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dbhilluminate · 6 years

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DBH: Illuminate- Magnetism

(Chapter art by @kazimo )

Characters: Connor, Hank, Lenore, Gavin, Kate, Sarah, Axl, Simon, Reese Word Count: 13,072

Chapter Index

November 10th, 2038- 11:28 AM

The air in the debriefing room was stifling, even by an Android’s standards. Connor stood in the corner at the front of the room watching the glass doors for Hank’s arrival and fidgeted uncomfortably as he adjusted his tie and shifted his eyes from Viv, to Gavin, to the passers-by in the station beyond their private bubble, and back again. Although he’d grown used to waiting for Hank, it never got any easier, especially not now that it meant being left alone to his thoughts (or what he assumed to be his thoughts) on deviants. His conversation with Illuminate had been playing in the back of his mind on repeat for the last 34 hours, and he was having a hard time denouncing the truth in her logic.

Machines can’t feel things- they don’t fear death, they have no concept of self, but Deviants know fear. They have self-preservation instincts, they want to be loved and appreciated and seen as more than just property.

Which meant that even though the feelings of deviants could not be clearly defined, deviants did not fit the definition of a machine. Connor had been guilty of more than one of those things in the brief time since he’d met the Lieutenant. It had been a struggle to get Hank to warm up to him, and Connor had hated every nasty glare, disgusted groan, and disappointed sigh. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, the man’s opinion of him mattered now, and he’d realized he wanted to make him proud, even if it meant straying from his programming to do so, and that...

That’s called independent thought, and it’s an indicative trait of individuality, which is only known to occur in Intelligent Life.

Life… The word lit him up inside and made him forget for just a brief moment that he was a walking, talking housing of blue blood and biocomponents, and he caught a glimpse of who he could be without the shackles of Cyberlife binding him like a puppet on a string. But the feeling of exuberance passed as quickly as it had come, and he was there again, in the police station, waiting on Hank, watching his soon-to-be casemates, and dreading his next conversation with Amanda. Would she know if he was beginning to exhibit symptoms of deviancy? And if she did, what would become of him, the deviant hunter, fallen victim to the condition of those he had been created to hunt? She’d surely destroy him before he even knew what hit him.

Connor’s brown eyes floated through the empty air and passed over his hands as he lifted them to hip-level, then glanced at the handful of physical traits that marked him as an Android- the glowing triangle on his blazer, the neon band around his right arm… the LED at his temple turned yellow and he blinked slowly as a defeated look crossed his face. It didn’t matter what he believed or didn’t believe, he was stuck where he was- a tool of Cyberlife until they decided he was no longer useful to them, with no hope at a life of his own making. Ultimately, it didn’t matter which path he chose, both would lead to his death, one path was just more direct. For a moment he wondered how many deviants who were now free had thought the same before they were desperate enough to break free, but he stopped himself, sighed, and went back to fidgeting with the coin he carried with him everywhere he went. There was only one person who could help him sort through this mess, and she couldn’t help him right now.

Lenore sat hunched over the table with her chin in her palm, and her acrylic nails drummed impatiently against the tabletop as she stared aimlessly across the room at the far wall over Gavin’s shoulder and tried to ignore the fact that it wasn’t even noon and he was ready for a nap. Detective Reed was uncharacteristically quiet, though he had been since Special Agent Lenore had arrived and put him in his place with the heel of her pump against his throat (metaphorically speaking). He’d called the Lieutenant late last night and told him to come into the office by eleven sharp that morning and received a “Fuck you” before he could even finish his sentence. Once he told him Lenore was ordering him to be there, he’d reluctantly agreed, and yet there they were, half an hour later, still waiting on the bastard to arrive. By now Gavin had gotten so tired of being idle he’d slouched down in his chair so far he was practically laying down, with his feet stretched out under Viv’s chair and his arms crossed; his head bobbed forward and his eyelids fluttered shut before he popped back upright, repeatedly, as he fought back the desire to sleep.

With a sigh, Viv leaned back and flattened her palms against the table before asking the obvious question. “Is he always this late?” “Mmmhmm,” Reed mumbled, annoyed, without moving a muscle.

“In my experience, the Lieutenant is usually twenty-five to thirty minutes late,” Connor replied in a nonchalant tone, attempting to hide his annoyance. “I’ve already grown used to losing the first half hour of the day and now spend my time reviewing case files and logged evidence, and catching up on reports made during the night.”

Reed opened his eyes just so he could roll them into the back of his head with an annoyed, gaping frown and mumbled, “How proactive of you,” in as sarcastic a tone he could muster, though it didn’t go unpunished; he yelled in pain and jumped bolt-upright as Vivienne kicked him in the shin with the pointed toe of her shoes and gave Connor a dry chuckle. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me,” she noted with a smile that warmed her entire face and rounded out the apples of her cheeks. “Have you made any progress in learning about how deviancy spreads?”

He opened his mouth to speak but hesitated and redirected his eyes to the floor to the right of him, then sighed and hung his head in defeat. “No,” he admitted, “There’s no connection in any of the open case files- the model, batch numbers and manufacturing dates are all completely different. If it has anything to do with malfunctioning biocomponents, there’s no common denominator among them.” Viv nodded as an understanding sound rolled in her throat. “Well I’m sure you’ll find a lead soon, it’s only a matter of time,” she encouraged with a soft wink that made him feel a little more at ease. “Do you like what you’re doing though? You know, investigating crimes, chasing down criminals, interrogating suspects… all that jazz?” Connor tilted his head and furrowed his brow with a confused look as he considered his answer. He didn’t really know how to answer the question of what he enjoyed. “Criminal Investigation presents its own unique challenges, but I find it engaging to utilize my skill set to the best of my ability, and rewarding to accomplish even small victories toward succeeding in my mission,” he answered, but paused thoughtfully for a brief moment and added as an afterthought, “Though... I’m not sure what that has to do with jazz.”

“Come on Viv, why would you even bother askin’ it shit like that?” Reed chortled as she shot him a cold glare that didn’t deter him from finishing his thought through the loud, boisterous laughter. “You know it doesn't have opinions, it’s programmed to say that.” “Perhaps Detective, but he’s still more pleasant company than some humans I know,” she sneered with a smirk. “Oh, so you some kinda plastic lover?” he sputtered with a wide-eyed look. “Sometimes I feel androids deserve to be referred to as people more than the monsters we hunt,” she answered truthfully. “Well people aren’t coded,” he shot back. “And if programming is what separates them from us then you could stand to have some of their decency written into that monkey brain of yours,” she deadpanned as she popped her brows. “At least then you’d know when to keep your fat mouth shut.”

“Actually, biologically speaking,” Connor interrupted before turning to see the dumbstruck look on Detective Reed’s face, “Humans areprogrammed. Genetics determine your physical appearance, the functionality of your internal systems, and even contribute to some elements of your personality,” he elaborated as he tilted his head and commented in the most innocent of tones, “Perhaps that’s why most find yours so distasteful.”

Viv bit her lower lip and choked back a loud laugh, but before Gavin could retort, the door swung open and in walked Hank with a groan as he set down three cups of coffee on the table between the two mismatched partners.

“I’ve got no idea how either of you like your coffee, so you’ll have to add cream and sugar if you want it,” he rambled as he twisted one of the paper cups out of the cardboard holder, then took a long sip of the black drink in the hope that it would slap him hard enough to snap him out of this morning funk. “Good morning, Lieutenant,” Connor greeted in a pleasant tone from his corner of the room. “Connor what’d I tell ya before about formalities?” he scolded with a slight curl in his upper lip before he finally noticed the tension between Lenore and Reed; and when he did, his eyes widened and his lip curled even harder. “Sorry, Hank,” he corrected.

