Getting in had been harder than she'd imagined it would be.

Lucy crept around the brightly lit, sterile corridors in the depths of the Institute, wrapped in her long dark coat. She had briefly entertained the idea of taking out one of the guards and obtaining a disguise, but that had been when she was still infiltrating the perimeter and was seeing S.A.T soldiers in full battle dress, standing guard everywhere. She remembered, and had her memory's accuracy confirmed when she got further inside, that the guards within did not wear large black bulky outfits and masks. They looked like regular security guards, which was deceptive, as they were highly trained. If she had taken one out and donned his uniform, it would have made no difference. Even from a distance, anyone would have been able to tell she didn't belong, and besides, it left a body for someone to potentially discover. That would raise alarms which would cause the whole place to become locked down and render her entire purpose for coming here, useless.

She reached a T intersection at the end of her hallway, the directions going either left, or right. Using her vectors, she retrieved two small mirrors and floated them to the corners in either direction, panning them to check for guards or anyone else. Finding the way was clear, she chose a direction that took her closer to the faint sensation that she knew to be a Diclonius' brain signature. She, like Nana, could sense the moods and general personalities of the various Diclonius they had run across, such as when they encountered one another, and when they both faced Mariko. But what she felt now…was mute, unreadable, diminished somehow. Not diminished in the strength of the signature, but rather in the signature itself, somewhat lacking in definition. It was like trying to interpret what an amorphous shape looked like for someone who had not seen it. She hoped it didn't mean this girl, for she was sure the prisoner was female, was broken. She had come close to feeling that pain many nights when she was imprisoned at this place. Locked away, unable to move a muscle, left alone for hours and hours, unable to use her vectors to escape. It had produced a kind of madness within her that did not start to melt away until she was back with Kouta

Kouta…

She had not wanted to leave when it was time. Kouta had walked her to the door in silence, holding her hand. Lucy had paused at the door and suddenly couldn't take another step. Staring straight ahead, she felt frozen in place, and found it hard to draw breath. When Kouta squeezed her hand, she slowly turned and grabbed fistfuls of his shirt, holding herself close to him with her head resting on his shoulder. His arms encircled her, holding her tightly and she gave into the trembling that she had been fighting against.

"I'm scared Kouta…I'm scared to go back."

"Let me come with you Lucy," he asked her yet again. As the hour of her departure had gotten closer, she could sense the stress within Kouta. He didn't want her to face it alone, but she knew he wouldn't be able to defend himself from the forces that awaited them there. She didn't want him to get hurt, and felt a stab of guilt at knowing that he was just as afraid for her own safety. For Kouta, she knew it would be worse because he was going to be the one to sit at home and wait. She hated herself for putting him through it, but she needed to do this. She needed to if she could ever hope to forgive herself for all the wrongs she had done in her life. Especially to Kouta.

"If I let you come with me, I don't think I'd make it farther than the coast. All I'd want to do is go back home with you. I can't even get out of the front door."

"Lucy, maybe you shouldn't do this. I understand why you need to, I really do, but look at yourself. You're terrified…god…what did they do to you in there?"

That did it, Lucy started to cry remembering how much pain, and helplessness she had felt, strapped down in a dark place and knowing that everything she touched turned to ashes, mourning the precious few people she had loved, Kouta and Aiko, who's lives she had destroyed. She remembered how during the day they stripped her of clothes, dignity, identity, and subjected her to tortures, her tormentors wearing impassive facial expressions, indifferent to her suffering. She remembered the anguish she felt every waking moment, surrounded by cold steel walls, wishing her jailors would just kill her…or that she could kill them.

As she sobbed in his arms, she felt those arms tighten protectively, feeling Kouta's own frustrated rage.

"Bastards…those bastards," he whispered vehemently.

"Yes, I am terrified," she cried, "but that's why it has to be me. That's why I have to go. Whoever they've got in there…that could have been me. I almost went insane, and I probably would have if I didn't get out of there and find you. You were my second chance at life. Maybe I can offer someone there what you offered me. I don't want you to be in danger when I do this. I have the weapons to stand up to anything they can throw at me, but if they killed you, I wouldn't have a reason to use them. I'd just let them take me too."

"Lucy…"

"I know you feel powerless to help, and I'm so sorry for that. You just have to trust me."

"Promise me you'll come back. Look me in my eyes and promise me."

