DISCLAIMER: I do not own Repo!. Any places or characters you recognize from the movie aren't mine.

AN: Oh, my God, an update! So it's been a while. I'm really sorry about that, guys. My life's been pretty sucky, and I haven't been inspired to write much of anything. But after realizing that seven-plus months (yikes!) had gone by without word one from me, I figured it was time to breathe new life into this baby. Please accept my apologies for taking so long. It means a lot that you guys like this, so thank you. Also, I absolutely guarantee another chapter by the end of the coming week—I just need to do last-minute proofing.

This was originally going to be something of an interlude at the beginning of a chapter, but got too long and involved. But it is important to the plot, I promise. Shilo and Graverobber will return next chapter.

***BREAK***

Neither of the two henchgirls flanking the elevator flinched as a glass paperweight shattered between their heads. Hardly surprising, really, as they'd been trained to never betray the slightest emotion. Ever. Back when Rotti Largo had been running GeneCo, he'd chosen his private guards personally, selecting only those who could face the Devil himself without blinking.

A pity he hadn't taken the same care with his police force. The current police commissioner cowered before the desk, hands up around his face to ward off any other attacks. When the woman behind the desk spoke, it was in a voice of forced calm.

"I don't understand," said Amber Sweet, head of GeneCo, "how it can be so hard to find one little girl."

They were in the office that had formerly been Rotti's, but was now the domain of his daughter. The place was mostly unchanged. Amber had kept the imposing furniture and the heavy desk, perhaps hoping to gain some intimidation power through her father's things. The one sofa in front of the desk was gone, to gain floor space. The main difference to the office these days was the video wall. Rather than showing security feeds from various locations in the city or the latest repossession target, the screens now showed all the information available on one Shilo Wallace. Amber's desire to find the girl was bordering on obsession.

The commissioner wrung his hands together, shiny with sweat. "It's proving more difficult than we'd anticipated, Miss Sweet," he said hesitantly. "We've had eyes on the Wallace house for days, but she hasn't returned. She most likely knows it's being watched. Our other option was to track her comlink. All the bracelets are linked into the GeneCo mainframe—"

"I know all this," Amber snarled. "Your job is to tell me things I don't already know." The commissioner trembled but went on.

"The signal went completely dead a few hours after the Opera. We suspect that she managed to damage or destroy the bracelet. We've gotten several tips on the bounty, but there's been no real progress yet—"

Amber almost screamed with frustration. She tore at her hair, which was platinum blonde and waist-length at the moment. Her SurGens had managed to repair her fallen face, but she was under strict orders not to alter it for at least three months. Amber was compensating by changing her hair twice as often as before. The embargo on facial surgery combined with the police's failure to locate Shilo had put her in an especially foul mood. The commissioner sensed another attack and ducked again, but the desk was out of potential projectiles.

This didn't stop Amber, who swept a sheaf of papers to the floor. Then she slammed both fists down onto the wood, making the commissioner jump. When he dared to look up, all he saw was Amber's head bowed, blonde hair streaming down around her face.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he heard her mutter.

"Ma'am?" the commissioner asked cautiously.

Amber flung herself upright, hair flying back. There was a steely glint in her eyes and her genetically perfect mouth was a narrow, tight line.

"Raise the bounty," she said in a hard voice. "Twenty thousand."

"But, Miss Sweet—"

"Raise it!"

The commissioner wilted. Raising the bounty on Shilo Wallace would certainly be one way to bring her in, but for every legitimate tip the GeneCops received, they could count on at least twenty fakes, each of which would need to be followed up. It required time, energy, paperwork . . . all the things he didn't want his department getting caught up in. They had real work to be doing; busting illegal chop shops and arresting Zydrate peddlers. They didn't have time to comb the city for one girl.

Not to mention that GeneCo, as the offeror of the bounty, would end up paying those twenty thousand credits. And as Amber would never willingly let a sum that large out of her hands, the bounty would come out of any department she deemed unnecessary . . . which probably included the police. Amber was treating the company like her own personal piggy-bank.

Did you expect anything different? he thought to himself bitterly. Daddy's brat always gets her way.

The commissioner nodded gloomily. "I'll send the word out right away, Miss Sweet," he said. He didn't even try to keep the dejection out of his voice.

Amber either didn't notice or didn't care. She carefully tidied her hair and smiled sweetly at the commissioner. "Thank you," she said in a voice that dripped sugar. "That's all, I think."

The commissioner nodded, glad to be dismissed, and was at the point of exiting the office when the side door, the one leading to the cold room, opened.

