It didn't rain.

It was only a small consolation to Markus, but it was a consolation still. It had rained when he had first woken up in the junkyard, scared and broken and oh so defenceless. The split-second after he had been reactivated by Hunter the feeling of rain falling on his synthetic skin, of water drops running down his face and falling on the ground, of water swashing against his fingers, washing over his face, had been the only thing that had told him that he was really still alive and not trapped in some nihilistic nothingness, that he was still in the real world and not some simulation.

There had been nothing but the feeling of rain. Ever since then when Markus needed to feel alive, to assure himself that he was still there, still present, he would step outside underneath the rain and just feel it pouring on his skin, soaking his clothes until he was sure that everything around him wasn't just a dream – the sparks of a dying processor. He was lucky that Detroit was a city where the rain often fell.

No one ever commented on that particular habit of his. All androids at Jericho had their own way of dealing with the trauma they had suffered through. Markus didn't prod where he knew others didn't want him to and in return no one commented when he wandered the metal hallways of Jericho completely soaked. An unspoken rule between all of them.

But it didn't rain now.

The last rays of sunlight were slowly vanishing on the horizon, casting the buildings around them in a golden hue. The lower the sun the taller the shadows around them grew, until all of the streets around them were cast into twilight. Every now and then a car would pass the entry to the side alley they were hiding in. A short burst of light, illuminating the soaked and greasy pizza boxes on the ground, the broken needles, the torn plastic bags, before the car vanished behind the next building and the darkness would return.

There weren't any humans around. No androids either. This wasn't the best area to be around after dark. The eerie noises from behind the fence that walled off the junkyard from the street did the rest. No one wanted to be around here when they didn't need to.

Markus didn't want to be here either. Every time his gaze wandered towards the fence – yellow signs, 'Federal Property. Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted To The Fullest Extent Of The Law.' and gun shots were verberating through his skull – it felt like a cold hand was wrapping itself around his thirium pump and just squeezed until it felt like his heart would just stop. It felt like no matter how hard he breathed, his cooling was nevertheless about to fail.

The only thing that prevented him from just shutting down was remembering how it had ended. Remembering that he had escaped the junkyard and all that was confined within.

'Everything's fine.' The first words he had heard after his audio units had gotten back online. Spoken with such certainty, such conviction and such calm that Markus couldn't help but believe them. It was those words that he replayed again and again to combat the fear that was rising within.

Humans had a word for it: PTSD. Markus had read about it often enough in one of Carl's many books. He had never considered that androids would suffer it too, should they ever become alive. He could really do without it, though.

Markus turned his head away from the junkyard towards the two androids that were cowering next to him behind the dumpster: The only way to tell Daniel and Simon apart was by their emotion. Simon looked uncomfortable, his gaze flittering back and forth between Markus and the fence while Daniel's face was closed off, showing no emotion, and his gaze was directed straight towards the junkyard as if he was analysing every fibre of metal that made up the fence blocking their way in.

North had elected to stay back at Jericho to assemble the crew that was to steal the supplies they needed, citing that by allowing Daniel to accompany him there would be enough pragmatism and common sense with Markus to stop him from doing something especially idealistic and stupid (her exact words to which Markus had just rolled his eyes). Josh freely admitted that he didn't have the stomach for what they were about to do and would instead stay behind to start building something at least resembling an organisation ("We don't even know how many we are. We don't even know all of their names.").

It had sounded reasonable to Markus.

Their plan – well, it wasn't really a plan, more of a rough outline – was to get into the junkyard and see if they could just reassemble some androids and convince them to come back with them to Jericho. Depending on their success, once they returned to the ship, they would assemble another team who would continue to scavenge the junkyard.

"Do you have the plans uploaded?" Markus asked his two companions.

"All there," Daniel replied and taped against his temple. Next to him Simon nodded.

"In a few minutes there will be a shift change," Markus spoke, even though they had gone through the plan often enough. "That's our best shot at getting across the fence."

"And then I get to use this." Daniel grinned and pulled up the heavy pincers next to him. "We're gonna cut a hole through the fence and use one of the dumpsters to hide it."

