It had been another couple weeks. Ashley had insisted that Dylan stay with her every night, which he had no objections to. He slept better, knowing that Ashley was safe and next to him. It helped chase away the nightmares.

Her sickness had been tenacious, but it eventually faded with time. Dylan followed Anya's advice, but of course without telling Ashley where he was getting it. Not only to save himself the embarassment, also to not worry her.

One evening, the phone rang.

"Hello?", Dylan picked up

"Hey, it's Anya", she greeted. "I need a favor"

"What do you need?"

"Look, a friend invited me to go clubbing, I had already paid for admission and all, but she had to cancel. So.. would you like to come with me instead?"

"Why don't you just.. go?"

"Dylan, I'm a thirty-six year old disabled woman, do you think I can go on my own? If I wanted to get raped I wouldn't have called you at all"

"Alright, fine, but I thought you had- you know. Better friends to go clubbing with"

"Yeah, I guess I do. But... you're cool, and you know, maybe I want to spend some time with you"

"You literally just said you have a spare admission because your other friend cancelled"

"And so I'm going for second best"

Dylan snickered a bit at her comment. And by her tone, he could tell she was smiling, too.

"Fine. But what about Ashley?"

"She'll be alright for one evening. Come on, it's not that big of a deal"

"Alright, fine. What club is it?"

"Red Tiger. You know that one?"

"I've heard good things. There in ten, alright?"

"Okay. See you"

"Later"

Dylan quickly got up, and walked into his room to change. On the way, he crossed Ashley, who was in her own room.

"Going somewhere?", she asked.

"Yes, actually", Dylan replied through the closed door. "Will you be okay by yourself for tonight? Just tonight, I'll be back after you've fallen asleep so don't wait up"

"Where are you going?"

"Out, remember Anya? She wants me to go to a club with her"

"Is this like.. a.. you know"

"What, a date? Lord, no, I doubt Anya would want that after what happened"

"Which is?"

"Her boyfriend was the captain of the SKELD"

"And..."

"He died, Ashley"

"Oh! Oh, Lord, is she alright?"

"I hope so. I think that's why she wanted to go out in the first place, to help distract her from it"

"I see. Well, goodnight"

"Goodnight"

As they were talking, Dylan had been getting dressed. He wore an old band shirt, and a pair of jeans. He quickly headed outside and into his car.

When he made it to Anya's house, he found her standing outside, which was the first shock. She stood. She stood on two legs, but holding a cane. Her outfit was also noteworthy, a dark blue cropped turtleneck, paired with baggy jeans.

She walked around the front of the car, her posture curved slight forwards and her walk slightly clumsy. She opened the door to the passenger seat and climbed in

"Hey", she greeted.

"Anya, your leg-", Dylan started.

"Yeah? It's fake. Have you never heard of a prosthetic? I wasn't planning on spending the rest of my days in a wheelchair"

"Makes sense"

"What, did you think it magically grew back?"

"I was just confused"

"I wish, I wish. Anyway, you know the way to the club, right?"

"Yeah, it's down that way"

About ten minutes later, Dylan parked outside the club. The loud music from inside boomed, the echo heard throughout the whole parking lot.

The two got out of the car, and wakled to the club. It was a brick building, with large windows. Inside, there was smoke, and a red strobe light. Outside there was a man in a black outfit, probably a bouncer.

"Good evening, do you have your admission tickets?", he asked

"Right here" Anya dug the tickets out of her bag and showed them.

Along with the tickets, she also handed him her ID. The bouncer took a look, then turned to Dylan.

"Could I see your ID too, sir?", he requested.

"I'm flattered", Dylan joked.

He pulled his driver's license out of his pocket and handed it to the bouncer, who checked it quickly before handing back IDs and tickets.

"That's perfect, have a good time", he confirmed, waving towards the door.

Dylan and Anya walked in. There was a small lobby, with lockers and coat racks, where the two both hung up their jackets. They then got into the club area itself.

There was a large dance floor, and a stage. On the stage, stood a DJ with their booth. There was also a bar area to the left. It wasn't too crowded, but definitely not empty. Most of the people were young women.

"What do you want to do?", Dylan turned towards Anya.

"Well, I don't know if you had guessed it already, but I can't dance", Anya joked, lifting her cane for a moment. "I'm not going to lie, I was originally just coming to hang out and drink. So, wanna just sit at one of these tables ?"

"Alright, that sounds good to me"

The two sat down at a booth. She tossed her bag next to her and started digging through it.

"You don't mind if I smoke, do you?", she asked

"No, you do you", he replied. She pulled a cigarette out from its pack and a lighter. She lit the end, took a breath, and then held it between two fingers.

