“You’re supposed to say thank you.”


    Chloe was sprawled on a couch in the living room, chilled blood bag in hand that’d been untapped. In another of the seats, just directly across from her was Jin who held now a ice cream cone, and standing in the distance between them was a boy.


    Jin frowned, looking from the ice cream cone in her hand to Chloe, and then to the brown-haired ten-year-old boy who’d brought it to her. “What would I thank him for?” she asked, genuinely confused and then to the boy, she said: “Did you make this yourself?”


    The boy shook his head.


    “When people do things for you that might make things easier, you’re supposed to thank them.” Chloe sighed in exasperation. “For example, if he hadn’t brought you the ice cream, you would have either had to go get it yourself from the kitchen or you might not have gotten ice cream at all because someone else would have beaten you to it.”


    “The kitchen’s only twenty steps from the living room,” Jin said and then, as if to prove a point, she blurred out of the living room and returned a moment later with a second ice cream cone in her hand, one that she extended toward Chloe. “So would you thank me now?”


    “If I could have ice cream, I would.”


    “Oh, right.” Jin frowned then turned to the boy, Mark, offering him the cone instead. “Well, do you want the ice cream?”


    Mark shook his head. “I already had ice cream. Pastor Miguel says too much of it is bad for us.”


    “Hm.” Jin cast a searching glance around the living room before looking back at Mark. “Well, I don’t see Miguel anywhere around. Tell you what, it’ll be our little secret.”


    Mark’s eyes lit up then and he grabbed the cone from Jin’s hand, hastily digging into the ice cream. He stopped a moment later to smile at her, the vanilla ice cream having painted a wide smile onto his mouth. “Thank you!”


    Mark hurried out of the living room, ice cream in hand.


    “Huh,” Jin said. “He did thank me. For something as mundane as frozen cream. Your people have weird customs.”


    “It’s called being polite.” Chloe shook her head. “Wouldn’t kill you to try it sometime.”


    “Well, you’ve never thanked me,” Jin said, turning to face Chloe, licking some of the ice cream off the cone. Her eyes went a little wide as she tasted the ice cream. “Huh. It’s…not completely filthy.”


    “What would I thank you for?” Chloe asked, her turn now to frown and look a little confused.


    “I don’t know. How about, for starters, letting you and the others use me as a sort of punching bag to prepare yourselves for the next confrontation with the Helmets?”


    “You’re the one doing most of the punching!”


    “Right.” Jin nodded, licking more ice cream. “Alright then, then how about a couple months ago when you were on the brink of death and I saved you with my blood? I don’t recall getting any thanks for that. In fact, I vividly remember your brother and Hardy threatening to kill me.”


    “For good reason. You caused us a whole lot of trouble. And besides, you only saved me because of something you wanted, you didn’t do it because it was the right thing to do.”


    “And that matters?” Jin asked. “Does intent redefine a deed?”


    “You wanted soldiers to help you in a fight against your dad. You didn’t save me because I was dying and needed to be saved, only because you thought saving me might earn you our trust. Humans have a word for that. It’s called manipulation.”


    “I see.” Jin nodded, digging her teeth into the ice cream. “So you’re saying that if I saved you for the right reasons, you would thank me?”


    “Probably.” Chloe shrugged. “But it wouldn’t exactly be good intent if the only reason you were saving me was to hear me thank you, would it?”


    “Well, maybe you’ll save me and I’ll have to thank you,” Jin said but immediately chuckled as the words left her mouth.


    Chloe raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I could save you?”


    “I don’t think I could ever end up in the sort of trouble that would require me to be saved,” Jin responded, rolling her eyes. “No offense, but even the best your people have to offer is still rather laughably mediocre. Enhanced children? It’d be a stain on my pride if they posed any harm to me. Besides, even if you humans did manage to conjure up something that could hurt me, I don’t think you’d save me.”


    Chloe looked at Jin then. She was still focused on the ice cream but the look in her eyes conveyed that she really did mean that. She went quiet and in the silence, she could hear the thuds and grunts coming from out back where Lucas, Aiden and Andre were currently sparring. She knew if it came to it, none of them would prioritize Jin’s life or view it as one worth saving.


