It took most of his willpower to not throw his hand up at the pain. The pain was horrendous. Though it was quite obvious why, someone was stabbing and burning a hole through his exospine and skin. Despite his endurance, he let off a low groan, not being able to stop his face from flinching.
“Ah, sorry about that,” Eliza blurted out loud, shifting to look him in the face with a worried glance, before blowing on the afflicted area. She injected healing-stims and rubbing cooling-gel onto his back. “Would you like me to stop?”
“No,” Kazuki stated, placing a hand to his throbbing head. Eliza nodded, continuing the repairs and reinforcements on his exospine. He’s been through worse, this won’t change anything. “There’s no point in half-assing it.”
Synthia continued to project her analysis out for Eliza to look at. Kazuki felt the components and vertabraes of his exospine shift back and forth slightly. ‘You missed the component by a mere nano-inch, don’t beat yourself over that, Miss Elizabeth.’
Kazuki nodded to Synthia. Eliza murmured, “Yeah... I know.”
She nodded, her hair tied up to ensure it didn’t get in the way of the delicate procedure. Leon and Osmond escaped through the blizzard. What should be a typical defeat has, however, born fruit. With their HQ destroyed, they’ll be forced to make a move. And all they have to do is intercept them; though for now: he must recover.
“You really need to look after yourself, you know?” Eliza said, “I mean, one day I won’t be able to fix it anymore.”
A solemn lull in the conversation permeated between the two.
“I know”, Kazuki said, breaking the silence. He knows far too well. The injuries he sustained were minimal, but she was right. “Luckily, that day won’t come.”
Eliza grumbled slowly, shaking her head. “Your cybernetics... Kaz… do you know anything about them?”
“Hmm?” Kazuki glanced back at her, only for her to shift his head back forward. “Yeah? I already told you of the base functionality. It’s just an incredibly advanced Stimulant-Based Netic.”
“Then what were the spare parts for?” Eliza started, then found something difficult to say… “They… didn’t match the configuration of the rest of your exospine… in fact, it looked like components to some other types of exospines. Is… are you sure it’s just a Stimulant-Based Medinetic?”
Was it? Kazuki shook his head. “My exospine was made for several purposes. Claire, Rivera and Martinez noted War-gear and Telecommunication Gear.”
She brightly responded, “So your exospine is an Aux-type! We… if I can get them strapped to your components, it’d help you massively!”
The offer was good, yes… “The components are incomplete, a few are missing. That’s why I kept it Stim-Based. Rivera’s a techie with this stuff, she fixed it up a few times. Her experience repairing MAELSTROM and Theonar Vessels in the Expanse helped.”
He’s read her dossier long ago. Daughter of an Ithiran family, family spent thousands of years repairing vessels - with Rivera eclipsing them all. Rivera had already proven her worth beyond any arm of the Milky Way.
Her face immediately fell back to a depressed state. “Oh… That makes sense… plus, it’d take weeks for me to finish them, I don’t think you’d like that, would you?”
“No.”
Eliza tried to chuckle through her suggestion. She must think it was awkward… It wasn’t. It was a good one, just not logistically feasible. Providing him with the chassis for both war-gear and communication would allow him direct access to many things. On-the-go Drone control and hacking were on the table, as was a shoulder mounted weapon.
Though that table was far out of reach…
“Your cybernetics, they’re beyond anything that I’ve ever seen before, just who made them?”
Only a genius could have made them, that thought stymied Kazuki’s mind. Dotting the lines, Kazuki might have suspected Eliza’s mother… given how she was a genius on the matter. However, that was impossible. Clandestine gave him his cybernetics, not the Celeste-Delmaras. Though Clandestine… probably not either.
Kazuki answered, “I don’t know. The only suspect is Clandestine.”
“So… they provided their most ingenious invention to the person that’d ruin their empire?” asked Eliza, before chuckling under her breath. “Seems… a little silly, to be honest?”
“No,” Kazuki snapped.
