Coldness washed over her as a splash of water rinsed over Eliza's face; she looked up from the sink. The pristine patterned walls of the terminal toilets contrasted the normally pale appearance of most high-end buildings across the galaxy. She looked awful in the mirror, her freckles were more visible than ever. Studying and researching for university and preparing a start-up company had dug deep into her sleep.

  Even with all her perseverance, there was a limit to where her determination and coffee could push her goals forward alone. She probably needed rest, Eliza mulled it over in her mind. No... she definitely needed it, but something in her head told her she could do more!

  Exhaustion riddled her face as she tried to hide it as much as possible. Pushing herself any further might cause her to collapse, but coffee should fight the random urge to fall asleep, for now at least. She placed her round glasses back on, watching as they sparked online with holographic visages and augmented visions. "You can do it!" Eliza tried to cheer herself up, seeing if her tenacity could overcome the physical limits of her mind and body... Safe to say, she didn't get that far.

  But that wasn't it. As if all of that wasn't brain-melting enough, she got a message from him, telling her that he'll be back. Hopefully, it wasn't one of Archius' pranks… But he dropped out after Kaz disappeared, probably hitting him hard, so Eliza doubted that he'd joke about something like that. Then again, it was Archius she was talking about. She gulped down her stress and nervousness.

  "Awh… splendid, you look amazingly awful," said Eliza, speaking to herself in the mirror as her holophone buzzed. "Come on… you can do this… That exam went... horribly." Even hours after a rather minor cybernetic exam, Eliza was still fixated on that one question about logical switches. She grumbled loudly, agonising over the rather dodgy wording of the question.

  The low light hue of her uplink glowed as she brushed her charm-pink hair aside, pushing her bangs to one side.

  She scrambled through her duffle coat pockets, taking out a small slab of steel. She took a half-second to make sure the purple rose brooch was pinned in place. Eliza pressed a button along her uplink, it ejected a projected hologram visage.

  Ugh... She was exhausted, the bags under her eyes made that rather evident, though the sight was usual for her.

  The startup sound of her phone filled her uplink earpiece and injected into her nerves. A sprouting holographic visual visualiser came out from the phone's holo-screen. Waiting for a response, Eliza dried her hands on her coat, before brushing some stray water splashes off her shoes and tights.

  'I apologise for speaking out unannounced, but I sense a serious quantity of stress from you,' said Synthia, Eliza's personal AI tutor. It was probably the only 'living thing' in the galaxy besides Professor Crankenhart who could challenge her from a pure academic front, though she hasn't exactly met a wide plethora outside of university and alumni. 'Though mental well-being is not explicitly coded into my chain-link, I can offer you advice, if you so desire.'

  "Thanks, Synthia… But you should continue compiling next week's timetable, I wouldn't want to burden you with—"

  Synthia interjected, 'Nonsense, Miss Eliza! There's no point compiling another series of schedules if you are not in a mental state well enough to execute your plans.'

  Eliza smiled at her words. Always going above and beyond. Even if Synthia was just a voice in her uplink, she felt far more real than many of those same alumni she'd met in networking events the previous year. She nodded before placing her phone in her pocket. Eliza took in a deep breath, puffing her cheeks up.

  "It's about him," started Eliza, turning and leaving the toilets, out into the jam-packed terminal. Holographic timetables were etched onto the walls and ceiling as she sat down at the nearest bench. "I owe him so much. But…"

  'Ah, so you are worried whether he has changed, for the worse I presume.'

  Eliza continued, "Yeah. I thought I knew him, he was willing to help me since high school, but then he's a mercenary… then we're looking for leads and—"

  Her thoughts ran wild, letting Synthia sink into all that information as she vented heavily. It felt somewhat relieving to Eliza, to rest all her stresses away on an AI. But she knew it wouldn't get rid of the core problem at hand. A year of war changes people, but this was Kazuki she was talking about. Someone whose loyalty could not be questioned, right?

  He betrayed Clandestine, his employers. He burnt everything they built up over decades and took it for his own. Was that the blunt, sarcastic and lazy Kazuki she knew, the Kaz that spent all study time dozing off in lessons; or that time he skived half a semester? It ached in her mind. But he did all of that, for her. Her or all people. Why? Was it… compassion? Even thinking of the two words together, Kazuki and compassionate, felt like heresy.

  "—then he killed our only lead… Kazuki is the key to it all, but he brought rubble down onto the door," grumbled Eliza. "That was our only bloody shot and he threw it!"

  Synthia paused for a moment, perhaps she was formulating a proper answer. 'Categorically, he's probably changed; also he's technically not a mercenary, he's a contractor. The Intergalactic United Nations finds him responsible for the deaths of millions by hand or writing - amongst many other felonies. But the interweb is even more lethal to him.'

  Unlike the wars of the intergalactic crisis, Kaz's war was purely within the private sector. Mercenaries, criminals and contractors. Their prominence was so large that some PMCs even acted as enforcers or planetary security. But the most glaring example was the Anagoran Judiciary: a bi-judicial mess of thousands of contractor firms vying for contracts over policing the Sub Levels and Sub Districts.

