She is nowhere, floating in a void. She can neither see nor hear, taste nor touch. It's a very strange sensation, like being caught in the moment between sleep and wakefulness. She doesn't now how long She has been wherever here is. She tries to grasp at thin strands of consciousness. They allude her, faint whispers leaving her no more enlightened than before. All she is aware of are the strands and a single thought.
'Out.
I want to get out.
Let me out.'
/
Bay City has not changed much since was last here. A thin sheen of rain and grime still coats this part of town. Lurid holographic signs try to beckon him into establishments of varying ill repute. Each name a more filthy and terrible pun than the last. There is one that flickers near him simply announcing 'Sex'. He appreciates the straightforwardness. It's not as if creativity is actually required to get people in. They know what they want and what they like. They just need an arrow really.
Tak weaves his way past street vendors, the aroma of their wears catching in his nostrils and clinging to his clothes. Hunger suddenly twists in his stomach. He hasn't eaten since he left the last port he passed through. Almost ten hours how. Then he thinks about how much trouble he will be in if she finds out he ate some shitty street food before getting to hers and thinks better of it with a small smile. Ortega still hasn't grasped the concept of the boundless male appetite.
As he turns the corner to the street he aims for he wonders why they haven't moved out of this part of town. Then he remembers that Ortega is an incurable sentimentalist with limited funds. He has thought about just depositing a shedload of credits into their account. He can afford it after all. But no. She has too much pride for that. The wine in his backpack from a significantly more upmarket part of the city will have to do.
He knocks on the door and is greeted several moments later by Elias Ryker. It takes him a moment to adjust as always. He only wore this man's face for a few months but it still feels...strange.
"Hey." Ryker is a man of few words. So is Tak. He hands over the bottle and both men nod.
The sound of Hispanic swearing emanates from the kitchen diner below. "Momento!" The voice shouts.
Ryker breaks into a grin and Tak finds himself doing the same.
"Elias let him in." Ryker obliges and the apartment he shares with Kristen opens below Tak. There isn't a lot that's new. He notices a couple of houseplants are dotted around the coffee table as he walks down the stairs. A row of plain candles burn next to a row of pictures. An older woman smiles directly into the camera. A younger man who he knows to be her son has an arm around her and is laughing. The middle picture is the same woman pulling a silly expression in between her husband and his best friend, later her daughter's senior partner. Next to that, there is a picture of two boys, wearing strained grins. The photo was clearly considered an interruption from more important things. Little did those kids know how much value this photo would have one day. The last photo is of Mary Lou Henchy, the childhood friend of Ryker's who fell victim to a couple of meths. Tak has never been religious but he gives a reverent nod to the loved ones Ortega lost five years ago and Mary Lou. They deserved so much better.
Kristen has arrived from the kitchen and is following his gaze. He feels almost guilty, intrusive. She smiles sadly at the pictures "It's getting easier." She tells him. He's glad.
"Can I get you a drink?" She asks as she rounds the kitchen counter.
"I brought some of that wine you said you like. You need me to do anything?"
"No, I'm covered." Ortega nudges her boyfriend who is currently grating an obscene amount of cheese pointedly. He drops a kiss onto the top of her head, holding her in a half hug for a moment before opening the wine. He pours two glasses.
Kristen sets the food down on the table, the last to take a seat. With clasped hands to her forehead she murmurs "para esta comida, damos gracias". Both Tak and Elias participate.
"Have you...returned to the faith?" Asks Tak.
"No. Force of habit. Also, I can see my Mama watching me." she indicates the row of pictures.
The meal passes pleasantly. A smattering of conversation, broken by Kristen excusing herself a number of times. The Elliots have recently decided to move offworld for work apparently. Ryker and Ortaga are still partners in law as well as life. "Might not be too long though, there is that promotion coming up." Alcohol has loosened Ryker's tongue a little.
"Would you stop? I'm not gonna get it!"
"What if you did?"
Tak detects a slight air of tension. Kristen gives Ryker a warning look "not now" she says shortly before heading to the bathroom.
"You want her to take it don't you?" Tak asks while she's out of earshot.
"Sure I do, more safety, more security."
"The stability a family should have."
"Who said anything about a family, Kovacs?" Ryker snaps, then realises "trust the fucking Envoy. It was the wine, right? She didn't have any, that's how you guessed? We found out last week."
