BGC: Life's Prices
By Kain the Seeker (Aka Andrew Graham, Kaintskr@aol.com)



October 15th,2036

Mackie thrashed around in his bed, his head ringing with pain, and finally
got free of the sheets. The room swam in and out of focus as he reached
around for the bottle. It was just out of reach and he fell to the floor with
a dull thud. He picked up the bottle. It was empty. There would be more in
the den, he told to himself. Half crawling, half walking, he made it to the
door. On his hands and knees he pushed through the door and staggered down
the hall only to fall short of the den. Something made him look up. A bottle
swam into focus.


"Is this what you are looking for?" a voice asked. Linna.

"Thanks". Mackie reached for the bottle only to have it snatched back at
the last second. Linna threw it across the room and grabbed his wrist in
a lock. She pushed him across the room roughly, and grabbed him just as he
started to fall. Another shove sent him reeling across the room and into
the pool. He landed in the pool and went under with a loud splash. Rough
hands pulled him up by his shirt. Linna scowled at him as she shook him
roughly.

"Why take the slow way out Mackie? How about just finishing it real quick
right here?" She shoved him under and held him down for several seconds
before bringing him back up. "Ready to die? " Mackie croaked incoherently as
she shook him violently, before throwing him onto the side of the pool. He
threw up, then fell unconscious.

Linna looked at him and sighed. The thing of it was that she had simular
desires, ever since the last job she had wanted to wash the screams and blood
away with a bottle. She sat down by the younger Stingray and pulled him into
her lap. She wiped off his face- even passed out his pain showed clear. Tears
blurred her sight as she pulled him close. "I miss her too, Mackie, but we
got to keep going. She would have wanted it that way."


Leon lounged by the gateway and kept an eye open for his target. The flight
from LA arrived on time and he spotted her as she debarked with the rest
of the first class passengers. Her smooth stride and grace jived with the
Saber he was looking for. He fell into step beside her as she walked by.

"I need to talk to you."

She looked at him over her glasses. "What can I do for you, Detective
McNichol?"

They both knew what he was there for, but they had to play the game through
first. Or so the woman thought; Leon was past that. It had been two long
months and he was tired of butting heads at every turn. "Look, Doctor
Stingray, we both know why I am here." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled
her to a halt in the middle of the terminal. "Is she dead?"

Sylia Stingray looked into the eyes of the detective, and found that she
couldn't lie to him. Not about this. " I will be home tonight. Come by and
I'll tell the whole story." She pulled free of his grasp and disappeared
into the crowd. Leon watched her go, and didn't even bother to follow. Years
of investigative work taught Leon how to read people, and what he saw in
the retreating woman was very surprising from he had read on her. She was
running from something, and that wasn't what he had expected of Sylia
Stingray.


Priss stumbled out of the bar and tripped over a knocked trash can. She
tumbled clumsily to the ground cursing. She sat up and picked up her bag. The
bottle fell through the soggy paper and shattered on the concrete. "Shit!",
she screamed in rage at her luck. She needed that bottle really bad and now
she would have to go buy another one before she went home. The Dream would
come tonight, she could feel it. Not that it wasn't hard; it had been
haunting her most nights for the last two months. She struggled to her feet
and staggered down the alley. _Should have been me. Why does everyone that I
care for die_, she asked herself as she ambled into the night.


Leon pushed the intercom button and opened the door as it was buzzed open.
He took the elevator up and entered the penthouse. Sylia was sitting at a
table by the pool with a bottle of wine beside her. She motioned for him
to take a seat. "Would you like a drink?"

He sat and waved aside the offered glass. "What I want to know... is she
dead? "

"Yes, she is." Sylia looked away, guiltily, and sat there looking out at
the city.

"She was a Knight Saber wasn't she? You were the one were we called
Swordsman. It took me a while to figure it out, but then I wasn't really
looking to figure out who the others were after I discovered Priss' identity.
I should have figured it out sometime ago, she was always hanging out with
Priss, after all." He looked at her, and saw again the guilt and sadness that
she struggled to hide from the world. "The guilt is eating you alive, Sylia.
Tell me how it happened." He took her hand and looked into her terrified
eyes.

She took a deep breath and stood up. "I think you deserve to that. Come on,
I will show you how it all happened. From the beginning."

-August 12th, 2036
Sylia looked at her team, as the display finished up. The others looked
nervous and eager at the same time. _Pre-mission jitters_ she told herself as
she watched them go through their motions, just like the butterflies in her
own stomach.

