Location: Ishikawa family main base

Date: Year 2127 Month 12 Day 12

Irene Croft left the meeting room of the Ishikawa family. She had just finished negotiating with the head of the family and the new head of the Yamamoto. In the end they agreed that half the ships will go to her and the other half to the gangsters.

Considering she was promising to be the main force of the assault it seemed only fair to her that she would be getting the larger portion.

She moved through a waiting area as she made her way towards a jamming room where someone was waiting for her.

Noticing a familiar face, Irene paused.

It was one of the men she saved, his irises were so dark that they blended with his pupils. It made it hard to tell where he was looking.

Perceiving her, those black orbs turned in her direction. He nodded towards her, and his gaze returned to the holo screen by the wall.

The waiting area they were in was outside the Ishikawa’s cyberdoc’s operating room. Most likely he was waiting for the blue haired woman he seemed so attached to.

It was cute how the man went from brooding to content whenever the babbling woman showed up.

Irene couldn’t help but think what sort of expression he would make if someone killed the woman.

Not that she wanted for it to happen.

On the contrary, Irene wished the two of them happiness.

Her gaze shifted to the holo screen the man was observing.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

What her eyes saw made her frown.

It was the news.

In the holo screen a reporter with long blonde hair was speaking. Behind her there were a multitude of cramped hospital beds. They were occupied by all kinds of people.

She listened to what the reporter was announcing.

“This is now the 90th arcology whose water supply has been confirmed to be sabotaged. While mostly non lethal, the death count has been steadily rising. The most recent casualty report shows the victims to be in the millions- “

Irene stopped listening.

The plan had been to denounce the event as a terrorist attack and move in the army to secure the backbone of the American economy. With corpo security being out of commission due to the poisoning, taking over the arcologies with force became possible.

However, the entirety of the army was now being deployed to the spaceport to fight off Paragon. If they managed to take it, the US would be forced to surrender.

Those people in the arcologies were suffering for nothing.

And it was all that man’s fault.

The one she hated.

Aries Drach.

Irene knew it was not his hands who had hurt her.

He probably didn’t even know she used to be a test subject in one of the many facilities the corpos controlled.

Some would say that her revenge had been complete when she killed the scientists that experimented on her body. Or when she had burned down the black site in which they kept her.

But she will not rest until he suffers the same despair she did, when she was forcibly ripped apart and rebuilt into a cold machine. She remembered how the scientists who had cut her laughed at her tears.

To allow such atrocities to be inflicted on her was unforgivable.

His hands had not hurt her, but they were soaked in her blood.

And nothing else mattered.

She did not care how many people would have to suffer for her revenge to be complete.

Irene would bear all the sorrow of the world if need be.

But if their deaths were for nothing, then of course she would agonize over their fates. What kind of person would she have to be to feel nothing?

It was her who gave the order to poison the arcologies.

This was her fault.

She was a monster.

A monster.

Monster.

Monster!

Irene took a deep breath and reminded herself.

This was that man’s fault.

The blood of those people was on his hands.

Yes.

It was not her fault.

After having regained her composure, she walked the rest of the way towards the jamming room.

Inside the room a redhead lay sprawled on a couch.

When Irene entered the redhead jumped off the couch and rushed to hug her. "Irene! It's been so long since we last saw each other."

Irene Croft smiled and hugged her back, "It has been a while, Revy.”