Thanks to TehGramerPolise for helping with this chapter.

So I know what you're probably thinking, I had on my side one of the most well connected and dangerous men in all of Solitas in Cola Malaika. So why hadn't I contacted him for assistance rather than go through with my hare-brained scheme?

On the surface I thought back to how Cola had revealed that the Rashin regularly tapped the communications networks used by scrolls. Obviously I would be under intense scrutiny, and no doubt any call made between me and my benefactor would be closely monitored.

In truth however, I could probably have bypassed those concerns, it might've been tight in the one week time window I had, but it could have been done.

So why hadn't I?

To be honest, there was a part of me that felt it was personal, which of course, it was. Everything was somewhat personal with the Rashin. Even within their own family tests of might or guile were constant; those found wanting would be scorned and ostracized. Therefore, I wanted to personally go in there and take back what was rightfully mine right from under their noses.

Afterwards, I found the allure of personally executing a brilliant plan intoxicating, and as you well know, I would extend such operations to things that weren't technically rightfully mine.

Somehow though, I've found that's always made it all the more titillating...

The scene, as I imagine it, goes a little something like this…

It's a cloudy night, the sounds typical of a city that never sleeps echo in the air. Standing alone, like a fortress, is a tall, metal tower; no windows, and one door that is guarded by at least six elite mercenaries at any given time. Cameras silently maintain a constant vigil as well, enveloping the entire premises in a square kilometer around the facility.

This was Fulsom Tower; the building containing the main data vault of the Rashin family.

It was impregnable; no one had managed to break into it at the time and escape to tell the tale.

And yet, if on that night you had just so happened to look up at just the right moment, you might have seen history being made. As the underbelly of an airship flashed for an instant underneath the cloud cover, and two miniscule figures dropped from the sky; hurtling towards the roof of the tower far below.

"Why did I let you talk me into this?" Neo screamed at me as we hurtled downward.

"I am a very persuasive individual." I answered back, my eyes fixed on the digital readout on my wrist. "Remember, at 100 meters out, just like we practiced."

Neo bit her lip and closed her eyes in concentration while I continued to read off altitudes, "3000 meters… 2000 meters…" When we hit 800 meters, a change came over Neo and she let out a long, slow breath.

Despite myself, I couldn't help but watch in growing trepidation at the unforgiving metal surface that was getting uncomfortably close. "400… 300…"

Neo's eyes continued to stay shut as we plummeted toward the tower, "250...200…150…" Neo didn't react and I saw my life flash before my eyes.

"One hundre-" I began to say when suddenly the familiar feeling of displacement washed over me and I hit the Dust mixture that we had prepared beforehand.

Reality popped into existence and I saw a brief flash of a brightly lit hallway when we phased out again. My stomach lurched as the Dust's effect kicked in, simultaneously reversing gravity and generating a steady pulse of kinetic force, designed to gradually halt our momentum. We popped briefly into a room filled with criss-crossing wires and metal plates before Neo jumped again.

After all, it wouldn't do for Neo to perform the ten jumps required to get into the vault, only for us to splat against the floor once we got there… the secondary effect was that the after-images that we were leaving behind would be shattered as we went. The vault itself had no cameras, as the electrical field that surrounded it made any such system unfeasible.

Of course, that left the cameras that we would be briefly flashing in and out of existence for; but we had taken precautions for that as well. I would like to think that I looked as fabulous in my… "professional" outfit back then as I do now, but masks have never really looked good on me, including the elegant half-mask I wore then. Neo always has gloated that she suffers from no such ailment. I have tried to remedy it with every kind of color and hair style; but I have always suspected that it has something to do with the eyes and shape of the face. Perhaps if I-

Oh right… back to the heist.

After flashing into existence for the final time, we softly landed on a matte black floor in a dimly lit room; computer banks hummed all around us as they processed mountains of data.

Neo almost immediately collapsed, and I swiftly caught her to lower her down gently to the floor, "That was incredible." I told her.

She flipped me off as she gasped for air, "Don't…ever… make me… do that… again."

I grinned, "No promises." I answered lightly, I leaned her up against one of the computers. "Rest for now, I'll go find those plans."

She nodded and I stood up, pulling out the scroll that Hoku had designed for the mission "Now let's hope this works," I muttered and slapped down on one of the computer banks.

