When we boarded the plane in Vegas, it was close to 80 degrees. Unseasonably warm, but still. When we disembarked, 2.5 hours in the air later, it was only 45. I just froze up as I reached the deboarding ramp, feeling the tendrils of winter air snaking through the outdoor tunnel and right through my clothes. Held up everyone else on the VTOL and felt terrible for it, but damn, a sweatshirt did not cut it, no matter how lumpy and comfy.

I resented AEGIS, who walked around in a glamorous cutesy dress, the likes of which she'd been wearing non-stop since the prospect of Athan had re-entered her life, and just loathed Chiho who looked toasty warm in her mobile fortress of leg warmers, layered jackets, and a blanket.

Plus she had fat. I'd never been so jealous of fat before, as I froze my skinny little chicken legs off.

What I really missed was my slipskin. As much as I might have complained about trying to sleep in the thing, it was a damn miracle suit. Warm, cold, rain, that thing handled it all. And hell, you never even had to wash it. But I could hardly wander around town wearing one without looking like a freaking terrorist.

Which, I remembered, as we waited for our bags, I guess I technically was. Well, not right now I wasn't, I was on vacation. Even terrorists needed vacations.

"Girls, this is gonna be dope," said Chiho, breaking out slang that probably would be missed at the museum she'd stolen it from. "It's gonna be so much fun, and with my two besties! OMG!"

It was...difficult to get excited, watching the bag carousel slowly grind in a circle with our luggage still nowhere yet in sight. I'd thrown together this plan because I was worried about AEGIS' mental health, and I saw no way of getting her out of the house if I didn't dangle Athan in front of her.

I didn't mind the break myself, but I'd still be pulling furtive sessions at night after we all went to bed. I'd lost Black Shark once and had destroyed one of my best friendships, and then incidentally jeopardized the safety of the world last time I'd done that. I could never let her go again.

VGCon had been an afterthought to get Chiho to come so I wouldn't have to manage AEGIS all on my own, and Paradise Isles as an after-after thought so it seemed less suspicious that I'd want us to go.

But I was under no delusions. This was about AEGIS, plain and simple. Working alongside her so long on Operation: Athan, at the beginning had been a blast. But the more we worked, the more we focused on opening up AEGIS' hacking network, broadened her scope of the world and the millions of data streams which could pour directly into her, the more she scared me.

One day I had been out in the garage working with her, not on anything related, just both of us sitting together working in the same space, for company, I guess, and Chiho came in and invited us both to watch some show. I refused, AEGIS accepted. No big deal, whatever.

Not five minutes later, I notice she's remoted back into her work and is organizing and running a little data smash and grab. Running international data security teams in circles, while she's sitting in there, with Chiho, watching cartoons. That was when I first began to notice how distant she was getting. How she was becoming a lot more machine than human.

I thought back to when she decided to turn her feelings off, and now...if she became that person again...that machine again...with the data and resources she had access to now…

Dreams of Skyweb opening up the sky and killing every Exhuman on the planet at once troubled my sleep, let's just say. I had to get her off of her work, and with any luck, under my brother, 'cuz as much as I didn't want him being a pawn in this, if they could both be happy and avert the robopocalypse at the same time, that was a win in my book.

"Lia baby, you okay?" Chiho was in front of me, waving. How long had she been there? They had our bags already. I needed coffee bad. I'd tried to cut back, but I was just useless and grumpy, spacing out all the time and then getting angry about random stuff.

I mean, I guess that meant I shouldn't have coffee in a general sense, but...jeez, man.

"No? Yes?" she asked. Damnit, I never responded.

"Yeah. Fine. Just fine. I just need this vacation!" I laughed. She laughed with me.

The smile fell off my face as soon as her back was turned.

Three days was probably an excessive amount of time to spend splashing around, but that was what the others insisted. Three days for VGCon was how long it would run, so three days for each of us. I'd tried to donate most of my time towards D.C., but AEGIS would have none of it. Frustrating and stupid waste of time, but it was what it was. As long as she was out here, she wouldn't get worse, I just hoped three days was enough for her to spend with Athan at the end.

Never mind that if we just went to VGCon first, we had six days. Why'd Chiho have to be so freakin' accommodating.

Our hotel was right across from Paradise Isles, a nice place, for how much of a crappy tourist trap this was, and we swung by to drop off our stuff and quickly change. There was the daunting prospect of wearing a swimsuit and also making it across the street in frigid 40° weather, and we each had our own strategy.

