Once Anna is out in the fresh air, Anna summons another spirit - and this time when her emotions more or less in check she is able to order it with ease. What should be the service though? Should she go suicidal on protecting Assult? Probably not, she is convinced that killing him or testing drugs on him is stupid, and morally wrong but what more can she possibly do?

Nacl, calls the shots and she hopes that she got to him. Why Wraith insists on going in there and doing the wrong thing is a mystery to her. The man, at least in tradition should care about the right thing to do. Perhaps, religion is not that much of a bargain after all - when you believe that the will of God powers your spell then you really are capable of any atrocity just like the Crusades that left countless victims on the path for righteousness. but Anna is not Christian, and such a moment defines her - what kind of person she is? Is she the kind of person to try and violently force her teammates to do the right thing? She takes a deep breath and decides that she is not.

Chaos is about choice, and the Protector is about compassion. Perhaps, arguing, yelling, and crying is not what most people call compassion - but Anna feels that she used all her mental capacities to outline why the current path is wrong. She used logic, she used instinctive morality, and she used emotions.
It was crystal to her that Assult is an asset to be bargained with rather than a test subject, that it is unwise, rushed, and wrong to see him just as a liability. Especially with MST that may appear at any moment and disturb their little experiments.

She feels terrible, insulted, marginalized and disrespected - and she seriously considers leaving the party and just go with her rage... but this is not who she is - she is not driven from ego - if any the fulfillment of being submissive has taught Anna a certain degree of modesty that she finds useful in this mess of emotions. Leaving would not help Assault, and would not help my team. It is a childish thing to do, so I will stay with these people as they take another step toward evil. It is not like Assault is any better than them. She speaks to herself not caring how strange it may look. Speaking out loud helps her shapes her emotions.
"There are sinners on both sides of the fence, nobody has the moral high ground here - not if Assault is murdered or being tested upon. I pointed them in the right direction, and I encouraged them to go there using everything I have. It is their choice to make, and their sin - I am not the one calling the shots, and using my talent to force them is the same arrogance that got the other mages killed. So what if they make terrible choices - why should I be surprised? I mean... I am seating in a secret facility and waiting for some high threat response team to storm the place, and kill us all."

She stands up to make some warm soy-chocolate and grins as she says "If I die, I want choclate to be the last thing I tasted.", and then she smiles for the first time since this emotional rollercoaster.

Wraith throws one long, pondering look at Kerstin, then nods.
"Fine. As you wish.", he shrugs, but he is obviously not free of worries.

When Anna starts her tirade, he doesn't show any emotional reaction except for a defiant look in his face.
He gets tense, though, when she starts casting spells on herself, and intuitively readies his spell defense.
She's not going to attack, is she? Or does she think I'll attack her?
Since he was only a projection in astral space, there weren't any sensible targets for him - thus, he assumed the situation would not escalate further.

That she tried to summon a spirit to scare him off had irritated him, but since she failed at doing so and then stormed off, he wasn't concerned any further. For a split-second, there was a hint of a cocky smirk on his face, that he quickly wiped away.

He cleared his holographic throat.
"Don't bother, since we're not going to ask him, I don't need to chat with him."
There was nothing he could do at this moment - only pray that the cure would help Kerstin. Since he felt that the projection was wearing him down, he would need to return to his body soon. He waited if anyone had something to add and then - poof - his projection disappeared.

bnc found the encrypted files on the data disks easily enough - as well as the connected databombs - a pretty difficult setup as well.

After a few moments of nail biting disarming of the harmful code, finally the research data unpacked and became readable.
A quick read through and word search later, bnc found the information about the latest version of the Salt and the antidote. The first sentences are promising: Having been cured by Salt 75% of genetically compatible test subjects reacted positively to the Retro-retrovirus and lost all associated properties within minutes - including the blood crystals. Which wouldn' t be replaced or regenerated. Instead leaving empty cavities.
bnc knew that her sister not only had had cybereyes and apparently a cyberarm, but also reflex boosting implants along her spine. Not only would she lose her arm and eyes, but she'd likely also be paralysed until the dissolved crystals had been once again replaced with cyberware.

bnc grinds her teeth, then shares this piece of information with her sister. Afterwards, she quickly scans through the rest of the documentation.