Eliza’s reply was instant, “Huh? What do you mean ‘no’?”
Kazuki placed his hands together, rubbing them slowly. “Jessica Kiki-Louis wanted a successor for Clandestine… She wanted me to fill that role…”
Suddenly, Eliza let off a small chortle. “Wait, what?! But… you were just ten, right?”
“I was placed into the training regiment under Hartius Juun and Freyja Beamont,” Kazuki stated. He knew full well what Jessica wanted… “They were to turn me into a cold blooded killer. It worked… Even in the end, Jessica won.”
“No!” Eliza exclaimed, stopping work on his exospine power port. “No! You won! You were the one that came out on top, right? This…”
Kazuki cut her off, “She won not because she lives, but because she created the perfect successor to her empire.”
“You…”
He nodded. He was the perfect successor for Clandestine, the greatest rebrand. The leadership might be different, but it fills the same role, fighting for the game obese governments. Nothing changed in reality… He guessed thats why many flocked to use his men.
“My cybernetics were merely a stepping stone in her plan… But… I doubt she made them herself.” Kazuki remembered back to the brief moments before he was placed under anaesthesia. His implants looked refined… “Clandestine was famous for being cheap. Do you think people as cheap as them would have splashed out on an investment that’ll only bear fruit in a decade?”
Eliza shook her head. “Still… she must have been playing for the long term, right?”
“Impossible. Clandestine was a public entity. The shareholders would have had Jessica shredded,” Kazuki stated. “To put it bluntly: I don’t know where they come from… I can only suspect Clandestine because of the deal my parents made… Jessica’s archives had nothing on them. Close kept secret.”
“If… this was all part of her masterplan, then why did the Loyalist oppose you?” asked Eliza.
Kazuki stopped in his tracks. He linked the two dots together, yet they were incompatible. He placed a hand up to his face, feeling the bags under his eyes and the chemical scars. “I… don’t know. Svenn wasn’t operating on his own volition… someone had to be behind them, maybe one of the Loyalist backers… but they’re all dead. Archius made sure of that. And I was more focused on beating Svenn…”
“You won though,” remarked Eliza, giving him a comforting smile, it did nothing to hide away any of Kazuki’s thoughts. He glanced at her, that is the face he must protect… If Kazuki loses his mind, he might start thinking Eliza was Victoria. “You beat Svenn and his Loyalists, I’m sure we’ll find the answer later on, or perhaps we could ask one of the defected Loyalists?”
“Tried that already.” Kazuki placed his hands together. “Svenn’s smart and cunning. He wouldn’t let an opportunity like that into my hands, even if he was mind-snared… He was going to win.”
Eliza objected immediately. “Win?! No! You won… he wasn’t going to win…” she trailed off, whispers of hesitation lingering from her lips.
Kazuki shook his head.
“You saved my life. I am thankful for that… But Svenn was going to kill me.” Kazuki closed his eyes, thinking back to the P-2 Incident. “Circumstances make up half of who’s going to win a fight. Svenn whittled me down in an ambush, twice… thrice. Forced me from a state of recovery into an all or nothing gamble.”
Eliza nodded. That much she must know is true, or at least must have inferred or analysed to be so.
“You outskilled him, however,” Eliza said. “You were the better fighter.”
“Yet I still lost thrice,” Kazuki stated. Svenn had him cornered in the sewers. The stalemate on the Skyliner was his defeat. “The other half of winning is skill, yes, but my circumstances and his nullified my skills. I was low on power for most of my fights. Exhausted. He never fought me from the start. Always at the end… When I’m at my most vulnerable.”
Picking up one of the spare battery charges from the table, she held it up to the light in the room. “Well, at least we have more replacements… That should open your opportunities up if you bring a few into combat.”
He nodded. “Claire gave me some. I guess you save them to her?”
Smiling, she said, “Yeah, she was quite worried about it and wanted to bring more but I assured her that they worked, seems like that was enough to convince her. So… were they any good?” She placed the power charge back onto the table.
