A/N: HI! It's been a while. How have you been? I've been through some ups and downs since last year. So I didn't have enough time to write and upload my story here.

I'm currently editing chapters 14-21 and working on the chapter 22 draft. Hopefully, I can do regular updates from now on :).

And I've made some changes to chapters 1-12 (revision in grammar mistakes, adding details, and changed some dialogues. The main story is still the same actually. But please feel free to read again if you want to know the difference).

Happy reading!

That day, Tuesday morning after the early meeting on the General Affairs floor, Lucka leaned forward in her seat while Tseng briefed her and Reno about her first field mission as a Turk. He said the red spikey hair would help her during her probation. Lucka glanced at him. He was lounging comfortably at his seat, yet, despite his slacked posture, she could tell he looked rather excited.

But, Lucka didn't feel the same.

Why would Tseng pair him with me? Had Reno provided the information I'll need?

Lucka knew Reno was the third in command, and he was more than capable of being a mentor. Still, she didn't like the uneasy feeling about him being a companion. Even worse, about the mission itself. Or was she just paranoid?

"Do I make myself clear?" asked Tseng behind his desk.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"You're dismissed," he said and stared back at his laptop monitor right away.

"C'mon, Lucky. I'll teach you everythin'," Reno said with a sly smirk, glancing from his shoulder.

Lucka nodded and followed him outside. He led her to the elevator and down the building to take a short ride to the train station.

"Look, these dealers have their chains. It's like a pyramid," Reno said after they sat on one of the empty benches inside the train. He rested his head on the wall and stared at her with narrowed eyes. "From the very low-level in the slum, middle-level in the suburbs, then the high-level Socialite circle on the pizza. The more influential the dealer is, the higher they keep the secret. And it means the closer their connection to the supplier. All that power and money. Catch it?"

"Yeah," she said, "so because we're taking the train, we're going to the slum?"

"Correct." He smirked. "Why do we go to the slum first?"

Lucka kept silent for a beat, but Reno raised his eyebrows impatiently. "Duh, I just told you earlier, concentrate."

Lucka frowned, awkwardly tapping her boot's heels on the train floor while her index finger snatched a loose thread on her skirt, annoyed. "Because the secret is easier to get?"

"Clever, you should be faster next time." Reno snapped his fingers. He didn't say anything again until the train stopped at the sector six slum station. They disembarked and walked the path down towards the Wall Market.

Lucka scanned the surroundings. It was still early in the morning, some stalls were still closed, and there were not plenty of people there. The building was unlike the houses she'd seen along the way from the train station. There were a variety of architectural styles, from Asian to Western architecture. They were in good maintenance and fantastically decorated with neon lights. All with large billboards around the market with English and Japanese (or Wutaian) writing advertising shows.

"The dealers ain't what you think like in the movie. In reality, they're discreet and can blend very well," Reno said, "and Wall Market is the right place to find 'em."

Lucka glanced up at the vast welcome sign of the market, then fixed her eyes on him. "And how can we find them?"

Reno raised his fingers in the shape of a fake pistol and rocked at her, smirking. "Here, here, Lucky. Do you know why Tseng appointed me to assist you?" he asked—Lucka shook her head to shorten the conversation. So he continued, "Because I've been investigating 'em. I have this candy information beforehand. Now, follow me," he said and took the lead.

Lucka frowned at his explanation. Even the street name was the same here? "Roger," she said and strode alongside him. They walked down to the passage, deeper into the narrower building with a more quiet neighborhood, and stopped right in front of one orientalist house there.

Reno knocked on the door. After the second knock, the door opened, and a young man with black hair around her age stood at the threshold.

He eyed them up and down. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We want the candy, of course," Reno said and shoved the man out of his way and admitted himself inside the house, then tilted his head to order Lucka to follow him.

"I don't do any transactions with the Turks," said the man with a cold tone and shut the door behind him.

Reno put on a cocky smirk. "Oh, c'mon. We don't want to make a scene. What do you have here?"

The man circled them and stopped at the front of the hallway. His eyes squinted. "Just regular stuff."

Reno clicked his tongue. "You don't have the new kid on the block? The most intriguing one," he said and leaned his shoulder on the wall.

"What do you mean?"

"The Mako infused," he said with a fierce tone. Lucka watched them closely; the tension in the air suddenly made her breathless.