"Congratulations."
"Don't get excited about being godfather or anything." Ryker's grumbling is only partly sincere nowadays "Speaking of family, you got anywhere on that quest of yours?" Tak shakes his head. "Hey, I'm sorry." Ryker says awkwardly.
"I've got to comb through all the settled worlds. I wasn't even hoping for soon."
"Still, that's...rough."
Tak nods. 'Tell me about it. Story of my life'. He leaves a little later. As usual he has no idea when or even if he will be back. When he will get a call from them or find a reason to come back to Earth. He isn't sure what to call their relationship to him. They are not friends in the usual sense. They shared a very intense experience years ago and it made them allies. All Tak knows is that he cares for them which he supposes constitutes friendship.
Rei had called them fireflies. She had meant that they were short lived, weak and fragile. But fireflies make their own light, strong enough to be seen in the deepest dark. They were a reminder that it would not always be so. A sun would come up tomorrow. So too were Kristen and Elias a reminder of the good in humans, despite their flaws. They both had been unflinchingly loyal to those they cared for, even when it brought them trouble and pain. Of all the things he carried, Reileen was the heaviest. At least he had some hope of finding Quell. Rei was forever lost. He remembered cradling his dead sister in Ryker's arms and wished again that she had been able to see in the world what he did. Not an enemy to be fought but something with which to live symbiotically. He shook off the memories as he walked into the night. Perhaps he would look in on the Elliots before finding his trail again. For now he would have to procure lodging for the night.
/
As it turned out, he would hear from them much sooner than expected. Just before he was about to leave the following evening, Kristen's message flashed across the holographic screen of his communicator. A short summons to her precinct. Even over text, Tak can feel the tension. He leaves the dingy room he slept in last night and summons a cab to cross the city.
When he arrives, he is shown to Kristen's desk. He knows immediately that something is wrong. Her hair is dishevelled from being roughly combed by restless hands. Eyes full of cold fury and grief search her monitor.
"What did you wanna tell me?' He asks her.
"I should have killed him. I had his stack in my hand that day...I..." She presses a hand to her forehead.
"Kristen?"
She looks up to him, tears rimming her eyes "the Ghostwalker. Someone's spun him back up."
"That's not possible."
"Look at the footage!"
"Where is that?" Tak glances at the monitor.
"A virtual prison. He stole one of the stacks, killed seventeen guards...look at him, just wandering out of there."
"It could be anyone."
"Really? How about this?" She snaps, calling up a different feed. The same man is shown slaughtering his way through underpaid security guards. The way he fights...it's definitely him. "Huh?" Ortega demands. He can't tell her she's wrong. But how is it possible? And what would his sister's former hitman want with some random criminal stack?
"Find out who that stack is. I'll go look for him. I know the place he might have gone...and Kristen, where's Elias?"
"Gone to the crime scene."
"Ok just...make sure you have company getting home. Lock all the doors and windows." She's not stupid. She knows she could be a target now. There's something in her face as he says this that scares the hell out of him. Her expression screams 'bring it on.' The desire for revenge is understandable. She watched this guy murder her family on repeat after all. Water that murky doesn't slide under the bridge. And Ortega could claim self defence if she real deathed him after he broke in to her home. But Tak knows that revenge can get you killed. He just hopes Ortega will be sensible as well as smart.
/
She feels sensations for the first time in...Christ how long has it been? The smell of damp is cloying, a chill shivers up her back. She's lying on a cold metal table.
No. Not lying on, tied to. As she wriggles her bare toes she feels the cuffs around her ankles.
Her eyes open. She looks around a darkened room, grimy white tiles make up floor, ceiling and walls. As her feeling and sense of self coalesces, so does her memory. She remembers watching the fire that tore through their home, the ashes of Stronghold that began to fall like rain through the trees. Even miles away she could see it. Panic took over from shock. She had run in the opposite direction, towards the safehouse that held backup communicators. Why did she need one again? Oh, right. She had dropped hers in the lake yesterday. "Make sure to take a replacement with you on that equipment test tomorrow" Quell had told her, a gentle chiding in her voice. One of the older guys had given her a hard time about it. She remembers Takeshi telling him to back off "it's just a fucking communicator, alright?". She had forgotten to pick one up, too preoccupied with the simulations she was going to run that day.
