For the past twenty minutes, Shilo had been carried over Graverobber's shoulder. She had given up on punching and kicking a while ago. She had one arm down his back and her other arm holding up her head. She was slightly surprised that he'd been able to carry her as long as he had, all while evading 'Z addicts and the occasional GeneCo cops. If she wasn't so angry and frustrated with him, she probably would have been laughing.

Without a warning, she felt his hands on her waist as he hoisted her down from his shoulders.

"It's about time! Jesus, Graverobber," Shilo heard a voice from behind them.

Shilo turned around and gasped. She saw a woman, who once, might have been beautiful. Perhaps a long time , whatever beauty that might have been there had been replaced. Shilo bit her lip and tried to fight back tears- tears of horror, fear, and pity.

The woman had a long, jagged gash across her face, from her left temple to her right ear. Her eyes seemed sunken into the sockets, giving her the appearance of emptiness- a wraith of the night, a ghost in the allies. The woman had her hair stylized in a tall Mohawk, which emphasized the scars on her scalp- criss-crossed scars, differing in length and thickness. Shilo began to look down her body, sickeningly enraptured with the patterns of scars on the woman's body. The woman's cropped top revealed even more scars and it seemed like she'd had some ribs removed. Shilo was afraid. Was this woman -that- addicted to surgery?

"Yo, who's the kid? Isn't that…what's-her-face? Sioban?" the woman asked, lighting a cigarette and briefly illuminating the dark alley they were in.

"Her name is Shilo. Sorry, Tarja. I'd have been here sooner, but the place is still filled with GeneCo's favorite employees," Graverobber said, keeping a hand on Shilo's arm, wanting her to look over the woman.

"Ok. Well, you need to come now. It's gotten worse for some of these people and they're not as tough as I am," Tarja said, flicking her cigarette against a garbage can. She began to walk and Graverobber dragged Shilo behind him.

"What happened to her? All those surgeries?" Shilo whispered fearfully.

"No. Not surgeries. Tarja's not a scalpel slut or a junkie."

"Then what happened to her?" Shilo asked.

"You'll see. Believe me, you're going to see a lot more than you'd ever imagine."

"That fucking kid is late," Amber said, throwing papers to the floor."
"Relax, sister. This kid, she's been…how you say it? Through Hell?" Pavi said from behind her, his mirror placed on the desk, still allowing him to see his reflection from a different angle.
"You know how it is, sister. Remember when we were young?"
"Pavi, shut the fuck up right now. I don't give a damn. Believe me- we've been through worse but we still knew to be on time when we were called," Amber said disgustingly. Amber began to pace, her freshly sharpened nails digging into her palms.

Pavi noticed this and made his way to Amber, taking her hands and holding them to her sides.

"Sister, what is wrong? I have not seen you like this in a long time."

Amber shook her hands free and walked to the window.

"Paviche," Amber said, her accent returning to soft Italian she had long tried to forget. "Paviche…do you remember when you were 13 and I was 5? That day when Mamma cried at the press conference?"

"Sister, yes. That is a day not all of us will forget."

"I keep having nightmares about it. Since dad died. Every single fucking night. I still remember every single word she said to me that day. And…I- I just need to keep a promise I made to her. You really don't know. And I don't- I'm not talking about this anymore. Go fuck a Gentern. You haven't done it in a while. Go. Sow whatever oats you have left and leave me the fuck alone, k?" Amber said, her accent disappearing as quickly as it had come. She glared at him until he waited until after the door had closed before running to lock it.

She tried to steady her breath. After several minutes, she could feel her heart beat returning back to normal. Amber wiped her face with the back of her hand and double checked to make sure the door was locked.

Amber went to the hidden room where the glass coffins were, placing her hands on each coffin, offering her silent tribute.

She made her way to a trunk in a corner, dialing in the combination to open it.

She saw the dress she had worn that day at the press conference, when her mother had spent the whole day crying.

Memories hit her slowly, the levee she had spent all night rebuilding burst with the emotional impact of each word she remembered.

"Mamma, what did you mean when you said that?" Carmela asked, tugging on her mother's hand as they fought the crowd in search of her brothers.

"My little sparrow…there is much going on. I promise to you, when we get home, we will talk. Just you and me, si?" her mother said, her face scanning the crowd for her two sons.

Carmela followed her mother, silently admiring how beautiful her hair was. It was a dark red color, turning almost black when the sunlight hit it. How she prayed every night to look like her mother when she was grown!

"Paviche! Luigi! "Prossimo qui voi tutto!" Come here you two! Now!"

