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“Eh, sometimes,” Aleksi said, walking between two towering, half-stripped ships whose models Niko didn’t recognize. They looked vintage though, likely favored by collectors. “But these actually aren’t hers. Her place is further back inside the building.”

“Uh huh.”

They reached the far end of the garage, where stairs led up to a mezzanine which connected to two sets of doors. Aleksi paused at the foot of the stairs and tilted his head.

“She should be here any—” He pulled a pistol out from inside his jacket and shoved the business end towards Niko’s face. “Second.”

Several mercenaries appeared, stepping out from behind derelict ships, their own guns at the ready, all trained on Niko.

Niko sighed. He looked at Aleksi with disappointment.

“Sorry, Niko. Your bounty’s just too good to pass up. But I’ll buy a bottle of aged Uulan red in your honor.”

“ Finally, ” Elliott muttered. “ Maybe now we’ll actually get somewhere. ”

Niko raised his hands in mock surrender and shook his head.

The mercenaries fired on him, all their bullets uselessly pinging off his shield as the shockwaves of their impact rippled through the air.

He unlatched his own rifle and took a quick shot aimed for Aleksi’s foot, but the other man was too fast, leaping behind half a beautiful XR-193 racer that looked to have its windshield missing and cockpit gutted.

He heard Elliott drop two of the mercenaries—if the grunts and moans of pain were any indication—and spun to take down another, shooting her in the arm.

“Shit!” She lurched and dropped the gun, cradling her wound before shrinking away from him.

Niko turned back to where Aleksi was hiding.

“You really think I didn’t see this coming, Aleksi?”

“I don’t know,” Aleksi called out from his hiding spot. “You missed a lot of things going on right in front of you for a long time, dude.”

Niko really wanted to give him a bad day. “You always were an asshole. Here I was hoping people could change.”

Aleksi appeared briefly around the side of the XR-193 and fired quickly on Niko, but like the others, the bullet didn’t even come close. Elliott caught him with a shot through the shoulder and Aleksi staggered back before disappearing again, leaving a trail of blood droplets in his wake.

“ Ooohh ,” he ground out, his voice gravelly from pain now. “You brought your new fucktoy too. Perfect. He’s the one I really wanted.”

“Fucktoy?” Elliott purred. He wasn’t whispering anymore. “The only one getting penetrated here today is you. By a bullet.”

“Yeah? I heard these do a pretty good job at wrecking your ass.” Aleksi appeared again, quick, EMP grenade in hand.

Niko didn’t give him the chance. He was on Aleksi in an instant, barreling into the other man.

He grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground.

Aleksi slammed down into it hard, the breath knocked out of him.

The grenade tumbled away uselessly, bouncing across the floor, the pin still in.

“Aleksi. Knock it off,” Niko said, staring down at him. “You’re not going to win this. Just take us to where she actually is.”

Aleksi wasn’t ready to quit just yet, it seemed. He leapt up, jackknife in hand now, that he drove toward Niko’s neck. “Hey, remember this?”

A pang of shock and annoyance jolted through Niko as he recognized its design—a twin of his own knife, and a gift he’d given the other man years ago.

Aleksi was infuriatingly quick, almost as much as Elliott had been.

Niko deflected the hits with his arm, though, the blade all but useless against his armor.

Then he punched Aleksi hard enough to send the other man reeling.

Fuck. That was way more cathartic than it should have been.

He heard Elliott take down two more of the mercenaries in the background, the shots coming from different angles as he quickly maneuvered about.

Only one remained active now, and Niko turned and shot at him, missing.

The merc returned fire back on Niko which the shield stopped again, then panicked and tried Niko’s own tactic, rushing him instead.

Niko overpowered the man, wrestling him back and throwing him to the ground like he’d done with Aleksi. Elliott swept in quick, knocking the mercenary’s gun out of his hands.

“Okay, okay, okay,” Aleksi said, raising his hands in surrender now that his hired help had been dismantled.

