《Neon Ruins》


 Chapter 1

    New New New York, was there a city less busy and intimidating than this one? Someone out there knew, but it wasn''t her. There were not many cities left on Earth after the floods of 2205. It was after the great floods that New New New York was built over what used to be New New York, the old New York had been previously destroyed by some other disaster. History was a list of countless disasters. NNNY was a city filled with the endless static of commercials, holograms, neon signs, and dozens of other electronic parts that constantly buzzed behind the bustling of the city. There was little left beyond the cities now. Pieces of county land, cities, and in between large chunks of unhabitable land. Some due to the water levels rising, others due to toxic chemicals. It was all the same, large chunks of dilapidated terrain.


    Those who could had long left the planet, but they had remained. Her grandfather was one of those earthists, a stubborn man who believed that if born on Earth, one must live and die on Earth.


    It was only after her father had disappeared were they blacklisted and sent to the lowest levels. It was only after he disappeared that Jane was able to escape the buzzing of the upper city, escape into the slums at the lower levels of the city, and from the slums, it was easy to make it to the edge where the city ended, and the walls started.


    Between where the roads ended and the wall began was a field of old cars, robots, mechanics, and other metal parts, all taken over by nature. Real flora.


    She had never seen real nature, only plants and grass artificially grown in the academy, elevated parks, and garden domes she once could visit. The domes that every elite seemed to own at level 7 were domes in which beautiful houses portraying the architecture of some olden times were built, houses in which robot servants bustled around quietly, their mechanism also ticking with the city.


    Now, they lived in the falling remanence of some old New New York, a place that the elite had only heard of in whispered rumors of android attacks and clan wars. To them, it was the place where they took half-people and gambies. Here in the slums, the mechanics screeched with age, and androids were discarded to roam. Androids who came from all walks of life now resided with the rest of the city''s trash.


    It was at the lowest levels, where the sun was substituted with neon glows and prostitutes with hair to match who stood scouting for customers on street corners, that she found some peace.


    And sometimes, she would watch the open cruelty of humanity from her apartment. She would watch as one of those fancy cars would descend from the sky, pick up one of the girls with neon hair, and take her away to never be seen again. They all knew that the rich had vile fetishes. The girl was as good as dead, and no one would ever look for her. A few days later, her family would receive money, and it would flitter on, the hologram glitching as the numbers blinked; sometimes, it would be enough for them to move up and escape into another level of suffering. One closer to the top.


    Here they did not discriminate. They all lived together in the city''s garbage pit because the city had thrown them all out. Every day, she would get up alone in their dusty apartment, her mother already hard at work helping another patient, and watch the grimy landscape of level one.


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    It was late. She sat on the dead corpse of a vintage car and watched the city in the darkness. A cascade of skyscrapers rose far into the sky, each level higher than the previous, separated only by height. Lights flickered on and off, almost as if the city were alive and breathing. The city was so high that even lying back, she could not see where it ended.


    The wall behind her was the original from New New York''s time. It was here before the new city was ever built, an ugly, humongous chunk of steel. It reminded her of her humanity, of how small and insignificant she truly was compared to the grandness of the city. It represented their hopelessness: grey, dull, old, insanely large, and forgotten.


    After her father had disappeared and the police on level 7 dressed in neat fancy suits refused to help they lost their hope. They had pinned an android attack on her father and said that he had run away and maybe killed himself; after all, he had access to the android and could have easily downloaded the virus. After all was said and done, they were discarded with the rest to the lower city and blacklisted for the next 15 years.


    They had gotten lucky that her mother could use her medical knowledge, and she could use hers from the academy. She climbed off the hood of the car and made her way to her nanocycle. The nanocycle was her second escape. She climbed on, straddling the bike, and pressed the button of a thin strap of metal that wrapped around her head. Her helmet opened, engulfing her face in its safety. Then, lying flat against the black reflective-less material of the cycle, she put her arms into the control panels, bringing it to life, and with a soundless woosh, she drove away, smoothly flying over cracks and bumps in ancient concrete roads. The old roads that nature tried to break through were covered in oases of grass and flowers.


    She came home to an empty apartment, the hallways reeking of piss, alcohol, and feramot. Feramot was just another street drug to numb their depressive existence. Doorways stood open, showing the motionless figures of gambies, people who lived their lives within the Cybernet. It was from them that the smell of piss originated from. In the upper levels, they were well taken care of, but once the money ran out, they were discarded here. And she always stopped to wonder, when an especially rancid odor would infiltrate her nostrils, if one of Gambie''s had died. Did it make a difference if they were as good as dead anyway? She wondered.


    Those who knew better stayed away from cyber reality; it had, at one point, wiped out a 3rd of the human population, slowly melting the brains of those who used it. On Sundays, robot cleaners would sweep through the apartments, scanning and discarding the bodies of those who had died. Discarding them like trash. It was awful. She often wondered if they knew that they had died or if, at this point, their brains had been too far gone and downloaded into the cyber net to notice.


    The apartments and homes on level 4 and up of the city were made to copy the style of a forgotten era with intricate wallpapers, velvet couches, and wooden tables that cost a small fortune, made from wood harvested from other plants. The elite often had their entire homes decorated in rare and expensive materials. Although they had been far from rich they also once had a beautiful wooden table in their dining room. It was her father''s pride and joy. The heart of the house, he used to say.


    She sighed. It would have been better if they had left Earth when they had the chance and escaped to some colony, some other planet, but now, from the slums, they could only hope to survive another day. If they had, things would have been different.

 Chapter 2

    The metal door behind her slowly slid to a close, the mechanism hissing as it firmly shut. They had two rooms, both with metal beds hanging over the floor, lit by lights that ran along the outskirts of the room concealed under the metal walls that protruded slightly to hide old apparatuses that barely worked, a dingy kitchen with a metal countertop that matched the metal of the walls and ceiling, and large windows that looked out onto the pornographic neon scenario below. The living room window let out from the 25th floor unto a cascade of old skyscrapers blinking away at night and old holograms glitching out.


    Each level was like a self-contained world, hiding the other with cheap tricks. It was as if the city wanted to ignore the inequality of the levels. She had once read about neighborhoods, a term from the old world, a distinction much like thier own made arbitrarily.


    The counter was littered with her mother¡¯s different tools. Once a surgeon, she had become a doctor who fixed rusted cyborg parts, a sought-after profession in the slums. Unlike her own experience, years were wasted on academics, reading old-world literature to rich kids who treated her as a subhuman pet.


    Now, she taught at a government-funded school at level 7. It was not as profitable as what her mother did, but she liked to hope that it was a noble task.


    One window opened onto a fire escape. The holographic screen on her nightstand read 02:34. She sighed.


    Today, her tiredness had been won over by a feeling of nostalgia. Manually, she pushed the round window open; the mechanics had long rusted out of the old thing and climbed through onto the fire escape. And like every night before this one, Emelie already leaned out of her own window, skinny pale legs dangling out of her window, a thin metal cigarette in between her heavily colored lips, bubble gum hair tied back, exposing the hollows of her cheek, and eyes transfixed on the street below.


    ¡°Sup,¡± Emelie mumbled and kept sucking colored smoke from the small black pipe.


    ¡°Rough night?¡± she asked and made herself comfortable against the cold rails. They both stared, mesmerized by the commotion of nightlife below. Cars drove, people stumbled drunkenly, nanocyclist raced, barely missing drugged-out pedestrians who subsequently leaned over and fell into piles of garbage dead or unconscious, prostitutes stood dressed in plastic opaque dresses on street corners, gangsters strutted by patrolling with laser phasers at the ready, and crappy neon signs hummed.


    ¡°Don¡¯t get me started,¡± Emelie sighed. Reaching over a scrawny hand, she offered her the cig. She took it and inhaled the sweet purple smoke, which eased down her lungs and escaped slowly from her lips.


    ¡°Which one is this?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Supposed to be Happiness, but they can never seem to get it right.¡± Emelie laid her head into the palm of her hand. She was correct; the smoke just seemed to relax her, and the world seemed brighter for a moment, but that feeling of euphoric childhood happiness escaped with it.


    ¡°Are you hungry?¡± She let her eyes trail off from the colors of level 1 life and toward Emelie.


    ¡°You offering?¡± Emelia asked, twirling a piece of loose hair between her fingers.


    ¡°Yeah, why not,¡± she took another puff of violet sweetness, the purple escaping. ¡°They really can never get them right,¡± she muttered.


    ¡°Give me a sec,¡± Emelia climbed back into her apartment, closing the window.


    After a few moments she also climbed back in. If someone had offered her a cig, much less an emoticig a few years ago, she would have been appalled. A surprising fact considering the elites did drugs much worse than these. She had been too good. A goody two shoes. She cringed.


    A knock sounded a few moments later. The small screen displayed Emelia now with her make-up off, and her clothing changed into loose black sweats. The door struggled to function properly, unable to pick up Emelia''s face before finally malfunctioning and just opening. It was a great safety feature.


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    ¡°So, what¡¯s for dinner? I¡¯m starving. That bastard at Blink is refusing to pay again. I think it¡¯s the 3rd paycheck. I don¡¯t get naked for those bastards for free.¡± Emelie sat down and grumbled some clearly distasteful words under her breath. ¡°Some girls had left already; I¡¯d kill to work at your place. Maybe then I could stop showing my tits for a living.¡±


    She rumbled through the collection of instant meals, soups, meats, and an array of different things used to pay her mother. ¡°It barely pays. Who even goes to school in the slums? If I''m lucky, my class of 30 is a class of 5. It¡¯s that age when most of them decide that the streets bring more than an education. I can¡¯t exactly fault them either. It¡¯s not like they can continue their education unless they can get up a lever or get a sponsor.¡±


    She hummed to herself, trying to find something that didn¡¯t taste like cardboard, which was a task harder than it seemed. Finally, her eyes landed on a set of familiar containers. ¡°Well, we have that miso ramen, or maybe the beef stew, hmm.¡±


    ¡°Ramen, let¡¯s do that. We can spice it up with some dehydrated veg or meat,¡± Emelia said, playing with a random tool on the table that clattered loudly against the metal counter.


    ¡°Hey, can Miss Freth check up on Anthony¡¯s arm this week? He says it hasn¡¯t been working as smoothly since the fight with T12,¡± she sighed again.


    ¡°Sure, how is he anyway? Haven¡¯t seen him around. Patrolling again?¡± She shuffled, looking for some dehydrated chicken cubes. They never had to eat such junk back on level 5, their maid A156 would always have dinner ready for them with real meat and fresh produce. On level 5, they had grocery stores with beautiful, genetically modified vegetables and meat. Here, they made do with what they had. Sometimes, if they got real lucky, one of the bosses would pay them with real food. On level 1, the grocery stores were filled with dehydrated and instant meals sold in colorless boxes. They even had gum that tasted like real food for when the hunger pangs got real bad, and arrays of emoti-cigs to fill in the emotional pangs.


    ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s been bad, the clans are starting to clash, and the boss basically has him on patrol 24/7. He¡¯s barely been home this week. I keep waiting to at least see him passing by to...¡± there was a pause, ¡°see that he¡¯s alright.¡±


    Jane put water to heat and broke the ramen into two bowls, topping it off with a mix of vegetables and a few pieces of dehydrated chicken. She sprinkled the packets of flavoring into each bowl. Her eyes lingered. She wanted to eat real meat. Even the vegetables she had refused to eat as a child, she would savor. Maybe next week, she will be able to buy something from Haris. He would harass her and, as always, try to get her to see why being his girl would do her some good around here, but he and she both knew that he would eventually be replaced by another street smuggler. His body dumped off the wall never to be found, plus, he couldn¡¯t even read. And she was once set to do great things in the academic world. That was the bare minimum. That and... he wasn¡¯t him.


    She poured boiling water over the dry noodles, the smell of miso, almost instantly filling the kitchen. How long did they have to wait for it to be ready? She always forgot.


    ¡°Man, that sucks; mom¡¯s been pretty busy, too, with the clans. Lots of people and androids are getting hurt. They even fly her out sometimes. Remember Quincy, the girl who used to stand in the corner, the one with blue hair? Yeah, apparently, she was killed during a clash a few nights ago. They couldn¡¯t bring her back; she had a kid at home.¡±


    ¡°Poor Quincy but being a streetwalker has those risks,¡± Emelia said.


    A moment of unspoken silence in condolence passed between them.


    ¡°And these damn doors that just won¡¯t stay shut; I can barely sleep since they open to every living and dead soul.¡± She placed the bowls onto the counter. ¡°You can stay the night it would be safer that way,¡± She took a fork and slurped hot noodles into her mouth.


    ¡°Sure, I¡¯ll stay; I know Miss Freth keeps one of those fancy ray rifles somewhere around here, which is much more than I have back home. But I have a favor to ask you.¡± Emelie fell quiet for a moment, her eyes locked on her bowl.


    She only then noticed that the bowl had a crack on the side. How had she never noticed that before? The chip wasn¡¯t small either, and it was on one of their fancy porcelain bowls. Her mother had dragged them down here for some strange reason. Out of everything she could have taken, she took her tools and the dinnerware.


    ¡°Could you lend us a week¡¯s worth of nutri bars,¡± Emelia mumbled, her usual brazen self disappearing for a few moments. It wasn¡¯t the first time they had lent them food; they had a lot to spare. Plus, Anthony was like their local security guard when he was around. Nutri-bars were the cheapest substitute for real food, one bar for one meal. They didn¡¯t taste good, but they got the deed done. One of her mother¡¯s clients, an android who should have long fallen apart, constantly paid with them, boxes of them that stood collecting dust in the corner of her mom¡¯s bedroom.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she placed a hand on Emelia¡¯s bony shoulder. When did she get so skinny? ¡°Don¡¯t worry; take as much as you need. You are my friends, plus we all need Anthony around to protect us. It won¡¯t do us any good if he starved to death.¡±

 Chapter 3

    Waking up early was a ritual she had grown accustomed to throughout the years. Before level 1, she would wake up early to prepare for the academy. Now, the nightmares woke her. The stress woke her. The glitching doorways and buzzing mechanisms kept her from sleeping long enough to feel rested. And it seemed like the low buzzing mechanical noise only bothered her.