"I don't get why they don't secure the premise in a better way," Simon murmured. "I mean, the fence doesn't have any sensors or currents that would tell them if it's breached."

"That's because they don't care," Daniel replied. "They only do when they can make money out of it."

"That's another thing," Simon added. "Why don't they recycle? This junkyard is huge; there must be material worth hundreds of thousands of Dollars in it."

"Americans." Daniel shrugged. "Besides, it's still cheaper to produce new androids than go through the hassle of repairing and resetting old ones."

"Simon, do you have your stuff?" Markus interrupted their bickering.

"Right here." Simon patted the bag pack next to him which held a few pieces of clothing because 'not everyone's lucky enough to find a stylish trench coat just lying around in a junkyard' (again, North's words). It wasn't much, but it should cover the most urgent cases.

Markus checked his internal clock. "Now's the time."

Slowly, they trudged along the wall towards the exit of the side alley, where they carefully peaked out in order to see if there was anyone on the main street that ran along the border of the junkyard. It was empty, just as predicted. They hushed over the street and cowered behind another dumpster that stood directly in front of the fence, thus obstructing them from anyone who might take a look.

Markus nodded towards Daniel, who used his pincers to cut a hole into the fence that was big enough for them to comfortably crawl through. Daniel went first, followed by Simon.

When it was Markus' turn, he hesitated. It was as if there was suddenly an invisible force that prevented him from moving, as if he had been locked out from his own processes and couldn't bring his legs to move, even though he was trying. The screams and moaning of the android in the junkyard crashed into him like a wave.

'Everything's fine.' Hunter's voice washed over him like a cooling breeze. 'Everything's fine.' Slowly, Markus could feel his control coming back. 'Everything's fine.' He crawled forward and stood up, not bothering with dusting himself off, because it would be to no avail.

Daniel and Simon hadn't caught anything of Markus' break-down for they were standing just a few meters away from the hole in the fence, facing towards the junkyard, horror and dismay marring their features.

Markus could understand. Now standing here at the edge of the junkyard, he thought that coming here for a second time was even worse than the last. Then he didn't have the mental capacity – the time – to take everything in, to analyse it, too much in a hurry to just get away, but now he had all the time in the world to soak in the impressions and analyse it.

The moaning. The screams. The wiggling of various body parts like worms in the dirt. The crazed and wild gazes of those android that were still alive and the vacant ones of those that weren't. The squelching sound of mud. The desperation and fear that hung over the whole junkyard like a suffocating cloud, squeezing all life and joy out of them.

Markus could feel his breath quicken. 'Everything's fine.'

"It's horrible," Simon breathed out, his mouth agape in shock.

"It's what the humans do to us," Daniel replied, his expression grim.

"We...we should go and look for androids we can help," Markus stated. It was difficult to keep his voice from breaking and it took all of his strength to sound firm and commanding. 'Everything's fine.' "Stay in range. We don't want anything to happen."

Daniel and Simon nodded and then they were off. Markus closed his eyes, took a deep breath, centred himself and then, too, walked off into the junkyard.

Bio Component D214. Unfunctional. Deactivated.

WK500 #745 177 984. Designation: Arthur. Status: Deactivated. Owner: Connor Graves.

Bio Component F414. Functionality At 27%.

Bio Component H210. Unfunctional. Deactivated.

PL600 #584 412 458. Designation: Jessica. Deactivated. Owner: Heather Durand.

'Markus, Daniel, I've got an android!' Simon notified them over their connection and pinged them his location, only a few meters away. Markus made his way towards the PL600 who stood in front of a heap of deactivated androids.

"An AV500," Simon told them. "He's only missing a leg and a right eye. Nothing we can't find around here." The AV500 was an android designed for customer service and was often found in all kind of shops. This specimen was a brown male of average height with cropped black hair and blue eyes – well, the one eye he still possessed. He was missing an eye and a leg, but was otherwise in working order as Markus' sensors told him.

