AN: Thanks for the review Childiskill!

Death didn't feel too bad.

For a second there, Lucy thought that she had seen David. Exactly as she remembered him, smiling and laughing away on the moon. As nice as death felt, to be indifferent to everything while she slept, her mind still couldn't fully shut itself off because it was afraid that it would lose him for the second time. Who else would remember him then? He didn't have any other remaining relatives as far as she remembered. If Lucy gave up now, it would've all been for nothing. He would've died for nothing.

"It was always for nothing," Lucy spoke. "You, me, we all die in the end."

The last jolts of electricity ran through her neurons, manifesting as dull colors amidst the blackness. "Death doesn't feel too bad." But they say that sound is the last sensation to go upon death, and for Lucy, she heard the sound of David's voice.

"LUCY!," he screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET UP!"

"Stop it. I'm dead."

"You're giving up?! This soon?!"

"Oh...it feels good to hear your voice again. David."

"Lucy...you can't die! Not yet!"

"Why not?"

"You have your dreams, you still do!"

"My dreams? I went to the moon David. I never expected to live past that."

"I know you still want to live!"

She saw more colors and with it, her thoughts became clearer. "I do. Of course I do. I wanted to live, not to survive. I wanted to have someone love me and to hold me and to tell me everything's gonna be okay. That was meant to be you David! But you fucking died! There's no point in living when everyone just dies!"

She could picture his shoulders slumping forward slightly in glum acceptance.

"But...we still had some amazing times, huh?," David said. "Those times felt more real than anything."

"It was too good to be true."

"Live those times for me again, would you? You'll agree when I say the pain and suffering is worth it a hundred times over."

Lucy's eyes shot wide open. The first thing she noticed upon waking was the sweat. God, she was running a marathon in her sleep. The blankets she was laying on were drenched in sweat like she had a fever. But she was confused- she distinctly remembered searing pain radiating off her BCI and herself dying of a seizure.

She slowly rolled her head to the side and locked eyes with her fixer, who was in the middle of patching up his own bullet wounds.

"Luce!" He practically dove to her bedside, and a second later so did five Voodoo Boys. They were all badly injured. "You okay? You remember anything?," he asked.

She nodded.

"Thank God...we thought we lost you..."

Ever so gently, T-Bug lifted Lucy's chin up and got her to drink some water to replace everything she sweated out. "Here. How are you feeling?"

"...shit...," Lucy whispered.

"You're on some gnarly suppressants," T-Bug explained. "Rest up, and we can talk later."

"...h...how did I...?"

"...live? Self-ICE. You didn't think Saka wouldn't have countermeasures against this kind of stuff, did you?"

She almost hurled what was left in her stomach when she sat up, to everyone's surprise.

"Our contact let us know what was going on. So we got you out."

"...how?" It didn't take more than a glance at their bloodied torsos to answer Lucy's question. "Oh."

"More so...why'd you get fried in the first place?"

Lucy spoke with a soft voice. "It was the Ghost. He fried me."

"Lucy. What exactly happened in there?"

Out of habit, she reached into her breast pocket for a cigarette and felt only the fabric of the hospital gown. She had never felt more nervous in her life and maybe it was because of the drugs she was on. She had trouble keeping her head up because every single part of her was ten times heavier. It didn't help that all eyes were on her, while she was thinking in her delirious state.

There was panic in her eyes when she spoke without meaning to. "I don't know," she whispered while reliving the moments before her death. Each frame that Aiden was in front of her, him and his smiling, careless face, were seared into her memory. "I was talking to Mari and-"

"-Mari?"

"-and as soon as she left I was getting fried."

"Did you see him?," T-Bug asked.

"Maybe he came from the back but no, I didn't see him. Not during the whole week. But I knew he was there because I was checking the logs and small things didn't line up."

"But he set off alarms?"

"Yeah. I just couldn't see him. Your Ghosthunter doesn't work."

She didn't know what to feel when T-Bug's eyes darkened, and the gang members behind her started bickering. It was clear that their plan had been a stretch from the very beginning since this was the first time their software had actually been used in the field. A million things were going through her mind. So much so that she didn't notice the Eds being deposited into her account.

"Why did I do that?," she thought. "I should tell them. I should tell them! The motherfucker tried to kill me! He gets whatever's coming his way!"

"Thank you, Lucy. Your wares already been cleaned and replaced, so you can go home. We'll call you if we need anything."

"Lucy...do you really care about your life? I know you don't give a damn what happens to you, but I know you want to see Saka burn to a crisp for what they did to your friends! Aiden...he can make that happen. He's going to die as well, he has nothing to lose. If you tell them, then they'll get in the way of that."

She brushed off the help from Leadie, thinking that being able to feel her toes was the only requirement in walking out of the warehouse. But as soon as she put the slightest amount of pressure on her legs, she crumbled on the damp concrete like a ragdoll- her hair and face barely avoiding becoming a soggy mess thanks to her fixer, who held her up by an armpit.

