Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Marius, pass me the medical report,” Vyn ordered without looking at the youngest, his eyes unmoving from the stack of documents on the desk in front of him. All were documents assumed to be data collected from a leukaemia patient.

Marius snorted. “Ooh, the doctor thinks he could order the tallest man around for this,” a mischievous grin played on his lips, earning a glare from Vyn.

“If you have the time to play around, consider making yourself more useful in this investigation instead.” Vyn gave him a blank look, which only fueled Marius’ amusement as he walked over the desk, approaching Vyn.

He passed the report. “But Vyn, I also think it’s better to reduce the frown on your face so it would wrinkle less?” This time, Marius lips curled into that infuriating smirk of his.

“...”

At the other corner of the room, Rosa, who was busy rummaging through the metal cabinets, sighed helplessly. She momentarily stopped searching for relevant clues or evidence related to the mission and rubbed her temple. She would never see the end of the banter between Marius and Vyn wherever they were going. While it warmed her heart seeing their amusing banter with each other, Rosa couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity towards Vyn.

She turned her head away from the already opened cabinet drawer in front of her. “Marius, can you help me over here?”

Almost in an instant, Marius grinned happily upon hearing that, like a little kid getting his favorite candy.

“I could give you anything, Jiejie~” Marius sang as he strode to her, a wide, smug smile painted clearly on his face. “Is there anything that you would need the help of the King, Miss?” He was now already crouching down next to her, looking down inside the drawer.

Rosa glanced up at his tall figure, a small resigned smile forming on her lips. “Here, help me find some evidence, or anything that matches what Mr. Wing told us earlier. This should help the investigation better,” she said gently, her voice soft and soothing. Her hand reached out to ruffle Marius’ hair.

However, this only made the situation worse.

Luke, who was busy trying to hack the transparent door of what looked like an experiment cabin, paused his movements. “I never thought the incredible and extraordinary young CEO of the world’s largest multinational group still needs someone else babysitting him to function properly,” he sneered, his eyes glancing at Marius from his peripheral vision.

By the time Luke finished speaking, Vyn chimed in. “Aha. I agree with Luke. After all, a child will always be a child,” a cunning smile formed itself on Vyn’s lips, his eyes glinting with amusement knowing there was someone who indirectly supported him.

“There’s no need for the two of you to whine over what you're doing and envy me here with Jiejie,” Marius retorted triumphantly. “You two can continue with your nice job in your respectful capabilities,” he continued with a gleaming glare that declared an absolute win.

“...”

“...”

“... Uh, guys?”

Seeing the whole situation only getting worse, Rosa awkwardly tried to break the tense, but to no avail. She now regretted her previous action. I should have already seen this, she thought to herself while internally facepalming.

This could last forever and be an eternal and endless banter for only God knows when.

Just as Rosa was struggling to find ways to stop them, Artem walked in with another stack of documents in hand. “We are here to investigate. Please act your age and focus on our mission,” he said flatly, his ocean eyes showing no amusement as he dropped the documents on top of an empty desk.

An immediate silence filled the air as Artem finished speaking; none of them continued the banter anymore and focused on the task at hand. The tension gradually dissipated, which made Rosa sigh in relief.

However, she loved them anyway.

The NXX Investigation Team, always strong and powerful, comprised of five highly intelligent people. They were an expert psychologist/psychiatrist with two doctorate degrees, a young CEO of the world’s largest multinational group with unlimited wealth, a legendary top attorney with 99.9% win rate, a resilient woman as beautiful and dangerous as roses with a sharp brain, and a multi-talented private investigator who was secretly a secret agent with a bunch of confidentiality stored in him.

Becoming this capable and reliable, of course there were huge responsibilities that followed; as is said, with great power comes a great responsibility. This did not escape the team, either, for they were now inside an empty research center somewhere in North Stellis, after finding out about several significant clues related to Noxious X Xeno-gene, or in short, NXX.

After staring at the papers in his hand for quite a while, Vyn frowned as he called out to the top attorney. “Artem, would you come over and have a look at this?” He took another document from the drawer.

Hearing this, Artem walked over. “Did you find something unusual?” He looked down at the document Vyn gave him, his eyes skimming through it. 

Vyn nodded, the frown hadn’t left his face yet, only growing deeper. “The chart looks strange... and abnormal. Do you see these two lines? The red line indicates the heart rate of the leukaemia patient, meanwhile the blue line indicates the patient's pulse,” he began the explanation.

Artem gave him a serious look, gesturing at Vyn to continue. “And these are?”

“The medical reports of a leukaemia patient who was subjected to the unknown drug, which highly likely contains the component of NXX,” Vyn said firmly, his voice sounding deeper and more cautious this time.

Artem and the others fell silent; all of them were drowned in their own thoughts, trying to proceed with the new information.

“So, what is it that you find strange?” It was Marius who broke the eerie silence.

Vyn inhaled, readying himself to give another explanation. “According to the data Luke had just deciphered, the lines shouldn’t be showing a significant change from week 2 to week 6; it should be stagnant. But in this report, the heart rate showed a significant change from week 2 to week 6, which doesn't make sense if we refer to the deciphered data.”

This earned a frown from Luke. “You mean, the heart rate shouldn’t be showing a significant change at all?”

“Dr. Richter, can you elaborate more on this?” Rosa continued the question that had also been lingering in her mind.

“Yes. According to the deciphered data, if a patient took the unknown drug—or the miracle medicine as it is called in the black market—their health condition should improve and remain that way from week 2 up to week 6 as shown by the stagnant heart rate and pulse. However, in this report, both the heart rate and pulse showed a prominent change from week 4 after notable improvement,” Vyn paused, then flipped to the next page, showing another chart.

“Meaning?” Artem tilted his head.

Vyn closed his eyes. “It means the patient's health deteriorates remarkably from week 4 to week 6 after getting better in week 2, as per the physical reports,” he finished his statement.

Everyone fell silent again. They all shared a glance to each other because this only meant one thing.

“One of the data sources is fake,” Rosa responded seriously, following everyone’s thoughts. She stared at the chart on the page’s report.

“Yes. And we don’t know which one of the data sources is fake—the one inside the flash drive Luke just deciphered, or the one in these physical reports,” Vyn closed the report’s files then put it on the desk, his eyes now looking at the others in a serious manner, “there are still so many things we have to do now.”

“I understand. In that case, we will take all important and necessary documents to the headquarters for further analysis. DAVIS should be able to help,” Artem replied solemnly. He took a small notebook and a fountain pen from his pocket, jotting down some things.

“The fact that those files have two different data already proves its inaccuracy,” Luke said, stepping out of the experiment cabin, an empty vial in his hand.

Rosa looked up at the purple glass vial in Luke’s hand. “What’s that in your hand, Luke?” She stood up from the metal cabinet and walked over towards Luke, leaving Marius to continue searching the drawers on the other side of the cabinet.

Luke brushed off the dust from his clothes, his coral eyes examining the vial and whatever was left inside it. “I don’t know, but this vial looks weird, and there is a pungent smell from the liquid residue inside,” he opened the rubber cap and sniffed it again. In an instant, he jerked his head away while scrunching his nose, putting a significant distance from the vial. “God.”

Marius’ laughter echoed through the room when he saw Luke’s terrible expression. “I thought a brilliant and competent detective like you should already know to carefully sniff something unknown and possibly poisonous,” he commented in a teasing manner, stopping his inspection over the drawers for a while.

“Sometimes, you have to sacrifice yourself in order to help get the truth,” Luke retorted.

Marius sighed. “Luke, not again,” he facepalmed, seemingly done with Luke's way of thinking and his habit to just easily sacrifice himself like he never mattered.

“Ahem— We should conduct a test for the liquid inside it, though. Should we contact Captain Morgan?” Rosa suddenly interrupted, half intending to stop the banter that had begun again.

Luke’s eyes flickered down to the vial again. “No need. I will bring this to the NSB, and get it tested to see if this abnormal liquid contains NXX substances,” he told her, before pocketing the vial into a small bag on his waist. “Besides, this investigation is confidential. I don’t think we should contact the police,” Luke continued.

Rosa pondered for a moment before nodding. “Ah, you’re right. For a moment, I forgot about our current investigation being confidential,” she gave him a shy smile, earning a relaxed expression from Luke.

She wondered for a moment, thinking of what made her forget the confidentiality status of their investigation, before turning her head towards Marius again. She found him already closing the last drawer at the bottom with empty hands. “You didn’t find anything, Marius?” She asked softly.

Marius sighed helplessly, pouting his lips. “I’m sorry, Jiejie, but yeah. There is nothing important in these cabinets, nor does it have anything related to NXX,” he answered with exaggerated sadness all over his face.

Rosa smiled gently, deciding to ignore the exaggerated expression planted on his face. “It’s okay, Marius. I’m already glad you were here to help me,” she said gratefully, earning another grin from him before he stood up and stretched his body. Crouching down for quite a long time surely wasn’t something Marius would be fond of—unless it was for her specific request.

While Marius started to wander around the room again, Rosa turned her head towards Artem and Vyn and walked up to them. “Mr. Wing, Dr. Richter? Is there anything I could help with? You two seemed so short on hands,” she looked at the scattered documents and files on the desk, trying to figure out what she could help with.

Artem was sitting on a chair when she arrived beside him, writing down all important things from the strange documents with Vyn. He showed a solemn and grim expression, indicating the difficulty and importance of the information revealed from the files.

He then glanced up to meet her eyes, his expression softening. “You can help us sort the physical reports of the leukaemia patient, lymphoma patient, coronary artery disease patient, tuberculosis patient, and alzheimer patient,” Artem said with a gentle small smile curling up at the corner of his lips.

Seeing this, Rosa’s knitted brows relaxed. She, too, was feeling the same difficulty after witnessing Artem’s grim face. It wasn’t everyday she could have the chance to witness the senior attorney wearing a hard expression—that only meant whatever he was writing down in the notes was all very crucial.

Vyn looked up to her, a small smile also forming on his lips. “Do not worry too much about it. As Artem said, you can help us sort the reports as well as compare the last result of each terminally ill patient,” his fingers stopped typing on his laptop.

“Alright,” Rosa nodded firmly, her expression turning serious. She then pulled up a chair to join the two of them, starting to take some documents stacked on her right.

Just as Rosa was about to open the first physical report of the lymphoma patient, a shattering sound echoed loudly from their left, reverberating in the room for a few seconds.

“Oh— goodness! What’s that??” Rosa exclaimed in shock, almost dropping the papers as the piercing noise of something broken struck her ears.

Four heads immediately turned to the source of the sound, towards the second experiment cabin at the left corner of the room.

“... Luke?” Artem called out, his brows suddenly furrowing in concern.

They saw Luke leaning against the transparent wall, his eyes lowered as if staring blankly at the shattered pieces of broken glass scattering around his feet.

Luke lifted his head, meeting up with four pairs of eyes staring at him. “Ah, sorry, guys. Did I startle all of you? I accidentally dropped the glass jar, it was so slippery with some oily liquid sticking on the surface of the glass,” he explained quickly.

Slippery? But Luke was wearing fabric hand gloves.

Vyn was the first one to stand up from his chair, his golden eyes examining more deeply from the distance. “Luke, are you not feeling well?” There was a subtle concern in his voice—the same one painted in his slight frown.

Luke straightened his posture, inhaling deeply before frowning in confusion at Vyn’s remarks. “I’m fine. I only accidentally dropped the glass jar, nothing serious since this is only an empty jar with nothing inside,” he flashed a casual smile he usually showed to the others.

Luke managed to hide and stop his slightly trembling hand.

Vyn fell silent for a moment, his eyes not leaving Luke, seemingly skeptical of his answers.

“Luke, please, be careful next time,” Rosa also stood up from her chair, interrupting Vyn’s train of thoughts. Her expression only showed a constant worry.

During her childhood time spent with Luke, she rarely saw Luke accidentally dropping something.

“I agree. We might need the broken jar for further inspection,” Marius remarked sarcastically. He clearly did not believe whatever Luke had just said.

“Rosa is correct. We do not want something unfortunate happening to our only agent.,” Vyn continued, already deciding to let it slide for now.

Luke decided to ignore the two and acted like nothing happened. He continued to examine the other small cupboard inside the cabin, hoping to find anything he could busy himself with while diverting everyone’s attention from him.

It seemed that the universe had finally been on his side this time, for when Luke was trying to rummage through the cupboard again, Marius’ surprised exclamation was heard.

“Guys, you might want to see… this.”

Everyone, including Luke, turned their head towards Marius. He strode quickly to the bookshelf near the unused screen projector, his gaze fixating on a single location above his head. “A really strange… thing,” he continued once he reached the shelf.

There was a bright red file folder at the right top corner of the shelf that stood out by itself, as if it was deliberately put in there to catch someone’s attention. It was, indeed, strange.

Hearing what Marius said, the rest of the members walked over to the bookshelf.

“Look.” Being the tallest in the team, Marius could easily reach out to the red file folder located on the highest shelf, “this file folder is too sturdy for just a mere file folder,” Marius continued as he pulled it out.

Clanking of metals were heard once Marius pulled out the file folder, as if there were gears that were moving systematically, following the pulled file folder. Soon after, the clattering sound stopped—the middle part of the bookshelf slid open to the sides, showing a clean staircase leading to a hidden passage downstairs.

“Woah,” Marius’ lips parted in awe. “What is this?” He commented, poking his head towards the stairs below, his hand grabbing the opened bookshelf on his left for support.

“Marius, watch out. We don’t know what’s down there,” Artem gave him a clear warning after noticing Marius’ tall figure recklessly bending down towards the stairs. He, too, was surprised to see the bookshelf opened in two.

Vyn, who had been so quiet after doubting Luke's excuses before, suddenly gave his thoughts. “The stairs are clean and spotless. This place below must be used quite often,” he said, his golden eyes carefully inspecting the stairs, the railings, and the walls as if he didn't want to miss any single detail.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air as they exchanged glances.