Priss was lounging back with her feet up. Cool and collected, Sylia envied
the quality in her. Linna talking about her new boyfriend while Nene sat
in Mackie's lap listening. Her brother and Nene had hit it off quite well
in the last two years, and Sylia knew that before long she would be adding
Nene to her family in a very official way. Her brother had grown up well,
and she was sure that her parents would be proud of him. Linna and Priss
had done quite well in the last year or so, and from what she had been
hearing they would be getting the recognition that they wanted, and soon. She
had known that the day would come when the Knights would go their separate
ways.

This would most likely be the last mission that the whole team participated
in. Surprisingly, she wasn't too upset. The Knights had become her family
in many ways and she wasn't really ready to risk them in the feud with Genom
any more. She watched as Priss and Linna teased Nene and Mackie. It was time
to move to a new battle plan. She cleared her throat loudly, and broke the
mood. "Time to move out folks."

Sylia watched as the team pulled on their suits. Nene had gone into the
complex an hour before, with her new suit's enhanced camouflage suite and ECM
she should be close to getting ready. She sat by her brother at the front of
the plane. "Where is she?"

"She should be in place soon." Mackie glanced at the computer screen by his
knee. "Everything is still green."

The radio hissed loudly for a second, then Nene's voice came in loud and
clear. "This is Nene. I'm in."

Sylia picked up the microphone and replied. "We're on our way in." She put
down the mike and looked at Mackie with a smile. "This won't take long."
She stepped into her Motorslave and coasted out into the moonless night.

Priss rolled backwards and came up shooting. The boomer took several of the
hits to it's chest and went down. Linna flipped over hers, slamming her fist
as she went. It's head exploded as the knucklebomber detonated on impact.
"Mackie where the hell are you?" Priss screamed as she shot off a burst of
rounds towards the two boomers that landed just in front of her.

"I'm coming in now," came the reply as the Knightwing dropped into the
courtyard with it's wing pods unloading on the boomers. She and Linna grabbed
Sylia and all but carried her into the bay. She had taken a big hit to her
suit and favoured her right arm and leg. Mackie lifted off as soon as they
got in. Nene's alternate route was to leave by the roof. She came through the
rooftop door at full speed. "Nene, move your ass!", Linna yelled over the
radio. Suit's sensors showed a squad of boomers right on her tail. 20 yards
to go before they could grab her and leave.

"Coming moth......", Nene started, but only to be cut off by a blast to the
back. Everyone in the jet screamed as the she dropped to the ground with
a smoking hole in the back of her suit.

"Speak to me Nene," Priss said. "Tell me where you are so we can come and
get you."

Seconds passed before the radio hissed and Nene replied. "Forget it Priss,
I've got a hole in my suit from back to front and.." a terrible hacking sound
interrupted her for a second before she continued."Leave me."

The finality of it shocked everyone in the plane. Priss ran into the back
of the plane and was heading for the hatch. "No! I won't do it." The rocker
screamed as she got ready to leap into the battle once more, only to be
knocked backwards into the plane as the front of the building exploded and
the blast knocked the plane away from the landing zone. Priss screamed in
anger and rage as she sat up, "What the hell are you doing, Nene?" There
wasn't a place to land now.

"Saving your ass for a change," Nene replied calmly, but her voice started
to break as she continued, "Mackie, I love you.... and I'm sorry." Then the
radio cut off. The plane rocked violently as Mackie switched to autopilot
and ran into the bay for his suit. Sylia grabbed for him and missed. "Linna,
Priss stop him!" Linna grabbed Mackie and slammed him to the floor. Priss
jumped on him and help hold him down.

"Let me go, damnit! She going to die if I don't ...."

Priss cut him off angrily, tears in her eyes. "Mackie, she's already dead."

"NO!", he howled and tried to wriggle out from under the two women. The
building erupted into a cloud of flame and smoke and slowly fell into itself.
"NENE!"

October 15th, 2036
Sylia set the glass down with a shaky hand as the playback finished, and
looked over at Leon. Tears ran from her eyes as she spoke. "Now, you know
the whole story."

"How's Mackie handling it?" Leon had known the younger Stingray for over
a year from meeting him when he came to get Nene for a date.

"Not well at all. He's taking her death very hard, and I think that he blames
me for it."

"Do you think it's your fault?"

Sylia looked away, and Leon already knew what she thought. "No... Yes." she
whispered, " I was the one that sent her into that building, but she was
the only one of the team that was capable of breaking the computer security
system. I didn't make the call lightly, and she knew the risks." Leon
listened to the woman as she tried to convince herself that she had done the
right thing. Still, the woman was sure that she had killed Nene. 
She looked up at Leon. "I need to ask something of you, Leon."

"What?"

Sylia sat down and started to explain the situation and what she needed to
do.


Mackie woke up with a throbbing headache, a result of his drinking binge
and the sedatives that Linna had given him. She was asleep in a nearby chair,
apparently she had spent the day watching over him. He pulled a comforter off
the bed and tucked it around her, and the walked quietly out of the room. He
was tired of the pain. Linna was right, he had to move on with his life.

