„So, when will you tell me what this is about?"

Theo threw Erika a sideward glance, but she was staring straight ahead, ignoring him, along with his question. He could see that she was uneasy, from the tension in her jawline and her shoulders. The lower levels of Rouge didn't strike him as the kind of place she usually frequented, and her alerted state only seemed to confirm that. It made him all the more curious why she had brought him here.

The large underground area was like a city underneath the city, with its narrow alleys winding in a complicated maze, but she seemed to know exactly where she was going. As usual at this time of the day, the streets were so packed with people that they moved through the crowd at an excoriatingly slow pace. Theo knew a few short cuts that were pretty much deserted most of the time, but Erika clearly didn't, and as he had no idea where they were going, all he could do was traipse after her.

He watched her back as they walked, literally. In their youth, she had been known to not play well by any rules, but he had thought that she had changed after being sent off-world to attend a boarding school. As they continued their descent right into the bowels of the red light district of Eos, his mind was racing as he spun his theories. Was this some sort of underground deal? Drugs, chems, or augments? Was Erika in trouble?

The air down in Rouge was heavy and moist. Vapor of unknown origin seeped through cracks in the shafts that crisscrossed between the buildings overhead and wafted up from exhaust grids. It trapped the heat of engines and people in the narrow alley ways, and condensed on every available surface as a fine mist that made the lights sparkle and glitter.

Theo liked Rouge, much better than any of the other districts. Not just because of the kind of entertainment to be found here, but because the lights were dimmer and more mute, and the confines of the underground area limited the amount of obnoxious airborne advertisement. This was the shady part of the city, in the literal and figurative sense.

Besides the haze, the air was filled with the shouts of street vendors hawking cheap food, even cheaper gadgets or entire plug-in entertainment modules of dubious origin. There was nothing you couldn't get in Rouge, and certain legal and illegal goods that could only be found here at all. Scantily clad figures whispered their invites, offering the other kind of entertainment to passersby. Some people considered Rouge a cesspool of depravity and disease, of both the visceral and cybernetic kind. To Theo, it was the only honest place in Eos. At least here, nobody pretended not to be a liar or scoundrel, like they did in Alba.

"This is it..." Erika muttered, and came to a halt.

The building before them looked particularly run down, even for Rouge. It was a small house, nestled in the shadow of a much taller steel-and-concrete tower that acted as support structure for the ceiling somewhere far overhead. Its windows were painted black – or perhaps they were just too dirty to see inside. A large sign with glowing neon letters hung above the door, written in ornate, illegible letters of some alphabet that Theo wasn't familiar with, and couldn't translate without augments.

Near the entrance, there was a group of ladies and gentlemen of the evening, their bodies more or less covered to varying degrees with leather, latex or merely paint. One among them stood out to him immediately – a woman with the beautiful and delicate features of a doll leaned against the wall and only seemed to listen while the others chattered away. Her sleek black hair was held up in an elaborate hairdo with countless bands and adorned with beads and tassels, and she wore a short silken robe in the style of a yukata – except that it was outrageously short.

She lifted her head, and as she spotted Erika and Theo, she pushed away from the wall and moved over to them with a fluid grace that seemed misplaced in this seedy part of town. As she approached, her eyes lit up with a soft glow in the dimness of the shady alley, in a color he couldn't pinpoint. But he could tell that it was the same as the neon sign above the entrance to the building.

An augment, Theo thought as she approached. How come she works here when she can afford that kind of tech?

"Welcome, friends. What can I do for you?" the woman asked in a sultry voice, and her lips curled upward in a seductive smile.

"Yeah, I wonder about that too," Theo muttered under his breath, and threw Erika another glance.

Perhaps this was another of her strange ideas of finding him a new hobby? He could have told her right away that this was quite like one of his already existing ones, one that he would much rather not indulge in with her by his side.

Before Erika could answer, the woman stretched out her hand and placed it on Erika's cheek. From there, she slid it down along her neck and arm, giving her an appraising look as she walked past her to look at her backside. Erika froze up completely under her touch.

