Chapter six You always kill the one you love

Eiichi Yano crouched in the shadows, the only light in the room coming from a small lantern swinging silently from the ceiling. There he waited, his breath shallow, almost non-existent, his eyes fixed on the paper sliding door, his mind rigidly focused on the task at hand – survival! And finally it came, the moment he had been awaiting, a moment his tense muscles had expected, burned and now prepared to react. He watched as the door silently slid aside. It was delicate, almost poetic in its motion, the air itself oblivious to its movement. The dark clothed assassin - a Ninja - for that was what he was, moved fluidly into the room, not even the slightest disturbance betraying his entry. Death moved and breathed, and death was now in front of Eiichi, yet death had been outmatched. The dark assassin stood above his prey, ready to strike the blow that would elegantly end a life, only he had failed to see the shadow behind him, a shadow that lurked in the corner of the darkened room, a shadow that struck with blinding destruction. The assassin fell, the top of his spine severed with a single blow, an incision merely 2 cms deep severing his body's link to the brain. He fell, there was little blood, there was not even an utterance of pain, only death's embrace.

"End program," Yano uttered the words, seemingly out of place in the tranquil scene, then suddenly all dissolved to nothingness and he awoke in his virtual rig, the electrodes still attached to his scalp by sticky pads. They were cool against his skin, refreshing. Eiichi smiled, he was good, but soon it would be real.

"Wonderful performance, Master," said a sultry voice from the ceiling.

"I'm glad you liked it. Is there any reason for you intruding on me, Scarlet?"

"I've found the information you wanted, Master."

"Really? The one who occupies the penthouse and who killed Isato?" Eiichi said as he pulled off an electrode from his forehead.

"The one who owns the penthouse is a very high up operative in the WTO. Her name - Alex Denton. Age - 28 years old. Height - 5' 11". Weight - 148 lbs. Education - Tarsus Academy. Family - foster parents, her origin unknown. Past medical history - has been biomodified, modifications unknown. Tarsus training advanced level. The full dossier is on your desk, Master.

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"Of course, Master." The image of a young woman formed in the swirl of a nearby holocom.

"A bit young to be a high WTO operative, don't you think?" Eiichi said as he walked over to the holocom, his facial expression questioning the validity of the information.

"Maybe, Master. But be careful of her, she did kill Isato after all, and he was one of our best, M-."

"Isato was a fool! Disgraced his family with his foolishness! This is my chance to bring back the honour my family once had, by killing that brat and haunting that so called mother of his to her grave!" shouted Eiichi with such fierce passion that he slammed his fist onto the holcom, disrupting the image of the young woman before him. But then, almost in prophecy of the future, the holocom reformed anew, intact, inviolate, deformed only by the shadow of Eiichi's hand. The darkness swelled in Eiichi's mind, the darkness of foolishness and superstition, a darkness that Eiichi tore from him. He would not be a fool! And the vile machine flew across the room.

...Alex looked into her coffee, the rich pungent smell filling her nostrils. That smell always made everything right, made the world make sense.

"How do you want your eggs, dear?"

"The usual, mom," Alex replied. She always asked that. Funny, it always used to piss her when she asked that, but right now nothing could upset her, the sun streamed in through the garden window, and life just could not get any better. The wooshing sound was subtle, almost hidden by Alex's breathing, but it was a sound that froze the blood, it was the sound of nanite conversion. Alex turned, her heart pumping, mind screaming. No, no, it wasn't like this! Alex screamed. The smiling face of her mother gazed back, petrified, dead, vacant. Alex screamed again. It wasn't like this! But it was, it was, and she wasn't there. They died and she wasn't there, they died, that she might be destroyed, a whole city to wipe out the Apostle Corp and her. She screamed again and watched as her mother's head crumbled from the frozen shoulders, dead, lifeless shoulders, and Alex crumpled against the table. Except it wasn't a table, it was a bench, a bench in a park, a park on Liberty Island, a bench she had never seen, but now clung to.

"Are you my friend?" Tatsumi's voice was filled with wonder and need, with adoration.

"Of course I am, I will always be your friend." The voice was clear, the voice of JC. Alex looked up. JC stood in front of Tatsumi, a broad smile filling his face, a smile that could never be. " I'll always be your friend." JC's hand lightly caressed Tatsumi's chin, and with a flick twisted his head a full 120 degrees. Tatsumi's lifeless corpse fell to the floor, his face still fixed in an adoring smile.

"Why?" Alex heard her self say. She spoke with a detached calmness, an ethereal grace.

JC turned, his eyes fixing on her own, " You always kill the ones you love, don't you?" a small smile played on his lips, "You always do, don't you? You taught me that, you taught me how to love." And Alex screamed...

Seiki Moon was in ecstasy. The girl who giggled at his every touch was perfect, her skin smooth, lovingly formed, her body artistically shaped. She gazed down onto him, as he lay beneath her, eyes like huge limpet pools, pools that a man could drown in...

"Get the fuck up, dope head!" The voice cut into Seiki's brain, jarring him loose from the pleasure sim, back, inexorably back, into the real world. Seiki looked up at the face of his sometimes friend Tsutomu - partner, confidante and all round arsehole. "Never, fucking never, do that again!" Seiki spat the words, as his hands grabbed at his friend's collar, his face vivid with rage.

