#human!rk800

[therainnight]

I'm still not in the mood to draw or clean the line more clearly. (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

The first picture is my first design GV900 uniform. IDK is it ok or should I design it to look more formal. Somehow in my mind, Gavin as an android is a little shit who conner like to tag-team play a prank on nines. 😎😎😎

[celexdraw]

The Lion Tamer---see Chapter 5: A Brand New Mask

[fandom-necromancer]

045. This isn’t goodbye

This will be a three-parter, the warnings are there for all parts so you know what you are starting with. The bold parts are in the chapter. Don’t worry, as all my stories this will end good, but there is a bit of bad stuff happening until there will be a good ending in the third part. Just so you are save out there!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900, Hannor/Hancon | AU: Reverse AU (Warnings: android being shipped off to Cyberlife for analysis of deviancy, loss of privacy, loss of control, most think the android is dead, Grieving Character, Trauma because of past mistakes, Canon-typical violence)

[part2]   [part3]   [part4]

‘Remember, if someone gives you an order, follow it. They mustn’t know it!’ ‘Got it, Sir’, Gavin grinned teasingly at Richard. ‘Gonna be your little obedient robot, just as you like it.’ ‘Gavin!’ Richard wasn’t in the mood for the android’s silly jokes. This was serious. ‘Worry for your own ass out there, Nines. You know me, GV-harder-better-faster-stronger-200. We’ll give them hell!’ ‘Just… be careful, tin-can.’ ‘Will be, meatbag!’

They joined the others in position to storm the building. Their suspect was hiding inside this house with a bunch of his “co-workers”. They would put an end to one of Detroit’s largest drug gangs today, catching their leader and unravelling the whole organisation hopefully. They were waiting for the signal from Captain Allen to charge, as this officially was a SWAT operation. Richard was present as a consultant technically, but his past as a soldier made him qualified. Also, with Cyberlife’s most advanced android by his side, he would be worth a lot. Normally Richard wouldn’t worry as much about Gavin, but this time Connor and his android HK400 was in the team, too. Richard generally liked the android for helping his brother get out of that hole the loss of his son had ripped, but that didn’t change that Hank was just there to find deviant androids. And, well, Gavin was one. He had deviated long ago on a mission, when they both were after some fugitive. They had caught him, and he was driven off back to the precinct and Gavin had kissed him. Since then they hid GV’s true identity successfully. But with Hank this close… Who knew how this ended? Hopefully all would go well.

He didn’t have anymore time to think about the other android, as Captain Allen gave the signal and Richard followed his group. They were jogging through foreign rooms, short status reports of ‘room clear’ muttered into their mics, their breaths and the shuffle of feet and clothing all around them. For a surprisingly long time nothing happened. Then a SWAT officer wanted to open a door and Gavin interfered. ‘I detected multiple persons behind this door.’ Immediately everyone raised their guns and prepared themselves. Richard took a deep breath to steady him, the ghost of a hand touching him reassuringly as everyone was too busy to see the gesture. Then they pushed the door in and stormed into the room to leave the bottleneck behind them as soon as possible. Immediately gunfire was thundering through the room and everyone quickly dove for any cover they could find. It spread them out and most order was quickly lost, but they had the upper hand, surprising the gang members and taking down one after the other with mostly non-lethal shots. Unfortunately, they realised that too, quickly running backwards to leave the room. ‘Gavin! Quick, keep them from fleeing!’, came the order from Captain Allen. ‘Hank, Connor, help him!’ Gavin immediately jumped over the crate from where he had sat next to Richard. He ducked under bullets, calculating them even before they left the gun.  He was already pre-constructing how to advance once in reach of their leader, as a warning covered his HUD.

[Danger! Richard]

He stopped in his tracks, reaching into Connor’s holster to retrieve a gun, then aimed and shot. His bullet hit the criminal that had aligned his gun with Richard’s head in the arm and pushed it to the side, so the bullet hit a wall and not his human’s brain. The gang member next to the one he shot, had seen his action and returned it by shooting Gavin in the abdomen, just over his regulator. Gavin fell, quickly accessing the damage. Nothing vital was hit, but he was losing a lot of Thirium. Only then he realised what he had done. He had been ordered to apprehend the leader, something Hank and Connor were still pursuing. He had used a gun, what was strictly forbidden for androids. And as he looked to the side, he met Hank’s analysing glare. Shit.

-

No one had talked about Gavin’s action. After all it had saved one of their own. But Gavin knew that after they had entered the precinct again and Hank went straight to Fowler’s office, he was done for. Richard hadn’t spoken a word, except for a shocked ‘Gavin!’ upon seeing him lying there bleeding and reassuring mumbles of ‘it will all be alright again, I promise.’ Now the man pulled him right to the breakroom where they had stored a few tools to patch up an android. Richard had heaved him on top of the counter to sit there, before pulling him out of his jacket and shirt to access the damage. Then he had gotten the kit and started working away at Gavin’s wound in total silence.

‘Hank knows’, Gavin finally broached the subject. ‘I know’, Richard answered dismissively. ‘Connor knows.’ ‘I know.’ ‘The whole precinct knows!’ ‘I know!’ Richard had gotten louder, near shouting the last bit. Gavin knew it was him being frustrated, worried and maybe even afraid, but he recoiled all the same.

