"To the cause!" Cheered my friends in unison, holding up their drinks and crashing them together jovially. I smiled, raising my own drink along with them.

Samantha, a brunette girl I met at university who was a few years my junior, grinned toothily at me with enthusiasm from the other side of the oaken table. She then reached out and took my hand in hers.

"Without you, Nora, we'd never have gotten this far. I never thought I'd see the day!"

I couldn't hold back my own smile.

"Sam, you did amazing too! It wasn't all me."

She lifted her hand to wave me off, "nonsense! You got practically got the entire university to understand the androids' point of view. Without you, most functioning adults today probably wouldn't be on our side. The side that won."

"She's right," Joel piped up, turning his attention away from our other friends and looking at me, his curly brown hair fell in front of his bright sea-green eyes and he flicked it away before he spoke again, "if you hadn't taken me aside that one time and battered it into me that androids had feelings, I'd probably have gone home and continued to be a cynic."

I grinned, "I did not beat it into you, Joel!"

"I still have the bruises…"

Sam tutted, swatting his arm, "quit it! She pulled us all together and we'd be nothing without her."

A heat quickly rose across my cheeks, and I bashfully looked away.

"You guys are too kind."

"Tell you what," Joel said quickly, tapping his fingernail against his beer glass, "everyone! Settle down, I wanna make a toast."

The other ragtag android activists that had come out to celebrate turned to face him, and he beamed across in their direction. He swung his gaze over to me as he continued.

"I'd like to make another toast - to our dearest Nora! Without her, nearly all the activists I know would be bumbling around trying to make sense of their words and being no better than the anti-android dicks who plague this city. We came here to celebrate the liberation of the androids, but we've also come to celebrate Nora! She organised us, she helped us, and she gave us the confidence to spread our feelings, and the feelings of the new intelligent species!"

There was a unanimous chatter of agreement and a second raising of the glasses. I smiled as I watched the liquid slosh around messily with another clinking of glass against glass.

I sat back, getting lost in the festivities and celebration. Eventually, however, my eyes wandered to the television at the opposite end of the bar. The news was on, as per usual, and I could see that they had the peaceful demonstration of the androids on repeat, despite the events happening over a week ago.

It was breathtaking, really. Being able to watch the rogue androids come together and peacefully protest that they wanted equality. Sitting on the ground, protesting without a word against the army that shot them down. The video cuts and I see their makeshift camp, and the leader walking to meet a man in the middle of the expansive concrete. The camera shifted to a few more scenes of that evening.

And then, came the robot army.

It gave me goosebumps every time I watched it. The rows upon rows of fresh deviant androids, being led by the most intriguing deviant of them all. The RK800. The so-called deviant hunter.

Of course, I'd heard about him. I smiled to myself as I watched the helicopter camera zoom into his determined expression. The footage paused as info about his model appeared around him. The screen then returned to the news presenters, and so I drew myself back into the conversation with my friends.

But, I couldn't help my thoughts as they wandered back to the RK800. I didn't actually know his name, but I knew what he did for work. He worked for the DPD, originally tasked with tracking down and dealing with known deviant androids. All up until he infiltrated the deviant haven, Jericho, and became one himself. My mind burned with a million questions that I wished she could ask him.

I hoped that I could get the chance.

"Guys," I said, and a few of my friends turned to look at me, "I've got some news."

"News?" Joel asked.

I nodded and cleared my throat, gripping my hands around my glass a little tighter, "I've just accepted a job at CyberLife."

Joel and Sam grinned, but a few of the others were sceptical.

"How come?" Asked David, a slightly older man who sat to my right.

David was one of the first people I had recruited to campaign for the freedom of the androids, and he was pretty vocal about it as well. He was completely against CyberLife, right down to the fact they were still operating. He didn't see the situation as I did.

"Well, they've appointed Kamski as CEO again, and the company has decided to take a direct approach in improving the lives of the androids rather than making them for human use. I saw a job available online and figured it was the right thing for me to do."

The dark haired man furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of me.

"What kind of job?"

It was Sam who asked, so I swung my attention back to her.

"Integrations manager - it's a new role. I basically talk to the androids who need help integrating into society, answer their questions, giving them the best start in their new lives. I start in a week or so."

Sam grinned, "oh Nora, that's amazing! You're going to get to work directly with them?"

I nodded. "Yeah, plus I get to work closely with Kamski. He's decided to take a more hands-on approach with the androids now that they're going to be treated like us boring old humans."

The rest of the evening bubbled away as normal, the hours sinking away into the early morning. Despite the happy feelings and exciting aura of the bar, I couldn't help but feel one of my group was less than pleased.

