[Connor speaks evenly, each word enunciated as clear as glass, but there’s something about the look in his eyes, the line of his brow, that reveals a little more than the machine he’s just trying to portray.

Admitting this much, the implication of it, is as good as seeing past the thick sheen of coping mechanisms. Of wrapping himself up in a hard reality that has to come true if he just keeps telling himself the same thing over and over.

A little openness, for Konoha to see the insecurity inside.]

In my case, I’ll be sent back to CyberLife. They’ll deactivate me, go through my code, try to figure out what went wrong. Why I failed. They’ll take me apart piece by piece, engineers and designers turning me over in their hands, pointing out the flaws. The errors.

[He looks at her directly, keeping her eyes locked with his.]

I can’t fail. I have to complete my mission, and I can’t allow myself the... leniency you want me to have. I’m sorry.