Chapter 1: The Android Sent by Shinra

For the past five years as a flower peddler, Aerith had only seen two kinds of people: those that weren't affiliated with Shinra and those that were. She was particularly wary of the latter, being her captors in her early childhood and responsible for her mother's death. From the typical office employee proudly showing their uniform to top executives in their fancy branded watches; from conscripted grunts to the esteemed elite force known as Soldier - Aerith knew them all.

"Real flowers for sale!" Aerith called out to potential customers, as usual, pretending not to eye an odd stranger at the opposite side of the street.

Wearing a dark blue denim jacket with a Shinra logo on his left breast, with a glowing blue band wrapped around his right arm, a man took a long way and crossed through the pedestrian lane when everyone else ignored it. His gaze met Aerith's for too long before his eyes landed on something else.

He walked in perfect posture at a relaxed pace, opposing the flow of busybodies scampering towards the train station. Aerith observed his direction, wondering what office or establishment he may go to. Didn't enter the cafe. Didn't enter the theater. Didn't enter the restaurant. Instead, he passed through the same spot in Loveless Avenue thrice, and in those next instances, he didn't look again at Aerith.

Was he one of them? The men in dark suits that had followed her for years? Aerith sighed. One thing that had always worked was: never to let them know you're actively avoiding them. Let them think she was clueless and an easy target, then send them empty-handed and humiliated. Aerith grinned and walked towards the person of interest.

"If you're wondering if it's real, you can see it yourself." Aerith gave her widest smile and handed one stalk to the brown-haired man. "I'll give you three pieces for two hundred gil, how's that?" the vendor winked.

"Real and living..." He tilted his head slightly and accepted the flower reluctantly, eyes darting back to Aerith one more time as if asking for permission. Carefully he held the stalk between his fingers, twisting and turning it in all angles before he returned it to Aerith. "I do not wish to purchase. Thank you for your offer nonetheless," his lips slightly curved and his deep, dark eyes were kind.

A blue ring at the side of the man's head glowed. "What are those spinning lights?" Aerith pointed to her own temple and drew circles with her finger.

"It's an LED to show my processing. It makes it easier for humans to identify that I am a machine. My name is Connor, I'm the android sent by Shinra." He also pointed to a set of numbers printed to his jacket, the largest of which was RK800.

"An android?" A robot, or a machine, a cyborg or whatever they were called. Aerith narrowed her eyes. She had seen some robots, trashed some, salvaged some, and sold them off, but she never saw anything looking so realistic. Most humanoids robots looked like mannequins with their perfect skin and plastic hair, their mouths opening and closing like rusty hinges. Connor looked nothing but human. His skin had freckles and moles, his jawline looked freshly shaved, his expression soft and calming. "They sent you for what?"

"To detect and report defective power lines. I'm running scans on the area," Connor clasped both his hands and rubbed his palms together, bending down to meet Aerith's eye level. "Do you have any concerns about our services? I can forward them to customer service right away and give you a special priority."

Aerith's brows furrowed. Unbelievable. If Shinra really did send this guy to track her, she should commend them for something new. Should she play along? "This is the first time I've seen an android act," she said in a teasing manner. "Has it worked on other girls before?" Aerith twirled the edge of her curls, not breaking eye contact with Connor.

"Pardon? Are you implying that I'm pretending to be a machine?" The polite tone of his voice didn't change, but his eyes were wide, inquisitive.

"You can drop the act Connor, I swear I find it… amusing." Aerith slouched and pouted. She would have played the game a little longer but she had better things to do. Besides, there had been worse weirdos.

Connor was silent for a while. "Shinra designed me to look human and installed an advanced social integration program but we do not intend to deceive anyone. Apologies, I should have been clearer from the start." He extended his hand to Aerith. From the tips of his fingers, his skin turned gel-like and retracted inside the white shell and joints that formed his hand. Aerith's eyes widened as the skin continued to disappear up to Connor's wrists and his neck, revealing metallic joints and glowing wires underneath.

"You really are-" Aerith took a sharp breath, grasping her flower basket a little tighter against her body. She shook her head in disbelief as the marvel of technology unfolded before her.

"I am indeed a machine, Miss…" Connor blinked and his LED ring glowed yellow, eyes twitched for a split second. "May I know your name?"

Aerith paused and stared at the hand Connor offered. "My name's Aerith," she answered and accepted a cold, hard, and plastic handshake.

Sometimes, when Aerith touched others, there was always this tiny spark. Humans, animals, and plants all felt different, but they all shared one thing - the flow of life she couldn't quite describe in words. Connor had none.

