The Partners (Connor x Reader)

Chapter 9: A Last Resort

You rested your head in your palm as you flicked through the deviant cases on your terminal. There was still so many of them, but with each case you and Connor chose to investigate, it wound up being yet another dead end. How many humans would need to be killed until you finally got a lead? How many androids, deactivated, until you learned something?

The case was becoming overwhelming, to say the least. It didn't help that you had the FBI slowly closing in, attempting to take the case right out from under you. If you wanted to solve the case, you and Connor needed a new approach. You weren't learning anything from the cases you were currently focusing on. Maybe the two of you needed to look elsewhere?

You sat up a bit in your chair to peek over your terminal to see Connor at his desk, seeming invested in the case files just as you were. You cleared your throat, trying to catch his attention, "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know." Connor responded, looking up at you. "There's a lot of cases on here. I'm not sure where we should start after what happened at Stratford Tower."

Stratford Tower. Those last few moments there didn't feel real to you. The deviant android stealing a gun. Connor, shooting him last second. You were moments away from death. You owed Connor your life. You couldn't believe you were back in the station within a day, searching for a new case to investigate.

"Every case we've followed so far has led to nothing." You murmured, your frustration showing in your tone. "Is there something we're doing wrong? Something we keep missing?" You thought over the cases you were involved with. You even pulled up the cases Connor and Lieutenant Anderson had been working on before you arrived. Many of the deviants had died before they could be questioned. Others, escaped or were sent to Cyberlife for evaluation.

"What about the androids sent to Cyberlife?" You continued, "The androids we recovered at Zlatko Androviski's house and the android you located at Carlos Oritz's house. Did Cyberlife ever manage to learn new information from them?"

"Not to my knowledge, no." Connor responded, "I believe they all turned out to be dead ends. It could be anything that connects these deviants together. It could be a hardware problem...maybe a defective biocomponent? Or even a software problem...that...only occurs under certain conditions?"

"But wouldn't the case be solved already if it were because of either of those issues? If it were a- biocomponent- or, or a software condition Cyberlife would have caught onto that by now. We sent them all of those deviants. Surely they would have seen either of those two things in at least one of the androids while they were being disassembled."

"I don't know..." Connor admitted. You guys were running out of time.

You thought about the various other crime scenes the two of you went to. The photos you had seen from the cases Lieutenant Anderson had been working on. "What about rA9?" You recounted, "You said they believe rA9 will set them free, right?"

"It's what one of the androids had told me," He said with a nod, "The one on the roof... with Lieutenant Anderson." An uncomfortable look found its way onto Connor's face before he continued, "It's almost like some kind of...myth. Something they invented that wasn't part of their original program..."

"It's like they're inventing their own sort of God..." You commented, your voice trailing as you finished your thought. It was yet another thing that made you feel conflicted towards androids- made you feel as though maybe- just maybe- androids could think and feel just as much as you could.

"rA9 could be the link that connects the deviancy cases..."

"Or it could just be a story they started after becoming deviants." You interjected. "Even if rA9 is the key to solving this case, it tells us nothing. Deviants believe in a fictional entity. How do we even move on from there?"