Could she do that? Her mission was going to be incredibly dangerous, and besides, she did not give her word on things lightly. But for Kouta? There was no limit to what she could do for him…what she would do for him.

She pulled back, resolve making her sobs vanish and her breathing steady; looking deeply into his eyes.

"I promise you Kouta, nothing will keep me from coming back home to you. Nothing will stop that."

"Promise me you'll…you'll…promise me you'll do…whatever it takes…whatever you have to do, to come back safely."

She held her breath as she watched him, reading his gaze. She knew what he was asking, and she knew what it had cost him mentally and emotionally to ask, so she would not ask him to clarify, nor would she voice it out loud to confirm. She knew what he was asking: he was telling her not to hold back.

He was telling her to kill if she had no other choice.

Kouta…

She merely nodded her head, and mutual understanding passed between them. He was horrified by bloodshed and violence, and was still somewhat unable to deal with the prospect of witnessing it firsthand, but after listening to both her and Nana, and what they had struggled against for so long, he was at least beginning to concede that sometimes there was no avoiding it. You could not reason with evil, you could only destroy it, for evil made no apologies for itself, and gloried in its own dark nature. Lucy knew deep down in the dark recesses of her soul that if she had the opportunity, she would destroy this place. She would burn it to the ground and scatter the ashes.

As the anger began to burn within her, she let it wash away the fear and anxiety, replacing them with focus and control. She felt her face slip into the cold mask that was so familiar to her, and stalked the hallways with renewed vigor. She was getting close now, she could feel it. Even this close, the presence she was sensing still felt pallid and mute, but now that she was close, she could feel something else too. Lucy couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it reminded her of a small burning fire, obscured in a gray haze. Something stirring, growing in strength but without anyone being able to notice. Her wandering thoughts almost caused her to be discovered as she heard a door slide open nearby, followed by the sound of loud footsteps echoing in the hallway as the figure began to pass through the door.

Nowhere to hide. Lucy looked left and right frantically before she threw her vectors out like whips, and carried herself up to the top of the twenty foot high ceiling, making herself as flat as she could, and hoping like hell that no one else came into the hallway. She would be discovered for sure.

The man that walked out was dressed immaculately, if slightly disheveled in appearance, but she only noticed that because she was concentrating so acutely on him. He had dark hair that was jaw length but was combed back away from his face, creating the appearance of being ruggedly windswept. His facial features had the odd combination of being both strong, yet delicate, and accentuated by a pair of eyeglasses that were of a slight frame and did not dominate his face. His walk did not match his obviously expensive, black business suit. He appeared downtrodden, weary, and seemed to be in a sort of daze. He walked…almost staggered…towards the wall opposite of the door he had emerged from and braced his forearm on it, after which he leaned his head against that forearm and sagged against the wall. He stood there a long while, not moving or making any sort of noise, and with each second that passed, Lucy became more and more agitated at being so exposed. This man might not notice her hovering straight above him, but all it would take was one person to exit any of the countless rooms she could see in either direction. She wished he would take his personal crisis somewhere else.

Suddenly he burst into violent motion, and Lucy almost lost her concentration. The well dressed man started punching the wall over and over again, pounding on it in abject frustration.

"God fucking dammit son of a fucking BITCH! Get out of my head! Get out of my fucking head!"

She saw blood on his knuckles where the skin had split. The man leaned against the wall once more, catching his breath, trying to get control of himself after quickly looking left and right to ensure that he was alone in the hallway. He then turned and leaned his back against the wall and she saw him deflate, as if he were letting go of something he was holding onto for a long time.

"Why can't I just let you go?" he said out loud to himself, closing his eyes, "what have you done to me?" he whispered.

After a few more tense moments, he began slowly and meticulously collecting himself, making a fuss about straightening his suit and cuffs, then his tie, actually clearing his throat as though he were preparing to address someone, then fixed his glasses. His eyes, which had held weariness and misery, began to sharpen along with the rest of his face into a mask of indifference. After this ritual, he started walking again, stiffly and with iron control. The transformation had fascinated Lucy who was actually finding it difficult to believe that he had broken down so violently just moments ago.

