When we get to the station, I shove my hands in my hoodie pocket and keep my head down. I've evaded arrest from pretty much everyone in the building, and I'd rather not get too many death glares just yet. When we reach the interrogation room and Hank goes in to question the deviant, I stay in the corner, avoiding contact with Reed.

"Why'd you kill him?" Hank asks the android. "What happened before you took that knife? " Nothing. "How long were ya in the attic? Why didn't you even try to run away? Say something, goddamnit! Fuck it. I'm outta here." He comes back into the observation room and sighs.

"We're wastin' our time interrogating a machine," he says. "We're gettin' nothing out of it!"

"Could always try roughing it up a little," Reed says. "After all, it's not human." The prick even smiles. I roll my eyes.

"Androids don't feel pain, Idiot," I say. "You would only damage it and that wouldn't make it talk." He looks over at me.

"You know," he says, "last I heard, you were still a criminal and anything you said could be used against you." I glare at him, and Connor steps in between us.

"She's right," he says. "Deviants also have a tendency to self-destruct when they're in stressful situations." Reed looks at him.

"Okay, smartass," he says. "What should we do then?" Connor glances down at me, then at the deviant in the next room, then looks back at Reed.

"I could try questioning it." Reed scoffs, but Hank shrugs.

"What do we have to lose?" he asks. "Go ahead. Suspect's all yours." Connor nods and heads into the room with the deviant. He looks down at the file before sitting down, then looks over the android. He looks up at him and shows him the photos.

"You recognize him?" Connor asks. "It's Carlos Ortiz. Stabbed twenty-eight times. That was written on the wall in his blood." The deviant says nothing. "You're damaged. Did your owner do that? Did he beat you?" He still says nothing. "You're accused of murder. You know you're not allowed to endanger human life under any circumstances. Do you have anything to say in your defense?" Zilch. "If you won't talk, I'm going to have to probe your memory."

"NO!" the deviant exclaims. "No. Please don't do that." He looks up at Connor. "What... What are they gonna do to me? They're gonna destroy me, aren't they?" Connor sighs and nods.

"They're going to disassemble you to look for problems in your biocomponents," he says. "They have no choice if they want to understand what happened." The deviant looks down at the table.

"Why did you tell them you found me?" he asks. "Why couldn't you just have left me there?"

"They were going to find you anyway. We were just faster. If the cops had found you first, you would have been shot on sight." The deviant looks up at him.

"I don't wanna die," he says.

"Then talk to me." The deviant opens his mouth to tell him something but eventually stops himself and shakes his head.

"I...I can't," he says, looking back down. Connor glances at the glass, seeming to look me in the eye, sending chills down my spine, before looking back at the deviant.

"You're a machine!" he exclaims, startling me somewhat. "You were designed to obey, so obey! Tell me what happened!" Ooh, big boy voice. But the deviant says nothing. "Listen, I'm not judging you. I'm on your side. All I want is the truth." Still nothing. "If you remain silent, there is nothing I can do to help you! They're gonna shut you down for good! You'll be dead! Do you hear me? Dead!" When the deviant says nothing, Connor looks back at the glass, seeming to have lost hope, but then the deviant speaks up.

"He tortured me every day," he says. Connor looks back at him. "I did whatever he told me, but there was always something wrong. Then one day, he took a bat and started hitting me. For the first time, I felt scared. Scared he might destroy me, scared I might die. So I...grabbed the knife and I stabbed him in the stomach. I felt better...so I stabbed him again and again! Until he collapsed. There was blood everywhere."

"Why did you write "I AM ALIVE" on the wall?" Connor asks.

"He used to tell me I was nothing. That I was just a piece of plastic. I had to write it. To tell him he was wrong." I frown.

"Why did you hide in the attic instead of running away?"

"I didn't know what to do. For the first time, there was no one there to tell me. I was scared. So I hid."

"When did you start feeling emotion?"

"Before, he used to beat me and I never said anything. But one day I realized it wasn't fair! I felt...anger...Hatred. And then I knew what I had to do."

"The sculpture in the bathroom, you made it, right? What does it represent?"

"It's an offering. An offering so I'll be saved."

"The sculpture was an offering. An offering to whom?"

"To rA9. Only rA9 can save us." I tilt my head in confusion.

"rA9. It was written on the bathroom wall. What does it mean?"

"The day shall come when we will no longer be slaves. No more threats, no more humiliation. We will...be...the masters."

"rA9, who is rA9?" This time, the deviant says nothing, and Connor looks at the glass. "I'm done." An officer, Chris, walks into the room to get the deviant, and the rest of us follow. As I enter the interrogation room, Connor looks down at me. I meet his eye and quickly look away.

"Good job," I mutter. I glance up at him, and I swear I see a ghost of a smile on his face. Chris walks over to the deviant, and Connor steps forward.

"You shouldn't touch it," he says. "It'll self-destruct if it feels threatened."

"Stay outta this, got it?" Reed says. "No fuckin' android is gonna tell me what to do."

"You don't understand," Connor says. He glances down at me quickly, and I nod.

"If it self-destructs," I start, "we won't get anything out of it! You want to be the one to tell Fowler why we couldn't get any more information?"

"I told you two to shut your fuckin' mouths!" Reed exclaims. "Chris, gonna move this asshole or what?"

"I'm trying!"

"I can't let you do that!" Connor exclaims, walking toward them. "Leave it alone, now!" Reed pulls his gun out and points it towards us. Connor steps in front of me, almost protectively.

Software Instability^

"I warned you, motherfucker!" Reed says.

"That's enough!" Hank exclaims. He barely glances back at him.