"I didn't know you were a smoker", Dylan pointed out. Anya shrugged

"You know now, I guess" , she replied, a puff of smoke coming out of her lips

Soon a waiter came, and the two both ordered drinks. As soon as the waiter had left, Dylan realized something

"Wait, are you sure you should be drinking?", he asked. Anya scrunched her brows, confused.

"What do you mean?", she questioned

"The medication you're on, are you sure you should be drinking with that?"

"I think I have control over my own meds, Dylan. Don't worry about me"

"If you say so"

As the night went by, the two were sitting at that booth, hanging out. It was slightly awkward, however, finding something to talk about that wasn't a horrible memory. Despite work, the two never met before the SKELD. So they settled for small talk about the news, the weather, and whatever generic topics came to mind

About two hours later, another woman approached the booth. She wore a short skirt, with black hair running down her dark skin. She was clearly drunk; her face was flushed and her walk was unsteady.

"Anya?", she asked, her speech a little slurred.

Anya quickly stood up, surprised.

"Cat?", Anya greeted back.

"I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Me neither! Oh my god, how have you been?"

"I've been good, thanks! You?"

"Eh, you know"

"I saw on the news, yeah... that's awful"

"Um.. who are you?", Dylan asked.

"Right. Uh, Dylan, this is Cat. She was in med school with me. Cat, this is Dylan, he's my friend", Anya quickly introduced the two.

"Oh. Hi, Cat"

She didn't reply. She looked Dylan up and down, judgemental. He quickly caught onto the hint that the two women probably wanted to be left alone.

There's two of them. They'll be alright

"I'll leave you two to reconnect". Dylan stood up. "If you need anything, I'll be at the bar. If you see any creeps, just leg it"

Anya raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, Anya, it's a figure of speech", Dylan shrugged her off.

"I don't get it", Cat crooked her head slighly sideways, confused.

"We have a lot to catch up on", Anya laughed.

"Anyway, just.. head out? I don't know, I'm sure you got this", Dylan

He then picked up his glass and left for the bar. He sat down on a barstool and spun his glass slightly, just to see the drink move around in the glass.

It had been about another hour. At this point, it was getting late. Dylan checked the time. 12:53AM.

I think it's time to head back now, he thought.

He got up, and headed back to the booth where he had left Anya and Cat. Except when he got there, neither of them were there. He looked around, but Anya wasn't there. Her purse was still on the seat, however. He picked it up, and started to look around. Nothing.

Maybe she's just in the lobby?

He headed out to the lobby. The door to the women's restroom was open, and there was a large amount of smoke coming from the inside. There was also a group of women, all crowded around one open stall, holding glass pipes with circle ends. Inside the circle ends, were small piles of white crystals

There was a girl kneeling over the toilet, coughing and gagging, while another was holding back her brown hair. There was a cane leaning on the wall outside the stall. And that's what helped him realize who the girl inside was.

"Anya!", he called out.

Two of the girls quickly blocked the doorway.

"Um, do you mind?", one of them argued back.

As she spoke, more of the smoke came out of her mouth.

"That girl in there, she's my friend, I was going to take her home", he rapidly explained.

"Yeah, right", another girl argued. "You should be disgusted with yourself"

"What? I'm giving her a ride home, it's late"

"We both know full well you're not taking her home, you pervert!"

"Pervert? Me? Why- oh! Oh, Lord, no, I could never do anything like that"

"That's what they all say. Why don't you go crawling back to whatever cave you came from?"

In the meantime, Anya had turned around. She didn't seem to see Dylan, though, the other girls blocked her view. She reached for her cane and tried to push herself onto her feet again, unsuccessfully.

That's when Dylan saw her hands. Her fingertips had a weird blue-ish hue. It seemed as if the girls only now realized that this was more serious than just a young woman like themselves having a little too much to drink.

"Anya, what's wrong?!", Dylan loudly called out

"Dylan..", she mumbled, now noticing him. "It's okay, let him come here.."

The girls reluctantly moved to the side, letting Dylan in. He crouched next to Anya, propping her back up so she was sitting upright.

"What happened?", he asked her.

"It's.. its alright, Dylan. Don't.. worry about me", she whispered, slurring her words.

Her breathing was very slowed. And besides speaking, she didn't move a single muscle. She sat motionless against Dylan's arm. And it was as if it finally clicked, as if everything suddenly made sense.

"Anya... your meds, this isn't just some kind of undesired side effect, is it?"

Defeated, cornered in her lie, she weakly shook her head.

"I.. I may have.. taken a few too many", she whispered.