The underground remained quiet but not peacefully quiet.
Limited exposure from the rear thanks to the structural column. Emergency light still flickered overhead.
Blyke checked the scanner again. "Either we are alone…or whatever's here doesn't register the way we expect."
Cagaro didn't like that answer but his tongue lightly.
Henry crouched adjusting the placement of a metal panel to reduce sightlines from the left flank. "Fatigue will compromise us before an ambush does." he said. "Micro-rest cycles. We will take nap in ten minutes each pair."
Arcee looked at him. "You trusting us to wake you up?"
Henry met her gaze evenly. "Why do you think we two are awake?"
She smirked faintly. "To do nothing, of course."
Blyke rolled his shoulders, tension finally showing off. "Order?"
"You two go first." Henry replied. "You burned more energy earlier. Don't need to worry, I am okay."
Arcee didn't argue. That alone told them she was tired. After all, they were humans.
Before settling, she leaned toward Cagaro. "If something crawls out of the dark and you shout like a random b*tch, I'm leaving you."
"I don't scream that easily."
"We will see that."
Blyke let out a quiet chuckle and moved to the inner corner of their formation, positioning himself where he could rest against the pillar without fully exposing his side. Arcee slid down beside a crate quietly.
She looked up at Henry one more time. "Call us after ten minutes."
"You will wake naturally at nine." Henry said calmly.
"Show-off."
Within moments, both slowed their gesture sleeping carefully.
The chamber felt larger with only two conscious minds.
Cagaro shifted closer to Henry. His voice dropped. "Do you really think camping disrupts him?"
Henry kept his eyes on the darkness beyond their light. "If he operates through predictive outcomes... I don't know what to say."
Cagaro considered that. "Or we give him just time."
Henry didn't answer immediately.
A distant metallic creak echoed faintly—far away. Not approaching. Just… existing.
Cagaro tightened his grip on his weapon.
"You don't look worried at all"
"I am." Henry replied evenly. "Worry simply doesn't improve outcomes."
Cagaro exhaled slowly. Another minute passed between them.
Cagaro turned slightly beside Henry, eyes still scanning the shadows but his thoughts had been hanging .elsewhere.
"Can I ask you something?" he said quietly.
Henry didn't look at him. "You just did."
Cagaro hesitated. "Do you… have any friends?"
Henry's gaze remained forward with no significant expression or reaction.
"No." he said simply.
Cagaro frowned. "None?"
"Why it had to be?"
The answer wasn't defensive.
Cagaro swallowed then continued anyway. "Blyke told me things."
Henry's eyes turned slightly.
"He mentioned the Order of the Last Hand. The civil war inside it. Reverse Breathing, your disappearance and stuffs."
"And…" Cagaro added carefully, "he said you had two. Only close two in your entire life. Your best friends."
For a second, the word hung still in the space. Hearing it, Henry kept looking at the dark heaven having his mouth half opened awkwardly but expressionless.
Henry's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
"Bighead." he muttered under his breath.
Cagaro blinked. "What?"
"Nevermind him, he talks too much."
There was no humor in it.
Cagaro raised both hands slightly. "It's not his fault."
Henry didn't respond.
"I forced him there." Cagaro admitted. "I kept pushing. I needed to understand who I am standing next to down here."
The emergency light flickered again casting a brief shadow across Henry's face.
"You shouldn't dig into graves." Henry said quietly.
Cagaro held his ground. "They are are not graves if you still remember them."
Cagaro hesitated before speaking again but the question had already rooted itself in his chest.
"Where are they now?" he asked quietly. "Those two."
Henry didn't answer immediately. The hum beneath the floor continued its low vibration, steady and indifferent.
For a long moment, Henry simply watched the darkness beyond their small circle of light.
"They were Avery Le Fay..." he said at last, voice even. "...and Roland Ashford."
The names did not echo. They sank.
Cagaro's brows drew together slightly. "Were?"
Henry's expression did not change. "Yes."
Another pause followed long enough for the weight of the word to settle before the next one came.
"However," Henry continued, quieter now, "they both are now… dead."
The statement wasn't dramatic. It wasn't heavy with outward grief. A fact placed on a table and left there.
Cagaro felt something twist in his emotions anyway.
He studied Henry more carefully in the dim light—the composed posture, the analytical gaze that never seemed to rest. He had always assumed that calmness was strength.
Now it felt more like containment.
"I am sorry hearing that." Cagaro said and for once there was no nervousness in his voice.
Henry didn't respond. His eyes remained forward reflecting emergency light.
Cagaro understood then that whatever those two had been—friends, allies or brothers in something darker than loyalty that their absence hadn't hollowed Henry hugely.
He was always a cool figure but beneath that surface, he is just a dead walking flesh.
Henry glanced sideways at Cagaro, expression unreadable for a second.
"You are very aggressive for someone who is patient internally," Henry said calmly.
Cagaro stared at him. "Whatever."
"You absolutely do."
For a brief moment, the underground didn't feel like a death chamber. Just two exhausted men sitting under a dying light.
Henry leaned back against the crate, folding his arms. "Fine. Since you have decided to excavate my past like an amateur archaeologist, I'll offer you a deal."
Cagaro blinked. "What deal?"
"Make me laugh."
"What?"
Henry's voice remained level. "You seem determined to prove I am still human. So. Make me laugh."
Cagaro squinted at him. "That's impossible."
"Excuses already?"
"I'm not your court jester."
"You volunteered the moment you started interrogating me."
Cagaro rubbed his face, thinking. "Okay. Fine. What kind of humor?"
Henry considered. "Surprise me."
A distant metallic groan resounded in the darkness. Neither of them looked away from each other.
Cagaro said tiredly. "You know… for a guy who says he has no friends, you talk like someone who lost a bet with life."
Henry stared like a ghost.
Cagaro shifted awkwardly. "That was bad, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
"Give me time!"
"You have nine minutes before my mood springs off."
Cagaro exhaled sharply. "You're enjoying this."
"Immensely... I mean forget it."
Cagaro nudged Henry's shoulder lightly. "If I actually make you laugh, what do I get?"
Henry's gaze returned to the darkness.
"Proof." he said quietly, "that I'm not entirely dead yet."
Cagaro didn't joke about that and nodded with a smirk like accepting a promise.