Look Me in the Eyes (and tell me that it's me) [Zhongchili]

Chapter 28 - First Mission

The mission that Pierro assigns Ajax is simple. The Fatui have identified another group who have been causing trouble on the streets of Snezhnaya, although in a different neighbourhood to Ajax's usual. One of the men in that group is a ringleader for several crimes against civilians—theft, robbery, assault and the like—and they're sending Ajax there to "sort them out." "Start him off light," as Pierro puts it. It's a strange assignment for a private military to involve themselves in—small, irrelevant in the larger scheme of political manifestations—but Ajax supposes they want to see how well he takes orders with a familiar task.

And orders Pierro has given him.

"We want them gone," Pierro says, after delivering the mission details. "You have our official endorsement now, so I ask that you show them no mercy. Wait until they've taken action enough to incriminate themselves, then strike. We have people in place who will clean up your mess. Just keep it discreet."

"No mercy? You want me to tie them up somewhere embarrassing when I'm done? Dump them off at the police station?"

"No mercy," Pierro repeats, his eye narrowing. "I mean dead. The Fatui don't leave people who can talk. Until now, you've been half committing. Your assistance so far has been helpful, but now it's time to get your hands dirty. Or does that upset your delicate sensibilities, Childe?"

It doesn't upset Ajax. It unsettles him.

He's been perfectly happy beating on a few bad guys, teaching them a lesson and leaving them to reflect upon their actions. But now Pierro's words is clear: he wants these people dead.

Dead. A life taken. The end of it all.

And Ajax has to be the one to do it.

It's expected. That's what militaries do. They kill people. It's hardly a surprise, but Ajax expected his first kill to be against one of Snezhnaya's enemies. An invader, or a rogue militia trying to take over a town, or a group targeting the Snezhnayan government itself. He hadn't expected his first kill to be against a few ruffians who, while being a threat to the streets, are still civilians in themselves.

"Can't we jail them?" Ajax asks. "Teach them a lesson, put other people off doing the same?"

"No. Government doesn't want to pay to keep them alive. Now do your job, and I would suggest fewer questions in future, Tartaglia."

Now Ajax is here, standing outside a club in his civilian clothes with an alcohol-free beer in hand, chatting with a group of students who're too drunk to notice that he's not. He scans the crowd, searching for his targets that Fatui intelligence has told him will be here tonight. According to the neatly typed report he was handed, this is their favourite haunt, the perfect place to search for unsuspecting students too out of it to realise they're being tailed before revealing themselves and taking their belongings, often violently.

Most of the people here seem perfectly normal. Irritating, yes, with their slurred words and less-than-championship dancing getting in the way as he glances across the crowd, attempting to identify his targets as he continues to feign interest in the conversation.

Then he catches them.

It's subtle. Three men stand in a circle, all holding drinks and chatting between themselves. But on closer inspection, none of them are drinking, and they keep glancing towards a group a little further off, where a young woman stands beside her friends, her coat done up and her bag over her shoulder, angling her body away from the group in preparation to leave.

They have a target.

But so does Ajax.

The woman wobbles off down the street, blowing off her friends' efforts in persuading her to order a taxi. "It's not far, nothing's ever happened before," is her reasoning, which is pretty shoddy reasoning. It only takes once. One encounter gone wrong, one knife wielded in anger, in desperation, and that's the end.