October, Year 483
New Order Residence
North-East Border

Stinging tears scratched at Dawn's eyes as she glared at her reflection in the glass wall in front of her. She watched the water fall down her naked skin, burn a path through her flesh then splash on the tiled floor.

A shower, that was what she needed. Not arguing with Rhea Lee about a fiancé she didn't want or explaining to Corey that she wasn't in the mood to help him protect an earth that didn't want her to be happy.

No, a shower is just the perfect thing, she thought.

The rain of cleansing liquid dripped continuously from the roof of the little box that served as a bathroom; pitter-patter pitter-patter like little fiery feet dancing around her. The drops were hot and scalding, red marks left in their place after they slid away, burning another layer of skin and replacing it with tingling pain.

She made sure to scrub hard even though she didn't need to. People in this century didn't need to do much of anything.

They didn't need to work, didn't need to save, didn't need to plan for a future. The government did it all and androids carved the pathway for them.

Damn. Before she could be warned by the bathroom's AI, her hand slammed into the glass wall in front of her. She watched the water stop and saw pain spring into her own eyes.

Dawn blinked it away.

Her gaze fell to her bare feet then to her chest. She was clean by now. Eco-acid wasn't particularly dangerous and neither was hair gel but she still felt dirty on the inside.

She wished the glass would shatter just like the perfect world she had once envied now slowly crumbled. She wished her hand would bleed for the soldiers who now fought at the capital even though they didn't need to.

Why was the capital attacked? Why did the shields not protect it? What the braek am I going to do?

Her fist smashed into the wall of glass again and Dawn smiled as small cracks spread along the wall like cobwebs, slithering streams of blood worming into the crevices and staining them red.

She smiled despite knowing the truth. Wishes don't come true.

They never did and they never will.

She now felt claustrophobic in the tiny space of automated technology but she did nothing but resume the flow of warm soapy over her.

She washed the blood away, out of existence forever. Already she could feel the pulsing skin knit back together. It annoyed her, the frustration of being inhuman.

Her bath should have been over an hour ago according to the holographic panel by her hand, but she didn't care. Wrinkled skin didn't bother her as much as facing what life had thrown at her; a bath gave her more time to sulk.

Dawn wasn't a normal twenty-three year old regardless of how much she pretended to be one. She had a job to do, a world to save, a man to find and some people that had to die.

She turned off the shower with a thought and let a towel be wrapped around her by the invisible arms of the automated bath.

The doors slid open and as Dawn expected, her sister was sitting expectantly at the foot of the bed, staring at her with a gaze that revealed future conversations she wanted to avoid.

"What do you want?" Dawn let out a loud sigh and ran her fingers through her hair, untangling the thick black strands on their path down her back.

"I wanted to apologize," Rhea Lee shrugged and kicked off her shoes, her bright red nails flashing in the light as she curled her toes and pulled her knees to her chest, "but I'm sure you don't care."

"You're right," Dawn scoffed and walked towards the table pushed against the wall to her right. The blinking holo-screen was all that she was concerned about, she didn't care much for talking.

"His name is Sebastian," the doctor started speaking as Dawn slipped into the chair in front of the table and switched on the system, "and we met whe-"

"I don't want to hear about your love life, Lee." Dawn rolled her eyes, swiped at the holo-screen then turned to her sister. "Do me a favor and I'll play your little game."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Get me inside Philip's head."

"Are you for joking?" Rhea Lee shook her head. "I can't do that."

"Look," Dawn turned back to the multiple screens that had popped up, the pulsing blue glow of transparent pages colouring the room an underwater azure, "his body is shutting down. The sort of technology I need will be ready in three months, but he'd be dead long before that."

"A no is a no, Dawn." Her sister narrowed her eyes. "You could die, and the risk of that happening is much more since he's in such an unstable state. It would be better if you contacted Issac."

"No," Dawn tightened her towel and watched the screens in front of her patiently, the floating pages were filled with numbers and diagrams. With the flick of a finger she enlarged the screen that contained a report that had just been sent to her through the Chain. Dawn decided not to open any screen in her mind for now-the mental strain of processing so much data could kill her when she was this exhausted

"Why not?" Aggravation slowly seeped into Rhea Lee's tone.

I wouldn't trust the vice minister's son with my life, Dawn glared at the screen and carefully read the report on the capital's current situation, that's why. Even if Corey can trust him, I can't.

"Can you please get the door?" She said out loud and lifted her hand above her head just as a knock echoed through the room.

Assassin. Lee, take him alive please.

"Yes," Dawn recognized the usual cheerfulness in her sister's voice, the one that appeared when she was about to make a kill. "I've got it."

She tried to ignore it and shut down all the screens. She focused her attention on the flashing dress icon that had been blinking for the past ten minutes.

