Kita and Caity make their way through Ms Eeve's glass-scattered home, with the bodies of Chevo and Vlad's dead henchmen amongst it. They must have had a bit of an altercation before Kita woke up.

"Parts of it were your idea,” Caity says out of nowhere.

"What?" Kita mumbles.

"Our mission…"

"I'm not exactly an 'idea' type of girl,"

"Yeah, that's why only parts of it were your idea,"

"So you're admitting it was mostly your idea?" Kita raises an eyebrow.

"Ugh," Caity sighs, "Mostly,"

"Killing Chevo's son?" Kita asks.

"That was…" Caity scratches the back of her neck before stammering, "That was mine,"

"What exactly was the plan?"

"You mean, before you left?"

"Both," Kita responds.

Before Caity can get a word out, a bullet whizzes between the both of them before they hesitantly dive for cover. Kita peeks around the podium she chose, trying to spot the source of the gunfire.

"Bring out Ms Eeve!" Calls out a very stern voice from down the hall. "Surrender now or we will use lethal force,"

"More guards?" Kita asks, watching Caity nod her head in response as she draws her brother's revolver from under her belt.

"This is your last warning. Release Ms-"

"She's not here," Kita responds, peeking her head from out of the cover to try to find the source of the voice, "She left a few minutes ago,"

There's no response.

Kita closes her eyes, trying to come up with a new trick to locate the guards. Without much thought, she loudly clicks her tongue, sending an echo throughout the house that slowly starts drawing an image in her mind's eye. As soon as the image forms she opens her eyes in a panic and raises a shield, perfectly in time with a guard opening fire at her the moment he steps up from her blind spot.

The bullets better the shield in a flurry before they each lose momentum and drop to the floor. As soon as the guard empties his magazine, Kita drops her shield and charges toward him. Propelling a punch empowered with two souls at his forehead. The punch clashes with the guard's helmet, cracking immediately upon impact and throwing the guard a few meters back before he hits the floor.

Kita raises her shield again as another guard in her peripheral vision raises his gun and starts firing- But, it is cut short when Caity fires a round from her revolver that rings loudly through the mansion and the guard's body drops.

"One more," Kita says, scanning the area to identify where the third guard has moved to.

They both slowly step forward, looking down opposite ends of the hallway as well as through all the glass walls that have collapsed.

"Why are you here?" The guard's voice calls out.

"Because your boss is a bitch!" Kita yells back.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

To Kita and Caity's surprise, the guard steps in front of them with both of his hands raised, and no weapon to be seen.

"What are you doing?" Caity asks with her revolver fixed on him.

"I'm not so keen on losing my life for this," The guard responds. "I won't get in your way,"

"Hmm," Kita chuckles, "The coward is the smartest of them,"

"The brave are often foolish," The guard responds. "I have a family I'd rather not leave behind,"

Kita walks up to the guard and rests a hand on his shoulder, "If I see you again, I won't be so kind,"

The guard nods in appreciation, prompting Caity to lower her weapon and follow Kita. As they exit the front door of the house, the evening sky reveals itself as the faint glow of the flaming sunset dips over the horizon.

"Woah," Kita stammers at the sight of all the orbs glittered across the night sky.

"Once a stargazer, always a stargazer," Caity says.

Kita passes Caity a mean side eye before kissing her teeth.

"Your idea was simple at first- Once we were to arrive in Kal you wanted to just kill Reiku, and run away. But, after we spoke about it more, we decided on something a little more… in-depth,"

Caity slides the revolver in the back of her pants, and tucks it underneath her shirt, "Chevo sent his son with us to Kal. The kid always saw himself as tougher than he was, so Chevo would occasionally send his son on missions with Alex, you and I. Once we arrived, we decided we'd blackmail Reiku- He was to kill Chevo's son In exchange for his life. But, we were never going to give him his life. He agreed and suggested poisoning the kids' food, to which we also agreed because it was something you and I would never do. He spent two days preparing the poison and we let him place it in the kids' food while he was preoccupied with spending coin on prostitutes and ale. We were supposed to bring him back to our camp, where he'd eat the dinner Reiku had prepared. But, that's when you left. I remember you had this look in your eyes, as if you could hear someone talking to you. In his drunken state, the kid made an attempt at my life, and Reiku had to use my dagger to kill him. The plan from there was to take Reiku back to Chevo ourselves and seek freedom during his grief, but…"

"He saved your life," Kita adds.

"Yeah…"

"Why would Chevo let us go just because he's grieving?"

"It was a risk we decided to take. We had never seen him grieve before, but we concluded that his reaction would either be one of rage and anger, or withdrawal. We would have used both of these instances to leave without him or anyone else noticing,"

"Sounds like a shitty plan," Kita scoffs.

"It isn't great… But, it was our best bet at leaving without having to spend our entire lives running. You don't remember what it was like being a part of Chevo's crew… It was the closest thing I've had to a family. The family doesn't like being left behind,"

"So why'd you choose to blame it on me?"

"I was angry," Caity shrugs, looking down at the floor. "And Reiku had just saved my life, so it felt wrong to pin it on him,"

Kita and Caity reach Ms Eeve's store on the third floor with the tension of their history brewing between them. As they make their way past all the jars and displays of plant life, they don't say a word to one another. Simmering in Caity's words before arriving at the elevator.

"I'm sorry," Caity says as they wait for the doors to open. "I shouldn't have blamed it on you,"

"No shit," Kita says, crossing her arms.

"But I don't regret it," Caity grins.

"Oh yeah? Why not?"

"Because it brought you back to me," Caity says with a shy smirk.

Kita feels her cheeks blushing and looks at the floor before chuckling at the cheesiness of what Caity just said. Shaking her head in an attempt to refuse the warm feeling slowly passing through her body.

"I'm sorry too," Kita says, "I don't know what exactly happened, but it wasn't cool of me to just leave you like that,"

"Thanks," Caity says, bumping her shoulder into Kita's.

"But, I don't regret it," Kita smirks.

The elevator pings and the doors swing open. As they step inside, Kita's stomach sinks as she remembers the danger that Jan and Starlet are in. The Chevo that Kita saw in her memory and the one she encountered in Ms Eeve's home seem like two different people. The death of Chevo's son must have permanently changed him, and there is no reasoning with him. Vlad, on the other hand, is also not to be trusted. He may want the kids alive, but he just sees them as a product he can profit off of.

Neither of those outcomes will do.

"Caity," Kita's voice says shakily drawing Caity's attention. "I don't know what I'll do if these kids die,"

Caity nods before resting her hand on Kita's shoulder, "We won't let that happen,"