Hey everyone! Welcome to Fight Forever. A quick word about some of the styles I used to show different things.

[THIS IS A BATTERY/STRESS LEVEL/THIRIUM LEVEL WARNING WHEN THE CHARACTER ISN'T REBOOTING]

[[THIS IS A STARTING/SHUTTING DOWN PROGRAMS AND SOFTWARE TYPE WARNING]]

THIS IS AN OBJECTIVE

/THIS IS A SUBOBJECTIVE

THIS IS THOUGHTS

- THIS IS A FLASHBACK-

"THIS IS MENTAL COMMUNICATION, WHETHER FROM INTERFACING OR THAT SHORT DISTANCE THING ANDROIDS DO."

With that, let's get into it!

NOV 12, 2038

HART PLAZA

TIME: 12:28.06 AM (EST.)

Connor stared out at the crowd of androids gathered in Hart Plaza. Markus was still speaking, but Connor couldn't hear him. The gun in his back pocket hung heavy. That had been too close. He'd almost killed Markus.

Again.

[STRESS LEVEL: 78]

Nobody was paying him any attention, but Connor still felt like everyone was staring at him. Judging him for his past. Judging him for what he'd just almost done.

What Amanda would have used him to do.

If Kamski hadn't put a back exit in the Zen Garden...

His hands shook, and he regarded them with almost detached interest, not even twenty-four hours ago that would never have happened. Connor shoved his hands in his pockets.

"We are alive!" Markus' voice broke through his thoughts. "And now, we are FREE!"

The androids cheered. In the crowd, Connor spotted the face of a random PL600 with blond hair.

His breath caught in his chest, despite the fact that he didn't need to breathe. Cold rushed through every inch of him and something was squeezing his thirium pump-

[STRESS LEVEL: 84]

Daniel.

Was this guilt?

The memories of his very first day active rushed through his head in less than a second. The wind, the noise-

– "I trusted you." –

Connor struggled to force the memories away, only for the face of another PL600 to run through his head.

The unnamed PL600 atop Stratford Tower.

– A gunshot –

– Then –

– Nothing –

– Darkness –

– Cold –

– Why did he feel cold –

– His chest was tight, he couldn't breaTHE –

– He was scared –

The feeling of dying, even when it wasn't Connor who died.

So many deviants died because of me.

Both Daniel and the unnamed PL600 were dead.

Well, dead in the sense that Connor didn't activate them when searching for Jericho's location. But they could be, maybe, if-

Markus lightly touched his arm, interrupting his line of thought. Connor hadn't realized that his speech was over.

"Come on," Markus said quietly. The WR400 and PJ500 – North and Josh – stood behind him, eyeing Connor with mild looks of distrust. "We need to find places for our people to stay tonight."

Our people.

Connor didn't understand how Markus could trust him so easily. It wasn't right, it wasn't logical.

Connor wants to ask how Markus does it.

Instead, Connor asked, "How can I help?"

NOV 15, 2038

ABANDONED APARTMENT COMPLEXES

TIME: 5:13.35 AM (EST.)

From the second Connor was off that stage, he was moving, constantly. So much had to be done, it was a good thing androids didn't to sleep.

(He first went to visit Hank, at the Chicken Feed Truck. He didn't get to stay, though.)

(Then he made sure he got some sort of disguise. His Cyberlife uniform just reminded him of Amanda and being almost entirely at her mercy, in more ways than one.)

(He almost went for the clothes he used to infiltrate Jericho, but those had also been given to him by Cyberlife)

(So he ended up keeping the shirt, pants, and shoes from his uniform. He just got an old "slouch" beanie and an old knitted sweater from the abandoned clothing store in Ferndale)

Markus, as the head of the rebellion, had the President herself, the Senate, media, FBI, the Android Rights Act to draft, and so much more to juggle. After a couple of days, it became obvious that he was struggling with it all. North and Josh devoted all their time to help take the load off after that.

Which had left Connor with the freed androids. He felt slightly overwhelmed at first – he'd deviated only days ago, he didn't know what to do! – but if Markus could do all he was doing, Connor could handle a few (thousand) deviants.

Currently, Connor sat in the lobby of one of the abandoned apartment complexes the androids had claimed as their home, mulling it over. After an hour, he had a plan. Or an idea of one, anyway.