"Thanks T-Bug. Good luck out there."

"Likewise."

He looked down at the girl. "Luce? You good?"

She nodded. "Stellar. Let's go home. I need a drink. And a nice cold bath."

Aiden wished he had never left Cyberspace. What a grim sight it was to wake up to a bathtub filled with the dark red lukewarm liquid that was his own blood. The metallic ice-cubes had sunk to the bottom while coagulated chunks of blood floated on the surface like lilypads. He was surprised. He didn't expect to live to see that happening. Nevertheless, he came prepared this time, and he reached over the tub for his favorite bottle of whiskey.

He didn't bother to remove the iron attached to the back of his head as unlocking the clasps would've been next to impossible, second to opening the bottle. Instead, he sort of slid down so that his chin was touching the surface of the blood-water mixture and leaned his head back on the edge of the tub. While keeping his drink dry, of course.

"Mom...dad...I made it...to 23!," he exclaimed weakly. Referring not to his age, but the underground level of Arasaka's data fortress. "Hooray. I guess we'll have something to talk about...when I see you soon..."

Not one sip in and already he began crying his heart out with what little time he had left. If he had just a little more time, a little more meds, maybe he could've got to see the mountains and the blue sky and nature like in those documentaries him and Julia would watch. And it would be colder, quieter and more amazing than his BDs could ever hope to emulate.

An hour passed by all too quick, where he had spent it all reminiscing about the people he met and the memories he made. And he hadn't even touched his drink. But when he did, he regretted it. The whiskey burned like lava in his throat and he coughed blood into his glass. His eyes went glassy. He could feel it. The reaper was coming for him. Each breath he took was shorter than the last.

"...n...o...," he mouthed, sinking deeper and deeper into the tub.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, his vision went white and he felt warmth in his chest. KA-CHUNK!

"...Ju...les...?," he breathed, upon feeling his head get lighter. A pair of slender hands gently lifted his head up so that he doesn't suffocate in the liquid. And when Aiden opened his glassy eyes, he was three inches apart from a woman with pastel white hair and light purple eyes.

"No, just me," Lucy coolly remarked. She extended an interface cable from her wrist and plugged it into Aiden's neck, not wasting one second in getting his contacts. She winced. There were three people listed: "Mom", "Dad" and "Jules". Aiden saw her eyes turn orange.

"Who is this?"

"No time to explain. Aiden's dying. What do I do?"

She hesitated. "...go to the room next to the kitchen." Lucy bolted. "There's a brown paper bag on top of the dresser. "

"Got it."

"Draw a syringe. 1.5 ml of estramoxin first, then 0.5ml of arilioxanide, 1ml of-"

Lucy scrounged through the almost empty vials in the bag. "Hold on, hold on! 1.5ml of what?"

"Es-tra-moxin. Inject it into the port on his left forearm."

"How deep do I-"

"-all the way."

Lucy informed the calm and professional voice between her ears about the situation as she administered the other three shots. It was easy- the needle body was as thin as a pencil so getting precise measurements wasn't an issue, and she didn't have to worry about missing an artery since there was an implant that allowed for it. A minute went by and the last of the clear liquid disappeared under his skin, but Aiden was still slumped over without a pulse. But Julia didn't sound too surprised.

"Just keep him alive until I get there." Julia said. Her facade was coming apart.

"He's not breathing!," Lucy yelled.

"Give him another adrenaline shot then!," Julia yelled back.

"No! No, he needs blood! But I don't know my..."

"I'm on my way! Leave it! If you're the wrong type he could die!"

"He'll be dead before you get here!," Lucy screamed.

Blood ran down her arm as she hastily connected clear plastic tubing between them. It was going- not quick enough apparently, by the way Lucy was massaging the injection site.

"...come on Aiden...come on...," she muttered, watching blood move through his near transparent skin. She lifted him out of the tub and began performing chest compressions. "Come on, don't you wanna live? Don't you wanna...take down Saka? Huh?!"

He was still.

"...not yet! Not until! You've killed me! Properly!"

"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!," Julia roared. "YOU HEAR ME?! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Something in Lucy snapped. "Oh, shut the fuck up! Where were you huh?! Why weren't you looking after him?!"

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"YOU WEREN'T THERE FOR HIM! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!"

...

"...Lu...cy..." She stopped her chest compressions immediately and clasped his face with both hands. Sure enough, his eyes were barely open and she could hear him breathing ever so softly. Like a small, newborn mouse that was one sneeze away from death. Inadvertently, tears had streamed down her face during CPR and only now did she feel a sense of shame or embarrassment from crying over a complete stranger. She got up with her hands in her pockets like it was no big deal.

And after a long time of making sure his chest was indeed rising up and down, she looked at him and sniffled. "Wake the fuck up Edgerunner. We've got a corp to burn."