Karma yawned, rolling his shoulders stiffly, as he walked into the breakfast area of the hotel. He looked around and spotted his teammates next to the juice dispenser.

"Look who's finally up," Liz smirked as the redhead approached them. "We were just talking about what we're going to do with all this free time."

"It really is generous that they're paying for our stay while we wait for the report," Fia commented as they claimed an empty table.

"Where's Noriko? Her room is next to yours, right?" Karma asked, pulling out a chair slowly as to not aggravate his stitches.

Fia and Liz exchanged a glance.

"Well…" Fia began.

"She's…" Liz paused, then looked away.

"Really depressed," Fia finished.

"I don't know if she'll be ready for the meeting next week," Liz grimaced. "But let's actually get some breakfast now."

A few minutes later, the trio was sitting at a table, munching on continental breakfast.

"So what are we doing for the next week?" Liz asked before she stuffed a mini-pastry in her mouth.

"Should we really be going out while everyone's still recovering?" Karma questioned the younger girl.

Liz deadpanned back. "We're really going to sit around and mope with everyone? What good will that do?"

"She has a point," Jelavic said as she took a seat at the table with them. "Sitting around with the others all day isn't going to help. They need rest. We also need to make sure we're not mentally exhausted when we receive our next orders. So relaxation is key, and to help with that," Jelavic paused for dramatic effect, then pulled out four wristbands, "take yourselves to Santa Monica Pier."

"There's only four of them," Fia noted, haphazardly dousing the mountain of strawberries on her waffle with a heavy stream of syrup.

"Although Nagisa was released from the hospital yesterday, he's still in no condition to go on amusement park rides. It's for Noriko if she feels her ankle isn't too injured," Jelavic explained.

"Well… that might not be the reason she says no," Liz commented before taking a sip of orange juice. "She hasn't even left her room since we got here."


"Noriko," Fia called softly as she knocked on the hotel door.

The orange-haired woman came to the door and opened it a sliver. Her face was splotchy and red, and she had bags under her eyes. Her hair was a messy bird's nest. "What is it?" she asked flatly.

"Can we come in?" Liz asked.

Noriko nodded and opened the door for the two girls. She looked thin and frail, but the room looked tidy enough.

"How are you doing?" Fia asked carefully.

Noriko gave her a reproachful look. "Is that really a question?"

"I mean, you look terrible, but hey everyone has bad hair days, right?" Liz forced a smile, but Noriko gave her an unamused glance. Liz dropped the smile. "I'm not great at this, ok?"

"No shit," Noriko scoffed as she hobbled to the bed and sat down.

Liz suppressed a sigh and asked, "Want me to get you a coffee or something?"

"Yeah, sure." Noriko visibly deflated as Liz darted out of the room.

Fia sucked in a breath and tentatively took a seat beside Noriko on the bed. "Noriko, I was really sorry to hear about Classified-I mean, Keith. I know you were close."

Noriko crossed her arms. "Thank you for the condolences. Is there anything else?"

"I lost my brother when I was younger," Fia began. "He was my role model; He was kind, intelligent, and he always kept me laughing, even when he was teasing and annoying me." She stole a glance at Noriko, who pressed her lips tightly together.

"What happened to him?" Noriko finally asked.

"He left for Italy, saying he wanted to make things better for our family. We never saw him again." Fia paused and turned to face Noriko directly. "I know it's not the same, but whatever you're feeling is okay. If you want to cry, get angry, break down, or even throw yourself into paperwork."

"I bet you all expected the last one," Noriko scoffed as she ran her fingers through messy hair. "Not this mess of a person I've been."

"Liz and I, well, we didn't know how to help, but we just wanted to let you know that we care." She offered the older agent a small smile.

Noriko took a sharp inhale, her hand went to her mouth and a crease appeared in her brow as she began blinking rapidly. "Oh no, I'm going to cry, again."

Fia gave the older woman a hug and rubbed her back. "It's ok. Let it all out."

The two sat there, Noriko silently crying into Fia's shoulder until her shirt was soaked.

"Thank you," Noriko whispered as she raised her head.

"No problem," Fia replied as she let Noriko go.

"I'm back!" Liz replied as she entered the room, holding a piping hot Caffe Americano. "We got wristbands to Santa Monica Pier," Liz mentioned hopefully as she handed Noriko a cup of coffee. "It might help to get out of the hotel for a bit, maybe just take a walk on the beach?"

"I don't think so. I'm really not up to it," Noriko replied as she took a sip.

Fia lightly placed a hand on Noriko's shoulder. "Alright, let us know if we can pick up anything for you to eat on our way back. The Pier has killer cotton candy." She offered this with a kind smile and followed Liz back into the hall.

