Chapter Text
The detective android ran up the stairs toward the roof, his cooling system overheating and making an eerie buzzing sound.
He lay on the dusty rooftop floor. Surrounding buildings, and roofs' iron railings made it difficult to have a full view of the crowded night city, but still, an alternative view remained for the android to observe, The grand sphere above.
[Error: damaged part: 7923j]
He began analyzing the starless gray.
it wasn't at its most vibrant state, of course. Dark sad clouds chasing each other, dissolving into mist, leaving Connor no time to analyze what object they resembled...
[Resembled]
[Mimicked] [Mirrored] [Matched]
Connor's database searched for top words associated with the verb.
Ever since he had lost his coin during a chase, finding alternatives to random words had become his favorite pastime when there weren't any tasks at hand. he was a machine after all, he could not remain idle, all those sensors couldn't go hours without picking up anything...staying stoic and inactive like that was...
[Irritating]
[Abrasive] [Annoying] [Aggravating]
Irritating like the sensation growing inside his chest, a feeling he was fighting by playing with words.
[Error: damaged part: 6847j]
[Error: damaged part: 8427j]
[Error: 9474v part damaged]
[Error 0002// Failed mission //Analyzing]
[Error: Synthetic skin damaged]
[Pain]
[Pain is an unpleasant sensory experience associated with tissue damage]
Sensation that warned humans about an accrued physical fault, a warning to stop further activities and check on the problem, sometimes it would get so unbearable, that they couldn't function while going through it.
Right now, Connor could relate.
[Error 208// Analyzing failed // Internet connection required ]
Today he had been yelled at, shot, and then ran over by a car, all in a span of few hours.
And somehow, he remained functional.
Yet, the desire to function in a state like this was simply non existent.
Damaged chest, a mangled leg and the overwhelming sensation of the never ending wall of error massages filling his vision, they where altogether almost Inviting him to start disassembling himself by hand.
Constructing that outcome in his mind was weirdly calming him down.
First the source of the most occurring errors-legs could be a good start. Or parts of the heat-regulation, connecting to his thirium pump, a smooth plastic piece functioned as a cold metallic heart.
There might have been a chance that detaching them from his body, would stop this constant spam of error signals ... giving him the peace he needed so much.
Urge similar to self destruction that Deviants tended to in highly stressful situations...
"But that's where the similarities end"
Connor assured himself, his statement drowned in spams of errors, making it harder to think.
"Eagerness to disassemble myself into parts is not an emotional reaction caused by high stress levels"
Connor assured himself.
"It is a rational course of action as a result of being inefficient in solving recent cases assigned to me, plus, a reasonable way to end the spam of error I'm receiving"
Connor crossed his arms on his chest, trying to feel the slight vibration of the broken regulator.
Sound of footsteps snapped him out of his thought loop and gave the machine something new to analyze.
Whose footsteps where they?
Heavy set, slow, without any real rhythm. it wasn't hard to deduce, he knew the person.
Connor turned his head towards the now opened rooftop doors.
It was possible to engage in conversation without staring people right in the eyes of course, but people liked being watched, and he was too polite not to tend to most basic formalities.
"Lieutenant Anderson."
Connor nodded slightly to acknowledge the man's presence while watching that familiar face morph from worry to annoyance:
"For fucks sake, Connor? What are you doing on the ground!"
Lieutenant crouched down slightly to reach and help the Android stand.
Today he had witnessed Connor getting shot by the officers and immediately after, ran over by a car. If "It" was a human, well, the poor thing would've died two different deaths tonight.
But not this guy! No! He sat on the passenger seat of Hank's car and stared into a distance with a stoic: "It left, I'll do better next time."
Connor didn't resist the lift, he placed most of his weight on an arm and the functioning leg. for additional support, he held Hank's arm firmly.
"What are you even doing up here? I've got distracted for less than a minute and you were already gone!"
Connor tightened the remainings of the ripped tie around his neck, his voice monotone and mater of fact, like reading a description:
"Damage to my cooling system was far more severe than i expected."
After hank's grunt and a slight push to shift Connor's weight for a better balance, the Androids explained:
"At first I've encountered no difficulties at DPD, but the condition turned alarming and i had to leave before possibly catching on fire"
"Jesus."
Connor cut hank off:
"But I assure you, there is nothing that can't be fixed. No need to worry, I am fine."
