"What do you mean 'it's been 20 days'?" asks Komet in shock. "I'm sure we've fought for 20 minutes or so!"
"I-I don't know! But 20 days passed for us!" says Vulturemon
She frowns and places her hand on her head. "Goddammit!"
Sonne is about to reprimand her, but Lua holds his muzzle shut. "Let me guess. It's the referendum, isn't it?" she asks
The lass nods, looking very upset. "That means… We won't get there in time after all…! I… I…!" She takes some air. "Gimme some time. I'll put my head in the right place before I say anything… I'll be right back, don't worry…"
"Don't do anything stupid!" says Lua, while she releases Sonne's muzzle and moves her hand away fast enough to dodge his attempt of biting.
Komet nods and leaves the tent. The sun is starting to set, painting the skies in orange, pink and blue. The temperature is dropping quickly. She sees people in Waset still celebrating. She smiles softly. "I guess I can't be too upset when I know what just happened". Still, she sighs.
"Your heart is heavy despite your accomplishment"
She whips her head towards the voice. It's Pharaohmon, back to his original human-looking form, but this time he is just twice as tall as she is. "P-Pharaohmon! Why are you so much smaller now?"
"It's a power God-level Ultimates possess. Now, follow me." He turns around and walks away. Komet nods and follows behind him.
She looks around and sees people praising the pharaoh. Then she looks at him. "You… You said that I'm not from this world… How do you know that? Do you know my world?"
"Sorry, but this is an information that I have to keep to myself"
"Okay…"
They walk a bit more and then stop in front of a sarcophagus the size of an adult human. "The moment you transferred the power of Tiferet to me, I could feel your heart. You are grieving for someone"
"..."
He opens the sarcophagus. "Get in. This will project you to the place where this someone rests, even if it's out of this world. It's your chance to get it off your chest before you continue your journey"
She lowers her head, feeling nervous.
"No one will be able to know what happens inside, not even myself"
Komet swallows hard, still hesitating. Then she nods and gets in.
"Tut Ankh Lyl" he says, while closing the sarcophagus.
She sees everything white, like the first dream she had after arriving in the desert. Suddenly, it changes to a graveyard in a city - in Soutriver, specifically. She looks at her hands, and notices that she is just her normal, human self. No claws, no horns and stuff. She stands in front of a gravestone with 'RUDRA SINGH' engraved on it. Her heart sinks.
"Hydra…" She lowers her head, shaking it in disappointment. "It's been more than two years… I can't believe I've never come to visit you before…" She sighs. "How could I, after all that happened…?"
Cold breeze hits her face.
"Drake- Ahm, Ricky misses you a lot… He's still suffering a lot… I'm sure he still thinks about you all the time…" She looks away and grunts. "If you are somewhere… And watched the aftermath of your death… I'm sure you'd regret everything you've done… Everything went downhill… Hydra… I… I'm sorry… I-I failed you…!" She falls on her knees and starts crying hard.
She feels a warm breeze hitting her face. She looks around, but sees nothing. But she still feels the warm, comforting breeze.
"I… I'm working hard… Working hard to clean your name and discover the truth behind that incident, behind that criminal, the unfair sentence on you… I'm slowly making progress, but… But life is putting a lot of obstacles in my way… I guess this is the way to pay for my sins, huh…" She shakes her head and clenches her fists. "I know I'm a terrible person… I know I don't deserve your forgiveness…! But I can't stop… I'll put an end to this, and perhaps I can forgive myself-"
Then, a strong gush suddenly blows at her face. She opens her eyes very wide in surprise.
"W-what was that…?" She looks away for a moment. Then, she wipes her tears, sighs and slowly looks back at the tombstone. After some seconds in silence, she speaks again. "You know… You wouldn't believe what kind of mess I got myself into… It's been quite an ordeal… But at the same time… It's been quite a bizarre but interesting adventure…! That reminds me… Do you remember when you said that you felt like there was some spirit guiding you and helping you with hacking…? I kinda had the same, but for me it turns out to be some interesting creatures called Digimon!"
