As they continued down the bustling corridor, the dim overhead lights flickering in inconsistent bursts, Crystal was still processing everything—the eerie order of the Harwen Fringe, the unsettling generosity of the massive butcher, and the fact that she had just willingly eaten mystery meat without knowing what it was.
She barely noticed when Asus made a sudden shift in direction.
One second, he was walking straight, and the next, he pivoted sharply, his stride fluid and precise as he turned down an alley-like passage between two mismatched bulkheads.
Crystal, caught off guard, stumbled slightly, her boot catching awkwardly on the uneven flooring. "Hey—" she huffed, quickly regaining her balance before glaring at him. "A little warning next time?"
Asus didn't slow his pace. "Stay close."
Crystal rolled her eyes but obeyed, moving in step with him once again, though with considerably more discontent in her posture. The once-wide hallways had given way to narrower, more cluttered paths, with exposed pipes running along the walls and low-hanging wires occasionally sparking overhead. The air smelled faintly of old coolant and burning metal—like something had been repaired poorly and was now threatening to fail spectacularly at any given moment.
The passage sloped downward, and then, without hesitation, Asus turned again, this time onto a narrow staircase.
Crystal really didn't like the look of it.
The stairs were metal but worn, some of the panels flickering with weak lighting strips that buzzed and dimmed at random intervals. The railing—if it could even be called that—was a half-broken bar of welded steel, rust creeping along its edges.
She hesitated at the top step, crossing her arms. "Oh, great. A flickery, haunted staircase. That's reassuring."
Asus had already begun his descent, moving down the steps with the same unwavering certainty as before.
Crystal exhaled through her nose, watching him disappear into the dim light below. "Of course you're not bothered by this," she muttered, before sighing and reluctantly following after him.
The further down they went, the less sound carried from the upper levels of the station. It was quieter here—too quiet—as if the normal hum of the Fringe's chaos had been muffled. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.
"…You better know where you're going," she grumbled as she stepped carefully onto the lower level.
Asus kept moving. "Trust me."
Crystal sighed again, reluctantly picking up her pace to follow him deeper into whatever hole they were heading toward. She was really starting to hate this station.
The air grew heavier the deeper they descended. The once-bustling sounds of the station above had faded almost completely, leaving only the distant hum of machinery and the occasional hiss of leaking steam from unseen vents. The flickering lights barely illuminated the final few steps, casting long, jittery shadows along the walls.
Then, at the very end of the corridor, they stopped in front of a massive iron door.
Crystal frowned, arms crossed as she stared at the thing. It looked like it had been ripped from a warship—a reinforced slab of metal nearly a foot thick, with deep dents and scratches across its surface. It wasn't sleek like modern security doors; it was old, brutal, and meant to keep people out.
Dead center, at Asus's exact eye level, was a narrow slit.
She barely had time to register the silence before Asus raised a gloved fist and banged on the door.
The clunk echoed through the corridor, loud against the heavy metal.
Crystal shifted uneasily. "You could've just—"
Bang.
She rolled her eyes. "—knocked normally."
Asus ignored her, standing still as the silence stretched. A few tense seconds passed. Then, finally, there was movement. A faint clink of unseen mechanisms disengaging, followed by a metallic scrape.
The slit slid open.
Two eyes peered out from the darkness within, narrow and unreadable. The gaze lingered on Asus for a second, then shifted slightly—landing directly on her.
Crystal tensed, resisting the urge to reach for her holster.
The person on the other side said nothing.
The silence stretched.
Then, in a voice low and gravelly, the unseen figure spoke.
"…State your business."
Crystal swallowed.
Asus, however, remained completely unfazed.
He simply tilted his head slightly, his tone calm and measured as he answered.
"We're here for information."
The slit remained open, the figure's gaze lingering on them both.
Then, after a moment, there was a thunk as heavy locks disengaged.
The iron door groaned as it began to open.
As the heavy iron door groaned open, a gust of stale, metallic-tinged air washed over them. The dim interior beyond was only barely illuminated by flickering yellow overhead lights, casting uneven shadows along the walls. Crystal swallowed hard, a deep sense of unease crawling up her spine as the space within revealed itself.
The room was massive, stretching far beyond what the corridor outside had suggested. It was built like an old war bunker—low ceilings reinforced with thick beams, exposed pipes running along the walls, and patches of rust eating into the metal plating beneath their feet. But none of that was what sent the hairs on her arms standing on end.
It was the people.
Dozens of them.
All of them armed.
And all of them staring directly at her.
