Elijah tried to remain calm as he stood on the observation deck overlooking the operating room. There were long glass windows circling the theatre, letting people see from any direction. There was blood on the metal operative table. John looked so pale. If not for the flurry of activity, Elijah would have thought he was dead already. The female android, the surgeon who'd been working on John for the past hour or so, was explaining his condition. She was using technical terms he couldn't follow, but from her expression, he already knew it wasn't good. He felt Chloe take his arm, comforting him. He rested his hand on hers in thanks, keeping the contact in his own attempt to soothe. John was important to both of them. The surgeon paused with an apologetic sigh. She knew he wasn't following her explanation, so she went for bluntness.

"He's not strong enough to survive the procedure that's necessary to save him," she concluded with certainty. Elijah's chest fell at the news. He hadn't wanted this to happen, but John being injured had been a sizeable risk in their plan. A risk he'd been fully aware of. A risk he'd been willing to take. The plan had ultimately paid off. Unfortunately, the price seemed to be John's life. Elijah looked across at Chloe sadly. Her brow was creased in pain as she looked at John, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully on the operating table. In reality, he wasn't sleeping at all. He'd slipped into a coma. The theatre was white and sterile besides the red dripping down the metal table onto the floor. Only androids had been allowed inside to perform the surgery. John's clothing had been cut free and removed, and he was on life support with numerous drips and blood bags, trying to replenish his fluids. It was a useless effort. Blood was pouring out as quickly as it was entering, and he didn't have the strength to breathe on his own. He wasn't dead yet, and his brain was still active, but he didn't have much time.

"The nanites...It's our only choice," Elijah murmured anxiously, watching Chloe's blue eyes snap wide at the very suggestion. They hadn't used them yet, on anyone. He hadn't even run any biological trials to see if they would work. He'd designed them slowly, over the past ten years, taking his time. He'd wanted to be as sure as possible that they'd work before beginning any trials. It was perhaps selfish. This had been his own pet project. His own way of cheating death. He hadn't expected to need it so soon. But they should work! The design isn't really any more complicated than android coding...They were ready for trials. It seemed Chloe disagreed, from her aghast expression.

"That's highly experimental! Not to mention we don't have his guardian's permission!" she objected, surprised that Elijah had even suggested it. John wasn't a lab rat. He was a human. He was their nephew. He'd lived with them for almost eight years. Elijah's jaw tightening as he prepared to argue. He hated arguing with Chloe, especially when she was right. He couldn't guarantee that John would have agreed to this, though he had a certain feeling he would. Unfortunately, his father was his legal guardian, and he would definitely refuse. Elijah scoffed in hurt and disbelief as he spread his arms and gestured to the theatre.

"What else are we supposed to do? Let him die? I'm his uncle! I'll authorise it!" he insisted, looking down as Chloe took his hand. She always did that when she wanted to calm him. She squeezed gently, watching as he closed his eyes and took a breath. He squeezed back with a sigh. He shouldn't have raised his voice. He also knew he didn't have the legal authority to give permission. There was no paper to say that he was John's uncle, because he wasn't. He'd simply been a good friend of their parents a few years ago. Had John's father not sided with the shareholders and forced him out of his own company, they may still have been friends. The surgeon android stood by, patiently awaiting instructions. They could only keep John stable for another hour at most. They didn't have time to argue about this.

"You're not his uncle...not on paper. We have to ask his father," Chloe insisted bluntly, though he could tell it broke her heart to say it. She was well aware of what John's father thought about him and his androids, despite being quite happy to live on the money gained from selling them. He had another son with his new wife. John was the right age to be groomed for Cyberlife, but he had a replacement ready in the even John died. He wouldn't see John as his son anymore if they did this. That's why he'd refuse.

"Chloe, it's John...It's Little John...Please, have them inject the nanites," Elijah urged quietly, knowing he was asking a lot. She'd be knowingly helping him to break the law. They'd be acting without John's consent. They wouldn't even learn his opinion until later. Elijah continued to give her a pleading look, biting his lip as he watched her LED flash red at the conflict in her system. There were laws and rules to follow, but time wasn't on their side. She also knew, as Elijah did, that John's father wouldn't agree to this procedure. They had two choices. Save John their way or let him die. Chloe closed her eyes with a sigh of defeat.

