Jo looked around. "Kyo! Where are you? Say something, buddy!"

"He's not here," Kate said. "He never was."

"You-" Jo went to aim her gun at Kate, and saw it was gone - it had vanished from her hand. Her holsters were also gone.

"You don't have any guns," Kate said. "You weren't shot, either."

Jo looked at her shoulder. There was no bandage and no sign of injury.

Jo looked around and her eyes settled on the door. The small table was no longer blocking it. She cautiously approached the door and opened it.

"You never shot the lock off," Kate went on, staying at Jo's elbow, "so you never blocked the door."

Jo went into the alley. There were no cars at either end, no sign of the smoldering wreckage of Kyo's bike.

"And the cars aren't there because Jei's guys never chased you…Do I have to go on?"

Jo nodded. "I get it."

Kate grinned. "Really?"

"You kidnapped me and put me in some kind of VR capsule. That how you were able to change everything so fast."

Kate sagged. "Oh, for crying out-" She stopped and looked skyward for a moment. "That's a good point. I'll try it." She turned to Jo. "Ok. You're convinced this is all a simulation, right?"

"Yes."

"Then how could I have known in advance you'd say you wished you'd never been born?"

"You manipulated me."

"Really? How?"

"Uh…"

"And why would an enemy create a simulation where you want to kill yourself and an angel is trying to talk you out of it? In other words, if the 'bad guy' wins, you'll want to live."

"Maybe the point is I win and get determined to kill myself and do it."

"Yeah, but it's starting to get complicated, isn't it? Remember Occam's Razor? The simplest explanation is the best? Well, that an angel is trying to help you is looking pretty simple at this point."

"I see. But if I don't have any guns, how come I still have my clothes?"

"You want to walk around Tokyo naked?"

"No."

"There you are."

"Ok…So, what now?"

"You tell me, Jo. What do you want to see first?"

"Well, Kate, my immediate concern is where Kyohei went."

"You want to see him?"

"Yes, I want to see him! Where is he?"

"Right behind you."

Jo looked over her shoulder…

…and found herself facing a headstone with Kyohei's name on it.

She turned back to Kate and saw they were no longer in the alley. They were in a cemetery.

"What the-" Jo stammered.

"Sorry; it was a hike and I wanted to save time."

"You're not bolstering your argument that this isn't a simulation."

"Whatever. You wanted to see Kyohei. There he is."

Jo turned back to the headstone and read the dates. "He died five months ago?" Jo said. "I don't get it, Kate. Why would he be dead if he never met me?"

"If you were never born," Kate corrected.

"Yeah, that," Jo said. "How?"

"Well," Kate said, "you were never born, so you never came to Japan with Meg. You never made a name for yourself as the Angel of Death, and Sei never recruited Amy to confirm your legend. So Sei never had a hit squad of teenage girls, and she never hired Kyo to cook healthy meals for you. As a result, Kyo never met the only person who believed in him."

"Well, yeah, Sei supported him - she loved him…would have loved him…"

"And he loved her," Kate said, "even if they both denied it."

"Yeah, it's the worst kept secret around here. But I still can't believe it was just her. Seriously? No one else?"

Kate shook her head. "His parents thought he was a fool, maybe gay, for wanting to go to France. His friends at the cooking school humored him but didn't think he'd make it. His teacher saw his potential, but despaired that he would ever fulfill his dream, especially when he quit one job after another. Sei was the only employer he stayed with longer than a few weeks; draw your own conclusions. And then things got worse."

"Worse? How?"

Kate pointed. "Recognize that tree?"

"Yeah," Jo said, "that's where the giant crow is…was…"

"Was," Kate said. "It's not here anymore. But it was here several months ago when Kyohei was walking through here with Shiho Kazami and it captured her."

"I remember, but I saved her-"

"No, Jo, you didn't. You didn't exist for Kyo to turn to, and no one believed his story. When Shiho's body turned up a few weeks later, people began to wonder if he'd killed her. He didn't, of course, but he was the perfect fall guy, especially when more dead girls turned up. What's more believable, a giant crow or a teenage serial killer? The police searched his home and questioned him. His parents didn't believe him. What friends he had left turned their backs on him. Love and Happy threw him out. It was too much for him. He hung himself with his bed sheets. His parents used his savings to buy the headstone; it was delivered last week."

Jo crouched by the headstone. "That's…that does make sense, that hangs together. Poor guy-Wait a minute. You said Sei never recruited Amy. What happened to her?"

