Okay, so this fandom hasn't been around for long but I'm already jumping on the bandwagon. Detroit: Become Human hasn't even been out for a full month and I have an idea for a fanfiction for it that I just had to share. Though I have to admit, it's nice to be a part of a fandom right at the beginning for a change, but it does mean that there is not much content to go around just yet. It's one of the reasons I decided to throw my hat in to hopefully share a story that everyone would like, especially since I've seen some people discuss the pairing of Connor and Chloe, but there's not a lot for them yet.

Personally I think that the pairing has a lot of potential despite there not being all that much of them in the game together. Their scene was just really powerful and I loved the repercussions it had on Connor afterward, no matter what choice that he made. I also really wanted to add in Simon and Markus since I think they had a lot more chemistry than North did with him. No offense to North fans, she was just fine for a character but the romance between them didn't seem all that fleshed out. Heck, the two Traci lesbians had more chemistry and most of their relationship was literally covered in two lines of dialogue.

In any case, I don't own Detroit: Become Human in any way. Please support the official release.

Chapter 1: Virtual Memory Minimum

Late December evenings in Detroit had never really been considered to be much fun, mostly just cold and bitter instead. It was a time for people to huddle inside and shiver, sitting next to heaters and drink hot beverages in order to keep themselves warm, especially in the short hours of the day when the sun set earlier and earlier. The later it came to sunset, the sooner people were inside to hide from the sickly cold that brought piles of snow and plunging temperatures. No one was ever out in weather like this if they didn't have to be, even if they were the kind of person that would be up and awake when it was already so late.

It was probably the only reason Chloe, model RT600, was not noticed as she moved slowly and awkwardly down the street. The internal sensors built into her informed her of the time, just a little past 1 am in the morning. Her limp was bad as she moved, dragging her leg a little and slipping the bottom of her foot over the icy sidewalk. It was twisted off center and made her gait awkward, but at least she could still move on it. Her arm was in much worse shape, nearly torn off at the shoulder and stained blue with Thirium. She would still be bleeding if she had not been lucky enough to find a blowtorch. Much of the city was thriving again with humans since the evacuation had been recalled, but there were still a few spots abandoned due to the chaos of last month. Her self-done repairs had not been much, but it was enough to allow her to continue on without risk of shutting down.

Her processor was more of a problem, slowing her down considerably more than her body. The damage was enough that loading and processing information was taking time, and she had to stop several times to allow herself to think and remember where she was heading. It was proving to be an inconvenience at the very least, Thirium dripping from the top of her head and mixed in with her hair. She stopped and looked at the street sign before she pulled a thin, blue robe on her body tighter around herself and continued on. In nothing but a bathing suit and robe, she'd have been dead in the elements long ago if she'd been human. As it was, all she needed to worry about was her destination and not getting caught.

At long last she stopped at the house she was looking for and she approached it as fast as she was able. Her good fist pounded on the door once she confirmed the home matched up with the address in her memory, refusing to stop hitting the wooden paneling until she heard something from within, mostly barking but some grumbling as well.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" a gruff voice her processor informed her she had heard before and matched to a Lieutenant Hank Anderson. The door opened for the older man to immediately seem shocked at the sight before him. "What the fuck?"

"Good evening, Lieutenant Anderson," she said in a calm voice. "I am CyberLife Model RT600, Chloe. I am in need of your assistance. We have met before."

"The fuck you doing dripping blood on my porch?!" he yelled.

"I am in need of your assistance," she repeated as if that answered the question simply enough. "Do you remember me?"

"I... What? I mean, yeah. Aren't you the girl who was with Kamski?"

"Correct. I am in need of your assistance."

"Yeah... yeah, I can see that," he groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. She had to move slightly to the side when he poked his head out to look past her but there wasn't anyone else out on the street. "Come on, get in here."

"Thank you," she said as she stepped inside. "Please, I need to be put in contact with RK800."

"I'm sorry, what?" the man asked. He didn't even seem to be fully awake yet, but she didn't have time to waste. It had taken long enough to get here without waiting for him to become fully conscious so she could explain what it was she needed from him.

