Chapter Text
The jarring sound of his ringtone pulls Gavin Reed out of a deep sleep.
Sluggishly, he untangles himself from his covers. He abruptly lets out a groan, scaring his cat from her place on the edge of the bed. It takes Gavin a second to find his phone on the nightstand, but he eventually succeeds, accepting the call and lifting it up to his ear.
“Who-” Gavin clears his throat, “Who is this? It better be important if you’re calling me at the ass crack of dawn.”
“Hello, Gavin. It’s nice to hear your voice.”
Fuck. That.
“What the fuck do you want, Kamski?”
“I’ve told you countless times to call me Eli-”
“Yeah, don’t care. Do you need something? Or did you run out of money to pay people to socialize with you?” Gavin collapsed back into his bed.
“I believe I’ve found something that you’ve lost, little brother.”
Gavin sits up, blinking the sleep away, “What-”
“I was quite surprised when an RK900 model android showed up at my door in the middle of a snow storm. I wouldn’t have thought to call you, but he’s mentioned your name a lot since he got here.”
Gavin groans, kicking his feet over the side of his bed, “I’ll be right there.”
The detective’s car is still cold by the time he pulls onto the freeway, the snow storm outside doing him absolutely no favors.
“Piece of shit heater.” He grumbled.
A few minutes into the drive, Gavin lets out a resigned sigh and pulls out his phone, traffic laws be damned.
A gruff voice answers after a few rings, “Who is this? I swear if you woke me up for some stupid-”
“It’s Gavin, Hank. We’ve got a problem.”
“Reed? The hell you callin’ me this early for?”
“Apparently Connor 2.0 got himself into some trouble. I’m heading over to pick him up right now.”
“Trouble? Nines?”
“Yeah, I don’t know either. Can you and trash-bot meet me there? He knows more about the tin-can than I do.” Gavin honks his horn as some prick cuts him off, “Stupid phcking-I’ll send you the address.”
“Now hold on just a-” Gavin hangs up before the Lieutenant can finish. He doesn’t feel like answering dumb questions.
He sends off a quick text to Hank and Connor, before throwing his phone on the passenger seat and returning his attention to the road.
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“What the fuck are we doing here, Reed?”
Gavin isn’t totally sure how Hank and Connor managed to beat him to Elijah’s house. Droid probably gets traffic updates and was able to avoid the idiots driving around at 5:00 AM.
Said android and the Lieutenant stand side-by-side in front of the house as Gavin stepped out of his car. The cold air bit his cheeks and he rubbed his arms, trying to retain some heat from the car.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist, old man. We’re here to pick up Nines. Didn’t I tell you that?
“Okay then. What is Nines doing here?” Gavin ignores the question and starts to walk towards the front door. Connor quickly catches up to him, leaving Hank cursing behind them.
“Is Nines okay, Detective?”
“Hell if I know. Elijah just called and said he was here.” Gavin walked up to the front door, pressing the doorbell multiple times.
“Elijah as in Elijah Kamski? How do you know-”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, R2D2.”
Gavin taps his foot as they wait for the door to open. Hank catches up to them.
“Seriously, Gavin what are we doing here?” Gavin huffs and turns around, crossing his arms.
“Elijah called me about an hour ago saying that Nines appeared at his house, and now he’s here. I don’t know why, I don’t know how. Don’t ask me any more questions.” Gavin sends them each a glare and turns back around towards the door.
Hank and Connor share a surprised look, unbeknownst to the detective. Hank’s phone pings, and he pulls it out to read the text.
‘I think Detective Reed is worried.’
Hank sends a knowing smile towards Connor, who returns it quietly. Then, the door opens, revealing a grinning Elijah Kamski.
“Hello, little brother.” Gavin ignores how Connor’s LED turns yellow in surprise, moving towards Elijah and shoving a finger into his chest. The bastard just smiles and puts his hands up in mock surrender.
“Where is he.” It’s not a question.
“Straight to the point, aren’t we?”
“I swear to-”
“Alright! I get it. Chloe, could you please show our guests to the RK900?”
Gavin looks past Elijah to see one of the Chloe’s standing behind him, a pleasant smile adorning her face. Gavin scoffs.
“Too lazy to do it yourself?”
“Unfortunately, your android has become rather elusive since he got here. I’m not sure where he’s wandered since I last saw him.”
Gavin thinks Elijah had worded that pretty strangely. Sure Nines was naturally curious, but he never really “wandered”. Unless the android is actually doing something, he has a habit of remaining in one place. Gavin has been trying to encourage him out of that habit. It’s startling to walk up to his desk in the morning and find an unmoving, unblinking, unbreathing RK900 sitting across from him.
