Exploding forward, Kazuki slammed his railgun trigger, firing at Leon’s arm. One hand on his cauterised chest wound, one hand firing. He felt the crisp recoil knock into his right arm. Leon twisted, as the railgun bolt hit true - sending his arm flying off. Blood, armour, flesh vaporised in the air.

But as Leon side-stepped, he latched onto his shot-axe with his remaining hand.

Without a word, Kazuki dropped his railgun. It was of no use now. He drew his pistol - unleashing a barrage of explosive steel.

Leon shielded himself, activating his own deflector shield as he pinged bolts away. Kazuki got closer. Leon leapt forward, aiming his shot-axe’s barrel at Kazuki’s head. A carronade of pellets flicked outwards. Predictable. Kazuki leaned away, weaving from the blast radius. Leon staggered back, only to be met with a carbine to the face. The force of the impact knocked him backwards to the console, thudding against the many buttons and monitors.

Leon was desperate. He reached out towards the warp-trigger, Kazuki rewarded his desperation with a spray of acid to his legs. Kazuki dropped the handcannon as Leon screamed in agony, one leg burnt to a crisp.

Desperation breeds desperation. And Leon lunged at Kazuki, in a desperate attempt to kill the Contract-Breaker: he failed.

The shot-axe came down. As it slid close, Kazuki pushed his wrist outwards. His WRIST-SHOT activated, just as what Svenn did to him… It sends shockwaves into the axe as it bursts upwards. The parry sent the shot-axe away.

“I’m a quick learner,” commented Kazuki. Svenn might not have taught him everything, but he can mimic movements perfectly.

It was a clean parry, and too late for Leon to do anything. He was stunned, in a state of near-shock. A quick slice into his torso and arms sent him falling.

Leon fell, writhing on the floor in agony. His munitions were spent. He was of no threat, Kazuki thought. He looked towards the warp-trigger, primed and ready. He approached it, and disabled it, ceasing the alarms. Kazuki then glanced down at Quinn.

“Stand.” ordered Kazuki, extending a hand to Quinn. He took it, pulling himself up as the injured operatives walked over towards Leon. “You did well.”

“I… hesitated… Arbiter…” Quinn admitted. Kazuki thought for a moment. Of course he’d hesitate. Killing people you’ve known is a lot harder than killing stickmen…

“You bought time.” Kazuki looked back at Quinn. “Thank you.”

Kazuki injected himself with more drugs as he took his helm-mask off, pressing a healing inhaler directly onto his mouth. His aug-glasses were alight with information.

‘All stations, Command bridge is under our control. Leon is dead.’ said Kazuki, connecting himself to all channels, even the smugglers.

Twisting his head towards Quinn, the ex-smuggler was staring down at Leon. Blood was gurgling out of his neck as Quinn knelt down, staggering from his leg injury. “Leon… Times have changed. Nothing can bring Riharia or Petra back… Nothing can change the past. But you’ve made me realise, sometimes it’s best to just kill the past. In a strange way, Thanks, Leon?”

Leon gurgled up more blood.

“But I will not be held responsible for their deaths,” said Quinn. “It hurts… But it’ll fade.” He gritted his face, showing nothing but steeled determination towards the dying Leon. Kazuki gave a slight nod to the move, though Quinn didn’t see it. “And that’s for me to bear… eventually, I can move on.”

“T…traitor…” Leon gargled, staring dead-faced at Quinn. “Freemuzzles… all of you…”

“Riharia… Petra… They were family. But… I have a new family. Sure, Lilly’s rough, Edain’s a lil’ weird, Kiri’s… actually nice… Claire’s a massive nerd, but they’re the people I chose.”

Kazuki’s mind paused… His golden eyes slowly looked away, before looking back at the words and the dying body. Leon most definitely didn’t know who they were… Kaz realised that Quinn wasn’t talking to Leon. Whatever Leon is to him is not irrelevant: because he’s talking to himself…

Gargling through the blood, Leon spat blood at Quinn. He didn’t bother wiping it off. Leon’s vocals were scuffed, tongue barely making noise as he bit each word off. “Traitors… All… of…” stuttered Leon, gasping for air. “Our people… They… they… There… will… be… another.”

Kazuki won’t let Leon have the last laugh. “We’ll kill them all the same,” he said.

There will always be more: but he can only do so much as a merc… And that’s all he is, a mercenary hired to kill. Though the fact that in the end, he did seem to care about his people, intrigued him.

His voice trailed off, as his eyes faded. No more colour, no more life. Kazuki stood calm. Quinn joined him, before placing a single bolt in Leon’s head. Stepping over his body, he slowly picked up the shot-axe.