"You're looking to buy... or to sell?" the woman asked, and her gaze wandered over to Theo, to eye him up and down as well.

"Sell? Wha- No!" he said hurriedly. "Listen lady, I think we made a mistake, we've got the wrong address or something. Come on, Erika, let's go."

He put a hand on her arm to drag her with him, but she shook him off.

"I came to join your play group," Erika said, facing the woman with a blank expression.

The woman in the yukata crossed her arms and a mischievous smirk appeared on her lips. "Can you play by the rules?"

"I'm not here to play by the rules. I'm here to break them," Erika replied.

Theo just stared at his best friend, slack-jawed. "What the fuck-"

The woman held up her hand, and somehow, it compelled him to fall silent. Her expression changed, wariness crossed her delicate and beautiful features. She gave Erika a hard stare, and for a moment, nobody said anything.

"Your name," she demanded.

"Entropy," Erika said firmly.

"And what about him?" she nodded her head at Theo.

"I don't have the faintest clue what you're talking about," he said.

That was not true. He had a not prerry clear idea that this conversation was not, in fact, about some bizarre secret sex club. And he also knew that nothing good could come from an encounter in Rouge that encompassed the use of stupid code words, passphrases and nicknames like that.

His grip on Erika's arm tightened.

"We should go," he hissed at her.

But she just shook her head.

"He's with me," Erika told the woman.

"The invitation was only valid for one," the woman said and crossed her arms before her ample chest. "We invited Entropy, and Entropy alone. The one who reached the end and solved all riddles. He cannot come."

"Well he's the one who cracked the last level, while I solved the riddle," Erika said. "So I suppose, we're both Entropy."

"Wait a second, so that's what that was about the other day?" Theo threw in.

"He has no augments," the woman interrupted. "How?"

"Let us in, and you'll find out."

Erika smirked at the woman with the confidence of somebody who had leverage. With a certain sense of dismay, Theo realized that he was that leverage. The woman stared at Erika in silence for a few moments, as if she was taking in her words, with a distant look on her face.

Comm link, Theo realized. She's checking back with someone.

Suddenly, her expression changed back to her sultry smile. "Very well then. Follow me."

She turned on her heels, and sashayed toward the door of the establishment.

Erika was about to follow when Theo grabbed her arm and held her back.

"Wait. What is this about?"

She couldn't look him in the eye as she answered. "Please, I just need you to have my back on this, okay? I'll explain everything afterwards."

The woman in the silk robe cleared her throat and looked at them expectantly.

"Erika," Theo hissed. "Whatever this is about, it is a terrible idea. What the hell are you up to?"

"I'll explain everything later. For now... don't use my real name. Call me Entropy, if you must," she whispered to him.

This was a spectacularly bad idea – but he couldn't make her turn around, and he certainly would not let her walk into that den of depravity all on her own. So with a weary sigh, he allowed her to drag him along as she followed after the strange woman.

"My name is Shahrazad," she introduced herself as she led the two of them through the door, "And this place is the Dollhouse."

The inside of the brothel was dim and warm, but drier than the streets outside at least. The walls were covered in velvet tapestry adorned with dim lights fashioned in the style of old brass candlestick holders. The woman led them along a corridor lined with several identical doors. In the rooms beyond, the locale's front business was quite audibly being conducted. But she led Erika and Theo past them. Every step along the way, he tried to calculate their odds of making it out of this alive, whatever it was that awaited them.

So far, he still had not the faintest idea what kind of situation Erika had gotten herself tangled up in. But being led down a narrow stair case in a shady brothel did not instill his confidence in the legality of whatever business was conducted behind the dark, and conspicuously inconspicuous door that waited for them at the bottom.

Shahrazad turned back to face them, the tassels and beads in her hair clinking and tingling quietly. She cast them a beaming and friendly smile that somehow managed to evaporate some of the worry Theo had felt just a moment ago.