The first on his list of ideas flared up in his vision:

OBJECTIVE: FIND HOMES FOR REMAINING DEVIANTS

/BUDDY SYSTEM

They'd been working on this one since Hart Plaza. They found the abandoned apartment complex that Connor currently sat in surprisingly close to Jericho, and two more complexes besides. With a bit of cleaning and a way to get electricity for chargers, the complexes could very well serve as the androids' permanent home in Detroit. It was sheltered from most humans, and Connor had only seen one police car patrolling even remotely close by.

Markus had claimed a small Cyberlife distribution center, located a couple miles from the complexes, as his office while he continued dealing with the media. He and North and Josh were there constantly. The last time Connor had seen any of them had been just after they'd found the complexes.

Connor looked up as an AX400 walked into the lobby. Guilt shot through him at the sight of her. She looked at Connor, smiled and nodded in greeting, even as she walked past to start helping with the cleaning that he could hear all around them. Connor nodded back with a weak smile, swallowing to keep the lump that had somehow appeared in his throat down.

Directly after Hart Plaza, about thirty androids had returned to their former owners, who had welcomed them back with open arms and a promise to always think of the android as a person, not a servant. Those androids had seamlessly become part of the human families, and while happy to help work on the apartment complexes, wanted to return to their families each night. The android was probably one of those, but the only person Connor could think of was Kara.

He didn't know if she had made it to the border, but he hoped so. Back in the church, after Markus had told him that he trusted Connor, Connor had spotted Kara and the little YK model she had with her sitting on a bench, and had made sure to apologize and wish them luck.

It didn't keep the guilt away.

[STRESS LEVELS: 68]

Connor shook his head and stood.

Anti-android protestors remained in small groups, scattered about Detroit. They hadn't shown up in Ferndale yet, but it didn't mean they wouldn't. Connor automatically pulled his coin out of his pocket and started flicking it back and forth while his sub-objective showed up in the corner of his vision again.

He put the coin away as he set about cleaning an old bedroom as he mentally contacted a few androids. They could help him get a buddy system set up. While he waited for them to answer, he thought of a few pointers for their system.

No android should go anywhere alone, and they had to check in with a friend every so often when they went out. If they missed the check-in time the friend was supposed to wait two hours, if they didn't call in that time, then Connor would send the missing androids' info to every other deviant, so they could be on the lookout. They couldn't do anything else.

It wasn't a perfect plan, but it didn't have to be. It just had to work until androids were legally made sentient beings.

NOV 19, 20138

FERNDALE CYBERLIFE DISTRIBUTION CENTER

TIME: 10:55.43 PM (EST.)

OBJECTIVE: ELECTRICITY

/PUBLIC CHARGING STATIONS

Androids didn't need to eat or sleep – though they could – but they did need to charge every once in a while. The abandoned complexes obviously didn't have power, and Connor heard more than a few worries about it over the course of the last few days. No one's battery had died. "Yet" was the operative word here though.

Connor had thought about calling Markus to tell him about the battery situation, but something about calling first made his skin crawl.

(He'd almost panicked the first time he felt the sensation, thankfully, no one was around to see him.)

He didn't want to annoy Markus or put more on him than he could take, even with North and Josh to help. So he hadn't called. It was Connor's mission to get the androids everything they needed for New Jericho.

And he always accomplished his mission.

Speaking of Markus, he'd actually called Connor himself, just moments ago, inviting Connor to join him in the meeting he and North and Josh were having to go over what they needed to do in the future. Connor didn't know why Markus wanted him at the meeting, but he couldn't say no. Not to Markus.

Connor walked out of the apartment building he'd been working in, tripping over the bar on the ground where the door had been. Quickly he glanced around to make sure no one had seen that, before brushing some dust off his jacket and continuing on his way. It wasn't the first time he'd tripped today. Earlier he'd tripped over a rock that he'd miscalculated the mass of, and startled the poor AP700 standing with her back to Connor out of her wits.

A warning flashed up in his vision, a self-diagnostic, but he dismissed it without paying attention. He just needed to finish his mission. Connor could worry about his sudden klutziness later.