Marius was the first to furrow his brows, clearly questioning it. “But this building is supposed to be empty and not operated anymore,” he replied, his purple eyes now scanning the office-like room they were currently in. They called it “office-like” because the room really looked like a normal office—except for the transparent experiment cabins Luke found on the left side of the room.

The room was messy with files, documents, and other stuff scattered here and there. There was even dust covering some tables and monitors; Marius sneezed three consecutive times when he first entered there. But what made it stand out was the cabins—and now the strange bookshelf acting as a hidden door to a basement.

One with a clean and spotless staircase as if it was always cleaned regularly.

Strange, really.

Because, for what purpose did an abandoned research center have a clean basement if it wasn’t for regular use?

“That is exactly why it is a problem; we found this anomaly in a supposedly abandoned research center.” Vyn continued, still scanning the staircase.

Rosa stepped closer, she was standing in the farthest behind all of them. “Dr. Richter is right. None of us knows how this research center actually has a still operating basement after all these years,” she frowned, trying to peer more at a dark downstairs.

Artem looked even more grim than before. “We won’t get anything just by standing here. It’s highly possible that the basement might have many things we will need to investigate further,” he voiced his thoughts, looking a bit troubled, “we should go down to examine further. Shall we?”

However, before anyone could respond, Luke had already stepped in front of all of them; his instinct to protect people immediately kicked in.

“I will go down,” Luke said firmly, staring at the eerie staircase as he kneeled down with one knee. “No one enters until I instruct otherwise,” his voice sounded deeper and alert, his brows knitting deeply, showing a serious and irrefutable expression.

A hand grabbed Luke’s shoulder, with a grip that showed concern. “Luke, no. We’ve discussed this earlier and how we should not be separated no matter what,” Marius interrupted, his face showing a strong disagreement.

“I don’t always agree with Marius but this time, I’ll make an exception,” Vyn gave him a disapproving look. “While we all are aware of how capable you are in such a situation, you should not do this alone,” he said in an even more firm intonation, clearly declaring that he did not agree with Luke at all.

“Five heads are always better than one. It’s better to work together—there is much more that five people can do than just one,” Artem added on, now looking down at Luke, his azure eyes casting a serious expression.

Marius sneered. “Yeah, we don’t want a repeat of what happened with the great senior attorney and Ava Kendricks,” he continued while teasingly eyeing Artem.

“...”

Artem didn’t say anything in return, seemingly reluctantly accepting Marius’ remarks while giving him an amused glare. 

“But—” Luke’s protest was immediately cut off.

“No buts. We enter together or not at all,” Marius firmly commanded, earning nods from Vyn and Artem. His purple eyes glared so intently.

As the others kept refusing the idea, Luke stayed silent, trying to reconsider their words.

He was always used to working alone, especially when it came to infiltrating a place like this. Bringing more people meant protecting more which would only slow him down. Not that he thought of the members as people who would slow him down, however, as much as he considered the NXX members as his precious friends, he did not want to involve them in this. Who knows what would be inside? It could be filled with hidden attacks from a security system, or dangerous gases that could lead to death once inhaled. It could be anything, and Luke never wanted to risk it.

It was because they were all his precious friends that he didn’t want them to also enter the basement. What happened to Artem with Ava Kendricks was something else. Artem was only an attorney, but Luke was an ace agent, a very capable one at that. He didn’t want to sound so arrogant, but he would be able to handle it better since it was his work in the field and what he had been doing for the past eight years.

Sometimes, a part of him still thought about Artem’s incident with Ava Kendricks; it would have been better if it was him who handled that mission.

So, of course, he didn’t want to risk his friends being in danger.

Luke was about to refute again when suddenly Rosa stepped closer, her eyes looking into his.

“Luke, please, don’t,” she said, her voice laced with pure worry, suddenly remembering how Luke infiltrated the Heirson Lab alone and how he was trapped inside while the Lab was engulfed with fire.

It was when he heard her voice that he became even more determined to enter alone.

Luke returned her gaze, shooting her with a firm look. “Nope. I will go down and enter the basement by myself,” he said, his tone irrefutable as he glanced up to look at the others. “We don’t know what kind of danger could be in there. It’d be hard for average people to deal with these,” he continued, still insisting on not allowing the others to go with him.

Average people….

As Luke stopped speaking, silence hung in the air. Everyone seemed to consider his words. When it came to dealing with something dangerous like this, Luke indeed was the most capable person in the team, and he was nowhere near “average.” However, to be called an average person when all of them were members of an extraordinary investigation team like NXX….

Surely it didn’t sound nice at all.

Marius had an opposing look on his face, “Luke, you are well aware that our capabilities in this team are nowhere near average, aren’t you?” He interrupted, showing a clear interest to argue back and win.

Luke turned to Marius. “I very well do, but not in the same field as what I’ve been doing,” he replied, his voice firmer this time.

Marius dreadfully glared at Luke. “Our capabilities ar—”

“Alright, we understand. We will wait for you here while you enter the basement.”

Before Marius could finish speaking, Vyn cut him off.

Hearing this, Rosa’s eyes widened. “Dr. Richter!”

Luke sighed with relief. Finally, this meant he could go alone without putting his friends in danger and risking their life over something so trivial like entering an unknown basemen—

“Is that what you want to hear from us, Mr. Ace Agent?”

Luke froze.

Vyn’s lowered voice was so cold that it could instantly freeze a glass of water.

A tone that no one in the room had ever heard, not even Artem, who had known Vyn longer than the rest.

Everyone, except Luke, turned to Vyn, his eyes darkening upon witnessing this.

Marius continued, catching up with Vyn. “We enter together or not at all,” he repeated his previous words.

“I don’t want all of y—”

This time, Artem cut him off. “Luke, do you not trust us?”

Silence filled the air the moment Artem spitted out the crucial question that had been subconsciously plaguing each of their minds.

Did their ace agent even trust them from the beginning?

Luke stopped talking, he went silent in an instant.

Did he not trust them at all?

“... Luke?” Rosa finally called him out, her voice soft but concerned.

Luke stood up from his kneeled position and lifted his head, looking at everyone.

“... I’m sorry. Let’s enter the basement together. Five heads are better than one, after all,” he said, flashing a small, apologetic smile.

Of course, he did trust them all his life.

They were all his friends, after all.

Click.

Luke unlocked the electronic security system placed on the left side of the wall near the door.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs a moment ago, a huge metal door with a great security system had greeted them.

Marius whistled. “Good thing we have our hacker with us now. Otherwise, we won’t be able to even open this guarded door together,” he said in a sarcastic tone.

“The said hacker was being so stubborn in the beginning,” Vyn chimed in.

Hearing this, Luke sighed. “I already said I’m sorry, guys,” he said while pressing a few buttons on the lock screen.

“A few ‘I'm sorry’s won’t do,” Marius continued, not really caring about Luke’s words. He was busy staring at the metal door that slowly slid open to the right.

“Please stop arguing, guys. Let's  focus on this for now, shall we?” Rosa finally interrupted, seemingly done with the endless banter again.

Artem nodded. “I agree. Kids will somehow be kids,” being the oldest in the team, Artem continued.

The other three went silent, followed by a blank look from Vyn.

The metal door was finally open, revealing a shocking view inside; a very spacious area with abnormally high ceilings, spotless gray floors, and sickening white walls that could hurt both your eyes and your mind.

Luke instinctively shot out his hand, shielding everyone behind him, and stepped forward. His coral eyes were scanning through the whole area.

This time, no one opposed his move.

What came into view next was four metal tables placed in the middle of the room with fixed intervals from each table. A long, rectangular grey table with leather straps on either side of it. There were also chains that were neatly hooked on the left side of the table.

On the left side of the room was a row of metal cupboards, meanwhile on the right side was another transparent cell that looked exactly the same as the one upstairs; there were three of them in total.

Luke was the first one to enter the room, while the others trailing behind him.

“What in the world is… this?” Marius said, clearly stunned as his voice trailed off.

“This looks like a place for… running experiments?” Artem doubted himself, unsure of whatever his eyes just saw.

“The ceilings and the walls are white, it entirely emits discomfort,” Vyn continued, now examining the whole environment.

“There is another door near the last cupboard on the left corner, too,” Rosa added, looking in the direction of the metal cupboards.

CLICK.

“Huh?”

Upon hearing the sudden clicking sound, Luke immediately jerked around in a high alert.

The door was slowly closing down.

“W-What—” Rosa gaped in shock, “why is the door closing?? Were  we caught by anyone?” She said in panic, her eyes widening.

Artem patted her on the shoulder, calming her down. “No, we weren’t. I think it’s closing down because we’ve just entered," he explained, still looking at the door.

Luke nodded. “Yeah. The door is closing down because people have already entered. It was set to be automatically closing down once we are inside. Don’t worry, Watson,” he continued, flashing a reassuring smile towards her.

Marius strode closer to her. “Jiejie, don’t worry. If anything happens, King will be here to protect you,” he flashed a smug smile, earning a relieved smile from her, and a fiendish glare from the others.

“... We have to inspect this basement as fast as possible, right? Who knows what would show up if we slowed down.” Noticing how the others glared at him, Marius changed the subject and distanced himself from Rosa.

Vyn flashed an insidious smile. “You finally began to act like a proper adult, Marius. Your father must be proud,” he said sarcastically.

Artem sighed heavily, “come on, we shouldn't waste our time here just for useless talk.”

Upon seeing this, Rosa could only smile awkwardly. She wondered why it was always like this every time they worked together. Sure, she loved the way they interacted with each other but still….

Maybe these men actually need a more proper way to become an adult instead.

She let out an exasperated sigh before turning her heels towards the cupboard area. “Guys, I'll inspect this way. If I found anything unusual, I'll tell you right away,” she told them, earning firm nods as the others split up.

Marius walked up to the eerie tables, looking at it thoroughly. He didn't say anything as he ran his gloved hand on the surface, his brows knitting into a frown. The surface was uncomfortably clean, as if it was deliberately made clean from something so… shady and terrifying.

“You… can lay a person onto this table…,” Marius muttered to himself, but loudly enough to be heard by the others.

“You mean, this place is really used to conduct experiments on humans?” Artem replied without looking at him as he opened the unlocked transparent door. Unlike the transparent cells upstairs, this one wasn't locked at all.

Marius nodded. “Most likely, yes, but we won't know for sure without further investigation. Though, all the tools obviously point  that way,” he stared at the leather straps for a moment before taking out his phone, readying a camera. “I'll take some pictures of this.”

On the other side of the room, Vyn walked towards the last cupboard on the corner, to the other door Rosa had mentioned .

“There must be something like a laboratorium inside,” Vyn said with certainty as he reached out to the door handle.

It opened effortlessly, there was no lock or anything on the door, which was even more strange. It was almost as if whoever built and designed this room was so confident that no one could break in.

Vyn entered the door. “I need one of you in here,” he called out from inside.

Rosa, who just happened to close the closet, walked in. “Dr. Richter? Is there anyth— wow,” she was cut off by the view inside.

It was indeed a laboratorium, an advanced one at that, with all the tools and equipment being high tech.

And there was a really strange but eye-catching vial placed inside a glass box in the highest cabinet that caught Vyn's attention. “Rosa, please call Marius here.”

Rosa immediately nodded and turned around, understanding the situation. She stepped outside to find Marius who was still examining the metal tables.

“Marius, come here! Dr. Richter needs you,” she called out the moment she came near him.

Still holding the leather straps, Marius turned, his lips forming an amused grin. “Who needs me again?”

Rosa rolled her eyes, intentionally ignoring his bait. “Oh, come on, follow me!”

Marius didn't refute any further before following her to the lab. Though, he still couldn't help but feel amused, thinking he could use this to tease Vyn later.

After a moment, they came back to the lab with Vyn analyzing the reports. He noticed another presence not long after as he looked up.

“Oh, you're back,” he said with a smile, his gaze resting on Rosa's eyes for a while.

Upon seeing Vyn, Marius smirked. “I see someone needs my help?”

Vyn gave him a blank look. “At least you could make use of your tall figure to take that vial on the top shelf,” he uttered, definitely not amused.

Marius’ smirk only got wider. “Ooh, Vyn, so you want me to take the vial because you aren’t tall? You could’ve told me sooner!” he laughed in amusement.

“...”

Upon seeing this, Rosa could only facepalm. “Marius.” Her voice went a little bit deeper as a warning.

“Alright, alright,” Marius put his hands up, finally giving in. “Don't be mad at me, Jiejie, or your beautiful face would wrinkle faster like a certain professor,” he finished his words with a wide smirk, clearly not intending to actually give in before walking up to the shelf.

Rosa once again sighed helplessly, feeling a bit of pity for Vyn who was still giving a blank look. He would definitely seek revenge in the future.

While the other three were busy in the laboratorium, Artem was standing inside one of the transparent cells. He was busy inspecting the unsettling cell that seemed to emanate a very disturbing aura.

However, not long after, his eyes caught an unusual movement from his peripheral vision.

“... Luke?”

Artem stopped whatever he was inspecting inside the cell, and looked at the man not far away from him.

Luke was leaning forward against the door of the other cell, resting his forehead on the glass.

“Luke? Is there something wrong?” This time, Artem stepped out of the cell, approaching him. His voice was laced with a hint of concern.

Luke abruptly lifted his head, looking at his right where Artem was nearing. “Yeah? I'm fine. I was just thinking about how this huge room doesn't have any surveillance cameras installed in here,” he quickly explained, silently hoping to not arouse suspicion.

It was such a lame excuse, if he were to be honest, because Artem only frowned deeper.

“Are you sure? You looked a bit pale.”

“Yeah. Don't worry about it. It's just tiring to keep seeing experiment cells like this,” Luke waved his hand dismissively. “Did you find anything related to NXX in there?”

He changed the subject like nothing happened.

Artem went silent for a while, his azure eyes not leaving Luke yet.

“I'm not sure, but there are some chemical tubes and a syringe with residue left inside. We might find something useful if we test the reagent,” Artem replied, still staring at Luke.

Luke straightened up, silently inhaling. “I'll check out this cell and see if I can find something useful too,” he responded, but subconsciously avoided Artem's gaze. He didn't continue to open the second cell and walked towards the third cell instead.