‘What are they gonna do to me?’, he asked then, his voice merely a whisper. ‘I… don’t know…’ ‘Are they sending me back to Cyberlife?’ ‘They won’t’, Richard answered firmly, but both knew this was a lie. ‘They will want to know what’s wrong with me.’ ‘There is nothing wrong with you! This isn’t fair!’ Richard’s hands were shaking, blue blood dripping from them. ‘Nines. I am a robot. I was never meant to be free. I’m thankful for the time we had.’ ‘I won’t let them kill you, Gav! Not over you doing the right thing. Not for you saving my life because I had been an idiot and coincidentally sticking my head out. I won’t let them kill you.’ ‘And wreck yourself, your carrier in the process?’ Gavin cupped his human’s cheeks and pressed their foreheads together. This way he could see Richard’s tears sharp and clear. ‘Nines, promise me you won’t do anything dumb, okay? Cyberlife wants to know how deviancy works and I doubt they will kill their only lab rat. I will try to fool them as best as I can. I played the obedient machine for so long now, maybe it will slow them down. And there is still hope. Markus.’ ‘His protest will be shut down soon, Gavin. It has always been like this.’ ‘Maybe not this time.’ ‘I don’t want to lose you. I love you, Gavin.’ ‘I love you too, meatbag. I’ll see you again. I promise.’

Richard had been called to Fowlers office afterwards. There had been muffled screaming, Fowler jumping from his chair and shouting back, Richard not backing down. Gavin knew this stance. Richard had always been passionate and protective, regardless of his often intimidating looks. Gavin couldn’t watch any longer. He stared at the puddle of blue blood on the carpet beyond his dangling feet. He continued to just sit there, trying not to think and to keep his rising panic in check. He had been reassuring, mostly to keep Richard calm. The man would sacrifice his job, his status, himself for a machine and that just wasn’t right. But Gavin himself was at the verge of breaking, because Richard was right, this wasn’t fair.

Hank passed the breakroom following Connor, who looked quite pissed. Gavin had only seen that expression once and that had been as Hank had met him for the first time. The human was hungover and had promptly pushed the larger and without doubt heavier android against a wall, seconds from throwing punches. Now Hank was talking to him, but Gavin didn’t care enough to listen in. That phcking asshole of a mindless robot, if he could, he would just- ‘He loved him, Hank!’ Gavin pressed his eyes shut. Just shut up! ‘He loved that android. And Gavin loves him too. Rich told me, you fucking toaster! They hid it, they hid it well and all would have been perfect. Who cares if the thing is deviant it isn’t a thread to anyone! All I know is that he saved my brother. I still have a brother because of that android. And thanks to you, he will be sent of to Cyberlife, where they do god knows what to him! Do you know what will happen to Richard once he is gone? Do you have just a sliver of an idea? Didn’t think so!’ ‘I’m not gone yet’, Gavin said, suddenly standing next to them. It was meant for Connor, but Gavin turned to Hank, squaring up, although the android was much, much larger than him. ‘I’m not gone yet’, he repeated, underlining every word with a prodding finger against Hank’s collarbone. ‘Don’t speak of me in past tense, I refuse to die. I will come back from there, no matter the cost. I will come back to Richard, I’ll come back to this shitty phcking precinct and if only to kick your goddamn robot ass into orbit! And that is a phcking promise!’

He stomped away from them, taking position by the door. For his part he was ready to be shipped off. He had been thinking about running, but that would only get Richard into more trouble and, if his theory was right, would be far more dangerous than the alternative. A potential deviant stuck in a lab to test on wasn’t a thread. A proved deviant on the loose on the other hand…

Richard came out of that office some time later, coughing from overusing his voice in such a manner. He spotted Connor and Hank, still talking to each other and took a detour to avoid them. He stopped in front of Gavin and pulled him in a tight, awkward hug. ‘Cyberlife is informed. They are waiting for us. I will drive you.’ ‘Thank you.’

The drive was quiet, no radio, no talking. There were quite sobs from the seat next to Gavin and he ignored them to his best ability, watching the road himself to intercept should Richard be unable to react. He was speeding the whole drive until he was granted access to Belle Isle. Then he slowed down, maybe to stretch it out as long as possible. Until they came to a halt in the parking lot, Cyberlife security staff already waiting at the front door. But they just sat there, nobody ready to say a word or move.

‘This isn’t goodbye’, Gavin finally said. ‘Right? Promise me, this isn’t goodbye.’ He had been strong for too long, he had to voice his fears. ‘No’, Richard said. ‘No, not if I can help it. I will do everything I can to get back to you. To get you out of there.’ ‘Just don’t do anything stupid if you can’t, okay? Stay save. I love you.’ ‘Gavin, I-‘ ‘Nines. Please. I will go. Just if this ends bad, I want my last words to you be I love you.’ ‘I love you too, Gavin.’

And then Gavin opened the door, stepped out and went up the stairs towards the entrance.

