Enemies with Benefits

Xerxes was no stranger to gathering information through social interaction. It was the easiest way to learn the 'vibes' of the general public, something important to keep on top of for sustained control. Alcohol and a charismatic affect often put others at ease, feeling more like they can be open about their perspective. Not only did it help him pin down new businesses that had slipped under his radar, it also clued him in on who was gaining influence, an important currency not kept in ledgers, as well as who had ambition and where it would lead to. It was one of many avenues in which he himself learned how to influence and gain the power that he had.

Working with Xerxes to pull one over on Brynmor and his operation meant that Ketna was back to being his arm candy in these social gatherings. Though this time, his behavior toward her in these situations shifted to something more tolerable. It was unlikely that it was entirely influenced by her argument with him the last time and more likely that the nature of the operation they were running and the new company they kept. In an attempt to put Brynmor at ease and give the appearance of being invested in the project, Xerxes was spending more time with the social circle in Brynmor's field, a field he was less personally acquainted with by choice. The atmosphere was a lot less 'frat boy' than Xerxes' usual company.

Up until this point, Xerxes had kept his distance from certain spheres of genetic alteration. He had facilitatedsomeprocedures, he knew all too well that a complete ban in the face of demand could provide opportunity for those that did facilitate it to gain influence over him. But he was highly restrictive, limiting services to cosmetic avenues and other minor elements. After Xerxes had discerned that Ketna's vigilante work as 'Zephyra' targeted this demographic first and foremost, he leaned into this for his own benefit. He could offer leniency on his restrictions which brought in eager business, upcharge his protections because of her presence, and she would shut them down before they had a chance to get established. Because he had never worked out any sort of deal with her, only played her to her motivations, all blame could be placed on her and no one had surmised that her interference was the intended outcome. It also kept her preoccupied and out of any of his other business.

Xerxes' avoidance on the subject meant the range of his knowledge was limited in comparison to Ketna's, who could pick up on minute details and references that Xerxes hadn't even been aware were important tells. So for the sake of their work, Xerxes had to refrain from his usual habits to ensure she could focus on the conversation. Not that he left her alone entirely, boasting about his sexual exploits was still very much on the table as was his relentless teasing that he would take advantage of when the night wound down. The outcome of all this meant the outings were in some aspects, more enjoyable than previous.

This was one of those nights, making nice with some of Brynmor's social circle, even if Stephan himself was not there. Many were drunk by now and the relaxed atmosphere had already loosened inhibitions enough to let more details slip that Ketna could investigate. The night would have been relatively uneventful were it not for a literal hiccup that shifted the course of the night for both of them.

As Xerxes' boisterous laughter at another recounting of his own accomplishments overpowered the conversation, it abruptly shifted into heavy coughing. The first cough didn't startle him, or the second, but by the third, the look on his face indicated to Ketna something was wrong. He attempted to hide his growing distress as continued heavy coughs brought him no new breath.

At the same time Xerxes' fist slammed down on the table in a distressed attempt to stabilize himself, Ketna gave a swift elbow to a specific point in Xerxes' midsection. He halted once, gave her a furious glance that softened the moment he took in his first unhindered breath. They exchanged silent glances, Ketna one of quiet but subtle concern, Xerxes of mystified relief and neither said a word. He played off the event coolly and no question or statement about the coughing fit came up for the rest of the evening.

As the night wound down, many of the invitees and their guests left for the evening, though Xerxes and Ketna lingered in the private room until they were the only ones remaining. This wasn't uncommon, Xerxes had made use of the private room to fuck Ketnaafterall the guests had left. Which is what Ketna had expected that evening but instead as the door closed behind the last group to leave, Xerxes let the room hang with quiet for a few seconds before he asked a question.

"When you elbowed me in the gut and got me to breathe, again-" He sounded cautious. "You know to do that or were you just fucking with me?"

"I wasn't fucking with you, I knew what was happening and how to fix it, so I did." Ketna answered earnestly.

"Yeah? What'd youthinkwas happening?" Xerxes sounded suspicious when he asked.