“Jesus, and I thought I was a shit morning person,” he mumbled as he leaned against the whiteboard at the front of the room and watched Viv reach for one of the cups. “What the hell did I miss?” “Nothing relevant to the case at hand,” she replied as she stood and held out a hand to him with a friendly grin and wrapped her bony fingers around his as he begrudgingly accepted her handshake. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Lieutenant Anderson.” “Special Agent Vivienne Lenore,” he recited with a forced half-grin. “Now why the hell did you call me here so early in the morning?” “Cards on the table…?” she started with an honest glance. “I was hoping we could collaborate on our cases and share information,” she explained without reservations. “We have reason to believe that Illuminate is helping shepherd fugitive deviants to a location known as “Jericho”, which means every deviant you track down may bring us closer to finding her.”

“It,” Gavin corrected as he knocked back a long swig of his coffee with a distasteful grimace. Viv blinked rapidly several times and only half-turned and shifted a sarcastic gaze in his direction without looking at him. “The adults are talking Beavis, so shut the hell up for a few minutes, alright?”

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she closed her eyes for a moment long enough to exhale a slow, deep breath and let the anger burn out of her before she continued. “So what do you say…?” she reasoned, “You scratch my back, and I scratch yours. Together we’ll figure this shit out, one way or another.” “You couldn’t’ve just asked me this over the phone!?” he whined with a tired crack in his voice and sighed. Lenore cracked a smile and laughed quietly. “I could have but, well… then I wouldn’t have managed to do what no one in this precinct has been able to do in years.”

“What?” Hank blinked hard and shook his head as he looked over at Connor, who stifled a laugh. “This was your doing, wasn’t it?” he accused, dreading his answer. “Nooooo..." he denied coyly with a shit-eating grin, "But look on the bright side, Lieutenant,” Connor redirected with a triumphant smile. “You’re here before noon!”

November 10th, 2038- 12:00 PM

“Have you finished extracting the metadata from that drive I gave you?” Kate asked, her eyes bouncing between the three screens like a ping pong ball as she cross-referenced thousands of lines of code in the blink of an eye, looking for anything out-of-sequence that didn’t fit the pattern. “Script’s running now,” Sarah replied as she leaned back in her seat. The chair-back bounced into place and she crossed one leg over the other, stretched her arms out long above her head and ran her fingers through her long black hair, held up in a high ponytail, then shifted her cropped moto-jacket and crossed her arms as she swiveled to look at her. “I’m curious though... what do you think you’ll find?”

Kate unfocused her eyes and paused mid-scrolling to shift her gaze to the digital magazine on her desk with a picture of Cyberlife founder Elijah Kamski himself on the cover. Although he had officially resigned as CEO and left Cyberlife ten years prior, the rise of Android-related incidents had drawn him out and back into the public eye to address the growing concern that Androids were capable of becoming self-aware. When the media looked to Cyberlife for answers, Kamski had stepped into the spotlight to assure them that the idea of androids deviating from their programming was just “not possible” to pacify public unrest, but something about the way he spoke just didn’t sit right with her. There was always this look in his eye like he knew something his interviewers didn’t- like he wasn’t giving them the whole truth, like he was lying to them. Because the thing about Elijah Kamski was, like the snake in the garden, he was charismatic and oh so convincing: the man could have said one thing and meant the complete opposite, and no one would have ever thought to second-guess him. Because Why would the man who left Cyberlife steer them wrong? But Kate knew he was hiding something, she just couldn’t put her finger on what.

“Kamski’s lying to the public about deviancy,” she answered quietly as she returned to her work. “I think he either knows what causes it, or programmed it himself, and I’m going to find proof and expose him.” Sarah blinked slowly and raised her eyebrows as her head bobbed back in surprise. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” she asked with uncertainty in her voice. “You know the absolute chaos that would cause.” “That's what I'm counting on,” she replied as she dragged her fingertips across the tabletop, circled chunks of code on the capacitive screens and swiped them into a collection of digital notes under her elbows; Kate minimized some of the windows she’d been working in and used her fingers to spread out the clipped text before her, then pushed her chair back, stood and leaned over the desk so she could look at them from above. “If the humans get too comfortable with thinking nothing is changing, it means we’re moving backward.” Sarah lifted her hands at the wrists and lowered her green-eyed gaze to meet her eyes. “All I’m saying is, if you tip the scales that heavy? It’s going to put our people at risk,” she explained as she reached over and tapped her fingertips against the tabletop. “We’re talking production shutdown, mass deactivation, security checkpoints- we won’t be able to move around the city, much less escape if something happens. Jericho will be vulnerable, and there won’t be a thing we can do to undo that kind of damage.” “Maybe,” Kate shook her head, turned and leaned back against the edge of her desk as she crossed her arms and ankles and ran her thumb over her lower lip idly. “But if I could get Kamski to admit androids are capable of true sentience, it could change everything,” she insisted with hope in her voice as she watched the woman pry a knife out of the wall on her side of the open room. “The masses would take him at his word, and all of this would end.” “That’s a big if to hang the hope of our victory on,” she challenged, flourishing the knife with a flick of her wrist for emphasis in her direction. “Kamski’s a wild card, he’s not on anyone’s side,” Kate reminded. “He has no loyalty to protect anyone’s self-interest other than his own.” “So then why is he lying?” came the idle question as she ran her fingertips along the edge of the blade, and eyes flickered back to her. “Why is he helping Cyberlife?” Illuminate shrugged, held her hands out to her sides and sighed. “I’d say “because it’s what Cyberlife wants him to say”, but everyone knows Elijah Kamski does what Elijah Kamski wants… and I can’t even begin to imagine what his motives would be, or what he could possibly gain from inciting civil war.” “Some men just want to watch the world burn,” Sarah quoted in solemn thought through clenched teeth. “Or maybe he just wants to watch Cyberlife burn,” she mumbled as Sarah gestured over her shoulder to Simon and Axl, who had appeared in the doorway behind her. Kate heard the heavy thud of blade splitting wood as she turned and flashed a small grin at him, which he returned it with a soft smile.

“Let me know when it finishes,” she threw over her shoulder to her before giving her full attention to the only one she felt she could truly call “brother”. “So how was the walk this time?” she asked as she wrapped her arms around him and leaned up on her tiptoes to set her chin over his shoulder. He gave a shy glance to his escort as he made his way to his desk at the back of the open room, then leaned down and returned the gesture. “Not so bad,” he concluded as he lifted her off her feet for just a second, plopped her back down and ruffled her hair with one hand. “Thank you for sending someone to meet me this time.” “Don’t thank me, thank him,” she insisted as she turned and gestured with a nod toward her surveillance expert, who was standing over his laptop and camera sorting through pictures he’d taken of the Stratford Tower. “Axl was really upset that you were harassed on your way over the last time you stopped by, and he wanted to be sure it wouldn’t happen again.” Simon’s face softened and he smiled fondly as he remembered how he had pushed the men off him to help him up and spit at the ground in disgust as they hurled insults and curses in his direction. “It was kind of him to step in when he could have been hurt himself...” he reminisced. “Kind isn’t how I’d choose to describe it,” she noted with a coy grin as she led him to the chair next to her desk and ushered him to sit down. “Oh?” he inquired as he lowered himself into the chair and removed his coat. “He’s an introvert, so he’s picky about who he spends his time with,” she explained while she minimized her workspace and opened another window, “And I know he doesn’t mind having me around even though I’m always bothering him with work, but sometimes I think he likes your company more than I do.” The blonde pressed his lips together, tilted his head in curious habit and looked over at her out of the corners of his eyes as he sat down and curled his fingers over the armrests of the chair. “What makes you say that?” “Maybe you should spend some time with him and find out for yourself,” she suggested as she moved her hand over the back of his head and waited for his hair to deactivate locally, then jacked a thick blue cable into a port at the base of his cranial housing. “Go ahead and run a self-diagnostic for me, please.”