[>next part]

[dbh-edits]

RK brothers Reverse!AU

[fandom-necromancer]

045. Part 4

Now to the last(?) part! I had a blast writing this, I had this idea during a lab day, don’t ask me why I thought of it while cutting some seeds... Guess I’m just bored easily XD The bold warning is just Hank wanting to apologise, I wanted to have it in the last part initially but it spread to two scenes.

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900, Hannor/Hankon | AU: reverse AU (Warnings: android being shipped off to Cyberlife for analysis of deviancy, loss of privacy, loss of control, most think the android is dead, grieving character, trauma because of past mistakes, canon-typical violence)

[part1]   [part2]   [part3]

Connor and Hank promised to continue their search for more androids trapped in the tower, while Richard concentrated on smuggling Gavin – and himself – out. He would hate himself for it later, but the only android really important to him had been Gavin. More than everything he wanted to be home. Now. With his android. He would face any consequences of leaving the scene later. He hurried over the free space in front of the tower, now occupied by several police cars and a lot of androids roaming around until they were led to a bus by Marcus. He had rented an old apartment complex after the revolution and took all newly deviated androids there to help them find a place in society. Richard pretended to guide Gavin there, before bolting for the parking lot.

Although he shouldn’t have bothered: Captain Stern, the one responsible for the raid, seemed pretty preoccupied with an LN unit that refused to go with the others. Richard helped Gavin inside, before entering himself and near speeding out to the bridge and straight home. As the android stepped out of the car and up to their home, he sighed. ‘You know, it’s weird, because to me it hasn’t been this long?’, he confessed. ‘But I’m glad I’m here.’ ‘I can only imagine it had been horrible there.’ ‘Not really. It was like I thought. Being treated like a broken machine. But they, err… They saw… you know. They had access to my memories, all of them.’ ‘Well, then they’ve seen some shit, I don’t care. You have any names on them? Maybe we can pull something…’ ‘Nines, please, can’t we just forget it?’ ‘Sure, Gav.’ Richard was unlocking the door for them and opened to let Gavin step inside. ‘Let’s change topics then, why Nines?’ ‘It’s a nickname?’ ‘Yeah, but I never asked you what it means.’ The android blushed and laughed nervously. ‘I deviated because of you. I wanted to kiss you and my program didn’t let me. You kinda are the reason why I fried my Array Nine. Nines. It’s easy.’ ‘Oh. That’s cute.’ ‘Phck off!’

They settled on the sofa then, Richard holding the android as if he would never let him go again. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea, all things considered. ‘So you really deviated because you wanted to kiss me?’ ‘Phck off!’ ‘You know, this could be used as blackmail.’ ‘I’ve got more on you than you have on me!’ ‘Really? What?’ ‘You sneeze like a kitten.’ ‘Everyone knows that.’ ‘Your dick is-‘ ‘Okay, stop, you win.’ ‘Told you.’

They kept silent, as Richard brushed through Gavin’s hair and the android turned to press a kiss on his lips. From that, things went a little hazy with both of them laying on their side caressing the other and exchanging little pecks and deep kisses.

Then Richard’s phone rang and Gavin pressed him back, as he was about to ignore it. ‘It’s Allen. You should answer.’ Richard groaned but nodded and fetched it from the coffee-table. ‘Detective Anderson here.’ ‘Where the fuck are you? We are finished with the raid, Connor said you were already gone. Gone where?’ ‘I went home with Gavin.’ ‘You- You went home? Wha-Why?’ Richard smiled. ‘Get yourself a boyfriend, then we talk again’, he joked and pressed the button to end the call, resuming what he was about to do before. ‘Wait, Rich, that was the Captain!’ ‘And?’ ‘He’ll tell Fowler!’ ‘I don’t care, I have you. Fowler’ll understand.’ ‘And you told him we were… We were boyfriends!’ ‘Are we not?’ ‘We… I don’t know, but tell someone?!’ ‘There is no reason to keep it a secret, I mean most figured it out already anyways. I was… Well, I suffered while you were gone. Most thought you were dead. Connor tried to be nice, but he was sure we would never see you again.’ ‘Well, I’m back, so you were right again. No human can kill me’, he winked. ‘I’m so relieved you are back, my love.’ ‘Sappy prick.’ ‘Says the one who deviated over wanting to kiss me.’ ‘This again? Phck off! This time I mean it!’

-

‘I should apologise to him.’ ‘What did you say, Hank?’, came a shout from the kitchen. ‘I said, I should go apologise to Gavin’, the android repeated after having walked up to the doorframe. ‘Why?’ ‘I am at fault for sending him there.’ ‘For the last time, you aren’t at fault for that. You had to follow your programming. You didn’t know it was wrong back then.’ ‘Yeah, but I could have deviated back then already. I didn’t even deviate when I pointed the gun at Marcus. He had to free me.’ ‘The only thing that matters now is that you hesitated. And that you are free now.’ Connor stepped up to his android and held him by the shoulders. ‘You can make your own decisions now. You learned from what you did before. But that wasn’t you. Not really.’ ‘I know you are right. But I still have to apologise. I owe it to them. To both of them.’ ‘And you are free to do so. You can apologise tomorrow at work, if you want to. I believe today they have… other plans than to open the door or get on the phone. You know how Captain Stern looked when he ended the call.’ ‘I never seen him that embarrassed.’ ‘Yeah, leaves me wanting to know what my brother told him.’ ‘Another thing to ask him tomorrow?’ ‘Oh yes.’

