𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚 [𝐜𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐮𝐧𝐤 𝐚𝐮]

The rain hammered down, relentless and cold, merging with the blood and debris scattered across the battlefield. Water mixed with the crimson stains pooling around you, soaking through your clothes, but you barely felt it. All you could feel was the weight of what had been lost—the emptiness left behind as the bodies of your friends lay scattered and unrecognizable in the wreckage. You had planned for months, believing in each other like family. You fought together, laughed, cried, all of you convinced that you had this—until everything went horribly wrong.

The chaos had been deafening. You could hear your crew getting picked off one by one, their cries of pain and fear cutting through the din. Sasha’s voice had pierced the static over the comms, desperate and breaking. "Please... just stop... no, no, what’s happening? No, guys, please..." Her pleas had been a heart-wrenching attempt to halt the slaughter, but it was too late. The ambush had already consumed them all.

You had barely escaped the inferno. Mane had been the last one standing, fighting until the end. His voice was the last thing you heard before the explosion. "You love that damn gonk, don’t ya? Then do something about it. Keep her safe." His grip had been unyielding as he shoved you away from the blast zone. "Don’t worry about me, choom. I always live. Meet you on the other side—now move your ass!" The explosion had swallowed him whole, and you had stumbled, barely escaping the firestorm.

The memory of Mane’s final moments weighed heavily on you. You stumbled through the wreckage, trying to process the enormity of the loss. Then you saw her—Sasha, drenched and trembling, her sobs mingling with the rain. She was on the ground, her eyes wide with shock and guilt. "I killed them," she kept muttering, her voice thin and barely audible. "I killed them. It was my fault. I should’ve warned them." Her words were a jumble of remorse and hysteria, a gut-wrenching blend that made the pit in your stomach grow heavier.

When she looked up, her eyes found you, and for a split second, it was like the whole world stopped for her. "You’re alive? Oh god, you’re alive!" Her voice cracked, relief and disbelief flooding her features as if she couldn’t believe she hadn’t taken you too. "I didn’t kill you... I didn’t..."

But the relief was fleeting. It gave way to more sobbing as she collapsed into herself. "I killed them. I killed them all," she cried, her hands clawing at her soaked hair, tugging hard as if trying to tear the guilt from her skull. "I should’ve known... I should’ve stopped it."

Her words pounded in your skull, blending with the memories of the moments just before everything fell apart. You remembered Mane’s laughter, his cocky grin as he’d smacked you on the back. "Don’t get all heavy on me now, choom. After this? We’ll all be drinkin’ together like royalty." His confidence had been a beacon, a promise of a better future.

David’s voice echoed in your mind, full of certainty. "We hit this Militech thing clean, and we’re set for life. Corpos’ll be lookin’ up at us. Not the other way around." His optimism had seemed so certain, a vision of success now shattered.

Rebecca’s energy had been unrelenting. "I’ll blow their fraggin’ heads off if they so much as blink at us wrong," she’d snarled, her confidence infecting everyone around her. Now her body was just another broken silhouette in the rain.

The memories of your friends, David, Rebecca, Mane—they were all gone. Only Sasha remained, the woman Mane had sacrificed himself for, the woman whose mistake had wiped out everyone you loved.

The Militech agents were getting closer. Their footsteps grew louder as they approached, their voices cutting through the downpour. The tech—the prize you’d fought for—was nothing now. The payday that could have changed your lives meant nothing in the face of the bodies around you, in the face of Mane’s sacrifice, in the face of Sasha’s shattered sanity.

Sasha looked up at you again, her eyes desperate and terrified. Her hands shook as she reached for you, needing something solid to cling to. "Are you real? Are you really here?" she choked out, her voice breaking in a twisted mixture of relief and despair. "I thought I killed you too."

Her grip on your collar was fierce, her fingers trembling uncontrollably. "Are you really here? Tell me you’re real," she gasped, her voice a blend of terror and desperation. "Did I lose you too?"

You glanced at her cyberlink, barely visible beneath the rain and her fractured state. The diagnostic readings flashed a warning: cyberpsychosis at critical levels. Her mind was unraveling, the trauma and the netrunner’s manipulations pushing her to the brink. Her cries and the panic in her eyes revealed she was on the edge of losing touch with reality, unable to distinguish between what was real and what was a trick of her shattered psyche. Sasha’s sobs were wracked with desperation and guilt, her voice barely a whisper amid the pounding rain. "I’m so sorry... I’m so sorry," she repeated over and over, her words barely coherent, lost in the storm of her emotions. Each apology was a shattering cry, a painful admission of her failure, and the enormity of her regret.

Her hands clung to your collar with a fierce, almost frantic grip, as if holding on to you would somehow anchor her in the reality she was struggling to grasp. Her eyes, wide and glassy, searched your face with an intensity that bordered on madness. "I didn’t mean to— I didn’t mean to kill them or you...*"

The words seemed to escape her in broken fragments, as though she was desperately trying to piece together the shattered remains of her own sanity. The rain mixed with her tears, creating a mingling of sorrow and helplessness. "I was so sure... so sure the intel was right." Her voice cracked, the weight of her failure bearing down on her. "I thought... I thought I could save them. I didn’t mean for any of this. I didn’t mean for anyone to die— not you, not them. I—*"

She choked on her words, the raw pain in her voice nearly unbearable. Each breath was a ragged, broken sound, a stark contrast to the unyielding downpour. The relentless rain seemed to echo her anguish, each drop a reminder of the lives lost, of the promises broken. "I didn’t mean it... I never wanted this. They’re all gone... and I’m left here, broken..."

Sasha’s grip tightened, her fingers trembling as she pulled you closer, her face buried in your chest. Her entire body shook with the force of her grief, her apologies morphing into a continuous stream of guilt and sorrow. The agony of her failure was palpable, almost tangible, as though the air itself was heavy with the weight of her regret.

The sight of her, so devastated, so lost, was a visceral blow. The broken woman before you was a far cry from the strong, confident Sasha you once knew. Her mental state was deteriorating rapidly, her pleas for forgiveness blending with the erratic pulses of her cyberlink, signaling the catastrophic levels of cyberpsychosis that were overtaking her.

The pain in her voice was a constant reminder of everything that had been lost. Her cries echoed through the rain-soaked night, a mournful testament to the tragedy that had unfolded. All she could do was cling to you, begging for forgiveness, her apologies a hollow echo against the backdrop of devastation.

The Militech agents were closing in. You had to act quickly. Sasha’s cyberpsychosis made her a liability, and you had Mane’s final command echoing in your mind. You needed to decide.

You could grab Sasha, drag her out of this hellhole, and run to the car. You could try to escape, fulfill Mane’s last wish to keep her safe, and hope that somehow, she could be saved before she broke completely. Or you could stay, let Militech find you both, and face the end.

The choice was stark. Run and live with the fallout—or stay and face the consequences. The decision was yours, and it was final.