Sea's hands rested on Zed's shoulders. They were cold as the wind rushed by them. The headphones over Zeddy's ears crackle as Sea's voice comes through. "Relax, it's not an impossible shot."

Zeddy exhaled, the tenseness releasing from his shoulders. His knees ached against the metal of the helicopter floor. With his bare eyes, he could see the target down in the field below, winking against the blustery grass. The red of the bullseye winked as the helicopter moved to and fro, the wind a bit aggressive outside.

"Wind direction," Sea said, their voice low and their words clear. "Which way will it push the bullet?"

"North-east."

Sea nodded behind him. Their body was small and lithe, and Zed kept every single bit of it in his peripheral vision. Not knowing where Sea was was dangerous, so Zeddy never let that happen. "Distance from us to the target?"

This was more of a complicated answer. The math was strange, and Zeddy had to take more than a minute to pull it together in his mind. "About 1655 meters."

"About?"

"1655.43 meters to the target," Zeddy corrected, finding the places for the decimals as the math fell into place. "Wind direction adds another few meters, maybe 4."

"Maybe?"

Zeddy rolled his eyes, knowing that Sea couldn't see it but also that they'd somehow know. He wasn't afraid of Sea, he respected them and their abilities. "4 meters, making the shot 1459.43 meters."

Sea nodded. "Try not to get too bored with me, Zeddy. What else before you take the shot?"

"Flip the scope–"

"Not 'til the last minute. There's one thing before that." Sea's hands gripped Zeddy's shoulders a bit tighter.

He thought about it for a minute. Zeddy knew how to dismantle and put together every gun Abscess had access to; he knew how to wield most melee weapons and could improvise off the top of his head. But this one step was something he could never remember.

"Think about it," Sea's voice whispered through the headset.

"Breathe." Zed exhaled. "Take the shot?"

"When you're ready."

He inhaled, preparing for the recoil without over-tensing his body. Zeddy flipped up the scope, adjusted slightly with the new view of the target, and moved his finger to the trigger. Exhaling, his finger tensed and pulled.

The gun fired.

The shot hit.

Red.

He clicked the safety into place and turned slightly to grin with unfettered glee at Sea, who smiled in response. "Holy shit! Holy shit I did it. Did you see that?"

"I saw that," Sea said, the smile on their face almost looking strange to Zeddy. He'd gotten smiles from Sea before, and every single one felt like a gold bar. Strange to see, but incredible. "It was incredible."

Praise was even rarer.

"Wait, really?"

Sea nodded, "Yes. It was great, Zeddy. You did great."

~

He sat in the back of the car, the black SUV rattling down the road, Kay at the wheel, El in the passenger's seat. The mission hadn't gone as planned. It was shit, but at the same time Zeddy had done some impressive work. He'd gotten from his sniper nest to the stairwell in almost 5 minutes. It wasn't something he'd ever done before.

It was quick moving, and Zeddy had to sit and catch his breath as her body was cooling on the concrete.

The car was silent. Kay's hands were white knuckling the wheel, and El was tapping his fingers on the seat belt. Zeddy inhaled slowly and then exhaled again. He wanted to sleep, it was late at night, but closing his eyes in a car with two assassins wasn't necessarily comfortable.

El's fingers tap-tap-tap-ed on the plastic.

"Jesus Christ, will you please stop that?" Kay snapped, her voice sharp and her eyes wild. The road in front of them was illuminated by the high beams of the car. The darkness and trees of the rural area are bleeding into existence.

El glared, his face only slightly illuminated by the headlights. "Don't try me right now, Kay," his voice trailed off. There was something in it, something that wasn't to be tested. Zeddy kind of wanted to test it.

"So, are we going to talk about it?" Zeddy asked. His eyes rolled as he moved to the centre seat of the back of the car. "Or are we going to pretend it didn't happen until we have to write our reports?"

Kay's jaw clenched. It was hard to see with the low light, but Zed was somehow always aware when people were mad at him. She shook her head slightly and huffed a small exhale from her nose. "I know what happened."

"How?" Zed questioned as El slumped down slightly in the passenger's seat, his fingers tapping intensifying.

"Zed, it's none of your business," Kay shot back. Her voice was stern, and Zed's mind started to spin.

He huffed lowly. "Are you joking? I ran down 4 flights of stairs and then up three more. I avoided every single camera, meaning that I basically ran 10 flights of stairs. It is very much my business."

"You took the shot, you did your job," Kay said, stern and harsh. "It's not your business. You're not here to ask questions. You're here to take the shot."

Zed laughed slightly. Yeah sure. Yeah sure his fucking job was to shut up and take orders. He could do it, but he was never really good at it. He was never really good at it, and he wasn't going to start being good at it today.

"So you're not going to tell me?"

"Not unless I'm ordered to." Kay's eyes were forward, moving along the ground in front of them, the car rolling on its way down the road. No one else was out. People usually weren't up at 2 in the morning.

Zed sat back in his seat, adjusting to the fact that, no matter how hard he tried, he wasn't getting what he wanted. Kay was good. She was a vault, and Zed had never really been a safe-cracker.

"Are you going to sulk back there?" Kay asked, her eyes flicking between the rearview mirror and the road. "Because I will not have a child sulking in the backseat of my car." Her tone was almost joking, and at this point in the morning, Zeddy was kind of tired of pushing people.

"I'm not a child," He whined, playing along with the game of mother in the driver's seat and child in the backseat. "I'm 19. That's an adult."

Kay laughed, her voice light, and it was hard to tell if she was faking it. Zeddy knew she was because he'd never heard this light before. "You're definitely still a baby. Right, El?"

"He's little," El said, sitting up a bit straighter. His eyes rolled a bit as he put on a bit of a smile. His tapping slowed slightly. "Very much a baby."

"I am not a baby!" Zeddy grumbled under his breath, performatively crossing his arms and slumping in his seat.

"Put on your seatbelt," Kay said, the maternal sound in her voice 100% false. But Zed immediately did as she said. He'd never had anyone to say things like that to him. The click of the seatbelt sounded out in the slightly quiet car.

Zeddy sighed, relaxing a bit more as the silence continued. The energy of their facade stilled, and El's tapping stopped entirely. The car was silent for at least a few minutes before Zed started to talk again.

"Who did it, Kay?"

The car jerked to a stop in the middle of the street. The trees around them were dark and cold. All of the light was harsh and bright, only focused outwards, never focused inward.

"Do not ask again," Kay said, the maternal cover dropped entirely. All that was left was a killing machine, and as she turned to stare directly into his eyes, he knew that if she tried, he wouldn't be leaving this car alive. "I am not in the mood for this shit. Do not ask again, Zed."

Zed didn't ask again.