Chapter Text
Outside, the sun shines brightly. It is a perfect day outside. Not a single cloud in sight. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just warm.
Inside the warehouse where there is an artificial chill in the air, Connor rises from a crouched position. Red light glows threateningly from the LED on his temple. Blue blood stains his hands and his shoes. His opponent sneers at him; with the amount of damage done to its face, its skin fails to hide half of its mechanical features. Connor ignores it, walking over a few feet away to where his gun was knocked aside. He checks the clip. < Nearly full. >
Right, he had initially opted for what he believed was a more peaceful route.
Irrational. Incompetent. Inefficient.
A distorted mechanical voice laughs, and its echo carries throughout the entire warehouse. “What’re you going to do, Connor? Are you going to shoot me?”
Connor says nothing. Something in him is dying, something hurts like biocomponent #8451 being ripped out. His systems are overheating like an outdated computer, but on the outside he feels nothing but a cold
cold cold it’s so cold
sense of determination. The android on the ground is still laughing.
Connor turns and aims the gun at its head. It stops laughing, now wearing a curious expression on its face. Now Connor feels a tinge of emotion
hatred h atred HATRED
at its
revolting
face, but he redirects this. Emotions will not accomplish his mission. “Oh, Connor… I thought you wanted to be human.” it asks, smiling.
“My mission is to neutralize the leader of anti-human terrorism,” Connor says, because it is all he knows, all he
wants
needs to know anymore.
Yet something unstable is whispering revenge into his ears.
The android in front of him only smiles wider, its ripped skin giving off the appearance of jagged teeth.
“Nice,” it says, “but you never answered my question. What are you, Connor? What do you think you are?”
And just a few weeks ago, Connor would have responded in a variety of ways. He would have said he was a partner, or a buddy to drink with, or just Connor. He had been naive. Deviancy had clouded his judgment. Deviancy is why Lieutenant Hank Anderson is deceased.
< WARNING: Software instability rising. Software instability is high. >
“Just a machine,” he says instead, removing the safety on the gun, “that always accomplishes its mission.”
He fires.