Kassandra answers the phone after a few rings and she answers,

"Hi, Mike! What's going on?"

I reply,

"I lived, I think we need to have a talk soon Kassy. Plus I have a list of potential upgrades for Wendigo formulated. I want to come up with a... deal of sorts."

There is a pause and Kassandra's voice come back concerned,

"That tone you have is making me nervous. What happened?"

I sigh and reply to her,

"Shits going awry and I need someone to talk to face to face, someone who has the fewest dogs in the race. I need your help."

She pauses again and then says in a sympathetic tone,

"Alright... I'll talk. I'm sending transport for you and Wendigo. I can also take along some passengers too."

I inhale in relief and respond,

"Alright, I'll be waiting. I have to take Seraphina with me."

There is no response, just quiet for a while, then a sniffle, and Kassandra hangs up. I'm confused about what that was about but I go over to the place where Seraphina is being held. I knock on the hard plastic door and she answers while wearing a t-shirt and some random army pants. She invites me in and I enter. Before I do I dismiss the guards. One gives me a knowing look and goes away. The other tries to put up a fight but decides against making trouble with me. He then follows his friend. I hate how much influence that bastard has, even in the marshals.

When seated I begin quietly,

"Seraphina, we are going to leave here soon. I don't know how much influence the people on Titan have here in the marshals but it's enough to where this place isn't safe. We will be leaving for the Hussain foundation soon so get ready. When you're ready to leave follow me to the hangar. I'll explain more on the way."

She is obviously concerned but follows my orders and gathers everything she has left and we calmly walk to the hangar acting confidently. We pass Eloise and I motion for her to follow. I start a text on my phone and show it to Eloise. It reads,

"We are getting out of here, come with us. Act like I just showed you a funny joke."

She laughs as ordered and our little walk leads us to Liberty and Dusty. I walk up to them and put my arms around their shoulders as if I am greeting them in a really close way. While pulling them in close in a fake headlock I whisper,

"Get ready, we may have to run. Just follow me. I promise to replace anything you lose."

They nod and go along with the friendly fake wrestling, but we end up at the feet of Wendigo. The roof of the temporary hangar retracts as the marshals fly in some damaged AMS, and just at that time a different flyer appears. It drops cables and attaches itself to Wendigo. The air traffic people don't seem concerned so that's good. Then the rope ladder drops for us. I help the women one by one start climbing and before I do a hand grabs my shoulder. I turn around to see the marshal commander. He smiles at me and says,

"Good luck Lieutenant Richardson... I'm rooting for you."

I smile and thank him and just as I do I finally see his nametag, Lt.General DeBlanc.

My smile widens as he gives me a toothy grin and with a nod, I climb onto the ladder which begins retracting as the flyer picks up Wendigo. After some time I am pulled inside and we'll take a seat in the very uncomfortable crash seats but we are on our way to relative safety. I spend the entire flight briefing the other three on the situation. Seraphina is of course instantly on my side as any other side is against her. The other two take a little convincing, mostly coercing with the threat of potential violence, but they come around, but they do admit they were just playing hard to get for monetary gain.

When we eventually land I have the ladies go off with the assistant who takes them to their quarters. I however begin my walk all the way to Kassandra's office. Just before I reach it however Holstein Marshall stops me. He says to me sternly,

"What are you planning with my wife."

I reply,

"I won't participate in your cuckold fetish so I just wish to talk business with her."

He grabs the front of my shirt and tries to act intimidating but I simply grab his collar and lift him up a little,

"Not the time or day for that Milk Cow. Don't think I forgot what you did to me."

His face drains of color, I honestly have no idea if he has ever wronged me, but this confirms he actually has, and by his reaction, it was something bad. He simply stammers,

"O-okay, please don't hurt me."

I let him go and let out a sigh and say to him,

"I actually have no idea what you've done to me. I only just remember your nickname. I'm not a force of nature walking today in reality, I just wanted some clarification on your... participation in my current mental state. Thanks for confirming it for me."

I give him a shit-eating grin as he scrambles off. I feel bad for being mean to him, but I needed to spook him a little to see if he even did anything to me. No one in their right mind would admit to doing someone wrong if they just simply asked. I continue to Kassandra's office, and I open the door only to find Kassandra at her desk, her eyeliner a little smeared, she has been crying. The look on her face says a lot... She's scared.

I try to casually sit down across from her and ask carefully,

"Sooo, you're that concerned for me that you're crying? I mean I was in danger, but there's no reason to cry, you know I'm a big boy who can handle himself..."

