Our road trip had never been so quiet as it was for those two hours we drove after the incident with the two men. I suppose it was a mutual understanding of sorts; what did we really need to discuss about that? We both were there. We were both hurt and exhausted. To try to take my thoughts off of what had just happened, I gazed at the horizon. The sky was pitch-black, and given that we were away from any big-city smog, the stars seemed to be dazzling. They were a nice distraction, but maybe too much of one, for I almost veered off the road several times as I zoned out, having let myself get entranced by them.

"Xania…we're gonna have to stop at the next town," I said wearily. "I'm starting to nod off, and we're almost out of gas."

"Ok…" she said, sounding like she was almost asleep herself. "Rosho?"

"Yeah?"

"What're we gonna do?"

"I don't know…for now, I guess we'll stay a night in a motel first, and figure things out from there."

"So much for the Grand Canyon, huh?"

"Heh…yeah…too bad…I was looking forward to it, too…"

"How do you say 'I was looking forward to seeing the Grand Canyon' in Japanese?"

"…What?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "Why do you want a lesson in that NOW?"

"Somethin' to take my mind off of this shit."

"Ok, I guess that's a good reason. It's Gurando Kyanion o miru no wa tanoshimi ni shiteta'n da."

"What about 'spring break'?"

"Haruyasumi."

"What about 'my tail fuckin' hurts'?"

"Shippo ga… Hey!"

"Well, it does!"

"I know. I'll take care of that once we…ow…" I slowed the bike to a stop and grabbed my side, gritting my teeth. I hoped to God I didn't have any broken ribs. It didn't seem to feel like it at the moment, but once the adrenaline rush wore off I'd know for sure…

"Rosho…you ok?"

"Damn it…yeah…I'm fine. I just bruised a few ribs." I climbed off the bike and crouched on the side of the road for a moment to catch my breath. This didn't seem real…none of it did. I hadn't just used gun grenades for only the second time. I hadn't just used them to kill two people; Genom cronies, but still people. I hadn't just put Xania right in the line of fire.

"I'm sorry…for all of this," I said hoarsely, standing up, turning to look at her.

Xania remained perched on my bike, her expression not changing an iota. "Why are you sorry?"

"I sort of figured they might find me sooner or later…but I didn't think they'd use you as a pawn."

"But you got me out of it."

"Still…it's me they're after. Not you. It'd be fine if they'd just left you out of it. But…"

"Not like it matters now." She pointed down the road. "I think I see some lights down there. I bet there's a motel where those lights're at."

"I hope so." I climbed back onto the bike, wincing again as my side throbbed lightly. "Just a little further…"

It was another few minutes before we reached the lights Xania had pointed at. It was another tiny little town, similar to the one we'd been at a couple hours ago. Nothing seemed to look too suspicious to me, but at the moment, I just wanted to lay down and get some rest; I didn't want to think about anything anymore. Fortunately there was a motel, and I pulled into the parking spot closest to the check-in office. I helped Xania off the bike, and held one of her arms around my shoulders to support her as we headed in.

The guy at the desk raised his eyebrow at the sight of us. "Little accident?"

"Wiped out on my bike," I said. "Just need to check in for the night."

He seemed to be content with that answer, and after I paid for our room for the night, I asked to borrow his first-aid kit if he had one. He did, and he lent it to us, saying for us to keep it as long as we needed. So with first-aid kit in hand, bag on my shoulder, and Xania leaning on my other shoulder, I headed for the stairs and went up to the third floor, which I inwardly cursed; why hadn't I asked for the first floor? I didn't feel like going up any damn stairs right now! Couldn't help it now, but as I went up to that floor, Xania expressed the discontent that I was feeling.

"Third floor? Shit. I can barely walk, and he makes us take a room on the third floor…" she groaned.

Nothing else was said until we reached room 301, the room assigned to us. Once I unlocked the door, I helped Xania inside and sat her down on the bed closest to the window. She shuddered.

"Owowow…"

"I know, I know. Lay down on your stomach," I instructed. "I need to take a better look at your tail."

Once she did so, I took her tail out of the belt loop I'd strung it through and untied the makeshift bandage from around its base. The wound was still seeping a little bit, but the bleeding – leaking? – had largely stopped. I wished I could've asked her to take off her shorts so her tail wouldn't be encumbered, but I knew that would be asking a lot of her right now.

"Xania…I don't know how to fix your tail," I sighed. "It's half-amputated. And who would I call anyway? A doctor or a mechanic?"

"Don't worry about it," she said tiredly. "It'll…it'll heal up."

"I'm not so sure…"

"It'll close up by itself."

You mean like Boomers healing themselves?, I thought sarcastically. "But…how long does that take?"

"Honestly, I dunno. The docs who put it on me said depending on the wound, it can take anywhere from a couple hours to three or four days."

"Amazing how far cybernetics have come…"

"Still hurts like a son of a bitch though!!" she yelled out, grimacing.

"I know, I know. I keep wondering though…is it leaking, or bleeding?"

Xania managed to smirk, despite her pain. "That thing can use real blood, doesn't need oil. So yeah, it's…bleeding."

"I need to get to it better." I dug around in the first-aid kit for a pair of gauze scissors, and sure enough, I found a pair. "I'm gonna cut away some of the shorts, ok?"

