Chapter 606 New Deal with a Witch (3)

Avery's mind raced as he went over everything that Delilah had told him so far.

He was still far from being certain that he believed her story, but if it was true, there were definitely potential problems that could arise.

The last thing he needed right now was for another version of the woman he had already captured scheming his downfall.

There were a lot of plans that Avery had made for the future, and always having to be looking over his back waiting for some unknown trap to spring would make everything far more difficult than they needed to be.

"Well, that all certainly does sound bad. Except, there's an easy solution to prevent the worst from happening. Just give me the location of the faciality and I'll go destroy it. Then we won't have to worry about your clone or whatever running amok." Avery said, bringing forward the most ideal way to bring this problem to an end.

Of course, he seriously doubted that Delilah was just going to hand over the only leverage that she had in this negotiation.

Which the first words out of her mouth proved Avery's expectations to be correct.

"That I can assure you, won't be happening. This faciality is my lifeline. Also, I prefer the term incarnation over things like clone. Each new body is completely different, only my memories remain the same."

At this, Avery rolled his eyes and scoffed. Making himself appear more upset than he actually was.

Even now, Delilah wanted to play her games, so he would go along. Until he had either reasonably confirmed or disproven her story.

As much as he just wanted to tell her that he was not going to play into her farce, the risk that what she had said was true was not something he could discount.

"I couldn't even tell you its location even if I wanted to in." Delilah sighed after Avery stayed silent for several seconds and looked like he was contemplating leaving.

Just as Avery could not take any risks, neither could she.

If Avery left and decided not to allow anyone to interact with her again, then she would lose her last chance at regaining any control over her life.

"Oh, and why is that?"

"It's part of the safety measures that I take to keep the place hidden. After a new version of me is brought to life and all my memories have been integrated into a new body, I leave the station and it immediately relocates to somewhere else deep in interstellar space where it is almost impossible to be discovered. The entire process is automated without my input or knowledge. That way if I'm every captured, no one can extract the information from me." Delilah explained.

"You know, there's something that's been bothering me, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until now. For someone as meticulous as you, this all seems like a pretty large oversight. You've left a lot of things out of your control without any contingencies."

After Avery pointed this out, Delilah stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds before laughing loudly.

"And what's so funny? Did you finally crack since I've started to see through your bullsh*t." Avery said, his eyes sharpening as he glared at Delilah.

"No, nothing like that." Delilah said in between chuckling. "It's just that you think I didn't have innumerable contingencies in place to avoid this scenario. You are the first person to successfully capture me when I did not want to be held prisoner."

"Whatever absurd powers you have as whatever a 'True Awakened' is blew apart all of my plans and backups. Most people would not be able to stop me from fleeing when I wanted to or prevent the bomb inside me from going off. Not to mention you disabled every other means I had to end my own life.

"It's true that I make numerous plans to account for every possible situation that I can conceive, but I'm far from perfect. I can't act on information that I don't have. This situation is far from one I ever wanted to find myself in, and I've just revealed one of my greatest secrets to you. Under normal circumstances, I'd never tell anyone about this."

For once, Avery believed that Delilah had taken off her mask and was being frank with him.

It was merely a gut feeling. He did not have any proof, but he decided to trust his instincts.

"Fine, let's say that I'm starting to believe you. You've got to be able to give me some sort of proof that I can use to confirm your story. Also, you have to realize that no matter what, I'm not going to let you go free."

Delilah grumbled a bit, but she nodded her head in acceptance.

"I've got a ship that has all of the records of my lives over the last four hundred years. I'll give you its current coordinates and access codes. You should be able to get the proof of what I've said from its databanks."

"As for what I want, better accommodations to start. This tiny cell where I can barely move is not my idea of comfort."

"Well, I can do a little, like giving you some entertainment. But, if I loosen any of the restraints on you, you'd just kill yourself. Now that I know about your little trick, I've got even more incentive to make sure that you stay alive."

"That's unacceptable. Right now I can hardly even move my arms and legs around." Delilah said, showing Avery her restrained range of motion.

She was physically incapable of touching any part of her body with her limbs due to the restraints attached to her.

It was also impossible for her to walk very far or fast. Another measure in place to prevent her from harming herself.

"Tough. I'd rather keep you prisoner and have to fight a different version of you than let you kill yourself and get away."

"I've no interest in taking my own life anymore. You've cut off my connection to my network for a while now, so I'd lose a lot of memories that I want to keep. What I'm offering is a partnership here. A real one. You'll have access to all of my knowledge and connections. And I don't even want that much in return. Just better living conditions. I know when I've been beat."

Out of everything, this made Avery the most suspicious.

Delilah was giving up far too easily.

He was not even sure if her supposed aversion to there being another version out there was real.

For all he knew, this did not actually matter to her in the slightest. The best lies were hidden among the truth after all.

'There's got to be some other agenda that she has. I'm just not sure what it could be. My best bet is probably to play along and get as much out of her without giving her anything to actually work with. That's how she likes to operate, so she can't be too upset.' Avery thought, doing his best to keep his expression from changing.

Yet, Delilah must have picked something up, since her demeanor suddenly changed, and she said, "You're thinking of trying to play me, aren't you? Just don't. I'm trying to be candid here. I believe that working together will be more beneficial for both of us."

"To that end, I give you a little tidbit of information to prove my sincerity. I happen to know the location of where a certain solar flare emitter you might be concerned about is soon to be deployed."