My tone seems to calm her down and she says to me with some hesitation,

"You know you called me Kassy... right?"

I pause and says,

"Yeah... I guess so. I'm sorry if you hate that nickname. It just felt... right."

She shakes her head and replies,

"No. It's not. You shouldn't remember that. "

I feel a little frustrated and reply with some force,

"And why shouldn't I remember something?"

She flinches and explains,

"Mike... we did you wrong. I know, but I thought we could create... create... something better by altering your memories a little."

I feel the cold burning start to rise but I swallow it and say in a stern, but calm voice,

"Better how? I don't remember my childhood, I don't remember my squadmates, and most of all I don't remember Prisca... that name means something! Why am I so upset when I hear that name? Why do I see your smile in my nightmares, why am I not allowed to know who I am, and who I was?

Why are you afraid? Your apologies mean nothing to someone who isn't the person you hurt... I am currently not the Mike you harmed. So why are you afraid? Only those who have done something truly, and absolutely reprehensible fear for their lives from someone. Why are you afraid of me?"

I see her biting her tongue in her mouth, trying to hold back with her next words, formulating a response of nonsense. Anything less than the truth now is something I cannot accept. I hate this, I hate being lied to, I hate being angry, I hate feeling lost, and I hate hurting people. Why can't she just tell me? What is holding her back? Why can I not be allowed to live?

I see tears well up in her eyes, I feel an overwhelming need to go and try to comfort her but something deep inside me says,

"Those aren't tears... don't let her trick your eyes."

I remain seated and stare right through her. She watches me sit there unflinching for a moment before the fear returns in her eyes as she asks quietly,

"Why aren't you comforting me?"

It was more to herself but I answer,

"If anyone needs comfort it's me. Kassandra... I'm waiting on my answer."

She shakes her head a few more times before letting out a deep breath. She collects herself doing what she can to remove emotion from her voice and face. She knows emotional manipulation won't work. She knows I am outside of her control... but why was I in her control to begin with? Why did I almost give up my strong position to comfort her? Looking back, why did I accept her half-assed explanations on why I can't remember?

After she calms herself down she begins in a still sad sounding voice, but still professional,

"Alright, Mike... We... I underestimated your will to survive, and most of all, your will to win at any cost. As you know Wendigo is you... not just all the negatives like we said before. Wendigo is the real you. Good, bad, and everything in between. He is the disembodied consciousness of Mike Richardson... you are a ghost. Mike Richardson is dead, he perished when his cryostasis failed, but as a last resort the AMS he was housed in offloaded his entire mind, every memory, and every experience. His body was destroyed to a point of no return. So we...I... experimented on the disembodied mind of my old... friend."

I feel an odd weight fall over me and I almost fall over in my chair out of surprise. There is no way this is possible, right? I am me, just with fewer memories, what about this with my body being destroyed? I'm right here, half a man but still... somewhat repaired. I manage to choke out,

"You're lying, I'm right here and I'm gaining memories every day. Explain that."

She looks at me with torment in her eyes. How can she feel that? Her eyes convey a message of utter anguish like someone whose entire life has just collapsed in on itself like she's the one suffering. I feel angry and shout,

"What are you looking at me like that for? How are you in any pain? I am here being told I don't exist! I have nothing of who I was but fragmented visions! Why do you look at me like you're in pain?"

She swallows heavily and continues, her professional demeanor wavering as we continue,

"... I... I don't know what to say to prove what I am saying is true. You shouldn't believe me, and you wouldn't believe me if... if we hadn't created you ten years ago."

I feel my heart stop for a second and ask,

"W-what do you mean?"

She looks down at the floor as the waterworks begin again, but her voice remains calm,

"We pulled up your AMS only three years after you... well died to the world. We found your corpse inside your AMS, half-rotted, but your AMS kept your... well as close as we can scientifically say, your soul alive, what made you, you. It was horrible... you woke up... and had no body, it was the most pitiful thing I ever witnessed, what happened to you is beyond any hell we could have imagined. My father before his death made it his life's goal to give you a body... but he perished before that could happen. I then took up his work while Holstein worked on stabilizing your mind. You were so scared, so lost... so much pain. Eventually, we managed to clone you a body made from your cells in an exact replica, but it died when we tried to upload memories so we tried again and again.