    Safety wasn¡¯t guaranteed here either, and living under that kind of stress had ways of messing with your sleep. Here, you tried to keep your head down and avoid attention whenever possible. This is why, even though once she had chased the latest fashion, she now dressed simply. Few people tried to attract attention here¡ªmostly prostitutes and witless gang leaders.


    She wore black cargo pants, a black T-shirt, and a black jacket. Once, she tried to follow the latest fashion, wearing pristine black dress pants with perfectly ironed creases and a white blouse with a ruffled collar. Back at the academy, a fusion of noir and Victorian was in style. It was a strange sight, the stark contrast of some historical time against the canopy of technological advancement. What was in style now on the upper levels, she did not know, and she did not care.


    But she still had found memories from then¡ªOh, how she had begged her father to get her the newest clothing when she had first started at the academy. She annoyed him half to death before he relented. They had gone shopping together, a gift for her hard work. Even though her father came off as cold and awkward, he would have done anything for his little girl. The pain in her heart grew, but she still smiled at that memory. The last few days seemed to open old wounds.


    Back then, before the sun had even started to rise before her parents would begin getting ready for the day, she would get onto the bus, scanning her entry pass to the 7th level, and would sit back to enjoy watching the scenario change as they passed two levels from her home at 5 to 7. Level 5 was well off. The streets were clean, the buildings modern, and there were enough green zones to enjoy yourself, but level 7 was something else. Words could not describe the wealth and technology that filled the upper level. Bio-domes with mansions hung above the skyline. The business district had new skyscrapers whose peaks would get lost in a canvas of clouds. Flora was everywhere, it crawled up buildings and traversed the levels within the city. Expensive cars floated by, and people dressed in pristine clothing walked on the streets. Level 7 was magnificent and enormous in a way that was hard to process. She had loved to sit down and just watch life go by on level 7.


    Waking up early and getting to the academy before the day started was also a way she kept herself disciplined. Sometimes, she studied before the day began, and other times, she helped professors with various tasks. It had taken hard work for her to get to the academy. A task not many were able to accomplish. The academy was a powerful entity, having connections and locations all over the galaxy. Getting into the academy had meant that all doors would be open for her. It was her father who had taught her to work hard. He had worked hard and raised his family up a level.


    But little did he know that hard work only took you so far in an academy filled with students from old money who, at a whim, could purchase a planet or two. Even she had not known that navigating her years at the academy would be different than anything before that. These were people unreachable to her, their wealth and power unimaginable, just like the city around them. The elite of her time were people outside of the law. They could do whatever they wanted. If she had not played along, they could have gotten rid of her, too.


    Watching the other sponsored students suffer from their pride, she quickly learned that to survive on level 7, she had to sell her dignity. So, she sucked up to the elite, reading them poetry and articles, listening to them rant about how monochromatic their life of drugs, sex, and partying was, and letting them do whatever they pleased. They dressed her up. They dressed her down. She acted out old Shakespearean plays and pulled up fun trends from the past. Like a monkey, she danced to their tune. She honeyed her words and made sure to be extra sweet. Sometimes, they would get a little rough with her, but it wasn¡¯t anything she couldn¡¯t handle. Her aspirations had been too high; the sky was her limit, and she had been willing to sell her soul to reach them. Plus, they generally loved her; they wouldn¡¯t kill her. They loved her.


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    How wrong she had been. It was almost funny now. But by playing along, she was able to get through the academy smoothly. After the city had chewed her up and thrown her out, she wondered if her owners had noticed her disappearance or if they ever stopped to think about her.


    She wondered if he remembered her.


    He had been the worst of them. He used her in any way he had pleased, used her heart, and took over her mind. She had been so blinded by him that her mind seemed to stop working when they were together. When she needed him the most, he had disappeared. Did he ever know how blinded she had been by his brilliance? He had been like the blazing sun. She couldn¡¯t remove him from her memories. Even now the pain remained. How could he have discarded her when she needed him most?


    I was just a pet to him as well. She scoffed.


    Today, smog covered the city, as was often the case on level 1. Her lips pressed against the wall of a warm mug, and she allowed the coffee-like liquid to slip down her throat, warming her insides.


    At one point, coffee had almost gone extinct. Apparently, that was a big issue the people couldn¡¯t live without their coffee. So, with speed unheard of from the scientific community, they worked to find a solution. Then at some point, they started to grow a coffee-like substance in greenhouses on Mars; this substitute was expensive, but eventually, they found something similar to coffee on some other planet, and ever since then, they have been importing the pink bean. It smelled like coffee, tasted like coffee, and worked better than coffee from what she had heard from her old classmates who could afford to spend immense amounts to buy the almost real coffee.


    The door to her bedroom opened, and Emelie walked out wearing nothing but her hoodie. ¡°How¡¯d you sleep,¡± Emelie asked, stretching her willowy arms. Emelie was tall, much taller than her, with a slender hourglass-shaped body that was now hard to see under. She, too, went over to grab a cup of coffee.


    ¡°Better,¡± she replied and took another sip of hot liquid. The melancholy came and went, and some days were worse than others. And sometimes weeks would pass before she felt better.


    ¡°Are you working today?¡± Emelie took a sip of coffee and audibly sighed.


    ¡°Yeah, but sometimes I wonder if there¡¯s a point.¡± Teaching on level 1 was a whole different beast. The schools lacked funding, students weren¡¯t motivated, many found life on the streets more prosperous, and others joined intergalactic crime networks ¨Cthose got you off the earth and opened more opportunities but were riskier. There, you didn''t just have the corps after you but the intergalactic police force as well. Yet because of how large the intergalactic crime network had become, the attention given to level 1 was almost nil. It seemed the big corps had found it easier to contain the crime on one level and ignore it than actually do something about it. And why would they? What would they have had to gain from helping stabilize the lowest level? The earth was a failed experiment, mostly kept as a legacy of the olden times, but that didn¡¯t erase the fact that so many people still lived on this wasting planet.


    As a teacher- no, as a decent human- she tried to get sponsorships for the school and students, but that was a dead end. Still, she kept trying. This goal kept her functioning; it kept her from remembering and focusing on the past. If it hadn''t been for this job and her mother, she might have ended her own life that first year.


    Emelie hummed in a sort of half-understanding. Emelie had been here far longer than she had. If this was her sixth year, it would have been Emelie¡¯s twelfth year. Maybe at that point, you start to get desensitized to the way of life here but that seemed unlikely. Emelie''s communicator buzzed, and she read something only visible to herself. ¡°Anthony sent me a message; he advises you to strap today...¡± A moment of unsure silence passed between them. ¡°I know you don¡¯t like it, but he says you should take the rifle just in case.¡±


    She walked to the windows and looked out onto the mostly empty streets below. Cleaner bots worked hard cleaning the garbage left from the night.


    ¡°Don¡¯t feel guilty, Fri. No one here would feel guilty killing you.¡±

 Chapter 4

    Emelia walked with her to the school building, a dingy, old three-story thing with rusting walls and large circular windows that popped out from the sides. It stood out amongst the highrises. The door opened with loud yawns. The school had two robocops from the last century, a time when robots still weren''t humaniod. They had gotten lucky to even get these two. The retro robots were all but useless.


    There was no structure. lesson plans came from the state, but they seemed like afterthoughts. And the one goal was to try and keep the children off the streets. It was one of the reasons she hated to carry a weapon; she wanted to show them that they could live peacefully and that they didn''t have to rely on violence. It was a stupid thought, and she knew it, but she hung to her ideals. They had 5 teachers, and out of the few hundred students who should have come, only a handful ever attended, some of their own free will, others because their parents hoped for a better future for them. A hope she did not want to break. The other schools were not much better but her school was in an area worse than the others. Of course, not everyone took to the streets; to say that would have been a lie, Level 1 functioned like every other level and had people from all walks of life. They needed cashiers, business owners, mechanics, and doctors. It was just different if, on the other levels, kids strove to become doctors and dreamt of being lawyers or programmers. Here, they didn''t. Here, they dreamt of getting food on the table and living a life that was a little more comfortable. The ones that dreamed were different. Their drive is almost monstrous. She also once had such a drive.


    Once she had a future in academia, she was set to finish in a year and start working for the academy. At that time, she did not value this opportunity. Yes, she had worked hard starting from the age of 14, spending nights and days shadowing professors and academics, but back then, she was also content living as a pet to the elites. The job promised after her completion at the academy could have offered her opportunities to work all over the universe, on different planets and colonies. It could have boosted her family up to level 7 or even out of this city to a place with less corruption. The academy held a lot of intergalactic influence. Now, she was on level 1, teaching basic math and English to a few rotating students. That day the rifle felt heavy on her back.


    Emelia followed her into the classroom; it was not as if it mattered who came. The robo-cops flashed smiles onto their faces as they passed. The classroom housed 5 students, 2 less than last week, and an old hologram. The hologram a good 20 years older than the ones on the upper levels. They muttered a greeting to her and Emelia. She made her way to the front of the classroom and Emelia to one of the windows. There was no point in asking; she knew that Emelia was on the lookout. For a long time, nothing happened; she lectured, her students asked questions and took notes, and she hoped that it would stay that way.


    Turning to the hologram, she noticed that Emelie had flinched away from the window. Emelie held up three fingers and pointed out the window.


    Turning off the hologram, she turned to the students, who ranged from 9 to 14. It wasn¡¯t the first time one of the clans decided to harass the school. Usually, it was for initiation for some of the smaller gangs, but that wasn¡¯t the point. The metal of the rifle suddenly felt cold against the fabric of the shirt. Icy cold. She wanted to keep them safe, away from the violence, which meant keeping those assholes away from the classroom. It wasn''t the first time, and it wouldn''t be the last. Yet she still couldn''t get used to it.


    Everyone knew she hated to use force. She was the token pacifist. She hated to fight, she hated to cause pain, she hated everything about the culture of violence that festered here. They all said that, eventually, she would get used to it. But she doubted that anyone could get used to the violence and inequality.


    ¡°Eme, keep them safe. Don¡¯t open the door unless you know that it''s me.¡±


    Swinging the rifle around and taking it into her grasp, it felt as if it was ready to sink from her sweaty hands into the ground and take her with it. She took a deep breath and activated the weapon, its crevices blinking blue as it turned on. Then she walked out the door.


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    "Lockdown," she said, activating the lockdown feature. She did not wait for Emelia¡¯s reply. There was no need.


    They were already in the building. The robocops, most likely destroyed, melted into a puddle of metal and wires. Unaware or uncaring about what waited for them within. She was lucky that he had forced her to come with him to the range and forced her to train. He had made her a good shot. The beam rifle she had shot invisible rays of matter that, once hitting its target, would work to dissolve a hole the size of a tennis ball into the victim. It was the most awful weapon she had ever used, the effects horrendous, the screams of pain haunting, but it was the most effective, considering most street thugs could only get their hands on low-grade Ray guns. Especially new recruits. With proper use of the rifle, the victim could make it out alive, missing a limb or two.


    Ray guns, although cheap, needed proper trajectory and hard work to kill with. They were dangerous for other reasons. The ray was invisible to the human eye and traveled at the speed of light. Theoretically, avoidance was possible. In reality, it was almost impossible. First, needing to calculate the trajectory, see the glowing tip of the gun to do so, and remove yourself from that trajectory in milliseconds, if not faster.


    She saw them before they saw her. She knew that she could have attacked then, but they looked so young, not much older than her students. Three lanky boys stood at the entrace who couldn¡¯t have been older than 17 dressed all in black, faces obscured by half visors that showed the growth of pubescent patchy facial hair, made their way towards the stairs. She put pressure on the trigger, energy collecting at the tip. To shoot all she would need to do was press down fully. This technique gave her the upper hand allowing her. Making her shot just a tad bit faster.


    ¡°Stop!¡± she shouted.


    They froze for a second, searching through the dim hallways for the voice before noticing her at the bend of the stairs. For an instant, they stood silent; she hoped that they were thinking and mulling over their decision. Then one of them chuckled, ¡°Miss Fri, it''s better you don¡¯t get in our way,¡± one of them said. She recognized the voice of her former student, Zer. Her heart dropped to her stomach, and nausea hit her at the thought of hurting someone she had taught.


    They aimed their rayguns at her, the glowing blue tips stark against the dim hallway. Didn''t they find it wrong to threaten the teacher who had tirelessly spent years with them?


    ¡°You were nice to me, Miss Fri. I don¡¯t want to hurt you.¡±


    If she wasn¡¯t detail-oriented, she wouldn¡¯t have noticed the aim of the small silver guns with round, oval bodies, and she wouldn¡¯t have noticed the change of his trigger finger. He didn¡¯t aim somewhere lethal. It was a moment''s decision, her body moving as if on its own; she pushed the trigger, aiming at his hand. A hand lost is not a life lost. The blue bullet hit his knuckle; a deafening scream followed. She ducked, and they shot. Zer screamed. Then they stopped.


    ¡°Shit, his hand is melting!¡± one of the three yelled.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± his accomplice shouted.


    She peered and stood up, now pointing the gun at the other boy, the barrel already glowing blue.


    ¡°Get lost,¡± she growled, grinding her teeth to keep from yelling. Anger, sadness, regret, and nausea threatened to spill out of her voice. They turned to look at her.


    ¡°Fuck you lady!¡± One of them yelled, but instead of aiming at her, grabbed Zer under the arm and slowly turned to leave. They dragged a screaming, groaning, half-conscious Zer out through the doorway.


