Chapter 22 - Chapter 22: Persuasion

Chapter 22: Persuasion.

Arbus exited the med bay located in the Central Hub of the base with a relieved sigh.

"Finally."

Thanks to his regeneration, he was already completely healed seconds after the attack. Unfortunately, he couldn't really tell anyone that, so he was forced to obey the medic Renegade's advice and stay there overnight.

As he expected, Alexander was already waiting for him outside, leaning against the wall with a bored expression on his face.

Arbus chuckled slightly as he approached. "Sorry to keep you waiting. The medics still had some tests to run. They were afraid that the bot might have damaged my internal organs. I guess I was lucky."

Alexander turned to Arbus with his signature smile on his face.

"Kept me waiting?, no not at all. I was just walking around doing nothing, like usual. I was definitely not waiting for you."

"But now that you're here, I am glad to see that you're alright. That was a rough match yesterday, huh? Even worse than mine." He said as they headed towards the shooting range.

"I'm just glad those bots modeled after your fellow Tarokians didn't manage to catch me. I'd be in far worse shape than you if they did."

He winced slightly at the memory. "I suppose I should thank Instructor Kate for not letting me experience the consequences of my own decisions."

Arbus nodded.

"Yeah, you definitely should. But at least you managed to beat one of them, that's quite an achievement. That's one more than me."

Alexander's brow furrowed in curiosity. "Oh? Were you a bookworm when you were younger or something? That's a lot different from what I was imagining. If that's the case, I suppose you didn't get into many fights."

Arbus gave a small smile. "Oh no, don't misunderstand. I did get into fights, quite a lot actually. The problem is I didn't win any of them," he said as the shooting range doors slid open.

Rin and Jet, along with a few other Blue Mornans, were already present. Arbus could feel Rin's cold gaze on him the moment he entered.

"Maybe we should come back another time," Alexander said with a chuckle as he tried leading Arbus out the door.

Arbus said nothing. He simply grabbed a handgun from the row of weapons and walked toward the nearest available station.

"I guess not," Alexander muttered, following behind.

They both settled into adjacent stations, deliberately ignoring the stares from the other trainees. The next hour passed in relative silence. Alexander hit his moving targets with almost perfect accuracy, which wasn't surprising given his performance during the simulated combat sessions. He had even managed to tag a Tarokian bot yesterday, despite their incredible speed.

Arbus, on the other hand,visibly struggled. Shooting had always been one of those skills that eluded him, which was exactly why he usually focused more on close-range weapons.

Arbus looked at his gun with an annoyed expression. In the last hour, he had only managed to hit 30 out of 100 targets accurately, despite some being stationary.

"Tsk, how annoying. Who needs guns anyway? Swords are so much better."

"Hmm, if you say so," Alexander replied with an amused smirk as he shot his last target. He checked the device displaying their scores. He had managed to hit 130 out of his 150 targets, all of them moving.

Arbus simply scoffed. "Tsk, show-off."

Bang!

They looked over at Rin, who was currently using a high-tech gun at stage two.

Bang! Bang!

"Oh wow, she's really good," Alexander said in amazement as he watched her targets moving at the highest speed available. According to the scoreboard, she hadn't missed once.

After she finished, she placed the gun back in its holster in the long metal table and walked out of the room without a glance in their direction.

Jet watched her leave before approaching Arbus and Alexander with a practiced smile.

"Arbus, I'm glad to see you're all better after that terrible accident yesterday," he said, his voice laced with false concern.

Arbus simply turned away from him as he prepared for another round. "I'm sure you are."

"No, really, I am. I wouldn't want you dying from something like that. No, that would have been too easy," Jet said as his smile faded, before he walked out of the room. The remaining Blue Mornans followed behind him like always.

"That was..... interesting. He really is a scary guy," Alexander murmured once they were alone.

"Just the usual with those two," Arbus replied, checking his weapon.

Alexander's eyes narrowed slightly. "Too easy? What do you think he meant by that?"

"Who knows. He probably thinks he can torture me to death or something. Well, that's unfortunate for him."

"Hmm, I suppose it is. Seems like you're quite the hard guy to crack."

Arbus smiled. "You have no idea."

_______________________________

The Red Mornan instructor from the simulation room was busy organizing equipment in a storage room. She had been assigned this task for the next month by Kate, as punishment for improper maintenance of the simulation room systems, causing them to malfunction. At least that was the excuse she and the people under her had given Kate.

Just as she was about to leave, the door slid open with a soft hiss, startling her. She wasn't expecting anyone else to be here.

"Sorry for startling you, it's just me," Alexander said with a smile as he walked in.

"You're not supposed to be here trainee," she said, her eyes narrowing as she glanced past him to the secure door that required an instructor's pass key. "How did you get in?"

"Sorry, instructor, it seems like I got lost. You must have left the door open or something. But since I'm here, I'd like it if we could have a little chat,"

The instructor felt a sense of unease for some reason, although she couldn't explain why.

"Get out now before I report this incident to the head instructors. That's a one-way ticket to failing this training, do you understand?"

Alexander's smile didn't waver as his gaze swept around the room. This was only the first section of the storage room, one of the largest areas in the base. This section was mostly filled with weapons of all kinds and ammunition.

""I just want to ask you a question about yesterday's incident in the simulation chamber," he said, his voice softening. "Was it really an accident?"

The instructor's expression hardened instantly. "Excuse me? How dare you? What exactly are you insinuating?" Her voice rose higher with each question. "That's the last straw, trainee. Being a White Mornan doesn't give you the right to talk down to me or ask questions like that."

She moved toward Alexander, attempting to push past him to call for backup.

"I'm reporting you to the head instructor."

"Let me ask again."

Alexander said as his smile vanished. His eyes suddenly darkened, his irises shifting to solid black, like an endless void.

The instructor opened her mouth to scream, but the sound died in her throat. Her expression went blank, as her own eyes took on an unnatural dark glow similar to his own.

"𝕎𝕒𝕤 𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕟 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕥?"

"...No, it was not," she answered in a monotone voice, all her resistance gone.

Alexander fell silent as he ran his hand through his raven-dark hair, contemplating his next move.

"𝕎𝕙𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕠 𝕚𝕥? 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕪 𝕕𝕚𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦, 𝕒𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕕𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕗𝕗 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕤, 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕪?" Alexander asked. Each word he spoke in this state sounded otherworldly.

"Jet," she replied automatically. "He put me up to this. His family owns the solar system where me and my family live. He promised to reward them for my cooperation."

"ℍ𝕞𝕞, 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕚𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕓𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕒 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖?"

She shook her head slowly.

"No, I did it because I wanted to as well. That trainee is an abomination, a disgrace to the Renegades. I saw it as a service," she continued in the same empty voice. "To get rid of the Reincarnator spawn. For the future. I didn't think he would survive the attack."

Alexander nodded slowly, a flicker of disgust crossing his otherwise apathetic features. "𝕀 𝕤𝕖𝕖. 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖."

His eyes narrowed slightly, focusing more intently on hers. "𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕟𝕪 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕤𝕖𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠𝕕𝕒𝕪."

"𝕀𝕟 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕜, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟. 𝔸 𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕙 𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕚𝕥 𝕒 𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕥."

"𝔸𝕞 𝕚 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕕?"

"Perfectly," the instructor replied simply.

Alexander's eyes returned to normal as he slipped out of the storage room, his expression thoughtful as he walked away.