"Excuse me, can I come in?" asks Nefertimon
Before Sonne or Lua can answer, Bastemon breaks in with a smile on her face
Sonne sighs. "Yes, you are always welcome inside"
The masked cat approaches Lua. "How did Komet break free from Apepmon's hypnosis? How? I've never heard of someone doing it by themselves before!"
"That's the thing!" Lua opens a big grin. "She was never hypnotized to begin with! It was all but an act to get closer to Pharaohmon!"
"Not informing you of the plan was also part of the plan, so that your shock and other negative emotions would be real"
"I can't believe she had the audacity to deceive the Lord of Chaos just like that… And you two just supported that crazy idea. What if it went all wrong?"
Lua scowls. "Why are you complaining? It worked, didn't it? Relaaaax, she has experience deceiving people because of her… Well… 'Profession'. But she was probably almost peeing her pants at that moment" she laughs
"Do not worry. Komet had a second plan ready in case the first one failed. Although this would be extremely dangerous for her" says Sonne. "But all's well that ends well"
"Of course! Because, you know, we are Team Twilight! It doesn't matter what gets in our way, we will always find our way through!" says Lua
He looks at her, unamused. "I guess this is inevitably our motto now. Whenever you have the chance, you will mention that"
"Of course! It's a good reminder of who we are!"
"Can I be part of Team Twilight too? I want to be invincible too, meow!"
The three laugh
Nefertimon looks around. "Where is Komet, by the way? We need to get ready for the parade of the Heroes of Werushat"
"She will be right back, she is just trying to put herself together now"
"While we are not yet reunited, I will call Anpu and inform that we are still alive" says Sonne, while getting up and leaving
"Alright, have fun!" Lua looks back at Nefertimon. "What about Ancient Sphinxmon? Isn't he going to join? I didn't see that giant lion anywhere"
"He returned to the underworld. He wasn't actually alive, he was just summoned to follow Pharaohmon's duties" says the masked cat
"Awn, what a shame… Oh yeah! Why the hell three weeks passed here?"
"Pharaohmon told me it was the chaotic effect of the dimension we were in. The time runs differently there, but not in a linear way" answers Nefertimon
"So despite our efforts to finish it quickly, we still got stuck here for more than a month… That sucks"
"That's okay… This is nothing compared to what Werushatans had to endure" says Komet, lifting the curtain door to get in
Lua gets up and walks in her direction. "Oh, look! Lady hero is back! How are you feeling? What are your plans, now that we are too late?"
She gives her a soft smile. "I'm feeling better. And don't worry, we are not 'too late'. We are just in overtime. Regardless of the results of the referendum, we will not stop!"
Lua holds Komet's hands very excitedly. "Yeah! This is what I'm talking about!"
"Of course, we still need to hurry up, since whatever the changes are, they still need some time to apply it. And I'd rather see that they didn't choose to hand their privacy away. Let's hope that Mr. Smith and the others did a great job!" She gives a worried smile.
Some time passes, and after Sonne returns, the group goes outside, where the parade will be held. They dance, sing, carry torches that emit purple or green flames and fly Crimson Bird kites. Team Twilight, Pharaohmon, Bastemon and Nefertimon all walk through the crowd, who opens space as they pass. They all chant 'Heroes of Werushat'.
Suddenly, someone starts to approach, accompanied by three more Digimon that look like Pidmon, except that their sashes and loincloths are blue instead of pink, and they have two pairs of wings instead of one. The Twilight trio gets shocked - it's the Angel Army. Komet's first reaction is to run into the crowd and hide, and the other two follow her.
The leader of the angel group lands: three times the size of an average adult human, the angel has four pairs of golden wings and two big blue shields on his shoulders. His face is half covered - a standard for Angel Digimon - and he has an energy blade on his left hand. The crowd backs away from the angels, giving them nasty looks.