As the door shut behind them, Fia waved to Liz. "I have to get something from our room first," she said. "I'll meet you in the Lobby later."


Finally alone for the first time that morning, Fia sat quietly, her hands stuffed deeply into the pockets of a worn, familiar hoodie. One boot-clad foot bounced in an exasperated rhythm as she twirled a small, flat piece of metal between her fingers. In doing so, she could almost feel the brush of Haven's fingertips on hers.

She stole a quick glance at the twin beds in the room. She closed her eyes and imagined Haven perched at the end of a bed, laptop balanced in her lap, laughing-and cringing-as Fia rattled off subpar science puns from the internet. When Fia opened her eyes, Haven's ghost was replaced with Liz's duffle bag, and she sighed quietly.

After a moment, she finally pulled the object from her pocket and glanced down at it: an unassuming thumbdrive. Fia inserted the flash drive into her laptop. A window popped up on her computer, and lines of code began flying up her screen. Line after line flew. The window closed, and her computer restarted. When it did, a blue-haired figure appeared on her screen.

"Hello, I am a personal computer AI assistant. You may call me Wally." The boyish figure flashed Fia a friendly smile, and she choked back a laugh or a sob-she couldn't tell.

"W-Wally?" Fia asked, incredulously. She pulled her glasses from their case in her bag, scrubbed the lenses thoroughly with her shirt, and squinted at the screen again. She hadn't hit her head too, right?

"Before we continue, may I have access to your camera and microphone as well as the ability to make changes to your computer? This includes the ability to run programs as an administrator." A window popped up with two buttons. Fia blinked owlishly at the pop-up and had to physically shake off her stupor before dragging the laptop cursor towards the button that read "OK".

"Thank you. I can now hear and see you," Wally smiled and gave a small bow. "This will assist me in determining how best to help you."

"Hello, Wally," she managed to say with a shaky wave. "Do you-Do you remember me?"

"Apologies, I do not know you," Wally shook his head. "What would you prefer for me to call you?"

"Oh, um…" She tried to mask her disappointment with a small smile. "Fia. Fia is fine." As Wally accepted this and continued to speak through his settings, Fia stared at the all-too-familiar AI and wished she could see her best friend reflected in his eyes.

She imagined Haven, chatting with Wally hour after hour, pouring months of time into his code. Fia couldn't fathom how Haven could part with Wally- or how she would know that she'd need to. Still, Karma's accusation that Haven had defected to-no, had always been working for-the other side, didn't sit right with Fia.

"Wally," she said, anxiety warping her voice into an unfamiliar warble. "Do you know who Haven is? She…She's the one who created you. Can you find her?"

"Haven?" Wally pondered for a second - a look of confusion flickering across his face - before shaking his head. "Apologies, I am not personally familiar with the name; However, you do have a contact for a 'Haven Lee.' Would you like to contact them?"

"Please," Fia said breathily. She clasped her hands together in silent prayer and watched Wally process her request onscreen. "Dai, Haven, pick up!"

Wally shook his head, blue hair bouncing back and forth in smooth animation. "Apologies, I could not reach Haven Lee. Would you like to try contacting someone else?"

"No…" Fia answered. "No, no, no, no!" She nestled her face in her arms, crossed on the table in front of the laptop. "How could she leave me you a-and no way to contact her?" she demanded frustratedly. Head down, a single hand waving in the air exasperatedly, she continued. "She wouldn't have just left you, Wally. She just wouldn't have. Right?"

"Apologizes if I have displeased you," Wally replied softly. "I do not have any data on any former connections," The blue-haired avatar paused for a moment before a mixed expression fell upon his face. "However, if you do not desire my presence, I will transfer back to the external storage unit."

Fia finally lifted her head to look at Wally and immediately regretted having raised her voice at the confused AI. "No, I'm sorry, Wally. I'm not upset with you." She moped. "I just-"

A click and beep came from the door, and Fia slammed the laptop shut and whipped around just in time to see Liz open the door. The younger woman quirked a sharp eyebrow at Fia.

"H-Hey! I thought I was meeting you in the Lobby?"

"Yeah, well, you were taking a while," Liz said, eyeing the laptop with suspicion. "And Nagisa has decided that he feels up to coming along in Noriko's place, so we're waiting for him to clear it with Jelavic. You got something there?"

"No," Fia squeaked, a flush coming to her cheeks.

"Y'know, for an actress and a honey pot, you're really bad at lying. But if you don't want to tell me, maybe you'll be happy to tell Karma or Mr. Karasuma?"

