“What ... what do you mean?” stammered Wave. “Shutting you down? So you can’t be heard on ComNet anymore?”

“No,” Aki replied in a faint voice that was interrupted by cracklings and accompanied by a barely perceptible hiss. “I have seen it ... seen the state my body is in.”

“But ...”

“I know what Kanter intends to do with me. I don’t want it. That’s exactly why I tried to kill myself.”

A cold shiver ran down her spine as she let the words sink in. His serious tone left no doubt. He meant it. Still, she launched a feeble attempt to change his mind.

“There’s still so much I need to ask you, that I want to know about you ...”

“Wave, I’ve enjoyed our time together, believe me. And you’re right. There could have been so much more ... should have, after everything we’ve been through.” His voice was soft, but her heart just wanted to tear apart when she heard it. Then he continued, more serious and harder. “But this is the reality. My shattered body and my fading mind, that’s all that is left. Not a happy ending, I know. It’s been a fast-paced adventure but it ends here. I’m sorry, but please shut me down.”

Wave’s heart grew tight as she heard this, and the black dots now filled her field of vision for good. She gasped, blood pulsed in her ears, and cold sweat stood on her forehead. She fought the faintness. The faintness that coldly tightened its grip around her body, and the one she felt towards Aki’s wish.

Yes, just a moment ago she had accepted that Aki was gone and that she too would die, that was true. But now, now everything had changed, hadn’t it?

“There must be a way,” she whispered, through the black mist that surrounded her. “We’ll steal a battery, and then Hammer will carry the cooling chamber out.”

“And after that? You’ll still have to freeze me. Will you defrost me if they find a way to give me a new body fifty years from now? Will you even remember me in five?” Aki sounded bitter.

“That’s unfair,” Wave defended herself. “I’ve gone this far, I won’t give up if it takes five years, not even if it’s fifty.”

Wave felt light and wiped her forehead with a shaky hand. Her fingers were numb and she felt as if a stranger was wiping her sweat away.

“But,” she continued, struggling for every word she spoke, losing a few. “... another way. Kanter’s secret lab ... if there’s a way to transfer you to a machine here, I’m sure there’s a way to give you new body parts as well.”

“Is everything alright with you, Wave?” asked Aki.

“No ... black and cold ... I’m struggling ...”

The professor cleared his throat. “If I may say something on the subject. I admire your newfound ruthlessness, Ms. Nethuf.” His voice came from somewhere far away. “Wanting to cannibalize another human being as a donor and ...”

“No,” she muttered, “new body parts. Is that possible?”

“We had a research program about this field once, but it was shut down decades ago. For ethical reasons.”

“Ethical reasons ...” Wave laughed, and the laughter caused new pain. “Damn ... no other option?”

“Well, we could just continue on the planned path and transfer Aki to our system now that he’s responding again. What do you think?”

Was it hopeless? She had done what she could do. It hurt her so much to let him go and she was so sorry.

Should she take the professor’s offer? Was she going to end up leaving Aki to Kanter after all, so she could keep hearing his voice and keep talking to him?

No! If she left him to Kanter, ignoring his will, only looking to ease her own pain, she would become a bigger monster by her own actions than her abilities ever could have made her.

Could she do it, then? Shut down the machine that kept him alive? She would end his life, just like that. There would be no way back. In the outside world, it had happened before that she had put animals out of their misery when they had run into amateurish traps set by inexperienced hunters. But this was different. You could not compare those two things.

But it was his wish. He had repeated it when she had asked. And she had no right to decide differently for him just because it didn’t suit her or broke her heart. A tear rolled down her cheek, mixing with sweat on the way. Their journey came to an end here. A bitter ending and not a sweet one like she had hoped for.

Wave raised her arm to pull herself up by the cooling chamber, but it hung where it was, clinging to her rebelliously, putting up the resistance her mind couldn’t.

“I can’t shut you down, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t do this to me, Wave, please.”

“... can barely move ... someone else has to ...”

Wave felt her hand being opened. The one she held the gun in.