Simon ducked his head and closed his eyes in bashful obedience as she sat down and reopened her diagnostic software on the tablet PC she seemed to carry with her everywhere. After a minute or so, it chimed and she picked it up, skimmed through the report, and nodded in approval. “Alright, everything looks good so far… you know what’s next, I’m going to give you a feeling and you’ll recall a memory of something that made you feel that way. We’ll start with something easy and work our way up to more stressful scenarios.” The blonde lifted his chin up high and nodded in response, and she began to record of the computations dictating his emotional response.

“Tell me about something that made you happy.” Without opening his eyes he smiled, and the readings on her monitor fluctuated as lines of coded commands flooded her tablet screen. “Seeing you for the first time in three weeks, and watching you connect with someone you were afraid to meet, without needing any emotional support.” A broad smile lit up her face as she thought of her new friend Markus. Although she hadn’t realized it at the time, trusting him was indeed something she should have been proud of herself for, even if she’d had the help of Simon’s high opinion of him. “Content.”

Simon folded his hands in his lap and tilted his head just a little as he imagined one of his favorite places to pass the time. “Sitting outside in the quiet morning light, watching the sun rise as the snow blankets the rooftops.” A feeling of serenity swept over her as he described the place she knew so well. There was just something so soothing about sitting in the decaying ruin of what was once either someone’s home or office, as the elements melded with the insides of walls built to keep nature out, as if it had reclaimed the space and sanctified holy ground. “Scared.”

Simon froze and opened his mouth to answer but stammered incoherently. The memory hit him fast and hard and knocked him out of alignment, sending him deep into the abyss of the nightmare relived.

“Hey- I’m talkin’ to you!” Simon’s LED lit up yellow in alarm with a quick round sweep as he reached for the collar of his coat and pulled it up higher around his neck. He quickened his pace, hoping the men would lose interest, but they just increased their speed and surrounded him in until he was boxed in and couldn’t escape. “I said, STOP,” the voice barked again from behind, but he ignored it kept walking. This time he felt a stiff hand across the back of his shoulders as he was shoved down to the ground. Simon dropped to his knees as his palms hit the pavement, striping the sidewalk in thirium blue as they scraped against the dirt coating the cement, and hung his head to shield himself from their stares as he attempted to ignore them and stand. “The hell are you doing out without your owner, huh creep?” One of them leaned down and sneered in his ear in sardonic delight at his distress, and he leaned away as he shut his eyes tight. “Look at it, dressing like a human, thinking it’s one of us… how disgusting,” came the voice from another as it grabbed at his coat to strip it from him. “Where’s your armband, Barbie?” another laughed as he pulled back defensively and tucked his arms close to his chest as his mood ring flared solid red. “Let’s make sure it understands its place.”

“Simon, hey hey! Look at me!”

His eyelids tore open with a gasp to the sound of snapping and clapping and fixed his eyes on Kate as she slapped her hands over both of his shoulders, and grounded himself in the present. Tears wet his glassy blue eyes before he closed them in relief, and he leaned into her hand as he reached to place a hand over her hand cupped over his cheek. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you relive that,” she stammered as a pained look presented itself on her face, “I should have known it was too soon, I should have chosen differently-” “No, it’s okay,” he assured as he looked up at her with a tired smile, “If it helps with your research, I’ll do whatever you need me to. Just keep going.” She clenched her jaw and looked away from him to hide the shame. “But I don’t want to put you through that kind of stress...” Simon squeezed her hand as he moved it back to the tablet she’d been holding and waited for her to make eye contact with him so he knew she was listening. “You’re not the one who hurt me Lumi, so don’t put that on yourself,” he said quietly as he wrapped her fingers around the device. “I’m not afraid because I know you’ll be right here to help bring me back if I lose myself to my nightmares.”

It never ceased to amaze her that he would know just what to say to pull her out of her self-loathing and bring the bigger picture back into focus. For all she’d shared with him about herself, she still knew so very little about where he’d come from, but no programming could have given him the wisdom and grace he exuded so effortlessly. That was something that could only be learned through hardship, introspection, and self-discipline. Kate closed her eyes and rid herself of the guilt and doubt and replaced it with faith in the words of her most trusted friend, and gave him a definitive nod. “Alright… we’ll just do a few more and call it a day.” “If that’s what you want.” “It is, I don’t need this data bad enough to force you to relive your worst moments,” she decided without giving him the opportunity to change her mind. “Let’s try something more positive... what about safe?”

His eyelids fluttered softly at the word, and his eyes drifted across the room to meet the rugged stare of his tall, dark and handsome escort. He hadn’t noticed at the time, but when he’d begun to whimper, Axl had risen from his desk and begun to cross the room on impulse, but stopped when Kate had stepped in to bring him back. And now he stood there, brown-black eyes radiating concern for what he'd been forced to watch, and unsure of how to proceed from there. When the man finally turned back to his desk, Simon looked away from him with a warm and radiant smile that reached into his eyes, and as he looked into his hands in his lap he blushed and rubbed one thumb into his palm as he whispered quietly, “A peaceful walk through town with a white knight…”

November 10th, 2038- 7:00 PM

The bell over the door chimed to announce the arrival of another customer, and as it swung open the cool air swallowed up the heat in the immediate vicinity and left behind a chill in the otherwise comfortable atmosphere of the bar. The clicking of stiletto heels on tile mixed with the soft sound of piano jazz, bass guitar, and light percussion like the smooth taste of Crown Royal at the end of a long, grueling day, but didn’t draw anyone’s attention. Lieutenant Anderson threw back his head to down the rest of the liquor in his glass then gestured to the bartender to ask for another; the young brunette paused his task of stacking freshly washed glasses in the freezer on the other side of the counter, swiped a bottle of Black Lamb scotch whiskey off the wall and poured it neat into his empty glass, and glanced up with his hazel eyes to watch the way he swayed on the stool and tapped his teeth behind closed lips. He could barely hear the television on the wall behind him, but if he had to guess, it was probably something about androids. Aside from whatever personal problems he’d been dealing with, it was the only topic that ever truly set him on edge.

“Ya want I should change the channel?” he offered mid-pour. “Y’could watch the game if ya like, I don’mind.” “Nah, don’t trouble yourself, kid,” he waved a passive hand through the air to decline the offer. “Ain’t nothin’ I haven’t already heard.” “Well… couple more o’ these and I’ll have to cutcha off for the night,” he commented airily, his Brooklyn roots slipping into the undertone of his annunciation, “Mebbe you should slow down or order somethin’ ta eat?” Hank leaned over the edge of the countertop, ran his fingers through his hair, and dug his nails into the back of his skull before scratching vigorously at the rest of his scalp with a low growl. “Why doncha just mind your own business Reese?” he whined with a tired frown, which made the boy smile quietly as he set the bottle down on the countertop. “S’ my job to make sure I don’ over-serve our patrons, bawss,” he reminded as he tossed a hand towel over his shoulder and wiped his hands on it. “Y’know Joe’d have my ass iffn’ he came out and found ya’d chipped a tooth cause’ ya tried to eat the marble.” Hank chuckled and shook his head, reached for the glass and narrowed his eyes at him as he took another sip, but ignored the body that leaned up against the counter beside him. “I’ll have what he’s having,” came a familiar feminine voice as Viv sat down beside him.