    But Erwin had saddled her with Jin, made her Chloe’s responsibility. And annoying as that had been at the start, annoying as it’d been to hear Jin loudly scrutinizing the books she was reading in the dead of night, she’d come to feel a little less hostile toward her.


    “If you were a little less annoying, I might try to save you,” Chloe joked. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t thank you for saving my life then. You might have done it for your own reasons but I’m still glad you did…so thank you.”


    “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Jin rolled her eyes again, then rose from her seat. “I’m going to head upstairs to read.”


    As soon as Jin rose to her feet, someone barged into the orphanage. Quick footsteps followed as Kaia raced into the living room, hair wild and in her face, a frantic look in her eyes.


    Chloe shifted into an upright position at once, her face darkening with concern. Lucas and the others returned inside at once, all having heard her arrival.


    “Kaia?” Lucas’s voice was filled with worry. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”


    “Y-you haven’t heard?” Kaia’s voice trembled.


    “Heard what?” Chloe rose to her feet. “What’s going on?”


    “There’s been an attack,” Kaia said. “Saw it on the way here. Captain Voss’s gym was torn apart.”


    Chloe’s heart sunk to the depths of her stomach at once. “Jon.”


    ***


    ONE HOUR EARLIER...


    Jon caught the wooden sword perfectly in one hand, halting Yuri’s attack. Sweat rushed down his face like a river, drops falling to the floor. His chest heaved, heart racing as he drew deep breaths.


    “You sound tired,” Yuri said, lips curling into a smile. “Do you want to take a break?”


    “I didn’t even say anything.”


    “You didn’t have to. I can hear your breathing,” Yuri took a step back and put the wooden sword away. “It’s okay, we can take a break for a while, it is getting pretty late and we’ve been going at this all day.”


    “This isn’t you being tired and just projecting, is it?”


    Yuri snorted. “Do I sound tired?”


    Jon gave her a studying expression. She was sweating, just not nearly as much as he was, and her heart was beating a lot steadier. He sighed. “Fine, let’s take a break. You know this was supposed to be me helping you learn to fight without needing to see, no idea how I’ve somehow ended up the student here.”


    “I learn quickly,” Yuri said, before heading to a stool and sitting on it. She reached out to her left without taking off her blindfold, grabbed the water bottle that was there, uncorked it and halved the bottle in one go. She resealed the bottle then tossed it in Jon’s direction, who caught it perfectly out of the air, grinning as she threw it.


    “You’re showing off,” Jon said.


    “Am I? I don’t see it.”


    “Funny.” Jon rolled his eyes, before opening up the water bottle, downing what was left of it. Afterward, he headed toward a stool, grabbed the towel he’d left there and wiped off his face and his arms before sitting on the stool, resting his back against the column the stool had been placed against.


    He tilted his head upward, breathing deeply and heavily. After about five minutes, his heartbeat had steadied somewhat and his skin had cooled off just enough, and he felt enough energy within him to keep going for another few hours, at least until night had fallen. Already, the sun was setting but he imagined it was still another couple hours until nighttime, at which point he’d have to return to the orphanage to check on the others.


    He returned to his feet. “Alright, alright, let’s keep going.”


    “Are you sure?” Yuri asked, smug grin on her face as she returned to her feet. “It’s fine if you’d like to head home and get some sleep right about now.”


    “How are you doing this without getting tired?”


    “Great diet and a lot of cardio.”


    “Uh-huh.” Jon nodded. He started walking toward Yuri. “You heard anything back from Bridge or any of the guards he’s got looking into stuff?”


    “Nothing.” Yuri shook her head. “And—,”


    “And what?”


    “I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. “Just feels weird, doesn’t it? How laid back all of this kind of is? The effort, I mean. A Pandoran squad gets wiped out, kids go missing but Bridge concentrates security around his mansion instead of doing everything he can to get to the bottom of things.”


    “He’s incompetent.” Jon shrugged. “That’s not a particularly difficult thing to understand.”


    “Yeah, sure. But you don’t feel like there’s just something wrong about him? About all of this? I’ve seen the guards today, Jon. Just hanging about, pretty unmotivated about everything that’s going on. You ask me, doesn’t feel like there’s any real search going on.”


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    “You think he’s involved?” Jon asked.


