"I'm...really busy, Ryan," Barty complained, scratching his beard and huddling down more into his puffy down jacket. He'd been here doing code monkey stuff for a week, and every time someone was like, well how long is it going to take, he was like, until it works, and it was stupid that he had to come all the way out here to do it.

Plus, everyone kept bugging him. Wanting to talk, or asking if he would do a patrol, or if he could fix this thing that hadn't been working, or just wanting to touch everything.

It wasn't like he was old-old, but everybody else was, like, 16. Sara. Sara was the only one who'd...

He didn't want to think about Sara right now. It didn't help anything. It had only been a month, and it wasn't like they could just retire him. But that's what he wanted. He was over it, over everything. With her gone, what was he fighting for? What was he even there to do? He knew this job was taking too long, but once he fixed their stupid machine, what then? He could go back home to their house, which was empty. Superbia was gone too. He'd never hear from either of them, ever again, gone, it was all-

"Ryan," he shouted, which was uncharacteristic, but he hadn't been himself lately.

When he turned around, all the scratching around wasn't Ryan. Instead, there was a large set of dripping, bloody jaws, and Ryan's disconnected arm hanging from them.

Maybe if he'd been paying attention. Maybe if he'd been focused on the job to finish earlier, but all he got was a brief seize of fear before the jaws roared forward, and then too, all he could think was if he fought it, what then, he'd go home, he didn't want to be there, he didn't want to go back-

Parts of his body were recovered, but no weapon tablet. They erected a stone with his name, and it wasn't far from hers.