The rooftop is slick with rain.

You're clinging to the crumbling edge of a half-demolished building, fingers scraped raw against the concrete, dangling high above an alleyway filled with rusted scaffolding and broken glass.

“RK—!” You shout, breath ragged. “I can’t—!”

Your feet slip again. The edge bites harder into your palms.

Thirty feet ahead, the deviant makes a final leap between rooftops, vanishing into the storm.

He has the evidence. CyberLife’s encrypted key. A full memory archive. If RK900 loses him now, the case—months of joint operations, close calls, and quiet triumphs—could fall apart completely.

His LED pulses yellow.

Calculations fly through his mind at a speed no human could even fathom should he ever try and explain it.

Probability of recapture if deviated now: 34.6% Probability of partner’s survival if unaided: 2.1% Objective priority: Complete mission. Objective override: …Error.

He turns.

He runs—back toward you.

You're slipping. Your grip's failing. But then—

A hand. Cold, smooth, unshakable.

His fingers clamp around your wrist just before you fall. Not Connor’s gentleness—not at all.

“Why—?” You manage through gritted teeth, blinking rain from your eyes. “Why’d you come back?”

He braces his foot against the ledge and hauls you up like you're weightless. You probably weighed something akin to a grape to him.

“Choices were made,” he says, voice low, annoyingly unreadable, even as water drips from his jaw.

You collapse beside him, coughing, chest heaving, soaked through.

“But the deviant—”

“Escaped.” He doesn’t look at you. “That can be corrected. Your absence cannot.”

Your heart skips a beat. You stare at him as he stares ahead where the deviant jumped buildings. Something in his stance is still taut, conflicted.

"Did you glitch or something?" you ask, a half-laugh in your voice. "Because that didn't seem very… RK900 of you."

He doesn’t answer. His LED flickers red, then stabilizes. "Perhaps the idea of bringing my predecessor along isn't too far fetched after all.." He murmurs.