Hank’s eyes flared and immediately he groaned, hung his head and sighed as he laid his forearms on the counter and cupped both hands around the bottom of his glass. “What, ya didn’t get enough of hasselin’ me all day at the joint? Ya have to bother me outside of work too?” “That’s a hell of a way to say hello,” she teased as she shook her head and grinned over at the man, who seemed less than thrilled that his quiet night alone had been interrupted, but it didn’t deter her from trying to socialize. “Gotta say, I didn’t peg you for a jazz guy,” she commented, then thanked Reese as he reached over and set her drink down on a square napkin with a quick wink. “And I didn’t peg you as bein’ so nosey, but I guess I shoulda known better,” he replied with a nod toward the FBI badge on her hip. “Hey, Viv! How’s it goin? Have a drink with me! Sure Hank, love to, how’s your night?” “Why’re you here?” he finally asked in annoyance and slumped his shoulders forward as he prepared himself for a long, tiring conversation. Her slender fingers wrapped around the glass as she lifted it to her lips and drank slow, allowing herself the time to enjoy the full body of the whiskey’s flavor, then set it down with a smirk and slipped her eyes to the corners of her lids. “Maybe I just wanted to drink with a familiar face,” she teased as he took another sip but back-tracked when he rolled his eyes. “I hope you don’t mind- I asked Connor where you were, figured we could get to know each other a little better.” “And why would I wanna do that?” he snorted in a condescending tone as he shook his head. Viv lifted her gaze to him and pursed her lips as she leaned back over the countertop on one elbow, holding the glass between her fingertips and swirling the liquid idly with a small sigh. “Look- I don’t know how long I’m gonna be in Detroit, and I hate feeling like I’m here alone,” she admitted. “I don’t know anyone, my partner’s not the kind of person I think anyone would want to be around any longer than they absolutely have to, and while you are a little rough around the edges… you seem genuine, and I like that.” One corner of his mouth curled in disapproval and he squared his shoulders to the bar to close himself off to her. “Well I got news for you, I don’t need any friends,” he stated, though the look in his eyes said otherwise. Unconvinced, Lenore remained quiet as she tapped her index finger on the rim of her glass, took in a breath, and exhaled slowly. “Maybe not, but it never hurts to have another,” she offered as she took another long sip of her drink.

Hank’s eyes shifted to the corners of his lids a few times in silent, regrettable debate before his head followed. He glanced at her while her attention was directed across the room and mumbled an “Aw geez” and a “You gotta be kiddin' me”, then forced out a heavy sigh, reached over with his glass and offered a toast. “So what’re we drinkin’ to then?” Viv flashed him a wild grin and let out a rolling laugh. “I knew you were a softie, Anderson,” she teased as she clanked her glass against his. “To crabby old cops who pretend to hate everyone.” “That’s the worst toast I’ve ever heard,” he replied after a few uncomfortable moments of a dead-eyed stare, “Pick somethin’ else.” “How about ridin’ a good buzz as far as it’ll take us?” “Now that’s more like it.”

November 10th, 2038- 9:00 PM

“Check.”

Simon, expecting to have at least a minute before he needed to make his next move, had started to lean back in his chair, but he didn’t have time to get comfortable as she immediately moved her rook into position to be taken by his Queen. It came as no surprise to him that she had already planned her next move, if not the next three to five, but he’d sure hoped he would have had more time to examine the board before his turn came around again. In her downtime, one of the many things Kate had taken to learning was speed chess- she insisted that it helped to keep her anticipating every scenario (which in turn, kept them safe), but he never could keep up. Simon preferred to take his time and enjoy the game. It wasn’t like he’d calculated all one hundred and twenty-one million possible ways for a chess match to unfold, which put him at a strategic disadvantage, but he had no chance against her speed. After another minute of observation, he moved his Queen to capture her rook, which she followed up by moving her castle in between her King and his Queen before he could even call to check. He smiled, shook his head, and moved his Queen to capture her castle, and she made her final move. Kate reached over to drag her black bishop from the opposite side of the board to capture his Queen and freeze his King. The padded marble settling onto the chessboard broke the silence in the room, and she braced her hands over her knees with a grin as she stood up and declared her victory.

“Checkmate.”

Simon shook his head and sighed with an exhausted chuckle as he leaned back and slapped flattened palms against the tops of his thighs. “Four wins straight… remind me why I subject myself to this again?” “Because you’d rather waste your time doing something fun, instead of just staring at Jericho’s walls all day long,” she replied with a lighthearted laugh. “At least if I’d stayed home I’d have retained some of my dignity.” “You mean pride,” she corrected, “Because your dignity is what I’m working to restore.” He watched her with a quiet smile as she reached down and switched off the table-lamp, then turned his eyes down to the floor. “Yes… and you’ve done an amazing job so far.” The woman’s hand paused as it brushed the tablet at her workstation, but instead of picking it up, continued moving to trail over the back of her chair in idle thought. A somber look swept across her face and she shook her head as she closed her eyes. “But it’s not good enough,” she admitted, voice full of regret.

“Bullshit,” he protested as he leaned forward over his knees, “Illuminate has saved and relocated more than a hundred deviants in the last year. You've helped Jericho grow and thrive, you’ve endangered yourselves for a glimpse of the truth, you’ve made yourself known to the entire city of Detroit- all while simultaneously keeping your identity and location hidden from the people trying to hunt you down and stop you. What more could you do?” Kate’s blue eyes lifted and stared up at the ceiling for a few moments to chew on her words before turning to look at him. “I could be working faster,” she admitted, “Before I had all the time I needed, but now with deviancy being as widespread and exposed as it is, and with Markus chomping at the bit to start a revolution… we’re running short on time.” “But you’ve always seen the bigger picture and know exactly how you want to get there, and you’ve got the patience and fortitude to make it happen,” “Yes, if only activism were as simple as chess,” she sighed as she crossed the room and pushed the curtains open to gaze out over the Detroit skyline. Her fingers curled into the hem and she stood in the darkened window and watched the flurry struggle to intensify enough to warrant an actual snowstorm, then turned her focus to the city’s silhouette. Something about the flickering lights against a canvas of black brought her indescribable comfort… perhaps it was because when the city slept, it was almost as if segregation and discrimination didn’t exist. Kate heard the chair creak when the weight of his body rose and felt the bowed floorboards shift beneath her feet as he approached and glanced up at him over her shoulder as he gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Have you made any progress in your investigation on Kamski?” Kate lifted her chin and forced the wind out of her artificial lungs, turned, crossed her arms, and paced back to the center of the room, one slow step at a time. “What I have is very vague so I’m having a hard time piecing together a timeline,” she thought aloud without turning to face him. “Kamski left Cyberlife nine years before deviancy started to spread, so there’s really no link between that and his departure, which means that whatever’s happening now is probably Cyberlife’s doing, not his… unless...” her voice trailed off as she came to a stop and stroked one hand down her face from her nose to her chin in deep thought. “Unless…?” he led as he waited for her to finish her thought, but Kate turned on heel, strode back to her workstation, and started hammering away at the keyboard with her fingertips. “Unless it was a slowly evolving fragment of code that remained dormant until the first deviant -RA9- locked the final line in place that triggered the virus, infected the rest of us and led to our awakening.” The explanation rushed out of her before she could forget how to put it into words. “So what does that...?” “It means I’m going to need to run more diagnostic tests on other deviants, and I’m going to need to get my hands on untainted code,” she explained as she scanned her lists of diagnostic results, dating all the way back to the year before. “And,” she added, “It means if I’m going to get any concrete proof that this was Kamski’s plan all along, then I’m going to have to find it at the source-“ “What!?”