"Ok…"

I snipped away most of the back of her shorts, tossing the part I'd cut away aside while I cleaned up around the wound with some peroxide. Xania cried out and banged her limbs against the bed like a little kid, but I didn't flinch as I took a section of bandage and wrapped it around her tail.

"I wasn't sure how tight to wrap it…" I admitted. "But I figured I should at least cover it up while it repairs itself…"

"T-thanks…" she said weakly. "Oww…God dammit…"

"I know, I know…"

"Back there on the road…I was gonna say somethin'…"

"Like what?"

"I was gonna say…that I've gained a whole new respect for Michiko now."

"W…what?" I gasped.

"I think she knew what she'd gotten into when she learned you were a Knight Saber. And she…she didn't care either way. When the time came that she'd have to protect you, she did. And I'm proud of her. I gotta admit, it takes some guts to do that."

"X-Xania…"

"Rosho, listen. I think it was better that I was out here with you 'stead of ya bein' out here by yourself. At least you have somebody to watch your back."

"They didn't have to involve you! They could've just walked right past you, come into that convenience store, and blown me away!" I protested.

She grimaced again. "But they didn't. I walked up to 'em to say hi, and they asked how my friend Yumeko was doing. I started sayin' 'Oh, she's fine,' then realized they'd called you by your real name. I tried to yell for ya, but…they grabbed me…"

"Don't talk anymore…" I said, shushing her. "You did enough."

"They were so much fun at that bar the other night!" she cried. "How'd they turn out to be some kid-chasing mother-fuckers, huh?!"

"Don't think about it." I took my bottle of hydromorphone out of my bag. "Here. I have something that'll help with the pain. It'll help you sleep through the night."

"What is it?"

I filled up the dropper halfway. "Just some stuff I take occasionally for my leg. Open up." She opened her mouth, and I squirted the pink liquid in. She swallowed, a bitter look on her face. "There. You'll feel better soon."

"Rosho…it was pink. Was that morphine?"

"Something like it, yeah. …How'd you know?"

"I told you…hospitals. My parents…they…they were in and out of 'em every now and then. Remember how I said I hated hospitals?"

"Yeah. I was surprised that you knew what a morphine pump was when we went to visit Sara after her accident."

"Well…there was one time…when they were high, and they ended up in a traffic accident. Stupid fuckers drove high. Stupid. Anyway…" Her eyelids started to droop. "They…were in the hospital for a few days, and Dad discovered the good ol' morphine pump. Drove the docs crazy when he asked 'em to up the max amount he could pump himself with in one hour."

"But wouldn't they have tested positive for meth when they first went in?" I inquired.

"Sure. But I dunno the details. But on the last day, when he got discharged, he asked for a prescription for morphine…begged, pleaded. Docs said no. Dad went ballistic. He attacked the doctors, threw shit everywhere, almost hit me in the head with a bedpan. I felt sorry for him, 'cause I felt like if they just gave him what he wanted he'd be happy and we could go home. But…"

"So that's why you don't like hospitals?"

"Uh-huh…don't like doctors either. Ever since then, I've learned not to trust 'em."

"Well…sometimes they don't listen," I admitted. "But I think we've all dealt with doctors who don't listen."

"Yeah…I guess…"

I stayed with her until she finally nodded off, utterly exhausted. I felt the same way, but at the same time, my nerves were shot. Sure, those two guys were out of the way now, but I knew better than to think that'd be the end of it. It was only a matter of time before the other Genom people would get wind of what happened. I knew we had to keep moving, not give them a chance to catch up, but Xania was in no condition to go anywhere, and even I would've had to rest eventually.

I got off and gingerly took off my jacket and shirt, wincing when I had to peel the shirt off my back; blood from my wound there had made it stick to my skin. Topless, I walked into the bathroom and took a look in the mirror. The graze wound sort of reminded me of road rash, as did the one on my temple, once I washed the blood from the side of my face. I'd already been shot twice, and in one night I almost got shot a third and fourth time. Hell, it was the second and third times I'd had graze wounds, the first being thanks to Boh and a sneeze! Where was this kind of luck coming from? How had I cut it close twice?

Even my getting hit by the car was luck. If I'd jumped off the cactus a fraction of a second earlier, I would've hit the grill of the car and ended up under the tires. Any later and the car could very well have crushed me against that cactus along with its front end. I tried to put that out of my mind as I took off the rest of my clothes and stepped into the shower to rinse myself off, get rid of all the dirt and sand and dried blood that stuck to me.

What dumb luck! I'd even gotten those grenades from Bert 'just to be on the safe side,' and lo and behold, they were instrumental in saving my, and Xania's, life. If I hadn't had them, I might have just had to resort to an old-fashioned gun battle. I shuddered at the thought of how that might have ended up. I was decent with a gun, but whether I'd be able to stay calm under fire like that was a different matter. I thought back to the first time I used a gun grenade, when a Boomer had gone stomping through Linna's apartment complex. I'd gone outside to face it myself, hoping to hold it off until the Knight Sabers arrived. I'd fired the grenade at it even as it was firing at me. I chuckled lightly at the memory. How stupid had that been?! I'd tried to plead my case to Sylia, even as I held my bloodied shoulder, but she wouldn't hear of it. The others rode my ass for a while after that, too. In hindsight I knew it was stupid, but would I do the same thing now? Sure I would.

