After regaining his mobility, High Noon had gone straight to the Mentor and told her everything about Frigid’s meetings with Mirror Match and how he had even defended her from the cowboy.
Frigid stood there with his head down, ashamed to look the Assassin Mentor in the eyes. He knew what he did was bad, but he just couldn’t help it. He still loved his old partner, unable to perform his duty of ending her. He watched as the Mentor stood silently, deciding what to do with him.
Star Lance, on the other hand, had plenty to say. “How could you, Frigid? You know she’s the enemy and yet you still meet her! This is wrong in so many areas! Did you forget what she did to the others? Did you forget what she did to Dust Fencer?”
He was right. Mirror had killed his old teacher. The one who taught him everything there was to being an Assassin. Yet, he turned back to her.
“I’m sorry,” was all Frigid knew how to say right now.
“I’m disappointed, Frigid Night,” the Mentor said at last. “I’d thought you made your resolve. Truly, I thought I could count on you to make the right decision. After seeing what you’ve done with the trust that I and every other member of the Brotherhood has placed in you, I find no other choice but to consign you to house arrest.”
“For how long?”
“Indefinitely, until we can come up with a more fitting consequence.” The Mentor shook her head solemnly and placed a hand on the pommel of her sword. “Do as you will, but if I or anyone else catches you with one foot outside this bureau, we will have no choice but to use force.”
“Yes, Mentor…” Frigid looked at his feet.
“About time you left, Frigid,” Star Lance grunted. “You’ve got a lot to think about. And a lot of trust to earn back.”
“I’m sorry, Frigid,” High Noon said from his side. His neck was all bandaged up, along with one of his arms from the fight with Mirror. “But you left me no choice. I thought I could trust you too.”
Frigid nodded and proceeded outside and immediately bumped into Pierce Network and Dr. Patch.
“Frigid, we heard what happened,” Patch said as he closed the Mentor’s door behind him. “And Pierce and I have decided it’s time to tell you some things about Mirror Match. Things we’ve been hiding from you.”
“What?” Frigid mumbled as he listened on.
“Come. Let’s walk.”
The Assassins began heading upstairs, most likely towards one of their rooms.
“Your girlfriend isn’t-”
“Ex-girlfriend,” Patch reminded the hacker.
“No, from what I’ve heard, she isn’t exactly his ex, is she? He’s still been seeing her and who knows what else he’s been doing with her. She’s clearly still his girlfriend.”
“Point taken and it doesn’t matter,” Patch almost chuckled, but stopped. “Frigid, Mirror Match, I don’t even think she’s human. At all.”
“No, it can’t be,” Frigid shook his head. He still didn’t want to accept the fact that he had been dating some kind of supernatural beast.
“I have videos,” Pierce said, pulling out a sleek new phone.
“And I have scans,” Patch added, fishing a tablet from out of her coat.
They arrived at Pierce’s room. As soon as he threw open the door, the Chicoltgo Assassin stalked right over to his row of computers and plugged his phone in.
“Mirror Match destroyed my previous phone, but she didn’t know I had set the van’s four cameras to start recording as soon as the fight started. That’s what you always have to do as an Assassin. Have backup plans of backup plans. That’s what happens when things get too easy. You start forgetting how to plan ahead, relying on your confidence instead.”
“What Pierce is trying to tell you is that he recorded your… girlfriend in combat,” Patch summarized as she closed the door. “And what I have for you are samples, taken from one of those syringes she had on her.”
“Now, Frigid,” Pierce swiveled around on his chair. “This might take you by surprise, since you knew this girl very well. Take a look at all of this.”
Frigid bent his head down to the computer screen level and watched the battle unfold. He closed his eyes every time something had blown up in Mirror’s face, but to his surprise, she kept coming back, even after a fiery explosion, jabbing her thigh with some kind of syringe each time. Her nails had grown into claws, something like what Frigid had seen earlier today, though they were shorter in the video.
“You see all that, Frigid?” Pierce frowned at his screens, remembering the fight. “She’s not human. She can’t be. She withstood electric shocks, steam pipe blasts, even my C4. There’s no way anyone can survive C4 at such close range, yet, she’s still alive. I don’t know what she is, but she’s not normal.”
Frigid, shocked, managed to look to the doctor for her take on his girlfriend.
Patch tapped away on her tablet and brought up sheets of data of chemicals and blood samples. “Silent Frame managed to grab me one of those syringes and I got some of her blood off of Pierce’s coat and analyzed both of them.
“Turns out her blood is different from ours. There are chemicals in there, things that our blood does not hold, things that are actually harmful to us. From what I examined from the syringe, her blood is a catalyst for the formula she jabs herself with. Whatever it is, her blood also seems to have healing properties, likely only for herself or whatever species she actually is.”
It was a lot of information for Frigid to take in all at once. Even if he wanted to, there was no denying that Mirror Match was not human. Now he had seen the videos. He had the reports on her biology.
“I think she’s only been using you, Frigid,” Pierce continued.
