It takes a few minutes to back track and a few more to get down to the basement where a modern geothermal station has been installed, and our intel says a data center has also been placed. A part of me wants to see a room full of people in tanks just to justify the murder I’ve been doing today.

We get to the room where the data center is supposed to be and I see Harlow tuning up a woman in a lab coat tied to a chair. My anger instantly flares and reach in my pocket for a caramel. Griz checks my hand by grabbing my elbow. Wrong time to touch me, buddy.

[Triggered Action] activates and I draw my .38 and jab it into his neck with enough force to bruise. He coughs when my perception and speed begin to slow.

/I was reaching for caramels to calm down, jackass. Let. Go./

He does and I slip a candy in my mouth, allowing the emotion slip away from me with [Mechanical Calm]. With the pair of Talents, I lose a significant chunk of stamina nearly at once and I can feel the warning of not trying to do that again for a while. I take a few steps back but keep my pistol trained on the veteran and draw my other one just in case.

After an hour of watching Harlow torture the woman, I jam another data recovery device into the fancy-looking computer, then hit the woman over the back of the head with a gun.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Harlow growls.

“Ending whatever this was? This was supposed to be an abduction, right? So lets get out of here. We’ve been here too long.”

Harlow looks pissed and his hands are twitching as though he’s about to draw. I hover my own pistols, waiting to see what he does.

“Not the place for this, Harlow.” Tennison warns.

Harlow curses under his breath, then starts cutting the researcher from the chair. He hands her off to Denning and storms out of the room, Denning follows after.

“That was not the smartest thing you could have done, Novarro.”

“Says they guy who couldn’t trust me with a pack of caramels. Did you think I was going to turn on you guys? Do you know how fucked that feels when I’m trying to find reasons to trust you, to see you’ve completely abandoned your trust in me?” At least he looks guilty for making me feel like that.

The device beeps, I stow it in my ring and march back toward the door we entered through. No one says anything as we load back up, Jamie and Waller look at us all a few times then shrug. When we get a couple of hundred meters away, explosions rock the building and it collapses into a cloud of concrete dust.

There was so much that I wasn’t told about this mission and it has cemented that I’ll never work with Harlow or Tennison again. A shame for sure, since I was starting to like the scarred veteran. We get back to the Motel room and I can tell Harlow is fuming. I summon both data extractors and place them on the cheap table.

“Griz told me you used the extractor early.”

“Yeah, and then I bought another one, and used it on the servers while you were torturing that woman.”

“I was interrogating her, you should know the difference.” Harlow barked, “just like you should follow orders!”

“You looked like you were punishing her, like you were enjoying yourself. And my orders were never to kill everyone and ask no questions. There are so many fishy things about this mission, that I wondered for a second if you’d briefed us on the wrong mission. Seems like you just fucking lied.”

“Why do you even care, you’re here for the level. You’re not part of the team, you’re just a gun for hire. You don’t ‘deserve’ to know more than you’re told.” He sneers.

I look around the room, and only Tennison meets my eyes. I look back to Harlow and see the bastard smirk. It must have chafed him awful to have Marcella force this on him, but it’s still no excuse to be acting this petty and to risk me bugging out mid mission.

I take a deep breath. “You’re right, I should have kept my eye on why I’m here. And since you all agree I’m not a part of the team.” Three men reach for their weapons, but I growl out “[Pass Judgement]” before they can.

A flash of yellow fills the room and all of us freeze in motion, but I can see eyes flicking about as message fill my view.

/No Settlement nearby.

/Job commission Entity and on-site Adjudicator Standards will be used for issue resolution.

/Dishonest practice confirmed. Misleading and/or omission of mission details present.

/Killing for personal gain possible, but unconfirmed. Follow-on missions would need to be resolved before a conclusion can be reached.

/Betrayal partially confirmed. Only two team members were in a position of trust, information, and responsibility.

/Dishonest practice is viewed as a minor crime in the region. A fine, would be appropriate.

/Killing for personal gain was not confirmed and will not be tallied.

/Betrayal is a capitol crime in the eyes of the contractor. Death would be appropriate. As the victim and Judge, you may commute the sentence as prescribed by the law of the land.

Can’t we just put a personal mark of dishonor on them, then limit their Exchange access and dock their stats for a few months?

/Mark of Betrayal – you have abused the trust of someone that you held responsibility for, in the interest of personal gain.