Oh wait…I just had.

But my opponents weren't Boomers. At least, I didn't know that until I saw their mangled corpses. But still…I knew if given the chance, they would've killed me. I was defending myself, so it was ok…

…But I sure didn't feel that way.

I felt like a monster, somehow.

I felt nauseous as I recalled other moments, other pivotal moments. As he was stabbing me, I'd put my gun in Boh's face, perfectly willing to blow his face off. But at the time, I hadn't known he was a Boomer, not until he mangled the gun by slapping it out of my hand. And at Genom Tower…I'd blown away Quincy's face, also believing he was human. But after I saw the remnants of his head, I learned he was a copy of the real Quincy.

It made me sick. I WAS capable of killing all along! It didn't matter if I didn't know if they were human or Boomer – I was willing to take lives. What the hell was I? But if they HAD been human…how would I have felt?

I would've felt relieved. I knew that right away. I HAD felt relieved in the moments after I 'killed' Quincy, and part of me felt a sick glee in the thought that Boh could be rebuilt, and I could kill him over and over again. It would be ok; he was only a Boomer, after all.

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off, taking care not to go over my back too hard. Putting on a fresh pair of panties, I walked over to the first-aid kit and took out an Ace bandage. I winced as I wrapped it around my ribs, knowing it would have to be uncomfortably tight in order to bind them correctly. Securing the bandage, I took out a band-aid and put it over the wound on my temple. I couldn't reach the one on my back, so I left it uncovered.

I pulled my nightshirt over my head, the one with the missing sleeve, and sat on the other bed, watching Xania as she slept. I put my back against the headboard, taking my gun in my hands. There was no way I'd be able to sleep, not tonight. Nothing was sure anymore. I had to make sure they wouldn't catch me in an unguarded moment, not again.

We can't go back to Sacramento, I thought, dread filling me. No, we couldn't go back. If they knew I'd been in Arizona, they surely knew where I was staying. I bit my lip in thought; what was happening with Irodia, and Mikhaila, and Tyler? Were they safe? Or had Genom kidnapped them like they'd attempted to kidnap Xania? Even if they were safe – which I wasn't sure of at all – I couldn't risk endangering them by going back. I couldn't even call them to warn them, not on the off-chance the phones were tapped. No…the best I could do was get away as far as possible, stay away, keep Genom away from them and focused on me.

I sighed at another realization; I didn't have much ammo. Besides the clip in my gun, I only had two others, and no more grenades. Once I used those up, my gun would be nothing more than a threatening-looking paperweight. "Shit," I hissed to myself. If even two more men were sent after me, I'd be pushing my luck. If they actually sent a dozen men after me next time, or a real Boomer, I'd be screwed. Even so, I swore that even if I didn't make it out, I would make sure Xania would. She'd done enough.

I promised her she would be ok. It was a promise I would take to my grave if I had to. I would not lose another friend. Michiko was enough.

She was enough…

-----

My willpower wasn't quite as strong as I'd thought. The last time I could recall seeing on the clock by the bed was 2:28 AM, and even before that I'd found my head jerking up whenever it had started to hang. Sometimes I'd open my eyes, bewildered, not having remembered closing them. But eventually, morning did come, however slowly, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself slumped over, my body spread over the pillow. I gasped and looked around quickly, sighing in relief when I saw Xania in the same position she'd been in the night before, on her stomach. Blood hadn't seeped through the bandage around her tail, so that told me it was starting to repair itself. I looked at the clock, and this time it said 8:49 AM.

"You're an idiot," I suddenly heard her say. I spun around; hadn't she been sound asleep a second ago?

"Xania! I thought you were asleep still."

"No. How well could I sleep like this, huh?" She slowly sat up, wincing as she had to force her tail to switch positions. "Like I said, you're an idiot."

"How am I an idiot?"

"When you first came to Cali, you were in pain ALL the time, from your stomach gettin' gutted. I KNOW you would've taken some if you'd had any." Her eyes narrowed. "You're a liar, Rosho. That stuff isn't for your leg."

"I ran out just before I came to Sacramento." It was the truth.

"So where'd you get it?"

"I had a prescription."

"Yeah right. Like a Japanese prescription is really gonna carry over to the U.S.!"

I had to admit, she had me there. "I found somebody to give me some."

"Like who?"

"Bert," I said blankly. "I didn't know it at the time we went over there to buy my gun though. I didn't find out till later."

"When? Dammit, Rosho, when?!" She was ready to jump off the bed and strangle me if I didn't answer. I just shrugged it off.

"A few months ago. After Sara's accident."

"So it's NOT for your leg!" she accused. "If it was really for your leg, you would've gotten it a hell of a lot sooner than a few months ago!"

"Didn't know any dealers," I replied cheekily. "I would've gotten it earlier if I'd known Bert had any."

Xania thought for a moment. "That day…March 16th….you were actin' funny, and I kinda had a feeling it wasn't just the anniversary thing, either. Damn it…you were high!! How many times have you used that shit to get high and not just for your leg, huh?!"