    “Realistically, how easy do you think it would be for someone to conduct Pandoran-level experiments and have it go right under the nose of a district Chancellor?” Yuri asked.


    “We’ve had a look at the labs here,” Jon said. “None of them looked particularly guilty.”


    “Yeah, you’re right.” Yuri sighed. “It’s just frustrating still being in the dark on all of this. Nothing about what’s happening makes any sense, and it sucks just sitting around, waiting for something else to happen so we can react to it. I just wish there was more we could do right now, to get to the bottom of things.”


    “Look, I’m not saying that what you’re saying is crazy, alright?” Jon sighed. “If I’m being honest, I’ve thought about it too, since my unit and I first met him even. But he’s Chancellor and even if we’re here on Capital orders, there’s still limits to what we can do without hard enough evidence. We make even one wrong move, all he has to do is place a call to Capital and we get withdrawn and that sets things back. So yeah, it could be him, but there’s not exactly enough to go on, not right now at least.”


    “So we do nothing?”


    “We are doing something, Yuri,” Jon said, throwing up his fists. “We’re preparing. Next time the Helmets come out, we’ll be there to deal with them, we follow them right back where they’re coming from and we put an end to all of it. And whoever it is that’s responsible for this, even if it’s Bridge…they’ll be sorry.”


    “I still don’t like waiting. Feels wrong, given everything.”


    “If there’s still nothing from Bridge by the end of the week and no other attacks, we’ll look into him, even if it means having to fight our way into his mansion. But for now, why don’t we focus on you kicking my ass a while longer?”


    Yuri grinned. “Alright, fine. If you insist.”


    Yuri leaned forward, holding the wooden sword out in front of her, poised to strike. Jon simply grinned, planting his feet firmly against the ground.


    “Bring it.”


    Yuri shifted on her feet, sending out a gentle gust of wind as she did. She charged forward, right at Jon but just as soon as she had, the fluorescent lights overhead all flickered, buzzing loudly as they did, bringing her to a sudden stop.


    She pulled her blindfold off slightly, looked up at the flickering lights, a grim expression on her face.


    “What’s going on?”


    Yuri craned her neck slightly to the side, her ears twitching as she listened. A few seconds went by. Then her eyes went wide and she spun around just in time to catch a fist aimed right for her head.


    She wasn’t fully prepared for the strength of her attacker and so the impact of the fist against her palm, sent her staggering backward a great few feet before she regained her balance. She looked up to see the attacker, a mysterious figure clad in black standing there, fists clenched. She recognized the figure at once.


    “I know you,” she said, straightening to her feet. “You’re—,”


    “Bridge’s bodyguard,” Jon finished, his eyes narrowing darkly. “Is he listening to us somehow? Bug us? Send you here to shut us up before we could link things back to him?”


    “No,” the attacker answered, her voice distorted, modified by her suit. “I’m not even here for you.”


    “What are you here for then?” Jon demanded, circling the attacker.


    The attacker shrugged. “Bait.”


    Without warning, she charged at Jon. The attacker threw a series of rapid, powerful blows, all of which Jon managed to avoid before countering with a swiftly delivered blow to the face that staggered the attacker backward, and then a spinning roundhouse kick that knocked her aside.


    “If you wanted to come after me, you should have used the brainwashed kids again,” Jon growled. “You’d have stood more of a chance that way.”


    The attacker scoffed. “I’m trying not to hurt you.”


    “How kind of you.” Jon advanced toward the attacker. “I’m going to hurt you. A lot.”


    “Fine. Have it your way then.”


    The attacker charged at Jon again, throwing another powerful blow. Jon parried the strike and retaliated with one of his, one that got parried too. On and on this went, the two of them falling into an exchange of blows and parries until, finally, the attacker switched up, feigning as though she was about to throw a punch before crashing a knee into Jon’s stomach, and slamming her elbows into his back once he doubled over, knocking him to the ground.


    Jon hit the ground hard and with a groan, but immediately started to rise. A firm foot struck his back as he attempted to rise, knocking him back down. The foot remained there, keeping him pinned.


    “Don’t make—,”


    The attacker trailed off, spinning around quickly enough to catch a wooden sword that had been hurled at her. She looked ahead, expecting to find Yuri there, but she wasn’t.


    And then, from behind the attacker came a loud, furious yell.