An explosion had rocked the forest, shattering the air. She had gone cold, whipping round to see the embers die on fragments of metal. Tears leapt into her eyes as she realised the minuscule odds that anyone had survived. With a few shuddering sobs she had taken off once more, charging blindly through the forest. Names tore from her raw throat with increasing urgency. 'Shut up! They'll hear you!' The sensible part of her brain yelled. She didn't seem able to stop. "Sarah? Tio? Takeshi? Rei? Quell? QUELL?"
Then they had arrived, she glimpsed black uniforms, their helmets punctuated by red sensors. She ran faster, with more urgency now. Their shouts brought more of them down on her. They covered her right and left as she ran.
Suddenly the floor dropped away and she was sent sprawling into a tiny stream. A burning pain in her ankle told her she had broken it.
"Stop!" The command was rather redundant. She looked up at the enemy, hot fear and rage in her heart. She had been here before.
"Here, got one of the escapees. Some kid."
"Jeeze you aren't kidding. Falconer gets 'em young, huh? Got 'em young I should say."
"We taking her in?"
"Yeah. She might be able to tell us where the other one went. No need to bother with her sleeve though. I like the legroom."
The other one shrugged, and lifted his gun. "Don't!" She yelled.
His weapon tore a hole through her heart. The last sensation she was aware of was a tear washing over the bridge of her nose to join the stream, her dark hair wafting in the current.
Now here she was, for the first time realising she wasn't in the real. A tall, asian man stands in the corner of the room with his back to her. She tests the restraints before remembering how useless it is. This is not her physical form and the construct confines her to this room. She's going to be interrogated. She thinks frantically of what she knows that could be got out of her. In one way she's relieved that she can't tell these bastards anything but she knows they won't believe her. She wonders how long it will take her to go mad.
The man notices her alertness. "You're awake." He observes. "So, Cassandra. That's your name, Cassandra Nolan?"
She doesn't react. 'Don't give them anything'.
"How did you resist the psych virus? It killed the rest of Stronghold but you survived. How?"
So they were all gone. Again she stared resolutely at him.
"Let us see if I can loosen that tongue of yours" he says, taking up a knife. Cass stares at it in horror. The man abruptly stops, glancing around. Something must be happening in the real. He vanishes without a word, leaving her to sag with relief against the table and to ponder what the hell is going on.
/
"Why did you interrupt me?" He demands. Another man stands beside him. David's expression turns his irritation to genuine curiosity.
"Kovacs is here. In the city."
"Are you sure?"
"You pay me to be sure."
The man known as Ghostwalker grins. This could be interesting. Maybe now is the time to finish off those interfering police officers. If they are together, he can get Kovacs' stack at the same time. A gift for the woman he wants to resurrect. He imagines the beautiful face of a new clone of hers smiling at him as he returns her brother to her power. Imagines her thanking him for a job well done. Once he figures out how to stop her wanting to slag her own stack as soon as he spins her up, that is.
"Wait here. I'm going to pay someone a visit." He chooses a gun and a knife "keep the Nolan girl in virtual. Let her sweat a little. I've left the address in case I need backup."
David nods and sits by the monitor that shows a view of the kid as if from a security camera in a physical cell. One look at her face says she's sweating alright.
/
Tak arrives at the warehouse. Gods this place is such a cliche, right down to the tatty brickwork and rain filled potholes outside. He draws his gun, knowing to be prepared.
He makes his way inside, past a door held up with rusted chains, down dim corridors towards the light of a naked bulb. A man sits at a monitor, whistling absently.
Big mistake. Tak is on top of him before he has a clue. He should've been paying attention. Tak's arm reaches around the guy's neck.
He throws his head back into Tak's face. Tak tastes the tang of blood as his lip splits. His opponent is on his feet, wielding the metal chair he was sitting on. As they fight, Tak can tell this isn't the guy he is looking for. He lacks finesse. The man runs, taking off down the warehouse corridor. Tak shoots the chain. Once, twice, then it breaks.
The man keeps running. He's an amateur. He completely misjudges how long he has before the door crashes down. Tak runs towards the man's prone form. The door has sliced clean through his stack.
'Dammit!' Thinks Tak before heading back to the monitor. 'Right, Ghost. Who did you wanna steal?' He wonders.