"Welcome to the playground," she said, and pushed the door open.

The room behind was unlike anything he would have expected to find in the basement of a brothel. The overall aesthetic was still fitting - the same tapestry as upstairs gave off a muted, dark ambience. It was the kind of room in which most words were hushed and whispered, but from which no screams would ever manage to escape.

But the walls were covered not just with heavy drapery and wall-mounted candles. Instead, large vid screens dominated one side of the room and an enormous desk with several terminals the other. The only other furniture consisted of a few cargo crates that had been pushed toward the far end, and two plush couches and a coffee table in the center of the room.

On one of the couches sat a man with tanned skin and dark, curly hair that he had tied back into a ponytail. He was wearing jeans and a leather jacket, adorned with various buttons, patches and studs on the shoulders, over a black T-shirt with a white print depicting some confusing, hellish scenery.

He was leaning back with his legs crossed and propped up in the table, and he rested his arms on the back of the couch as if he owned the place. But to Theo, he did not look like the kind of guy for serious entrepreneurship. He also seemed rather young for a pimp. Probably in his mid-twenties, and much better looking than the ones that Theo was faintly acquainted with. Perhaps he was another prostitute.

The only other person in the room was a tall, dark-skinned man with close cropped black hair. He wore a fashionable dark suit, dress shirt and tie, as if he had just plopped by for a business meeting. His gaze was glued to a holographic display that was hovering over the back of his hand, projected from some tech on his wrist. Data was flowing across the holo-interface in a rapid stream of glowing symbols.

Shahrazad moved past the man in the suit, and plopped down on the couch next to the man with the leather jacket.

There was something strange in Leather Jacket's look. He had kept his gaze fixed on Theo and Erika from the moment they had entered. There was something cold and hard-bitten about his dark eyes that didn't seem to match the lopsided smirk he wore on his lips. When the man's gaze met Theo's, he could feel goosebumps rise at the back of his neck.

Nobody spoke.

Theo continued to stare at the man on the couch, who scrutinized Erika and him in return, until Shahrazad leaned over to whisper something into his ear. Theo's gaze was drawn to her long, pale legs as she drew them in underneath her. Her skirt hiked up far enough to reveal that - somewhat surprisingly - she had bothered to put on underwear under that little yukata.

"Welcome, Entropy," the man with the jacket finally greeted them with an amused tone to his voice, ripping Theo out of his thoughts. There was a slight slur to his voice, Theo noted - he was chewing gum.

"How nice of you to visit."

"Thank you for the invitation," Erika replied stiffly.

"Okay. Who the fuck are these people, Erika?" Theo cut in bluntly.

She groaned and elbowed his side, causing him to wince in pain.

"I told you not to call me by my name!" she hissed.

„Well I might be willing to do as you say if you bothered to explain who the fuck they are and why the fuck we're here," he hissed back.

The man on the couch laughed out loud at their bickering. "Oh, don't worry, sweetheart. We know all about you already."

"Erika Andersson," the man in the suit chipped in, his gaze still glued to his holo-screen, "Age twenty-four, AI developer for Synthetic Systems, living at 402-145 Fifth Street in Eastern Alba District, single, mother deceased, father in the military, one brother, Bjorn, also in the military."

He continued to rattle down a summary of her personal data like a grocery list, leaving Theo and Erika to stare at him dumbfounded.

"You spend an average of fifty-five hours a week at work. Every morning, you get coffee from Gene's Coffee Shop at the corner from your work place, one double shot of espresso and one latte. You spend your free time going to art exhibitions, reading historical fiction and fantasy romance novels, solving geometry and topology puzzles in cyberspace, and going on casual dates."

"Fantasy romance?" Theo asked, throwing her an amused sideward glance. "I never knew."

Blushing deeply, she elbowed him again.

"You see, Entropy, we know all about you," Leather Jacket explained, "But your friend here, now that's an interesting guest you brought along. Who might he be?"