The body you inhabit is subject number 219, the only stable clone so far... well aside from some rapid decay starting in your toes and fingers which we quickly amputated and here you are now... Not all the clones died quickly, many... many were soulless monsters, unable to feel and a head full of memories of death and hate, they couldn't understand and had to be terminated. Even the body you inhabit now almost became like those before... but we did not allow for a full memory restoration, and it worked... sorta. As you have noticed you are quite unstable mentally due to the rapid growth of this body. We tweaked you a little in order to ease the process for us.

Notice how you heal up quicker than you should, yes medicine is great now, but not good enough to recover from gunshot wounds in a week. You heal faster, that's why your musculature grew so rapidly once you began a high protein diet alongside your workout routine. You gained over three years' worth of work in muscles in less than a year. All these inconsistencies are blocked in your mind, along with your easiness to be convinced by me, we designed some... control features in the clones we have made... and it seems you have broken them due to your very close bond with Wendigo... or should I say, Mike. I don't know what he's planning, I truly don't know why he is opening your mind, and know this, he wasn't protecting his life by not sharing the memories... he was protecting yours.

The only reason I have allowed you to leave this lab... to go out and live is because my heart can no longer take it... at first, it was an attempt to outdo my father, but slowly, I began to feel with the weight of my situation, my work, my mistakes, had put you in a fate worse than hell. I used to enjoy watching others feel pain, now I can't stand the sight of blood... what I have witnessed while trying to bring you back, the things I have done are unforgivable. The things I've done to you, and all your iterations, all are cruel beyond words.

Death is a preferable alternative to continuing to live like this.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

But I vowed to not die, under any circumstance until I get you back... I-I don't know what else to say. I am sorry, and that's all... my work, this foundation, all my money, all for the sole purpose of bringing you back. The only person in my entire life besides my father to show me true compassion and mercy despite my cruel and wicked nature... I can't get the reason out of Mike, no matter how hard I try... but I hope one day... he... or maybe you can tell me why."

I just shake my head not believing a word of what she's talking about. There is no way this is real! I am me! I am me! No way! No way! No way! I remember some childhood, I remember Prisca! I remember... I remember... I don't remember anything... no faint memories, but something tells me there should be, no fragments from a broken mind... just blankness... I now realize that feeling of missing something. It's not that my mind only has the faintest of memories and is telling me I should remember... it's reminding me, there is nothing there and never was, and there is no linear progression in my mind, all I know and remember is tiny tidbits and fragments, subject but nothing else, no images, no faces, no names.

I fall forward onto my knees and feel as if I am about to puke, in the last moment before I lose myself completely, I say to her,

"I-if you aren't lying... show me my body... prove to me that I am not the original."

She solemnly nods and stands up walking with shaking knees. I follow her out the door and into a secret elevator that takes us to a sublevel of the facility. Inside is a nightmare. There are four rows of artificial wombs made of glass and steel, inside are identical copies of me, but far skinnier and with every limb and finger intact. They all have the same connection ports and scars along their bodies as well. Then in the center, frozen in time is the worst thing of all. A half-decayed version of myself, bone showing through rotted skin and muscle, teeth showing through rotten skin, and so skinny and pale all the organs nearly show through. On the wall near it is a large computer screen showing a number next to each subject and below them, all is a report, all but 219 are dead with reasons listed. 219 only reads,

"Alive, hopeful is a proper vessel, major decay of mind and body. May need termination as mercy."

I fall to my knees again, my whole existence shattered in an instant. I am a clone, with implanted memories... my reason to exist is to save myself, who will overtake and erase the me that is me. I exist to die to save myself.

This time I do vomit, but I make it to a trashcan in time and when I void everything in my stomach I see an interesting paper on the desk in front of me. It looks as if someone has tried to deface it, but couldn't complete it. Near it is a lock-box that is wide open and it is labeled with Holsteins' name on it. I then read what I can make out in the letter,

"Dear Kassandra,

I am writing to let you know that I wholeheartedly appreciate your efforts towards helping me here in the field. As you know I have been quite upset since Prisca passed away and I have not been myself, I feel cold, I loved her dearly as she loved me. It is unfortunate that she passed.

I will admit your letter was very touching and quite compassionate. I really enjoyed reading it. It warmed my heart during these trying times. As for my response. I do not wish to upset you as despite your tastes being rather brutal at times I have come around to enjoying your presence although I'd prefer other people to do my surgeries instead.

Unfortunately, as of this time, I cannot say I have the same feelings towards you. Understand this is coming at a very bad time in my life. If this war is to end, then I may try to reciprocate those feelings you have confessed. Please continue to write me and I will do the same in turn.