The monitor shows a young girl, perhaps in her mid teens. The construct is clearly designed for interrogation. There's something about the kid he recognises. A few keystrokes should call up the stack ID.
His intuition is correct. Cass? She's alive? Her stack intact and uncorrupted.
Of course. She was testing that new equipment of hers that day. She had been their resident tech expert. Too young to be in the field. Whatever the propaganda had said, Quell did not use child soldiers. But she was a talented young engineer. Quell had recognised a good resource. She had tried to explain what it did but Tak had just heard a load of technobabble. She was out of range. A lucky escape. Until the Protectorate forces found her anyway. Swings and roundabouts.
First he makes her stack dormant. No need to leave her waiting for torture. 'Sleep a little bit longer Cass. I'll find you something to wake up in soon'. He pockets the stack before checking the monitor. A minimised window shows the address he had been at less than twenty four hours ago. A spike of fear runs through him as he tears back to the motorcycle he hired. He mounts it and guns it well over the speed limit. 'Hey, maybe it will attract back up' he thinks, hoping Kristen locked those damn windows.
/
As soon as Tak arrives he knows something is very wrong. The door has a few bullet holes through it. Tak draws his gun as he slips through it.
The place is a mess. Smashed glass sparkles in the light from the streetlamps above. One of the dining table chairs is splintered. As Tak moves through the apartment he is careful to make the bare minimum noise.
Then he sees it, a bloodied, scarred arm lies still on the floor. Tak rounds the table, dreading what he will find. Ryker is prone on the floor, staring sightlessly through the table legs, a dark hole through his chest.
For a moment Tak is horrified and feels his heart hurt for Kristen, for the child she carries. Then he checks the man's neck. A ragged hole where his stack should be. No fragments litter the floor. 'Still alive. We can fix him' he thinks.
Then a burst of staccato gunfire from the direction of the bedroom directs his attention elsewhere. Ortega screams then lets off a string of swearing. Tak arrives to see her sprawled on the floor, her left side covered in blood that may or may not be her own. She trains a gun on her assailant from her position behind the bed, shaking with rage. Her breath huffs out convulsively. Her other scarlet slicked hand clutches a faint glow. Elias's stack. She is calling the Ghostwalker all the expletives under the sun. She isn't afraid so much as incensed. Tak expected no less. The man raises his own weapon.
"Tell you what...I think I'll crush your stack first" he decides.
"You know, you make a terrible houseguest." Tak quips, shattering the moment before Kristen's sleeve is killed.
The Ghostwalker turns on him, the shot he fires narrowly missing Tak's hair. The moment of panic on the man's face is interesting 'he wants my stack alive then. I'll make him work for it.'
Taking the opportunity, Kristen has dealt their enemy a savage kick to the calf. The momentary distraction allows Tak to cross the space between them but not before the Ghost brings his foot down on Ortega's ankle. Tak's knife spins as she screams, slitting a gash in the Ghost's arm, the twin of the one Kristen has clearly given him earlier. He is rewarded with a kick to the stomach. Tak drops the knife, then throws his entire arm against his cheek. The Ghost spits a bloody tooth out, then deals another blow to the same spot. Tak grunts, stumbling slightly.
"Sorry Mr. Kovacs. I shall be right with you. I have some business to take care of". A savage blow across Kristen's face knocks her out.
"You touch either of those stacks and you'll be begging me to slag yours" Tak promises.
"As much as I'd like to reciprocate, I know she would not be very impressed with me."
"She?" Asks Tak.
"You've brought the child I presume? David was rather less competent than I hoped but no matter. I have you both. I can bring her back to me."
"You want to cure Reileen." Tak says "its not gonna work."
"Once I find out that girl's secret..."
Tak huffs out a mirthless laugh. "Her secret? Her secret is that she was out of range. No special ability, no cheat codes. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The Ghost's cheeks blanche, making him look like his namesake. "No. There has to be something. She can't be..."
Tak's voice shakes. "Don't you think if there was a way I would want it too?"
"What did you care for her? You rejected her, abandoned her, murdered her. I was her loyal disciple."
Fury launches itself out of Tak and into the Ghost. This guy is delusional. Borderline insane. He doesn't care. "You have no fucking idea what that did to me. No idea." He whispers, shoving him aside. He bends to check on Ortega. Badly wounded, she would be in agony if she were conscious but her condition is not critical.