"The one she buys the second coffee for," Suit replied impassively, "Presumably."

Leather Jacket threw him a glare, and for a moment Theo couldn't stifle his grin. It was clear who was calling the shots here, but it was also clear that whatever hierarchy they were supposed to work on was not very strict.

"Anyways," Leather Jacket stood up, and approached the two of them. "Other than that, we know nothing about him. And you claim he helped you crack the last level?"

"Yes," Erika answered.

Theo groaned. He could have done well without these people knowing that he had fucked up their data structure, whoever they were.

The man stopped right in front of him, his dark gaze boring into him. Theo could feel his pulse start to race and his mouth go dry under the stranger's silent scrutiny. A strange, crisp scent emanated from him.

Peppermint, he realized. The guy was chewing peppermint gum.

"And how is that supposed to be possible, without any augments? How did you manipulate our little game like that?" Leather Jacket asked, eyeing him curiously.

"I have my ways," Theo replied evasively.

Suddenly, the man reached forward and snatched his wrist. Reflexively, Theo tried to twist it away, but Leather Jacket was surprisingly strong. He yanked on Theo's arm to stretch it out, flipping his palms up and pushing up his sleeve in one fluid motion.

"Hey, what the fuck!" Theo hissed, trying to draw back his arm in vain. Leather Jacket had an iron grip on him, like a shackle.

The man in the suit had moved over to his side with equally surprising speed, and put his hand over Theo's pulse. He could feel a prickling sensation as his BioID was scanned.

Augments... of course they are.

No wonder they were so fast and strong. He stroked "running" off from his list of available options to get out of here.

"You're smoking, eh?" Leather Jacket narrowed his eyes at Theo's hand.

Theo didn't know if he had picked up on that because of his scent, or if he had some scanners that had detected traces of nicotine on his hands, or if he had cross-referenced his credit data for his latest expenses. Either way, the accusing tone in his voice reflexively made him tense up even more.

The augment's dark gaze snapped up at him, and he stared right into Theo's eyes.

"You should quit. It's a nasty habit." As if in emphasis of his words, he popped the gum in his mouth audibly.

Theo stared back at him for a moment, until he snapped out of his stupor. He jerked his arm out of the man's grasp and took two steps back, rubbing his wrist.

"Might take a while..." Suit muttered and returned his attention to his holo display.

Yeah, good luck cracking that, Theo thought smugly.

After his little adventure with Erika in cyberspace the other day, he had made sure that if he ever connected again, his real name would conceal his old nickname, no matter how it was accessed.

The BioID microchip was connected to a user's citizen ID, but Theo had tampered with his, back in the day. He had erased his own name completely and replaced it with an alias. But a BioID was not just a means of identification. It could also work as an access key, virtual or real, or to save credit data and make payments. Theo hadn't cared about the fact that he had rendered his BioID useless in the real world. He hadn't cared about much, back in those times.

But circumstances had changed a few years down the line. He had needed a job, and along with the problem of finding one in the first place came the problem of his cracked BioID. Through a nifty little trick, he had simply assumed his real name as another alias, similar to a custom tag. So instead of having his real name registered to the chip and using a tag with an alias in cyberspace, the BioID was registered to his alias, but in any context that mattered, it now again displayed his real name.

Except for cyberspace. He had never bothered to fix that aspect of the chip before, since he had sworn to never go back there. His work never required him to dive in fully, so he had never noticed that the old name was still there, underneath the tag, until the day Erika had brought him to the Prism.

He had fixed that mistake by now. His old nickname was safe, neatly obscured underneath a layer of binary deception that would show these people only one thing: He was Theodor Lee, twenty-four, living in 403-89 Nabla Street, Alba District, working for Synthetic Systems.

"Okay, so how about you tells us your name in the meantime," Erika snapped at Leather Jacket.

"Me? Oh... I have so many names..."

He took a step forward, and came close enough that the tip of his nose was almost touching Erika's. Admirably, she didn't even flinch, and just stared back unwaveringly.

