There was no freeing them. With wires so delicately laced among brain matter, so entwined with veins and nerves, there was no way to remove the implants. Scores died before the scientists gave up on the procedures.

The city was never the same. Sure, Elyminai still prowled the streets. But a political vacuum sucked away the governmental structure delicately balanced between the gangs. Gang Two filled the void in full force, while former Gang One members were ostracized.

Was this better? Did Gang Two truly bring liberation? No one can answer.

As for the remaining cyborgs, they were given menial tasks, reduced to robots.

Were they now robots, no longer human?

Their minds were programmed by employers, who paid their days' wages.

Were they cheated? Was it fair?

Elyminai still prowled the streets. They stole, killed, and sought revenge for hire. That was how they lived. That was how they survived.

Except some found a way out. Through Gang One's undoing, some were given the ability to slip into the shadows once they grew tired of their jobs, once their morality caught up, once their money overflowed.

They slipped into their roles as normal civilians, never to be noticed again.