I parked near the HQ and left a spectral flock bird stashed inside one of my saddlebags just in case. I didn’t get the vibe I’d be arrested from the short call I had with Hope, but it never hurt to be safe. I’d rather be over prepared than caught off guard and captured.
”I told you. I’m fine . . . I’ll be back in a bit.” I whispered gently. The Packheart Ring caught the near silent whisper and transmitted it to the its linked ring.
“If you say so- it's not sothing dangerous, is it?” Mira asked . Her voice echoed around my head thanks to the ring. I talked to her when I stopped by the apartnt, but we really hadn’t had the ti. I had a pressing appointnt with my boss.
I pulled at my armor, shifting around the silver BC ballistic vest I was given. My poncho draped over it, covering my arms and torso entirely in its warming presence. The poncho was set up to the Blue Crusade pattern. “Shouldn’t be. I have my escape secured though just in case. Look- I gotta go.”
”Fine- just keep in touch- I’ll wait at the door with my gun if you need .” Mira helpfully inford .
”Doubt I’ll need it, but thanks.” I stepped out onto the streets, leaving my bike and the parking garage behind. “See ya.”
”Chow.” The telepathic link went dead. She was no longer transmitting her voice.
Oh, that was another thing I figured out recently. The ring only sent words across the link if there was sufficient intent to communicate. I, thankfully, didn’t have to worry about her being aware of every little thing I said and vice versa.
I snuggled deeper into my poncho, pulling it around to fight off the cold. Up above, snowflakes lazily dropped through the sky. They drifted, tracing paths and arcs unseen. Most of them simply lted when they touched the ground. It wasn’t cold enough for anything to last yet, but it was coming with the turn of the season.
I stuck my hand out, catching a drooping snowflake on my finger. It imdiately lted under my body warmth, dissipating into a drop of water. Said water slid down my finger and then dropped to the wet sidewalk.
More and more flakes seed to fall with every mont. The city’s first heavy snowstorm this year looked like it was inbound. I adjusted my Crusade ball cap and hurried into the HQ. I’d rather not stick around to be caught in it.
The HQ was as bustling as it always was. Crusaders of all shapes and sizes in a variety of gear rushed around from one place to the next. Most had started bundling up for the winter. Over the silver armor, there were more and more people in winter gear. It was humanizing almost. Crusaders could get cold too.
Almost. That was the key word here. There were plenty of maniacs in the Crusade walking around in basically shorts and a t-shirt. The Knights in particular wore their poor clothing like a badge of honor. Knights truly were the psychopaths of Blue Crusade Inc. That was saying sothing considering the overall condition of this corporation was bleak.
I headed to Hope’s desk, my mind slowly sifting through everything that’d happened recently. Excuses, white lies, and small deceptions built up in my mind, ready at a mont’s notice if this really was sothing major. Although I hated it to begin with, the Crusade had grown on . I’d rather not give up my position if I could help it. The bonus 6,000 Rayn a month definitely helped.
Hope sat at her desk completely swamped with paperwork. It was impressive there was even this much paperwork in the entire building considering most things ran off the net these days. And yet she sat there, pouring over countless papers with deep bags under her eyes. Her mask, rcifully, lay off to the side of her desk alongside her gun and daggers.
”Zuku… take a seat.” She carelessly tossed a sheet of paper onto the desk and propped her chin up on her fist.
I carefully slid in across from her. “What’s this about?”
Hope didn’t imdiately reply. Instead, she just stared at with dead fish eyes like she might fall asleep at any mont. “Haah… have I ever told you how pretty you are?”
The comnt imdiately raised my guard by several notches. ”That's the honey. Where’s the hatchet?”
“Saw right through … I need to get better at complints.” Hope shrugged and leaned back in her chair. She was fully in Crusade mode now. She had a faint pressure about her that the other Knights and Inquisitors emitted when they got serious.
I flashed an honest smile to hide my growing unease. “It was a nice try.”
”Indeed.” Hope crossed her arms and tapped her finger against her elbow repeatedly. “We know.”
That so isn’t fair- you can’t just say that! My heart rate picked up. There was so very much that they could know about. All of it was incredibly incriminating. Still, I suppressed the tremble that fought to break out of my throat. ”About?”
“Hmm…” Hope leaned forward, passing a sheet of paper. “Several Scav Dens were reported in Oldtown, all of which were taken care of. Mysteriously, there was a spectral feather in each that dissipated when Inquisitors on the scene tried to interact with it.”
”How odd.” At this point, my best bet would be to deny everything. Of course I wouldn’t be able to hide stuff from the Crusade. They had absolute bullshit Ligh on their payroll.
Hope nodded her head a few tis, eyes staring into my own with a heavy gaze. “Those feathers were linked to several other cris. All the mark of a unknown rc nad Nightshade.”
It took all I had not to flinch. Nightshade… the na was kinda badass. Too bad this so wasn’t the ti to appreciate that. “Nightshade?”
“Roger. Nightshade recently hit a Savant Lab. Likewise, it was called in with an anonymous tip.” Hope’s gaze turned even more intense. The bags under her eyes seed to droop with suspicion.
If anything, I was helping the Crusade. Why would they want to find this bad? Sothing wasn’t lining up. “This Nightshade sounds like a real hero…”
“If it was just that, maybe… Nightshade executed an entire facility full of Raijin personnel. Very few were left alive.” Hope slapped a picture of one of my Spectral Flock feathers in front of . “The only trace was the feather.”
