The Risk of Companionship

After the mission, Cayce spent a day relaxing with Palmo and Lina. Palmo was very outgoing and actually invited the assassin to join them for lunch. Originally, lunch was all they had planned, but they somehow ended up exploring the whole city as a trio.

The day was filled with a visit to a VR arcade, an excursion to the city's harbor and a decent amount of time was spent in the central shopping district. It was quite fun, it had been a while since Cayce had friends to relax with. It felt like he was a kid again, but with friends who were similar-minded, and without the poverty.

At the end of the day, the trio stayed in the same hotel, though in different rooms.

When the sun went down and the group had long since retired to bed, a strange phenomenon occured in a particular dock within the city's main armor hangar. The room was dark and no mechanics were present. In fact, there wasn't a single soul in the hangar. However, the eyes of one of the armors suddenly glowed with grey light. The dark machine mounted to the armor's shoulder whirred quietly in the darkness.

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Cayce awoke very early. No sunlight peered through the window and the night was quiet. Checking the time, he found it was a little after 3:00. Following his survival sense, he checked the room but found nothing wrong.

"... Maybe I just need some fresh air."

Cayce threw on some sweatpants and a comfortable short-sleeved shirt. The front door opened quietly. As he looked up, he found Lina outside her room, leaning on the railing as she looked out over the glowing lights of the city. The gaze of the assassin was relaxed, yet thoughtful. As the door clicked behind Cayce, she looked over to him.

"You couldn't sleep either?"

Cayce shook his head, "No, I just woke up. Mind if I join you?"

Lina shrugged and looked out over the city again. Her dark hair was pulled to one side and swayed a little below her shoulder. Her deep green eyes almost matched the color of her mana and she stood a few inches shorter than Cayce. By spending the day with her and Palmo, Cayce had learned she was a very thoughtful and kind person. In just one day, she showed kindness to strangers twice and she put the interests of others before her own. It was hard to believe this kind-hearted woman was the same who ruthlessly eliminated the primary target just the day before.

"Cayce?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Are we good people?"

Silence filled the air as Cayce thought.

What makes a person good or bad?

Was it their intentions?

Are people good by nature?

Maybe it's how they were remembered...

"Well," Cayce broke the silence. "I would say today was a good day. I didn't die, the sun is shining and I didn't lose anyone I care about."

Lina looked at Cayce as he stared out over the city. He continued thinking out loud, "Today was a good day because I believe it was. If I had a different attitude, the day would be the same, yet I could say it was bad for any minor inconvenience.

"Whether we are good or bad is merely an individual opinion, it depends entirely on who you ask."

Cayce glanced back to Lina, "What matters is that you're good to the people you care about. I would say you only become bad when there's no one left who calls you good, the same way a room only becomes dark when there isn't even a spark of light."

Silence returned and for a moment, the night felt colder than it should have been.

"... I wonder if you're right."

The next few days were spent with Lina and Palmo on various missions. The missions they could take on as a trio paid very well. Working with a team was much more efficient and far less risky.

Right now, Cayce was inspecting his armor. His mana cells were strangely loosing charge over night. They weren't draining fast enough to cause any problems, but it was odd how some of the stored mana was missing. Mana couldn't just leak from a cell and dissipate, it had to be either spent or siphoned to another cell. As he scrolled through the system log, he found a series of notifications he had never seen before.

[ Requirements met ]

[ Beginning Greppen system expansion ]

[ Greppen system expansion complete ]

After the three lines, the system log returned to listing the normal notifications. Scrolling back further, he found the same three lines had been written each night for the past few days.

...

It couldn't have been a bad thing since there were no warnings. Hopefully this was something good. Cayce finished charging the mana cells to full capacity, then went about his normal business.

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The air flowed quickly through the opened vents in Cayce's helmet as he sped through the air alongside his two companions. This would be the last mission he completed with them for a while. As soon as the mission was completed, he planned to return home and get back to his normal life.

Having reached the mission coordinates, Cayce descended gracefully and landed on a hill overlooking a large field with swaying grass.

"How strange."

Palmo landed with a soft thud slightly behind Cayce, his armor's feet sinking an inch or two into the soft ground, "What is it?"

"This place... I had a close encounter here just recently."

The center of the field was ruined. Craters and gashes covered the ground and most of the grass had been burnt away. That day, Cayce was dangerously low on mana due to a lengthy pursuit. Nearly all of his reserves were spent and the enemy pursued him all the way to this field. If he hadn't finished the duel with that last shot, he would have likely died. He was only left with enough mana to fly a short distance away, where he was forced to spend the night until his mana regenerated.

"What kind of mission did you say this was?"

Palmo stretched nonchalantly, "A single target elimination mission. Intel said there's an armor in this field we need to take out."

"... There's nothing on the sensors. Are you sure these- "

As Cayce turned to look back to his companions, he saw a green-edged blade flash in front of him just before it tore into his helmet. He had reacted by pulling his head away, but it was too late. The slash cut through the left side of his visor and tore into his eye socket.

Time slowed to a crawl.

The slash continued to cut through until it pulled an arc of blood from the side of his helmet. The vision in his left eye went black immediately, but his right eye saw clearly. The attack came from his companions. The silent, agile armor with green eyes held the blade while the heavy armor stood there completely relaxed as if he were casually discussing business.

"Sorry Cayce. The price was high and the man was hellbent. If it wasn't us, someone else would have come for you."

Cayce tried to move, but the cut through his head was too deep. Control had been severed, all he could do was watch his companion's faces with his one remaining eye as his body began to fall. Time crept forward slowly. His life didn't flash before his eyes, like he always thought it would. Perhaps his brain was too damaged to do that anymore. Only one word surfaced in his mind before he was enveloped in darkness.

Betrayal