Pharaohmon gives two steps ahead and hits his staff on the floor. "You dare land your filthy feet on these sacred lands, even after everything you had done to harm us?" he yells
The angel raises his hand. "Peace, Great Ruler Pharaohmon. I, Dominimon, came on behalf of the Three Archangels of the Angel Army to congratulate you and your people for successfully dealing with the evil that was desolating those sacred lands of yours" He looks at the heroes that accompany the pharaoh. "I see Werushat still keeps the tradition in making heroic felines"
The other three angels hovers over the crowd, scanning them, as if they are looking for something specifically. Komet, Sonne and Lua are crouching. They get more nervous, but then they feel the monsters placing some stuff on them while getting closer to them. The crowd is helping hide them.
Pharaohmon discreetly looks at the angels and looks back. "Tell me the real reason you came, now!"
"The other reason, you mean" Dominimon fires back. "The perpetrator of the Corrosion Virus - the Infection - descended into this world. I came to alert you about the great danger that fiend offers to your nation. If you or any of your people see someone with this description…" He opens a scroll and describes Komet's appearance, and mentions Sonne and Lua. "Capture them and contact the Angel Army. With her in our hands, we will be capable of freeing our world from the source of the Corrosion Virus. I am sure you do not want Werushat falling in despair again"
"Werushat do not respond to the Angel Army, so if this 'threat' treads on these lands, it's up to me to decide what will happen to them. Now, leave at once!" He raises his staff and starts increasing in size to impose his power over Dominimon. The crowd starts booing and yelling nasty things at the Angel Army.
The leading angel grits his teeth and grunts. "As you wish, Great Ruler Pharaohmon. But you better not think about harboring the fiend, or great consequences will befall your beloved land. Come, Angemon!" He raises his sword and flies away.
The three other angels nod and follow him, leaving Waset entirely.
Pharaohmon returns to his smaller size. He walks towards where Team Twilight is hiding and crouches in front of them. "Don't worry. We will allow no Angel to lay a finger on you while you walk on these sacred lands. You are one of us"
"Those stupid angels think they can do whatever please them!" huffs Lua. "Hey Pharaohmon! Do you ever plan to fight the Angel Army and take back the power from them? I think this would do justice for your people!"
He stands straight and looks at the horizon. "The world is always changing, and so is the one in power. This is an inevitable cycle, and I accept that fact"
"But what if this new person in power means to destroy your people, or worse, destroy the world?"
"Then you oppose this force. You resist it. You use all the past experience, all the memories passed down to you in your favor. Memory is what prevents past mistakes from repeating. Memory is what makes generations live, remember what they are fighting for, and pass the flame of hope to the next generation. The world might be ending, but as long as someone is carrying the flames of hope and keeping their memories alive, a new dawn will always rise"
The party goes on for the rest of the night. Then, everyone goes to sleep. The next day, the trio wakes up and gets ready to depart. Babamon, Nefertimon, Bastemon and Vulturemon bid their farewells, mentioning they are always welcome back. The catwoman dramatically says goodbye, saying that she will miss invading their rooms unasked. Then, the team walks out of Waset's gate, where Pharaohmon waits on his chariot tied to two zebra-looking Digimon. The team get on the chariot and wave at the Digimon at the gate, only stopping when they no longer can gaze at the people that never stopped resisting, despite the adversities.
"Will, c'mon! Why are you taking so long?"
It's a rainy and cold day in Etaboan, a city located more than an hour away from Soutriver by car. Ferdinand stands in front of William's mansion while holding his umbrella, ringing the doorbell.
The door opens, revealing William still in his pajamas. "I heard the first time you rang, but I guess you can't wait 10 seconds, huh?"
"Hey! It's been 6 weeks since the last time we talked to boss Richie, and now we can finally catch up with him! Of course I'm excited!"
"Come in" William turns around and goes back inside.
"W-Wait, are we doing it here? What if your parents catch us in the act?"
"They are not home as usual"
"Oh, okay!"
Ferdinand closes his umbrella and leaves it at the door. He removes his shoes and quickly catches him up. They go to his bedroom, and William closes the door as soon as Ferdinand gets in.
