✔️Deviating For Him (RK1700)

1^ Trapdoor

I follow Gavin onto the crime scene. Hank and Connor are with us. It's a joint investigation, so it makes sense. I sigh inwardly and glance over at Connor. He is less than a foot shorter than me, and a little less advanced, but we are essentially the exact same. It's sort of annoying to have to work with him. He talks too much. He's stubborn, and never gives up on his hunches. I roll my eyes. I feel like this is going to be a long day. I look away before he notices me.
"Doesn't look like anyone even lives here. I mean, who leaves their door unlocked? You sure this is the right place?" Gavin asks Hank.
"As sure as ever. This is where the abduction was reported to have happened. Keep your eyes open, Reed."
Gavin sighs, but stays quiet. I look around the house, then move over to the room next to me. Connor follows me, but he walks over to an adjacent room.
The abduction victim is a 10-year-old girl. A human, not an Android. However, it's reported that an Android has taken her and brought her here. Thus, bringing us here. I look around for any signs of a child.
I kneel down next to some scattered papers. Each page is full of messy, obsessive writing. The more I stare, the more words I can make out. "Clarity... the last ones we see are real, Imperative, lonely... do not speak, do not look, do not hear, do not feel..." I blink a few times. "What is this...?" I whisper. Could the child have made these? Or, was it someone else?
"N-Nines...?" Connor whimpers from the other room.
I stand and walk over to see him half wedged into a trapdoor. "Wh-What are you doing?"
"I need help." He smiles, blushing.
"What are you doing, Connor?" I question again, kneeling down to grab his hand. I pull him out of the hole without much effort. This is what annoys me about him. He always gets himself in trouble.
"I-I found a trapdoor! There might be something down there! Please, come with me, Nines. I need someone to come with me," he insists. "Hank told me to never explore dark places by myself."
I look behind me, feeling suddenly creeped out by the emptiness and silence of the house. "Well... ok, fine. Just stay close. Lieutenant Anderson will be pissed if I let anything happen to you," I reply, annoyed. I'll be pissed if anything happens to you. I purse my lips, not sure why I even thought that. That made no sense. I can't care less about Connor. I can't care at all, actually. I'm not programmed to care. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.
He smiles. "Thank you, Nines." He kneels down and pries open the door. "I was just about to jump down, but it seems like too long of a fall," he explains. "I should've taken the ladder." I watch him slowly descend into the darkness, and I use my eyes as a flashlight, illuminating the way for him. He smiles up at me.
Once he's at the bottom, I follow him, descending the ladder. "What the hell..." I breathe, looking around. There are four ways we can go. Each way is the same dark, dreary corridor. "Is this... a maze?" I ask nobody in particular.
"These look like hidden tunnels. Maybe, a secret meeting spot. They could be hiding down here. Maybe, that's why the house is so empty," Connor observes. I nod. "Well, we should check it out." He starts walking in a random direction.
I grab his arm, forcing him to stop. "No, Connor. We should go tell Lieutenant Anderson and Detective Reed what we found. We should ask them what they want to do."
"They're not our masters anymore, Nines! Androids are free! We don't have to do everything they say!" he retorts.
"I know that, you idiot!" I snap, tightening my grip. "They're still our superiors! Their positions are higher than ours! We have to report to them! Stop being so immature, Connor! You're not a little cinnamon roll who can do whatever he wants!"
He flinches away from me. "Well... let's look around a bit, Nines. I mean... we can report more to them if we explore, right? What if we find something?" He pouts stubbornly, not letting go of the tunnels.
I close my eyes and sigh deeply, letting him go. "You're so fucking stubborn," I growl. "Fine. We can explore, but hold on so I can make sure we don't get lost." I reach into my back pocket, take out a pocket knife, flip open the blade, and pull up my sleeve. I take another breath to steady myself, then I drag the blade down my arm, causing it to bleed a little. All I feel is the cold steel of the blade. When I'm done, I put the knife away. "We're leaving a trail of blood. That means that you have to stay close, got it?"
Connor nods, staring at my arm. "You'll be losing a lot of blood," he comments.
I glare at him. "I would have used literally anything else if I had it. There's no other way. I won't lose that much blood, and I don't even feel pain. We won't even be down here for long. Don't start worrying now, Connor. I'll be fine. Let's go." I start walking down one of the paths. I press my hand against the wall where the ladder is, then I let it drag along as I walk. I get the chills the deeper we go. "This is... creepy."
"I've never agreed with you more," he replies from behind me.
I look back at him. "You lead the way."
"Are you scared?" he teases, but he speeds up to stand in front of me.
"No. I want you in front of me so if anyone comes up behind us, they can't snatch you away," I retort dryly.
"What makes you think they can't snatch you away?" He pouts indignantly.
I roll my eyes. "I'm heavier than you, Connor. I'm pretty much superior to you in almost every way. I have no doubt that I have a better chance of surviving if I get snatched."
"Oh... well, at least you care."
"Yeah, I care about not getting blamed for your death because you were stupid and wanted to wander around down here without letting anyone else know," I mutter, shaking my arm to get more blood to drip from it. The wound is already starting to close up as my body instantly reacts to it. I care about not losing you to whatever lurks down here. I glare at nothing, growing angry at my own thoughts. Shut up. I don't even care about anything.