"Follow me."

Jo followed Kate through some bushes…

….and they were in a darkened hospital room.

Kate put her finger to her lips. "Ssssshhhhhh." Then she pointed. Jo crept to the hospital bed in the shadows. Amy was lying there, staring vacantly at the ceiling, a breathing tube down her throat, machines around her beeping and hissing.

"Amy?" Jo said. "Amy? Can you hear me?"

No response .

"What happened?" Jo asked.

"RAPT happened," Kate said, "when Sei wasn't there to rescue her. Their perverse idea of making the punishment fit the crime was to hit her with all sorts of experimental drugs and see how much brain damage they could do and still leave her functional. They'd hoped to just dumb her down. Instead, they rendered her a vegetable. The Amy you knew is already dead. They just haven't got around to turning her body off yet."

Jo's tattoo glowed. "Where's Sei?" she growled.

"Hmmm?"

"Kyo's dead and Amy's brain dead because Sei didn't hire them-"

"Jo, don't you get it? It's not Sei's fault. You never existed, so-"

"Take me to Sei now, Kate."

"All right. You might as well see how she's changed anyway."

Jo followed Kate out the door, and instead of a hospital, they were in a high end department store, near the jewelry counter. Jei and Sei were five meters away from them and walking towards them, surrounded by four beefy body guards.

Jo picked up the pace as she walked towards the group, Kate trailing behind her. "Sei!" Jo called. "We have to talk. Now."

Two of the guards tried to interpose themselves. Jo kicked the first man in the groin; as he doubled her over, her fingers hit him in the throat. He staggered, gagging. Her hand shot under his coat and grabbed his gun.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other guard move. As soon as she felt the first guard's pistol leave his holster, she leapt in the air and as she came down, sent her elbow crashing into the second guard's temple. He was staggered and Jo grabbed his gun with her free hand. Then she backed up, covering the group with the two purloined firearms.

The other two guards started to move, but Sei raised a hand and they stopped. "You have my attention," she said coolly. "What do you want?"

"Answers," Jo said. "First off…" She nodded to Jei. "…what are you doing with that idiot?"

"You mean my husband?"

"Hus…but he tried to kill you!"

"When?"

"At that party at the yacht, when your grandfather introduced you."

"You're misinformed," Sei said. "That is not how we met, and I would have remembered if he had tried to kill me. And up to this point, I was impressed. Anything else?"

"Yes," Jo said. "Bailan wanted you to track down the glowing brains. How come you didn't?"

"Because that job had zero chance of success," Sei said. "I couldn't find someone who could beat those odds. If you had been around, I might have been able to do something. In spite of your impertinence, I like you. Want a job?"

Jo's stern mask cracked. "Like it would matter at this point," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "Sorry to bother you." She put the guns on a nearby counter. "C'mon, Kate."

As the two girls walked away, Jei sidled over to his wife. "You're letting them go?" he asked.

"You think you can stop her?" Sei replied.

"Point taken, Sei. But still-"

"There's more to her than meets the eyes, Jei, and the smartest thing we can do right now is let her play her hand…"

/

/

When they left the store, Jo saw they were on the Ginza. Jo started walking down the sidewalk, not caring where she was going.

Kate kept pace with her, juggling two small objects. "I'm getting rather good at this."

"Let's hear it," Jo said.

"Hear what?" Kate replied.

"How my not existing got Sei married to Jei."

"I'd've thought it was obvious, but anyway: Because Sei couldn't form her team, she became more involved in her grandfather's plans to reunite Bailan and Kokuren. Jei and Sei had a longer courtship, and he was able to bring her over to his way of thinking. They killed Laoban and Jei's father and took over the combined syndicate."

"You're kidding! Sei can be ruthless, but she loves her grandfather."

"But there isn't a lot of daylight between her and Jei, I'm afraid. They're more alike than not. Poor girl."

"What do you mean?"

"Catch."

The two juggling objects went high in the air. Jo caught them. She saw they were pill bottles. "What the…"

"Prescription pain killers," Kate said. She pointed at the bottles in turn: "This one is Sei's, and that one is Jei's. Ironic. They have more money than some countries and in each other have the most physically desirable partner anyone could want, and yet they're lonely and miserable."

"Well…what happened to Leo? He could…help Sei."

"Leo moved to Osaka when he saw the handwriting on the wall about Sei's marriage. He and Takane were killed when a cybot razed the town."

