Disclaimer: the characters belong to Quantic dream and come from the video game detroit become human

Humans don't like birds...

Connor remained frozen, a real wax statue proudly planted in the middle of Inspector Reed's living room. His chest was not lifting under his breath, his lips were stubbornly closed and no sound was trying to escape from them, while his dark eyes landed on a prostrate figure on the ground that gave him fierce intermittent glances. The human had interposed between the two beings of metal and plastic. With a gentleness he didn't know Reed was able to have, Connor saw him slowly put his weapon at the entrance and calmly raise his hands in appeasement gesture, as he carefully approached the deviant huddled in a corner of the room. His voice became peaceful as he squated at the level of the poor frightened creature. For a moment, Connor even saw on these usually insolent lips the shadow of a tender smile.

" Hey ! It's okay, calm down Rupert, it's me. Just me. Do you remember? Gavin. We're friends, you and I ... and that it's ... "pile of scrap". It won't hurt you ok? I promise you... "

The android seemed less sure than the policeman of this last statement. He didn't even look at Reed. He didn't seem to be able to stop watching at the high stature of the RK800, which crushed him by his mere presence. The former hound of Cyberlife, for its part, didn't dare to make a gesture. He was paralyzed by that accusing look, by those two brown eyes, so akin to his own, but which, however, didn't resemble them in any way. These two irises were not trembling with hatred. They didn't know rage. They only expressed the uncontrollable fear of a beast facing a hunter ... or a victim facing an executioner. Implacable informer mirror, this desperate look seemed to beg the old detective robot to not make it disappear. And this simple expression in one of his own was enough to chain the powerful machine in his steel body. For the first time, Connor found himself directly facing the consequences of his actions. Rupert had been pursued by the relentless tracker he had been. He still remembered his frenzied escape, this desperate run through the dangers to try to escape the death that was on his heels. The same death standing there, facing him, motionless. He was scared. He was afraid of this specter of Cyberlife : his name had shaken all Deviants of Detroit for many months. He was afraid of death. Reed turned to Connor with an openly hostile glare:

"What do you not understand in « stay in the corridor and wait before come in », asshole !? Jesus you're really stupid! "

Connor didn't waver under the insults. He didn't even pay attention to the human. His eyes remained stubbornly frozen on the former bird trainer who had fallen in love for freedom in a gloomy apartment in the heart of a gray city. He had entered with Reed despite his injunctions because he didn't trust the man. He hadn't expected to dive into a cloud of feathers and seeds while the other android ran away when he had seen him.

"It's not good Reed ... he's not good. You mustn't believe him. It's Cyberlife, I don't want to go ... I just want to stay with the birds, Reed please, birds are my friends. "

With a sigh, Gavin gently brushed Rupert's cheek, who didn't try to escape this mark of tenderness. The human grimaced slightly. This simple gesture awakened the pain of his injured hand, but he tried to hide it from the deviant's eyes. The detective offered him a slightly sad smile. There was so much affection in this simple exchange that it surprised Connor. He didn't know that Reed could be so ... "human". With a soft firmness, the policeman placed his second hand on Rupert's face and forced his fleeting glance to anchor in his gray eyes. Strangely, as if he was attached to reality by the policeman's merry pupils, the deviant seemed to calmed down a little.

"You have to listen to me, Rupert, it's important. Connor won't hurt you, I won't allow it. He's no longer with Cyberlife, as you don't work for the farm anymore, ok? "

"But ... what if he hurts you again? He runs fast. He already hurt you, I remember, I took care of you. And your hand ... you have pain in your hand ... it's him, isn't it? You have no chance, Reed ... and I don't believe it. He'll hurt you again ... "

The policeman stepped away a bit from the android, not without a reproaching tongue slap at the reminder of the superiority of the machine over him in all their altercations. Just thinking about it, his head ached again and his broken wrist ached painfully at him. Without turning to Connor, the human ordered in a cold voice, extremely different from the tone filled with compassion and affection that he used a little earlier:

"Hey asshole. Take off that fucking cap. You have to show him. "

Connor clenched his fists, hesitating to try to repress his mad desire to hit the inspector to reduce his face to a shapeless mass of flesh and blood. All these insults, all these humiliations suffered by his people and himself, he would have so wanted to avenge them with a big punch in the sneering face of humanity ... Reed and his mocking smile would have been perfect to expiate this hate. However the human was his best chance to get by, although the Android doubted more and more to want to live in a world as rotten as this one. But his life didn't belong to him anymore. He was a memory. A memory of what the world could have been if the Men had not pressed the detonator. His eyes rested on the other machine. Rupert looked at the policeman with a strange fascination, and a Gavin he didn't know returned to him his admiration by the gentleness of a few gestures he never allowed himself to do with anyone. Connor was intrigued. And almost jealous. It reminded him a time when he could still lost himself in whiskey scents and in the soothing heat of an aging body. Then he loosened his fists almost reluctantly, and he took off his cap, shamefully revealing the luminous circle that kept dancing insolently on the flames of his nascent madness.