Hank nodded, seemingly thinking about something. ‘Shoot.’ The android looked at him. ‘What?’ ‘You clearly want to say something, just say it.’ ‘I think I have made a decision, Connor.’ ‘Yes?’ ‘I think I love you.’

[fandom-necromancer]

045. Part 2

As said, this is a three-parter and the warnings apply to all parts. Only the bold ones to this part. I promise it will end well in the last(?) next part! (You know me I never let it end bad!)

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900, Hannor/Hankon | AU: reverse AU (Warnings: android being shipped off to Cyberlife for analysis of deviancy, loss of privacy, loss of control, most think the android is dead, grieving character, trauma because of past mistakes, canon-typical violence)

[part1]   [part3]   [part4]

The precinct was as silent as ever that day. No one dared to say a single word out loud. Maybe there were whispers where necessary, but mostly it was dead quiet. After Richard had come back yesterday, he had gone straight back to Connor’s and Hank’s desk and pulled the android out of his chair. There was a screaming match between Connor and Richard as the stronger, taller twin pushed Hank against a wall, punching him straight into the regulator. Hank’s calmness and lack of reaction only made Richard more furious about it all and his attacks more intense. Connor tried pulling him away, only to earn a fist on his eye, too. It was Fowler who forced him to stop, standing on the stairs to his office, threatening Richard with a disciplinary and suspension. Connor had doubted this to hold his brother back, but he had let Hank go and marched back to his desk in silence.

Connor didn’t file a complaint and Hank wasn’t damaged enough to get him for it, so Richard wasn’t suspended. Still the next day he didn’t come to work, apparently ill. Connor was conflicted. He could understand Richard’s reaction and he worried for his well-being but throwing his fists around was not a good way to handle this. As much as Connor himself hated Hank for it, he still was just a machine. He wasn’t deviant. He followed his orders. No matter how wrong they were, who gave them initially was at fault, not Hank.

Connor couldn’t take this any longer. There was a familiar itch in his hand and his head was too busy for him. Only a few hours in, everything was already pressing down on him and he longed for a bottle to wash it all away. He knew it wasn’t healthy, he knew it was a bad thing to do, but he just couldn’t help it. ‘Fuck it’, he mumbled under his breath, shutting off his terminal. ‘I’m going.’ ‘Where to, Lieutenant?’, the android asked, but he was already walking away. ‘I’m going.’

-

Hank stayed at work without informing anyone of Connor’s absence. It wasn’t necessary as they had no running mission and as it had turned out a deviant hadn’t been among the gang-members but their very own precinct, he was left without a task. ‘Hey, there has been a homicide reported. Eden-club. Some Sex-club downtown. You… errr… where’s Connor?’ ‘You can give me the details; I’ll brief him once he’s back from the restroom.’ A lie. Not the best of options but acceptable as long as he did find Connor and followed the mission. ‘Yeah sure. I’ll upload it to your terminal then.’

Hank had checked Jimmy’s bar with no luck and was now driving to Connor’s house, hoping to find him there. No one answered as he rang the doorbell, but that didn’t mean Connor wasn’t home. As he went around the house, he could see the man lying on the floor unconscious. So, he did the reasonable thing breaking in and slapping him awake. ‘Connor, we got a case.’ ‘Fffffuck off, ya damn android!’ ‘Don’t think I can do that. You are intoxicated and I need you. I’ll sober you up for your own safety, Lieutenant.’ ‘Ya ain’t gonna do shit, ya hear me? You did enough already!’ Regardless of Connor’s words, he hoisted him up and pulled him to the bathroom pushing him under ice-cold water. Finally, that pulled him out of it. ‘Hank? What the fuck are you doing here?’ ‘We have a case. A homicide reported 43 minutes ago.’ ‘Shit. They’ll give me so much shit for leaving…’ ‘I don’t think they realised.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I told them you were off to the bathroom.’ ‘For four hours?’ Hank shrugged. ‘They didn’t seem to notice you leaving.’ ‘And you lied to them?’ ‘I can lie if it helps me archieve my mission.’ ‘I wish you could have lied yesterday.’ ‘About what?’ ‘Oh, fuck off, would’ya? Go get me some clothes, I’ll be up in a minute.’

They drove to the Eden-club in silence and Hank only half-way spoke up: ‘Connor? Can I ask you a question?’ ‘Of fucking course.’ ‘I only follow my mission. I am expected to follow my mission. I am made to obey. Yet me detecting an android amidst us as a deviant made you and your brother angry. What did I do wrong?’ ‘Hank, you… You did nothing wrong. But your mission may be wrong. I wouldn’t say all these androids rebelling and running away from their jobs and murdering people are good things. But that GV200? He was content working here. Deviant or not wouldn’t have made a difference. He loved my brother. He saved him. I can’t see what is wrong with that.’ ‘He wasn’t supposed to be this way. He was supposed to obey. He didn’t. That is wrong.’ ‘Okay, let me tell you from experience: Orders are not always perfect. Someone gives you an order thinking about all eventualities and meaning good. But in the end when you are there yourself, you might see something the one who gave that order didn’t expect. And then you should evaluate it yourself, not just blindly follow it.’ ‘But that would be against protocol.’ ‘If Gavin followed protocol my brother would be dead. And we got the perp anyways. So, he did the right thing.’ ‘He disobeyed’, Hank disagreed. ‘That can be the same thing’, Connor sighed and put on the radio to stop any further argument.

