“We have a job?”

“Not tomorrow, but the day after that,” Jade replied. Flat on her back, she stared at the ceiling with a hand raised in front of her face to block the direct light. “We’ll need to leave pretty early in the morning, so leave your door unlocked.”

“You just want to jump in her bed to wake her up, don’t you?” Aline asked. Ignoring the sly grin that crept onto Jade’s face, she stood up. “I’m bored. Let’s go out and do something.”

“Don’t wanna,” Jade complained as she turned to face the back of the sofa, burying her face in a cushion.

After gazing for a moment at her motionless figure, Aline sighed and turned to Nina. “You want to go out somewhere?”

“Aren’t you going to tell me about this job?”

“Oh, that.” Aline frowned as she thought for a moment. “It’s going to be really easy, I think, so we can tell you on the day.”

You think? Although Nina had watched as Aline’s frown turn into a confident smile when she mentioned the job, the problem was that she had no idea if the confidence was justified or not. Her faith in Reina had led her to that assume she wouldn’t be thrown to the wolves on her first job, but after picturing that mischievous smile again, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

“So, want to go out somewhere? I’ll show you some places.”

“I was thinking that I might rest for a little while,” Nina apologized before standing up. “It’s been a tiring day, but I’d be happy to go out a little bit later if that’s alright with you.”

“You sure it wasn’t a tiring evening?” Aline laughed as she watched Nina disappear down the corridor before entering her room. Hearing the click of the lock, she turned her attention back to Jade. Seeing that she still hadn’t moved, she sighed before deciding to give up and go downstairs to play games on her computer.

It only took a moment for Aline to move downstairs and logon to the game that she had recently been playing in her spare time. About to put her headphones on, she looked over as the door swung open, Svanda pushing her way through.

“Yo,” she smiled as Svanda approached.

Setting an elegant case on her desk, Svanda looked around the empty office. “Nina isn’t here?”

“Upstairs,” Aline replied as she pointed a finger in the direction of the ceiling. “Might want to catch her now, she’s probably going to sleep soon.”

“Thanks,” Svanda smiled as she picked up the case again before heading in the direction of the stairs, Aline’s gaze flickering over the etched T&TERM on the front.

“Oh, and Reina went to the Network session. She said you should go when you get back.”

“OK.”

Climbing the stairs before ignoring Jade who remained motionless on the couch, Svanda knocked on Nina’s door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, can you open the door for a second?”

Nina, who had changed into a baggy white t-shirt and a pair of loose grey shorts, opened the door.

“Here,” Svanda smiled as she handed over the case. Watching as Nina grabbed the handle, she let go before turning on her heel. “I’ve got a few things to do, see you later.”

Poking her head out the door, Nina watched as Svanda disappeared in the direction of the living area. With a sigh, she locked her door again before placing the case next to the bags of clothes that had been dropped there earlier. As soon as she had seen the silver T&TERM on the side, she knew what the contents of the case were without needing to open it.

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Clean clothes feel so good, she thought to herself as she crawled into the bed again, nestling herself into the same position that she had been when Svanda knocked on the door. Finally presented with the quiet alone time that she usually craved, she was now however, at a loss. The effects of last night’s events had still left her feeling slow, but to sleep now was to lose her own quiet time with her thoughts. Feeling full, feeling clean, feeling safe, and with time to herself, she was feeling satisfied as a whole for the first time since she had been dropped through the earth.

While she was physically comfortable, her mind was still adjusting to everything that had happened to her over the past 24 or so hours. Having been carried away in a stream of events by people she had never met before, the initial shock that hadn’t had the chance to resurface was now coming back to her as she had the time to let recent events sink in.

When she thought about it, most of the big questions that she had been asking herself were now answered in one form or another. What had actually happened… well, she had experienced the rollercoaster herself. How it had happened, she had already heard enough to form her own understanding too.

Who was responsible? While that was something that she had an answer for, it was still something couldn’t be entirely sure of. SuTSU had been painted as bad people since the very first step, but she hadn’t even seen them yet. She thought back to Cross’ words when they had first met, that you couldn’t truly be sure of anything unless you proved it for yourself. She realised that she would just have to keep digging and see it with her own eyes.

And the biggest question of all had been why. Hala and Cross had told her that it was because she was a useful but unassuming piece of a larger puzzle that was easy to remove, and she admitted that it made sense. It was as though she was one of those frustrating pieces that were just part of the sky or the grass. Required, but easy to lose and difficult to see exactly where it fit in amongst the rest of them.

For now, she had enough answers to build a basic understanding of her situation. Filling in the gaps in between, however, was something that would need more time.

The lack of distractions in the blank room left her with only inner thoughts. There was no TV, and her phone, which had been flat since she left the office yesterday, was now essentially scrap. While she knew that she would be able to use one of the computers in the office downstairs, it just wasn’t as comfortable as being able to use a laptop in bed. Looking over to her collection of shopping from earlier, her eyes fell on the case that Svanda had brought to her. Curiosity getting the better of her, she slipped out of bed to retrieve the case before sitting cross-legged in the centre of the bed.

Made from a dark red wood, the case had a spiraling design running along each edge while flowery swirls filled the centre of the panels. After running her fingers across the silver T&TERM etched into the front, Nina popped the latch as the case opened before her. Inside, the pale rose pistol sat nestled in white foam, the three magazines sitting horizontally below it. Running down each side of the pistol were bronze boxes which were filled with the ammunition that had been agreed upon. As her fingers ran across the texture of the silver grip, she sighed inwardly. She had scorned other weapons for their colourful appearance, and while this wasn’t exactly colourful, she had to admit that she was attracted to the design.

She rationalized that it was simply a result of the scarletite used, just a necessary part of the killing tool that she had now removed from the foam to hold in her hand. As she gazed upon the pistol with affectionate eyes, she paused for a moment as her gaze shifted to the bronze container full of ammunition.

This is a tool for killing, nothing more.

Putting the pistol away, Nina closed the case before sliding it under her bed. Lying on her back as she blankly stared at the ceiling, she felt confused at what was happening to her. The sense that the pistol was hers, and hers only, filled her with a smug sense of pride until another part of her remembered that it was a gun.

She both loved it and hated it at the same time. Whether she interpreted it as a sign of independence and strength or as a sign of her descent into this madness that lacked humanity, she didn’t know. She was upset over the fact that she was confused, and also upset that she didn’t have complete control over not only what she was doing, but also now over who she was as a person. She felt like she was a square peg that was being smashed into a round hole, and the process wouldn’t stop until she had permanently changed shape.

Feeling a tear well at the corner of her eye before it ran down past her temple and dripped onto the sheet below, she clutched at one of the pillows. Wrapping her arms around it tightly, she pressed it to her face as she muffled a quiet sob. Independence was something that she had always clung to, but now more than anything she just wanted a shoulder to lean on. She knew that Reina or probably anyone else at The Cloud Orchestra would be able to offer that to her, but wasn’t that the shoulder that had landed her in this mess in the first place?

Deciding to run from the issue, she calmed her breathing and tried to reign in the thoughts that were swirling through her head. Her poor sleep from the previous night combined with the walking and stress from today had left her exhausted, so she was happy to let sleep take over and let her forget her problems for a while. Without caring about when she would wake up, she curled the blanket under her feet before postponing her issues until when she woke up.