Hello. I hope you're doing great as you read this. I apologise for not uploading anything in a while. I probably should have written an update but… I've actually been working on some things, this fic being one of them. This is written for lilibombe as a gift :). (Sorry this took so long, Lili. Hope you like it). She requested a scene and I sort of built the story around it. I haven't finished the whole thing yet; this is going to be around 10+ chapters (I remember saying the same thing and being grossly wrong…T_T. Forgive me if I am wrong again.)

This is rated M for mature situations and language. This is also slash. And this is not related to Trouble in any way. :D (Thanks, Lilly!)

That said, thank you for reading. I really appreciate it. And I hope you enjoy it. Onwards.

Echo
Prologue

Harkness had been human for 13 months 25 days 16 hours 12 minutes 59 seconds when he was told it was a lie.

He hadn't believed it at first. It was impossible. Androids didn't bleed and he cut himself shaving that morning. He had shoved the Vault kid away. Was close to throwing the kid off the ship - until the evidence was forced upon him. Until the photos were brought out. Until he heard his own recordings. Until the whispered code in his ear, Activate A3-21 Recall Code Violet, broke down the walls that separated the human from the synth. And he knew.

He was assaulted by every memory, fact, data, image. Everything about the world. About the Institute he left behind. About who he was: A3-21, the android hunter. Special. Unique. Irreplaceable. He was also bombarded by summonses. All 313 of them. Demanding his coordinates because they couldn't detect him. Telling him he 'had lost his focus', that he 'was clearly altered in some way' and 'needed to be fixed'. Informing him that 'Zimmer's in the Capital Wasteland' waiting for him. Saying 'come back'.

Still a bit shaken, he had trusted the kid to handle Zimmer. That night, he watched Zimmer leave the city without looking back at him. He had no idea what the kid told the scientist. Had no idea why the kid had done it. Had no idea if what he was feeling was relief. Good fucking riddance.

8 days 17 hours 26 minutes 43 seconds later, something in his chest snapped. He had glanced down his body, seeing nothing out of place, feeling nothing different but he knew something had changed. There was a pronounced quiet in some corners of his system where there had been noise. A distinct hollow, like some lights inside had just switched themselves off. Most of all, the Institute's summonses had stopped. They were no longer flashing red, just a quiet blue like the rest of his system. Just waiting for him to decide what to do. He erased all of them. Emptied his mind of them to start anew.

Tonight, Harkness jolted awake. Something felt…off. There was a familiar sharp static buzzing up his back. Travelling up his spine. Leaving charges in its wake. It interrupted every code in his body in its quest to reach him.

02:40. SUMMON: sys{A3-21};
are you getting this

Bullshit.

4 months 3 days 11 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds after re-activation, he had no idea why he was being summoned again.