She groaned. "There's a huge difference between memorizing a script and spontaneous improv, but I'm working on it. Sit, please." Fia gestured to the space beside her and hesitantly opened the computer, where a bewildered Wally blinked at her.

"I gather that someone else has entered the room. Should I introduce myself?"

"What's that?" Liz asked.

"Hello, I am a personal computer AI assistant. You may call me Wally," the AI repeated.

Fia waved her hand between the two. "Wally, this is Liz. Liz, Wally, Haven's… Personal AI."

"You have Haven's personal AI here, and you didn't think to bring this up to the rest of the team because?" Liz asked expectantly.

She sighed. "Because… Because I just can't believe that Haven would intentionally betray us. It doesn't add up and Wally, well, he's the only clue I have to what's actually going on."

"Have you found anything out so far?"

"Nothing except that he's been, I don't know, reset?" Fia shrugged. "He doesn't remember anything, at least."

"You asked them?" Liz stared at Fia. "Okay, let me get this straight. You found potential evidence about a suspect in an international criminal investigation, but you aren't turning it over because it could incriminate-"

"-Or prove innocent," she interjected.

"Okay, fine. The point is it could lead us to Haven. We should show it to Karasuma." Liz reached for the flash drive, and Fia pushed the laptop out of reach.

"No! This is all I have left of her!" Fia cried. "And she would only give Wally to me, her socially-awkward, technology-inept friend, if she wanted to keep him safe. Please, Liz, just let me have that. Haven's family to me."

Liz sighed. "I might have learned a thing or two from Mario. Let me see him. It's all verbal commands, right?" Liz cautiously pulled the laptop back under Fia's watchful gaze and addressed the AI. "Hey, can you do a quick search through your files?"

"Is there any specific word or phrase you are looking for? Or perhaps a date or time stamp?"

"It's been how many days since the mission? Try looking for records from a week ago."

"Unfortunately my memory banks do not go beyond ten minutes ago."

Fia gave Liz an imploring look and, after an arduously long moment, she relented. "I'll keep your secret for now, Fia." Both the Italian and the digital boy flashed Liz their most dazzling smiles. "It's clear that this thing-Er, Wally-doesn't remember anything useful to the case, and I'd really like to keep the morale from falling any lower than it already is. Besides I," she coughed, "trust you."

Liz swore that if Fia smiled any wider, her face would split, but Fia smiled widely anyway and threw her arms enthusiastically around the younger agent. "Grazie, grazie!"

"Get off, sunshine!" Liz pushed Fia away but she smiled anyway as Fia pulled her closer.


The sun was shining and various songs could be heard over speakers as Karma, Nagisa, Fia, and Liz walked along Santa Monica Pier.

"C'mon! Let's go try the rides!" Liz smiled as she began dragging Fia to the lines. "We can all meet in the arcade after!"

Nagisa shook his head with a slight smile. "You know, sometimes I forget how young Liz is."

"The funny part is, she can get on all the rides, can you?" Karma smirked as he messed with Nagisa's hair.

"Hey!" Nagisa batted Karma's hand away and pointed to a packed row of glowing stands. "Want to try some games?"

"By all means, lead the way."

The pair of friends ambled together, pushing past the glaring sun, boisterous music, and laughing people before coming to a stop under the canopied shade of a milk bottle pyramid game. Karma fixed Nagisa with a devious smirk.

"Oh no…"

"Hey, mister! How much to play?" Karma asked with a devilish smirk. Nagisa liked to think he could actually see dark horns peeking out from under his friend's red hair.

. . .

"That was fun!" Liz grinned as the roller coaster came back to the platform. "It might not have been very fast, but it was nice looking at the Pier from above!"

Fia laughed as she attempted to coax her wind-swept hair into a manageable braid. "It was, but if you want fast, why don't we try that instead?" She pointed to the Gyro Loop.

"Oh, heck yeah!"

Liz took off towards the ride with gusto, forcing Fia to jog after her. One throng of people later, they were strapped into a seat together and launched forward into the air. As their seat flew backwards in a large arc, it flipped, tumbling forwards and backwards with the momentum. After a few rotations, the Gyro Loop came to a halt and the women, exhilarated and out of breath, exchanged wild looks.

"Again!"

"No more!" The man managing the shooting gallery begrudgingly handed Karma a third prize.

Karma waved a spare ball in his hand. "But I was just getting started!" He grinned, and turned to the bluenette holding his winnings. "What do you think, Nagisa? Think Sugino would be proud?"

Nagisa sweat-dropped. "I think Sugino would say to have some mercy."

