I sat at the dark corner table, wishing I had a mobile to fidget with, wearing this ridiculous outfit, kind of wondering why I'd ever left my little hole in the middle of nowhere. Saga sat next to me, awkward as hell, her face occasionally twitching involuntarily, wearing a damn women's suit which hung off of her, but did a lot to fill out her profile.

It was loud. It was dark. I assumed it smelled funny though I had no scent receptors, and boys kept coming by and trying to sit with us, when I'd really rather they played in traffic instead.

Despite what she'd said earlier, Lia had quite a few drinks, and was now flailing away on the dance floor with Subaru, a Japanese guy we were supposed to be getting to know for roommate potential. The other girl, Chiho, was...somewhere in the club, presumably. We could hope. Saga twitched and jerked again, kicking me under the table.

"Can you stop that?" I asked, annoyed.

"Can't…" her eye twitched. "...shut it out. So many...people."

Looking at the sweaty bodies grinding on the dance floor--Lia among them, rocking away in a midnight blue thing that ornately tied up around her neck and then showed off as much of her back and tummy and legs as it legally could--I knew better than to ask Saga what kind of thoughts were making her so uncomfortable.

I self-consciously tugged up my own dress. It was black and reasonably conservative, had full sleeves to cover my non-human markings, but had a sheer little window that went right down my cleavage. I'd only bought it because Lia had talked me into it, and I thought it was tasteful enough, but the way men passing by lost their eyes, never even glancing up at me, I felt like I may as well be naked.

I also had these ridiculous things hanging off my chest. I'd just kind of thrown them on there on a whim, but among real people I was quickly realizing what a mistake that was. I needed access to a mass-fab badly, the number of changes I wanted to make to Rua Mk.2 just kept growing.

And then Saga in her suit. I wasn't sure if I honestly hated it, or was just jealous. Nobody seemed to give her a glance, maybe they thought she was a man. With a jolt, I realized, maybe they thought she was my man, the way we were sitting next to each other all alone. And yet, people kept coming over and leering and trying to talk to me. How indecent could they be?

Lia came back, looking flushed and tired, staggering just a little bit, but smiling hugely.

"AEGIS!" she shouted over the thumping bass. "For your next body, you have GOT to make it so you can drink with me! You're missing out, girl!"

She fell into the booth next to me, and Subaru sat down after her.

"You guys having fun?" he shouted. I could only barely understand him, and felt like I was mostly reading lips.

I glanced at Saga, who seized violently, her face a stoic mask barely concealing her horror.

"It's too noisy," I shouted.

"Good!" he replied, with a smile. Fuck I hated this place.

Suddenly Chiho was back, and it was apparent where she'd gone. Her hands were brimming with full shot glasses, and she deliberately placed them on the table without spilling, and then slid into the booth next to Saga.

"Lia's back!" she shouted, and started passing out the glasses to us. Saga and I looked at each other warily. If this kept up, she and I would be carrying the entire group home on our backs. Somehow Chiho hadn't taken the hint that neither of us drank, yet. Lia gave two to herself and Chiho, instead of putting any in front of us.

"Lia's back!" she shouted in the third-person, and slammed the shot. The other two followed, and Saga made a very icky face.

"Can this be the last round?" I asked.

"What?"

"I said, can this be the last round? We have plans tomorrow."

"What plans?" shouted Lia.

"First thing in the morning, we're going to spend four hours trying to get you over your fucking hangover." Lia laughed and took the second shot.

"Can I please just kill them all?" Saga said in my ear, nursing her temples.

"They're making a compelling argument for it," I replied back. "There is no way this catastrophe is worse than an Exhuman event."

Saga smiled back, which disappeared quickly as she winced.

"There's four people fucking in the bathroom," she said. "Two of them have been in there for an hour now. You'd think both of them would be rubbed raw by now."

"Saga, that's gross," I shouted, laughing.

"If I have to hear it, so do you. You're the only one who I can talk to here."

"You can talk to Lia?"

"She's too far away. I can't talk that loud." Lia was only on the other side of me, but I still couldn't argue. Saga seemed to be talking at her loudest, and it was still only barely as loud as a normal conversational voice.

"You guys look like you're getting along well," Chiho said to the two of us. "How do you know each other?"

"She killed my mother and all my friends a hundred years ago," I shouted. "We were best friends before that, and now, we're fighting over the same guy. I'm here to keep an eye on her so she doesn't kill everyone again."

"I'm really considering it," Saga added.