"Oh, crap. Because I wasn't there to stop it."

Kate took the bottles back. "Yes." She put the bottles in a coat pocket. "So you see, Jo, you've really touched a lot of lives in a positive way. At the risk of using a cliché, you've had a won-"

"Meg."

"Hmm?"

"You left Meg out. What happened to her?"

"Nothing good, ok? The point is-"

Jo brought them to a halt. "Kate, you know I need to know. What happened to Meg?"

Kate wrestled with herself for a moment. Then she said, her voice shaking: "You have to understand Meg has had a terrible life. She was 13 months old when her mother was run over by an off duty cop with a 'drinking problem.' Neither her biological father nor her maternal grandparents wanted custody - in fact, he mother's parents sued NOT to have custody. So Meg became a ward of the state and alternated between foster homes and groups homes and trying to live on the street. The last time she ran away, she ended up in that abandoned school bus you found her in."

"I…I had no idea."

"Six weeks after you would have met her, she and her friends tried to rob a convenience store, and it went wrong. Meg shot and killed a woman who was 8 months pregnant. New Yorkers had a rare moment of community outrage; and Meg was tried as an adult, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. She was 13 years old. At this moments she's in solitary confinement because she attacked a woman who…who had been bragging about her kids on the outside."

"I have to see her."

"Jo-"

"Kate…" Jo calmed down. "Can you take me to Meg?"

"Yes."

"Do that. Then you can put things back the way they should be."

"All right. Look behind you."

Jo turned and found herself facing a prison cell door. She looked back and forth along the short corridor; it was dark in a window at the far end.

"New York State is about 12 hours behind Japan," Kate said, "so it's about five AM here."

Jo went up to the cell door. Through its window, she could see a figure sleeping on the bunk.

"Meg." Jo knocked on the door. "Meg!" she hissed. "Wake up."

Meg stirred on the bed. She looked over her shoulder at the cell door and did a double take. She padded over to the door. "What the…who are you?"

"My name is Jo. We…we met in New York a few years ago."

"I'm sure I would have remembered someone like you."

"Well…I remember you. And I'm…I'm going to help you. I'll make this all go away. It'll be like you were never in prison."

Meg's eyebrows arched. "Y'know, I've heard good things from the other inmates about the drug treatment program here. Just say-"

The door to the wing creaked open. A middle-aged black woman in a Department of Corrections uniform came through the door. She looked at Kate and Jo, reaching for them with one hand while reaching for the pepper spray with the other one. "Up against the wall."

Kate's eyes went wide. "You…how come I didn't-" She looked back at Meg's cell, then at the guard. "You're molesting her!"

"What-" the guard stammered. "Who are you?"

Kate rushed to the guard, grabbed her lapels, and slammed her against the concrete wall as the door closed itself. "February 12, 2036, 8:43 AM," Kate snarled. "Do you remember? Or were you too drunk?"

"February…" the guard said. "That was the day I ran down that girl."

"That's right!"

"I was so sorry for that…"

"SORRY!?"

"I got help. I haven't had a drink for two years."

"You just moved on to diddling underage girls!"

"I have a problem. I need help-"

"Help!?" Kate yanked the guard away from the wall as if she was a rag doll. "YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE! And now you're ruining hers. There's no 'helping' that."

Kate's shove sent the guard flying through the air to slam against the concrete wall at the far end of the wing. Kate turned and yanked Meg's cell door off its hinges and dropped it to the floor. "C'mon, Meg."

"What the…" Meg backed up a little. "If it's all the same to you-"

"Meg, do as you're told!" Kate turned and stalked the guard. "I have one more thing to take care of," she said as a flaming broadsword materialized in her right hand.

Slumped on the floor, the guard's eyes went wide. "Wh…who are you?"

"Who am I?" Kate said as she came to stand over the guard. "I am an angel of the Lord. I am an avatar of Divine Judgment." Kate grabbed her sword with both hands and raised it over her head. "AND IN HIS NAME, SINNER, I CONDEMN THEE TO HELL!"

Kate brought her sword down…

…and the tip dug into the floor of the kitchen Jo and Kyo had sought refuge in. Jo looked around. Meg and the guard were gone.

"No!" Kate shouted as she raised her eyes to the ceiling. "Let me finish. Send me back." She started to cry. "I don't care what happens to me. I can't leave her l-l-like th-th-a-a-a-a…" Her sword vanished as she slid down against the wall, sobbing.

