Frost scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Look, if this is gonna be some ’I’ll spare your life in exchange for information or your undying loyalty’ bullshit, it ain’t happening. I’m not a snitch. So I suggest you just kill me now."

"No," Jayden said quietly, his distorted voice calm. "I don’t want anything from you."

Frost raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Everyone always wants something." She said.

"Not me," Jayden said, stepping back to give her space. "This isn’t about what I want. This is about what you want."

Frost furrowed her brows, grimacing as she shifted her weight against the wall. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I am choosing to spare your life," Jayden stated simply. "Now, this choice is obviously a terrible one, considering you’ve seen my face and you know my real name. But I’m choosing to do it anyway. Because I want to give you a second chance."

Frost let out a heavy, exhausted sigh. "Kid, we’ve been over this... I’m not interested in any exchange—"

"I told you, this isn’t an exchange," Jayden cut in, shaking his head. "I am letting you go, and I am not expecting anything in return. All I want is for you to make your own choice. What will you do with this second chance? Now, you could go straight back to Black Cobra. You could tell them exactly who I am. You could come after me and my family, and maybe even get rewarded for it by the syndicate."

He crouched down, bringing himself to eye level with her. "But that doesn’t change the fact that you are just a pawn to them, Alaya. You will be used, and used, until you can no longer be useful. And then you will be discarded. Because they are not your true family."

Frost scoffed, looking away. "Well, unlike you, I don’t have any true family left in this world."

"You could make one," Jayden said earnestly. "I did. And even though I’m still angry at everyone and everything, having people I can trust and rely on helps. Having them around helps me forget the pain. It makes me feel human again. And it gives me a reason to keep fighting. Because that power of yours... it could serve a far greater purpose. I’m not saying you have to be a hero, but you could at least use it to protect the people you actually care about."

Frost stared at Jayden for a long, silent moment. She looked genuinely amazed. "You know, this makes it the second time today you’re giving me a heartfelt life-lesson. I’m starting to think you’re a therapist by day, vigilante by night."

Jayden chuckled, a soft, genuine sound escaping his mask. "No. I’m just a teenage boy who’s way in over his head. And as for what I do during the day... I guess I’m somewhat of a hunter."

Frost smiled, a real, unburdened smile breaking through the blood and grime. "A hunter, huh? Well, that explains the whole stealthy aesthetic. And the claws, too." She tilted her head, curiosity getting the better of her. "How do you even have claws, anyway?"

"A good hunter never reveals his secrets," Jayden shrugged playfully. Then, his expression beneath the mask sobered. "So. What do you want to do? Go back to your temporary, surrogate family? Or build a new one that will last forever in your heart?"

Frost chuckled sadly, picking at a loose thread on her shredded top. "You’re asking me to turn my back on the very people that saved my life."

"I’m asking you to choose yourself," Jayden corrected firmly. "And to choose wisely. With you out of the picture or not, I will take down the syndicate. And I will destroy anyone who stands in my way. I am giving you a chance to be free, Alaya. To redeem yourself. To see what life actually has to offer when you’re not a gun for hire for a criminal organization."

Frost scoffed, a defensive hardness returning to her dark eyes. "What if I don’t want all of that? What if I don’t wanna be free? What if I don’t wanna be redeemed?" She looked at him deeply, challenging his resolve. "What if I just want to keep working for Black Cobra until the day I die? Would you kill me, then?"

Jayden stared at her. The silence stretched between them, heavy and cold.

"Yes. I will," he said flatly, his eyes hardening into stone. "As long as you stand in my way, I won’t hesitate to eliminate you."

Frost chuckled, a bitter, hollow sound. "Well, you better just kill me now, then. Because I won’t turn my back on the only family I’ve had since..." She paused, her voice cracking as the buried pain violently resurfaced. "Since I lost my mother and my brother."

Jayden exhaled softly. "And what would they think of you right now?"

Frost froze.

"Your mom and your brother," Jayden pressed gently but firmly. "If they knew that this is the life you’ve chosen for yourself. Taking the lives of innocent people just to earn a living and numb the pain. What would they say?"

"Don’t," Frost snapped, genuine fury flashing across her face. "You have no right using them against me. You don’t know anything about what I’ve suffered or what I’ve had to endure! You don’t know what it’s like to lose the only people in the world that matter to you!"

Jayden remained perfectly calm. He didn’t flinch at her anger.

"You’re right. I don’t know exactly what you’ve had to go through," he admitted quietly. "But I do know what it’s like to lose someone." He looked down at his hands. "My mom died in my arms when I was ten years old. She was shot. And then I had to watch my sister get dragged away by the very same people that killed my mum. The EVA."

Frost’s anger instantly evaporated, replaced by profound shock. She stared at the teenager, completely blindsided. She hadn’t realized their grief was a mirror image. "I... I’m sorry. I didn’t know."

"It’s fine," Jayden said, looking back up at her. "I’ve spent the past seven years angry. I’ve been consumed by a singular focus: getting revenge for what the EVA did to my family. And I still am. But I still try to balance that feeling of rage with the affection I have for my newfound family. Because if I don’t, I’ll—"

"End up like me," Frost finished for him, a dark, self-deprecating chuckle escaping her lips.

She leaned her head back against the frozen brick, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I understand everything you’re trying to tell me, Jayden. I really do. But unlike you... people like me are incapable of loving again. We’re broken beyond repair."

Jayden smiled wryly beneath the mask. "How can you be so sure? You won’t know until you try."

Frost laughed, a genuine, defeated sound. "So what do you want me to do? Just waltz into the boss’s office and quit being a Pioneer for Black Cobra? It doesn’t work that way, kid. Organizations like that aren’t something you just hand a resignation letter to. They don’t let assets walk away. The only way out is by dying."

Jayden fell silent. His tactical mind raced, processing variables, calculating outcomes. He stared at the cracked asphalt, a brilliant, audacious plan rapidly forming in his head.

He looked back up at Frost. "Well, what if you did die?"

Frost raised a battered brow, utterly confused. "What do you mean?"

She stared at him for a few seconds. And then, it hit her. The sheer brilliance of the loophole. Her dark eyes widened in absolute realization.

"Wait," Frost breathed, a slow, incredulous smile finally breaking across her face. "I see what you’re onto. And I think that could actually work."