For a moment, nothing happened, then suddenly the screen on the scroll flickered to life, displaying a hissing weasel: Hoku's calling card. The animal disappeared, and the screen began to flash red.

I tapped my finger against the computer bank anxiously; there wasn't much I could do to hurry it along as the AI on the scroll began sifting through the database.

The scroll beeped and the screen flashed green, a large list of file names appeared on the screen… too many to get through quickly.

I tapped on the scroll and had it ignore files that were too small to be what I was looking for, the scroll beeped and the number of files dropped substantially. Next I filtered the results by the type of files contained; considering the amount of time that the Rashin had had with the plans, it was unlikely they would have bothered changing them from what they originally were after the decryption.

The scroll beeped again and this time the files were reduced to four, and amongst them… "Orion1… really?" I muttered and opened the file. My eyes moved rapidly as I went through the plans contained within… sure enough it was them. I tapped on the scroll and ordered the AI to download the plans and then remove it from the database. I then examined the other three files.

King Tiger…Artemis… Monochrome.

Curious, I opened them one by one. King Tiger was only of passing interest, appearing to be nothing more than a prototype of a battle-staff that would allow the wielder to carry a supply of electricity. I quickly made some adjustments; just some things that would cause some headaches for the fabrication team, then closed the file.

At the plans contained within the Artemis file however, my eyes widened slightly. They were of androids, more to the point due to their specifications, they were bipedal robotic soldiers. So this is what they were going to do with the improved power supply; but who were they designing them for? Themselves?

I scanned through the document and then my eyebrows lifted slightly at a letter contained within. Apparently these designs had been commissioned by some members of the Atlesian military… interesting.

These I downloaded, and then scrubbed the whole thing from the system; that would set them back a few years at least.

Then I opened the final file and I frowned… the others had been blueprints, plans to a design of a mechanical nature. This almost seemed like a report from a biological study, full of cellular data and tables of chemicals.

Curiouser and curiouser… even more so, unlike the other files, there was a good portion of it that was encrypted; had they stolen these as well and hadn't cracked them yet? Or were Rashin keeping secrets from other Rashin?

On a whim, I downloaded these as well and then deleted them; regardless of the story behind them, there was no sense in making it easy for the Rashin to diversify their portfolio to biological studies as well as mechanical.

All that done, I quickly tapped onto the scroll and prepared the next phase of the plan. We would be setting off a security breach, which would trigger the blast doors closing all around the facility. At that point, motion sensors would activate all around the building; however, the AI Hoku had given us would create a ghost trail in one direction while we went in the other, jumping through the walls until we had escaped the facility and reached the getaway vehicle parked a couple of blocks away. However, that ghost trail would only distract them for so long, Hoku had given us maybe a minute or so until the security system purged the virus and the gig was up.

I turned from the computer bank and walked up to Neo, who cracked her neck as she stood up. "We all set then?" She asked me.

"That's up to you, it's gonna be another twelve jumps… you sure you're up for it?"

She looked around and scratched her chin, "Yeah, as comfortable as this place is, I think I'd prefer not to stay the night."

I grinned and prepared the virus for upload as Neo walked over to the wall and oriented herself for our escape.

The scroll beeped and asked for confirmation, I looked up and Neo gave me a determined nod. I took a deep breath, and uploaded the virus.

I snatched the scroll and sprinted over to Neo, who grabbed onto me even as the alarms began to blare.

There was a feeling of displacement and we found ourselves back in a well-lit hallway, heavy steel doors slamming shut along its length. Before I could even blink we were already jumping again as Neo moved us along our escape route.

It was around the ninth jump that she started panting heavily, her brow covered with sweat as she gathered herself for the next jump.

"C'mon Neo." I whispered to her, "You can do this."

She grit her teeth and we jumped again, then again… we were now outside the tower, facing one of the high security walls… just one more jump…

But that's exactly when Neo's eyes lost their focus and she collapsed, slumping against my shoulder. "Neo." I called, "Neo!"

Her eyes cleared briefly and she began to say something when her eyes shut and she fainted.

I cursed and looked behind me nervously; just in time to see a man in light battle armor several meters away do a double take and then begin to pull out his radio.

Before he could do so, I leveled Melodic Cudgel and fired a single Fire Dust round that knocked him off his feet, sending him unmoving to the ground.

