Jayden raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "How did you know I was seventeen?"

Frost shrugged casually. "Just a hunch."

Jayden didn’t respond, keeping his face perfectly neutral.

Frost sighed, her playful demeanor fading into something remarkably soft and grounding. "Look, I know you must be going through some heavy stuff right now. I get it."

"You don’t," Jayden scoffed defensively.

"Oh, but I do," Frost said quietly. "Why else would you be in here, at a bar, if not to drown your sorrows." Her dark eyes locked onto his, and for a second, the temperature in the room seemed to drop again, but this time with pure melancholy. "Broken souls like us... we’re connected. Through pain, suffering, isolation... and grief. It leaves a mark."

Jayden shook his head, looking away. "You don’t even know me."

"I don’t need to," Frost replied, her voice gentle. "I can see it in your eyes. That detachment from society. The total loss of empathy. That cold, burning determination to make the world pay for what they did to you." She suddenly cracked a grin, breaking the heavy tension. "Or maybe I’m just drunk." She laughed and took a sip from her refilled glass. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Jayden sat in silence. He didn’t know why, but he was suddenly deeply interested in this woman. The way she spoke, the way she carried herself—it was the absolute antithesis of a ruthless Black Cobra mercenary. She wasn’t like the other pioneers he’d met. She seemed... ordinary.

"You don’t seem like someone who’s in pain," Jayden said carefully.

Frost chuckled, a hollow sound. "Don’t let the smile and the jokes deceive you, kid. It’s all a facade," she sighed, while still keeping that gentle smile. "Beneath all this jovial act is a mountain of suffering and despair. One I’ve had to carry for years. And it is slowly eating me alive. It turns you into a living ghost—lively on the outside, but completely dead on the inside."

Jayden didn’t know what to say. He wondered what horrors someone like her had endured to exude such profound, casual sorrow.

Frost looked deeply into his golden eyes. "Grief is like a freezing river. You can fight your way across it, or you can let the current pull you under until your heart turns to ice. Don’t let your pain consume you. Don’t let it turn you to the dark side. Don’t let your rage turn you against the world. Because once you cross that line... you can’t ever come back." Then she offered a genuinely kind smile. "Focus on building yourself up and forming new relationships. Find warmth where you can. Because at the end of the day, we all just want to love and be loved. All it takes is to seek salvation."

Jayden felt the words strike him right in the chest. He offered a genuine, faint smile. "Thanks. I... I really needed to hear that. You’re actually pretty inspiring."

Frost chuckled, waving a hand. "I have my moments," she said. "I actually considered becoming a preacher once upon a time."

"You’re Christian?" Jayden asked, surprised.

"I was," Frost corrected, staring into her whiskey glass. "But the amount of sins I’ve committed... it’s far too great for even God to forgive."

Jayden exhaled slowly. "I’m not Christian, and I don’t know much about God. But one thing I do know is that no one is beyond redemption. Just like you said to me... all it takes is to seek salvation. But the first step to doing that is learning how to forgive yourself."

Frost stared at him, genuinely stunned. She laughed softly, shaking her head. "Damn. Trading words of wisdom with a teenager of all people. The world must be ending."

Jayden shrugged. "I have my moments." He said, echoing her earlier words

Frost swirled her drink. "You’re wrong about one thing, though. Some people are beyond redemption." She chuckled darkly. Then she added something Jayden did not expect to come out of a mercenary’s mouth. "Take the Joker, for example. That nigga is irredeemable."

Jayden barked a laugh, the sheer absurdity of the pivot catching him off guard. "Agreed. The Joker is just pure, chaotic evil. But honestly, compared to Pennywise, he’s bearable."

Frost raised a brow, her tough exterior vanishing instantly. "Pennywise? You mean that creepy-ass clown that eats kids in the sewers? Hell nah. I would definitely take the Joker over that monster any day. Watching IT always gave me the chills."

"It wasn’t even that scary," Jayden teased, leaning on the counter.

Frost laughed loudly. "Anyone who thinks that demonic creature isn’t terrifying must either be a madman, or a psychopath, or both," she chuckled. "I had nightmares for weeks after watching the remake they did five years ago."

"I haven’t actually had the time to watch it yet," Jayden admitted.

"Oh, you have to," Frost grinned. "Tell you what. If you make it to the end without pissing your pants, I owe you another shot."

"It’s a deal," Jayden chuckled.

For the next thirty minutes, the masked vigilante and the ice queen sat at the bar, talking about evil clowns and debating which fictional villain was the most diabolical. It was the most normal Jayden had felt in months.

Suddenly, a sharp buzz emitted from the discreet comms-piece in Frost’s ear.

She tapped it, her expression instantly hardening into a mask of pure, razor-sharp ice. "Understood. I’m on my way."

She cut the transmission, took a breath, and let the soft, jovial facade slip seamlessly back into place. She turned to Jayden. "I’ve gotta go. Duty calls."

"Is everything okay?" Jayden asked.

Frost nodded. "Yeah. Just work," she said smoothly. Then she called out to the bartender. "Yo, Arnie!"

"Yeah," Arnie responded, turning to her.

"I’m leaving," Frost said. Then she pulled a black credit card from her jacket and slid it across the mahogany. "There’s about 200k credits on there. That should cover the tabs for everyone in the bar tonight. Keep the change."