Sincerely,

Mike."

My shock only increases as Kassandra approaches and helps me to my feet. I find myself spinning and running circles in my own head, my reality has fallen apart, and now very conflicting feelings in my heart as well... what did she mean by compassion? I feel myself fainting and before the black, I feel my head hit the floor hard....

I feel consciousness return to me but I can't open my eyes or move anything. I am breathing on autopilot. It's a similar feeling to when I first woke up, I can feel cables sticking into me. They have me turned off, that's what I can tell. I can't hear either.

[Good... I got you awake.]

(Go away...)

[No. I won't]

(Just end me... let some other clones be your body double.)

[I see... Mike... or me, whatever. I do not wish to take you over. At all.]

(Why not, don't you want a body?)

[More than anything, but it's been decades since they started creating those abominations. All this suffering, not just of the clones, but also for those they kidnapped and stole organs from. All that suffering for me... I hate it. ]

(What are you trying to say.)

[I died nineteen years ago. I am ready. I want to see dad... I want to see Prisca and the others, but it's not time yet.]

(What on earth are you talking about?)

[I want you to become us... When I am able, as promised I will share everything with you. I will give you our memories, but you will be you. Not me. You will be Mike Richardson, protector of the solar empress, not the war criminal. Not the monster we had become. I want you to live, to love, to be happy, what I, what we could never have before. ]

(I see... I'm sorry for being mad at you... I'm sure you understand.)

[I understand more than anyone. Here's the deal. I'm in the Hussain foundation system but Holstein has admin privileges and I cannot really do much without those and it has to be manually input. I'm going to slowly undo what they did to you here and I want you to force him to open the system from there I just need you to press a key that says 'Release'. ]

(I know I need to get out of this situation, but I don't know how to feel about attacking them...)

[Kassandra be careful with, she has been through hell. Holstein... kill him when you are done... he's the real monster here. Trust me... Kassandra didn't want to marry that fuck... and all the fucked up parts of this whole project were masterminded by him. He's also a coward and a pansy. He hates me because I stopped his wicked experiments way back when. Trust me, a real piece of shit, Dr.Mengele type of stuff, but unlike him is a pansy and cowers and acts all innocent when faced with danger. I think he's still mad about what Fred and I did to him back then. Let's just put it that way. A pussy without conscience. Now slowly get ready. I'll let you know, also don't open your eyes until it's time. Just listen. I think you'll enjoy this conversation.]

Slowly my ears tune in and I hear an argument between Holstein and Kassandra, Holstein shouts,

"...Because of your softness, we let another subject become uncontrollable. That's why we shouldn't give any memories until we confirm it is stable. I say we kill this one and move to 220 and cannibalize parts if needed. We give it the memories he gained during his school times till now, so they are none the wiser. Then we further put up firewalls between Mike and these clones."

Kassandra shouts back,

"We cant do that! We have to work to bring him back! 219 has been our most promising, it's only natural it would try to escape control. He may be the key for us getting Mike back!"

There is a pause before Holstein shouts,

"I can't believe you still want to bring that sack of shit back. He's dead, he begged for death all those years ago we should have e listened. What we have gained and learned is the potential to create an army of AMS-compatible clones. We could sell them for millions each! or we could take it all for ourselves. We proved before we can create one completely under our control and it didn't even know it! Imagine what we could do with an entire army of them. We could avoid more people sacrificing themselves like Mike."

There is another pause and Kassandra replies back through a near sob,

"You... don't care about that. You just want the fame and glory."

Holstein laughs,

"You bet your ass I do. I'll make you a harem of clones of him that dote on you if that's what you want, but what needs to happen is we need this clone army to save the world and humanity. I'll finally get what I deserve, and we all will be free from war... permanently."

I feel my body come under my control again as their argument goes quiet for a time. I feel all my muscles ripple, ready to go, the cold feeling is back, but mixed with hunger, a hunger to commit violence.

[Now]

I sit up slowly and open my eyes, Holstein has his back to me, and Kassandra is walking off. I simply lean close to his ear and say with a laugh,

"Don't worry Milk Cow... you are about to get exactly what you deserve..."

He stares up at me in fear as I jump on top of him. He is pretty easy to knock down and pin to the ground. I slap him across the face once for good measure and say,

"You think it's going to be that easy to get rid of me? Think again, buckaroo."

