Hey everybody. This doesn't have anything to do with Trigun...but it does have something to do with cyborgs! I totally haven't forgotten about TLSG, either. I've just been...under-productive when it comes to that story. It'll get finished!

This takes place during 2.02 as John walks between the church and school.

He didn't want to deal with anybody. He didn't want to talk to his mom, his uncle, and least of all, her. Before he left for school, he saw her pull the last staple out of her face. She was healing. She healed a lot faster than he did.

She hadn't mentioned anything about what she had said. She hadn't told him why she had lied or that she was sorry she had lied or if she had even lied at all. The only thing she said to him was that he couldn't be trusted.

He...couldn't be...trusted. After what he had gone through to bring her back: cleaning her chip the best he could, thinking about what she said over and over again, agonizing about what it would be like to lose her, realizing that he needed her to be there, knowing that he would be betraying his mom, his uncle, and possibly the human race just because he needed to know.

The only thing that made him feel slightly better about the situation was that he hadn't said it back to her. He hadn't confirmed that what she said was true. But did he have to? Just by touching him, she could run a test, check his heartbeat, monitor fluctuations in his body, maybe even in his brain.

Run a test. He wished she could run a test on him and make everything perfect.

Now he didn't even know why he had brought her back. He couldn't be trusted. What did that even mean? Did it mean she couldn't trust him? Or did it just mean that his actions couldn't be calculated and predicted by an algorithm anymore? Wasn't that evidence enough for him to stop treating her like a human and start dealing with her like a machine? She was basically admitting that she didn't understand why he brought her back. If she had really known...if she had really thought he...felt that way...then she should know why he brought her back!

He saw all the kids walking through the halls. He thought about what it would be like to have no clue what the future stored for him. He thought about what it would be like to have a normal family. He would have settled for a normal single mom. Hell, he would have settled for simply not knowing that from this point, things were only going to get worse.

None of these people at this school could understand. None of them had even an inkling of what was in store for them. In just four years, everything would be different. He couldn't talk to anyone. The only...person...he thought he had...well. He had been stupid anyway.

She...

It...

She...

He didn't know what to think anymore. He slammed his locker, realizing that things would never be the same again.

Yeah, she certainly did heal a lot faster than him.