“Luckily for us, Chloe is connected to the entire house. Can you locate him for us, dear?”
Chloe smiles at them warmly, “The RK900 is currently located in the basement. Please follow me.” She turns and starts walking away without waiting to see if they would follow.
Elijah turns toward Connor and Hank, “RK800, Lieutenant. May I borrow you for a moment? I will need help setting up some equipment. Gavin seems like he’s busy.”
Gavin gave Elijah a look, “The basement?”
Elijah smiled, and gestured for Gavin to follow Chloe, “Ladies first.”
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The detective follows Chloe through the giant house, wondering how she remembers where everything is.
‘She’s an android, of course she remembers where everything is.’ It’s not Gavin’s own voice that corrects his thoughts, but rather a familiar deep voice that has lectured him many times before.
“I remember you.” Gavin is startled by Chloe’s sudden words.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I am the RT600; the original Chloe. Along with Elijah, you were one of the first humans I saw.”
“Oh.” Gavin hasn’t thought about this certain area of his past in awhile, “I remember you too, I think.” He didn’t really want to think about it in that moment, either.
Gavin thinks he sees Chloe turn her head towards him slightly, but before either of them could speak, they reach a rather ominous looking door.
Gavin cringes a bit, “I’m assuming this is the basement?”
His suspicions are confirmed when Chloe opens the door. Suddenly, a faint rumbling sound starts to emanate from somewhere at the darkness below.
“What the hell is that?”
“The RK900 has been showing many characteristics outside of his programming-”
“You mean Nines is making that sound?”
Chloe, seemingly unperturbed by the interruption continues, “It is quite startling to see at first. I’ve never witnessed anything quite like it.”
Suddenly, Gavin begins to think this isn’t going to be easy.
The pair starts to descend the creaky wooden stairs, the sound starting to reverberate through Gavin’s chest, “Elijah didn’t put any lights down here? Was his budget too low or something?”
Chloe’s steps don’t waver, “We turned off the lights, as they seemed to set off the RK900.”
Shit. Gavin does not want to know what she means by that. A shudder runs up his spine, “How thoughtful.”
Once they reached the bottom, Gavin looks around. The basement is cold, possibly colder than it is outside, and impossibly dark. A small window in the corner of the room does little to help. Abruptly, Chloe stops right in front of him.
“Don’t move.” Her voice holds a curious amount of urgency.
Gavin looks up and is surprised to see her LED is still a calm blue, though he can’t quite see her expression. Chloe’s eyes are fixed in front of her, on the corner of the room. Gavin looks in that direction, but his eyes still struggle to adjust to the dark basement. He does, however, see a bright red LED glowing in front of them.
“Nines?”
The rumbling is louder now, coming from the corner of the room. It almost sounds like-
“Is that growling?” What the fuck. Actually what the fuck. Gavin doesn’t know what to think. Is Nines really fucking growling?
Chloe doesn’t answer. Gavin looks back towards the corner.
Nines is hunched in the corner of the room. His form is barely visible, lit only by sparse moonlight streaming through the window at the top of the wall. Gavin can see Nines twitch every now and then.
“Oh Christ, what the hell-”
“The RK900 has been in this state for approximately six point eight hours, maybe longer. When he showed up at Elijah’s front door, he was somewhat coherent. However he became incomprehensible before I could gather any significant information hinting to his current state.” She turns towards Gavin, “However the RK900 did mention your name many times when he first got here.”
Ok, Gavin is definitely going to ignore that.
“Has he talked since then?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“Why is he naked?” Gavin can practically hear Chloe’s teasing smile.
“The RK900 removed his clothes at some point during the night. If my scans are correct, which they are, his affliction has caused him to overheat. Luckily, this means he is still capable of some reason.”
Gavin’s face heats up as he attempts to keep his eyes from straying downwards. He chastises himself for being so immature, and coughs into his hand.
“There’s no need to be apprehensive, Gavin. It’s simply a precautionary measure.” Gavin huffs as Chloe puts her hand on his shoulder.
At the movement, the pale shape in the corner twitches sharply. Nines snarls loudly in their direction. Chloe’s LED turns yellow.
Gavin lowers his voice to a whisper, “Is he...dangerous?”
She takes a moment to respond, “Since he has been here, the RK900 has shown some...violent behavior.”
“Elaborate.”
“Two ST200 models were sent in for repairs after they tried to initiate contact with the RK900.”
Gavin’s brow furrows in thought and he chews on his lip, never taking his eyes off of Nines.
