HA\\LF: Dead nor Alive

“Is this really necessary?” Eve asked as she sat down on a chair as scanned her eyes and fingerprints.

“Unfortunately, yes, we need to collect all the data so you can get access to all places in different nations. This is all for your own good basically, so please endure it for a little bit more,” Faye answered as she smiled at Eve who sat in front of her.

“I heard you suffered from amnesia, is that true?” Faye asked as she checked the scanned eyes and fingerprints.

“Yes, I don’t remember much about my past,” Eve answered as she stared at Faye. “Don’t try to help me because I don’t need to know about my past,” she continued with a bit of threat in her voice.

Faye looked at Eve and nodded with understanding. “Okay, I won’t, I can promise you that,” she answered. “But can I ask you something? Did you really kill Axis Humans?” she asked as she looked at Eve in the eye.

“I did because I don’t like to be bothered, especially if someone is trying to dig into my past,” Eve said with a smile on her face that was enough to make Faye feel uncomfortable.

It was just silence in the room until the end of the examination and then they both left to the other room for attire fitting. Archie and the others were being measured for their own attire, Eve immediately walked toward him and just stared at him.

Faye watched Eve who only acted vulnerable and harmless when she was around Archie. She was curious about their relationship and she had the urge to find out more information about them.

A few hours had passed, and Archie and Eve decided to go and looked around the city with Nova. Since they both had no idea about the city, Nova was being their tour guide around the city.

“Where do you want to go? I know this city like the back of my hand since I oftentimes come here after my expeditions,” Nova asked as she looked at the city light.

“A bar, I want to spend the rest of the night drinking,” Archie answered.

“Alcohol?” Eve asked as she raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah, when was the last time you drink alcohol?” Archie asked.

“Alcohol huh? It’s been ages…” Eve answered as she squinted her eyes while staring at the night sky. “Yeah, let’s have a drink all night,” Eve said with a smile on her face.

“Alright then, a bar it is,” Nova said as she guided them to the bar near them.

While they were on their way to the bar, they saw Faye and Aster walking together on the sidewalk. They looked and dressed like a normal person, it was impossible to tell if she was the commander of the Valor special force.

“Commander,” Nova said as she gave a salutation to Faye.

Faye and Aster were surprised to see them. “Nova, Archie, Eve? Where are you guys going?” Faye asked from the other side of the road.

“We want to have some drink tonight,” Nova answered.

Faye and Aster looked at each other and they both shrugged their mouths. “Which bar? Don’t tell me you want to go to the Daslin bar,” Faye asked and then Nova nodded as she gave her a thumbs up. “Really? Then do you mind if we join you guys?” she asked as she crossed the road with Aster.

The five of them went to the Daslin bar that Faye mentioned, the place was crowded but there were still a few empty tables inside the bar. On their way to find an empty table, they heard a familiar voice calling for Faye.

“Faye? Nova?” Ruby said as she stood up with a bottle of beer in her hand and Vincent was sitting in front of her.

“What’s this? This isn’t a coincidence, right? All of us are here in the same place,” Faye asked as she chuckled with disbelief.

“Please, join us, we have enough seats for everyone,” Ruby said as she looked at Eve who was a bit amazed by the crowds and the bar itself.

Everyone ended up sitting at one big round table so everyone could fit it. They were enjoying the evening and got to know each other better except for Eve since she didn’t want them to know about her at all.

An hour had passed and everyone was still fine, then another hour passed but Nova already had enough drinking for the night. They all enjoyed the fries and the onion rings while they were watching the people around them having a party.

“Since everyone is here, there’s something that I want to tell you guys,” Faye said and looked at them. “I asked for permission from Marshal Gard that we are going to Indonesia and check the situation over there. We got a lot of information that there’s an Ex-Human that lives there and took over all the islands,” she said as she rotated the glass in her hand.

“An Ex-Human?” Ruby asked. “Is it a woman or a man?” she asked again.

“It’s a man, why do you ask?” Faye replied with curiosity written all over her face.

Ruby and Vincent looked at Archie and they already knew who that could be. Eve raised her eyebrows and seemed interested in the topic since it was a sight of another Adam. Archie was a bit worried because there would be a chance that Eve would be attracted to that Adam instead of him.

“If it’s a man, he’s not an Ex-Human, it’s something else,” Ruby answered as she looked at Faye. “This is the proof of my battle against someone like him,” she said as she showed her prosthetic arm.

“Right, you have seen Ex-Humans before, the three of you,” Faye said as she looked at Archie, Ruby, and Vincent. “So, if he’s not an Ex-Human, then what is he?” she asked.

Ruby looked at Archie. “It’s something else, I’m not saying that he’s more dangerous than an Ex-Human but it’s different because they’re like an Ex-Axis Human than an Ex-Human because they could transform themselves like a parasite but with a mind of a human,” she answered.

“Do you think we can handle that guy? We need to kill that guy since all of our resources came from Indonesia. If we don’t kill him, we are going to run out of resources,” Faye said as she looked at Ruby.

“It depends,” Ruby replied as she looked at Eve. “If all of us work together to kill that guy, it would be an easy task,” she answered and kept staring at Eve which made Faye a bit curious as if Ruby was pointing those words at Eve.

“But Marshal Gard hasn’t given you the permission right?” Aster asked as he looked at Faye.

“No, he’s still thinking about the risk since that place is filled with high gen parasites. Knowing that we don’t have enough skilled Axis Humans, the possibility of the success of the mission is too low,” Faye answered. “But we can’t just stay still, at least we need to secure one of the islands so we can get the resource,” she explained as she looked at Aster.

“So our priority isn’t to kill that guy?” Vincent asked.

“Not really but I’m asking your opinion about that guy. If it’s possible then I might get the permission from Marshal Gard, but if it’s not, then he won’t give us the permission,” Faye answered. “Although we need Marshal Gard’s permission, we can still go on our own since we the Valor special force have the privilege to go wherever we want,” she continued.

Eve looked at Archie who seemed a bit uneasy with the topic, she leaned to his ear and whispered. “Are you afraid that I will kill you once that Adam is stronger than you are?”

Archie smirked and looked at Eve. “Not really, because once you took an interest that Adam, I will be long gone and will disappear. I will never let myself in that kind of situation,”

Eve chuckled and shook her head. “That would be a shame but let’s see if that Adam really is more interesting than you, Archie. To be fair, I’m sick of meeting those Adams that pretend they’re above the rest while they were still nothing compared to me,” she whispered. “But you’re different, I can feel that you’re not interested in this game of theirs,” she continued.

“I have met these people in front of me, I don’t think there’s anything else that I want. I’m enough with this,” Archie answered as he looked at Eve.

“This is why I’m interested in you, Archie, you made me realize and discover new little things about enjoying life while the other Adams that I met, were boring and lifeless,” Eve said with a smile on her face. “With that being said, I will never let you go,” she continued.