ASH's POV~
From the far corner, he leaned against a broken beam, the firelight throwing his shadow long and jagged against the walls. He watched as Echo greeted Ryu as she stepped out from the blaze, her mask dotted red, her jacket glowing in the flicker of flames.
She looked untouchable…ghostly, like the fire itself bowed to her.
He chuckled low, shaking his head. "And they call me reckless."
He stepped over a fallen guard, boots crunching glass underfoot, and glanced once at the officer bleeding on the floor. Still alive.
Barely.
He took out his Desert Eagle and shot.
Ryu always left too much life behind.
It wasn't mercy, not really. Just her way of twisting the knife in her superiors.
Ash sighed, raised his gun, and corrected the mistake with one clean shot.
Outside, the night rain hissed as it met the fire's heat. He lit a cigarette and let the smoke curl out of his mouth.
The firelight was fading behind him. He dug his phone out of his pocket, thumb hovering over the screen. The name that appeared made him smirk
... Eve.
A moment of hesitation, just long enough for a shadow of amusement to cross his face, before he tapped the call.
The line clicked, and Gera's voice sliced through the static, sharp, amused, and familiar.
"Hmmm."
"Mission's done... eve," he said lazily. "Your pet project pulled it off… with a little of my help, of course."
On the other end, silence.
For just a breath, Gera didn't answer. Then came her voice again, sharp, like steel sheathing over something softer, but her voice crackled, sharp and edged with amusement.
"A little help? Or another one of your explosions?"
He grinned. "Booms keep things interesting."
There was a pause, her voice dropping lower.
"…Then tell me, why did the boss contact you directly for this? Shouldn't it have been kept quiet?"
Ash's grin widened.
"You know how it is, how our captainship works, right?
When they want shadows, they send Ghost.
When they want whispers, they send you.
When they want silence, they send Eel."
He kicked a loose stone into the gutter, eyes glinting under the rain.
"But when they want the world to burn… well, that's my call, isn't it? I think I am being nominated in the house for the last captain's position…. I have got more kills than anyone else"
"One day, your booms will blow your own ass off," she shot back.
He flicked his cigarette into the wet pavement, the ember hissing out.
He laughed, low and genuine. "You'd miss me too much."
Static hummed between them, neither speaking for a moment.
Then, almost to himself, so soft it barely carried, he murmured her old nickname.
Gentle, stripped of malice, a ghost of their banter.
"…dumb bitch."
And with that, he ended the call, shoving his hands into his pockets as he disappeared into the rain-soaked night.
The city swallowed the blaze behind them, leaving only the hiss of rain and the faint smell of smoke in the alleys. Another mission, another ghost added to the fire.