Hank let out a heavy groan: "Ugh whatever."
Throughout the whole car ride to DPD, Connor had assured hank that he's fine, more than 15 times. And clearly, none of those 15 times he've said the truth.
The man held Connor's waist and directed him towards rooftop doors. The android was still leaking black and blue liquids all over the floor.
The trauma caused was visible through his open shirt, Connor's plastic shell was shattered and peeled off, revealing his internal components and wires, he had a pretty bad scar from neck to chin. And the legs...they looked like crushed soda cans.
they were the most horrific mutilation he've ever seen in an android, and surprisingly, Hank have seen a lot of them!
Hank was surprised at how fast could Connor runoff in a state like that once it reported the details to Fowler.
He searched for that damn robot everywhere, the waiting room, the back yard, even restrooms! (just in case), but when he noticed a blue trail of oil drops on the upper staps of the white stairs, he knew where to find him.
Judging by what Connor had said, now it made sense why he rushed there, he needed to stop the overheating, what better way to do that when you have a cold winter just few steps above you!
Hank left Connor to lean against the wall.
He squinted his eyes, staring at Connors exposed components, trying to figure out what to do.
Unfortunately, Anderson wasn't really a Kamski level genius.
He knew nothing about how Androids work.
"Alright, listen here, im gonna call CyberLife for help, they'll patch you up a-"
"No."
Android's tone hit like a hammer, it had taken him aback a little.
: "Calling the company for support wouldn't be efficient. The time required for them to drive here and get me diagnosed, to then wait for workers to rebuild me would take for ever, specifically when we have investigations to attend to."
Connor covered his exposed chest so that hank would stop looking at his noisy beating thirium pump:
"It would be best for us to schedule the repair right after the resolving of deviant crisis."
Hank looked at Connor with an irritation only older people possessed:
"Yeah yeah, and you're planning to investigate like this? For God's sake, you can't even stand up straight!"
Connor looked at Hank, The man had no idea that would happen if he would've sent him back to the tower.
They would have taken him apart, search for what made him fail this soon, reminding him of every single one of his mistakes and miscalculations.
Connor didn't wished to be degraded like that, not while he hadn't finished his mission of linking deviant cases properly.
It wasn't the risk he'd take just to get his parts renewed by the company.
But surely Connor wasn't going to share the real reason of his resistance with Lieutenant either.
:"That, I can fix, all I need is a permission to use the maintenance room. I can repair my cooling system by myself..."
"Maintenance room" Hank thought to himself, They didn't really used it often, only to store police androids when the DPD needed to access their memories. Hank was sure there would be some robotic stuff Connor could use.
: "OK, that does sound better, but how are we gonna get you down there without you shutting down?"
Connor took a minute to think: "As long as avoid extreme physical activity and stay away from closed and high temperature spaces there wouldn't be any problems occurring."
: "So, you're sayin' if I keep the windows open that'll help?"
Connor smiled gently: "Yes, that'll help."
Hank did not waste more time, he hurried down the stairs:
"Give me a minute."
But soon remembered that Connor might take that too literally, so he turned back and corrected himself awkwardly: "Five minutes! Five!"
Connor noded in acknowledgement and moved his hand from the hole in his chest.
Hank didn't close the roof entrance behind him.
Tina was the first to notice that, as she looked at Lieutenant Anderson rushing down the hall, she shivered: "Lieutenant Anderson, the door...?"
Hank waves his hand to dismiss her: "Just let it be like that for 10 minutes Miss Chen, I'll close it eventually Ok?"
He opened all the windows leading up to the maintenance room, even the small clerestory window in the dark storage space.
Immediately after, he went back towards the roof, and while bringing the injured android down, tried his best to ignore the glares that displeased and nearly frozen coworkers were giving him because of the awful cold winds.
Blue line of blood following every step they took.
The moment Connor saw a shiny metal table in the middle of the room, he gently let go of Hank and pulled himself to sit on it.
Hank grabbed the tool box from the shelf and smacked it on the metal table with a loud clang:
"I don't know jackshit about robotics, so just tell me what to do and I'll do my best."
Connor opened the toolbox and kept searching among the screw drivers with enthusiasm: "I've lost some blue blood and cooling liquid."
Connor looked around the room and pointed at the white box with CyberLife log on it: "That's probably where they're stored, can you hand them over?"
