I'm barely panting from the run up the stairs, and when I finally reach roof level, I've arrived two minutes early for my shift. The roof access lock scans the hidden chip under my skin, and the door opens for me.

Our skyscraper is something else. It's the tallest building in the city, and the rooftop is nonexistent, replaced by stairs that criss-cross the slanted top of the building. There's always a moment of awe when I step through the doorway, and the thrill of the drop, the narrow staircase, and the air whistling around me. It's almost like a movie.

I don't care for the streets below, almost 2000 feet from the highest point of the CODA building, at least not during the day. There's always something happening in LA, and I would bet that it happens under the darkness of the absent sun. I don't feel bad for the day shift, but I belong with the night shift- neon flashing lights, police car chases, cool wind and the smell of fresh air, all above the dankness and fumes of the City That Never Sleeps.

"Hey! Amanda!" I call out. The only other female guard working for CODA turns around.

"You get to watch the sunset, Noguchi!"

Amanda insists on calling everyone by their last names, and so far she's the only person who's managed to pronounce mine without sounding like an anti-gucci freak.

We're standing together at the top, all 1800 feet in its glory, when I hear Amanda's name. She whips her head back, her cornrows spinning around with her head.

"Haha, Jeremy's back." I say, watching as Amanda's annoying ex-boyfriend slinks toward us. Amanda slits her eyes at me.

"Hide my gun." she grits out, and I squeeze behind her on the narrow, 4-foot staircase so I can grab the weapon she holds out for me.

He's gasping from the stairs, and doesn't notice when basically all of the other guards tuck their guns out of his sight. Surprising us all, Amanda had first brought Jeremy up onto the roof when they had started dating, saying that we needed to accept his pure soul and protect him from our job, obviously impossible. Unsurprisingly, Amanda broke off the relationship soon after he had found her weapons. Since then, he's been using his limited access to the rooftop as a way to win Amanda back, and so far all he's done is make her mad.

"Hey, Smith." I whisper to the rugged guard relaxing at the Crest, where we call the section right below the peak of the building.

"How much longer?"

He shuffles his arms, and I can sense him mentally counting the days until Jeremy's rooftop access card expires. Smith grumbles back to me, "Nine. When's this guy giving up?"

"Probably never, besides, Amanda's taste in men is horrible. I mean, look at that guy." We're both talking to each other loud enough that Amanda turns around and mouths, shut up.

Laughing aloud, I shove Smith down a step and he squints at me. "Feisty today." he comments, and I can appreciate his light flirting as the dying sun catches his jawline. I'm leaning down towards him, and I hear Smith's breath hitch. Quickly, unnaturally, his breathing's back to normal, but I'm close enough to feel the thump of his heartbeat betraying him. I wasn't thinking of kissing him at that moment, but once the thought pops into my head, I can't get it out. Smith's warily eyeing me, and I can tell from the twitch of his lips that he's amusedly waiting for me to lean in. I can feel Amanda and the other guards staring at us, but Smith doesn't budge when my lips are close to his. Closing my eyes, Smith's breath lightly grazes mine when there's an electrical crackle from his earpiece.

"Sunset time 6:58, day shift, you're out. Night shift- places."

Sighing, I move back as Smith slowly replies back, "Roger that."

Grudgingly, I turn around and I'm heading for the peak when arms circle my waist. My hand goes to my gun, but Smith's shaggy hair blows across my face as he whispers, "Gonna have to try harder this time, Kana." His gravelly tone sends shivers down my spine, and his lips brush my cheek before he moves back to his position.

Half grinning, I wave the day shift out as the other ten members of the night guard waltz in. As always, they're bickering about something random and as I turn on my earpiece, I can catch the glimpses of an argument between the guards and the security center's main communicator. Dan Whitley's the one who usually sends in the info, orders, and lookouts from his place in front of a computer screen, and he's yelling over the commotion of the guards coming in.

"I said, the boss told me that we need extra security from now on and-

"You can't even make up your own mind, can you? It's always 'boss said this' and 'boss will get mad'!"

"Wait, so there's more-"

"Holy crap, you're even worse than Kana!"

"She's right there you idiot-"

I raised my eyebrows at them. Crossing the distance, I frowned at them and turned my earpiece volume down.

"What are you worse at than me?" I asked. Red-faced, the biggest guard in our group strode up to me and stared me down. "Why's it your business? You and Smith can make kissy-faces at each other and not care about anything else, what's this to do with you?" he roared.

Smith was behind us now, and he waved his arms up and down urgently.

"Whoa, wait up-"

"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!"

Dan's voice deafened us from the overhead speakers.

"GET TO YOUR DANG PLACES NOW AND TURN ON YOUR EARPIECES!"

Shuffling down the steps, I sat on my perch at the checkpoint on the other side of the vertical. From the earpiece, I heard Dan more quietly and peacefully.

"We have intel that some rebel organization, poor fighters and looking to steal the data from the CODA building, are coming after us. I never said we're adding more guards, I said security should be more precise instead of a bunch of monkeys squabbling over nothing. I expect the best from you all, and good luck tonight."