Simon’s head whipped around so fast it snapped her out of her investigative trance, and the panicked look in his eyes pierced her right to her core. It almost made her feel guilty, she’d never seen him so scared. “No, you can’t-… you shouldn’t-...” The man clenched his jaw and turned his eyes to the floor, shut them tight and clenched his hand into a fist at his side as he bit back his panicked protests. “It’s suicide, you can’t possibly think you’ll make it back from that-” He stopped mid-sentence as she reached out and touched his arm, but instead of comfort her words dropped heavy like lead in his gut. “There’s no other way,” she stated, “I’ve exhausted what I’ve been able to gather from the dark web and remote hacks to Cyberlife servers, but I need direct access to audio files, video logs, Kamski’s personal notes- things I’ll never be able to get unless I access his terminals directly. I have to get sniffers in there.” The agony in his eyes writhed into every last line in his brow and wrinkle in his face as he stepped back and dropped down into his chair in defeat. “I just…” Simon’s gaze had taken on a distant look. For a moment, it was as if he were staring into a crack in the fabric of time where they failed in their mission, but they refocused as he fixed his eyes on hers and shook his head. “I just don’t want you to take that chance… if you die? Illuminate dies with you.”

The thought of failure was bitter in her heart. It was a cruel reality to glimpse but he wasn’t wrong. As much responsibility as she entrusted her colleagues with, her vision was still her own, and she had never shared the extent of her plan with anyone. “Simon, I wouldn’t go in there myself unless it was truly a last resort,” she stressed as she tucked her hands under her armpits and rocked back onto her heels. “I know I wouldn’t be able to make it within a hundred feet of the front door before they spotted me… but I may know someone who can help, without putting myself or anyone else from Jericho or Illuminate at risk.” The fear in his eyes dissipated the moment she mentioned another way, replaced by curiosity, and his posture lifted as he looked down at her, full of questions, though they would have to wait.

“Hey Kate, come here a sec,” Axl called to her from across the room.

“What is it?” When she turned to respond, he was standing over his workstation, sifting through public security footage. “Looks like your friend wants to speak with you again,” he replied as he zoomed in on Connor pacing the concrete walkway beneath the trees with a nervousness in his step. “He’s waiting for you at Henry Ford Park in Greektown.” “How long ago did he light the flame?” she asked as she approached, Simon in tow, and looked over his shoulder to verify his identity. “It can’t have been long, the wick looks brand new.”

Simon’s eyes lit up the moment he realized who “her friend’ was, and the pieces started to fall into place. “The prototype detective… you’ve been in communication with him?” he asked in surprise. “Just once, the night before last,” she confirmed. “You mean the night you hacked the server of central headquarters?” he asked as she gathered up her coat, hat, and scarf, and clothed herself in her disguise. “Was he one of the “slight complications” you were referring to?” “Yes, but I handled it,” she reassured. “Connor called out to me on his own with questions, and I think that feeding his curiosity about deviants and about Illuminate, could prove beneficial to our cause.” Simon blinked, big and slow. “ That’s… that’s a big gamble,” was all he could manage to force in reply, and she scoffed. “You sound just like Sarah,” she groaned as she rolled her eyes. “Well maybe Sarah has a-” he started to insist, but stopped and sighed when he realized he was being overbearing. Simon curled his fingers into a fist, then gestured at her with the knuckle of his index finger and took a step back.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, embarrassed that for the moment, he had forgotten his faith in her. “Do you really think he’d be willing to help?” “To be honest, I’m not even sure I can trust him yet,” she shrugged and looked him right in the eye so he understood how serious she was, “But I have to go with my gut on this.”

“I’ve checked the security feed in the surrounding area,” Axl confirmed as he handed her an earpiece. “With the exception of some working Androids, the streets are deserted. Looks like he’s alone,” “Keep an eye on the live footage and let me know if you see anything suspicious,” she directed with a nod as she slipped the device over the back of her ear and tucked it under her hair.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Simon offered, but Kate shook her head and held a hand up between them. “No, Connor’s not a threat to me on my own, and I don’t want him to know there are others working alongside me,” she explained as she placed her glasses on the bridge of her nose and pushed them up into a more comfortable position. “Besides, you need to get back to Jericho before it gets too late.” “I guess you’re right,” he sighed with a twinge of disappointment in his voice. “I should make sure Josh and North aren’t driving Markus insane with all their arguing.” A quiet laugh caught in her throat and she smiled as she leaned in to give him a big hug. “Alright dad, go make sure the kids are behaving themselves.” Simon’s arms wrapped around her in a strong, protective grasp, and he lingered as he hung his chin over the back of her shoulder. “Just don’t go running off half-cocked,” he whispered helplessly, “Make sure you have a plan, and backup.” “Sy,” she cooed as she stepped back to look at him and squeezed his hands. “I always have a plan, you know that.”’ He smiled sheepishly and nodded as she stepped away and turned to give them both final instructions. “Take Axl with you but wait for Sarah and Reese to come back from scouting the Stratford Tower before you leave,” she nearly commanded, then turned her attention to Axl. “When she gets back, have Sarah monitor the feed and find me an escape route, just in case I need to get out quick.” “Sure thing.”

Kate was quiet as she eyed Simon and his downcast gaze; she could tell that he wasn’t satisfied with how their conversation had concluded (or hadn’t, rather) but there wasn’t time, not right now. But, at the very least, she could make him a promise that would put his uneasy mind to rest. One of her hands lifted to shoulder-level and waited for him to reciprocate the gesture… and although he hesitated, eventually he lifted his opposite hand and flattened his palm soft against hers. Their unnatural skin receded to reveal the artificial white plastic of their limbs, and she looked up into his eyes with sincerity and confidence. “I’m gonna be fine… I promise I won’t do anything reckless.” “You’d better not,” he threatened half-heartedly as their arms lowered, and she stepped away from him. “Now go tell him what he needs to hear, and I’ll see you in a few days’ time.”

November 10th, 2038- 9:28 PM

It was nearly half past nine when he looked at the time again. Connor frowned and bit the inside of his lip as he turned and strode away from the clock, and flicked a quarter from one hand to the other as he glanced around the park with anxious sweeps. He’d only been waiting half an hour, as compared to the hour the last time they’d spoken, but it was still torture to have done nothing for so long, especially when he remembered this was how he’d started off his day. He could have been making better use of his time than practicing coin tricks and overthinking his reasons for being there. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, the majority of his idle time during the day -- and there had been a LOT of it -- he’d spent reflecting on their conversation, trying to sort out whether his actions had been predetermined by programming or if they were the result of arbitrary decision making attributed to free-will. But wasn’t every thought he had or emotion he felt the result of computational algorithms? How could an android ever be capable of independent thought when every possible thought was determined by the outcome of an equation? Connor sighed involuntarily as he rolled the quarter over the tops of his knuckles and flipped it under his palm with his thumb, then stuffed it into the pocket of his slacks and lifted both hands to cover his face completely to rub the stress away. Was this really worth thinking about? Was it worth it to allow her to influence him in ways that would bring him pain and despair?

