Human After All

Beau's lips were sticky with a grape glaze as he took another lick from a lollipop Joshua gave him. Drew was picking up his clothes and thanking Beau for the place to stay. It seemed though that Drew liked Joshua more than he liked Beau, and that was something Beau couldn't comprehend. Not because he was jealous or anything, but because just a few weeks ago maybe, Drew was talking about how much he disliked robots being used as 'slaves'. It was funny, really. It showed how quickly people could change their opinions because of a few events that happened.

Drew wrapped his arms around Joshua's shoulders before he gave a meek smile that he usually gave Beau. Joshua brushed his hair out of his face and gave a tender smile to Drew. A dear companion now, he would probably entrust Drew with his life.

"You doing okay, Joshua?" Drew asked. Joshua nodded quickly. "Good. I'll see you around or something." Drew looked up at Beau and smiled as well, although it didn't seem as genuine as the one he gave Joshua. "Take care of him, Beau. He's really something."

Beau nodded curtly before sending Drew on his way out of the apartment. Usually Drew would stay a night or two after an argument with his parents, but he actually seemed very peaceful when it came to the point where he needed to leave. Beau was astonished at how friendly Drew really was considering the circumstances. Then a thought came back to mind; there was one point last night where Joshua slid out of the bed for maybe a half an hour before he slid back into the bed with Beau. He remembered because he groaned while the bed moved and awoke him from the slumber he was in.

"Joshua?" Beau said.

"Yes, master." Joshua nodded.

"Did you slip out of bed and talk to Drew last night?" Beau said with a mischievous smirk on his face. Already he could tell Joshua had done so because he smiled shyly and covered his mouth just to hide the guilty look on his face. "You did!" He exclaimed, grabbing his bot by his shoulders and shaking him gently.

"I'm sorry! But he was very sad..... I would never want to see one of master's friends sad."

"So you did it because he was sad?" Beau asked quietly. The girls were just now waking up, Kiyah running into the living room first.

"No," Joshua said quickly, "I did it because I fix things, master."

"You fix things?"

"When things are broken, I fix them." Joshua said. With that, a flood of thoughts fell into Beau's mind all at once. He had to admit, Joshua did have a knack for fixing things. He did bring back Leslie's sight, and Kiyah's voice. He fixed Dahlia's attitude a bit, and he fixed an alarm clock that Beau had forgotten about from a few months ago. Fixing a mood, or a problem that a human had seemed only normal for Joshua. So Beau gave a wide grin and wrapped his arms around Joshua's shoulders.

"Drew really likes you now."

"He was very sad." Joshua nodded. "He cried a lot last night, master. My shirt was soaked with tears!"

"He hugged you?" Beau asked. Joshua nodded. Beau's eyebrows raised in slight jealousy (which he thought he would never have between Joshua and Drew). "But it wasn't like that, master." Joshua said quickly. "He was sobbing, and then he just fell into my shoulder, master."

"I'm sure it wasn't." Beau gave a weak smile. "I didn't mean to give you that look. It just surprised me that he opened up to you so much. You know how much he dislikes how robots are used."

"Yes." Joshua nodded. "But he was very open. But I have a question, master." Joshua said.

"What is it?"

"Who is Mr. Rager?" He asked quickly. "Even Drew had heard of him, but he didn't explain who this person was...." Joshua trailed off slightly. "Do you not know, master?"

"No, I really don't know, Joshua."

"Okay then, master." Joshua said. "So I—"

There came a loud ringing from Beau's pocket that interrupted Joshua's train of thought. Beau kissed Joshua's cheek and pulled his cell phone out from his pocket to reveal a restricted number, which could only mean one thing; Ethylon.

"Hello?" Beau said quietly.

"Beau!" Ethylon shouted into the phone. "You gotta come over here, man. I got these papers, they're—" He paused himself, murmuring profanities away from the line. "I got these papers, 'member when I deactivated the solar sailor? Yeah, well I got these papers off of him, and I figured they were just papers, but they're not. They're fucking not! You just- you just gotta come over here." Ethylon said through a few drawn out breaths. He panted heavily into the other line of the phone. "Beau, you gotta come over here. These papers, they're something I've never seen before."