In strode the two remaining Largos, Luigi and Pavi. Luigi went straight to the desk and planted his fists on it. Although he had been doing a fairly good job at hiding it, it was clear he was resentful that his younger sister had inherited GeneCo. The commissioner surveyed the scene cautiously. Luigi looked angry, as per usual, and the commissioner quickly backed several feet away from him. If Luigi went into a rage, he had a nasty habit of stabbing the closest person to him. That was actually how the previous commissioner had died, just last week.

Pavi hung back towards the elevator, inspecting his latest face in a handheld mirror. It made the commissioner's stomach turn a bit to see that the face had previously belonged to Blind Mag, and the dead singer's beautiful features were still discernable. However, Pavi's face masks only lasted a few days, for he refused to preserve them with chemicals. Mag's face was starting to curl and shrivel at the edges, a sure sign that Pavi would be hunting a new one soon. Sure enough, he reached out an effeminate hand to caress the jawline of one of the henchgirls.

"Pavi!" came his older sister's sharp voice. Pavi immediately jerked his hand away and looked guiltily at Amber. Amber shook her head.

"Sister, please!" he said reproachfully. "You-a promised me—"

"Shut up, freak!" barked Luigi over his shoulder. Pavi pouted and flopped down into his chair, and gingerly inspected the withering edges of Mag's face in his mirror.

Amber looked up through her long lashes at Luigi. "What is it?" she asked, her tone somewhere between irritated and seductive. The commissioner winced inwardly. The underlying current between the siblings had always bordered on incestuous, and the tabloid rumors about the family certainly went that route. Whether or not it was true, he had no idea, but. . . . The commissioner shuddered.

Luigi smiled, and to the commissioner it looked more like a grimace than a sign of affection. "Someone just came in about the bounty on the Wallace bitch."

Amber immediately perked up. She looked square into her older brother's face, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. "Is it credible?"

Luigi shrugged. "Seems to be. His story didn't change under pressure."

Under pressure was Luigi's code for torture.

Amber smiled broadly. Stretching out an elegantly manicured hand, she ran her fingertips up Luigi's chest slowly, stopping to play with his ascot. "Thank you so much," she said silkily. "You're such a good brother." Pavi snickered on the chair behind Luigi.

Luigi took a step back from the desk, out of his sister's reach, and snapped his fingers towards the cold room door. The two burly, leather-clad men who had formerly been Amber's bodyguards clomped into the room heavily, dragging a limp human figure between them. Amber had turned over her manslaves to Luigi and Pavi as a seeming show of goodwill, but everyone at GeneCo knew better. The henchgirls were simply better markswomen and far superior guards—which, of course, was why Rotti and now Amber had kept them for themselves.

The commissioner ignored the manslaves and focused on the man they were dragging into the room. He looked to be in his early twenties, and was covered in blood and bruises, the remnants of Luigi's handiwork. The two manslaves had him by the arms and were pulling him through the room backwards, and the commissioner noticed that the captive left two bloody trails on the floor. His Achilles tendons had been cut; he wouldn't be using his legs anytime soon, if ever again.

The man was whimpering to himself and cried out in pain when the manslaves dumped him unceremoniously before Amber's desk. He scrambled around so that he was on his hands and knees, and quickly shied away from Luigi. He was bleeding freely from his nose and sniffling constantly. His hair was dyed bright green. The commissioner noticed a yellowing bruise on the side of his head, too old to be from Luigi.

"It wasn't me," the captive sniveled pitifully. "I didn't do nothing. It was Latch's idea to catch the bitch. We didn't know nothing about no bounty. We just wanted to get some. Please. . . ." He held up his hands to Amber in appeal.

"Shut up," said Amber coldly. "You've seen Shilo Wallace?"

"It wasn't me," the captive insisted. "We just wanted to get some. She was just a piece of ass. We didn't do nothing. And that freak—that graverobber—he killed Latch, he killed him—"

"Graverobber?" said Amber immediately. "What graverobber?"

"I don't know nothing," protested the captive pathetically. "I don't know who he was. Just some freak graverobber, some Z-dealer. He had lots of colors in his hair and a weird coat. He killed Latch and he knocked me out, and he took the girl. I didn't do nothing."

Amber's lips stretched into a slow, grim smile.

***BREAK***

God, the Largos were hard to write! Amber in particular. Anyway, another chapter in a few days. Reviews are awesome, flames are not.

Also, I like to break up my chapters with little asterisks sometimes, but apparently likes to take those out. So if the flow in previous chapters seems off, it's probably because there's supposed to be a visible break. Sorry about that.