"Which would you prefer, Entropy?" His voice dropped to a low, strangely melodic rumbling, like a cat's purr, and his grin turned from wicked and mischievous to downright intimidating.

"Some know me as El Diablo, or the Digital Demon. The Binary Beast, the Lord of the Bytes - I am the nightmare of security programmers. I am the boogey man of cyberspace...I am the Devil."

He stepped back, and plopped the gum in his mouth again.

"But you sweethearts can just call me Nova," he added cheerfully.

"You're the one who sent the message," Erika mumbled.

"Over there, you have Ghost." Nova gestured to the man in the suit. "And I'm certain Shahr has already introduced herself. She's polite like that."

Theo narrowed his eyes at Nova. Something about those aliases seemed familiar. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he had definitely heard about him -

The realization hit him so hard he gasped.

The Devil.

He had been warned about that entity, in his security briefings, on the rare occasions he had attended them and paid attention. If that man was really who he claimed he was, he was indeed the boogey man of cyberspace. All over Eos, the Devil was infamous for getting through the tiniest cracks in any systems, to wreak havoc and vandalize as he pleased. His relentless attacks had brought down one of Synthetic System's biggest competitors a few years ago, and ever since then they were absolutely paranoid about being next on his hit list. Theo's job was to keep people like him out at all costs. And now he was standing right before the man who was supposedly responsible for some of the biggest acts of cybercrime in the past five years.

Weirdly enough, he believed him right away. His mischievous smirk and the darkness in his eyes left him with no doubt that this man, Nova, was capable of doing all of that. But even weirder, he realized now that he owed his job to his crazy antics. SynSys wouldn't have hired somebody like Theo, somebody without a formal degree, as an intern for their cybersecurity department, if they hadn't been extremely desperate back then.

Theo could feel his confidence rise again. Information was a commodity in this world, and without knowing it, Nova had just revealed much more about himself to Theo than he probably was aware of. He knew who he had before him now, whereas they didn't know who he was. And Theo knew how to deal with people like them.

He eyed the man, from the jacket and the black T-Shirt with the white print that spanned over his chest, down along his tight fitting jeans to his sneakers, and back. And he finally recognized the emblem that adorned his leather jacket, along with patches and buttons of band logos, snarky one liners and various cryptic symbols. It matched the rumors he had heard in cybersecurity circles, about his affiliation. Supposedly, the Devil was part of something bigger – a group capable of doing much, much worse.

And this is supposed to be their leader? Theo wondered.

He looked back up at Nova's face, and met the man's smug look with a deadpan glare.

"You're with Electric Eye," Theo noted.

Nova's eyes widened slightly, but he kept his cool, and snorted with suppressed laughter.

"Sweetheart, I am Electric Eye. And so are Ghost and Shahr."

"So you're telling me... Electric Eye is run by two hookers and a pencil pusher?" Theo asked calmly, raising an eyebrow.

Next to him, Erika elbowed him again, but this time he didn't wince. He kept his gaze fixed on Nova, whose continuous, smug smile irked him beyond measure.

"Two hookers?" Nova threw a sideward glance at Shahrazad, who giggled.

"Sorry to disappoint, sweetheart, but this hardware is not for sale," he said and gestured at his own body.

Pretentious prick, Theo thought.

Yet somehow, he had a hard time forcing down the urge to grin and maintaining his deadpan expression.

As insane as all of this was, he realized now that he wasn't afraid. He had spent enough of his life not caring about the consequences of his actions that some old reflexes kicked in again now. These people were scoundrels, thieves, cybercriminals. Not murderers. They might have been augments, but as long as they gave them no reason to, he was fairly certain they wouldn't harm Erika and him.

He cast a sideward glance to Erika, who had paled. Apparently, she didn't share his confidence in that.

"As for the others, you will probably get to meet them soon enough..... But now for the more pressing question..." Nova stepped closer again, eyeing Theo curiously. "Who are you?"