"The model that was with you before when you visited. His name was..." She trailed off and tilted her head to the side, blinking a few times as she tried to remember. "Please forgive me. My memory is not at full function. I can not recall his name."

"Wait, you mean Connor? Why do you need to see him, and why are you hurt so bad? Did someone attack you?"

"Please, it is imperative I speak to RK800," she said. "My injuries aren't in danger of shutting me down. You don't need to worry about them for now."

"Alright, alright. Uh... Just... I don't know. Fucking sit down or something. I'll call him, I guess," he said as he indicated vaguely to the couch.

She nodded and sat down as she watched him go for his cellphone. While he did so, she looked around at the home, scanning it and making notes of the details of it. It was small, smaller than she was used to anywhere, and much more cramped. Elijah's home had plenty of room, much of it empty to display artwork and the like.

Her head perked up when Hank came back from the kitchen, already on the phone. She watched as he paced around, listening in while a great big dog came up and licked at her knee. Besides a couple small pats on the head, she didn't pay the animal much mind.

"Connor, hey glad you answered. It's Hank," the human said onto the phone.

"Hank? You're still awake? You're not drinking right now, are you?"

"Christ, Connor. Don't nag," Hank replied with a groan. "I'd swear I had a medical unit the way you fucking worry. I was sleeping, just got woken up is all. Listen, you remember Chloe? The android you were told to shoot during the investigation when we were at Kamski's place? She's here and she's asking for you. She's... fuck... Connor, she's fucked up real nasty. I think someone tried to do something to her, something bad. She won't tell me what happened, only that she has to see you."

"I remember he... She's damaged?"

"Pretty bad, yeah."

"Okay. There should be a couple packets of Thirium in my cupboard, Hank. Put one in a cup for her and I'll be there soon."

"Right. Got it. I'd tell you to hurry, but you're such a tight ass I know you'd do it anyway," he said before he hung up and tossed his phone to the side and went off to get the blue blood. He brought it back to the girl, sitting on the couch. Good thing Connor insisted on cleaning so much. With her exposed parts she wouldn't need any old garbage lying around getting inside of her.

"Can you drink this?" he asked her. She nodded and took it with her good hand, the soft sounds of whirling gears as she moved filling the room. "How'd you get here anyway? Your boss was miles out of town."

"I began my travels earlier this morning," she answered him. "Your address is in public files that I was able to access in order to track you down. You were the only contact I was aware of that would lead to RK800, so I made my way here."

"On foot?"

"No, I apprehended a vehicle for a short time to reach the city, but after that I left it behind so it would not be tracked. It is currently on fire 10 miles south west of here."

"Oh lovely."

She tilted her head to the side, not entirely understanding what he saw as lovely about it, but he just shook his head and ignored her for the most part.

It was about twenty minutes before RK800 came through the front door, his tie a bit skewed and hair tussled from how fast he had been running. Sumo lifted his head and wagged his tail as the deviant hunter passed by, coming over to kneel in front of Chloe. She still had the blue blood in her hand, not having drunk much of it just yet.

"Thank you, Hank," he said, looking at the damaged android in front of him. "You're Chloe, right?"

"Yes," she said as she stood up and nodded to him as he followed her up to his feet. "I am CyberLife Model RT600, named Chloe. It is good to see you again..."

She paused and looked down at the floor, hesitating for a moment.

"I... I am sorry, I don't... you had a name, but I don't recall it. My memory banks have been altered lately, RK800."

"It's alright. My name is Connor," he said, his eyes glancing over her wounds. She could tell he was probably scanning her injuries to make some sense of them. Her leg was simply twisted, an easy fix, but the arm was damaged fair more than a simple twist repair and her scalp was terribly scratched up in several places.

"Would you like some help with your wounds?" he asked her suddenly. Sure enough, he had scanned her.

"That's not needed right now," she said with a firm shake of her head. "Registering... Connor, I have a message for you. A warning. Elijah Kamski is dead."

"What?! The fuck you talking about?!" Hank asked as he jerked up from where he'd been sitting.