Artem turned around, grabbing the door handle. He was about to enter the first cell again before stopping his track, now turning his head again towards Luke's back. “We are always here if you aren't feeling well,” he said earnestly before entering the cell.

Luke didn't respond, he kept walking to the third cell, but his heart tightened.

… Thank you.

“Let's go back upstairs and gather up together. We should discuss this before going back to headquarters,” Marius said, while holding some bottles and small boxes from the laboratorium.

Rosa followed along behind him, hands full of clear files and papers. “We found lots of useful things inside the lab, too. Dr. Richter is still inside, compiling more medical reports,” she explained.

Artem flashed a small smile towards her. “You are doing a great job, Rosa. Don't push yourself too much,” he said gently.

Marius immediately interrupted. “I'm also doing a great job, you know,” his reply was combined with a very intentional pout.

Rosa chuckled, hugging all the files in one hand and reaching out her other hand towards Marius. “Don't worry, you're also doing a great job, Marius,” she smiled contently—a smile that reached her eyes—while ruffling his hair.

Marius grinned happily, triumphantly side-eyeing Artem.

The attorney sighed heavily. He was about to say something back when another cold voice was heard from behind.

“How I wish you could stop being a child, Marius.” Vyn came out from the laboratorium, bringing two bundles of medical reports. He had a very unpleasant look on his face, staring at Marius.

Artem exhaled excessively, pressing a hand on the bridge of his nose. “At this rate, all of you are like children,” he grievously shot back with a colder tone, casting an annoyed look.

A muffled bang was heard from the left. “Hey, don't include me. I'm not even in there with you all,” Luke kicked the cabinet door closed, hugging some pill boxes and a storage box in his arms. He then walked up to the others. “I found lots of suspicious medicines inside the cupboards, and a few bloodied scalpels in the third cell. If we test the blood, we might find more hints to the truth,” he said while lifting the storage box with his right hand.

“From the first and second cell, I also found more bloodied scalpels, two used syringes with darkened residue inside, and … dried human tissue,” Artem continued with a scrunched nose. The tissue surely emitted a strong and sharp smell. Artem had to put it inside a ziplock bag.

Everyone went silent.

“Human… tissue?” Marius repeated, sounding so unsure.

Artem nodded. “If we test the DNA, we might know who this tissue belongs to.”

Marius blinked. “This place really is used to conduct experiments on humans,” he said gravely, his purple eyes shooting an enraged flash. 

Luke stepped forward. “Let's get out of here before anything goes south. We don't want to risk ourselves here,” he said in alert, now walking faster towards the metal door.

Everyone nodded in agreement and strode faster towards the door. Luke stood in front of the screen lock next to the door. He put down all of his stuff from earlier and pulled out his tools, ready to hack it again. It didn't take Luke too long before the metal door slid open again.

He stepped aside and turned around. “Go ahead, I'll be the last one getting out to ensure everything is safe,” he said firmly, not intending to be refuted as he picked up his stuff.

“Jiejie, you go out first,” Marius urged Rosa to go forward.

She nodded firmly, not giving any protest or complaint, walking out with her files. She fully understood that if she refused, it would only waste more of their precious time because they would continue arguing and urging her to go first.

Vyn was the second one to go out, followed by Marius and Artem. Luke glanced back for a moment, making sure nothing important was left, before following the others outside.

They let the door close automatically with a resounding click.

“Hurry up, we should go back upstairs,” Rosa said, glancing back before climbing up the staircase.

The other members followed after her, with Luke being the last at the back. He kept glancing back towards the door, as if making sure that nothing went wrong.

As soon as they arrived at the top floor, Marius pushed the red file folder into its original state, causing the bookshelf to slowly slide closed with noisy gears clanking inside. It was not until the bookshelf finally closed that they breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

“Okay, that was quite heart-racing,” Marius said, still staring at the bookshelf.

“You're right. It was so uncomfortable there. Dr. Richter was right – the white walls only caused discomfort,” Rosa continued, still adjusting her breath. She didn't realize that she was running  faster when climbing the stairs.

“We shouldn't waste more time. Let's gather and discuss this before going back to the headquarters,” Artem broke in, hands full of stuff he brought from the basement.

Vyn walked to the unused table he and Artem used to filter the medical reports before. “Let us talk here for now,” he pulled up a chair and sat down. The others followed him and pulled up a chair for themselves too, except for Luke.

He was walking away with his things towards the office door.

“Luke? Where are you going?” Marius turned his head towards Luke's direction, frowning.

“I need a bigger box for these. You guys can continue and I’ll join in a moment,” Luke didn't stop walking until he reached the space near the opened door, where some empty boxes were stacked next to it.

Marius shrugged. “Alright,” he turned back and faced the table, now spreading all the bottles and small boxes he got from the lab onto the table. He might also need a bigger box after this.

Artem took out his notes. “So, about all the disturbing clues we just found…,” he glanced at the dried human tissue inside the transparent bag, “this research center definitely conducted many illegal experiments.”

Vyn nodded, a very serious look on his darkened eyes. “In the laboratorium, I came across several inhumane experiment reports regarding the terminally ill patients. All the reports were diverse from what we found in this room,” he opened one of the reports, flipping up the pages with a bitter look, “it is evident that all of them are being used as test subjects.”

Silence hung in the air as Vyn finished speaking.

Rosa felt sadness well up inside her upon hearing this. She squeezed her hands, her thumbs fidgeting. “All these terminally ill patients must be hoping for a cure, but to get used as test subjects instead…,” she bit down her lip.

Artem patted her on the shoulder in a reassuring manner. “It's for this purpose that our investigation team exists. We investigate these cases and bring justice to those who are wronged,” he gently spoke, trying his best to give her a source of comfort. He understood this must be hard for her, given her lack of experience with horrifying cases like this.

Marius nodded in agreement. “Artem is correct, Jiejie. It's okay. We are all working on it day and night,” he added, a reassuring smile forming itself on his lips.

Rosa finally smiled. While it was true that these all were saddening and depressing, they worked together to bring justice to the victims and the wronged. She should work harder in order to achieve this together with them, her friends.

Rosa suddenly lifted her head, as if remembering something. “Oh, that reminds me. Why didn't we see any surveillance cameras in the basement? It was so odd for a place like that to not have cameras….”

A voice was heard a bit far away behind their gathering position. “I've looked into it. There were surveillance cameras installed inside,” Luke paused his hands from organizing the stuff inside the bigger box, “but all of them were abruptly taken off – as if they didn't want anyone to find out whatever was recorded in it. There were subtle traces of the cameras being forcefully removed,” he explained as he continued to organize the box.

“So that's why we didn't see any surveillance cameras….” Marius and Vyn nodded in understanding, their eyes not leaving their stuff in front of them, while Artem took notes of what Luke had just explained.

None of them were looking directly at Luke except for Rosa.

She was about to ask more when she caught a glimpse of unusual movement from Luke. He seemed to be supporting himself using his left hand on the wall, his body trembling slightly.

“... Luke?” She subconsciously whispered to herself, squinting at him.

She stood up from her chair, about to walk towards Luke.

Marius glanced up at her. “Jiejie? Where are you going?”

She turned her head. “I think Luke might need some help over there,” she pointed at Luke across the room.

Marius pouted his lips. “Alright. Surely a very capable detective won't need help from someone,” he replied disapprovingly before getting his attention back to the files.

From Marius' position, he couldn't see how Luke supported himself on the wall.

Rosa immediately approached Luke, her eyes filled with worry. “Luke? Are you oka—”

As soon as she arrived near Luke, she saw him breathing heavily as he bowed his head.

“L-Luke?” She instinctively placed a hand on his forearm.

“H-Huh??” He abruptly turned his head and backed away the moment he felt her hand – as if it stung painfully, his voice hoarse and face looking pallid.

Rosa widened her eyes in surprise, not expecting Luke's reaction to be so… extreme.

“A-Are you okay—”

“I-I'm sorry! I need to go… to the bathroom! I'll be back… in a bit, wait for me here, okay?”

With that, Luke stepped out of the door and dashed off towards the hallway, not giving her a chance to react and ask further.

“Luke!” She called out in panic, her feet instinctively moved to follow him.

However, Luke was nowhere in her sight.

Unable to contain her worry, she ran through the dim hallway, looking around to her left and right. She tried to find out where Luke was by scanning through the hallway, hoping to find a clue of his whereabouts. He must have left traces of his sudden escape – there were no usable bathrooms in this abandoned research center he could hide in.

Her search led her to the end of the corridor, towards the other gate that seemed to be the back entrance of the building; this gate was different from the one they used to enter here. It was now wide open – as if someone had just gone through.

She hastily quickened her pace. For whatever reason, Luke must be outside, and he didn't look like he was feeling well.

As soon as she was outside, she was greeted by a completely foreign environment. The wind howled eerily despite the early hour, and the weather was cloudy. This might still be in North Stellis, but the amount of abandoned buildings in the surrounding area only made her feel more uneasy.

“Luke!” She called out again, but no answer was heard.

There was a loud bang heard from her right, seemingly coming from the door slammed by the wind.

“... Is Luke perhaps in there?” She whispered to herself, still panicking. Not letting herself be consumed by her own thoughts anymore, she dashed off towards the loud sound that seemed to come from another building. 

When she arrived at the yard where the loud sound was coming from, silence greeted her. She was standing in front of a large building that seemed to be an abandoned old factory. What shocked her even more was the way this building seemed like it was near collapsing as layers of paint were peeling off the walls. There were even creaking sounds from the opened windows on higher floors – as if it was ready to fall down.

Rosa inhaled deeply, preparing herself for the worst.

Luke!

She ran into the factory, entering from the same door Luke might have just gone through – the one still echoing from the slamming noise before. If her guess was correct, Luke should be somewhere inside this old factory. She stopped on the last stair on the second floor, breathing heavily as she supported herself on her knee.

She scanned the whole room – everything was decaying in slow motion; there were no people coming to a place like this. Her eyes darted to every corner of the spacious area in search of a familiar figure, finally spotting him on the other side of the room. His back, which was facing her, seemed to be shaking lightly.

“Luke…?” She whispered slowly, as if making sure it was really him who was standing near the fence barrier.

“Cough—  agh… hah…”

He coughed several times while clasping his hand over his mouth, preventing his painful groans from being heard by any living beings.

“Luk—”

He was gasping so hard while holding on to the twisted railing, his body trembling even harder. The bottomless stairwell, from which soft wails of the wind could be heard, was right in front of him. It was as if he didn't even see the dangerous stairwell threatening to devour him whole. One wrong step and it was the end for him.

She bit down on her lip, unable to contain the sorrow brought to her heart when she witnessed him going alone in a place like this, hiding his discomfort instead of telling any of them.

Ever since they were children, Luke had the habit of hiding his discomfort and only showing others his best self. After being separated for eight years, this habit seemed to only get worse, for he kept maintaining a strong front, as if it had already become an instinctive part of him.

Unable to witness this situation any longer, she strode over to him faster.

“Luke!”

Upon hearing a familiar voice, he abruptly turned around, his eyes widening in panic.

“... W-What are you… doing here?”

Luke looked back at her with a helpless expression, looking so vulnerable and weak. He was gripping the railing so tight that the peeling paint was falling off like snowflakes. 

Rosa could now see his whole body trembling violently, a pained expression evident on his face, becoming even clearer with the way he squeezed his eyes half shut and gritted his teeth.

Anyone with good eyes would be able to easily see that he was enduring excruciating pain.

She walked closer to him. “Luke! Are you feeling unwell? What happened to y—”

“Y-You stay right there…! Don't come… any closer. I… I'll be okay in a second, I promise…”

Rosa was cut off by his sudden remake, his voice sounding even more hoarse and weaker.

She looked at him with eyes contained with more worry. “Luke, if you don't feel well, you can come ba—”

Come back with us.

She watched him in disbelief.

Humans always had an idealized view of their friends, always putting their full trust in them no matter how harrowing the situation was. 

She still believed this, even when she saw Luke walk silently towards her.

She didn't manage to finish her sentence as her vision suddenly turned upside down – sharp pain erupted along her back, a pair of hands grabbing and restraining her to the ground. She coughed and closed her eyes immediately from the sudden cloud of dust; also, all of a sudden, she felt a sharp sting under her left eye.

Some wood scraps with pointy tips near her must have grazed her face.

Rosa didn’t get the chance to inspect more as the powerful and intimidating presence around her made her come to a harsh realization that Luke was pushing her onto the floor without her having even touched him.

He was blinking mechanically, as if he was temporarily blinded by something and couldn't see his surroundings. However, the more he blinked, the more unfocused his eyes became, and his breathing was accelerating.

“L-Luke?! W-What's wron—”

Again, her sentence was cut off as dust kept falling onto the two of them, some of it already reaching her eyes. She shook her head hard to get rid of the debris on her face in order to see him more clearly.

Luke seemed to be obeying some overwhelming instinct, for he was reaching for her wrists and harshly put them next to each other behind her back.

She instantly flinched, a sharp pain shooting out from her wrists and her shoulders.

“L-Luk— AKH—!”

“Don't move. Keep your hands up. You are under arrest for being involved in illegal activities. Don't move unless I instruct you otherwise.”

Luke suddenly spoke up, his voice cold, devoid of emotions.

She tried her best to turn her head and glanced back in her current position, ignoring the flinching pain and some dust that was sticking to her lips. “W-What are you talking about…?”

She found Luke hovering above her, looking down at her with his coral eyes that were now empty.

“I said, do not move unless I instruct you otherwise,” he repeated, his voice now devoid of any warmth she was used to hearing.

A gentle flutter of the wind brushed off their figures, a contrast to the cold silence that hung in the air. Suddenly, a scene of a criminal organization member being subdued and handed over to the police in some famous action movies was flowing into her thoughts, replaying itself like a broken record.

However, this time, she was not the watcher, but the one being pushed down.

She tried to call him out again, squirming under his grip in an attempt to break free.

