Not overly sure where this is going, if anywhere, but I'm gonna play around with this a bit. That and, hey! First Lux Novel fanfic posted! Set after "Opal".

The usual copyright BS. I don't own The Lux Novels and I ain't makin any money off this.

~The Last Ronin~

Noise...somewhere.

Can't see. Can't move.

How long...?

The pain...Oh God! Why? I remember the pain...but now...nothing. Blissful nothing. They wanted...something. I didn't...couldn't?...give it to them. There was a reason...I'm sure.

They haven't come lately. Maybe they gave up? Gave up and left me here to die? Oh, I hope they did. I just want to...I just want to die.

Please.

Why can't I just die?

x-x-x-x-x

Noises again...talking? Words?

I shiver, an exhausting effort. They must be back with their pain. Why won't they let me die? I can't give them what they want.

"This it?" the words reach my ears and the voice tugs at some memory. I know this voice? Maybe...I think so, but I don't...I can't...

"It has to be," a second voice reaches my ears and I know this one too...or at least, I think I do, "this is the only one we haven't checked."

"What if..."

"Don't say it," a third voice, less familiar than the other two, "he's alive, so she must be as well."

"No one's seen him in..."

"He's alive," those two words...so sure. Who is alive though? Me? Am I a 'he'?

"Let's just get this door open already. It's unlocked. Help me pull."

A horrible shrieking and squealing fills my head, followed by a breeze of stagnant, musty air. I shiver again. They're here.

"There's someone in there," a muffled coughing echoes off the walls, "and look, lights. Those backup generators aren't a joke to still be running after three years."

Footsteps and then a gasp from close by.

"Oh my God...is that...what did they do to her? There's nothing left..."

"Katy? Is that you? Can you hear us?"

Katy? Is that my name? It feels so familiar. Maybe it is me. Slowly I lift my chin, trying to find the source of the voices in the darkness. A bare fraction of an inch is all I manage after a long struggle before gravity drags my head back down.

"Help me get her down. Carefully, she looks like she'll break in a heartbeat."

Break? Me? No, I'm already...a faint pressure I hadn't even been aware of slowly lifts from my body and for a moment I'm weightless. And then I'm falling...falling...falling. When am I going to hit? But I don't.

Another dull pressure begins to slide along my head and I jerk against...whatever holds me...as a dull light attacks my starved eyes.

"Katy?"

Slowly I open my eyes a sliver, letting them adjust. I blink rapidly, but the image remains fuzzy. Three women fill my newly regained vision and another flash of recognition runs through me. I know them...I think.

"Katy?" one of them...which one?...says again and I try to focus on her. Dark...black?...hair. Green eyes...Wetness trickles down my face as something inside me twists painfully.

Darkness reclaims me but those eyes remain, burned into the back of my lids.