Rupert was attracted by the reddish glow like a butterfly by the sizzling light of a street lamp. He tried to sketch a sympathetic smile. He seemed to be slowly appeasing, mesmerized by the reddish ring that married the RK800 to his hatred. He felt empathy for the old hound. He was still far too human.

"It's still red like that? "

Connor didn't answer. Rupert tilted his head to the side.

"It must hurt you ..."

For the first time since he had entered in the secret of this apartment, Connor replied in a neutral voice.

"Androids don't feel pain. "

Rupert smiled slightly.

" You lie. You don't feel it, but you know it. And you experience it, permanently. So yes, it hurts you."

He looked at Connor for a while with an expression that made him look down. There was a strange depth in the savage iris of the fugitive, Like a kind of impenetrable wisdom that the limbo of madness could give to these beings oscillating between two realities. Rupert seemed totally foreign to this world. He lived in his own universe, he was talking to the birds, and he was smiling at Reed as if the bomb had never exploded. The former Cyberlife agent didn't know if he was sorry for the machine or envious of it. It was disturbing. The RK800 remembered to feel this kind of feelings just once in his life, when he met an intriguing android named Lucy and dived into his omniscient irises.

Rupert turned his attention to Reed, and his fascinating aura faded, as he once again dedicated his attention to the human only:

"But ... he sank Jericho... I don't like him."

Reed burst out laughing as he released the face of the android. Connor couldn't take his eyes off the man he didn't recognize. Even his face seemed to change in these few gestures of tenderness so intimate and so unusual. Calmly, almost murmuring, as if he was afraid than speaking too loudly he was risking yo break that unique bond that united him to Rupert, Reed told him:

"Don't worry, I can't stand him if you want to know everything! But you know, I didn't like you too, at the begining, remember ? But we got a chance and now, I'd like you to try to do the same with Connor. He needs help. And in a few days, I promise you that in a few days, you won't see him again, okay? "

Rupert's impulsive and timorous pupils stopped all movement. They secretly embraced the gray eyes of the human, while finally, an innocent smile came to draw on the synthetic face the shadow of a pardon. A pigeon cooed over them, breaking that complicit moment as Reed sighed wearily.

"Damn it ! Rupert how many times I told you that I Don't want these cursed birds in my apartment! It's not a dovecote here, and it is out of the question that you turn my home into a pigsty ... so get these critters full of diseases out of my sight, or I promise you that I make nuggets with them. And I'm not joking. I have breadcrumbs and everything for that. "

Rupert's smile faded immediately and the farmer android jumped up, much too quickly to not that this gesture betrayed his machine nature, before stammering in a panicked voice.

"I'm taking care of it Reed. No more pigeons, it's promised. No birds free in the cages of humans. Humans don't like that. They don't like what can fly. It's too free. They don't like feathers. It's too light. They eat what can fly. Don't eat Cassiopeia, please ... "

Reed straightened and spread his arms in protest.

"Ah because that thing have a name? Rupert, I swear to you that I'm going ... "

The android quickly grabbed the bird and headed for a room at the back of the apartment. In his fear of seeing his precious "Cassiopeia" finish in donuts or stew, he had completely forgotten about his fear of the RK800. It must be said that the deviant had his own priorities.

"Promised Gavin, no more birds. Rupert's friends stay outside, otherwise you eat them. No more birds. "

As the android drove away, Reed waited until he couldn't hear him, before mumbling, as annoyed as amused.

"Yeah that's it, no more birds ... until tomorrow, as usual. You make fun of me! "

Connor stared at the policeman with a glare still filled with anger. His voice slammed like a whip in the air, cold and impersonal, bringing the detective to the harsh reality of a world where he and Rupert were not allowed to share this sweet complicity.