"Well, wouldn't you like to know, sweetheart," he snapped back.

Theo forced himself not to blink as Nova scrutinized him head to toe, just as intently as he had studied the cybercriminal before, although the augment was probably using more than just his natural sense of sight.

Ghost cleared his throat, and Nova pried his gaze away.

"He is...." Ghost started and then looked up at Theo, then back down on his screen. "That can't be right."

Theo cursed under his breath. Somehow, Ghost had managed to circumvent the elaborate ruse that covered up the cracked BioID.

"Who, Ghost?" Nova asked. There was still that smile on his lips, but his voice betrayed a hint of impatience.

"Look for yourself... Patching the files through..."

Over on the couch, Shahrazad's head perked up, and now all three of them stared at Theo with wide eyes. They were probably seeing the files, displayed before their eyes through augments. Erika turned to stare at him too, with a puzzled expression on her face.

"This is him?" Nova exclaimed, with a mixture of amusement and irritation in his voice, "You're telling me the most infamous hacker of the past decade is some goth kid with no augments? You're shitting me."

"What?" Erika whispered breathlessly.

Theo could feel her staring at him, but he kept his gaze on Nova. The tension in the room was tangible now, and he wished he was here alone. He didn't care what would happen to him, but Erika...

"I'm certain, Nova," Ghost said. "His BioID has been tampered with. On the surface, he is Theodor Lee, cybersecurity specialist working for Synthetic Systems. But underneath that, there's still his old name registered to it. I would say it's a hoax or he's an imposter, but the way that this chip has been treated, he's clearly the real deal."

"But that's impossible," Nova said, casting Theo a haughty look. "How old could he have been when-"

"Seventeen," Theo cut in angrily. "And I'm standing right here, asshole, so how about you start talking to me, instead of about me? If you want to know anything, you might as well just fucking ask."

He wished he could have just torn the accursed chip out from underneath his skin and crushed it under his boot. He probably should have done that long ago, but it was hard to make a living on Eos when a BioID was required for pretty much breathing the air on this planet.

"Interesting...." Nova mumbled, "Very well then. First question, how did you do it?"

"Do what? What's this about?" Erika whispered, agitation in her voice.

"Ohh, sweet, innocent princess, you don't even know who he is, do you?" Nova's cheerfulness sounded fake, like sugar laced with poison. "How delightfully ironic that you would drag him into our lair."

"Theo, what are they talking about?" Erika tugged at his sleeve, and as he looked to the side he found her staring at him with a confused furrow on her brow.

Nothing but bad things had happened all those years ago. He didn't care to remember, and he didn't care to remind her of any of it, either. He had always told himself there would be the right time and place to tell her about it all – now it was too late. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly, and was about to say something, when Nova cut him off.

"Well your friend Theo here has quite the reputation among hackers. Of course not under his real name. Isn't that right, X?"

Theo wanted to strangle him at the mention of his old nickname. Without letting go of Erika's hand, he threw Nova an angry glare. Nova met his gaze with a predator smile, all teeth and no friendliness.

"X, although that was only shorthand for his full handle. Also known as Deus Ex Machina, I believe."

Slowly, Erika slipped her hand out of his. It was as if a knife was plunged right into Theo's heart as she looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and disappointment. She knew what it all meant. That nickname, that handle, it was a legend. To Theo, it was a curse. But to her, it first and foremost meant that he had kept a giant secret from her, his best friend since childhood.

"The god from the machine, appearing right here before me," Nova continued, sounding pensive. He placed a hand at the side of his face and eyed Theo up and down again. "And he's just a kid with no augments. I don't fucking believe it."

He barked a short laugh and turned away, as if to pace around the room.

But in a flash, he turned back and moved toward him so fast that Theo couldn't even properly process what was happening. One moment Nova was standing before him, the next he had grabbed him by the collar and dragged him over to the side of the room. A forceful shove caused Theo to stumble against one of the crates that stood against the wall. He had barely come to sit on it when Nova smashed his foot down hard just between his legs, giving him  just enough time to scoot out of the way and back against the wall.

