The drunkard staggered into the room unbidden, his bleary eyes surveying the scene - the freshly-changed bed, the movie on the television, the lived-in quality of the room. To him, surely it looked as if the women on the bed had been waiting for his arrival; perhaps for quite some time, even. Everything looked great... including the girls on the bed. Well, to be fair, only one of those women was still on the bed - Zofia had risen to her feet in the blink of an eye. Not that he was paying attention, of course.

  Beneath synthetic skin, within a heart still made of meat, rage burned hotter than a crematory oven. Finally, finally, things had been on the upswing for the ex-Knight... She had a romantic prospect! She had friends! She was free of the life forced upon her by her homeland, by her fucking parents, in the name of stupid social clout! She hadn't been able to consider it for a long time, of course - the way she was used like a fucking pawn in some grand game of chess, for the benefit of others. Her own thoughts, her feelings, her dreams... all cast aside like so much fucking chaff, because they weren't conducive to a ridiculous shadow war framed as a holy duty.

  She had been molded into a killer for others' benefit, and now that she had finally found some semblance of salvation from that life, here was some dumb fucker here to ruin it.

  She was in front of the executive in the blink of an eye, faster than Lulu or the prostitutes could react to. She couldn't stop herself from what happened next - her body moved on its own, it felt like, and even if she could've intervened? She wasn't sure she would have.

  Her left hand took hold of the man's tie, yanking him down to his knees with the force of a hydraulic press. In the back of her head she could hear Lulu start to yell, messages flooding in from her comms suite, but Zofia couldn't bring herself to care. Not now. Not this time. Her body had been hand-crafted for one purpose: killing the second-living. She had never taken pleasure in her work; this time, however, she knew there would be catharsis to it.

  Her right hand raised. The executive's expression shifted in slow motion, from a smug grin to a broad, excited smile - he hadn't been expecting to get dominated by a nun tonight, but he wasn't averse to it. The prostitutes realized then what was happening; rather, they realized what was about to happen. The slender male shot a hand out, palm outstretched, beginning to shout in protest; the tall woman simply gasped, eyes wide but refusing to look away.

  The crunch was exquisite. Zofia, the shy little virgin, had never fucked before - this, however, was what she imagined a real orgasm felt like. The satisfaction of her fist hurtling down, an avenging comet crashing to Earth, was unparalleled - the spray of black blood and teeth was like the wetness of a lover. Seeing the aftermath - how his jaw hung awkwardly, snapped off on one side, mouth missing a fistful of teeth and leaking blood - was the afterglow.

  The blow was so stunning, so righteous in its destructive power, that the drunken lout's brain couldn't process the pain at first - and this was to Zofia's benefit. It gave her time to wind back for a second haymaker, her knuckles gleaming with someone else's blood. Like a proper farmhand, the hay was made - the audience for her fury bore witness to a convex becoming concave, the executive's forehead Zofi's new target.

  A sickening squelch was underlined by one final cry of protest from the twink at the doorframe; Lucretia's comms messages had stopped completely, their sender resigned in her acceptance that she could not stop Zofia. There was no chance, of course; nothing short of an act of God could have halted Zofi's wrath.

  The nun stood there, trembling, chest heaving as she panted with restrained fury and the wake of adrenaline's kiss. There was temptation to strike him again, though he was already dead - and if he wasn't dead, he was dying so quickly and horribly that another punch would have made no difference.

  Zofia's knees suddenly felt weak, her whole body beginning to wick away at the adrenal burst she had undergone. Subsystems within her prosthesis kept it from leaving too quickly; she didn't fall, at least, but she certainly didn't have the strength she once did. At least, she didn't feel like she did. Staring down at the man's gurgling pit that had once been a face, bubbling with black blood as his lungs emptied their air... The realization of what she had just done hit her, and she couldn't stop the tears that began to well.