    She did not move, watching the old rusting door swing shut behind them. His screams still echoing, bouncing around her skull. She vomited on the stairs and stood leaning on the railing, looking at the contents of her morning; they were pink. On any other day, she would have made an effort to clean it up, but today, she stepped over the stairs covered in vomit and walked toward her classroom on the third floor. A numbness took over as if, with the pink muck, all her emotions had also been emptied onto the concrete stairs. It was disgusting that the only thing she could think was that maybe now, at least one of her students wouldn¡¯t be able to continue his life of crime. She laughed; who was she kidding? He would just get a cyborg''s arm and keep going.


    In a haze, she dismissed her students. Emelia guided her out of the building, stepping over pink vomit without question. Emelia mumbled something about shock that she needed to rest and guided her home, where she locked the door and, cursing under her breath, went to get ready for her own job. She sat looking out the window on one of the stools around the counter for hours until the sun had set and neon lights replaced what should have been stars. It was then that she realized she needed a drink, or two, or more; she needed to flush away the guilt and poison her body until she could remember nothing from the day.

 Chapter 5

    Without changing, she made her way out onto the streets. Clan members scouted the streets¡ªthey were easy to tell apart, with rifles and handguns at the ready. The new girl at the corner waved to her, her bright blue hair in twin ponytails. They all knew her and her mother; it was hard not to know them. Today, the streets were surprisingly calm. She made her way to Firm, an outside bar, where you would sit at a large counter that looked out onto the street. It was the best place to get a cheap drink.


    Surprisingly, unlike most days where the bar would be littered with people of all types drinking and talking, today there sat only one man. Someone, too well dressed to be at level 1? But it wasn¡¯t her place to judge. Level 1 attracted all kinds of people, maybe a visiting syndicate associate from off world.


    Right now, she had a goal; she wanted to forget everything. A goal that made its way back into her life over and over again. She sat down as far away as she could from the stranger. Johnny, a robot barman, made his way towards her.


    ¡°What can I get you today, Miss Fri?¡± he asked and smiled. He looked almost real. The only thing that gave him away was his eyes, which slowly and mechanically traveled; you could practically see the mechanisms in him working. Maybe that was just her? No one else noticed the small details; to others, he was as human as one could get.


    ¡°I want to get drunk, Johnny.¡±


    He smiled, "Of course, Miss Fri."


    A few moments later, a cup was put in front of her. A sweet drink mixed with some synthetic alcohol; the flavor was toxic, just like the street around her. She greedily gulped it down, the alcohol burning and warming her throat. It was appalling.


    ¡°Another.¡± She slammed an empty cup onto the counter.


    ¡°Another.¡± Another empty cup.


    ¡°Keep them going,¡± she slurred, her vision growing blurry, the world wobbly unstably. She tried to think, but thoughts seemed to be whisked away by her spinning vision. Another cup was placed in front of her; she went to grab it, but her hand missed. Another hand covered the top of the cup. She stared, was that her hand? No, her hand was still in the air, shakily reaching for the cup. Slowly, her eyes traced up the arm. It was connected to a torso. A torso in an open button-up shirt exposed well-defined abs.


    ¡°Hello,¡± a husky, deep voice said. Her eyes traveled to the face of the man who owned the torso, and even with her blurry, spinning vision, she could tell that this man was handsome. He clearly had blonde hair, but apart from that, it was hard to focus her vision.


    ¡°I think you¡¯ve had enough for today,¡± his voice was sinisterly deep. She wanted to hear more.


    ¡°I can drink as much as I please,¡± she grumbled and once again set her eyes on the cup under his hold. She tried to pull it away from him, but it didn¡¯t budge.


    ¡°I am an adult,¡± she stuttered.


    ¡°Well, Miss Adult, you¡¯ve had enough to drink.¡± He sat next to her, easily pulling the cup from her hold and taking a sip. He scrunched his face.


    "Sweet,¡± he mouthed.


    She leaned her head against the metal counter. It had been a fight easily lost.


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    "There are generally two types of people who drink this much, and that''s alcoholics and those trying to drink away thier problems. Sometimes, they are two of the same, but something tells me you''re the latter. "


    She did not reply. The cold of the counter felt soothing against her face. Who was he to question her?


    ¡°They say talking about your problems can help,¡± he said.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk,¡± she muttered and rolled her head to the side to look at him. The cold counter offering a minuscule amount of sobriety.


    ¡°How about we make a deal?¡± He put the half-empty cocktail cup down, water condensation making its way onto the counter from the foggy glass. She did not answer.


    ¡°You will talk to me, tell me what''s bothering you, and I¡¯ll pay your tab.¡± He leaned back in the chair. She tried to focus, to make out features through her drunken vision. She wanted to see a handsome man, touch someone, feel someone else¡¯s flesh press against her own, feel whispered breaths against her ears. She wanted to fill that black void inside her, always taunting her behind a facade of put-togetherness with something. She had become too much like that man, the one whose name she tried to forget.


    A sigh escaped her lips, ¡°I¡¯m a teacher.¡±


    ¡°So, Miss Adult, is a teacher, and what¡¯s bothering the teacher?¡±


    ¡°I blew one of my previous students'' hand off today; he came with some other kids. They were always so young. It was an initiation. I can only imagine what they planned on doing. They came with guns. He told me to get out of the way because he didn¡¯t want to hurt me. He aimed his ray gun at me, and I shot his hand off, but,¡± she teared up.


    ¡°I''m outraged because even this won''t change anything. He''s gonna keep killing, and then he will eventually also be killed. That''s what always happens.¡± Wiping tears from the corner of her eyes, she sighed. ¡°Maybe instead of killing each other, we could raise chickens. Doesn¡¯t that sound fun? I¡¯d kill for some chicken right now. You know, they used to raise them like they were these bird-like animals; chicken wasn''t just meat grown in a lab. Wouldn''t it be nice if we could all just raise chickens,¡± she sniffled, "I found a video once from the old world; they ran around on these two legs and made cute noises." She started to babble, but for some reason, the words wouldn''t stop coming.


    ¡°This boy will just get a new hand.¡± He moved a stray piece of hair from her face.


    "I know, which is why I''m here now."


    A moment of silence passed as she tried to unravel her drunken thoughts.


    ¡°You know I''ve only been here for a few years. I had a future in academia, a job at the academy, and a house at level 5. How can I get used to this?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine. Eventually, we all get used to it. Your student was young, but he probably knew the consequences¡ªthey just came much sooner. It wasn''t on you to rescue him; it''s not your responsibility to change things.¡±


    He got up and took off his jacket, swinging it over her, ¡°Come, I¡¯ll take you home, miss teacher.¡±


    They walked in silence. More specifically, he walked, and she wobbled next to him. She opened the door to the apartment building. It was another night alone. Her mother was still working on that huge project of hers, and she would be left, in a few hours, once again more sober and with her thoughts. Their steps filled the silence of the hallways, passing open doors with motionless gamers. She opened her door and stood unmoving.


    ¡°Well, I completed my mission and got our lovely Miss Teacher back home,¡± He smiled.


    Her drunkenness had begun to slowly fade away, and his features became clearer: blonde hair, lush lips, and green eyes.


    She did not want to be alone, even if it meant becoming like- him. She grabbed the stranger''s hand.


    No, it wasn¡¯t enough. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.


    Flustered, cheeks burning red, she pulled away, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be alone tonight.¡±


    Then she kissed him again. He reciprocated, their lips clashing in passionate warfare. He guided her into the apartment, hands exploring every crevice of her body. The loud screech of the door behind them did not bother her. This was her first time doing something like this, but it felt good. She felt unhinged. He picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his torso, their lips never stopping. The clothing came off, his hands explored her bare body, and her own reached hungrily for his. He grabbed her wrists, locking them atop before his mouth hungrily attacked her neck. Hot kisses made their way down. His fingers worked effortlessly and professionally. They made love into the night until her body was as exhausted as her mind.


    ¡°Sleep well, miss teacher,¡± she felt the faint trace of his lips on her forehead before she faded into a long-awaited slumber.


    Regret was an issue for tomorrow.

 Chapter 6

    They sat looking out at the white cotton candy clouds; his home was located at one of the highest peaks in the city, built in a biodome above the cloudy sky. He was used to the sight, but it never ceased to amaze her. The artificial grass was as soft as silk. She let her fingers roam over it; it was different from the grass at the school or the other affluent kids¡¯ homes. She stared at the never-ending cloudy sky littered with the tops of a few skyscrapers and other bio-domes, but she could feel his gaze burning into her. To him, she had always been the most interesting object; nothing around him seemed to interest him more than she did. He reached a hand towards her red, inflamed cheek, now starting to fade into a blue, skin broken and bleeding.


    ¡°Why do you let them do this?¡± he asked as he traced the blue and purple, applying enough pressure to make her flinch in pain.


    ¡°They¡¯re my friends,¡± she replied and smiled. The truth was she hated them; they weren¡¯t her friends, and they treated her as if they owned her. She was a nice human pet for them to use and abuse. He had now moved in front of her, blocking her view, his glowing blue eyes infiltrating her soul. His poor eyes¡­ Why would a parent do something like this to their own child? His eyes, bio-engineered with the latest technology, scanned every crevice of her face.


    ¡°Stop lying,¡± he put more pressure behind his touch. She gritted her teeth, trying hard not to make a sound. Was this amusing to him?


    ¡°You¡¯re such a suck-up, the worst I¡¯ve ever met,¡± he said. Anger brewing behind the electric glare of his eyes. He grabbed her face and lingered for a moment, those eyes fixed on her cheek. She could almost see his thoughts rushing through, stumbling, attempting to make sense of whatever entered his mind. He was always such a conflicted person, unsure of his emotions, unaware, raised by robots who weren¡¯t able to teach him, unloved by his parents, and raised only to be the best. His body mangled with the latest technology. It must have hurt those eyes of his. She wanted to reach out and comfort him because, to her, he was the most pitiful of all of them. The elite¡¯s children were all messed up in their own ways, left by their parents, raised by robots or strangers, feelings repressed, and years of anger brewing behind honeyed looks and words. They loved her because she allowed them to let go of these emotions, and her swollen cheek was evidence of that.


    ¡°Do you want me to do the same as them? Is that what it would take to make you mine.¡± He pulled his hand away, his bright blue eyes now transfixed on a spot of blood left on his fingers. They sat in silence. He was always so possessive. Why wouldn¡¯t he be? His father was the CEO of Sapos, and he basically owned the cities of NNNY and Moscow v12. What else the family had owned was out of her understanding. He was used to getting everything he wanted, getting the things that the others could only dream of.


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    ¡°It''s your choice,¡± she muttered, trying to contain a strange and bitter anger that wanted to spill through. She wanted to yell and fight back, but her future depended on these relationships. The sacrifice was worth the money, glory, gifts, trips, and power.


    She waited for him to hit her, but he didn¡¯t; he sat behind her, wrapping his hands around her waist and pulling her into his chest. ¡°I won¡¯t hurt you because you¡¯re my precious friend.¡± He whispered into her ear before resting his chin on her shoulder. ¡°But it doesn¡¯t mean that I won¡¯t hurt them.¡±


    Why did she remember him now? Was it the emotional instability that plagued her the last few days? It had been 6 years, she tried to forget him, she tried so hard to throw him out of her memory. But how could she? He was a major part of her life for so many years. Nausea overtook her as her head throbbed from yesterday¡¯s excessive drinking. Was it the hangover that made her sick or the thought of him? It was probably both, she thought.


    Her last night''s visitor had left her in euphoric pleasure and escaped into the night. She never got to see his face with a sober mind. But he had left his trace, her body aching, his touch still lingering. Maybe it was he who had brought up memories of her past? The guilt of last night''s escapades already set into the pit of her stomach.


    She groaned as pain throbbed through her head again. Ryuu, his name entered her mind, leaving lingering flavors of betrayal on her tongue. For months, she waited for him to come and get her, to take her back to the academy and tell her that everything would be alright. To fix the wrongs done to her and her family. He had always been there for her before; he protected her physically and socially, and she was there to soothe the aches of his mind. But he never came. A betrayal worse than death. Somehow, with thier time together, he had made her too reliant on him. Maybe it was just another game of theirs. To make her reliant, to have her trust, to make her feel a sense of security, and then to fully break her down. The drinking, her thoughts of him, and last, not made her feel disgusting.


    Now, he had probably taken over Sapos, and his father had most likely left to spend the rest of his years in luxury on some distant planet. Did he remember her? Because she remembered him, he left a nasty scar across her heart, one that did not want to heal.


    I hate you, she thought. The ache in her heart said differently.


    ¡°Ugh, I feel sick,¡± she muttered. Her mother peeked her head into the kitchen from her bedroom. It was the first time she had come home in days, and it had to be today.


    ¡°Oh, sweety, you need to get some electrolytes into that body of yours.¡± She called out, her soft voice soothing the ache of the past a little.


    ¡°Must have been a wild night, huh?¡± her mom giggled. After a few moments of rumbling, she came out of her room carrying a small metal box. ¡°Take this to Fema and ask her for some tablets. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll be happy to help after she sees what I got for her.¡± Her mother threw on her black trench coat and put on her worn-out boots. She walked across the living room floor, trudging dirt along, and kissed her on the forehead.


    ¡°Feel better, baby,¡± she tenderly whispered, leaving the box beside her and leaving for an unknown amount of time.


    It was the way her mother dealt with the reality of their lives. She worked, worked so she did not have to think about Dad and about what had happened to thier family.

 Chapter 7

    Reluctantly, she stared at the small metal box, trying to think of a reason not to go. Looking for an excuse to wallow in self-pity. Any reason to allow herself to fall deeper into the abyss of her mind. Anything to lose herself again in that depression. It was hard to go against her mostly optimistic nature.


    Things will change...


    He didn''t leave you to rot...


    If you keep going, life will get better...


