Machine Learning (Captain Allen and DPD SWAT POV)

"The Change is Forever."

A metal door shuts and a body falls. We run. Liam rams the door. I'm blinded by fire, burning in the night. Sage looks at me, defiance in her eyes, flecks of gold in brown. I bust a console and cut wires. I rearrange them like war has rearranged me. The car starts. I drive away. We're blown off the cliff. The ocean looks small, and grows and grows and grows as we rush towards it, gravity sucking us in. Sounds of waves that were once soothing become an anthem to the nightmare.

We break through the surface. Sage saves my life, but so many around me are dead.

...

I splashed water on my face, a tremor wracking my body at the feeling. I breathed in deep, held it there, and let it go like they taught me.

One. Two. Three.

My body had been punctured by bullets. My skin had been scarred by shrapnel. My bones had been broken and snapped back into place. Nothing compared to the night that overrode every dream for the last year. The night that had me skip showers for weeks before I could take one without crumbling in panic.

The sink drain gurgled as I watched the water circle it, like I was trying to wash away the pure terror, my hand still gripping the faucet handle. I looked in the mirror, relieved to find bloodshot eyes and flushed cheeks. All signs that I was still alive. Breathing. Something I'd never take for granted ever again.

I checked my watch. 0432. Couldn't ever manage to sleep past then.

They told me that would go away with time, but plenty of time had passed, and it hadn't gone anywhere. I shook my head and left the bathroom, turning off the light so as to not wake up Sadie. She was still sleeping in our bedroom, painted in moonlight filtering through our sheer curtains. My running gear waited in the living room, and I snuck down the hall to get changed. Sadie had yelled at me multiple times for leaving clothes all over the place, but she didn't understand that they were left there like tactical caches for times like those.

I removed clean socks from the dryer, something she also yelled at me for – leaving them there. When it came to those – socks, she was a hypocrite, but it worked to my advantage. She didn't trust the android to put them away the way she liked them.

He stared at me from the living room, and took a step forward out of his charging station.

...

I come home with an arm in a sling and a crutch under my leg. Nothing compares to the phantom pain in my chest, in my lungs, burning from saltwater – from almost drowning. Sadie opens the door for me, but I freeze in the doorway. Roger stares at me from the living room.

"Your parents sent it as a gift. They were at the first CyberLife trade show in Detroit and got one hell of a deal." Sadie tells me. "They upgraded, and sent Roger to help nurse you back to health."

"They sent...an android?"

"He helps me around the house. Makes it so I can actually work and not worry about Tali being here alone. And he's going to help us get you back on your feet."

"They have thoughts, Sadie. Feelings. We shouldn't–"

"David," she puts a hand on my good arm. "I know you've been through a lot. But he's just a machine."

She's brainwashed – fed the propaganda, and ate it up. They make the rest of us sound like we're crazy so we lose credibility, like we're all just traumatized and making shit up.