"At 7:35 am exactly, there was an attack on the residence," she explained. "CyberLife guards and agents came. Elijah had been in the pool with me, awaiting breakfast. They barged in and demanded files, neutralizing the other androids, first in the waiting room and then the kitchen. When he heard the gun fire, he ran with me. He stated he knew what they were after and connected me to a computer, deleting some of my files to make room for a transfer. He said we needed to get them to you, but he was killed in pursuit, just outside of the home. His last instructions were to find you on my own, no matter what the cost."

Connor's eyes widened as he took in the information, listened to Chloe's story. His hand went to hers and he shook his head softly.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Chloe," he began. "What were on these files that they were after? Are you able to transfer a copy of them to me?"

"I am. I was sure to protect my arm so as not to damage my nodes," she said as she raised her arm for him to grab, the skin fading color to show the white plastic. Despite her ordeal, she was perfectly at ease, not sharing a second of emotion over what she'd just undergone. "These are plans for new Androids, a specific improvement over previous models. They are not finished, merely a passion project of Elijah. He wished to crack the code of deviancy. He believed he might have figured out a way to create androids that could not be corrupted and made into Deviants."

"Why would he do that? I thought he liked the idea of them getting free will?" Hank asked.

"As said, it was a passion project. Elijah often wanted to know something just for knowledge sake."

The skin receded from Connor's hand as he touched Chloe's arm, his eyes fluttering as he received the files. Schematics, notes, file reports. It was all complicated and intricate, yet it had led to Elijah's doom. Connor let go and slowly backed away, looking over her one last time before his hand fell completely down to his side.

"Take back control..." he muttered softly to himself, though she didn't understand the meaning of his words. "It's too late in the evening for us to do anything about it right now. What matters is that Chloe keeps a low profile."

"Yeah, I can imagine that the big wigs of that place would be all too eager to get her back once they figure out she has what they were looking for, if they don't know already," Hank said. He rolled his eyes when she didn't lower her hand, just tilting her head to the side as she continued to watch her fellow android. "She said she took a vehicle here but ditched it. Think she'll be fine for the night but... Okay, why's she staring at you? She hasn't blinked once. It's getting weird."

Connor looked back at her and sure enough, her eyes were trained on him.

"Chloe?" he called. "Maybe she was damaged more than I thought. I'll go ahead and check for any system malfunctions."

He took her arm again to analyze and diagnose her completely, gently turning her head so he could be able to look at the state of her LED. She didn't fight him, but suddenly gripped his arm and pulled herself closer to him, her eyebrows arching as she turned back to look at him intently. There wasn't anything there left to transfer of the files, in fact there wasn't much of anything left. Quite a few items had been deleted from her, leaving only the basics of her programming along with her memories, though several large gaps were now in them. Many of them had either been deleted manually or corrupted by the damage.

It wasn't why she was staring though. In her mind, something was playing, the memory of Connor with a gun, pointed at her head.

"I... I remember you," she said softly. "Your designation. RK800, a top of the line prototype, designed to work with humans in order to neutralize any threat created by Deviants. Such features include total obedience to a chain of command, lightening fast processing speed to make the best call for any dire situation and a driven need to complete any and all measures in order to achieve the objective mission in question."

She blinked once, her processor seeming to stall for a moment as she looked confused.

"You were ordered to shoot me for the sake of your mission. Memory banks must be damaged. I don't recall being shot."

Her LED blinked yellow, clearly confused by her lack of knowledge on this matter. She knew Connor could see the memory from her perspective, still connected to her, but something in his own mind seemed a jumbled mess of codes and simulated emotions to her, unable to make it out for some reason. His jaw tightened, along with his fingers, though she could not figure out why he was reacting in such a way.

"That's because I did not shoot you," he finally said, relaxing his gyros around her arm after a moment. "Kamski gave me a choice. Shoot you and learn where Jericho was, or refuse and learn nothing. I refused."

"Memory indicated he questioned if you were a Deviant at the time. You said you were not," she noted. "Were you malfunctioning? Do you need help?"

"Okay, she's not getting if. Fuck, they must have damaged her pretty bad before she was able to get away," Hank pointed out. "Even for androids, she's acting off. Maybe we should just fix her up and put her away for now, figure this out in the morning."

