SEQUENTIAL ━ Connor // RK800 ✔️

five ━ not alive, not dead

Even when everything she saw through his eyes and analysis about last night appalled her deeply, she couldn't stop watching until the very last frame of it had played.

There he was, between the glitches of a system shutting down: Officer Owens, looking down on Connor. He smoked so leisurely from the last bits of his cigarette, not a care in the world. "How's this for a case?" He asked him, exhaling out smoke, before tossing the remaining bit of his cigarette down on Connor, "Fucking android."

The recording closed to a black screen and Mia was boiling with the one thing that seemed capable of pulling her out of her lethargy, of her unreasonable sorrow and dismay: the disgust she harbored for this sort of people who dare call themselves humans.

There was no turning back then.

She wanted to wake Connor up, but before she could do that, scores needed to be settled. Someone had to do the right thing and it wasn't hard for her to make a few calls, nor to that the walk to the police station once the calls have been made and the results were about to be seen.

It was around half past seven in the morning and she got there in just the nick of time. Officer Owens was fuming, rushing out of the station, a stain of coffee on his blue shirt, dripping down to his belt, over a worn out badge. "They'll be so far up our asses on this, we won't see the end of the questioning. Who in their right mind alerted the Detroit Police Department about the crackhouse down east?"

"That would be me," Mia approached Owens and the other officer accompanying him, showing them her ID badge from CyberLife. "I made the call myself this morning, after carefully reviewing the footage recovered from Connor."

After having been initially stunned by a direct approach, Officer Owens glared at her, "Do you have any idea what you have done, you fucking corporatist?"

"I also forwarded the whole report to my superiors and they agreed on your liability for all the damages brought to our prototype," Mia didn't look at him, resorting to hiding her hands in the pockets of her coat just so she could clench them into fists. She looked over Owens' shoulder, somewhere in the still foggy distance of the cold autumn day, especially as he decided to step closer to intimidate her.

"Excuse me?"

He sounded offended and she sure hoped he was.

"They were going to bill you for the damages, as per policy, but I advised them to withdraw the cost of repairs from the funds we've allocated to your town and your police station as payment for your cooperation," Mia let her nails dig into the bridge of her own palms. "He may not look like much to your ignorant eyes, but I assure you, Connor is a one of a kind android worth a small fortune. Should you damage him again, I am afraid your town would no longer qualify to receive compensation from CyberLife for aiding us in our field trial. Consider it an undeserving kindness, of course, that I did not allow you to go into so much debt that your children and their children alike would hate your guts."

Officer Owens grabbed a handful of Mia's coat collar, pulling her closer. It was only then that she finally looked at him, or rather down at how he gritted his teeth at her.

"You'd ruin us for a pile of plastic?!"

"That 'pile of plastic' is more of a man than you'll ever be," she answered as one would answering the most basic questions in life — without hesitation, bored by the assumption she could have ever said anything else.

He let her go by pushing her away, but she regained her balance just in time to not break her stance of authority and make a fool out of herself by falling over from all the exhaustion accumulated in her bones working against her. Quickly correcting her posture, Mia continued, "If there were more men like him in our current police force, we wouldn't be needing this project now, would we?"

"Those are kids you just got arrested, I hope you realize," Jackson pointed at her accusatory.

"Kids who needed help, not more drugs, Officer."

Officer Owens seemed on the verge of resorting to more meaningful violence, which perhaps he would have, had it not been for the man with him grabbing his arm and reminding him they had to be present when DPD's Red Ice Task Force raided the place, they had been requested to be there specifically.

"This isn't over," he shook his head at Mia.

"Well aware," she smiled, albeit not sincerely. "Connor will be back at work tomorrow." It was only when reading the shock and confusion on his face that her smile turned a little realer, "Androids can't die, Officer. But nice try anyway."

• • •

AUTHOR'S NOTE |
This was too emotional of a chapter for me to break its narrative flow just because it got extremely long, so here it is, the first 5k+ chapter of the book lmao.

I just had to soldier through it because tbh, this is one of the most significant early moments for Mia as a character. Any theories on what went down in the house while Connor was away? 👀👀

In the grand scheme of things btw, this is a case of 'she falls first, but he falls harder' ordeal too, which is one fun and nice conclusion to draw after this chapter, I guess.