“Luke— It's me! Rosa! Your Watson! You—”

Her struggles only resulted in an even tighter grip, as if he couldn't hear her at all.

“Huh…? Where are the handcuffs…? I was sure I had them on me…”

Luke muttered to himself, his voice still low and cold. However, his eyes became even more unfocused – as if he was under control of an invisible order from his commander. He started to feel anxious realizing he didn't have the handcuffs to subdue the criminal.

“Luke!! I'm not a criminal! You've got the wrong perso—”

Her words were cut off by her own thoughts as a sudden horror gripped her the moment she said that.

There was no way a normal person would fail to recognize someone they knew at such a close distance… unless what he saw was drastically different from reality.

But… why?

In what circumstances and conditions Luke would fail to recognize her? Luke was fine, he was never hurt, nothing terrible had ever happened to him, so why?

The more she racked her brain to find a reasonable breakthrough, the more it hurt her head. No matter how hard she tried to analyze it, she couldn't get any satisfying answer.

There were no possibilities she could think of as to why Luke couldn't recognize her and what happened to him. This—

“... How do you know my name?”

She was about to call out to him again before his bone-chilling voice cut through.

“There's no way the information was leaked…. Who did you hear it from?!”

He continued with an even colder and emotionless tone as he powerfully pressed her down on the dirty ground.

She blinked in panic. “No, I—”

“I’m ordering you to answer me!”

The cold and slightly raised tone sent shivers down her spine. His voice sounded so foreign that she almost wasn’t sure if the person hovering above her was really the Luke she knew since childhood or not.

The person Luke was right now would never receive the answer he wanted, just as she couldn't prove to him who she actually was. Perhaps thinking she was using this to buy time and possibly run away, Luke appeared to be ready to raise his voice while pressing her even more.

“I said—!”

“Are you two out of your mind?! Do you wanna die that much?!”

A loud, nerve-wrecking shout cut through the silent darkness, overpowering Luke's voice. The echoes of hurried footsteps came closer through her ears as she felt someone else‘s presence approaching from behind.

The weight on her suddenly lifted as a strong hand grabbed her arm.

“Jiejie! You okay?!” He looked at her with widened eyes.

She opened her mouth, her lips quivering. M-Marius…?”

She blinked a few times before realizing she and Luke were mere centimeters away from the stairwell. Had she stayed there for a moment longer, both of them might have toppled into the endless darkness.

But… why had this happened…?

Thinking it was enough to pull her away from the daunting danger in front of her, Marius released his grip on her arm, his attention now back to Luke.

“Are you insane?! Why were you holding her down in a place like that?!”

Marius’ voice roared as he yanked Luke by the back of his collar, then threw him across the room, hitting stacks of wooden boxes placed next to the wall.

“Urk—!”

A groan involuntarily escaped Luke’s lips the moment he collided with the crates, shattering the decaying wood into shards.

Marius stood where he was at, his chest heaving furiously while glaring at a certain detective on the other side of the room. His heart broke when he saw her on the ground, lying flat on her stomach with all the dirt and dust around her.

Marius would be lying if he said he hadn't noticed the hurt expression painted evidently on her now dirtied face, and his heart shattered even more seeing how she coughed up dust.

She was small and slender; her delicate hands and nails were covered in dirt, some were broken by force. She was obviously not weak, she was strong, but who would be unscathed after being pinned down by a whole grown man with a huge body who saw you as a criminal suspect?

No one would.

A part of Marius was wishing his bestfriend would joke around and said ‘so it's okay to hold her down in another place, then?’ instead.

He marched down towards Luke, his eyes gleaming with intense rage. As soon as he arrived right in front of Luke, he yanked at his collar again, pulling him up onto his feet.

He was enraged.

“Answer me! Are you insane?! What's gotten into your mind?! Would you be able to take the responsibility if something happens to her?!”

Marius shouted even louder as he shook him.

“Do you really think you can handle the consequences?! Answer me, Luke!”

However, Luke remained impassive. He didn't say a thing nor respond to Marius, not even with just the slightest glance. His head bowed down, his bangs fell over his eyes, concealing his expression.

As much as Marius wanted to know what exactly was happening to Luke, making him speak and answer his questions was the priority right now.

He came running here when he saw Luke fleeing outside with Rosa chasing him not long after that. Never in his life had he seen Luke running away for any reason and with Rosa following him after. Vyn and Artem had noticed this too. Though, to be frank, the three of them noticed this a little bit too late; they were so engrossed with the discussion that none of them was paying attention towards Rosa and Luke.

None of them would ever think to see Luke fleeing outside as if he didn’t want anyone to find him.

Marius was the first one to abruptly bolt upright from his chair the moment he heard Rosa’s voice calling out to Luke in panic. He didn’t really think much about it before exchanging glances with Vyn and Artem, then moving his feet to chase them. As soon as he arrived at the abandoned factory, he saw Luke pushing Rosa down onto the floor with powerful force, only a few centimeters away from the bottomless stairwell. One wrong move and one second late, he would lose his beloved miss and his close friend.

Hence, he shook Luke hard, demanding an answer.

“Luke! You—!”

WHACK!

A sudden and powerful fist connecting with his stomach was what answered Marius instead. 

“W-Wha— cough—”

He stumbled backward with wide eyes while clutching his stomach, almost falling backward until he balanced himself.

The grip on Luke’s collar was forcefully released.

“Luke! What the hell!” Marius shouted while grimacing in pain.

Luke was now standing up straight as he stared at Marius with a blank expression, his eyes devoid of the emotion it usually showed. The sparkle that was usually there was now gone, replaced by only cold and emptiness.

“Gah— For God’s sake, Luke, what were y—”

Luke sprinted towards him, lunging forward without even giving Marius time to react as he delivered another powerful punch on his jaw, sending Marius rolling a few meters away.

“Marius!” Rosa shouted in fear, her eyes widening as she tried to get up only to miserably fall again. Her whole body felt so sore and hurt that she could only lay on her stomach, watching both of her precious friends in an intense and unbalanced fight.

And for a split second, Marius forgot that Rosa was still here. However, he didn’t have the time to take her to safety and could only hope for either Artem or Vyn to show up.

As Marius tried to get on his feet and got ready to defend himself, blood trickled down the corner of his lips. “... L-Luke— You—!”

TWACK!

Using the self-defense lessons Luke had designed for him and the other members, Marius managed to land a punch on Luke’s face. As a result, Luke was pushed a few steps backwards, trying to balance himself.

Marius almost laughed to himself. The irony of how the first fight he was involved in after mastering a few moves from the self-defense lesson, was to fight his own friend.

The person who taught him how to defend himself.

Marius sneered, finally laughing at himself and the whole ironic situation. Defending himself from his friend? So funny. He didn’t have any idea as to what happened to Luke, yet here he was, forced to fight his own friend while racking his brain to find any possibilities that might have caused this.

It didn’t take Luke a long time to straighten up himself. He was now already standing again, ready to tackle down the criminal in front of him as if nothing happened. The punch Marius landed on Luke did leave significant bruises. However, it didn’t seem to affect him at all, which raised a question.

With confusion lingering even clearer in his purple eyes, Marius also got himself ready to fight back. “Luke, I can’t believe the self-defense lesson from yo—”

However, Marius von Hagen, an ordinary CEO of Pax Group, was never a match for Luke Pearce, the top agent from the National Security Bureau.

Not even given the chance to finish his sentences, Marius was greeted by another hard blow on the stomach. Immediately, without even waiting for Marius to understand the situation, Luke grabbed him on his shoulder and slammed him hard to the ground with his back lying flat.

“ARGH—!”

A loud, pained gasp escaped Marius’ lips as he tightly shut his eyes.

“You’re under arrest for being involved in illegal activities. Do not move unless I instruct otherwise.” Luke ordered coldly, mechanically repeating the exact same words when he subdued Rosa before. His strong hand reached for Marius’ throat, gripping it tightly while the other grabbed his right wrist.

Marius opened his eyes with difficulty, looking up at the detective on top of him. “L-Luke… wai— Urgh!”

The grip on his throat only got tightened. Marius’ free hand instinctively grasped Luke’s on his throat in an attempt to break free as he gasped for air.

“I said, do not move unless I instruct otherwise.”

There was a short agonizing pause before Marius screamed in pain.

Luke twisted and slammed down his right elbow to the ground, causing the joint that connected the upper arm and forearm to be knocked out of its usual place.

His right arm was now bending in an unnatural position.

“A-Argh….”

Marius' breathing was now ragged, his chest heaving up and down. The agonizing pain that erupted from his twisted arm was unbearable. His eyes squeezed tightly, trying to alleviate the pain, to no avail. His other hand that was grasping Luke’s now dropped weakly to the side, gradually losing its strength.

Still on top of Marius, Luke lowered his eyes, a merciless glare piercing into him. He didn’t speak nor move, just stayed silent and blinked like a heartless robot, as if the chaos beneath him didn’t bother him.

“It seems that you also know my name,” Luke tightened his grip on Marius’ throat, “where did you hear it from?!” He pressed down with force, suffocating Marius even harder.

Marius choked, making it impossible for him to speak, let alone answer the question given by Luke. He weakly tried to raise his leg to kick Luke’s back with his knee, but the weight on top of him only worsened the suffocation.

Luke seemed to notice Marius’ attempt to fight back, for he was now yanking Marius’ twisted arm, “I order you to answer me!” and gave it a powerful squeeze.

“Arghh—!”

Marius threw his head back as the intense pain flared up from his twisted arm, his breathing becoming even more disordered and his vision blackening. He struggled to open his eyes, his mind feeling clouded and foggy with the decreasing air in his lungs as he felt his consciousness gradually fading away.

Only at a time like this he really hoped for some help to come.

He still needed to find out what was going on with Luke….

“I order you to answer me!”

“Luke— NO—”

“ARGH!”

“MARIUS!”

What greeted Artem once he had arrived at the abandoned old factory was a frantic shout from Rosa, a pained scream from Marius, and a frigid cold voice from Luke. And to make it even worse, the terrifying situation was amplified by an unbalanced fight between Luke and Marius, with a bruised Rosa lying down flat on her stomach, her head facing towards the fight with a hurt look on her face.

A bruised Rosa.

Even she was involved.

Artem froze in place, he could only stare at them with wide eyes, registering the whole situation into his mind.

Just… what is this?

There was an almost-unscratched Luke sitting on top of a heavily injured Marius, his hand strongly gripping Marius’ throat while the other twisting his arm. Marius was already gasping so hard for air, silently begging for the hand to release its grip from his throat, but Luke didn’t even budge. He even tightened the grip instead as if he was driven by an invisible order to kill.

The more Artem tried to comprehend the whole situation, the more it made no sense, and the more it failed to register in his mind. 

Artem managed to notice something from Luke’s eyes that remained emotionless and unfocused.

“... He doesn’t recognize Marius?” Artem whispered to himself, feeling unsure as he instinctively took a step forward to see clearer. 

However, just as he was about to step even closer, Vyn appeared from behind him.

“What… in the world is happening?” Vyn’s voice sounded so incredulous in disbelief.

Even with his calmest state, Vyn was unable to comprehend the current situation. Just like Artem, the bizarre situation couldn’t register into his mind at all, because, in what normal circumstances would you see one of your close friends laying flat on her stomach, while another two were fighting with each other – one of them with killing intent?

Even with his two doctorate degrees and all his experience in psychology, Vyn failed to understand.

As the situation kept worsening, Artem returned his attention to the others. “It seems that Luke doesn’t recognize Marius,” he said in a very serious manner.

“... What?” Vyn turned his eyes to Luke. Sure enough, he caught a  glimpse of the unfocused gaze from those coral eyes, still blinking emotionlessly with the same intense glare as before.

Vyn went silent, his eyes not leaving the unsettling scene, trying to analyze the current situation with Luke. It hurt him to temporarily ignore Marius and Rosa, but he had to, in order to focus on Luke and see what possibly was happening to him.

However, another scream escaping Marius’ lips broke his train of thoughts.

“Answer me!”

“Marius!”

The moment Artem heard the painful scream, he instinctively moved his feet to dash off towards Marius in order to save him, but Vyn abruptly grabbed his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks.

“Artem, no. Do not interfere,” he warned gravely, his eyes still focusing on Luke.

Artem halted and turned, his brows furrowing deeply. “What do you mean? At this rate, Marius could really be killed,” he replied, feeling anxious.

Vyn’s hand retreated, now pointing at Luke. “Hence why I said to not interfere. Look at him,” he gestured seriously, "those are not the movements of a normal human being, but of a machine made to obey commands.”

Artem felt a bit of impatience surge through him. “Vyn, get straight to the point. I don’t think we have much time left now,” he coldly looked into Vyn’s eyes, a hint of annoyance flashing across his eyes.

Vyn sighed. “Luke is most likely under some sort of hallucination. As for what is making him undergo one, that remains a mystery,” he continued, a concerned look flashing in his eyes, "and if we interfere, we will end up being the next victim. He would perceive whoever comes into his sight as people from an opposing side.”

An eerie silence hung in the air as Vyn offered his explanation. Being a renowned psychiatrist with years of experience, it was only a matter of time until Vyn grasped what was happening. He wouldn’t deny that it shocked him to witness such a situation. However, that didn’t mean he couldn’t catch what was happening, he only needed more time to comprehend the situation in general.

As for a more detailed explanation, that had to wait a little longer.

Vyn lifted his head. “Now, we must think of a way to save Marius without alerting Luke and turning us into another enemy,” he said grievously, his golden eyes gleaming with anticipation.

Artem held his breath. Both of them were well-aware that they had to stop Luke before he really killed Marius, but, how? Luke was able to take down a group of thugs only with bare hands or an expandable baton. What could a mere psychiatrist or attorney like them do?

Artem racked his brain, trying his best to think of any possible and safest way to solve this life-and-death situation. However, even with his calm and composed demeanor, combined with years of experience in handling various legal cases, he could only come up with one solution.

He took a deep breath, readying himself.

“I will do it,” Artem firmly said. His gaze, serious and unwavering, locked onto Luke as he reached out to the holster on his waist, “in the meantime, you take Rosa to safety.”

