With a lot weighing on my mind, I decided to return to the Waving Kitty bar after removing Kassandra from the picture. It was evening by the time I'd gotten there, so it was busy as usual, even for a weeknight.
"There he is!" Draz noticed me immediately upon entering. "The Fractless himself! How are you doing, brother?"
"I'm alright. Could I just have a double of the house whiskey?"
"Sure thing." He pulled out a frozen glass, topping it with ice and pouring the booze straight in. He slid it towards me. "I put it on the rocks for you. You look like you need something cold."
My mind was somewhere else. "Where's Soho?"
"The lazy bum? I heard she's taking some time off work, isn't she? She's in that booth over there," he pointed.
"Thanks for the drink again, Draz," I said, before making my way to Soho who sat alone in a corner booth. She was eating nachos with a martini on the side. At first she was looking down, but her face brightened as soon as she saw me.
"K-Klyson?" Her mouth was full of half-chewed tortilla chips.
"Hey, Soho."
She finished chewing and took a sip of her martini before responding. "So, how were your first two targets without me?"
I could tell she was a little petty. "That's actually what I came here to talk to you about."
I sat down next to her, and she shuffled over, slightly.
"Today's target was simple. It was some girl with a projection Fractal. She acted like a fortune teller and showed people their 'futures' using still or animated projections."
Soho was nodding along, listening intently while sipping her drink. "And how'd you kill her?"
"I made a spray-bottle solution based off of a chemical agent formula that we used in A.X.A. Think of chloroform but lethal."
"Puts 'em to sleep and kills 'em?"
I nodded. "It was quick, but I was lucky that her tent was covered. If it was open, I would have been caught, surely."
"How about the other target from yesterday?" Soho asked.
My heart stopped for a moment, reminiscing on who and what I'd witnessed.
"Do you know the Sin of Discrimination?"
Soho looked at me in a way I didn't expect, reminding me that she'd already been in Heathen and has known its secrets for years. "You mean Seris?"
Oh, right. This shouldn't be news to her.
"Y-Yeah, Seris. You know her?"
"Of course I do! I'm one of Ian's proxies. I know just about everyone in Heathen." She giggled to herself, "You know her as the Sin of Discrimination?"
"Yeah. It's what she's referred to by the public, and even by A.X.A."
"What about her?" Soho asked.
I hesitated at first. "Well, I came across her yesterday when looking for my target. She got to him and killed him before I could."
"Oh, seriously?"
I was surprised to find her so calm hearing about someone I considered other-worldly.
"She knew who I was. She nearly killed me twice too."
Soho laughed. "She probably would have if you weren't a part of Heathen. If you weren't already well-known around Heathen, you'd be a pile of flesh by now."
I recalled the remains of Harold that were left after Seris had used her Fractal on him. The thought mortified me.
"Are you saying that she spared me…?"
"Without a doubt," Soho immediately replied. "If you narrowly escaped death from her twice, it means she was letting you off."
You have got to be kidding me.
But then the doubt washed away instantly after I was reminded of the destruction she'd caused on the battlefield during the Invidan War. Hundreds of soldiers, and a few tanks, all obliterated in seconds by her hands alone. I suddenly felt narcissistic to think I'd narrowly escaped her death's grasp in my encounter with her.
If she truly wanted me dead, she probably could have collapsed the entire building beneath me.
"I…I can't fathom it. Her power is so immense, it doesn't even feel like it belongs in this world. How the hell is she allowed to be in Heathen if she has an Activated Fractal?"
Soho looked at me with confusion.
"Activated Fractal? Klyson, Seris' Fractal isn't Activated."
My mouth hung open.
"Seriously?"
"Her Fractal isn't activated, let alone High-Potential. Since she isn't considered an HP Fractal user, she's allowed to be in Heathen. That's why."
"Fucking bullshit. There's no way that her Fractal isn't at least High-Potential."
Soho shook her head. "It isn't. It's just a raw and regular Fractal, incapable of bringing about the consequences Ian preaches against."
"How? How!?" I couldn't understand what I was being told. "Her Fractal most definitely breaches our reality's limits. How is Ian allowing that?"
"Because he's already tested her capabilities. And although they do exceed our reality's limits, she cannot Fractal Activate and bring about a collapse to our realm. She is on the finest line."
Tested her capabilities?
I recalled the events of the apartment. What'd happened to Kyra, Celeste, and Cynthia, were all cases of testing them to achieve Fractal Activations.
Ian did the same to Seris?
I realized that it was yet another case of someone in power retaining their power by twisting their values to align with what benefitted them. Ian, so narrowly, stood by the idea that only those who could achieve Fractal Activations were enemies to Heathen. So even though Seris exceeded the expectations of our reality, she couldn't activate her Fractal, and for that, Heathen accepted her with open arms.
