Cigarettes

666 held the open package towards Lock.

"Want one?"

Lock gave off a silent chuckle. "I thought those things kill you."

"They do."

Lock said nothing more and brought a cigarette to her mouth. 666 ignited his lighter and lit it up for her. It didn't take many seconds before she started choking, the cigarette falling out of her mouth.

"Not like that." 666 picked up the cigarette and put it back into her mouth.

"[smoking description here]..."

---

Morgan Lock fell to her knees, panting. Her last strike had been deflected, and she was exhausted. They had been going at it for nearly two hours now.

"Alright, let's take fifteen."

She walked over to a bench, sat down and wiped her face with a towel. She was sweating, her body was aching, and her record for the day wasn't anything to write home about. But she took it all in stride, because she knew she was improving. As she started drinking from a water bottle, her instructor sat down beside her, lighting a cigarette. After a few seconds, he tilted the package in her direction.

"Want one?"

"No. As always." She took another drink of water and then looked at him. "And even if I did, wouldn't want to- to strain my lungs more during training..."

The black figure chuckled before putting the packet and lighter beside him on the bench.

It had become ritualized at this point. Any break they had, any time he'd light up a cigarette, he'd offer her one and she'd always refuse. 

Morgan Lock's military career had been quite the ride. She had originally come to the Maverickhunters as a conscript, and with only a few incidents, she had completed her tour of service together with two companions, Simon Barker and Lucy Woods. While they were a solid unit, it wasn't until they had separated that Lock had really started coming into her own. They had all been given an opportunity to officially join the Maverickhunters, but Lock was the only one who took it. Barker, while strong and a good soldier, had never really taken to the military life. The last Lock had heard, he had been employed as a bodyguard. Woods had appreciated all the practice and exercise she had been given, but said she wanted to focus on her private work and competitions. There were more than a few rumours floating around that she was involved with some high-level stuff, but Lock had chosen not to consider that any further.

Lock, however, didn't have much to return to. She had been kicked out of the navy before being conscripted to the hunters, didn't have a very exciting personal life and didn't feel the skills she had were much to try to build a non-military career on.

So, she remained Sergeant Morgan Lock, now also given the rank of B-class hunter. She remained in the high hunter ranks, and was promoted to Ensign. Together with another junior officer, she was given command of a small unit. Without the personal relationship she had had with Barker and Woods when working with them, she felt she was operating far more efficiently.

And then the devil had approached her personally.

Of course, 'the devil' was the nickname she and her two former companions had been using for one of the mercenaries that stayed with the hunters. His real name (at least, what he used as a name) was 666, so it wasn't really that far off. Lock had landed a hit on him during a sparring match when they were new at the headquarters, surprising all involved. Apparently, he had seen something in that, and from watching her (at least, that's what he said) after she had enlisted officially, decided to extend an offer to personally train her in melee combat.

At first, Lock had planned on refusing. After all, she didn't like the guy. But at the same time, he had explained his reasons, and Lock felt that if she had some untapped potential, she might as well give it a shot... he seemed one of the most successful fighters among all of the hunters. Thus, she had accepted, becoming his - as he claimed - first and only private student.

---

"Why do you smoke, anyway?"

666 pondered the question for a second. "I don't really know. I've smoked for as far back as I can remember... and now, whether I like it or not, it's an addiction."

"Did you ever try stopping?"

"No." He held up the cigarette, as if to study it. "They don't do any lasting physical harm to me, given how I don't have lungs like humans do... so, no matter what, they're not going to be what kills me."

---

"You perceive me as male only because that's what I seem to be... my voice and my body shape. And it's what you should see me as, since it's become what I perceive myself as. But on a technical level, I'm both sexless and genderless. Had my voice been female, I would most likely have had a female identity today."

"Didn't you mention you had a girlfriend?"

"I did, once..."

"But if you have no sex drive, then what..."

"I've wondered myself. I can feel... what sentient species with a sex drive would consider to be love, but I cannot feel any lust. She, too, was only female because it's what she had been made to be, being an asexual construct as well. Even so, you could say we had a... physical relationship."

"You lost me."

"We connected the first time we saw each other - I believe you'd call it love at first sight - and our first private encounter consisted of us nearly killing each other."

"Sounds like a lovely relationship."

666 snickered. "To those who experience their greatest emotional release through fighting, it was a great union. We would fight, not holding back... losing ourselves entirely in each other."

"While trying to kill your partner?"

"

---

"How... does it seem?"

"I've seen people with larger holes in their chest survive. Then again, they had both their legs left too... and weren't human."

Lock closed her eyes. "So this is it..."

666 sat down next to her and reached into his pouch, taking out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. He put one in his mouth and lit it up. 

666 held the open package towards Lock.

"Want one?"

Lock gave off a silent chuckle. "I thought those things kill you."

"They do."

Lock said nothing more and brought a cigarette to her mouth. 666 ignited his lighter and lit it up for her. It didn't take many seconds before she started choking, the cigarette falling out of her mouth.

"Not like that." 666 picked up the cigarette and put it back into her mouth.

"[smoking description here]..."

"...one casualty."

---

"Isn't the funeral today?"

"It is..."

"You weren't invited?"

"I was... but I felt I had no place there."

"Each time we were about to go into battle, she told me the same four words... 'I have no regrets'. 

Silver pointed at his upper arm. "Where's your-"

"It's serving a better purpose."