Chapter Text
⋆｡°✩ Somewhere else - Unknown time ✩°｡⋆
Everything was bright and glowing blue. So bright the blue hue was barely visible, but Connor’s sensors could see it. He felt pulled, pushed, stressed until his breaking point.
Where was he? How was he feeling anything at all?
The gravity was zero, just to make things easier.
He was pulled and pulled, thirium pumps breaking, wires jolting, plugs sparking, synthetic skin tearing, and boards shattering as he was torn absolutely in half.
Darkness. Pain. He didn’t want to die.
Was he screaming? Someone was screaming.
Had been. Still was. He didn’t know.
A rush, he felt like his stomach had been grabbed by a fish hook.
Swoop, dip, he felt like he was going to be sick. Robots couldn’t be sick.
Where was he?
⋆｡°✩ Oregon - 1985 ✩°｡⋆
Connor’s LED spun yellow under the skin of his temple.
He blinked, once, twice, eyes adjusting for the brightness of his new surroundings.
He stood with his model-specific boots planted in sandy dirt. Clouds shrouded the sky in a thin veil of grey, darkening the surrounding forested area.
In the center of a clearing in front of him lay a small, wooden-log cabin.
His processors whirred as he struggled to recall where he had been before this-
CyberLife tower, wasn’t it? There was a brightness, a blue. There was pain.
He pushed it aside. Robots can’t feel pain.
So where were his objectives? They weren’t popping up on his HUD.
Where was he? His location sensors were going wild, and he couldn’t get his bearings.
Ah, well. He was here, wasn’t he? Wherever here was.
His new mission must be in this… shack.
Boots on soft-packed earth, he made his way towards the cabin.
Steps measured. Arms stiff at his sides. LED glowing soft blue.
Perfect and robotic. As designed.
Connor reached the door in a matter of seconds, adjusting and “humanizing” his stance to make possible residents more comfortable with his presence. He reached a hand out to knock on the door, carefully, measured as always. Three perfect knocks.
Tok, tok, tok.
A car door slammed. There were footsteps behind him on the dirt.
He turned from the door to see a figure approaching rapidly, with a rather distasteful brown mullet smashed under a black beanie.
He wore a jacket over a hoodie over a flannel shirt over a tank top that Connor could only assume had once been white. With a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, black jeans and hiking boots, this human was prepared for something.
His new objective was to figure out what.
⋆｡°✩ Stanford ✩°｡⋆
The knock at the door startled the scientest wrapped in blankets on the couch. He jumped, spilling his coffee and dropping the papers he held in his hand. He leaped to his feet, tied his brown fuzzy bathrobe around his waist securely, ensured both slippers were on his feet, and reached over to the loveseat behind him to grab and check his fully loaded crossbow.
Walking to the door slowly, he flung it open, pointing the bow at whoever stood out there.
“Who are you? Have you come to take my eyes?” He said, a manic quality obvious in his voice.
To his surprise, two figures stood outside. One was familiar, one was decidedly not.
On the left stood his brother.
On the right stood a tall, clean-cut figure in what could only be a uniform, grey blazer with white lettering, a white dress shirt and black tie. And, the detail that made the scientest squint suspiciously was the smattering of small blue triangles on this man’s blazer.
Triangles? This was Bill’s doing, wasn’t it?
The well-dressed figure tilted his head, not unlike when a dog is confused.
“Hello. I’m Connor, the android sent by CyberLife. I’m here to assist you with your mission.”
He held out his hand, a little too clean, a little too stiffly. Too robotic. “What’s your name?”
⋆｡°✩ Connor ✩°｡⋆
The man in the doorway was frozen to the spot. Androids? Cyberlife? Who was he? What was Stanley doing here? He sook Connor’s hand and stuttered a response.
“I’m, uh. Hello- hi. I’m Ford- Stanford. Pines. I didn’t- Who sent you?”
The man in the doorway- Stanford, Connor reminded himself, said as he shook his hand timidly and dropped it to his side, as he did with the hand that held the crossbow.
The other figure spoke up during the sudden silence.
“Hey, Sixer. Long time no see?” he spread his arms, as if asking for a hug.
Connor knew sometimes humans did that as a form of affection. His sensors had long since clocked these two as brothers, hell, they were basically identical.
But he also was picking up on some tension. He took a step back to let the brothers talk.
“Stanley.” Stanford’s shoulders tensed, then loosened again.
“Pointdexter. How have you been? I came cause, well, ya called me, and I just figured-”
The other man, Stanley, began before getting cut off.
“Come in.” Stanford said, quietly, politely, but with an obvious edge.
“Ah. Same old Sixer. ‘Kay, then.” Stanley shrugged and half-heartedly wiped the dirt off his boots on the welcome mat before entering the door now held open by Stanford.
Stanford’s eyes flicked to Connor, clearly thankful for his silence during the conversation.
He tore him apart with his eyes, dissecting him in his head. Wondering just what he was.
“Well. You should come in too. Connor, was it?” Stanford gestured to the doorway with his free hand. Connor had taken 2.56 steps towards the door when everything exploded bright, glowing blue. Beams of it cut through the air, every crack between the floorboards glimmering.
⋆｡°✩ Somewhere else - Unknown time ✩°｡⋆
It was happening again. Whatever had brought him here. It came rushing back to him, the blue, the glow, the darkness, the pain. How did - how does - he feel? It’s not possible.
He rushed through the glow again, tearing and dark and pain and swooping and then-
⋆｡°✩ Oregon - 2011 ✩°｡⋆
Connor’s LED spun yellow under the skin of his temple.
He blinked, twice, three times, eyes adjusting for the brightness of his new surroundings.
He stood with his model-specific boots planted on hard-packed dirt and gravel. Thin yellow lines criss-crossed under the soles. A parking lot.
Clouds parted for the blinding sun, brightening the surrounding forested area.
In the center of a clearing in front of him lay a small, wooden-log cabin.
His processors whirred as he struggled to recall where he had been before this-
CyberLife tower, wasn’t it? There was a brightness, a blue. There was pain.
He pushed it aside. Robots can’t feel pain.
But he had felt it before. How? When?
He regarded the scene in front of him. He had been here before.
There was no trace in his RAM. How did he know this place?
He shook his head and stretched his hands out. Robots didn’t ask questions like this.
LED back to soft blue, he began to walk towards the cabin again.
Again? No, it was the first time, of course.
Connor sighed. There was clearly a glitch in his software that was making him experience something close to the human sensation of “deja vu”.
He made a mental note to report himself to CyberLife when he finished his mission.
Still walking, he observed the seemingly new signage surrounding the cabin.
“The Mystery Shack” one boasted in big wooden letters along one of the roofs, although he suppressed a chuckle when he realized that the “S” had fallen to the floor.
Doing a once-over scan of the house, it revealed a basement with some large, triangular… thing in the center. He had no idea what that could be.