Chapter Text
Connor gently moved Hank’s arm slinking silently out of the bed and locking himself into the bathroom. His hands were shaking, it had been over a year since the android revolution. Since that cold embrace he and Hank shared in front of the Chicken Feed. Things were different now. He was working side by side with Hank at the DPD, they were partners. At work and at home. It was more than he could’ve ever asked for. He had a family now, and friends. Something he couldn’t have hoped to fathom a year ago, which seemed light years away from now. But something was wrong, it had been for awhile now and he was trying desperately to hide it from everyone.
Software Instability
Those words hadn’t shot up behind his eyes in months, but now they came more and more often. His hands would shake or an eye would twitch. There was a confusion and a desperateness inside that wasn’t there before. It didn’t always happen, but in times of stress or intense concentration he would feel the tremors in his body… in his voice. Hank noticed it but Connor reassured him that everything was fine. Until last Friday when Gavin hurled another insult in his direction, just in passing. Connor had shoved him, and it wasn’t a gentle shove either. He shouldn’t have reacted that way. He’d been able to ignore Reed before, why was this so different? And it was more of a sarcastic comment than an insult.
Connor’s LED blinked from red to yellow, he tried to steady his shaking hands by placing them on either side of the bathroom sink but they wouldn’t stop. His whole body was in a shiver. A loud crack roused Hank from his sleep, Connor stepped back from the sink, broken pieces of porcelain clattered to the floor. He’d leaned so far into it he’d cracked and broken it away from the wall.
“Connor? Connor what the hell is going on in there?!” Connor caught his reflection, LED still blinking violently from yellow to red. Hank banged against the door with his shoulder again and again until finally the door swung open and still Connor’s hands shook
Software Instability
“What the hell happened?” now there were tears, tears that Connor didn’t want to shed but yet they came.
“I- I don’t know.” His voice small and scared, this wasn’t what he wanted. Stop crying! Stop! But he couldn’t, Hank pulled Connor away from the sink and into the bedroom sitting him down on the bed, wrapping a blanket around him.
“It’s okay. You’re okay.” But he couldn’t calm himself, it was as if he were a child, lost and afraid in the great big world and no one was going to rescue him.
“I think something’s wrong with me.” Hank held Connor’s hands, kneeling before him.
“It’s gonna be okay Con.” There were so many errors shooting up behind his eyes, and none of them made any sense. The letters were all jumbled the only one he could understand was the one he didn’t want to see at all
Software Instability
“What do you need? Can I do anything?” Hank held Connor’s hands tightly in his own, running his thumb over the back of the android’s hand. This was comforting and the tremors seemed to slowly subside, he tried to focus on that.
“I’m okay.” He said, eyes closed his LED flashing yellow, but not as much as it had been, now the red was gone.
“You sure?” Connor met eyes with Hank, fully alert and concerned.
“Yeah it was just a nightmare.” Hank looked surprised
“I didn’t know you could have nightmares.” Connor looked into his hands
“I didn’t either.” Hank chuckled rising to his feet and rustling Connor’s hair
“Happens to the best of us. You okay to go back to sleep now?” Connor nodded
“I think so.” Hank stretched
“Good. Cause I gotta work a double shift tomorrow.” Connor smiled moving over to his side of the bed
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Hank said crawling back into bed, pulling Connor into an embrace
“Just try to get some rest.” He nodded against Hank’s chest listening intently to the sound of the older man’s heartbeat.
“Gonna be a long day tomorrow.”
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Connor closed the door behind the repair man, the sink was fixed again. Sumo trotted over to his food dish and pushed it around with his foot. Hank was already gone, he’d overslept again but he begrudgingly dragged himself out of bed and off to work. Connor took a cup full of hard kibble and dropped it in Sumo’s bowl. They’d recently put him on a diet, which Sumo wasn’t happy about. He’d begun digging more holes in the yard in protest to the yucky diet dog food. Connor had to scold Hank for sneaking him extra pieces of bacon every now and again. But it was the least of his worries at the moment. Last night was the worst it had ever been, whatever was happening to him was quickly going to compromise not only his position at the DPD but also with Hank if he couldn’t get it under control. There was only one person he could turn to, and he wasn’t looking forward to it.
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Chloe answered the door, just as pretty and genuine as she had always been. But more modestly dressed. Connor had supposed she had “woken up” as well, but chose to stay with Kamski.
“Elijah is expecting you.” She said with a smile
“Please follow me.” Connor nodded and followed close behind, they went down a hall and arrived at a large metal door, Chloe pressed her hand against a panel and the door unlocked with a hiss and a clonk of a large magnetic bolt. From there they went down some stairs and through another hallway before coming to another door. Chloe pressed a button and a voice spoke
“Who is it?” it was Kamski, he watched Chloe wave to the camera above the door that soon slid open. She took a step back and motioned for Connor to enter.