Suddenly a click attracts Tak's attention. He turns to see the Ghostwalker, training a gun on his own stack. The sound of sirens drift from outside. About bloody time.
"Don't you dare. You belong on ice!" Tak tells him. The Ghost backs down the hall, a crazy half smile on his face.
"If I go on ice, I'll never tell you what I know. About your search."
"What?" Tak asks.
"I know the planet. Let me go and I'll tell you."
"I'm listening." Tak says tightly after a long moment.
A knock at the door breaks the spell "police! Open up!" Voices call from outside.
"Too late." The Ghost says, giving Tak one last look before pulling the trigger.
"NO!" Tak cries, dropping to his knees by the Ghost, yanking bloody hair away from his neck. All he finds are charred shards.
/
Tak stands at the foot of the hospital bed, watching Kristen sleep off her injuries. He once again marvels at how such a delicate looking person can have such an ability to endure. Back at the apartment, he had given a short statement to the Captain, before insisting on accompanying an unconscious Ortega to hospital. He left the police to clear up the blood, broken furniture and the two bodies. "I'll need a DNA sample from the caucasian." He had told one of the officers.
"For a clone? Got a bit of money to throw around, have ya?" She asked.
"Enough." Tak had told her wryly before climbing into the ambulance behind the gurney bearing Ortega.
The woman herself now wakes and squints at him momentarily before closing her eyes "we've got to stop meeting like this."
"Don't worry, you have the full compliment of organic limbs you came in with." He says, holding his hands up in a mock defence.
"Shut up culo."
He laughs "you say the sweetest things."
The elephant in the room makes itself known. Kristen flexes her hand around a phantom stack. "Where's Elias?" She asks, her voice breaking a little.
"In storage at a resleeve facility. His clone should be ready well before the baby comes. The doctors said your kid's gonna be fine."
She looks askance at him "clone? Elias and I don't have that kind of money."
"Yeah but...I do."
"Thankyou Takeshi." She only uses his longer name when he's really in her good books.
"Least I could do after that guy trashed your place and your boyfriend's body. You guys always end up bleeding when I'm around."
"He had real issues with us too. Don't flatter yourself, Kovacs. You're not the only trouble magnet in the world, you know." She shifts on the pillow "How did he do it? Come back?"
"Turns out he paid a guy to be on standby to spin him back up if he ever got iced. He was some disgruntled former cop who got drummed out for trying to use VR interrogation to prank his neighbour or brother or something. Apparently there will be a thorough internal investigation into who he was and how he managed to sneak a highly dangerous criminal out but considering the guy's dead...not really a lot of point. Might have been an idea to do that before seventeen people got killed."
Kristen nods. "He tell you what he wanted?"
"Rei. My sister. He thought he found a way to bring her back" at the sight of her expression he says "don't worry. He was...desperate and insane. Thought he could bring the woman he loved back to him. Sometimes I wonder if...he wasn't the only one that's kidding himself."
Kristen doesn't offer platitudes. Instead she reaches out her hand to his. He returns the hold and they stay connected for a few moments.
"I...better get going" he says eventually.
"Anywhere special?"
"Made a promise to someone last night. Don't wanna keep her waiting any longer."
/
Cass feels consciousness explode around her again. She is back on a metal table, naked and soaked. She can hear a steady drip of water. She opens her eyes to look at white tiles. Suddenly she is shaking with both fear and cold. Any minute the interrupted interrogation would resume. Even now, she can feel the shadow of someone next to her. She screams, her throat raw. The man next to the table starts to move and she throws herself backwards off of it.
No restraints. Why? A sick joke? To let her think herself capable of escape while the whole world she's in is this room.
"Stay away from me!" She shrieks at the man. Her throat burns and her head pounds.
"Cassandra. I understand it's scary the first time. I'm gonna need you to relax." The man says.
"No! No! No!" She yells, kicking at the figure approaching her. Her legs look different, a scar runs across her knee. Then she realises.
This isn't VR.
This is real, the wet cold tiles underneath her, the body she's in, the man. "I don't understand." She says in gasping sobs.
"Hey, hey, Cass just breathe ok? What's the last thing you remember?" That voice and it's cadence...