"I don't like this," bnc finally admits. "If we indeed are under attack, you'd be crippled and blind.
Max, just how safe and well hidden are we here?"

Nacl shrugged: "As well as I could make it. The heli is gone, Mitsuhama shouldn't be able to find us with spirits so far from any population centers. They could have taken blood from you and use it for ritual magic - but I don't think they have the organisation currently to pull that off. So, yeah, we are safe - for the moment."


Kerstin looked up: "Don't waste time. I can get reimplanted at a streetdoc. Just some basic gear."


Delving deeper into the documentation, bnc found that about 20% of the Salt users did not react to the treatment as intended and instead turned into full ghouls. 5% mutated further into Vampires or Nosferatus.
Higher dosages of the antidote improved the chances for a successful treatment but also caused more harm to the patient as the blood crystals became violently unstable.

"All right, sister..."
bnc meets Kerstin's blood crystal eyes. "I hob nu was gfundn. Mit oana normalen Dosis is de Woahscheinlichkeit circa 25 %, dass du permanent a Ghul oder Vamp wirst ... de Gfoah kau ma reduzieren, wau ma mehr nimmd, owa daun werdn de Kristalle instabil, wos ned ungfährlich is.
I schlogad vor: Wir fixiern di so gut wie möglich, du riast di so weng wiesd kaust, damit koane Splitta dei Rücknmark zschean oder du Splitter ins Hirn kriagst. Dafür foah i mit da Dosis aufi - i wü net, dass du di noch dem ganzen Drek in an förböveln Ghul vawaundlst. Check?"



If Kerstin agrees, bnc improves the fastening as good as she can - then injects what the documentation suggests is the optimal dose.

Kerstin nodded: "I hoits aus, gib mir de volle Dröhnung."


Immediately after the injection, Kerstin's veins appeared to inflate, as if suddenly a thousand worms had burrowed under her skin. She began to shake. A minute after, her eyes began to dissolve and her crystal arm began to fracture and thin streams of blood began to seep from it. Only then did Kerstin beginn to scream while her flesh and blood hand gripped the armrest so hard, it looked like it should break too.
Five minutes in, the convulsions of her body stopped and her head slumped forward. Along her spine, blood seeped out from her clothing. With a ringing sound, her crystal arm finally broke off and shattered on the floor in a shower of blood.
The biomonitor showed that Kerstin had been close to a complete stop of her heart, but it stabilized and her blood pressure fell quickly.

"Quick, we need to get her into the autodoc unit. Careful with her spine though. Just dump Assault on the floor, we'll take care of him later."
Nacl called, while pulling the heavy cyborg from the cradle he rested in.

bnc watches the scene partly with horror, but mostly with apprehension, in case she has to react quickly. The young decker constantly checks her vital signs - as much good as it does in a situation like this, then sighs with relief as she begins to stabilize.

"Wraith, can you not petrify her or something? The less she moves, the less risk for her spine. We need to be real careful. We don't want to cripple her at this stage..."
Then she pauses for a moment.
Sweet Jesus ... We actually brought her back. We brought her back! We brought her back!!

bnc fights hard to suppress a wide grin while her sister slumps in the chair, crippled, bloodied, with empty eye-sockets, weeping blood ... yet alive, and human.

She steps forward the last step of distance, kneels, and cups Kerstin's cheek with her hand. "You're back, sister. You're back with me."

Back up in the restroom, Wraith's s body opened his eyes and gasped for air, like someone who abruptly awakens from deep slumber, blinking to orientate himself.
He let out an angry gnarl and slammed his fist against the restroom's door. Why did people always have to be complicated? God, please, help Kerstin through this. Don't let bnc lose her sister again.

He slowly got out and considered going back to the terace, but he wasn't really in the mood for talking.Well, this went thoroughly wrong. I revealed my self spying on my comrades, had an unnessecary fight and still failed to convince that hardheaded idiot..
Another beer somewhere alone, then a shower, that was the right plan for now.

But then bnc's plea thwarted his plan, cut it up and burned the pieces. Of course he would - as if he could say no.