/Exchange access limited to rations and foodstuffs only for 1 year.

/Reduce physical and mental stats by one grade for 6 months.

/This punishment is in lieu of death and may set a precedent in the region. Do you wish to continue with sentencing?

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Sounds good. That’ll cross them up for at least six months but if their team sticks together, they should still be able to manage.

The room flashes yellow again and I sink to my knees as a massive amount of aether disappears from my body. I look up to find that Harlow is lying face first in the short carpet, Jamie and Waller are dazed and breathing heavily, but awake. Tennison is also passed out on the floor.

“What the fuck was that?!” Jamie shouts.

“Judgement Magic. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” I grab the edge of the table and wobble to my feet while searching for my suitcase-bike. I stumble to the case and drag it and myself to the door.

“I’d prefer not to deal with any of you for a while.” I see Dennings head poke up from behind the bed when I look back. I scoot through the door as quickly as I’m able in case the big man decides to start shooting at me.

On my race back home I’m tempted to check the results of my last two days, but I have a feeling I’m close to level 16.

If you wanted to confirm it, you should have killed the researcher. Although, using your judgement Talent on five people at the same time should have done the trick.

Alright, guess the plan is to go home, message Danielle and clean myself up.

***

As soon as I get to my suite, the waterworks begin. Now that I finally feel like I’m in a safe place I let the hurt of Tennison’s actions, and Jamie’s silence, bubble up to the surface. I feel shame and anger, loss and envy. Did I do something wrong? Did I contribute to why Grizzly didn’t trust me enough to be strait with me? He seemed scared when my magic manifested, that’s when he came as clean as he thought he could. Maybe it’s magic he doesn’t trust?

Who the fuck does Harlow think he is to take his frustrations with Marcella out on me? The bastard is lucky I didn’t just kill the researcher and leave him to fucking spin in his lies. Jamie, some show of affection there, bitch. You looked guilty as fuck when Harlow admitted to keeping me in the dark on purpose.

The loss of a person I thought could be a friend hits me again. Not as bad as when I lost Belle, as the relationship was different, but it sucks that these so-called friends of mine seem to be trying to teach me not to trust anyone. I feel like my whole life has been living like that and, and I don’t want that for myself.

I scream into the hot spray of water, the volume overwhelming in the stone-tiled enclosure, but it drowns out my other emotions for a moment, so physical pain is almost welcome. I continue that until I’m tired and my throat hurts, until I don’t need mechanical calm to help drain my emotions.

\You okay up there Kimber? You’re yelling loud enough for it to carry.\

/Sorry, Marci, it’s been a fucking day. Does Daniella have her sensing suit here or back at her clinic at Warram? I’m ready to ascend to t-1./

\That’s fantastic! Dani does have a suit here, we bought one and billed it to the settlement. For the hospital to keep of course.\

/That’s fine. Tell her I have some funds to replace what’s gone missing, but nothing frivolous please./

\Alright, cool. She says she can do tonight or the morning, which do you prefer?\

/Morning. I need to decompress from the last mission./

\I can come up and talk if you want.\

/Thanks, sis, but maybe tomorrow./

I want to feel healthy and steady for my tier up, but rested might be as good as I get this time. I think this calls for a nice meal in the garden, and maybe a drink in the hot-tub until I get all prune-y. That sounds great. I order up penne with vodka sauce that sounds delightful, and some aether infused stuffed mushrooms. Oh, that reminds me, I need to check my saturation percentage.

Hmm, I can probably get to one hundred percent safely by midmorning tomorrow. Some ciders from Summer Stills, and a breakfast platter from Summer Farms in the morning, all aether-rich Astorian products that are only slightly above ration prices. Not that it matters that much when I’m making thousands of credits a month.

It’s funny to think that I didn’t think much about niceties when I was at the orphanage, I was too busy trying to find stuff to sell so I could feed the little grubs that Belle took care of. Not sure I’ll ever forget the blessing that a hot shower is, but now I have more than enough food at my disposal and often bemoan the amount I have to eat to get the body shape I want to progress into for my ascension tomorrow.

I pull on some board shorts, order some ciders and slide my half naked self into the hot tub. Normally I would still put something on top, but I’m drained and can’t be assed to effort more. The moment I set my drink back on the deck, I get a call from Zia.

