Korse's house was easy to find - it was on the outskirts of the city, so that he was close to the desert action, but it was much more luxurious than any of the rest: three-storeyed, an outdoor pool, lots of Dracs milling about outside as guards.

It was dark when we finally decided to attack. We'd been watching the house for at least an hour. Oddly, for once, it had been I who'd wanted to storm the house instantly, unthinkingly, and the others who had held me back. We'd seen Sunny and Hope just once, through a window on the second storey. We'd discerned which rooms were theirs.

The Dracs guarding the front were easy to take out from our hiding place. Ghoul kicked the front door down simple as pie, then we were in. Kobra and I stormed up the stairs while Jet and Ghoul battled with the remaining Dracs, who seemed to swarm through the house as alarm bells rung.

"POISON! KOBRA!" Hope screamed as we opened her door. She ran forwards and fell into my arms as I automatically knelt down. I hugged her tightly, unable to rejoice yet, and straightened up. She hugged Kobra, and then he took her hand in a vice-like grip.

"Take her down to the car. Keep her safe," I ordered. "I'll get Sunny and follow you out."

Hope was grinning so widely I wondered if it didn't hurt. She happily sprinted off with Kobra, fully trusting me to save her sister.

I kicked down the door to the master bedroom. Sunny, who was sat at a dressing table in a light blue summer dress, spun around, her eyes with fear. "Poison!" She gasped, standing up when she recognised me. Her eyes, her beautiful green eyes, were as clear and perceptive as ever. She looked perfect, apart from the slight discolouration around her right eye and the finger-print bruises up and down the upper parts of her arms. Rage coursed through me.

She rushed over and fell into my arms. "Have you really come back for me?" She asked.

"I was an idiot to leave you," I replied, letting my trembling fingers stroke her soft hair.

She burst into tears. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to. He said that he'd kill Hope if I didn't."

"It's OK," I reassured her, lying through my teeth. It wasn't OK. As I traced my hands over her soft, smooth skin, all I could think of was his hands being in the same places. Bile rose in my throat. "Let's go, Sunny," I murmured.

"But I'm not finished yet," a harsh, male voice spat at us from across the room. I looked over Sunny's head to see Korse standing in the centre of the room, apparantly having appeared from thin air. He drew a ray-gun from his side, smiling slowly.

Too slowly. In a flash, Sunny had reached into my pocket, pulled out my ray-gun and spun around, shooting wildly. Korse fell to the floor, clutching his foot and howling in pain. He dropped his gun, which I hurriedly rushed over and picked up. Sunny had clipped him merely - with proper medical attention, he wouldn't die.

She levelled the ray-gun at his head, shaking slightly.

"I don't blame you for wanting her, Party Poison," Korse said, smiling maliciously at Sunny. "She's very good at lying there with her legs parted, this one."

"SHUT UP!" Sunny screamed, tears in her eyes. "I'll shoot, I swear; I'll kill you, you bastard!"

"I've ruined her for you, though," Korse continued, not taking her seriously. "She's dirty, now, this one - used."

"The lady told you to shut up," I spat, pointing the other ray-gun at him, my eyes narrowing. "I suggest that you listen to her if you value your life at all."

"I'll get the kid back, you know. She's my legal daughter now. I'm going to bring her up to love Better Living Industries. She's going to be the face of so many things. You just wait." Korse spat.

With a huge swing of her arm, Sunny hit Korse square in the face with her ray-gun. Knocked out cold, he slumped backwards onto the floor. She stood, shocked at her own actions, rooted to the spot, until I grabbed her hand. She dropped the ray-gun and we ran together out of the room and along the corridor, finding the stairs. The bodies of Dracs littered the way.

As we sprinted down the stairs, her soft hand still in my dirty, rough one, she turned her face towards me and asked, panting, "am I really ruined, now, Poison?"

Stupidly, I paused at the bottom of the stairs and put my hands on either side of her face, forcing those green eyes to look straight at me. "Don't you ever listen to scum like Korse, Sunny; you're worth so much more than that. You're not ruined," I told her, with so much force in my voice that it took both of us by surprise.