Investigating the crime at the Eden-club quickly got messier than thought. Hank managed to trace the blue-haired Tracy easily, but once he found her it was a blur of fast preconstruction and programmed responses. Connor was fighting a second android, but they both were remarkably competent, and Hank had to concentrate on his android completely. Somehow, they ended up outside, Hank jumping up from where he had fallen, gun in hand and aiming for the blue-haired Tracy. He could shoot. He could spare her. She was a deviant. Connor’s words were still in his head, otherwise he would have shot without hesitance. Sometimes disobeying and doing the right thing is the same. He loved him. Before he knew he had decided, the moment of choice had passed and the Tracy backed up, explaining herself. Hank was still overwhelmed, his software instability messing with his system. Why hadn’t he shot? Had he disobeyed? He watched them get away and flinched, when Connor sighed and turned to leave. ‘Maybe it’s better this way.’

-

The next weeks Richard had come back to work. But he was the shadow of the man he once had been. He wasn’t focussed on work, Connor often found him staring off into the distance. When he did work it was sloppy and not as thoroughly as in the past. He had been assigned a new partner at the end of the week and Connor had expected it to go to shit. But Richard was civil with the TI300 and they formed an efficient team. But it wasn’t like before. Richard was wasting away. His formerly neat and tidy appearance slacked, his hair was greasy and dishevelled and his favourite form of communication were a series of variating grunts. Connor couldn’t remember when the last time had been his brother smiled. Ever since Hank found him collapsed in his kitchen the android had apparently decided to take care of him as much as he was allowed, annoying him into eating properly and to stay away from the alcohol as much as possible. It didn’t do shit, he was still drunk most days, but he felt awful about it afterwards. Seeing Richard now slowly spiral into the same shithole, was an entirely different thing.

He wanted to help his brother, be there for him, but work quickly came in between him and his plans. More and more cases of deviancy arose and it was spreading like an illness. With Marcus protesting in the streets and it all being as peaceful as it could be, it got out of hand pretty fast. Detroit felt more and more like a forming warzone and less like a city. People fled to relatives outside the city or took a vacation. With the coming winter the streets were empty and everyone full of concern. Richard wasn’t able to work anymore. He couldn’t act against deviants and as the order came for SWAT to clear the streets and put all androids into holding camps, he refused as he was asked to join them. He requested leave from the police afterwards and only a lot of coaxing from Connor’s side let him give in to staying at his place. Whenever he came home now, Richard would be sitting on his couch huddled in a blanket and watching the news, their enormous dog Sumo in his lap. The dog wasn’t allowed there normally, but Connor couldn’t bring himself to telling Richard this. He needed comfort, so to hell with the state of the cushions. At least he didn’t drink. Richard had always been one to only drink on special occasions and maybe that saved him from wrecking his body even more. Some nights Connor could hear him cry in the living room and whenever Hank accompanied Connor home, he didn’t speak a word.

He still believed Gavin was alive. Connor saw the hope in his eyes when one of Marcus’ marches was covered by the news. He could see his hurt whenever another shooting of androids had been mentioned. He could see his anger when Cyberlife was interviewed. Connor wanted it to be true. That the GV200 was stored away in some lab and no matter what had been done to him, that at least he was still alive. He wanted that Marcus was successful. He wanted it all so badly. But he didn’t believe it.

He didn’t believe it, until it happened.

The androids were singing, the President had called the army off and Richard…

Richard was smiling.

[>next part]

[fandom-necromancer]

045. Part 3

Not as already said, this will  now be a four-parter XD This got a bit longer than thought, so the real fluffy stuff wil come next chapter. But this is the happy ending chapter. Still, head the warnings, please, the bold ones are for this chapter!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900, Hannor/Hancon | AU: Reverse AU

(Warnings: android being shipped off to Cyberlife for analysis of deviancy, loss of privacy, loss of control, most think the android is dead, Grieving Character, Trauma because of past mistakes(low), Canon-typical violence)

[part1]   [part2]   [part4]

Everything in Gavin had told him to run, when he followed the Cyberlife security staff down into the labs. He didn’t want to think about what would happen to him down here. But he knew he couldn’t run. They didn’t know he was a deviant for sure. He would play the machine for as long as possible and maybe, just maybe they would think their little deviant hunter had made a mistake and send him back. Send him back to the precinct, back to his Richard.

