closer, still cautious as if this had been done before. 

“You just-” Henry coughed “You just look so much like her.”  Henry tried to have a warm and inviting face, but it just looked more unnerving than Connor flinched at the statement, but walked closer but at the last second stopping himself and looking at the shattered wine glass in the dining room, the red liquid still dripping from the table cloth onto the table; the glimmer of hope inside of him for his dad dissapering. 

“Please- Please call for help...”  

Connor took a shaky breath, knowing that it could never be the same again; turning around and walking to Hank, ignoring Henry’s screams, swearing at and then switching back to pleading for help, with hollow promises of love and it ‘going back to normal’. 

“You won’t even help the man that gave you life!? You fucking traitor!” Lifting himself up with the help of his arms. 

Hank Put a hand on Connor’s shoulder, pulling him, trying to step away from the scene, but the child's feet dug at the floor, refusing to go away, shaking and breath hitching. 

“You little bitch.” Henry hissed, losing more strength with each breath. Hank stared at the man who turned his head towards him. 

“Don’t- Don’t you fucking take him! You fucking-...”  trying to get up but failing with a pained groaned, Hank finally got Connor to move with him, running towards the door he heard one last angry hoarse shout. 

“Don’t take him...”  

Pulling Connor towards him, holding him on his shoulders, he pulled him to the doorway, staring at the hallway one last time, before running out the door. 

Outside by the nearby bus stop was a bus driving, braking at the stop. 

Hank tightened his grip on Connors hand and rushed over to the bus, quickly ushering Connor onto the bus before stepping in himself. 

The bus was empty, and they went to sit by a row of seats near the back; Finally, being able to breathe, as the bus closed its doors and drove away. 

Hank looked at his now slightly bloodied clothing and then at Connor who looked out the window, forehead pressed against the window with no discernable emotion. Hank was shocked, looking at his reflection through the window. 

The once clear view from the mirror now was reflective and hard to see; his clean and proper demeanor was gone, neat hair now loose and tangled with dried thirium and blood caked on, his own nose bleeding and skin still deskinned. 

And what was left was a lost and unstable deviant. 

A broken man, lost in a dark and cold forest, each path leading him back to where he started, the lantern he held dead and cold. 

Suddenly he felt a small hand on his knuckles, tilting his head down, he saw Connor looking at him with his big doe poodle eyes, Looking at him silently, almost like he knew what Hank was thinking, Hank felt himself almost wanting to breakdown at that moment, but instead carefully turned his other hand around to hold Connors hand in his own, while laying his other arm across Connor’s shoulder. 

He felt Connor lean his head on his shoulder; he pulled him closer as Connor closed his eyes 

Hank didn’t know what to do for the first time in his life. There wasn’t a task to guide him; doubts and panic started to set in, wrapping around himself like an anaconda preparing to eat its prey whole, the fear strangling him. 

They were on their own now and he didn’t know whether it was a gift or a curse, Hank was still lost in a forest inside his mind; unable to find a way out and he didn’t want to keep going anymore. 

He felt Connor stir a little bit, freezing from the cold air of from the AC of the bus, Hank just pulled him closer, attempting to keep him warm, but he knew it wasn’t no use. His model was never going to be able to care for living beings, and he knew he’d just hurt Connor if he tried to care for him. 

But inside his head, he was still lost in the massive and dark forest. He felt a sudden and small warmness in the hand he held the dead lantern. The once dead lantern started to glow a bit, lighting up the forest a small bit and maybe that’s what kept him from giving up as he tried to find an exit again. 

The bus stopped again, the same voice announcing the stop which nobody stepped in on before shutting its doors and driving away. 

And as the bus kept driving, he closed his eyes, wishing they could stay here forever.