“Hey, get your hands off her!” Mother’s rasping voice cut through the darkness. Wave heard the professor draw in a sharp breath, then a clang. The gun that fell to the ground? “By the Citadel, you’ll kill me with your theatrics.” Mother mouthed a disapproving snarl. “Little one, listen to me,” she hissed, “If you want to save Aki’s spirit, soul, or whatever it is, at any cost, I’ll introduce you to someone who can help you. Someone who doesn’t belong to Kanter.”

What did that mean? Was there a way after all?

“Not ... my decision ... Aki?”

There was silence. Had Aki disappeared again? Had she lost consciousness herself and simply didn’t realize?

But then he answered.

“Not at any price. But I’ll listen to it. Let’s listen to it together, Wave.” Hope resonated in his voice. No, if there was a chance Kanter had no part in, one that didn’t enslave him to eternity, Aki didn’t want to die as well, as it seemed. At least, that’s what Wave hoped for.

“Good morning Mrs. N,” a voice that sounded familiar to Wave rang out from her lens. This manner of greeting? It was the voice from the Arena mission by which they had originally intended to enter this lab.

“What? You?” To the professor, the voice had to sound familiar as well.

“I’m Ai Akimoto, and I’m going to make you a one-time offer because you saved me and my company from a disaster of unimaginable magnitude with your mission.”

“Yes?” was all Wave could say. It took so much strength to stay conscious.

“Since I am now approaching an age when one must deal with one’s own nearing death, I have made the decision not to leave this world for an indefinite time yet. Instead, I plan to spend eternity, or until I tire of it, with my daughter. To that end, I have created a robotic prototype that is so close to a human that it is indistinguishable from the original so that I can eventually transfer my mind to it. I know it can be done because there has already been a success in this field. The fact that even those amateurs at Kanter wanted to try something similar speaks for itself.”

The professor mumbled an imprecation.

“I am ready to part with this prototype. With some remodeling, which is possible even after transferring Mr. Aki’s mind, no one will be able to distinguish him from his real body. Well, the few at least who have ever seen his real face.”

The professor laughed. “What difference does that make for Aki’s fate? From one corporation to the next? Ms. Nethuf, if you think Akimoto is better than Kanter, you are mistaken!”

The professor was right. It sounded too easy. Even if it was out of gratitude for clearing up the robot uprisings, there would always remain this feeling of dependence.

“No,” Wave breathed. “I refuse.”

“No?” asked Ai. “You’re going to turn down this generous gift?”

“Not as a gift ... I’ll buy the prototype.”

Wave had never wanted to accept her parents’ money, nor her inheritance of their power. But now she could use it for something that would benefit someone else, not her alone. She could use it to save Aki’s life. At least his very existence.

“You can’t possibly afford that.”

“Fearless, you have access to everything. Show ...” What Wave would say now was a shot in the dark, for a suspicion had just occurred to her. It was certainly no coincidence that Mother, as a hacker, had such a good connection with someone like Ai Akimoto. The statement that Ai wanted to spend eternity with her daughter had caught her attention. This or Wave’s condition, so close to unconsciousness, had made her see things that weren’t there. “Why don’t you show your ... mother what it looks like in my extra account.”

“Wow,” Fearless said. “She’s smart. Sure, take a look at her account, Mother.”

“Oh,” was Ai’s comment on what she probably just saw. “I think a fraction of that will do.”

“Aki, shall we dare it?”

“You don’t have to do this for me.”

Wave sighed. “I want to. I just don’t want to force you. It’s your life. The final decision is yours.”

The pause that followed seemed to drag on forever. Wave’s mind was on the verge of going into the void when Aki finally answered.

“Yeah, let’s give it a shot. A second chance, I didn’t think it was possible...”

Wave would have cheered if it had been possible. So she cheered only within her mind. Now she could give in to the urge and drift off into nothingness. It would all work out. At least for Aki, it would.

“Fearless,” Wave whispered. “... coordinate escape?”

“Sorry Wave, the next bunch of people who have something against our escape is already coming in.”

What, who else was coming? More security guards? Did Kanter have an inexhaustible source that kept spewing out more and more?

Orders were yelled far, far away. Footsteps that first approached her in a hurry, then moved away again, and then fell completely silent.