A trail of dark blood ran down from his left nostril where he’d been decked and his nose sat at an angle now.

The shoulder Elliott had shot sagged limply.

He looked utterly depressed. “Fine, I get it. I’ll take you to her for real. ”

Niko trained his rifle on him. He didn’t trust Aleksi not to pull something tricky again in a last-ditch effort. “Do it. And don’t fuck around this time. We’re not going to be so merciful a second time. Am I clear?”

“Clear as crystal,” Aleksi said flatly.

“I heard you were back in town,” a deep, feminine voice boomed out across the garage from behind them. It was terrifyingly familiar.

Everyone involved in the failed ambush froze in place. Niko’s heart dropped as he slowly turned and stared at the Heenva whom everyone called Lady Death. This wasn’t how he’d wanted to make her acquaintance again.

“Oh. Oh shit ,” Niko heard Aleksi mutter under his breath. Clearly, the asshole hadn’t been actually expecting her here, either.

Death was a robust, tall woman with generous curves. Her blue, scarred skin showed in patches, purple hair tied back in a severe bun. An eyepatch covered her missing right eye. She was exactly as Niko remembered.

Flanking her were several of her own guards. He vaguely recognized a few of them.

“So, uh, Niko showed up and tried to use me to—” Aleksi started, his voice suddenly gone shaky.

“Shut up. Just shut up,” Niko snapped at him.

Aleksi ignored him. “He’s got his serial killer fuckbuddy here with him. The one with the sniper rifle, who’s, you know, murdering everyone—”

“Do you know what ‘shut up’ means?” Elliott asked. He knocked Aleksi to his knees, the act looking odd and seeming to come from nowhere with Elliott’s stealth still in place. “You’re a liar and an idiot, and now you're in time out.”

“Show yourself,” Death demanded. Her people trained their guns in Elliott’s direction.

“Shit,” Niko muttered. This was falling apart fast.

Elliott deactivated his stealth, appearing before Death and her guards.

To her credit, the Heenva merely eyed him up and down, sizing him up.

He kept Repartee lowered at his side, not showing any hostility towards her either.

She could easily take him out before he’d ever have a chance to defend himself.

Niko tried not to dwell on that fact—but it was all he could think about.

“In the very flesh,” she marveled.

Niko swallowed nervously. “I—I need to talk to you. It’s why I’m here. Why we’re here.”

Death’s gaze swiveled toward Niko again, cold and displeased. She pursed her lips and her branching antennae flickered with a faint and dangerous glow. “Why would I have any interest whatsoever in talking to you, Killjoy?”

“So, they actually do call you that,” Elliott said.

“You have some real balls,” Death continued. “The audacity you have to set foot on my turf after you disappeared without ever honoring your debt would impress me if it weren’t so pathetic. And now you want to talk .”

“You didn’t mention that part,” Elliott murmured.

Niko may have forgotten to bring up their bad blood and his unpaid debts when regaling him with stories about the Great Revolutionary of Sala. The plan was a little more convincing that way.

“You’re right,” Niko said, looking at her. He latched his rifle onto the back of his suit and raised his hands in a gesture of goodwill. “It was pathetic of me. And it was wrong. So, I’ve come to finally repay that debt. Whatever you ask, I’ll do it.”

“Don’t trust these guys. Are we really just going to ignore that he brought Elliott Kestrel with him?” Aleksi had gotten to his feet again.

“I’m not ignoring anything,” Death said patiently. She eyed Aleksi and his bloodied nose, then looked back at Niko. “Why are you and Elliott Kestrel roughing up my people in an old parts garage?”

“Alek—” Niko started.

Elliott cut him off. “Mikhaylov got too big for his britches and decided he wanted to use the fact that Niko needed to see you to instead stab him in the back for his bounty.”

Niko glanced sharply at Elliott, his pulse spiking as he realized the man whose reputation made people do dangerous, uncharacteristic things was negotiating the situation now.

You had one rule. One. To let me do the talking.