  She released her grip on the dead man's tie, letting him flop to the ground with a lame thud. Just as she began to sob, a pair of arms went about her midsection, pulling her back a half-step. Lucretia's face buried itself into her neck, whispering a flurry of shaky, desperate placations, doing her best to break through Zofia's sudden shock to try and keep her from outright breakdown.

  At the doorway, the warm bodies were shockingly silent - composed, even, in the face of outright murder. The woman simply sighed, putting her hands on her hips and looking down to her companion. In turn, the shorter of the pair looked up at her; then, coming to a silent agreement, he turned to regard Lulu and Zofia. His expression was surprisingly apologetic, given the circumstances... but, his awkward smile felt like he was doing his best to comfort them, rather than admonish them.

  "H-Hey, uh... Haha, ah... Killing a bisexual dude just because he's, uh, flirting with you? What are you, eheh... h-homophobic?"

  The joke landed as well as one would expect. His friend whacked him on the back of the head, mask of resignation shifting instantaneously to a withering scowl. "Hey, you stupid fucker! No! Not the time for jokes! Ugh... Do I need to do everything?"

  The whacked male winced at the scolding, but didn't try and rebuke her chastising.

  The woman rolled her eyes, taking a few steps towards Zofi and Lulu. The Easterners were both in a state of shock about these strangers' comparatively cool reaction to the turn this had all taken; Lulu's mouth was agape, and Zofia stared as if they were going to attack her at any moment. However, the anticipated assault never arrived - rather, she grabbed the executive's body by the arm, hoisting him with surprising strength and beginning to head towards the bathroom.

  "C'mon. Cinna, get in here - help me with this. You two, you... Random women, I guess. You two must be Khetnep's guests, right? Close the door. Let's talk."

  Cinna followed her without a second thought, mumbling apologies and excuses the whole way. The door was left wide open, a humid air breezing in from the simulated street; it took Zofi and Lulu a moment to even react, much less do as instructed. However, the thud of a currently-lifeless body being dropped into the bathtub was enough to snap them out of their respective shocks. Zofi looked down at her blood-drenched hand, swallowing hard; Lucretia took it upon herself to head for the door, swinging it closed with as much haste as she could muster without slamming it.

  What was happening? Was this really what the people of Vitus were like? They see a person be slain right before their eyes, and rather than be horrified, or even distraught... they seemed, well, peeved? As though it was an inconvenience to them?

  It was an inconvenience to a society for which death was an interlude, not a permanence, Zofi figured. It was the best reasoning she could come up with, at least, and she fucking needed some sort of explanation to keep herself from freaking out. In the bathroom, the sound of a running faucet added further bewildering normalcy to the whole situation; Zofi's head snapped towards the sound, still leery enough of any outside stimuli that she couldn't help but assume it was a threat.

  The prostitutes were washing their hands. Nothing threatening, nothing malicious, nothing violent or worrisome... just an act of removal, letting the executive's inky fluid run down the drain. Washing her hands sounded good right now... Already, the air had begun to congeal the thick, gritty substance on her hand into a more cumbersome - and disgusting - state.

  The Pole began to walk over, every movement wracked with trepidation and doubt. Only when Lucretia made a swift approach, whisking Zofi towards the bathroom, did any confidence embolden her motions; even then, it was almost entirely bluster.

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  Could she really have been a field agent? Maybe she was better off as a researcher, like she had been assigned.

  The Waywards slipped into the bathroom, bare feet making gentle sounds upon the tiled floor. Cinna and his coworker were now sitting on the edge of the tub - the woman had drawn a knife, and was savaging the executive's body with stabs and slices, rending him down to a grotesque sort of confetti. Her face, however, showed no signs of malice or rage; rather, she simply seemed annoyed by the whole process.

  Cinna's face was as apologetic as ever, brown hair falling in silken sheets across his similarly-toned physique. Dressed in naught but a well-fitting bunny suit, bunny-eared headband, and a pair of black platform heels (that he was still short in spite of), he didn't exactly portray the sort of person who would stay so cool in the face of such violence. However, his soft voice rose from glossed lips to try and set the Easterner's minds at ease.

