Sparks flew from the busted lights, zapping out little sparks of electricity and making Saki flinch, the hum of power was almost akin to that which seemed to radiate out of her. Breathless, she let her head fall back as her chest heaved and then without preamble, she mussed up her short purple hair and let out a whoop of energy and proclaimed,

"That was fucking amazing!"

No one answered at first until a slab of office-ceiling shifted and Johnny Gat poked his dark head out and held up a fist; in it he held his gun aloft and grinned in his roguish way. Saki laughed to see that his trademark shades were cracked and his usually immaculate hair was peppered with dust, it was almost nostalgic to see white in his hair again and Saki pointed and teased,

"Well if it isn't Mister Throwback-Fuckin'-Thursday."

She heaved herself up and holstered her pistol before offering the Saint a hand. He took it with a grunt and rose his dark eyebrows in confusion,

"Throwback?" He shook his head and Saki nodded at his hair,

"Oh man, that was never a good look for you, buddy."

Immediately, the ever-conscious Johnny turned and peered into one of the windows which hadn't been cracked by the blast from the bomb which they'd just let off. For a moment he simply eyed the man in the window before shaking his head to loosen the dust and then batted the rest out.

"Gah, I was fuckin' young, alright, yo. Gimme a break, you fuckin'…" He peered around at her, one brow cocked as he thought of a decent enough come back before settling on, "…emo."

"Good one, G-man." Saki placated as she shifted through the rubble, digging out her headphones.

"Oh man, I think they're busted…" She complained and gently tapped them off some rubble.

"Yeah, we got bigger things to worry about right now, Sak." Gat growled lowly, his gun equipped.

"Oh yeah?" She grunted, not really listening, still absorbed in her headphone trouble.

She heard the cock of Johnny's gun and slowly unfolded her legs and stood upright, flinging the broken headphones off to the side, she did not look at him, instead following his line of sight and asked when she saw nothing of import,

"What is it?"

Johnny frowned deeply and said, "I dunno'. Something's weird…Do you not hear that?"

"No." Saki answered straight away and leaned in a little confused.

"Neither the fuck do I." He grumbled snappily and pointed upwards towards the offices that they'd blown through, at least four floors worth of debris was scattered around them.

"No alarms. That bomb we just exploded, Saki," He pointed even higher to emphasise, "Didn't trip any of the fuckin-"

He was cut off by a flash-bang grenade hitting off of his shoulder and the huge boom that followed. Saki's eyes widened and she saw him get thrown back and cover his eyes. Saki had a little more time to prepare herself; not that it helped. The ringing in her ears was deafening and she started humming and blinking to right herself of the effects of the grenade. Multicoloured splotches vandalised her vision like annoying blue and purple fireflies that she couldn't swat away and the ringing was like that of a hundred small children screaming in her ears; high-pitched, unsettling and annoying.

Crawling around on the cold floor, Saki, blinked back tears and reached out a hand towards Johnny's general location and felt relieved when she felt his hand grip hers and hoist her up. Gunfire rang out then too and Saki felt his arm come around her waist and roughly throw her over some debris to avoid the bullets that were whizzing past them.

"What the fuck?!" She demanded of no one in particular and Johnny shrugged and pointed at his ears to say that he couldn't hear her. Saki fumed and bellowed,

"I said, what the fuck, man? How come you can see?!" She was rubbing her eyes trying to adjust.

Again Johnny was silent and pointed at his shades and screamed over the gunfire,

"And people say don't wear shades indoors, huh?!"

"Oh ha-ha!" Saki drawled acerbically, planting a finger in her ear to still the agonising ringing; "I heard that this is so bad for your ears, J!"

"So's gunfire you whining little bitch! Get up and cover me already!"

"Alright!" She barked back and got to position beside him and began firing off her pistol.

They took down the mystery gunmen, not easily, but efficiently. Johnny counted her bullets for Saki, more for his own self-preservation if anything, she was so trigger-happy, she often forgot that her clips were numbered and when she reloaded Johnny would be taking on double work until she was done and vice-versa, so he usually just counted both of their rounds to make sure they were switching fluidly enough so that the opposition had a more difficult target, not really knowing who was firing when.

"Reload, Saki!" He shouted over the blaze of gunfire and she did.