"No no no. You...you died...all of us died. It's all gone." She buries her head in her arms "Stop, whatever this is just stop!" She moans quietly before dissolving into sobs. Something tells her she should be fighting but she can barely stop the room from spinning in her aching head that is in fact someone else's aching head. She is in no condition to resist. Maybe that's why they spun her up in the real, to take advantage of sleeve sickness. The headache really was a bitch.
She feels the weight and texture of material being draped around her. She clutches the blanket she has been given around her trembling shoulders and properly looks at the man who has given it to her for the first time.
It is him.
He survived.
"Tak? You're here" she stares at him in disbelief "how? What's going on?"
"It's a long story..." He tells her.
"Is...is Stronghold really...?"
"Gone yes" he says gently.
She pitches forward into him, clutching at his shoulders, then wailing into them like a child. The wound is fresh for her, her heart still bleeding. He simply holds her. His murmured "I know, I know." tells her his wound is somewhat older.
"Tell me everything." She says.
"Let's get you clean and into some clothes first." Takeshi says. It doesn't even occur to her to be embarrassed. She gets led to a shower, washing off the traces of the sticky mess this body has been kept in. Plain grey sweats, a set of underwear, a towel and a hairtie get handed to her in a neat bundle. She dresses haltingly, brushing the long hair back in a ponytail. She gets a good look in the mirror. Her new body is a few years older than her original. Possibly about eighteen. The features are darker and she can tell her hair will curl when it's dry. The eyes are what set her off again. She used to have her mother's green eyes. When she lost her, it had helped her to be able to look in the mirror and see a part of her there. Gone now. She notices Takeshi standing in the doorway.
"Did they take anything from my original?" She asks.
He knows what she is asking about. She remembers asking Reileen about her necklace one day, soon after they arrived. A striking serpent eating it's own tail.
"It was my mother's." She had said shortly.
"These belonged to my parents" Cass had said, running her fingers along the two identical rings she wore on a cord always. "Their wedding rings. It's funny, my dad always said it was a stupid tradition. I'm so glad I have something of theirs though."
Tak had smiled sympathetically. Rei's copy never quite reached her eyes. It later turned out that their family had not been quite as loving as hers had been. They had all ended up at the same place though. Funny how such different streams can be brought to confluence. More than once.
"I'm sorry." That was a no then. After a pause, he gestured for her to follow. "Got someone to pick up. I'll...fill you in on the way."
/
"Thanks for the ride, Tak." Kristen says, climbing in the shotgun seat of the car he's hired. Then she notices the young woman sitting in the back. "I'm assuming this is the stolen criminal stack." She raises her eyebrows.
"Hey! The 'stack' has a name. Cass. Cass Nolan." The girl says pointedly.
"Kristen Ortega. What exactly have you done before I take a ride with you? You were in prison, right?"
"Wait, I was in an actual prison? I thought I was just in storage?"
"Yeah, Ortega, I hadn't got to that part yet. She just about processing that everyone she knows is dead." Tak tells her, trying to concentrate on the road.
Kristen seems to realise the situation "she's an Envoy?"
"Not exactly, no. Sort of. I lived with them but I didn't...it's not...It's complicated. Sorry I can't...get my head around anything right now." Cass responds, massaging her new temples.
"It's alright. Two hundred and fifty years must be a lot to adjust to." Kristen's tone is softer now "I'm sorry."
"It's been that long?" Cass gapes.
"Kristen can you just...stop talking for a bit?" Tak sighs.
/
When they arrive back at Kristen's place, everything has been put back in its proper place. Mostly. A strong smell of cleaning products and a wooden panel in place of a glass one are the only traces of the home invasion yesterday. Of course, Ortega herself must be feeling a bit differently. She will know better than he what feels disturbed after all. She runs a hand along the top of an armchair, looking close to tears.
"He will be back in a few months." Tak assures her. She nods.
"Will you be okay? You need somewhere else to stay for a while?"
"No. I want to be here. Besides...I spoke to Elliot yesterday. Lizzie's insisted on staying for a few weeks before the move so...I'll have company."
"Say no more." Even Tak would find Lizzie scary if he crossed her. The woman would be better than a football squad in all honesty.
"You'll be off now, then?". He nods. Kristen crosses the space between them and pulls him in to an embrace. He reciprocates, resting his head upon hers for a moment. Her dark hair still smells of hospital.
"Nos vemos Takeshi Kovacs."
"See you around, Kristen." he tells her before breaking off the embrace. He climbs the stars, giving her one last look before returning to the car.