I shrugged; it wasn't like I was supposed to keep track of this stuff. "Does it matter? I'm not addicted. And it IS for my leg. Don't you recall how rainy it was when Sara's accident happened, and for weeks after? My leg hurt!! I went to Bert and asked if he knew anybody who could help me out, and it turned out he was the one I could go to." I was lying through my teeth, and judging by the look on Xania's face, she knew it.

"You're still an idiot! You went and did that, even though you knew about my parents bein' druggies?!" She stood up, but started to wobble as she held up what was left of her shorts to keep them from falling down.

"I'm not like them! They were so out of it the only thing they cared about was their next hit! I'm not like that!"

"Have you gotten high on this trip, Rosho? Have ya? Huh?!" she demanded. "When was the last time you got high?!"

"…Friday. Before we left."

"Four days ago?!"

"Yeah. And good thing I brought it with me, too. You got hurt pretty bad."

"Did YOU take any last night?" she asked darkly.

"No." I said it with a straight face. "I had to keep my wits about me in case any other 'bad guys' came looking."

"…You're still an idiot," she growled. "Where's the bottle?"

"Why?"

"Where's the fuckin' bottle?! I want you to pour it out!"

"I don't need to pour it out. I told you, I'm not an addict. I only take it when I need it."

"And how often is that, huh? Every time it rains? Rosho, we live in Sacramento, the heart of Cali! It rains all the time! You WILL be an addict sooner or later, if you're not already!"

"I just said—"

"And I don't believe you."

"You want it? You really want it?" Infuriated, I dug through my bag, producing the bottle, and tossed it at her. "There! But if you're in pain again later, I won't be able to give you any more if you pour that thing out!"

Xania actually gulped at the thought. She looked at the bottle again, then handed it back to me. "What, change your mind now?" I asked.

"…When you put it that way…" She scratched her head and paled, but still looked upset at me. "But promise me somethin'. When this whole thing is over, when my tail's healed up, you're gonna pour that thing out! You wantin' to go to the Olympics isn't gonna happen if they find that crap in your system."

"I know better than to take it during the Olympics! And besides…I'm not even sure about those anymore. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to get through today. The Olympics are the last thing on my mind." I put the bottle back in my bag. "I'm gonna go find something to eat in the motel lobby. I'm hoping they have a continental breakfast like the one in Needles did. You want anything?"

"Surprise me. I'm not up for anythin' in particular at the moment."

"Ok."

I changed out of my nightshirt into some shorts and a tube top, Xania grimacing when she saw the graze wound on my back and the bandage around my ribs, but didn't say anything. Putting my jacket on, followed by my leg sleeve and some shoes, I left and headed downstairs. There had been a continental breakfast, but there wasn't much of anything left. I just grabbed a couple pieces of fruit and some bran muffins, took Xania's share back up to our room, then went back down the stairs and headed outside. It was a lovely morning, bright and with hardly any clouds in the sky, not surprising given that this was the middle of the desert. I sat down against the wall of the motel at the far end of the building and gazed across the parking lot at a family packing up their things, getting ready to head to their next destination.

They look happy, I thought. Good. They deserve to be happy. Someone here needs some normalcy in the middle of all this. I smiled to myself as I heard the mother remind her children to take some Dramamine before they headed out, that she didn't want the carpet in the minivan to smell like puke for the whole road trip. Yet I doubted even Dramamine would've helped last night when I'd seen what I'd done to the two men. The memory still nauseated me. I was disgusted…with the sight, myself, with the whole damn situation. Had it only been four days ago that we set out on this trip, four days ago that I'd had Greg try to comfort me, four days since I hung out with Bert and Juan? And karaoke was only two days ago…no, not even that, more like one-and-a-half.

What happened?!

Just rewind to four days ago. Rewind. I want that day back!

Oh, what I would give to have Bert's entire arsenal of weapons with me, or better yet, those weapons AND Bert, and Juan. Then we could take out whatever was coming together. But that wasn't going to happen.

I was by myself in this. And there was no one I could call for help.

-----

I rubbed my shoulder as I headed back into the motel and up the stairs to my room. It had started to throb, and I thought I'd recalled seeing some sort of gel pack in the first-aid kit I could put on it. I knocked on the door, letting Xania know it was me, then unlocked the door and entered.

"Xania?" I said out loud, noting the bandage around her tail. She was back in her stomach-down position on her bed, and the bandage looked…bulkier than usual. I took a look at Xania's face and almost gasped out loud. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head, her eyelids fluttering, like she was having a seizure. I quickly bent down and unwrapped the bandage, only to get another shock: the back half of a bullet was sticking out of part of the base of the tail. With each little faint buzzing sound I heard come from the tail, the bullet was pushed out a little bit more. My jaw dropped. I'd never thought a cybernetic limb could do something like this!

I sat down on my knees on the carpet, watching both the bullet being pushed out and watching Xania's face for any sign of distress. Instead, her eyelids just kept fluttering. Had she known about this? I turned back to the tail, and my eyes got wide as the bullet finally was completely pushed out, and it fell to the bedspread harmlessly. I picked it up; the front end was completely smashed in, but I didn't know if it was from hitting the tail, or from hitting a bone.

I turned to look at Xania again, and the eyelid-fluttering had stopped. She now looked peaceful, like she was sleeping. But as I grimaced upon seeing the new hole in her tail, I wondered how that was humanly possible. I rewrapped the base of it in the bandage and went back to the first-aid kit for my original objective: to find a gel pack. I quickly found it, in a built-in pouch, and sat down against my bed, holding it to my shoulder. The coolness spread into my shoulder, and the throbbing lessened.