Lucy then noticed the door itself. She recognized it as a high security access door that was supposed to lock itself after high ranking personnel passed through, but it would do that only as long as the area had a general executive lockdown, where administrators could regulate doors to be self locking after keypad or keycard entry, or they could be locked entirely, denying access to every soul in the facility except the administrator that initiated the lockdown. In the event that medical or security teams needed to be able to move quickly throughout those areas, there was a third option that simply lifted all security measures from the doors, and anyone could come and go as they pleased, but often times, it was done simply because the administrator was busy with something he wanted to get back to and didn't feel like spending the time it would take to manually reset security after a lockdown, trusting the security to "do their jobs". For whatever reason, it looked like something similar had just happened, as she recognized the green lights next to the door controls. Someone had done a full security bypass; likely a careless mistake or complacency due to the lack of incidents that occurred there. As far as she knew, Lucy was the last person to really throw the Institute into an uproar, and that had been over a year ago. Apparently they had very short memories.

She also knew that this door in particular led to the holding areas in this part of the facility…and the presence was coming from somewhere on the other side of that door. She silently thanked the idiot who ran the security bypass, and dropped to the ground, activating the door control quickly and stepping out of view as the door opened. After checking with her mirror to ensure that there was no one on the other side, she quickly darted inside, hearing the hiss of the automatic door sliding shut.

The lights were dimmer within the hallway. Not from burnt out bulbs or weak electrical current, but it seemed that someone had deliberately turned a number of them off. The light was softer, creating a sort of intimate mood. There were three doors that Lucy knew led to observation rooms, and those observation rooms led to the Diclonius captives themselves in their containment areas. The presence was so close now and being so close to her objective started making Lucy's heart race with anticipation and anxiety. She took her steps more slowly and reached the door control to the enclosure she knew was the correct one. Holding her breath, she activated it and the door slid open, too quickly for Lucy's comfort. Inside was the observation room, which was darker than the hallway, with only a single fluorescent light to illuminate the room. Additional lights glared from the various control panels and there was a persistent, but subtle atmosphere of sound caused by the internal fans in the various electronic devices and computers, as well as the climate control system that ran with the constant sound of flowing air through the vents. A strange sense of excitement rushed through Lucy's body like needles, being in the depths of a place she was not intended to have access to, and a rush of confidence at being near to accomplishing her purpose. Once she freed their prisoner, she didn't have to worry about being quiet. If she chose to, she could tear the Institute apart on her way out, and was seriously considering doing exactly that.

Slowly she crossed the room to the last door that connected the observation room with the enclosure, feeling the presence beyond pulsing with its proximity. The gray fog that she sensed felt as though it were all around her, and she was moving slowly through psychic mist. She thought for a moment that she could actually see rolling fog all around her, but knew it was just her mind playing tricks. As she reached the door, she found herself needing to take a moment to control her breathing; where was all this anxiety coming from? With a shaking hand, she reached up, and activated the door control. As her finger released the button, the door slid slowly open. Much more slowly than the previous door had opened.

The room within was dark, the illumination coming from four weak emergency lights that lit the room in a dim red glow, but that light did not reach the edges of the room, leaving only blackness there. The sight of the room and those lights evoked terrible memories of when she would be locked in that very same darkness for "sleep" though she never could get herself to fall asleep. She would typically pass out when she had kept herself awake for too long and her body would involuntarily shut down. In the middle of the room, bathed in faint red light…was her. Strangely enough, when she had opened the door, the presence had vanished as if it had never been. Not quite gone, but very faint, almost to the point where Lucy wondered if she had merely been imagining it this entire time.

As she stepped through the door, she heard it slowly slide shut behind her and cut off the comforting sounds of background noise in the previous room. In this room with the captive Diclonius, there was only silence except for the echoes of her footsteps around the room as she walked slowly towards the girl. From far away, Lucy couldn't see her face; just the hair that was hanging down over it, and the weak light left everything behind her hair in solid darkness, as though her face were made of shadows. She knew…could feel…that the girl was awake, and watching her…waiting.

As Lucy got closer, she could see that this wasn't a girl after all, but a woman who looked to be about her own age. She stepped into the ring of red light that surrounded the enclosure and knew that the woman would be able to clearly see Lucy, and know her for what she was; her horns visible even in the low light. Lucy's steps became smaller and slower as she got nearer and began to make out some of the woman's facial features. She could see lips, nose, and the outline of her eyes, but could not actually see into them. The rest of her facial features were wrapped in darkness. She could feel the woman's eyes upon her; the uneasiness it caused made her legs feel heavy and her mind unclear. There was no fear, or even hopelessness that she could sense from the woman, although it was hard to read her at all in the dark. What she did sense, was a single minded intensity that she had never experienced before.