The alert doesn't bother me much, it's not the lack of enforcement that I'm worried about. Rather, it's the fact that we're getting targeted more and more often. Last month we were on high alert after a sloppy break-in on the first floor, but it had turned out that the computers were the only thing stolen. The bandits were caught and turned in to the police soon after, and nothing on the background checks.

Now that Dan has logged out, the earpiece goes wild with chatter. I'm half listening, half finding the constellations that shine so brightly in the moon's absence. It's such a beautiful night in the city, and from my place on the skyscraper's roof, my eyes are still on the brilliant colors of buildings below me when my earpiece explodes in a buzz of warnings.

"Two helicopters heading our way, from the east."

"Kana and Smith, you're up. And someone get the doors."

"Oh shi-"

And then, silence. I look down the stairs, meeting the gaze of Smith. He's heard them too. And now, over the confusion lingering around his, the tell-tale sound of choppers send my blood racing. "Davies, lock the doors and sound the alarm! Now!" Smith yells. Davies, closest to the Peak, growls into the mic, "Electric shut-down isn't working! Working on manual lockout."

"What?" I murmur, and turning around, I see that for the first time CODA's lights are out.

I speak quickly. "Davies! Don't bother with the shutdown! CODA's been cut out from the system! We need five more up at the Peak with you-"

A rattle interrupts me. An explosive hits the stairway beside me, crumbling the bottom of the concrete. I jump over the hole, and as more arrows loaded with destruction arc towards me, I make it past the edge and bolt up the east side. Running into Smith, I gasp, "They're shooting the bottom out! I don't know how, but we need to aim back!"

Davies and the others are at the Peak, while some are scrambling at the middle of the stairs.

I'm tensed and ready as the helicopters pass over us, criss-crossing. This is a planned attack, I know it in my heart, and all communications are down. There's no way it's a coincidence. I catch a glimpse of a person, leaning over the side of the open door. There's just enough time for him to salute me before we start shooting. Taking cover behind the metal siding, a bullet whizzes too close to my face as a rope dangles from the side of the helicopter. Two options: explode the helicopter or shoot the people. There's not enough time to consider it as feet stampede towards us, and I see Smith take a bullet to the shoulder in front of me. An intruder is heading towards me now, and before he gets within ten feet of me, I'm shooting at him.

All of the lights on the stairs light up, momentarily blinding us. I take the pause to lunge forward, and hope my opponent is there. The knife in my sleeve slips out to slice across something soft, and warm blood gushes out. The LED lights show me a ginger-haired giant reaching for his pistol, and my gun's whipped out before he can even grasp it. Triumphantly, I'm aiming for his head when my legs are kicked out from beneath me. Without wasting a second, I'm rolling back and with that momentum, my legs hit the person behind me. I hear a metal on metal sound before the pain settles in, and agony rips in waves down my calf. Gritting my teeth, I shoot randomly up in front of me and roll to my feet. I barely see another figure in front of me, different than the bulky redhead before he slams a fist into my stomach. The hit doesn't directly slam into me, but the air is flung out of my lungs. Arms grab my collar, and I can't breath enough to resist the intruder holding me over the side of the broken staircase. Shadows linger in this raven-haired man, as he steadily says, "Help us and you won't die." The last two words are ringing in my ears as my injured leg flails out and grips the back of the man's leg, unbalancing him enough to let go of me.

"No." I'm muttering, the pain from my leg traveling all over my body. But I can barely feel it anymore. My fingers are holding on- barely holding- to the sleeve of the black-haired intruder. And below me- the entire city. Waiting for him to push me into the air, so I can splatter into a million pieces on the dirty sidewalk. The man who is my rope to life pauses.

I can see his brown eyes, his small sad smile as I inch closer to death. All that training. All that pain. And for what? We have been taught and trained to never cry, never flinch, never show mercy and never beg. And although there's something going through my heart and racing down my spine, I do not plead for life. Instead, I close my eyes and wait for the air to envelop me. I know that past the fog of fear, warmness will welcome me. A sudden memory of a recital shows up, and I'm 13 again, playing my violin on the makeshift stage. I can feel my breath quicken, and then all at once the panic flashes out of me and I'm alone, I'm playing my solo and there is no feeling of being afraid.

There's a grunt, that heavy moment of fear, and I'm flying through the air, and I'm thinking my eyes should be open to see the stars for the last time-

And then I land on the stairs. The man is panting beside me, and my conscience screams at me to stop. But I do it anyway. My gun is in my hand, and I'm pointing it at his head when something stops me. He looks up, his shaggy hair revealing his smile.

"It's always good to have people looking out for you, you know." he says. I frown and I'm about to press the trigger when there's a click. A click of a gun that's not mine, one's that's pressed to my neck. From the floor, the man grins. My own eyes widen as a voice trembles in my ear: "Drop your gun."

The clatter of it is suddenly real, and my hand grabs the muzzle of the weapon pointing at me. Subconsciously, my left foot comes up and there's a crunch as my knee hits a bone. "Argh!" he shouts. There's fury in my gaze now, and the gun in my hands is already firing.

There's a man clutching his nose on the ground in front of me, and the bullet is headed for his leg.

But before I can turn around to finish the other intruder off, something heavy comes down on my neck. And a black, dark curtain closes my vision.