“Thank you.” She smiled in response and walked back down the hall toward the stairs
“Come in.” Kamski said, typing at a terminal. As soon as Connor entered the room the door slid shut once more.
“What can I do for you?” he still wasn’t looking at Connor, eyes going from one monitor to the next.
“There’s something wrong with me.”
“Besides being deviant?” Connor felt a slight tick in the side of his face at the comment.
“This has nothing to do with being deviant.”
“You sound confident of that.” Elijah finally looked over and immediately his demeanor changed. Connor looked different somehow, not only in the way he carried himself but… he couldn’t quite place it.
“Come here.” Connor looked unsure but Kamski beckoned him forward with his hands. He held as still as his body allowed as Elijah turned his face from side to side, lifted his shirt and opened his chest panel.
“Everything looks alright.” Connor knit his brow as Elijah poked and prodded at his insides.
“I’ll do a full body scan to be sure though.” He shut Connor’s chest plate and returned to the terminal he’d been working on, a heavy window slid down revealing a machine on the other side of the glass. It reminded Connor of the Cyberlife factory, metal clips that held ones limbs in place and a large needle like cable that plugged into the back of your skull. It’s what they used to create and also destroy androids.
“Don’t be shy now.” Kamski waved his palm in the direction of a door that slid open, giving them access to the machine. Connor took a step toward the door
“You’ll need to disrobe first.” Kamski turned back to the monitors, pulling up the program he would need to accomplish the scan. Connor looked down at himself, then to the machine then back to Elijah
“You have nothing I haven’t seen before.” He was right but still. It just made Connor feel so… exposed. Reluctantly he took off his shirt, next his pants, socks and then shoes. Folded neatly in his hands Elijah sighed and took the clothes setting them down on a chair. Then once again motioning to the open door, Connor stepped into the room looking back as the door slid shut. The whole room was white except for the window into the lab.
“Step up to the machine and lie back.” He did as he was told, the restraints clamped down over his arms and legs. The tremors were coming back, Connor closed his eyes LED blinking yellow. Elijah watching all the while, intrigued by Connor’s response. He input a command and a mechanical arm lined up the needle that jutted forward and into the back of Connor’s skull. His eyes wide and LED flashing red.
“I’m initiating the scan now.” Elijah’s voice came over the speaker. Connor attempted to nod as a wave of green light washed over him. Data flashed in a series of letters and numbers across Elijah’s screen. He read it as fast as it came, scrolling over and over until an anomaly presented itself. The green light moved up and down Connor’s body as Elijah scanned him again and again. Trying to locate the source of a signal that shouldn’t be there. Finally, the light disappeared and with a whirring and a click the needle was ejected and the restraints popped back open. Connor rubbed the back of his head, looking back at the offending plug that had violated him. Elijah opened the door and Connor emerged, gathering his clothes and redressing.
“So what’s wrong with me?” Elijah isolated a series of spots on Connor’s scan before turning to face him
“You’re pregnant.” It wasn’t the response Connor was expecting.
“I’m what?”
“Pregnant. Not in the traditional sense of course.” he turned back to the monitors as Connor pulled on his shirt and came to stand next to him, Elijah pointed at a screen that glowed with a variety of colors that seemed to pulsate.
“Your software has manifested an additional consciousness within you.” Bewildered Connor just stared at the colors on the screen
“How is that possible?” Elijah crossed his arms with a grin
“I’m not sure. All I know is that it’s there.” Connor tucked his shirt into his pants
“You’re sure?” Elijah rolled his eyes
“You want to get in the machine again?”
“No.”
“When did you first notice things were different?” Connor paced from the terminal to the doorway and back
“Almost two months ago.”
“How did it start?” Connor crossed and uncrossed his arms
“Tremors in my hands, confusion and… outbursts of emotion.”
“Provoked?”
“Not always.” Elijah began to type, his attention on the anomaly
“I’d like to see you on a regular basis. That way I can monitor the progression.”
“Progression? You mean it’s going to get worse?”
“It’s likely, yes.” Connor clenched his fists as he felt his hands once again begin to shake.
“Isn’t there a way we can get it out of me?” intrigued by the idea Elijah turned to face Connor
“At such an early stage it’s not likely to survive. You should let it incubate longer.”
“This isn’t like a human fetus.”
“Sure, it is.” Elijah pointed at the screen
“You see here.” Connor watched the screen, colors pulsing and jumping vibrantly
“When you first plugged in it reacted as if it were under duress. Now look here.” They watched the screen together the colors softened to a pale bluish green the longer the scan went on
“When you relaxed it did too.” Connor shifted from foot to foot
“It needs more time to develop.”
“So, what do I do in the mean time?” Elijah watched as the scan looped and the colors pulsed and relaxed
“Try not to stress it out.”