AEGIS just exuded heat, and if she needed to, turned up her thermostat, I assumed. She had no reason to wear anything to cross the street, save modesty.

Chiho went full mobile fortress again. Flip-flops and leg warmers, the ultimate combo for the beach-going tourist.

I just ran for it. It was a terrible decision, and I stood there, shivering and dancing at the stupid red light, but once we got inside, where it was as hot as a balmy summer day and Chiho was sweating as she stripped out of her layers, and then had to find a place to stash them, I felt vindicated.

AEGIS was keeping with the theme of dancing the skanky-sexy line, wearing a creamy yellow bikini that showed off all of her, but didn't have anything specifically provocative about it. It hung at her hips instead of being one of the more extreme models like were popular lately, which came almost all the way up to the ribcage to make a long narrow V to let men know exactly where to point their eyes. There was fabric all around instead of string, and the color matched her eyes, but also matched her skin tone closely enough to warrant a double take if you only just saw her.

Her figure was perfect and svelte though, and I had to hate her for that. If I could just dump myself into a new perfect body whenever I wanted...I'd eat a lot more donuts. I'd been gaining and losing weight like crazy, between drinking every day, never eating, and most recently, working 24/7 and my new coffee addiction. I'd been happy when I finally put on a few pounds, and then discovered they were all depressing flab. Still the same boobs and flat butt. Life wasn't fair.

Chiho, on the other hand, didn't seem to have reservations. I watched her strip her way from an inuit, right past normal decency, and straight into hooker territory. At least, I think so. Her tits were just so friggin' huge, and the fabric which held them up and smushed them together so small, I felt like my stare was the only thing holding it all together. She had a similarly-colored scrap of fabric down below, but my eyes couldn't make it that far.

"What the hell are these things!" I shouted, wrapping my arms around her playfully. She squealed and tried to fight me off while AEGIS watched us both with intense disinterest. "How did you get these through the airport? They are weapons of man destruction!"

"You are so mean!" she wailed. "You aren't even wearing a two piece, this isn't fair!"

I wasn't. I had nobody to impress. Dark blue one-piece for me. I realized my legs were whiter than I'd ever seen them before, and sorta hoped I could tan them some here, but that would also leave me with some horrible tan lines. I'd heard lots of people tan nude but…

I shook my head and got rid of that idea. I had nobody to impress. I'd dumped Subaru's stupid ass, and when he found pretty much the whole household hostile to him, still hadn't taken the hint and just holed up in his room instead of moving out.

Strangely, I found myself worried what Athan would think to see me pale. He and I, we'd always been athletic together. Would he be sad if I showed up white as Saga? He might blame himself, like he always did, and I didn't want that. I swallowed hard at the thought of laying in a tanning bed with nothing on. Did they have private rooms? Did people clean them every use?

"Liaaaaa," Chiho complained. I was still death gripping her rack.

Freaking flamingoes, I'd been spacing out again. I let her go with an impish laugh, and noticed AEGIS had escalated from disinterest to mild worry. I advanced on her next.

"Feeling left out?" I asked, waggling my fingers menacingly.

"Are you okay, Lia?" she asked. I stopped in my tracks.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're just...trying really hard. I want you to have a nice time."

"You've got me all wrong, sister," I said with a practiced grin. "Let's hit the waves, huh?"

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"Yes. Let's."

After Chiho finished packing an entire closet worth of coats and accessories into a tiny locker, we stepped into the main room, and could not help but to ooh and ahh. Splashing and laughter echoed off the enormous translucent ceiling, they grey of outside blasted away by the huge light ball in the top-center of the dome, like a second sun.

Everywhere you looked, there was water in one form or another: a sunny beach with waves lapping at the shore, waterfalls careening lazily into what looked like a tropical rain forest, dotted with umbrellas, water slides emptying into large pools where tiny people bobbed on the surface in the distance. Near us, some guys were standing around a pool only the size of a car, which had water feeding into it in such a way that there was a wave perpetually cresting and crashing, and one such dude was on a surfboard, shooting the eternal curl.

I might have gotten that last phrase from the same Museum Chiho had robbed.

The smell of water and chlorine made my toes curl. It had been such a long time. This was for AEGIS, I reminded myself, but we were here for three days anyway, right?

"Well, we're here," said AEGIS looking around. "What do we hit first?"