  "Hey...! Uh, haha... Wow. Nice, uh, nice punches, boo - you're really strong. What are you? Like, a vampire, but with eye replacements? A-And... And teeth replacements... I, uh..." As he continued on, he came to the same realization his coworker had come to in the doorway. The women in black standing before him were anything but second-living.

  As for his companion, Zofi finally had calmed down enough to get a good look at her. Long ivory hair had been done up in a loose bun, a pair of spiral-shaped silver needles piercing it in an X; her skin was almost as pale as her hair - as far as skin could go, anyways - and her eyes were wide, sharp, and possessed of a striking sapphire hue. Her pupils, however, caught Zofi's attention immediately; they were those of a serpent, and now found themselves dilated to take in Khetnep's guests.

  She smacked her purple-painted lips and crossed her arms, red-and-black qipao barely rustling from the motion. "Cinna? Shut up."

  The effeminate escort did as he was told, eyes dropping to the floor as he offered a timid nod to the woman. She, on the other hand, took a moment to look Zofia and Lucretia up and down; only once she was satisfied with her observation did she speak again.

  "So. Khetnep's guests. Good to meet you - I'm Camilla, call me Cammy. Let's go over a few things really quickly - don't interrupt, and there won't be any problems. What I'm about to say is all very important." She waited for a moment, arching a brow expectantly; Zofia nodded rapidly, fervently, while Lucretia only gave a lame thumbs up.

  "Good!" Camilla continued, a smug grin coming over her. Her teeth were revealed, then - human incisors and molars, but with the thick pillar canines of a vampire. She straightened up her position, casting a single glance over to Cinna before returning her gaze to the mechanized murderers.

  "Firstly? You have just killed a man of moderate importance. Not quite middling, but not quite Tsang himself. Okay? Okay. Now, twenty years ago, that might've been a problem..." She diverted her attentions to the corpse in the tub, leaking organic oil from every single wound she had opened. "This piece of shit is... Well, expendable. Everyone in Tsang is, save for one or two notables. Tsang himself, yes, and then his right-hand... Judas Alighieri. There are others that would cause upset, but..."

  Cammy laughed, short and harsh, like the bark of a hunting hound. "Fuck 'em. Zhichen Tsang could find, or make, replacements. And in Vitus? People die all the time."

  Reaching into the keyhole of her dress, she drew out a pack of Tsang brand cigarettes, and a thin flip-top lighter. The cigarette was put between her lips, but the lighter was held out for Cinna - who, ever the pushover, took it and gave her a light. As reward, she blew a ring of smoke into his face, which he eagerly breathed in.

  "But. Thing is, this dude didn't pay to die. He paid for Cinna and I to work his rod like slaves in some back-alley pimpshow and then keep our mouths shut that we had ever seen him." Puff. Blow. Puff. Blow. She puffed out her chest for Cinna, ensuring the keyhole of her qipao was prominent. He took the cue like a good boy, timidly pushing the lighter back into her cleavage - deep enough that no one would see it at a glance. Her smile returned, and she offered her counterpart a wink. Then, she turned back to Lulu and Zofi, continuing with her monologue.

  "Tsang doesn't like its employees hanging around La Scission - but they can't really stop them without acknowledging how widespread criminality is here in Vitus. This place is their little kingdom, but even the most loyal and patriotic courtiers need their cocks sucked sometimes, you know?" An extra-long drag on her cigarette came, then, as if to emphasize the mental imagery.

  "But," she continued, "This man is now dead. We can deal with that. Executives have been dying left and right in recent years, from yourselves, the Revenants, people like Khetnep... Hell, the odd lone actor from the underclasses, sometimes. Some people manage to save enough cash to get some silver bullets and a cheap handgun, and they make it happen."