" Two days. "

Reed turned to Connor, not without hiding his annoyance just at the sound of his voice. He really couldn't stand him. But he had no choice. He needed him ... and then, he saw that hate in those eyes. He had seen life there. He couldn't let it go out in indifference. Fuck, He was a cop! He loved that fucking justice. He still wanted to believe in it. But it was getting harder and harder in a world where the border between what was right and what was wrong was increasingly tenuous and subject to political and economic seductions. The government hadn't agreed to leave the machines alive because it would have created an unprecedented social, economic and political crisis in history. It justified "the justice of the bomb" in the eyes of the most powerful. But the legitimacy of this justice crumbled more and more in his own eyes.

He moved away from the android to get a coffee and a box of soothing to sleep again his throbbing wrist. But Connor was stubborn. When an idea trotted in his head, he didn't let go easily. Like Hank, by the way. This reflection made the policeman smile. If they really had to work together definitively, these two would have destroyed Detroit with their shitty character even more violently than this bomb, with or without Perkins.

"You said to Anderson that you would only help me two days. No one more. And you just told Rupert that he should support me longer. It's not logical. "

Reed burned his tongue as he absorbed his coffee and cursed at the RK800 as if he were responsible for his clumsiness. Then, in an annoyed voice, he shouted:

"Yes, that's what I said, and believe me, two days it seems already too much! I even hope that you have cleared before the end of this time because I'm not sure to be able to contain my desire to tear your head and your damn light to make a bedside lamp. "

The Rk stepped forward, but Reed didn't move. The tension in the air was palpable. No, definitely, there was nothing to do, he hated this android. There had always been around Connor an unhealthy aura, something terribly gloomy. Beneath his polite and courteous airs, he had been designed to hunt down and kill. He had been the arm of Cyberlife, and even though Hank had made him sink into deviance, he was even more dangerous and complex. With Rupert everything was simpler. Things were more tender and more distant from the realities of this world. He was a refuge. Connor was a new form of bomb. But Gavin had no other solution. He needed a weapon ... So he gathered his composure so he wouldn't be tempted by the idea of shoot in Connor's perfect head. He glanced around at the room where Rupert had disappeared before heading towards it to close the door, jostling Connor as he passed. Then he signaled to the RK800 to follow him a little further into the kitchen. In a low voice, as if he feared the other machine would hear them, he calmly exposed his plan to Connor.

"I have contacts. Not many, some of them have disappeared lately, but during my investigations in your footsteps, I discovered a mesh of smugglers who helped androids to reach Canada. I will contact them to take care of you at the border. They work for a human, Rose Chapman, she has already helped a lot of yours. She has fled to Canada to avoid prison, where she is helping the few machines still active to integrate into a new life. All humans are not evil, Connor. Some of them even sacrificed everything to try to change the world. "

Reed interrupted his speech while he finished his coffee. Connor didn't notice his last sentence. He was always skeptical about the real motivation of men. Had they made peace with androids to destroy them better?

"As soon as Hank is convoked, and believe me, it won't be a long time before Fowler do that, we will begin your escape. He'll have to go with you, I guess. Perkins won't let him and without him ... you seem too unstable to reach the border safely, isn't it? "

Connor sighed, before throwing a hostile glare at Gavin. He understood perfectly the meaning of these words. And he had to admit that the detective wasn't wrong. He would never have reached the border without collateral damages. His hate had devoured his programs as Amanda controlled them before: it was a safe bet that he would have left a trace of red blood in the scarlet wake of his LED ... resist his anger, it was as tempted to break the wall of his deviance, again and again, at every moment. He was constantly fighting against a red cage that was trying to trap him in his hot nets.

"And what do you want in return? Humans never do anything for free. "

Reed moved away from the RK to put his cup in the sink. He leaned on the edge of the kitchen furniture before looking at his interlocutor with an implacable look:

"I want Rupert to leave with you. "

The elite machine raised an eyebrow of surprise before bursting into a cold laugh. Rupert? Of course ! Reed thought he was too unstable to travel alone to finally put in his paws an androide even more disturbed! With him, their chance to reach Canada one day fell drastically. Rupert was a moving target in this world: Connor was sure that Rupert Had no chance to survive. He was even surprised that he was always alive, where others androids much stronger had died. Connor's voice rose, resolved.

" No way. "

Reed lost his insolent smile. He put his burning gray irises of determination in the eyes of the RK. Then, coldly, he spat in his face all the contempt he inspired.

