MafiA's Gamble

TWENTY SEVEN

The Truth

     Eleyne sat in the car, watching the blurred landscapes through the window, her eyes narrowing as they reached their destination. She was definitely surprised to see that Ley had not taken her to K Tech's base, but rather, to their family mansion, otherwise known as Ley's home. She slightly frowned to herself, as a butler opened the door for Ley and bowed respectfully. "Welcome back, Master." Ley nodded in dismissive acknowledgement, and started walking towards the large front doors, Eleyne not too far behind him. When the butler finally saw Eleyne's face, a small flash of surprised recognition passed over his face, as he quickly lowered his head into a shallow bow. "Young miss..." he paused slightly, and after a moment's hesitation, simply said, "Welcome back." Eleyne took a glance at the aging man she once saw every day. He certainly did have more wrinkles and less hair than she remembered. "Ah. Hedon. it's been a while." The old butler then gestured towards the massive doors, where Ley stood waiting, watching the two as if he were asking, Are you ever going to come in? "Ahem. This way, young miss."

     Soon enough, Eleyne found herself lounging on a couch in front of Ley, who now sat there, wearing a rather satisfied expression on his face. "... Hello.. brother. How have you been?" Eleyne spoke in a bored tone, observing the smug smile that never left her brother's face. "Why, I've been doing just fine. You know, just running K Tech on my own, that's all. Boring stuff I might add. How have you been, dearest sister? There happen to be many people out there on the lookout for you." Eleyne raised an eyebrow. She, of course, knew this already, but for the sake of humoring him, played along. "Is that so? Hmm. Well, as for me, I suppose my life has been rather peaceful." Eleyne paused briefly, before asking a question she didn't quite have an answer to. "Care to tell me why you decided to find me now after all these years?" Ley shifted in his seat, clearly a rather uncomfortable topic. "It was simply a.. coincidence. I was just waiting for someone to discover our relationship and use it to... take advantage of me. After all," he stared pointedly at his sister, as though what he was about to say justified his course of action. "I'm sure you've realized by now, that almost everyone around us is so simple-minded... so... easy, I daresay." Eleyne remained silent. After all, he did make a pretty good point. Ley was about to make another remark, before his phone rang, cutting off the siblings' impromptu reunion. "Sir! We have accomplished the trade with the MafiA! The HADES has now been safely secured at K Tech." A smile formed on Ley's lips. Things were going well. " Excellent. I'll make my way there now." He ended the call and turned to see his sister's reaction. To his surprise, she looked kinda bored and annoyed. "You done yet?" Confused, Ley's sharp gaze narrowed onto his sister. "Hah? You know something, don't you." Eleyne smirked, finding that toying with her brother was rather amusing. "Hm? Perhaps." Seeing what she was doing, Ley impatiently replied, slightly irritated. "Care to explain?" Eleyne paused, faking as if she were thinking over quite the difficult request. After a moment, she looked up and smiled. "Hmm..... yes, I'll think about it. But first, I want some cookies and hot chocolate. I've been deprived of my sugar intake for quite a while now. After all," she grumbled to herself, "I've been running on tea the whole time I was at AG."

     Eleyne was now sitting in Ley's private office, satisfied with her sugary delicacies. On the side, Ley watched as Eleyne took a purposefully slow sip from her hot chocolate, increasingly growing annoyed when she wouldn't speak up. Finally setting down her cup, Eleyne smirked. "I was gonna tell you anyways, but I thought it'd be more interesting to boss you around a bit." Ley remained motionless as he silently urged her to get to the point. No kidding. "Anyways, the HADES you took from MafiA is actually a fake." At this, Ley's face lit up with temporary surprise, though he quickly regained composure. Most people would assume that he was unfazed, but being his observant twin, Eleyne could easily tell that this was news. "Surprised? Even if you said you weren't, well, I know you are. You wouldn't be the only one either. MafiA is and was unaware of this as well." Ley crossed his arms and stared at Eleyne with suspicion. "And how long have you known about this?" Eleyne frowned slightly. "Would have been better if I knew earlier, but unfortunately, I only just found out because that Parachute Boy told me. By the way, I'll have you know that this whole trade was my idea." Ley scoffed to himself. "Of course. I will say, I'm not surprised. To have AG make a move so quickly, that is definitely out of character." "I know, right? Hmm, well anyways, there's a lot more to this HADES than we were initially led to believe. AG actually has the real HADES, a weapon from the previous generation that was built to win the war with K Tech." Eleyne smiled to herself when she noticed Ley's expression. "That's right. Our parents' generation. Parachute Bo- wait, no, his actual name was Raito? Well, anyways, his parents developed the HADES to defeat our own state-of-the-art gadgets. Unfortunately for them, the weapon was never completed in time for them to be able to use it. All these years later, it is still in an incomplete state, which is the problem. Since it is unfinished, as it is now, that weapon is an unstoppable bomb that will blow this whole city away. To make matters worse, all the researchers and builders who were making it are either dead or missing. Word has it, that the super reactive fuel it needs to run on was already placed inside it during the war, so they could use it right away, which means that it is capable of exploding if anyone tinkers with it too much." Ley slowly sank into the seat beside her, seeing where Eleyne was going with this. ".. Thus the reason why they made a similar fake to fiddle with, without the risk of destroying everything." He looked at his sister with slight worry, as Eleyne beamed. "Yes, that's right. So glad you caught on so fast." Ley looked up from his thoughts. "Then I assume that must be the reason as to why AG wants Yuki?" "Bingo! Right again. Yuki, being a natural with code, and her experiences with MafiA.. combined, currently, she has the highest success rate of preventing a potential explosion." "Hmm.. I see. That does make a lot of sense. So. Care to tell me why you intended on telling me all this in the first place?" Eleyne looked at her brother with the same sharp gaze he frequently wore himself. "I'm asking you to cooperate with AG in stabilizing the HADES."