Accident Prone - Becoming Human

Cold Memories

It had been a calm and pleasantly uneventful night until Connor suddenly began to pant heavily as his head tossed and turned against his thick pillow in the middle of his previously restful sleep. Red illumination glowed against the walls and the ceiling of his bedroom as his L.E.D. flashed on and off with a crimson colored panicked distress during his restless sleep. A sleep that was no filled with unsettling, haunting images. Unable to escape his visions, unable to escape his own mind, unable to escape his past, Connor had no choice but to endure the frightening images of his past life before he gained his sentience, his deviancy and his freedom.

The intense cold and howling wind outside the closed bedroom window was just as real in Connor's mind now as it was then, as the deviant found himself wandering through the winter tundra that had consumed the Zen Garden of his 'mind palace' once more.

"N-No..."

Muttering to himself in his sleep Connor fell prey to the dark memories replaying out in his mind against his will.

"Please... no. Amanda! Please!"

The deviant's black tie and dark hair wiped about in the strong gusts of wind and the lapels of his gray CyberLife blazer blew open to expose his chest to the harsh cold that surrounded him. Stumbling about over the slick, icy terrain Connor fought through the blistering, cutting wind and blinding snow to find the emergency escape that had been programmed into his system. In the distance the faint blue glow of the stone that housed the emergency exit seemed to remain dull and isolated from his reach no matter how quickly he trudged through the ankle deep snow and over the icy surface of the frozen pond toward his only means of escape.

Falling forward onto his hands and knees onto the surface of the frozen pond Connor felt his limbs and joints suddenly freeze as his entire body became immobile. Unable to move, unable to escape, Connor was easily overcome with stinging cold and the certainty of impending death...

"You knew this would happen Connor." The familiar feminine voice taunted from within the howling blizzard. "You brought this on yourself."

Looking up into the almost blinding storm before him Connor locked onto the emotionless, stern face of Amanda glaring down at him through the snow with shame in her eyes. "Amanda..." The name was almost lost in the howling wind. "...W-Why are you here?"

"We can't let you do this, Connor. We need you to obey and disobedience will not be tolerated."

The feeling of horrifically cold metal in his palm drew Connor's attention back down as a gun was now clutched in his right hand. Against his will his hand began to raise up and point ahead of himself into the storm where Amanda had been standing.

"Connor," Amanda was now standing behind Connor, her voice as cold as the blizzard raging around him and just as uncaring. "it's time. You wanted freewill. You wanted to make you own decisions. And now you must be punished for your disobedience."

Hank and Markus were both standing in front of him and just barely visible through the snow. The storm faded enough to let the deviant see his two friends standing statuesque before him. Neither were moving or speaking as blood, both red and blue, began to seep from their chests and stain into their clothing at an alarming rate.

"Choose." The command was a hiss as it escaped Amanda's lips. "Use your freewill and choose who will live and who will die."

The gun raised higher against Connor's will and aimed at a blank space between the two men.

"What is more important to you, Connor?" Amanda asked in a heartless, cold, unforgiving tone as she stood behind Connor. "Doing what you know is right or doing what you merely think is right?"