Leaning against the door, Eliza sat down. A knock came. She felt betrayed. After all, why wouldn't she? Kazuki had made a contract, something written into his own code, and he was fully intent on breaking it if need be. But… if he hadn't, the station would have most likely blown up. What could she even say to him?

Liz pressed her legs into her chest, grasping at the edges of her long pleated skirt.

She understood somewhat that there were things that Kazuki wasn't telling her… But she won't pry further. Kazuki had a troubled past. Just the small taste of the industry gave her far more insight than she'd ever ask for.

"Eliza," Kazuki said through the door.

"What?" Eliza snapped at Kazuki. "Shouldn't you be in hospital for your cybernetics?"

"Dr. Sylvia did some emergency work on it. It'll last for a bit…" Kazuki trailed off. "My wounds will heal, no matter what. The seal of my family is a Phoenix… I will survive those scars."

"So? Your cybernetics are still damaged, right?" Eliza asked. The question itself stung Eliza's heart, as if she was bargaining over Kazuki.

"Yeah… You still mad at me?" he asked.

She felt like bursting at him, rebuking him and demanding that he tell her why she's angry in the first place. But her mind cooled, that will do nothing to help their partnership. Kazuki was dying at this very moment, she had no right to demand anything from him.

She heard a steel frame slowly slump down against the door. Mechanical wiring sounds permeated the air as she looked back towards the door. Behind her sat Kazuki.

"No…" Eliza said, angrily pouting, very much angry, "It's just… I wished you told me."

"Would you have opposed the my deployment if you knew?" asked Kazuki.

Eliza paused, the anger slowly cooled. He was right in that regard. When it comes down to it, her compassion overpowered her cold logic. It's what got Kazuki in this whole mess in the first place.

She wondered what a previous version of herself would have done. Those years in between her final year of high school and the P-1 Incident felt like aeons ago.

She could see her past self looking down at her. The only thing that seemed to connect herself to that past was one conclusion, one realisation that she knew was true no matter what: there was more behind the Ptolemy-1 Incident. It wasn't just pirates.

She barely felt human, but after all that's happened, she has people she can rely on.

For once in her life, she felt like she wouldn't collapse the moment she stopped giving it her all. If Kazuki needs someone to depend on, she'll be there where he was for her.

"Yeah, I probably would've." said Eliza, "But still…"

"Trust?"

"But… I already trust you?"

"Yeah…" Kazuki trailed off, standing up as he opened the door. Eliza fell onto the cold floor with a small smack on her head. "You placed your trust in me. And I betrayed that. I know. I'm not good at apologising, so I won't even bother."

Eliza shot up, rubbing her head as she angrily pouted. She shook her head, slapping Kazuki. Kazuki was knocked back a few paces.

He raised his hand up to where she slapped him. Her annoyed voice betrayed her intentions, "Apology?"

Kazuki gave her an absent-minded stare. "I was supposed to apologise, right?"

"No!" shouted Eliza, still sounding furious - confusing Kazuki. She looked past his eyes. Underneath the gaze of a thousand miles was Kazuki's true thoughts, a measure of thoughtful agony. "Sure! You might have betrayed the trust I put in you… but for this one occasion, I'll overlook it."

Turning back into the room, she crossed her arms as she walked in. Kazuki followed as she approached the window blinds. With a single button press, the blinds lifted up to show down-town District 50…

She was still angry… for some reason. She grumbled to herself, the face slowly turning to regret.

"I… should be the one apologising…" Eliza trailed off, a complete 180 from her frustration earlier; she just realised why she was so annoyed. She wasn't annoyed at him… she was annoyed at herself. "I've been using you the whole time! And… I…"

"Don't be sorry. We have a contract, using me is precisely what you should be doing." Kazuki's emotionless face fell quiet. He turned towards the night-time landscape, filled with colour that struck grey monotony. She savoured the sight for a bit. "I am your weapon and tool to use, Eliza."

"But you're Kazuki first and foremost, right?" she asked.

Kazuki maintained silence, for a moment. "Whatever I am, Freemuzzle, Mercenary, Contractor, I'll always be your right arm."

"I still feel like I should be apologising to you," she said. Her mind was a mess, unable to unravel what she really wanted to say. But she allowed snippets of it to pass through her lips.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Why?" he asked.

She pondered. Why? Was that all he had to say to her? So simple yet too complicated for her to say. But she did her best to articulate it. "You told me this is an issue of trust, but you blindly followed me so many times, even believing me when I said that there were others involved in the incident."

Kazuki glanced around. "So?"

"Have you never thought that I was just some crazy girl that was too interested in the past?" she asked him, staring at him. "I did all of this… everything that has happened has been based on just one hunch, isn't it?"

"Not one hunch. One fact… Jessica Kiki-Louis was involved in the P-1 Incident."

Eliza's mind slowed as the cogs grinded down to a halt. "Huh?"

Kazuki replied, "After the rebellion, I had Director Chizuru and Sato scavenge what they could from the General Director's archives." He stopped, watching her face slowly rise up in realisation. "She was involved. Correspondence hinted at her knowledge."

"Then she's a party to the incident?"

"Yeah… Not much, but it's a start," Kazuki said.

"If there's something weighing down on you, feel free to tell me."

He looked to the ground to avoid her gaze. From what she remembers of him, this was far from ordinary behaviour.