    Useless thoughts, her mind muttered constantly. She blamed her father, a man who never let anything get to him. Even in the hardest of times, he found a way to remain positive. She did not want that trait. She wanted to wallow, she wanted the melancholy, she wanted to grow cold. He should have taken it with him when he disappeared.


    Fema didn¡¯t live far, a 10-minute walk at most. And she needed to distract herself from thoughts of him because if she succumbed, she wouldn¡¯t be able to swim out of those blue eyes of his, clearer than any sky. They would drown her in thier selfishness. A feeling much worse than self-pity. How much longer would his touch linger on her body? How long will her memories of him haunt her? Pathetic, she thought, grabbing the box. And flinging the rifle over her shoulder.


    It was possible someone would come to avenge thier brother. A hand for a hand, a life for a life.


    Poverty had a way of turning people into monsters¡ªmonsters who clawed and fought, trying to reach the top. The hungrier you were, the more you were willing to do to get out. And Zer had been a hungry kid from a family of addicts. It wasn''t out of the question that Zer himself could eventually come to get his revenge. She clutched the rifle''s strap. Next time, one of them would surely die.


    Putting on her own shoes, she made her way outside. Today, more doors seemed closed, and that god-awful smell was better. She thanked whatever entity had decided to clean the apartment because her stomach would not have been able to handle it otherwise. She dragged her feet as she walked, glaring at anyone who dared look in her direction.


    The pounding headache made her irritated. He infiltrated her mind again. It was that goddamn dream that bought his memories to the forefront.


    The first time she saw him kill someone was when she was 17; they were driving somewhere; it didn¡¯t matter where they were going now. The car''s system was hijacked, it stopped, and they were attacked. Some faction wanting to kill the heir of Sapos. A lot of people wanted to kill him, as she later learned through years of being by his side. Effortlessly and professionally, he dealt with the assassins one by one before backup could arrive.


    At that moment, she wondered how much he had gone through to be able to so coldly and effortlessly kill at his age. Could the children of the megacorp leaders afford a childhood? Beyond the riches did their lives differ all that much from those at the bottom?


    It was that event that caused him to teach her how to use a gun. Back then, she had a small atom gun he had gifted her constantly strapped to her thigh. It must have cost him a fortune. She sold it when a year had passed on Level 1. She called him again on the first anniversary of thier year in hell. The first year had been the hardest. Hoping that, just maybe, he would have picked up. The line fell flat. The pistol sold for way more than she could have imagined. At that moment, it had helped them more than he had ever had.


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    What was the point of putting so much effort into someone you were going to discard anyway?


    ¡°Miss Fri,¡± lost in thought, it took her a few seconds to realize someone was speaking to her. She looked up at a large man dressed in a black pristine suit. Obviously, a level sevener, she thought with disgust. Only she could have been so lucky as to meet some shmuck working for someone on level seven while reminiscing about her past. Today was already not working out for her. She glared at the man, wanting nothing more than to keep walking. Her eyes landed at the pistol in his hand.


    ¡°Yes?¡± her voice came out more irritated than she wanted. It was the damn hangover. Made it hard to control her emotions. But more importantly, how did this person know her name?


    ¡°Please come with us,¡± he motioned to a sleek black car behind him. It was too nice for this area, like the cars that would pick up the girls who would never return. But she wasn''t a girl, and it was clear to anyone with eyes.


    "No," she replied, testing her limits with the man. She had to figure out what he wanted with her first.


    "We were told you might be reluctant to go," he sighed. You have two options: You can go willingly," there was a pause. "Or we can take you by force."


    She reached for the rifle on her back, swinging it around and activating it. The gun''s crevices shone with a dull blue. "I''m not going anywhere," she said. "Who the hell are you anyway?"


    ¡°He said you might be difficult to deal with. I had warned you that we could have done this the easy way,¡± he put a finger to his temples.


    ¡°Activate the suppressor.¡± He spoke to someone she could not see on his telecommunicator.


    A wave of electricity surged through her body. Her gun turned off, and she frantically tried to activate it again. Her mind searched for the meaning of suppressor, landing on a distant memory with Ryuu. He had used something similar after a drunken spree, taking out the electricity of half the city on level 7.


    "Fuck," she muttered. Whoever she was dealing with was not a simple big shot. Only a few had access to this sort of technology. In this city- she could count them on her two hands.


    She looked at the suited man, wondering what kind of expression she was showing: fear, maybe anger? A grin swept across his face. ¡°Come on, miss Fri. He is waiting.¡±


    "Who is-" A sudden sting at the back of the neck interpreted her. She reached a hand to check what had happened, but before she could, the world faded into darkness. All she had wanted was to cure her hangover and wallow in self-pity today.


    It¡¯s a strange feeling being incapacitated, feeling your body but being unable to move it. This was a helplessness greater than any other. It activated a primal part of the brain. Which screamed and pounded, trying to get the body working. She had seen the police use this technology before. Something would be shot at the back of the neck, and next thing you know, they were down like a sack of potatoes. Thier body not theirs to control anymore. It made her feel so small and insignificant in the face of technology.


    They put her into a car with a leather interior; leather is expensive, she thought. It was cold against her exposed arms.


    "Miss Fri, for the safety of my boss, I will have to disconnect your vision for a bit," the man said. "The procedure is entirely safe. In our line of work, we call it neuron hacking. After we arrive at the designated location, your bodily functions will be returned to you."


    His voice irritated her. The man was clearly a brainwashed minion who did everything his boss asked. He was a suckup, and his boss was a sick bastard who kidnapped unwilling women from level 1. Was this some weird fetish? The fixations of the rich were beyond her understanding. They said you needed to be a bootlicker to know one, and she could definitely tell. The car moved, and they made thier way to an unknown location.


    She was guided around corners, into elevators, and down long hallways, until she couldn¡¯t keep track. When in a defenseless situation, one can find the positives. There were some benefits in her situation. At least she couldn¡¯t feel her hangover anymore.

 Chapter 8

    A long while passed after she had been seated in a quiet room. It was too long for her to be alone with just her thoughts. Her memories, insecurities, traumas, and fears clawed to get to her through the darkness. How would her mother deal if she also went missing like her father, she wondered. Would dying be scary, or would it be over before she even knew it? Which of the many religions was correct; would she go to an old-world god after death, or would the Great Programmer just reboot her? Maybe her kidnapper was ruthless? A shudder ran down her spine. Dying painfully was not on her bucket list, but as life had made it known, time and time again, her fate was out of her hands.


    Then, it was all over.


    Her vision was returned.


    She was left sitting in a dim room. The windows were darkened just enough not to let any light in but not excessively dark so that she could see a cloudy sky behind the cover. Clouds, she hadn''t seen the sky in so long. Standing up from the chair, she made her way to the window. Placing a hand on the glass. She wanted to reach through the glass and touch one. It was such a childish thought, but the view in front of her made her smile. At least she got to see the sky before she died.


    ¡°I had hoped you¡¯d show me some interesting expressions.¡± A familiar but distant voice called out from the other side of the dark room. She blinked and tried to look around. Her heart dropped; the nausea returned. This time, she was confident that the man standing in the shadows was the cause of her sickness.


    Did she have to look at him?


    He walked, his steps quiet, eloquent, confident, rhythmically thudding against softwood because, of course, it had to be wood. It couldn¡¯t be anything less than the best. She looked out the dimmed window. She knew that if she looked, she would first see those glowing eyes, and then it would be hard to turn away.


    ¡°What do you need?¡± she dared not look at him, her eyes fixed on the window. If she looked, the anger would melt. He deserved her anger.


    She remembered the feeling that many times had welled up in the pit of her stomach before, the vile anger. An anger that transcended violence, turning into sorrow and sadness. Her emotions brewed like a storm.


    Don''t look at him, her mind screamed, but she wanted him to see. She wanted him to hear and feel what she had felt all these years.


    ¡°Don¡¯t come near me!¡± she spat, finally turning to look at him. For a split second, the anger wavered. Oh, how he had changed.


    He didn¡¯t listen¡ªhe never listened. He took the last few steps towards her with a cool and unchanging expression. When he reached a hand out to her, she slapped it away.


    ¡°Do not touch me,¡± she growled. Anger, sadness, chaos. Emotions she had kept within herself for the last three years spilled out. They were now unable to be kept within the confines of her body.


    ¡°Send me back!¡± She stepped away from him, and he followed, those calculating, cold eyes never leaving hers.


    ¡°You have no right to show your face to me!¡± Tears welled in the corner of her eyes. She took another step away, her back slamming against a wall.


    ¡°Get away!¡± she yelled. Sobs followed; she closed her eyes with her hands. This was not the anger she had expected. She wanted violent outrage directed at him, not this. It was all those eyes. She always wavered when she looked into them. In a moment, they had calmed a violent storm and turned it into bitter disappointment. If feelings could manifest physically in the body, they did so now. Her heart ached, her stomach turned, her hands shook


    ¡°Get away,¡± she repeated.


    ¡°You left me to rot; you have no idea what I went through all these years,¡± her voice cracked.


    He took one of her hands, forcing it away from her eyes. She fought back, but her strength was not enough. He was gentle but firm. She glared at him. He brought the hand up to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on top of her fingers where his lips touched burned.


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    ¡°But I¡¯ve come back, haven¡¯t I?¡± he replied. With his other hand, he traced circles on her palm. She desperately tried to yank it away.


    ¡°Came back?¡± She all but yelled.


    "You can''t just do as you please. I am not some object to be thrown away until some whim makes you do this," she waved her hands, unable to articulate thier current situation. "What are you even trying to do?" she yelled.


    ¡°I¡¯m not your pet; you can kidnap me and bring me here,¡± she whispered. Reassuring herself more than anything. Yes, she was her own person. She was not his.


    He stopped, ¡°On the contrary, I remember you really enjoyed that label.¡± He let her hand go. She stared at it in disgust. The nausea only grew.


    They sat on opposite sides of the room. He had finally let more light in, and she soothed herself by staring at fluffy cotton clouds. The silence between them was cold. It couldn¡¯t be anything but cold. As always, she could feel his stare. Even in anger, his presence soothed her at least enough to restrain her. She hated him, but he was stubborn. He wouldn¡¯t let her go, even if she yelled and cried. Nothing she did could make him do something he did not want to. If he had kidnapped her all the way here, leaving would not be so simple. She was sure that behind his cold eyes, there was no soul. How could there be?


    She wanted to ask why he hadn¡¯t looked for her, why he had abandoned her when she needed him. She wanted to know why she had let his influence slip into her heart. At first, they were using each other, and then she got lost. At one point, the mutual benefit, money, and power stopped mattering. He had stolen her heart, and he knew it. He had used this fact more times than she could count. She had willingly given the devil her heart. Then, she was discarded, and he never came to look for her. She took a deep breath; there was no point in mulling over useless things now. She had to figure out what he wanted.


    ¡°Why now?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I want you to return,¡± he answered.


    Her eyes wandered over to his sitting form. He had changed so much in the last few years. His dark mahogany hair was sleeked back, his shoulders were broad, and his features were so perfect that plastic surgeons must have used him as an example. His lips were lush, and his eyes were cold. Colder than they had been when he was younger. He was sinfully beautiful, and there was an air of power to him.


    ¡°Once more, Ryuu. I am not an object for you to use and discard,¡± she ran a hand through her hair, relieving invisible pressure. ¡°You never searched for me. You never even tried to send me at least a message. My father had disappeared, framed for a terrorist attack, and we were sent to level 1. Where were you when I had to kill? Where were you when we went hungry?" She stopped momentarily and searched his dead expression for some version of regret.


    "I would dig through trash just to find something to eat, and I had no one to lean on. Where were you when I needed you?¡± she stopped, once again trying to keep her emotions down. ¡°To say that I hate you is an understatement.¡±


    He sighed and ran a hand through his own hair, ¡°I need you.¡±


    Once, those words would have put a smile on her face now- they made her shudder. Selfish bastard, she wanted to say but kept herself contained.


    ¡°You are the most selfish person I have ever met,¡± her hands itched to slap his expressionless face. She wanted him to feel what she had felt. She wanted him to show some sort of emotion in that calculating stare. It undressed her to the bones.


    ¡°You can hate me, but I need you. I can move you back, give you money, a house, a planet, anything you want.¡± He got up from the armchair he was sitting in and walked towards her.


    ¡°Do you think I want to come back to this filthy place?¡±


    He knelt beside her, ¡°With my power, you could do anything.¡±


    He took her hand and placed it to his face, closing his eyes and leaning into her touch. ¡°I haven¡¯t slept in years. Since you''ve been gone, I have lost a bit too much of my humanity.¡±


    She pulled her hand away, his warmth lingering. Once, she would have been so happy, so hungry for his affection, for his touch. Now, she did not know how to feel toward the person kneeling beside her. His touch brought on conflicting feelings. She hated him, but at the same time, she still loved the man in front of her.


    ¡°Do you think I care?¡±


    There was a flash of anger or maybe hurt in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with nothingness. It riled her to see the hurt. His poker face had gotten better, and his emotions were quickly replaced with dead eyes. ¡°You¡¯re so cold towards me,¡± he whispered, hurt laced his words.


    Trying hard not to react, she averted her gaze away from him. She wanted him to feel more pain.


    He stood up, ¡°Nothing is waiting for you at level one, and even if there is, you cannot change that shithole without my help. I¡¯ll help you. You¡¯ll come back to high society, have my support, and be able to make a difference. Maybe someday, teachers won¡¯t have to kill their students. Maybe someday you won''t have to fight your students to survive, " He paused, searching for something on her face, "What was his name? Xer?" he asked. "It must have hurt when his hand melted off,¡± a maniacal grin spread across his face.


    Hot red anger filled her, ¡°How dare y¡ª" She sprung out of her chair, and seconds later, her hand met his face. Leaving her hand sore and his cheek red.