"The model of diaphragm you're using has a habit of de-syncing with organic lungs." Ketna explained. "Coughing can sometimes jar it enough to put it back into sync but sometimes you have to jostle it a bit harder than that. After the first few coughs I noticed you were struggling to breathe and since I had a pretty good idea of the force I needed to use to get it working again, did that before anyone would catch on that there was a problem."

Xerxes head tilted back slightly, studying Ketna, carefully. "You figure that all out from, what, observation?"

"Only the choking, I didn't intuit the mechanics from observation alone. Back when I first arrived in the area and did my usual investigative sweep, I accumulated as much information as I could on any opposition I would encounter. Naturally I sought out your schematics so that I would know what parts you were working with and how best to kill you. As a side effect, it also means I know how to fix you."

"Heh, Should'a figured." Xerxes sounded satisfied, but distant.

"How else do you suppose I figured out you had a snatch?" Ketna added, casually, attempting to bring levity to the conversation. Thinking this line of questioning was over, she fished out her phone to make notes on what to look into from what she remembered of the conversation.

Xerxes froze in place the moment Ketna finished her sentence, he stared off ahead as he began to process the totality of what that meant. "What." Was all he could muster in response.

Ketna continued on, having not glanced at Xerxes she didn't catch his obvious distress. "You know, basic recon? I stole schematics directly from everyone we discovered you contracted for body work. So I was able to get your whole-"

"Get rid of it." Xerxes interrupted sharply.

"What?"

"I fuckin' saidget rid of it." Xerxes emphasized with a shout of growing fury.

"You can't order me to do that." Ketna answered firmly.

The response brought a simmering rage to Xerxes, one underpinned by panic he spent great energy to suppress. He lunged forward from where he sat, grabbing her arm to yank her closer to him as he made his threat. "Fucking ungrateful bitch, I am youronlyfucking connection to this Brynmor shit" He yanked at her arm be an additional reminder. "I can drop you on his doorstep any fucking time I want- I put up with your bullshit this whole time but I tell you to doonefucking thing" He raised a single finger on his free hand right in her face to emphasize the number. "And you have the nerve to tell me 'No'?TheFuckyou even need it for?" He didn't pay any consideration to his claws, the digging and clawing into her bicep he squeezed was likely the goal, even. The wrath he exhibited was on par to how he acted toward her the days following her exploit if the very snatch he hid.

"Repairs, for one." Ketna answered just as sharply. Apparently the answer was enough to reduce Xerxes' rage such that she could yank her arm back from his grasp. "The only reason you didn't pass out in public from lack of oxygen is because of those schematics. If we're working together one of the best ways for me to have your back is to know how to fix or stabilize you. The only people with access to it are myself and Munin. It's all offline, and there's no way in hell someone is breaking into my place. Besides, even if I did scrub it, I'd still be able to go to the source and get copies, again."

Xerxes' rage shifted fully into the panic he had been suppressing, Ketna caught the look on his face only just barely managing to dash out in front of him and cut him off as he bolted for the door. Kenta's body blocked him from the door before he could exit the room and continued to hold him back.

"Get The Fuck Ou-"

Xerxes attempted to toss her out of his way, but her swift calculated motions used his fury and weight to grasp the arm that reached out for her and flip him onto his back, hopping onto his chest to interrupt his exclamation.

"If this is about the schematics in relation to your cunt, I can justalterthe files." Ketna shouted back at him

Xerxes sat up, grasping at her chest, clawing at whatever he wanted in the process of grabbing hold of the front of her dress to pull her face to his. "Thefuckyou mean alter?"

"I mean change the files as though it never existed." Ketna answered quickly.

Xerxes settled only slightly, sitting in place on the floor still holding the front of her dress in his hand as he permitted her to make her case.

"If you go racing down to your mechanic's place to trash his shop and his home you'll draw attention to the whole thing and might not even get the results you want." Ketna explained quickly. "So instead of causing a scene, let me take care of it."

