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“Elliott. We can’t give up this opportunity. It may be our only chance. And there’s nobody in the galaxy like Lady Death. If anyone can make sure every planet gets made aware of the shit Honeybliss has done, it’s her. It’s well worth the risk.”

“No. Niko, no.” Elliott stood up, releasing his hand. He looked upset.

“I have to. This is bigger than me. It’s probably a trap, but—”

“It is a trap. It’s obviously a trap.”

“I know. I know , Elliott. You’re right. But I have to try anyway. If I gave up now, what would I be?”

Elliott shook his head tightly. “We’ll find another way.” His voice was clipped, tone final.

Niko drew in a slow breath, willing himself not to entertain the anger rising in him.

Elliott was the last person he wanted to snap on.

He knew the man was only trying to look out for him in the same way he himself looked out for Elliott.

It was the Starlight Awards all over again, with Elliott wanting to retreat and survive, and Niko pushing deeper beyond the point of return.

They’d only just barely survived that.

“This is the way, Elliott,” he said at last. “This is it. We have to talk to her. I can’t get through to her anymore and I don’t know anyone else who can help.”

“They’re going to eat you alive if you go in there.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Like you were with Baouban?” Elliott snapped.

They stared at each other for a moment in silence, Elliott’s gaze assertive and cold, before finally yielding back to a wounded sorrow. He wrapped his arms around his waist tightly. “I’m sorry. That was unfair.”

“Elliott. Let’s not do this right now. We’re not— I’m on your side. If there were any better way to do this, I would. But I have a plan. I’m already thinking of what I can hide on the suit if things go south. I—”

“I’m going with you.”

Niko gaped at him, his brain briefly going offline. “No. That’s— No. That’s the worst possible idea.” Elliott had to be goading him at this point.

“Of course, I’m not going to just stand there and hang off your arm,” Elliott said instead. “I’m not an idiot. I’ll keep in stealth and use the shield generator. They won’t even know I’m there. You can consider me insurance.”

“I don’t know about this, Elliott,” Niko said, his stomach turning sour now.

“It’s this way or not at all.”

Niko opened his mouth to protest, a hearty ‘ Since when do you get to make the rules?’ readied.

He let it die on the back of his tongue.

It had, after all, been Niko who had only just gotten them surrounded by Galapol agents, with no way out.

And it had been Niko who’d afterwards asked Elliott to help rein him in when his own stubbornness wouldn’t relent.

So, they had each other at a disadvantage.

“Fine,” he conceded. “But stay in stealth and don’t say a fucking thing. I mean it, Elliott.”

“I know.”

They fell into charged silence, Niko slumping in his chair and Elliott standing with his arms folded.

“There’s, uh, one other thing,” Niko said.

“What’s that?”

“The guy I’ll be meeting… His name’s Aleksi Mikhaylov. He’s. Um. My ex.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Silence lurked between them again, before Elliott finally added, “Is there something more to that?”

Niko sighed. “No, I— It’s— I don’t know. I just wanted to mention it, in case he says something or references something from the past. I don’t know.”

“You mean in case he tries to get you to make up for lost time and screw his brains out?”

Niko could taste the bile on his tongue. “No. No. Those days are long gone. I’d rather fuck a yauntha’guur.”

Elliott smirked. “If I think too hard about that, I might find it insulting.”

Niko couldn’t help but smile, a gentle wave of much needed amusement and relief washing away some of the tension.

“Really, though, Niko. You’re a living, breathing person with life experience, and I’m not going to get jealous of the time before we ever crossed paths. I won’t hold it against you. You had a boyfriend. You had sex. It happens.”

Affection blossomed through Niko as he looked at him. Affection, and appreciation. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m just being weird.”

“As long as you don’t want to go shack up with him again, what do I care?”

Niko shook his head. “No. I—I really had a thing for him a long time ago. But one night, I’d gotten my bounty quicker than I’d anticipated and the job ended early.

I decided to surprise him. Went back to our place and found him balls deep in a Heenva woman.

” He winced. The experience was years ago now, far separated from where and who he was in life at this point.

And he’d found something far better since, someone Niko was willing to defy a galaxy for.