"Wha... Uh, sure, I'm coming.", and with that he started downstairs into the cellar. Cripple her? Oh my, what have you done... He had questions, of course, but those needed to wait for now.

Some seconds later, a seemingly very rushed Wraith appeared in the room - physically, this time.
"Whatsgoingo - oh - whoa!", he exclaimed, visibly taken aback by the bloody, dismembered Kerstin.

Anna accompanies Wraith as he makes his way. "As much as they all must hate me right now, they may need a healer." she thinks, she says nothing though and just observes the mayhem, her astral sight quickly assures her that Kerstin is alive and that Assualt is still alive. She feels happy - but distant - she does not know Kerstin and apparently does not know bnc as well. Not really. She feels alien, as if intruding - but she must be in terrible pain, and she needs to rest to recover.
"I can help with the pain." she says shyly.

"I'll go do some laps and stand guard while you take care of her, or whatever."

The job was the get the girl, not see her through rehab. Christ.

"Yeah, it's a mess. Now, would you kindly..."
bnc's voice is calm, not even impatient. Just ... a bit numb. Or rather, distracted. She hardly even looks at Wraith, her gaze is directed at Kerstin and her vital signs. In the meanwhile, she's knelt down in a more comfortable position, to hold Kerstin, not paying any attention to all the blood that soaks bnc's clothes. She whispers silently in Kerstin's ear, explaining the situation and their plans the way a doctor explains things to their patient in order to soothe them.

'Mess? Her fragging arm is off!' was the first thing Wraith felt like saying. The second went something like 'Are you sure petrification won't interfere with the turning?'
Instead, he said nothing. He had learned to trust bnc's judgement - at least in medical decisions - and he saw that the spell was urgent.
Holding one hand over Kerstin, he started murmuring: "Lord, help her endure this trial."
As soon as the energy left his hand, Wraith felt that he had been reckless - perhaps still too emotionally driven. His hand was heating up to a painful degree under the raw energy it conducted and he grind his teeth as he felt burn blisters appear in his palm. Too much magical energy flowing through a feeble mortal body - there had to be side effects when playing with divine power.

He didn't pay attention to Anna and showed neither joy nor disdain at her presence.

bnc lets her gaze linger on Kerstin two more heartbeats, then turns to Wraith. "Thank you."
She nods silently, then steps back. Levitating or carrying the now-petrified body was nothing she could do or assist. She leaves that to Anna, Shark, Nova or a guardian angel of the winds, or whoever would do it.
Also, she means to supervise the medical treatment but decided to trust Max in this regard.

So, nothing left to do, she just stands, and watches.

Nacl calmed down immediately as Kerstin was stabilized in stone.
"Well, that works too, I guess. Alright. I'll organize immediately a stay at a shadow clinic for reimplantation. Can you hold this spell for at least 48 hours? I've got some longhaul upstairs to keep you awake.
Other then that, I think we are in the clear."

Nacl went back upstairs to call the team togehter - including the holographic representation of Eliza:
"Alright, it seems everything has turned out fine in the end. Assault is just as alive and well as Kerstin. If you want, we can put him into the helicopter and send him back to Mitsuhama with the rest of the research. But to be honest with you, I will have to sell a copy of it to this other firm I've been in contact with to recoup the investments of this mission - including your payment.
Speaking of which, here is the other half of your promised rewards. I'd suggest you spend it not in Austria - we made a powerful enemy with this stunt.
Wraith and bnc, I'll need your help for a little while longer.
For you others, Eliza can organize transport for you whereever you want to go. Thank you everyone for your help."

“Great. I’ll call some promoters, find out who needs me, and get back to you with travel plans.”

Sharkboy went over to a private place and used him comlink to contact to The Godfather to set up some time with one of his girls in his room in Berlin when he got back.

"48 hours?", Wraith repeated, visibilly not happy about being denied rest for two more days. Ugh, is a good night's sleep too much to ask for after an exhausting run?
Still, if that ensured Kerstin had a safe transfer, it was of course a small price to pay
"Sure thing, if necessary."

bnc grimaced, and swallowed hard. "I'm sorry," she says silently. "That's not what I intended. I will stay awake with you." bnc meets his eyes. It might strike him once again, how much of the bnc he knew was already gone when he looked in those inhumane artificial eyeballs.