  Eliza sighed, giving her response, "I didn't think I'd need to be the one to tell an AI to not trust everything on the interweb, but what difference does it make? People rarely distinguish between the two professions…"

  'Very true, Eliza. But you distinguish them.'

  "I guess…" Even Eliza knew that contractors and Mercs were technically different, yet after centuries the two terms simply merged into one. It's just that one term is more palatable. "Did I... finish that assignment?"

  'Yes... you did.' Synthia released a small sigh of frustration as if it was the hundredth time this day alone she had to reaffirm that. Synthia made a metaphoric throat clear as she mimicked the noise made by humans. 'The safest course of action is to leave him be. The IUN is a semi-reputable source of information. If he's as dangerous and bloodthirsty as the reports say, the safest option is to leave him be.'

  "You know I can't do that. I've known him for years, I can't leave now…" exclaimed Eliza, "And I already told him that I'd be meeting him here…"

  'And if he is changed for the worse?' asked Synthia. 'War does things to many people, such as those Blood Contractors. What if he comes out like one of them?'

  "Then… I'll accept that," said Eliza. Such an irrational response buzzed Synthia for a moment as she tried to comprehend advanced human compassion. "It'd be wrong for me to judge him without speaking to him first. If I did, I'd be the same as everyone else. We're friends, after all, so it'd be rude to just ignore that fact!"

  'I… do not precisely understand that response.' Synthia pondered for a moment. 'Perhaps you care for him in more ways than one?'

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  "Why, of course, I do," said Eliza, stating the obvious, "I told you, he's my friend, right? Right?" It was as if she was asking herself. Just what did he stand for? Eliza glanced down at her phone, seeing the dozens of things she had finished already, from reports to papers to assignments and exams. Still, she had to make sure that she didn't muck things up, it'd be a bit of a weight on her mind if her pride for her 'perfect' academic record were to be tarnished ever so slightly.

  Synthia stopped speaking. She made an audible nod that Eliza could comprehend, before letting off a massive sigh. 'I… yeah… I don't think you've missed anything recently if you're worried about that. And by that, I mean you haven't if I must put it less reasonably.'

  "Just in case..." Eliza trailed off, rolling her eyes. "It pays to be safe, you know?"

  'Like when you spent fifty minutes on that one exam question? It was just one mark, might I add, sometimes you need to put that grit and energy into something else. You use me to keep track of things, I think I'd be privy to anything on the back burner,' Synthia remarked before sighing at Eliza's rather eccentric attitude to work.

  Eliza knew quite well that she could go a bit overboard, but she just had to scratch that burning itch at the back of her mind, to know that for the seventeenth time, she didn't miss something! Unlike Kaz, who had his memory to rely on, Eliza had nothing but her sheer willpower to rely on. For anything that someone better than her achieves, Eliza knew she had to work tens times as hard for half the outcome.

  So... just work twenty times! It was a rather simple but exhausting methodology, but it got Eliza to where she is now, Student Exec at the most prestigious college on the planet!

  'If you are to take a while longer, why did you go out of your way for this?'

  "Well, I owe him?" Eliza suggested, wracking her head for an answer. "It'd only be fair if I pay it back, right? What would mother think if I didn't?" Eliza chuckled slightly in a bit of a self-deprecating manner. Mum was dead, long dead, but Eliza felt bound to prove herself, in some way, to someone who would never see her accomplishments.

  Synthia sighed. 'I see,' she said with a slightly pitying face.

  Eliza thought quietly, why did her answer stunt Synthia this badly? It wouldn't be right if she didn't heed a friend's call, right? Their investigation was stamped out once, that one chance at achieving justice in an unjust galaxy... reduced to atoms, yet perhaps now that everything has cleared up: Eliza can pursue that once more! Her eyes lit brightly at the idea, a rather eccentric one at that, but it was an idea that she held onto dearly. Even if everything was against her, she knew she'd succeed. If she was able to get here through her grit alone, then Eliza knew that she'd be able to tackle anything that came her way.

  However, before she could let off any more questions, someone breathed right past her ear, making her jump in place as she immediately shifted to look at the benches behind her. She closed Synthia down immediately.

  "Oi, hand over your kidneys now." Archius Bar-Lyst let off a massive grin, waving at her from a short distance, leaning over the backrest of the bench. "Ey seems like you're here as well."

  "Archius? Oh, well… y—yeah?" Eliza placed a hand up to her ear as a smaller shiver descended through her body. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

  He gave her finger guns and clicked his tongue. "I mean, if you consider a year long then yeah!"

  "I—" Eliza found herself quite dumbfounded; meeting both Archius and Kazuki on the same day. It's been so long since she's seen the two, after all, he basically 'noped out' of university the moment Kaz disappeared. "Why, how are you?" she asked, finding no elegant way to ask the question.

  "Same stuff, same shit, I've just been hanging out with a bunch of friends," said Archius.

  "I guess you're here for Kaz as well, then?" asked Eliza. Archius was essentially the only other person he talked to, on a more than necessary basis - except for Barclay and a few others...

