Chapter 20:

Gris spins around thinkin' she was hot stuff being able to catch others in the act of trying to get secrets about her. But when she did get all the way around, it turned out that there was no one there, and it did disappoint her. "Well shoot! I thought I heard some ruckus going on 'round here! Dagnabbit!" Her laugh had a slight echo from where she was, but for the three she thought were there, they could not hear her, for they were already long gone before then.

As it had turned out, she had still been talking while the group made their escape with her not even noticing them at all, only for her to turn around for the sake of comedy, at least in her own eyes. Whatever the case may have been, the three of them are all now in the clear after it all went down. And they got word from Sven that they got intel from some others sent out to look for the missing "mercs" that they were also finding nothing.

"Oh, so we weren't even given a special task in any sort of way." Mike comments before the three of them continue on, still looking around for the others, taking continuous glances at the pictures sent by Sven. But they were realizing that it was unlikely that they were going to find anybody at this rate. That was until they realized what they could do is try looking for someone they probably do know. Said someone probably being the most sane of anyone they had met down here.

Cassian. That was who they decided to start looking for. But even when they were trying to, it was a challenge for them to find him. Though, after some more searching not only in the black market, they decide to search that same deserted land they met Cassian in, and thankfully enough, there he was doing what he normally did. He was just out there killing demons, not minding anything else around him. He was in the zone, killing demons left and right until he noticed them.

And when he did, he did what he could to kill the demons as quickly as he could, but when it came to the last one, it was shot straight through the skull by Alex. "Never thought I'd be seeing you ever again." Cassian admits, having believed that they were gone for good to do whatever Gris had them doing, or whatever the Union had them doing. And they also admit to the fact that they weren't really expecting to see him again either.

So for a little bit of time, they all conversed on what's happened as of late, and it was here when Cassian admitted to them that Gris had been playing them like a fiddle. She had purposely given them random trivia and such to make it seem like she was a lot more than she was initially. One of the more major ones being that she ran the whole Black Market Beatdown thing. And any mentions of her running it was only the others playing along with what she was saying. Obviously, the three of them were pissed. Well, at least Mike and Alex were.

So was Pat, but he was more on the questioning side of things. But their anger was going to lessen as Cassian explained why she did what she did, and that was to try and start some sort of reaction in their brains that could help them with their memory loss. Sure, it would be something they didn't previously know, even something that wasn't true, but at least it could've started some kind of chain reaction for them to remember what happened to them.

It made sense, but it still pissed them off, but after a bit more discussion, they were all more at ease, except for Alex. Who was still not that happy about it, not at all. He was still more on the rational side of things. While Pat was a lot more open and willing to think, he thought too much. Meanwhile Mike, he never thought about anything much, he was willing to jump head first into whatever danger lied ahead.

And while he didn't want to try and inflate his ego or anything, he did believe that out of him and the other two, he was probably the most logical out of all of them. But now that they have caught up with one another, they ask Cassian about him, possibly knowing where the missing group is. Unfortunately, he did not know about where they had gone either, but that didn't stop him from trying to help them in some way.

So, with a small plan formulated, they were all going to go separate ways to search. Pat was going to continue the search through the black market itself, Mike was going to go search through cities and towns that Cassian knew Gris had gone to as of late, as for both Cassian and Alex? Cassian makes Alex stay there for a moment with him to discuss some things. At first it confused Alex as to why they were staying back until Cassian admitted something to him.

It actually puzzled Alex when Cassian told him "You aren't like this, you know?" And he wanted an answer, and he asked about it, which he was then also given a swift answer. "When Gris got through your mind, compared to how you are now, you seemingly used to be a lot different. And, honestly, I think it might help if you try and just take this bit to take a break and learn to relax, chill. Just take a breather."

And Alex stopped to think about it, his whole idea on who he believed he was was just thrown into disarray. But Cassian still reassured him that everything will be fine as long as he keeps his head up and keeps moving forward, but for now he needs to just take the time for himself to maybe remember what he used to be, what once was like. Or was he being lied to again? Hell if he knew.