*Tssk!*
"It's all here, right?!"
"It's complete! I swear!"
Era, lying on the ground, suddenly heard hushed exchanges behind and turned.
Two figures stood in the alley's deep shade, an insulated medical icebox between them. One wore the light blue scrubs of a hospital nurse. The other within a black hoodie, his face a slice of unsettling pallor in the shadows.
The hooded figure's pale hand, veins visible like blue rivers under marble, slid into the icebox and withdrew a sealed blood bag.
He brought the cold plastic to his nose, inhaling deeply like a connoisseur sampling a vintage.
"Ahh. Good quality. Here's your fee."
He shoved a thick stack of pound notes into the nurse's waiting hands and slammed the icebox shut.
"It better all be in here, or someone's gonna pay." He grunted, hefting the container and turning to leave.
The nurse quickly thumbed through the cash, a tense smile flashing.
"Nice doing business!"
"Oh, wank off!" he spat, striding directly toward Era's perch.
Their eyes met—one pair glowing with ancient, detached green, the other sunken and hungry. He looked down at the scrawny black cat with distaste and aimed a careless kick to shoo it aside.
"Outta my way, stupid cat!" He yelled, but his foot passed through empty air.
Era's form dissolved in a silent explosion of dissipating shadow and swirling dust.
"Bloody hell!" he gasped, stumbling back in stark terror.
The sudden motion wrenched the icebox from his grip. It hit the ground and burst open, scattering its crimson treasures across the filthy concrete.
"Oh! Fuck me!" He stared, appalled, looking as if he might weep, vomit, or both.
But Era was already gone—a mini-storm of coalescing darkness shooting up and around the hospital's brick face. Then she reformed on the narrow ledge of a top-floor windowsill, the city sprawled beneath her like a twitching, luminous nervous system.
With feline indifference, she padded toward a specific, slightly ajar window.
Peering inside, she found a spacious, private hospital room, austerely luxurious. The sole patient lay amidst a nest of wires and silent, blinking machines.
The Champion.
Rainer was a mummy of white bandages, an arm tethered to a saline drip. He lay in a deep, motionless sleep, the muted glow of a news broadcast playing on the wall before him—a meaningless light show for a dormant mind.
But he was not alone.
A young woman leaned over him, palms pressed into the mattress at his side. She was lean, with a delicate, haunted beauty. Her long, dark hair formed a curtain around them, a few strands brushing his bandaged cheek. She studied his face with an intensity that was neither clinical nor wholly familiar.
Curious, Era settled onto the ledge, a silent spectator to this intimate vigil.
But the door suddenly hissed open, and the woman—Aqua—jerked upright with a startled yelp.
"Ah!"
At the doorway, Aegates stood with a doctor, staring, their expressions unreadable.
"...Mrs. Aqua?" Aegates's voice was cool and probing.
Aqua floundered, hands fluttering. "I-I was just— er... You know...checking how he was doing! An innocent deed! Yes! Pure intentions only!"
Hearing this, Aegates approached and gave a curt, appreciative nod.
"Thank you, Miss Aqua. However, if you could excuse us. I have business with the doctor here."
Aqua blinked, then nodded with frantic energy.
"Oh! Okay! I–I'll just be outside...?"
Aegates shook her head, a gentle gesture of disapproval.
"You've been a frequent visitor. It would be kind to allow space for other... well-wishers."
Aqua tilted her head, confusion plain on her face. Aside from two stern, brooding men, she'd met no one else in here.
But she acquiesced, casting one last glance at Rainer before slipping past. Though she couldn't help but notice how Aegates stood taller than her even though she was already tall for a woman. She nodded at the doctor with a faint smile, then left.
With Aqua gone, Aegates beckoned the doctor in.
He was a slightly portly man, glasses perched on a rounded nose, his smile benign and practiced—the smile of a man who understood the price of everything.
"Dr. Grey," Aegates acknowledged, elegantly taking a seat. Her white, fur-trimmed coat contrasted starkly with the room's bright sterility.
"Ah, Ms. Messmer! A pleasure." He bustled to Rainer's side, pretending to check a monitor.
"How is he?" Aegates inquired, her gaze fixed on the doctor, not the patient.
"Oh! Superb! He has surpassed all prior expectations," Dr. Grey said, turning with a salesman's grin. "He heals at a rate no human should. Like one touched by divinity... or engineered in a corporate lab."
His smile widened, becoming conspiratorial.
"...I know several companies in this district who would pay a king's ransom to study him."
At this, a sharp, dangerous glint flashed in Aegates' hazel-green eyes. The gambit was revealed. He saw Rainer not as a patient, but as a commodity.
But she had anticipated this. Aegates had chosen Dr. Grey to treat Rainer not for his ethics, but for his connections. He was a greedy, cunning bridge to the city's corporate oligarchs, and Rainer's treatment merely served as a cover to their meeting.
This was a move on a much larger board.
With a sigh that spoke of burdens, not surprise, Aegates lifted the silver briefcase she'd carried in alongside her pitch black one and offered it to him.
Dr. Grey took it, suspicion warring with avarice. He placed it on the bed, clicked the latches, and opened it.
Immediately, his breath hitched at the gleam of gold bars and the crisp, dense stacks of bearer bonds.
He swallowed hard.
"The GBGs understand your needs, Dr. Grey, and your unique position perfectly well," Aegates stated, her voice devoid of warmth. "Consider this a gesture of goodwill towards our future... cooperation."
Dr. Grey slowly closed the briefcase. When he looked back, his benign mask was gone, replaced by raw, dawning fear.
"Y-You intend to use me?" he stammered.
Aegates shook her head, rising with lethal grace.
"No, Dr. Grey."
She turned and slowly approached the window, each step measured.
"We intend to elevate you... Consider this an opportunity."
"Or a gamble," he whispered, his thoughts escaping him.
Aegates stopped, gazing out the window, where Era watched, lying at the windowsill.
"This city has become a den of lies, corruption, and treachery. Fathe—Don Matteo intends to excise the sickness at its heart and set it free."
At this, Dr. Grey found his spine as indignation rose, mixing with fear.
"You speak of corruption, yet you offer me a bribe!?"
Aegates glanced down, her eyes meeting Era's luminous green gaze for a fractured second before she turned back, a ghost of something passing over her features.
"We are the Good Bad Guys, Dr. Grey." She walked toward the door, her tone soft yet absolute. "No matter what evil plagues this city, we always strive to be the better option."
Aegates paused as she passed his rigid form, her soft voice dropping to a steely whisper capable of freezing blood.
"Be advised, Dr. Grey. This city has become a battleground. I hope, for your sake, you do not end up choosing the wrong side."
The icy glint in her eyes was the last thing he saw before she exited, the door clicking shut behind her.
Dr. Grey stood paralyzed for a long moment. Then, a surge of helpless rage made him kick the base of Rainer's bed, jostling the unconscious man. He immediately snatched up the heavy briefcase, knuckles whitening as he strode out. His comfortable world was irrevocably shattered.
Silence soon reclaimed the room, broken only by the soft beep of the heart monitor.
Seeing this, Era hopped down from the ledge like a shadow detaching itself from the sunlight. Then she padded to the bed, leaped up with effortless grace, and curled into the crook of Rainer's bandaged arm.
Era shut her eyes, and a profound, cosmic contentment settled over her, a ghost of a smile touching her feline lips.
[I am glad, Champion. That you yet, live.]