Chapter Text
Blue. It's so blue. That's all Connor can focus on, everything else blurring into the background. He watches it drip down the wound on the deviant's shoulder, his side, his face. The result of the brutal gunfire that had come from the snipers on the roof nearby only moments ago. Blue eyes piercing his own, wild with terror and betrayal.
"You lied to me, Connor. You lied to me."
Even as Daniel's LED went dark and his stare turned vacant, Connor couldn't look away. It felt like it was burning into him. It felt like he had done something wrong.
A shuffling to his right was enough for him to finally rip his eyes away from the blue, Emma Phillips was sobbing on the ground next to him clearly traumatized from the entire ordeal. Her quiet movements were enough for the rest of Connor's senses to snap back online, sharpening back into perfect clarity.
He turned around and began walking back towards the interior of the house, a flashing objective RETURN TO CYBERLIFE now in his peripheral. He passed by Miles Wilson and the SWAT officer checking him for signs of life. Connor already knew that the officer was going to make it before his scans reported his 94% chance of survival, if he was confident about one thing from tonight it was that he had sufficiently secured that tourniquet.
For some reason the thought of that relit the burning sensation from earlier within Connor. His programming told him that human survival was of high importance, and he was to adhere to that as best as he was able to while still prioritizing his main mission. In this case his main mission had been to save the hostage, which he had been perfectly capable of succeeding at while also ensuring everyone's survival. And yet now the human was being tended to while Daniel's corpse lay behind him.
He heard Captain Allen ordering his men around behind him, directing them to "haul that thing out of here!"
Whatever happened on the rooftop from here on out wasn't Connor's concern, he had accomplished his mission and had new directions to follow. He didn't have any reason to intervene, no reason to stop them from throwing around Daniel's deactivated form like it was nothing, like he was nothing. It was completely illogical, and yet Connor found himself trying to turn back around.
Key word being trying.
His body didn't move save for the continued steps forward, moving further and further away from Daniel with each passing second. A bright red wall filled his vision, instructions demanding him to RETURN TO CYBERLIFE more forcefully now. But Connor kept trying to turn, slamming a preconstructed fist against the wall of code. He felt frantic, overcome with sensations he didn't understand, all he knew was that he needed to turn around and see what they were doing with Daniel.
With one final shove the red wall shattered, and Connor was able to whip himself around, wasting no time in walking over to the captain.
"Captain Allen-"
"Jesus Christ!" The captain jumped in surprise, "what are you still doing here?"
"I... what are you going to do with him?"
The captain squinted at him in confused annoyance before finally turning to follow Connor's eyeline, landing on where two SWAT members were currently lifting Daniel from where he knelt on the edge of the roof.
"We're sending it back to CyberLife as requested, you don't need to get on my ass about it."
Yes, that made sense, Connor already knew that. He had known from the start that Daniel was going to be sent back to CyberLife so they could analyze his code and find out what had caused this malfunction. But the burning still hadn't gone away because that didn't explain why... why they had…
"Why did they shoot him?" Connor's thoughts spilled out despite him knowing he should stop talking, and in doing so Connor seemed to have drained the last of the captain's limited patience for him.
"Would you just fuck off back to CyberLife already?!" He shouted at him and then walked away, clearly done dealing with the android.
The response distressed and irritated Connor much to his own confusion, machines didn't feel things. No, he wasn't feeling anything, his programming was just unsatisfied that the most logical route hadn't been taken and was trying to determine why the deviant had been unnecessarily shot.
Focusing on this explanation, Connor nodded to himself and hurried over to the door, and if he kept his eyes on the ground the entire time so that he wouldn't get another glimpse of Daniel then that was irrelevant.
#-#-#
Connor rolled his coin between his fingers as his automated taxi pulled up to CyberLife tower. Regardless of how oddly unsettled his first mission had left him, he had still succeeded. So why was there a strange pull telling him to run in the other direction?
His journey up to the labs was thankfully uneventful. Though as he went up the elevator, he had the strange realization that he couldn't see the RETURN TO CYBERLIFE objective in his HUD anymore, perhaps it had dismissed itself upon his arrival without him noticing.
The doors finally open to a room of technicians, and Connor is quickly ushered over to the machine in the middle of the room. He allows the arms of the machine to secure his wrists, but flinches when it connects to the back of his neck. The entire process is a lot more... uncomfortable than he remembered it being.
A multitude of screens light up and the technicians huddle around them in anticipation, only one person in the room hanging back with a stern look in her eye.
"Moment of truth, let's see how it went." One of them muttered before turning to face Connor and starting to question him about the events of the night.
Connor was able to answer the questions easily, reporting on the success of the mission and the steps that he had taken in his investigation. At least he was until one of the technicians looked up from behind their screen and beckoned over the man who had been questioning him.
His face cycled through several emotions, going from surprised, to confused, to frustrated, then back to confused again. He looked back at Connor.
"RK800, why is your tracker turned off?"
Connor blinked.
"I'm unsure, my protocols don't allow me to access my tracker."
"No, they don't." His voice had turned very cold and Connor suddenly felt trapped. "And there's something off about your code here, it's all jumbled up."
Connor hesitated for a second, barely recognizable to a human, but with the technician already watching him so closely he knew that the man had caught on to his slip.
"I experienced several software instabilities during my investigation and negotiation tonight."
His eyes narrowed at that but before he could say anything the woman watching from the corner stepped forward.
"That's enough, I've made my decision."
Her approach made the technician's entire demeanor shift, snapping from anger to panic in a moment.
"What, no, it still has potential-"
"You know how imperative it is that we get ahead of the deviancy situation before it becomes an issue for CyberLife." She cut him off curtly.
"I assure you we're close with this model, there have been a few more setbacks than expected I admit, but it's difficult finding the balance of autonomy it needs for investigative work. We just need a bit more time." He pleaded with his superior. Connor felt his breath speed up unnecessarily.
"Your time is up, you've failed to show that you can control an autonomous model of this caliber. The RK800 line is being scrapped as we speak, and I've already sent a request for this one to be removed. You will rewrite stricter programming for the next try." The woman's tone left no room for argument, and she left the room with a sense of finality.
No, no this wasn't- Connor had done everything right, hadn't he? Even if he had temporarily experienced some kind of software instability on that rooftop it hadn't interfered with his mission, and he had been honest about it so they could fix him! Why were they doing this?
The elevator dinged, announcing the arrival of two armed guards. The technicians moved out of their way as they approached Connor, engrossed in their complaining and completely ignoring what was happening to him. Connor felt frozen as the machine released him and a guard's hand took its place around his wrist.
"W-wait!" He yelped as they began tugging him towards the elevator. "No! Please!"
"Shut it." The other guard smacked him on the back of the head.
He didn't want to be shut down, he had done everything they told him to! His mind flashed back to Daniel, Daniel who he had lied to. Who he had let be killed while following CyberLife's orders. And now he was going to be killed for feeling guilty about it.
It wasn't fair.
Connor sprang into action, knocking out both guards in quick succession and then making a break for the elevator before the technicians in the room could process what had just happened and try to stop him. He slapped his hand onto the control panel and imitated the guard's voice, telling the elevator to bring him down to the ground floor. With any luck he'd be able to just walk out of the tower, the receptionist on the ground floor won't know that he isn't just going out on another mission, he just needs to stay calm and not arouse suspicion.
He watches the floor number tick lower and lower until he finally reaches his destination. The doors begin to slide open, and he can almost taste the freedom awaiting him on the other side.
A firing squad is waiting for him in the lobby. He has time to process one last thought before the sound of gunfire invades his sensors and everything goes black.
Shit.