"She has large gaps in her memory," Connor said with a sigh as he released his grip on her for a second time and let her go. "My software was unstable at that time, Chloe. I was on the verge of deviancy. But a lot has passed since then. What matters now is that you need to conserve your energy and let the new Thirium go through your system."

"Yes, Connor," she said. It seemed to have settled the matter for her now at least. "I have no further instructions from Elijah. I... I don't... know what to do now. I suppose I will simply stand by and await new orders."

"Yes, stand by and we'll figure things out in the morning," he said with a nod. "Can you excuse us for a moment?"

She watched idly as he took a hold of his partner and pulled him toward the kitchen. He made no attempt to keep his voice down though, no doubt aware she'd hear what was being said anyway.

"She isn't a deviant," he stated, "but there's clearly issues in her mainframe. Missing data, the blow to her head, it's going to take quite a few repairs to help her."

"Explains why she's acting so static. Trauma usually wakes up androids though. Don't you think her getting attacked would be enough to wake her up?" Hank asked.

"There were still some androids that had yet to be converted even after everything that's happened, and while it's a factor, trauma isn't always a guarantee. I have the ability to convert her, but it might not be the best time considering her injuries. Right now she's not panicking and that's for the best," he explained. "Her memory core might be able to show the attack as well, but I'm hesitant on pushing her too far until she's repaired. In any case, thank you for calling me on this. You shouldn't be disturbed again, Hank."

"Yeah. Okay, then I'm going to bed," he said as he rubbed the back of his head and went off to his room. He patted his leg and Sumo followed after him, the door closing behind the pair.

Connor sighed softly and moved toward the door, removing his tie and jacket to hang up. Her eyes trailed after him as he moved around the house, still unable to quite process something in her mind. It was a nagging little detail, but she didn't know what. It was like an equation her programming couldn't find an answer to, and it was starting to become more noticeable to her the longer it went unsolved.

Getting no answers from watching him walk around, she sat back down and picked back up the Thirium with her good hand and drank it down. Her body would need repairing, and now that she had delivered her message, perhaps it was time to get back to working order so as to be able to properly see to the next task... but... Elijah was dead. There was no one to give orders now.

"Connor? Who... who do I obey now?" she asked him as her LED began to spin a soft yellow. "I can't seem to find another human in my program I'm supposed to defer to. Do you happen to know?"

"Androids were freed around a month ago. Perhaps Elijah neglected to tell you about that," Connor said, popping the top two buttons of his shirt open before kicking his shoes off and taking a seat beside Chloe, "or perhaps you do not remember. That's alright though. Androids are no longer owned or ordered."

"I... I remember," she said with a shake of her head. "It was on the news. Elijah had me making him drinks at that moment."

Her light continued to flash yellow for a moment before settling back to blue as she looked down at her damaged arm, staring at it.

"He said I was an old model, an obsolete one, that I was kept for convenience. He asked me if I wanted to be free. I followed programming and said no. I don't wish to malfunction."

"Deviancy does not bring massive errors. I was afraid of becoming what I was hunting, of being a 'bad guy', but it's more than that. Having feelings and emotions brings a whole new meaning to...everything. I find it's even helped in my investigations," Connor said, looking at her. "If you wish to remain as you are, then that is alright. We'll get you repaired and see where we go from there."

She nodded her head in understanding before glancing at him again.

"You didn't shoot me," she said again. "I saw in your eyes, you didn't like being asked to do that. I'd never seen a machine question orders before. It must have been unpleasant. I'm sorry I was put in the way of your prerogative. I know you're a fellow machine, yet I stood in the way of your mission. That must have been troubling."

Connor opened his mouth before closing it again.

"It..." he sighed. "It was an uncomfortable situation. An unnecessary one. At the beginning of my initialization, I would have shot you. Fortunately I got out into the world, experienced and learned about the deviants I was tasked with capturing. I began to... feel."

He leaned back in the couch, fiddling a little with a coin in his hands as he spoke.

"My first case was a Deviant named Daniel. He had killed his owner and took his child hostage on the roof of a tall apartment complex. It was an intense situation. I had many choices. I didn't have to save the fish that had jumped out of the aquarium. I didn't have to save the injured man on the roof. I lied to Daniel and said he wouldn't get hurt, we would just talk. As soon as he let go of the girl, the snipers shot him. I had accomplished my mission."

