"Connor, watch out!"

Connor ducked, and the deviant who had tried to knock him out tumbled over him. Connor reached out to snatch the gun from it, but it hit him in the head with the butt of the gun and knocked him over. Connor hit the ground with a thud, hitting the back of his head against the concrete floor of the abandoned warehouse. On impact his vision blacked out, and he felt disoriented, as though...there was no up, and there was no down, and the ground was just...floating underneath him. Spinning, almost...

The sound of gunshots pulled Connor back into reality, and his vision returned. "Lieutenant?" He called out as he stood up unsteadily. He looked around for a moment before locking his eyes on Hank, gun pointed at the now-bleeding deviant. Connor smiled and walked over to them.

"Why were you trying to kill us?" Connor pressured, putting his hands behind his back. "What could you gain from our deaths?"

The deviant smirked evilly. "Who said anything about killing you?" Before Connor could process his shock or move Hank out of the way, he received two sickening shots to the stomach, followed by hearing a shot from Hank's gun-Hank shot the deviant. Connor only assumed this, however, as his eyes were locked on his shot wounds. He felt...confused. Scared, even. If the deviant hadn't ment to kill him...why had he shot him? Why...why-

"Connor, are you okay?" Hank muttered hurriedly, kneeling down in front of him, tearing open Connor's jacket and pressing on the wounds. Connor was silent. "Connor!"

After a long pause, Connor whispered, "I'm okay..."

"Don't lie," Hank responded pointedly, then sighed. "How do I stop the...bleeding?" He looked seriously at Connor.

Connor didn't hear him. Well, Connor heard him, but...not really. He didn't understand...why couldn't he react? And why had the deviant shot him if he didn't mean to kill him?

"CONNOR!" Hank shouted, causing him to jump. Connor looked at him for a moment before responding.

"Don't worry about it," he shook his head and slowly pushed Hank's hands off of his abdomen. His voice was weak. "The thirium...the flow will slow enough for us to...to fix it..."

"Connor," Hank began warily, "you've received two shots to the abdomen, and you're nearly unresponsive." Connor looked at him with an off expression. He just...couldn't comprehend anything that had just happened. Things happened so fast, and he wasn't sure how to deal with it, and he wasn't sure how to deal with not dealing with it, and he was just...lost.

Hank took a deep breath and stated as calmly as he could, "Connor, I think you've gone into shock."

Connor blinked. He slowly, slightly nodded. "Okay..." he whispered.

Hank stood up, putting his hands on Connor's shoulders. "I'm gonna take you to CyberLife, okay? They're gonna fix you up."

Connor nodded again, a perplexed look on his face, but something felt wrong... They started walking towards the door, Connor leaning against Hank, when Connor suddenly halted. "Wait..."

Hank stopped and turned to his son, watching Connor's face turn from confused to terrified.

Connor shook his head like a young child who's been told he has to get a shot. "I can't go back to CyberLife." His LED, which had been yellow throughout most of the duration of this mission, now flickered red. His voice shook like a leaf and his eyes welled up. "I can't go back there, Hank."

Hank sighed. "Look, I know we haven't gone back there since that other RK800 took me hostage, but you could die, Connor." He grew more serious and stern. "We're going, Connor."

"No!" Connor tried to pull away, but ended up shuddering so hard he landed back in Hank's arms.

"Hey!" Hank shouted, catching him. "You've gotta calm down, Connor, you're being irrational. Nothing's gonna hurt you there, but you'll die if we don't go." Hank had subconsciously started rubbing Connor's back while Connor started hyperventilating.

Connor knew he was being irrational. He knew that he shouldn't panic about going to CyberLife, he knew there was nothing to be afraid of, but still...he still just...couldn't bring himself to go.

Hank, please," Connor whispered. "I'll be okay if we just go home, I promise." He sobbed, scaring himself a bit-he was losing control of his own body.

"Connor," Hank warned, "you are going to bleed out if we don't go."

Connor ran a diagnostic. "No I won't, if we just-cauterize the wounds, I'll be okay...!"

Without Connor realizing, Hank had dragged Connor outside, and they were at the curb, next to the car.

"Get inside, Connor." Hank sighed, opening the door and helping him in.

Connor swallowed hard and obeyed. "Please don't make me go there," he pleaded quietly.

Hank looked at Connor's big, brown eyes and sighed again, louder this time. "Alright, we can go home, but if you start glitching out we're going." He got in his seat and started the car.

"Thank you," Connor whispered as he dried his eyes on his sleeve.

"Yeah, yeah," Hank replied in an irritated tone, pulling Connor over and kissing the top of his head.