Chapter 11

At first you were confused about what you saw. Besides Markus in the room, you thought you had recognised the other person just by the voice. But the man that was standing with the back turned to you now, didn't look like Connor at all. He was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, loose pants and a dark beanie. And this man was pointing a gun directly at Markus head; something that Connor would never do. Even though you had burst in the door, none of them really reacted to you.

Markus only gave you a short glare before taking a step closer to the armed man in front of him. You almost gasped by the movement.

"You are one of us. You can't betray your own people." Markus spoke loud and clear. He took a step closer and the armed man shifted a little and adjusted the gun against Markus head again, as it was slowly dropping.

"You are coming with me!"

"Connor!" Your first reaction was to shout out his name, when you realised that you hadn't heard it wrong when you stood outside the door. The man wearing an old hoodie and was pointing a gun at your friend was Connor. And he didn't move. But he must have shown some kind of reaction to you because Markus was now looking between you two with his head tilted.

"Do you never have any doubts?" Markus cleverly asked because with these words, Connor finally looked at you. It was only briefly and without lowering the gun. But you send him a hurt expression. The Connor you knew and liked would never point a gun at anyone. But the fact that he actually was having a gun was already against what the DPD would let androids do.

"You've never done something irrational, as if there is something inside you? Something more than your program." Markus continued as he stepped closer to Connor. But Connor had his eyes on you again. Markus could easily jump forward and take the gun right out of his hands by then, but he didn't.

"Connor, please. Don't do this. We are on the same side." You whispered and drew your arms around your body as a shiver went through you. This very human reaction of yours made Connor loose his focus on his cause. His gun lowered a little and he opened his mouth like a question was on his lips, but he didn't say anything. Though, a concerned look was on his face.

"You are wondering who you really are, aren't you?" Markus voice broke through to Connor and it was like he had to force himself to look back at Markus again.

"W-what?" Said Connor, like you two was just interrupted in something. You guess you were.

"You are wondering whether you are just a machine executing a program, or a living being... capable of emotions." Markus spoke again and now it was his turn to look at you. You swore you saw the corner of his mouth twitch. He nodded one time as to gesture to you. You didn't know what he meant but you spoke out loud.

"Connor. This is not you. I know you and you would never point a gun at someone." You said with a pleading voice.

"He needs to surrender." Connor said but didn't sound so sure anymore.

"Connor." You took the chance and walked towards him. His gun was still pointed at Markus but his eyes were on you as you tried to force a smile upon your lips. He was scaring you a little. You didn't know if it was him or his program that had taking over completely. But something was wrong. You didn't know what he was capable of when he was like that.

"You have to stop this. You are not a killer. I don't want you to do something you will regret." You walked slowly closer and when you were close enough to touch him, you moved in front of Connor and took Markus place at the end of the barrel.

"Shut your mouth." Connor said with wide eyes. He was clearly not prepared for what you just did and didn't know what to do.

"No. No, I'm not going to let this happen. I'm not letting you ruin yourself. I know you. It'll break you if you do this!" You said with a raise voice and stood a few centimetres taller.

"Shut up!" Connor said even louder and jolted a little towards you, which made you flinch back and cover your head with your arms in a weak attempt to protect yourself from a possible attack. This was what got him. Connor stumbled back as you slowly lowered your arms. He dropped the gun on the floor as his arms dropped to his sides.

"Do-don't be afraid of me. I'm... I'm not going to hurt you. I would never..." He began and shock his head in disbelieve of what just happened.

"I know you wouldn't." You said quietly.

"You are afraid of me." He said with such sadness in his voice that you would have never thought that the man in front you had been emotionless once. There was so much emotion in his whole being at this point, that you had to reassure him that everything was going to be fine. You walked towards him yet again to show him that you weren't afraid. You could felt with everything in you, that you weren't afraid of him. It was simply the action of his sudden movement that made you step away.

