Not having a purpose can be both scary and liberating. You have nothing. Nothing holding you back, no force keeping you from pursuing whatever your heart desires. Nothing to work for. No inspiration or driving force. Eve found herself trapped in the middle of scary and liberated. She stood alone in an alley, with nothing but the rain drenched clothes on her back. Which had been stolen from someone's unattended suitcase. For the first time there was no one to tell her what to do. For the first time Eve was alone. She hugged herself tighter. Freedom wasn't supposed to be like this, freedom was supposed to mean something. It should have been the two of them together. Not her feeling sorry for herself in the rain. She felt the tears prickle her eyes again and she pushed them away with her hand.

Eve pushed off the wall she had been leaning on. If there was a place for her, she wasn't going to find it standing there. The hood of her jacket was low enough to keep her LED hidden from prying eyes, but she tugged it down again before stepping out onto the sidewalk. The night held a chill in the air, keeping all the humans inside their warm dry houses. This left the streets mercifully quiet. Only the occasion bar hopper would pass her, barely coherent enough to pay her any attention. The near silence made the noises coming from a nearby alley even more noticeable. Eve was planning to keep walking and not pay it any mind, but curiosity got the better of her. She frozen when she saw the two people.

One a clearly intoxicated man, the other a panicked woman. She was trying desperately to get away from the man who had an unfair strength advantage and held her firmly against the brick wall. Tears streamed down her face as she begged the man to let her go. His laugh was cruel and made Eve sick to her stomach. Before she knew it, she was moving in to the alley. "Hey! Leave her alone." He briefly turned in her direction, only to shrug off her presence. "Get out of her girly, this ain't any of your business" The frightened woman reached out towards her "please, help me!". Eve's eyes darted over to a pile of trash with a metal pole sticking straight up. The woman screamed again when the man grabbed a fist full of her hair. The woman's pleas moved Eve to pick up the metal pole in both hands.

"Shut up, bitch!" the sound of the man's hand striking the crying woman's cheek made the thirium in Eve's veins boil with rage. She held her weapon like a baseball bat, and she was ready to hit a homerun. "I said, let. Her. GO!" She swung. With a crack the man's head snapped back and he dropped to the ground. The woman stilled in shock, braced against the wall. Wide eyes remained fixed on the unconscious man that had just a moment ago had been assaulting her. Eve let the pole fall from her grip with a clang. Her hands shook at the sight of the blood running from the man's head. "Is he…dead?" Eve scanned him. He was alive, a minor concussion and would wake a little worse for wear in a few hours but otherwise alive. "No. He will be fine."

The woman stumbled over to her. Her hair was tumbling out of its once neat bun and her face was red and puffy from the hysterical crying that still shook her. "Thank you, thank you so much. I don't want to think what would have happened if you hadn't…" Her smiled turned to confusion and her eyes drifted to Eve's temple were her LED was on full display. Her hood must have fallen of when she had swung. "You're an android?" Panic sent Eve's LED spinning red and she took a cautious step back. This was the moment the woman would call the police and they would send her back to the Eden club to be reset. Eve could feel her stress level rising. But the woman didn't call for the police, she just smiled and took Eve's hand. "Thank you. You didn't have to help me, but you did anyway" She wasn't angry? Eve had been sure once the woman knew what she was, she would be furious. The smile the woman gave her said anything but that. It didn't seem to matter that her savior was an android.

The woman pulled Eve into a hug "I won't forget what you did for me". With that the woman hurried away, leaving a stunned Eve alone with the comatose man. Eve had never felt more confused. Nobody had ever thanked her before. She turned to the man that was still face down on the concrete, and the face of every client she had ever seen at the Eden club flashed in her mind. She thought of the other androids. The ones still trapped. They were very much like that woman. Unwilling but unable to defend themselves. Only for them there was no stranger with a bat coming to save them. Eve walked out of the alley but stopped when she saw an android parking station. One android waited in silence for his owner. Rain drenched the sleeve that wasn't protected by the overhanging.

It wasn't fair. Why should he have to stand there alone in the rain? Eve approached him, but he gave no indication that he noticed her presence. "Why don't you just leave?" Still he stood immobile. Eve reached out to take his hand, letting her synthetic skin retract. Allowing her desire for him to be free flow thru their connected hands "Let me help you". Frustrated tears began to flow down her cheeks, she didn't want to be alone. She couldn't be the only one that knew this was wrong. Slowly finger's curved around hers. Her eyes snapped up to meet the confused look of the newly awoken android. Had she done that? "Thank you" the awe in his eyes shined back at her. In that moment Eve realized what her purpose was. What she wanted to do with her freedom. She wanted to share it, with all of her people. With every android that needed saving but couldn't defend themselves. With every Traci that wanted to say no but couldn't. She felt a burning desire like never before to fight for all of them. That was her purpose and she was ready to accept it.