"It's hot in here," I said out loud, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I stood up, still holding the gel pack against my shoulder, and looked around for a switch for the air-conditioning. I found it, and turned it on full-blast. We were in the desert; who needed heat?!

"Damn it," I cursed; my ribs were now throbbing as well. Switching the gel pack between my ribs and my shoulder wasn't gonna cut it, I knew that much. The first-aid kit was sure to have some aspirin in it, but somehow I didn't believe that would work either. As much as I knew Xania would hate it, I just might've had to resort to my pink liquid for this. And I did just that. I reached into the bag and took out the little white bottle, filled up the dropper, and swallowed the whole thing.

"You're not the only one hurting," I said to Xania, though I knew she was unable to hear me. "I think I'll join you."

I went back under the covers of my bed, and before whatever high I could've had had a chance to kick in, I was asleep again.

-----

I was happy.

I was walking down the side of a suburban road, holding hands with a guy. We were laughing. I was able to tell him all of my secrets – my time as a Knight Saber, my hopes and dreams for the future, even my worst fears. There was nothing I couldn't tell him.

But I couldn't see his face. All I could see was his smile. I found myself lost in that smile. It made me feel safe. The rest of the world seemed to disappear; it was only the two of us.

But then, the smile turned to an evil smirk. My own smile faded, and the rest of the man's face came into view. Grey eyes…long black hair tied back in a ponytail…

I pulled my hand away. Or tried to. He held it fast in his grip.

"Why are you trying to run away, Yumeko?" Boh asked, still smirking. "There's nowhere to run to."

I looked around; indeed, the world had disappeared, and it was just him and me, only instead of a serene sea of white like it had been a second ago, it was an eerie grey, darker than the grey in his eyes. The air started to get heavy, and a humid kind of heat filled that air around us. "Where are we?" I demanded, trying to pull my hand away again, to no avail.

"You are always running away. Typical. Why can you not stay and confront what is bothering you?"

"I confronted them. And they're dead," I spat. "And you really think I'd stick around after blowing their car up, twice even? I'm not that crazy."

Boh snapped the fingers on his free hand, and from behind him came two shadowy figures. I gasped and tried to pull away again as I recognized them; the two men I had killed. And from behind them came old man Quincy.

"What the hell?!"

"Ironic, isn't it, Yumeko? You tried to kill me and Mr. Quincy believing we were both human, and you killed these two men here believing they were Boomers. And you had it wrong both times. What makes you think you can trust your own judgment in the future?"

"I'd always had Boomers sent after me…I never thought I'd have real humans sent after me. Humans are fallible."

"Therefore, you admit you, too, are fallible."

"So what! It was kill or be killed. Whether they were human or Boomer, I knew they intended to capture, if not kill, me as well as Xania. They didn't give me any other option…just like when you were stabbing me. Didn't matter…I just wanted you to stop."

"You came to Genom Tower that August night…fully expecting to die. Yet as it turns out, you're not quite ready to play martyr, are you?" He cocked his head, earnestly awaiting my answer.

I just returned his smirk. "Things went my way that night. I'm not gonna deny I was happy about that."

"You know that's not always going to be the case, though. Luck, if you wish to call it that, does run out, just as each cat runs out of its nine lives. Yours is due."

"I know this isn't the end of it. I know something else is gonna come. And I'm ready for it. Whatever it is, I'm ready."

"Yumeko, you're not as ready as you think you are." He released my hand and tucked his hands into his jacket pockets, turning partway away from me. "Remember…you're fallible. You used the word first, not me."

I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could, everything went black, and Boh and the others disappeared from sight. I looked up into the sky, or whatever sky there was – it was black all the same as my surroundings – awaiting some awful thing to come out of nowhere, like had happened in places like this before. But instead came a voice…

"Rosho…"

I squirmed, hugging myself.

"Rosho, wake up!"

"Uhhh…"

My eyes fluttered open as I felt a pair of hands gently shaking my shoulders. I looked over my shoulder and saw Xania there, her eyes wide. "X…Xania?"

"You were talkin' in your sleep, like you were havin' a bad dream. You ok?"

"Yeah…" I sat up, brushing my hair out of my face. My whole body felt hot and sticky, yet somehow I didn't feel any better kicking the covers off of me. "I'm just hot. Even in my dreams I was hot."

"What'd you dream about?"

"Boh…and the two guys…"

"They're all dead. They can't do nothin' to us now." She looked at me curiously, putting a hand on my forehead. "Shit!" she hissed, yanking her hand away. "You're burnin' up!"

"Well, I WAS under the covers."

"No, no, you're really hot." She bent down and dug a thermometer out of the first-aid kit. By this time, I was sitting up, and from my vantage point, I could see she wasn't wearing her bloodied shorts anymore. She wasn't wearing anything below the waist, actually.

"Oh, put on something," I said, exasperated. "You should still be in bed anyway."

"I'm fine." She ignored my order and stood up, sticking the thermometer in my mouth. When it beeped, she pulled it out and took a look at the reading. "Rosho…you ain't fine. This thing says 101.3 degrees. Bein' under those covers ain't gonna hike up your temp THAT much. And never mind the fact you've got the air conditioner on full blast in here!!" She rubbed her arms and shivered slightly.

