Pell was lost, alone, and lonely until Arc appeared. Fiery, enigmatic, with a mesmerizing cybernetic eye, Arc was everything Pell needed, wanted, and most of all, desired.

The next time Pell saw Arc the eye wasn't the only thing artificial about her new lover. And the time after that, and the time after that: each time the passionate and mysterious Arc drifted into her life, Pell saw more and more of her being replaced by refined and precise machinery and with each departure of her natural body for the artificial, Pell grew more and more terrified.

One day, she knew, there'd be nothing left of her lover but the cold, the engineered, the bionic.

Pell knew what she had to do, but the end, when it came, was worse than she ever could have imagined.