Chapter Three – "Beginning of the mission"

  People are running.

  Interrupted screams.

  Blood and corpses on the ground.

  Veyron kneels in place as if waiting for someone to explain what happened.

  His mind tells him to run, but his body doesn’t move.

  Shock rises on his face, fear in his eyes, corpses before him.

  "Veyron!"

  The voice is close.

  Very close.

  But it sounds like it’s coming from behind thick glass.

  Veyron’s eyes move to his hands, lifting them slowly.

  They are covered in blood, trembling violently.

  "Veyron!!"

  Everything started from the moment of training in the laboratory…

  Rin and Veyron were alone in a laboratory room; SS-01 had been sent to their accommodation room.

  Rin: "So, what did you want to ask me?"

  She speaks sharply, as if interrogating him.

  Veyron lifts his eyes from the ground, staring at her face.

  "Why me?"

  Rin raises an eyebrow in surprise.

  "What do you mean?"

  Veyron: "Why am I the mentor for SS-01 and for the mission in Clodus that almost no human knows about, while I’m not even an expert?"

  Rin sighs, then presses on the table, displaying a screen with Veyron’s data.

  Rin: "You are S-rank. Also, in the last two years since leaving the containment center, you have carried out all your tasks perfectly, better than experts."

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  Veyron lowers his face and presses on the screen, checking previous mission locations and maps.

  Veyron: "But all those missions were mentoring malformed heirs of class A or lower temporarily, all within human colonies or very close… none were in real locations outside a colony."

  Rin doesn’t respond directly and closes the map.

  The data disappears.

  Rin, in an uncomfortable calm:

  "The outside isn’t an environment—it’s a variable."

  "Clodus isn’t an officially active site."

  "But there’s a gap in the reports."

  A sealed record appears—parts of it blocked.

  She presses, revealing a time gap.

  "Sixteen unexplained minutes."

  Veyron: "Missing recording?"

  Rin: "It’s a rare situation, so we need SS-01… even though you are not an expert, after leaving the containment center, your body responds more to quantum energy than others."

  Veyron wanted to speak, but his tongue failed him.

  His mind knew the choice had already been made… He then leaves the room.

  Adrien enters the lab after Veyron leaves, having been listening, while the record continues playing.

  Adrien: "Why didn’t you tell him the truth?"

  Rin: "Do you think anyone who knows the truth would take one step outside the colony?"

  At that moment, a record shows a destroyed location.

  Veyron enters the shared dorm room with SS-01.

  When he opens the door, he sees his bag scattered on the floor, all his belongings outside of it, and SS-01 holding a notebook, flipping through it while sitting on the bed.

  Shock rises on Veyron’s face as he sees his clothes on the ground, drawing tools, weapons, and many personal items.

  SS-01: "I didn’t know you drew."

  Veyron, angry, approaches SS-01 quickly:

  "What the hell are you doing??"

  He grabs the notebook quickly from SS-01’s hands.

  SS-01: "Just getting to know you."

  Veyron: "Don’t get to know someone by invading their privacy! Don’t you dare touch my things again!"

  He pants, reminding himself of the mission tomorrow.

  He begins reorganizing his bag, checking every item while SS-01 watches deeply.

  SS-01: "I didn’t know you drew bodies in such detail."

  Silence.

  "Shoulders… muscles… angles."

  Veyron grips the notebook tighter.

  "And what’s it to you?"

  SS-01 tilts his head slightly.

  "You draw what catches your attention."

  Short pause.

  "This is the pattern."

  Veyron’s face reddens; he begins shouting at SS-01.

  The room is silent, dark.

  Veyron lies on his back, eyes on the ceiling.

  Footsteps sound on the floor.

  Close.

  Very close.

  Veyron doesn’t move.

  The sound stops by his bed.

  A few seconds of final breaths… it’s not his own.

  SS-01, very quietly: "Why are you pretending?"

  Veyron opens his eyes suddenly.

  He sees SS-01 standing beside him, half of his face in shadow, only glowing eyes visible.

  Veyron: "Go back to your bed."

  SS-01 doesn’t move.

  His eyes slowly drop to Veyron’s chest, then to his hands.

  "Your heartbeat rises when I get close."

  Veyron: "What do you think about these glowing eyes above me in the dark?"

  SS-01 tilts slightly… closer than appropriate.

  "If something were taken from you while sleeping… would you feel it?"

  Veyron stares at him.

  "Is this a joke?"

  A small, uncomfortable smile.

  "I’m not joking."

  A long moment, then SS-01 extends his hand… does not touch, stopping just above Veyron’s chest, a centimeter away.

  "You are more fragile than you appear."

  Veyron grabs his wrist suddenly.

  The atmosphere changes.

  "Step back."

  But SS-01 doesn’t withdraw his hand.

  "Tomorrow… I don’t want you to break quickly."

  SS-01 slowly retracts his hand.

  Steps back completely, speaking quietly:

  "Don’t rely too much on the things that stay close to you."

  Rustle of fabric.

  Veyron stands, sitting halfway up, looking at his bag.

  It looks normal; SS-01 sits on the bed.

  Veyron to himself: "Could it just be the blanket brushing when SS-01 entered his bed…"

  "Did he touch something?"

  Short silence.

  "If he did… would I have noticed?"

  Silent tension; Veyron stares at him.

  SS-01 now stretches out, gazing at the ceiling.

  As if he didn’t move at all.

  "Sleep."

  He says quietly.

  "Don’t waste your time searching."

  The sentence stings.

  Veyron: "I won’t search."

  Veyron remains seated for a few moments, could rise and check, could extend his hand now… but he doesn’t, because admitting suspicion in the morning…

  He convinces himself that what he heard was just fabric movement.

  For the first time…

  Veyron feels the danger isn’t in the mission but in the room.