    He smiled, ¡°that was what I was waiting for.¡± He returned her hand to his face, ¡°If this is what it takes for you to be mine again, take your anger out on me.¡±

 Chapter 9

    A week passed unnoticed. Things seemed to be getting better, the streets quieter, and the apartment cleaner. Everything would have been great if she could ignore the mental turmoil caused by last week''s events. Now, they stood with Emelia leaning against the cold exterior of the apartment building. Emelia smoked, inhaling vile smoke from the e-cigarette. Tranquility¡ªa small green tube of chemicals to calm the brain¡ªwas just another method to keep them complacent.


    ¡°So, what do you think?¡± she asked Emelia.


    ¡°What a fucking bastard,¡± Em sighed, running a hand through her bubblegum hair.


    "You could accept, but just be wary this time. Now you know what he''s capable of. You''ll be ready. Just use him as much as you can. Maybe you''ll become rich and pull me out of this shit hole as well,¡± she laughed and took a drag. Green puffs of smoke escaped from colored lips.


    "Em!" Fri was stunned, "how could you say that?"


    "You know I''m right, plus all he wants is to spend time with you," She hummed, "even if things go in another direction- we''ve all seen the Sapos heir. He''s a hunk. Open your legs and turn off your brain; sex can be just that. A transaction."


    A child ran by wearing tattered and torn clothing. They watched him with unwavering eyes. He stopped and ran towards a torn open container of garbage. They had all been there at one point. Searching through garbage with shaking hands for something to eat. Tearing up the carefully compressed squares of trash left for cleaners to pick up. For them, until she sold that pistol and, her mom had formed a solid reputation. The first time Fri had reached, scrapping, throwing, and shuffling through the trash like a wild animal was the most memorable. The experience had humbled her real quick. It was the day she had let go of the idea of dignity. Here dignity killed. Pride was not a trait for the poor. Hunger did not care about your pride or where you came from.


    ¡°Hey, kid!¡± she called out. The boy stopped and turned to look at her. His cheeks were sullen, his skin pale; it was hard to tell his age behind the malnourishment. He wore a long white shirt, the ones they gave out every few months¡ªa pathetic attempt at charity from the rich. His shirt was stained and ripped at the shoulder, and his black boots had holes.


    ¡°Come, don¡¯t be scared.¡±


    Cautiously, he took a few steps towards her before making up his mind and finally running up to her. This was the standard around here. His parents must have died recently, leaving him to fend for himself. It was kids in these sorts of situations who ended up dying in clan wars or drug sales gone wrong. They were the most hungry and the easiest to recruit. What would one do for a nutribar if hungry enough? Kill. Would hunger be sufficient to risk your life out there? She looked at the sky for a moment, wondering how the intergalactic syndicates functioned. Everything but this city seemed to function on a scale much grander than her mind could imagine.


    ¡°Hold out your wrist,¡± she told him.


    He held up a scrawny wrist, the biochip a stain against his white skin. She tapped her own chip against his, activating a transaction, a small hologram popping out between them. ¡°I¡¯ll give you some credits. How does 500 sound?¡± she asked. His eyes grew wide.


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    500 was what she made in a month. It would be enough for some new clothing and a few weeks of nutri-bars. ¡°It should be enough for you to hold out a little while.¡± She approved the transaction, and a few seconds later, the child''s credit balance glitched out and changed from 0 to 500. In broken words, he thanked her and ran away.


    ¡°It would be nice to change some things around here. They couldn¡¯t even bother setting up an orphanage.¡± She took the emoti-cig from Emelia. This time, they were trying tranquility, which seemed to work better than happiness. At least it mellowed out her emotions.


    ¡°We had one; it just didn''t survive a clan dispute; they never built a new one after that,¡± Em whispered, her eyes glazing over for a second. ¡°Anthony gave so many years of his life protecting 6 and 7, but it didn¡¯t change anything even then. They still threw him away when he got hurt protecting one of them. Maybe if they had given him a choice, he would have chosen to die; instead, they replaced half his body with electronics and threw him into the streets. Nothing can change in this city. The best thing to do would be to wipe it off the face of the planet.¡± Em took the cig from her and inhaled it. "That''s why I''m telling you to use him, run him dry, Fri; this place is hopeless. At least one of us needs to get out of here." The smoke slowly escaped as she talked. Dark green fleeting from red lips.


    Em was right.


    Her biochip buzzed, and a message from him popped up. It read, ¡°Be ready by 8.¡± But what was there to be ready for? Did he forget that she now lived at level one and owned three pairs of clothing? Or did he want her to mentally prepare to deal with him? A week was not enough time to prepare. Maybe a lifetime would be too short for that as well. Fri sighed. "I gotta go. The devil awaits," she told Em.


    Em smiled, "Go get ''em, Fri. Remember what I told you: don''t overthink things."


    The same security guard came to pick her up, dressed in a pristine suit once more. She learned that his name was Julius, and he was one of the latest AI intelligence systems on the market, so he really was a kiss-up. It was just programmed into him. He was so well built that there was no way to tell him apart from a person. However, unlike last time, she willingly got into the car. They made their way to level 7 in complete silence. Once at the Sapos tower, she was ushered through secret entrances and guided back to where she had been. He was already waiting for her, dinner served on a smaller table in the corner of the condo. The space between them was too close for comfort. This time, the skyline blinked away, filled with other skyscrapers that had reached well into the clouds. Another breathtaking sight.


    ¡°Good evening,¡± he greeted her and smiled. It was a sickly sweet smile. The one he probably gave at meetings and to the public.


    ¡°Sure,¡± she muttered and sat down across from him. She didn¡¯t want to show excitement at the food placed before her. There was meat, real meat. Not the dehydrated strips she had grown used to. It was clear he was bribing her, trying to soften her up. A robo-maid poured them a glass of wine. The bottle looked old, vintage. She was almost salivating.


    ¡°Eat,¡± he instructed, watching her closely, those eyes analyzing her. She often wondered how it was to see through them. Did the world look different? Was it better or worse, and did they remind him of his parents and what they had put him through?


    Tentatively, Fri picked up the fork¡ªa peculiar fork made from a blue translucent material. She scanned the table and noticed that there were no knives or anything sharp. The wine glasses and plates were made from black nano-steel. The steak had already been cut. She looked up at him for answers, and he smiled.


    ¡°A lot of people want to kill me, and you could be one of them. You made your hatred quite clear last time.¡± He took a sip of wine and sighed. ¡°my physicians told me I need a way to decompress and relax. Your presence relaxes me, but that doesn¡¯t mean I trust you.¡±

 Chapter 10

    Xan leaned back into the chair and looked out at the city below him. They all looked the same to him¡ªpoorer, richer, further, closer, on planets or in space. It was always a different face of the same thing. Today was a bad day. Today was the anniversary of that day. He itched to go out today and forget. His body twitched with a desire to find a distraction, be it in someone or in a bottle of whiskey. He closed his eyes.


    Mother, do you see me now?


    Where is your God?


    ------20 years ago, somewhere on the edge of some far of galaxy----


    He ran through the grey hallways of the spaceship. On one side were windows that let out to the vast nothingness of space, and on the other, numbered doors, a silver-colored cross on the left of each door. He knew that each door housed a family. His friend lived behind door 340, and he lived at 12. The numbers meant something; he didn¡¯t quite understand what, but he knew his mother and he were one of the prophets¡¯ favorites. He sometimes came to them. Sometimes, the prophet would send him away so that they could pray with his mother. It was a prayer for adults, and someday, he, too, would get to do it, he would be told. He didn¡¯t want to anger his mama, so he would leave and run the expense of the many hallways.


    Running made him feel free. Sometimes, he imagined that he was running somewhere else¡ªon a planet with green pastures and fields. The adults said that they were going to a planet where someday he could run amongst the grass. He had never seen grass, but he imagined that it was soft. He ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. Then, when he could run no more, he stopped and leaned against the metal walls of the hall. His breathing labored.


    He looked out the window, and it opened to darkness, the darkness only broken up by grey asteroids. It had been a long time since they had passed something other than the asteroids. He counted on his fingers; he was six. He held out six fingers. The last time they had passed a planet he had been- he put down two fingers and counted the remaining. He had been four.


    The ship was boring.


    The views were boring.


    He was bored.


    Sliding down against the wall, he sat on the cool metal floor. He didn¡¯t want to read or pray anymore. He wanted to learn about other things¡ªother planets and other places¡ªbut he did not want to learn about God.


    The loud alarm system shocked him off the floor. He looked around the empty hallway. The alarm shrieked, breaking the silence. The warm white light turned red.


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    ¡°This is not a false alarm, I repeat, this is not a false alarm,¡± the prophet''s voice rang out through the speaker system on the ship. ¡°This is the end.¡±


    He turned around and started running back to their room. Although he did not know what to do, a fear moved him. He needed to get to his mom.


    ¡°Everyone must return to their rooms.¡±


    Loud bangs rang out in the distance, noises he had never heard. They were followed by shouting. He sped up. Maybe if he had been older, he would have been able to run faster. Get to safety just a bit faster. He dared not look back to where the noise crescendoed into a morbid chorus. He slapped the scanner near their room. The door slid open, and he ran in. His mother grabbed him and pulled him under the table. The door slid closed behind him.


    They sat crouched under the table. His mother held him tightly by his shoulders. She was shaking, barely keeping back sobs. Shots rang out around them outside of their room. Only the metal sliding door kept them separated from the chaos outside. He stared, perplexed by the titanium cross on the wall. If God was their all-knowing father, why did he not rescue them now?


    ¡°Heavenly Father,¡± his mother started to pray as she rocked them back and forth. Her grip grew tighter. Nails dug into his shoulders. He winced but did not pull away. His mother was there to protect him. She could never do anything to harm him. His mother was like God- no, she was something better than his mama.


    ¡°The Lord is my shepherd.¡±


    The shots only got closer. They surrounded them from all around. He could hear the sound of yelling, of shouting, of those he knew taking their last dying breath. Dying sounded like gurgled breaths and coughing, he thought. They sounded like grunts and screams. Dying was scary, and even though he could barely comprehend the idea of death, he knew that he did not want to die.


    ¡°There is nothing I lack,¡± she kept praying.


    ¡°Mama, what¡¯s that noise?¡± he asked. He pushed against her hold and tried to move away, but he couldn¡¯t. Her hold was iron, unwavering.


    ¡°In green pastures, he makes me lie down;¡±


    The door busted open. Men dressed in all black barged in. Their faces were covered. They were fully dressed in armor. Were they demons? He could see a patch on one man''s vest. It read Intergalactic Search and Rescue. So, these were the demons they had learned about in the bible.


    ¡°There¡¯s a kid here,¡± one of them shouted.


    ¡°To still waters, he leads me.¡±


    He thrashed against his mother, trying to free himself from her grip. He needed to get away from the demons. Her grip only tightened. It hurt.


    ¡°Mama!¡± he shouted. She gave no reaction to him. But he knew they needed to flee. To get away from the army of Satan.


    ¡°He restores my soul.¡±


    The men made their way to them. Their steps thudded loudly against the metal floor. Drumming. Was this not God''s will?


    ¡°Sick freaks,¡± another man said.


    He looked at the cross behind the man; its surface was smooth, reflecting his fearful face on its surface. God, I am scared.


    ¡°Get the kid away from her.¡±


    ¡°She has a weapon!¡± The man yelled, scrambling. They shuffled wildly around the small room.


    He watched in the reflection as his mother held out a syringe.


    ¡°I will dwell in the house of the Lord,¡± she plunged it into his back. He felt the pain scoring his body. Filling it with such a vile feeling that it seemed to still linger to this day. Shots rang out, and his mother slumped. He tried to look up to her, but the pain was too much. He screamed, collapsing under the weight of his mother. The pain. The pain. The PAIN.


    ¡°Get the kid. We need a medic!¡± the masked demon yelled.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± it cursed.


    He looked at the cross. His vision dimmed. Was this the will of God?

 Chapter 11

    Trust¡ªFri almost choked on the wine. Who was he to talk about trust? It should have been her saying these words, but she pushed those thoughts away. Also, who relaxes by doing this? Usually, when you''re told to relax, you read a book or listen to music, meditate, or find a hobby. She looked at him dumbfounded. Just use him, she reminded herself. Push aside your anger.


    ¡°Last time you said you have insomnia?¡± she asked, trying a slice of steak. The moment the flavors hit her tongue, she couldn¡¯t help but audibly moan, how she had missed eating real food. "Or something like that," she waved her fork.


    "How do you survive?"


    ¡°They pump me with hormones that trick my body into thinking that I had slept. It helps but doesn¡¯t remove the exhaustion, for which I had a chip installed to manipulate signals to my brain. Everything would be fine if the doctors didn¡¯t say that it''s detrimental to my health to be so riled up. Who would have guessed that with all this science and all this technology, we still can¡¯t get around stress?¡± He leaned back and ran a hand through his hair. His mahogany locks looked so silky that she wanted to reach out and run her fingers through them.


    ¡°What do you want from me?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Stay the night,¡± he replied.


    She opened her mouth to speak, but he held out a hand, interrupting her.


    ¡°You help me relax, and I¡¯ll lend you my power. Every time I call you, I''ll pay 50,000 credits." He looked at her. "Don¡¯t be so stubborn, Fri. You used to jump at the thought of spending time with me,¡± he looked at her with a pitiful expression, waiting for a response.


    "I''m not going to sleep with you for money?" she was outraged, "do you think I''m a prostitute?"


    Now he looked at her dumbfounded. She had never seen such an expression on his face. He laughed.


    "I wasn''t talking about sex," he kept laughing.


    Heat crept up her face as she turned red from embarrassment.


    He cleared his throat, "All I want is for you to spend time with me, go to events with me, and be at my beck and call. Nothing more."