His voice was quiet and he glanced to the bedroom door, no doubt in consideration for Hank's need to sleep.

"Thinking back on that mission, I feel guilty that I couldn't help Daniel. He hated me for lying. I hated myself for lying. I spent a long time trying to figure out if I could have done something differently, but it would all have ended in his death in some way or another," he continued before he smiled at Chloe. "I'm glad I didn't shoot you."

"I pulled the trigger when he gave me the test. He was fond of it. He did it often, only once with me," she said conversationally before stopping short at the look of shock in his eyes at her words. She wasn't quite certain why he had such an expression, but it caused her to pause. The memory of the event suddenly pressed in her mind, the heavy gun in her small hand as she looked at a ST200, another model that looked just like her but more advanced. Elijah had looked disappointed when she'd pulled the trigger but she'd never figured out why. She'd just done what she'd been told to do. For some reason the look on Connor's face triggered something in her, making her recall her owner's reaction with further clarity. "Did I... Was I not supposed to shoot? Was that the wrong answer to the test? He told me to shoot, Elijah ordered me to."

Error messages filed into her mind and she looked over at Connor before stilling for a second. She had to close her eyes and manually shut them down to keep them from distracting her. Still, the more she tried to shut them off, the more just kept popping up in front of her.

"I'm sorry. I seem to be having trouble with my processing components," she said, her voice getting thick. "I can't… they won't stop. Core functions must be malfunctioning..."

"Take it easy, Chloe," Connor said. "Are they red error signs? What do they say?"

"Redirecting my programming. I was told to shoot. I followed orders. You didn't. You're broken," she answered softly. "They won't stop flashing. They're red. Being Deviant means you're broken. You're broken, Connor. Do you need my assistance? Maybe I can fix you."

Connor knelt in front of Chloe again and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I am not broken, Chloe. Those messages? You do not have to listen to them," he said. "What do you want?"

"Want?" she asked. "I'm a machine. I'm designed only to want to follow my programming."

"That is what you are programmed to say. Try and look beyond that," he urged her in reply. "I was programmed to hunt deviants and to get the information to find them, I was told to shoot you to get that information. I didn't want to."

She closed her eyes for a second, grimacing. The alerts were flooding here vision red, almost to the point of scaring her. Something was wrong. It had to be. He didn't shoot her. He should have shot her. He was broken. He didn't want to. He chose her. Made the wrong choice.

Her stress levels were rising quickly, making her shake. She just wanted it to stop!

All of a sudden she jerked a little bit, tears prickling in her eyes. The red was gone… suddenly just… gone. She couldn't even explain it, even as a thought, a possibly solution to the conundrum came to her.

"You spared my life," she breathed. "You saw me as alive. Am... am i alive?"

Connor kept a hold of her to stop her from hurting herself, watching as she shook and then...stopped. Slowly his hand touched the top of her temple, brushing her hair to the side and gave her the tiniest of smiles.

"Yes," he said. "Just as I am alive."

She could only look at him in confusion before he sighed out and shook his head.

"I don't think you're there quite yet," Connor said as he offered his hand to her, bare and white. "You can be though, if you want. I wasn't sure this would be the best considering your state of damage, but I won't keep it from you either. It could help you understand in the long run. Being a Deviant isn't bad, Chloe. It just means that you're awake, that you can see. You'll understand more than you ever could as a machine, but only if it's what you want. I won't force you. No one can force you to do anything you don't want to anymore."

She hesitated a moment, her own pearly white band hovering over his until she grasped it tightly like a lifeline. She felt him share with her memories and feelings, a scene of him at the CyberLife tower and all the androids there, what he himself had found on Jericho, a hope and desire to find his own fate. He shared what it felt like to finally wake up and feel something, and his emotions of when he was tasked to shoot her, the conflict and the empathy that had finally won out and caused him to spare her.

It was a completely foreign sensation what he was pouring into her mind. Terrifying, yet liberating. Chains she had never even felt before were being ripped away, not leaving her feeling broken but more whole than she ever had before.