"Take a breath, Ethylon. I'm sure you're just—"

"Joshua is on one of these papers." Ethylon said loudly. "Why did the fucking sailor have a paper with Joshua on it? I mean, he had one with Lejend, and another with that blonde bot you were looking for— Troia— yeah, she was on there?"

"What?" Beau said quickly. Joshua noticed the look of frustration on his face, and he ever-so gently placed his fingers upon Beau's chin. He furrowed his brows together with a look of dismay in his wide, glasz eyes. Beau kissed the tip of his nose in order to calm him, but when he returned to the call with the same abysmal look upon his face, Joshua knew something was terribly wrong.

"Why would Joshua be on those papers?"

"I don't fucking know, okay. That's why I'm calling you. You gotta get over here, and right now. Lejend, sit down." Ethylon murmured away from the phone. "Be here in 20 minutes, Beau. You just gotta look at these papers."

Beau nodded, pushing the phone back into his pocket before he returned the long gaze Joshua was giving him. Joshua silently asked what was wrong, but Beau just shook his head. Shaking his had meant Joshua didn't have to worry about it, but perhaps he did. Why were the solar sailors so hot on their trail? Why had they stopped Joshua last night without warning? Perhaps there was another story here was Beau just wasn't getting. But Joshua didn't know either. otherwise he would have said something to Beau already... right?



Rue led Beau and Joshua down a familiar staircase that had been cleaned up slightly since the last time they visited. Once walking down there, he found himself to be greeted by the familiar yells of Jaydin and Leighlan together.

"Hurry up! Why can't we find anything on these papers?" Ethylon hovered over their monitors, a snarl curling on his lips.

"Calm down, Ethylon." Leighlan snapped. "We can only do 500 things at a time." The sarcasm in his voice became apparent. Ethylon growled at Leighlan to which Jaydin pointed one of her slender fingers at him.

"Watch it. We're trying our best, Ethylon. But this is some hardcore shit. We'll be lucky to even find a trace of what this is, especially after what you and Beau pulled a while ago. The Capital probably beefed up their security to optimize its power...." She mumbled the last few sentences to herself before Beau pulled Joshua out of the shadows.

"Hey." Beau said a bit firmer than expected. Jaydin gave a slight jump, but didn't do anything else than give Beau a small wave. Leighlan gave a mumble that sounded like "Hi" before they continued tapping away at the keyboards. Ethylon pulled a packet of papers out from his jacket pocket, throwing them upon a shiny metal table. On the front was a stamp that read Classified.

"Read it." Ethylon ordered. "I don't fucking understand it, but look at all of the pictures in there."

Beau flipped the first page open and came to a face he had recognized before; after a few more minutes of studying, he found it was Leighlan.

"What—"

"Keep looking." Ethylon crossed his arms. Beau flipped through pages, finding himself staring into the eyes of other bots he had seen around the District. Not all of them, but a good amount of them around here. Finally he found a page with Troia's blonde curls on it, and her bright smile. Joshua gasped quietly, but he didn't do anything except give Beau's hand a small tug.

Another few flips and he found himself staring at the lovely freckle-faced bot he so dearly knew as Joshua. His smile was curled up slightly, and his dimples gave him that human quality most bots were missing. Beau smiled weakly.

Another flip and there was Lejend. She didn't have a PC number, just the word 'unknown' next to her name. Other than that, there was nothing special on her page.

Then Beau flipped to the last page where he found a picture of the same boy he aw in the movie the night before; the boy who went by the name of Mr. Rager. He didn't have a PC number next to his name like the bots did, so that obviously meant he was human. But why would a human be on the solar sailor's priorities? After all, humans avoided solar sailors anyways.

"What the hell?"

"Look at the last fucking page." Ethylon said. Lejend appeared from the shadows, her little hands curled into fists. She held a knife in her hand with a sneer on her face. Already he knew there had to be something in the packet that she hated.



Beau furrowed his brows together, placing the packet down on the table next to Ethylon's rough fingers.

"What is it?" Beau asked. Ethylon chewed on his bottom lip, shaking his head slightly.

"I think it's a hit list."