"You'd give up one of yours, Connor? Congratulations! Nice lesson of empathy. Humanity has obviously made you more contaminated than you seem to admit, apparently. "

Connor walked over to Reed and grabbed him by the collar to press him against the wall. The policeman put his valid hand on the arm of the RK to try to make him realease his grasp, but it didn't work. The metal creature had an implacable and cruel strength. He whistled in an icy voice, unfastening each of his words as if he wanted them to hammer the spirit of the human and stab his hopes in their cruel reality:

"Rupert.has.no.chance. It is far too damaged to follow us. At the slightest chance, they'll kill him and because of him, we'll die too. If he wants to survive a little longer, it's here with you. It is you who leave it between our feet to get rid of him by leaving your conscience and your hands clean. But I'll tell you the truth, Reed. If you let him come with us, you shoot him as coldly as the human who will shoot in his face. He will never reach Canada. "

Gavin tried unsuccessfully to push the RK violently in a burst of anger. A deep distress shone in this troubled look.

" Shut up ! Rupert must leave. He has no chance here, do you hear me? Look at him ! With his pigeons, his smiles, his sweetness ... Fuck ! he stinks deviant androide for miles. I can't even let him go out of this apartment. He must content himself with looking at the world through the window, he's no longer alive, he's waiting for death in boredom every day. He's in a cage. That's not what he wanted. He loves birds because they are free, and he sees himself bursting into a death place between concrete walls. You have to take him away. You're a fucking killer machine, as weak as his chances are, if he had a chance to pass the border one way or another, it's with you. You must protect him. He must see Canada. I can't keep it here. Neighbors already suspect something, I'm sure. It's just a matter of time. So yeah, this trip is dangerous for him. But this iss his only chance. He comes with you, or no one leaves. It's my condition, son of a bitch. "

Connor looked at the human without trying to hide his scorn and his sinister amusement:

" Really ? It's funny that you tell me that, when you know that it's your fucking humanity that has engendered me ... "

Gavin spat on Connor's face. The androide didn't blink, just wiping his skin with a sleeve cuff. He detailed Reed. Despite his hostility, there was a strange sincerity in these words. Slowly, he released his hold, leaving the creature of flesh falling on the ground, before departing a few steps. He retorted in a last attempt on a tone tinged with skepticism:

"Anyway, I'm really not sure that Rupert agrees with this idea. He doesn't seem to like me so much."

Reed smirked.

"Your right, he was there when you blew Jericho. He had finally found a family there. But he was separated from the others when the ship sank. So he naturally came to look for me in front of the police station. I have never panicked so much in my life as when I saw his stupid face shyly coming out of the shadows to try to contact me. It doesn't sound like that, but you know, Rupert has some resources. He had managed to pass a driving license, find a job to get some money and all that, before you landed in his life. That's a lot better than most deviants did ! "

On this point, the detective wasn't wrong. Rupert had forged a human identity from nothing in the decadence of his apartment with a thousand birds. He had begun to create a life in the midst of feathers and dreams, at the top of this dilapidated old building that served him as a nest. Connor sighed. He had to admit defeat. If he didn't help Rupert, Reed would not help him in return.

"And how do you plan to help us to escape from the FBI'eyes and get out of the city? "

The human had a mysterious smile:

"I have my idea. "

He held out his hand. The android stared for a moment, hesitating, not knowing how to react. He didn't want to make any alliance with his former enemy. And then, this gesture seemed so ridiculous and so incoherent: how could a handshake force him to keep his promises? Yet there was in this simple gesture a raw sincerity that disturbed him. He could hardly bring himself to grab a human hand. He couldn't forgive. But Reed ... He didn't know what to think about him anymore. So briefly, his skin retracted and the white plastic fingers met the warm skin of a body of flesh and blood in a silent pact.

"I'll talk to Rupert. He'll follow you. I'll manage to convince him, I owe him that. "

Reed was about to leave the room, but Connor's voice called him to order.

"How much did you help? "

Reed turned to Connor, looking puzzled.

«Androids? how many have you saved? "

The face of the human adorn itself with a melancholy smile. For a moment, his eyes seemed to be lost in distant memories. How much he had saved, huh? Not a lot, unfortunately. He thought back to the two Traci, that he settled for watching them from afar as they tried to find a safe haven to be sure they would reach it, but without having the courage of helping them. He saw the Carlos Ortiz'deviant, that he had been ready to push for destruction so that Cyberlife doesn't take him, without any other state of mind than the doubt about the reality of his emotions. Then he thought of Rupert, the first time, he had just thrown him into his car when he asked him to bring him to Jericho. He helped him because he didn't know what to do with the young deviant in front of him... And that guy had come back in his life, however, to try to bring him some fragments of that soul and courage he had lost in the sinister tide of this inhuman city. Rupert had saved the policeman more than the policeman had saved him, in fact. Reed closed his eyes for a split second. The bodies of thousands of inanimate androids appear in memory, his ears resonating with thousands of silent cries. He was a coward. He was scared. He had not the courage, before that, before Rupert, to act, really. He had observed without saying anything, he had acted just a little to try to influence the events, without much conviction, just enough to relieve his conscience, without really believing in his actions. Like millions of citizens, he was silent. Like millions of citizens, the bomb had exploded on its inaction and lack of empathy. He could have done more. He should have done so much more. But the loudmouth of the police station was silent. And the bomb exploded in resounding silence. Reed turned slightly to Connor. The fleeting shadow of a regret passed over his scarred face.