"Oh, I don't care, whatever you guys like," I said, watching a guy scream his way down a waterslide. Chiho followed my gaze.

"Oh no. Not in this thing," she said. I giggled mischievously.

"Why am I doing this again?" she shrieked from in front of me, eying the narrow tube dropping down dozens of feet.

"Because it's FUN!" I yelled back as she clambered into the tube, anxiously. "Keep your arms and legs crossed!"

"My arms and legs are going to be holding onto this thing!" she yelled back at me. The light for her lane turned green but she didn't move.

"It's your turn! Go!" I shouted, laughing.

"This is insane! Why would anyone ever want to do this!"

"Please do not hold up the line. When your light turns green, you may proceed on the ride," said a friendly, authoritative male voice from the tube.

"Don't hold up the line!" I shouted, grinning.

"No! No! NO!" wailed Chiho. I laughed and piled in behind her, smushing myself up against her back and edging the two of us towards the black maw of the tube.

"DON'T FORGET TO CLENCH!" I laughed.

"LIA I HATE YOOOOUU--"

It was too late for her. She screamed and I laughed as we shot down the tube, flashes of the outside flickering above us like a strobe lamp, while the tube twisted and turned and the water carried us ever faster, ever downward. And then, as fast as it began, the world opened up around us, like the light had swallowed us, and we skidded and splashed to a stop in a pool, our two bodies entangled. Me still laughing while she shrieked and clutched her bikini to her chest, loose strings flying everywhere.

I was still laughing as she lurked underwater and got her outfit back in decent shape. "You are so mean," she said behind half a blush that went all the way down her neck.

"I'm an evil Exhuman terrorist, remember?" I laughed, and mine was an evil laugh. She splashed me. I splashed her back. AEGIS jumped in the pool next to us with a boom, a shockwave, and a freaking mushroom cloud of water.

She also high-tailed it to the shallow end before a lifeguard dragged her out for walking across the bottom like she was on the moon. Girl needed to lose weight, damn.

I did some laps and left Chiho to relax and float, she didn't even need a floatie, that lucky ho.

Man, I missed water. Swimming just felt good. The only reason I wasn't on the swim team was because Mom and Dad said we only got to choose one sport and had to stick with it. True to their name, the Black Sharks were kickass in the water.

It was like I was back in middle school. Splashing and playing like a dolphin, coming up to the surface and looking for my friends to laugh or tickle. The water was like a warm hug, I felt like every part of me was being stretched and kneaded, like my muscles would be long and lean when I got out.

There were probably another dozen pools at the place, but I just swam in this one. Lazily, back and forth, backstroke, front crawl, freestyle, dolphin kicking my way across the whole pool, until my arms and legs and abs were completely sore. It was a pain I had missed. I did one more lap and then slithered out of the pool and baked on the hot concrete.

"Having fun?"

I looked up and saw the underside of AEGIS' boobs, backlit against the fake sun. There looked like a lot more of them from this angle. I wondered if mine would look that good.

"So much fun." I crawled into a wooden lounge chair under an umbrella and she stretched luxuriously next to me and pulled out her mobile from where it stuck up out of the top of her bikini. I wondered if she had a magnet or something holding it there, or she just had more confidence in her boobs than I did.

"Mobile, huh?" I said, feeling the motion of water under me even though I was on land.

"Gonna give me crap for being on it on vacation? I'm just spending my APs."

"What?"

"Daily action points. You get so many actions in a day, and it's better to spend them instead of letting them pile up."

"Oh, your game." There was a definite part of me that scorned her for playing games on her mobile when there was all this around us.

"Not...playing in your head?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm trying to quit. Makes me look like a spaced-out idiot." She shot me a pointed grin.

"Not...working?" I pushed it.

"I'm not supposed to be," she said, putting the phone down. "Wasn't that the whole point of dragging me out here? Taking a break and seeing Athan?"

"Yeah. But I know it's easy for you to get into your work, and for you to multitask."

I was trying to sound casual, but it felt like I was pushing her towards working somehow, which was exactly what I didn't want her doing.

"I uh. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you freaking out. Trying to cut back on that too."

"Oh, really?" I said, with as much disinterest as I could squeeze into my excitement.

"Yeah. I noticed...noticed I was never there with you guys while I was with you. Always chasing down rows in databases or sending a cam-drone into some secure locker in Alaska. I only originally built this body because I wanted to be human," she said, running her hands down herself. Some boys walking by definitely seemed to appreciate her gesture, so she flipped them a different one. "Only, the more I became this, the less human I was. Like I was deleveling instead of gaining XP. I don't know if I'm making any sense."