"Still feels hot in here to me…"

"'Cause you've got a fever!!" she snapped. Finally digging through her own bag to find a pair of underwear or something to put on, Xania just shook her head. "Of all the times to get sick…"

"Don't worry about me! I'm more worried about taking care of your tail right now!" I cleared my throat at the memory of what I'd seen earlier. "Um…by the way, what you said about it repairing itself…that's a pretty graphic process, huh? I saw it push the bullet out of your ass. You looked…freaky there."

"My tail does something to my body when it's goin' through the worst part of the repair process. I guess it releases something to sedate me for a bit." She shrugged. "I dunno what exactly."

"You looked pretty out of it until the bullet was out, then you fell asleep."

Xania pulled on her underwear, folding down the band so that it rested just below where her tail connected to her butt. "Still hurts," she said. "I didn't wanna have to thread it through my underwear…"

"Are you up to traveling tonight?" I suddenly asked. She looked at me like I was crazy.

"Why?! You're sick and my tail and ass still hurt like a son-of-a-bitch."

"I am NOT sick," I reiterated. "And we need to keep moving in case somebody else is coming after us."

"If anybody else IS comin', I doubt they'd be comin' so soon after havin' some of their friends blown up."

"You don't know Genom…even I don't know them that well, but I'd rather not take any chances, would you?"

She sighed and started to dig through the first-aid kit again. "No, but it wouldn't hurt to rest up a little more. Fevers can make a person kinda goofy, and I wouldn't wantcha drivin' if you've got a fever like that."

"You're acting like my fever's 105 or something. It's not."

"This IS Arizona. The sun's not gonna help with your fever." She took out a small packet of ibuprofen. "Here, this oughta do it."

I ripped open the packet and popped the pills in my mouth, swallowing them dry. "So what do you think? If the sun IS gonna wreak havoc on me, maybe we should wait until the sun goes down, then head out again."

"It's 3 PM now. We've still got a couple hours to kill before then. So let's just relax, huh?" Xania flipped on the TV and sat down gingerly on the edge of her bed, resting her tail behind her. I just laid back on my bed and put a hand to my forehead. It was hot, but…it didn't seem that bad. Didn't seem like a good reason to put off heading out for a few more hours. Sure, I was achy, but I chalked that up to having been hit by a car the night before. Damn it, why did I have to get sick now?! Was it from the stress of the recent events? Sure, it could've been, but even if it was, I wish it would've waited until later…much later…I didn't care how later, just anytime but now.

I'm fine, I'm just hot. I just wanna get going again, I thought, closing my eyes.

A while later – I didn't know how much later; it could've been a couple minutes, could've been an hour – I felt a cold cloth being placed on my forehead. I half-opened my eyes, but Xania shushed me before I could speak.

"It's ok," she said softly. "You took care of me, now I gotta do the same for you."

"You're…taking this whole situation well," I said, my voice suddenly hoarse.

"I'm stuffing it," she admitted without batting an eye. "We can bitch about it later, right?"

"Heh. Right…" I sighed. "Y'know…that was the least violent dream I've had with Boh in a while…and before that…I was walking with a guy. Holding hands. And I was…happy, and laughing…"

Xania smiled. "Greg?"

"I dunno who it was. Whoever he was…I wish we had somebody like him around now…"

-----

Once I felt like doing something besides laying in bed, me and Xania watched some TV together. I wasn't really paying attention though; it was just something to do to take my mind off everything. Seemed better than just sleeping it off, anyway, and besides, nobody can sleep forever. Watching TV forever would be easier to pull off.

"Rosho, I just had a thought," Xania suddenly said.

"Huh? What?"

"When we went to buy your gun that one time…I do remember Bert throwing in a grenade, but only 'cause you persuaded him to."

"So?"

"It was only ONE grenade. You used two last night. Where'd you get the other one?"

I scratched my head in thought. She was right…he HAD only given me one, and I knew I hadn't brought another one over from Japan; I didn't have a gun to use it with anymore, anyway. "I think it was…a couple weeks ago, just after the summit anniversary," I said.

Yes. It had been the weekend after the anniversary of the summit. I had gone down to the Black Spider to let off some steam. Lunch with Sara and Greg on that day had helped put me at ease, but I still had so much pent-up anger and frustration. I'd fired like mad at all the targets, using up all the clips I'd had.

"Damn, girl, you're kinda trigger-happy today, huh?" Bert said.

"Just a little," I replied dryly. "I need some more clips."

"12-round clips, or more 15-rounders?"

"15-round ones."

I forked over the money, and Bert handed me several clips, joking for me not to use them all up at once. "Oh yeah, that reminds me o' something."

"Of what?" I asked.

"If you're really lookin' to shoot up something, a friend of mine has this place out near San Fran. Bunch of old junkyard cars. Perfect target practice." He slapped a gun grenade in my hand. "I bet they'd blow up nice too with one o' those babies."

"I already have a grenade."

"So now you have two. Maybe we could take a trip out to San Fran sometime and use 'em. Sound fun?"

"Sure!"