Carmela and her mother stopped, looking at the two sons. They had been playing again by the mirrors. They turned around and came to their mother. She hugged them both tightly.

"Come, my loves. We need to wait for your father, and then we can go home."The four sat by the fountain, laughing and making jokes about the events of the day.

Carmela looked and saw her father still speaking with the pretty reporter. When her mother was telling Luigi and Paviche stories of when she was a child, she wandered to her father and the pretty reporter.

"…Really Ms. Cover, you couldn't possibly-" Rotti said, his voice being slightly obscured by the din of the crowd.

"Mr. Largo, I have ethical and professional obligations," Marni Cover said, smiling.

"Ms. Cover-"

"Marni."

"Marni. What I mean is that GeneCo would greatly benefit from a sharp mind, as well as a lovely one. Please consider it. My card," Rotti said, handing her a small piece of paper and patting her hand.

Rotti turned and saw Carmela tugging on her hair.

"My little sparrow, where is your mother?"

"Over by the fountain with Luigi and Paviche."

"Well, let's go then. Are you ready to go home?"

"Yes, Pappa."

Rotti took her hand and walked to the fountains where the rest of his family was, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Olivia, let us go now."

When they got home, Carmela and her mother, Olivia, went to her room. Olivia sat at her vanity, taking her hair our of its pins.

"Will I be as pretty as you when I grow up" Carmela asked, sitting on the bed.

Olivia smiled at her daughter.

"Yes, my little sparrow. Ever more so," she said. Carmela smiled and went to sit on her mother's lap. She noticed that Olivia was crying again.

"Why do you keep crying, Mamma? Am I making you sad?""No, no, no, no, my love. Nothing like that." Olivia said, turning her daughter's head to face her.

"Carmela, you must make me a promise."

"What, Mamma?"

"Promise me that no matter what, no matter what happens or what is done in the future, always respect your parents."

"Yes, Mamma. I promise."

Graverobber led Shilo into a small house, Tarja hitting a keypad on the left.

"How bad has it been?" he asked, his hand still on Shilo's arm.

"We got two more overnight. One of them probably won't make it, as young as he is," Tarja said.

Shilo shook her arm away from Graverobber, moving away from him to stand on her own.

"Nuh-huh, Kid. You need to see this," Graverobber said, making a move to grab her arm again.

Shilo shook her head, shaking.

"Man, come on. You're seriously going to let her see this shit that's happening here? I don't think so. I see this day and night and I'd kill for a fucking reprieve," Tarja said, moving to Shilo.

"Tarja. No, don't even think about it. She's coming to see. Consider this a reprieve for tonight," Graverobber said, pushing Tarja aside and grabbing Shilo, ignoring the whimpers of fear.

Graverobber led Shilo up two flights of stairs, briefly stopping to look inside his bag. He nodded and pushed Shilo through a fabric curtain.

The first thing that hit Shilo was the stench of decay. The scent of infection, death. The scent of lost dreams and lost hope.

She had her eyes closed since Graverobber pushed her through the curtain. He could see that and stood behind her.

"Open your eyes, Kid."

"No."

"Why? Why not?"

"I'm scared," she whimpered softly.

"You think you're scared? Open your eyes. Then you'll see what reality you need to be afraid of. I'm not going to ask you again, Kid."
Shilo took a deep breath, the terrible stench filling her lungs and burning her throat. She opened her eyes.

She could feel Graverobber's hand on her shoulder, gently squeezing it. She didn't know if it was an act of reassurance or a warning not to scream. Shilo began to shake as she surveyed the were bodies all over. Not corpses…yet. Tears clouded her vision, but she could still were children in the room. Their bloody bodies were bandaged, but blood seeped through the gauze layers. She saw adolescents with limbs missing, eyes glazed over in pain.

Graverobber pushed her further into the room, catching her as she almost tripped over soiled clothing and bandages.

"This is the new reality, Kid. Look at them. You want to know something, why Repos aren't being reported as often? These kids were bought or kidnapped, labeled as runaways so GeneCo isn't obligated to report the missing or dead. Some parents offered their kids as collateral when they were getting repo'd, and this is the cost. Genterns shoot them up with street 'Z, then Repo Men come and cut out their organs. The street 'Z, they lace it with something to make them live for a while. None of them live through the night. None of them!" Graverobber yelled, grabbing her wrist and leading her through the curtain to another room. He was almost through the curtain when he felt a small hand grab his shoulder.

"Enough! Let the Kid go and do your fucking job," Tarja said, pulling Shilo away from him. Shilo wrapped her arms around the woman, wanting comfort and reassurance. Her body was shaking as she cried.