Xerxes finally released Ketna's dress, dropping his hand down to the floor, leaning back on both of them. "Take care,how?" He asked, in a way that gave Ketna a vague indication he was going to retaliate the moment he didn't like what she had to offer.

Ketna remained seated in Xerxes lap as she explained.

"I can replace whatever schematics or documentation they have with versions of the files that don't have any reference or indication of your vaginal implant. I can even make the new file backdated so they won't even realize it's been tampered with. I can do the same thing to their backups so they can't ever accidentally recover it. On top of all that I can do a scrub of network and access activity. And they won't even know I was there or when it happened by the time they notice anything is different."

Xerxes looked receptive but something hadn't permitted him to release the tension completely. "What's the catch?" he asked, carefully.

Ketna was taken aback by the question, "There.. Isn't one." She answered honestly.

"That'sbullshit." Xerxes bit back. "You may not say it but even you're hoping you'll get something out of this."

"Fine," Ketna rolled her eyes as she stood up from Xerxes lap to continue making her case. "If it would make you feel better for me to negotiate some sort of demand out of this, how about-" She shrugged, resigned, and motioned about with one hand, the other on her hip. "I do this and you promise me you won't go murdering any civilian laborer you assumemighthave access to your secret. And if you have any suspicion that anyone else has any similar information, you give it to me and let me handle it."

Xerxes visibly relaxed for the first time since the subject had started. He stood up from the floor, pointing at her once on his feet. "And you mean it, what you said, replacing the files, the backups, you can do all that?"

Ketna relaxed too, seeing that Xerxes wasn't about to bolt out the door. "That's half of what I do for a living." She answered wryly.

"How will I know it's gone?" Xerxes was still not humored.

"Do you want to watch me do it?"

"Like come with you?"

"No, no- Video call, you can watch me do it, the whole boring process."

"How soon?" Xerxes was getting progressively more hopeful sounding as the discussion continued.

"Could do it tonight, actually," Ketna glanced around the room to get an eye on where her personal effects had been scattered. "It's not especially difficult."

"Well?" Xerxes stepped back, raising his arms in an impatient gesture toward the door. "Whattaryah waiting for?" He asked with mild irritation.

"Wow, sure okay." Ketna walked back around him to gather her things. "A 'please' or a 'thank you' would be nice, but I'll get right on that." She said to Xerxes while walking past him on the way to the door, not waiting for his response.

--

True to her word, Ketna geared up after getting home and went right back out. She already knew where the mechanic's shop was and Munin would grab his personal address for her while she did work in the shop. Security was good for what it was, any amateur would have had difficulty getting in, but she certainly was no amateur. Between her own skill and Munin's help, she slipped into the shop unnoticed just as she had done before.

A few things had been rearranged since the last time, but the computer was in the same area she last remembered it. Now that she was settled at her target, she phoned Xerxes just as she had promised.

"What'd take you so long?" Xerxes answered with irritation, the sound connected to Ketna's earpiece in her helmet.

"It hasn't beenthatlong. I had to make the altered schematic files and then gear up before I left. But I'm here now, you ready for a video feed or what?" The mic in Ketna's helmet allowed her to communicate with her phone unhindered.

"Been waitin' this whole fuckin' time!" Xerxes exclaimed. It was difficult to tell if he was impatient or if it was a matter of distress. Likely, it was both.

Ketna huffed and activated the camera for the call, leaving the phone in a cradle attached to the strap of her chest plate, permitting her to work hands free while Xerxes watched.

Xerxes remained quiet, much to Ketna's relief, as she went through the mundane process of connecting her hackbox to the computer and setting up remote connections between the computer and Munin's station. Within minutes, the login was bypassed and Ketna was in the system itself. She navigated through familiar file systems and found the schematics with ease.

"And now I just have to wait while this script runs its course." She announced and stepped back.

"That it?" Xerxes sounded unimpressed.

"For now, after it's finished I'll need to do some more manual digging to find any errant files that wouldn't be noticed by the script itself." Ketna explained. "I also need to look around for any physical printouts that might exist."