Lucy had the woman's full attention, which she found unnerving. Even knowing that she held her attention, she could not find her voice for several moments, the darkness on the woman's face, and the severity of her enclosure's security, seeming to demonize her; her surroundings and bonds projecting an implication of how dangerous the Institute considered her to be. Lucy knew better; they were all dangerous of course, but the bonds and the precautions were just a kind of psychological device that kept its scientists, security, and management in line and helping them to accept that the torture they inflicted upon the girls was justified. Monsters didn't have to be treated humanely, and the more they viewed those like her as monsters, the easier it was for them to do what they did…the bastards.

"That cage doesn't suit you," Lucy said, the old chill in her voice returning. It was the room, the atmosphere…it was causing her to wrap her cold persona around herself like a shield.

"Doesn't it?" the woman whispered back slowly, the sound of her voice making ice crawl down Lucy's spine. Suddenly it seemed like everything around her held nothing but impenetrable darkness, and the only things that existed were herself, and the woman in their faint, red circle of light. Lucy tried to get her voice back but couldn't make herself reply. She thought she saw the woman smile, but it was likely a trick of the light…or absence of it.

"You're not afraid of me," she whispered.

"No, I'm not," Lucy replied. The woman's head tilted somewhat, studying her, causing some of her hair to move away from one of her eyes. Lucy forced herself not to look away, even though what she saw there chilled her; after all, she had been no different when she was in this woman's position. She was trying very hard to remember that.

"But you are afraid," she said softly, "you're trembling, anxious. Your eyes are darting this way and that, looking for escape. There is no escape from here…is there?"

"There is," Lucy insisted, unnerved that the woman could so easily pick up on her anxiety, and know exactly where it was coming from.

"No there isn't," she said, "when you walk out of hell, you take it with you. There is no leaving it behind, no forgetting it, no denying it."

She paused, her eyes traveling to Lucy's horns.

"What was your number?"

The question pierced through Lucy; she didn't want to talk about this here and now.

"I never knew mine. They named me instead."

"Like a dog…" she said in a slow raspy whisper, a hint of amusement in her voice.

Lucy bristled, but tried to force it back. She was here to help this woman.

"What about you? What was your number?" Lucy asked, unable to stop herself from the subtle jab. What was the matter with her?

"I don't have a number, I have a name. Just like you. My name is Angel."

Lucy detected a hint of reverence for the name as Angel spoke it aloud; the word carefully sounded out, each syllable meticulously enunciated.

"And what do I call you?" Angel asked, "you clearly aren't a test subject, and you are wearing street clothes. You broke in here, and went to a lot of trouble to visit me. You could at least tell me what they named you."

Lucy was starting to dislike the woman, mostly at the reminder that her name, which she had taken for herself, didn't really belong to her.

"They named me Lucy," she answered, hating that she was forced to phrase it in such a way, "but I decided I liked it. It suits me."

"And your real name? The one you had before?"

She did not want to answer that. Her old name belonged to a person she despised. It belonged to a person who brought nothing but misery.

"That name doesn't belong to me anymore…I've given it up."

"Because terrible things are attached to that name…aren't there?"

Lucy looked away from her, wanting to deny it…but could not.

"I know how you feel…Lucy."

Angel tilted her head back and the rest of her hair fell away from her face, reveling an exotic beauty to her features, but her facial expression was still cold and stoic.

"You have this name," she continued, "and whenever you think of how it sounds, or when you speak it out loud, you remember things you want to forget. This name, it mocks you. It puts the lie to your current existence. The person which that name once belonged to, is not you anymore, but you would not be who you are, or where you are, without that person. So you owe your life to that person and that name you want to forget. And you resent it…you hate it…hate yourself…don't you Lucy?"

Lucy couldn't deny the truth of Angel's words, and felt strangely comforted by her ability to empathize.

"I made a terrible mistake," Lucy said, "when they brought me here, I felt like I deserved this," she continued, motioning around the dark room, "it took a long time for me to see that I didn't. You don't either, despite what you may have done to wind up in here."

"I killed a lot of people. That's why I'm here…but you know that don't you? You must have done the same."

"I…"

"How did it feel?"

