Anastasia's eyes while staring at the furry little Kitsuul were a bit too intense.
She seemed to be thinking of all the possibilities that Kitsuul represented, and how revenge against a murderer might actually be possible from here on out!
Yes, her eyes shone with a deadly light of anger.
The little beast let out a wary whimper as it caught the crazed look in Anastasia's eyes. In the next moment, it shockingly slipped past her fingers as if it wasn't even real and leaped back onto Damian's shoulder.
Its six tails curled tightly behind his neck, trying to hide from the madwoman in front of them.
Anastasia stared...and laughed.
"Haha… haha! Hahaha!"
The laugh was deep and hysterical like she had just uncorked a bottle of long-suppressed chaos.
Tears spilled from her eyes, yet she kept laughing, again and again.
All her feelings of helplessness poured out in that moment because, against all odds, there was actually a possibility.
So she laughed.
So she cried.
And, honestly? She looked a little unhinged.
She kept at it for a full minute before slowly heaving and wiping away her tears. Then she turned to Damian, her eyes glinting with a cold, dangerous brilliance.
"Okay."
…!
One word.
"Okay?" Damian echoed.
Anastasia pushed her glasses up and began to speak rapidly.
"If your little beast needs time to grow stronger, we will wait. And if we need access to the files hidden in the ZENTHRA vaults, especially the ones on that powerful Guardian Interstellar Beast Master, we are gonna need gear. The kind of gear that lets me hack into ZENTHRA's main servers without setting off a single alarm. I'm talking a NeuronEdge-99 Neural Console, an UmbraNode CloakChip, and a Cypher Root Core Key."
…!
Her eyes were practically glowing now, like she could already see everything unfolding.
But then, her words took a turn.
"But all that tech? It'll run us over 1.5 million Credits- Credits we definitely don't have. And I'll need the Cypher Root Core Key inserted directly into one of ZENTHRA's Mainframes to access deeper files, and that is in a place I do not have access to."
She spoke fast, but Damian tracked every word.
They needed gear. And someone had to break into ZENTHRA's Mainframe to plant the Core Key.
Damian nodded, unfazed.
"You want me to infiltrate your workplace and insert the Core Key. Fine. But the Credits to buy all that…"
He wasn't worried about the risk.
Kitsuul's Veilshift ability was the real deal, and it was perfect for slipping in and out of anywhere unseen.
Anastasia's eyes lit up even more when she realized he was fully on board.
"For quick Credits…" she hesitated, clearly weighing a risky idea as she glanced between him and the furry creature still hiding behind his shoulder.
"...we don't even have to leave the Stacks. There's the Rustblood Circuit Arena. You know- where Cybernetic Humans, Hybrid Beast Masters, and Androids fight for Credits."
She said it boldly, and Damian's eyes couldn't help but twitch.
Why did her plan have to be insane?
The Rustblood Circuit Arena.
A place of carnage and entertainment carved out from a massive ruined reactor beneath an abandoned Maglev station near the Dark District of the Hollow Stacks.
If you were lucky, or suicidal, there was money to be made there. Lots of it. Rivers of Credits flowed, right alongside the rivers of blood in the combat zone.
Damian had been there before. Back in the days before he met Ilyana, when he still flirted with danger in the Dark District, he used to watch the fights there.
He remembered the brutal cybernetic fighters, humans, and Cybernetic Beast Masters who were trying to imitate the real Interstellar Beast Masters.
He remembered the amphitheater gallery surrounding the Combat Zone with flooring made of polycarbonate tiles layered with shock-absorbing Geltech.
In the arena, parts of the floor would shift, drop, or rise mid-fight, triggered either by the AI or the bloodthirsty crowd.
It was a haven for illegal tech dealers, black-market surgeons, crime lords, and even bored off-duty Enforcers looking for a bit of fun and violence.
But more than anything, it was a credit-spewing engine for those who had powerful Modifications or Cybernetic Implants placed in.
If you survived long enough.
One match could net 10,000 Credits. Win multiple in a row, and each victory tripled your reward.
Most grotesque of all? The announcer was an AI commentator named HAO- the Hostile Arena Operator.
It narrated every fight with a voice so over-the-top and gleefully cruel that it made your skin crawl. Sometimes, HAO even unleashed random drones mid-match just to spice things up.
No one knew who ran the place. No one wanted to know.
And…Anastasia wanted them to go there.