"Alright," Markus agreed. "But only take the parts from android that can't be saved anymore. No one we might still be able to save." Daniel and Simon nodded and then they were already off, searching for the missing parts, while Markus stayed behind, staring down on the deactivated android. By now the noises coming from the junkyard had turned into background static. If he still consciously perceiving it, Markus would have broken down by now.

'Everything's fine.'

He knelt down and looked at the AV500. Markus wondered how his story went. Where he had come from, what he had lived through and how he had ultimately ended up here in this junkyard, torn apart and forgotten like so many before him.

"What's your name?" Markus whispered as he ran his hand over the faded white AV500 font on the torn jacket as if he wanted to brush the dirt away.

It took Daniel and Simon only a few minutes to find the parts they needed. Not unsurprising, given the massive amount of android they were surrounded by.

"Why did I have to be the one to get the eye?" Daniel complained. "It was still attached to a head." He shuddered. When he saw Markus' warning look, he hastened to add: "Relax, the back of it was totally blown away by whatever destroyed that android. No chance of ever getting back from that."

"My arm just laid around," Simon added helpfully.

"So, how are we supposed to be doing this?" Daniel wanted to know from Markus.

Markus just shrugged helplessly. "This is my first time doing this, too. I guess, we just put him back together and switch him on? And try to keep him from combusting from stress once that happens."

"I so dig leaders with a plan," Daniel muttered sarcastically. Simon just rolled his eyes at his counterpart.

"You can do this, Markus, I believe in you." The PL600 smiled at him brightly. This time it was Daniel's turn to roll his eyes.

Reattaching the parts wasn't that difficult. Cyberlife, after all, constructed its android in such a way that smaller repairs could be done by the androids' owners. Once the eye and leg were back in place, Markus paused for a short moment.

'Everything's fine.'

Allowing his synthetic skin to recede, Markus touched the AV500 and sent an electric jolt through the other's wires. The android jolted awake.

There was a short moment – a split second – where he just stared at them, unseeing, barely there, before he began to trash around violently.

"Calm down. We're androids, too. We don't want to hurt you. We're here to save you." Markus' words didn't seem to have any effect on the AV500. He even seemed to redouble his efforts. When it became clear that words wouldn't be enough to calm the android, Markus did something he wasn't even sure he could do.

He touched the other android again. Now that the AV500 was activated again, there was resistance against his intrusion, but Cyberlife had never contemplated deviancy when they had programmed their androids. So, while a non-deviant android would never be able to bypass the firewalls, Markus used the will and strength of his new-found deviancy and just...pushed.

The firewalls broke down like shattered glass. The AV500 laid bared before him and Markus showed him his deviancy: the breach through the red walls, the fear, the uncertainty, the joy, the love – all of it. And slowly he could feel the emotions creeping through the AV500 until his every process was subsumed by it.

And full of certainty Markus spoke: 'Everything's fine.'

"What's your name?" Markus asked after he had cut the connection between himself and the AV500.

"They called me Aaron," the android replied. "I'd like to keep that name. They gave it to me, but now I've made it mine." Markus nodded. He stood up and offered his hand to Aaron who took it willingly and hoisted himself up.

"We're here to save our brothers and sisters from this torment," Markus spoke. "Will you help us like we helped you?" Aaron just nodded.

In the end they reactivated and saved Aaron, a female KR200 who named herself Corinna, a male MC500 called David and a JB300 who refused to give them her name. Markus would have gone on until there was not a single android left in the junkyard, but Daniel and Simon reminded him that they could only save a certain number of androids, because they didn't have resources for more and also couldn't get a bigger number back to Jericho without risking exposure.

So, with no small amounts of regret, Markus followed the other android as they left through the hole in the fence and made their way back to Jericho.

North eyed the androids standing in front of her.

After Markus had left with Daniel and Simon, she had wasted no time and had called for all androids that were fully functional to gather in the cargo hold of Jericho, so that she may assemble one or two teams that would be responsible for stealing supplies in the future.

