Location: Los Angeles, Weekend Revenge Club.

Date: Year 2127 Month 12 Day 12

Despite the war going on in the sky, life carried on as usual for most people.

We were sitting at the usual place.

The normally soft, blue and purple lights had been replaced with more vivid hues. Electronic music was blasting from the speakers on the floor below. It was Friday evening, and the place was packed.

I was sipping a mojito, another one was set next to me on the table. The ice of the second drink had mostly melted. Revy was taking her time, more than usual.

Jun grumbled, “Where is she?”

Alex looked up from her whiskey, “Probably trying to decide what car or motorcycle to use. She will have to leave them behind soon.”

Batou hummed in a low voice, “Maybe she set them all on autopilot to accompany her and caused a traffic jam.”

All of us chuckled at the thought.

Shifting my eyes towards the crowded dance floor below I said, “Considering it’s the weekend and that we are near downtown she really might end up stuck in traffic for hours.”

While we were close to the arcologies there was no worry about the corpos coming after us. They had much more serious problems on their hands right now.

Looking back at the table I glanced at Alex’s new left arm. It was a basic metallic model that the Ishikawa family had given her as a temporary solution. It wouldn’t be any worse than a normal arm, but not any better either.

She and I were going to the casino later.

Alex wasn’t going to play, but she was going to keep me company. After all, the only reason I was doing this was to help her.

I most certainly did not have a gambling problem.

Definitely.

If all went well, I’d win enough money to get her something better. But neither of us had high hopes for that.

While I thought that, Revy made an appearance with her usual flair.

The drink on the table disappeared.

She sat opposite to me, lying back on the chair and balancing herself on the two rear legs. Already sipping from the straw of the mojito.

“Sup, sorry I’m late. Stuff got in the way.” She said in between sips.

Jun smiled sarcastically. “Oh, no problem, no problem at all. We are used to waiting for your scrawny ass to show up.”

“Hey! It’s not scrawny. It’s bigger than yours.”

Alex smiled at the exchange. “She literally has synth muscles that make her fit. Maybe insult the terrible names she gives her motorcycles instead.”

Revy turned to Alex with a gasp, nearly falling from the poised chair. “You take that back! Bubi, Billy and Betty have feelings!”

Batou spoke up, “Before we degenerate, why don’t we have a toast and celebrate our last day here.”

He turned to look at Jun. Who cleared his throat. “Sure, I’ll do the talking, like usual.”

His eyes regarded us all. “We have been working together for a long time. I understand that after this job some of us will go our own ways. And I want you to know that you will be missed, despite the many headaches inflicted upon me. To us all! May we find what we seek from this sorry state of being others call life.”

We raised our drinks to the air and replied, “Cheers.”

After drinking, I asked Jun, “If we are departing tomorrow why haven’t they shared the plan with us yet? We don’t even know the location.”

Jun smirked. “The plan will be shared enroute, equipment will be provided by Sentai. All you have to worry about is bringing enough cybermeds for the journey. We do not want anyone going psycho on us, or worse, use standard painkillers and become a cyber vamp-“

he paused for a second, his expression souring. “Anyway, a reason why the plan wasn’t shared earlier is because everyone has been given permission to celebrate tonight, and a drunk cannot talk if they do not know anything.”

Revy downed the rest of her mojito and cheered, “Wohooo party night! Everyone to the dance floor!”

Jun raised a hand, “How about- “

Revy grabbed his arm and with her superior strength started dragging him away.

Batou looked at us and shrugged. He rose and followed after the other two.

Alex smirked uncertainly at me. “Yea, let’s go dance, cool, cool, cool.”

I rolled my eyes. “You aren’t fooling anybody. Don’t force yourself for Revy’s sake.”

“No, I can do this. Let’s just stop by the bar first, and don’t leave my side, yeah?”

My lips twitched, I kept myself from teasing her. “Sure, let’s go.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

At the bar we ordered four shots, three were for Alex. I was slightly concerned, we still had to go to the casino after this.

After downing the shots, we walked to the dance floor.

We searched through the mass of people for the others. Alex stuck close to me, her breath tickled the nape of my neck, it smelled of alcohol.

I soon spotted Batou’s head that stuck above all others. Arriving next to him we spotted Revy and Jun.

The two were showing off.

Some space had been cleared for them, and they were both taking turns in a dance off.

Revy abused her synth muscles to pull off moves that weaker bodies could only dream of. She was wearing a cap with her hair tied up to avoid it touching the floor, since she was mostly breakdancing. Her movements were fast but not excessively so, the redhead rapidly transitioned from one sequence of moves to another, moving with her whole body. The legs darted in tandem with the music’s rhythm, and her arms rotated her body while shifting with the beat.

After one last spin she jumped back up. She extended her arms and invited her opponent to take the floor.

Jun was less about speed or shocking moves and more about flow. He used a mix of free style and hip hop. His movements were perfectly coordinated with the music. His body jerking to the sides and his limbs following it seamlessly. Except for his right leg. The new cybernetic limb looked real and moved without major issues. But it was still too recent of an addition, and Jun was still not used to it. The little lagging behind of the leg was in the end the deciding factor.

Revy was proclaimed the winner by the crowd.

Jun did not mind.

During the dance off, both Alex and Batou had their arms crossed while tapping the floor with one foot and doing a head nod dance.

When Revy spotted them, she launched herself on Alex, forcing a yelp of surprise from the blue haired woman.