Now that the android is facing them, Gavin could see something glint in the moonlight. He squints, only to see something sticking out of Nines’ stomach.
“What the hell is that?”
“I believe the RK900 was in some kind of altercation, which resulted in a piece of metal being lodged in his chassis.”
“You didn’t think to try and take it out?” Gavin didn’t mean to say it with so much venom.
Chloe smiled softly, “Why don’t you go over their and attempt to remove it yourself?”
“Oh hell no.”
“Of course I thought to remove the obstruction. That’s why the two ST200 models are currently being repaired.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“It makes no difference. At any rate, he doesn’t seem to be growling at you.”
Gavin raises an eyebrow at the thundering figure in the corner, “...Really?”
“I’m almost certainly positive.”
“Ok, well almost certainly positive isn’t good enough for me, sister. Why would he be growling at you, but not me? I’m probably the most offensive thing he knows.” Gavin and Nines have been the bane of each other's existence for a good three months now.
“Perhaps it is because you are not an android. That might be a clue as to who did this to him.”
Chloe’s LED flickers yellow for a split second, before turning back to blue.
The pair both look at Nines, who’s crouching on all fours, snarling and twitching.
“I believe that this situation calls for action on our part. It’s very likely that the RK900 won’t recover from his condition if we do nothing.”
“Are you sure we can’t just wait for him to get better?” Gavin asked hopefully, though he knew she was right.
“It’s highly unlikely.”
Gavin groans.
“Well, what are we gonna do? You want me to go over there and give him a hug?” Gavin laughs, but his stomach drops when Chloe doesn’t respond.
“Oh my god that’s really your plan, isn’t it?”
“Yes, some variation of that. You don’t have to, as you say, ‘give him a hug’, but if you can establish some kind of connection then we might be able to bring him back to reality.”
“Don’t you have, like, the most advanced processor out of all the plastics? How can that be your best plan?” Chloe doesn’t answer. Gavin sighs.
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”
“If you approach him, there is a 69 percent chance that the RK900 will attack you, resulting in your death.”
Gavin snickers, “Nice.”
Chloe smiles at him, “Don’t worry detective, I do not believe he will attack you, despite the odds.”
“Gee thanks.”
Gavin looks at Nines, wondering if this is all a big mistake. He may be in his mid-thirties, but Gavin’s heart can’t take this shit anymore.
Cautiously, the detective starts to move towards Nines.
The android eyes him carefully, though he doesn’t make any other movement. When Gavin gets a few steps further, he notices patches of Nines’ skin are missing, revealing the white material underneath. The android’s LED maintains a harsh red as Gavin shuffles closer. Surprisingly though, the growling starts to lessen and Nines’ body relaxes slightly. Nines’ eyes are locked on the detective, and Gavin fights the urge to turn and run. With his luck, it would probably set the tin can off if he decides to high tail it out of here.
When Gavin’s just within an arm’s length of the android, he reaches an arm out and presses a whisper of a touch to Nines’ shoulder. The android doesn’t growl louder, or rip the detective’s arm off, like Gavin expects. He lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
Nines’ synthetic skin is covered in thirium. Gavin stomachs the urge to grimace and wipe his hand on his jeans. And god, is his skin hot. Gavin is surprised that the android isn’t steaming in the cold basement. He glances up at the android’s face and the air leaves his lungs.
Nines’ eyes glow crimson, matching his LED. His hair is an unkempt mop, matted with sticky thirium. Every now and then, Nines twitches, almost like a glitch. To say Gavin is unnerved would be an understatement. Though, in the moonlight, Gavin is sure he can see a hint of recognition behind the flame of Nines’ eyes.
Gavin’s own expression softens a bit, though he’s still concerned. Gavin grips Nines’ shoulder a little more firmly, wondering what the hell could have happened to his android.
Not his android. Christ.
Shaking his head, Gavin looks back at Chloe. The only warning he gets is her LED flashing a bright red.
Gavin’s suddenly grabbed from behind. He lets out a shout and flails his arms, falling backwards into a tangle of limbs.
A deafening growl echoes throughout the basement. Gavin blinks, trying to regain his sense of direction. He sees Chloe moving towards him in the dark, and his whole body vibrates as the sweltering mass behind him snarls.
Nines had grabbed him while his back was turned. Asshole.
The grip around Gavin’s waist and shoulders tightens, “Chloe, w-wait.” He chokes out.