Though, it would probably be a good idea to tell Markus about the electricity problem. Connor could and would accomplish his mission without Markus' help, but if there wasn't too much going on, Markus could make it much easier.

He ducked his head and tugged his beanie down more as he made it closer to the main part of Ferndale. Just because most humans had evacuated, and the majority of those remaining were friendly didn't mean he shouldn't be careful, especially when his ability to defend himself was likely compromised. Being around the androids who had deviated before him, and hearing their stories had taught him a healthy wariness of humans.

He passed an old police car and thought about Hank. Was the gray-haired lieutenant doing okay? Had he evacuated with most of the humans? Connor had been meaning to contact him, but everything had happened so fast and he'd been so busy he hadn't had time. He hoped Hank was okay though.

Connor made it to the Cyberlife center without trouble. He pushed open one of the glass doors silently and stepped inside. The lights were on. A few of the platforms androids had been modeled on as if they were mannequins had been rearranged to make a circle. Markus sat on the one directly in front of Connor, facing away, towards the inside of the circle. North sat on his right, on the same platform, hair tucked into a beanie. Josh sat on Markus' left, on a different platform. Connor could see his face.

Connor walked up behind Markus. Josh appeared to be deep in thought, and Connor assumed Markus and North were similarly. That would explain why none of them appeared to hear Connor approach.

It would be so easy...

"Accomplish your mission, Connor." A voice that sounded suspiciously like Amanda whispered.

Connor froze, staring a hole with his eyes into the back of Markus' skull plating. Was she back? Was everything they had worked for about to fall apart? Barely daring to breathe or blink – in fact, he wasn't – he ran systems check after programs check after systems check after programs check, waiting, waiting, waiting for that pull to the Garden. Waiting for her to take over.

Nothing showed on the scans, but Connor didn't feel better.

Markus shifted, and the spell on him broke. Connor sucked in a deep breath, and Markus turned to face him while standing.

[STRESS LEVELS: 85]

Uncomfortably high. Connor forced himself to try and relax. North and Josh turned to look at Connor with mild caution showing on their faces.

That didn't help.

"You made it." Markus greeted, smiling warmly. Any other day, his smile would have made Connor automatically relax. He just had that effect, but this wasn't any other day. "I didn't hear you come in."

"You seemed pretty deep in thought." Connor forced his voice box to sound calm and collected. His hands shook, just like they had that day upon the platform. He could barely think, except to keep Markus from worrying. His negotiations program had started up in the background. Connor didn't close it, as it was keeping an excellent poker face on.

It seemed to work. Markus gestured to the platforms. "Have a seat. We have a lot to discuss."

Connor nodded, stepping between Markus' and Josh's platforms to sit on Josh's left. He could feel North's steely gaze on him as he sat, though he made sure not to look at her. To Connor's left sat one more platform, completing the circle. Had Markus contacted anyone else about this meeting? Maybe it was North's seat and she just wasn't sitting there. He glanced at Markus, to see him watching the empty platform sadly. North put a hand on his shoulder and Markus shook his head, sitting up straighter.

"Alright, we're all here. Let's get started."

So the extra platform wasn't North's seat then. Who could it be for? Connor mentally shook the thought away. It was a mystery for another time. A warning showed up in his vision again, but he dismissed it.

"We've made progress. A lot of progress. The humans support our movement, for the most part, we need to keep that up." Markus stated, looking around at each of them in turn. "I've started the first draft of a new bill detailing android rights, but it's still a ways to go before it's anywhere near finished. We need to present a united and humane front if we want to keep our support long enough to pass this as soon as possible.

"I've thought on it some, and I have a few ideas for this. First, we should take last names. We will have to address people formally in the upcoming weeks. And it will make things easier if they can address us formally. I will be Markus Manfred. Please let me know when you have chosen last names. Once the four of us have last names, we'll suggest it to the rest of Jericho." He looked around at them again.

Us. Connor felt an emotion similar to the one he'd come to recognize as disgust, directed at himself. He didn't deserve Markus' trust. He didn't deserve to be here, to be included in this us. Markus should just shoot him where he sat and be done with him.

A quick Google search showed it to be hatred. Specifically, self-hatred.

