~ Gone ~

Sat back in her apartment, Motoko browsed through the data feed crossing her eyes as she sipped her coffee, it had been a terrible operation; everything had gone so well up to the shot. How had it ended like it did? The mission had been planned perfectly and the way the assassin had got in and out was impossible, he had disappeared into thin air. This shouldn't have happened.

With a sigh, she stood up and walked over to the bar, pouring herself another drink and taking in the aroma of the alcohol.

"Motoko… come to bed." The voice of Kurutan, one of Motoko's girlfriends spoke from the door of the bedroom. "Ran's complaining again, can you sort her out?"

"Coming." Motoko grinned and downed the last of the alcohol before turning to enter the bedroom.

Half way across the hallway however, a loud smash of heavy duty bullet resistant glass smashing filled the air, followed by Kurutan screaming as Motoko flew across the room, smashing into the sofa and toppling over the back.

"She's crashing. Push more power to her life support system! Get the resus-unit." Cried a doctor as he attempted to keep her damaged brain-case together.

"Is she going to make it?" Batou asked as he ran alongside the medical trolley.

"I don't know, her brain case was explosively damaged. She is still reading brain waves from her brain case but I don't know, when we're in surgery we'll find out more." The doc explained and jumped off as they entered the surgery.

Batou stood outside the room as Kurutan and Ran appeared through the door. "Is she going to be okay?" Ran asked, she was defiantly shook up.

"I don't know, but we'll find whoever took that damn sniper shot, they had to have some good kit, Saito says that the tech Motoko had on the windows was near sniper proof, they had to have used an anti-tank rifle with high grade military tech to track her through it."

Turning to leave, Batou contacted Togusa. "You got anything?"

"I found a bullet casing, goes with what you said." Togusa spoke as he knelt down over the bullet on a rooftop some distance away from Motoko's apartment.

"High calibre." Saito spoke as he lifted the bullet casing using a pen. "High military grade, not normal black market shit, this stuff is government special forces issue for anti-mech weapons."

"We're going to analyse all footage from the security feeds around here but I think it might not be helpful as these guys seem to be professional."

"Don't worry, we're going to get them. I've got everyone in Section 9 going after these people." Aramaki cut into the conversation. "No one takes out the head of my primary team without bringing down the entire house on them" he slammed his fist down on the table and nodded to himself.

"Batou, you stay with the Major, I've got the second team on security while the primary team will be commanded by Togusa and will go after the assassin. I believe the assassin is the same one who took out our VIP today." Aramaki explained.

"Roger that sir, don't worry; I've got her covered." He tapped his hip where his pistol rested even though Aramaki was not there in person.. Turning to sit down, Batou watched through the observation room at the medical and engineering team trying to save the Major's life. After almost three hours, they stopped and one of them came out.

"We think we have managed to stabilise her, she will be under close observation but she should recover given time."

"Brilliant work doc. Will she be back to normal or is there some sort of…damage?" He asked, pausing to find the word.

"There were several fragments of the round embedded into close into the area where her real brain is located. We pulled as much out as we could but there may have been real physical damage. It will all come out when she wakes up."

"Thank you doc" Batou smiled and tapped his shoulder softly.

"Its my job to keep you all in one piece. The Major saved my life more than once and I take pride in keeping everyone alive." He smiled and left.

Motoko was taken to a recovery room and spent the next few hours unconscious. When she finally did wake up, her body turned slowly and her eyes opened slowly. The deep purple colours staring up at the white tiled ceiling.

"Motoko? You awake?" A voice spoke softly. Turning to face the voice, her eyes locked on a tall figure slumped in an armchair to the side of her bed. He was tall and wide with muscle and had silver white hair with tiny metal eyes. She opened her eyes wide for a moment as she stared into those blank eyes.

"It's okay Motoko… Its me, Batou." He stood up and she shifted back a little in her bed. "Whoa whoa… its okay, Your safe." He raised his hands up to show he meant no harm.

"M.. Mo…to…ko?" She spoke, finding her voice soft, yet firm in a commanding way. "My name? Motoko?" She asked and the man looked confused then worried.

"Yes, your name is Motoko, Motoko Kusanagi. Are you okay?" He questioned and she thought about that question for a moment. Was she okay? Her head hurt but other than that, yes. Why was learning her name something important? Why didn't she know that before? And who was this guy, he called himself 'Batou?'. She didn't remember anything about him, but looking at him gave her a warm feeling in her chest, not a fearful one.

"Ba…tou?" She questioned and he nodded.

"Yes, that's me. Batou. I'm your friend… we work together too" He added quickly. "You don't remember?" He leaned closer and she nodded slowly.

"I… my head hurts, and… its hard to remember." She explained and he seemed to understand.

"You were in a rather bad accident, we can explain it to you later but it was serious, you were in surgery for a long time. I was worried you wouldn't wake up." He sighed and pulled the chair closer as he leaned onto the bars of the bed.

"Do you want me to help you remember?" He asked and she nodded slowly. And so, Batou gave her the briefest explanation of what happened, who she and he was and what she did.

"I'm a … police officer?" She questioned and Batou nodded. She listened to his explanation of what Section 9 was all about.