A cyborg wakes up with the side of his face pressed into the asphalt. It is nighttime and streetlights reflect off the rain-slicked road. The tire of a truck fills his field of view.

  Angry men ask him questions and threaten to run his head over. All of his limbs and outer covering of synthetic skin have already been removed. Even his facepte is gone.

  He does not answer. Cannot? Will not? It matters not.

  Someone talks the group into not killing him.

  Instead the men decide on a crueler fate and peel up a metal panel from the sidewalk and hook him into the city’s circuits and wires beneath. The city will not let him die, but with arms and legs stolen he cannot free himself.

  He wakes up face down on a low table in an apartment with soft morning light streaming in from the windows. His arms and legs hang down over the sides of the table, brushing against a soft plush carpet that fills his vision. A stiff rod wrapped in cloth is wedged between his teeth. The st time he had one of those in his mouth was during an illicit surgery that skimped on the anesthetic. The colors in the apartment are gentle pastels.

  It occurs to him that he has arms and legs again. He can move now. He spits out the gag and sits up. He realizes his body is now female. She cries at the long-suppressed dream suddenly come true.

  She remembers what happened to her. The crying changes in tone. She’s been through a nightmare. This blessing wasn’t worth that trauma.

  She still can’t remember how she got from there to here.

  A woman - the apartment’s owner - hears the crying and comes into the room now that she’s awake.

  The woman saw what happened and rescued her after her interrogators left. Brought her home and repaired her. The only parts avaible to use for the repairs though were the woman’s leftover parts from her own past upgrades. She apologizes for that and promises to take the cyborg shopping for better fitting parts ter.

  She shows her progress pictures from the repair process, with captions and overys like she was going to post on social media - as she does with all her personal engineering projects - but thought better of it. The two of them look like sisters now.

  The cyborg asks the woman why she helped her. Why put herself at risk for a stranger?

  Because she could, and no one else would. Because it was right. Because it was kind.