Vyn nodded, immediately understanding what Artem was going to do.

Taking Luke down from a distance was the safest solution at this moment.

He took one last glance at Artem and Luke before hurriedly moving to Rosa’s position. Taking her to safety was his number one priority right now.

The moment Vyn arrived beside her, Rosa glanced up. “Dr. Richter… I’m glad that both of you are here…,” she managed to utter, while grimacing at her sprained left shoulder.

Vyn flashed an apologetic smile, carefully supporting Rosa, avoiding her left arm. “I apologize for not noticing this sooner,” he said, now helping Rosa get onto her feet.

However, Vyn's smile soon vanished as his gaze fell onto her face, his eyes becoming alarming.

“Rosa, you're bleeding!” He immediately reached out to wipe a trace of red trickling down under her left eye.

She winced in pain when Vyn's thumb came in contact with the wound. “Ah… yes, there were some sharp wood scraps that grazed my face when Luke… was pushing me down,” she said bitterly, her eyes filled with utter sadness.

Upon hearing her answer, Vyn couldn't help but feel a bitter lump climbing on his throat. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blood on her face.

“We will need to cleanse and disinfect the wound later…,” Vyn said, now pocketing his handkerchief again.

It hurt him to see her getting hurt and bleeding, especially when the one caused it was also his friend. And when he turned his head to Luke and Marius, it hurt him even more.

The sight of a friend pointing a gun at another was something Vyn could never get used to.

Upon noticing Vyn's expression turning more hopeless, Rosa’s gaze followed him, staring at the way Luke was still restraining Marius. Her heart raced as she tried to think of a way to help him. But as she was about to speak, the words died in her mouth the moment she saw Artem start pulling his gun out of its holster, seemingly to take aim at Luke.

Her eyes widened in shock. “Mr. Wing— What are you—”

“Rosa, please, calm down a moment.”

She was cut off by Vyn’s words, his voice lowered in a hint of sadness.

She abruptly turned her head to Vyn. “But— Dr. Richter—”

Vyn smiled bitterly. “We couldn’t think of a safer way to save Marius other than this. So, please, calm your heart…,” he begged – almost inaudibly.

“Safer… way? But—”

She didn’t manage to finish her sentence as her heart felt broken. She didn’t want to witness a moment where her law firm partner had to take her childhood friend down with a gun, but she also couldn’t think of a better way to save Marius either. Seeing three of her precious friends in one horrifying scene was too much for her to handle.

She could only stare with broken-hearted eyes as she saw Artem readying himself.

It was too hurtful….

As they were racing with time, Artem closed his eyes, taking another deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, a painful determination was embedded in his gaze.

He was forced to take down one friend in order to save the other one.

Steadying his hold on the gun, Artem pointed the muzzle at Luke’s right shoulder and took perfect aim; he couldn’t risk making mistakes at a time like this.

“I’m sorry, Luke….” He whispered almost inaudibly and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

A gunshot rang loudly not long after, cutting through the silence as the deafening sound echoed into every corner. The bullet shot out in the blink of an eye, striking through the wind before reaching its destination.

“N-No—!”

Artem painfully averted his gaze from Luke the moment he heard Rosa’s broken voice. He couldn't bring himself to look at him.

The bullet hit Luke and embedded itself in his shoulder. The shock of the gunshot sent him rolling a few meters away, forcing him to release his powerful grip on Marius. The moment Luke hit the ground, a painful groan involuntarily escaped his lips as he tightly clutched his shoulder, blood seeping through his fingers.

“N-No—! LUKE!”

Rosa’s eyes widened in horror when she saw Luke’s body collide with the ground with a loud thud. Her voice trembled as she tried to reach out, yet her knees nearly gave out. She would have almost stumbled if Vyn didn’t quickly tighten his grip on her, preventing her from falling.

Upon seeing this, Artem gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, a hint of guilt welling up on him.

Luke….

Not far away from him, Marius released a breath of relief once the weight on him lifted up, instinctively filling his lungs with air.

Upon noticing this, Artem walked up to Marius after casting one last glance towards Luke.

In his eyes was a hint of sadness as he squatted down next to Marius, looking at his twisted arm. “Marius? Can you hear me?”

Marius cracked his eyes open, turning his head slightly to the left. “Artem…?” He spoke weakly, his voice hoarse and low, but still audible.

Walking up from behind Artem, Rosa tried her best to stay calm. “Marius, how are you feeling…?” She quietly asked, her eyes glinting with sorrow.

She had an even more crestfallen look on her face when she turned her head in Luke's direction.

Marius flashed a weak smile, faintly noticing where her gaze landed on as his awareness slowly came back. “Not… so good…,” he managed to chuckle a little. “What about you, Jiejie…?”

Rosa formed a bitter smile. “I think my left shoulder is sprained and my cheek wounded…,” she chuckled a bit, the laughter sounded painful.

“Marius? Can you also hear me?” Vyn took a better look at Marius, examining his injuries.

Marius managed to flash an amused smile. “Ahh, Professor Richter, you are worried… about me too…?” He chuckled again, earning a glare from Vyn. “Don’t worry. Unlike a certain… detective, I can hear… all of you…,” he continued, slightly joking at the unfunny situation.

Upon hearing Marius’ unfunny joke, the four of them fell silent.

The only person that couldn’t hear them was Luke, their reliable detective.

Rosa bit down on her lip. Just as she was about to release Vyn's support on her, a painful coughing sound was heard from behind her.

“Luke!”

She immediately released her hand from Vyn's and rushed towards Luke. Vyn hastily followed her from behind while Artem stayed with Marius.

As soon as she arrived next to Luke, the sight of him lying on his side while clutching his wounded shoulder immediately shattered her heart into pieces. His face was contorted in agony, his entire figure was trembling violently, and his eyes were squeezed shut tightly.

“Cough— cough… agh— hah….”

Another series of painful groans escaped Luke's slightly parted lips, his breathing becoming even more disordered as his chest heaving up and down. However, almost in an instant, his whole body jolted hard as if something was attacking him from inside.

“A-Arghh—!”

“L-Luke!”

He couldn’t help but tossed his head back, seemingly in incredible pain. He instinctively moved his wounded right hand to grasp his chest, causing the blood on the shoulder to spread even more due to the sudden force.

“Ahk— hah… hah— Urgh—!”

However, the wound on the shoulder seemed to worsen his condition and amplified the pain, for his painful groans grew even louder, as if the searing pain continuously spread through every inch of his body.

Upon seeing this, Vyn's eyes widened as if he had realized something. He immediately crouched down next to Luke, extending his hand to touch Luke's forearm and froze.

Luke's clothes were already soaked in cold sweat—so much it was  abnormal.

“Dr. Richter…?” Rosa called out, her eyes showing a more terrified look the moment she noticed Vyn's gaze.

“He… seems to be suffering from something else other than the gunshot wound,” he finally said, looking troubled as he voiced his temporary guess.

She blinked. “... What?”

Vyn reached out to shake his body, his frown showing a deep worry. “Luke, can you hear me?”

However, Luke didn't give any response except for constant sounds of discomfort that kept escaping his parted lips.

Rosa kneeled down next to Luke, repeating what Vyn just did. “Luke…! Please…! Can you hear my voice…?” She asked with a trembling voice, shaking him.

As if hearing her voice, his eyes slightly opened. The look in his eyes wasn't cold nor emotionless anymore. However, it showed emptiness instead, as if he didn't see anything despite his open eyes.

“Lu—”

She stopped the moment Luke shut his eyes again while clutching his chest even tighter.

Panicking even further, Rosa turned to Vyn, who also seemed to start panicking. “Dr. Richter, what should we—!”

“Cough—!”

“Luk—”

His coral eyes fluttered open again, still empty but now gazing blankly at something far away – as if he was instinctively looking for something. In between his painful gasps, he struggled to move his quivering lips in an attempt to form coherent words.

“Wat… son…,” his voice was barely above a whisper.

Rosa’s eyes lit up with a glimmering hope. “Luke! You're back! I-I'm her—”

“Mari… us….”

However, Luke didn't seem to hear her response at all, for he kept continuing to form the words that had subconsciously been staying in his mind all this time.

“I'm… sorry… for… hur… ting… both… of… y-you….”

Her eyes widened in fear the moment he finished his words. “N-No— Luk—”

Before she could finish her sentence, Luke's body went limp as if he had lost all of his strength. His head lolled to the side as the grip on his chest gradually loosened, letting his arm fall weakly onto the ground.

Those coral eyes had completely shut, entirely losing consciousness.

“LUKE!” She cried out, her fearful voice echoed through the silent, cold wind as tears flowed down her cheeks.

She tried to shake Luke's body again, hoping for him to open his eyes but was stopped by Vyn.

He shook his head, gently holding her arm. “Rosa, do not. It may worsen his condition…,” he said bitterly.

She looked up to Vyn with eyes filled with tears and fear. “But, Dr. Richter…!”

“He will be alright. Do not worry, Rosa…,” Vyn continued, silently hoping that his words would work like a prayer. He tried to assure her, even if he knew it was also to assure himself.

Because even he had failed to believe that Luke would be alright.

“Rosa, how is he?”

Artem asked her the moment she entered the hospital ward where Marius was admitted.

Rosa shook her head, looking sad. “Aaron said Luke is refusing all visitors, but he is already awake from the surgery.”

“I see. At least the surgery was successful,” Artem replied. Being the one responsible for the bullet that embedded on Luke’s shoulder, he couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty. However, it was inevitable to begin with – so he tried to get used to it.

Rosa nodded as she took a seat on a stool near the bed, now looking at the person sitting on it.

“So, does anyone know what happened to Luke that day?”

Shifting on his bed to find a more comfortable position, Marius opened his mouth as he leaned against the bed, asking the question that lingered the most on their minds.

Everyone turned their attention to Marius, slightly glancing at his bandaged arm in a sling, hanging from his shoulder.

The arm that was painfully twisted by Luke that day.

A week had passed since that day in the abandoned old factory. After Rosa called Aaron, Luke was taken away by what seemed to be a medical team from the NSB, leaving the four of them alone with a heavily injured Marius. It was Vyn who ran through the factory to their operational vehicle that was parked in the research center’s parking area, while Artem carried Marius with both arms.

Judging from the way Aaron had come over with a medical team following him, something bad must be happening to Luke. Something they had never known, something they had never come to realize.

Vyn propped his chin with his hand. “Actually, I have a preliminary hypothesis regarding his situation,” he said, his gaze turning serious as he turned on his tablet.

“Preliminary hypothesis?” Marius repeated with a frown.

Vyn nodded. “From what I saw with Luke that day and after some pondering, it is clear that he was under the influence of some hallucination,” he replied, now opening his notes.

Rosa felt a slight terror surging in her heart. “... Hallucination?” Her voice trembled slightly.

“Yes. Acting mechanically like a machine, monotonously repeating the same words – as if it was the only thing programmed into his mind, and failing to recognize the two of you. Those are symptoms of a person experiencing hallucinations,” Vyn offered a handful of explanations.

Marius’ gaze became even more serious. “He even mistook me and Jiejie as a criminal suspect,” he added.

“I am aware. People experiencing hallucinations often see things that are completely different from reality. Most of the time, they may see things that they have often experienced,” Vyn continued, his finger swiping through the notes on his tablet. “As for Luke, I believe it must be due to the years he spent with the NSB which made him see the both of you as criminal suspects,” he explained.

Rosa bit down on her lip, her heart painfully aching the moment she heard Vyn’s explanations. She still couldn’t shake off the terrifying feeling nor forget Luke’s cold and emotionless eyes. The coral eyes that were usually filled with warmth and gentleness, were devoid of emotions, and had looked at her like a complete stranger.

“But… how?” She quietly whispered.

Artem shook his head sadly. “That is something only Luke can answer,” he continued.

Marius propped his chin up using his free hand. “Come to think of it, we all do remember that time when we were still in the office-like room, Luke dropped a glass jar, correct?”

Vyn nodded. “Yes. He said he dropped it because it was slippery,” he paused for a moment before continuing, “which I find implausible. He was wearing a pair of fabric gloves.”

Marius looked up, meeting with their eyes. “Have any of you ever seen Luke accidentally drop something like that?” In his eyes was a hint of suspicion.

Both Artem and Vyn shook their heads. However, Rosa remained silent for a while.

Marius immediately caught up on this. “Jiejie? I believe you must have something in mind? Given the long time you’ve spent with Luke since childhood,” he added.

Rosa nodded, her gaze lowered as she reminisced about the past. “I’ve… almost never seen Luke accidentally dropping something…”

“Almost?” Artem parrotted.

Still staring at one spot, Rosa opened her mouth. “Yes. In my time spent with Luke, I can count on one hand how many times he’s accidentally dropped something. And all of them happened when we were still in primary school,” she stated quietly, as if it hurt her to say this.

Vyn’s gaze stayed on her. “Which means?”

Rosa glanced up, her eyes showing a bitter smile. “It usually happened because he was still often caught in his own thoughts after his parents passed away, so that he ended up not really focusing on his current situation. And then he dropped whatever things he was holding.”

Upon listening to her explanation, the three of them fell silent.

Luke had always been careful and meticulous in whatever he was doing. He would handle things carefully, analyze things thoughtfully, and make decisions with precise accuracy. Being a top agent, he was trained to be as careful as possible and avoided making the smallest mistakes. One wrong move could lead to failure, or worse, death – on his shoulders lay a great responsibility that required him to act precisely. So, for someone as capable and competent as Luke, he wouldn’t be so reckless as to drop potential evidence like the glass jar, unless…

He was feeling unwell.

Artem was the first to break the silence, frowning in deep thought. “Then it was all only an excuse,” he finally said.

Marius turned his head to Artem. “What do you mean?”

“In the basement, when the three of you were inside the laboratorium, I was outside with Luke. We were inspecting the transparent cells. And I saw Luke leaning against a glass door,” his eyes looked so serious.

“Are you… sure, Mr. Wing?” Rosa said, her voice laced with doubt, as if she didn’t want to believe him.