Chloe freezes, eyes wide and LED blinking red, “I’ve alerted Elijah. He’s bringing the Lieutenant and the RK800. I also requested the help of the ST200 models and-”
“It’s okay, Chloe. Please just tell them to not come barging in here. I don’t feel like getting crushed by fucking King Kong over here.” Gavin’s heart thunders in his chest, and he tries to get control of the situation.
Chloe nods. Her LED fading back to a bright yellow.
Gavin attempts to even out his breathing, trying not to think about how overwhelming it is to be trapped by a very angry, very naked, Nines. He can feel the android’s hot breath in his hair.
The tin can better not be phcking sniffing him.
The basement door opens with a sudden bang, and the iron grip tightens around him. At this proximity, Gavin feels like he’s melting under the heat that Nines is putting off.
A surprisingly alarmed looking Elijah appears at the bottom of the stairs, followed closely by Connor. Nines snarls at them, and Gavin can see the glowing red of his LED.
“Oh, RA9.” Connor mutters.
Gavin gasps, “Guys, please back up. He’s- fucking christ- just don’t come any closer.” Gavin jabs the arm around his chest, attempting to loosen it, “Fucking chill, Nines, I can’t breathe.”
Surprisingly, the arms loosen slightly, though they don’t let him go.
Elijah lets out an uneasy chuckle in front of them, “Well well, Gavin. You got yourself in quite the pickle.”
Gavin attempted to pry the iron grip from around his chest, “Phck off, Elijah.”
“It seems your attempts at hugging the RK900 were successful. Or, at least he is hugging you.”
“Humor, Chloe? Really? At a time like this?” Gavin grits through clenched teeth.
Connor attempts to approach slowly, but halts when Nines turns his full attention on his predecessor, “What caused this?”
Elijah approaches Chloe, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, though she keeps her eyes on Gavin, “My only sound theory is that something triggered RK900’s processors to revert back to their basic programming. I believe it acts as some sort of defense mechanism. Given that his upgraded deviant-hunting coding makes him naturally aggressive, I’m honestly not surprised that he’s acting so…” Elijah raises an eyebrow as Nines twitches and lets out a particularly vicious growl in their direction. Gavin flinches.
“Feral?” Connor offers.
“Precisely.”
“Okay, this story sounds all fun and dandy, but I really think we should be focusing on how to actually fix him.” Gavin snaps.
“In order to fix the problem, brother dear, we must find what caused it.”
Gavin sighs, a bead of sweat dripping from his temple, “God, this motherphcker feels like he was out in the sun too long.” He pauses, looking around the room, “Where’s Hank?”
“He stayed upstairs. He’s calling Fowler to request for backup.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea.” Gavin persists, his point proven when Nines growls and attempts to pull him in closer. The detective could feel the metal lodged in Nines’ stomach digging into his back, and Gavin grew worried.
Only slightly, of course.
Gavin taps his fingers on the arm around his chest, thoughtfully. Nines seems to get more aggressive when the others are around, for whatever reason, “Get out. I have an idea.”
Connor’s LED turns yellow, “Gavin, I really don’t think-”
“Please, just trust me on this. I’m gonna see if I can calm him down, but you guys need to leave.”
Connor nods, looking at Nines with a frown before quietly making his way upstairs. Elijah followed quickly after him, leaving Chloe standing in the middle of the room. She looks at Gavin with a neutral face, though her LED remains yellow.
“I can try to-”
“Please, Chloe.” Gavin pleads. He needs to see if Nines will settle down once the “threats” are gone.
With a curt nod, Chloe turns and ascends the stairs. Gavin lets out a breath.
Once the basement door closes, Nines immediately relaxes. The growls disappear, replaced with an eerie silence. Gavin doesn’t jump out of the android’s grasp too quickly, in case Nines decides to cuddle him to death again.
Slowly, Gavin turns around to face the android, grey eyes meeting ice blue ones.
The detective is relieved to see Nines is somewhat normal, despite his LED which still burns red.
Scratch that. Nines is anything but back to normal.
Gavin glances down at the wound in the android’s toned stomach. Blue blood drips off its sharp edge each time Nines moves. Gavin winces and glances up at the android’s face.
“We gotta get that out, buddy.”
Nines’ expression remains unchanged as he stares at Gavin. The detective groans, and he rubs his face, “This would be a whole lot easier if you could give me some indication of understanding.”
No response.
“Right then. If you bite me, I will punch you in the face, and you can’t be mad.”
Tentatively, Gavin reaches a hand towards the piece of metal. Nines watches his movements curiously, and when he doesn’t flinch away, the detective grabs hold of the metal.