  He exhaled for a moment. Eliza watched as he tried to formulate words, it must be difficult for him. The two were friends before she even met Kazuki, so it was probably a massive shock to him about who he was…

  "Well, he ignored most of my messages and left me on read, so you're not the only one…" said Archius, lying through his teeth - though Eliza couldn't tell.

  It was likely, after all, Kaz didn't really like saying a lot. But he always responded to her, though that might just be him being him. She contemplated whether to tell Archius, or lie. And though it ached her, she felt that it'd be better for Archi to know sooner, rather than later.

  "Well, uh, no? He… doesn't leave me on read."

  "HUH?!" Archius looked dumbstruck as he placed his hands on Eliza's shoulders. He slowly shook her as she tried to calm him down. "ARE YOU TELLING ME. ME?! THAT KAZ'S BEEN TALKING WITH YOU! The flimsy genius girl that he's only known for a year and a bit! BUT NOT ME!?!? EVEN AFTER I GAVE HIM ALL THE RICE PUDDING FROM OUR SCHOOL LUNCHES!?"

  Eliza furrowed her brow. "Don't… you hate rice pudding?" she asked.

  "Uh, That's not the point! THE POINT IS: HE'S NOT BEEN RESPONDING TO ME!"

  "Hold up, hold up! He probably didn't want to get you mixed up in all this," explained Eliza. "I mean, he started all of it over a contract. I think him distancing himself from you was a way to try and protect you."

  It did make sense in her head. Distance was a way to protect people, in some sense of the word. If Archius continued to talk to Kazuki, it might have led to his capture… or even death. Archius slumped down, gloomily grumbling with a groan as he let off a cold breath.

  "But still, it woulda been nice to know where he fucked off t—" His uplink lit up with green light as a hand tugged at his ear, pulling him off of Eliza.

  "OW!" He shouted, closing one of his eyes as Eliza looked up to see Kazuki. Even if he was standing, Archius was still a bit taller than him with his knees on the bench.

  Kazuki nodded at Eliza, "Hey."

  He looked cold and sharp, his golden eyes pierced her soul with a glance. But all seemed well as if he wasn't gone for a year. As if she didn't spend every waking moment with the knowledge that Kazuki might die, and the chances of bringing her sister's memory to rest may fade forever.

  Eliza couldn't help but grin. Archius was overbearing and was pulled back by Kazuki; it felt like they were back in high school. He let go of his ear as Archius fell onto the backrest of the bench he was sitting on - all melodramatic as he looked back at Kaz.

  If this was what remained after a year, she had no qualms about accepting him. But something felt off about him. Perhaps an air of stress? No, it was something she couldn't understand. But that wouldn't be the first time she didn't understand him. Eliza stood up from the bench and walked around to them.

  She gazed at Kaz for a moment. Her eyes inspected him as she looked into those soulless gold bulbs, It wasn't exhaustion. He never looked tired, to begin with, but at the same time, it wasn't his eyes. But they always showed off a glare. Then she realised, it's probably been a while since he'd been able to care for himself. "Did you miss us that badly? You have a stubble."

  Kazuki furrowed his brow, rubbing his right hand up and down his chin. "Oh…"

  Archius and Eliza both snickered at his lacklustre response. Seemed like some things never change about him, she thought. He was still that sarcastic, lazy and unresponsive kid that her twin sis met all those years ago. She remembered that he never bothered wearing his family brooch insignia. Eliza was never brave enough to ask why… the subject of the sort was very touchy, especially for the highest tier of the Republic's gentry - let alone nobility and royalty.

  She laughed it off as a joke. She understood the stresses placed on Kazuki; from family, to work to expectations, after all, it's something for the two to worry about together. Eliza would do her best to help him through, even if she might not be able to, she owed him that - and even if she didn't she would still help. "Welcome back, Kaz."

  A moment of silence fell onto his face. Then, he nodded. Archius looked at the two of them as his stomach grumbled ever so slightly. Kazuki looked at him, remarking, "Great timing, Archius. Another heartwarming reunion ruined by you."

  Snickering, Archius remarked, "Says you of all people!"

  The three started to walk, making their way towards the exits of the terminal. The interior was warm, and heated, Eliza noted, but the outside was still rather cold, given how it was winter - at least according to the thermal regulators on this planet.

  "Fuck you, you're the one that told me you'd be here three hours ago!" shouted Archius whilst grimacing at Kazuki.

  "I didn't expect you to wait three hours. You could have crossed the road to get some ramen at the—"

  "Oh, that place closed down," interrupted Eliza. Kazuki glanced towards her. He closed his eyes solemnly as he took a deep breath.

  For a moment, she felt like teasing him about not remembering that, but Archius probably would have leapt at the opportunity.

  "I… actually hoped to get something there," said Kazuki, "The owner wasn't as stuck up as the other people in this district…"

  "Hey!" Eliza was offended as Kazuki just grouped her entire district together.

  Archius sniggered at her as he hid his mouth behind his long sleeve, "Come on, come on, let's get something to eat!"