"Ok, Ok! It's just your shift. Lighten up!"

Seiki Moon breathed in a deep breath, "Fine, just don't do it again." His voice full of control, Seiki removed the sim lead from his head jack, gently rose from his couch and calmly walked away. Tsutomu smiled to himself, the guy was nuts, he loved him, but the guy was nuts.

Moon gazed into the optic enhancer, his face pushed against the rubber cups of the device, slightly distorting his mouth and cheeks into a half grimace. The girl's outline was all too clear, her naked form unveiled to full effect through the optical enhancement of the device, its ghostlike image revealing her lithe form as she showered, oblivious of her voyeur. Seiki stared intently at the writhing body, its motions calling forth memories – memories better not remembered – but that came forth nevertheless by their own will.

...Everything was going to according to plan. First he managed to infiltrate the base with almost no problem, carefully, quietly, sneakily. It was almost as if he wasn't there. Sure, he had a few problems, but he managed to solve them quickly and efficiently. Of course, just as he was reaching his target, something had to fucking distract him. Oh yes, every fucking time! This time it was a girl. Oh, he knew that body, oh, he knew that body! It was Christina, owwww!

Yeah, Christina. She was the woman he had had a fling with a few years back. Boy, did she have an ass! Of course, she wouldn't be happy to see him. Not because he was peeking at her in the shower...well, because he betrayed her by...he kinda killed her fiance and took her drug ring down to dust...but this was the present not the past...he had to reach the target before dawn...

The door opened, its almost silent motion only slightly disturbing the air. The darkness of the room, revealed only in the green luminescence of Moon's lowlight vision, told the story of a late-night rendezvous - couple of glasses on the table, half burning cigarette in the ashtray, and the heady perfume of one Christina Heidel. Seiki wondered on who her companion would have been. Probably the administrator of the base, but knowing her it could have been anyone, she wasn't that fussy. After all, she had gone for him. The wall safe was glaringly obvious and that in itself was disturbing. Anything obvious is usually trapped or a fake. Probably in this case both. Seiki gazed around the room. Something out of place, something not right. There, in the corner, barely perceptible, an anomaly, a slight distortion. His visual enhancement could see through walls, but something like a wall safe would be shielded. But, the best shielding in the world wasn't perfect, and this wasn't the best shielding. Didn't take him any time at all to find the concealed button to reveal the safe in a floor recess. Springing it was even easier. Expertly he used his multitools, overriding the code lock, and gaining access to that which was within - DNA 261/B. Moon clasped the vial tightly in his hand and smiled. Hell, must've been one hell of a party, Christina's perfume is way, way too strong The thought dawned on him as he slowly turned to see the beauty in the doorway, a bath towel around her body, a pistol in her hand. Seiki smiled, "This looks bad, doesnt it?"

Christina nodded slightly, the smile on her lips frozen in place.

"Guess you wouldn't believe I came to make up, huh?"

"No," she mouthed, merely a silent hiss, betraying the venom in her voice. Moon thought quickly. Shotgun was on a quick release back-holster, but it would take about a half a second to pull, and a quarter of second to discharge, by that time he would be full of lead. He knew she was a mean bitch, truth was he didn't know how mean. He didn't want to find out. Oh, well, here goes, he thought, hope she hasn't got sun filters. His mind concentrated on the activation switch sequence for his visual augmentation. He stared into her eyes and slightly smiled. As he did, his augmented visual circuitry exploded in a cascade of intense light - single point flash, only works on one person at a time and screws up his eyelight circuits for about ten minutes - but it saved his ass today! Those boys in R & D know what they're doing, have to send them a cigar. The girl reeled backwards, her hand across her eyes, the brilliant luminescence burning into her brain. The shotgun was in his hands in less than a half a second, aiming and splattering her against the corridor outside of her room. She was a ragdoll buffeted by a wind of destruction, her blood branding the mark of her death into the white carpet that she lay upon. Her eyes betraying the disbelief of the moment of her demise.

"Ah, now look what you've gone and made me do! Oh, shit!" It was times like this that Seiki hated himself, hated the job he did, but he had no choice, he had no fucking choice! He never did. Time for remorse later, over a drink at the bar, and a sad song on the juke. It's the way it always was. He wondered if someone would do that about him one day. That made him smile, but then he got on with his life...

A voice intruded on Seiki's thoughts, bringing him back to the world. It was one of the other guys that had come over to relieve him from his post.

"Caught up in things, are you, Seiki?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah."

"Here, let me have a look!" The other guy looked through the lens. "Oh yeah, I can see where you're coming from! He, he, he, ha! Hey, that's better than that…ahm… virtual shit that you're into, ain't it?"

"What?"

"You know. Wo, I like it! Wowww!"

"Oh, get a life, man!" said Seiki and Seiki got up and walked off.

"Get a life! Ha, ha, ha! Watch that! Right! Wow!"

Saki just didn't respond.

A/N : Sorry I took so long, complicated ideas and rethinking slowed it down