Ducking behind the cover, she quickly reloaded her pistol before getting back in the fight.

"I love action." She breathed huskily in her blood-hungry sociopathic way that made Johnny smile.

"Y'know, they were right when they said you were fuckin' nuts, kid!"

"I know!" She squealed delighted as a hail of bullets seemed to miss her entirely. "I'm a sonofabitch with damn fine luck!"

"You know it."

"I'm surprised you haven't been shot yet, actually." She teased him and he snorted in return,

"The shootout's still young, Sak."

"Yeah-"

Saki's voice died when a stray bullet thudded into her head.

"Fuck!" Johnny cried in shock as he watched her reel back dead.

He saw his own surprise mirrored in her face as she went down; but she was already gone before she hit the floor and he was on his own. He had to keep his composure, he had to not believe this until the fight was over; but his heart was thundering in his chest. What the fuck? Saki was dead. She had just died there right beside him. The fight was too quiet without her whoops and declarations of headshots. It wasn't fun anymore. Nothing was fun anymore. He wanted to be shot now too. Johnny didn't want to fight in silence and anger. For a split second his attention was diverted by the contact-enhanced violet eyes of his fallen leader and he met them with his own and nearly choked on his grief. How the fuck could she die? Blood dripped from the bullet wound on her head and he saw it trickle down past her drawn on eyebrows.

She wasn't someone who could die. Not like this. He shook his head and screamed,

"Saki! Wake the fuck up, man! Don't you fuckin' dare lie there dead!"

She didn't answer. She never would again. Not now and not ever. Just like Eesh. Johnny's chest tightened and he peered back at his attackers; his boss' murderers and gasped, there was no one there.

"What the fuck?" He hissed and glanced back towards Saki's corpse.

She was still lying there and still dead, but now she was grinning.

"Is this your worst fear, G-man?" Her dead body asked of him and he jumped back away from her.

Zombie Saki laughed at his reaction, but remained lying on the floor. She looked up towards the sky through the hole that they had blasted through the bank's roof. His breathing heavy, Johnny followed her gaze and his mouth hung open; there was nothing there now either, just black, empty space.

"Johnny?"

His name sounded strange and he looked at Zombie Saki, who still had that strange smile on her face,

"What's your biggest fear?"

"You never shutting your fucking mouth!" He cocked his gun and fired it at her to silence her.

Suddenly a booming laugh resonated throughout the chamber and Johnny remembered; he knew now what was happening. He had done this before with Saki. He had robbed the Stilwater Bank with her; they had gotten away and got mad on Crystal all night the day that they pulled off that heist.

Saki had wanted to get up and do a sexy dance with the strippers onstage, but she was too wasted to stand up straight and she'd fallen over directly onto her face, spilling Pierce's drink and making Shaundi laugh. Johnny nearly smirked at the thought of it, but relented; his thoughts were used against him now in Zinyak's world.

"Aw, feeling a little nostalgic are we, Johnny? Do you not like the sight of your mad little protégé lying there in a pool of her own blood?"

"What kind of a fuckin' question is that, you fuck?!" He snarled and Zinyak chuckled,

"Well, you needn't be rude; I only thought that you deserved a change of pace. Living in a 3-D world and seeing your beloved friend die in HD has to be a marvellous encounter for you after all that pixelated woe you've been experiencing with Aisha."

"Fuck," Johnny growled dangerously and cocked his gun again, "…you."

He blasted Zombie Saki again in the head. It wasn't the real Saki. It wasn't his homie, so he didn't care one bit as she ragdolled away from him.

"Ah, your second biggest fear. Your fears always revolve around losing people suddenly, it seems. Did you not like the fact that you could not speak to her again? That one moment she was there," His voice became theatrical,

"One second ago, there she was; kneeling beside you, laughing, loving life and then…bang. One finger on a trigger, one stray bullet and she's gone. No calculation, no control; simply gone. Fate. Saki's always been brash and reckless, hasn't she? That's how she probably will die. But you won't be there to protect her from that fate, I'm afraid."

"Go to hell." Johnny managed through gritted teeth and he heard the alien snigger,

"Oh, no I don't think I shall," He said thoughtfully, "I am rather enjoying yours too much, Mr. Gat."