Images flashing through her mind; the sound of children bickering, the parental exasperation softened with love. Wrenching jealousy, anger, rage. The merciless noise of people treating her like street trash. Fury, vengeance, blood, screaming.

"It felt…"

"Felt good…didn't…it?"

She was ashamed of herself and couldn't reply. It didn't matter, she knew Angel had her answer already.

"But that's not why you hate your old name. Even now, you still hold those you destroyed in contempt. You're not really sorry you killed them. You didn't deny that you enjoyed the violence. Or even that there was violence to begin with…no…it was something else…someone you destroyed that you didn't want to destroy…"

"Shut up!" she couldn't stop herself…she had…how had she? Lucy couldn't think, she couldn't get control of her thoughts. Angel was reading her like a book, and Lucy did not like it one bit.

"It's not your fault Lucy…you know that, don't you?"

Lucy looked back up at Angel, who seemed to be regarding her with a measure of sympathy, all traces of mockery and amusement gone from her face and voice, vanished as though they had never existed.

"We are what we are Lucy. It is the world that has failed us. How could they dare to blame us for what we become under their clumsy care?"

Her words were seductive, and seemed to make a lot of sense…mostly, they helped assuage Lucy's prevailing guilt.

"You escaped from here," said Angel, "and something happened to you out there. You're different from the others of our kind that I have seen before. There is no desperation in you, and while there is conflict, I can see that there is peace. You found something out there worth holding onto…something that changed everything."

Kouta's love, his sanctuary, her second chance at life…

"Yes…I did."

Angel's scrutiny increased, as though she were trying to come to a decision about something, but was having difficulty doing so.

"Strange…" Angel whispered, but more to herself as Lucy could barely hear her, "something about you…I just can't…"

Angel seemed frustrated about something, then her facial expression reverted back into its impassiveness.

"You're different," she said again, with a tone of finality, "but yet you're like me."

Lucy thought she detected a hint of scorn, disbelief.

"You're here to set me free," she said.

"Yes," Lucy whispered, "I am."

Angel smiled, showing teeth, the sight of it making Lucy's blood run cold. She wondered for a moment if freeing Angel was such a good idea, but the thought left her as quickly as it came.

"You wish to set me free…but you yourself…are not free. How ironic."

"I'm not the one in chains."

"Yes you are, you just can't see them. I can show you…I can set you free."

Kaede still haunted her with every moment of fear she ever saw in Kouta's face when he looked on her after waking from sleep. The torture and loneliness she experienced in the institute haunted her waking thoughts and her dreams. She hated to admit it, but Angel was right. She was not free. The very fact that she had been drawn back to the Institute was proof enough. She couldn't escape Kaede, or the terror and misery that the Institute had left her with. This place didn't seem to touch Angel, and even though she was securely bound in her chains, she had an easy manner…she acted as though the chains did not really exist. She acted as though she were free. Even so, Lucy could see that she was still running from something. Perhaps Angel could not admit it to herself, but Lucy could see the mental shield. Maybe they could show one another how to cast off the chains that still bound them. The first part would be easy for Lucy as Angel's immediate chains were physical. Despite her other reservations, she still was resolute in her decision to free Angel from the grasp of the Institute.

"Maybe you can. Maybe we can help each other."

All of them, herself, Nana, even Mariko, had someone important to them. Someone that kept them going. It was the thing that bound them in their will to survive…maybe…

"There has to be someone out there you want to see again."

The enclosure shook violently with a sudden movement from Angel, and suddenness of it caused Lucy to take a step back in shock. Angel's hair fell back over her face, and painted it once again in shadows.

"You could say that," she whispered darkly, the voice barely human. Lucy had touched a nerve; up until this point she had not seen any real desire from Angel to be free of her bonds. She had treated the prospect of freedom with apathy, but for that short second, Lucy had seen something wild within Angel. Something screaming to get out, but then ruthlessly repressed.

The darkness of the room felt like it was closing around Lucy, she wanted to get out of there, but…

"You enjoyed the killing…didn't you?" Lucy asked her. She couldn't see Angel's face, but somehow she could sense her smiling.

"Yes…oh god yes…I liked the way a death rattle sounded like a lover purring in your ear…if you get close enough."

Lucy took a step away.

"Leaving already? I thought you were here to save me…typical. Lies, lies, and more lies. Hypocrisy and self deception, that is what defines you all. That is your legacy…who you really are."