"Oh my god. Minus that last super hugely nerdy thing, I was so scared. I thought the same exact thing."

"You saw that?"

"Yeah. I was so worried for you, I thought you were going the same direction as when you turned off your emotions, was worried one day you'd just break out Skyweb and shoot down everyone you didn't like. You got really scary, AEGIS, and that's why I wanted to drag you out here on this pretend vacation and force you to reconnect with Athan."

I sat up and wrung out my hair. It was dryer that way, but in no way better looking. Stupid curly hair. "I think, felt like, he was the only thing which could keep you wanting to be human."

AEGIS leaned back and stared at the underside of the umbrella.

"On one hand, wow. I didn't know you paid that much attention to me, or did all this because of me. I'm like, kind of flattered. You always just seem so happy and worry-free, it drives me crazy sometimes, and when you're not like that, you're 100% into whatever you're doing like if you stop, you'll die, and that drives me absolutely crazy."

"But on the other hand," she rolled on her side to face me. "It's pretty messed up that you think Athan's the only thing keeping me human. I mean, I'm here cutting off my access to the 'net by choice, using my mobile like a normal person because I want to be one. It's kind of fucked that you'd assume what's between my legs is the most important part of being human to me."

"Hey, I never said that," I said. "I wasn't thinking of the wet squishies between your legs, but the ones between your ears, dummy."

"Sure, like it's my brain that likes your brother," she giggled.

"Yeah, well, I don't want to hear about any other organs doing it. I mean...liking him," I stammered. "Anyway, I'm just so glad to hear we're on the same page on this. You really had me super scared there for a while."

"I don't get it," she said, rolling back towards the sky. "Why didn't you just say something?"

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings or worry you, I guess."

"As you sat there with hurt feelings and tons of worry yourself? Typical freaking Ashton."

I laughed. But only because I couldn't argue.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while before helping a panicked, apologetic Chiho turn down some guys she'd accidentally led on, and the two of us sat in a little eating area while she got us...meaning me...food as a thank-you.

"Hey, Lia?" AEGIS said, keeping an eye on Chiho as she jiggled dangerously around some more guys.

"Yo?"

"Thanks for looking out for me."

"No problem, dude. That's what friends are for."

I said it. I meant it. But Saga's shadow still loomed over me. Just how could I pretend to be a good friend to anyone?

"Lia?"

"Yo, again?"

"Since we're not worrying about shit now...let's...let's have a real vacation."

"Yeah, of course."

"No, I mean it. I mean you."

"Me?" I laughed. Her glare snapped to me faster than I'd ever seen her move.

"Yes, you. I know this vacation was all your plan to make me feel better, but you also seriously need one. Don't even think about sneaking around at night doing work or only pretending to have fun for our benefit."

Damn. The double-shot through the heart. Got me right on both counts.

"I wouldn't dream of it," I smiled.

"Yeah you would. Don't give me your fake bullcrap now. We're friends, and looking out for each other is what friends are for. I think I heard that before somewhere. So you cut the crap or I will revoke your 'net privileges."

"You can't do that!"

"Oh, can't I?" she said, yellow starburst eyes glaring down at me, imperiously. In those eyes, I saw the same terrifying AEGIS of my nightmares.

I had nothing. I really had nothing. There wasn't anything I could say or do that wouldn't just sound like I was trying to weasel my way into something bad for myself, which...it would be.

"Can I have an hour a night to keep Black Shark alive?"

"Sure. But only because I love you."

"Love you too, AEGIS. Even if you're such a butt."

"And I love the both of you!" Chiho said, with a tray of burgers and fries, sitting opposite us. A couple of the men who had followed her thus far seemed put out by her sitting with two other girls. At least one looked even more intrigued. Freaking pigs.

Devoid of beverages, I picked up a fry, dipped it in ketchup, and held it aloft.

"I would like to propose a toast!" I said. The girls picked up their own fries and followed suit.

"To a real vacation!" I said.

"To a real vacation," they echoed. AEGIS force-fed me her fry as I tried to eat mine, and Chiho was stuck laughing as the fry-feeding battle escalated.

Everything was okay in the world, this way, for now, I thought, laughing through a mouthful of fries like a chipmunk. With friends like these, even with all the crud in this world, maybe we could make it.

To a real vacation. To Athan.