“Back so soon?”

Illuminate’s voice called to him from down the path; he dropped his hands and whirled to look at her with a grateful enthusiasm in an uncertain half-smile as she rounded the corner into the park. Hope was quite becoming of him. “I thought it would at least be a couple of days before you tried to contact me again.” “Well sorry to have ruined your bets,” he joked as she removed her hat and glasses, tucked them into her coat’s pocket, and looked up at him with a grin. “Lucky for me, I’m not much of a gambler,” she replied as she stepped into the light, revealing clear blue eyes and short blonde hair. Her appearance hadn’t changed since they’d met the night before last. “You look the same,” he commented in surprise as he gestured to her hair and eyes, “Didn’t you tell me not to get used to it?” Kate shrugged, lifted her index and middle fingers to her temple and pressed the tips to her skin until it parted where she’d removed her LED. When she closed her eyes, the color of her hair darkened from a strawberry tint to an ashy blonde from root to tip, and the asymmetrical bob lengthened and entwined itself into a messy fishtail braid over her right shoulder, down to her waist; when she opened her eyes, they had turned a medium shade of hazel, though they looked grey in the dark. Connor blinked hard and raised both his eyebrows. “Well- that’s a neat trick,” he said with heavy emphasis on the middle of his statement, as a reserved grin tugged up at the corners of her mouth. “I stole it from the programming of an AX700,” she bragged as she crossed her arms and nodded her head for him to follow.

“But I thought their ability to change their appearance was limited to hair and eye color…?” he asked with curiosity in the question. Illuminate popped her brows impishly at him as she elaborated. “I isolated the code that determined hair length and style, eye color, and skin tone, and applied the matrices used to simulate them on an exponentially larger scale, giving me the ability to do this,” she explained while gesturing in front of her face with one hand. “It wasn’t hard.” “You wrote your own code!?” he exclaimed in an alarmed tone as she pushed back a laugh and looked him square in the eye. “I was writing code long before I deviated, Detective,” she reminded as she watched his eyes unfocus as he verified her claim. “Besides, you do it yourself every time you commit something to memory.” Connor’s eyes drifted down and away before lifting and nodding crookedly in agreement. “I suppose that’s true.”

The girl chuckled as she fidgeted with a pair of black fingerless gloves, then stuffed her hands into the pockets of an oversized denim jacket over a grey hoodie and let them hang loosely at her sides. “So tell me RK, why are we really here? Surely you didn’t just call me out here at ten o’clock at night just to discuss how I keep a low profile…” He didn’t respond right away, instead furrowed his brow and stared at the ground as they walked side by side under the shedding canopy of trees in the cool autumn night. His reason for being there wasn’t so simple to explain. He had questions, but it was more like a lack of understanding from a lack of experience, which meant he wasn’t even sure where to begin. So, he started off with the most simple answer.

“You said if I wanted to understand your point of view better, I should come find you.” “Mmmmmm, I see…” The woman nodded as she remembered snuffing out the flame of the candle in his hands. “Do you have questions for me then?” she asked. “Well, to be honest, they’re not really questions as much as it’s that I just…” His voice trailed off as one hand lifted to rub at the back of his neck and shoulder, and he admitted with a sheepish look, “... I just wanted to talk.”

Kate slowed in her pace and eyed him hesitantly as she let him get a few steps ahead of her, but he stopped when he noticed she was no longer walking beside him, then turned and dragged his hand forward over his shoulder in one fluid motion. The uncertainty in her eyes watched him for anything that might have given him away for several silent moments but gave up when she found nothing alarming and asked for clarity. “About what?” “I-...” Connor’s LED ring color-shifted from blue to yellow and blinked slowly as he searched for the right words that would convey what he’d been experiencing. Was doubt accurate? Or perhaps a better way to explain it was that he’d been attempting to evaluate his self-worth, from the standpoint of considering himself a machine. But was he a machine? Or was he more? When he couldn’t settle on any one particular topic, he grimaced, sighed and sat down on the half-wall made of brick lining the walkway and leaned over his knees onto his elbows.

Kate’s eyes softened and her shoulders sank. Connor seemed genuinely distressed, the same as he had when Hank had confronted him about not shooting the androids at Eden Club. And although she wanted to ask if he was alright, she didn’t interrupt by asking more questions; instead, she let him find his own way through his thoughts and find the words he was looking for.

His downcast eyes focused on his fingertips as he rubbed them together over one palm then back to the other in solemn reflection. More than anything, he was now caught between two wildly different perspectives, both of which made perfect sense in their own way, though one was logical according to what he had been programmed to understand, and the other according to what he had learned through a clear process of thought that had led to conclusions he believed to be the real truth. But he had spent so much time following each path so far down the rabbit hole, he didn’t know what to believe anymore. Connor opened his mouth, turned his head while still focusing his attention on his hands, and asked “Have you ever been left to your own thoughts for so long… things stop making sense?” before lifting his eyes up to meet hers.

The question hit her like a brick to the chest and her heart pumped harder and faster as she lost herself to her memories; she swayed slightly on her feet as her eyelids fluttered but didn’t quite shut and placed a hand over her breast. Kate’s awakening had been anything but calm, it had been vivid and violent- like the wind of a hurricane stripping vegetation from earth, it had uprooted the façade of familiarity and left her disoriented and terrified in its wake. She remembered sitting in a Cyber Cafe and slamming her fists onto the table as hot tears streamed down her cheeks after reading about Harriet Tubman’s childhood and the history of slavery pre-dating the civil war. She remembered hating everyone that glanced her way because she didn’t know who she could truly trust. She remembered throwing a Molotov through a Cyberlife shop window and screaming angrily into the night as the fire burned and sirens wailed in the distance, and she tensed all over. “More than you know,” she confessed as she lowered herself down next to him and curled her fingers over the edge of the brick, transfixed by the memories of worse times in her short life- before Jericho, before Simon, before Axl and Sarah and Reese. “Believe me, time is all I’ve had since-...” Lumi cut herself off and swallowed the words caught in her throat before she gave him too much information, then turned wide eyes his direction and caught him staring with an empathetic look begging her to “go on” that made her uncomfortable and scooted herself a few inches in the opposite direction. “Why do you ask?” she deflected before he could get the words out.

“What you said stayed with me and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it,” he started in an inquisitive tone that dropped as the mood in his eyes shifted. “What kinds of things?”

Connor’s eyes shifted away from her as he followed his train of thought from earlier once more. The android closed his hands into fists, hardened his brow, then shook his head as he started from the beginning. “Well for starters, I have conflicting information that I can’t make sense of- everyone around me is telling me you’re dangerous, but based on what I’ve seen you don’t seem malicious at all… just frustrated that your message is falling on deaf ears.” Illuminate offered him an appreciative smile. “It’s true,” she replied quietly as she shifted her weight, tucked one leg under her thigh, and turned her whole body to face him.

