It had been too long a day. Three murders and a suicide all within three blocks of Section 9 HQ and to top it all off, all four cases showed signs of hacking in their cyberbrains.

Or what was left of them.

The last three weeks had been just like that, death surrounding Motoko like a blanket, and she was nearing her breaking point.

She rolled over on her bed, seeing her roommate there with her. She had had a similarly, though less dramatic, stressful time, and she had snapped. Motoko had just spent the last two hours trying to calm her down. She would call her family tomorrow and tell them that she was going to need a vacation or help soon, or else there would be yet more death around Motoko.

"Major, is everything ok? It looks almost like you are crying." One of the Tachikomas popped in her vision. With all the things happening, the chief had ordered the Tachikomas to shadow the members of Section 9, and protect them. Major hadn't liked the idea at first, but now she did. It was the first one to express concern for her in what felt like forever. Batou was out of the country, on assignment in the American Empire, training their cyber-police in Section 9's tactics and investigation styles. He was the only one that could fully understand her, the only one she let really.

"I'm fine, Tachikoma. Just the stress of the last month is finally getting to me." She got up out of bed, carefully as to not wake up her sleeping roommate. She walked slowly to refrigerator and pulled out a can of beer and opened it.

"Poor Major, is there anything I can do to help?"

sigh "Unless you have programming I don't know about that would allow me to get drunk. I don't think so. What time would it be in the US where Batou is right now?"

"It is now 11:14 AM in New Washington DC."

"Hmm, those Americans won't take a lunch break for another hour at least. That means that I can't contact Batou." She drained the beer and put the can in the recycling bin. "I'm going to take a sedative to go to sleep Tachikoma. If an emergency arises, do you know what to do?"

"Yes! I will inject 50cc of adrenaline into your bloodstream."

"No, that would be a little much. Just connect to me and use a small electric shock, okay?"

"Oh! Why wouldn't I just inject you?"

"I'll tell you in the morning." She was standing at the bathroom mirror as she took the pills out of the bottle. 'You've been taking too many of these lately. If you aren't careful, you could become dependent…..right?' Setting the pill bottle inside the cabinet, she shuffled back to the bed, feeling the effects of the drug already.

Two hours later….

"Kill….Kill….." The voice, it came from nowhere, the words dripping with intent.

And her blood.

Wherever she ran, everyone repeated those words: "Kill Motoko….Kill Motoko…..Kill…" Everyone at Section 9, the Tachikomas, she even ran into the Prime Minister, no one sided with her. Instead, on sight, they began to chase her. Using her body's full ability, she began to run for the lone place she knew to be safe, her safe house. But soon people were catching up to her in cars, planes, helicopters, motorcycles. Batou even began running beside her, saying those now terrifying words:

"Kill Motoko…"

Knowing that soon her legs would give out, she jumped off the freeway she had been running on. It was a thirty foot drop, but her diagnostic showed that her legs were still okay, for now.

"I can't shoot them… they are my friends, the closest thing I have to family. The others are civilians. And to shoot the Prime Minister would be…." She stopped talking to herself as she saw a trap just ahead.

The people had climbed onto each other and formed a human wall. If she didn't stop on her own, they would stop her.

'I can't see beyond them! What if they have done something to block behind them! Damnit! I'd better just keep going, better to commit suicide trying to escape than be murdered.'

Shunting the last ounces her strength to her legs, she sprinted the rest of the way to the 'wall.' At the last second she jumped and covered the last few feet spiraling through them. The sounds of breaking cybernetic parts filled her ears, and the fragments and blood splashed all over her, leaving holes and staining her skin.

"Kill…." Was all they said.

Beyond them was a building. She smashed in through a window, stood up to find that there was nothing she could do.

She had been caught. Surrounding her were her closest friends, guns drawn. As she stood there the Chief walked up to her and cuffed her. "Kill….Not here….back there…." She got a good look in his eyes; they were lifeless, like he was a zombie.

Tears welled up into her eyes. Was this her destiny? Was she to have all her 'friends' turn on her? She knew that sooner or later that death would finally take her, taking revenge for all the time she had cheated it, but surely it wouldn't be like this, she would die in battle, right?

Someone approached her from behind and stunned her.

She awoke later to find that she was strapped down on a surgical table, nude. She was all alone as she tried to break free from her ties, finding that her motor functions were offline.

"DAMN IT TO HELL!" She screamed. "WHOEVER THE ASSHOLE IS THAT IS DOING THIS SHOW YOURSELF NOW!"

"As always, not paying attention to your place." A man came up to her dressed as a surgeon. "We'll just have to see if we can change that while I am in there, eh?"

"What are you going to do to me?" She had heard the words 'in there' and immediately figured that this person was going to cut into her.

"Simple, I'm going to separate your ghost, then I'll abduct it and keep you with me forever, as my slave." As he said this he reached for a scalpel and began to cut along the hair line. "I'm terribly sorry, but this is going to be horribly painful, but you won't feel horrible afterward." He grinned as he began to cut.

"You, get away from her! That is not the will of our master! She is to be killed, not separated." The pain kept Motoko from seeing who had come in, but the voice was a man's. She heard the scraping as a large knife was picked up off of the surgical table.

"One cut, and it will all be over darlin'" The voice! She started clicking together the puzzle pieces. He was definitely American, as his voice had that southern twang. But what did it matter, she was about to die anyway, why not just resign herself to it and be happy that she wouldn't have to grow old and see anyone else die?

"MAJOR! CAN YOU HEAR ME!"

"Batou?" The name escaped her lips like an afterthought.

Suddenly she was awake. The Tachikoma standing over her.

"Major! Oh thank goodness you are awake! I got a call from the Chief, and then when I came in to wake you, your cyberbody wouldn't respond! I plugged in to see what was going on, but I wasn't sure I got a solid connection."

"Tachikoma, while I don't appreciate you violating orders. I'm not going to chew you out, instead, this time only, I'm thanking you. I don't know what was going on, but I think I may have just figured out something that's very important in the killing spree that's been going on."

"Why is that?"

"Because I was just targeted for murder. But this was different. I have to talk to Batou and the Chief."