Dead. Now…he was dead too. Michael was gone, gone so quickly that Kinzie didn't have a chance to kiss him one last time, to say good bye. She couldn't live without him, not after all they've been through. It was too much to leave him behind, and once their ship left hyper space, the redhead collapsed from her seat, sobbing uncontrollably.

Both King and Asha were at her side in an instant, each hand on her shoulders. Neither moved to hug, but instead, she sensed them kneel alongside her, and they too cried.

So much had happened in the past month – the deaths, the confession, the breaking simulation, the kiss – there was no way that it could've been real, right? She'd wake up tomorrow with everybody alive and well, the Boss shouting orders while the rest of the crew scrambled to fulfill their duties. Yeah, that's exactly what would happen. This dream was obviously a product of the recent sleep deprivation she'd been experiencing, and like all hallucinations, would simply go away once her body and brain caught up with the rest she so desperately needed.

Tears stopping, Kinzie got up from her hunched position and resumed her post at the command center. Asha and King, after staring at each other in disbelief, moved back to their positions, and didn't question when Kinzie took control of their mission.

"King, make sure we weren't followed by any rogue Zin ships. I'd rather not have a surprise in the middle of the night."

He nodded.

"Asha, you're our new navigator. I've seen you with technology, think you can figure out the nav systems?" The spy, in her new seat, pondered the controls a brief second before answering with her standard no-bullshit tone.

"Absolutely."

Turning to their resident AI, she pushed her glasses back up her nose, the spectacles having dropped a bit during her breakdown.

"CID, see what you can do about bringing weapons back online. I hate the idea of being defenseless in hostile space."

The AI bobbed a little as it moved from the bridge, and after the door opened, the little bot made its' merry way down to the storage arrays. It was going to check on everything that could have been damaged in their escape, not to mention scan for any potential computer viruses. Those would be devastating to a fully functional vessel, not to mention a crippled escort ship.

Kinzie, meanwhile, had taken to browsing the ships files, looking for anything related to rogue Zin cells that contained knowledge of computer viruses. That group had to have known they were vulnerable, but how? How could they have known that The Gat's defenses were weakened, without…there being a…mole?

There was no way anyone on this ship would betray another friend, and Kinzie dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. It wasn't in the Saints' blood to betray family, and that had even been true for her time with the FBI.

Family first. Blood second.

Her gang came first, there was no doubt about it. Family, real family, took a back burner to people who actually cared about her existence, instead of letting her live in her room for years. To those people who called her a hermit, didn't care if she showered, ate, lived. Those people had never been a family to her, and even when she was caught hacking into the Pentagon's supposedly-secure server, had still ignored her.

She had been facing years of jail time for her crime against the United States, but there had been serious whispers among the FBI higher-ups. Some wanted her indicted, but others…others saw talent in the girl. They wanted her as an analyst, and with some serious coaxing from the FBI, the DoJ gave her up…conditionally.

While working there, she was to never have access to sensitive records, and she was always under watch while on shift. Kinzie never left his sight, and given those handsome hazel eyes, she often didn't mind.

She did mind, however, when he tried to take advantage of her presumed innocence. She put a quick stop to his groping of her body with a swift boot to the groin, and once again, found herself in trouble. He claimed to have seen her digging through files she wasn't supposed to, and he had gone as far to plant false trails back to her computer. It had almost gotten her arrested, but once again, skill triumphed cunning. Kinzie was able to prove the leads were false, and her attacker was let go silently.

And so Kinzie Kensington fell back into her work. Hacking, destroying, and analyzing countless foreign servers on a daily basis. She was the most feared hacker of her time, and wherever she went, a trail of digital destruction followed.

And when news of her existence broke on the darknet, its denizens decided to give her a name – B1ooD.

To this day, it's still the same name she used for her accounts, as it reminded her of those simpler, easier times.

Login?

'B-1-o-o-D'

Password?

Welcome back, Kinzie. What shall we destroy today?

Blinking hard and rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands, the memory faded as King spoke up from his seat.

"Yo, we got three contacts pushing in on us. Formation matches standard Zin attack patterns, you want me to blow them apart?"

Kinzie swiveled in her chair, face a steely mask of determination. "Depends. CID, how many weapons have you fixed?"

The reply came swiftly through the intercom. "Approximately sixty-five percent captain- oh, one moment. Ah, seventy-five percent, actually. Repairs completed on forward cannons, rear cannons, and plasma launcher. Repairs nearly complete on The Kicker, will confirm when fully complete."

She nodded. "Good. King, move to weapon controls and use whatever you damn well please. Make sure they don't come knocking ever again."

"Sure thing, Boss."

Kinzie started – was she The Boss now? Did her friend and lover dying somehow promote her…to Leader of the Saints? If so…it was a job she'd never be able to fill. The title of Boss belonged to one man and one man alone, and he was certain to be there when she woke up tomorrow. Yeah, and then she could finally say that she was in love with him…! It would be perfect, and after this nightmare, she could do with some comfort.

Smiling to herself and in her own little world, she barely registered the dull thump thump as King opened up on the first approaching rogue Zin ship. Naturally, it fired back, but all it could do was delay the inevitable, as it detonated in a silent show of fireworks and alien bodies.

This was true for the second ship as well, the firepower of The Gat simply too much for the attack ships to take. It was poetry as the second went up in a display of colors and violent, mute explosions.

"Uh, Boss?" King sounded worried, which wasn't very characteristic of him.

"What is it, King?"

"I've lost the third contact."

"What do you mean, 'lost?' How could you possibly lose something that was on the radar not more than twenty second-"

A resounding bang answered both questions, and any further discussion was silenced by a sudden klaxon going off next to Kinzie's ear.

"We've been boarded!" Thanks, Asha. Never would've known that if you hadn't been here and my computer wasn't practically screaming 'intrusion.'

"Fuck, fine!" Kinzie shouted over the cacophony of alarms, many of which warned of various system failures as their ship was sabotaged from the inside out…and there was nothing they could do about it. All of their guns were in storage, CID was very likely destroyed or captures, and still…nothing could be done. All the trio could do was sit and wait for the eventual take-over of the bridge.

Even Asha remained still, despite every fiber of her being wanting to fight. Hell, she probably would fight once the Zin broke through the door, and the MI6 agent knew that doing so meant death.

She didn't care, and when the arc burn began to show through alien steel, the british woman prepared herself for the fight, and death.

Clang!

Metal doors falling to the floor, followed by the sudden whine of plasma weapons. A whole firing squad, if the heat and smoke were any indication. The Zin weren't taking chances, and any damaged system could be repaired.

The same couldn't be said for Asha and Ben, the Saints falling to impossible shots. Bloodless holes in their chests, dead before they hit the steel.

Kinzie had been out of the way, remaining defiant in her chair. She kept this up until the largest Zin approached her, and lifted her by the neck. Even with her legs dangling in the air, she didn't once break eye-contact with it.

"Defiant to the end, human. I like that."

A flex of its powerful muscles later, Kinzie's legs went still.

"Mankind - that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution - but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!"