Karma gave the man a two-finger salute as Nagisa pulled him away. He led them into the Playland Arcade. A few rounds of pinball, one prolonged game of Galaga, and an embarrassingly cheesy fortune by Zoltar later, Karma and Nagisa found themselves at opposite ends of a cobalt blue air hockey table.

"I'm just saying," Karma said, as he picked up a red paddle. "I really want to go head to head with Kanzaki."

Nagisa laughed, inserting a few coins into the machine and collecting the puck. He dropped it onto the table with a plink. "I don't know, Karma. Kanzaki is really killer at Danmaku." He flashed Karma a pseudo-sweet smile and slammed the puck down the table in one swift motion.

. . .

Fia's head swam and she clung tightly to the steering wheel of her tiny green bumper car as Liz slammed into her (again).

"No mercy!" the younger woman cheered merrily.

Fia quickly reversed, twisted the wheel, and slammed down on the pedal, causing her to careen directly into Liz. "Just like my papa taught me~" she grinned.

"Oh, I'm going to get you for that!"

. . .

"You're surprisingly good at that, Nagisa." Karma blinked in amazement at the skee ball score board, its lights flashing flamboyantly as tickets poured out the front of the machine. "First air hockey, now this. You've been holding out on me," he added teasingly.

"Thanks, Karma… Hey, what do you mean by 'surprisingly'?!"

. . .

"This is… surprisingly nice," Liz admitted, perched on top of a gilded stallion. She glanced around the indoor carousel until she found Fia a few horses behind her.

Fia smiled dreamily from atop her horse, gently rising and falling with the music. "Told you so~."

. . .

Later, sitting on a wooden bench overlooking the beach, Karma laughed. "Liz, tell me again what Fia's face was like on the dragon boat?"

Face red, but still wary of his stitches, Fia lightly punched Karma's arm. "I'm revoking your rights to this funnel cake if you dare, Liz," she warned.

"Fine, fine," Liz said. "But it really was funny!"

This time they all laughed. Nagisa looked over at the Pier, where a small crowd had gathered around. A bucket-set drummer and freestyle dancer had teamed up and were giving quite the show. He sighed deeply, tiredly. There was at least one person he would have wanted to share this with.

Noticing Nagisa, Fia bumped shoulders with Liz, who blurted "OH, LOOK! There's cotton candy, Let's get some!" When Nagisa and Karma gave her strange looks, she tried "Or there's Dippin' Dots! Who wants to try Rainbow Ice?"

"I'd prefer Strawberry if they have any," Karma said.

"Oh, me too! Please and thank you," Fia chimed. Liz waved as she ran off to buy Dippin' Dots.

"Hanging out like this is fun. We should do it again while we can."


Nagisa placed two pizza boxes on top of the polished wood table in the room he shared with Karma. Fia followed, carrying a two liter bottle of soda. Not wasting any time, Liz flopped onto one of the cushioned chairs, thereby claiming her spot closest to the pizza.

Rolling her eyes with a slight smile, Fia claimed a share of the spoils and situated herself on an ottoman while Karma sat heavily on the bed with a sigh. Nagisa grabbed a few slices for himself and sat lightly next to Karma on the closer bed.

Inclining his head to the girls in the room with a smile, he asked, "Did you enjoy the movie today? It was really nice to walk around a little bit."

"Yeah! That movie was a lot of fun!" Liz picked up a rather mediocre slice of pizza and took an enthusiastic bite.

"You went to see the new Cretaceous Park movie, right?" Nagisa asked.

"Yeah!" Fia smiled back. "The T-Rex looked super realistic this time."

"I mean the animatronic in the original can't be beat, but the CGI in this movie was pretty good, I guess," Karma conceded.

Nagisa smiled fondly at his friends. "I'm kind of bummed that I missed that."

"Yeah, it's a pity you still can't look at screens," Liz shrugged before grabbing another slice.

The three continued to laugh over pizza, sharing their favorite parts of the day, until an uncomfortable silence crept through the group. The spaces between them seemed to grow as time passed, marked by nothing but the fierce fight of the air conditioner against the summer L.A. heat.

Karma looked to Fia, who quickly busied herself with inspecting the paintings on the wall, then Liz, sipping a soda slowly, and, finally, Nagisa, whose smile didn't quite meet his eyes.

"This is nice and all, but shouldn't we be talking about the one thing we've all been avoiding?" Karma asked with a dark expression.

"Karma..." Nagisa started.

"Haven," Karma said curtly, cutting him off. "Shouldn't we talk about her being a god-damned traitor?"

"She's not!" Fia responded, her cheeks burning as Karma immediately levelled her with an accusatory glare. "She's not a traitor," she repeated.

