Darkness turns into a sea of plains. The plains of Nowhere to be exact. That's where it all happened. I remember it well.

I'd just been freed from that damned mind chip, and Jui was in the kitchen cooking. Whatever it was, it smelled like peppermint. XIII was snoring in the hallway, and I was lying back in my chair, watching Jui move about in the kitchen. She glided like the wingless angels from the Palace. Everything about her I admired, and loved. From the curves of her shape, to the shine of her eyes, to the smell of her soul, all was perfect.

The sound of windows shattering splintered through my skull. Laser fire cut through the walls, catching fire to the furniture. I felt a few blasts nail me in the back, but I didn't care. All I cared about was getting to Jui.

Her mercenary skills served her well. When the attack came about she immediately ducked under the counter, reaching for one of the many hidden guns around our house. I got to the kitchen, pressing the button for my Omega cannon's hidden compartment in the floor.

"We have to get out of the house!" Jui yelled to me across the kitchen. She had a point. If we stayed in the house much longer, it would probably end up imploding on us.

"Get to the other side!" I screamed. Jui rolled over to me under the hailstorm of red light. Using my right arm, I switched my Omega cannon to shells, targeting the kitchen far-side wall, with my left arm, I covered Jui.

The shell escaped the barrel, flying through the air. The wall erupted, sending smoke and a blast of flame around me and Jui.

"XIII! We're leaving now!" I gave Jui a little shove, and the two of us were off through the cloud of smoke.

When we were through the smoke, I could finally see who was attacking us. They all had on gray battle armor, and were packing some heavy Vipercoil C-96s. On their shoulders and left breast, they had a symbol that looked like a T over a blue sun. I couldn't see their faces, they all had on image enhancement headgear. Whoever these guys were a lot more organized than any mercenary or bounty hunter assassin squadron I'd ever seen, even more so than my precious Phantoms.

It took them about twenty seconds to figure out Jui and I had escaped the house. Like a pack of hounds, they gave chase.

There was no way Jui, I could escape without our ships, and they were back in the garage. The closest safe house was twenty miles to the north. Moreover, the closest city was fifty miles southeast. All I could think about was protecting Jui.

I turned to Jui, she gave me that look that she already knew what I was thinking. We stopped, I loaded a new magazine into the cannon. I could see them coming over the hill, twenty of them.

I leapt into the air about fifty feet, looking down on the soldiers. Three quick bursts from the Omega cannon peppered down two unfortunate souls. I landed atop another, smashing his head far down into his collar bone I could hear the sound of his neck snapping, and his breast bone cracking as his skull drove deeper into his body.

I could see Jui running, jumping, ducking, as she picked off three more with her laser rifle. A trooper ran up behind her, unnoticed.

The soldier fired, and I saw Jui go down. Rage flooded through my mind as I sprinted towards the killer. All the other assassins could wait, I wanted this guy's spine now.

I dropped my Omega cannon, grabbed the person by the throat. I could feel the laser blasts searing through my torso, trying to stop my murderous vengeance. First I snapped the arm behind its back, shattering his humorous and sending a squeal of pain into my ears. Next, I used the talons of my right hand to cut through the soldier's belly armor, while my left took of the headgear. The faceless soldier was a man. Blood trickled down my arm, draining into a puddle on the ground. He looked at me, his face full of fear and death. With a final violent coughing on his own blood, the man died.

I turned around to face the soldiers firing at me, the dead soldier still attached to my arm. I had completely shut them out of my mind, I didn't notice that they had stopped firing at me. They just stood there staring at the corpse and me. It was time for these boys to wake up, so I tossed the body at the remaining soldiers.

I rolled to my Omega cannon, dodging renewed laser fire. Quickly I picked up the cannon, popped in a new clip. I fired continuously cutting down five more troops. "Time to end this." I thought to myself.

I holstered my cannon, taking out two Sentry spheres. I armed them for a twenty-second detonation. I threw them into the air, then dropped to the ground staying absolutely still.

The Sentry spheres floated to the soldiers, firing deadly laser blasts. Two soldiers moving the most immediately went down. Another was hit in the knee, screaming and squirming violently on the ground. The second Sentry read the motion, firing two blasts into the soldier's face.

All the remaining soldiers yelled for everyone to be still. Both Sentry spheres circled around the group of survivors, scanning for any sort of movement. Suddenly in a flash of light and a deafening explosion the detonation timer of the sphere ran out, turning the huddle of soldiers into blackened crater.

I walked solemnly back to Jui's body, trying to hold back my sorrow.

I knelt down next to her, looking at her face. So peaceful, so beautiful. Tears welled up in my eyes, dropping like a summer shower on her lips. Then she stirred, opening her eyes. "Why are you crying?" She smiled. "It's only a flesh wound."

She sat up holding her side. "He just nicked me." I didn't care what she said, so long as she was alright. We embraced for what seemed like hours. I picked her up, and began the trek back to our home.

The house was virtually totaled, inside and out. Fire had gutted the entire living room, while blast marks crater the exterior.

XIII was standing guard on top the body of a soldier at the entryway waiting for us to come back. Three more soldiers were found disemboweled in the master bedroom and kitchen. I left XIII with Jui in the bedroom to check out the garage to see if our ships were damaged at all during the battle. They were spotless, the entire garage was intact.

I came back to the bedroom, to find XIII out cold in the corner, and a Kilr with a gun to Jui's head. "Hey Peac, long time no see." The Kilr told me.

My eyes became burning slits. No one ever threatened Jui and kept their organs inside their belly. "Grounder. I thought I killed you."

The Kilr's eyes lit up with a sadistic joy. "Nah. It's amazing how many times I've heard that."

"I'll have to remedy that." I took a step forward but Grounder shoved the gun harder into Jui's head.

"Nu uh uh Peace. You can't do crap while I have her." Footsteps came from behind me.

"PEAC!" Grounder's blaster silenced Jui's scream. Blood splattered across my face and chest. I watched in what seemed like slow motion as her body fell to the floor. At first I couldn't believe what I just saw. It seemed so unreal and impossible.

Voices tore through my skull, screaming for me to act. My tail lashed through whoever it was behind me, I didn't care. The entire time I couldn't take my eyes off of Jui's corpse and Grounder's grin. He brought the gun up to my face. "Nighty night." Then darkness…….