"No. I don't have it," said the man in a bitter tone. Lucka caught the brief movement as his hand twitched at his side.

"Don't be too hard, buddy. You don't mess with the Turks if you want your business to keep runnin', " Reno said and pulled out his Electro-Mag Rod.

Lucka glanced at him, then back at the man. Her hand brushed lightly on the tip of her gun.

The man's eyes narrowed even harder until his slanted eyelids formed a straight line. "I'm just a small drug dealer. I don't have what you want here. A Class belongs to the upper class."

"Ah… the upper-class. You happened to know the Boss?" Reno strolled closer to him, and the man flinched.

"No," he said, then in a split second, he drew a handgun and pointed it right at Lucka's head. Her eyes widened while her feet froze on the floor.

Reno glanced sideways at her, then back to the man. "We can do it more simply, you know?"

The man said nothing. His eyes locked fiercely at Reno's while Lucka blinked her eyes slowly. Then as fast as the wind, she saw a spectrum of lightning strikes in an intense bolt toward the man's direction. In an instant, she heard a loud thud from a fallen body and a clattering sound of the gun on the ground.

"We'll spare you if you can cooperate well," Reno said and kicked the gun out of his reach. The man groaned in pain and rolled to his back while his eyes shut tightly. "Now talk. Quit wasting our time."

"I—I don't know!" He wrapped his hands around his twitching body; his skin turned blue.

Reno' tsked' at him and pointed the tip of his rod at the man's body. "Are you sure?" he said and released a fair amount of electricity over him.

The man screamed in agony. Lucka's heart fluttered fast. It almost hurt after hearing his cry. She curled her finger into a tight fist and narrowed her eyes at Reno.

"Stop! Stop! I'll talk!" he yelled, and Reno pulled out the rod. "There's a man on the plate. It's Tristan. He knows the Boss," he said between his messy breath. His eyes were wavering in fear.

Reno tilted his head at Lucka and hinted to ask the man. Lucka stepped closer to stand beside him. "Where is he?" She pressed her tone as flat as possible, trying her best to cover her awful feeling.

The man fixed his eyes on her. "The oldest bar at sector 8," he murmured.

"Good," Reno said and stung the man until he fainted. "Finish him, Lucky," he said and moved towards the door.

Lucka gasped. "Finish him what? You've said we'll spare him?!"

"The Turks always clean their works," he said, "It's obvious, isn't it?"

"You lied. No, I don't want to!" Lucka said and stared up at Reno with a blazing gaze.

"It's an order. You should complete the mission," Reno said in a stern tone.

Lucka searched into his eyes. "If he should die, I don't want to be the one who kills him," she said, with a hint of grief in her tone.

I hate this.

Reno peeked at her from his shoulder. For a brief moment, Lucka could see some guilt clashing in his turquoise eyes. "Listen, greenie. Once you sign the contract, it's too late to grow a conscience," he said and tilted his head to the man, "and don't forget to put on the silencer."

Lucka gritted her teeth. Her eyes were wildly flashing as she faced the man. And with a shaking hand, she drew out her gun from her thigh strap. If she had another weapon, she'd just stab him. But since her katanas still hadn't finished being modified, she only had the guns.

She put on the silencer, and then BANG! Her eyes averted to the fresh blood seeped through a hole in his head. Lucka stood there quietly, long enough as she didn't move before his body faded, becoming one with the lifestream.

"C'mon, Lucky!" Reno's impatient voice broke her reverie.

Lucka let out a deep sigh and followed him outside. They headed back again to the Headquarters. And after having lunch together, Reno assigned her to check all the details based on the late man's information.

The next day, just a few hours after the bar opened in the evening, Reno drove his car towards sector 8 through the highway. They'd drag out the man from his shift break that night.

"Have you checked all of Tristan's background?" He glimpsed at her from the driver's seat.

"Yes."

"Is he a dealer too?" he asked.

"Apparently."

They sat in silence for another second before Reno stole a glance at her. "Hey, Lucky. Are you mad?"

"No, dude."

"You sound mad, tho," he casually said while tilting his head away.

Lucka only sighed.

"You never used to it right. That's why I don't want to do it," Reno said with a cheeky smirk.

Lucka snapped her head at him. She frowned with resentment. "God, you're horrible," She said, "You used me!"

"Well, well, I had let you learn."