Being crouched on the ground gives Gavin more leverage to pull, but he braces a hand on the android’s shoulder anyway. Both to ground himself and hopefully keep Nines from ripping his throat out.
Slowly, Gavin pulls the metal out of the android’s body. Out of the corner of his eye, Gavin sees thirium covered hands clench against the cement ground. Gavin worries his lip, “Hang in there, I almost got it.”
With one last tug, the metal pulls free from Nines’ body, and Gavin falls backwards. He hears Nines let out a low rumble, but not much more.
Sitting up, Gavin looks at Nines, who is covering the wound with his hands. Gavin places the metal on the ground beside him and moves towards the android.
“Let me see it.” Gavin knows Nines probably can’t understand him, but hopes his tone comes across as non-threatening. Softly, the detective pulls Nines’ hands away from his stomach. The hole is a decent size, but it doesn’t seem to be too deep. Gavin looks closer, and is able to see the edges of skin trying to reform around the wound.
“Neat.”
It’s only then that Gavin realizes how close he is to Nines, his face practically falling into the androids lap. He abruptly pulls back, cheeks burning, “O-Okay, let’s get you up.”
Gavin stands up, and Nines tilts his head, brows furrowing slightly. Gavin tries not to think about how expressive Nines is being, and offers a hand to help him up.
When the android doesn’t react, Gavin waves his hand.
“Oh come on, don’t give me that look. Elijah’s gotta take a look at you.”
The last thing Gavin wants to do is offer Nines up to his brother on a silver platter, but there’s little else he can do. The detective knows next to nothing about androids, and Elijah has all the equipment needed to run scans and shit like that.
After a few awkward moments, Gavin reaches down and takes Nines’ hand, pulling him upwards. Surprisingly, the android doesn’t fight him at all, standing up with more grace than he should have in his current state. Gavin scoffs, but ignores how stupidly perfect Nines is, as always. He pulls the android towards the stairs.
Nines stops dead, grabbing Gavin’s wrist and holding him there. He lets out some kind of strange chuff noise, which Gavin refuses to find cute.
“Come on, you stupid tin can. We need to get you back to normal before I keel over and die.” Gavin prays to Robo-Jesus that Nines won’t remember anything when all of this is over.
Nines reluctantly lets himself be pulled up the stairs after a few tense moments. The boards under their feet creak slightly, and Gavin wonders where he should take the android. Nines will probably still be resistant towards the others, but he’ll have to get used to them if he wants to get back to normal.
Oh well. He’ll cross that bridge when he gets to it. First, they have to make it up the stairs and out the door.
Once they reach the top of the stairs, Gavin grabs the handle which makes Nines grip tighten on his wrist. Suddenly he’s pulled into a fierce hug. Nines buries his nose in Gavin’s hair, and Gavin tries to push away the warmth that spreads through his body at the feeling. When was the last time anyone’s hugged him like this?
Gavin pats the android’s arm awkwardly, “Okay, enough of that. God you’re gonna kill me if you remember all of this.”
Nines lets go after a few more moments, and Gavin has to collect his thoughts. He mentally slaps himself for acting like a highschooler with a crush, and turns to open the door. He’s taken a couple steps out of the basement, Nines close behind him, when shit hits the fan.
First there’s a furious snarl behind him, followed by a thud. Gavin turns around to see Nines and Connor wrestling on the ground. Connor has hold of Nines’ wrist, his skin peeling back to clearly force an interface.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” Gavin goes to move towards the pair, but someone puts a heavy hand on his shoulder. Gavin spins around, ready to raise some hell, but falters when he sees Hank’s serious expression.
Gavin turns back towards Nines just in time to see him fall limp onto the floor. The android twitches and growls softly as he went, but eventually stills. Connor pushes himself off the ground, releasing Nines’ slack arm. Blue blood drips from his nose, which he cleans off with a quick wipe of his sleeve. Gavin stands there, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Connor moves towards Gavin, a frown etched on his face, “There was no other option, Detective. Sedating him was the only way to get him under control.” Gavin can’t deny his logic. But still.
“So you decided jumping him was the best approach?” The detective isn’t able to place why he’s getting so worked up. Maybe because Nines might not trust him after a stunt like that.
“It’s already done with, so now you two need to quit getting pissy with each other and help me carry the heavy bastard.” Hank shouts from Nines’ side. He looks down at the android and raises an eyebrow, “And we should probably get him some clothes.”
Gavin and Connor both back off, Connor immediately moving to assist the Lieutenant.
Gavin, ever the drama queen, huffs angrily. Eventually he caves and helps the other two carry Nines’, surprisingly heavy, limp body.