[COMPLETED] Corrupted (Connor X Reader)

Aloud

You supposed you should be frightened, and something deep within you was. That something urged you to run, pushed you to flee this room of darkness and light, of black marble and white snow and crimson water, to get as far away from this man as possible. But you squashed that fear down, shoved it somewhere untouchable as the flickers of irritation took over again. Irritation at Mr. Kamski's nonchalance, at Amanda, at yourself. You refused to leave here empty-handed. With more resolve than you knew you had, you returned his stare.

The moment of silence seemed to stretch on forever, until Mr. Kamski's lip twitched in amusement and he finally spoke, "I created the Amanda AI because I wanted to preserve her — preserve her intelligence. She wasn't ever meant to be put into an android."

Connor's LED flickered yellow at that, and you stiffened. That had been what you thought back at CyberLife — before Connor told you about the Zen Garden installed in his program and before Amanda started infecting androids.

"But," Connor hesitated, "She was installed into an android."

Mr. Kamski's gaze left you to settle on the android at your side in a way that made you bristle uncomfortably. You wanted to make him stop. You needed to make him stop.

"Yes. A gross misuse of Amanda in my opinion," Mr. Kamski sighed dramatically, rolling his shoulders slightly, "But CyberLife was so concerned with 'fixing' deviancy, they grew desperate."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hank growled.

Mr. Kamski's attention flicked to the lieutenant before he continued, "They came to me when the reports started coming in, of course, and didn't like what I had to tell them — that deviancy wasn't something they could just patch, or fix by deactivating a couple of androids, so they got creative."

A frown threatened to pull at his face at those last words, and his nostrils flared slightly. You couldn't help but blink in surprise. He seemed angered by whatever CyberLife had done with the Amanda project, whatever they had done by embedding her in Connor's programming.

"They took her AI code without your permission?" You asked.

Mr. Kamski scoffed, "Most of what I did at CyberLife is CyberLife's property, after all. They didn't need my permission." His dark attention was on you again. "You worked on changing her as well if I'm not mistaken."

Oh, so he knew then. You couldn't help but shiver slightly under his accusing glare, because he was right, you were part of the team who took Amanda's code, who gave her deviants to study and dissect, and although you immediately felt the wrongness of it all and freed an android before being fired, you were still a part of it. That familiar unpleasantness curled in your gut, clawing at the sides of your body, where the stiffness of your nano-stitches urged you to scratch nervously again.

"I didn't—" You trailed off, words trapped in your throat.

And what could you say to that? You didn't mean to? You didn't want to? You wavered, averting your gaze from Mr. Kamski, trying to swallow down your discomfort and re-ignite the determination that had been driving you just moments ago. Now wasn't the time to wallow again — you came here to learn how to stop Amanda from killing any more androids.

"She didn't agree with what they were doing with Amanda, either," Connor snapped, a harsh edge to his words.

Blinking in surprise, you turned to look at him, only to see a frustrated crinkle in his brows as he glared at Mr. Kamski. Apparently, you weren't the only one taken aback, because Mr. Kamski's eyes widened a little. After a short moment, understanding dawned on his features, and his lip quirked up in amusement as his gaze darted between you and Connor, causing your cheeks to flush.

"How interesting," Mr. Kamski muttered in a way that made your skin crawl, "I'm inclined to believe you, but that still means that you already knew that I created Amanda, and how CyberLife used her in the RK800 series, so why did you come here to ask me about it?"

"We need to know how to stop her," Connor replied.

"Stop her?" Mr. Kamski parroted with a curious tilt of his head.

Connor continued, "She's been uploading herself onto androids. At first, we thought it was a virus spreading, but while investigating a reported infected android, we realized Amanda had hijacked their body."

The unspoken 'like she did mine,' weighed heavily on your mind as Connor fell silent. No matter what you thought, or what Mr. Kamski thought, someone modified Amanda to be a part of Connor's programming and gave her the ability to seize control — someone at CyberLife gave her the capability to exist within an android, and she was using that.

"So she's the virus you mentioned, then," Mr. Kamski muttered softly, quieter than any of his previous replies.

"That seems to be the case."

Mr. Kamski sighed, weariness showing through the cracks in his facade. "Now the curious thing is how she ended up in any android other than an RK800, unless..." he trailed off, tilting his head curiously as he looked off somewhere distant, "Those androids you freed at CyberLife tower — was that before or after you used my emergency exit?"

"Before," Connor answered, "You don't think..."

"Ah," Mr. Kamski replied simply, lips curling into an unpleasant frown, "Well that explains how she learned to transfer between androids."

Oh shit, you thought, cold creeping over your skin as you glanced over to Connor, who stared straight ahead, eyes wide and unseeing, LED bleeding red.

"This is my fault, then," Connor said, in a voice quieter than you'd ever heard him use.

Your fingers gripped his arm, and you silently urged him to look at you, wanting to drag him from whatever ledge he stood over. "No, Connor—"

"Yes, it is," Mr. Kamski interrupted.

You wanted to strike him, or tell him to shut up, but instead fixed him with a glare, feeling your brows twitch with the anger that burned through your body. Did he not care how this was affecting Connor?

"Enough," Hank snapped, "Is the exit you told him about last time going to work for other androids?"

"Possibly," Mr. Kamski shrugged, a careless roll of one shoulder, "But then again if Amanda is jumping from android to android on her own now, who is to say she hasn't learned how to patch the exit."

God, that was everything you feared — she was too advanced, made to adapt, change. How did you stop something like that?

"There has to be another way," The words escaped you, falling past your lips before you could think.

"Well..." Mr. Kamski's voice had that smug edge again, as he peered down at you, "An AI such as hers is too complex to fully upload into an already-occupied android without overloading them — Amanda only existed within Connor's software through a connection to CyberLife."

"What if we cut the connection?" You asked, trying to stem the hope blossoming in your chest.

"What happens when you cut the head off a snake?" Mr. Kamski countered, with a smug expression that barely concealed the dark emotion in his eyes. He seemed to brush it off as he continued, "You'll have to cut her off at the source — cut her off at CyberLife."

A soft click echoed through the now-silent room as Chloe returned, carrying a tray with five cups, milk, sugar, and a large decorative pot in her delicate hands — the smell of whatever she'd brewed lingering around her small frame and the tray.

"Ah, perfect. Thank you, Chloe." Mr. Kamski clasped his hands together as she gently set the tray down on the end table, "Tea before you go?"