He nodded. Kazuki thought to himself, remembering the saying that knowing was half the fight, the other part was violence. He held that to be true. Svenn might not have outskilled Kazuki, especially on a full charge, but he knew how to defeat him…
She smiled at his words. She really shouldn’t. Get that damn smile away… His words are simply the truth.
He would have died without her, nothing more. Still, if affirmations made her happy, Kazuki will oblige her.
A lull in the conversation gave way to a moment of thinking. Kazuki could feel Eliza’s eyes on his cybernetics, looking at his exospine. She must be wondering the same trailing thought that he had. Maybe… But it’s impossible.
Silence… Kazuki broke the stalemate. “Eliza, after the gunrunners, we can focus on the investigation.”
She stopped for a moment as she re-fixed components beside each other. Her mind kicked back into gear.
Kazuki could feel her tug out the injector ports and refill his stimulant-exospine’s store capacities. Then, she slowed down, thinking for a moment. “That’s what you said with the Loyalists, Kaz,” mumbled Eliza.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“That I did. But the gunrunners were a matter of importance,” lied Kazuki. He kept one hand in his pockets, slowly shaking as if freezing.
Fuck… He’ll have to get rid of that somehow. He doesn’t want Eliza worrying. Kazuki looked towards a jar of pills on the desk, Halolazil. Perfect.
“May I ask why?”
He paused for a moment, knowing that he’ll have to give a quick answer. Silence is an answer itself. He couldn’t tell her the true answer. It’s an answer he’ll take to his grave; because it’s an admission of his own guilt.
Instead, he gave her the ‘paper’ answer that Archius would have given. “They have ties to the Loyalists. They must be dealt with.”
“—So you’ll bring justice to them?” asked Eliza, somewhat interested as she finished up her work, tidying up the enhancing kit as she placed it on the desk. The cooling gel felt weird, Kazuki thought.
Placing his hands on his shirt, he buttoned it up as he stood up, ensuring that his burns and scars were nicely hidden away. Slowly, he turned around. Justice? Sure, if that’s what she called it. To him, justice was simply a bi-product If he truly wanted justice, he’d have killed half of the Dassant and blackmailed the other half.
There’s no justice here, no matter what his father would say. He’ll kill them all because they opposed him. They nearly killed Eliza. That was his justice, the Contract-Breaker’s justice. And he’ll give it to them.
“Sure.”
Eliza looked displeased at his answer. Even a social idiot like Kazuki could see that. Something was wrong, but he wasn’t Archius, able to understand practically anything with people.
Flicking his uplink on, he activated the hover-board behind his desk. He walked to it, the surface adorned with a thousand lines, posters, dossiers and photos.
She followed him, standing beside him as the two looked at the various pins and lines across an interconnecting web of conspiracies. “Is this?” She trailed off.
Looking at the pins and boards, it was rather barebones to Kazuki, but extensive for anyone else. But there’s still so much blood to spill. Her question was too vague, but he answered the best he could, “For now, yes. Leads are cold.”
“Well, I must say that everything’s quite cold,” murmured Eliza.
Kazuki paused for a moment, then turned towards her with a confused look. She met his confusion with her own. “What?”
“Cold… like Narisa? Get it?” Eliza elaborated, with an awkward face. The revelation raised Kazuki’s brow. He got it, but whether there was any context or subtext, Kazuki didn’t know.
“Oh.”
Something was definitely up with Eliza, Kazuki thought, as she glanced away, placing her hands behind her back. Kazuki caught her twiddling her fingers.
Puns were typically off the table for her. And though it was quite unrefined, he’ll have to just ask her directly. Plus, Kazuki could feel unease from a mile away.
“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” he asked, taking a pill jar of Halolazil and downing a whole palmful of the pills… He felt his hand stiffen in its steadiness. So that’s his answer.