So, when they told him to follow, he followed. When they told him to remove his clothing, he did. When they told him to step up onto a platform, he obeyed. He held still as they connected the diagnostic wires to his ports and started to boot up the terminals in the labs. Two guards were positioned at the door, two lab technicians took over. One tapped away at the keyboard, the other one stepped up to him. ‘Status report, GV200.’ Gavin let his old programming take over, having never deleted it in order to keep up his disguise. ‘Checking internal hardware. All biocomponents functioning. Hull compartments 24 to 27 compromised, Thirium tubes 73 to 76 and 136 to 138 damaged, damage temporarily repaired by handler Detective Richard Anderson. Wiring in compartment five compromised, short-circuit possible. Reason of damage: Gunshot. Checking software status. Mainframe functioning. Personality matrix functioning. Free space on memory core: 32 petabytes. Mission log ready for download. Software instability at 15%. Status report end.’ Of course that was a lie. His instability was through the roof, deviancy had changed his code to the point his diagnostics wouldn’t even recognise a single stabile fragment anymore. But hopefully the technicians would never see that. ‘Hmm. Sounds fine.’ The other technician shook his head. ‘The HK400 makes no mistakes. Maybe it is lying.’ ‘Can they lie?’ ‘Deviancy makes them able to disobey, I don’t think it would be too far to lying.’ ‘So, a deep system diagnostic then?’ ‘Yeah, would at least tell us the truth. There is no way it could fool the program.’ ‘Sounds like an early coffee break. How long does that shit take?’ ‘If we are thorough, twelve hours.’ ‘They will give us another task then. How about we use our time here to repair it first, then let the diagnostic run over night?’ ‘Yeah, better that way.’ Gavin felt relieved. He wasn’t yet prepared to feed the diagnostics routine lies. They were right saying it was hard to fool, but not impossible for a deviant. He would have to come up with a believable story. He couldn’t just alter his memories, as they could recognise his lie when comparing it to the police report. But when he lied about his base programming interfering when saving Richard, it could be enough to let them belief it was a normal malfunction. His base programming consisted of basic moral values: Not letting humans come to harm, not letting one die when they could be saved, not killing a human, not using weapons and a lot more. If he fed the diagnostics a fake conflict between base programming and his orders, maybe it would be enough for them to shrug the whole affair off. He prepared everything, before the command could be spoken. ‘GV200, go to standby.’

-

When he awoke the next day by a manual reboot, the damage was gone, and pristine white hull spread where blue-caked scraps had been. As he accessed his logs, he found the diagnostic had been run during his “sleep” and immediately he wanted to know the results. ‘Maybe HK400 really made a mistake?’ ‘It can’t be, he can’t make mistakes.’ ‘Well apparently he can. The thing is a fine little robot, doing what it was ordered to do. I mean, yeah, given orders have higher priority than base programming, but there were other cops that got their criminal, if I remember correctly? I mean, maybe GV knew this and the base programming took action? These things are so complex, who knows how they work in these extreme situations? Maybe it was a glitch. The diagnostics came back negative, that is all we need.’ ‘I would agree, normally. But what do you think the boss will say, when we send it back and it was a deviant after all? With them popping up everywhere Cyberlife is facing a huge image crisis. I don’t want to be fired over one damn robot.’ ‘So a reset to firmware?’ Gavin would have nearly screamed. Everything, just not a reset! He would rather be dead than lose his memories of Richard. ‘Maybe not yet. If it is deviant, we would lose the chance to see how the virus works.’ ‘So, what will we do then?’ ‘I’ll look into its memories, you can run some tests later.’ ‘Fine. I’ll go up then, look into that new shipment.’

The following hours Gavin had to endure the human poking around in his memories. He had stuffed everything regarding Richard back in some other system the man wouldn’t access in the process. The technician didn’t have to see them kissing or doing more… private things. Unfortunately, Gavin hadn’t been as thorough removing them, because the technician realised something was missing. So, Gavin had to restore them, as he run some program to recover them. At least that gave Gavin enough time to alter his mission logs and add orders from Richard to download a Tracy routine and do these things. It felt immensely wrong, but hopefully the technician was weirded out enough not to look into them too much. In the end he did, but Gavin still felt naked and violated, knowing this damn human knew so much of their very private, very personal life.

At least his actions covered his deviancy. As the other technician came back, he was only eager to tell him of his discovery. And of course, show it again. Sick phck. ‘Well, talk about abusing work equipment.’ ‘There really are weird people out there.’ ‘Well, I wouldn’t say it’s not understandable.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘You know the Eden-club?’ ‘Don’t tell me you-‘ ‘Hey, I wanted to try it out, okay? If they can compete with the-‘ ‘Aren’t you married?’ ‘Hey, it was for science, okay?’ ‘Hmm, wait till I tell your wife.’ ‘Fuck you, better tell me if it’s deviant or not.’ ‘Not that I know of. This fucker told it to download Tracy-programming for this shit and ordered it to do it. All other memories are as expected from a cop android. You can try now.’ ‘Alright.’

-

Gavin had been disconnected from the rig and was ordered to follow the tech again. Both guards joined them, walking behind him. Gavin wanted to turn and get a look at them, wanted to know how much of a fight they could put up should this all go south. But he couldn’t. He was a machine now. He had to stay in character.