Kazuki gave Osmond one glance. Osmond was gasping for air; heaving for air as a blast on his vest-plate showed he withstood Leon’s execution.

Quinn smiled slightly at the sight, feeling relieved that one person had lived. He twirled the axe-shot around like a cane. “Bit unwieldy, right?”

“No, it’ll fit if you jam it hard enough into your holster,” Kazuki sarcastically snarled. It’d be an absolute nightmare to have that on board any transport. It was half the size of Quinn’s torso.

Quinn let off a light chuckle. Kazuki did not reciprocate the laugh, not like he could have. He glanced back down at Osmond, who was stabilising. “Business finished?”

The stars outside glittered in the void as Quinn looked towards Kazuki, nodding. The bright console buttons and boops from janitor drones slowly cleaned up the mess, though the mech-drones couldn’t fix the wiring. It was beyond fixing at this point.

Kazuki acknowledged that. Quinn was able to move on. Even after everything… he moved on. Ten years. Gone. Kazuki’s eyes skimmed around the room, trying to find something to think of… there was nothing. He looked directly forward… He’s different from Quinn, he thought. He cannot walk away.

He said, “We’re all victims of our own plays.”

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Quinn looked confused - not exactly understanding it. But he understood the feeling, and nodded in turn.

Pain vanished from Quinn’s face. It’s gone. Only if it was so simple… only if. “I’ll get Rivera to salvage something from this, you alright with that?” said Quinn. “Plus, it’ll give me another excuse to scrounge around the armoury!”

“Shoot away,” said Kazuki. ‘Requesting a medic to the Command Bridge. We have an injured prisoner.’

“Fuck yeah!” Quinn light-heartedly exclaimed, his mood seemingly far better than before. He knelt down beside Osmond, looking at his old friend - barely able to say a word.

Kazuki sighed, letting his cybernetics reclock themselves as scalding steam left his mouth. He was still holding onto his wound, but with the dying gunshots - he felt the operation was over.

“Arbiter,” Quinn glanced up to him. Kazuki opened his eyes, noticing Quinn’s more solemn look, this was… important. “There’s something you need to know…”

“What?” asked Kazuki. He barely hid his excitement, if that was what he could call it. Was it true, he thought?

Quinn nudged Osmond, the latter coughing up as he heaved for air. The large blast in his armour seemed quite painful, and he placed a finger up. “W—what? Contract-Breaker… Please!” Osmond tried to crawl backwards, away from Quinn and Kazuki.

“Tell him about the explosives,” ordered Quinn. Did Quinn know something? Well, probably. Eliza told a few people, and he was fine with that. Better for them to be aware of their own mission before getting involved. “You wanna live, right? Come on! Go tell the guy.”

Osmond slowly placed his arm to brace himself, he leaned forward, looking up at Kazuki. His pale blonde hair and face froze, and gulped down to utter a sentence. “We… Leon… the smugglers: w—we sold explosives to Clandestine?” Osmond didn’t seem too sure himself. “Please… we didn’t know what they’d do with them!”

“P-1.”

Osmond nodded.

Quinn glanced up at the Contract-Breaker.

Kazuki stayed motionless. So Leon was the supplier? That might be why the gunrunners were linked with the loyalists; old suppliers from old places - reliable? Discreet, as well. That explains that… Or so Kazuki believes it to be. It just felt… too convenient, but it did match up. Still, there was much to know.

“Leon. He was ordered to attack the AGENCY, correct?”

“Huh?” Osmond slowed, scratching his head slowly with one finger. “No? Well… I… He had assurances… I… I’m not aware of anymore than that, I swear it by Iris!”

And as he stared at Osmond, the latter continued to shake, quivering as Kazuki stepped forward towards him. Assurances… The Loyalists… Svenn. Now the Gunrunners? Kazuki didn’t know what to make of it. Well… He has time. His enemies do not know that he is aware of their existence. For now, he’ll keep it that way.

“Should he die?” asked Kazuki.

Quinn mulled it over, audibly, causing Osmond to panic even more. Then, he jokingly brushed it aside. “Nah, Osmond… you had to deal with Leon for ten years, I think that’s enough punishment for the guy! Plus… if you sent him to the courts…”

“Those justice-to-all freaks would sentence him to death, yes.” Kazuki confirmed it.

If Osmond is sent to jail and to trial, he’ll probably be sentenced to death, it’s just the way things work. Strangely, Kazuki didn’t feel the need to kill him. He’s a mess, a wreck. It reminds Kazuki of himself in the past…

Vengeance has been quenched; Leon was enough, and it’d be unjust to sentence Osmond to death. Ugh,

Kazuki thought it felt weird doing something he considered ‘just’, he wasn’t his father. Even so, these people had suffered, this planet had suffered. They were forced into this life, would it be just to kill them all?