"Connor I will never be afraid of you. I trust that you will never ever harm me." You said and as you stood in front of him, you touched his cheek lightly to see how he would react to you. It was like the man melted at your touch. You let him fall into you. His head hit your shoulder quickly and his arms wrapped around you with such a power, that you had to concentrate to breathe normally for a moment. As you secured your arms around his shoulders as well you felt him relax and you hoped that he was returning to be the Connor he was when he was visiting you. When you two were alone.

Markus got your attention by laying a hand on your shoulder. Got you back to reality. Connor had to talk to Markus. He needed to be convinced to join Jericho and go against everything he even was. You loosened your grip around Connor but he wasn't letting go at first. You had to repeat his name a few times before he reacted and looked up at you with a broken expression.

"You need to talk to Markus, Connor." You explained. Connor straightened up but didn't let go of you. He was holding on to your jacket with a tight grip, like you might walk away from him.

"We... We don't have much time." Connor said with a firm voice.

"What are you talking about?" You asked worried.

"They... They are going to attack Jericho. We have to get out of here." He elaborated.

"What are you saying?" Markus brain worked quicker than yours. You were still processing what was going on. What this might mean and what Connor might have done before realizing his mistakes.

"Did... Did you tell them where we are?" You tried to step away from Connor to get a better look at him while he was explaining, but his grip in your shirt prevented you from moving away from him.

"I was a part of their system. Everything I investigated in this case was automatically transferred from my memory to their database. Up until now." Connor gaze dropped with something that looked like shame and you looked to Markus to see if he believed Connor. He simply nodded once. He was like Connor once and had a better understanding what he was going through. If Markus believed Connor, you could too.

Almost on cue you heard the first faint sound of choppers over the old ship. Both the androids eyes widened and Connor let go of your jacket to take your hand instead.

"Do you trust me y/n?" He asks with a worried expression on his face but you didn't hesitate when you nodded.

"Yes of course."

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The soldiers approached faster than you had counted on. Connor was much faster than you and you were practically flying after him as he was dragging you forward. His grip on your hand was like steel. It was like he was afraid that you would disappear any moment and you were grateful that he did. Because you might not be able to carry yourself through the nightmare that was happening around you. Shots were fired all around you and the acoustics of the old metal ship made it impossible to know where they were coming from in your ears. Markus and Connor that was running in front of you might have better senses to figure out where not to go. But in all corners and turned in the labyrinth like hallways, lied dead androids in a pool of their own Thirium.

When the first explosion rang through the halls of the ship you screamed out in pain. It was far away, you thought so at least, but the ringing of the metal was piercing your ears. Connor looks back with a worried expression but he doesn't stop. You rounded a corner and Markus ran into another person. North looked wildly around before halting herself to speak.

"They are coming from all sides! Our people are trapped in the hold, they are going to be slaughtered!" She said panicking and paced in place. Markus was calm and the moment after he closed his eyes and touched his temple with two fingers.

"What... Markus?" You questioned his calm action in such a hasty situation. There was no time.

"He is sending a message to all the other androids. Telling them where the exits are." Connor explained to you as Marcus went back to you again.

"We have to blow up Jericho." Markus said and started to run down the hall.

"What?!" You almost shouted in disbelieve. You all caught up with Markus.

"If the ship goes down, they'll evacuate and out people can escape." He explained shouting to you behind him.

"You'll never make it!" North said with fear in her eyes and we all stopped for a moment. Markus looks at North with a pained expression. There was more there than just a mutual mission. There were feelings between them and this was hard for them both.

"I'll help." Connor offered. Maybe he sensed the same thing between the two androids like you did.

"No. No you have to get y/n out of here before the ship sinks. We have breath under water. She can't." Connor looked at you and nodded. He took your hand and squeezed it hard.

"Markus they know who you are. They will be looking for you." North said in a last attempt to make markus stay with you.

"I won't be long. Get out of here." That was the last he said before he ran down the hall. You all stood watching him for a moment until you could hear the sound of soldiers shouting nearby. You went to North and pulled her arm to make her come with you. She mumbled something before running down the opposite direction Markus just went. Connor gave your hand another squeeze before dragging you along again.