"Please select a wardrobe," the table vibrated slightly and the holographic face of a woman smiled back at her, "celebrity, party, office, special, home or custom."

"Office."

"Please select a clothe style," the blue hues of the woman's face contorted into an even wider grin as images of clothes ranging from dresses to suits were scattered across the room.

"Style 367." Dawn answered automatically. "Underwear selection 100."

As she spoke the entire room flashed a soft blue and immediately she was dressed in a red blouse and black pencil skirt.

"Please select a hairstyle."

The professor gazed down at her waist length locks and sighed. It was time to get rid of it. "Cut it, the usual."

"Makeup selection?"

"No."

"Weapon selection?"

"The usual."

"Congratulations, you are now fully dressed. Would you mind rating my performance?"

"Yes."

"Would you also mind taking a survey on your level of satisfaction?"

"Yes."

"Thank you for your cooperation."

Dawn sighed again and ran her hand through her hair, satisfied when her fingers stopped at the nape of her neck. "I wonder when it'll grow back. . ."

"Dee," she turned in her seat at Rhea Lee's laugh. "Look what the cat dragged in!"

The doctor hopped into the room with a man in tow, again. But this time it was a man Dawn would always be pleased to see.

"Greeley!" She laughed and got off her seat, walking to the man and grabbing him lightly by his green hair.

She pulled him into a hug. "You shouldn't sneak up on me like that."

"I wasn't trying." he huffed and swatted her hand away. "You asked me to come."

"Oh?" Dawn tapped her chin and pulled her hand out of his reach. "I honestly forgot, Roger."

Roger let out a cold laugh. "Did you get the link? I sent it when I was blocks away in case you accidentally killed me when I got here, you know?"

"I wouldn't have killed you." Rhea Lee frowned, then after a moment of thought added. "You wouldn't have let me kill you, right?"

"I got the link." Dawn answered quickly before her sister could say anything else. "The group that came back from Nicia are fighting off creatures at capital with the garrison stationed there. Apart from that we know nothing else."

"Right," Greely nodded, knowing that it wasn't his place to ask questions. "Corey and Gideon are duking it out at the base. I forgot to mention that."

"What?"

"Yeah, the vice was pissed and the minister was pissed. Basically everybody at work was so scared that they were about to piss their pants from fear, so I got out of there. Those guys are scary as hell so I also decided that coming to you was the best option." Roger Greely rushed through his words in seconds, leaving Dawn and Rhea Lee scrambling for words to reply him by the time he was done.

"What?" The two sisters asked together.

"I also heard that you guys want to jump into a guy's head," he said.

"You have my house bugged?" Rhea Lee narrowed her eyes at him.

"Does it matter?" he asked then turned to Dawn. "I can make that happen. Safely, might I add. Dawn, you might be my boss but I know thay you can be crazy most of the time. Corey will kill me if you died. . ." he paused. "Well, if you died because of me I'd have to kill myself because of that life contract I signed."

"Why did you have him bug my room, Dee?"

"Corey made you sign a life contract behind my back?"

"You," Rhea Lee turned to Dawn then shifted her attention back to him. "Explain."

"Ah," Greeley scratched at his neck. "it's a funny story."

"I don't see how spying on me for my sister is funny," Rhea Lee looked down at her nails. "Maybe I should have you killed."

"I didn't ask him to spy on you, I asked him to keep tabs on your whereabouts." Dawn clarified.

"But that's not important," she started again when Rhea Lee tried to speak. "How can you get us into Philip's head safely?"

"My Enhancement is Telepathy."

"I don't see how that helps, I have telepathy too." Rhea Lee rolled her eyes. "It would still get a normal human killed to cross such a large distance and delve into the mind of a dying person."

"It's not normal telepathy, is it?" Dawn asked. No one discussed their enhancements in detail, not even children, it was the top secret of every citizen who had one. A trump card in emergency situations and an edge over your age mates.

"And you're not a normal human, boss."

"How confident are you?"

"Confident enough."

"Alright," she let out a breath. "I just need to know one thing."

"What?" Roger asked.

"Do you think Mount Roya will still be standing by the time I get back?"

He and Rhea Lee turned to each other. Neither of them answered the question.

"I see," Dawn signed. "We'll have to hurry this up. I need to talk to Philip and keep him alive."

"I just need his general location and description." Roger grinned.

"I'm going to regret this," Rhea Lee groaned and threw herself back on the bed, "but I'll help."

Dawn snapped her fingers. "Wonderful. What we need to do now is find someone."

"Who?" her sister asked.

"The one man I think can fix all this," Dawn twirled her hair around her ring finger, "my dear friend, Elton Yong."