Nova leaned forward, resting one arm on his knee. His other hand had produced a switchblade from somewhere, and he held it pointed at Theo's throat, fixing him with his intense, dark glare.

It happened so fast that Erika's scream of surprise seemed almost comically delayed. From the corner of his eyes, Theo could see her reflexively take a step forward, and both Ghost and Shahr shifted their attention to her. He shook his head, almost imperceptibly, and to his relief, Erika understood and didn't move.

Theo could feel the knife dig into his skin on his neck, but he wasn't scared. He knew this man wasn't going to kill him. He was probably safer now than he had been when he had entered the room, now that they knew who he was. When Erika had brought him here without their knowledge, he had been a liability to them. Now, he was a potential asset.

"How did'ya do it, X?" Nova asked icily. "How did you manage to pull all that shit off seven years ago, with not a single fucking wire in your body?"

Like an old reflex, a sense of bravado kicked in, and the adrenaline rid Theo's mind of any fear, of any hesitation and any remorse. He tuned out the presence of the others in the room, most importantly Erika with her look of wide-eyed shock and horror, and cracked a smile.

"Trade secrets," Theo hissed back.

His heart was beating somewhere around his throat, underneath Nova's blade. With every pulse, the adrenaline surged through his veins, taking him back to days long past, when he had had his fair share of encounters with pretentious assholes like him and when he had learned that the only way to gain the respect of people like him was to be an even bigger asshole.

For a moment Nova just stared down at him, the corner of his mouth quirking, as if he was suppressing a bout of laughter.

"You've got some balls, kid..."

Somewhere at the other end of the room, Theo could hear Erika gasp in shock as Nova began to move the blade, slowly tracing it down along his neck, pausing briefly on his Adam's apple, and then moving it further down to bore into the soft patch of skin at the groove between his collar bones. He leaned closer, meeting Theo's unwavering gaze. The scent of peppermint was on Nova's breath, which tickled against Theo's lips as he spoke.

"Do you want me to pry these secrets from you as I tear the skin from your flesh, and the flesh from your bones?" Nova asked in a low, husky voice.

"Is that the kind of shit you're into?" Theo croaked back. "I'll have to politely decline, I like my skin intact, thank you very much."

Nova's lips twitched again, but he didn't move.

"And you've got a good sense of humor too," he said. "Gallows' humor..."

"I'm not afraid of the Devil, Nova," Theo hissed. "They called me Deus for a reason."

Nova's eyebrows shot up, he stared back at him for a moment, and then he burst into loud laughter.

Finally, he stepped back and flipped the switchblade close to pack it away in one of his pockets. Theo hoped that the man was too distracted by his amusement to notice that he took a deep and relieved breath. His gaze flicked over to Erika, who had gone pale as a sheet of paper. He gave her a faint smile to reassure her, but as he moved his hand up to rub it over his neck, where the blade had left behind a tingling sensation, he noticed that he was trembling.

"I like you, Theo," Nova crossed his arms before his chest and gave Theo a hard stare. "You got spunk. But that old name won't fly with my crew. You're neophytes here, and ain't no one gonna go around calling themselves a fucking god while I'm in charge. No matter how good you claim to be...." he added, letting his gaze wander down Theo's body once again.

What a pretentious prick, Theo thought again.

He felt heat rush to his cheeks, and blamed it on the surge of adrenaline.

"Alright. Now that we're down with the pleasantries and introduction, let's talk business," Nova exclaimed and clapped his hands together. He sauntered back over to the sofa, plopped down next to Shahrazad again, and gestured to the empty seats.

"Business?" Erika asked incredulously. "Are you serious? After you just-"

"Isn't that what you came for, Entropy?"

"Is it?" Theo asked from the side.

He still had no idea how Erika, his sweet and innocent Erika, had found her way into this giant fucking mess. And why she had dragged him into it. She seemed to read his mind as she stared back at him, and a blush crept up on her cheeks as she averted her gaze.

