"Gillian!" I lunged forwards in spite of my leg. I scrabbled over the glass and threw myself at her, snaking my hand around her ankle at the last second as she began to fall. Her weight dragged me over and she would have taken me with her, were it not for the reinforced bar of steel which ran along the bottom edge of the windows which held me in place. A spike of pain shot through me as the impact with the metal brought me to an abrupt stop.

I felt each of the glass shards stabbing into me, each and every shard of shattered bone in my leg, the bullet which had dug its way into my shoulder, and above all the burn of lactic acid in my arm as every tendon in my arm focused on keeping my hand clamped around Gillian's ankle.

"Let go of me Xavier." The voice drifted up to me, faint over the howl outside. Something kicked at my hand trying to get me to release my hold; at this point the pain was negligible to what I was experiencing elsewhere in my body so I ignored it and merely resolved to hold on even tighter.

"I refuse." I remembered now, I remembered my promise to her and I would never, ever let go of her. "I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it." The kicking suddenly ceased, and there was a pause as she digested my words.

"Xavier?" it sounded like a whisper, though she must have been shouting to be heard over the howling wind outside.

"You heard me Gillian. Now help me help you up, reach for my hand. I'm afraid I'm too injured at this moment to do anything beyond anchoring you in place so this time you'll have to pull yourself back up on your own."

I felt a strain on my arm as she tried to pull herself upwards, and I tried my best to keep a firm grip on her ankle but I could feel my muscles tiring, my grip loosening. The knowledge of that filled me with dread and I tried to position myself further away from the window to help her gain a little altitude but it was useless; I didn't have the strength left to do so. I felt something brush my hand briefly and for a moment I thought she might make it, but the contact disappeared immediately after. My tenuous grip continued to loosen all the while.

"I can't do this Xavier, I'm just going to end up pulling both of us over. Let go of me."

"You have to...find...your own purpose...in this life Gillian." It was a struggle to get the words out; I felt a constant stabbing pain in my chest with each word. I clenched my fist as tightly as I could and I heaved with a snarl and a shout pulling upwards with all my strength. "Reach!"

"Pulling...that line...again Xavier..." She too was struggling, though for her it was not because of blood loss but merely because of her exertions, I heard some sort of strangled snarl and then felt something clamp onto my hand. Her fingers clumsily closed over my wrist and after another few seconds I felt the other hand follow. "You're a real piece of work, you know that, remembering only now you son of a bitch. Hah." She panted, clinging awkwardly onto my arm even as I still held onto her ankle.

"You're one to talk...that wasn't my mother you liar. I'm going to let go of your ankle, don't slip." I released my hold on her ankle and felt a slight tug as her weight shifted downwards which pulled me back to the very edge of the shattered window until I was looking Gillian straight in the eye, her face mere inches from mine as she reached a hand up to take hold of the steel bar.

"That was a necessary lie, to determine whether or not you remembered anything at all about your past. Your lack of a reaction to that lie told me that you were still lost, but now...you remember." Her other hand reached the ledge and she pulled herself halfway up collapsing onto the floor in exhaustion, sides heaving. I reached over and grabbed her wrist, helping to pull her all the way inside and that was when I heard it, the faint thrumming of the combat Thopter.

She must have heard it too because she looked over towards me and flashed me a sad smile, "I guess that's it for me then; well at least I die with the knowledge that I got you back in the end." Behind her, the Combat Thopter materialized in mid air, the barrels of its quad auto cannons sliding smoothly into place.

"Wait, if I could just explain-" A wash of cold blue light lit us both up as the Thopter lined us up in its sights, hovering above us like a merciless spectre of death.

"You and I both know that that won't solve anything."

She was ignoring the targeting sensors which were now being painted onto her back, and to her credit she didn't flinch when the cannons opened up with a thundering roar.

"This is the end Xavier, goodbye." She leaned in close, pressing her lips to my forehead."I love you."

I stared back into her amber eyes, shining in the backdrop of the blue light with a yellow fire that refused to die; the world seemed to fall away and for a brief instant I felt as though I were floating.

"I –"

The 25mm rounds shredded the glass walls and tore through the concrete and steel like paper, leaving nothing behind of the two operatives but dust and shadows.

Julian Fenister watched impassively from the cockpit view screen as the 25 mm rounds ripped through the building destroying everything in their path, not caring what happened at this point really. After all, this was the kind of world he had been living in for some fifty four years now.

[Target terminated. Maintaining combat readiness Commander.] The Thopter's voice was cold and uncaring, matching Fenister's feelings on the situation.

"Status on Captain Tel?"

[Bio readings indicate no life forms remaining. The Captain is likely KIA, cause of death listed as disintegration via friendly fire from support fire of a local aerial unit.] The way the machine said it, it was as though the Thopter was completely ignoring its own role in the Captain's death.

"Noted. And the mission's objectives?"

[Completed Commander.]

"Alright then, return to base."

[Acknowledged, departure will begin immediately.] Fenister felt the Thopter shift and pull away beneath him as it rose up through the rain into the pitch black sky.

As the vehicle peeled away he stared back down at the building where the two operatives had been, opening a file on the computer tablet he held in his hand. He tapped a couple of buttons causing a list to appear, then went and crossed out two names on the list.

"Congratulations on retiring from Ops 9 you two."

~Fin