---

"I assume there is no possibility to delete that much of his memory. You know, Anna, that by doing this we make a very, very skilled killer our opponent. One day, he might hunt us all down. For all you did, I will not oppose this wish of yours, but if he kills me, I will use my last breath to let you know."

Then, bnc turns to the rest of the team. "I know I've been terrible at showing you, but I really am very greatful to each and every one of you. You helped me reduce some of the most important damage I did to the person I value most. You brought back my only family. And, you taught me lesson in comradship I will not easily forget.
I don't say I wish to be your friend." She pauses just a little, shooting Anna an ice-cold glance. "But I do want to express my gratitude. If you ask me for a favor any time from her,e you shall not be denied."

Anna replies to Nacl "Thank you Nacl, it means a lot to me. Let's ship Assault back to his home country then." she winks when he mentions making a copy "Of course I approve stealing, people should know how to protect their secret research better."

She taunts Wraith and says "Don't worry pal, It will make you a better person.", she is actually semi-serious about it, but the hint of a smile on her face shows that she draws childish satisfaction that the person that angered her so much gets to endure 48 hours of sleep deprivation.

To bnc she says "I will personally kill him myself if he kills you..." she then adds with a suddenly dark realization "In a very slow and painful manner.

Wraith shrugged with resignation at the idea of sending Assault back. "Do what you must to sleep at night."

"Oh frag yourself. ", he brushed off Anna's mockery - not with actual anger in his voice, more like a 'keep your damn salt out of my wounds'-tone. The perspective of two sleepless nights seemingly didn't put him in the mood for taunts and games.

bnc's gesture he appreciated with a nod. " Don't worry, it's okay, really. "

"I know. I'll stay with you anyway. It's my sister you're protecting, I'm not gonna sleep well anyway ... and I think we have bastante grando to talk about."
bnc reaches for his hand.

When everything was done and they came back up from the cellar, Nova was happy to hear that the cure seemed to have worked as intended.

"You've been down there quite a while. It took a bit more than just a little prick with the needle, huh? But I'm glad. Would have been a shame, if everything had been for naught. Anyways, up here, everything was silent. No Mitsuhama assault teams or anything like that."

A strange feeling hit her, when things were wrapped up and everyone started to relax.

"So, I guess that's it, then. We did it! Feels a bit strange after such a long time. Guess I will miss you lot. At least for a couple days," she said with a wink.

"If you have any plans in the future, though, you have my number now. Use it! I mean it."

Sharkboy got off his comm with a terse “sounds good.”

“Well I’m headed back to Berlin. Will be there until I’m not. Should at least be in Europe a while longer. Our now former employer knows who to call to reach me, and you have my number for business propositions. If you have Nuyen, and have a job in need of muscle, I’ll listen if I have the time.”

Anna sighs, observing the mess in the room - it was over really over. She says to Wraith "We'll have plenty of time to identify the foci, and see what they are worth."

She says to Nova "It was really fun Nova, who would believe the adventures. I mean, the last normal thing I did was getting bnc out of her house. Then anything happened so fast, and now it feels a bit sudden that it all ended. " She pauses, and then asks What are you going to do next? "

bnc's sudden emotionality puzzled Wraith, and he squeezed her hand lightly. "Right. She's tough as nails, she'll recover. Don't worry."

He smiled warmly at Nova's report, thankful that - unlike himself and most of the team - she had stayed professional and stood guard. He was quite impressed how she could keep herself calm all the time. It's almost creepy how everything leaves her cold. Almost like an actual robot.


"Right. ", he agrees with Anna's mention of the foci. "We gotta look through the loot. Let's get to the good parr before we get to the gold-bye-part.", and he attempted a motivates smile.

Oh, and I imagine Nyan wants to go home. Someone should see her safely across the border and to an airport outside of Austria, when we leave."

bnc nods. "Yeah ... Nyan, where are you going to go now?"

