Delta, sporting heavy dark circles under her eyes, ate breakfast with a vacant expression. She lifted a spoonful of porridge and put it in her mouth...
"Ow, hot, hot, hot!"
With a miserable face, she spat the porridge back out and glared at the bowl as if the innocent food had personally offended her.
"What's wrong? Didn't sleep well?" A girl as light as an elf sat across from her, asking with a beaming smile.
"Mm..." Delta put down the spoon, stuck out her burnt tongue, and sighed. "Something... well, I had a bad dream."
"A nightmare? How cute."
Elysia pointed ears twitched. Delta looked at her conflicted and asked, "Captain Elysia... don't you have any thoughts on Lieutenant Lin being wanted?"
"Hmm... I wouldn't say I have none." Elysia chewed on her jam bread, then stuck out her pink tongue to lick a drop of jam from the corner of her mouth. She smiled. "What am I going to do about my meals and someone to warm my bed?"
"..."
"Haha." Elysia was very satisfied with Delta subtle look. She snapped her fingers. "Don't worry. Lin will do the right thing. I believe in him, and he never fails those who trust him."
"But Fire Moth..."
"Shhh~"
Elysia placed a finger against Delta lips. She tilted her head, giving a seductive smile. "Little Delta, the world isn't just black and white. Opposing sides aren't always absolute good and evil. Do you want the correct answer, or do you want the answer you're looking for?"
"..."
Delta slowly closed her mouth, her hand beneath the table clenching tightly.
...
Delta returned to her room with a takeout meal from the cafeteria. She didn't turn on the lights, locking the door behind her.
"...I brought food."
The night vision of a Fusion Warrior allowed her to see a figure leaning against a corner of the sofa. He was silent and motionless, like a statue.
A damaged helmet and a weapon case sat on the table. He sat with his eyes open in the dark, his half-silver, half-black hair messy.
"..."
Delta placed the food on the table.
The reason she hadn't slept well was that someone had knocked on her door in the middle of the night. That person had been declared a wanted criminal a few hours prior and appeared at her door a few hours later. She had had to build quite a bit of mental fortitude before opening the door.
"You've been sitting there all night without saying a word." Delta bit her lip. "Are you a traitor? Did you kill Fire Moth soldiers?"
"..."
The man remained silent, leaning his head on one hand. He hadn't moved a finger in hours.
He was different from usual. Usually, no matter how laconic he was, his personality and dark humor shone through. But now, Delta could only feel a sense of deathly stillness from him, as if the thing sitting there wasn't a living being.
Only when a cold, sharp gaze occasionally swept over her did she shiver, knowing he was still conscious.
But she couldn't contain the fire in her heart. "Why did you betray Fire Moth? Did Fire Moth lie to us—"
Lin moved for the first time since arriving. Like a puppet, he turned his head, and his daunting gaze fell upon Delta.
"Why are you looking at me like that! What is the truth!"
"Do you want the correct answer, or do you want the answer you're looking for?" Lin asked coldly.
Delta froze. That phrase...
Did she truly want to know the truth?
Seeing her sister become a monster, becoming non-human herself, being subject to others' control... if everything she had done and experienced collapsed once the truth arrived...
Then the meaning of her sister agreeing to the surgery...
The meaning of their existence...
What would be left?
"I..."
"Fire Moth did not lie to you." Lin spoke with icy words before she could voice her thoughts. "Currently, there is just a misunderstanding between me and Fire Moth. It will just take some time to clear it up. As for killing... perhaps."
What did "perhaps" mean?
Delta heart pounded. She opened her mouth to speak, but Lin remained expressionless. She eventually swallowed hard, her lips trembling. "I see..."
"Mm. Before the misunderstanding is resolved, I'll stay here for a while. I'll think about... how to solve it."
"Why me?"
"Because you are connected to me, but the connection is the shallowest."
"..."
Lin said no more. He seemed to have reached a decision, pulling the food container and chopsticks toward him and eating in large mouthfuls.
In his eyes, partially hidden by his hair, chaotic and unreadable points of light occasionally flickered.
...
A grim-faced Kevin entered the room.
"Mei, what on earth is going on with Lin?"
Mei had been busy with official duties, and Kevin had to constantly head out to prevent Honkai eruptions following Svatok-51. This period had been their time with the least interaction. He hadn't expected such a massive event to occur while he was away.
Lin had not only betrayed Fire Moth but had also killed Fire Moth soldiers.
Kevin found either of those charges to be fantastical, let alone both at once.
"Theft of intelligence, assault, betrayal, murder." Mei tied her long hair back and put on her glasses. She looked at the report on the desk. "It's exactly what the wanted notice said."
"I don't believe it."
"..." Mei sighed and turned to meet Kevin determined gaze. "And? Do you expect the people who issued the warrant to give you evidence?"
"Shouldn't they provide evidence?"
"Evidence exists. And even if it didn't, they could manufacture it."
"..."
Kevin understood what Mei meant. He closed his eyes in thought, then turned to leave.
"Kevin, what are you going to do?"
"Mei, are you going to believe those people? Or have you chosen silence?" Kevin grit his teeth; it was rare for him to be this agitated. "He could die for humanity, but why must humanity be the one to kill him?"
"He said that if humanity needs him to be a certain way, he can be that way."
"But humanity doesn't need that," Kevin said, emphasizing every word. "If humanity needs to nail a man to a cross to survive... then the meaning of human survival no longer exists."
Mei looked up at the ceiling lights and let out a heavy breath.
"Kevin, there is something I must tell you."