/
Cass spends the time in the car considering what she's lost. A second family. That's what Quell had given her.
She remembers the day she met her, a month or two after her twelfth birthday. Her father had tried to assure her that it would be fine. "There is nothing wrong with speaking out against the government, Cassy" he had told her "things are going down a dark path. But the people I'm working with? They are going to change that. I know your mother worries but...we will be ok.". Her mother did worry. Being married to a revolutionary journalist was a worrying thing. Cass remembered sitting at the top of the stairs listening to heated conversations between her parents as concern began to settle in her own heart. She trusted her father though. He knew what he was doing.
The family had been sitting in the living room. Her mother had just put her little brother to bed and the rest of them were reading. The house was always full of books.
Suddenly someone was hammering on the door. "Simon Nolan, open up!" Voices called. Her father glanced at her mother before answering the door.
"Mum? What's going on?" She had asked, her throat suddenly dry.
"Stay there Cass." The tension in her mother's voice as she followed her dad to the door was palpable. Cass crossed to the window. Her father was talking with a group of Protectorate officers.
"We know you have been meeting with her, Nolan. Just tell us where she's hiding and they'll be no...unpleasantness."
Her father said something. Several things. The man he was talking to had not responded well. He raised his gun and fired the shot that sent a scarlet firework out of the back of her father's skull and shattered her world. Her mother screamed, running back into the living room. Cass was too stunned to react, staring at her father's body through the window. The men conferred. All she heard was "leave no witnesses."
Her mother gasped, gripping Cass by the arm and marching her up the stairs and to her bedroom. With the other arm she opened her closet door.
"Muuum?" Asked Cass.
"Sushhh. Cass listen to me. Get in, close the door and do not come out until its quiet outside, ok?"
"But Mum..."
"Stay there Cass. I love you. I love you so much." Her mother pressed a rough kiss to her forehead before leaving her in darkness. She heard noises. Gunfire. Her little brother crying. Her mother's voice. She had no idea how long it took but they all fell silent. She crouched foetally in the darkness, shaking.
Suddenly there were voices in her room. They grew closer to the closet. Cass grabbed a wooden hanger, tensing every muscle.
Then there she was. Quell opened the doors, an impressive figure in a leather trench coat and tight braids "Quellcrist Falconer?" Was all Cass could say.
"Yes sweetie. You gotta come with me now, ok?" Quell had gently lead her out of her room and down the stairs.
"Mum and Dad? Harry?" Asked Cass.
"I'm so, so sorry sweetheart." Sadness creased Quell's dark brow as she had handed her the rings, "Keep them close, ok? Never forget.". Quell led her past the ruins of her old life, shielding her from the sight of the bodies. Cass stared forward, clutching her parent's jewellery in her hand, crying silent tears. As it turned out, Cass would spend the next three years of her life following her.
She feels Takeshi get into the car in front of her.
"Tell me the rest. I wanna know everything." She says.
/
She stares through the glass case at all that remains of her friends, feeling the churning of fury in her gut. She remembers these men and women as people. Tio who snored and liked to regale anyone who would listen with the story of how he lost his right ear. A story that was almost certainly heavily embellished. Vishal who loved to draw in his spare time and did so incredibly well, replicating each of them photo-realistically, Sarah who snorted when she laughed, a trait that carried over to whichever body she was needlecast into. People reduced to a neat little pile of broken stacks for these meth bastards and their underlings to gawp at. A cautionary tale in a box.
She reads the profile they have written on the 'terrorist' Quell Falconer. "Bullshit. It's all a complete load of-"
"Keep it down." Warns Tak. She hadn't even noticed her volume increasing. A couple of schoolkids stare and their teacher gives Cass a dirty look for exposing them to such vulgar language. He looks like he is beginning to regret bringing her here.
"This wasn't what she was...she was good and she was kind. She gave us all a purpose and a home and here they talk like she's some sort of monster who went around blowing people up for the hell of it!"
"History has always been written by the winning side."
"Well maybe we should graffiti over it." She imagines marching over to the display boards with a can of red paint and scrawling 'LIES!' in the most objectionable font she can. "Exactly how much shit do you reckon I'd be in if I did it?"
"A lot." Her companion tells her sardonically. "Come on, let's get you out of here before you get yourself arrested. I'll find you somewhere to stay. AI run hotels have a bad reputation but...I've always been impressed with the service."