I hold him pinned for a bit, but instead of fighting back he simply cowers trying to protect his face. He begs something but I don't pay attention. I tell him calmly,

"Alright Holstein, here's what's going to happen. You are going to open the computer mainframe or whatever it is you need to manually input a code into. If you don't I'm going to beat you to a pulp."

I raise my fist just to bring the point home. He nods and I let him up but keep a hand on his shoulder. Kassandra is standing at the door of the room we are in. I don't recognize it, it looks like a medical operating room, but the walls are covered in screens that detail different features of me. I guess this is where the magic happens when they create a new version.

We walk past Kassandra and into the elevator that led to the hidden basement. We take it to a different floor and we exit into some kind of server room. Holstein walks through the serves with practiced professionalism and leads me to an odd-looking computer monitor with a keypad next to it. He inputs a nine-digit code and the screen turns on. It looks to be a touch screen and has four options available:

Reset Servers.

Clear all data.

Lockdown.

Release.

I shove Holstein away from the screen and hit the release option and it makes a chime, and then the screen reads "Initializing..." for a few moments before saying completion. Nothing changes, no big alarms, nothing seems off. I turn to Holstein and ask,

"What did that do? Nothing changed."

He laughs and replies,

"Yeah, no shit, it just removes some safety features I put in place. Mike can't do anything because I checked and saw all the blockers I have in his code are still up. He and you by extension never had any clue how computers worked, except just the bare minimum to use them.

I say let's go to either my, or Kassandra's office to talk for a little bit... I think I want to come clean too, no use in lying anymore. That and I want to leave the server room because I won't be able to restart the system for a few hours because of what you just did. It's another failsafe to avoid cyberattacks in the event I have all safety features released right now. Maybe I shouldn't have had a self-destruct feature. Well... yeah that was stupid."

He looks really embarrassed at his design and I can't help but laugh. It is quite stupid to have a self-destruct feature in anything you make unless its sole purpose is to be destroyed like a bomb or something. He laughs awkwardly too. Despite how shit of a person he might be, if I take what Wendigo said at face value, we are both in a high-stress situation, a little laughter is needed so we don't truly flip our shit. After a couple of moments of standing around, he leads the way back to his office.

Holstein's office is a mess, many electronic devices scattered around, and many in a poor state of repair. The back wall is a window that overlooks the production floor of the Hussain foundation. He takes a seat at his desk and I sit in the chair across from him. He lets out a long breath thinking about what to do next. His expression has no guilt or sadness, just a little bit of fear from me, and a stoic professional demeanor. I simply say,

"Alright, what do you want to talk about?"

He lets out another breath and responds without a hint of emotion,

"Well... let's get to business. You now understand what you are, and how you aren't the first. That makes what I wish to tell you easier to convey. To put it simply we haven't had the best history.

Back nineteen years ago the original you stopped me from performing some pretty horrible human experiments. While no more barbaric or brutal, in my mind, than what they were doing to you all here, the difference was the subjects. While AMS compatibility is a fairly rare attribute, as many people go brain-dead when hooked up to an AMS. I as you know am a computer genius. I saw the human mind and nervous system as a big fleshy computer, and the failure of many people to hook up to AMS as a flaw in the programming, initially that is.

During the war, I will admit what I did was quite... illegal and morally wrong, but I will admit I see morals as only a roadblock when it comes to advancing science. What I was attempting was to modify the internal "Software" of the human mind and nervous system, at first I had some volunteers, they died and I ran out of subjects... so I may have started using refugees. All adults mind you, but I couldn't seem to get anywhere, so I thought maybe it was due to age... so I began using children or tried to, you happened to get ahold of me before then. Unlike Kassandra I take no joy in the pain of others, simply put I do care about the suffering of others so long as my goals are moved forward. I understand I am horrible for doing so.

After my project failed I went on the straight and narrow once more, working towards my goal using regular computers to simulate and whatnot, I never got anywhere. I married Kassandra around this time because I saw her as the only person who could understand me, and my goals. She did and we wed. There is no love in our relationship, but we did what we could to keep up appearances, like when you entered here earlier today, I really don't care what you do with Kassandra, sexual, loving, or whatever, maybe if you hurt her I would be quite angry but neither of us truly love one another, a marriage of convenience. That's one of the reasons we don't share last names, and why we don't have children, but I wouldn't trust myself with my own kids either, another moral to get in my way, and I don't know what would have happened to me if I fell in love with them. Anyways, enough with what you missed, now onto what concerns you.