" Too few... "

Then, without a word, with a weavy look, he left the main room to rejoin Rupert. Connor wasn't in his place in those moments, full with tender secrets and mute and unspeakable suffering. Humans don't like androids, right? You must have a heart to love. Both species were now devoid of hearts. Yet in the adjoining room, the night was going to be difficult and laden with unachievable promises and heartbreaking negotiations with a bitter farewell taste. There would be whispered words, poignant silences, and burning hugs that unmilled tears would inevitably extinguish. And the intensely luminous palm of a plastic hand would touch her flesh and blood twin, one last time.

Connor sighed and leaned his head on the frozen window of the apartment too big for his immense loneliness. Outside, the night would dissipate soon. What he didn't know, it was that the new day would lead a white ghost to follow the gray shadow of a man with a disillusioned smile. On a vacant lot near a building under construction, words would be exchanged in the biggest secrets between an informer and a shape draped in a sinister raincoat. Fine fingers of pianists would come to play with a task of blue blood invisible to the naked eye, but that his artificial eyes would see shine like a sad little starry constellation on the rubble. Slowly, they would bring the shiny substance to lips too perfect to be real. The disturbing specter would turn coldly towards his master.

"The RK800 was here. There is still some thirium on the ground, but no enouth to follow the trail. There was an altercation. I can detect some traces of human blood, but the sample is too small to attempt an analysis. "

In front of the dying stars of that pale morning still shy, Perkins would show a satisfied air. They were approaching. They would hold it soon.

"I already told your guy when he questioned me. The two cops fought with the kid who was hanging around building A. He looked like a fool, that guy, he came warming up with us sometimes, but he never boozed, he wasn't talking. The other day, a guy tried to steal his jacket. He returned him to like nothing. Same for the guy who was trying to pull his blanket... With his temper, we left him alone. But one day, a new guy wanted to paw him, to warm up a little. It was pretty good, that kid, many would have tried if he wasn't so weird. Loneliness, you know, it gives crooked ideas, sometimes ... We even said him to try to do the sidewalks, with his angel's mouth, he could have done rather well. He didn't seem to appreciate. But the guy who tried to touch him ... he killed him, like that, in two blows, without flinching! Phew! Even if the other was much taller and sturdy. Tommy was scared, he shouldn't have done that, but he called the cops, and they came. But we didn't dare to speak. Not as long as they had not arrested him, understand, he's crazy this guy! His eyes, he has sick eyes! But the police didn't stay long. A murder of tramps, it interests them only for the paperwork. I thought they had find him ... I saw them fight, and the others policemen came in backup. Then I left, I didn't want more trouble. I didn't want he saw me. And then after ... I don't know, after. But we avoid hanging around him. We never know, he always looked so enraged. "

Perkins would interrupted the speech of the old tramp by handing him a five-dollar bill.

"It's good, go buy yourself a drink, it's forb me today I'm in a good mood. 900? look for the cameras in the area. Anderson went home alone yesterday, and Connor couldn't have left the field without one of the policemen watching the crime scene noticing him. They have an accomplice, and to pass the roadblocks around the construction, it's necessarily a cop ... We can't question the police station, they are in solidarity with each other, like fucking cockroaches, especially against the FBI. Anderson and his guy would be informed in the minute we entered their offices. We'll have to be smarter than them ... "

The sun would finally rise from its overwhelming glow on Detroit. For once, it would be nice ... and in the dawn, Perkins would smile.

But Connor still didn't know all of this. His eyes looked for the stars masked by the clouds and the lights of the city. He was trying to forget that one night, he had seen them more clearly than any other night of his short life. One night, their soft light had something like funeral candle accents.

***

Thank you for taking the time to read this chapter, and feel free to comment to tell me what you think! I had less time to translate than usual, so I hope there are not too many mistakes. Don't hesitate to tell me also if it's worth it that I translate others of my fics or not!

See you soon !