"The fuck you standing around there for then?!" Xerxes' distress picked up again at the suggestion there could be such a thing to find.

"For fucks.." Ketna muttered as she moved from the desk to the filing cabinets.

Xerxes remained quiet again as she sorted through the files, looking through each page regardless if it was labeled as Xerxes or not. Misplacement was always a possibility to be prepared for.

"How often you doin' shit like this?" Xerxes asked to break the silence after she had scanned through the first few files of the drawer.

"If I had to put a metric on it, weekly would be my guess." Ketna answered idly while she continued to flip through documents. "A nontrivial amount of what I do is just... this." She held up the file folder in her hand to illustrate her point.

"That's fuckin' boring." Xerxes said but seemed slightly humored about it.

"Sure is." Ketna's inflection was equally humored. "Sometimes I can listen to something while I work to pass the time but other times I have to keep an ear out on my surroundings so sitting in silence is something I'm used to."

Silence lingered for a moment before Xerxes asked another question.

"You uh, talk to Munin while doing this?" Xerxes asked.

"Sometimes?" Ketna found the line of questioning for Xerxes a little odd. "I'm not always in situations where I can talk freely without being overheard. But I'll talk to him on occasion if we have something to discuss- if the situation allows for it of course."

"What's the longest you've had to spend on something like this?" Xerxes asked.

"On site or at home? And collectively for one job or in one day?" Ketna answered, confused by the continued casual conversation, but glad for it.

"On site, in a day." Xerxes clarified.

"Hmm." Ketna had to give it some thought, a few already popped into her head due to their lack of eventfulness being their biggest point of "Thirteen hours." She answered with conviction. "Thirteen hours of searching room by room, sorting through files and checking everywhere for hidden stashes and forgotten piles through a whole fucking multi-story office space by myself. I didn't even have to dodge security, which added to how fucking boring the whole thing was."

"What fuckin' place has no security for thirteen hours?" There was a slight chuckle in Xerxes voice, the most elevated in mood he had been since his freak out.

"A place that had been evacuated for a local emergency. I took the opportunity to scour a lot of locations around that time, but that building was the largest and I was determined to scour the whole place before I left." Ketna sounded exasperated at the recall of how long that whole thing took.

"Get anything good out of it?"

"Thankfully, yes, and it was something I wasn't even looking for initially." Ketna smiled to herself as she recalled that windfall. "Gave me a lead to something else I had been investigating not long ago." Ketna ensured her answer was vague on purpose. "I think I would have lost my mind if I spent all that time with nothing to show for it."

By now, Ketna had scoured the filing cabinets and had moved on to different areas of the office, rummaging through piles, looking for hiding spots. Apart from his initial panic, Xerxes company with her through all this had been a welcome change of pace from her usual practice as she had just described to him. A chirp from her hackbox got her attention and she diverted her attention back to the computer.

"What, it's done?" Xerxes asked as Ketna made her way back to the computer.

"Running the automated scripts at least." Ketna confirmed and checked the hackbox's screen then retrieved her other, non-social phone to backread the results from Munin. On the computer screen itself, Munin's manipulation of the cursor could be seen darting around the screen and inputting commands into the terminal of the operating system.

"So what's that mean?" Xerxes asked while attempting to suppress some level of anxiety.

"It means that the file overwriting is finished for all current files and backups. Speaking of-" Ketna continued to scroll through Munin's findings, reading them first to confirm before she relayed any information. "According to Munin, there was only one location where files were archived, there were about 5 backups, all successfully overwritten with no unusual activity. We also have the transaction history."

"Yeah? Well?" Xerxes' anxiety was more obvious.

"The files have remained either on this system or the personal backups. They have not been accessed by anyone other than the owner and all access dates coincide with invoices of work you've contracted yourself. The files and backups are also reasonably protected so anyone else in the shop wouldn't have been able to access them by accident. For all we've been able to find, your mechanic has been shrewd and discrete with regard to both accessing the file and creating any backups of it."