Finally, there was only a dark, black sea on which Wave floated, her eyes fixed on a starless sky. She had earned this. She had fought to find Aki and had saved him in the end. She had uncovered a damned conspiracy, and she hadn’t taken that knowledge to her grave. With Ai Akimoto, there was at least one person who knew. She had done it.

She had accomplished something.

And if she survived this day, there was more waiting for her. She would quit her job and then .... She let the thought fade away and surrendered completely to the silence that reigned within and surrounded her.

Had hours passed or days when the fog rolled in? Billowing, its pink arms grew over the surface of the water and thickened. It smelled like strawberry, and the taste burned in Wave’s throat. It stung. Above her, the mist coalesced into a face, framed in pink curls.

“She’s coming back!” the face spoke. “By the top of the Citadel, Wave, what were you thinking? Shit, forget that, I’m just glad you’re alive.”

Yeah, she knew that face, didn’t she? “Ember?”, Wave tried, “You still came to help me too?”

“Thanks to our mutual friend, Sergeant Lambert. Are you stupid to just walk in here without leaving me a message?”

“I tried to reach you, then I was already taken. Lambert, he’s alive?”

“Lambert’s a tough cookie. Got an anonymous stream sent to him, with your little adventure. He’s still in the MedCenter recovering from his gunshot wound, so he forwarded the whole thing to my pops.”

“And he left a note so you could show up here too?”

“No. He said this was my first assignment now and just dragged me along. Not that he really had to convince me.”

Ember’s face cleared, and so did the lab in the background, the black-uniformed Secs sealing everything off, and the Med standing behind Ember. He gave her a friendly nod.

By the Citadel, wasn’t that the one that had driven her home? Citadel City was probably a lot smaller than she thought. He had been right about them meeting again, after all.

“Ember, I’m sorry, we ignored your opinion and just stormed off and ...”

“Yeah, I could strangle you for that,” Ember said sternly. Then she sighed. “Still, you didn’t just solve one case, you even solved three that were somehow connected. If I didn’t know you were on bad terms with the Security Corps ... I’m sure they’d love to hire you.”

“Why do I keep hearing that today? Sorry, but I already have other plans.”

“Before you tackle those, please get some rest.” Ember gently touched her arm. “Come on, I’ll help you up and get you out of here.”

“Aki?”

“Don’t worry, we overheard everything and we know. Nothing will happen to him.”

“Thanks.”

Wave grabbed Ember’s hand and let her help her to her feet. They were shaking, too weak to support her, and she fell into Ember’s arms.

“My legs aren’t too weak, believe me. I just wanted to hug you once more. Seems like forever that I’ve been able to do that.”

Ember chuckled and wrapped her arms tightly around Wave.

How could she seem so petite yet be so strong? And smell so damn good like strawberry? Wave sucked in the scent, enjoying the comforting embrace and ...

“Don’t go back to sleep, Wave. I’m not carrying you all the way, how would that look?”

“Am I embarrassing you?”

“Half the people present will be my colleagues at some point, and if I carry you over the threshold, I’ll have an instant reputation as a ... womanizer.”

Wave laughed. “Oh, there’s nothing I’d rather do than jeopardize your reputation.”

“Funny. Watch out I’ll put your arm over my shoulder and prop you up.”

“Thanks, Ember. I was really afraid I was going to lose you after that stunt.”

“We are best friends after all. Now shut up and get over yourself.”

Ember broke away from the hug and instead turned under Wave’s arm so she could support her. Together they shuffled toward the stairs leading out of the lab.

This would have been the perfect moment to tell Ember about the whole adventure, but she already knew most of it through the stream. So Wave just enjoyed being able to lean on her friend and not having to be strong herself anymore.

Ngi appeared at her other side and grabbed the second arm. Thanks, Wave thought, that made the whole thing look even more dramatic than it was.

Mother was gone, at least Wave didn’t see her anywhere on her way out. Hammer 1.0 stood motionless next to the door, where she had last seen him. She hoped he was okay and that he wouldn’t lose his job for his efforts.

They reached the huge door and it was out into freedom. Back to the everyday life of the city that would change forever for Wave. An everyday life that, thanks to her actions today and what she planned to do in the future, would never be the same for others either.