Death looked at Elliott now, her expression turning sour with disgust. Her antennae flashed sharply in a brief, intense glow. “Is that so?”

“It is,” Niko said. “He led us here for an ambush.”

“A pathetically obvious one,” Elliott added in. Then he muttered, “You have really poor taste in men, Niko.”

Niko scowled at him. “You’re kind of insulting yourself with that one too, you know?”

“Anyway.” Elliott looked back at Lady Death far more boldly than Niko liked. “You should tell your minions to try a little harder next time.” He tipped his chin up with a hint of regal pride and challenge.

Niko winced. They were both going to finish this exchange as corpses.

Death turned her gaze on Aleksi instead, though, eyeing him up and down. She didn’t look pleased. “My minions don’t backstab people.”

“Look, I can explain,” Aleksi said, suddenly sounding nervous.

He held up his hands placatingly. Death stared at him in vicious silence.

“Let’s be reasonable here. You’ve seen his bounty.

It would leave you set for a lifetime and more.

It would leave all your people set too. They’ll all be taken care of.

This guy fucked off on you anyway, right?

We can split it. Fifty-fifty solid. I brought him here and—”

Death shot Aleksi between the eyes, the sound thundering through the warehouse. He dropped to his knees with a solid thud , then fell forward onto his face. A puddle of dark blood spread out from beneath his head, reflecting the dim lights above.

Niko gaped in utter horror, momentarily breathless. “ Why?”

“Clean this up,” Death barked at her guards, ignoring him.

They fanned out and shot any of Aleksi’s mercenaries who had been left behind and stranded due to their injuries.

Niko flinched with each fatal gunshot. He glanced at Elliott, who looked quietly upset, his brow drawn into a subtle frown, skin pale with his own barely expressed shock.

He didn’t seem interested in clever quips and comments anymore.

When it was done, Death turned her unimpressed gaze on Niko again. “The two of you, come with me.”

Niko nodded to Elliott. The other man vanished as he reactivated the ORA, but Death shook her head.

“No. You stay in sight.” It wasn’t a request.

Elliott reappeared, watching her warily.

“Come on,” she said, then turned and walked away. Niko cast one last glance at Aleksi, feeling ill. He lay unmoving, the puddle of his blood still growing beneath him. He’d never get up again.

Niko had despised the man, but hadn’t wanted him to die.

He waited for Elliott to make his way over, then walked side by side with him. Death’s guards formed a ring around them as they exited the parts garage.

“You okay?” Niko murmured. He knew how well Elliott took getting others caught up and killed—even if they were greedy assholes in the end. He was probably blaming himself, too, especially given it was his comments that had helped seal Aleksi’s fate.

“I’m fine,” Elliott replied, his voice clipped and tense.

Niko eyed him. Elliott pressed his lips together into a tight and severe line that made Niko ache. He knew him well enough now to know he was anything but fine. Niko reached out to touch the back of his hand, when one of the guards snapped at Elliott, jolting both men.

“Put your weapon away.”

He did, slinging Repartee over his back.

Niko was surprised they hadn’t tried to outright take it from him.

It was a stunning—and completely unexpected—show of trust from Lady Death for the galaxy’s most notorious killer.

Niko hoped it was a good sign, that perhaps she might still trust him, too, after everything.

They made their way back through the winding, neon-shrouded corridors of Dainna in a direction Niko was familiar with this time. She’d never moved her compound—but that wasn’t really surprising. Death’s guards kept to their tight formation around Niko and Elliott as they walked, guns out.

The news of their presence would sweep across all of Dainna within the hour, he knew—and somehow already had begun to, given that Death had even shown up—but nobody dared to try their luck, even as Niko watched the eyes they passed by widen with shock and recognition, all fixated on Elliott.

Some even glanced at Death and moved away, nervously keeping a distance.

Even Dainna gave her respect. That was the power Lady Death wielded.

Power that Niko might just be able to use to hit Honeybliss where it hurt. They just had to survive this, first.

Nothing to it, right? Niko thought. It’ll be all downhill from here.