“Eh?” Eliza glanced at Kazuki. He didn’t meet her gaze, instead focusing on the forward and now. He should be using the analyspec, but he’ll save the psychological damage to later. “Oh, please don’t worry about me, I’m just lost in my thoughts,” said Eliza.
“Understood,” said Kazuki. He had no reason to push further. Given everything that had happened this month, and year as a whole up till now, he wouldn’t push her further. She’s been through enough pain already, Kazuki thought.
A light blinked on his uplink, signalling him back to the command deck. It seemed urgent as well. Hmm, Kazuki thought, he’ll have to extrapolate later. His blank face turned away from Eliza, as he walked around the desk. He extended his hand towards the door’s release touch-screen.
“Wait!” Eliza shouted. Kazuki froze, mere inches away from the button. He slowly turned around at her. She looked mildly distressed, pouting in annoyance… Oh great, Kazuki thought, he has no idea what he did now. “Kazuki… I heard some of the others say that this op could have been delegated. I don’t want to sound insensitive, but by any chance are you trying to avoid the investigation?”
Why was it always her to freeze him? He couldn’t tell her the truth, that was off the table. The stress seeped in once again as he straightened his back, feeling the exoskeletal vertebrae slink into place. A second passed as he said nothing. But it was an answer nonetheless.
He could feel his heart beat faster; he couldn’t tell her. Eliza was right, he could have sent someone else to deal with them… Stresses and fears slowly consumed him as he looked to the ground, letting off a small gasp of steam in exhaustion.
“Actually, forget that… I’m sure you have your reasons, Kaz. We all have our own obsessions,” said Eliza. “I guess you prefer to dish out justice with your own hands.”
His contract to Victoria was everything, the only thing keeping him latched onto living. Ulysses, Eliza: both must live. But dread seeped in on the inside. It wasn’t from a particularly strong opponent, nor an upcoming battle or space skirmish, but it lingered. It was all because it came from one entity that he could not entirely control; one factor that Archius could not lay his hands on. It was the only single source that made him worry: Elizabeth.
The moment she learns the truth of what happened, she’ll grow to resent him. Victoria… the station… the detonation. It was all his fault, if only he had tried harder. If only he was better. Guilt crept in as a near decade long crusade of fatigue set in, clouding his mind as he felt the weight of responsibility…
He gritted his teeth, though his face remained unflinching. But through his voice, a spark of life flickered out of his mouth. “The AGENCY is still new, I want to ensure our power base is firmly within my control,” said Kazuki, it wasn’t a lie, but it omitted key details: such as how he already secured the loyalties of his commanders.
Eliza took a step closer to him, gently squeezing his cheek. His face muscles did not respond, as if they were being dragged along.
She gave off a slight smile, stretching his face into a limp smile. “You’re right… that does make sense. But… I need to ask you of another thing.”
“Go on,” Kazuki stated. The Blinking kept coming from the Uplink, but Kazuki merely switched it off.
“Uh…” Eliza pointed to it.
Kazuki shook his head. “If you’re willing to tell me here of all places, it must be important. Right?”
Eliza nodded. “Well… The previous mission. I made promises and… I know that you were going to live, that just seems to be about it but… it feels strange.”
“Being here?” Kazuki asked. “You get used to us.”
“No!” Eliza raised her voice. “Not all of you guys, you’re all amazingly chill people, Lilly included - even if she kicked my arse at the start.”
Kazuki remained silent. Eliza walked up to one of the walls, pressing down on a small lever. A portion of the wall gave way to a sofa. It was more of a bed, to be honest. Embedded into the wall, the bed was had dust on it.
Eliza coughed slightly as she sat down. “You really need to housekeep more oft.”
“Beds are luxuries I do not need,” Kazuki remarked. It seems like this will be something that Eliza needs time explaining.
Kazuki placed his hand on the holographic interface along the table’s centre. He activated several scanners, showing things around the vessel and in the void of space.