"How did she even get into Heathen?" I asked.
"She was born into it. Her parents were members of Heathen during the Filtering, so when she'd been given birth to years after the era, she was naturally indoctrinated while growing up."
"What even is her Fractal though? How is it that strong when it isn't Activated or High-Potential?"
Soho shrugged. "No one knows. Not even Ian."
"What—?!"
"Since she was born into Heathen, her Fractal never got officialized. Even after a bunch of us have seen how it works, we still can't define what it is exactly."
No wonder Seris and her Fractal weren't in A.X.A.'s database. She was born off the radar. Her identity is completely invisible.
Soho continued. "As for why her Fractal is so strong? The hypothesis, according to Ian, is due to being a product of her parents. Her father had a Fractal, but her mother was Fractless. Just like you."
The news had come as a shock. Rarely did I ever hear about people similar to me.
"But I thought that everyone after the Filtering received a Fractal? How was her mother still Fractless?"
"Not sure if it was planned or by accident, but apparently Seris' mother avoided the Fractal ceremony altogether. She never received a Fractal."
"And Ian thinks that Seris' Fractal is strong because only one parent had a Fractal, while the other was Fractless?"
Soho nodded. "Ian believes that those are the circumstances required to bring about a super strong Fractal like Seris'. The steps are to have a Fractless copulate with someone who has a Fractal, apparently."
I was stumped. "What a crazy idea. It's even crazier to know that someone like Seris exists in Heathen."
"Now you know to never leave Heathen." Soho teased me. "You know now who'll come after you first."
I pondered for a moment, thinking of the natural disaster that was Seris, and how the idea of her existence alone influenced a great deal of matters.
"Did you know that A.X.A. has an entire operation based on finding the Sin of Discrimination?" I said.
Soho was finally surprised by something. "Woah, really?"
"She's currently on A.X.A.'s most-wanted list since her Fractal isn't enlisted in Melysia's Fractal database. And with a Fractal as destructive and dangerous as hers, it's highly illegal for her to simply exist without an identity attached to her power."
"Interesting… Then that makes the majority of us at Heathen criminals too, doesn't it?"
I scoffed. "I mean with all the assassinations and discrete brainwashing, I think it's pretty clear that we are."
"Blame it all on the Sloth. He's the criminal mastermind."
My mind was brought back to all the conspiracies I'd created about Heathen back when I was still in the unknown. There was one thing in particular that stood out to me.
"Is Heathen a criminal organization, or a religion?"
Soho was piqued by the question. "Both maybe…?"
"As a religion, what does Heathen worship? What are the values behind Heathen?"
"MONA. We worship MONA, just like the Menesis. Our values are parallel to Menesism, all except for one thing."
I was eager to know, although I'm pretty sure I knew already what it was. "And that is…?"
"That not all Fractals are meant to be belong in this world. That's the main difference we have compared to Menesism, and it's why our religions counter one another. Menesism worships MONA, and believes in all Fractals to be gifts delivered down to earth from MONA. On the other hand, Heathen also worships MONA, but believes that while some Fractals are blessings, others are curses."
"Those curses are the HP Fractals, right?"
Soho nodded. "Yep. HP Fractal users are considered by Heathen to be cursed because they curse Melysia with the threat of its downfall. The potential for breach of the Human Realm's reality from messing with god-like abilities is too high when HP Fractals are present. It's why someone like you is assigned to weed 'em out."
I was starting to hear Ian through Soho's words. It reminded me that although she wasn't a mindless Absolute proxy, she was still one of Ian's proxies nonetheless. His imposed dogma was speaking right through her.
"But then there's Seris, who's been blessed with a cursed-like Fractal. With her on our side, Heathen is the strongest organization in Melysia. But we're so discrete that no one even knows that." Soho grinned cheerfully.
"You aren't wrong. Heathen is impossible to uncover on the outside." I decided to reveal a little more about myself. "Did you know that Seris is the entire reason I'm a part of Heathen today?"
"How?"
"I was a part of that operation in A.X.A. that focused on finding the Sin of Discrimination. They called it 'Operation Zenith.' Me and my squad followed leads pertaining to the name 'Heathen' that was discretely mentioned in some random online encounter video with Seris. It eventually led us to that one apartment—one of Ian's Fractal Boxes where he kept an entire colony of his Absolutes."
"The one that you and your squad wiped-out entirely?"
I recalled all the bloodshed, of others and my peers. "Yeah."
"Jeez. And then Ian recruited you from there after your scuffle with Darius, right?"
I nodded, slowly. "After he killed one of my colleagues."