"You're wrong."

"You think you're better than me, but I at least have been nothing but truthful with you. You don't get to be better than someone simply because you won't admit out loud that you're just like them. Tell me a story Lucy. Tell me about someone you destroyed…"

"Stop it…I…"

"You what? Didn't mean to? Didn't know better? You didn't deny it when I suggested that it felt good to kill…you knew something…that's for sure. You sure as hell weren't innocent. "

They stared at one another, but Lucy didn't take another step back. She felt guilty, conflicted, confused, unsure.

"What makes you any different from me? Why do you get to be the reformed, changed woman…and I the villain?"

Lucy could feel Angel's anger rising, her indignant anger making her seem to fume in the hellish red light. Lucy hated herself at that moment. Did she not come here after saying the same things to Kouta, that Angel was saying to her now? They were the same. Lucy had simply forgotten what it had been like to be living the pain and anguish that Angel surely must be living now.

"Leave me then hero. My life will be ending soon anyway. It makes no difference, one way or another, I will be free."

"What? They're going to kill you?"

"They kill us all in the end. You know that. It's simply my time now."

She couldn't let this happen, and Angel was right, they were no different. Lucy could show her a different kind of life, and show her that she could let go of her violent nature. This was why she had come, she could do this. Would do this.

"I'm not going to let that happen Angel."

"Then come closer, I'll show you what to do."

Lucy walked towards Angel until she was a few steps from her enclosure.

"Closer."

Lucy complied, until she was a mere two feet away. She could see Angel's face very clearly now, but the eyes were still in shadow.

"Closer…Lucy…"

The sound of her voice…it compelled her to comply. Angel's voice wasn't cold now, but seemed to be filled with a kind of longing. As Lucy got within inches of her, she could see into Angel's eyes, blood red even in the dim light. They locked onto Lucy and held her there, searching her face, studying her, taking in every detail.

"Reach behind my head; there are two buttons, and a third one covered with a metal guard on the small control panel to my right, at my feet. Pressing the buttons behind my head will deactivate the guard, but you have to hold your hands on the buttons. Use your vector to press the third switch."

"That will open the enclosure?"

"No, that will turn off the vector nullifier they have me plugged into."

"Then how do I get you out of this thing?"

"You won't. I will do that myself…after you leave."

"What? Why?"

"Because I have some unfinished business…" Angel said darkly, "and you don't need to be here when I finish it."

Lucy had an idea of what kind of "business" that would probably be. Maybe she wouldn't tear out of here in a violent rampage. It looked like Angel was probably going to do that for her. She almost pitied the inhabitants of the Institute. Lucy did as she had been instructed and reached behind Angel's head to the panel right behind it, pressing the buttons down. Her face was inches away from Angel's, which was something she wasn't conscious of, as she was concentrating on focusing her vector on the third switch. The button was flashing a bright red, and she saw large warning signs around the button. No going back now…she pressed the switch.

There was the sound of a faint whirring mechanical device starting to shut down, and then stopped completely. It was a bit anticlimactic, but then Lucy didn't really know what she'd expected.

She made to step back but then suddenly, violently, she felt Angel's vectors shoving against her back, forcing her against the enclosure. Once again, their faces were inches apart, and Lucy had to violently resist the urge to fight, after realizing that Angel wasn't exactly trying to be hostile. She was merely staring into Lucy's eyes again.

"Didn't want you to leave before I could say thank you…"

Angel reached her head forward slowly, and holding Lucy still, pressed her lips against Lucy's, kissing her in an slow, practiced, teasing fashion, sending shivers of pleasure up and down her body before she could think to force them out of her mind. She felt ashamed of herself for letting Angel do this, but it wasn't like she could do anything about it…

…no…she knew that wasn't true.

Lucy felt Angel's vectors release her, and Angel pulled back, giving her a wicked smile.

"…thank you Lucy."

Lucy took small, backward steps away, feeling trapped by Angel's gaze. What had she done? Was this right?

"After this…could I see you again? I want to know what you know. I want to see what made you different once you were free of this place," Angel said, and her voice seemed almost pleading. Lucy, still feeling responsible for Angel, even more so now that she had released her, couldn't refuse.

"Of course. My home is on the mainland, it's…"

"Don't worry Lucy. I'll find you."

Of course she could. After all, Lucy had tracked Angel down with her brainwave signature. Angel could do the same.