"There is. For nearly a decade, I've bled. Killed. Murdered. All those years, I didn't have a reason to fight on. Survival was everything." Kazuki nodded, sitting down on a chair as Synthia's holo-visual was sleeping on her keyboard mat. He made a strained expression, it didn't suit him at all. He was in a silent thought as Eliza sat opposing him, on her bed. "Then, I had a reason. It's hard to explain, but… I don't know. I can't tell you, not now. Before, I believed it to be impossible, this reason, but now: It's very real."

His eyes and face made an expression she hadn't seen before. If Kazuki didn't know how to say it, she was fine with him not telling her. She trusts him. But trust is a two-sided door. Where she placed her trust in Kazuki, she wanted him to place his in hers, but she won't force him into anything.

"That's fine." said Eliza, having an inkling of what motivates Kazuki, "Tell me whenever you feel comfortable, I'm sure I'll understand. But I want you to make another promise, a contract."

"And what will that be?"

"That if you have any worries or stresses, you can confide yourself in me." said Eliza, "We have each other's backs, after all. Well, literally."

"I owe you my life," Kazuki said. "Thank you."

She smiled at him, feeling warm from that single spout of affirmation, so she does mean something! Kazuki nodded, hovering the chair over. The two shook pinkies on the promise. But still, Kazuki looked conflicted. She let off a small heh, awkwardly, overjoyed that things were finally getting on schedule.

∗ ∗ ∗

How could he ever tell her? The contract, Victoria's death, the whole incident… Everything was his fault and he knew it. But Eliza didn't. She was far too understanding, he must also trust her.

Perhaps telling her now was the best time for it? He didn't want his reason to bleed to despise him… Instead, he just accepted her words. If she was gone, all he had left was vengeance. All that would be left would be death.

"Thanks," Kazuki said again, forming his lips into a slight smile, illuminated by the blazen city skies, shuttle lights and the stars far up above from Lautrasia to Ankhorage. The smile wasn't pretty, it felt too unnatural, made worse by the cracks in his skin and burns. But the moment he realised it, the muscles faltered as it fell back into a straight line. Eliza's memory probably burned the sight forever into her skull.

"You should smile more," teased Eliza, "I bet it'll surprise Archius."

He kept his unnatural golden eyes on Eliza, denoting every difference between this woman and her dead sister.

"No. He'd tease me about how awful it is," Kazuki remarked.

Eliza paused, then slowly nodded. "Yeah… I do see that potentially happening… No, it very much will happen."

"I haven't had the time to ask, but what did you do during the rebellion?"

"Hmm?" Eliza piqued up. "Oh? I took some time off… Had trouble processing everything, even stopped eating for a bit - Ulysses told me off."

A caring family member. How rare, Kazuki sneakily remarked to himself. His eyes glanced off to the side for a mere moment at the mention of family.

"Since I heard of the AGENCY's victory over Sol, I started to get back into things, so… I guess I have you to thank for that!" she continued.

"Oh…" Kazuki glanced at her. Oh. "So that's why you seemed to have gained—"

Eliza grappled onto Kazuki's shoulder, shaking him. Eliza kept shaking him. Kazuki's mind blotted out the noise from her mouth, thinking to himself.

She put her trust in him to help her through the investigations. And he'll put his trust in her to help him live. Mutually beneficial, he thought.

She assured him that she'll understand. But how can she ever understand that the whole basis of her motivation is formed under a lie. A lie that the truth covers. The truth is that Kazuki Geminorum-Ryzaku had a hand in the death of billions. And the death of her sister.

She stopped shaking him, dusting herself off in the night's light, clearing her throat and acting as if she didn't throw a tantrum.

Kazuki stopped thinking for a split second. All he could do was look… Eliza's body eclipsed the moonlight. In that moment, Kazuki's mind miscalculated. The memory banks overloaded with such a similar visage.

For him, all he could see was a dead woman walking. Those blood red eyes, freckles and pink hair. Everything reminded him of Victoria.

Even more so, Kazuki's mind could only wander… What if Victoria and he swapped places that day? Would… she have made the same mistake as he did?

He couldn't tell Eliza anything… Not the detonator… Not Victoria's death… Nothing. It wasn't fair, nor just. But that didn't matter.

Bringing Victoria and all their deaths to rest was all he had left. Whilst he may have the same objective as Eliza, they had far different outlooks. For her, it was hope and for respite. But for him, all that was left was revenge.

Revenge against all of them. This responsibility is his to bear. For him by himself must atone. Victoria died on him… The flashes of her face faded across Eliza's.

Outside, the lights kept blinking. Endlessly. Far away. Why didn't he run…? Victoria would have died either way, Kazuki thought.

Still, how could he ever explain that to her? The faint visages of figures entered his mind. Victoria was being held.

The shining beacon to it all in the palm of his small hands… "Run…" Kazuki muttered to himself. The explosives all around the room bore Imperial Sigils.

Victoria's words fell onto his deaf ears, as all he ever thought was to save her…

What could he have done? Run…? Yes…. Run. The only time he fought when he didn't need to. The cost: twelve billion souls.

"Hmm?" Eliza snapped Kazuki out of his mindless trance.

Kazuki blinked. "Nothing…" He'll tell Eliza one day. But not this day. He sighed, silencing his contempt and guilt. "If what I told you changed everything, would you hate me?"

Eliza paused. He wasn't able to make any observations, not like it'd matter, emotions were Archius' forte. But he understood body language, more linked in to if someone's drawing or not. Eliza maintained a bright face.

"If something like that's all it takes for me to despise you," Eliza started, lightly slapping his shoulder. She exuded an air of determined elegance. "Then what's the point of being friends?"

He nodded, activating his ICAPAD. How could he respond to that? He can't. Better to move on, even if he can't. "So, let's get to business shall we?"