The moment Six stormed out of her laboratory, saying that it was no surprise their relationship never happened because of her indecision, her heart broke. Taken aback by the sudden change in personality after losing his memory, Holiday forgot to realize something.
The old Six was back, and so was his past as a mercenary.
Something that, as much as she thought she knew about, she had no idea where to start looking for.
'Fancy seeing you here, love!' Five's loud voice made her realize how foolish she looked, standing in the middle of the roof of an abandoned dusty building, hugging herself, thinking she could keep track of his footsteps by visiting places she knew from Rex that he used to frequent. If he wanted to disappear, he could easily do it, and nobody could stop him except maybe Rex. As she turned to look at the woman in the adjacent building, Holiday could see her smile flashing under the moonlight.
"Five."
'Why are you here all alone, darling? Are you looking for something, or should I say someone?' She didn't need to act clueless about it and rub salt in the wound.
Cuts and bruises marred her skin, and her general appearance was a mess. But from one woman to another, she knew better than to stare at another woman's appearance. Still, Five's trained eye caught her staring.
Perhaps she wasn't in the right place but was following the correct lead.
"You know it already, don't you?"
'What makes you say that?' the pink-haired woman questioned.
"You have been labeled as the fifth deadliest woman on earth. While I understand from Rex that your group may not have the strongest bond and often try to kill each other, you still manage to work together when money is involved. Therefore, unless those injuries were caused by one of your intended targets or Rex himself..."
'Smart and beautiful. I see why he likes you.' Five shrugged, and Holiday raised an eyebrow, making the mercenary laugh as if she were watching the man in question in a woman's body. "Sibling rivalry has existed since ancient times, but we always look out for our own, as it's all we have." Five let out a light, playful chuckle, jumping to meet her and adjusting the pink guitar on her back. "Now you know how it feels to love someone like him, someone like us. Because, honey, I know you don't happen to be here just for the sake of it. You're trying to find a way to deal with it. To cling to what he used to be. But this is what he truly is."
"This is not what he truly is! And even if it was..." Holiday retorted heatedly, her cheeks turning red with a feeling she didn't know if it was anger or embarrassment. Or both.
She knew the man he was now. Not the man he used to be.
And soon enough, Five smiled again.
'Sorry to disappoint you, dear, but this is the real Six.' She said, raising an eyebrow. 'Why do you look so surprised? Were you scared after seeing the true colors of your beloved Agent Six, beyond just green?'
"He had changed," Holiday said between gritted teeth, refusing to let all these years of trial and error, of getting closer to him, go. "I know he had changed. He just forgot that he had saved countless lives alongside Rex in Providence."
'It was always the real him beneath another layer of skin,' Five's eyes narrowed as she spoke. 'Just because the fox now wears a sheepskin doesn't hide its true nature.' Five let the truth sink in for a moment before continuing. 'Do you realize he had to ruthlessly kill countless targets to earn his title as the sixth deadliest man on earth?' Holiday averted her eyes from the sickening smile plastered on Five's face. 'I constantly question myself if he settled for such a low rank because of meeting White Knight and switching sides. He possesses the skills and cold-bloodedness to defeat each one of us and become the number one, yet he never does.' Five's voice dropped to a notch. 'Don't you ever wonder how he maintains his reputation as the sixth deadliest man on earth, even though he no longer gets his hands dirty with blood?'
She could see it now. The scars on Five's body, with each bruise marking her as Six.
A sinking feeling in her stomach made her wonder if she could really love a man like that, now that he was back as how he used to be.
"Why are you still here after getting your ass beaten by him, then?" Holiday asked bluntly, struggling to find a better way to phrase it and keep her professionalism. "If you think he'll kill you to move up in rank, go ahead. I won't stop you." She attempted to turn and walk away, but a strong hand gripped her arm, preventing her from leaving.
'I just wanted to see how far you and that kid were willing to go in the name of White Knight, to make him remember who you all made him believe he truly is.'
"We never forced him to be something he didn't want to be. If he changed, it was because he wished to," Holiday blurted out. She couldn't tell why but she never knew what to make of that woman. Perhaps the reason was because she knew it was the only one of Six's old teammates he got along with.
Five's cold laughter echoed through the night. "Of course. How stupid of me to think otherwise."
"What do you want from me?" Rebecca growled, thinking she was just wasting her time just so the woman could make fun of her. "I know who he truly is," Five shook her head.
'Do you? So you understand what kind of man you are dealing with? What made him become who he is now?' Feeling her eyes watering, Holiday averted her gaze as Five asked quietly, 'Do you love all of him? Because he looked pretty hurt when we faced each other and you might wonder how I know, but a woman always knows. I have seen it so many times myself.'
Five rolled her eyes.
'And your body language speaks volumes, too.' The woman grunted. 'He isn't always the quiet, obedient soldier who would sacrifice his life to save yours. And now that you have seen it, you turn around and walk away like a coward, leaving the kid to deal with his unhinged mentor? That man who, for some reason, that kid looks at like a devoted child looks at his father, overlooking that he used to be a killer before?'
Holiday felt like if she was about to cry.
"Why are you telling me this?"
'Because If I were in your position and truly loved him, I would begin to accept the merging of the old Six and the new Six, as their distinct boundaries fade away and become one.'
"I know he has things from his past to deal with." Five clicked her tongue at being called things. "I know he's done things he isn't proud of, and also know that soon he will realize we need him. That I need him." Holiday said, yanking her arm free from Five's grasp.
