AN: Heyo! Just wanted to say thanks for reading this far! This chapters a short one so the next will be out soon!

The Ghosthunter wasn't perfect.

What should've been a clean outline of its intended target, was in practice a glitched mess. Parts of Aiden's torso didn't seem to register with it properly and were invisible, and other parts glitched in and out as red code. As if his software was fighting against Lucy's. But after a week of boring monotony in the Sakanet, the software's glitched sprite was better than perfect. She would've been content if it showed a block of code for crying out loud- all that she needed was proof that he wasn't just a bug or rogue AI, but an actual human being she could put a name to.

He existed for real. She still had trouble putting it all together as she stood there, listening to Mari's weekly report. Maybe it was because of the fact that he was standing next to her, his neck craned forward and his eyes laser focused on the side of her head. Darting back and forth, hoping that what he saw back there was an accident. Maybe she was looking at a flower behind him.

"Hey. You can see me. Can't you," spoke Aiden, less like a question and more of a final statement. "Lucyna Kushinada."

She didn't dare to move a single muscle on her face but he kept talking anyway.

"Man...you really scared me. I thought I was a goner. But I'm still here. So it looks like you haven't switched sides completely. I knew it...I knew you wouldn't switch sides like that. Especially not after all that you've been through.

With his arms behind his back, he stood between Lucy and Mari. "Or were you just waiting for the right moment?," he suggested, tilting his head to the side. Mari's voice faded in the background. "I guess it doesn't matter now, does it? I guess I might as well tell you."

He closed his eyes and smiled slightly.

"My name is Aiden. Aiden Kaehlar. I'm the one who ICEpicked Saka. But not really. Actually, it was mostly you," he revealed.

"What are you talking about?," Lucy thought.

He coughed. "You left behind a lot of data. I got my hands on it snooping around your apartment last month. I...think all you needed was a second set of eyes to look at your notes from a distance. You had tunnel-vision."

"Aiden..."

"You're an impressive Netrunner. I'll say that much. I think we could've been good friends."

"Lu-cy," Mari droned. "Say something."

"Yeah, that...sounds...good. Let's do that...," Lucy replied. Aiden's face was slightly transparent and he stood exactly in front of Mari so that Lucy could see both their eyes at the same time.

"Do what?," she snorted. "Fuck, what's the point of these damn reports if you're not gonna listen?"

The small smile that was on Aiden's face vanished when he took a step forward, and Lucy began shaking in her boots. She had seen that blank stare before. It was the stare of a human being who had made up his mind hours beforehand and there would be nothing on this planet that could get them to stop: ask David or Rebecca or Maine or anyone else. He might as well have pulled out a gun and pointed it squarely on Lucy's head.

Because she was about to die and she was terrified. "M-M-Mari...," she trembled.

Aiden spoke to himself. "I...don't understand. I'm supposed to be dead right now. I thought...I thought when you saw me and blinked, you would've gone straight to the suits but you didn't. Why? Why are we here?"

"..."

"...because you don't want Arasaka to know about me. Right? You and whoever it is you're actually working for."

"..."

He got out of the way between her and Mari and stood to her side, speaking like the Devil on her shoulder. "In any case, you know what happens next, don't you?"

She nodded slightly while still maintaining her facade with Mari.

"So why don't you run away? You know you're going to die, right? If you shared it with Saka, you'd live."

Mari yawned. "All right. I'm out."

"Yeah. I'll be right behind you," Lucy said, before Mari vanished from cyberspace. The few minutes she could be left alone at the end of the day. Aiden quickly moved to stand where Mari was.

"I wouldn't be able to stop you," he said.

Lucy trembled but still managed to sigh in acceptance. "You're going to kill me either way, aren't you?," she weakly chuckled.

"Maybe."

"Oh, we're both going down. Leak or no leak. I just wanted to give you a fair fight with Saka."

"That's funny. I'll do my best."

"Right."

He smiled. "Are you scared?," he asked.

"No! No, I wouldn't say it like that."

"Then...?"

"It's just...heard its painful. Looks about it, from what I saw too."

"It's not the best way to go."

"You got some other ware up your sleeve? One that makes it clean? Y'know. Poof, and I'm gone?"

He shook his head. "Sorry Lucy."

"Look, I might as well tell you too. It was the Voodoo Boys. They hired me. They made the Ghosthunter and a corrupt Saka doctor put it in me."

"What do they want?"

"Dunno. To get your phone number I guess?"

"Haha. Too late for that. I'm gonna croak in a week anyways."

"How so?"

"I'm sick."

"Oh. Now it makes sense."

He took another step forward. Slowly, ever so slowly, he barely touched Lucy's forearm with the tip of his fingers. And just as Mari hopped back in to scold her for not getting out of the net, Lucy let out an agonized jaw-clenched scream. Every single muscle in her body tensed, making her feel like there were spikes underneath her skin. Soon, she would be on the ground a twitching mess, the torture never stopping as inevitably, she began having a seizure. Aiden stepped to the side.

"LUCY!," Mari yelled, scrambling on the floor and holding her head up. "Oh fuck fuck fuck I am so fucking dead!"

Aiden stood over her body and watched her slowly die. Desensitized as he was, this death was sure to stick with him when he went to sleep tonight. Lucy's eyes were rolled back, and froth bubbled from the corners of her locked mouth- as he had seen before, but this time? She was crying her soul out. Involuntary or not, every fibre of her being clutched to what little hope it had of surviving. It was reminded of the promises she made, even if Lucy had forgotten. To the small group of friends she made in her youth, to the promise with David and her newfound family...

"Too soon...," she would've cried. Death came too soon. Too painfully. And too insignificantly. The death wouldn't have crushed her. Or the pain, as a matter of fact. It was the fact that she died for nothing. All because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her back arched even more when her new implant finally gave out with a loud 'BANG!', both in cyberspace and meatspace. Because she was taken out of the pool by five engineers as soon as the attack started, but all they could do was type in useless commands on their terminals. Smoke rose mostly from her BCI as well as from every orifice on her face.

And soon, in both versions. She finally went limp.