Nyan shrugged: "Now that I have some decent clothes, I'd like to go back to my family. But for safety I'll probably go first to my uncle California. From there I can plan my next steps. So if you could spare the expenses to get me a ticket there, I'd be very much obliged."

Anna says happily "Common Wraith, let's do some research." She'll follow Wraith and study the foci.

"I could, and I will. And some pocket money, too, for the trouble you had, and to buy you some decent clothes. Will some two thousand do?"

"I might need help getting a fake ID too, but otherwise yes, that would be plenty. If necessary my uncle could sponsor my airfare too."
She replied

Wraith put the foci on a table so Anna and he could take a good look at them. From his expression, it was obvious that he had never owned such a powerful talisman.
"So... What can you put to use? You use health magic, right?"
He tried his best to suppress his anger from their fight earlier and stay professional, although Anna might likely notice that deep down, he's still sore.

Anna shows Wraith a macho golden ring which is clearly not her style, and she keeps in her purse rather than on her finger. "I already have a powerful sustaining focus for health magic, I took it for bnc initially but she is... well you know what she is like. She is not easy to care for.

After a short pause, she asks "Did I make you angry?" she fires out of context, and in a complete discontinuity of the conversation.

Sharkboy rudely intrudes into the conversation.

“You make everyone angry, Anna.”

“Now, who can explain what all this stuff does, if this guy hypothetically only knew that magic makes me hit stuff harder.”

Anna rolls her eyes and shrugs "Fair enough, body armor makes you fight better with kicks and fists. Rest of the stuff is prime quality mage stuff... Powerful, and dangerous."

Anna's powerful - and unused - Sustaining Focus caused Wraith to raise an eyebrow in surprise. Whether at the seeming idleness or the fact that she had apparently designated a Sustaining Focus just for bnc was hard to tell.

"Did you make me angry? Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.", he replied, obviously feeling like the question was redundant. A grin appeared on his face at Sharkboy's nonchalant remark.

He took the lead of switching to an unemotional toppic and further explained the Foci: "Those two can help keep a spell sustained - like when you need a friend petrified, I hear that tends to happen. That one helps a magician endure all that power he catalyzes when casting magic. And that beauty...", and he whistled at the Power Focus, "...To a mage, that's like putting a Suzuki engine in a Dodge Scoot.

The armor is a Weapon Focus on its own. Meaning it can easily harm spirits, which ususally are quite resistant to worldly punches."

For a split-second, his look turned sour. Perhaps the thought of harming spirits displeased him, or maybe he just recalled how the mercenary in Linz had disrupted his bonded spirit with such a Weapon Focus.

Anna replies "You made me angry because I expected you of all people to see him as a person. Why are you angry with me?"

She eyes the power focus, with a complex emotion of desire and revulsion and then looks away from it pushes it aside.

Wraith hesitated for a moment - seemingly reluctant to dive into their quarrel again. He answered brusquely:
"Because you put your self-righteousness above people's safety. Now by insisting we send a killer that could rat us all out to the corp that wants us all dead, and before by interfering with testing Kerstin's medicine.

I respect having a moral code, but from someone who suggests we test the drug on uninvolved civilians that are too poor to refuse, that's just flat-out hypochrisy. And hypochrisy makes me angry."

Anna replies "You judge me to harshly, while I do have a moral code, and I first asked Nacl to respect it as a personal favor.
However, I also think that experimenting or executing Assault is the wrong thing to do from a pragmatic perspective. I am perfectly aware that testing on desperate people is also morally wrong in my book. However, my arguments are entirely practical.

You see, Assault is not as dangerous as you portray him. He is a working man that supports his mother, and we saved his life when the natural thing was to kill him. Somehow I do not see him going rouge from MCT to murder us all. He has a moral code of his own as you determined, and I doubt that he has the resources and connections to track a group of shadowrunners without the support of MCT.

On the other hand, MCT is one of the most influential organizations of our time. They have offices everywhere in the world, so it is going to be very difficult to avoid them entirely, and I do not want to spend my life looking over my back. Since MCT is the real danger, we want to minimize our risk from them. They are a profit driven organization, and going after us is expensive. The most compelling argument to make such an investment is to get the research back. However, we happily give them a copy for free, leaving no financial gain in going after us.