    Emelia had been right; this was a great opportunity. He was willing to pay so much for her to spend time with him. Plus, if she kept her heart guarded this time, he wouldn¡¯t be able to hurt her. A few days would earn her life-changing money. More money than she knew what to do with. She wanted to see how far she could push her luck, ¡°Make it 70, and we¡¯ll have a deal.¡±


    He sneered, ¡°That¡¯s my Fri.¡± He held his hand out to her. She took it, and her balance instantly increased by 70,000.


    "Today, you spend the night with me; tomorrow, I''ll return you to level 1," he let her hand go. "Once you warm up, we''ll discuss moving you out of 1."


    ¡°The maids will take you to the bath and give you a change of clothing, and then you can return here. Be ready by 10.¡±


    A robot maid took her away, leading her to a large room with a bath the size of a pool. ¡°Shampoo, Conditioner, Masks, and Body wash have all been set up for your choosing. Press the screen to the left,¡± the maid indicated, ¡°and choose what you want; it will appear in the right corner of the bath. When you are done, clothing has been placed by the door. If you need anything, just call my name ¡®A98¡¯, and enjoy.¡± She said and backed out the door.


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    She settled into the hot water, tension being washed away by the warmth that engulfed her body. Back in her apartment, they would be lucky if the shower worked, and even when it did, the water never lasted for longer than 10 minutes. A blissful sigh escaped her lips. This wasn¡¯t too bad. She could get used to this. The bath had most likely been prepared for her. She couldn¡¯t see him ever using it. It took too long; he preferred showers, as they were more efficient and quicker. If he had a choice, he probably wouldn¡¯t shower. Instead, he would take those few precious minutes to work. At least, his workaholic tendencies did not change; if anything, they had grown worse. But were they bad enough to cause him this much stress? There must have been something much deeper than that to keep him up. After what felt like an eternity, she got out, dried herself, and put on the silken white pajama pants and top.


    He lay in a cocoon of deep red sheets, his eyes scanning information invisible to her, reading something. She crawled into the bed and sat beside him.


    "Can we return to the past," he said, not looking at her.


    "No, too much has changed; you''ve hurt me too much, Ryuu," Fri replied.


    "Then pretend for me today."


    She sighed, "Okay."


    ¡°I want to rest my head on your lap,¡± he didn¡¯t wait for her response. He laid his head down on her lap, looking up at her. Lingering, always thinking about something.


    ¡°Do you want to talk about what¡¯s bothering you?¡± she asked, running her hand through his hair. Tomorrow, you''ll forget this day like a dream, she told herself.


    ¡°No,¡± he replied and closed his eyes. ¡°I want to know how you have been.¡±


    She massaged his scalp, ¡°There aren¡¯t many good things to tell Ryuu.¡±


    ¡°I just enjoy listening to your voice.¡±


    She sighed, ¡°Well, I made a few friends at level one, and before you say anything, not like those friends at the academy. There, you need to support each other if you want to survive. Credits only get you so far.¡± His lashes were long and thick, his skin clear. There was no argument that this man was near perfect. His parents had engineered him to be the best, with the best genetics, body, and mind; they just forgot to leave humanity in him. But it must be hard to find humanity when you were never loved.


    ¡°There is Emelie; she¡¯s my neighbor, and her partner Anthony who is an ex-cop. The city had also chewed him up and spat him out,¡± His body relaxed, his head becoming heavier in her lap. ¡°Then, at the school, we have Rob. He¡¯s slowly going senile, but he¡¯s the oldest teacher there. It''s not like the academy; we don¡¯t have supplies, and the building is slowly falling apart. Maybe one day I¡¯ll show up to a pile of junk,¡± and he was asleep. She sat there for a long time until her legs had gone numb, until she was sure he had fallen asleep. Ryuu held an unnatural obsession with her; she was like a pacifier to him. There was something psychologically wrong with the man, but it was out of her understanding. One day, he had just chosen her to be this figure who had a surprising amount of influence over him.


    Carefully, she moved from under him and made her way to the other side of the room to an empty armchair. He had luckily not taken her purse, leaving it on the black wood coffee table. Shuffling inside, she pulled out a pack of emoti-cigs; opening the pink metal canister, she pulled out sleep, a small blue tube that smelled of lavender and rancid chemicals.


    ¡°Miss, do you need anything,¡± the robot maid from earlier approached her.


    ¡°No,¡± Fri took a puff, blowing out dark blue smoke. The taste of lavender infiltrated her mouth. It was a miracle these cigs sold since they barely worked enough to have an effect. A sigh escaped her lips, and she looked at the night sky. Maybe it was because people wanted to believe that they worked. If one wished for the harder stuff, they needed to buy it off the streets or...She looked at Ryuu¡¯s sleeping form. Be one of the elites. In his time, he had tried it all; it was surprising he had survived long enough. She had found him overdosed a few times on the brink of death. Most times, she would find him incapacitated or amid orgies. Too many times, she had been there as he shook from coming off countless substances. He had been a troubled young man. As troubled as they came.


    At one point on level 1, she had tried a handful of drugs. Happiness, sleep, euphoria, stickers for dreams, tablets for visions. Nothing ever worked to fully drown out reality. She glanced at the man, now fast asleep.


    Ryuu... she understood him now more than she had before.

 Chapter 12

    ¡°Honey, I need you to deliver something for me.¡±


    They sat opposite each other, drinking the pink caffeinated liquid. Her stomach still churned when she looked at it, remembering the pink contents of her stomach splattered against the school stairway, but she needed the caffeine. It was humanity''s most accepted drug of choice. It would help her through the day.


    ¡°Sure,¡± she murmured in response. It was shocking to her how well her mother had dealt with the transition from five to one; unlike her father, who, through hard work, had raised himself from level three to five, her mother was born and raised at level five, never seeing anything below that. Now, she existed on these streets as if she had always been there. Finding work and even gaining a reputation among those who lived here. The kind android doctor, that''s what they called her. However, level one had aged her- or maybe life had aged her. The stress had aged both of them in different ways.


    ¡°It¡¯s a bit strange,¡± her mother twirled the metal tube-like object.


    ¡°How come?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t put my finger on it; it¡¯s an old part that hasn¡¯t been used in a while, but¡­ I can¡¯t remember where I¡¯ve seen it before.¡± She sighed, picking up the smooth tube, ¡°It gives me a bad feeling.¡±


    She looked at the small metal tube and tried to find what her mother had seen in it. To her, it just looked like another mechanical detail¡ªone she didn¡¯t need to bother remembering. It was similar but slightly different from the rest, which were metallic structures of different sizes and shapes. ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be fine. When and where do I need to drop it off?¡±


    Her mother sighed again, ¡°It¡¯s out of the way. I¡¯ll send the directions to your biochip. He wants it delivered a bit late, around 10 p.m. Just introduce yourself as my daughter. The boss is a nice guy, and you shouldn''t have any issues getting in.¡± She pressed a few things on her hologram.


    Moments later, a location popped up on her own screen. She knew the building. A skyscraper, one of the newer ones with blacked-out windows running all along one side, stood in the middle of town near the river before the wall separating them from the second level. She avoided it like the plague. There was no point in catching the eyes of those within it. Associating with a clan never brought anyone any good, but associating with an intergalactic syndicate- even worse. From the beginning, she had been against her mom taking up employment with the Mammon syndicate. The organization had been on the news many times over; the name had caught her attention, searing itself into her brain. A name from an old-world religion for the demon of greed- or something of that sort. Nothing good could come from associating with an organization named after old-world sins.


    Her mom looked at her, pleading for her to agree. She nodded, ¡°I¡¯ll do it, don¡¯t worry.¡±


    The sun had set, leaving behind the glow of neon lights. She wore black army pants and an oversized black hoodie, her hair pulled back and her face hidden. The door was armed by two large men, holding guns she had never seen before, large and flowing with blue liquid. Her hands were wet with cold nervousness, gripping a bag holding the part. They stood watching her, waiting for her to make a move. She took a deep breath and walked towards the door.


    ¡°Name,¡± one of the gruff men grunted.


    She shuddered, her stomach doing back flips. The person before her was massive, muscles rippled beneath a tight black shirt. She glanced at the gun-he did not need that thing to take her out. One hand would be enough.


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    ¡°I¡¯m the surgeon¡¯s daughter,¡± she muttered, unsure if this would actually work. Her mother was too carefree. She should have warned them ahead of time that her daughter was coming.


    ¡°Oh, Miss Bond''s kid,¡± his voice changed suddenly, turning warmer. He smiled. "Yeah, come on in. She¡¯s talked a lot about you.¡±


    She started to take a step in, but when he held out a hand, her heart stopped. Did she do something wrong? Would she die here? The last few days had been too stressful for her; soon, her hair would go grey even though she wasn''t killed beforehand.


    ¡°Wait, weapons, you gotta give them up,¡± the guard said.


    With a shaking hand, she pulled out the phaser from her pocket and handed it to him. It looked tiny in the large man¡¯s hand. He looked at it for a moment before showing it into a pocket in his cargo pants. ¡°Don¡¯t worry; you¡¯ll get it back later.¡±


    They entered a large open area with stairs leading up to an elevator. The energy shield rippled around the elevator''s platform. The interior was a mix of blacks and greys. It almost did not look like a crime headquarters. A receptionist stood near the door, giving her a tight smile.


    The man escorted her to the elevator, scanning his biochip and choosing the floor for her, and then waved her off. Wasn¡¯t she just supposed to drop off the part? Why was she now standing in an elevator, taking her who knows where? She wiped sweaty palms against her pants, trying to calm her beating heart. Everything would be good; she¡¯d drop off the part and leave. Never to be seen in this building again.


    Nothing good came from associating with an intergalactic syndicate. Her morning thoughts echoed through her brain as she forced down a gulp.


    The elevator stopped, the shield opening to one side into another large open room, one decorated with red velvets, chocolate wood, and old-world artifacts. A heavy-set desk made from coffee wood stood in the middle. A man sat there, hands folded, concentrated on something on his desk. She stood uncertain of what to do. He had golden hair, emerald green eyes, an old scar running through one eyebrow to the top of his hairline, a straight Roman nose, lush lips, and a mole under his left eye. There was something familiar about him; he was attractive, and as her eyes traveled to his long, slender finger, warmth spread across her face. What was wrong with her? He made no effort to acknowledge her.


    She stepped onto the red carpet. ¡°Hello?¡± her voice came out meek.


    ¡°Come,¡± he motioned with one hand at the chair across from him. He still didn¡¯t look at her. She tentatively made her way to the desk, sat down on the seat, and looked out behind him at the city that loomed underneath the tower. The cheap neon was a sharp contrast to the room within. It could have been taken out of any of the level 7 homes. This room could have cost more than the building it was housed within.


    He finally looked up, an expression of anger or disgust painting his face, ¡°Hood off; I like seeing the people I¡¯m talking to.¡±


    She pulled the hood off, his expression softening, ¡°Miss Teacher, who would have thought we would meet like this.¡±


    She blinked, staring at him, her brain processing. His voice was so familiar that her mind traveled back to that drunken day, to the stranger at the bar, and then to him at her home. Heat spread across her cheeks, and she coughed, god dammit. What happened to not associating with the criminals?


    ¡°Nice to meet you, boss?¡± she said, uncertain how to call him.


    ¡°Call me Xander.¡± His smile was large and infectious. "No, call me Xan," he finished.


    ¡°I brought the part,¡± she mumbled. A strong sense of awkwardness muted her confidence.


    ¡°That¡¯s great. Leave it on the table, and I¡¯ll look at it later. Instead, let¡¯s walk,¡± he jumped out of his seat and threw on his jacket without waiting for her reply. By the time she was able to process his words, he was standing by the elevator. Placing the metal part on his desk, she stood up and approached the man. Her mind was empty. He had confused her. She could not decline an offer from the person standing in front of her. Even though she did not know who he was, she could assume that he was a big fish in the Mammon''s ranks. Someone in such an expensive room in one of thier headquarters couldn''t have been anything but essential. She glanced at the room, maybe more than just important.

 Chapter 13

    They left the building, the guard waving them off happily. They walked by the ink-black water that reflected the city''s nightlife. The river separated two sides of the city: a more modern and clean side and one littered with abandoned broken buildings. They were mostly the remains of old factories. When factory jobs began to be outsourced to other planets, many companies left the facility with machinery still inside. Junkies scouted through the dilapidated mechanisms looking for parts to sell. Even now, Fri could hear the sounds of distant scraping and rummaging.


    ¡°How have you been, Miss. Teacher?¡± Xan asked.


    ¡°Better?¡± she answered, unsure of what to say. She couldn¡¯t tell him about Ryuu and her adventures to seven, and she couldn¡¯t tell him about the child. There wasn¡¯t much she could tell the man walking next to her. Was she even allowed to tell him anything?


    ¡°Well, I am happy to hear that.¡± He walked by the edge of the water.


    She never liked walking by the edge, always afraid of falling in and drowning in the murky, polluted water. They would never find her body again; it would be left there with hundreds of others buried by waves of time. ¡°How many bodies do you think are hidden in these waters?¡±


    ¡°Too many, in fact, they had installed a cleaner system. A putrid thing that scrapes up remains. It comes by every few weeks to swallow new carcasses and reprocess them.¡± When he smiled, she could see his dimples. He seemed warm, happy, and sweet in a strange way. It was an odd thing to notice when talking about bodies. How could the boss of a criminal organization be sweet? She wondered. For all she knew, he could have been the reason for so many bodies in the river.


    ¡°Did you enjoy my little gift?¡± he asked.


    She looked up at him, unsure of what he was talking about. She was shuffling through memories of the last two weeks, looking for something to give her a hint. There was nothing she could recall. Maybe he had mistaken her with someone else.


    He sighed dramatically, which told her he was being sarcastic. " How could you have not noticed? I had my men clean out the apartment, and the streets have been cleaned from the useless waste.¡±


    She had noticed that things seemed cleaner and the air was fresher but was never able to link the change to him. Should she thank him? It would be better to thank him. At the end of the day, their life depended on this man¡¯s wallet.