_It 's just so hard_he kept thinking about Nene and his loss. He walked
up to the terminal in the den and typed in a query. He read the screen for
a few seconds, then quickly walked to the elevator and rode it down to the
workshop in the sub-basement.

The elevator opened into the staging area. He smelled the oily smoke before
he entered the storage area. What he saw made him stop short. The three
remaining Hardsuits and the Motorslaves were all in their bays- smoke boiling
out of them. A quick check on the monitors showed that the charging systems
had been over-amped and the resulting powerload was too much for the
sensitive electronics and motive systems.

Mackie felt like crying. Six years of his life had just been destroyed. What
was worse was that the Knight Sabers were finally done for. It would take
a year or more to rebuild and millions in money to do it.

He walked into the lab beyond. The two new testframes in the center of the
room were in a simular state. His sister sat in a chair in the center of
the room watching countless hours of work burn itself out. He stopped at
the door and looked at her. "Why'd you do it sis?"

Long seconds passed before she replied. "I can't lose any more of my family
Mackie. I just can't do it any more." She turned around to face him. "I won't
sacrifice anyone else in my war with Genom. I won't let them take anymore of
my family from me." Tears flowed down her face, and Mackie finally understood
what Nene's death had meant to her. She was terrified that she was becoming
as cold as those that she had fought. He wrapped his arms and held her as she
cried. All his life, Sylia had been there for him. She had been his mother
and father, even before his father's murder. She had taught him all he knew
in engineering and helped him grow up. She had held him when he had
nightmares and told him what to say and do when his feeling sfor Nene had
finally made sense. Now it was his turn to give comfort as she cried in his
arms. It was the least he could do.


October 17th, 2036

The captain looked up from the papers, tears showing from his eyes. "It's
really her?"

"Yes, the bridge collapsed during a running battle with a boomer about two
months ago," Leon replied. "Apparently she was taking cover on the way to
work when a blast shattered the bridge supports. Death was instantaneous.
The repair crew were a little behind schedule and they only reported finding
the bike and her body last night." Leon paused. _First time I've ever
seen him speechless,_the captain mused. "Ah- I was wondering, sir...."

"What?"

"Would you mind if I notified the girl's family for the department? She was
a friend."

The captain frowned. Technically he was supposed to do it, but Leon had done
it before and the captain really didn't like that part of the job. He nodded
and waved the detective out of the office. Sergeant Romanova was a well-liked
part of the department, and maybe it would help Leon get over her death if he
made the notification to the parents. He hoped that it would give Leon the
time he needed to let her go. He watched the detective walk out of the office
and waited till the young man had walked out of the wardroom before picking
up the phone and dialling a number. "Yes, is Lisa Vanette there? This is her
uncle Todo, I have to talk her if she is available. Yes, I will hold."

Leon stepped out of the elevator and walked into the parking garage. He
walked past the Road Chaser that was his assigned vehicle and continued over
the visitor section. He opened the door of the antique Mercedes and slid into
the passenger seat. Sylia looked over at him, and waited for him to speak.

It had been two hard days for both of them. She had gotten a body that fit
closely to Nene's and in the proper state of decomposition. Leon had provided
the site, and she had hacked into the proper sites to ensure that the girl's
medical data and Nene's meshed.

"I appreciate you letting me come along Leon." She looked at him. "This
really means a lot to me."

"Yeah, well you were just as involved in her life as I was." _Maybe
more,_ he thought bitterly to himself.

Sylia laid her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. "I considered
you for the Knights, Leon. You were simply too visible a figure in the ADP
to be recruited. I picked Nene because she was a skilled programmer and her
job made her almost invisible." She started the car, and pulled out of the
parking space.


Lisa sat at her desk for almost a minute before she realised that her uncle
was still on the line. She took a ragged breath in and answered his question.

"Yes, uncle. I'm fine, just a little surprised. Nene was a good friend, I
wish that we had more time to see each other. Yes, I will be there if I can.
I have to go now, but I promise to keep in touch. Bye." She put down the
receiver and got up from her desk. She muttered something to her editor as
she walked out of the newsroom and headed out onto the roof.

