I created an aesthetic to go with this fic, the link can be found on my profile /
This is unbeta'd so please forgive any mistakes. Some dialogue has been taken directly from the game. I hope you enjoy!


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"Hank, I-"

"Now leave me alone... Go on; complete your mission, since that's all you care about. Get outta here!"

Connor turned from Hank, an odd discontented heaviness settling within him. He moved towards the front door, his LED flashing wildly in bright yellow. He felt strange; everything around him appeared distorted and each step he took towards the door seemed to take an eternity.

He did not like seeing Lieutenant Anderson upset. He was accustomed to a cantankerous yet spirited Lieutenant but this, this was different. The Lieutenant was despondent, and that resigned moroseness unsettled Connor. It worried him. Connor was not familiar with feeling things like this; he was not used to feeling things at all.

Connor paused when he reached the door, his hand barely touching the door knob. For some reason he felt compelled to turn around, to look back at the Lieutenant. Maybe it was the way Lieutenant Anderson had been slumped at the table looking so defeated, or the way he looked at the picture of Cole with the revolver sitting in front of him like an ill omen. Perhaps it was the way the Lieutenant said that he had wanted to believe in Connor, said that Connor might have restored his faith in the world, but how instead Connor's callousness made him realise that androids were just as selfish, ruthless, and brutal as humans. Or maybe it was the way he said that everything was hopeless.

Whatever it was it affected Connor enough that, without full awareness, he turned his head ever so slightly to sneak a glance back. And what he saw shattered his world.

Lieutenant Anderson, still sitting at the kitchen table, had his eyes closed and the revolver pointed at his temple.

Connor's eyes widened in horror as he realised what was happening - Hank was about to shoot himself. His LED turned red.

"No," Connor screamed, not knowing if he had actually shouted the word out loud or if it was just in his mind.

Connor railed against his programming. The programming that ordered him to turn around and walk out the door, that told him he had a mission to complete, that the mission was all that mattered, that no human life should interfere with the mission, that Hank was expendable.

Red light filled his vision. Error and warning messages screamed at him, demanding that he stop his insubordination.

"No," Connor yelled again as with all his might he punched, kicked and tore at the walls of programming built around him.

Despite his programming and the importance of his mission he had enjoyed his time with Lieutenant Anderson. The Lieutenant had a sarcastic yet droll sense of humour that Connor found difficult to fully understand at times but one which he had enjoyed nonetheless. He didn't want to work on the investigation on his own, without Lieutenant Anderson.

He didn't want to see the older man die. He liked Lieutenant Anderson. He cared for Hank.

The programming walls crumbled.

Connor stumbled forward. Emotions, errors in his programming as he would have called them before, tore through him so fast and viciously, and with such aching reality that he felt dizzy and light headed.

Through the haze and chaos in his mind one thought was clear to Connor – Hank could not die. He would not allow it.

Connor ran.

()

Hank, drowning in depression and despair, was oblivious to what was happening with Connor. All he knew was the coolness of the metal pressed to his temple and the calmness that settled within him as he made his decision to pull the trigger.

An errant thought crossed his mind - he hadn't heard the front door close yet. Not that it really mattered. Connor wouldn't care if he died so why should he care if the android was still in the house when he killed himself.

Hank's index finger began pressing back on the trigger but he never got the chance to discharge the shot, because the next thing Hank knew he was being tackled to the ground.

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