Artem nodded. “He was resting his forehead against the door. And when I asked, he quickly explained that he was fine and that he was thinking about the surveillance cameras. He looked a bit pale at that time so I was about to ask more, but he quickly changed the subject.”

After Artem’s explanation, the room fell silent again.

Everyone was busy with their own various thoughts. The more they thought about it, the more they found it hard to believe in Luke's words, which could only mean one thing.

Luke lied to all of them.

But… why? Didn't he say he trusted them? Then why the silence and avoidance?

Closing his eyes, Vyn sighed.

“For now, all we can do is to wait for Luke until he is ready to accept visitors, us especially,” he added.

Rosa nodded weakly. “Knowing Luke, he must be blaming himself all the time with no end,” she said, her tone sad and hurt. Growing up together and spending sixteen years of her life with Luke made her understand him the best when it came to his guilt.

“When we meet Luke again later, we have to convince him that none of us blame him for whatever happened that day. I’ll smack that bastard on the head if he keeps blaming himself,” Marius pulled up his left hand into a fist.

Vyn smiled in amusement. “I think I will look forward to it,” he said, his tone softening.

Little did they know that meeting up with Luke again was something that would not happen anytime soon.

Two more weeks had passed since Luke was taken to the hospital; the same one that happened to be where Marius was also admitted to.

Only that his room was located on a few floors above.

Upon nearing dusk, the rosy light creeped in from the gaps of the slightly opened curtains, forming a rather warm aura onto Luke's figure. However, the person who basked in  the warm light had a dejected expression, with a doctor standing next to his bed.

“Luke, during your stay, you must not hide anything related to your health condition from me. Do you hear me?”

Aaron spoke firmly, a hint of concern and annoyance was combined in his voice. He had had enough of the way Luke kept hiding everything to his attending physician, and worsening his own condition.

Luke glanced up at Aaron before nodding quietly. “I will…,” he muttered quietly, feeling slightly guilty.

Aaron’s hand reached out to ruffle Luke’s hair. “Don’t think too much about it, kid. I’ll be right back.”

With that, Aaron walked out of his ward, leaving Luke alone inside the room, drowning in his own thoughts. He stared at his right shoulder, where the bandage wrapped around it, and where the bullet had embedded in it. It hurt a lot; the pain was unbearable. It was also throbbing like it would never end. The burning sensation combined with constant stinging spreading quickly through his arm caused by the gunshot was something Luke would never get used to.

However, it was never as painful as the wound carved in his heart.

The guilt that kept weighing down on him felt like it was permanently rooted in his being, would never go, suffocating him.

He then stared at his hands – the very hands he used to hurt Rosa and Marius – and everything that happened that day immediately surfaced, replaying like a broken record.

In an instant, despair and remorse crawled up through every inch of his body, engulfing him in an endless circle of guilt. His breathing suddenly ragged as he brought his hands up to his head, pulling hard on his hair in devastation, his lips turning red from constant biting.

Luke couldn't handle it anymore.

He remembered it very clearly, the way he pushed Rosa down with intense force, pinned her down on the dirty ground and locked her wrists behind her back. The way it hurt her in a way no one could ever imagine, her face filled with fright. Disbelief and confusion inside her eyes, attempting to call out his name, trying her best to prove herself to him. The way he had raised his voice coldly, ordering her to answer things she could never explain.

The way he had been more than ready to subdue her and take her down despite her desperate calls. The way it all happened to her from the person she trusted the most.

He also remembered it in vivid detail, the way he had attacked Marius and slammed him to the ground, bringing his hand to Marius’ neck and gripping it tightly until he ran out of air. The way he twisted Marius’ hand until he screamed in pain but still didn't let go. The way Marius also looked at him with the same confusion as hers, in his eyes was a horrifying disbelief.

The way he almost killed Marius and lost one of his friends.

The tormenting images of what happened that day became even clearer in his mind, continuously replaying like an endless loop. The more Luke tried to eliminate it, the more it haunted him.

In between his breathing that grew even more rapid and shallow, a frantic shout echoed through the room.

“Luke! What are you— doing—!”

Aaron’s eyes widened in shock the moment he entered Luke’s ward.

What he saw was Luke hanging his head while strongly ripping his hair out – until some brown locks were pitifully scattered through his fingers. A few tears were trickling down from his wide, trembling eyes as he gazed down at the white blanket, his chest heaving up and down.

Aaron hurriedly rushed to his bed. “Luke–! Stop— Stop it—! LUKE!” He struggled so hard to pull away Luke’s hands from his head.

A bit of blood seemed to seep through the bandage wrapped around his shoulder. The sudden force and movement from Luke suddenly using his right hand must have caused the wound to reopen.

Using all of his strength, Aaron held down Luke’s hands firmly – as if he was afraid Luke would crazily hurt himself again.

“Luke! What the hell is wrong with you?!” Aaron asked frantically, his eyes locking into Luke’s seriously.

However, Luke stayed silent, head still hanging – but he didn’t fight back.

“Luke!”

He finally lifted his head, meeting Aaron with a devastated gaze that looked like his whole world was crumbling.

“... Luke?” Aaron was left speechless.

Luke’s lips quivered as he opened his mouth to speak. “Aaron… what should I do…,” he said weakly, his voice low and depressed.

Aaron took a step backward, creating some  space between them. He fixed his gaze on Luke.

“Luke, stop avoiding them.”

Aaron’s words felt like a sharp blade cutting through his fragile defenses.

“Stop avoiding them, stop avoiding your friends, stop avoiding her. How long are you going to stay like this? Avoiding them?” Aaron spoke in a very concerned voice, his eyes looking sad.

Luke looked down bitterly. “I…”

“They keep asking me if they could visit you and see you, but they can’t since you keep refusing them,” Artem continued, silently hoping that his words could make Luke change his mind.

Luke remained silent.

“She keeps looking for you,” Aaron added solemnly.

Upon hearing this, Luke held his breath, but didn’t do anything.

“So, what will you do, kid?

Luke shook his head. “I can’t….”

Aaron sighed heavily, now releasing Luke’s hands. “Please, consider their feelings, Luke. You should know that continuing to keep them in the dark will only hurt them more,” he replied with more powerful words, a fact that was strongly undeniable.

Seeing Luke not responding to any of his words, Aaron sighed even heavier.

“I think I haven't told you this.”

Luke glanced up to Aaron. “What is it…?”

“When I arrived at the old factory, Rosa briefly told me what just happened.”

Hearing her name, Luke froze, but he didn't interrupt.

“She said, before you fell unconscious, you kept apologizing to her and Marius. She tried to call out to you, but you didn't respond and kept apologizing.”

Luke remained silent, but his thoughts were loud and wild. He vaguely remembered that he kept apologizing to both of them.

But that alone was not enough.

“And one of your friends, the psychiatrist, I think his name is Vyn, added another piece of information. He told me that you seemed to suffer from something else other than just the gunshot wound,” Aaron paused, “which could only mean one thing.”

Luke averted his eyes, already knowing what Aaron would continue.

“Your friend might already have a guess that you are not fine and you are suffering from something,” Aaron finished his words, an exasperated look on his face. “Do you know what it means?”

Luke faintly shook his head.

Aaron massaged his temples, looking exhausted. “It means you are now torturing them with hundreds of worst what-ifs without a clear answer to each of them.”

When Aaron saw Luke with devastated eyes but still not saying anything about his words, he gave up and looked at the watch on his wrist.

“I’ll have to leave you for now. I have to look at the other patient. Don’t do anything reckless anymore,” he walked towards the door, “And do consider their feelings.”

With that, Aaron closed the door and disappeared, leaving Luke alone again with his own thoughts.

“It means you are now torturing them with hundreds of worst what-ifs.”

“Please, consider their feelings.”

Aaron’s bitter words kept replaying in his mind like a broken record, hurting him with an absolute fact he could never deny no matter how much he wanted to.

Luke knew very well that keeping them in the dark would only hurt them more. However, he was too scared, he didn’t have the courage to see them. The fear of thinking how they would react if he told them the truth consumed him more than he had imagined. As much as he wanted to tell them the truth, he couldn’t.

He was too afraid, too scared. He was so weak that he couldn’t even dare to face reality. He might be the top agent from the NSB. He might never fail a mission during his time with the NSB. He might also never fail to take down and subdue criminals. However, he had failed to face the truth.

To face reality where his loved ones existed inside it.

Luke stared at his hands again, now slightly trembling due to his own fear.

No matter how hard he tried to muster up some courage to face them, he couldn’t.

Please, forgive me….

Two months had passed and Luke still refused all visitors, including them.

Today was the last day for Marius to be treated in the hospital as he would be discharged soon. Artem, Rosa, and Vyn were now gathering together in his ward.

Artem initiated a conversation. “So, Rosa, how’s Luke now?”

Being the only one that knew Aaron personally, the other three members could only rely on her when it came to asking Luke’s condition to Aaron. She never minded it, though, because deep down in heart, she silently wished to get the chance to see Luke again every time she walked to his room.

However, unlike her previous positive reaction, this time, Rosa remained silent. There was a hint of pain and some sort of disappointment in her eyes as she glanced up to meet their eyes.

Marius frowned. “Jiejie? What’s wron—”

“Luke was already discharged from the hospital a week ago.”

The moment she finished speaking, the three of them went silent. In their eyes were various types of shock.

Vyn was the first to respond with slightly widening eyes. “Discharged? What do you mean by discharged?” He spoke in utter disbelief, as if her replies were just a trick played on his mind.

Upon hearing Vyn’s incredulous tone, it was enough for all of them to understand that this was utterly ridiculous.

Luke Pearce, the special investigator from the National Security Bureau, one of the members from NXX Investigation Team, their dear friend they kept worrying about, did not tell any of them that he had already been discharged.

“He didn’t tell any of… us?” Marius looked like he was in a trance, truly in disbelief. 

Artem took out his phone. “I will give him a call,” he said, his eyes now looking at the screen, searching for Luke’s name in his contact.

After waiting and repeatedly redialing Luke’s number, Artem turned off his phone. He then shook his head in disappointment.

“No answer at all. He didn’t even pick up the call,” he said, putting his phone back into his pocket.

Marius clicked on his tongue. “We should’ve known about it. Is he now avoiding us??” He continued in annoyance, yet his eyes, filled with sadness, spoke otherwise.

Rosa could only stay silent. She didn’t have anything left to say – knowing the fact that Luke was deliberately avoiding them.

“I can't believe this. And he said he trusted us,” Marius punched the bed with his left hand,  upset.

“Perhaps he is doing this because he feels guilty?” Vyn glanced at Rosa, suddenly remembering her words from before.

Rosa shook her head weakly. “I'm not sure but… most likely, yes…,” she whispered.

Vyn sighed heavily. “I can understand if he is feeling guilty, but to even avoid us like this…,” he paused, “maybe we should give him some time alone for now,” Vyn continued.

The three of them nodded in silence before Marius spoke.

“I'm so definitely going to smack his head once we see him later,” he declared in anger.

Rosa finally chuckled in response to this. “I think I will look forward to it…,” she said, a small smile forming on her lips.

“For now, we should leave this hospital first. I'm already feeling so fed up here,” Marius said in an exaggerated manner, earning some chuckles from them as they helped Marius to pack up his stuff.

Getting out of the hospital and staying away from distinctive smells of medicine was their priority right now.

Vyn did say to give Luke some time alone. However, another month had passed since Marius got discharged and still not a single word from Luke came into their range.

The NXX Investigation Team had begun to work and investigate again like usual – while also at the same time, trying to reach out to Luke. Unfortunately, all of their efforts were fruitless as none of their calls were answered, with not even a single reply to any of their messages. And as if to make it worse, no trace of him could be found either.

It was almost as if Luke was deliberately erasing his traces and existence from the world, from them.

“This is insane! I can’t believe he doesn’t even reply to any of our texts, not even a word!”

Marius shouted in frustration while throwing his phone on the sofa in one of the NXX meeting rooms. He leaned heavily against his chair, his face looking up at the advanced ceilings. He had sent several people to look for him but all was in vain.

Luke was so good at disappearing and hiding himself.

Vyn sighed. “So this is how it feels to look for a very skilled and talented secret agent, huh? Even with all of our resources, we still couldn’t find him,” he inhaled deeply before sipping his usual black tea.

Artem turned on his tablet. “I couldn’t get anything on my end either. It really feels like Luke is already gone into another dimension,” he rubbed his temple and turned to Rosa. “How is it on your end?”

Rosa shook her head helplessly, dark circles starting to show up around her eyes. “Also nothing. I couldn’t reach out to Aaron either – he almost never picks up my calls. And when he does, he always finds an excuse to end the call,” she answered.

Artem sighed. “I wonder if he is okay,” he said, and silence filled the air.

Because all of them had the same question plaguing their mind; is Luke okay?

But, none of them would know as they were being kept in the dark.

Marius exasperatedly ran his hand through his hair. “At this rate, I don’t think he would show up by himself. And we don’t know how long we should wait, either,” he added, now taking his phone again, hoping for good news.

A small laugh escaped Vyn's lips. “All we can do now is either to wait or to hope for a miracle to happen,” he said, almost mockingly.

This time, Marius heavily huffed. “If someone like you even speaks about miracles, then our situation now must be really doomed,” he said in a helpless manner, his hand rubbing his temple.

Artem rested his back on the sofa, looking tired. “Let's just wait and focus our investigation for now. We still have more clues left to investigate,” he continued, silently burying the worry  for a while.

Because, in fact, even Artem found it hard to focus on times like this.

It had been four months since Luke began deliberately avoiding them. He didn't even attend any NXX meetings, or show up at  headquarters, or at least, contact any of them.

He didn't even reply to a single message coming from them nor pick up the incoming calls.

Luke didn't know what to do. He kept doing his assigned missions from the NSB, he kept doing his detective work, but none of it was to reach out to one of them.