"Get out of here Lucy…"

She still felt frozen; she sensed the weight of a coming disaster, like watching a hurricane coming over the ocean and knowing that any minute, the storm would break in the sky above; falling down onto her…onto everything…

"…now."

She turned and started to walk quickly away towards the observation room, almost slamming her hand against the door release button. Passing through the door, she immediately felt better; the gentle light of the single florescent bulb making the room seem so much more welcoming compared to Angel's dark cell. When she got out into the hallway, the light seemed blinding, and once she reached the main hallway, not even caring to use caution in case there were people approaching, she was almost in full flight. The bright light of the hallway slammed into her like naked sunlight and she had to squint, covering her eyes against the stark glare.

It took her a few minutes to get control of herself and readjust to the light. It was fortunate that there had been no one in the hallway. It struck Lucy as somewhat odd; the absence of people, even at this hour. Bracing her forearm against the wall, she leaned her head against it and caught her breath. She knew she had done the right thing…hadn't she? She had to have faith, just like Kouta had faith in her.

Lucy had done what she'd come to do, now it was time to…

"What the fuck…security alert! Lock down the facility! There's an intruder, it's her…Lu…"

On instinct, Lucy fired her vectors out and hit the soldier hard, sending him flying, but not killing him. She briefly recognized his dress as a S.A.T uniform. Her instinct to attack with non lethal force, which had developed in the month she had wandered Kamakura, caused her to hold back. Under normal circumstances, she would have just ripped him in half without a thought. She knew the game was up, she had lingered too long and had been careless on her way out of the holding areas. It looked like she wasn't going to have a choice; she'd be fighting her way out. Just as she'd recognized the necessity to kill him before he put the entire facility on alert to the fact that she was a Diclonius, she heard gunfire coming from the direction she had flung the solider to. Raising her vectors to deflect the bullets, she let out a scream of pain and surprise when she was unable to deflect one of them far enough, and it slashed through her arm. A flesh wound thankfully but the pain was intense. Tungsten munitions; she wouldn't be able to stop those, and he was too far to kill. He was standing in between her and the ship launch; her only escape. She didn't have a choice, and started running in the other direction, hoping distance would make the bullets easier to deflect until she turned a corner to lose him.

It turned out her theory was correct but she still felt the bullets slam into her back like fists, bruising her even though they didn't pierce skin. Finally reaching a corner, she darted into it and kept running, seeing emergency lights flashing in the corridors. The facility was on alert, they would be looking for her now. She was turned around and lost as she ran, but she had to find some way to get back to the ship…

…what…the hell?

She came to a halt when she came across three dead bodies on the floor. They were facility guards, and it looked like they had been ripped to shreds by machine gun fire. Looking above her she took three frantic steps away as she noticed the gun turret hanging from the ceiling, and it took her a few moments to understand that it was deactivated, or out of ammo. What had triggered the turret? And why had it killed the guards? She saw a pair of unlocked handcuffs, and a broken device on the floor that looked strangely like a vector nullifier. Some bloody footprints led into one of the corridors, but the blood had dried up on the shoe after about ten or twelve steps. Still, it was a direction as good as any other and Lucy was lost anyway. Whoever this person was, they would likely be trying to escape, just like her. Her decision made, she started running down that corridor but had to dart into an office room as she heard soldiers coming down the hallway. As they passed, she heard some of them talking.

"Down this hallway?"

"Yeah, we've got a guard team that never reported in, but they're dispatching extra security to that. We're heading to the perimeter. Team 4 out there has been taking fire, and they think whoever is attacking us has got someone in the facility already. Team 2 is also reporting contacts. We're joining up with another unit to get… "

Lucy couldn't hear the rest of it as they got out of earshot. What the hell was going on here? Everything was going crazy all of a sudden. She absently backed up a few steps, lost in thought, bumping into a control panel. A lot of things happened at once; computer monitors sprang to life, the lights suddenly flickered on and she heard an audio log start replaying loudly on the panel speakers. The light and sudden noise shocked her into action and she didn't bother listening to what the words said as she bolted from the room before she was discovered by anyone within earshot.

She took off down the hallway, not sure where it was taking her but relying on luck. She hoped whoever she was following knew a way out of here.

I promise you Kouta, nothing will keep me from coming back home to you. Nothing will stop that.

God help anyone who dared to stand in her way. She would not hold back again.