The air was thick with tension, an unspoken weight pressing down on the room. A mixture of hardened mercenaries, exiled soldiers, and outright killers filled the space, their bodies leaning against crates, sitting at makeshift tables, or perched on old, broken machinery. The glow of low-burning cigars cast faint embers into the gloom, the occasional flicker of light reflecting off metal plating—some from weapons, others from cybernetic enhancements.
And every single pair of eyes in that room tracked her as she stepped inside.
Her stomach twisted.
She knew this kind of attention. It wasn't curiosity. It wasn't casual interest.
It was hostility.
A silent warning.
You don't belong here.
Her feet slowed instinctively, her body practically gluing itself to Asus's side. She knew she was gripping the edge of her holster again, but she couldn't help it. The stares burned into her skin, her every nerve screaming at her to get out.
Asus, meanwhile, was completely unaffected.
He walked forward without hesitation, his pace measured, his posture relaxed but unwavering. He might as well have been walking through a marketplace rather than a den of potential killers. He didn't have a hand on his weapon, didn't make any aggressive moves—but something about the way he carried himself radiated a silent authority.
No one spoke. No one stopped him.
But the second Crystal took a step further inside, a man leaned forward from a nearby table, his scarred face twisting into a smirk.
"Didn't know we were lettin' tourists in now," he muttered, his voice low and gravelly.
A few chuckles rippled through the room, but none of the stares softened.
Crystal's grip on her holster tightened.
Asus didn't stop walking, didn't even acknowledge the comment. He just kept moving forward, forcing Crystal to do the same.
Her pulse pounded in her ears, her muscles wound so tight she felt like she might snap.
This wasn't just a bad situation. This was the worst possible place she could be.
And yet, the only thing she could do now was keep moving.
And hope Asus knew what the hell he was doing.
Crystal was so focused on keeping her breathing steady, on resisting the urge to grab her weapon, on not looking like prey, that she didn't notice when Asus suddenly stopped walking.
She bumped into him, her shoulder lightly colliding against his armored back before she caught herself, staggering a step back. "What the—"
Before she could finish, his voice cut through the heavy silence like a blade.
Loud. Sharp. Provocative.
"Hells, I knew this place had gone soft, but this?" Asus scoffed, his helmeted head tilting slightly as if he were looking around at all of them in open disappointment. "A room full of gutter rats, bottom-feeders, and washed-up mercs playing tough in the dark like a bunch of scared little rodents scurrying beneath a corpse. What happened? Did you all forget what real killers look like?"
The room stiffened.
Crystal's stomach dropped.
The air shifted—not just tense, but suddenly dangerous, like a storm cloud swelling before a strike.
A low growl rippled through the gathered crowd, chairs scraping against metal floors as a few of them shifted, adjusting their weapons, already bristling at his words.
But Asus wasn't done.
His voice remained cool, controlled, but every word was deliberately designed to provoke.
"No wonder you all are hiding out in this rat's nest. This is where the weak come to lick their wounds, right? Where the ones who got beaten crawl to die?" He let out a dry laugh, shaking his head. "I see a lot of faces that used to mean something. Now? You're just rusting ghosts clinging to the bones of what was left behind. The kind of people who take orders from whoever waves a few credits in their faces and tells them they matter."
Crystal's breath caught in her throat.
"What the hell are you doing?!" she hissed under her breath, reaching for his arm, trying to physically shake some sense into him.
Asus ignored her.
"If I wanted a bunch of useless, washed-up scavengers, I could've found any back-alley scum-sucker out in the Fringe and gotten the same damn result." He turned his helmet slightly, as if scanning the room again. "What I wanted was someone with an actual spine. But I don't see them. So tell me—"
He suddenly stepped forward, his voice booming across the room.
"Where the hell is your leader?"
The entire room reacted.
Chairs scraped as multiple people stood, weapons shifting just slightly out of their holsters, tension hitting a razor's edge.
Crystal felt her soul leave her body.
She grabbed Asus's arm harder, fingers digging into his armor. "Shut up!" she hissed, her voice bordering on frantic. "Shut your mouth—what the hell is wrong with you?! Are you trying to get us killed?!"
Asus still ignored her.
He took another step forward, his body language open, unflinching—challenging.
"What?" His tone turned mocking. "Did I offend someone? Did I hit a nerve? You all talk big in your little corner of the universe, but the second someone questions what you are, you bristle like flea-ridden dogs? Maybe that's all this place is—just another graveyard filled with maggots gnawing on what's left."
"Oh my god, he's actually trying to start a fight." Crystal's heart was going to explode.