"Not the lesson I'm looking forward to!"

Reno snorted, "Then, what do you want to learn?"

"Nothing."

"You seriously have a bad mood, huh," he said in amusement.

"I just took someone's life!" She stared at him in disbelief.

Reno waved his hand at her. "Forget it, Lucky, a day has passed. Let's talk about this Tristan man," he said, "tell me why he became a dealer and disguised himself behind his old bar."

Lucka groaned and rested her head on the seat pad. Her eyes were far away. "After I looked into his latest bill, he's paying a huge amount for hospital expenses. It's his daughter. She's been hospitalized for ten years."

"Has he become a dealer since?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm…he's undetected for that long? His bar is the oldest in the sector. He must be doing a super adroit job," he said, knocking his knuckle on the windows.

"Maybe." Then she said with a weaker voice, "Do we need to kill him too?"

Reno glanced at her. He paused before releasing a soft exhale. "Yeah."

Lucka turned her face to the side window, propping her chin with her right hand that rested on the car door. She felt her eyes stung with that familiar burn. "Can you… can you just?... Instead of me," she mumbled, her voice cracked.

Reno snorted and elbowed her side. "Fine!" He stole another glance at her. "Eh, do you like something sweet?" he said, with a cheerful tone like a dad humoring his cranky little daughter.

"Ice cream," she said.

Reno snickered. " 'Kay. Let's buy some after work, shall we?"

Lucka said nothing. She just stared out of the windows. Her eyes fixed on the glowing Mako fumes from the reactor afar.

Lucka settled her gaze at the corner of the dark alleyway. And from a distance, a dance of long shadow flashed in turns. It moved away from the narrowed, winded mouth's passage where they do their corrupted business. Her heart slammed unevenly in a rapid pound, hammering aloud on her ears. Dots after dots of sweat fell from her temple, running freely to the side of her face. Her shaking hand grasped at the hem of her skirt, squeezing tightly between her wet, slick palm. And her breath became shallow with every next intake.

She shifted her gaze away when a crackling of lightning one or two, followed by the sudden beam glaring brightly from her side—and a cry of pain came afterward. The poor dealer hadn't spilled anything when she interrogated him earlier, so Reno stepped in and tortured him with his electric rod for almost fifteen minutes.

The dazzling light and the unruly noise wrangled inside her brain made her consciousness start to slip. While her weak, shaky hand rested on the rough surface of the brick wall supported herself from falling. Then her blurred vision suddenly sifted. She couldn't tell if it was a fragment of her subconsciousness or just her hallucination that took over the surroundings.

The mist sailed everywhere, forming a translucent veil over the whiteness, encircled by the pit, thick endless darkness. Once in a while, a whirl of steam came from chattering teeth. It blew away, higher, unreachable up to the empty ether. She didn't know how long the time had passed. All she knew was far from the horizon; a muffled and draggy step in every lift of her legs made a dull noise in her ears, mixed with a hassle sniff from her nose.

She brought one hand to tighten the loop on her neck. While the other clutched a big warm hand by her side like it was the last line of her dear life. Her shoulder brushed the side of his forearm when she peeked up at the younger version of her cousin. She watched him closely. His black hair grew over the bust, and some white dots covered his dark padded jacket. The fire in his eyes glazed wildly, thawed the chill, locking fiercely at the long pathway in front of them.

"Ryuu, I can't walk again," she said, halting at her track.

"We can't stop now." He pulled her hands to follow him.

Steamy running tears made her cheeks wet. She rubbed them off with the back of her freezing hand. "I… I—I can't…" she stuttered from the biting wind and pain in her chest.

His eyes softened. He reached out to carry the girl on his back and circled her tiny hand around his neck. "Hold tight. We should get out of here soon," he said, striding away.

The image changed again. Right at Lucka's ears, it was so vivid, clear as midday, and chaotic with shouting, crashing, sizzling sounds.

A long shrill came from a young girl piercing the tight air, shattering like a wave of avalanche from Everest. Foggy with white covered her eyes that went blank.

"Ryuu, take her. Now!"

"Noooo!"

A flashing, white-haired woman with teary eyes—Lucka's gaze trailed down—the tip of the curls dipped into a bright crimson color. The woman's hands raised, then she couldn't feel the ground on her feet as the woman's limp figure on the snow became smaller, smaller, and gone.