"Wow, cool. You guys like, do role play like Lia then?"

"CHIHO," Lia screamed. Chiho laughed.

"Hey, want to get out of here," I asked Saga, who nodded vigorously. "We're getting some fresh air," I shouted in Lia's ear. "Don't wait up."

"No, you guys can't go! Aren't we having fun?"

"Meh. Call me if you need anything. If we don't hear from you, see you tomorrow, okay?"

Lia nodded, frowning.

Slowly, painfully, we got Chiho out of the way, and pressed through the wall of bodies until finally the cool dark air outside held us in its welcome embrace.

"Can we go far from here? I feel like I'm never going to be clean again."

"Yeah. Me neither. I can't believe we had to pay to go in there."

"Lia paid."

"But the point is people do it. I don't understand people at all."

We started walking at random, neither of us having a better plan than to not be there. Saga guided us, taking us further and further away from the nightlife, presumably guided by simply trying to have as few voices in her head as possible. Soon we were well and truly lost, turning down dark streets in dark neighborhoods. Saga let out a sigh.

"I can only imagine what it's like for you out here," I said. "Sorry, maybe we should have stayed up north."

She shook her head. "Athan needs us both. I can put up with it. I just need to remember never to go near a club ever again." She gave a coy smile. "Was I the only one who had no idea what Lia was talking about when she said go clubbing?"

"Yeah, I thought like a sports club or country club or something. I've never heard of a ...well...just a club like that."

"I thought we'd go clubbing something. Sounded interesting."

"LOL really? People don't do that."

"I don't know. I was only in the city for a little bit once after I had my powers and spent all of it being scared and freaking out. Then everything I knew came from what a bunch of military guys who lived out in nowhere thought. Maybe clubs were invented in the last hundred years, I don't know."

She began to cough. She'd been talking a lot and trying to talk loud in the club, though she was barely at a whisper now. She was fortunate I had better-than-human hearing, otherwise, we'd never be able to walk and talk like this, but still, she'd been pushing herself hard.

"Wish I could just talk in your head like everyone else," she lamented.

"I'm kind of glad you can't, no offense, but I like my head Exhuman free."

"'Zat so? There's an awful lot of Athan running around in there for 'Exhuman free'."

I felt my face go red, but maybe she'd miss it in the dark. "Hah!" I scoffed. "I'll have you know I hardly ever think about him."

"If that's true, what is up with this?" she said, reaching out and tugging at the sheer window in my dress. I slapped her hand away, and then had a brief moment of panic when she inhaled sharply and stopped to nurse it. I had to remember I was stronger than a human, and she was a lot weaker. After a moment, she sprang right back, though.

Such a bizarre person, but I still felt guilty.

"So where are we going? This looks like…"

I looked around. It looked like a dump. We were only a few minutes from the street bustling with life and people and lights, and now we were in some dark neighborhood with bars on every window and trash piled outside the narrow tall houses. There was hardly any room here, and not a single tree or leaf in sight, excluding some weeds which grew from cracks in the road against all possibility.

"This looks like a dump," I concluded.

"Really? I like it here. It's quiet. People here are quietly desperate instead of noisy idiots."

"Let's go back," I said beginning to feel nervous. "Something doesn't feel right out here."

"We'll be fine. I mean, there's people coming who want our money, but we don't have any, so we'll be fine."

"Muggers? We're going to get mugged?" I wailed. "My first day in town and I'm going to get mugged because of you. Can't you make them...go away?"

"I thought you were here to make sure I didn't do things like that," she said with a smirk.

Two men, so dark and wrapped in shadow were approaching from behind. Even with my improved senses, I would have never noticed them if Saga hadn't mentioned them before. Slowly, so lazily, I had to wonder if they were even the right guys, they approached us.

"Oh hey," one of them said as they stepped into sight. "You guys lost? There's nothing out here for you to see."

"I...I have bear spray!" I shouted. "It keeps bears away...it...it will...certainly work on you!"

I fumbled for my purse. Another thing Lia had convinced me would be essential. Now it was just an inconvenient barrier between me and personal safety.

Suddenly, the purse was gone, in the man's hands. That wasn't possible, I had kept my hand through the straps just to prevent that kind of thing. He smiled as he folded a knife back in his other hand.

"Here, let me help you with that," he said. "You know, it's cold out, might be hard to work the zipper if your fingers are a little numb." He passed the purse to his buddy who opened it and began rifling through my things. "You there buddy, you got any bear spray for us too?"