    She spun back around and a foot from Yuri collided into her chest, knocking her backward and off of Jon, who immediately hurried to his feet.


    “Blindfolded?” the attacker asked, a tone of amusement evident even in her modified voice. “That’s cute.”


    Yuri snarled angrily, then reached for the scabbard around her waist, unsheathing her actual sword, the blade glinting dangerously. Without saying anything, she charged at the attacker. Jon charged too.


    The two of them went at the attacker from different flanks, swinging simultaneously, Jon with his fist and Yuri with her blade. The attacker was quick on her feet and very clearly well trained—no doubt military training, the same Jon and Yuri had. And it was more than evident by now that she was Pandoran too.


    An unregistered Pandoran.


    She dodged and weaved their attacks with ease, and it was perhaps made even easier for her by the fact that Jon had to be careful how close he got, because every time she slipped out of the way of one of Yuri’s attacks, Jon himself was at risk of getting cut by Yuri’s blade as evidenced once, when Yuri’s blade slashed across his cheek accidentally, sending a flashing pain through him.


    After what felt like an eternity of making no progress against the attacker, being unable to land any critical hits, an opening presented itself.


    Yuri let her blade fly from her grasp, right at the attacker. The attacker moved quickly, parrying the blade aside and to the floor before going at Yuri. But Jon was quick. He grabbed the blade just before it hit the ground, charged at the attacker, slashing from behind, a perfect arc going across the attacker’s back, slicing through the bodysuit.


    The attacker grunted in annoyance and swirled to face Jon. Jon landed a blow to the attacker’s face, then tossed the sword to Yuri, who sliced again at the attacker’s back.


    The attacker growled, turned to face Yuri, left herself open to consecutive blows from Jon. Yuri landed a few blows of her own, then tossed the sword to Jon who caught it perfectly and slashed again.


    On and on this went, Jon and Yuri passing the attacker back and forth, passing the sword between them, taking turns unleashing a barrage of strikes on the attacker.


    And then finally, when Jon had been about to pass the sword back again, the attacker spun around and seized onto his hand.


    “Enough!” The attacker snarled, before snapping.


    Jon roared in pain as his hand broke, bone jutting out of skin, entire vision flashing with pain. The sword dropped to the ground. He swung a fist with his other hand, missed and received a powerful strike to the stomach that sent blood spraying from his mouth and dropped him to his knees at once.


    The attacker slammed a foot into him, sending him flipping through the air before landing some distance away, pain flashing through his broken hand once more as he hit the ground. Wincing, he reached into his pocket for something.


    The attacker scoffed and held up a vial of Jin’s blood. “Looking for this?” she asked. “Not a chance. Now stay down.”


    “Funny, I was just about to say the same to you,” said Yuri from behind.


    The attacker swirled around, just as Yuri thrust forward with her blade, shoving it right through the attacker’s stomach.


    Yuri kicked the attacker’s feet out from under her, knocking her to the ground then grabbed her helmet and yanked it off.


    She pulled her blindfold off, looked down at the attacker in front of her. Her eyes went wide at once. “Kaia?”


    Kaia bent over, clutching the sword lodged in her, spat blood from her mouth. She looked at Yuri, curled her lips into a devilish smile. “Hey, Captain.”


    “What?” Yuri frowned. “Y-you’re human. How?”


    “Looks can be deceiving,” Kaia replied, before yanking the sword out and tossing it aside. She held one hand firmly over the wound. She attempted to return to her feet but her feet trembled and she dropped onto one knee instead.


    “You’re working with Bridge?”


    Kaia chuckled. “Kinda have to. He’s my dad.”


    The look of shock remained on Yuri’s face for a moment. Then she walked toward her sword, grabbed it, and aimed it right at Kaia, the point of the blade touching Kaia’s neck. Yuri’s eyes flashed with anger. “The children. Where are they?”


    Kaia snorted, spat more blood from her mouth, some of it getting onto Yuri’s blade. “Does it matter? You’re not going to save them.”


    “We’ll see about that.”


    “No.” Kaia shook her head. “You don’t understand. You’re not winning this fight. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you win. He’ll kill the others if I do.”


    Yuri’s expression shifted, her eyes widening slightly. “What? What are you talking about?”