"A-Ahm… This is absolutely really safe, correct? N-no one will track us or him, r-right?" asks Ferdinand
"You know you can't take anything for granted, right?" he says, while holding a smartphone. He types something on it. "But yeah, this is as safe as it can be. Now, here… we… go!" He starts a call and puts it on speaker.
It doesn't take long until Drake picks up the call. "Why did it take so long?" he asks, sounding impatient. "I have other things to do, like not waiting, you know?"
"Good morning to you too, boss. Be glad that we don't have your 'punctuality'" scoffs William
"Fuck you"
"We miss you too. Now, how are things there? How are you surviving? Are you enjoying the new place?"
"Eh, it's alright. I still make money from 'requests' from people on the Dark Web, but I'm also drumming under a pseudonym to make some clean money just in case. I do need to pay rent to the granny, after all. This place is a little calm town, it's not bad. It almost makes me forget that we are on the verge of becoming a dystopia"
"Aaah, the referendum result… Some groups are already protesting against it, but the choice of the majority is the choice of the majority unfortunately" He shakes his head.
"Will may be sounding calm now, but ooh boy, he was so mad when he saw the results! I've never seen him punching the table so hard like that before! B-but now… That means they will see everything I do! I-I don't want that either!" says Ferdinand, while starting to panic
William pushes his glasses back to his face. "Did you have any progress investigating who killed Tayna Bambadi?"
Drake growls. "I wish I did. I tried to snoop on her things, but you know, I can't just brute force my way in her social accounts without going unnoticed. I then tried to find if hacker Komet was the target for, I don't know, having beef with the police or other hacker groups, but nope, I didn't find shit! It doesn't help that those dumbfucks chose to let the government legally spy on everyone now!" He starts screeching.
"Right, but at least the latter didn't go into effect yet. So, no progress? Zero? Nothing?"
"Do I need to repeat myself?" asks Drake, getting angrier
"The police are hunting you, they are sure that you are the culprit!"
"Yeah, I'm fucking aware of that. But I don't know what to do now. I've tried to find a different starting point, but this damn attack is weird as hell! No one saw anyone suspicious breaking in or getting out, but it's clear that someone stabbed her multiple times, set her computer on fire and took her body away. But no blood was found outside the room, no cameras caught them… It's as if someone teleported in, did their job and teleported out!"
"And still, this magical person decided to be careless and leave one of her limbs to be found…?"
"Hey boss! Maybe you could try to find, ahm… I don't know, her secret drive? Something hidden in the cloud? Access her messaging app and see if she was talking with someone shady? Try to recover her hard drive and find something there?" asks Ferdinand. Then he only hears a deep sigh from the other side of the phone, and that makes him very nervous. Then Drake finally decides to say something
"Do you think I didn't think about these, and that those are easy shit? Access her online drive? I need to find it, and this takes time, a lot of time! Her messaging app? I'm working on that, but finding her number, invading the provider and decrypting everything on top of that takes time too! She was not the type that left it exposed, after all. Recovering her hard drive? Did you see the state of that shit? Nothing is recoverable there! Even if it was, there's probably a crazy shitton level of security there! I can't even crack through Hydra's hard drive yet without messing up-"
"W-wait, do you have Hydra's hard drive? How and why?"
The phone stays silent for some moment, but a facepalm can be heard. "ANYWAY!" continues Drake. "I'm 100% sure that the police and those Diamlock pigs have their eyes on anything related to Tayna, waiting for someone, aka me, to touch it. I hope you didn't forget that the fucking CEO, the very one that you two admire, was the main responsible to put Hydra on jail! Therefore it's his fault that he is dead!"
Ferdinand gets more nervous, but William throws his hands up. "Woooaaah, hold on. I don't know what you are trying to imply here, but don't forget that Smith wasn't the one that gave Hydra the death sentence. Give that to the jury trial, pal. I can like both at the same time, you know? It's just an unfortunate that they were on different sides of the law"
"Is that so? Are you telling me you will keep that mindset if I am the one being arrested because of him and killed?" he asks, sounding threatening
William flinches and his glasses get foggy. "Look! I-it's not that simple, okay? I wish none of that happened, but when you see it through the Justice's lenses, the manslaughter… Ahm… Listen, we called you to have good times, okay? Let's drop this topic. What are you planning to do now?"
