Sasha Wire

Art by Sharon Oh

Dark Matters Director

Harley Kaner as Sasha in the Murderous Mask Live Show

—Sasha Wire[src]

**Sasha Wire** was a childhood friend of Juno Steel and Mick Mercury, but they have drifted apart over the years. These days she works with Dark Matters to save the galaxy.

## Early Life

Sasha lived in Oldtown with Mick and Juno. When she was 13, she and her friends put her little sister Annie through a series of trials meant to frighten and humiliate her, which ended with Annie's disappearance. Sasha blamed herself for the death of her sister.

At the end of high school, Sasha applied to become a police officer, because she wanted to be someone that people could call when they needed help, unlike the police officers who had vandalized her parents' restaurant and assaulted her fathers.

## History

Sasha speaks to her old friend Juno for the first time since their falling out 15 years ago in order to warn him that a threat made to him has just been found at the scene of Croesus Kanagawa's murder, claiming that the killer is coming for him next. She sends Rex Glass to accompany Juno to investigate Kanagawa's murder, much to Juno's chagrin. After the murder is solved and Rex privately reveals his true identity as Peter Nureyev, Juno calls Sasha to inform her of his betrayal, but refuses to elaborate further, hanging up on her.

Juno next sees Sasha on the 25th anniversary of the day her sister disappeared in Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 1). Juno, Sasha, and Mick are all mysteriously present at the same bar where Annie's trials started all those years ago, and they are soon put through a version of the trials themselves by what first appears to be Annie herself. Sasha attempts to call her mentor and superior at Dark Matters, Agent Burgess, for backup, but he explains that he cannot reach them thanks to an unprecedented sandstorm that has caused a lockdown of Oldtown's protective dome.

Upon reaching the end of the third trial alive, it is revealed that Agent Burgess set the entire day up as a test for Sasha and that she passed with flying colors. Juno is furious and Mick is too injured to react, but Sasha has kept her head throughout. Burgess leaves after congratulating Sasha on her promotion to sub-director, replacing him in the position. Juno, livid, attempts to follow him but is stopped by Sasha. He accuses her of still being on Burgess' side after everything he has put them through, but Sasha rebukes him by calling Juno out on his selfishness and the fact he has made her sister's death into a story about himself. She leaves, speaking to Mick on her way out with a promise to call him and a request that he look after Juno, which Juno takes as a low blow.

She reappears in season 3 as Director W, one of the highest, if not the highest rank in Dark Matters and tries to retrieve 2 Class-X-Radical objects from the crew of the Carte Blanche. She tries to trick Juno into trusting her and spread mistrust among the members of the family. Underestimating Juno’s ability to grow and his bond with his family leads to her capture by the Aurinko's. However, she manages to turn this around when the Aurinko's cannot find the Ruby Seven and Dark Matter come to her rescue. Having taken Buddy, Vespa and Rita captive she also tries to shoot and kill Juno during a hostage exchange, destroying the Curemother Prime in the process.

After Juno escapes it is revealed that she has captured all of the Aurinko family and plans to use them for her own gain. She tricks an imprisoned Rita into erasing all evidence that Sasha Wire ever existed, and leaving her to die in the explosion of the asteroid containing all the physical remaining aspects of her past life. Rita is then later rescued in the nick of time by Juno and Puck Falco, and all three of them escape just as the asteroid explodes behind them.

She is also revealed to have sent Buddy, Vespa and Jet to the Aurinko Permanent Corrections Facility, a prison built by Buddy’s father with the intent of brainwashing and inflicting psychological torture on all its residents. When Juno infiltrates the prison it is discovered that Sasha plans to execute Jet live on camera, in a demonstration attempt to stop space crime for good. In the meantime, she keeps him drugged on Neotoxins, altering his mental state and initiating the return of Jet’s maniacal state, or, ‘The Unnatural Disaster’.

When the day of Jet’s execution arrives, Juno and Vespa, disguised as guards, escort Sasha and a monstrous Jet to the podium. She taunts Sequiliak with a bottle of Neotoxins, placing it under her shoe and concealing it from the cameras, on which he appears to be lunging towards her. She then reveals she knows of Juno and Vespa’s presence, urging them to execute Sequiliak themselves in return for wiping the criminal records of the rest of the Aurinko Crime Family, as a display of the efficiency of her new “Rehabilitation” program. However her plan fails when the prisoners, spurred on by Buddy, momentarily riot, and the courtyard fills with a thick fog. In the chaos, Buddy, Vespa, Juno, Jet and Rita escape the prison.

Their paths cross one final time when the remaining Aurinkos sneak into the containment facility housing the Carte Blanche. They threaten to blow up the ship and all the confiscated cargo, unless Dark Matters clears their criminal records and leaves them in peace. After some negotiation, Sasha arrives and asks for a meeting with Juno, and agrees to his terms that his family leaves first. Sasha explains that she only joined Dark Matters to help people, and that to help people she had to ‘become more than just a person’, explaining why she tried to erase her past. She eventually tires of this however, and asks Juno to play his last remaining card. She is horrified when that card is revealed to be the cure for radiation sickness, now available to everyone for pennies and effectively ruining the profits of all 4 big megacorporations, such as the Solar and Fresh Starts corps. Juno tells her that they used the Curemother Prime to make this, and then gives her a choice: Let the Aurinko family go free and clear, or they would continue to ruin the profits of the big corps. Sasha reluctantly agrees, but attempts to shoot Juno. He is prepared for this, however, and is saved by the Ruby 7. However, Sasha orders Dark Matters to fire on the ship, believing she has failed as a Director. She tells Juno she intends to kill all 3 of them, for the benefit of Dark Matters. Juno eventually escapes with the Ruby, and he gives Jet the signal to blow up the Carte Blanche, with Sasha still inside.