The cold, dead planet stared back at him - with the ever more chilling abyss surrounding all of them. It gave Kazuki a… strange feeling. This phenomena was apparently documented by Terra’s first astronauts.
The dread and worry burnt away. He turned back to Eliza. “They’re not escaping. It can wait.”
Eliza nodded, gazing across the various scanners, their screens interlaced with the walls - giving an almost perfect sync of the ship’s exterior. It felt like a mini-observatory, all in the quarters and office of the captain.
“I… It’s a strange feeling, Kaz,” Eliza started. “Just… I always feel worried, I had been worrying for the entire year you were gone… And now you just got captured.”
“And rescued,” Kazuki remarked.
“But captured nonetheless…” Eliza continued. She stopped, taking in a deep breath. Kicking herself off the bed, she wiped dust off the duvet and turned towards the door. “It’s… Sorry, it’s really nothing, we should be…”
She trailed off.
Kazuki sat down on the bed, his head an inch away from the bunk’s ceiling. “I told you, it can wait…” Kazuki was a good killer. A good fighter knows what he can beat and what he cannot. Emotions fall in the latter category. Eliza had a strange face.
Longing.
“Isolation?” Kazuki asked.
Eliza twirled around to face him. Her blood-red eyes stared at his answer…
Did Kazuki get it wrong?
Fuck. He did…?
Eliza smiled slightly, sitting back down next to him. “No hiding it now, right?”
“Nope.” Kazuki was unapologetic. That somehow made Eliza chuckle, just his clear and unremarkable response.
“Thanks, Kaz…”
“I don’t get it.”
That snide comment seemed to have cheered her up even more. What? What. Huh? Kazuki didn’t get it. He… really didn’t get it. Kazuki’s incredibly serious responses seemed to have brightened Eliza’s face.
“You’re surprisingly good at talking when you want to, Kaz,” Eliza remarked. She wrapped one arm around him, patting him on the other arm, before placing her hands together. “I guess you know a bit about isolation? Right?”
Kazuki nodded.
He could only speculate as to what Liz was referring to, with herself.
“It’s after the attack… my mum was already gone… and my sister was gone as well. My father… he never seemed the same,” Eliza explained. “I had to look after Ulysses for a few years, until he could take care of himself. And… You knew how I was back in high school, right?”
“Of course,” Kazuki said. “Gloomy, straight faced, always punctual. Never late. Top grades.”
Eliza smirked. “And then you and Archius just had to tumble your way down the street into the school gates.”
“Hey… he was the one driving,” Kazuki muttered. Eliza smiled at that.
“Yeah, and I was like that with Chloé, student council buds, after all… She warmed up in the end, and I did too, but I was worse before… Middle school was… hell for me.” Eliza started to grip her hands with one another.
Kazuki watched and listened.
“Everyone thought I was a freak… This… dead-on-the-inside girl that gets top grades.”
“Let me guessed, you were bullied?” Kazuki asked. It wasn’t really a question.
Eliza nodded. “They were brutal… Of course, no one cared. Not even my father… Even as they… Beat and…”
Eliza’s blinking got faster.
“He didn’t care…” Eliza continued. “He was Police Commissioner, he most certainly knew it was wrong, but he did nothing.”
That kind of isolation was the complete opposite of Kazuki’s. She was forced into isolation. Kazuki chose it. Where Eliza stood and was pelted, Kazuki was the one that ran… She was always the stronger one, both her and Victoria were.
Silence loomed overhead. Kazuki embraced it. Slowly, Eliza did too. They didn’t need to say a word to understand anything.
“And… I hate it, just the feeling of having no one at my side,” Eliza broke the silence.
It stung Kazuki true. It was a harsh truth that he avoided. But it stung even harder when he tried to deny that he understood.
“And then you all came alone, the student council was bustling, same with the exec at University, but then everything came crumbling down… It just… aches me the wrong way.”
Kazuki placed his hands together as well. “You’re not alone now. Are you?”
“No,” Eliza answered him. “What about you?”