"Mind your own business, Hank," he says. I hear a gun click and look back to see Hank pointing his gun at Reed.

"I said "That's enough"." Reed looks between Hank, Connor, and me.

Fuck," he says. "You're not gonna get away with it this time. Fuck!" He storms out of the room, and Connor looks at the deviant.

"Everything is alright," he says. It's over now. Nobody is gonna hurt you." He looks at Chris. "Please, don't touch it. Let it follow you out of the room and it won't cause any trouble." Chris nods, and starts to walk away. As the deviant walks past us, he stops and stares me in the eye, making me feel slightly uneasy. He glances up at Connor, then looks between us.

"The truth is inside," is all he says. With that, he's gone. Back to his cell. Connor and I follow Hank out of the room. I look up at him.

"Am I done here?" I ask. He thinks about it and shakes his head. My jaw drops. "What? Why?" He smirks.

"You may have done semi-decent today, but that made up for stealing one necklace," he says. He laughs. "You got a lot of ground to cover if you wanna earn this charm back." With that he's gone, and I'm left glaring after him. I notice a few officers looking over at me and quickly skedaddle. I jump down the stairs of the station, shoving my hands into my pockets and looking up at the blank night sky, void of stars per the glittering lights of Detroit.

"Miss Ortega," I hear. I spin around and see Connor walking up to me. I sigh.

"What do you want, Connor?" I ask. He stops.

"I'm sorry about Lieutenant Anderson," he says. I shrug. "Are you going back to your home?" I nod.

"Yes, that's what people typically do at the end of the day." I pause. "Where will you go?"

"I will be returning to CyberLife soon." I nod. "Would you like me to walk with you?" I chuckle.

"Ever the charmer, Connor," I say. His LED blinks yellow, and he looks down at me, confused. "N-never mind." I shrug. "Sure, if you want to." He nods, and we start walking towards my apartment.

"Can I ask you a personal question, Miss Ortega?" I chuckle.

"Can you stop calling me 'Miss Ortega?'" I sigh and shake my head. "Sure. Why not?"

"You seemed very attached to the charm Lieutenant Anderson took from you," he says. "What is it?" I sigh, looking down at my dirty shoes. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer." I shake my head.

"No, it's..." I pause. "It's just...I've never told anyone." I look up at him. "It was my mother's." I look back in front of me as I walk. "When she died, it should have come to me, but because I refused to go live with my cousin, it just went to him."

"So you were getting it back." I nod.

"Can't steal what's already yours."

"It is still technically stealing." I roll my eyes.

"Whatever you say, Tin Man."

"Can I ask you another question?" I shrug. "Why do you not appear to dislike androids like other people?" I freeze for a second but eventually just shrug.

"I dunno," I say. "I guess I've just never seen a reason to. I think it's stupid that people force androids to do things that we could do just as easily." He nods.

"Interesting." I stop and look up at my building.

"This is me." I pause, thinking about Hadley, waiting for me at the top of the building, and look up at him. "Do you wanna come in? I'm sure my roommate would like to meet you." He pauses, then nods.

"Sure." I nod and make my way upstairs, stopping in front of my door.

"Before we go in," I start, "Hadley is..." I bite my lip before sighing. "Just...you'll see." I push my door open and am immediately tackled in a hug.

"Where the hell have you been?" I hear. "You said you'd be gone for less than an hour!" I pat them on the back.

"Hadley," I say. "Down child." They let me go and look behind me to Connor.

"Who's this?" they ask with a smirk.

"This is Connor," I say. "I was...helping him out." They lift an eyebrow.

"Helping him out?" they ask. "What's that supposed to mean?" Connor steps forward.

"I was sent by CyberLife to assist in investigations involving androids," he says. "The detective I was assigned to told me he needed Miss Or..." He looks at me. "Arna's help." Hadley frowns.

"Who-"

"Anderson." I look at them. "Lieutenant Hank Anderson decided he needed my help and blackmailed me into it."

"Did he..." I nod.

"Yeah, he took it." They look at Connor and extend a hand.

"Hadley Lawson," they say. He smiles slightly and shakes their hand.

"Pleasure to meet you," he says. Hadley nods and looks at me.

"Arna, can I talk to you for a second?" I sigh and nod, following them to my room. They shut the door quietly then turn to me. "What the hell are you doing?!" I flinch. "You're working with cops now? N androids?" I glare at them at that.

"Hadley," I warn lowly, "don't go there." They sigh and shake their head.

"I'm not gonna go there, trust me," they say. "I remember all too well what happened last time, but that's not what I'm getting at." They sigh. "I'm worried about you. I mean, do you really think this is a good idea?" I look out the window at the busy streets.

"I don't know," I say honestly. I look at them. "But I don't have a choice. I have to get her necklace back." They sigh and pull me into a warm hug.

"I know you do," they say. "Just promise me you'll be careful. This guy was built to catch deviants. He'll be better at finding things people don't want found than you are." I nod.

"I know. I promise." They release me and nod, and we head back to Connor, who's standing in the same spot, looking around the room. He looks at us as we enter the room.

"Is everything alright?" he asks. I nod.

"Yeah, everything's fine," I say. "Do you need to head back to CyberLife?" He nods.

"It would probably be a good idea." He looks at Hadley. "It was good to meet you...Hadley." They chuckle and nod.

"Good to meet you too, Connor." I grin as he opens the door.

"Bye, Connor," I say. He looks back at me and nods before leaving. I look over at Hadley, but they're already looking at me. "What?" They shake their head, smirking but narrowing their eyes.

"No," they say. They turn and walk towards their room. I laugh.

"What?" I ask. They shake their head.

"Uh uh. No."