"So.... They made an offer," she explained reluctantly. "Well, I suppose, technically, they made it to you. Since it was never really me who cracked that last level."

"Oh no, Princess, don't belittle yourself like that," Nova shook his head, then pointed at Theo. "He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you finding the Cube, taking care of the Sentinel, and getting through the first couple of levels. And you solved my little riddle in the end. So he wouldn't be here without you, and you wouldn't be here without him... I'm fine taking both of you as a package deal. If you're in."

"In what?" Theo asked icily.

"You heard the lady, Sunshine. I got a job. And I need someone... with a special skill set. That's why we've been recruiting," Nova explained. "We'll make it worth your while."

"What are we talking about here?" Erika cut in, "How much?"

"More than enough than you could ever spend on coffee and fantasy romance novels, Princess. Enough to buy you any dreams that the markets and black markets of Eos have for sale."

Theo traded glances with Erika, who cast him an uneasy smile that was perhaps supposed to look innocent, but only managed to make her look more guilty. He heaved a weary sigh and rubbed a hand over his brow.

"Theo... think about this," she whispered next to him. "If we had money... we could... we could do what we always wanted. We could get a ship and get off Phaeton's Fall for good... never look back. Leave all this crap behind. Isn't that what you wanted? You could even get augments to-"

"But at what cost, Erika?" he hissed back.

"Just... hear him out, okay?" He put on her best expression of pleading puppy dog eyes. "Since we're already here?"

He couldn't believe how he had gotten into this situation. No, he could in fact believe that he had somehow ended up in the basement of a brothel in the shadiest parts of the city, surrounded by the kind of people whom he was paid to work against in his daytime job. But he couldn't believe it had been Erika who had dragged him into the lake of Electric fucking Eye.

"Please, Theo..."

The risk was high, the promised reward higher - just like old times. He considered all he had in his life. What was really worth anything? His job, his apartment, his possessions, it was all worthless, meaningless. He had already lost everything he cared about, long ago. Except for Erika. And she was right here.

Theo looked up and met Nova's gaze. The man had been observing their brief, whispered exchange curiously.

"What kind of job are we talking about here?" Theo asked.

"A heist, of course. In fact, the greatest cybercrime in history." Nova cracked a grin. "Something that'll make your little antics from seven years ago pale in comparison. If all goes according to plan, we'll walk away filthy rich."

"I didn't do it for the money," Theo said firmly, "And I won't join your little venture if that's all it's about. No way."

"Oho. The great X has his principles to adhere to, huh? Adorable."

Nova's scoffing remark irked him beyond measure. Theo had to clench his hands into tight fists to keep himself from charging at the preposterous bastard.

"But I understand," Nova continued, his voice suddenly softening. "We all have our reasons. I won't ask you to commit to our cause without knowing what it is about. But I cannot tell you about it unless I know that I can trust you, you see? So here's my offer. You join my little troupe here as neophytes for a while. At the end of that time, you can decide whether you want to be in on the mission or not. So, sweethearts, are you ready to make a deal with the devil?"

"We're not breaking any rules... we're just... hanging out with them, you know?" Erika chimed in from the side, "Nothing illegal about that."

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" Theo cut her off. "I know you. You're gonna do this either way, am I right?"

She looked up at him with defiance and determination in her pale eyes. "Yes."

He heaved a weary sigh. "Well, what choice have I got then?"

"Is that a yes, my gloomy friend?" Nova asked.

"You said it yourself. We're a package deal," Theo confirmed, putting a hand on Erika's shoulder.

"Good," Nova said. "Then let's finally have a chat like civilized people."

______
A.N.
It's baaaaaack! I wanted to post this for ages but just wasn't completely happy with it... now I figured... fuck that, it just has to go out there, even if it's unpolished. I hope posting it will help me find my motivation to work on this story again because I really, really wanna tell it <3
anyways. I hope you enjoy.