Connor sighs, and we walk in silence. After a while, he breaks it. "Is your arm doing ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Hey, so... if your Thirium levels drop to 50% or below, tell me. I'll cut my arm, and we can switch roles."
I stare at him for a moment before sighing. "Fine. I'm at 98%, so it'll be a while."
"Alright, cool! That totally work-"
Connor is cut off by a blood-curdling screech. He scrambles over to me and grabs my arm, squeezing it with one hand as he pulls his gun out with the other. I cover his mouth with my bloody hand. We stand there in silence for a few nervous minutes before I remove my hand.
"We should turn back," I whisper. "That didn't sound very welcoming. We should get backup."
He shakes his head. "No, we can handle it. I'm sure!" he whispers back.
I grip his arm forcefully. "No, Connor. We're leaving. I'm not letting you trick me into-"
Someone leaps out from the darkness, tackling Connor to the ground. He screams as the person plunges a knife down into his arm, right below his shoulder blade. I rush to action, taking out my gun and kicking him off of Connor. "Who are you?!" I shout, standing in front of Connor. The person says nothing. Instead, they scramble up and leap at me. I push them back and pull the trigger, burying a bullet in their skull. Blood sprays across my face, and it's nauseatingly warm. But, they don't move anymore.
I twist around and kneel down, tending to Connor. "Are you alright, Connor?!" I tilt my head. "You're bleeding. C'mon, we're going back. You need medical attention." I put his arm around my shoulder and help him stand.
"Ugh... it hurts, Nines..." he groans.
"Shush, Connor. It's going to be ok, I promise. We're going to get you to Lieutenant Anderson. He'll fix you up," I reassure him, keeping calm.
"Wh-Why can't you fix me?" he whispers quietly.
"I don't have anything to help you! I-I can't!" I explain, slowly beginning to panic. "Look, there's the ladder. It's going to be ok." My LED flashes red. My heart rate speeds away at an unhealthy rate, and I begin to shake a little.
"You-You should calm down, Nines. You're panicking."
"Sh-Shut the fuck up, Connor." I growl. I'm calm. I'm perfectly calm. I'm just angry. "Can you climb?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Well? Go on." I help him onto the ladder, then push his butt as he climbs. "Just keep going, Connor. I got you if you fall." Every second seems to drag on forever. After a bit, I lose my patience. "Goddammit, Connor! Could you be any slower?!" I snap.
Finally, he reaches the top and flops, rolling away from the door. Something grabs my ankle and pulls, catching me off guard and making me panic. Connor grabs my hand. "H-Hold on!" I take out my gun and aim it, but I can't see what I'm aiming at. Ultimately, I resort to kicking it away. Eventually, whatever it is that has me lets me go. I scramble over and slam the door shut.
"Shit! Shit, shit, shit!" I curse, crawling away from it.
"What the - Nines?! Connor?! What the hell happened?!" Hank stands with his hands on his hips.
I twist around, slowly calming down. "It's Connor, Lieutenant! He needs medical attention! He's been stabbed!" I push myself up, forcing myself to stand.
"Let's get the fuck out of here," Gavin grumbles to Hank. "Let's get them fixed up, then decide what to do next."
Hank nods. "Yeah. Let's go." He helps Connor up and walks him out of the house. I follow them with wide eyes, glancing back at the trapdoor.
Gavin opens his trunk when we reach the car. "Sit here," he commands, patting the car. I obey him and sit down. Hank helps Connor sit next to me. "Jesus Christ, Nines," Gavin mutters, carefully examining the arm I had cut. "What the hell did you do?"
"What the hell even happened?" Hank cuts in, pulling off Connor's shirt to tend to his stab wound. I feel a flash of jealousy, and another Software Instability pops up. I make sure to look away from him.
"I found a trapdoor, Lieutenant. I wanted to explore, so I asked Nines to come with me. At first, he wanted to tell you guys about it instead of just going in head-first, but I insisted we should just go. It was my fault. Nines cut his arm so he could leave a trail of Thirium to lead us back if we got lost. That's why he's hurt. Someone attacked us down there. They stabbed me-"
"Then, I shot them. I killed them, Detective. I murdered someone. And, then I helped Connor to the ladder, and someone grabbed me when I was climbing. I think I killed them, too. I-I'm a murderer. I'm a killer," I finish, threading my hands together. Software Instability warnings pop up, and I push them away. I've been getting them a lot.
Gavin finishes dressing my wound. "Relax, Nines. You were defending yourself. That doesn't make you a killer."
"I've never killed before!"
"You were gonna have to kill sooner or later, Nines! It comes with the job!"
I nod. "I apologize, Detective. I wasn't ready to have to do that."
"It's fine. No one is ever really ready to kill."
Connor hugs me. "It's ok, Nines! We're both alive! We made it out. That's good." I freeze. Feeling his arms around me is comforting, but I'm too surprised to hug him back. My mind draws a blank, and my software destabilizes a little more.
"Let's get back to the station and rethink this."