But the memory still, and would always, hurt.

Elliott grimaced. “That’s rough.”

“Yep.”

He moved around the table and pushed Niko’s chair back, then sank sideways into his lap.

He looped his arms around the back of Niko’s neck, so that their faces were inches apart.

His beauty, airy and ethereal, always left Niko breathless—seeing his contours and details up close was always a delightful reminder of that.

“I can make him have a happy little accident,” Elliott purred. “‘Here lies Aleksi, who tripped on a bullet.’”

Niko laughed and shook his head. It was one thing to joke about vengeful killings of abhorrent ex-lovers with a sympathetic party.

It was a whole different thing to do it with Elliott Kestrel, notorious assassin.

“Yeah, a bullet that was aimed right between the eyes and moving six hundred miles an hour.”

“Which he tripped into.”

Niko shook his head again. “Seriously, though. He’s a shit-tier person, but he doesn’t deserve to die. I just… want to finish this as quick as possible and talk to Lady Death.”

“It’s a trap,” Elliott said. “He’s so obvious it hurts.”

“Yeah.” Niko sighed, the weight of his future pressing down on him hard.

“It is. You’re right. We both know it is.

So, we’ll just have to keep our wits about us.

It’s not just him, either. We’re going to Dainna, which is one of the biggest black market outposts in the galaxy, so it’s…

everyone. Everyone will probably try to kill us.

“Actually.” Niko sat up straighter, looking at Elliott. “You were able to find my phone number before. Do you think you could find whatever her new number is? We wouldn’t even necessarily need to go there, then.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Elliott said. “You were on a regular service and registered. In these sorts of shady pockets, people tend to be more paranoid and make their phones untraceable. Like you and I do now. I found that out when I was researching Honeybliss.”

“Damn. Right, yeah.”

“So, you’re still absolutely committed to this path?” Elliott asked.

“Unfortunately.”

“Then I’ll be sure to bring my lucky knife.”

“You have a lucky knife?”

“So far they’ve all been lucky, but I especially like the one I killed Matteo Ricci with.”

“Hey. Speaking of killing, though,” Niko started, “unless it’s absolutely necessary, let’s try to avoid it there. Even if it all goes south, I mean. Which it probably will. We’re not there to kill just because people want a chance at a bounty so high it would leave them set for ten lifetimes.”

“I know that, Niko.”

“I know you do. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page, just in case.

I know how tense things can get when adrenaline and fighting for your life gets involved.

” He’d only just barely stopped Elliott from killing Fourier—though, in the end, the Galapol agent had ended up dead, regardless.

“These guys aren’t Honeybliss. Some of them do pretty shitty things.

Some are thieves and pirates. Some run predatory casinos, deal drugs.

Most of them have killed before, but it’s almost always inside crime.

Defending your supply, taking out a rival, punishing betrayal. That sort of thing.”

Elliott tilted his head. “You’ve had a lot of experience with that kind of life, haven’t you?”

“Yeah. Spent a lot of time in and out of black markets.”

“So, one day you shoot the shit with some nefarious underworld drug lord and the next, you’re chumming it up back in Station Twelve with Galapol?”

“Uh. Yeah, it was kind of like that, actually,” Niko mumbled, scratching at the wiry stubble on his cheek. It only now occurred to him that his life might be a little bit weird.

“How is that possible?”

“So, I’m kind of like a daywalker, right?”

“A… daywalker?”

“Yeah, like in the movies. Half-vampire, half-human. They’re of both worlds, darkness and light, and can walk in the sun, but usually hunt—”

“Please tell me you really didn’t just compare yourself to a vampire.”

Niko grinned. “Really, though, like I said before, I had a reputation and a niche. So long as I brought Galapol the real trash, they were willing to overlook… well, a lot.”

“Huh. Okay. I can see how they’d work out a deal like that with you. But what about your black market connections? They had to know you were working with Galapol, right? Why didn’t they just shoot you in the back of the head and call it a day?”

“There are some people there who would in a heartbeat, believe me. But it’s like any other society, right?

” He found himself stroking his fingertips up and down the gentle ridges of Elliott’s spine, and hadn’t realized when he’d started.