  Zofia and Lulu listened intently, the former female offering a dumb nod in response, the latter's own motion possessed of a sense of familiarity. Made sense that Lulu would know this sort of shit, Zofi thought - she had been out mingling with Vitus's citizenship more than most other Easterners ever even considered. However... It still felt odd that this sort of info hadn't been disseminated by the mother abbess - it felt apt to know that there was such unrest in the city. Right?

  Zofia's brow furrowed; now wasn't the time to think about that stuff. Later, she'd speak with Lulu about it.

  Cammy grabbed the knife she'd been using off the edge of the tub, raising it up and driving it down into the corpse's mangled meat. "We can get rid of the body. Make it like he never even existed. Tsang won't even put out a missing-persons alert about him; they're too busy searching for that blonde girl. Speaking of, you've gotta get a disguise for her."

  Lulu's mouth opened in protest almost immediately, raising her right hand in an accompanying gesture; Camilla waved her down, shaking her head and tutting, moments away from a chuckle. "No, no, chill out. I won't snitch. No one in La Scission was told; no one knows but Cinna and I, and Khetnep. But, I mean, come the fuck on - we passed her in the hallway in a cute little nurse getup, hanging off of some white-haired dyke with muscles you don't really get when you're reborn. Her face is everywhere in town - get her some hair dye or something, please?"

  That was enough to appease Lucretia, and she backed down. Zofia hadn't been as quick to protest as her own comrade, but now that the daze of this whole situation had truly passed, she supposed Cammy had a point. EJ's visage was plastered all around Vitus, apparently - and there was a massive reward for her whereabouts. Surely a wig or something was the least they could do.

  Cammy started up once more - this time, her tone implied this was the closing of her one-sided conversation. "So. I'll tell Khetnep what happened, we'll deal with this guy and get you some towels and shit to clean up - don't worry, the carpet's stain-proof - and it'll all be okay. But."

  That 'but' held the weight of the world, and Atlas was only able to hold it up for so much longer. Zofia adjusted her stance, straightening her back and putting an arm around Lucretia's back; she put on a brave face, the acceptance of what had taken place giving her exactly what she needed to face Cammy's terms and conditions without fear. Resignation, maybe, and regret that it had come to this... but no fear. She was starting to get really fucking tired of being so afraid all the time.

  "But," Cammy repeated, "You're gonna need to work for it. Sweeping the death of an exec under the rug? It's not cheap. Khetnep's told me; she likes to yap after a session... Or during, if you're on your knees."

  Cammy winked, her smile becoming the sneer of a hungry predator; her pointed tongue ran along her upper teeth, from left to right. "You can work out the details with Khetnep; s'not my business, but I know you're in our debt now. I'm sure a couple of beautiful, exotic girls like you could earn a pretty penny here... Or, you know, maybe put those Eastern abilities to work, hmm~?"

  Huh. Simultaneously it was exactly what Zofi had been expecting, and completely different. A debt... Normally she'd be indignant of such an implication, but, if Cammy was telling the truth? That they could make this all go away? Then a debt felt appropriate. And the work? Well, she and Lulu had wanted something to do anyways...

  "Okay. We'll talk with Khetnep, work something out - just do whatever you need to to get rid of this guy, and we'll be golden." Zofia's lips and tongue felt like they moved on their own, forming the words she knew she had to say without any impulse provided for saying it. She was surprised by herself, honestly - surprised that she had leapt at the chance to speak up, to not leave it for Lucretia to handle, as she had been doing this whole time. Her right hand went out, opened up to shake - Camilla snickered and returned the gesture, taking a firm grip of Zofia's hand and shaking.

  "Good! Well... We'll get to work on this, yeah? We're supposed to be with this dude for, what... Four hours? Scheduled us for quite a fucking while, must've been his day off, haha... Ha. You ladies can go back to whatever gay shit you were up to, in the meantime; just pretend Cinna and I aren't here. We're used to it, anyways - being around people fucking, that is. Kind of comes with the territory."

  Zofi turned to regard Lucretia, brow raised quizzically. Something told her there may not be any 'gay shit' in their immediate future... But, well...

  When in Vitus, right?