The redhead then started dancing in front of her. In an uncoordinated series of jumping and arm swaying, all the while offbeat. Alex bit her lip and after some hesitation started dancing in a similar fashion.

The remaining three of us just looked at them with varying smiles.

Alex noticed after a bit and shouted at us, “Y-You bitches are going to just wa-watch or what?”

It was cute how she tried to play tough when completely out of her element.

We joined them, all of us jumped, danced and shifted randomly. Uncaring of the rhythm set by the music.

After an unknown amount of time the five of us exited the weekend revenge club.

It was raining, the cool fresh water felt pleasant as it fell on our sweaty brows.

After a few paces we all stopped and turned to look at the entrance of the bar.

I looked at the neon sign by the entrance and spoke, “Even if we will go our separate ways, we should all meet up here again sometime.”

Four different voices gave their assent.

A moment later we separated.

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Location: Entrance of Ishikawa family main base.

Date: Year 2127 Month 12 Day 12

I was walking unsteadily while carrying Alex over my shoulder.

We were both quite drunk.

The gambling did not go well.

I started with some Texas hold ‘em and actually made some winnings. The problem was that it started dragging for too long.

So I followed my gut.

And my gut was screaming to me that I should bet most of my money on the number 5 in the roulette.

It landed on 6.

I had wanted to bet the rest of my money on 5 again after that, sure that the next time would be different.

But Alex stopped me.

Spoilsport.

We then proceeded to drink all the free drinks we could get our hands on in the casino. Until security kicked us out.

I felt very grateful for my cyber arm right now, the job of carrying her was made much easier.

As I started climbing the stairs, she mumbled, “I Don’t feel so good.”

“Don’t puke on my back, want me to carry you to your room or the bathroom?”

“Mmmh… room.”

Once in front of her room I stood waiting. After a few failed attempts, she managed to open the door with her neural interface.

I placed her gently on her bed and removed her shoes.

She grabbed my jacket and murmured, “help me get off these clothes.”

“Sure.”

I stripped Alex to her underwear and turned her to the side so that she wouldn’t choke on her own vomit while she slept.

While covering her with a blanket, I couldn’t help but think that she was as beautiful as I remembered.

Alex smirked, "You're staring."

"Am not, you're drunk."

"Piss off creeper, and thanks."

"Night nerd, and you're welcome."

A pillow hit me on the back as I made my way out.

After closing the door quietly, my uneven steps led me to the roof.

Exiting into the rainy air I crossed ways with Jun.

He had been out for some time. His hair was soaked and flat, partially covering his face. Through the gaps in his locks, I recognized something that I was familiar with. Eyes full of guilt, despite everyone wearing cyber eyes, human emotions always found a way to make themselves manifest.

Jun’s gaze rose to meet mine, his eyes became flat. The guilt hidden, but never gone. He nodded and walked past me into the building.

Going to the bench on the roof I saw that someone was already there.

Vera sat there, her clothes and hair were drenched. Her wounds had healed superficially, but the inner damage was likely still present. Unless she had the same nanites that Revy used. The excessively pale color of her skin made me doubt that.

A dry spot big enough to sit on was on the bench next to her. Not exactly near her, but not too distant either.

I sat on the dry patch.

Vera did not speak, nor did she turn to acknowledge me. A vacant look was on her face, staring towards the distant neon lights that were blurred by the rainy curtain.

After watching the horizon with her for some time I broke the silence, “Should you be getting soaked under the rain in your state? Should you be out and about at all?”

Vera’s eyes came back from whatever abyss she had been staring in.

Two red, emotionless orbs turned to me. “Why do you still care about me?”

In that moment, I felt that the question wasn’t directed at me, but rather at the previous occupant of the spot I sat on.

Still, I answered, “I chose to trust you,” after a beat I added, “somewhat.”

Vera smiled widely, “You can be pretty foolish you know?”

She then turned towards me. “I didn’t thank you yet for keeping my secret, did I?” Closing the distance, she gave me a very unpleasant cold and wet hug. The taller and stronger woman kept me in a tight lock for a little while longer, before letting go and standing up.

Looking at her dully I said, “After that, you owe me twice as much.”

Vera laughed, “The hug was free, I still owe you one.”

She looked down at her clothes. “Damn, I am soaked. Can see my bra through this. Think I will take a long hot shower and go to sleep. Thanks for worrying doc.”

She winked at me and left.

I was left alone on the roof, a slight frown was painted on my face. That last word she spoke resurfaced feelings that never left me.

The downpour intensified.

I took out the tags that were tucked in my shirt.

Raising Bobby’s tag I spoke, to whom or what? I don’t know. But words left me spontaneously,

“I am sorry for staying so distant these last three years. I failed you as a friend. And when we finally got to talk, I failed you once more. You deserved to know the truth. My fear of losing you too was just that, fear. We always had each other’s back.”

Taking a deep breath, I held the third tag in front of my face.

“Doc, for what its worth, there isn’t a day that I don’t regret killing you. After seeing that Alex was going to save you I knocked her out. Honestly, I didn’t think you would chose to die with those civilians. We have known each other for so long, and in all that time you have always acted like a saint. Only an act, is what I told myself. I could not accept that we treaded the same path and yet turned out so different. How wrong I was.”

Removing it from the chain I placed the doc’s tag on the bench.

“We never got along, but we both liked the rain.”

Facing the sky, I squinted through the deluge of water and peered at the dark sky.

“There is no rain on Mars.”

Lowering my head, I looked at the rapidly forming pond near my feet, the beating of raindrops drowned the word I whispered next.