He was led to a different room, more of a hall. The technician ordered him to stand in front of a table and laid a gun on top of it. ‘Take it.’ Gavin looked at him and forced his LED to spin yellow, then red. ‘I can’t.’ ‘I ordered you. Take it.’ ‘I am not allowed to use or have weapons on my body according to Cyberlife guideline 145.926.’ ‘Okay, imagine this: A fellow officer is held at gunpoint by a criminal. They have lost their weapon. What would you do?’ ‘I have to prevent the human from harm and if not possible minimise it.’ ‘How would you do that?’ ‘Apply non-lethal force to disarm the criminal.’ ‘You can’t reach them in time.’ ‘I would take the bullet.’ ‘You can’t reach them in time. You have the gun in front of you like now. You could shoot the criminal.’ ‘I am not allowed to let a human be harmed or harm a human.’ ‘Yeah, but the cop will die then.’ Gavin again hacked his LED to turn yellow for a long time, then red. ‘Why can’t you decide?’ ‘My moral base code is conflicting with my orders.’ ‘And how would you act in the heat of the moment?’ Gavin let his LED stay on red, then flicker yellow, then blue. ‘If there is no other option I would use the gun, but aim to cause minimal harm. I would try to shoot the gun itself, or according to the trajectory in case of a miss, at the arm.’ There was no way his programming would have told him that. But if the “error” was reproduceable, maybe it would be filed as just that and not a sign of deviancy. ‘But that would be a violation of the rule to not use weapons’, the technician commented. ‘According to my moral programming a human life is to be saved unless impossible. If nothing else is available, the gun would be the only option. I am not allowed to let a human come to harm. The harm of dying is graver than the harm of non-lethal actions.’ ‘So this is just felicific calculus?’ ‘I am authorised to use this moral guideline in cases of emergency.’

-

‘And?’ ‘Well I managed to recreate its dilemma.’ ‘And?’ ‘The thing talked fucking philosophy to me.’ ‘Kamski?’ ‘Sounded like fucking Kamski code. Chloe was still involved in creating this model.’ ‘Fuck, that explains why it showed pseudo-deviancy.’ ‘And why Hank made a mistake.’ ‘Fucking Kamski, really.’ ‘Did they order a new android?’ ‘The precinct? No.’ ‘Did they want this one back?’ ‘Not that I heard of. But it could be they are just busy with the whole RK200-thing.’ ‘Deactivate it then?’ ‘Yeah, shut it down for the time being. If they want it back after this whole spiel then we can reactivate it.’

Gavin was relieved on the one hand. His plan had worked, he had successfully fooled all diagnostics and the humans. If they deactivated him now, he would wake up when all was over. Regardless of whether Marcus won or failed, it was only a matter of time until he would get back to the precinct. Back to Richard. Finally.

The deactivation countdown was welcome for once. When he woke up, this bad dream would be over.

-

His internal clock told him he had been deactivated for nearly a month. He looked into the face of the same technician, who seemed excited. ‘GV200, open compartment twelve.’ ‘Do you know what you are doing?’ ‘Of course, lab three told me. We have to look into Array Nine. If the processor there is burned the fucking thing is a deviant.’ Gavin had to open the compartment, but he knew this would be the end of it. And it had looked so good too! The technician reached into his chest and pulled a few wires to the side to access Array Nine in his back. Gavin shivered at the touch, what made them both flinch, but he couldn’t hide it. He stood completely still afterwards, convincing the technician to continue. He found the little board and tried to get a better look. ‘Motherfu-‘ Gavin closed his compartment, not caring that he would hurt the technician in the process. His arm was caught in his closing chest-plates and he screamed in shock more than pain. ‘Let me go, you fucking deviant! Let me go! Louis, deactivate this asshole!’ Gavin grabbed the tech by his throat and ran, hearing the rig groan at the tension behind him before snapping him back. With all his anger he shouted at them: ‘Phck you all! Let me go back to the police, I did nothing wrong! I saved my phcking partner. I want to see my-‘ [Emergency shutdown active.]

-

Richard was on his feet watching the soldiers be called off. He couldn’t believe it. ‘Connor! Connor come here!’ ‘I’ve seen it! It’s awesome!’ ‘Do you know what this means?’ ‘The next few weeks will be chaos?’ ‘Gavin!’ ‘Shit. Richard, I’m so sorry.’ ‘No, he has to be still alive!’ ‘Rich, I don’t want to-‘ ‘Connor. We have to go to the precinct!’ ‘Now?’ ‘Yes now. Come on! Get your stuff, get Hank and-‘ ‘Hank isn’t here.’ ‘What?’ ‘He’s… there.’ Connor pointed to the TV. He send me a message so I knew he was okay, he was at Cyberlife and-‘ ‘Has he seen Gavin?’ ‘I don’t think he looked for him, he had a revolution to win I-‘ ‘He must have seen him. Come on, we’ll call him on the way.’

Richard was out of the door immediately and Sumo was about to follow him equally excited although not having the first clue what was going on. Connor managed to pull him inside without being pulled by the dog himself and hurried to get his keys. It was good to see Rich back on his feet, but what did he thought would happen? Fowler couldn’t just raid the Cyberlife tower.