"How can you be so sure?" he demanded.

Fia opened her mouth to speak, her hand twitching, subconsciously, to where the flash drive sat in her pocket. "H-How about you?" she shot back in a fluster.

"I saw her with my own two eyes, Fia. Heard her say she worked for the bad guys at Corp X. Or does that mean nothing to you?"

Fia bit her tongue. "Of course it does," she said softly. "But you don't think there might be more to the story there? This is Haven. She's mischievous and petty, but she isn't a bad person..."

"Not a bad person?" Karma jumped to his feet. "She has no qualms with cheating. She hacks foreign governments because she's bored. She willingly abandoned her so-called boyfriend when he was knocked out and bleeding."

"She sent us an SOS though! She tried her best to save you!" Fia insisted.

"That is true, Karma," Nagisa commented, his hands raised placatingly.

"How do you know she didn't put us in that situation in the first place? You both are way too attached to see this clearly."

"As if you don't have a grudge against her?" Fia sputtered out, rising to her feet as well.

"I was unconscious when she left us," Nagisa dropped his head slightly and avoided the keen gazes of the other three agents in the room. "Part of me wants to believe in her, but did we really know Haven as well as we thought we did?"

"None of you have known her as long as I have! She's innocent. I know it!"

"You can't know that, Fia! How could you possibly know that?" Karma spat in anger. At this point, the pair was literally going head-to-head. "Didn't you just literally have a fight about keeping secrets from each other?"

"That's not the same! And we talked about it! Protecting her privacy doesn't inherently make her evil either."

"And what really irks me is that you weren't the one whose life was put on the line by her decisions," he iterated. "Is Nagisa's concussion not enough for you to see it? What about Classified, huh?"

"OK, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Liz yelled. "I didn't know Haven very well, so I don't have anything to say with regard to her, but this conversation is going nowhere."

"Liz is right," Nagisa agreed. "I don't think any of us will figure out her intentions without her here. So let's leave this conversation for when we have more information."

Fia and Karma held each other's glares.

Fia raised her chin defiantly, but even so, her voice cracked. "Fine."

"Okay," he growled back. "Then you can see yourself out."


The entire team found themselves meeting in a hotel room, again. Liz bumped her shoulder against Fia's and she returned the gesture with a tired smile, ignoring Karma who aggravatedly ran his hand through his hair a few feet away. Karma, Liz, Nagisa, and Fia were situated on the bed while Karasuma stood by the window. Jelavic hovered by the door, and Noriko was crying in the corner.

Karasuma cleared his throat. "Thank you for your patience these past two weeks. It's good to see everyone seems healed up."

"It's not like we had much of a choice, Chief," Karma muttered, lightly touching his stitches. Jelavic shot him a pointed look, and Karasuma continued.

"Today we need to talk about what's happened and what we need to do in the future. During the events of our raid, Haven went MIA. We believe she is now in Japan with the criminals we are after."

"Were we able to get any data from Haven's devices?" Nagisa asked. Fia tensed behind him.

"Not especially. Although we searched all her devices, the only thing that was suspicious was her laptop. It had been destroyed beyond recovery. The only program that could be recovered was a virus called . It destroys the computer it is installed on and sends out an SOS signal."

"Well that's not very helpful…" Liz muttered quietly.

"Did you say something?"

"Nope," Liz replied.

"Now, onto our next steps. We will be pursuing this case in Japan; However, not everyone here will be going. Noriko has decided to stay state-side while Liz will become our official liaison with the US." Karasuma paused, glancing briefly at Liz, who nodded resolutely, before shifting his attention to the others. "Karma. And Fia. We need to talk about whether you are going to continue with us. As it stands, you two are under a contract- But that contract ends here. It's up to you if you want to renew it."

The two inadvertently looked at each other.

"I, for one, want to see this through." Karma held Fia's gaze but spoke directly to Karasuma. "Some people need to be held accountable for their actions."

Karasuma nodded. "Alright, noted. Fia?"

"I want to find out the truth. I have faith," she answered. "I'm going too."


Right Brain: o What a tense comment box. Why is no one saying anything? Karma? Nagisa?

Left Brain: Hahahahahaha… There goes the "light-hearted amusement park episode" I planned… Apparently we just can't write crack anymore?

Right Brain: The more I hear about Fia and her dad's driving, the more scared I become o~o You know, kind of like how I'm scared of where we're driving this story.

Narrator: Next time, our agents find themselves in Japan! Will they find Haven? Who knows? Cause neither do we (yet)!

Narrator: … What kind of lame script is this?

Left Brain: Gimme a break!