    ¡°Yes, thank you,¡± Fri mumbled.


    He stopped walking, causing her to come to a halt. ¡°Oh, sweety, don¡¯t tell me you didn¡¯t know who I was that night?¡± He searched her face for an answer, green eyes piercing her soul. And then laughed, a hearty laugh, wiping tears off the corner of his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s wonderful, Miss Teacher. You keep on surprising me. I didn¡¯t know there was someone who still did not know about me,¡± he said between breathless laughs.


    His laugh made her feel warm, and for a moment, the tension of knowing who the man was faded. Heat spread across her face, and she awkwardly coughed, turning away, ¡°What can I say? I¡¯m full of surprises.¡±


    ¡°What brings you here?¡± Fri asked.


    There was a moment of silence between them as Xan collected himself, ¡°just some earthly business,¡± he paused.


    From her peripheral vision, she could see that he was looking at her.


    ¡°When are you leaving,¡± she asked, trying to avoid his gaze. It burned her cheeks, and she tried to look anywhere but at him.


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    ¡°Something piqued my interest, so I decided to stay a bit longer,¡± he replied.


    Fri ignored the implications, imagining that the thing that had piqued his interest could not have possibly been her because why else would he be burning holes in the side of her face with that gaze? There were many things and people on level 1. She was the least exciting of them.


    ¡°What is the part for?¡± she tried to steer the conversation in another direction.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure it came from an anonymous buyer off planet. They pay well, and I don¡¯t ask.¡±


    ¡°Why would someone off-world ask for something like that? It looks like it could easily be printed.¡± It was strange. The only reason would be to avoid a trail linking them to the part, but if so, what was the part used for? She had finally remembered where she had seen it before and what it was. It resembled the spinal fusion used for gambies. If that was what it really was, then it was an easily obtainable item, not something you would need to buy on the black market or even on earth, for that matter.


    ¡°You¡¯d be surprised how much some people have to hide.¡±


    They walked for a while, making small talk, until they got to the outskirts of the center, where the noise died down a bit. She noticed it before he did: a black van that was too nice, too new, and too pristine to belong on level 1.


    She pointed at it, ¡°Do you see that? Doesn¡¯t it look out of place?¡¯


    He glanced at it, ¡°It isn¡¯t the strangest thing I¡¯ve seen here,¡± and kept walking.


    However, she stopped and watched as the door slid open and a body was shoved out. The van sped away seconds later. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. This was not normal. The body did not look like that of a sex worker. It looked almost zombified from where she stood. ¡°They just threw a body out,¡± she mumbled.


    He stopped and looked over at where the mass lay in the middle of the road, ¡°Seems to be so.¡±


    ¡°We need to check it out,¡± she said, not waiting for him. Instead, she made her way towards the corpse. He followed her; it was not like he had a choice.


    It was a deathly, skinny man whose bones poked out from ghastly skin. He had been thrown face down, revealing a hole at the base of his neck. She wanted to throw up, but she took a deep breath. This was just a dead body, she reminded herself.


    Xan pulled out a pair of gloved and put them on. He leaned down and proceeded to shove a finger into the gaping hole.


    She stared at him wide-eyed, trying to process the man''s thought process in front of her. Her stomach churned, and she glanced away. Xan was definitely not a normal person. A dead body would faze a normal person. A normal person did not stick fingers into dead bodies. Fri wanted to gag but took a deep breath.


    A few moments later, he pulled it out, covered in a clear liquid, and brought it to his face to examine. ¡°It looks like a gambie, and this-¡± he brought the hand towards her, ¡° is brain fluid.¡±


    Fri moved away, not wanting to be near the bodily fluids. ¡°I don¡¯t need to see it. I trust you on that,¡± she mumbled.


    Why would someone throw the body of a gambie into the streets? Even if it had died, the cleaners would have disposed of them later. There was no reason to even move a Gambie.


    ¡°Well, I think we solved the mystery,¡± he looked at the secretions on his fingers in disgust.


    ¡°No, there¡¯s something strange about him. Can you lift his shirt,¡± she asked.


    Xan sighed. ¡°Your wish is my command,¡± he lifted the shirt, revealing dozens of scars and holes of different sizes.


    A gambie would be connected through a spinal tube to the cyber-web. This allowed them to feel virtual reality. However, there was never any mention of multiple connections, much less incisions in the body. She was far from an expert on the matter, but she did know some things. Other than the spinal connection, which intercepted data to the brain, the whites of their eyes would turn a permanent yellow.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think this is a gambie,¡± she muttered and kneeled down next to the body.


    ¡°Help turn him around,¡± she went to grab the body but was stopped by Xan.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it. I¡¯d rather you not dirty your hands.¡± He rolled the body over.


    The man was skinny, as most gambies were due to muscle deterioration, but not just that he was malnourished. She knew that gambies would connect themselves to feeding tubes since the point wasn¡¯t to die but to live within the cyber realm. However, there was still something off, and she couldn¡¯t put her finger on it. She cleared her throat, ¡°could you open his eyes.¡±


    Xan reached a hand and started to open the man¡¯s eyelids but suddenly stopped.


    ¡°There¡¯s nothing.¡±


    ¡°Nothing?¡± Fri questioned.


    ¡°They took his eyes,¡± Xan replied.

 Chapter 14

    The connection buzzed as background noise filled her head. A little screen popped up in the corner of her vision, only visible to her. It wasn''t often someone other than Em or her Mom would call. She wanted to ignore it but knew that she couldn''t. His name had instantly stood out to her.


    Ryuu, Fri sighed.


    It had been a few days since they had seen each other. She never thought calling her was part of their new deal. It was something they would need to discuss. They needed boundaries if she was going to make it out in one piece this time. He hadn¡¯t called or messaged her back all these years. So, why start now? What had moved him to get in contact with her still puzzled Fri. But so did most of his actions. What drove the man was outside of her understanding. Keeping it that way would be best. If she dug too deep, maybe she would start to feel sympathy. And then- he would seem more human. Ryuu had to remain an emotionless aristocrat. He had to stay the villain in her eyes.


    Before he had called, she had been cooped up searching for details to help put her mind at ease about the man they had found. There was nothing. There were no mentions of Gambie-like creatures, nothing on the news, and the web was void of information. Hours had been spent laying on her bed and searching in vain. The next step would be to ask around, she thought.


    ¡°How are you?¡± he asked, his voice was deep and cold. Void of any emotions that would give away what he was feeling. Unlike Xan, who always seemed to be happy or at least amused, Ryuu was always in control. That control was reflected through his steal poker face. As the CEO of such a large and powerful corporation, did he have a choice? He had to always be on guard because a moment of weakness could lead to death. Ryuu was still that emotional child she had met years ago. He had just learned to hide the whirlwind of thoughts that filled his head. His emotions choked down. He probably considered them useless or a weakness, at the least.


    ¡°Fine,¡± she mumbled. Her search hadn¡¯t gotten her any closer to reassurance; instead, it seemed to stress her out even more. Maybe a distraction was what she needed. Perhaps he could be that distraction¡­ She thought about Xan, his deep and warm laughter, sweet like chocolate. A man who smiled like the sun but stuck his fingers into a corpse without a second thought. Maybe he wasn''t that different from Ryuu. She was surrounded by insane people.


    ¡°Are you working?¡± Fri asked.


    ¡°When am I not?¡± Ryuu replied. A moment of silence passed between them. A moment of unspoken words. She wanted to tell him things, but she bit her tongue. They weren¡¯t that close. Why would he even care to hear about her troubles? If he didn''t care when the city had chewed her up and spat her out at the lowest level, he wouldn''t care now. She didn¡¯t matter. Fri bitterly thought. She had promised herself that she wouldn¡¯t get too close to him. It was a promise she was planning to keep.


    ¡°There¡¯s an event at Station X. I want you to come,¡± he declared. Even though he said he wanted her to come, she knew it was a command. Ryuu never asked; it was always implied that he would get what he wanted. Now that he paid her, it was more than implied. Even now, he was getting what he wanted. He had gotten her in the palm of his hand again.


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    ¡°Will we be staying?¡± Station X was as elite as any event could get. A space hotel where only the most VIP events were held. She had only seen photos and heard stories. The station could house over a few thousand people and had many event halls. The most exquisite was the star room. A hall covered with beautiful plants from all over the galaxy, rich red carpets, furniture from dark wood, and tableware made from a gold-esque material gathered from Sol-201. The hall had an entirely transparent dome ceiling that allowed a view of the Earth. Back at the academy, she had always dreamt of being invited to an event at Station X, not only for the rumored beauty of the station but also because she had never traveled off Earth. Back in the academy, she was one of the few who had yet to travel off the planet. Now, that was the norm.


    ¡°Three days,¡± he replied. Ryuu was never much for explaining.


    ¡°Which hall is the event being held in?¡± she asked. Some childish part of her hoped she would get to see the star hall.


    Ryuu hummed, "I closed off the whole station; why is there a hall you prefer?¡±


    Of course, she wasn¡¯t surprised; she had expected nothing less from him. He was the most arrogant man alive, but his arrogance allowed her these experiences. ¡°No, just making small talk,¡± she said. Nothing in the world could make her ask him for something.


    Ryuu had spent his childhood all around the galaxy. To him, this must have been nothing. Just like the view of the sky, she could never turn her gaze from what was normal for him was astonishing for her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get someone to prepare clothing for you,¡± he replied, and the line went cold. Ryuu did not wait for her response. Once again, there was little time to prepare mentally. This time, she would need to interact not only with Ryuu.


    She stood in the middle of the empty Condo. His smell lingered in the air. It was strange to be here without him. It felt alien. She felt like an unwelcome guest. She scanned the spotless room, and her eyes stopped at the bed, with sheets still scrunched up; Ryuu had probably worked from bed earlier. Making her way to the bed, she fell into a soft cocoon of blankets, sheets, and his smell. Was his bed always this comfortable, or was she just so tired?


    Fri came to the conclusion that she was, in fact, just tired. Drained from the strange encounter a few days ago and drained from looking for answers. Why had the Gambie-like man even bothered her? Maybe she was getting herself riled up for nothing. Xan had thought nothing of the body. If the big criminal bossman was unphased, she also should let it go. The man had probably seen enough to judge what was dangerous and what was not. Still, she had been unable to sleep since that day.


    She never felt safe in that apartment with the old malfunctioning door she couldn¡¯t even trust to stay closed. Nightmares plagued her. The same man came to get her every night. It had gotten so bad she had even considered going to Xan for help. Maybe he could fix her door. It was an awful idea. Who was crazy enough to bother the mafia boss with something like this? Apparently, she was when sleep-deprived. She hadn''t even gotten a chance to tell Em about Xan. Fri didn''t know if her friend would be able to handle it.


    There was some solace in her situation. The station was far from the Earth and even further from level 1. At the station, she could sleep.


    Ryuu''s sheets smelled aphrodisiacal, a mix of woody scents, truffles, and warm florals. She grabbed the sheets, breathing in his scent. Disgusting, she thought. Her body felt heavy, her eyelids closing from invisible weight. Now was not the time to sleep. Soon, they would leave, and even sooner, she would have to face those whom she never thought she would see again. Her old friends. Suddenly, spending time with Ryuu did not seem so bad.

 Chapter 15

    Fri stood at the top of a tall building; it was so high that it was hard to breathe. The pressure of the environment around her stole her breath away. In these moments, Ryuu seemed all the more inhumane. She struggled to breathe, her lungs being squashed by the pressure of the atmosphere while he seemed utterly unbothered. They said that it was rare to find someone unmodified in thier time. And she sometimes wondered why her parents had left her completely natural. They made thier way to what looked like a regular car. The black metal shone brightly under the sun''s rays. She was all but dragged to the vehicle by a guard she was unfamiliar with. She would have been offended at any time other than this, but today, she was thankful for the robotic muscleman.


    As they neared, the sleek black doors of the vehicle opened up. Ryuu sat down effortlessly. Every movement seemed out of a magazine. Fri could imagine cameras around him taking photos. Fri was far from graceful. She basically fell into the car on the verge of blacking out, helped by the robot security man who seemed to almost pity her. The doors closed, and the vehicle pressurized. The pressure lifted for the first time in what seemed like forever, and she could take a deep breath. She slumped against the window, enjoying the cool sensation against her skin.


    "It''s your first time flying, huh?" he asked as he pressed a myriad of flashing buttons.


    "Yes," she replied weakly, feeling entirely out of her element. Fri stared, trying to understand the logistics of what he pressed.


    "I know you have a romanticized idea of flying, but usually, the first few times are uncomfortable," Ryuu grimaced as he spared her a glance. The engine of the starship turned on with a quiet hum, and moments later, they took off.


    "In a few minutes, we will enter hyper-drive. I want you to pick something to focus on, and don''t take your eyes off that thing. It''ll help you deal with the distortion of space." His eyebrows were pressed together in deep thought. Fri wanted to reach out and smooth out the wrinkles like she had all those years back.


    He loosened his tie. " To think that after all these years, we would return to wearing suits," he grumbled.


    "Are you ready?" he asked.


    "Yeah," she replied, looking at him. His hair was messier than usual, loose strands falling into his face. And then, her body was pushed back with an extreme invisible force. In her peripheral vision, she could see the blending of colors, curiosity calling for her to look, but she kept her eyes locked on him. She looked at his lips. Had she really kissed these lips before? Yes, it was a little before they were demoted to one when she had confessed to him, but his lips had never been just hers. He always had someone around, lovers, sex friends, sometimes multiple at once, fueled by drugs and alcohol. Knowing or seeing the aftermath of such events always hurt her back then, and god knew she had seen most. It almost seemed like he had taken delight from calling her after and seeing her horrified, heartbroken face. Fri knew that her face showed all her emotions.