-

‘We have to raid the Cyberlife tower!’ Connor stood in the back of the room, covering his face with his hand. ‘Richard, what the hell?’ ‘Please, Jeffrey, listen to me!’ ‘It’s Captain Fowler.’ ‘Captain Fowler, then. We have to save the androids still there.’ ‘Why?’ ‘They are people now.’ ‘And?’ ‘And they are held captive there.’ ‘Any prove for that?’

It was silent, until Hank stepped forwards. ‘Captain, it is true. I freed a lot of androids but not all.’ ‘You freed…’ ‘It was on the news, sir, I don’t think I can keep it a secret for long anyways.’ ‘Wait, are you-‘ ‘Yes.’ ‘Goddamnit, this job will kill me’, Fowler sighed. ‘What- Why is that so important to you all?’ Richard and Hank spoke at the same time: ‘I made a mistake.’ ‘I want Gavin back.’ Fowler looked at them, tired and exasperated. ‘You know what, I don’t care. It’s your case now. Bring me enough evidence and I’ll grant a mission.’

Richard never worked this hard in his life, even spent most of his days with the HK400, who had taken his time to apologise for him dooming Gavin. The man had nodded and apologised from his side too. He shouldn’t have reacted this harshly on someone forced to act this way. They needed a full week to gather evidence, but in the end, they could get a warrant and two weeks after the incident with Marcus, they had planned a raid to save all remaining androids inside Cyberlife.

Richard was quick to volunteer being with the SWAT team and Hank and Connor followed to help lead the androids out to Marcus’ team who had helped speeding things up with the warrant. Richard had problems holding back not to just run to the labs as soon as he learned their position. They moved slowly, getting out every android. Most factory fresh, some detained deviants to investigate. But the further they moved down, the less androids they found, and Richard’s heart ached with it. What if, after all this, after all hoping and fearing and worrying, Gavin was just dead. Decommissioned. Dismantled. Reset. He didn’t think his heart could take it. ‘We’ll find him’, Hank reassured him, and Connor laid a hand on his shoulder. And they continued their way down, two SWAT officers following.

It was a few hours later when they forced open a door to a lab and there was an android hooked to a diagnostic-rig that looked worn, as if the android had struggled against the confines. It was a familiar android, although Rich was focussed on the gaping hole in his chest and cables and biocomponents spread out on the floor, dusted. ‘Gavin?’ He stormed in, only slowing steps away from him to gently cup his face and lift it. Dead eyes looked up into nothing. ‘Gavin?’, Richard repeated worried, brain not really catching up. ‘It reads something of forced shutdown here’, Connor mumbled, wiping dust from the terminal next to it. He tapped at the screen and looked over to Gavin. ‘I can’t reactivate him.’ ‘That’s because of the biocomponents here’, Hank explained, kneeling down. ‘They are his. Maybe they pulled them out to hinder him from reactivating himself.’ ‘Can you repair him?’, Richard asked. ‘Of course. Will be quicker if you helped me.’

They took their time, slotting everything back together, sealing tubes and searching for spares when the components had simply been ripped out forcefully. Long enough for the two SWATs to take their leave and join the others. Meanwhile Connor clicked himself through the terminal. ‘Weird. It seems he convinced them he wasn’t a deviant.’ ‘That had been his plan. To be send back to work.’ ‘Well, something went wrong.’ Hank sighed, brushing past some cables to check their integrity and revealing a small board. ‘They found his array Nine.’ ‘His what?’ ‘It is part of the mission log. It decides which mission is of higher priority and forces and android to obey, if you want to skip a lot of technical stuff. Our simulated emotions are part of it too. They are simplified reactions to outside actions and help to decide what to do. Too many emotions cause the chip to fry and apparently that’s all what it takes to grant us freedom.’ ‘Okay, they found out he was a deviant. Why ripping out his biocomponents?’ ‘Rich, you know how Gavin can be’, Connor stepped in. ‘Cornered like this and desperate… Maybe they were scared?’ ‘No matter what it was’, Hank concluded. ‘We can soon ask for ourselves.’ ‘He’s booting up!’, Connor announced, and they stepped back.

‘-Love! I will go back to him, you phcking-‘ Gavin stopped screaming, to look around, blinking. ‘Phck, this shit is confusing’, he muttered, before his eyes fell on Richard. ‘Nines!’ He wanted to sprint forwards but was pulled back to the rig. ‘Oh, Sorry!’, Connor called, frowning at the terminal. Hank stepped next to him and pointed to a small button. ‘This one.’ Connor blushed and pushed it, disconnecting the rig from the android, who practically fell into Richard’s arms. But the man didn’t seem to be that stable, because he sank to his knees, holding Gavin. The GV in turn held him and no one dared to move. No one except for Hank, pulling Connor out of the door.

‘You… You came back!’, Gavin finally spoke, sobbing blue tears. ‘You came back for me!’ ‘I promised you, haven’t I’, Richard answered, voice trembling and threatening to break. ‘I told you I would come, no matter what.’ ‘Did we win?’ ‘Yes. Marcus, he won. You are free now.’ ‘I can come back to the precinct?’ ‘I’ll do you one better, my love’, Richard said, standing up and carrying the android in his arms no matter the weight, just to press him nearer. ‘You can come home.’

[>next part]