Himself? Well... Kazuki looked forward. A finger clicked turned off his vision. He felt a thousand lives, dead and alive, washed over him. Mountains of corpses, all floating off into space... Dying breaths and last minute promises.
Hate. So much hate. Nothing was left in him. Blood poured out, it was painful. Nothing was left. A woman picked him up by the throat and choke slammed him. Her knife removed one of his eyes.
Death itself approached. Death. All corpses hailed its arrival. Its presence was ignited... Everything then went blank... A thousand more visages and pains echoed in his mind.
All the while, Kazuki maintained a neutral face. It was slipping, though. On the edges of his eyes, the muscles relaxed. His gaze dropped to the floor. Kazuki blinked several times, he had to pick himself back together.
“People thought I was a freak as well. For physical reasons, not mental. I got bored of a lesson once. Slept through it listening to music on an uplink. Teacher caught me,” Kazuki started. “Ripped it straight off.”
Kazuki paused, and gulped to clear his throat. “It’s a strange feeling. I think that was when I realised how… pathetically weak we all are… They laughed at me, until I nearly cracked my teacher’s skull.”
“Well, that seems rather intense compared to me!” Eliza made a strained face, probably knowing to some extent what Kazuki was talking about. She awkwardly touched her own uplink before shivering at the mere thought of it being ripped off.
“Just because one fight is more desperate than another does not diminish the lesser,” Kazuki said.
Eliza slowly grew into a smile for that. “I guess so.”
Kazuki remarked, “I guess we’re both freaks, from where I stand, you’re nor which is why I must ensure that stays the same. You’re no killer, and that’s good. Look at me, Liz. The Contract-Breaker.”
“And the genius of Sarimba.” Eliza sighed, leaning back against a large collection of small pillows. She let off a small laugh. “Just… I’m worried… I’m worried that somewhere along the line, we’ll regress, I’ll go back to… that.”
A frantic knock came at the door. “Kazuki, it’s Archius, it’s urgent, he says,” Cyrus said through the micro-speaker attached to the door.
Eliza sighed. “Sorry, I guess I took up a bunch of important time.” She kicked back to her feet, dusting herself off and straightening her jacket.
“No… No,” Kazuki repeated himself. Whilst he didn’t exactly tell Eliza of his own past… Eliza must have known some parts. Within the darkness of the abyss in the sensors, Kazuki saw himself…
That kid, knees to his chest - hiding. Crying. Bleeding. All alone… Solemn golden eyes engulfed Kazuki’s mind. But that is the past. Eliza’s past is her past.
“No. Things have changed,” Kazuki confidently stated. “We’ll find those fucking conspirators… Suppliers, communication, corruption and anymore if we find them. We’re not scared kids anymore. You’ll never go back there… same with me.”
The confidence rubbed onto Eliza. She smiled, twirling back to him. “I’ll looking forward to it, then.”
Kazuki nodded. Eliza marched towards the door. It opened, as Archius stormed in. He looked pissed.
“The fuck were you two doing?!” he shouted. “We’ve been waiting for you! Get a move on...”
“Oh? Well, we were just getting some rest, I suppose,” Eliza said. “Right?” She turned back to Kazuki. He nodded.
Archius’ eyes flickered to Kazuki. He didn’t seem convinced at all. “Alright, well, it’s nice for that, but if you’re fixed up: we have a very angry person to deal with.”
Peering back at Eliza, glistening red eyes gleamed back. For a moment, Kazuki’s mind mistook Eliza’s figure for Victoria… Blood splattered across his face, and then… nothing. Snippets of his past reared his head up.
Clenching his fist, Kazuki stopped it from shaking. Eliza’s life is all that mattered now. Her future is everything. And his past is all that he has left. But what then? How would Kazuki ever explain anything? Victoria… all of it?
It doesn’t matter. That is a problem for future Kazuki. His first Contract is all that matters. Releasing his grip, Kazuki clung to the non-existent chance that she wouldn’t despise him.