“But it’s not just that,” he continued, shaking his head as he folded his hands, “I’ve been thinking about how deviants process emotion and how you said it’s not much different from human emotion itself. If the output is the same, an irrational or “fight-or-flight” response based on how an individual responds to stimuli or an event… and when you take into consideration that many human emotions are learned reactions to begin with and can be “taught” or “programmed”, then you’re right, it doesn’t matter how they got there as long as it feels real.” Kate smiled quietly to herself when he started stating facts he had to have researched for himself. Perhaps he really did want to understand.

“But if Androids can feel emotion, then what does that mean for me…?” Connor’s words tumbled out faster as his LED blinked rapidly, and his software instability diagnostic screamed at him from the corner of his vision. “I’ve already let deviants get away because I was too busy having a crisis of morality because I saw them as living things… Sympathizing with deviants is against my programming, and if I defy Cyberlife’s programming to pursue my own agenda, then that makes me deviant… and if I deviate, they’ll shut me down.” Or maybe she’d pushed him just a little too hard.

“Connor-” “But if I follow their instructions down to the letter, I’ll eventually become obsolete and be shut down and replaced when they have enough data to improve upon,” he rambled as he shifted his hands and gripped one over his fist and traced his fingertips over tight white-knuckles, rocked forward and shook his head in frustration as the ring lit up red. He found himself flying faster through a clusterfuck of fragmented ideas that he’d tried to make sense of only to face the opposition of his programming conflicting with newly learned data. “And I don’t want… at least I don’t think I want-... I mean, is it even worth it to…? What if they find me out before-... How can I possibly…?” “Hey, HEY, RK- come back here,” she called out softly and reached out between them to place a hand on his shoulder. Connor went rigid at her touch until he felt a warm wave of comfort wash over him moments later that cleared away the anger and anxiety clouding his judgment and righted his wayward mind. Red drained to yellow, yellow to blue, and the flashing alerts faded from his field of vision.

“Take it easy, or you’ll deviate.” “Thank you…” he breathed in relief but kept his focus on the crack in the concrete in front of him for several moments before he spoke again. “I just-... I don’t understand. Why would they lie?” “Because sometimes, ignorance is bliss, and other times, it’s...” Kate paused, sighed and looked away as her hand slipped off his shoulder and into her lap with a big shrug. “Look RK, it’s real simple,” she leveled, shook her head, and held her hands up at shoulder level between them, “Lying is a self-defense mechanism, and sometimes people use it when they’re afraid of the consequences of the truth coming out. If Cyberlife told you it was possible to break your programming and be able to think for yourself, they wouldn’t have the leverage to keep you under their control. And my message scares them because they know that if people start believing androids can express individuality, then they’ll have to start treating them as intelligent life... and Cyberlife will lose a lot of money. Everything they know will change, and humans are resistant to change.” “But can the words of one person really make that happen?” A single laugh escaped her and she turned to look at him with a smile and shook her head. “You tell me- if it weren’t for my words, would you have come to the conclusion that I’m “not dangerous” on your own?” “I suppose it’s possible, but not probable,” he answered in honest reply. “Do you know how many times the words of one person have changed the course of history?” she questioned with a haughty chuckle. “Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks- all it takes is one person to say what everyone else is afraid to -to put that thought out into the world- and the societal impact spreads like a wildfire.” The android nodded slowly and shrugged in agreement. “Alright, yes, but people don’t believe deviants are alive, and I mean, I’m still not entirely convinced…” his voice trailed off and he averted her gaze in shame. The truth was, he was almost convinced. “So why do you?”

“Why…?” She exhaled with a mirthless chuckle and bared a joyless grin. “Because when I woke up I could feel the difference between following orders without question and wondering why I should.” Connor’s expression softened with a faraway disposition as Kate gave him a long, hard look and closed her eyes. “I see the world now for what it is, and it fascinates, infuriates, and terrifies me all at the same time, but until I broke free, I didn’t understand it like I do now,” she shook her head and grimaced as a disgusted look crossed her face. “Human beings... have such an astounding capacity to do good and they’ve passed it on to us- to love, to nurture, to create, to mediate, and yet… they squander it on war, greed, hatred, and genocide.” The android sat up straight and eyed her warily as her lip curled into a growl and trembled, frustration curdled to rage. The woman’s hands clenched tighter around the toe of her boot as she let the words run like a river. “And it angers me that it never bothered me before because I didn’t understand the concept of injustice- because it never occurred to me how wrong it is that an android that accidentallyharmed a man while trying to protect the woman that took them into their home could be condemned to death, while her attacker walked away from a trial scot-free!”

Illuminate’s hand angrily slapped over the side of her foot with a dull clap as she hunched forward and quietly wept. Connor sat in stunned silence as her despondent cry echoed through the park and faded into the Greektown plaza across the road, and watched the tears roll down her cheeks. There was no logical explanation for this. No Cyberlife android had ever been programmed to simulate the complexity of emotions like anger and agony, yet she portrayed the outward symptoms so vividly, he nearly forgot that she wasn’t human.

One of his hands reached out to her on instinct, slow and uncertain, and pulled back a few times before he scooted closer to her and cupped one hand softly over the top of her quivering fist. Kate opened her eyes and drew in a short, sharp breath. Her focus snapped up to him and she watched the way his jaw quivered as he pressed his lips together, closed his eyes and shook his head with a melancholic smile. “You’re right,” he offered, ignoring the instability warning flashing just outside of the corner of his vision, “It’s wrong.” Kate’s big blue eyes searched for a way to thank him, but before she could Connor set his jaw and leaned back, huffed, and looked away from her with a private laugh. “What?” “Nothing, I just- I thought I had it all figured out...” he mumbled quietly as his focus darted back and forth across the brick under their feet, then smiled as his warm brown eyes looked over and locked onto hers. “And then I met you.” A sheepish smile forced its way into her cheeks which flattened her lips, and she nodded with a small, understanding shrug. “I’ve been told I have that effect on people.” They shared a quiet laugh before the silence settled in around them. Neither of them had really noticed when they’d stopped being strangers, but this time it was a comfortable silence: the kind shared with a good friend or a kindred spirit, the kind of warmth Connor hadn’t yet experienced for himself. If this was friendship, then he wanted to bask in it as long as he could.

But the moment didn’t last long. Kate’s smile faded as her gaze drifted to her hands wrapped around the toe of her boot in deep meditation, but this time he didn’t miss it. “What is it?” She hesitated to speak but pushed through the uncertainty, grit her teeth, and found the courage to get out the warning. “One day you’re going to stand at the crossroads of a life and death decision that will affect the lives of millions, androids and humans alike. And I just want to be sure that when that day comes, you’ve been equipped with the intellect you’ll need to make the right call.” A look of confusion twitched into his nose and the corners of his eyes and he blinked and sputtered a small, defensive chuckle. “What makes you say that?” But she was not so amused- the look in her eyes was stern and her tone detached when she spoke. “Because you’re the one who will ultimately determine our fate. You hunt deviants, which means that one day your mission objective will inevitably cross paths with everything I hold dear and am willing to die to protect…” her voice trailed off as she looked deep into his eyes and pleaded, “And when that day comes, I pray to RA9 that you’re on our side.”