    “He just wants to save the world. They don’t need to die. All of this, it’s for them, so they get to live a better life.”


    Yuri’s eyes went even wider as realization dawned on her. “The children,” she murmured. “The orphanage.”


    Kaia attempted to return to her feet again but Yuri was quick, striking at her head with the hilt of her sword and dropping her to the ground. She sheathed the sword immediately, then hurried across the room, making her way to Jon.


    She crouched at his side, saw the broken hand and gulped. “That’s going to take some work to heal. Gotta get you out of here.”


    “No,” Jon groaned weakly. “Go. The orphanage. You have to warn them. Quick.”


    “I’m not leaving you like this.”


    “Just go! Now!”


    Yuri bit her lips and looked from Jon to Kaia, who remained on the ground, hunched over oddly. She looked back to Jon, and placed her hand beneath his chin, tilting his head up slightly. She leaned forward, bending over and pressing her lips against his.


    The kiss lasted briefly, only a moment before she parted.


    Jon frowned. “What was that for?”


    “Take your mind off the pain,” she answered, as she straightened to her feet. “And also, don’t die. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”


    She turned on her heels and sprinted in the direction of the exit. She was halfway to the exit when she heard a slight clink and came to a halt. Frowning, she turned and looked in Kaia’s direction.


    The girl was still on the ground, still hunched over but now, there was a vial rolling away from her. The same blood-filled one she’d nicked off of Jon. Except it was empty now.


    “No,” Jon croaked.


    Yuri watched with a confused frown on her face as Kaia got back to her feet. At first, the girl wobbled, but then she steadied, still hunched slightly, arms a little limp at her side in a manner that made her looked possessed.


    Then she lifted her head and looked straight at Yuri, eyes a frightening bloodshot red, lips peeled into a crazed smile.


    “I told you,” Kaia said, without her smile faltering. “I can’t let you win.”


    Yuri grunted and unsheathed her blade again, lowering her blindfold once more. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll kill you this time.”


    Then she charged.


    “Yuri, no!” Jon roared.


    Kaia flashed forward, halting Yuri mid-charge. A gasp escaped Yuri as she came to a stop, eyes widening in surprise at how much faster Kaia had gotten. Still, she swung with her blade, aiming right for Kaia’s neck.


    Kaia’s hand shot upward and the blade hit her wrist instead. It cut through slightly, but the blade chipped upon impact. A strike from Kaia’s hand caused it to shatter entirely, Yuri’s eyes going even wider with shock.


    Kaia’s hand shot out, grabbed a piece of the shattered from the blade as it fell to the ground, then moved forward, slamming her head into Yuri’s face with incredible force, breaking Yuri’s nose with the single strike, blood gushing out of it at once.


    She slammed her head into Yuri’s face again and when Yuri made to throw a fist, Kaia parried it, then slammed a blow of her own right into Yuri’s stomach, one that came with a sharp, piercing pain as Kaia lodged the broken piece of the blade in Yuri.


    Yuri wheezed for air, doubling over and coughing up some blood. A knee crashed into her face, staggering her back, and then another fist that dropped her to her knees.


    “Stop!” Jon roared.


    But Kaia didn’t relent. She slammed another fist into Yuri’s face and then another, one that knocked the blindfold right off of her face. Three more powerful blows followed before Kaia seized Yuri by her hair, and then hurled her right at a column.


    Yuri slammed hard into the column, more blood spraying from her mouth as she did, vision blurring out of focus. Before she’d dropped to the ground, Kaia charged into her, doing so with enough force to crash her right through the column.


    Yuri hit the ground hard and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, her face against the ground, bloodied beyond recognition.


    Blood bubbled from her mouth as her fingers twitched weakly. She tried to get up, tried to get herself back on her feet but all of her muscles had gone limp, her body refusing to heed her.


    Kaia seized her by her hair again, and started to drag along the ground. She attempted to swat Kaia’s hand off, to free herself. It was no use.


    Kaia lifted her off the ground, and threw her over one shoulder. Then she walked to a defiant Jon who was already getting back to his feet, knocked him out with a powerful blow to the head and caught him before he could crumple to the ground.


    She hoisted him onto her other shoulder. And then she made her way toward the exit.


    She had the bait she needed. Now, all she had to do was get the others to bite.