Death is Inevitable (Higgs Monaghan X F! Reader) [UNDER EDITING]

Part 9: Onto Mountain Knot City

~four hours later~

[Name]'s POV

The paved highway to Mountain Knot City ends once we're outside the chiral network, and our hoods come up and cover us as it starts to rain hard.

"You stay back. I'll take out the BTs here, and then we can continue forward," I tell Sam, and he nods.

I park my trike and get off, my chiral blood surrounding my arms as I walk towards a ruined factory on the side of the dirt road. I gaze around at all the BTs floating in the air, shooting beams of my substance at them while I creep toward the old factory.

A plethora of Gazers float in and around the building, and I send out a wave of my chiral blood, killing them instantly. The rain lightens up once the last BT is dead, and I jog back over to Sam.

"We're good to continue," I tell him while getting on my trike.

"Hey, [Name]... when did you learn you could kill BTs?" Sam asks as we set off for the waystation.

"It was the day I left Bridges. An order I was running went bad, and I ended up stuck in an area with BTs surrounding me. I panicked at one point when one of the Gazers got to close, and next thing I knew, I was shooting chiral blood out of my hand," I explain before frowning. "I didn't want Bridges to know of my power then, so I left. Just disappeared as if I never existed at all."

"Why keep your power hidden?"

"Because I didn't trust Bridges- I still don't," I say before sighing. "For the most part, I think everyone is trying to help reconnect the world and do what's best, but the higher-ups like Bridget, Die-Hardman, and even Amelie... I'm wary of them. You can't tell me it's not unusual how secretive they are.

"BB-28s service records... my records from birth... why is Deadman locked out or unable to find them? What is Bridges hiding? There's also the matter of supercells. They seem to be happening as we strengthen the network, and you could tell Mama was worried about how the chiral network is affecting the world. If chiral density could get worse and we possibly trigger another Death Stranding, why is Die-Hardman pushing us to get it done as fast as possible?

"And then there's Amelie. I know she's your sister, and you care about her, but some things don't make sense to me. If she was captured, why would she be allowed to speak with us? Maybe I'm just paranoid and overthinking, but I think there's something else going on. I just don't know what."

"So why return to Bridges?" Sam inquires, and I glance over at him.

"Curiosity, mainly. Plus, I wanted to understand my chiral blood more, and the only person I knew who could help was Deadman," I say before humming. "How about you, Sam? Why'd you leave Bridges originally?"

"It started when I met my wife, Lucy..." he starts.

Sam continues to tell me everything that happened, from Lucy counseling him to help with his aphenphosmphobia to them eventually falling in love and conceiving a child, then to her suicide because of the nightmares she experienced from carrying a child who would have DOOMs, which caused a voidout in satellite town, killing everyone and leaving Sam as the only survivor because of his ability to repatriate.

"I felt guilty over what happened, and Bridges also named me a suspect in her death, so I left and became an independent porter."

"No wonder why you didn't want to rejoin Bridges," I murmur before sending him a nod. "I'm sorry about what happened, though."

He grunts, and I look ahead as we start up a path on the mountain, continuing to the waystation.

~three hours later~