"I suppose there could be a mistake on the records giving you the authority," she relented quietly, blinking as she altered John's next of kin to Elijah's name. It wouldn't stand up in a court of law. This was literally only so they could say they'd shown the surgeon the correct proof of consent. They wouldn't want the surgeons to suffer any consequences. If all went well, then Elijah's money and power would be enough to sweep the issue aside entirely. Elijah smiled his thanks before turning to the waiting surgeon, who'd opted to ignore their back and forth by turning off her audio input until needed.

"As his guardian, I consent to the experimental nanite injection." Elijah sounded a lot more confident than he looked. The surgeon nodded her understanding and returned to the theatre. They worked to keep John stable for as long as it took another RT600 android to arrive with a syringe of nanites from Elijah's private lab. Chloe's LED span yellow as she communicated with her counterpart to deliver it to the surgeon. It looked so small, but Elijah knew what would happen once they were inside John's body. He had faith.

"Injecting the nanites," the surgeon stated as she leaned down to John's neck. She injected them into one of his larger veins that would take them up into his brain. She stepped back once she was done and handed off the empty syringe. The team started reading off vitals, watching like hawks in the event something went wrong. The RT600 remained in the room, getting an extractor ready. When the nanites were finished, they'd need to be removed and stored for transfer. Elijah sighed in relief as nothing happened. If he wasn't going into cardiac arrest, then he could only hope the nanites were doing their job.

"This is highly experimental...There's no way of knowing if it'll work," Chloe murmured worriedly, her thirium pump clenching as she considered John not making it through. Elijah sighed restlessly beside her. He was stressed. He wrapped an arm around her waist as she leaned against him. His hand was comforting as he rubbed her back. She closed her crystal eyes with a small smile of thanks. The contact was good for both of them.

"It has to...there's no reason it shouldn't...Come on, we'll have to make a whole new unit from the ground up," he added, wasting no time as he headed towards his lab. Chloe walked with him, knowing this was his own way of distracting himself. For the next phase, they'd need a new unit, but they wouldn't know whether phase one had been successful until the nanites had been removed and analysed by the master computer. Elijah was trying to convince himself that he'd done everything right, but she could tell he had his doubts. Experiments didn't always pay off. His inventions didn't always work on the first try. The only promising thing here was that he'd built on the tested research and theories of others, as well as trusting his own knowledge and designs.

"Making a whole new unit from scratch will take...quite some time..." Chloe said hesitantly as they approached the lab. Elijah nodded his agreement as they entered and headed to his drawing board. He turned on the screen and grabbed a stylus so he could draw. A basic outline was already there. He just had to input measurements and muscle mass to tweak size. At the moment, it was set to match his own body. He stored what he had first before starting anew. Chloe tugged on her lab coat as she joined him, holding one ready for him to slip into.

"So long as the nanites do their job, we can take as much time as we need. I won't rush this or use a premade, standard unit. This one will be special," he insisted as he slipped the white coat over his shoulders. Chloe looked up at him warmly as she held his glasses ready. She already knew he'd be looking around for them. He paused in his search, huffing fondly as he allowed her to slip them over his greenish eyes. Am I so predictable? Chloe's smile told him the answer to that thought was clearly yes. He became serious once more as he looked down at the blank blueprint, the basic white outline sitting ready. "You have access to his medical records, I trust."

"Of course," Chloe replied as she interfaced with the screen. The program within the screen accepted the input. The outline moved to match the height and weight listed and then shared all of her visual input. She knew most of his measurements. The information had been stored instinctively at each meeting. Once the blueprint had all it could take from her database, she stepped back and looked at the outline. It was looking better already. Elijah hummed his approval before activating the cameras in the ER. Chloe looked closely at the screen, controlling the camera to zoom in and out on various body parts. She needed the most up to date and accurate data, and there were certain parts she hadn't seen since he was very young. Her measurements would obviously be out of date in that case.

While Chloe was busy with measurements, she could already hear Elijah scribbling and tapping away, picking out the perfect materials. This wasn't a cheap unit for mass production. It was a onetime, lovingly crafted, custom unit. He wanted it to be durable. It should last for a long time and be easy to upgrade later if desired. He picked out the newest plastic polymer he had in development. Test samples had been produced and undergone initial testing. The results had been promising. He eyed the slightly older polymer he had stored in the files. The older polymer was more reliable. He'd worked with it numerous times, on many units. He hummed thoughtfully. They had so much work to do.