//Sae: After Dark

Sae wasn't angry or hurt by the harsh words from Emily and her mother. Annoyed, perhaps, but nothing more. She had no intent of getting to know them better no matter how the meeting went. She knew, however, that Ahn was a different case entirely.

He stood facing the store's stone walls, his head lowered. She didn't need to look at his eyes to understand that he was hurt. It was nowhere near as bad as when she had killed Ava, but that wasn't important. What mattered was that he was hurt to begin with. He wouldn't be the same for the next few days or even weeks if she just let him stay like that. Ahn had a tendency to blame himself for things beyond his control, and would act like it was his own responsibility when anything went wrong.

"Ahn," Sae said. She didn't know what to say next, but she had to start somewhere.

"I'm fine," he lifted his head to reveal a broken smile. "It doesn't matter." He took a deep breath, appearing to remember something. His voice returned with more confidence. "We have a mission to do."

He sounded better with each sentence he spoke. Where was this resolve coming from? For someone who took things so hard, he was coming off as abnormally resilient. Sae didn't know what to think. On one hand, if he really was feeling the way he showed outwardly, it was a much smaller problem than she had originally thought. On the other, the issue had the potential to fester like a sore wound if he was trying to keep the pain inside, like he had with 4-AE's death.

Sae felt a pang of guilt with that thought. She was the one that had let that happen. She had known him for her entire life, and couldn't see how much it affected him.

She looked at him, a bit doubtful. "Are you really okay?"

Ahn sighed, letting his head fall slightly back down, then met Sae's eyes. "I will be." He grinned again, still sadly, but not much more so than usual.

Sae let it go, falling back into silence.

It was winter - the sun went down early, and would do so sometime in the next half hour. Sae and Ahn sat on a cement bench, having reviewed their plan one more time. Sae would enter through a side door after disabling the alarm, then wait for an opportune moment to quietly kill the pair of guards that were stationed outside of the fourth floor armory. From there, she would steal an EMP bomb and set it off near the center of the eight-story building, disabling both communication and the security system in one blow.

When she did this, Ahn would enter through a window on the same floor on the opposite side of the building, allowing them to quietly dispose of both sets of guards lining the ends of the hallway. They would go up two flights of stairs, grab the shoulder joint part that was uniquely fit to Ahn's custom shoulder size, and retreat. Ahn still wasn't operating at his optimal level, so he would take the side with less guards. If possible, they would avoid contact with guards after they dealt with those around the armory.

The armory was the most heavily defended room, and with good reason. Within were a copious amount of explosives, enough to take out an entire Sector in seconds. They weren't after the explosive power, though - the last thing they wanted was to make a bigger scene. An EMP bomb was perfect for making in and out with no evidence left behind, as androids couldn't leave behind DNA, the most reliable form of tracing their actions was with tracking devices or cameras. If those weren't functional, it would be nearly impossible to find the culprits.

Sae looked at the bright shades of orange and purple that illuminated the sky as the sun receded down the industrialized horizon. It was a sight that she had heard many describe as "beautiful". The wind blew softly through her hair, causing it to fly about like black silk curtains over an open window. The fading sunlight warmed her delicate face.

She didn't understand the concept of beauty. Sight confirmed that something was there. How could one thing be more appealing than another based upon how it was visually presented? What dictated the common perception of beauty? It made no sense.

She looked at Ahn, who was taking in the supposedly beautiful scene. His unkempt hair was becoming even more messy in the breeze, flowing gently across his melancholy face.

"Do you find this view 'beautiful'?" she asked him.

Ahn thought for a moment. "No," he decided. "There is very little that happens in this city that can be considered 'beautiful'."

His eyes drifted over the rooftops, loosely examining each of them as the sun finally disappeared behind them.

"This colorful sunset is nothing more than a lie." He drew a pistol in his one good arm. "We are perfect examples of that."

Sae crept up to a door on the left side of the building, waiting until the security camera turned away from her path to the stairway. She darted across the pavement, making it to the wall with more than enough time to climb the stairs without being detected.

She pressed her hand against the cold metal surface of the door, searching for traps or other similar security measures. There was an alarm, as she expected, as well as a motion-activated laser grid. These lasers were hot enough to cut through even Sae's tough construction.

She connected her mind to the holographic lockpad on the door. When she did this, it was as if she were drifting through a literal maze of flashing lights and lines of code. All she needed to do was find the proper combination of turns to get to the exit. Given how intelligent she was, this process took only ten seconds to break into top of the line automated lock systems.