## Personality

Sasha is intelligent, highly ambitious, and deadly. Mick describes her as the "cool" one of their trio. Juno has noted that of the people from Hyperion City, Sasha is the kind that is "smart enough to leave."

After the events of Juno Steel and the Day that would not die (Part 2) she leaves Mars to "take care of the problem" with her former boss Agent Burgess as well as her employer Dark Matters, which she apparently did since she reappears in Season 3 as Director W, who is more calculated and cold than Sasha Wire of Season 1.

Sasha did not have an easy childhood in Hyperion City and decided to become a police officer to change the things that went wrong with the police when she grew up. Her personality and abilities got her into Dark Matters, the special secret service that operates outside of the Solar Government System. Sasha believes in the "greater good" though she does not agree with the ways Dark Matters does things. Through her discipline she eventually rises through the ranks and starts changing the organisation from within. This seems to have been rather successful. Though it is implied that meanwhile she has gone through things that her and scarred her at least mentally if not physically.

She believes that she is doing the "right thing" even if this involves to betray her former childhood friend Juno and torture or kill the members of the Aurinko Crime Family. Further she has no regard for her subordinates as she disposes of Agent G by killing them in cold blood for making a mistake at work.

Sasha can be seen as a kind of opposite to Juno, who experienced the same childhood and youth and also joined police, due to his personal ideals. Sasha, however, does not share Juno's innate depressions, which might be the reason she is always head of him. As of season 3 she does not show any vulnerability, seem to have no people in her life she can open up to and completely lost touch with her humanity.

## Abilities

Sasha has shown great proficiency with acting under pressure.

She is at least somewhat skilled in first aid and seems to be a good shot, although Juno notes that she grips her gun incorrectly.

## Relationships

### Juno Steel

Together with Mick Mercury, Juno and Sasha grew up together in one of the poorest areas of Hyperion City, Oldtown. While they were kids, they often visited the Pour n' Floor Bar as well as the local playplace, Faust's Funworld. While the two seem genuinely fond of each other, Sasha has commented that she disapproves of Juno's self-aggrandizing and self-sacrificing tendencies. When Sasha revealed that she was applying to the Hyperion City Police academy after they graduated, Juno revealed that he had as well, explain that he had already turned in his application and that his essay had focused on the same ideas Sasha's did, primarily how people deserve to have someone to call when they're in trouble who will really help them. Neither had told the other two up until that point, fearing that they would be mad at them for leaving Oldtown.

As of season 3 their relationship has changed as they find themselves at opposite sides of the law. Sasha has become a "super-cop" as Director of Dark Matters and Juno has joined the Aurkino Crime Family. Though Sasha tries to use Juno and his apparent affection for her for her goals, she also seems to have at least a little bit of affection for him left. She states that Juno being around (and angry) is a familiar and assuring feeling. Regardless (or because of that?) she tries to shoot and kill Juno shortly after, but he is saved by the Cure-Mother prime and escapes.

### Mick Mercury

Mick has described himself as the leader of the Trio, his name for the group he, Juno, and Sasha formed as kids. Sasha is often exasperated with Mick's tendency to come up with elaborate stories, often about urban legends or monsters, not nearly as amused by it as Juno often is. When she told him she was leaving Oldtown to join the police academy after they graduated high school, Mick's first impulse was to follow she and Juno there and join himself, but he realized that it would not be a good fit for him and instead decided to let his friends go do what was best for themselves, even if it would be without him.

As adults in season 1 we see that Sasha cares for Mick, despite of them having gone very different paths. She even seems to consider him to be more stable than Juno, since she asks him to take care of him before she leaves Hyperion City.

## Episode Appearances

* Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask Update (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask Update (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 1)
 Season 2* Juno Steel and the Lesson Learned (Part 1) (Mentioned)
* Juno Steel and the Long Way Home (Part 1) (Mentioned)
 Season 3* Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 2)
 Bonus/Other
* The Penumbra Podcast Live!: Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous Mask
* The Rita Minute 3: Happy Birthday, Mista Steel!
* Mick Mercury and the Night Before

## Trivia

* Sasha has been confirmed by the official podcast Twitter to have "BDE."
* "Wire," like "Steel" was chosen for the large number of noir characters with "object" surnames.
* Sasha is the daughter of Hanuuman (Outer Rim) immigrants.
* In Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 1), a voice recreation of Annie Wire says she is going to tell 'Mom' on Sasha. In Mick Mercury and the Night Before, Sasha is said to have two fathers, both of whom were assaulted by police officers after Sasha and Juno Steel called to report a robbery. There are four apparent possibilities:
	+ This is a retcon
	+ Sasha and Annie's parents are polyamorous, and only their fathers and not their mother were assaulted by the police
	+ Sasha's parents were divorced sometime between Annie's disappearance and Sasha's final year of high school, and her father remarried to a man
	+ One of Sasha's parents transitioned
* Sasha is cisgender, according to this tweet from Harley Tagaki Kaner. While Tagaki Kaner plays other roles, it seems likely they were referring to Sasha.

## References

1. ↑ Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 1)
2. ↑ Mick Mercury and the Night Before
3. ↑ Juno Steel and the Day That Wouldn't Die (Part 2)
4. ↑ Sophie Kaner Tweet, 12 November 2019