It looked like he was about to go on another one of his monologues when the door behind them opened, An angry looking High Noon walked in and stood away from Frigid.
“You don’t see it, Frigid?” he started with a raised voice. “She even said to me that night, ‘your love only makes me stronger’. I know it doesn’t sound like much but I’m betting it means something. She’s using you, Frigid. And you’ve been playing along just according to everything she wants. I thought you were better than that.”
“No, I don’t believe that!” Frigid shot back. “Sure, it looks like she’s a monster, but so what? I love her. And she still loves me.”
“Seriously, Frigid?” High Noon waved his good hand. “Are you so blinded by your love that you don’t see that she’s just using you to get us?”
“She’s doing all this for a good reason. She told me! She’s just looking for someone she lost long ago.”
“But how long ago, Frigid?” Pierce asked. “Kinda sounds like she’s been around a long time. Way longer than any of us.”
“Doesn’t matter how long. I know Mirror. I know she’s not doing this because she wants to, but because she has to.”
“Do you really, Frigid?” High Noon turned up his volume. “What do you really know about her? Wake up, Frigid! You’re deluding yourself!”
“No. Mirror’s not evil!” Frigid pointed a threatening finger at his friend. “Give me time! I can still win her back!”
“She killed Windy!” Noon yelled back. “Windy was very important to me, and Mirror shot her without remorse! Is that still good in your book? And I’ve seen Mirror. I’ve fought her! She looks nothing like the girl you know. If only you could look past yourself!”
“Okay, Noon, I think that’s enough shouting,” Patch grabbed his shoulder and gently pulled him back. “As for you, Frigid. Listen to what he said. It made a lot of sense. Mirror Match is not the person you knew, nor the person you love.”
Frigid raised a hand and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He simply looked around then took a step back and sat down.
“Mirror Match is just a front,” Pierce said as he typed on his keyboard. “I doubt any of her background is true. High Noon is right. We don’t even know who or what she really is. Face it, Frigid. She’s already made her choice to leave us. She won’t come back. There’s no reason for her to come back. She only wants to use you, not to be with you. Templars are all just in it for themselves. That’s what we hope to destroy. They are not going to win this.”
Patch sighed and put a hand on Frigid’s shoulder. “I know, it’s tough to accept it. Especially if it’s the person who you care about the most, but you’ve gotta move on some time.”
“Take your time, Frigid,” Pierce told the grey haired Assassin. “As long as you need. Just make sure that you get over it in the end.”
“You’re going too easy on him,” High Noon grumbled and opened the door. “He doesn’t deserve your kindness. He doesn’t deserve someone to love.” The cowboy stormed out of the room and jogged off down the hall without closing the door to Pierce’s room.
“You see, Frigid?” Patch pointed to the retreating shape of High Noon. “You’ve lost even the trust of your best friend.”
“Yeah…” Frigid saw it now. It was a pointless endeavour chasing after Mirror Match. No matter what he did, there was no way of convincing her to return. Now everyone else he cared about were gone. “I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m gonna head back to my room.”
Frigid quietly headed out and walked towards his room; it was just down the hall from Pierce’s.
Trust. He didn’t like it. He had put all his trust in his friends, in Mirror Match. He had lost all their trusts and now, he didn’t have any for them as well.
Mirror Match. How could she? She used him. She betrayed him. Yet, he still blindly chased after her, having a false hope of being able to turn things back to the way they were before she betrayed him. He pulled out his picture of her and looked at it for a second before deciding to put it back in his coat.
Frigid entered his room and flopped down onto his bed, face down. From tomorrow on, trust wasn’t going to be a problem anymore. He didn’t need anyone else’s trust, and neither was he going to trust anyone again. Things were better off this way.
"They're not making things any easier for Frigid, huh?" Twilight Sparkle chewed on the end of her pencil. The rubber tasted quite nice.
Morning shook her head. "I think they are, actually. Frigid... He never did see what Mirror Match really was. He loved her too much. She was a monster, Twilight. I would even say she was as bad as Sombra was. She didn't care about anyone else but herself. She used Frigid. She deserved her death. The others, they cared enough about Frigid to try to help him see the truth, but I guess... love blinds us, huh?"
"Have you... loved, Morning Blade?" Twilight asked, watching the ex-Assassin play with her braid.
"Not exactly, no." She shook her head again, slightly disappointed. "I never had the chance, being with the Assassins in their last days. Frigid would be the closest I would ever get to falling in love, I suppose. It's not like we were together or anything, but I did have a lot of respect for him. I looked up to him, no matter how many mistakes he made. I just knew he would make the right choice again one day. It's just unfortunate... that his right choice was the last thing he would ever do..."
Twilight watched Morning's face contort into various states of emotional pain. Getting up, she walked over and put a hand on the ex-Assassin's shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "At least he redeemed himself, huh? Before going?"
"That he did, princess. That he did." Morning Blade looked at her journal. This was Frigid's life as an Assassin. All here in her book. Telling his story made her feel like he was here with her again, even if it was at a disappointing moment in their history. "Come, let us continue."