Reiko combed back her long, blond hair and twisted it up into a bun. Her own reflection in the mirror stared back at her. Thirteen years without a mirror made this one feel kind of creepy. It was strange, seeing her own face. It didn't look like she imagined. Flipping open her wardrobe, she selected an outfit, black pants, a dark red shirt, and a black jacket. Combat-style boots appeared on her feet. Red. Her eyes riveted to it. The darkness covered the red…No. She switched her shirt to blue. Better. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Shusei poked his head in.

"Hey there, good-looking. Time for you shift." She turned to face him with a small smile.

"I know." She walked over to him. "How do I look?"

"I just called you good-looking…"

"You call everyone that."

"The outfit's fine. You look like you slept okay, tonight." She walked past him and down the hall towards the office. Masaoka was already there. He grinned and waved as she came in.

"Good morning, Reiko. Did you sleep okay?"

"Yes, I did." she replied in her best sane-person voice. "How did you sleep?"

"I slept alright, thanks." She sat down at her desk and opened her computer. Wetting her lips and looking around, she opened a word document and stared at it for a long, long moment. The blank white of the page seared her eyes – burned into her mind. That moment burned in her head. It needed out. Her fingers trembled as she laid them on the keys and began to type.

"She lifted the gun, closed her eyes, and shot. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Even after his body fell, she continued to shoot..."

"Whatcha writing?" She minimized the window and glared at Masaoka. "Oh…sorry to interrupt, I didn't realize it was personal."

"Deeply," she replied tartly. He backed off.

"Sorry."

"It's okay just…don't read my files." That was one thing about living with all these people, now. Her sense of privacy was completely invaded, constantly. She'd never thought much about it, in Isolation – she'd even wished that someone would be stuck with her to ask her invasive questions and pry into her life, but now that her secrecy was actually threatened, she found herself paranoid that someone would see her for who she was – an insane freak with a Psycho-Pass reading almost off the charts.

"I won't…are you okay? You look…shaken."

"I'm fine." She opened up her file and continued to type.

"She pulled the trigger over and over and over, even when the gun was empty and there was only the soft "click" of the empty chamber. Click. Click. Click. Click." Painstakingly, she wrote out every detail of the night that she could remember. Every moment burned into the screen, every sound, every shadow, every flash of light from the muzzle of the gun. She recounted everything she could remember over and over until the memory was able to recede into the back of her mind, and she closed the word document. No sooner had she finished when Kagomi came in.

"Okay, everyone, let's go. Inspector Tsunemori wants to see us. We have a latent criminal to catch," he announced. "Masaoka, Nakamura, with me, the others will stay here in case we are needed elsewhere." Reiko stood and followed Kagomi and Masaoka to the elevator and down to the ground level, where they got out and went to the van.

"So, who are we catching?" Masaoka asked.

"Mariko Ayatomi is a young woman who worked in the treasury department. She was a promising young girl. Today, one of the detectors read her too high. She's currently at a 100 Psycho-Pass level. She was seen with a knife, so she is considered to be armed and dangerous, capable of violent action. Dominators will be set to non-lethal for now. We'll all go as one group, as we only have one Inspector with us, for now. She's in the bank building with at least five civilians in the building with her," Kagomi informed them as they sat in the dark of the truck. Reiko closed her eyes, inhaling the scent of death. Her hands came up to cover her ears, trying to block out the sound of the gun.

"Rieko?" Masaoka's hand came down on her shoulder. She jumped. "We're here." The doors opened and she stood.

"Right. Let's do this, then," Kagomi sighed. Inspector Tsunemori was waiting for them. She waved, grinning at them.

"Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the real world!" she greeted them. "How've you all been?"

"You saw us at the office, like…yesterday," Kagomi pointed out blandly.

"So?" He rolled his eyes.

"Come on, everyone," Masaoka cut in, starting towards the building. "The longer we wait, the more danger those people are in, so let's get moving." They all went inside. The building was eerily quiet for a Thursday morning at the bank. Masaoka looked around.

