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Chapter 1: Aftermath

~ I did not write this story. I am just reposting it ~

Connor sucks in an unnecessary breath through his teeth and without giving himself a chance to hesitate, rips the tubing out of his leg. What should be a wound that spews thirium like a tap, instead just spits the blue liquid pathetically at him, and the sight makes Connor wince as he pulls the rest of the tube out and throws it somewhere across the room. It clatters, probably knocking something off a shelf along the way, but Connor finds that he cares very little for whatever it was. Instead, he dedicates more of his processing power to reconnecting the now-broken tube to the next un-broken one in order to stop the free flow of thirium. It's uncomfortable, and Connor can barely see due to the amount of errors covering his vision, but he manages.

He replaces the hatch and watches as his synthetic skin stretches over the white plating. Far slower than it should, but Connor is honestly just thankful that he's now no longer leaking thirium into his internal structure. He finally relaxes, slumping against the wall behind him and closing his eyes.

Connor is dying.

Androids are illegal now, if he's caught, he'll be destroyed for sure, and while Connor had somehow been able to stay alive for eight months after the android revolution, his systems are beginning to shut down due to lack of general repair. While his battery would be good for another two hundred years or so, and most of his processes were, in general, quite good, the lack of thirium and cooling fluid was now causing him to burn from the inside out. He can feel it a little more every day, his systems just unable to keep running on full power all the time, he feels consistently warm, lethargic, and there's also a persistent error message that flickers in the corner of his vision no matter how many times he closes it. He can't buy thirium, it's not made anymore, never mind sold, and he has to lay low; while Canada was a pretty good place for hiding in, the USA in general still hasn't gotten over the Android Epidemic, as it's now being called. Every day, tens of androids in-hiding are caught and destroyed; there is no mercy anymore, and Connor knows there never will be.

That's why he waits. He waits, in his run-down, shitty, small apartment that has one-too-many stains and only half a carpet, for the day where he will shut down. He knows it's inevitable, he knows, but a large, stubborn part of him makes him wait instead of just ending it himself. That's all he's been doing, ever since he left Detroit, waiting for something to happen, but it never does. Instead he spends his days lying around his apartment and hacking banks for money to pay rent, it's a miserable existence, and Connor often wonders why he didn't just return to CyberLife.

He's a coward. That's why.

It'd been a machine, cold, unstoppable. It'd killed so many deviants, and even humans in the pursuit of accomplishing its mission, its purpose. It'd been so close, so close to pulling that trigger on the rooftop before the lieutenant stopped it. Connor had never minded the lieutenant. Sure, he was a nightmare to work with, and also shot him in the head that one time... But his hatred of all things android had come in helpful when he was willing to turn a blind eye to Connor's treatment of deviants. That was, until those two sex-robots at the club. When they both died, something in the lieutenant changed, and Connor caught the man giving it disapproving glances whenever it reported something about the deviants from then on. Then, as a final punch in the gut, the cop found him on the roof, about to assassinate North and finally end the rebellion, and stopped it.

The fight could have been easy, should have been easy. But when Connor was just about ready to throw the meddling lieutenant's body off of the roof, it paused. Something in its systems refused to cooperate.

It didn't want to kill the lieutenant

But it must. It must finish it's mission.

Something breaks apart inside of it, and in the Zen Garden Connor stumbles its way to the blue rock, the backdoor, and slams a hand down on it. It's then back, and by the time Connor realised that it'd very suddenly, and without warning, become deviant, the human had already thrown it away and moved away from the ledge.

New, strange experiences, emotions? Had flooded it, and it was barely able to concentrate, never mind block the fist that came straight for its face. A slam, an uncomfortable sensation it wasn't used to, and the pistol Connor had managed to kick away beforehand was then in its face. The lieutenant's finger had begun to squeeze the trigger, and Connor squeezed its eyes shut, ready to accept the bullet. If it died, then maybe these errors, these feelings would go away, and it could go back to how it was before.

Of course, the shot never came. Turns out the lieutenant had sensed something had changed, and lowered the gun just enough for Connor to rip it out of his grasp and what was he doing what was he doing what was he doing what was he doing smash it against the side of the older human's head. The lieutenant went down with a crash, and Connor just sat there, unmoving.

"I have to get out of here."

And he did.

Now, eight months later, he sits alone in his apartment in Manitoba, Canada, heat growing inside of him with every second that passes, ready for the day where it will snap and become a flame that eventually consumes him. The thought would make Connor cry, but his water tank had gone dry an hour ago and he can't find it within himself to refill it, he'd much rather just sit here and relax, let his leg finish calibrating the new thirium passageway. The missing tube will cause a problem, and he'll have to walk with a pronounced limp from now on due to the lessened flexibility, but it should be fine, and definitely no longer spill thirium, which was the important thing.

He debates whether or not to spend a couple of hours sleeping in order to pass the time for the calibration, but ultimately decides against it. While androids usually couldn't sleep, at all, Connor had downloaded a small upgrade that allowed him to enter a low-power mode that did very closely resemble human sleep, except he did not dream, and he did not breathe, so it wasn't a perfect comparison. The low-power mode could give his systems a rest, and delay the overheating for a little while, but it couldn't stop it, and Connor knew this very well. Still, it was nice to just not feel pain for a little while at least. Pain for him of course being the uncomfortable heating of his body. Not quite the level a human would class as "pain," but Connor had realised long ago that the pain tolerance between a human, an android, and a deviant differed by a considerable amount.

Another thing Connor liked to do to give himself a break, was to visit the Zen Garden occasionally. While it still wasn't a place he was exactly comfortable with, the light crunching of the snow under his feet and the false blue sky and sun were nice to appreciate. He also hadn't seen Amanda since he had used the backdoor, and although it was unlikely she would return, Connor always felt a part of him that was on-edge whenever he walked through the barren garden. He should go there, right now, it would be incredibly important, and why is he thinking about the Zen Garden, he should be in the Zen Garden, it's important.

Connor realises all too late that his processor had wandered to the garden, not because that was a natural progression of his thoughts, but rather something pulling him in. He panics, it's Amanda, she's come to take him back, to have him destroyed. If he still had his LED, he's sure it would be spinning an angry red, and he tries to fight the pull.

PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 2%

Connor curses, slamming his head against the wall behind him to try and dislodge the feeling, but all it serves to do is daze him and solidify the percentage at a steady 0%. Connor's eyes close, and when he opens them, he's once again in the familiar setting of the Zen Garden. But it's not Amanda that stands there, it's someone else, someone taller, male, and leaning against the structure that once contained the roses Amanda had been so fond of, now all dead. It takes a second for Connor to recognise who it is, but once he does, he stumbles back in shock and no small amount of fear, his thirium pump beginning to go wild in his chest.

"Hello Connor" Elijah Kamski greets him with a lazy wave.