\You have time for a holochat?\

/For you I do./

I agree and a picture of Zia lying on her bed in a lion onesie is absolutely charming. Some feeling leaks back into my chest, causing me to smile as she twirls the fuzzy tail in her long fingers.

“Hey Zee, cute onesie. Do you have a collection?”

She smiles at me and my belly flutters, “Maaaaybe. Mom started it when I started getting frustrated with shapeshifting, and I never grew out of the habit.”

“Did that result into your first shift as a fluffy unicorn plush or something.” Even through the desaturated image, I can see that she’s blushing.

“Don’t be mean, or I’ll hang up.”

She is so cute, Empress help me find the strength. “Not making fun, I would cuddle the hell of a plushie Zia.”

“We’ll see what happens if you’re tier 1 before you get here.” She spins back at me with some sass on it.

“I’ll have you know, I should get tier 1 tomorrow. And when I see your Mom, I’ll just ask for my provisional citizenship to be upgraded.”

The elven woman pulls the lion mane over her face and squeals while kicking her feet. “That’s so exciting!!”

“How is it that you’re almost as excited as I am?” I chuckle.

“Kimber, are you making fun of me again?”

“Maybe a little. You’re being such a goof about this.” I chuckle and sip my cider.

“It’s just, I had some issues with . . . us, and you basically took care of it before your visit. Feels kind of like you did that for me, and well, it feels really nice.” She peeks out of her hood to see my reaction, and I’m grinning ear to ear.

“I may have taken a few missions on top of my projects. The motivation of kisses was too hard to pass up.”

She rolls up to her knees and plants her puffy paws on her hips with a frown on her face—lion ears bouncing as she settles into the pose. “Kimber Novarro, if you are only focused on my looks, this is not going to work for me.”

“Now who’s being a doofus? I wanted to cuddle and kiss you well before we started Holochatting. It may just be my messed up brain thinking that’s what supposed to happen with the person you’re closest with. The fact that I know the shape of the pouty lip I want to nibble is just a bonus.”

That gets her smile back, I’m sure it was false indignation in the first place, but I don’t mind telling her that I like our banter more than her noble cheekbones and her spade-shaped ears.

“You are incorrigible!” She protests with a beaming smile. She quirks her head and stares at me. “What are you doing right now?”

“Uhh, chatting with you and having a cider?”

“Mmhmm, and where are you doing that?”

“In my terrace hot tub, why?”

“Because I don’t see any straps, young lady.”

“Oh my god, I live alone, you prude. If it was tomorrow evening, would you still be protesting or wishing I would stand up?” I quirk an eyebrow. She hides her face. Thought so.

“I’m hoping to get a few minor physical changes, and a Track shift, but I hear the latter is pretty rare.”

“Shifts and Focuses are more common than a full track change. Significant changes of any kind require an inciting incident of some kind. My Track is more Ranger-like than it used to be as I spend so much time with the culling of hordes on Elysium. You told me about the meeting where you killed a settlement owner, has there been something else?”

I nod, empty my current drink and slide a hand over my head. “Some team-members on the mission I was on basically fooled me into doing stuff I would have refused to do if I was properly briefed. Then, the team lead had the audacity to berate me from going off-plan. Effectively told me to collect my xp and go home. So I used my Talent [Pass Judgement] on the lot of them. I got more xp, they got a sentence enforced by the System. As bad as it sounds, it felt good to punish those guys for their actions.”

“Being able to act on behalf of the Matrix is rare and powerful, Kimber. I’d be reluctant to shift away from that.”

“I kinda figured that, but I’d been mostly involved with contract work before that moment and did not care much for it. So if the Judgement magic could focus more on a trial of behaviors and code, I would like that much more than being a lie detector that shuffles paper all day.”

“That sounds an awful like you want to be a fancy cop with Matrix magic.”

“I don’t hate that idea. Get justice and closure for people that have been abused or taken advantage of? I would definitely do that. Also crucify all the perverts.”

“You had me until the last part. Is it time for fussy Kimber to go beddy bye?”

“Says the girl lying on her bed in PJs.”

“Yes, I should have been asleep hours ago, but I’m too excited to see you.”

“You’re adorable. But you’re right. I should head to bed. G’night Zee, I’ll see you in a few days.”

“Night Little Nova.” She cut the feed and I smile at the dopey look I’m going to have when I see her in person.