As the night in the bar drew to a close, and most of my friends had splintered off back to their homes, I was soon left sitting with only Sam and Joel. David's departure had left me feeling a little on edge, as he had merely grunted at us as he slipped from the booth and sauntered drunkenly towards the bar exit.

"He's such a sourpuss," Sam drawled, cheek squished against the palm of her hand, "He's like, way more grumpy than usual…"

I smiled at her dizziness. I had chosen to drink lightly that evening, so my head was only just filled with a light buzz - nothing compared to her half-lidded eyes and rose-tinted cheeks.

"Prolly cause his brother used to work there," she continued, yawning.

I didn't know this. I frowned at her.

"David's brother works for Cyberlife?"

"Worked, for them. And I'm pretty sure he was his half-brother,"

Joel looked at her uneasily and shouldered her, "c'mon Sam, I don't think that's your place to say."

"He went missing," Sam then said suddenly, hissing and leaning across the table. If she was trying to be secretive, she wasn't doing a very good job of it. Her eyes were slightly misty, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't even focused on me, "rumours have it, that the old-old CEO didn't like his attitude, so he ground him up and fed him to the android polar bears!"

Sensing her fake-seriousness, I chuckled and gave them both a look of disbelief.

"Alright, Sam. Whatever you say," I feigned ignorance.

Joel looked apologetic, "she's had way too much to drink."

"I can tell."

He scooped an arm up behind the giggling Sam, and gently eased her out of the booth.

"I should take her back, it's really late and I know she's gonna regret this in the morning."

I slid out of the booth as well, slipping on my dark coat and shouldering my bag. Once on my feet, the wooziness from my head spread throughout my body. I yawned without being able to help it.

"Yeah I'm starting to feel that way too," I agreed, following him and his girlfriend towards the bar entrance, "I'll see you guys soon?"

We stopped after opening the door, as we were greeted with sheets and sheets of heavy rain. Joel turned to me, careful to not hit the barely-awake woman under his arm against the door frame.

"Sure. You'll be alright getting home?" He shifted his weight slightly, "I've gotta get this lug back home before she passes out."

I raised a hand, "don't worry 'bout me, Joel. You know I'm not far down the road."

He nodded, "alright. Safe trip, call me if you need me."

He sauntered off through the rain in the direction of the automated taxis, and I waited long enough to see them both get inside. Satiated with the knowledge that they were safe on their way home, I began the short walk back to my own place. I could feel the night and the alcohol weighing me down, and the very thought of my own bed and warm duvets made me shudder in excitement.

I pulled my hood up over my head as I walked briskly through the rain, wishing to myself that I had thought ahead and brought an umbrella. I checked my watch briefly, 2am. Honestly, I hadn't expected to be out this late, so I'd not prepared for the weather.

The streets were quieter than usual, probably since most people were still wary of the androids and were playing it safe by staying home. I understood the way they were feeling, but I walked with a sense of pride to my step that could only convey the fact that we did it.

Five long years after I had left university, and finally, all of my work demonstrating and lecturing and informing people of the rights that androids deserved… it had come to fruition. Androids were finally going to be given the respect they needed right from the very first moment of their creation.

A sudden sound off to the left stopped me in my tracks, and I found myself staring down a long and dark alleyway that split off from the main road. The darkness shielded whatever could have possibly made the noise.

My first instinct was to believe it was an android, one that might not have been so lucky in the wake after the announcement of android freedom. A slight wave of panic passed through me at the thought of one sitting in some dank, dark, wet corner, bleeding out into the night.

A cough from the darkness shocked my senses into overdrive.

"Hello?" I called out over the rain, only to get no response.

I took a tentative step towards the shadows, "anyone there?"

There were a few seconds of silence, where the only sound was the rain slamming against some garbage bins, and the pitter patter around my ears as my hood protected me from the water. My face, however, was drenched, and I blinked away the water as I took another small step towards the alley.

Squinting, I tried to make out a figure.

A hand suddenly leapt out from the dark, grabbing my wrist and yanking me out of view. I didn't have time to scream before something was shoved in my mouth and I was thrown to the ground. A searing heat shot through my head as my temple came in contact with the wet concrete sidewalk, and a hard kick to the back of my skull was all it took to sent me into a painful pit of swirling red and black.

I couldn't move, but the sensation of hands grabbing and dragging me was the last thing I felt before my consciousness all but disappeared.

Hey there! Thanks for taking interest in this story!

I can't promise how often I'll be able to update, but I'm aiming to always be a chapter ahead :)