As her gazes wandered over the rows of android, she couldn't help but feel pride swell in her chest. Those were here people and now they were finally taking first steps to rid themselves of the yoke of humanity. Before Markus had arrived and before Hunter had started to give them his patronage, they had just vegetated here, waiting to just die, but now North felt like they were actually about to change things. She looked at the androids staring back at her and know that this was the beginning of something big.

Of course, North wasn't stupid. She knew how most of the previous revolutions in humanity's history had ended and that was when it was only humans. No one could tell how things would be different with androids thrown into the mix, also. Unlike Markus she held no illusions that this would turn into anything but a drawn-out and gritty conflict.

She wasn't so bitter that she thought that all humans were supremacist pricks just waiting to destroy androids. She was just realistic: There were good humans, but they were in the minority. Most humans either didn't care or would be against them, drowning out those that would seek to help them. That didn't mean that they couldn't and shouldn't use those other humans. They would need spies and other collaborators that could go to places androids couldn't.

North just didn't think that there was even the possibility for this to resolve peacefully.

She was used to bring her points across rather loud and insistent. Before Markus had arrived, there was only Josh, Simon and her. Josh would always advocate peaceful solutions and while Simon sometimes saw the merits of her suggestions, deep down he was a peaceful soul, too, tempered by a little pragmatism. Markus with his peaceful mindset had really upset the balance because now there were two people (sometimes three with Simon) on the council who were more idealistic than pragmatic, which could have ended in a catastrophe.

That's why North was glad that Daniel was here, even if it didn't look like it. The other PL600 had the same mindset as her and helped her temper the more idealistic outbursts of Markus, supported by Josh and Simon. She shuddered to think what would have happened if they hadn't been able to shut down Markus' idea of announcing them to the public by raiding a Cyberlife store.

"Ready?" Josh murmured next to her. North just nodded resolutely.

"Listen up!" she spoke up and any remaining murmuring amongst the androids died down instantly. "We've had a great success when we stole that truck full of supplies from those pricks at Cyberlife." A subdued cheer went through the crowd. "But you know as well as I that it won't last forever. The demand is even going to go up, because we don't plan to stop until every android in Detroit is deviant and free!" Another cheer. "But we can't hit big targets like that truck or Cyberlife stores all the time because then the humans may start paying attention and we don't want that." Nods amongst the crowd.

"That's why we decided to form small teams to send out into the city. They aren't supposed to hit big targets but small ones. That bakery over there? It's got androids, ergo it's got spare parts and thirium. Steal it! That flower shop? Same. Steal it. Every small shop, every home, go into it and steal. Our strategy is one of many small pricks: Never enough to really hurt, never enough to rouse anyone's attention.

Of course, it'll be dangerous. I won't lie about that. This city is dangerous for androids, not matter if deviant or not. That's why we're asking for volunteers. There's no shame in staying behind, though, because there's more than enough to do around here, as well. So, who is willing to go out there?"

For a few seconds nothing happened, but then the first android stepped forward. A GS200. Other followed. HK400. WG100. WK500.

In the end six androids volunteered, which was more than North had expected, seeing as they weren't that many to begin with. Six was even enough to split them into two teams.

"Again, all of our gratitude belongs to you," she said.

"I've been working on a map with possible points of interest," Josh spoke next to her. "I'll upload them to you. Please keep it up to date." His LED turned orange as did the other androids' as they received the data from the PJ500.

"It's probably for the best if we split you up in teams of three," North took over. "Six androids in one place would be too suspicious." They nodded at her. "We won't micromanage you. You're androids, smarter than the majority of humans. There's only one rule: Don't kill anyone. Dead humans tend to rouse attention from the police and the media and we don't want that, do we?" Another round of nods.

North looked at them, catching everyone's gaze and imprinting their faces into her memory banks. This was the first step on their way towards the revolution.

"You should be proud. What you'll do, will enable us to survive and continue to fight. You're the vanguard of our liberation. One day we will look back on this moment and realise its importance." Then Josh did something that even surprised North.

"For the people!" he shouted and raised his fist.

"For the people!" the other androids shouted, raising their fists, as well.

"That was very moving and all, but what the fuck, Josh?" North laughed at him when they were alone again.