He didn't want to leave them with radio silence, but…

How did he tell them everything? How would they react when they found out he was suffering from a degenerative disease affecting his nervous system, organs, and mental state? How would they react when they found out he only had three years left to live? How would they react if they found out the hallucination that hurt Rosa and almost killed Marius was a side effect of the new medication he got from Oedipus? How would they react if they knew he had met Oedipus and got the new medication from him? How would they react if they knew he was infected by NXX – which they were investigating all this time?

Just… how?

How did he tell them… everything?

Luke was fully aware of how they kept looking for him. Other than spamming his inbox and calls, there were so many times where Luke noticed  the presence of people in search of him. He knew some of them were from Pax, some others were the ones sent by Artem, and some other more were from Vyn.

What hurt him even more was that he also knew that Rosa kept calling Aaron to ask for his whereabouts, and Aaron had to turn her down for his sake.

However, it was always too easy for him to avoid these with ease.

Sometimes, Luke kind of wanted to laugh at these people's methods of tracing him. They were nowhere near as skilled as him. Just from a glance, Luke could tell the movement of someone stalking him. Luke could even sense the gaze that was coming into his direction. So all of their efforts were all in vain.

When he decided to disappear, no one would be able to find him. It was a piece of cake for Luke to erase all his traces – he was trained for that.

“We are always here if you aren't feeling well.”

All of a sudden, Artem's words echoed through his ears and he felt a suffocating grip clutching his heart.

They cared. He knew it. They cared for him as much as he cared for them. However, it was for this reason Luke ended up avoiding them. He couldn't bear the fear of knowing how they would react. Would it hurt them? Would they panic? Would they be frightened? He would never know.

And on top of that, he couldn’t bear the guilt that kept consuming him whole.

Luke deeply closed his eyes, inhaling heavily. It pained him to think how the other members would keep looking for him despite all these failures and wasted time.

But, still.

He couldn't do it. He couldn't get himself to even see them, especially Rosa and Marius.

He could never forgive himself.

A  sudden horn from the car near him took him back into his senses. Luke almost spurred into action, thinking it was an attack coming from an enemy, when he realized it was just a loud noise.

He was too absorbed in his thoughts that he let his guard down in a public place like this. He couldn’t risk himself getting hit by a car, after all. He would become a laughing stock in the NSB if his colleagues knew a top agent like him got hit by a car because of him overthinking.

He was about to turn the corner when someone tightly grabbed his right hand – his alert instincts immediately kicked in as he whirled on his heels, ready to spur into action.

“Who—!”

“... Luke?”

Upon hearing the soft voice, sounding almost in tears, he was petrified. His coral eyes widened in utter shock, instinctively trying to back away but he was held stronger.

“W-Watson?! W-What— what are you doing her—”

His words were cut off the moment he saw the other people behind her. His breath caught in his throat, his heart was thumping against his ribs so hard that he was sure they could hear it.

Behind her were Marius, Vyn, and Artem. The people he had been avoiding for four months and planned to continue if it weren't for this sudden encounter. 

“Luke! We’ve finally found you—”

The moment he saw Marius, he tried to back away even harder in an attempt to break free but still held firmly.

Rosa held his right hand so tight – like if  she let go, Luke would vanish into thin air.

A part of him really wanted to jerk his hand away and break free from her firm hold so he could run away. However, doing so with his powerful strength would only cause her more harm; he might accidentally sprain her wrist and the idea of hurting her again with the same hand only ravaged his heart.

He’d had enough of hurting her.

With that in mind, Luke finally gave in and stopped his struggle. But he kept his head hanging down, as if the pebbles on the road were more interesting to see, not daring to even look them in the eye.

Artem spoke first as he stepped closer. “Luke? Where have you been? Are you okay?”

Luke froze the moment he heard Artem’s question in a very careful tone.

The question that only contained worry and concern.

Luke didn’t understand, it confused him. Why didn't they demand for answers, but only ask a question full of concern? Wouldn’t they be mad because he avoided them and never showed up?

So, why?

It would be easier if they were mad instead of showing only genuine concern. He would know better what to do if it wasn't the other way around. Seeing them only showing concern magnified his guilt even more.

They didn't even hide their care that was visible in their eyes.

… So, why?

Luke couldn’t really recall how the others somehow managed to drag him to the headquarters. Just a moment ago, he was standing near the entrance of a bookstore in South Stellis, about to step in, when Rosa caught his hand, followed by Marius, Artem and Vyn behind her.

He could have sworn that he had eliminated and minimized any possibility of his location to be found by anyone, particularly the members of NXX Investigation Team. But then, how could they find him despite him leaving almost no trace of his existence in the past few months?

Luke couldn't think of any reason, and he's not even sure if he would get the answer either.

He sat on his usual chair in the meeting room, the feeling was slightly foreign yet nostalgic – as if it had been years since his absence while in fact, it was only four months.

Although, four months of disappearance and loss of contact could be considered as… gruesomely long.

Luke could understand very well how his friends felt about his absence, yet the overwhelming feeling of guilt prevented him from actually reaching out to them. 

He didn’t dare to look at any of them as he kept his gaze lowered. There were four sets of eyes gazing at him and he felt like he was undergoing an interrogation, except this one was filled only with worry and concern.

“Luke, how is your shoulder?” Artem stood up from his chair, closing the distance between him and Luke in a few strides. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t come up with a better solution to save Marius,” he continued, casting an examining glance at Luke’s right shoulder. There were remnants of guilt that inevitably flashed across his azure eyes.

To save Marius.

From him.

Upon hearing Artem’s question, Luke’s gaze subconsciously lowered further. The traumatizing memory immediately surfaced without permission.

“It's… alright, thank you,” Luke said, his voice low, almost inaudible.

Artem frowned. “Thank you?”

Luke still avoided his eyes. “Yeah, thank you. For saving Marius—”

—from me.

Marius showed up right behind him, his expression happy and light. “Wow, Luke, you should stop with that gloomy expression or you're gonna paint the whole headquarters black with it!” He joked, smacking Luke's head using his left hand, taking advantage of his taller figure.

However, Luke's focus immediately landed on Marius’ left hand. His eyes darted towards his right hand, catching the glimpse of bandages wrapped around it.

Marius did not smack him using his dominant hand, which only meant one thing.

His right hand hadn't fully recovered yet, and it only amplified Luke's guilt even more, especially when he remembered how precious that hand was for Marius as an artist.

He must be forced to refrain himself from drawing and painting during his recovery, and it had been four months since the incident in the old factory, which meant Marius hadn't painted anything during that time.

Painting was like life for Marius and he destroyed that life.

Luke painfully closed his eyes and looked away from Marius, whose expression still remained light and cheerful. He didn’t seem to be bothered with his injured dominant hand which only worsened Luke's guilt even more.

His coral eyes accidentally landed on Rosa, the person he wanted to avoid the most. The moment their eyes met, Luke jolted a bit.

“Lu—”

“W-Watson…,” Luke’s almost inaudible voice made him look so small, as if he would disappear in no time.

There was a hint of sorrow and grief flashed across her eyes despite her attempt to hide it as she managed to form a small smile. “How are you feeling, Luke…?”

She flashed the same question as Artem, which again, confused him.

“I’m fi—”

However, before Luke could finish responding to her, he caught a visible mark under her left eye.

It wasn’t there the last time he saw her.

A wave of worry suddenly surged through him. It must be permanent if it stayed this long on her face.

“Watson, what is that mark?” He inquired with his usual way of worrying, his brows furrowing, and for a moment, he seemed to forget his current situation.

Rosa suddenly looked up, seemingly to be anxious. “Mark? What mark?” She said, feigning oblivion so as to not worsen Luke's guilt even more.

Luke pointed at his own face. “Here. Under your left eye,” he continued, still with the same worry that Rosa never thought she would miss it.

Rosa subconsciously held her breath the moment Luke finished speaking. “O-Oh, this? It’s— It’s just an eyeliner mark,” she stuttered, internally cursing her lame excuse – she shouldn’t lie to a detective.

Luke frowned. “Eyeliner?” He leaned closer to take a better look.

“Y-Yeah, this morning I accidentally put it wrong and the stain stays,” she continued before looking away, suddenly locking eyes with Marius and Artem.

They had a startled look on their face, seemingly anticipating what Luke would do.

Luke’s frown grew even deeper. “That doesn’t look like an eyeliner mark for me,” he said, still trying to figure it out. “It looks mo—”

“... It’s a scar.”

Vyn cut off Luke’s words, and the three of them except Luke, widened their eyes as if trying to signal Vyn to stop telling the truth.

Luke’s expression dropped. “... A scar?”

Vyn nodded. “A scar left by you,” his tone firm; someone had to tell him the truth.

“D-Dr. Richter!”

Upon hearing this, Luke froze, his eyes widening in shock. “By… me?” His words were caught in his throat, feeling like someone had choked him.

Vyn fell silent for a moment, now looking troubled as if considering whether to continue telling him the truth or not.

“Yes. That same day in the abandoned old factory when you pushed her down and some wood scraps wounded her face,” ignoring Rosa, Vyn finally decided to continue.

A grave silence suddenly sucked the air in the room the moment Vyn finished speaking. None of them dared to make a sound, all of their attention suddenly falling to Luke.

Rosa immediately moved her way to Luke, frantically waving her hands. “L-Luke! It's okay! It's not a big deal! It's—”

However, her voice seemed to gradually fade out and be replaced by a sonorous silence banging inside his head, for Luke was now frozen in place, unable to hear any of the words coming from her mouth anymore.

His slightly parted lips quivered in an attempt to form some coherent words but nothing came out of his mouth.

He… caused Rosa to have a permanent scar on her face? Not only had he sprained her shoulder, but also left a permanent scar? On the face?

“I— I—.”

In an instant, Luke’s hands shook violently, his breathing became rapid, his eyes widening and trembling as he bowed his head, staring at one spot on the meeting table as if he was terrified.

Vyn, who was sitting in front of him, immediately stood up and reached out to touch Luke’s shoulder, a panicked look visible on his face. “L-Luke? Are you oka—”

Without letting Vyn finish his sentence, Luke abruptly backed away and stood up from his chair.

“I-I’m fine…! I just… I just need— time to process—” Luke struggled to form coherent words, his frightened eyes meeting Vyn’s concerned ones.

Artem marched towards Luke, about to reach out to him too. “Luke! We’re here with yo—”

However, Luke was frightened by his own self. 

He suddenly had the urge to run away and disappear. The urge was so strong that he felt he couldn’t handle it. Anywhere was fine, as long as he could be alone where no one could find him. The pressure he felt was too heavy, weighing down on him, tightening his chest until he couldn’t breathe.

Luke frantically looked around, his eyes darting as if he was looking for something, a place where he could escape and hide.

Marius looked at him with wide eyes. “Oi, what are you doi—”

Luke’s frantic gaze landed on the automatic door that could bring him out of the meeting room. “I-I need to go… to get some fresh air— I’ll be right back…!”

He dashed off without giving any chance for them to react.

“Luke!”

However, just as he was about to reach the already opened automatic door, a sudden wave of dizziness washed over him, immediately causing him to lose control of his body as he hit the wall next to the door with a loud thud.

The door remained open as if waiting for a certain person to go through.

“LUKE!”

A frantic shout was heard from both Rosa and Marius as they immediately rushed to him.

Luke was leaning heavily against the wall with his head lowered, one hand tightly clutching his head and the other grasping his chest. An intense pain flared up from the center of his head and chest.

“Luke! What’s wrong?!”

“Are you okay?!”

“Luke!”

Before he knew it, he was already surrounded by the rest of NXX members, or to make it short, his friends. However, as much as Luke wanted to respond, he couldn’t. The pain was still as unbearable as he usually experienced, just this time, it felt a little bit worse than usual.

“Urghh….”

A series of painful gasps escaped his slightly parted lips. The pain increased quickly as he clutched his chest even tighter. The throbbing in his head wasn't helping either as it only became more insistent by seconds. Throwing his head back, Luke couldn’t help but slide down the wall and fell to the floor. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried to control his disordered breathing, but failed miserably.

In an instant, his clothes were already soaked in cold sweat, his face pale, his drenched hair sticking to his forehead.

“... Luke!”

“Dr. Richter— What should… we do—”

“Marius, call an… ambulance!”

“Jiejie, you should call… that doctor!”

He could faintly hear a few voices calling out to him. The voices, frantic and panicked, sounded muffled in his ears, but he couldn’t tell which voice belonged to who. The uncontrollable trembling in his body only got worse.

Of all times he could relapse, why now…?

Luke couldn’t really think much right now as he was struggling to fight the pain. Just a bit was okay, as long as he could reach out to his inner pocket, fished out the small bottle, and drank his painkillers. And he would temporarily be freed from this hell.

He forced himself to open his eyes to see his surroundings. However, what those coral eyes witnessed afterwards was the frightened look on their faces.

And in an instant, it made Luke feel guilty again.

Rosa was the first one to notice his eyes were already open. “L-Luke! Can you hear me?”

Suddenly, she felt a traumatizing feeling surging through her as she remembered how unaware he was last time, how he couldn't hear her, and she never wanted to experience that incident again. 

The others immediately turned to Luke.

“Luke— is there anything we could do right now?”

Vyn's voice, full of concern, sounded a bit panicked. If Luke ignored everything, he would find it funny to witness a Vyn Richter in panic. However, he couldn’t, as he saw how he looked a bit too frightened for someone like him.

He stared at Luke with a grave look, and couldn't stop thinking of how Luke suddenly collapsed right after he was told the truth about Rosa’s scar. Were his symptoms triggered because of his words? Was the fact so shocking that he reacted in such a manner? Vyn already had a preliminary guess of Luke suffering from something since that day in the factory, but he never knew what it was, and that it could be this severe.

Vyn normally didn’t care about what happened to people around him, however, when it came to those people he found dear, he couldn’t say the same.

He cared.

Marius crouched down in front of Luke, his eyes looking so worried and frightened just like Vyn. “Can you hear me now? Luke??”

But he still remained silent, unable to respond to any of them.

This time, Artem crouched down next to Marius, the same panicked look on his face, but his azure eyes darted as if he was looking for something.

