After saying a couple more things, Aria and Nick retreated back into the megastructure.
Aria looked at Nick with furrowed brows. "You were quite aggressive."
"I'm the bad guy," Nick said. "You're the good one. I will be making most of the policies that the elite hate. I will be their enemy, not you."
"Why do you have to be like this?" Aria asked with a bit of annoyance. "I thought we agreed on working on this together."
"And we will be," Nick said, "but I need the elite to hate me. If they realize that you support me in many of my decisions, you will also be a target."
"They know of my background, and they know that I am only an Initial Expert. In their minds, getting rid of me is not associated with an awful lot of risk. Getting rid of you requires them to unite the entire city and get Kugelblitz as an ally."