She returned her consciousness to her own body. She felt confident doing this even in hostile territory; Ahn was watching her back with a sniper from a nearby rooftop. Even with one hand, his aim was unmatched.

She tried the door handle. It swung open with a metallic creak, leaving only the laser grid to be dealt with. She had to do this quickly, as if the door was left open for too long, a separate alarm would go off. The security, while not as strong as EDGE's, was still tight.

She took a rock out of her pocket, which she had found on the sidewalk earlier. She tossed the stone through the doorway, watching as a brilliant flash of red appeared in the shape of tightly knit squares, turning it into a small pile of ash.

Sae was prepared to deal with this. She stuck her right arm through one of the gaps in the grid, feeling the intense heat radiating from it as she got closer. She then proceeded through a series of contortionism that would make any human onlookers cringe at the thought of bending in such a severe manner, managing to slip through the hole, which was less than a square foot, not forgetting to reach back through and close the door behind her.

Carelessness would spell death in this situation.

She looked around the dimly lit hallway, quickly scanning for heat signatures. Fortunately, there were none that she needed to worry about on the first floor. The door she had chosen was adjacent to the stairs leading to the second story.

Her feet padded lightly against the hard surface of the stairs, being careful not to make any noise. There was a small corridor at the top, a few unguarded rooms on each side.

'Must not be a very important area,' Sae thought as she crept through the empty hallway.

The third floor had two sets of guards posted on either end. There was no way to sneak directly past them. The lights were on in this floor, further increasing the difficulty of approaching with stealth.

Sae scanned for electronics in the area, and upon finding what she was looking for, used a sharpened finger to cut a small hole in the wall. She grabbed the set of wires she was looking for, then yanked on them, pulling them out of their set place in the wall.

The lights all shut off at once, causing the guards to look around in a sudden panic. Even if there was a blackout, Void had more than one generator to provide a backup source of power. Something was clearly wrong.

Sae pulled another stone from her pocket, tossing it into one of the rooms about halfway down the hallway in the confusion. It landed with a loud crack, directing the guards' attention towards the point of impact.

Sae seized this opportunity to sprint into the center of the first group of guards, ejecting a finger into each of their skulls. They dropped to the ground without so much as a shout, the only sound being the squelching of her fingers retracting from their lifeless bodies.

The guards on the opposite end of the hallway were unable to see this happening; the hall was nearly pitch black. Sae waited, watching one of the guards approach, searching for the cause of the lights being shut off.

She crouched behind a plasma filament crate as the man approached, unaware of the fate that awaited him away from his group. His group, of course, would eventually meet the same end.

Sae listened as the sound of rubber against the tile floor approached, getting louder with each footstep, until it was less than a meter away. She flashed her hand out, sending the man's head to the ground with a thump.

The remaining guards were getting restless - their comrade hadn't returned for some time. Sae needed to move soon. If she rushed head-on, one of the guards might have time to throw a grenade before their inevitable death. She crept into a side room, then opened a window, vaulting effortlessly out, catching herself on a small ledge above the window.

Sae was over fifty feet in the air - not a particularly dangerous height to fall from for her, but the landing wouldn't be favorable. She quickly made her way horizontally across the side of the building until she was about to the end.

A muffled gunshot rang out, barely audible, followed by a crunching sound on the pavement below.

'He went to the window to investigate,' Ahn's voice explained.

Sae glanced at the man's broken figure on the sidewalk below, taking in the steaming hole the plasma shot left directly between his eyes. Ahn really was an incredible shot.

Sae finally reached the last window of the building. She lodged one of her fingers in the concrete above, using the carbon fiber thread as a rope as she swung through the window, shattering it inward. This time, the guards were able to yell in surprise. Their shouts were cut short by a storm of blades as Sae swung them around the hall. More bodies fell.

Sae made her way up the final set of stairs, looking in at the heavily guarded fourth floor. Even if she turned the lights off, it wouldn't make much of a difference. Most of these guards were augmented, and would be able to easily see through the darkness. Her only option here was speed.

She bolted to the armory door, pushing her way through a small squad of startled guards. She slammed the door behind her, blocking it off with a heavy crate next to her. A series of shouts came from the other side. She scanned the room, easily finding her target. She walked over to a small safe in the corner of the room, prying the thick seal off of its hinges.

A row of small blue orbs lay inside the safe. Class 3 EMP bombs. These had the capability to disable electronics within a one kilometer radius for thirty minutes, as well as delete all of the data in servers, though in a much smaller area of effect. The size of the effect was more than enough, however, to delete Void's security footage, as well as disable any form of outgoing or incoming communication.

