From the safety of my helmet, I studied the course in front of me. I felt the buzzing of Phi and Mu, their letters lighting up my visor, along with status reports on all three of us.

I had run this course before. But never like this. I had always been alone.

The others had noticed me. I was known enough by name and ability to be recognized. Of course, it was no secret that my mind was a relative boarding house. I could feel his eyes boring a hole in the back of my head. Who else but York?Under normal circumstances, I normally would have told him to bug off, but today I couldn't even look at him. Not after he'd seen me...

I don't understand. Mu's quiet tickling voice whispered across my mind.

You don't have to.

She -

Phi. Mu. Quiet. Please. Now. I cut off the flickering lights of my A.I. I needed to concentrate.

I turned my back to the course, stepping away from it. Exhaling deeply, I briefly touched my toes, then stood up and spun around, facing the looming course once more. Worry danced around in the corners of my mind, causing to wonder how this would go. True, my exercise in the hall had been... well, nothing short of euphoric (until the end), but the yard and my abandoned hallway were not entirely synonymous. The yard buzzed with an almost tangible life and energy, with an incessant undercurrent of activity.

I sighed, trying to clear my cluttered my mind. It used to be so simple... Once more I could feel them, watching me, waiting for me, wondering why this time, I hesitated.

You can't stand here forever.

This thought was purely mine, and I knew it to be true. Expelling the last traces of doubt from my mind, I took off into the course, leaving everything - the worry, the fear, the noise, even York, behind.

Armor, I decided, was strange. In ways, it both did and did not restrict me. I could feel its obvious bulk and weight on my body, but I could tell I could reach just as far, stretch just the same, and twist my body in every way I did without it, with it.

It was strange.

Running with Phi and Mu like this was almost trance-like. I could feel myself slipping farther and farther into them, losing the walls I'd built up between our minds. Time was nothing to me - to us - and slipped by without notice. In what seemed like seconds, the end of the course was in sight, with only the trench left to cross. I could see the bars that spanned the trench, beckoning to me, waiting.

~~~shjashajahs~~~

The whisper tickled at my mind, foreign and uninvited.

What the hell was that?

alphaaa...

Phi! Mu! One of you! Both of you! Stop! I screeched in my head, trying to stay focused as the trench neared ever closer.

But there was no answer.

The whisper rose up again, mournful and incessant, untouchable and wrong.

alpha... alphaa... whyyy... whyyyyy... WHY?

The whisper rose to an earth shattering screeching, pouring a fiery pain into my skull, leaving no quarter, just as leaped into the air.

The screech exploded further, tearing my mind apart, filled with pain and sorrow and anger and madness. As it felt it, so did I.

I shrieked as I never had before, experiencing this infinite and unbearable pain. I could do nothing but feel it, and try vainly to hide from it. I could distantly feel my back arch and my fingers just barely brush a metal bar.

No!

Swathed in pain though I was, I could still clearly feel the panic and desperation as I fell to the ground. But the screeching did not allow me to become distracted; it demanded my attention.

Oh god, please make it stop, I prayed as the tears came the pain tearing through every corner of my mind.

Then my shoulder connected with hard earth and sweet pure simple physical pain blossomed in the spot. But in no way could it ever possibly compare to the raging in my head.

And then. Then it abated just the tiniest bit. It was still angry and furious and loud, but it was quieting. I could almost hear something else...

"Carolina! CAROLINA! CARA!" My name over and over, calling for the rest of me. Who called me?

Someone hovered over me, but I was still lost to the pain. My head began to shake, but not by my own action. Hands fumbled at my helmet, struggling to remove it.

I saw him now behind a blurred veil of tears and pain.

"Just hold on, Cara, everything's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay."

I struggled to see him as he hovered over me, his hand pressed against my mind apart. It felt so nice and cool...

The pain... The voice... Finally it fell to a whisper once more.

why...why...gam... why...

Pleasepleaseplease, go away

I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain, praying for my sanity to return.

Silence.

Blissful, blessed, beautiful silence.

I cried out silently with relief. Thank God.

I felt myself falling away into the darkness of unconsciousness. I could feel him near me, feel him lifting me into his arms. The last echoes of pain died away.

please... help us...


It rained again.

I sat with my head resting against the cold glass pane of my window, watching raindrops race down the glass. They met, separated, raced for the bottom. Were they aware their end was so near, I wondered. I watched and wondered: anything to ignore the flickering glows of white and cerulean, refracting through glass and water.

"Carolina… Please… Please, talk to us…"

I closed my eyes, wishing I could truly ignore them. But of course that was impossible, so I just pretended they weren't there. Instead I focused on adjusting the strap of my sling – a constant reminder of their constant presence. I sighed, remembering the doctor's orders – no exerting my left arm for a week, and I had to wear this sling. It was just a dislocated shoulder – practically nothing.

"Carolina – "

"Stop. Just don't."

"Please, you have to understand – "

"Programs command: offline."

"Complying."

Over their resigned voices, I heard a gentle knocking on my door. It slowly slid open and he was there. Of course he was.

"Mind if I come in?" His soft voice carried across the room, kind and hesitating.

"Would I anything I say stop you anyway?"

He smiled a little at that, as if it was some grand joke, "Probably not," he replied, stepping inside.

"What did you want, York?" I turned back to the window, back to the rain.

"You know why I'm here."

"I fell," I answered in a deadpan emotionless voice, closing my eyes.

"I was rather looking for a why." He slid down onto the bench next to me, watching me as I watched the rain. "The doctor said you mentioned… voices?" The last part was a question, as if he was confirming my new found insanity.

"Voice. Just one," I corrected him, my voice hardly a whisper, barely audible over the pounding of the rain.

"Who was it, Carolina?" He placed a hand on my good arm, trying to comfort me. York was so soft and gentle, trying to coax a response, an answer that made sense somehow. But nothing made sense.

"Why do you even care? About this? About me? What's in it for you?"

Slowly, he removed his hand from my arm, but only to bring it to my chin. His hand was soft and warm, everything the rain was not.

"What do you think – "

"I get a partner that I know and that I trust. Someone I can count, in a fight and out. Someone I'm there for, and someone who can be there. That's what I get. That's why I care. So you'd better get used to it, Cara."

With that he tipped my head forward, and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. Leaving me gaping and shell-shocked, he leaped up from the bench, leaving me alone.

I sat there, shocked beyond any kind of reaction. What had just happened?

Phi chirped through my shock:

"I like him."