The suite they were spending the night in was large, with bedrooms for everybody and a big open space where several couches and a huge TV took center stage. The moon shone through the windows, the stars invisible behind bright city lights, and all the lights in the room were off, lighting everything silver. Everyone was sleeping, or trying to sleep, except for Nero and Aeyra, the former was exploring who-knows-what on his laptop, and Aeyra had just come out from her room, knowing she'd be able to talk to the leader of their group alone.
"Aren't we supposed to be meeting with-"
"Change of plans." Nero's voice was cold as he broke off Aeyra's question. "Since Chaos has to be the dumbest, most moronic idiot the world has ever seen, we are now initiating 'disappear off the face of the earth mode'- hopefully it'll work."
"Disappear?" repeated Aeyra dubiously, worry showing in the pits of her chocolate brown eyes. "What do you mean? I thought we were going to rescue Chaos! Are you just going to leave him there to be-" She couldn't finish her sentence, and looked downwards as she caught the somewhat irate frown on Nero's face.
"Their goal is not to kill him. Their target is us. Specifically me," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "If we try to rescue him, I can guarantee we will be captured and/or killed on spot, with Chaos following maybe a few seconds afterwards. If he's lucky. If we're lucky. He's going to have to duke it out by himself this time."
"Nero..." Aeyra's voice trailed off. The girl was originally shocked at how coldly he regarded his best friend's capture, but she realized Nero was trembling, hands shaking uncontrollably. Only a little bit, but it was obvious Nero was doing his best to keep them still, which proved he was suffering a lot more than he was letting on. "You don't have to pretend." Her words sounded pointless, but it was the most she could say.
"I don't want to leave him behind, goddammit," Nero whispered, feeling a temptation to bash his fists into his laptop and hear the satisfying crunch of the machinery beneath his hands. "My common sense, my instincts, my brain all tell me to leave him there, just let him die and not do a thing about it. I've been raised to think like that- to think logically, even if it means being completely heartless. But I don't want to do it. He's my best friend, and if he does die- I- I... It'll be all my fault and I'll never be able to forgive myself. Never."
"What do you trust more? Your brain? Or your heart?" Aeyra's question seemed to linger in the air as Nero sat silent, thinking it over.
I've been raised to think like that... It was true. Everyone raised in the Organization was- training your mind and spirit so you wouldn't be impeded by silly little things like emotion. But if you wanted some unfeeling agent, you'd be much better off building a robot that you just spat commands to. If you exposed a person to people, had him interact with them, barring off emotion was impossible. It was as simple as that.
A message blipped on the screen, and Nero let his bright green eyes examine the words, emerald orbs filled with confusion and worry.
"What happened?" inquired Aeyra urgently, catching the look on Nero's face.
"There are six days left," read Nero slowly, carefully, trying to find perhaps a deeper hidden message, hiding his fear. Were they talking about Chaos? "That's all it says."
"Six days..." mused Aeyra, her words a whisper. "Six days until what?"