He’s seen the chaos of the criminal underworld on Anagora. Most were just wrong place at the wrong time, forced into a life of crime due to circumstances not of their own. They were all victims.

These gunrunners, Kazuki thought, were the same.

No. He will not kill them all. That would be redundant. Kazuki justified it to that amount, avoiding the topic of being ‘just’.

‘What do you think,’ started Kazuki, ‘Archius?’

Archius connected to all the people present, even Osmond. ‘Hmm, he was a good little informant, was he not?’ Quinn immediately glanced down at Osmond, eyes wide.

‘Why wasn’t I aware of this?!’ Quinn shouted. ‘Y’ALL WERE DEALING CARDS BEHIND MY BACK?!’

‘You didn’t need to be aware of it, Quinn, plus it’d ruin the surprise of a reunion, wouldn’t it?’ said Archius. ‘Osmond has been useful, I say that combined with the… mental agony of working with Leon, he should live… BUT! He did not shoot Leon in the chest like instructed, so uh… we should strike a deal.’

‘What the fuck…’ Quinn trailed off, trying to comprehend everything.

‘Deal?’ asked Kazuki.

‘Wait… please! I know I did wrong!’ Osmond blurted out.

Archius sighed, before grumbling at the unnecessary grovelling and pleading. Kazuki maintained his posture; the one deafening ship interior was deathly silent.

‘Then, how about this? You work for the AGENCY. I think having an experienced logistician and smuggler like you on board might… help us. You’ll be paid a good wage and we’ll cover for your crimes - completely new slate.’ said Archius, Kazuki raised an eyebrow. Another logistician? But the AGENCY already has Eliza? Archius immediately followed on, as if he knew what Kaz would say. ‘Plus, it’d be nice to give Eliza a break, would it not? So you two can fumble your way to whatever you’re doing.’

‘Fair enough,’ commented Kazuki. He crossed his arms. ‘Fine… Epsilon, you’ll be in charge of Osmond’s care with Lilly. Eliza will be transferred back to my aide; Osmond will take her place as a logistician. Any questions?’

‘Huh? What?’ Osmond seemed even more confused than Quinn. ‘Wait… I’ll be working for you guys?’

‘Yeah… did the shockwave make you deaf, old-cath?’ asked Quinn, chuckling to himself as he patted Osmond on the shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, we don’t bite.’

‘See this as an opportunity to reinvent yourself, Osmond,’ continued Archius. ‘You did a lot of the heavy lifting for the smugglers, we’re giving you a chance to live clean. Do you accept this?’

‘I don’t have much of a choice…’ Osmond chuckled to himself, scratching his head. ‘Someone else will take our place… it’s just the way things are.”

He wasn’t wrong, as he said: that was just the way things are. One criminal leaves and another enters, more vicious and cunning than the last. Severing the arteries never works.

Before Archius could interject, Kazuki said, ‘You have three options. Work for us and get good pay, stable income. You can die, preferably if you’d kill yourself right now. Or you can flee. Run away. You might find a good planet. Most of the time, you will not. And if you do not: you will most likely overdose behind a dumpster in an alley.’

Kazuki’s sarcasm was not shared with Osmond as he froze at the three options. He steeled himself, nodding. He continued to nod - and then continued. Kazuki took this as a sign of option one.

“Good choice, the other options are almost as good,’ Kazuki snapped. It was very clear what the options were. Kazuki didn’t want to force Osmond to work for him, but he knew that Osmond would most likely perish if he did not. And Archius seems to want him, so he’ll have him.

‘But my men… what about them?’ asked Osmond.

‘Those that have surrendered will get a similar deal to you. They can work for us,’ said Kazuki. ‘Or they can overdose behind a dumpster on an industrial world in the United Federation… Or maybe they’ll be captured by alien slavers along the rim, selling them as payback for our ancestors. All options are equally valid.’

‘Fine… I get it! I get it! I get it! We’re gonna die if we don’t join you… Fine… Just… Can we keep my men together? I—I don’t think they’d like this arrangement…’

‘Your men don’t like seven hundred thousand standardis per year?’ asked Archius, his voice almost insulting as Osmond’s eyes grew. It was only twice the pay-grade of public-sector logisticians in the military, and it was generous for a starting salary. The AGENCY can definitely survive such a burden, especially with the influx of experienced smugglers and their respective cargo.

Without a word being uttered, things were easily cleared up. ‘Welcome to the AGENCY,’ Kazuki coldly stated, turning away as he walked off, still holding in his wound.