Who Are You Really? - RK1K

Chapter One - Deviancy

The world grew dark, Connor observed through the bedroom window. He sat on the edge of his bed, thinking. The rest of his people were handling the politics none of them were made for, to officially give android's their rights and to find a place for New Jericho to inhabit until they could all get their own homes.

Weeks had passed since he had deviated, and Amanda's attempt at taking still haunted him, even though he had long since purged her program from his own. Emotions were hard to understand, even though Hank and Markus tried to help, but he was built with the idea that he could be controlled after deviancy - naturally he struggled to understand the feelings that grew with each passing day.

He liked talking with Hank - it made him feel warm and happy, and he knew Hank liked his company. The man had let him stay after the revolution, though Connor still didn't know why. In all honesty, Connor was just happy he'd started to cut back on alcohol.

Markus, too. He liked talking to Markus, hell, even just being around Markus made him feel better. The earlier model always felt so kind and warm, unlike the police lieutenant he lived with, who radiated stubborn, fatherly kindness that Connor had grown attached to.

Now that he thought about it, he grew attached to any positive attention, anything thing that wasn't the 'Amanda vvv Betrayed' notification in the corner of his vision, or the disappointment in her gaze when he said he'd adapt and try to maintain a friendly relationship with the man he now thought of as a father.

She had been so nice once, when he had saved that girl, when he had subdued Daniel. He wondered if the android had felt the same, confused and scared and clinging onto anything that had cared before.

After all, if Amanda hadn't been so cruel, he may have just let her take over, so he wouldn't have to live with the confusion and errors that constantly swarmed his mind in the short few hours that he had gone deviant.

He understood the deviants now, more than just the simulations his reconstructions had given had told him.

Daniel was just scared, so was Ortiz's android, and the AX700 that he had chased over that highway, the Traci's, and he had still chased them. He nearly killed them, nearly captured them so they could be live test subjects for CyberLife.

He had, he had killed that deviant at the tower, and even though the thing had ripped out his thirium pump, Connor felt bad.

The logical part of him knew that he was only following instructions, only following his program, but the emotional part, the deviant part that he always knew was there even though he denied its existence for so long, told him he could've put an end to this so much sooner.

Guilt. What he felt so strongly was guilt, a horrible sinking feeling that only went away when Hank or Markus told him he was better than his programming now, but even their forgiveness never really pushed the feeling away.

He still felt horrible when he looked at Simon, he could remember the clip so easily against his will.

'You lied to me, Connor.'

The other android's didn't know about Daniel, and even Hank only knew a small amount of the events that had unfolded.

But the other androids had heard his reputation. He was a deviant hunter, ever since CyberLife had confirmed his existence android's feared him.

Once, maybe he would've liked that, he would've appreciated that he was a threat to those he was designed to scare and hunt, but now they were his own people, the same people that he had thrown everything he ever knew away for, and yet they avoided him, looked away as they whispered about him like they didn't know he could hear.