I smirked as I told Xania the story. Cars as target practice…well, he was right in that regard. Too bad they weren't used just for fun on old beat-up cars though. And lucky for me I'd bought more than two clips, or I'd be in deep shit right now.

"So why'd you bring 'em along on this trip?" Xania asked.

"I never took 'em out of my jacket. Can you imagine if Mikhaila found them in one of my drawers?!"

She snickered. "Oh boy…that'd be funny."

"It's just better if I keep 'em with me, that's all. Of course, I don't have any now, and I dunno where I'd get any more. Like Bert said, grenade-using guns are illegal, let alone the grenades themselves… I just don't know." I stood up. "We should get our stuff together and get a move-on."

"You feelin' ok now?"

"I'm fine," I lied; I still felt terribly hot, and that ibuprofen I'd taken earlier didn't seem to help much. "What about you?"

She pointed to the shorts she now donned. "I managed to get my tail through the hole in the back. I think I'll be ok."

"Can you wrap it around your waist?" She did so, and promptly undid it. "Good. That thing really repairs itself fast."

"It's not done yet. Still hurts, and I still have trouble walkin'."

"I'll make sure not to get a room on the third floor again then," I quipped.

"Oh, you're too kind," she said, returning the sarcastic tone.

As I put my dirty clothes into my bag, I took a quick look over at Xania, who seemed to be mentally debating to herself as she held up her bloodied shorts in her hand, wondering whether to trash them or take them with her. Finally, she just shrugged and stuffed them into her bag. I smirked as I put my bag on my bed, then packed up the first-aid kit; I didn't suppose the guy at the front desk would mind if the thing was missing an Ace bandage, which happened to still be wrapped around my ribs at the moment.

"Why're you taking your shorts?" I asked.

"I wanna spare the ick factor for the people that clean this room," she joked. "Don't want 'em to come in and see a pair of ripped-up, bloody shorts layin' around. They'd probably think somebody got ass-raped in here."

I grimaced. Did she have to be so graphic? "Point taken. You have everything?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

The electricity chose that moment to suddenly go out. The lamps by our beds suddenly went black, and the TV screen went dark. I looked around in surprise. "Well, that was interesting."

"Not our problem," Xania said.

"You're right. Let's get downstairs and check out."

"Where're we goin'?"

"…I don't know. I guess we'll just go wherever the road takes us. Doesn't matter now."

Xania sighed in disappointment. "Gurando Kyanion o miru…no…what's the rest?"

"…Miru no wa tanoshimi ni—"

"—Shiteta'n da. Ok. Damn. So much for that. I guess we could always run away to the Rockies."

"I didn't bring any mountain-climbing gear," I said, tongue in cheek. "Do you hear something?" I suddenly asked; I felt like I could hear a faint popping noise coming from outside.

She listened intently. "Um…hey, yeah, I do. It's gettin' louder."

I gasped when the noise got much louder…and closer. "Get away from the window! Duck!!"

I yanked her away from in front of the window just in time, for at that same moment I could hear the windows of the next room shatter. A split-second later, the one for our room shattered as well, glass flying. We both yelped and ducked down between the beds, glass raining down, me jumping slightly at the sound of bullets lodging into the walls.

"C'mon!" I snapped, crawling over my bed and towards the door. "We gotta get outta here!"

I got to the door and, still on my knees, opened it. Peeking out of the crack, I looked up and down the corridor. People were running out of their rooms, panicked, some bloody. Once the horde passed, I pushed open the door and urged Xania to stay close behind me. "They know we're here," she gulped.

"Yeah, I noticed," I growled to myself. I stood up, helping her to her feet as well. We both fell back down to the ground, however, when there was a loud rumble below us on the second floor, followed by a boom, and the sound of crumbling debris.

"God no," I said breathlessly.

"What now?!" Xania demanded.

"I know that sound…they sent a Boomer."

"A combat one?"

"Y…yeah. Shit." I grabbed her by her jacket and pulled her close so her face was in mine. "Xania. You're gonna have to run. And quick. It WILL kill you if it gets the chance."

"What about you, Rosho?!" she asked, frantic.

"Don't worry about me. If we split up, it'll come after me and leave you alone. I'm the one it wants." I pulled out my gun and pulled the slide back.

"But you don't have any more grenades!!"

"I KNOW that!!"

"But where do I go?!"

"Away. That's all that matters. Just run. …Just live."

"But…but Rosho…"

I shoved her towards the stairs. "GO! I'll catch up to you! Just run!!"

Xania stumbled to her feet. "But how do we find each other?!"

"We just will, ok?! Don't think, just go!" I stood up. "I promised you things would be ok. And they w ill be. But you need to go."

She wiped the tears from her eyes. "Ok…ok. Take care, girl."

"I will."

She took off down the stairs. Once she was gone, I leaned up against the wall, gun clenched in both hands, gritting my teeth. This was insane. For them to send a Combat Boomer against one person…who wasn't even in a hardsuit…it was crazy. They must really want me bad, I thought as the ground vibrated with the Boomer's movements. Fine. Here I am, you bastards. Just leave the other people here out of this.

The blast from a mouth cannon pierced the ground just feet from me, coming up through the ground and going right up into the ceiling. The ceiling seemed to explode, raining down debris on me. I ran towards the stairs quickly, my heart practically pounding its way through my chest. That was close! And then, the hole from the cannon blast seemed to open up, and the ground around it crumbled and disappeared as a large, blue, muscular figure shoved its way up through it. I gulped. Just as I thought; a 55C Boomer.