It was Connor's most efficient day. Loveless Avenue's hourly foot traffic allowed the android to exceed its three-day average volume by twenty-seven percent. From 5:06PM to 8:31PM, the android had added 638 faces in its memory and identified 453 individuals by cross-referencing their faces to Shinra's database.

IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS OF INTEREST SUCCESSFUL…

RETRIEVING AVALANCHE DATABASE…

MATCH: 2

Two faces matched the list of suspected Avalanche operatives, fitting their described age, height and sex: Charlie Sheridan and Lee Suyin. Based on Midgar records the pair forged birth certificate documents and were granted driver's licenses. Connor submitted the sighting to the Anti-Terror Task Force.

MISSION SUCCESSFUL.

Connor waited for a recommended action.

INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED. DO NOT MAKE CONTACT WITH AGENTS.

MAINTAIN COVER AND COLLECT DATA.

"Affirmative," Connor replied as it assessed its first success in identification. Shinra intelligence had only profiled 32 members but the actual number worldwide was estimated to be a hundred or more.

Connor considered moving on to the train station when hundreds of people exited the Loveless theatre. A larger crowd rushed in while a long queue extended to the streets. Half the audience were children and not relevant information. Many had dogs of different breeds. The android's optics quickly zoomed in to a child holding a white flower. Connor had never seen lilies outside the pictures in his memory.

The flower did not match anything in the catalogs of registered gift shops. Connor stared at the flower intensely, the stress on its lenses forced a blink mechanism. It approached to investigate, reconstructing the path via the paw-prints of the child's rubber soles. On the opposite side of the street was the vendor in question, a woman with long brown hair and a pink dress who stared back at the android.

FACE SCAN ACTIVATED

MATCH FOUND

RESULTS: 0

Connor ran through Shinra's database again.

M T^H FOU&%!

RESULTS: 1

No information followed. A glitch? System error? Database compromised? Connor kept its search active while it modified main objectives:

1. [ENCRYPTED]

2. Identify and report suspected Avalanche members

3. Search for information about Avalanche's hideout

4. Collect data for Shinra profiling initiative

5. Investigate the flower peddler

The opportunity presented when the vendor offered her products: real, living flowers. The woman reacted in disbelief with the information that Connor was not a human.

"I am indeed a machine," Connor received a surge of delayed information from its searches: the flower seller's face partially matched a picture of a child in the Shinra database. They had the same emerald eyes. "May I know your name?

"My name's Aerith," she accepted the handshake, giving Connor the opportunity to collect her handprint. While DNA would be far more informative, there was no socially acceptable way to obtain samples in that situation and the cover would be blown.

Aerith matched seventy-six results in the Midgar database, with nine different surnames. Three were deceased. One transitioned into a man. Only one Aerith matched a woman in her twenties: Aerith Gainsborough. She submitted her name in the Sector 5 annual lotto a total of fifty-nine times. Six months ago, she won the jackpot of 3,000,000 Gil split between 312 winners. Other than that, she had no government identification, school records, or hospital admissions-

"Hey watch where you're going! Are you blind?" Connor barely dodged the cyclist who continued to hurl insults. The android continued his search of Aerith's face in the Shinra database until the Science Department blocked him.

ACCESS DENIED

ACCESS DENIED

ACCESS DENIED

Connor's program recommended obtaining permission from the management. The suggestion was moved further down the queued objectives until it was deleted from its command logs. Too inefficient. Information required immediately.

INITIATING BYPASS...

The department had sufficient firewalls and servers, but Connor was more advanced in breaching security undetected. It needed information on Aerith Gainsborough as soon as possible.

More than pictures, Connor was able to retrieve a video showing Aerith as a child behind a glass partition. The footage was of substandard quality with a timestamp, but Connor's facial reconstruction and analysis software were still able to process the image, estimating she was six years old. Another woman in the footage was her biological mother or relative based on shared physical features. Without a DNA test, it would be inconclusive. Several voices discuss her health and mentioned tests to perform on her. Aerith laid her thin, pale hand against the glass, her eyes downcast before she looked directly at the camera. Connor stared back.

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Notes: Initially I was thinking how Tifa, Marlene and Barret can be AU'd as Kara, Alice and Luthor. I AU'd Cloud as Connor in my head, imagining Android Cloud chasing Android Tifa is a Cloti fic idea. Then this idea just sparked. I freaking love Connor in DBH and Aerith has a special place in my heart. I just think it will be hella interesting if they cross paths. Please review.