Trina stood before Jade, arms folded.

"I'm waiting."

Jade looked confused. "For what?"

"An explanation."

"I don't have to…"

"No!" Trina cutting her off. Jade actually goes back a step when she sees the fury in her eyes. "You are going to explain yourself!" Trina throws her hands up. "So you're her, huh? You're the guardian angel everybody's been talking about?"

"I never made myself out to be anything," Jade coldly retorts.

"Yeah, well you certainly set precedent. You know, I talked to more people than I thought I would ever meet in my lifetime and they all spoke highly of their dark-haired savior. I must admit, I actually bought into it myself."

"Into what?" Jade's patience was wearing thin.

"That things would be safer, better, with you around looking out for us. Hell, it revived faith in a lot of people, too. They see something like you and it clues them in that there is indeed an afterlife. You gave people hope. I wanted to track you down and tell this town that you are real and you are here to help bring this city out of the shit. I wanted to believe that."

"I'm just doing what others couldn't."

"But," Trina pointing squarely at Jade. "You're not like everyone else. Your acts, you should be aware, were going to piss off some unsavory characters. But you thought you were indestructible. You never took into account that they would try to hurt you through the people you care about?"

Jade had no answer.

"Answer me, Jade!"

"No," she whispered out almost to herself.

"You really didn't expect some kind of retaliation?" Trina's expression was getting more cross.

Jade sighed and didn't respond.

"I don't know if you know this but Tori hasn't always had an easy go. In fact from what she told me growing up, it was damn hard. The stuff about her mother. It made me real sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Lately, though, she's been so…bright"

Jade's eyes lowered.

"I asked what was going on and she just hugged me, nearly picking me up off the ground. And you know what she said?"

She shook her head.

"She told me that she was 'so in love.'"

"I…" Jade began.

Trina holds up her finger. "I always wanted a sister and when she was adopted, I made sure to look out for her. I always watched her back when we were growing up. When she left for college, I checked in on her every day. I thought that when she found someone…I could be confident that she was safe."

Jade feigned eye contact with Trina.

"You were supposed to protect her. You promised her you would. She told me that. Tell me I'm wrong."

"You're not wrong," Jade shaking her head.

Dr. Valentine in surgical dress stops in front of the two girls.

"Excuse me, you're Tori Vega's sister, right?"

Trina nods.

"Good," she sighed in relief. "I was looking desperately for next of kin." She clears her throat. "She made it. We have her in her own room recovering. She's in R-23." She leaves Trina with a small smile, trying not to make it evident that she knows Jade, and leaves.

"What can I do to make this right?" Jade asks.

"Leave."

"Leave?"

"Leave her alone. Get out of her life. Our father's been a cop for years. A fucking hero cop at that. He was a thorn in a lot of sides and we never had the heat brought onto us…ever. It was only when you came into her life that it was out at risk. Now, both of our parents are lying dead somewhere in this hospital. I have to make the I.D." Those last two sentences were punctuated with fresh tears in her eyes.

Jade looks at Trina as she walks away. "Can I at least say goodbye?" Her voice was noticeably cracking.

"Make it short. I don't want to see you when I get up to her room."


She laid there, looking more fragile than usual. Jade always knew that one wrong flick of the wrist could shatter several bones. She had learned to discipline herself to monitor her own strength. It was the only way she could be with Tori.

Tori Vega was covered with a blanket, various tubes and electrodes emanating from beneath it. The humming, hissing and beeping of the monolithic hospital equipment sounded like they were harmonizing if you listened close enough. A literal song in her heart.

It was such a devastating sight. Tori was so full of energy and here she was before Jade looking more like a broken doll left haphazardly by a thoughtless child.

Jade held onto her own arms tightly, in a hugging fashion since her love was incapacitated. It helped her form the words and get them out, though she still struggled to remain audible through the crying.

"Tori," she choked on that first word. She meant so much to Jade that it wasn't a name but a sentence unto itself. Four letters pretty much said it all. She probably would have felt the same. Her chest gently rose and fell.

"You have every right to be disappointed in me. I should've been there for you." Jade held Tori's hand. "How sadistic am I? Giving you a second chance at life only to jeopardize it? Maybe they've always been right. I cannot change my fate. I cannot escape the pattern of my father. He let down the very people he was bound to."

She let Tori's hand go, the limp arm dragging it back onto the bed. Jade immediately had flashbacks to finding Lindsay's mutilated body. She let her own sister down. And she was let down by her own father. This cycle of broken promises and broken bodies had to end.

"You might not agree with my decision at first but we both know deep down that it's the right choice." Jade looks down at her hands rubbing one another. "Should've happened a long time ago."

Jade leaned over and kisses Tori sweetly and slowly on the forehead. "I'll…" she tries to hold back her sobs to keep speaking. "I'll never forget you. That is one promise even I can't break."

With that she looked back one last time at her soul mate. Jade recalled a line from one of her favorite books. "I wish you a long and happy life," she manages while wiping the tears away.

And she was gone.


The blanket lands with a plop on the hard ground. The seasons were changing and the ground was getting noticeably stiffer. Soon it will frost all over. Maybe even get covered with snow. The blanket unfurls revealing the figure kicking and screaming beneath it the whole way.

Beck Oliver struggled to get his bearings and sat up.

"Where the hell are we?"

"About 10 miles," Jade responded in monotone voice. No feeling. "From the penitentiary."

He had wanted to get out of that prison for months and the last thing he expected was a vampire facilitating his jailbreak.

"Why are we here?" Beck was stroking his minor beard.

"Because you're the only one who knows how." Saying that, Jade drops a cardboard box beside him. It was stamped on the side with "EVIDENCE."

The vampire dropped to her knees before the human.

"I need you to kill me."