Saga mutely shook her head. I guess they did think she was a guy.

"He don't talk much? That's fine." He pretended to glance back at the purse for a moment. "Miss, it looks like you don't have enough chits to afford our directions on how to get home. Does your man not let you spend all his money or something?"

His cohort laughed stupidly as he dumped everything I had picked up earlier on the ground. It wasn't much, and there certainly weren't any credits in there, Lia was the only one with any money.

"So I'm going to have to ask the gentleman to fork over his wallet as well."

"Don't have one," Saga said.

"What?"

"I don't have a wallet."

"I can't hear you mister. Mind turning it up a little?"

"I don't have one."

He turned back to me. "He always this quiet? Got yourself the perfect man, huh?"

"He says he doesn't have a wallet. He doesn't. We don't carry credits on us."

"You don't carry anything. No keys, no ID, no bank cards. You expect me to believe that? Or…" He leaned in close, his eyes full of menace even as he kept a polite smile in place. "...do you think maybe you're just holding out on me?"

In the same motion, he drew his knife again and Saga stepped between the two of us.

"Well, aren't you a gentleman. Better make with the credits or I'm going to ruin your nice suit," he said with a smile.

"Put the knife down," Saga whispered resolutely.

The guy just smiled. "He still can't talk so a person can hear him. What a waste of time. Welp, you saw it, I tried to be nice!"

Faster than I could move, he jammed the knife into Saga's chest again and again, grabbing her by the shoulder with his free hand so he could hold her up while he punctured her again and again. She gasped and a quiet moan slipped from her lips as he guided her forward onto her knees, spots of red blooming all over her white blouse.

"See? Would have been easier if you just went along with us. Now miss, if you could just--"

Saga gasped sharpy and fell backwards, trembling. The man looked at her confused as she stood back up and dusted off her bottom.

"Sorry," she said. "Just needed to catch my breath."

"What the hey man," said the stabber's friend. "This some kind of trick?"

He didn't reply. With an irritated look, he just took his knife to Saga again, punching the knife into her so hard he was lifting her feet off the ground with every thrust. After twenty or thirty blows, she was a sagging doll, her eyes blank, as the only thing holding her up was his arms and knife.

And then, with the knife still inside her, she gasped back to life again. She looked down at the blade still in her stomach, and then at the terrified, uncomprehending expression on the man's face, blood spray covering his entire arm and every bit of her body, and gave him a cute little smile.

"What the fuck. What the fucking fuck. You are some kind of demon or something?" he said, backing away now.

I'd had enough. I hiked my dress up as I stomped around Saga and jumped and spun, driving my metal leg into the side of the man's jaw, launching him bodily into the brick building with a solid crack.

"Purse," I said to the other. He held it out for me, hands trembling. "Pick it up," I said, pointing at the various effects he'd dumped on the ground a moment ago. Frantically, he scooped them back into the bag and then offered it again.

"Thanks," I said, plucking the bag gingerly from his hands and inspecting the cut straps. Useless now, but it had been useless before. And then again I spun and slammed my leg into his head, sending him crashing into the building right next to his unconscious friend.

"They seemed nice," Saga said, looking like a scene from a horror movie. Blood covered every single inch of her, splattering on her face down to blood running down and dripping from her pants.

"You hate humans, as I recall?" I asked. Saga nodded. "I'm starting to agree with you. What the hell is wrong with this place. Is this just Vegas, or is all of humanity like this?"

"I don't know, my first time on the town too," Saga said, tugging at her shirt, now stuck to her from all the gore. "I should probably find a place to change before we get arrested for murdering a lot of people."

"I don't know anywhere," I fretted. "And Lia has all the rest of our clothes."

"It's like half an hour to one of the houses we saw today, I know all the codes to get the key and get in."

"Can we walk that far without getting spotted?"

"I can. I can tell where people are and what they're doing."

"Right. Okay. Well, I guess that's a plan for now. Jesus, how did this all get so fucked up."

We started walking, keeping to the shadows. Every once in awhile, Saga would have us stop or go a different way, and sure enough, we never ran into a single person.

She had me put in the codes so she wouldn't leave bloody fingerprints on everything, and we let ourselves into the small apartment, Saga carefully holding her clothes so they wouldn't drip and make it look like a murder scene in here. She slipped into the bathroom and I closed the door behind her.