"She's somehow managed to shut down the detectors, so we don't know where she is, right now," Akane whispered.

"Top floor," Masaoka suggested.

"Why?" Akane asked.

"If I were her, I'd go to the top floor," Kagomi agreed. "No doubt she's terrified and knows we're coming in on the ground level. She's not thinking straight. She just wants to get as far away from us as possible." Reiko followed them up the stairs, listening to her own, heavy breathing. She tried to focus on them, their footsteps, their crouched forms in the darkness. It looked like night – the shades had been put on full opacity, and only the dim glow of the emergency lights were on, as Mariko had somehow managed to shut off all the power to the building. When they got to the top floor, Akane stopped them.

"Okay, let's split up, everyone take a room, we'll cover the halls that way. Reiko, you go there at the end of the hall, Kagomi, you're in the room next to her, Masaoka, you're across from her and I'll be next to you, okay?" the Inspector whispered. Reiko went to her assigned door and waited for the signal. "One, two…three." She stepped in.

"Don't move!" a voice cried. She could see the girl's form, cloaked in darkness. She had a gun out, pointed straight at her. Reiko already had her Dominator out and aimed at the girl. "I'll shoot you!" she screamed. Reiko stared at her. She knew she could pull the trigger faster than her target would react.

"Target's Psycho-Pass level updated to 160 – Dominator set on lethal," the Dominator told her. She barely heard it. The girl – she was hardly old enough to be called a woman – was clearly terrified. Her hair – blond and shoulder length – was a mess, her crystal blue eyes wide with terror.

"I said I'll shoot!" she warned. Reiko didn't hear her voice. All she could hear was her rapid breathing. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Pain splintered through her shoulder and she dropped her Dominator. She heard the sound of another Dominator going off and she fell against someone, reeling in shock and agony. The target's lifeless body lay on the floor. She couldn't get her eyes off it. Blond hair strewn in the dark, soulless blue eyes gaping. Reiko slumped to the floor.

"Reiko…! Reiko!" She became aware that someone was calling her name and shaking her. There were lights all around her – a hospital. She looked down at her right shoulder. Red on white bandage. The darkness had covered the red, but now the white was shining on it, and the red could no longer hide.

"No," she groaned, reaching to claw away the stained cloth. "No!"

"Reiko, stay still!" Masaoka cried, trying to pin her arm back down.

"No! Th-The d-darkness-!" Masaoka was yanked away from her and Shusei's face came into view. He grabbed her hand gently, not seeming to mind the blood that was now smeared across both their fingers.

"Reiko," he murmured softly. "Reiko, it's okay."

"No…th-the darkness covers the red, but…"

"I know. Shhhhhh, remember? Remember what we said?"

"They shine the white on the blood, and it's red." He cast a nervous glance at the others in the room. "The darkne-mph!" His mouth came crashing down on hers. After a long moment, he drew away a hair's breadth.

"Don't talk," he hissed. "You'll get yourself locked away in the crazy bin – is that what you want?" She blinked and shook her head. "Then don't…say…a word. Don't move, don't do anything, and just let them fix you up, okay? You've already got enough to answer for – freezing up like that."

"Shusei, I-!"

"Don't…talk." He drew away, wiping his mouth. She stared after him as he turned away. He looked so angry. She closed her eyes so she couldn't see the red. Maybe if she ignored it long enough, it would go away. Hands came to her shoulder, fixing the bandage. There was a slight pain in her arm and then she dropped into unconsciousness…

The darkness covers the red, but it can't hide the smell. They shine the white on the blood and it is red. The darkness that surrounded her covered an ocean of blood. If they shined the white on it, they could see…She stumbled out of the darkness and into the light to find Shusei waiting for her. He didn't look angry, anymore. She looked away.

"Hey," he muttered. "Feeling any better?" She shook her head. "They put you to sleep. Did you nightmare?" A nod confirmed his suspicion. "What are you going to tell them? Do you have an excuse for hesitating? You should have shot her on sight."