She grabbed a bomb, pressed the activation switch, then casually kicked the armory door down, sending a group of guards flying back. She tossed the bomb into the center of the hall. A low rumble reverberated in the building as everything shut down. Sae felt a surge in her own body, but was otherwise unaffected by the explosion. Luckily, EDGE had taken the time to develop countermeasures for situations exactly like this so that the ANGELs could carry out their tasks without risk of getting disabled and captured.

The same could be said for the augmented guards in the hall, Sae realized, as some of them struggled back to their feet. She walked out of the armory calmly, looking down the dozen or so gun barrels pointed at her.

'Now,' she sent her thought out.

A shower of glass fell to the floor at the end of the hall as plasma bullets rained like a storm through the opening, striking four of the men in fatal spots, killing them instantly. Three others received hits to the arm or leg.

Ahn swung in through the broken window in a similar fashion to Sae's earlier reentry, holding a suppressed plasma pistol in his good hand, a spare magazine in the other. A few of the guards returned fire, watching as the shots dissipated uselessly against some sort of shield.

Sae took advantage of this distraction, using her hands as claws as she weaved through the group of guards in a deadly dance, separating a few arms or legs if they had time to dodge, the head if they were focused on Ahn.

One of the guards that managed to keep his wits about him drew a thermite grenade, throwing it in Ahn's direction. Sae caught the grenade with her bare hand, staring at the burning substance radiating from it. The man looked on in shock. These grenades were capable of producing temperatures that could melt iron!

Sae pinned the man to the ground with one of her fingers, then threw the grenade back at him, watching as his desperate screams faded and his charred body went limp.

Only two guards remained. These were the ones that had attempted to flee immediately at the sight of their coworkers being slaughtered. They were now scrambling towards the stairs, one missing a leg and trying feebly to hop away. Ahn fired two shots in quick succession, finishing them off.

'Cowards,' Sae thought, watching their corpses fall.

Now, all that was left was to retrieve the part for Ahn. The joint that they needed was also on the fourth floor. Sae looked for the room it was being held in, finding it just across the hall from where she stood.

The door was locked, but she didn't need to worry about that, as all of the alarms were temporarily disabled. She put her hand on the steel door and gave it a push, sending it flying inward.

The room was empty save for a small glass case on a counter, carefully placed on a lush white pillow. Void certainly didn't want this part to be damaged. Were they planning to make their own versions of ANGELs? If so, they were about to be set back. Android parts of that quality were incredibly expensive to make, costing upwards of one hundred thousand credits to make just one.

Sae walked carefully into the room. Though it looked to be empty, letting her guard down now would be idiotic. In spite of this, she was able to walk to the case and remove the precious part without issue. Ahn stood behind her, watching her back in case anything did happen.

They started towards the door, but stopped about halfway there. Footsteps.

"Company," Ahn whispered.

Sae nodded, transforming her delicate fingers back into their deadly form. She scanned the hallway outside, getting heavy readings for electronics. It wasn't another android, but with that many augmentations, the person approaching could hardly be considered human.

A large, humanoid thing stood in the doorway, blocking it off entirely. It was barely able to fit in the door frame. The thing looked like it had once been a human male, but was no longer anything of the sort.

Orange tubes with some sort of fluid flowing through them ran down the thing's enormous metal back. It stood almost eight feet tall, with a shoulder span of over twice what Ahn's was. In one of its massive bionic arms was some sort of prototype plasma weapon, an oversized heat blade in the other.

No, Sae realized, it wasn't a heat blade. Something about the way it glowed seemed...off. It was different somehow. She needed to be careful.

The thing had no face to speak of, only a respiratory module, which hissed in and out as the abomination took in air for the few biological organs it had left, and a set of glowing purple eyes that looked menacingly back and forth between the androids in front of them.

'How do you want to approach it?' Sae asked Ahn.

He didn't respond, only stood in place, as if he were a statue. Sae looked at him. What was he doing?

His arms hung limp at his sides as he stared at the thing in front of him. He was producing harsh breathing sounds of his own. His eyes were purple.

Ahn was afraid.

Sae had never seen this much fear in Ahn. He was always so calm, even in life-threatening situations. He would keep his head clear, even become a voice of reason to snap others out of their panic. Why was he so afraid of this particular opponent?

The automation let out a roar, sounding very similar to a frenzied android. It became apparent that this thing didn't have any rational thought behind its actions. It was a machine, nothing else. There was no humanity behind its long since replaced eyes.

If anything fit the description of "monster", this was it.

Ahn was right, Sae realized as she looked at the horrific machine in front of her. There was no real beauty in this world. Humanity had made sure of that.