That had bought us some time, but the noise would bring attention.

I turned back to the wall and nodded as I went to plan B…

I loaded up a whole satchel of Fire Dust into Melodic Cudgel, at least quadruple the normal load, carried Neo back behind a decorative stone statue of a Beowolf a few paces away, aimed the weapon at the wall and pulled the trigger.

The recoil sent my arm flying backward, nearly wrenching it out of its socket as a huge blast launched from Melodic Cudgel and slammed into the wall, sending chunks flying.

Before the dust had even cleared I was already moving, half-dragging the semi-conscious Neo along with me. I went a hundred meters before taking a turn down a side street, a black car sat parked on the curb; our get-away vehicle.

I opened the door and threw Neo inside before leaping in myself, slamming the door behind me. I started the vehicle and then slammed down on the gas pedal, flying down the street and onto the main thoroughfare right as two security vehicles flew past me.

I wrenched hard on the wheel, the tires squealing as I went down the other way. The two vehicles screeched to a stop, and then gave chase.

I ground my teeth as I drove like a madman, cars honked and screeching as I flew around them, followed closely by the two security vans.

Beside me, Neo began to stir, "Rowan… I'm… I'm sorry… I was…" My heart wrenched as out of the corner of my eye I saw tears begin to streak down her face.

I threw her a devil-may-care grin, "Ah c'mon, what kind of heist would this be if there wasn't a high speed chase?"

Even as I said that, in my head I was doing a set of rapid calculations. We weren't that far from the rendezvous point, if we could reach there, then Lusban would be there, along with a couple of mercenaries. We could then easily deal with the pursuing forces, then make a clean escap-

Right as I was thinking this, turning down into an abandoned parking lot, a third security van slammed into the car, sending it out of control and towards a wall.

Of all the times to not being wearing a seat belt, I thought as I prepared myself for impact.

However, instead of the awful crash I had been bracing for, I felt a feeling of displacement and found myself skidding a few paces along the ground, Neo clutching tightly to my waist.

A few meters away, there was a tremendous crash as the car slammed into the stone wall, metal screeching as the frame buckled under the force of the collision.

Neo and I rose unsteadily to our feet, back to back as men with rifles began to pile out of the vans to surround us.

"Surrender immediately and you will be spared." One of them called out.

In response I flipped him off and they opened fire.

But by then, Neo was already moving. First, her parasol deflected the incoming fire, and in the single moment she lowered it, I answered with a shot from Melodic Cudgel, sending several of them flying.

Neo then grabbed my arm and we jumped, appearing amongst several of the men.

Neo sometimes has talked about the dance of a fight to me, about how there's a rhythm to it all. Sadly, one of my very few faults (outside of looking somewhat unfashionable in masks) is that I cannot feel this rhythm of which she speaks… at least, not alone.

But when Neo and I fight together, that changes; it's like catching a single snippet of a vast and glorious song, so tantalizingly close, and yet so far.

Mere snippet or not though, I have never felt as invincible as when Neo and I fight as one.

It wasn't even a contest, soon, all of the men were down on the ground, dead or unconscious.

For a moment, Neo and I stood there, panting slightly, almost in disbelief at the ease at which we had dispatched so many armed guards.

Finally, I turned to her and jerked a thumb toward the extraction point, "C'mon, we should get going before reinforcements arrive."

She nodded and we began to walk forward, when I saw flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I began to shout a warning, but before I could, there was a tremendous blow to my cheek and I flew threw the air to slide along the ground.

I heard Neo cry out, but it was cut short and despite my body's protests I forced myself to stand, only to have someone wrap an enormous arm around my neck, putting me in a chokehold.

"Don't… move." A ponderously deep voice commanded, the mysterious man turned me around to see Neo and my heart sank to see two massive blades stopped a mere hair's breadth from her neck, the message was clear, cause trouble, and she would die.

Then I let out a gasp as my gaze moved down the naked steel and I recognized the two wielders of those giant blades.

The sound of a slow clap echoed from out of my vision, "I have to say; when it comes to jiving you two are the cat's meow!"

There was a giggle and Kuroi Akita slid into view. He did a dance move that wouldn't have looked out of place on a dance floor decades ago; then he walked up to me and leaned forward until his face was only a few centimeters from mine. "Now," He said, "What do you say we have a little chat… hmm?"