'Even if he never returns to his former self?'
"Even so," Holiday replied calmly. She had a reason for being there and didn't need Five to acknowledge the error she had just made. "I know that I'm still in there, somewhere in his memory."
Five chuckled again, harder this time, and genuinely. 'He likes you a lot. Trust me, he still remembers who you are.' There was a bittersweet undertone in her words. 'More than he seems to remember me.'
"Are we talking of the same Six? Because he doesn't seem to remember anything at all."
'A woman knowns when the man she once loved is in love with someone else.'
Holiday hesitated before ask, "Wait, does this means..."
'We went on a date once. I'm sure you've noticed he's quite attractive, right?' Five smiled at her blushing cheeks. 'Being trained as mercenaries didn't leave us much time to socialize with others. We weren't like the rest of the planet before the incident and even less after that. Six was, how should I put it, a bit too forward with women back then.' Five laughed, but Holiday thought she noticed a tint of sadness in her usual defiant expression. 'It wasn't his fault; we just lacked social skills.'
The woman looked up at the sky while talking, as Holiday supposed it was a past somewhat hard to think of. 'For a while, Six thought that I was the only woman who could understand who he was. And even when the title of the sixth deadliest man on earth sounded sexy to some, none of them wanted to deal with the fact that he had killed so many people in cold blood.'
"So..." Holiday's voice became a whisper as her heart skipped a beat. If he was back to being what he used to be, what stopped him from trying to be back with her then?
Five's eyebrows raised. 'Do you think I'm some sort of easy girl just because I'm the only woman on the team?' Before Holiday could even ask what she was talking about, Five continued with a smile. 'Six was the most normal of us and the closest to me out of all our teammates. He was the one who blended in the best whenever we had a mission that required normalcy, even if he was a bit tad intense. We acted as a couple countless times, and I guess we wanted to see how it felt, how it was to be in love with each other truly. To experiment a little. It didn't work, obviously.' She said as if it were the most normal thing to say. 'But it doesn't mean we will return to what we used to be.'
She had to have written 'relief' all over her face for Five to laugh like she did, clutching her stomach and wiping away the tears forming in the corner of her eyes with the back of one of her hands. 'Did you think that we...?' Based on the injuries she was currently sustaining, no. The woman stopped laughing, surprising Holiday, again, for the sudden switch of mood. 'Six can be a bit too forward or too dense sometimes. There's no point in the middle with him. But If you're expecting him to woo you, maybe is the time for you to take the initiative.'
"I, uh..."
'If you are waiting for him to shower you with roses and chocolates, then let me tell you, love, that it will not happen. Six doesn't even know what being romantic means.'
"I know."
'Even if he comes back to the realization at one point that you can defend yourself enough,' Holiday noticed Five's undertone mocking her as if doubting her survival skills. 'But still try to push you away with that bullshit of having dangerous connections and enemies alike?'
"I will still be by his side."
"You will not run away again, then?"
"I will not." Holiday sighed, looking down at her heels, not even knowing how the woman could read her so easily. "I was just... taken aback by the sudden shift in his personality. But the truth is that I... I love him, even if he were to kill me."
Five's eyes widened for a second before smiling again, "Good, because I don't want him to screw it up or get hurt again. "
"Why do you care this much if you don't love him anymore?"
"An advice from one woman to another." Five crossed her arms over her chest, her brow furrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line. Eyes fixed on the ground. "If you're going to stick around, you better toughen up and get used to the fact that he's not the sweet, obedient soldier you might have envisioned. He's a complicated man with a dark past, and if you can't handle that, then you're in for a rough ride."
"I can handle it," Holiday replied with determination.
"How does it feel to have the sixth deadliest man on earth spinning around your finger ?' Five jokingly asked. 'Sure now you also have as many enemies as him.' The woman locked eyes with her. "Now, let's get something straight. Although I may be giving you advice, let's not confuse it with friendship, 'kay?"
Was he really in love with her, if he couldn't even remember who she was?
Holiday nodded in understanding.
"Alright then. Just remember, if you hurt him, I won't hesitate to deal with you myself."
"I have no intention of hurting him," Holiday asserted.
'Words are cheap. Actions speak louder.' Five shot her a warning glance before turning to leave. 'And for the record, I don't care about your feelings. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgment.'
As Five sauntered off, leaving Holiday to her thoughts on the rooftop, a heavy sigh escaped her lips. The crisp night air bit into her skin, prompting her to wrap her arms around herself for warmth. The cold breeze tousled her hair as she grappled with a whirlwind of emotions.
Rebecca's heart pounded, its rhythm accentuated by the profound silence that enveloped the abandoned building. Her hands trembled from the chill in the air and the emotional storm that raged beneath her composed exterior. She stood alone, caught in the spell of conflicting feelings. The full moon hung low, casting a radiant orb and an eerie glow over the rooftop.
The moment's solitude felt palpable, as if the world held its breath. In the calm serenity, Holiday whispered, her words barely audible against the night's quiet, "If you ever regain your memories, will you still be the man Rex looks up to?" Her voice lingered, an unspoken question floating in the air, merging with the night's shadows.
Uncertainty mingled with the frigid air, and there she stood, a lone figure in the moonlit expanse, contemplating the mysteries of a man she once knew and the one now retreating into the night.