"Since all this ordeal just gave me a headache, I decided to give myself some fun time. I'm pretty sure you guys heard about the new 'toy' InIATeS is making"
Ferdinand smiles and babbles. "Oh! Are you talking about the holographic projection gadget? The one where you can project anything from your computer or any other smart devices to your room and even interact with it? Of course we did! But it's still on some kind of beta testing, where only selected groups have access to it. Or if you are one of the few people that won the draw to be part of their beta testing. I would love to have one of these! But I'm unlucky as hell" He bends his body disappointed
"You didn't need to throw a full info dump about that, but yeah, that one. I put my hands in one of these. I'm surprised they look like pendrives!"
"Wait" William frowns. "There's no way you got one of these fair and square! Boss! What did you do?"
"I stole it from my asshole brother, of course! He was one of the lucky guys, but who said I want that idiot to have fun? My happiness comes first. So I guess I can call myself lucky now, huh?"
William and Ferdinand look at each other incredulous. William quickly shakes his head. "Lemme get this straight. You found out that your brother got one of these. Then you traveled for hours to his house, broke in and stole his device, knowing that he would call the police as soon as they saw you down the road?"
"He still lives with our parents, so it wasn't hard at all. Besides, of course I wore a disguise for that, duh"
"B-but… Why would you risk going there? Your parents are doing anything to ruin your life! They even gave testimony about your… Erm… Past and present delinquency… They made sure to tell the media horrible things about you, many things not even being true!" says Ferdinand
"Well, too late to be worried now, I've done it already"
William facepalms. "They probably know it was you. Aren't you afraid they will track you? Because they will report it stolen and the police will find you by the serial number!"
Drake growls. "Do you think I'm a fucking moron? Did you forget who I am already? Of course I took necessary precautions! They are a dumb bunch, they already fell for my phishing and believe everything is solved now"
He shakes his head. "You could just have asked me, you know? My parents are part of the beta testing and gave it to me. I wouldn't mind giving it to you, you know?"
"And put you in trouble? No way. Enjoy your toy safely with Ferdy. I still need to coordinate another mass attack on the government services with my team, and later I'll try to continue my investigation. But first I want to have more fun with the device! It was nice to talk to you guys after so long!"
The three of them say their goodbyes, and they hang up. William facepalms. "I can't tell if Richie is very smart or extremely dumb at times. But it's working for him, and this is what matters, I guess"
"W-well… He's always been audacious, which is why he is in big trouble now, right?" Ferdinand flashes a nervous smile.
"Whatever. Let's also go have fun with the gadget. Just be careful with what you choose to play with. I don't want my browser history full of weird things"
He looks shocked at William. "H-hey! Who do you think I am?"
It's lunchtime. Dayana and Shen sit in front of each other at Diamlock Tech's canteen, their foods in front of them. Dayana holds her phone, staring at a picture taken over a year ago: a selfie of four people on the rooftop of a building - Gabriel, Komet, Shen and herself - all of them smiling. The sun was setting, forming a beautiful twilight sky.
She sighs. "Everything went downhill since Tayna was murdered... The case is still a big mystery, no one can figure out what or how it happened… The main suspect is a fugitive, so everyone is very scared… And as expected, the opposition used this in their favor to get more people to support them… And can you look at that! It worked!" She throws her hands up and scowls. "What god will help us now?"
Shen slurps his spaghetti. "The government, now that they will be our new god I guess"
"This is not funny, you know?"
"Hey, I'm just trying to cope, okay?"
"I see you two still miss her a lot. I do too"
Dayana whips her head towards the voice, while Shen just looks up. It's Gabriel, holding his briefcase.