“He might have some medicine with him,” Artem spoke with urgency.

Marius turned his head, frowning. “Medicine? Oh—” His purple eyes flickered as if he just remembered something.

Vyn also turned. “The same pills that he told us were... vitamins?”

Artem nodded. “Sort of. He must have something like that with him,” he continued, now rummaging through the pockets on Luke’s jacket. It didn’t take him long before he found a small bottle from an inner pocket.

“Found it,” Artem said, lifting his hand to shake the bottle. He turned his attention to Luke. “Luke, can you also hear me? Is this the medicine?”

Still grasping his chest, Luke cracked his eyes open and lifted his head with difficulty. He wanted to say yes and confirm it but he couldn’t find his voice. Instead, he nodded weakly while struggling to raise his right hand.

“I… need… three… pills…,” Luke finally managed to speak, his voice hoarse and barely above a whisper.

Upon seeing this, Artem nodded and opened the cap. He took three pills and put them onto Luke’s palm. Vyn moved to his side, now helping him to straighten his posture as Rosa rushed to take a glass of water. He gulped the pills in one go and down the water Rosa just gave him. Soon, color was back to his face as the pain gradually subsided.

In between his gradually relaxed breathing, Luke spoke. “I’m… sorry….”

“What are you even sorry for??” Marius widened his eyes, already losing his patience upon hearing Luke’s unnecessary apology.

“Heh…,” he managed a chuckle that sounded more like a heavy whisper.

Rosa fell down to her knees the moment she saw Luke stop trembling, her eyes looking beyond frightened. “Luke…”

His gaze landed on her. “I’m… sorry….”

Hearing this, Marius’ hand twitched, trying his best to not smack Luke’s head. If one more time he heard an apology coming out of Luke’s mouth again, he would ensure that man never escaped.

“Now, Luke, it is best you explain what is actually happening to you.”

That was what Vyn inquired after the horrifying situation half an hour ago. His tone was filled with the combination of worry and anger. 

They were sitting on the sofa now, with Luke sitting in front of the four of them.

Luke avoided their eyes. “I… I’m sorr—”

“Wow, Luke, one more sorry and I swear I will repeatedly smack your head,” Marius cut him off, raising his left hand. And before Luke could show another guilty look, he continued, “and my hand is okay, I never blame you, none of us does.”

The others nodded approvingly.

Upon hearing this, Luke froze. 

Rosa lifted her head, searching for Luke’s eyes. “Marius was right, none of us ever blamed you since that day, I never blame you either. We are only worried,” she spoke, her voice soft but laced with sadness.

“If you are to blame, then I am too. No matter how you look at it, I’m responsible for the gunshot that wounded your shoulder,” Artem joined in, his eyes serious.

Luke glanced up, flying a protest. “But you had to do that in order to save Marius— You were forced to do something you actually don’t want!”

“Then, did you want to hurt Rosa and Marius that day?”

Vyn’s straightforward question caught Luke off guard.

Of course he never wanted to. Hurting his loved ones was the last thing he wanted to do. However, it was still his fault to begin with. It was his fault to get infected in the first place. It was his fault to suffer from this illness. It was his fault to—

Luke ended up looking away, not saying anything.

“Luke,” Marius began again, “aren’t we… friends?”

The room fell silent the moment Marius dropped a heavy question.

Luke held his breath, not expecting any of them to ask a question like this. He knew they were his friends, they cared, he also cared, but—

“Luke, do you not trust… us?”

Again, Luke froze. Artem threw him the exact same question as when they were investigating the basement four months ago. Just then, Luke was so sure of the answer; he trusted them. However, after all this time, did he really trust… them?

Then if he did, why didn’t he tell them everything? Why did he keep them in the dark and leave them tormented with endless what-ifs? As much as Luke wanted to say he trusted them with all his life, but what he had done only proved otherwise.

He didn’t trust them. He was such a hypocrite.

Luke lowered his head, looking downcast, his lips quivering.

“Luke, you said you won’t hide anything from me….”

Rosa’s voice shattered the loud thoughts in Luke’s mind. His breath hitched when he heard her words.

He had broken countless promises to her since a long time ago, and this one was only one of them.

Luke bit down on his lip, closing his eyes painfully. When he opened them again, his friends were still looking at him with genuine and sincerity.

“Would you… tell us now?” Vyn asked, his voice quiet and soft, no longer combined with anger. But a hint of hesitation still lingered in Luke’s eyes.

This time, Rosa lowered her gaze, clasping her hands tightly. “Luke, please…. Don’t keep me in the dark anymore…,” she said, her voice trembling and her shoulders shaking as if she was holding tears.

Upon hearing Rosa’s voice, Luke started to panic. “W-Watson— I—”

She lifted her head, meeting Luke’s coral eyes with her watery ones. “Luke, please…,” she begged.

By the time she finished speaking, Luke’s defenses had already shattered into pieces. He couldn’t stand seeing her like this.

Luke nodded weakly. “I will tell you everything…,” he said as he looked up, now meeting everyone’s eyes.

Marius grinned. “Oh, Jiejie, finally. This bastard decided to talk,” he added, earning a glare from Vyn while Luke just smiled.

“Okay, so….”

Luke mustered up the courage to begin telling them everything, his heart thumping loudly in his chest, feeling nervous. 

“I’m suffering from a disease that caused irreversible damage to… my nervous system,” Luke finally said.

Everyone fell silent the moment Luke finished as if he had just dropped a bomb.

“To your… nervous system?” Vyn broke the silence, sounding so much in disbelief.

Luke nodded firmly.

“But irreversible—” Marius’ words caught in his throat, unable to continue as he widened his eyes.

“Nervous system— doesn't that mean it causes pain to your entire body?” Artem replied, now looking into Luke’s eyes as if hoping for the man to deny.

Luke’s lips formed a small, bitter smile. “Yeah, it does.”

Rosa was the only one that remained silent, not saying anything. Grief and sorrow was reflected in her eyes, a shocked expression painted all over her face, which broke Luke’s heart when he saw this.

Noticing how the air in the room felt heavier and the devastated look on everyone's faces, Luke struggled to swallow his guilt and continued, “however, I’m under medication now.”

Marius looked up, a glint of hope in his eyes. “Under medication?”

“Yep. I’m receiving treatment from the NSB and Aaron Yishmir is my attending physician. I have a regular schedule for check-up,” Luke replied.

Artem turned his head. “Are those pills your medication, then?”

Luke nodded again. “Yeah, one of the medications. I have another medicine that I have to take every morning in order to get better.”

“Then the ones I took out from your jacket are?”

“Those are for me to take every time my illness flares up. While I have medication, the illness still relapses sometimes,” he explained, “so I have to take these ones to let the pain subside and work,” he finished.

Marius stopped his hand from taking a glass of water. “Then what happened to you that day in the old factory?” He finally asked the major question.

Luke fell silent for a while, a hint of surprise flashed across his eyes for a moment before returning to normal.

“Sometimes, I have to take new medication if my body can't adapt to the current one. Every medicine has a side effect, including the previous one I took. And the side effect of the previous medicine was… hallucinations,” he looked away before continuing, “that’s why I failed to… recognize you and Rosa,” he said, his voice turning quiet.

Vyn straightened up. “Hallucinations? So my hypothesis was correct.”

Luke smiled bitterly. “Unfortunately, yes. It was only one time but you guys happened to see it. I changed to another medication after that as the previous one doesn’t suit my body,” he said.

“So, until you’re cured, you’ll be under treatment?” Marius asked.

Luke nodded firmly.

“And you’ll be cured and okay after the treatment is done?” Marius continued with the question they most wanted an answer to.

This time, Luke smiled widely. “Yeah.”

And there was relief flashed across every set of their eyes.

Finally, Rosa looked up and met Luke’s eyes. “Luke, thank you.”

Luke frowned. “Thank you?”

While it was clear that sadness still lingered in her eyes, she smiled. “Yeah, thank you. Thank you for telling us the truth. Thank you for opening up to us. It must be so hard for you to tell us everything, so, thank you,” she said, her eyes now flickering with a glint of gratitude.

Vyn leaned against the sofa, his stiff shoulder finally relaxed. “Rosa is right, it must be difficult for you to tell us the truth. Thank you,” he continued, pushing a cup of tea towards Luke.

“Even avoiding us for four months! I almost believed we would never see you again if it wasn’t for that sudden encounter,” Marius laughed, his laughter light and relaxed, as if all burdens had lifted from his shoulders.

Artem sighed with relief, his expression helpless. “I don’t think I would want to shoot a friend anymore in the future. It was depressing,” he spoke earnestly, finally taking a sip of his black coffee.

Luke chuckled helplessly. “I’m sorry for troubling all of you, gu—”

“We never allow you to apologize. Shut up, Luke.”

Marius cut him off, still with warm laughter filling the air as he slung his arm over Luke’s shoulder.

Luke couldn’t help but smile even wider. “Alright, alright. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.”

However, he lied.

He lied that the disease only affected his nervous system; it also affected his organs and mental state. He lied that those pills were to help him get better; they were only advanced painkillers to ease his constant pain. He lied that the medication would help improve his condition; his health only kept deteriorating. He lied that he would be cured after the treatment was done; there was never a cure for his illness, and every single treatment and medication that had been done to him only resulted in failure.

He lied that he would be okay after the treatment was done; he only had three years of life to live.

Luke had lied, to every single one of his friends.

He couldn’t bring himself to tell the whole truth to his friends. He only told them about the disease and devastation was painted all over their faces. Then, how could Luke bear to tell them every single truth if only a bit of it already brought them into despair? It hurt him to see the people he loved look so depressed just because of him. He knew how much they cared about him.

And because he knew, he would bury the truth with him until his last breath.

So they could continue to live without worrying about him.

“Guys, what are we doing here? I believe Vincent told me to attend a meeting in thirty minutes.”

“I don’t know, maybe an investigation? Though, I also still have many things to prepare for the next trial.”

“I believe it has to be an investigation. Ogier has cancelled my patient’s appointment.”

“Celestine reminded me to take care of a new legal case once I’m back to the law firm, too.”

There were Marius, Rosa, Vyn, and Artem standing in the hallway, completely immersed in their lighthearted conversation. They had just arrived from their respective office after agreeing to meet up here around seven in the evening. In the group chat, Marius told them to meet up again at the usual place after they had been gone for two months.

Two months ago, they had to be away from Stellis to do some business trips that were actually an undercover mission. There was a new clue regarding the location of NXX, and it required them to investigate under a disguise. The mission was successful despite taking a longer time to finish.

Marius sat on the long waiting chair, leaning his back against the wall. “Ahh, I miss this corridor,” he said cheerfully while staring at the ceilings.

Rosa took a seat next to him. “Same. It’s been a while since we were all together like this,” she smiled happily.

Vyn sat on the other chair across Rosa and Marius. “The crowd doesn’t change either,” he continued.

Artem was the only one who remained standing, his azure eyes looking at the surroundings before stopping at a too familiar door. “I can’t believe there would be a time where I would miss coming to the hospital,” he spoke calmly.

By the time Artem finished talking, a painful silence hung in the air, as if unbothered by the busy crowd.

There were many nurses walking back and forth, passing the four of them in the corridor of the tenth floor. There were also visitors and families with various expressions walking past them. The hospital was always busy, people kept coming back and forth with different conditions and situations. And so were they.

The four of them were sitting in the lounge, in front of a room they had already become too familiar with.

The ward they had been visiting for more often than usual.

Neither of them seemed to continue talking until Marius sneered.

“Ha! So funny.” Marius rested his head against the wall, still staring at the white ceilings. There was a myriad of pain and sorrow reflected in his eyes. He then lowered his head to level with everyone, a very bitter smile now painted on his lips.

“So, in the end, he never told us the truth, huh…,” Marius said, his voice trembling, “and I thought we were friends.”

Vyn shifted on the chair. “I agree. I cannot believe I was fooled as well,” he continued, a hint of hurt visible in his voice.

Rosa laughed, but her laughter sounded so hollow. “He even lied to me and kept breaking his promises,” she added with the same pain, fighting so hard to hold the tears that threatened to fall as her eyes blinked rapidly, stubbornly refusing the moisture to drop.

Marius closed his eyes deeply. “Luke, you son of a bitch.”

Luke Pearce, the ace agent from the National Security Bureau, the private detective of Stellis, and the special investigator of the NXX Investigation Team, had fallen into a comatose state six months ago.

It had been two and a half years since the day Luke had opened up to them, telling them everything. 

At first, everything went so well. All missions were done flawlessly, every case was handled successfully, even if there were many dead ends encountered during their investigations. But somehow, they would always manage to find the breakthroughs and continue again. It went that way for the past two years, nothing was wrong or strange.

Until Luke collapsed one day after their usual meeting at the headquarters.

He didn't show any signs or symptoms that indicated showing discomfort before that. He was just casually explaining the result of the investigation before he suddenly fell to the ground and entirely lost his consciousness.

In an instant, the headquarters went into chaos, an absolute panic. Marius and Rosa were frantically trying to wake him up, Vyn was doing the first aid, and Artem was looking for the pills. However, all of their efforts were in vain, for Luke still wouldn’t  wake up no matter what they tried.

Even after being rushed into the hospital, the rest of the members couldn't do anything other than hope and wait for a miracle to happen.

Because Luke's eyes remained closed since that day. No matter how often they visited his ward and tried to talk to him, he never woke up.

Even today, he was still in a deep slumber.

And the NXX Investigation Team had never been the same anymore. The meetings and missions that were usually filled with warm, playful banter were now absent—not even Marius had the mood to start his usual bickering—leaving only suffocating silences and tension every time they gathered.

They had lost a dear friend, whom they never knew if he would ever come back.

.

i'll leave the door on the latch
if you ever come back, if you ever come back
there'll be a light on the hall,
and the key under the mat
if you ever come back

there'll be a smile on my face and the kettle on
and it would be just like you were never gone
there'll be a light on the hall,
and the key under the mat
if you ever come back, if you ever come back
now

.

However, please, if you ever come back, do not worry, for we will always be right here waiting for you.

end.