Arnie’s jaw dropped. He stared at the card like it was radioactive and slowly pushed it back. "Alaya, no. This is way too much. I can’t take this."

Frost sighed dramatically. The air pressure in the room spiked. In a fraction of a second, the moisture in the air coalesced directly into her palm, forming a sharp, jagged dagger of solid ice. She flipped it playfully in her hand, leaning over the counter.

"Arnie," she purred, her tone playful but still laced with absolute, terrifying authority. "What did we say about rejecting my gifts?"

Arnie swallowed hard. He snatched the card off the counter without a second thought. "Thank you, Alaya. You’re too kind," he sighed in defeat. "Once again... you’ve given me more money than I make in a month."

Frost dispersed the dagger with a casual flick of her wrist, the ice vaporizing instantly. "It’s nothing. Take care of yourself, Arnie." She turned back to Jayden, her dark eyes softening. "You too, kid. It was fun chatting with you. I hope we can do this again sometime."

"Yeah," Jayden forced a smile. "Me too."

Frost reached out and gave his shoulder a firm, grounding pat. "Don’t forget what I said," she muttered. "I can’t tell you to forget your pain, but don’t let it turn you into a heartless monster." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "It’s not too late for you."

Jayden looked at her, his golden eyes searching hers. "What about you?"

Frost slowly shook her head, a tragic, hollow look crossing her features. "I’m afraid it is. The kind of work I do... it isn’t something you get out of alive." She let out a sad, self-deprecating laugh. "Guess that makes me irredeemable too. Just like that crazy clown."

"What kind of work do you do?" Jayden asked quietly.

Frost was silent for a long moment. Then she muttered softly; "The Devil’s work."

She forced one last, bright smile. "See you around, kid. Don’t drink too much vodka and kill your liver. At least wait till you’re 30." She added with a wink. Then she turned and strode out of the bar.

A moment later, the deep, rumbling roar of a high-end hoverbike echoed through the heavy doors as Frost zoomed away into the neon-lit night.

Arnie let out a long sigh, wiping down the counter where she had sat. "She’s a strange one, isn’t she?"

Jayden stared at the door. "Yeah. She is. But she’s... nice, too."

He was genuinely thrown off. She didn’t strike him as a cold-blooded killer. She seemed like a woman who had simply seen too much agony and still actively chose to be kind to the people around her.

"Yeah, she is nice," Arnie said softly, his eyes filled with pity. "But underneath that nice woman is a little girl who lost her entire family to the cruelty of the world. Her father was killed when she was just a child. And she lost her mother and her little brother in a fire a few years back."

Jayden froze. He knew she was dealing with grief, but an entire family wiped out? Now he understood the suffocating depth of her sorrow. He understood exactly why someone that broken would numb the pain by becoming a ruthless mercenary.

But empathy didn’t change his reality. He had a mission to protect his own family, and he was going to see it through.

"That must have been incredibly tough for her," Jayden murmured, shaking his head.

"It was," Arnie agreed. "Sometimes I wish I could help her the same way she helps all of us here. But she is a steel vault. She never lets anyone in."

He chuckled sadly. "I keep telling her it’s the reason she’s still single."

"Perhaps she doesn’t let anyone in because she’s terrified of losing them," Jayden said, pushing himself up from the stool. "It’s better not to have attachments at all than to have them and end up burying the people you care about. Some people just can’t survive that kind of pain twice."

Arnie stopped wiping the counter. He stared at Jayden for a long, calculating moment. "Are you sure you’re seventeen, kid? Or are you just an old man trapped in a teenager’s body?"

Jayden offered a tired chuckle. "Sometimes I wonder that myself." He gave the bartender a two-finger salute. "Thanks for the drinks, Arnie." Then he turned to leave.

Arnie stared at Jayden’s back as he walked out, wondering what kind of hell the kid had walked through to speak with such heavy conviction.

As soon as Jayden pushed through the doors and hit the cool night air of Carmine City, his demeanor shifted completely. The casual, empathetic teenager vanished, replaced by the apex predator.

He reached into his inventory and pulled out a small tracking display pad. A bright red dot blinked steadily on the holographic grid, moving rapidly across the city sectors.

That red dot was Frost. He was tracking her.

When Frost had entered the bar, Jayden had immediately recognized her. But after seeing how everyone in the bar adored her, he knew he couldn’t pick a fight here. So he formulated a new plan. Follow her when she left the bar and get the job done.

But then he saw the fingerless bike gloves she had on... it was just like the one he used to summon his hoverbike. That when he knew she had a vehicle, and trailing a hoverbike on foot through a crowded metropolis was too risky. And in addition, leaving at the exact same time as her would have blown his cover instantly.

While they were talking about Pennywise, Jayden had mentally accessed the System Shop through Luna. He had purchased a microscopic, high-grade tracking transmitter for 2000 SP. And when Frost was distracted, playfully threatening Arnie with an ice dagger and handing over her credit card, Jayden had used his Mach 1 Agility to flawlessly slip the bug into her jacket pocket.

Now, he could track the Ice Queen straight to the Devil’s doorstep.

Without wasting another second, Jayden dropped into a runner’s stance. In a violent blur of displaced air, he dashed into the neon labyrinth of the city, the hunt officially underway.