"Ah, Gabriel, good afternoon…" she says. She locks her phone screen, which still had the picture open. "I don't care if most of the people here have already moved on or didn't even care about her at all… I don't care that some of our colleagues keep insisting that she didn't care about us at all, so 'we shouldn't mourn that hard for her'. I considered her my friend. Sure, she was very reserved and all, but that's because she just needed some help… I don't know what kind of help, but the three of us knew something troubled her a lot"
"I feel the same… But there's not much we can do about it anymore…" Shen shakes his head. "But I do have a theory! Hear me out: what if her death was planned to break the privacy laws? She was killed just hours before the Big Day, and she was the leader of it. They made the murder bizarre so that it would be hard to figure it out. The police can't instantly access personal stuff thanks to our current laws, so that would cause people to be angry because it's yet another serious murder case that can't be solved quickly. And what happened? They used exactly that to justify big changes in privacy laws!" he says somewhat enthusiastically.
Dayana rolls her eyes. "Again this conspiracy theory?"
He frowns. "What? It makes total sense! Don't forget that our world is still recovering from a somewhat chaotic state!"
"But this way you would be calling people dumb!"
"Would that be wrong, though? You know everyone started holding the police in high regard after solving that crime almost three years ago, especially because things finally got somewhat better after closing the case"
"Well, regardless of what happened, you don't need to worry about it. Despite the mystery, I can assure you that competent people are taking care of the investigation" says Gabriel
"Competent people…? Don't tell me… Are you getting yourself involved again?" she asks
Gabriel smiles at them without answering it.
"Ahm… How are you feeling about all this? About the privacy law changes and stuff… You fought very hard against it" asks Shen
"Obviously this is not the result I wanted, but we have no choice but comply" he answers, shrugging and shaking his head
"This answer is too direct! I expected something more emotional, I don't know!"
Dayana smacks him on the back of his head. "Don't be stupid! Do you want him to just break down crying while on duty? This is pathetic!"
"Ow… Okay, okay…"
Gabriel chuckles. "Oh, believe me, my day wasn't great after I saw the results"
Shen rubs where he got smacked. "How long do we have to adjust to the new regulations? I know we will have a meeting about this this week, but it won't hurt asking our boss this now, right?"
"Three months after they finish discussing it, which will probably be next week. They are really enthusiastic about it" Gabriel crosses his arms and raises one eyebrow. "The time frame they set for this to be done really tells a lot about their 'competence'" he scoffs.
"Yeah, that's too short for such a drastic change! Do they really think we have a magical wand that does all the changes they want? Those things require time and care! It doesn't help that a lot of online services are suffering mass attacks from crackers, especially tech companies…"
"Which reminds me…" Dayana opens her laptop and accesses some things. She looks at some data. "We are holding off pretty well! I don't think our competitors are doing as well as we are"
"Which is why the government chose us as the leading company to take care of all that. And this fact will only reinforce their decision" says Gabriel, smiling proudly
She raises an eyebrow. "Wait a moment, are we becoming a subsidiary of the government now?"
He laughs. "Of course not! Think of that more like a partnership. Besides, if we want to keep an eye on our 'enemies', then keep them close to us. We don't want to let them abuse their power after all, right?" He winks at them
Shen opens a big smile. "Of course you won't let everything just happen as they wish! For a moment I thought you were just going with the flow"
"I'm surprised they are trusting someone that was rallying against that idea" she says
"This is because despite that, we are still the ones that provide the best services, duh!"
"That too, and we have to abide by the laws, whether we like it or not" Gabriel looks at his watch and looks back at them. "Well, I have to go now. My days will be even busier now with all those changes. Have a nice lunch, you two! Oh, before I forget, Shen, tomorrow we are having our chess match!"
"Oh no… Ooookay…" he says, already feeling defeated
"Yep, you are definitely his new victim now" Dayana chuckles
Gabriel waves at them and leaves, heading towards the elevator.
Dayana and Shen wave back. Then he slurps his spaghetti.
"Stop that. It's nasty!" she says
"Sorry! I can't help myself but taste my now cold meal at its fullest!"
She facepalms. "That doesn't make sense!"
"Anyway, don't you think it's weird how we are holding off so well compared to other companies? Like, a lot of them had their safety compromised, but we didn't, at least not yet"
She scowls. "I hope by 'weird' you mean 'fantastic'. Didn't you just say that we provide the best services? We worked harder for that, don't blame us for being more competent. Hopefully you are not thinking about another conspiracy theory again!"