The second argument for handling us is as retribution for killing their citizens, but we return Assault alive, which is a token of goodwill and saves them a lot of money. I think that it reduces the probability of them going after us. Though, I would personally feel a lot better if we left a shorter trail of dead bodies. We did the sensible thing under the circumstances.

“Yeah, well, this conversation is stupid. I’m going to take the armor suit.

“You two really overthink this stuff.” Sharkboy takes the FBA and heads over to his bag.

"I wouldn't call it stupid, but it clearly isn't going anywhere, so why don't you let it rest?" Nova proposed.

She also figured, there was another topic, they could talk about instead. "We should probably figure out how we wanna do this. The foci, I mean. These things are seriously expensive, right? Like, this stuff here is worth hundreds of K? Do you want to keep them all? Do we sell some? Seems right to factor those in in some fashion, when we divide the money and all that. What do you think?"

Anna replies "Fairest thing would be for the person that takes one to pay some percentage of their market cost. That way Nova should get more money than the rest since she does not take a focus. Perhaps Abdecker can fence the unclaimed foci for us, which would also help us decide how much one should pay to acquire one."

Sharkboy is laying down, resting his head on his bag, watching something on his commlink. He lowers it for a moment to comment.

"No.

"Just give Nova a bigger chunk of the cred sticks."

Wraith grit his teeth at Anna's monologue - it was clear that he didn't agree with her.
"All right, all right.", he gave in to Sharkboy's and Nova's interruptions before he could reply.

Although the toppic clearly wasn't out of his mind - in fact, Anna was quite certain he was still thinking of ways to make Assault less of a threat - he shifted his attention back to the Foci. "No, no, we can't keep them all. Those things are dangerous, if you overdue them."
He pondered for a moment. He knew of mages that got so hooked up on their Foci, they could barely cast magic without them - and he knew he didn't want to end up like them.
"Let me think... I'd love to get my hands on a Centering Focus - although that one might be a tic too potent for my taste. Better the one Buchner had with him, that one seemed more humane.
Anna, what would you like to claim?

More of the credsticks for Nova and bnc is fine with me, there's plenty for all. Let's also not forget about the Vault of Ages that we sold to my talismonger-friend in Linz - that was another 20k for sharing.

I guess we'll contact Abdecker, then, see if he's in the market for Foci and ask him for a SIN for Nyan, right? We owe that girl smooth travels home, after what she's been through.
If Abdecker won't take the Foci, I'm sure my talismonger will oblige."

Anna sighs "I can do wonders with the counterspell focus that I took earlier, but finding a power focus of this class is difficult to pass up. I don't mind not taking it if you want it - but we are not fencing it. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

bnc walks out of the room. She never was in for the money, nor does she gave a damn about it right now. Thus, she climbs down the flight of stairs to the basement, hoping that Assault would be in coma again, so that bnc can have a few moments of silence, with a crippled sister-statue as company.

Wraith shot the Power Focus a tempted look. Lead me not into Temptation. He had mixed feelings towards it. An incredible opportunity, for sure, but none he felt comfortable with. He saw his magic as a gift from god, after all. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. My powers are at his will, who would I be to force him?
"I don't think I want it. Well, I do, but I don't think it would be wise. With that much power, I'd play god. You can have it.
I'd rather not pass on that Sustaining Focus, though."

He reached out for the Sustaining Focus for Manipulation Spells and inspected it closely, seeing if it would fit on his finger.

bnc found Nacl there, sitting in a chair. He smiled at her and said: "Are they still dividing up the loot? You should make sure you get your share also. Always remember, the difference between an amateur and a pro is that the pro is getting paid."

Anna picks up the power focus and places it on her finger. She grins widely and moves her fingers across showing off the ring.
She takes it off, and nimbly plays with it with her fingers "My precious" she says in her best Smeagol imitation.

Though, she is still not full with that decision - she already has a weapon focus, and a counterspell focus, and the sustaining focus and now the power focus and it is only safe to use one of them at a time. "How did Rozenberg use so many of these? You think he was addicted?"