"...Ka… cka… Lucka… hey!"

She jolted up. A broad hand rested on her shoulder, hauling her back to the blackness of the alleyway. Her chest blasted with a hefty breath. Her eyelids fluttered a few times until her focus came, forming into a pair of bright turquoise eyes.

"You good?" he asked, his tone full of concern.

"Uh, no. S–sorry."

Reno frowned. "We're done here. Let's go." He dragged her by the shoulder towards the exit of the alley.

"...Done?" She glanced from her shoulder as she shuffled beside him and found a deceased body that started fading into a green stream. Lucka quickly turned back her head, facing the path ahead. A lurched inside her stomach made her nauseous.

"Let's grab some sweet stuff. You seem to need one," Reno said and escorted her towards the car.

Reno observed the girl intently. Below the dim neon light outside the shop, the shadowy part covered half of her face. Her snowy white hair was like a ball of cotton candy, dyed by the black ink of the night. His hand was absently playing with the wooden spoon as he thought the new girl was quite offbeat. The very first time they met, Reno was eager to know her. She was chill, cute, and all. But he didn't know her actual color yet. He just noticed she was acting strange. He knew she was mad at him yesterday. And somehow, her mood became worse today. But, he didn't do anything wrong to her—oh well, except that morning at the Wall Market.

She became quiet after they finished with Tristan. Moreover, how she ate her ice cream pushed his interest to a peak. She murdered the poor thing like a gluttonous-fatty-slob-pig slurped down a thick mud. He wouldn't even be surprised if she washed out the whole bucket. Yes, it was the most delicious ice cream in town, but her reaction was incredible. He didn't have any idea if she'd love it that much. Reno made a face, torn between fascinated and revulsed at once.

"Hey, hey, why do you eat like that?" He asked as he couldn't hold back anymore.

Her hand halted in her mouth, and her eyes rounded bigger. She asked, "Like that, what?"

"You know, like, you haven't had any meal for a week." He sneered.

"Nah, I just eat normally, dude," she said, frowning.

"No way. Do you eat other food like that too? Normal people never eat like that." The bridge of his nose wrinkled, and his tone raised a pitch.

The girl averted her eyes. Then she changed the subject and said, "Did Tristan talk?"

What the… ? Reno raised his eyebrows as he licked the spoon. The moment he killed the man, she was leaning on the wall with some sort of horror in her eyes. He thought she must have trauma with dying people, but she didn't even look in their direction. It was just like she wasn't there at all. No wonder she didn't catch any conversation they had earlier.

"It's just a vague hint, sis. It's a deadlock. He refused to give any other information." He leaned his head on the wall, staring at the movement of some people passing by on the street.

"What's that?" she asked, slowing her eating.

He stared down at her. "He said the son's Boss works in elite entertainment. And he said somethin' about tattoos and painting. Like, bitch, you'll need more effort to dig up."

Lucka bit her spoon. "Yeah, it'll do me a lot of homework."

Reno smirked. "You know Lucky, dealing drugs just like any business with credit, profit, risk, advertising, blah," he said, throwing his hand in the air while rolling his eyes. He said, "His product might have been illegal, but business is and always was just business."

The girl gave him confused, furrowed eyebrows. She asked, "What's that mean?"

Reno tapped his index finger on his temple. After he finished his ice cream and threw the litter in the trash can, he said, "It's never just baloney sales. They're serious. And for one thing, the high-level only sold to friends, their acquaintances, and some middle-level dealer, like Tristan."

Lucka took a deep breath as her eyes peeked up at him. "So, they won't openly sell them to strangers?"

"Yeah. If you want to enter the high-level tight circle, you should come from the same class. It's a camaraderie deal."

Lucka nodded lamely. "Then, If I want to blend in to get the information, I should fake my identity, like that?"

"Of course, it's the way. But, remember, business among friends is not just business," he crossed his arms in front of him.

She raised one eyebrow. "Which means?"

Reno snapped his fingers, then pointed at her. "Trustworthy. That's building credibility. You should earn it."

A soft thud cut through their conversation when she rested her head on the wall. Her eyes cast to the dark sky above them. "Oh, man… It'll be hard. I wonder why Tseng assigned me this shit."

"Duh, cut your grumbles." He retorted and grabbed her shoulder. "It's pretty late. Let's go home," he said, then they headed back to the Turks' apartment.