Tremor was too fast for Cassie to catch up to, but not for someone else.

Kabal, newly healed and completely insane with anger, sadness and pain, grabbed his hook swords (which he kept near the bed in the same place, every night) and raced towards the source of the blast.

"KANO!" (He assumed) It had been 20 years but only Kano would do something this heinous.

"Guess again," said Thomas, stopping to see what this freak could do. That was his mistake.

It didn't matter who this kid was, clearly he worked for Kano. Kabal grabbed him, slammed him to the ground, slashing at his face and chest at super human speed until there was little to nothing left. Tremor had been to shocked to launch any kind of defense.

"Kabal stop!" Cassie put her arms around him. "Please, this isn't you!"

Kabal stopped cold, lightly pushed Cassie away, and walked off, not caring if Tremor was alive or dead.

Kira went to check on Tremor. He was in fact alive, with without a jaw, tongue or teeth and missing chunks of flesh out of his neck and chest. "At least he won't be running his mouth anymore." She said as she kicked him in the stomach just for fun.

"I'll dump him at general hospital, but you need to go." said kira, not even looking Cassie in the eye.

"I'm so sorry, please! I don't want to leave him!" Cassie didn't want to leave, she wanted to make things right.

"It's ok. I'll see what Kobra can find out; see if what Kano did is fixable, but for now, you need to go home." Kira said, trying to remain calm. Yes, she was jealous of how close Cassie and Kabal had become, yes, she knew Cassie did not deserve him, but on some level she knew; Cassie genuinely loved him. What was happening was punishment enough; Kira didn't need to make the girl feel any worse.

"He is my home." Cassie's heart was breaking.

"go home to your mom or your dad- who ever you live with" Kira said with a measure of compassion. "there are still people who can give you strength, I'll contact you when I have any news, I promise."

Cassie went home to her mom to wait. 4 days later she got a single text message. "not good news, reply back if you can make it to SF-kira."

"I have to go back to San Francisco" Cassie told her mom. This time she didn't feel brave or strong, she needed her mom to come with her.

"It will be fine", Sonya and Cassie returned to SF, to see what fate had in store.

They met up with Kira in a coffee shop, where she presented an envelope.

"I didn't think you would want to come." Kira said sipping a hot chocolate, her voice was trembling.

"why?" Asked Cassie, "oh, and this is my mom."

"hi 'cassie's mom'- anyway let me rephrase that- I really hoped you wouldn't come. This would have been easier to explain in a letter." she slid the envelope to Cassie before continuing.

"There was a way to remove the "implant" but it would be at the cost of his long term memory. So long story short; the choice was forget the pain and forget your entire relationship (and a few other things such as the ability to walk and how the electrical system of the sewers worked, etc), or live with it all and hope that as the years went by, he would become ok with it." Since Cassie's mom was there Kira was careful to not mention what "it" was.

"It took him a while to make the decision, but yesterday he made his choice. I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you call be earlier?! I could have convinced him ..." Cassie would have begged and pleaded him to not take the surgery- why didn't Kira give her the chance?!

"He told me not to." Kira said, knowing this would come up, "He knew if he saw you, he wouldn't be able to stick to the reasons he talked about in this..."

"what's this?" Cassie said, asked trying not to show how much pain she was in.

"He left you a note. He wanted to say goodbye, in his own words." Inside the envelope was a cassette tape. "You might also need this" Kira took the liberty of getting a tape player, in case Cassie didn't own one (because that would have made this situation even more awkward.)

"goodbye- mom we're leaving. Um, thanks Kira." Cassie walked out of the café so fast Sonya had to run to keep up.

"I'll listen to it on the plane!" she said getting back in the passenger seat of the car.

"Our flight's not for another 6 hours." Sonya said. Cassie had driven there but it was clear what needed to happen now.

"THEN GET A SOONER ONE!" Cassie tried to take deep breaths, but it still felt like someone was holding her under water with a giant rock on her chest.

Sonya returned the rental car and got them on the next flight home.

"Dear Cassie, this is kabal, not a trick from Kira or Kano or anyone else trying to hurt you." His voice was quiet, as if he struggled to find the right words.

"I have been through so much pain in my life, but I could always endure it because I could escape to my mind. I could think, I could dream, I could pray. But now there is no place I can go to try to focus on the good. All I feel is sickness." He paused as if trying not to cry.

"So for this reason I have chosen to forget you. Please don't think it's because I didn't love you. Or that our moments together didn't matter. You loved me more then I ever deserved to be loved."

Cassie paused the tape. Her felt numb, like she couldn't take in air or perhaps she knew if she took a deep breath the tears would come and they would never stop. But she knew she had to continue.

"What hurts the most; there is part of me that believes, if I truly loved you, I could out live the pain. I could have you by my side every day, hold you in my arms every night and eventually we would make enough new memories to outweigh what Kano did. But it's that same part of me that lead me to my decision." Cassie knew the next part was the part she needed to hear but it would also make the least amount of sense.

"Perhaps Kano did us a favor; you kept your promise to save me so now I will save you. Cassie, you deserve better me, you deserve a life of adventure, freedom, passion, - you have a wild heart, you need- you deserve a wild heart. And that is more then I could ever offer you. To keep you would have eventually killed your amazing spirit. So next time we meet

there is a good chance i will not know who you are. do not be sad. or angry. see it at a chance for a new start. ...goodbye."