He scowls too. "Hey! You have no right to complain about conspiracy theories when you are so into things like tarot and horoscope!"
"They are not the same thing, Shen! Whatever, you do you. I'm mostly impressed by the fact that Gabriel is very good at looking calm on the outside. I wouldn't be capable of doing this knowing I'm working on a easy way of exposing everyone, including myself, to a selected group of people, even if I had a back up plan for that" she shakes her head
"Well, that's probably because he has nothing to hide!" he smirks
"I have nothing to hide either, but that doesn't mean I want people snooping on everything about me, you know?" she growls
He laughs. "I know, I know, I was just teasing you. I actually think the same. By the way, did you see the new thingie InIATeS is releasing? Isn't that, like, the worst timing to do it?"
"Yes, I did. I'm very surprised that people are very hyped about that. Did they forget already about the past shadiness of that company? I guess Alencar IT Solutions really did a good job cleaning their image" She shakes her head. "But what do you mean by 'worst timing'?"
He rubs his chin. "I don't think people want randoms to know what they are projecting in their rooms. Who knows, maybe this will allow them to spy on our rooms or something! People will be too scared to use the internet now, so that gadget will flop!"
She snorts in laughter. "Do you really think people will stop going online? Sure, they will be scared at first, but don't forget that Gabriel's generation can't live without the webs already, they were born with it after all. So it's very unlikely that their target - people from our gen and younger, who are even 'worse' at disconnecting by the way - will just drop it completely because of the changes. In fact, didn't you call those people dumb few minutes ago? It's mostly likely that they will just accept it over time"
He frowns. "Man, I hate it, but you are right. I don't even know how I feel about working here anymore, since we will basically do the inverse of what we were doing…"
"Well, not really, we'll still protect data from the others, it's just that… Some will have more free access to it, and we have to guarantee that they are the only ones that can do that" she says, sounding disgusted. "Despite that, I can see some people quitting because of that… We will see after the general meeting"
"Will you quit?"
"Of course not! I also want to keep an eye on those idiots, to see if deep down they are up to no good. Unlike the majority, I don't trust them"
"Great! It's the same for me!"
Drake is in the basement of his new home, a house that an old lady accepted to share with him under certain conditions, very far away from where he lived. He is using a temporary dye for his hair - black - tied in a ponytail - a style he never uses - and covering his head with a hoodie, so he can't be recognized. He stares at a desktop - Hydra's computer. The computer is on, connected to a monitor that displays 'INSERT PASSWORD'. For his disappointment, he has only one chance remaining, and if he does something wrong, all its content will be completely erased.
Drake shakes his head. "If you had to resort to that fucking amount of security, it's because you're keeping something extremely important, probably game changer…" He looks at the projection gadget and growls. "I thought this damn thing could help me in any way, but I guess it's just gonna be my toy…" He sits down and puts his hands on his face. "Is waiting for a miracle to happen all I can do now?"
He starts sobbing in silence. After some minutes, he hears the door opening. A white old lady with gray hair appears as soon as the door opens, holding a tray with something.
He wipes his tears and groans. "I told you to knock first, didn't I?"
"I baked cookies. Would you like some?" she asks
He smells the fresh cookies entering the basement, then he rolls his eyes and sighs. "Fine…" He climbs upstairs and grabs a few, and smiles at her. "Thanks, granny!"
She smiles and leaves. Drake closes the door and goes back down, eating the cookies. He looks at Hydra's computer still on, and turns it off. "I'll take care of this later. First I must focus on finding the motherfucker who killed Tiny to save my skin" He looks at the gadget, thinks for a moment and makes it project a realistic dragon doll in the room. He plays with the limbs of the blue dragon while finishing eating his cookies. "Nah, let's take a break first. Then later I'll show them that they can't take down another dragon!"
End of story! I've written a side story telling more about the glory days of the Kingdom of Werushat. You can find it here: