The rest of the event had gone off without a hitch. She had managed to keep all the secrets she needed to, and the crowd had stayed on the edge of their seats the whole time. She wouldn't be surprised if there was terrible art on COM, like there was on the internet hundreds of years ago. The two supersoldiers were heading towards Serin's place, which is where the Office had decided to put her during her stay. They were having what could generously be called a conversation on the way, although sign language was horribly inefficient while Serin was keeping her eyes on the road.

"Did they give you a name, Six?"

"No"

Is what she signed in reply, though her attempt went completely unnoticed. Instead she just started staring at Serin until she noticed. Serin made a point not to. The rest of the drive continued like that, Serin would ask questions and Six simply continued to stare. Finally, they had arrived at the flat Serin called home, about a 45 minute drive from the main ONI building. Two floors with at least two different exit points. Sensible, it let them keep eyes on her and her minder could probably keep up with her if she bolted. Serin had walked her through the house and showed her where the food, medical supplies, restroom, and where the weapons were should she need them. Not that she'd need the medical supplies or guns because she was in a very important ONI agent's house, her Spartan traits would handle the healing. In fact, as long as she stayed away from the windows she didn't even need clothes, because both had been brought up in the Spartan program, which had stripped them of any sense of shame. She would refrain for social purposes, however. She could pretend the title of Six wasn't the most civilized part of her, anyways.

After taking a shower, Six sat on the couch and pondered. She didn't know what people did in their free time aside from playing cards, which she hadn't picked up very well. She didn't have the luck for it, it seemed, unlike other Spartans. She would have to get Serin to teach her what people like them did when they weren't killing things. She had heard that the nature reserve was nice, at least that was what the tourist refugee that was from Reach talked about in passing. Serin reappeared moments later.

"Don't know what to do? Let's go for a walk."

'I just sat down, but alright.' Six wondered if Serin had a reason for leaving so soon, right after they'd arrived. "Okay, let's walk. Where are we heading?"

"Just follow along, you'll like it I promise."

"That isn't very reassuring"

"What do I have to do, pull rank? Come on, let's go!"

As they left the house, they turned down a few allies. It's a good thing she could keep up with the tall woman, or else she'd quickly be lost between the different buildings and through winding streets. Serin bolted away, trying to lose her.

'Is this some kind of test? I'll have to be careful not to hurt anyone.'

Six gave chase to the older woman. She dodged around cars and pedestrians, feeling the rustle of near misses. Some of her obstacles were people from the press conference, flashing cameras briefly overwhelming her senses, she kept up as best she could.

She could move faster than Serin but it didn't matter because she couldn't squeeze through the same spaces. Six couldn't see the [target] . This wouldn't be a problem for long, her other senses were sharp enough to track someone through most places, but this was one of the largest cities on Earth; there was too much data. That didn't leave her without options. There was always more useful data.

'Does Serin doubt me?'

Six started to scale one of the nearby houses, sheet metal digging into her hands while she deformed the building to pull herself higher. From the top, she could see a flash of jet-black hair turn a corner at high speed.

That was Serin!

Six's system flooded with adrenaline, heart threatening to burst from her chest and sucking down air as fast as she could. Sprinting down the row of buildings her muscles screamed at her to move faster and burned with exertion as she complied. The edge was coming in close and—

She sailed across the gap, perception slowing, wind flowing in her fur, her eyes water up—

Her bones rattle against the impact of the adjacent building. Her claws struggled to find purchase on smooth steel before they punched through. Six's body ached only for a second before her sight cleared of wall and she could see Serin [target] again—

'Wait, [target] ? Who gave me a [target] ? Serin Osman, S-019'

Six saw more flashes of jet-black, ears catching more labored breaths and less background noise, nose catching exertion and thrill .

'Good, [target] can enjoy a chase'

When she caught up to her [target] her very being sang with purpose and she leapt off the building with reckless abandon. Six tackled the [target] face to face, applying a restraining hold with limbs that burned and ached with exertion and impacts.

A Spartan's armor usually took care of such things, though she'd been without it recently. Serin's face was flushed and sweaty. Her own wasn't much better, she would bet. She always got a little too carried away on a mission . Serin broke the exerted breathing first.

"When we interrogated the insurrectionists you brought back, they always talked about how you managed to adjust no matter what they did. You would always find them, no matter what they used to try to mask their trail. I had to see it for myself."

"Why?"

"We didn't know how you did it, still don't, but I have an idea: Your body generates counters to stimuli it deems unnecessary. We have no clue how it works but we've been monitoring your body and nervous system the whole time."

"You sure?"

"No. The old woman wanted me to make sure you weren't broken either, that you were still useful "

"Clever."

"We gave you an open-ended mission to relax. What you made of it was up to you, could have meant sitting on that couch but you wanted action ."

"I aim to please" Memories flashed in front of her eyes as she remembered Jorge's smile she could hear in Jorge's voice and there was ice in her veins get it out —

Six rolled off of Serin and stayed on her back looking at the sky. They both rested for a while there, laying on the sidewalk.

"You know, he talked about you. Jorge, I mean."

"I miss him." 'and blame myself that he never came back'

"You know he thought of you as a sister. Want to know what he called you, that he told me not to tell you? Little fox in our mother tongue, Hungarian. Kis róka —"

Six couldn't hear anything else Serin may have said because everything was fading and she tasted, smelled, blood. Everything went dark.