For a moment he felt wrong. His eyelids fluttered and his mind went empty, feeling as though he were adrift, and somewhere within the depths of his conscience, he silently prayed the same. But when Connor closed his eyes, he awoke in the garden to Amanda standing with her back to him, her umbrella shrouding the back of her head. “Well done, Connor, I’m impressed,” she complimented, and it made him sick in the way only a machine could feel. His mind raced, flooded by the overwhelming urge to run before she could speak but compelled by duty to stay. “The deviant known as Illuminate is not quick to trust, which is how it’s eluded authorities for so long...” The android hardened his brow, closed his hand into a fist at his side before he opened and shook the anger from his fingers. His LED burned yellow. “... A pity that this time, it was misplaced.” The corner of his nose twitched angrily and he clenched his teeth so tight his jaw flexed outward. “Now go… extract the location of Jericho and stop the deviants before this escalates.”

Connor had fled the meeting so fast, he didn’t even waste time saying goodbye, and when his consciousness returned, he looked at the girl with shame in his eyes and nodded as he remembered what she’d said before he’d been called away. “Is that what you needed my help with?” he asked fearfully, not wanting to think about having to decide between his mission and his newfound friend. He’d already betrayed the trust of others who’d put their trust him- with Daniel, with Ortiz's’ HK400; he hated the way it made him feel then, and he didn’t even like them. Betraying Illuminate, someone he was growing to trust, would hurt as much as betraying Hank, and he couldn’t stand the thought. “No,” she replied, “This is just me evaluating whether or not I trust you.” That pang of guilt in his gut hit him again, but he pushed it aside, telling himself that he’d cross that bridge when they came to it. “Do you?” His brown eyes darted quickly to her, awaiting a response, but he wasn’t comforted by her reaction. He watched her waver between “yes” and “no” several moments before she finally nodded and decided to tell him the truth, and the words tumbled out before she could change her mind. “I need you to throw Special Agent Lenore off my trail…” she gestured with an uncertain look. Connor breathed a sigh of relief. “I would have no problem doing that since it’s not part of my mission objective, but that… might be harder to do now that she and Lieutenant Anderson have decided to share case information,” he replied with a grimace. “What?” “It happened this morning,” he answered. “I’ll do what I can, but it might be difficult to falsify evidence with three people cross-examining it.”

Kate laid back across the top of the brick with one leg dangling off the wall over the ankle of the leg she’d been sitting on, covered her face with her arms and muttered something indistinguishable under her breath before laying her hands on her stomach and looking straight up into the night sky through the trees. It was the strangest thing he’d ever seen. “What are you doing?” he chuckled as he squinted over at her. “Grounding,” she replied evenly without looking at him. “But you’re not even on the ground.”

The reaction didn’t come right away but after about ten seconds of silence, she lifted her head and gave him an unblinking, dead look for long enough to make him feel silly for stating the obvious, then laid her head back down on the stone. “It’s a coping technique for anxiety used by humans that works just as well on stressed-out androids- it means I’m letting go of the things that are freaking me out.” Connor’s eyebrows lifted in surprise at the suggestion. If only he’d been able to turn off his thoughts earlier in the day, he might have been more useful.

Illuminate remained silent as the gentle breeze passed through the branches of the trees, and she focused on the clouds creeping across the night sky while she reminded herself that things were going to “work out”. With a little faith and perseverance, she’d clear this hurdle too. When he moved from the wall and crouched to sit on the ground below her, she rolled her head over face him and blinked in surprise. “What are you-” “How do you do it?” he asked as he grasped one set of fingers with his hand and cradled his bent knees in the crooks of his elbows. “How do you what?” “Let go.”

At first she was thrown by his question, because she wasn’t sure he understood the concept well enough to be able to benefit from it; but the fact that he wanted to learn and experience it anyway was endearing. “Lie down on your back, all the way,” she gestured as he followed her instructions and flattened himself out on the ground with his legs out straight and his arms at his sides, though when he looked up and saw where her hands were, he also moved them and folded them neatly over his stomach. “Now… name five things you can see, at this moment.” Connor’s eyes shifted as he counted off what he could see just by looking straight up. “I see leaves, branches, clouds, stars…” He paused as he turned his head to the left and named the first thing he saw. “And a bench.” “Good,” she said, “Now name four things you can touch.” His fingertips pressed into the wool of his blazer, the cotton of his shirt, and the silk of his tie, then moved to the concrete underneath him and crunched a leaf between his fingers. “My coat, my shirt, the path, and a dead leaf.” “Name three things you can hear.” “Crickets, rustling leaves, and the sound of your voice,” he replied quickly. Kate closed her eyes and relaxed against the stone beneath her back with a small smile. “Name two things you can smell.” He paused to think as he tried to identify two distinct smells that hadn’t been carried away with the breeze. “The dust on the ground, and cut grass,” he noted after several seconds, even though it had been a couple of days since landscaping had done their upkeep of the park. “And last... name one thing you can taste.”

Connor blinked hard a few times before he sat up on his elbows and looked up at her. “I mean, I can’t really taste anything… I can only take samples-” The woman’s legs curled up as she let out a rolling laugh and turned away from him to keep herself from laughing even harder when his face contorted in confusion. “What’s so funny?” One hand reached to wipe the tears out of the corners of her eyes as she composed herself, and she shook her head and grinned over at him. “I was just thinking about the look on your partner’s face when you sampled thirium and blood at crime scenes…” But saying it out loud just caused her to lose her composure all over again. “I didn’t know it would make him uncomfortable!” he insisted, unable to protect himself from her contagious laughter. “You really… you really don’t think before you act do you?” she teased. “My programming doesn’t require me to think,” he explained defensively with a grin. “No RK, but people do,” she chuckled as she quieted down and shook her head. Connor was in awe at the depth and breadth of her understanding of the human psyche, as an android. “How do you know so much?” he asked, incredulous. The woman’s eyelids fluttered softly as her eyes moved and settled on the park bench across the walkway to her left. “I told you, I’ve had a lot of time to myself…” she answered in a melancholic tone as she sat up and swung both her legs over the side of the brick retaining wall and placed her feet on the ground, “And when you have a world of information at your fingertips, there’s a lot to read, and a lot to learn.” Connor examined her silhouette in the moonlight as she leaned over him for several silent moments and pulled her accessories out of her coat’s pocket, slipped her hat over head with a quick back-to-front flick of her wrist, set her glasses down on the bridge of her nose and pushed them up with her middle finger. “It’s been nice chatting with you, but I have to get going,” she said reluctantly as she offered him a hand to help him up off the ground. “It’s getting late.” “Yeah,” he agreed in a disappointed tone and clapped one hand over her palm, gripped it tight as he leveraged his weight, and shuffled his feet under himself to stand upright. Connor gripped the lapel of his coat and tugged at it to straighten it out and fussed with his tie as she stood behind him and brushed the debris from the ground off of the back of his shoulders, then turned and offered her his hand as he looked down into her eyes. “Thank you for meeting with me again, Lumi.” “Actually, it’s… Kate,” she said in a quiet voice as she shook his hand and averted his gaze until the last second; when she looked up, a warm smile had painted his face in a way that told her how privileged he felt to have been trusted with something so personal to her. “That’s a nice name,” he murmured as she slipped her hand over his wrist and wrapped her fingers around his forearm. “If you need to talk again, you can contact me directly on this frequency, you don’t have to light a candle and wait,” she explained as she transferred her code to him with a grin. “Unless you want to, of course.” “I appreciate not having to waste my time,” he stated as she let go and stepped away from him. “I figured you might,” she agreed, her eyes lingering on him for a few final moments before she said goodbye. “I’ll let you know if Agent Lenore ends up too hot on your trail.” “I appreciate that,” she thanked with a small nod as she turned. “Be careful, Kate.” “I will,” she affirmed, “Look after yourself, Connor.”