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    Pleasure was his cardinal sin, and loving him had been hers. How had she gotten herself so lost in such a horrible person? She had been drunk on her feelings towards him, and then it seemed that no matter what he had done, she would have still loved him. Apparently, she had been wrong.


    "You can look around now," he said. She glanced away and noticed they were flying next to a vast structure. As they flew near the station. It was so large she could not see where it ended or began¡ªa giant metal beast with countless windows through which she could see people moving about.


    The intercom came on, "Mr. Sapos, the dock is ready for landing."


    A large opening opened in the belly of this beast, and they flew in. Ryuu landed the starship smoothly. A man came to take their luggage, and Ryuu guided her through the station''s turning hallways and elevators. They had landed on the residency side, so they walked through hallways decorated with paintings and brass wall lights, passing door after door. Finally, he stopped in front of a door, this one metal, unlike the others that were wood. He put his palm against the scanner, and the door opened.


    Lights turned on in a large open room, with different levels for a dining space, a makeshift living room, and a huge bed, all in front of the scenery of space. Windows running from the ceiling to the floor. She stared in awe, unmoving momentarily, taking it all in. Fri had never imagined she would get to see something like this. After one, she lost all hope of traveling at all, not out of NNNY and certainly not off the planet.


    The dress that had been chosen for her was a long red gown that seemed to hug every crevice of her body. The dress, much more noir than she was used to, was embedded with dark silver gems, a high neckline, and an open back. It had been packed in a container with small heels and earrings that matched the silver stones on the dress. Wasn''t this too much? She hated standing out, and this- well, it certainly made an impression, not one she was comfortable making, not one in this situation. Fri could already imagine the horde, the questions, and them.


    "Ryuu," she called out, and he hummed back in response.


    "Isn''t this a little too much?" she asked.


    "No, I think it''s just enough." He came out of the bathroom dressed in a suit. The jacket was a deep red velvet that complimented his hair and was embroidered with bright blue gems. The blouse was creamy white with a ruffled neck. He straightened the jacked and grumbled, "When will this atrocious style go out of fashion?"

 Chapter 16

    He looked at her, "It looks good, but there''s something else. " He pulled out a small phaser made from a milky metal engraved with roses; she had only seen them once in the Sapos garden but could recognize them well enough the nozzle surrounded by gold. It more resembled an accessory rather than a weapon.


    "Try not to throw this one out," he said, walking over to her and crouching down. Placing the gun against her thigh. A metal strap lashed out and weaved its way around until it sat firmly against her skin; the metal was cold. How had he known she had sold her last phaser? It had sold for a hefty price on the black market, money that still sat in her account untouched.


    The ballroom was mesmerizing. It was a grand open space that curved to follow a large window. The view of space served as a background to the bustling of the room. People dressed in all styles, from Noir to Victorian, stood around. Women fanned themselves with feathered fans. Some dressed similarly to her, others in large vintage-esque ballgowns as drawn in paintings of the far ancient times of an old Earth. None physically remained, but they had plenty of photos and scans of them. Paper was easy to destroy in disasters or wars, but the data on the old web was much harder to destroy. During her years at the academy, she had even worked under the guidance of a professor, pulling and searching old data for works of a time long gone. Furniture from dark Mahagony wood decorated the room, and flora from all over the galaxy was masterfully placed to highlight the wooden interior.


    Attention quickly turned to them as a rush of somewhat familiar faces attacked them from all around. Before she knew it, she had been dragged away by a group of women.


    "Oh my god, Fri, is that you?" a familiar face said. The woman had chocolate brown hair that fell in waves and beautiful bambi eyes.


    She stared, unable to put a name to the face. Fri barely remembered anyone from those years. Their faces shadowed over in her memories.


    "Wow, it''s been so long. We''re surprised that you are still hanging around Ryuu," another nameless face said.


    She wanted to cringe away. Although she had blocked out the names of those around her, she knew them all too well. Her supposed friends from the academy- they made her feel sick. Even now, her stomach churned.


    "We were so worried when you both disappeared."


    Both?


    "What?" was all she could manage to mutter out. There was too much attention on her. She felt dizzy. They had surrounded her on all sides.


    "Yeah, you know, after you- "There was a pause from, what was her name, Julie? She covered the bottom half of her face with her fan. "When you left, Ryuu''s was transferred out to another campus. I think it was the one of Earth X12."


    "They said his father forced him."


    "He only recently came back."


    "Did you hear how he took over Sapos?"


    Fri looked around desperately, trying to find someone to rescue her from the group of gossipers. "I''m sorry I-"


    The man had caught her eyes. It seemed no one else had noticed him, but there was something off about his manner. He traveled at the edge of the room, slumping slightly as he walked. His clothing was out of style. He wore a regular black suit that didn''t seem to sit right. The group of women that had surrounded her became part of the background noise as she watched the stranger. An unnerving feeling set into the pit of her stomach. His eyes were trained on someone. It was almost as if he couldn''t look away from that person. But who was he so set on? Fri couldn''t figure it out. From her vantage point, it was hard to tell. She tried to shift slightly to get a better view. A hand landed on her shoulder, shocking her back to reality.


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    "Fri, you seem distracted," one of the women she vaguely remembered from the academy said. She was stunning. An hourglass figure, deep green eyes, and golden hair.


    "There''s this," she pointed, turning towards the man. Then she saw it: he had a phaser in his hands, a small black one with a distinct glowing tip. Her eyes followed where it was pointing, and she could make out the blue light thrown off by gems. Ryuu''s jacket. It took her a moment to process. She had forgotten who she was dealing with and that about every other person on the planet wanted him dead. Then, on reflex, she reached for her phaser. Someone screamed, and attention was turned in all directions. The man''s finger tensed. And she shot, hitting his leg. His shot was sent off balance, hitting the floor. Chaos erupted. She ran towards Ryuu.


    "Are you okay?" she frantically searched him up and down for injuries. Behind her, guards ran in, surrounding them and pushing others away. It took a moment for him to register what had happened.


    "Yeah, I''m fine," he answered, his eyebrows pressed together. "How did he get through?" he mumbled.


    She looked at where the man was but found only a pool of blood. "Shit," she cursed under her breath. Ryuu grabbed her, pulling her closer to him.


    "Secure the guests; make sure nothing happens to them," he commanded, pulling out his own gun. The guards wordlessly made their way away from them. His hand on her lower back held her close.


    "He''s gone. He probably ran off to hide in one of the rooms," she said. Her own pistol was at the ready.


    Ryuu took a deep breath. Annoyance broke through his poker face for a moment. "Stay behind me," he instructed and stepped before her.


    Slowly, they made their way, and they followed drippings of blood. To her eyes, the blood almost blended in with the carpet. But the electric glow that came from Ryuu''s eyes told her that he could see every detail without fail. The man didn''t make it far. Somehow, he made his way into one of the first rooms from the hall.


    They stood in front of the closed door. He could be waiting to shoot; how would they enter?


    "Stay behind me," Ryuu commanded as he touched the scanner. The door opened. It seemed at a much slower pace than usual. The lights turned. Ryuu lowered his gun.


    "He''s dead."


    A limp body lay in the middle of the room. The man looked as if he had been dead for a while. Dull skin revealed hollow cheekbones, and skeletal fingers still held the phaser he had shot only moments earlier. Blood stained the carpet around the man. The crisp smell of iron filled the air. Once, it could have bothered her, but now¡­She looked at the corpse. How many bodies had she seen in the last few years? Way too many to keep track of. The man''s body looked familiar, similar to the Gambie she had seen a few days prior with Xan. How was that possible? Why would a Gambie be here, and why would it have tried to kill Ryuu?


    Suddenly, Ryuu obstructed her view. He held her head to his chest. His other arm was ready with the phaser. From her peripheral vision, she could see guards running into the room and toward the corpse on the floor.


    "What are you doing?" she asked.


    "It''s not a sight for your eyes."


    "Ryuu¡­" she sighed. Did he really not realize the life she had lived these past years at level one. "let me go, I''m used to this. This isn''t even the first body I''ve seen with you around." He had been the reason she had seen her first killing and her first body. From that time, she learned that people were surprisingly resilient even after being shot multiple times.


    However, he did not budge, his hold unwavering. With her head against his chest, she could hear the sound of his heart¡ªsuch a human sound coming from such a cold man. "That was a mistake on my part. I should never have exposed you to that," he muttered.


    "We need to check the body for clues," she tried to convince him.


    "I have an investigator on board who can do that," he replied, then sighed, "There is no point in arguing with me. I won''t let you near that thing."


    He was right. There was no point in arguing with him. Ryuu was an unmovable force. What he wanted was what he got, which was why you had to learn to go around him. Something did not sit right with her, and she would get to figure out what.

 Chapter 17

    It was raining, and that was always bad news. The megacorps said it had started a long time ago with microplastics and phthalates, then with the forever chemicals. Eventually, as time passed and governments on earth were replaced with megacorporations, the concoction of forever chemicals in the environment grew, but they kept that information to themselves. They leaked into the water sources and cycled over and over again. Scientists said that these chemicals would keep cycling for thousands of years. They were what had made the rain toxic. The warnings that were broadcasted when it rained always kept out those details.


    The rain was poison; she pulled up the high neck of her raincoat, it covered most of her face. Today, most of her body was covered in rainwear just to be safe. Still, she wanted to reach a hand out and feel the cool water droplets against her skin. Maybe someday, if she made it out of this hellhole on another less corrupt planet, she would feel the rain. Ever since she was a child, there had always been a longing to run through the rain, to splash amongst the puddles.


    The rain angered her. It boiled her blood. The rain was a reminder of the corruption of what had been the megacorps. They had bled the world dry. Fri thought that most people would agree with her anger. She reached out her cupped gloved hand and let the water collect in her palm. It looked innocuous enough. Just water, but enough exposure could mean death. Some people did not hide from it; maybe it was thier way of suicide. Some would pass her utterly open to the rain, their hair and clothing soaked to the bone. Soaked in a concoction of toxic chemicals. This was far from a quick death.


    She made her way home after work. It had been an uneventful day. The rain had kept her few students hiding at home, so she had spent most of the day filling out reports and petitioning for sponsorship. Another thankless job kissing up to those higher up. Maybe she could become a sponsor herself? Fri made a mental note to ask if she could qualify to become a sponsor.


    Few were willing to walk the streets during rainy days. Day had started to turn into night. The holographic sky above dimmed and was slowly filling with advertisements. Bright ads had long replaced the stars. Stars that could only be seen on the higher levels. Neon signs reflected off the wet asphalt. It was almost atmospheric in a strange and twisted way. Level 1 had its charm. A charm noticeable in the dirt and grime of the city, in the cheap pornographic holograms, and the glitching advertisements that splattered the sky like malware. Like a cheap virus infecting every aspect of thier life. The charm was seen in the people who struggled and the life they had created for themselves. Level 1 still prospered in its own ways, the city streets full of bars, restaurants, and food stands.


    Those who could afford to drive drove to their destinations when it rained. On another day, she would have taken her nano-cycle to work, but today, she wanted to clear her head. The past weekend had left her with a lot to figure out. Ryuu, the assassination attempt, and the strange creature that had attempted it. It wasn''t a Gambie; it was something else. Something that had never been seen before. Its mutilated body still haunted her.


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    How could something like that even move? The quick glance she had was enough for her to figure out that they were dealing with something strange. The man''s body was disfigured with scars as if, at one point, he had fully been wired. Tubes and wires similar to the gambie''s but more than was standard. A lot more. It didn''t seem that the man''s mind had deteriorated. It seemed like he wasn''t there at all, as if he was controlled by an outside force. A shiver ran down her spine. The idea sounded impossible, but the assassin had moved like a marionette. His limbs twitched, dragging to its target. Arms and legs that shouldn''t move. A movement that defied reality.


    Ryuu had transferred her two hundred thousand credits after their weekend getaway. She had to figure out how to use this money and what she could do to help those at level 1, but her mind kept thinking about that creature. The zombie-like corpses had taken over her mind. Unknowing ate at her; it filled her with an itch she couldn''t scratch. Fri needed to figure out what was going on.


    She had first seen it with Xander. Maybe he knew something more? But how would she be able to get close enough to the man to talk to him? It wasn''t as if she could waltz up and speak to the boss of a syndicate. She was fairly sure that even her mother rarely made contact with the man.


    Ryuu had sent her off with a warning not to meddle and to forget about the issue. It was all suspicious. He wasn''t one to coddle her this much. It hadn''t been the first time she had investigated an incident with him. She doubted his words about wanting to protect her psyche. It wasn''t something specific that made her suspicious, just a gut feeling.  She had never been one to listen to her gut, but this time, something was different.


    She looked around and sighed. Lost in thought, she had walked past her apartment building. The rain had eased, and she looked up. Somewhere beyond the holographic screens, beyond the atmosphere, somewhere far away, a place waited for her¡ªa place out of this hellhole. She reached a hand out to the sky and then sighed. What a useless gesture. Fri dropped her hand. Feeling silly, not that anyone had even noticed.


    A car slowed next to her. Instinctively, she flinched and reached for the pistol. The windows were blacked out, so she couldn''t tell how many people were in the car. One window rolled down and revealed Xan''s familiar face. She relaxed, the momentary tension fading quickly, only to be replaced by another type of anxiety.


    "Miss teacher," he greeted, a large smile already on his face.


    The man was as much a mystery as a Ryuu. How could such a person be so happy? How could a hardened criminal act like this? Did he not feel guilty for what he had done? This one man was responsible for who knows how many deaths, and yet here he was.


    "Hello, boss man," she replied.


    "Are you free tonight?" he asked.


    Although Xan came off as kind. His smile seemed genuine. There was something off about his eyes. They were cold and calculating. His gaze reminded her of Ryuu''s and reminded her that she should be careful around him. This was not a question; this was a request.


    "I am free; why do you ask, boss man," she answered.