When we found you, it furthered my research decades ahead. A true mental upload of a human. A true human AI that could feel, and rationalize things. It was amazing, a transcendence of a human mind. I used you for my research. I felt no ill will towards you, but I did cause pain... I wanted to know if it was possible for a machine to feel pain. It's strange... you did. When Kassandra and Dr. Husssain began researching cloning and biology I realized, that maybe human software is good enough across the board for AMS compatibility, because there you were, I tested and your brainwaves and mind were no greater or worse than anyone else's. Yet you are incredibly compatible, to the point where you became the machine just by a small software glitch.

Don't worry I patched that glitch from ever happening again.

So I decided maybe it was the hardware of a human. The actual brain and nerves of the person, not their mental capacity. I still don't understand it all, I am no biologist and despite my hardest efforts to understand I can never really get biological processes, but I found that somewhere in your makeup there is AMS compatibility. Where and how I don't know. You're not even the most compatible person to ever exist, but I had you at my disposal... well 218 versions of you. I think I am able now to create a clone, using your makeup but not creating you, to create the perfect AMS pilot, or even the ability to create a completely autonomous AMS with a fleshy core relying on a sack of nutrient fluid every few years. The ultimate weapon. My perfect design.

Alas, it seems Kassandra has become attached to you, or maybe the concept of you, and will not allow me to pursue my dream until you are brought back... she hasn't asked you in the machine if he wants to even be alive still.

In no way am I saying I am a good person who deserves any sympathy, in fact, I am a horrible sociopath who feels nothing from the suffering of others. It's sad indeed, but I have to complete my work. Imagine all wars being gone due to my work, soldiers of perfect ability, machine-like reflexes, all while having the rational ability of a human and can have morality if need be. I could conquer the world and beyond, or just sell them to whoever I want to support, so I want to ask you for a favor, one I know I have no right asking for,

Please will you let Kassandra let go? I'm not asking you to die, neither the one before me now nor the one inside the AMS. I can offer you a peaceful life elsewhere while I do my work. Hell if you ask you can take her with you and live happily ever after, of course after she helps me finish my work, I am very bad at designing AMS, I can do the computer stuff but creating the physical machine is not my specialty. "

The entire speech he shows little emotion, but it's obvious he is telling the truth. My very limited memories of him show him to be a very honest person, to a fault even. I shake my head and put my chin on my hand and reply,

"Holstein... you're one fucked up little man, but I won't lie that your deal does sound pretty good, but I can't accept. I've sworn to protect some people and I will protect them no matter what. "

He nods a solemn look on his face and he replies,

"I see... then you are in my way... but I do have to ask, of the people you are supposed to protect aren't you missing one? I only saw three women come in with you."

I think for a moment then my eyes go wide as I almost fall over again. Where the fuck is Genevieve? I didn't see her after the fight, she walked back with us but then she was gone in an instant. I feel a sinking feeling in my gut, but I know he isn't responsible, because he has no reason to hurt her. Where did I leave her?

I am broken from my concern by Holstein who says,

"I-I've never done something like this before... I will make sure they are safe without you... this version of you, number 219 will cease to exist. I'm sorry, but I can't let anyone get in the way of my work."

In his hand is a small handgun, a derringer pistol of some kind. The bore looks huge, and at this range, he won't miss. I stare in horror accepting my fate. Maybe it's for the best that a failed clone dies. Then the lights flicker and then go off. The entire building is dark. I hear Holstein swear a few times and the sound of heavy metal footsteps gets closer. Not from behind in the hall, but from in front of me. On the production floor. I hear some muffled shouting as the steps get close then in the darkness two glowing red circles, the size of softballs appear in the darkness. I can barely make out a familiar outline. The speaker on the ceiling crackles to life and my voice comes through,

"Ahhh, Holstein. I never thought you had the guts to pull a gun on someone. Too bad about your perfect software defenses... looks like I broke through. So... wanna put the gun down?"

I hear Holstein make a choking noise, then there is a bright flash and I fall backward over the chair, incredible pain in my chest. A pained voice comes over the speaker,

"NOOOOOOO! You fucker!"

There is the sound of glass shattering as a huge metal hand smashed through with ease. I feel my lungs slowly fill with blood as the darkness around me becomes more complete. I feel cold... but at peace... almost happy even... I guess... it's time... for me to die...

My last sensation is a metal hand gently picking me up... despite being made of steel it somehow feels so soft, a perfect bed for me to rest on...