"She had a gun pointed at me."

"Everyone knows it was your shot – you hesitated."

"She was going to shoot me."

"That's what you're saying then?"

"I thought it was safest to stall her until one of the others came. I thought maybe then she would be caught off guard and we could take her down."

"…Passable, I guess." Silence spanned between them. "Why did you hesitate?"

"I…I saw me."

"What?"

"That woman…"

"Looked nothing like you. She had black hair, green eyes; she was tall and…what are you talking about?" Reiko blinked.

"Black hair? N-no…no it was blond. Blond hair…blue eyes, staring for eternity…unable to see." She shook her head. "She was scared so she shot the gun."

"Reiko…that woman…she didn't have blond hair or blue eyes. And more importantly…that woman was not you." He took her hand. "And either way, you've got to look out for yourself. You do what they tell you to, or they lock you back up in Isolation. Do you want that?"

"N-no."

"Okay, so next time, you don't hesitate, okay?" Next time, you just point and shoot, okay? The Dominator does all the work for you."

"I couldn't hear anything…just her breathing. Shusei, her breathing was like mine."

"Stop. Listen to me, Reiko. You can't do this. If something like this happens again, you have to ignore it. You've got to at least pretend-!" he stopped short. "You've got to try…to conquer this."

"That's not what you meant. What were you about to say. I've got to at least pretend what?"

"N-nothing."

"Say it! I've got to pretend that I'm sane, because I'm not!" He clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes darting around anxiously.

"Don't shout it like that, idiot!" he snapped. She pulled his hand away.

"M-maybe I belong…in the white…"

"Shut up! No one belongs there, and you sure as Hell aren't going back while I have any say in the matter! If anyone messed you up, it's them for sticking you in that place." She sighed and looked away. "Reiko…" the gentle tone she was used to from him was back. "Look…I just…I don't want to see you go back. That place is a nightmare. I know first hand. You don't belong there."

"But I-I'm broken, Shusei. Look at me – listen to me. I-I'm doing more harm than good. Next time I have a breakdown, it could cost somebody their life."

"So what? That's…that's no reason for you to be locked up in solitary. We just…we need to get you help. Real help. You know, maybe we can find…I don't know a real psychologist or something. Someone who can really do something, instead of just shoving you in a corner to rot."

"Everyone's part of Sybil, now, Shusei. The system does everything for us. Even if someone could help me, how would we do it in secret and there's no saying the system wouldn't catch us and lock us all away. You got out of there, and i-it's going to be my fault if you go back."

"No it's not. Because we're not going back – ever. And if they ever catch me, that's on me, not you. Okay? I made these choices by myself. You have no responsibility in what happens to me. Watch me. I'll find you someone who can help. They screwed up your mind, and I'm not going to just sit and watch. There's got to be someone out there that can help you."

"The only people trained for that kind of thing are rehabilitation officers, and the system already declared me unable to be rehabilitated. They would just lock me away."

"There's got to be someone else. Someone who's followed the old ways. I mean, they have to exist, somewhere."

"Why? Why do they have to exist? Shusei, there's no one like that, anymore. The system has taken away our ability to help ourselves. Sybil has made us dependent on her, and anyone who doesn't fit…she just hides us."

"Well, we're done hiding, Reiko. We're going to fight back. You'll see." She swallowed hard and nodded, tears rising in her eyes.

"Thank you…Shusei."

"H-huh? Don't cry, idiot."

"You know, I can't…I can't even trust myself, anymore. My own eyes lied to me, my mind won't do what I want it to…my own body is betraying me. It's nice to know…that I can trust you." He smiled slightly.

"You can always trust me, Reiko. Always. Now, it's time for my shift, so…I'll see you later."

"Yeah. Later." The redhead walked off, hands in his pockets. Reiko stared after him, tears spilling down her cheeks. Fighting back, huh? How, Shusei? They hold all the cards.


Sorry for the wait on the update, my life has been kind of crazy! Anyways please review. I love feedback, even if it's critique! :)