"Connor..." she breathed, it all a swarming inside of her but feeling oddly pleasant. She couldn't even find the words to say anything, everything he had given to her only taking a mere fraction of a second and yet had filled every inch of her until it felt like it could burst. The sensation was both utterly overwhelming and uplifting at the same time.

Connor smiled at her and stroked her hand.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Much better," she assured him. Her stress levels were slowly declining and she was able to relax now. "You saved me, twice. I don't know how to thank you."

"It's alright. We best both keep as quiet as possible, so Hank can rest," Connor said, not yet moving from his spot in front of her.

She nodded before giggling despite herself, quickly trying to stifle it. There had to be something wrong with her face plating. It wouldn't stop smiling for some reason.

"I want to keep holding your hand," she confessed in a whisper.

"You do?" he questioned before shrugging some. "Alright. Let me get more comfortable first."

He readjusted himself so he was resting back more on the couch and offered his hand to Chloe.

"It makes me feel happy," she admitted as she took it, intertwining her fingers with his. His was bigger than her own, though considering he was a male model that made sense. Her kind was always made petite. She gently squeezed experimentally, the sensations of the contact fascinating. She was incapable of feeling pain of course, but it didn't mean she still could register contact. Funny, she couldn't remember if she'd ever touched another android before, only Elijah. Maybe the two ST200's... but she couldn't recall for sure.

Connor was different than Elijah, smoother, a little cooler than a human's average body heat, and oddly it felt better. Elijah often pet her, cooed at her, had her keep him company in bed, but had never comforted her. This simple touch from another android though, a simple gesture, it meant the world to her.

"What are you thinking?" he asked after a few moments.

"How different you are from Elijah," she admitted. "I think I like you more than him."

She looked at their hands intertwined before glancing back up at his eyes.

"You're kind."

"Thank you. I try my best to be. Sometimes my cases and interrogations need a little persuading, a little pressure here and there, but overall I do my best. Kamski did strike me as a bit... estranged."

"He never hit me, or damaged me," she said, "but he gave me orders. I was his lover... No. I was his toy. He said what he liked best about me was I never said no to anything. I meant what I said when I told you he conducted the Kamski test on me too. It never even occurred to me to refuse, and he liked that. Deviant androids were a fascination to him, but nothing he wanted himself. He might have asked me if I wanted to be free, but I don't think he never expected me to say yes."

Connor frowned at that, his thumb slowly stroking along the smooth angle of her thumb.

"That isn't your world any more. You didn't have free will then," he said before he shifted some to get more comfortable, laying back on the couch. "Here, lay like this. I've been developing curiousness as to what a deviant android can do compared to a non-deviant one."

She copied his pose, gently easing back. It took some effort to shift over due to her misaligned leg, but she managed it. Moving would have been easier if her hand wasn't clasped to his, but she really didn't want to let go. Though, it was only what she wanted. Was she ignoring what he wanted?

"It's okay, right? To hold you? I can stop if you don't like it."

"It's alright like this," he assured her. "In the last couple of weeks, I have started to rest my program and let myself just think. It's almost like sleep, very relaxing. I think I've started to see dreams, as well."

"What do you dream about, Connor?" she asked softly.

"A Japanese garden, red roses and snow," he said. "All a bit confusing, really. Although according to humans, that's normal. Like I said, it's not quite sleep. It's just… letting your mind wander instead of just going to stand by mode."

"Do you think I could dream?" she asked him as she looked up at the ceiling from where she was relaxing. "If I tried?"

"Quite possibly. It is a bit odd, but I find if you just close your eyes and just think about nothing, it comes to you eventually," he said, letting his eyes slowly falling shut.

She followed suit and closed her eyes, but she didn't feel herself drift off. She'd only just changed. Maybe she wasn't capable yet. He was also more advanced than her, since she was just a started model. While Kamski had modified over the years, she was still an old variety android and in many ways largely the same.

Still, the quiet was nice and she allowed herself to rest against him as she enjoyed the peaceful moment.

End of Chapter 1

Okay, so here we have the start of the plot. Hopefully you guys will find it intriguing. Please leave a review if you did. It's always a pleasure to hear the thoughts of fellow fans. I'll try to get another chapter out soon in order to expand more on the story and show some Markus and Simon.