Human After All

The room went silent. Even Jaydin and Leighlan stopped tapping at their keyboards long enough to turn and stare at Ethylon. They had seen the packet of papers, but he didn't say anything to them about a hit list.

"A what?" Beau squeaked. Joshua lowered his gaze to the ground. He knew what Ethylon was speaking of, he had seen it in a movie at home before. The solar sailors had a list of names of bots they considered to be crossing the line. They would deactivate each robot on the list, and if a human was on said list, they would be murdered. Joshua shivered, but didn't bother to look up at Ethylon, nor his own master.

"A hit list. You know, to deactiva—"

"They're not going to fucking deactivate Joshua." Beau slammed his open palms against the table. "You can't talk like that, Ethylon. They aren't going to get Joshua."

"I know." Ethylon said. "But that's what they're going to do if Joshua becomes anymore human. They wanted these robots to act like humans, but Joshua is becoming one. He has all the— the emotions, the expressions. He knows what right from wrong is, and that isn't what they wanted."

"What the fuck did they want from him?"

"They wanted a robot who acted human, but required constant orders from their masters. Independent robots might mean the end of the Capital. They don't want that—"

"Fuck what they want!" Beau cursed again. Only then did he remember that Joshua was still in the room. "Sorry." He said as Joshua nodded gently. "I don't mean to cuss so much in front of you."

"It's okay, master." Joshua whimpered slightly. He really didn't care about the cussing his master was so rudely saying. He only cared about the fact that he was on a list to be deactivated. For what? What had he done that made everything so terrible? What had he done to spite the Capital? Was it purely that fact that he was living?

Ah, but I'm not living, Joshua thought. I'm not a living, breathing human. I am like a living, breathing human being. 'Like' was a word that took Joshua away from the fact that he could have been human. Joshua would only ever be 'like' a human.

Jaydin spoke up, her fingers slightly intertwined with Leighlan's.

"I'm not letting them take Leighlan. Over my dead body." She spat.

"No, Jaydin." Leighlan said quietly, brushing some wisps of her greasy hair away from her eyes. "If it comes to that, I want you to live."

"Leighlan, I would never—"

"— I know, but—"

"— no, you don't." They interrupted each other in order to get quick thoughts out. Jaydin looked as though she was on the edge of insanity. Leighlan pressed his forehead against hers, whispering unintelligible words to Jaydin in order to calm her. Ethylon pulled his attention from them, snapping his fingers in front of Beau's face to grab his attention as well.

"Beau." Ethylon said. "We've got to find these other bots. And this Mr. Rager kid. We gotta find them all, or else they're going to be executed on sight."

"But Joshua...." Beau paused, lacing his fingers together with Joshua's. Joshua whimpered softly, hiding his face from the others by burying himself under Beau's jacket. "I don't want Joshua to go out in public if there's going to be a chance they'll take him from me." Beau said firmly. "I'm not going to risk him."

"You've just gotta act like nothing has changed, Beau." Ethylon said. "You can go in public with him, act like you have been for the past few months, y'know, like that. But you can't get suspicious. You can't do anything to spite the solar sailors." Ethylon paused, smirking in pure delight. "At least, not until I say so."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beau said quickly, and almost defensively.

"Calm down. I just mean I'm already working out a plan to save us all. Wanna hear it?"

"Joshua." Beau grabbed Joshua by his shoulders. "I don't want you to listen to this. Can you—"

"I'll take him." Lejend said, slipping her knife into a loop on her belt and walking over to Joshua's side. Ethylon rolled his eyes, but allowed her to slip her rigid fingers with Joshua's before she took Joshua down the hall and to the right.

Beau turned to Ethylon with anger and slight disappointment in his eyes. Never before had he been so angry at something, and now Beau didn't even know who to be angry at! The Capital wasn't all to blame for this, there were also the solar sailors, and those who work over the solar sailors. The sailor's have different leaders than the Capital. They didn't follow Capital orders. Although the community believes they do, they don't. The follow under a general who basically has more say than the Capital itself. So it was that general's fault that this was happening.

"Beau." Ethylon said quickly. "Are you ready? This plan is easier said than done. Listen!" He snapped, nearly punching Beau in the shoulder. "All right. Here's what we hope will happen. I know it'll end up differently, but it's gonna go down like this; We're going to round up all of the robots on this list, keep them laying extra low in order to avoid the solar sailors. The sailors will wonder where they are, but they won't say anything because they'll most likely think another sailor already deactivated them. Still following? Anyways, after about a month, I'll get arrested again, I might need you to get arrested too."

"Whoa, whoa!" Beau stopped him. "What about Joshua? I can't just leave him behind while we go get arrested. We'll probably be quarantined for at least a couple of weeks. I can't leave Joshua for a couple of weeks."

"If you would let me finish!" Ethylon spat. "Fuck. Anyways, on the way to the Capital, right after they arrest us, we'll make a run for it to the office in the Capital. We'll show them these papers, expose everything. They'll get rid of the solar sailors. We'll be fucking heroes."

"And we live happily-fucking-after?" Beau said. The plan was idiotic, and it would never work. He just knew it would never be successful, especially with the fact that Ethylon was a criminal. Who would believe him? Hell, Beau hardly believed him! "It'll never work, Ethylon."

"You're—"

"Think realistically for a minute, Ethylon!" Beau shouted. "We stole these papers from a solar sailor that you deactivated after we hacked into the Capital's servers, shut down all servers and power, and now we're gonna expose the solar sailors? That's like 20 felonies! We're lucky they don't shoot us on sight when they find out we did it." Beau said. "I'm not putting my life, or more importantly, Joshua's future at risk for a stupid expose."

Ethylon threw the table in front of him away, shoving Beau slightly.

"I think you're too fucking scared."

"Yeah?" Beau said, pushing Ethylon a bit harder than before. Ethylon shoved back. "Do something about it."

"Fuck you!"

"You're stupid—"

"We're all going to die—" Ethylon pinned Beau against the wall. Beau kicked him away, which earned him a punch in the stomach. Beau hissed, grabbing Ethylon by his arms and roughly throwing him against the ground. Lost in the moment, they began to throw punches. Leighlan and Jaydin were trying desperately to pull them apart, and Beau swore he heard Lejend come running down the hall, but the only thing he really heard was Joshua's voice.

"Stop!" Joshua ran to their sides, shoving Ethylon off of Beau. He pulled his master off of the ground before stepping in front of him and holding his ground. "Meaningless fighting between friends!" Joshua shouted through a pant of breath. "The solar sailors cannot get to us like this, master." Joshua turned slightly to Beau, standing on the tips of his toes in order to plant a soft kiss on Beau's cheek. "We must stand together, or we don't stand at all."

"He's right." Lejend said. "Together we stand, or divided we fall."

Ethylon laughed, wiping a few trickles of blood away from his lips. Beau wiped a cut above his eyebrow, smiling at the crimson dye upon his fingers. They really screwed each other up.

"You really got me." Ethylon chuckled. "I think I got a concussion."

"I think you broke my nose." Beau said. Joshua took a step away from Beau and allowed Beau to walk over to Ethylon's side. They smiled at each other, almost childishly. Beau remembered fighting with friends like that when he was younger. They would battle for a few minutes, shed some blood, then pull away and laugh because fighting was stupid.

Beau's and Ethylon's hands locked together. Ethylon smirked.

"We'll make a different plan. The both of us."

"And it'll work." Beau said.

"Yeah. But if you turn on me, so help me, I'll—"

"— kill you." Beau finished. It was like the first time they met all over again.