Jayden spent the morning at the Emerald City park, grinding through his System-mandated Daily Quest. The repetitive burn of lifting and running helped clear the lingering adrenaline from his system. By the time he returned home, the house was quiet, and he dedicated the afternoon entirely to Jessica and Tasha. They ordered massive boxes of deep-dish pizza, commandeered the living room, and spent hours battling each other in immersive VR fighting games. For a few precious hours, there were no Pioneers, no syndicate, and no EVA. There was just laughter, trash talk, and the simple warmth of family.

When Harleen and Jacob finally returned from work that evening, the house filled with the comforting aromas of a home-cooked dinner. They ate together around the dining table, sharing stories of their day. It was perfect. It was exactly the kind of life Jayden was fighting so desperately to protect.

The day ended quickly, the exhaustion of the week finally catching up to everyone. As the house went dark and quiet, Jayden retreated to his bedroom.

He trudged over to his bed, his muscles aching with a satisfying fatigue, and sat down on the edge of the mattress. The day had been fun, but the war was far from over. He reached for his holotab on the nightstand, intending to do a bit of deep-web research on the remaining Black Cobra Pioneers. He needed a lead, any scrap of data Fred might have missed.

But as he stood up to move toward his desk, he suddenly stopped.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. A sudden, biting chill swept through the room, originating from the slightly ajar balcony doors. It wasn’t the natural cool breeze of the Emerald City night; it was a localized, unnatural drop in temperature.

Jayden decided to investigate. And as he stepped out the balcony door, his instincts flared. He felt a distinct shift in the air currents, a presence lingering just to his right on the balcony.

Without even turning his head to look, Jayden’s arm snapped up.

Snikt.

The metallic ring of his knuckle-claws extending shattered the quiet of the night. He aimed the lethal, razor-sharp blades directly at the blind spot to his right, pivoting sharply on his heel to face the intruder.

Standing in the shadows of the balcony was a figure cloaked in a black hoodie, the fabric pulled low to conceal their face.

As Jayden aimed his claws at their throat, the figure immediately threw both hands up in surrender.

"Woah, chill out, kid. It’s just me," a familiar, distinctly American female voice rang out.

The figure reached up and pulled the hood back, allowing the pale moonlight to illuminate her face. She had dark skin, intricate black braids, and a silver septum ring glinting sharply in the night.

It was Frost. And she was very much alive.

Jayden’s expression didn’t change. He wasn’t surprised in the slightest. He slowly lowered his arm, the blades retracting seamlessly into the housing on his gloves.

"I don’t like being sneaked up on," he stated flatly, his voice low.

Frost scoffed, dropping her hands and leaning casually against the balcony railing. "Well, maybe next time I’ll use the front door and bring a fruit basket."

"You coming here is risky," Jayden murmured, scanning the perimeter with his enhanced vision. "Did anybody see you? Are you sure you weren’t followed?"

"Relax, kid," Frost sighed, waving a dismissive hand. "I wasn’t followed. I know how to cover my tracks. And I won’t be here long, anyway."

Satisfied that the street was clear, Jayden leaned against the glass doorframe. "Looks like the plan worked. The whole world thinks you’re dead."

The night before, while she lay bleeding on the frozen asphalt, Jayden had offered her a way out. Frost had been conflicted, terrified of the syndicate’s reach, so Jayden had orchestrated a flawless piece of theater. They faked her execution right in front of the dock’s security cameras, giving the EVA, the news networks, and Black Cobra exactly what they expected to see.

"Yeah, well, the syndicate won’t buy it for long," Frost noted grimly, staring out at the city skyline. "Unless they find a body, they might not be entirely convinced. They’re paranoid like that."

"So where will you go?" Jayden asked.

"There’s a planet just on the edge of the Omega sector," Frost replied, a faint, hopeful glimmer in her dark eyes. "It’s inhabited by a dozen different species, a massive melting pot. It’s a beautiful planet too, lots of tourist attractions and heavy transit traffic. It’s the perfect place for me to blend in, lay low, and disappear."

Jayden nodded slowly. "That’s good. So... that means you’re really ready to leave Black Cobra and the mercenary life behind for good?"

Frost let out a cynical scoff, shaking her head. "Listen, kid. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than one motivational speech delivered by a seventeen-year-old to make me overhaul my way of life." She looked down at her hands, the faint scars of her past still visible. "Consider this a journey of self-discovery. I need time to think about my life. To see if I can truly find this ’redemption’ you talked about. To see if I can actually live a life filled with love again."

She looked back up at him, her gaze hardening just a fraction. "But if I get out there and discover that it’s all just a bunch of poetic bullshit... I’m heading right back to Black Cobra."

Jayden smiled wryly, understanding the defensive walls she still had up. "I hope you find redemption, Alaya. For both our sakes."

Frost smiled, a genuine, warm expression that made her look years younger. "Good luck trying to take down the syndicate, kid. If I ever return here, and I’m all healed and ’redeemed’ or whatever... perhaps I’ll join you in your little crusade to destroy the EVA."

"I’d like that," Jayden said sincerely.

Frost reached up and pulled her black hood back over her braids, cloaking her face in shadows once more. "I know it doesn’t mean much coming from a killer... but thank you, Jayden. For sparing my life."

"You’re welcome," Jayden replied. He paused, a cunning glint entering his golden eyes. "You know, perhaps you could give me some intel on the remaining Pioneers as an expression of that gratitude?"

Frost threw her head back and laughed, the sound muffled by the cool night air. She offered him a wicked, playful smirk. "Nice try, kid. But I ain’t no snitch."

Then she stepped up onto the ledge of the balcony, stretched her arms outward, tapping the fingerless glove on her hand. Instantly, a massive matrix of blue, hard-light holographic data projected into the empty air in front of the balcony. The digital blueprint rapidly materialized, drawing matter from the glove until it solidified into a sleek, matte-black hoverbike hovering silently in the air.