“What?” I pulled back, not even needing Honest Face to show my confusion. I didn’t hurt anyone in Raijin. I barely even saw anyone in Raijin. And why would I hurt them? I got what I wanted without needing that kind of thing.
”Add in your friend who was recently rescued from a Savant Lab?” Hope casually picked up and toyed with one of her daggers.
For the first ti in a while, I felt incredibly uneasy around the woman. It was easy to forget- this all wasn’t real. Zuku wasn’t real. I was living a lie. And it looked like that lie was finally starting to catch up to . At the end of the day, she was the law and I was a criminal even if I liked to dress it up differently.
“C-can we leave h-her out of this?” The tremble I so desperately tried to stop finally broke through. “She- she’s been through e-enough.”
Hope’s expression softened slightly. She set the dagger back down. “Of course… you have my promise. I don’t even know her na, if it makes you feel better.”
I eyed her, reading her expression and posture. It was the truth. At least, as best I could tell. ”A bit…”
“And finally, the part of this that all ties it up… you were investigating the whole Savant slash Scav angle. Tilines match up. Motive matches up.” Hope leaned forward, looking from head to toe as if this was the first ti she’d ever really seen . Her silver armor flashed in the light nacingly. “If it looks like a rat, hisses like a rat, and tastes like a rat…”
I shifted uncomfortably. Instinct demanded that I pull on the Spectral Flock link that could take away. There was still so small hope in , though. So small plea that Hope would understand. “L-look- I-I can explain-“
Hope smiled cheerfully like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “Good. How do you know Nightshade?”
“It was a-“ My brain froze up for several long monts. No matter how much I tried to reboot it, her words locked up again and again. “H-how do I know Nightshade?”
“Yeah. What’s the relationship? Did you just hire them as a rc to find your friend?” The pressure that’d been mounting the entire ti faded away like a stray breeze.
My heart, on the other hand, thundered erratically. Perhaps it was thanks to my stunned state, but I completely bulldozed through the bureaucracy and directly asked what I was confused about. “D-do you not s-suspect ?”
Hope chuckled and looked at like I was so strange animal. “You? Heh- please… You looked like you were about to puke every ti I’ve watched you pull a trigger even on just monsters. I’ve been around pathological liars, but you’d have to be on a whole other level to even fake that.”
”Am I that transparent?” I thought I usually hid my hesitance to kill and butcher quite well.
“Like a pane of glass.” She didn’t even miss a beat. “Especially with the brutality that this Nightshade usually employs. No chance it's you. I’ve seen the bloodbaths left by our mystery rc.”
I rubbed at the back of my head, still completely stupefied by what was going on. “Ha- ha… chek… you got . I hired her.“
“Nightshade’s a woman?” Hope imdiately wrote that down. “So? How do you know her? The higher ups have been breathing down my neck to get her contact info.”
“C-contact info?” I repeated her last words like a broken record. My mind was still reeling with the fact that I was completely removed from the suspect pool just like that.
To be fair, I hadn’t been in the best state of mind when facing the Scavs and Savants. I barely even rember anything that happened outside of rage and bloodlust. I’m sure so of my kills were… not exactly clean. But the whole Raijin massacre thing? No idea what she was talking about.
“Yeah… if you’re worried about them charging her, don’t be. They’d more than likely try to recruit her before anything else.” Hope shrugged and picked up her dagger again, toying with it. The action didn’t seem nearly as threatening this ti around.
I pulled out an Honest smile and pulled my mind together to give the best act that I could. “S-she seed more of a lone act… I never t her face to face though. It was all online.”
“That’s fine… they want to hire her for sothing. Tell her there’s a new client.” Hope shrugged. “If she doesn’t answer, we’ll find so other way to contact her.”
“Um- why the interest in Nightshade? I-is it a setup?” I stuffed my hands together to hide the shakiness of my nerves.
”No… she’s practically a ghost. It never hurts to be in contact with a rc like that. Besides, after recent events, Commander made the decision to get to know the local forces.” Hope sighed, rubbing at her face. “With the new mayor’s attempts to pull rcs into the lilight and all that, things are changing once more.”
I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. If it was just contact info… “I can try to ask. She’s probably already ghosted though.”
”Figures. Just do your best.” Hope leaned back in her chair and picked up another docunt. “On an unrelated note, how’s your friend? Still holding up?”
”Peachy. Got an appointnt with a specialist tomorrow." I fully relaxed as the topic shifted away to sothing much more neutral.
For half an hour after that, Hope and I just chatted about anything and everything. Mainly, the topics of conversation were how the boys and Ligh were doing. Apparently, the new Commander was taking full advantage of his authority to spend most of his ti at the bar. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Ligh would be Ligh.
Interestingly, there’s been a new craze amongst the Crusade too. With Ligh at the bar, darts have beco extrely popular for so reason. Apparently the Crusaders are practically lining up to challenge the Commander with increasingly elaborate trick shots.
No idea how I made it out of that one, but I guess I should thank myself for being normally squeamish? I shook my head and moved back to the apartnt, my mind constantly tossing and turning around the new moniker I picked up.
Nightshade, huh? Could be worse.
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