She follows him, thinking of the rest of their group "Did...did Rei die at Stronghold?" She asked finally.
"No."
"Where is she?"
"I don't really feel like going into it right now, ok?" His voice is dangerously close to a snap.
"Ok. I'm sorry." Cass tells him.
/
Nearly a week later, Tak waits by the hotel entrance. She made him promise to come before he left the planet and he saw no reason why not. The AI is modelled after some centuries old singer. Tak doesn't really get it but it's hardly the strangest establishment he's seen. He deliberately left Cass's existence out of both his statements to the police. As far as they needed to know, the stack the Ghostwalker stole was lost. They would look for it for maybe a few weeks before they were snowed under with more pressing, recent cases. Especially now the resleeved could actually testify against their attackers. That was at least the one piece of good that came of the Bancroft Business as the press had referred to it. He's pretty sure that lie could get his pardon seriously reconsidered but what the hell? She now has new identity documents, new clothes and enough credits to get her started. Her talent with technology should give her enough to live on without resorting to the more sordid kind of professions that poor young women in Bay City fell prey to. The first thing she had bought besides clothing was a load of textbooks to this end. Engineering, AI systems, electronics. She is still a complete nerd.
She comes to the door now. He notices with puzzlement that her bulky rucksack full of all her worldly possessions is on her back.
"Cass?"
"You see here's the thing..." She said abruptly "I'm a relic, like you. Everyone I love is dead. I know nobody else so...I'm not keen on just letting you fly off."
"Cass, you can build a life here. You're a smart kid. You can start again."
"I don't want to. In case you haven't noticed, Earth's kinda gone to shit. I don't want to live with constant reminders that we failed without doing anything about it. Besides, figured you could do with backup. I'll be your Robin."
"Robin?"
"Y'know. Sidekick? Batman? those comics I used to read all the time? No bells?"
Cass had liked comics. Not the usual sort of hobby for a freedom fighter's ward to have if there is such a thing. It was considered laughably childish by some of the harsher Envoys. Considering that Cass was in fact a child, Tak had never seen the harm. Fighting a guerrilla war did leave one in need of the occasional bit of escapism. "This isn't a comic book, Cass. This is reality. I'm really not looking for a 'sidekick'."
She glares at him "You don't have the monopoly on tragedy, Tak. I lost everything too that day. Quell she...became like the only family I had left. You think I don't have a right to finding her too? Besides, seems to me you've had quite a few 'sidekicks' from what you told me about the whole Bancroft thing."
"They had certain skillsets..."
"Didn't you just tell me that I'm smart? I am, I know. And I learn fast."
Tak looks at her again. He runs through all his reasons why not but can't seem to come up with one that would satisfy her. He can see behind her brashness a deep heartache. She needs to belong and she can't do so here.
"Fine. You better earn your keep though. I'm not hauling your ass around the galaxy out of charity."
"Don't worry. I'll be a sound investment." She grins.
"Come on then." He catches the look of relief in her eyes and hopes he won't live to regret this. The people that depend on him don't always enjoy pleasant fates. They both stomp back to his hire car.
"Shotgun!" She calls.
"There's only two of us here."
"I know. Just always wanted to say it."
"I'd forgotten what a dork you were. Are."
"That's why you love me, right?". He rolls his eyes. The regret is setting in already.
They slip into the car and as she swings the rucksack off her shoulders, her tank top shifts to expose markings on her chest. She has got a small black tattoo since he saw her last. Two rings on a cord. And here they are. Two people linked by shared history and a shared purpose. She sees him notice.
"Got it my second day here. Quell told me to hold them close. What's closer than skin, right?"
"It's nice." Tak says simply, starting the car ignition.
/
A few months later a young police officer with a fire in her gut and a longing in her heart waits in the waiting room of a resleeving facility. She stands as soon as she sees him. That beautiful smile lifts his face and light brown eyes as he recognises her. They move towards each other through the throng of other loved ones, as they have before. They catch each other in a deep embrace and a deeper kiss as they meet.
"Fuck, I missed you." She breathes into his neck. He laughs into her hair.
"I would say I missed you too but on account of me being unconscious..." She gives him a mock shove.
"Home?" She asks.
"Christ, yes!" He agrees.