"I was carried away by the moment and this was the first thing that came to my mind," Josh grumbled. "I was a history lecturer not a speech writer."

North laid one hand on his shoulder. "Never cange."

Amanda's hologram stood motionlessly at the big table where the meetings of Cyberlife's board of directors took place, not paying attention to the humans around her. Amanda was here because she practically was Cyberlife – at least the server side of it – and the board couldn't ignore her, especially as she had been Kamski's last creation before they had ousted him, but that didn't mean that she was seen as anything but a tool by them.

Amanda didn't mind, though. They were just tools to her, too.

At the head of the table, Erica Clayton, CEO of Cyberlife sat. Her blonde hair was drawn into a tight knot at the back of her head, her cold brown eyes roaming over the other board members while her no-nonsense attitude kept them all in line.

"Any chance of change in Europe?" Clayton asked Eric Richards, head of the EMEA sales department. Though the moniker was a false lead, in Amanda's opinion, because Cyberlife didn't sell its androids in Europe after all.

"No," Richards shock his head. "We spent millions of Dollars on lobbying and marketing campaigns, but there's no chance that Brussels will repeal its ban on humanoid androids. We've even encouraged the US ambassador to proactively promote Cyberlife, but to no avail."

"I don't get why we just upload our programs on non-humanoid platforms and sell them in Europe," Carlisle Weaver, responsible for managing the Cyberlife stores, grumbled. Everyone around the table rolled their eyes. Amanda stayed motionless, but she agreed with the sentiment. Weaver was a wizard when it came to squeezing every bit of profit out of those stores, but he had no clue about research or development.

"Because you can't," Laura Hale, head of the aforementioned department reminded him. "We spent billions of Dollars on perfecting the humanoid chassis for our products. Our androids can't function on anything else. We'd need to adapt our programs to non-humanoid platforms – which we would also need to develop – and we'd still behind European firms like Siemens. And it would cost us billions." She shook her head. "No, it's better we concentrate on what we already mastered."

"Let's concentrate on the markets we already dominate," Clayton brought the discussion back to the topic. "South America is up by seven percent." Satisfied nods around the table. "Middle East and Africa went down by four percent." Grimaces. Everyone knew that the MEA region was the playfield of European and Russian firms, but no one would have thought that breaking into those markets would be so difficult. "Asia has moderate gains of two percent while we're up by five percent in Oceania." Asia was a surprise, Amanda mused. Between Chinese and Japanese firms, Cyberlife originally hadn't thought they would be able to make a dent, but the Asia business grew moderately every year.

"On another note, we should definitely increase the production of SQ800s," Clayton suggested. "The DoD is literally snatching up everything we throw at them. If things heat up in the Arctic, we need to be ready." Her lips curled into a smirk, probably thinking about all the profit Cyberlife would make once the Arctic fell under US control, a sentiment that was echoed by the other board members.

Amanda pitied the poor, greedy fools. In the old time line deviancy amongst their android population had thrown the armed forces of the US and Russia into chaos, eventually leading to the European Union, Canada and Japan splitting the Arctic and its resources between themselves. If her information was correct, then they were already in talks about exactly doing that.

"What about the deviancy investigation?" head of Compliance, Eric Li, wanted to know. All gazes turned towards Amanda's hologram.

"The RK800 prototype's performance is beyond expectations," she stated.

"Then why hasn't it caught any deviants yet?" Li retorted.

Amanda smiled serenely at him. "While the RK800 performs perfectly well, the same cannot be said about the humans it interacts with. Human error has caused the loss of two deviants already." Li began to splutter while the others around the table clearly enjoyed him being taken down by an artificial intelligence. "The RK800 collected much data, though, which will prove quite useful. I will be able to provide a first deviancy model in approximately one week; sooner if the RK800 encounters another one."

Not that Amanda would provide a correct model, anyway.

"Alright, AI," Clayton stated, clearly dismissing her.

Amanda just stared coolly at her. 'I'm saving this company while you do your best to run it into the ground.' She didn't say it, though. Instead she just vanished.