Well now what? Just wait to get the blood off, I guess. Hole up in here and wait until Lia's done sleeping off her hangover and can bring us clothes and pick us up? What a mess. It had only been a minute and I heard something banging in the bathroom.

"You okay in there?" I called. No reply. Of course, she couldn't reply loud enough. "I...I guess I'm coming in. Actually, bang something once if I should come in, twice for no."

Bang.

I sighed and opened the door. Saga was standing there half-undressed in the tub, red clothes clinging to her and a pile of discarded clothes in the basin at her feet.

"What?" I asked, realizing she was talking at me from across the room.

"I said, it's all clingy and I can't get it off. Can you help me?"

"Uh, sure," I said, a little stunned. She was trying to strip while standing in the tub so she didn't make a mess everywhere, and couldn't stand, not touch anything, and get the clinging clothes off her at the same time. I stood there for a moment trying to figure out how best to do this, and then began to strip myself, not wanting to get blood all over my sleeves.

I'd only wanted to strip halfway out of it but the whole thing was so thin and immaterial and short that there was only a half of it to strip out of. There was no way to get just my arms out without removing the whole thing...so now I was there in my bra and panties helping pull bloody bits of clothes off of Saga.

It was like a wet film, it clung to her so much. Peeling the blouse off her back made a noise like I was ripping tape off a sealed package, leaving spots of coagulating blood on her white skin.

She at least had the decency to be properly mortified. She kept her back to me the whole time, even if I was pulling something off her front, and spent the entire time glancing backwards at me and blushing and trembling, as I aggressively stripped the stubborn blood-soaked clothes from her. There really was no way she could get it off by herself, the drying blood was impossible to deal with gently.

Finally, I tugged the last and got her pants down to her ankles which she slowly, delicately stepped out of, her legs trembling. I looked up and found my vantage put my face inches from her tiny round butt and even tinier red-stained panties.

I stood and tried to force the embarrassment and blush from my face. "I uh, guess you can probably get the underwear on your own," I said apologetically. I started to leave the shower but realized I had blood all over my hands now.

"Uh, I'm gonna turn the water on," I said holding out my hands. She nodded while I attacked the knobs with my elbows. Even though I got the 'H' knob to move, the water that poured out of the shower head all over me was like standing in an ice storm. I yelped and tried to squirm out of the freezing torrent without crushing Saga against a wall, but there just wasn't enough room. Why couldn't this have been one of the places we looked at with a huge bathtub instead?

I tried to rinse quickly, but as water washed over us, I found myself standing in a red river. There was no way I was getting out on the white tile floor until the water ran clear again...and with Saga's clothes lining the shower floor, that would be a while. Saga sighed, seeming to have drawn the same conclusion.

"How did we get here?" she said with a small laugh.

I laughed too. "I thought we were enemies, and now you're helping me and we're showering together in our unmentionables."

"Why'd you help me anyway? Those guys couldn't hurt me. I'm trying to do what Athan wanted and solving things peacefully...but so far it hasn't worked."

"They could hurt you, though. I saw you gasping and grimacing every time he stabbed you. I didn't want that."

"He couldn't kill me, not for good."

"He was just an asshole. Breaking his face was the least of what he deserved."

"I'm envious," Saga said. "I don't have a lot of middle ground between turning a guy's head to soup and letting him stab me to death. I can't kick people in the face or anything. I bet it would be easier to get Athan to like me if I could."

She laughed demurely. The water was warming up, and I helped her scrub her back, watching little rivers of blood run down her body, and realizing I was making her really nervous.

"Well, I think I'm done in here," I said, and stepped out, leaving little puddles of water where I stepped. "Watch your step and don't crack your head on your way out, or we'll have to clean up all over again." She gave me a shy smile as she held herself modestly, and I left her alone.

I let myself out into the small back backyard, surrounded by tall wood fences, and laid on the grass to dry.

It was freezing. In the small window of blackness I could see above me, there were no stars visible at all, completely different from the billions which frosted the sky back there.

I punched myself in the face hard enough to hurt. I hated all of this. I couldn't believe how much Saga had me eating out of her hand. Looking out for her, helping her, laughing and joking with her, friggin' showering with her, it's like I'd learned nothing at all the last time she'd broken my heart.

I wanted to just turn off my feelings and kick her sorry ass the way she deserved, but I'd learned that once that AEGIS took over, I might not be coming back. I'd lose Athan, and that simply wasn't an option.

I sighed and looked back up at the black, blank void. I'd just have to put up with it. Her and Lia. At least until we had Athan back.