Soho was taken aback by my sudden tone of seriousness. It was the same as when we'd first spoken to one another.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Klyson… It sounds like you didn't have much of a choice in being with us at Heathen."
"I didn't." I wanted to say more, rant to Soho about how much I despised Ian for what he'd done to me, for how he'd twisted the outcome of my life to his liking. But I knew she wouldn't be able to properly process any of it without having some sort of bias towards him. Because she was still a proxy after all. Her values aligned proportionally to that devilish sloth.
"You want another drink?" Soho noticed I'd finished my whiskey.
I waved it off. "Too much and I'll end up like you on a Friday night."
She laughed. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
I shook my head. "With you there isn't. With me on the other hand… It wouldn't be such a pretty sight."
Soho sighed. "I swear, one of these days I'll get you as drunk as I can, then maybe the real Klyson can finally come out of his shell."
I shot her a look of skepticism, but finally understood what she'd meant.
Have I been that enclosed to her all this time?
I suddenly felt bad. Really, really bad. I realized just how much I'd changed ever since the person I was at A.X.A. Although there was corruption among the higher ranks of the military, the people closest to me, my peers, made my days too bright to notice even the dark things going on behind my back. Right now, in Heathen, even though I knew of the heinous acts that went on in the dark, there was someone right there brimming with brightness everyday. A single person that'd always stood by my side, all the way up until now.
Soho.
She accepted this corrupted side of me that I've expressed in Heathen, and for that, I appreciated her.
It's wrong of me to keep her away like this if I'm always thinking about her.
"Soho," I said. An unexpecting thought had suddenly entered my head, and even more suddenly left my mouth. "Can you join me on my mission tomorrow?"
Her eyes widened. "Me…? But I thought we were done with that. I thought you were going to go after your targets alone from now on."
If there was at least one layer of trauma I wanted to break through for a while now, it was the fear of surrounding myself with people I trusted after what'd happened to Kyra. That moment was too gruesome for me to handle, especially with the heavy words Darius told me—using a dead Kyra as proof in the moment.
But I couldn't let some random blonde shithead with a fedora curate how I chose to live out the rest of my life.
Since the very start, I'd been a person who worked better alongside others. I was never meant to isolate myself, no matter how much Enzo tried to impose it on me, and no matter how many risks Ian was going to threaten me with.
"I want you to do these missions with me." I paused for a brief moment, making sure that I was properly gathering my thoughts. "I need you by my side, Soho."
It looked like she was trying to process everything I'd said, as if the words I spoke were too unlike what she knew me to be.
"Are you the Klyson I know…?" She asked on the verge of smiling.
I could tell she felt unsure about my proposal, considering how cold-toned I normally was. But this was something important to me and my thoughts, and I wanted to reassure her more than anything.
"While reading about the last two targets without you, I counted dozens of ways you and your Fractal would have been a great deal of help if you were there. I struggled to come up with ideas involving only myself. I realized how much harder it was going to be without you. Call me dependent, but no matter the prowess I withhold as a Fractless, I don't think it can stand up to cooperating alongside you."
Soho couldn't help but scoff. "But you made it sound like your target today was so easy. You're speaking out of your ass if you're telling me that you needed me."
I'd had enough about being cold-hearted towards Soho, especially when it had only ever felt warm when I was around her.
"Then I'll keep speaking out of my ass and tell you that even if I don't need you, I want you by my side."
I watched as Soho blinked profusely while her face blushed a rosy red. Under the dim lighting of the Waving Kitty bar, I could see her eyes twinkling in the dark like stars.
Is she tearing up?
I saw her wipe her eyes and play it off. She gave me a light slap on the shoulder.
"You're so stupid, Klyson." She let out a light-hearted laugh. It was the most relaxed I'd ever heard her express joy, as if weight had just been lifted off of her shoulders. Although there were thousands of burdens on my own, it too felt lighter somehow. It felt like I could look at myself more comfortably.
"I'll join you," she said, grinning with confidence. "I knew you've always needed my trusty Coefficient of Friction!"
We enjoyed the rest of that night together, drinking with discussion about the next target, while eating an endless stream of snack plates Draz continued to bring for free.
"I haven't seen you two this happy together in a while. It's always nice to see a brother and sister enjoying themselves at Waving Kitty, so it's on the house!" He'd said about the food.
When the night had fully settled, and Soho was knocked-out on the table from her drinks as usual, I tipped Draz and made my way back to the storage to conclude the lopsided day.
I don't care what you threaten me with, Ian. It's about time I do something that I want to do, and I still won't let you hurt the one I care about.
I'd decided there and then that I would not continue my journey alone anymore. I'd repaired the mangled card Kyra had dealt me all those months ago, embracing the rejuvenation of putting my trust into someone who I could count on.