Multiple people were already shifting closer, the low murmurs turning to outright growls, and she knew—she knew—they were one second from this room detonating.
She yanked at his arm again, desperate now.
"Asus, I swear to every god in the void—shut. The. Hell. Up."
The room crackled with barely restrained violence. Every movement around them had turned razor-sharp—mercenaries shifting in their seats, fingers twitching near holsters, the air growing thicker with the weight of so many tempers barely held in check.
But Asus still wasn't done.
He took another slow step forward, his presence swallowing the space around him, his helmeted head turning slightly as if scanning the room like a predator toying with its prey. "No leader? Figures," he mocked, voice laced with amusement. "That's what I should've expected from a bunch of stray dogs fighting over scraps. No one with a backbone, no one with a spine—just a room full of failures pretending they still matter."
Crystal felt her knees almost give out.
Oh, she was going to die. This was it. She could feel her soul actively leaving her body.
Her breath caught—her vision blurred at the edges, spots forming in the corner of her sight as Asus kept poking the hornet's nest. Every instinct in her body was screaming to grab him, physically drag him out of here before he got them both filled with bullets—
Then, suddenly—
A voice cut through the chaos, sharp and biting.
"You've got a damn loud mouth for someone who just walked into my home."
Crystal felt the weight in the air shift in an instant.
The crowd parted slightly, a ripple moving through them as a figure stepped forward, striding straight toward Asus with all the force of an approaching storm.
She wasn't tall—not compared to the monsters that lurked in this place—but what she lacked in height, she made up for in presence.
She was just about Crystal's size, but there was something about the way she moved that made her seem twice as dangerous. She was lean but visibly muscular, her arms lined with old scars, her shoulders squared with the kind of posture that screamed authority. Her combat vest was reinforced with mismatched plating, her dark undershirt sleeveless, exposing the inked tattoos that curled like smoke along her forearms.
Her face was sharp, angular, her dark brown eyes piercing as they locked onto Asus like a targeting system. A thin scar cut along the side of her cheekbone, and her short, messy hair was tied back just enough to keep it from falling into her face.
Crystal barely had time to process the aura of absolute hostility radiating off this woman before she closed the distance between them—stepping up to Asus, her body squared, her jaw tight.
And she matched his energy.
"You looking for a death wish, or are you just that damn stupid?"
Asus tilted his head slightly. "Depends. That a real threat, or are you just trying to scare me?"
The woman's lips curled slightly, but there was no amusement in it—just pure challenge.
"You barge into my place, spit on my people, throw around insults like you're some untouchable god—and you think I won't shove your own teeth down your throat?"
Crystal's vision swam—oh, no. Oh, no no no no—
She felt like she was about to pass out right there.
Asus, however, didn't so much as flinch.
He took a slow step forward, closing what little space remained between them.
"If I wanted to insult your people, I'd have tried harder," he said, voice dangerously cool. "This? This was just bait. And look at that—you took it."
The woman's expression darkened.
"You think walking in here and taunting us makes you anything but an idiot?" she shot back. "This isn't some fragile little syndicate you can intimidate with theatrics—this is the Fringe. And people who start fights they can't finish?" She took another step forward, her glare cutting. "They get buried here."
Asus let out a low chuckle. "That right?"
"You think I'm joking?" she snapped. "You really think I won't cut you down where you stand?"
Crystal finally found her voice, even though it was strained with pure panic.
"Asus, stop—"
He ignored her.
Instead, he leaned in ever so slightly, his visor mere inches from the woman's glare.
"If you could, you would've done it already."
The silence in the room turned dangerous.
The woman bristled, her fists clenching at her sides, her muscles visibly tensed as if she were seconds away from striking.
Crystal felt her heartbeat in her skull.
Then—
A slow grin curled across the woman's lips.
Not a friendly one.
A dangerous one.
A warning.
"Oh, I like you," she murmured.
Crystal almost collapsed from sheer emotional whiplash.
Asus merely tilted his head slightly. "Lucky me."
The woman exhaled through her nose, something sharp lingering in her expression before she finally took a step back.
Then, she turned slightly, glancing over her shoulder toward the rest of the room.
"Relax," she called, her tone sharp. "No one's getting gutted yet."
The mercenaries and soldiers who had been one twitch away from drawing their weapons slowly eased—though the tension still lingered in the air like the charge before a storm.
The woman turned back to Asus, arms crossing over her chest.
"You wanted my attention? Now you have it."
Asus's voice remained steady. "Good."
The woman tilted her head slightly.
"So tell me," she drawled, her voice carrying an edge. "What's a suicidal bastard like you really want?"