She looked out into the night and tried to push the face of the intense young
lady that she had know out of her mind. And failed. Tears ran down her face
as she pulled out the picture that she had kept concealed on her for the last
three years. It was only one of two in existence and she made sure that no
one else had ever seen it. With it she could have broken the Knight Sabers
and revealed their secrets to the world, but in the end she had given the
other copy and disc with the original to Nene. After all she owed Nene her
life, and after much soul searching had come to the decision that sometimes
the truth should be concealed. If nothing else than to protect those who had
to have some amount of anonymity. She had gotten a part time job on the
Metro/Crime desks from the power of her article on the assault on the AD
Police tower, and from what her editor told her she would have a full
internship after she graduated from college in a few years. She had always
meant to thank Nene for saving her life, but the right moment had never come
up. Now she would never get the chance. She put the picture back into it's
hiding place and looked at the skyline. _It's so damn unfair, I never got to
tell her how I felt._

"Goodbye Nene-chan," she said as the tears streamed from her eyes.


Leon sat and watched as Sylia held the sobbing woman in her arms. Nene's
mother had not taken the news well, and had fallen apart almost as soon as
he had started to tell her. Nene had been the only child of two
professionals. She had run away from home when she was a teenager because
they had not given her a second of privacy, but over the last year she had
contacted them and tried to work towards a reconciliation. According to
Sylia, she was planning to bring Mackie by the week after the accident and
spend the afternoon with them.

Leon sighed as he continued with the story on Nene's death. He hated lying
to them, but what else could he do? At least this way, they had a body to
bury.

Leon slid the chair back in the car. Sylia started the engine and pulled
out of the complex's parking garage. Long minutes passed in silence as she
drove back to the AD Police plaza. It was only as they pulled up to the
entrance did she speak.

"It never gets easier, does it?"

"What- telling the family, or living with your mistakes?" Leon asked as he
looked at her. They were much alike in many ways, willing to die but not
to sacrifice others. He shook his head grimly as he opened the door. "No,
and if it does there is something wrong with you."


October 25th,2036

It was a quiet rainy day. _More than a little appropriate to the
occasion,_ Sylia thought. The body was lowered into the ground and the
appropiate words were said over it. Linna and Mackie stood close by as she
dropped a handful of moist dirt into the grave. _I'm sorry that it
ended this way Nene._.Priss leaned against Leon looking miserable; no
doubt she blamed herself for this. The singer was as hard on herself as
Sylia, and Leon had told Sylia that she was drinking hard now. _It's all
falling apart,_ she told herself as she gave her condolences and left. Priss
and Leon left together. He had taken it upon himself to spend as much time
as she would allow him. Sylia hoped that having someone to confide in would
help her through the quilt. Mackie performed the same role with her, though
she still felt the guilt it wasn't as bad. _Maybe, one day I will
even be able to stop looking in the mirror and seeing a killer in the
reflection._

December 29th,2039

Linna let Mackie seat her and take a seat beside her. She took the
opportunity to look the younger man over. She had know him for almost 10
years and they had grown close in the last few. He had grown up from the
hormone crazy peeping tom to a good man. After a lightning trip through
college- he did possess the legendary Stingray genius- Mackie had retreated
into a quiet research partnership with his sister and the occasional class
that he taught at the university.

He and Linna had become friends in the time that she had spent with him after
Nene's death, and something more had grown up between them. Somewhere down
the line, she came to the realisation that she loved him, and he loved her.
She had been in Sydney doing a dance performance with Vision on her world
tour and Mackie had flown out to meet her. That night, under the stars on a
beach overlooking the Pacific, they had confessed their feelings to each
other. She smiled at him across the table, he was nervous and apparently was
trying to say something. From long experience, she knew it was best to wait
and let him work it out himself. Finally, he gave up trying to say the words
and pulled a small box from his jacket and held it open to her. The ring's
diamonds glittered in the subdued lighting of the restaurant. She was stunned
for seconds as the realisation of what it meant dawned on her.

"Yes, oh god, yes." She said through tears as he slid the ring on her finger.


December 24, 2041 (Paris, European Union)

She spun and twisted the decending blade out of the way, before she snapped
out a quick double slash to his adomen. _Have to finish this quick, I'm
bleeding like a stuck pig,_she grimly noted. Owen staggered backward,
using a hand to hold his stomach in. _At least I won't have to worry about
anymore of those two-handed smashes._

She pushed forward and refused to let him recover. _Always take the space
that an enemy yeilds,_ Warren's voice wispered to her, _use it to your
advantage._ Owen's style was all strength and power, she had to rely on
speed and skill. Closing the distance denied him the edge. She slashed out
and cut his legs out from under him. _It's over now_. She raised the
sword and Owen looked up at her.

"Damn you, Romanova.", he growled as he struggled to rise, "It can't end
like this!", he screamed to the sky. "I can't loose to a stripling like you!"

"Yes, it can Owen," Nene said as she brought the sword down and his head
fell to the ground. She looked down at the fallen immortal and drew in
a shaking breath, the wind was already picking up. _There can be only
one_, Warren's voice whisphered through her mind as the first strike
of the Quickening engulfed her. It was a cold confort to know that.