Jo crouched in front of the angel. "Kate, you…you're Meg's mother, aren't you?"

Kate nodded.

Jo sat against the wall next to her. "What happened?"

"The same old story," Kate said, sniffling. "Girl from a small town with stars in her eyes heads for the big city. I wanted to be a singer or in a Broadway musical. I worked here and there, worked off and on as a stripper, and met a nice guy…I thought…until I got pregnant and he dumped me like a sack of crap. But out of that mess came a little gift: Meg, my Meg. She was a such a beautiful baby, Jo, and she was always so happy. Every moment I spent with her, she made the crap in my life go away. I was determined to make the best life for us I could. And things started to turn around; I actually got jobs in some commercials.

"Well, it couldn't last. Someone at Children's Services decided I wasn't a fit mother and they took Meg away from me. And I was crossing the street on the way to family court to plead my case when I was run over by that cop. I still remember looking at my body and being surprised at how much that girl looked like me.

"I watched her over the year, pushed the rules as far as I could. You're supposed to leave Earthly attachments behind, but I couldn't, not Meg. And I worried about her at every turn. She's a good person, Jo, but she had no role model, and she doesn't always make the best decision. When I foresaw you could help her, I gave Shirley a nudge - made her determined to save you. And you saved Meg, not just by fighting for her. Meg thinks she has to take care of you, so she makes better decisions than she otherwise would have. That's why you have to live, Jo. That's why…" Kate's body shook with sobs, and she went on: "I'm sorry. I've made a mess of things. I shouldn't have done this, because I did it for myself - no one sent me. I've made a mess of things like I always do…"

"No, you didn't! You didn't come to me out of selfishness, Kate. You came out of love. You did it for the right reason. If that doesn't put God on your side, I don't know what will." Now Jo's voice shook: "But I may not be the right person to help her. I don't know if I have it in me…"

"Haven't you learned anything, Jo?" Kate scooted around to kneel in front of Jo. "Sometimes it's enough to be there and have a good heart - and you do have a good heart, or you wouldn't beat yourself up. For Meg, for Kyohei - for everyone you care about. Just be there. And don't think you won't be missed, because you will."

Jo nodded as she got on her knees in front of Kate. "All right, Kate. I can do that. Send me back and I will do that…for our Meg."

They fell into a hug. "Thank you, Jo," Kate said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Jo's left shoulder started hurting, she felt the weight of the holsters on her waste, and the body she was holding felt…different. Then she heard Kyo's voice in her ear: "Jo? Are you ok?"

Jo pulled back and saw she was holding Kyo in her arms. She smiled. "Kyohei!? You're ba - wait, you know me?"

"Uh…yeah."

Jo couldn't help herself: she laughed and pulled Kyo into the tightest hug she could manage with her left arm hurting. "KYOHEI! I've never been so happy to see your ugly mug, pal." She loosened her grip and looked at her left shoulder. "And look - I've been shot!"

"That's great, Jo. So are we going ahead with the…who are you looking for?"

Jo was looking around. "Where did Kate go?"

"Who?"

"Oh…Never mind…Kyo, ever hear of a movie called 'It's a Wonderful Life'? About a guy who sees what the world would have been like without him?"

"Yeah. Didn't think it was your kind of film. No zombies."

"You'd be surprised." She let go of Kyo and sat against the wall next to him.

"So, are we still going ahead with your plan?"

"Plan?"

Kyo hefted the neruonic stunner. "You out the back, me out the front."

"No." Jo took the stunner back. "That plan sucks. We need a new plan."

"What?"

"I don't know…Let me see your phone."

Kyo handed her his phone. "Still no signal."

"I can see that. But if I were to pray for some divine intervention, for a little miracle, I'd ask for this phone to get its signal back."

Kyo chuckled. "Seriously? Why not pray for a-"

The bars reappeared on the phone's display.

"New signal," Jo said, handing the phone back to him.

"Wow," Kyo said. "You want me to call Sei?"

"Yes-no-wait! Does Shiho have a boyfriend?"

"Not as far as I know."

"Call her and tell her to pick you up at this alley. Tell her it's ok to walk in and not mind the men in suits."

Kyo started to panic. "Why? You'll get her killed!"

"No, I won't."

"Jo-"

"Do you trust me, Kyo?"

"Yes, Jo."

"Then take a deep breath, calm down, and make the call. If I'm right, Shiho can get us out of here without any shots being fired…"