Graverobber sighed heavily and made a hesitant step towards Shilo. Tarja shook her head and led Shilo down the stairs.

"Here. Drink this slowly, it'll help calm your nerves," Tarja said, sitting Shilo down on a chair and handing her a small cup of hot tea.

Shilo was still shaking and ignored the tea. Tarja put the tea down on the table and sat across from Shilo.

"You really don't know what's been happening, do you?" Tarja asked softly.

Shilo shook her head, looking down.

"After the Opera, when Amber took control, things…really changed. She made one face to the public but the reality of the situation is that she's worse than her dad. She's altered payment plans for adults to use their children as collateral. And for some people, she edit's the dates on the default. It's not 90 days like it used to be. It's more like 30. The weird thing is that the dates she changes tend to be women."
"I started this up, partly as a safe place so these kids can at least die in peace, away from scalpel sluts and addicts. The other reason is so they know that they're still cared for. That they still mean something."

"What does Graverobber do here?" Shilo whispered.

"Holds their hands when they die, before he gives them the final dose. These kids…these people are in so much pain. They'd rather die on their terms than alone in a back alley," Tarja said.

"What happened to you?" Shilo asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Dad was a Repo Man and mom was a Gentern. I was the lab rat. My dad actually worked with yours, oddly enough. Part of the reason why I lived- he was one of the specially trained Repo Men for 'special cases'," Tarja said, a hint of humor in her voice.

"The Elite?" Shilo asked, looking up at Tarja.

Before Tarja could answer, Graverobber came down.

Tarja looked up at him.

"Three are gone," he said stoically, his eyes on Shilo.

"Ok. I'll get some others to bury them tonight," Tarja said, walking out of the room.

Graverobber waited until Tarja's footsteps diminished. When he was sure he and Shilo were alone, he crouched in front of her and put his hands on her cheeks.

"I'm not going to apologize for showing you this. It's something you needed to see, something you needed to know. You've been locked away for so long, you don't know who to trust or what to believe. You want to believe the best in people, and while that is an admirable trait, it's pointless here. Amber has something up her sleeves- all of GeneCo does. I know you want to believe there is some good- that any good can come out of this, but this…it's not going to work out that way. It never does."

Shilo felt tears in her eyes again as she put her hands on Graverobber's.

"Can we go home, now?" she whispered.

Graverobber raised an eyebrow at that sentence."Yeah. Let's go home."

After what he showed Shilo, he wanted to make it up to her, in his on way. His business was done for the night and he could still feel Shilo's lonliness and sadness beside him.

He decided to take a longer way to her house, wanting to show her something.

"Kid, do you want to see something?" he asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He couldn't help but noticed how warm her skin felt, even through his coats. He felt a private victory when she put an arm around his waist and leaned her head against him.

"Yeah."

They walked for an hour, to a place Shilo had never seen. It was a small, wooded area, an area that was lit up by-

"Fireflies!" she gasped, running towards the clearing. She stopped short of the glowed area, her eyes lit up by the fireflies and with joy of seeing beauty in such a dark area.

She walked closer to the clearing and laughed with joy when the fireflies landed on her.

Graverobber watched, a small smile on his face. In many ways, she reminded him of fireflies- the way they lit up, they way they explore.

After an hour, Graverobber could feel a change in the atmosphere. He knew it was the city awakening.

"Come on, you little firefly. We need to get back," he said.

Shilo turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him as close as she could.

"Thank you for this," she whispered happily. He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

They walked off together, the fireflies still dancing in the woods.

They took the hidden way to get into the house to avoid any Repo Men and GeneCo cops.

Shilo sat down on a couch, relaxing a bit after the long walk.

"Sore, Kid?" Graverobber asked.

"A little. It's been a long night," Shilo said, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. After several minutes, he heard her even breathing, knowing she was sleeping the sleep of the innocent, the untainted. He walked over to the couch and gently picked her up, smiling when he felt her head nuzzle into his chest. He carried her up the stairs and put her in the bed gently, brushing stray hairs out of her face.

He let his palm rest on her cheek gently, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

He couldn't resist.

He leaned slowly to her face and brushed his lips to hers, softly as to not wake her up.

Her lips were softer than anything he'd ever felt before. She tasted of fresh fruits and innocence.

As he backed away quietly, he heard a voice.

"Next time you want to kiss me, how about you make sure I'm more awake than I am now," Shilo said softly.

Graverobber chuckled and walked out of the room, closing the door.

He waited several minutes until he heard her snoring softly. Releasing a pent up breath, he walked to her father's room.

Now that she was asleep, he had business to take care of.