Broken Faith

Observation 28: Even demons have hearts

The moment the air door closed behind you, all the noises around you dampened. Like someone had put their hands over your ears. Which would make sense, but you could still see everything around you, tainted in a mix of navy blue and wine bottle green while blurred enough to erase any details. So you couldn't properly make out the expression on Sabo's face once you inevitably looked behind you.

Blueno looked down at you as he sealed the door, "Is everything alright, Miss Saint?"

Fuck. Was your expression faltering? In a hasty effort to hide any sneaky emotion that revealed itself, you pinched the bridge of your nose and let your hand cover your mouth. Still, you couldn't deny the obvious. "No. Of course it isn't. Enies Lobby has fallen. It's rather a waste of investment."

He didn't say a word. Instead just surveying you with that blank expression he was so damn good at, partially obscured by the hazy blue green light infusing the space of the air door itself. If anything that just unnerved you more.

Had that been enough? It wasn't even a lie, you were slightly pissed that everything you'd put into this place had basically collapsed in a pile of rubble. You would have much rather continue pulling strings from behind the scenes and twist CP9 into something you could actually use... or at the very least make sure people weren't using it as much for their dirty work. It wouldn't have changed all that much. You were aware that there were probably forces within the World Government that were being deliberately kept from you. There were too many moving parts, and too much paranoia within one governmental unit for them to reveal all their cards to a defect who'd spent far too much time outside their every present eye.

But it would've been a slight difference. An extra grain of sand to even out the scales. And you would have considered it more than worth it.

"How old are you?"

"Hm?" The question took you by surprise a little. "I... Why? If you are questioning my maturity I will be highly disappointed in you."

"Of course not." Stepping forwards, he gestured to start leading the way to wherever he'd stashed the rest of the unconscious CP9 members. "You have more than adequately shown your capabilities after all."

Your stomach churned a little. Something wasn't right here. "Then I hate to repeat myself, but why are you asking? It is of no importance to you."

"Forgive me. I was satisfying my own curiosity."

Yup. Alarm bells were already ringing. Fantastic. One more thing on top of this clusterfuck.

"No." Your knuckles whitened around your pistol. "You are going to tell me what you mean, or..."

Or what? Your pistol was useless against him. One iron body would be all that it took to deflect the bullet. Not to mention that without him, you were stuck within the air door. And you didn't know how else you were supposed to get out if he died.

Bleuno turned to you, arching an eyebrow with emotion you would never be able to identify. "A word of advice for you, Miss Saint, if you would permit me."

You didn't respond. How could you, when words were lumping in your throat and your face was burning with semi embarrassed shame?

"You may believe that toeing the line is the only way you can survive. However, if you ever want to achieve the goals that I suspect you are aiming for, then you need to do the exact opposite."

That... you hadn't expected that. Although you were quickly beginning to notice that it was impossible to anticipate anything Blueno was about to say. He performed his job as a spy beautifully. He could gather information from body language and facial cues. Both he and Kalifa were remarkably scary in that regard.