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You didn't know how long you had been running and how far you were from the exit. You were starting to grow tired and it pained you that you relied more and more on Connor dragging you along. He was almost carrying you when you rounded a corner and two soldiers stood with their back to you. You were everything but quiet so they turned around when they hear you. You didn't even get to react before Connor threw you back around the corner. You tumbled around on the ground when you heard shots being fired.

"Connor!" You screamed and you got back on your feet, trampling from exhaustion. As you looked around the corner you saw both North and Connor in direct combat with the two heavily armed men. You looked around you and saw a collection of different sizes metal pipes lying around your feet. You collected on of them and without thinking threw yourself at one of the men North was trying to deprive his weapon. As the pipe connected with his head it made a weird ringing sound and the man lost his grip on his weapon to move his hand to his damaged head. It gave North the opportunity to take the rifle from him and point it at himself. He flew back as she shot him. The moment after she turned to the man fighting with Connor and shot him in the back. He collapsed to the floor next to his partner.

"Oh thank god." You said and was about to slide down the wall but Connor caught you.

"That was extremely dangerous. The chances of you getting hurt was..."

"Oh give the girl some credit. Stop calculating the chances of everything and get a move on." North interrupted. She kicked the rifles away from the dead soldiers and motioned to you to follow her. Connor took his arm around your waist and pulled you along. You felt like such a burden, but you couldn't run anymore at that point.

"We are there soon! Let's go!" North said out loud.

"North?" The question came from further down the darkening hall you ran down. An android ran towards you. You recognised him as Josh when you got closer, one of the androids that were close to Markus.

"Josh! Have you seen Markus?" North asked Josh as you now ran along with him. He steered you in the right direction.

"He's this way. He is running toward the exit now as well. If we hurry we can reach him before he jumps out?"

"Jumps out?" You ask but none of them answers you. People were concentrating on running. You could hear the first explosions behind you. The footsteps of soldiers and a lot of shouting above you. Next time you turned down another hall you saw Markus run past the end of it.

"Markus!" North shouted and it only took him a few seconds to come back into view and hurried you all along with him. You could all see the end of the hall. The door must have fallen off with time and you could almost smell the fresh air over the smell of rust and fire. You were all so close when footsteps suddenly came too close to your hearing range and North screamed out loud behind you. You turned your head to look as a sharp pain when through your shoulder.

"No y/n!" Connor shouted and let go of you and scooted you behind a metal pillar. You grabbed your damaged shoulder as you slid down the wall. You didn't dare to look at your shoulder but you know what just happened. Markus ran right passed you as he picked up a piece of rusty metal scrap. The bullets were loud against it as he charged towards the attackers. Connor stood in front of you with panic in his eyes. He looked like he was debating what to do. Markus gave North the metal scrap as protection as he jumped at one of the two attackers. He hit one of them so hard that he flew into the wall while he twisted the gun out of the hand of the other and proceeded to shoot him afterwards.

He lifted North from the ground but as they were moving towards you, more soldiers appeared. Connor took one last glare at you before he did something you never expected to see again; he reached for his back pocket and drew a gun out. Like the machine he once where, he walked calmly down the hall and fired at all the soldiers. It was like he didn't care for his life in that second and it hurt almost more than your bullet wound.

"Can you walk?" Josh suddenly appeared next to you and removed your hand from the wound on your shoulder. You hissed at the sudden cold air on the wound but you nodded and took his out-stretched hand. He lifted you up and was about to walk you towards the exit again when you halted.

"Wait no. Connor! We can't leave without him." You said worried for your friend. You could still hear shots behind you and you would leave knowing that one of them had fatally hit Connor.

"We have to jump now!" Josh said with a firm voice. You took one look behind you as you were standing at the exit. Your whole body almost sacked with relief when you saw Connor Running towards you. With just a few long steps he was in front of you. But... you were not prepared for what he did. He never stopped. He ran directly into you and engulfed you in a tight embrace as you both fell backwards out of the door. His face was emotionless as you flew through the air. The last thing you remembered was the coldness of water in the winter and a huge bang.