"We... we kissed," Sunny whispered. "We kissed before you ran. Was that just a... was it just a spontaneous thing for you?"

Before I could find my voice, she'd gasped and crumpled down to the floor. I turned my head to see Korse stood at the top of the stairs, a smouldering ray-gun - my ray-gun - in his hand.

"Now you can't even have my sloppy seconds, Party Poison," Korse grinned with a mixture of malice, triumph and, from somewhere deep down, jealousy.

With a howl of rage and grief, I pulled out my own ray-gun and fired at it him wildly. He ducked behind a wall. I didn't see where he went after that. For that moment, I didn't care, because Sunny let out another gasp at my feet. I dropped to my knees beside her, pulling her onto my lap and cradling her in my arms. Her eyelashes fluttered and her body convulsed slightly.

"It wasn't just a spontaneous thing," I said hurriedly. "I've missed you, so much, I - "

"Stop," she said, raising a weak hand to brush my lips. "Wait, Poison. Promise me one thing - don't let him get Hope. Please. Look after her. Don't let him..." her arm fell back again, and her face screwed up in pain.

"I will protect that girl with my life," I promised. "I won't let anything hurt her."

"You're a good man, Poison," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "You know, I've had such a huge crush on you from the first time I met you, when Kobra invited me over for dinner almost two years ago. Crazy, isn't it?"

"Don't go," I begged, holding her closer. "Please, Sunny, don't leave me."

"Kiss me," she demanded, her voice now very faint. "I don't want to die with him being the last man I've kissed." I lowered my face to hers and pressed my lips very gently against her mouth. She was unresponsive, her breaths coming in little ragged gasps. "Thank you," she whispered when I drew away. "You know, Poison, I said 'huge crush'... to tell the truth, I think that I was a little bit in love with you."

Her chest stopped heaving up and down, and the ivory blinds of her eyelids fell, closing me off from those grass-green eyes.

"NO!" I yelled, pulling her face up to mine. "No, Sunny, listen to me. I love you too, fuck, Sunny, I love you more than anything. Come back to me, don't you fucking leave me. Sunny. SUNNY!" I laid her down on the floor and began pushing down on her chest frantically, trying to get her heart beating again. "Please hear me, Sunny: I love you. Don't go, please!"

I don't know how long I was there, working over Sunny so desperately. Eventually, though, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Poison. We need to go," Ghoul said quietly. "They'll have radioed for back-up, and we need to get Hope somewhere safe."

Hope. From somewhere deep down under the senseless grief, I recalled my promise to the corpse on the floor. "I..I.." I couldn't find words.

"We have to go, now. We can't risk them coming in here to find us. We don't want them seeing this," he said. This. Sunny had become a this.

I stood up and looked at him. His face was grave, his eyes slightly watery and unfocused. I couldn't even react. I felt... I didn't know.

I'd failed her. I'd abandoned her and I'd let her be... I'd let her be raped and murdered. It was all because of me. All of it. Everything. She was broken and dead because of me.

I let Ghoul pull me away and shove me into the back of the car. For once, he drove instead of me. Jet sat in the passenger seat. Kobra sat opposite me on the back seat, Hope in between us. She looked straight at me. For the first time, I noticed that she had the same shape of face as Sunny, and the same nose.

"Where's Sunny?" She asked. "You haven't left her behind again, have you?"

"I'm sorry, Hope. I couldn't save her." My throat was dry, my heart was aching. Everywhere ached. I wanted to throw up.

The little girl shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes, as the car began to drive away into the desert. "No, no, she's not dead. She's not dead, is she, Poison?"

"I'm sorry," I repeated, unable to say anything else.

"But I love her," Hope said, as if this would change anything.

"She's away from this place, now, with your mom and dad," Kobra said. "She's happy."

"She wouldn't want you to be sad," Jet added.

"We'll look after you now, Hope," Ghoul promised.

I put my arms around the little girl and pulled her closer to me. She began to sob onto my chest. I like to think that what I said next comforted her the most. "I love her too, Hope. I know how much this hurts. But we'll get through it, together," I whispered, moving my head so that the words were just for her.