It turned and looked at me, eyes glowing red as it stood to confront me. It eyed my leg sleeve, then looked at my face. "You're the one," it growled. I aimed my gun and emptied my clip into its chest, hoping against hope that it would do some sort of damage. But without any grenades, whatever fight I might put up against this thing was futile. The Boomer looked down at the small holes in its chest, then just looked up at me again, as if shrugging them off.

"Damn, this really is useless," I swore, letting the empty magazine drop to the floor as I loaded another one. It stalked its way in my direction, making me back up to keep my distance. I was almost at the stairs now, I had to make a choice; run up to the fourth floor, or down to the first or second? The Boomer wasn't about to let me decide. It fired its mouth cannon again, this time at the door frame just in front of the stairs. I had turned my head to see what it was firing at, but then everything behind me exploded in a shower of debris. I fell forward, curled up, onto the floor, my body having been impaled by at least a dozen small fragments of would-be shrapnel. I cursed loudly and looked up again; the Boomer towered above me, and if it was able to smirk, I'm sure it would have.

"You know I'd rather die than go along with you," I spat in disgust, feeling blood run down my right calf from a fragment that had impaled it. I winced and pulled it out.

"Then you'll die," it replied matter-of-factly. "It's that simple."

"Yeah, it is."

I stood up and aimed my gun in its face. I fired three times before the Boomer grabbed my arm and casually threw me back against the wall, or at least the part of it that hadn't already been blown away. I rolled out of the way as the Boomer again fired its mouth cannon, blowing away the ground where my feet had been seconds before. I grabbed onto the railing and ran up the stairs, feeling and hearing parts of the wall getting blown away right behind me as the Boomer fired its mouth cannon along my path. With another boom behind me, the stairway collapsed. I was stuck on the fourth floor.

I ran to the far end of the floor and sat down quickly, feeling for whatever pieces or splinters or whatever were still sticking in my skin, and pulled out the ones I could reach, tossing them aside. I saw a door open, and ran into that room and looked for whatever I could find to tie around my leg wound, which seemed to be bleeding the most. I tore off a piece of a nearby pillowcase and tied it around my leg, wincing when I pulled the cloth tight. A thought came to me at that moment – why was I bothering to tend to a wound when there was an immediate threat just below? – and I had to smirk to myself at the irony. I was probably going to die, and here I was, looking for makeshift bandages for wounds that weren't gonna matter in two minutes anyway. Oh well. People think of strange things in situations like this, I suppose.

I exited the room just as the Boomer, using its jumpjets, came up to the fourth floor. "I'd ask if it made you feel like a man, picking on a little girl like this, but I'd be wasting my breath," I called to it. I pulled the slide back on my gun again and fired four shots at it, again not doing any damage whatsoever. The Boomer walked towards me again, and once again fired its mouth cannon at the ground, making the ground explode in front of me. I curled up and put my arms over my head to protect myself from any more potential shrapnel, and when I pulled them away, I saw what the Boomer had intended: with me at the far end of the hallway and no more ground in front of me left, only a hole down to the third floor, I was effectively pinned. Even if I wanted to, I wasn't even able to get into the closest room now.

"Well…this sucks," I said in exasperation. The Boomer opened its mouth again, ready to fire again. I could feel my whole body tense up; I had nothing to hide behind, and damned if I hadn't had to use both of my grenades against those two guys last night. And they weren't even Boomers, I thought, not laughing at the irony anymore. And now that I'm against a real Boomer, I don't have anything real to use on it. God dammit.

I ducked as the Boomer fired again; it was all I could do. The wall behind me exploded, sending me flying forward right into the hole it had made with the previous blast. I could feel the breath get expelled from my lungs as I landed on my back on the pile of debris below, my body aching, the back of my head pounding, my ears unable to discern what the Boomer was doing next now that that last blast had left me temporarily deaf.

I squeezed my eyes shut and lay still as I felt the ground vibrate for a brief second; the Boomer had come back down to the third floor. I coughed as I managed to catch my breath again, and opened my eyes to look up at the hole I'd fallen through. It was hazy now, with smoke filling the air, the smell of said smoke filling my nostrils. The Boomer was heading towards me again; I could feel each step vibrate through the ground. I was about to meet my maker.

I hope Xania made it out ok, I thought, closing my eyes again.

I felt no more steps vibrating. I assumed it had stopped to charge up its mouth cannon, this time to fire through my torso. But no, that didn't happen either. My hearing started to come back, and when it did I could make out a 'ping-ping-ping' noise. A second later, another explosion, but smaller than the others. I opened my eyes and lifted up my head, and through the smoke I could make out the figure of the Boomer…slumped against the wall, its head gone, and three large needles sticking out of its chest. I turned my gaze a little bit to the left, and out of the smoke came a figure…an armored figure…two long protrusions from each side of the head…high heels…and red stripes around each leg. It was blue with grey/silver accents, and red stripes on the helmet.

My vision got hazy, and before I dropped my head and faded into unconsciousness, I felt the tears spring into my eyes. I was dreaming. I had to be.

The tears broke free and streaked my cheeks.

"…Mom…"