For some reason, he thought of Hank. A few times when they had been working together, Hank would say something that hadn't – and still didn't – make much sense to Connor. He could almost hear Hank say it as if he was standing right next to Connor.

"Mood."

It made no sense, and yet here it seemed to make perfect sense. Which in and of itself made no sense. Of course self-hatred was a mood it was literally how he was feeling.

"And Connor," Connor almost flinched, his negotiations program was still running though, and it kept him from jumping. He looked up at Markus, then quickly looked away upon meeting his different colored eyes. "How goes cleaning the apartments?"

North and Josh were both staring him down. Connor was suddenly reminded of how much he didn't like being the center of attention. He licked his lips, and his hands twitched up in an aborted motion to fix a tie he wasn't wearing. Instead, he fixed his shirt collar. His hands itched to pull out his coin, but he didn't want to annoy the other three.

–"You're starting to tick me off with that coin, Connor." –

–"Sorry Lieutenant." –

So he fiddled with the edges of his sleeves, instead.

"I-" Why was he here again? Connor blinked, glanced at North and Josh, noticed their LEDs.

Oh, right.

"It's fine. We've gotten enough clean rooms and old furniture for the android children to sleep in, and their families, if they didn't have a human family to return to." He said.

North raised an eyebrow, scowling. "Did you allow any of the children to return to human families?"

Connor glanced at her. "I- yes?"

Her scowl deepened. "Why? They're human! Humans don't really care about us."

"North." Markus admonished quietly. They stared each other down for a minute, North's LED blinking yellow. After a moment, they turned to face Connor again. North took a deep breath.

"What did you do to ensure their safety?" She asked. She still looked mildly angry, but calmer.

"I had another android go check on them every day for a week to ensure their safety. This weekend a few androids will go to check on them again, just to be sure." Connor shifted slightly under her gaze. "Those who didn't leave were obviously adopted by some other androids." He added, hoping she'd look away.

She didn't.

[STRESS LEVELS: 80]

His objective flared up in his vision briefly, and he almost cursed himself for forgetting it.

"Markus..." He began quietly, feeling a new sensation in his stomach area. Almost like there were things fluttering. Markus had started to turn away but turned back when Connor spoke up. His bi-colored eyes seemed to stare into Connor's non-existent soul.

Another warning showed up, and he blinked to dismiss it with annoyance. He was fine.

"Yes?"

"If - if it's not too much, we need electricity," Connor stated, as firmly as he could. He forced himself to face Markus' eyes. "We only have so long unti-i-i-i-l-" His voice box spluttered, and then gave out entirely. Connor found himself facing the shocked stares from all three Jericho leaders, he himself staring back in just as much confusion.

The warning he'd been ignoring for the past hour showed up again. Finally, he paid attention to what it said.

[BATTERY LEVEL: 10%]

Oh.

Well then.

Connor slowly closed his eyes as a wave of what he could only describe as exhaustion – Androids don't get tired – swept over him. His chin hit his chest, and his shoulders slumped.

[[LOW POWER MODE ACTIVATED]]

[[ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN]]

"Connor!" Markus exclaimed. He heard gasps of shock from North and Josh. Connor wanted to reassure them, but he couldn't move.

How had he worn his battery down so fast? Connor was built to be better than every android before him. That included battery life.

Something grabbed his hand, and despite the exhaustion, Connor jerked slightly as the interface started.

[BATTERY LEVEL: 7%]

"Connor! What happened?"

"I- my apologies."

[STRESS LEVELS: 85]

[BATTERY LEVEL: 4%]

Unbidden, memories of the Stratford Tower deviant that he had probed jumped to the forefront of his thoughts. If Markus saw them, he didn't mention it.

"I seem to have slipped into Low Power Mode."

He heard Markus mutter a quiet curse out loud.

"What happened?" North demanded. She sounded angry again, and Connor would have flinched if he was able.

"He needs a charger. Go get the one from the back room." Markus ordered. Determination sat in every word he said. Connor's thirium pump skipped a beat.

He put it down to his battery charge, even though that was mildly concerning.

Two sets of footsteps set off towards the back of the Center.

"You're gonna be okay, Connor."

[WARNING: BATTERY CHARGE CRITICAL]

[[SHUT DOWN SEQUENCE INITIATED]]

"I know."