“You can’t make a blanket assumption about the people of the market.

Everyone’s different, and everyone has their own set of morals and standards.

There are a lot of people there who, believe it or not, are actually pretty damn decent.

People who keep their honor and dignity.

They might do some shady things, sure. But they keep to their own and would never tolerate anything like what Honeybliss does.

“The pockets I kept to were like that—unless I was hired to do clean up. Then I’d venture in further to some of the really dicey territory.

There was always the opportunity for good pay in the market itself to keep it regulated.

Some guys were truly reprehensible. You have to be pretty fucked up when you’re so legitimately awful that other criminals think you need to be put down.

They were just insane, or went too far, or started getting a reputation for being utter monsters.

Usually, it took some time but eventually someone would step up and hire somebody like me to go out and, uh, ‘take care’ of them.

“I guess it’s like you and Honeybliss. What you’re doing isn’t by any means legal. But you’re doing it for a greater cause. Instead of the black market, you’re cleaning up the whole galaxy. When Lady Death learns what’s really going on, she’ll respect you.”

“Respect,” Elliott said quietly, as though tasting a foreign word. “I wonder, though, if she’s going to respect me more than she respects three billion credits.”

Niko swallowed. It was the question he couldn’t answer, and yet the one this all came down to.

“I—I want to tell you she will. The person I once knew would, for sure. Out of anyone in the market, she had the most honor. Her and—” Niko deflated a bit.

“And Baouban. I guess in the end, I can’t promise anything.

I just know we have to try. It’s not enough to kill these bastards.

I want the galaxy to know what they did and never celebrate or protect them again. ”

“You’re starting to sound like me,” Elliott said.

“You might be rubbing off on me.”

Elliott leaned in and kissed him—long, gentle, warm. It felt so good to be joined with him like that, even so briefly. When he pulled away, Niko reached up to pet his untamed blond hair.

“We’re going tomorrow night, so make sure you’re ready by then,” Niko murmured.

“Why not just get it over with tonight?”

“Mmh,” Niko grunted. He had to tell him eventually. “So, you’re not going to like this, either.”

“Splendid. Let’s hear it, then.”

“I’m supposed to meet with Zann tonight. I actually have to leave soon.”

Elliott went stiff in his arms. This time, he didn’t argue, remaining, instead, silent.

“Elliott…”

“Why?”

“Because he—” Niko scrambled for the words. “He deserves to know why I turned against him.”

“I don’t feel good about this. You’re meeting in a likely isolated location, by yourself, with a Galapol agent—”

“Former Galapol agent,” Niko corrected. “Who’s my brother.”

“It’s a conversation you can have over the phone, Niko.”

“No. I can’t. Not with him. I owe him this in person.”

“I thought you already told him about Honeybliss and sent him the files.”

“I did. He promised me we’d open an investigation when this was over.

But I never got the chance to actually speak to him about it.

Especially not after he watched them. I just want one chance to talk to him about it all.

To explain, and to ask what he knew, too.

And I don’t want to do it over the phone.

He’s my best friend. He and my dad are the only family I have left. ”

Those last words seemed to impact Elliott. He closed his eyes and turned his head away. Niko felt himself winning this argument. He knew that family was important to Elliott, that he couldn’t bring himself to get in the way of that.

“I’m sorry. I have to do this,” said Niko.

“I’m going with—”

“No. Not for this one. This one’s just me and Zann. I need this. I promise it’ll be okay.”

Elliott was quiet for a long while. Niko wondered what he was thinking, and considered begging it out of him. In the end, he kept quiet too.

Finally, Elliott said, gentle but firm, “We’re not going to survive this for long if you’re always out meeting with people. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries to be another Baouban.”

Niko rubbed at the back of his neck. He knew this all must be jarring to Elliott, after living in absolute isolation for, at the very least, several months. “I know, Elliott. I know that. After these two things, I’m done. One’s for our cause—and you. The other is for me.”

“I know, Niko. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’ll be alright. It’s going to be okay.” Niko had to say it, though he didn’t know whose benefit it was more for—Elliott, or himself. He tried to push away the memory of how close they’d just come to losing it all. “We’ll make it through this. We always do.”