Hank moved towards the box, and after trying to figure out how to actually open that puzzle, passed a translucent bag with blue liquid sealed inside, to the Android and continued his search for that other thing It asked him.
Finding blue blood was easier... the name and appearance matched, but for the second one, he had no idea what to look for.
Hank pulled out a small box with a holographic sharp logo on it:"Here's written that it's a... um... liquid cooling loops, will that do?"
Connor held the box and looked at it: "That actually would be better than just pouring the liquid into the tubes!"
Connor took off his jacket and with one gentle press of a hand, fully opened his already gapped chest plates.
He was focused rearranging his guts, and that freaked Hank out.
He watched as Connor's steady hands unscrewed his old cooling box, it popped out and fell on the ground with a black liquid actively pouring out of it.
Connor's LED spun from yellow to crimson.
The man was waiting for a signal, should he have called someone who at least knew what's going on right now?!
Sensing Hank's unease, android's tone turned happy-go-lucky as it tried to activate its new cooling system:" Lieutenant? May I have some time alone?
I believe the rooftop door should get closed by now?"
The joyful tone of voice surprised Hank: "Just tell me if you need anything alright?."
Connor lowered his head: "Thank you lieutenant, I appreciate it."
As hank left, Connor moved aside even more of those locked plates on his body for easier access replacing all the leaking tubes with a new cooling unit.
[ Temperature decrease ]
After he finished, a good chunk of those aggravating errors in his interface had been resolved.
Connor stood up on one leg to close the tiny window above, he dropped to his knees infront of the CyberLife equipment box and tried to see what else he could borrow, He should've worked things out with stuff he already had.
There was a sheet of white body plates, the quality wasn't the best, not flexible enough and only 5 sheets, so he decided to only use them on a leg with the worst injuries, he rolled up the fabric on his right leg, detached the crushed plates and switched them one by one till it looked more and more like a leg.
Great. He was presentable again. Not in perfect condition, but easy to look at.
Now that the danger had been resolved, he could send reports to Amanda-his digital supervisor and a proxy with Cyberlife.
Connor hesitated, maybe... it would be better not to include the injuries and errors in his report, and wait for her to initiate the meeting altogether...
Connor locked the glowing white treasure box and stood up.
Taking off his sullied clothes and changed into the secondary uniform sent by CyberLife.
To his surprise, there wasn't any secondary tie options...
So Connor held his ripped and soaked in blue, tie in his fists.
After the coin went missing, it was the second accessory he lost.
It took Connor some time to regain his composure and steady his nerves, he threw the useless parts left on the ground and the tie into the tall bin next to the door and with hands clasped behind his back, left the room.
Confident and composed, with a slightly messy hair.
When hank saw Connor in this state, he let out a deep sigh of relief from the realization that it all went well.
:"How are you feeling?"
Connor got taken aback by that question,
He took a slight step with his left leg to demonstrate it to Hank:
"Yes, but this leg still makes it difficult to balance..."
And as both men stared at his plastic leg, Connor's eyes slid towards his ruined tie in the bin, his tone slightly disappointed: "I haven't found any spare ties as well, I'm confident they where personalized accessories without a essential value. That would make sense as of why they weren't including extra in my package.
What a shame."
A forced smile forming on his face:
"I really like that one."
...Like this one?...
Hank thought to himself. You usually don't hear it like that from an android, Connor liked dogs, and enjoyed listening to music, he yearned for a case to be closed, and for a new one to get presented, but getting attached to something as a meaningless piece of fabric?
That was new.
:"Well, can you walk it off?"
What an absurd question. Whether hank meant it emotionally or physically, the answer was yes. It was always yes.
:"Yes, it wouldn't decrease my efficiency."
Connor wanted that to be true, but in reality, he felt the complete opposite, Connor stood straight: "Thank you lieutenant, you've saved me."
Hank patted Connor gently on the back: "Then i guess we're even."
Connor smiled unintentionally, that was really interesting how catastrophes brought people closer:
"It's getting late, It would be best for you to head home."
Hank didn't disagree, unlike somone here, he wasn't a machine and resting was something mandatory: "Allright... see you tomorrow, and DON'T get yourself demolished by then."
"It's too short of a period to do so lieutenant..."
Hank huffed a smile, and the door slammed behind him.