He thought to himself, "Maybe I should tell her that I am sorry."
He nodded as he thought, "Yes, I should start from there."
Then he said, "I don't trust you, Wrath. Maybe in time I will, but not now. For now, I am sorry for saying that I didn't need you. I should have said that I didn't need you much. I only need you a little. But that little might be the difference between life and death."
Then he coughed. It was because Wrath was looking at him now. He paused to gather himself.
He thought to himself, "She is some ancient creature. I'm sure she won't make things difficult for me. She should be bigger than that."
He continued after having found his confidence. "So I might need you a little bit. I can admit that much. I will also appreciate any help that you can give me. In exchange, I will try to make it worth your while. If I can free you, I will."
She nodded and said, "I think I should apologize for trying to trick you. I don't regret it because you clearly overreacted, but I should have known that you couldn't handle a little harmless prank."
Then she became silent.
He asked her, "Is that it? I don't think that sounded like an apology. If that's an apology, then it was a bad one."
She scoffed and said, "Your apology was wrong too. You don't know how to apologize either. You're a kettle calling a pot black."
He disagreed with her with a shake of his head. "My apology was well thought out. It had more words than yours. Yours was definitely worse."
She smiled and said proudly, "I didn't apologize. I simply said that I thought it was a good idea to apologize."
He pointed at her and said, "Aha. I knew it was not a proper apology."
She didn't deny it. She said, "You still have a long way to go before you can swindle me with a fake apology. Do you think I am like your foolish victims who you managed to deceive with your paltry acting skill?"
He snorted and said, "My acting skill is not paltry. I'll have you know that I read a lot of books and practiced for many hours."
She nodded. "I know. I have seen how hard you've worked."
She became silent, and so did Kelvin.
Eventually she said, "You are good on your own. I have seen that much. Maybe you don't even need me a little. You can surely replace my help with the right abilities. But I'll try to be very helpful to you and gain your trust as a loyal ally."
He smiled and said, "Thanks."
Then he held out his hand to her and asked, "Partners?"
She smiled too and shook his hand, "Partners."
They didn't really shake since they couldn't touch. Their hands just phased through each other. But the simple act of trying to shake meant a lot to both of them.
It meant Kelvin's willingness to accept her and Wrath's dedication to make sure that he won't have any reason to regret that decision. It meant that they were partners with a common goal.
So Kelvin was in a good mood when his phone rang to inform him of another break-in into the apartment he had commandeered into a trap.
He took a look at the picture of the intruder sent to him. It was someone he didn't recognize. So he ran the image through the villain database.
He got many hits. He saw that the name of the person was Thorin Mind Fire. He was affiliated with a cabal called Anteater. It was a cabal he was familiar with.
He asked himself, "Why is Pauli looking for me? Is he investigating me now after I rejected his request so many times?"
Wrath didn't think so. She said, "Isn't this your trap safe house? This is more likely to be related to the murder you just committed than Paul's recruitment."
She asked, "What's his ability?"
He read on to find out. He saw a lot of information about Thorin. Most of them were all about Thorin's games in the Tower of Destiny. The others were about his actions in helping the Anteater cabal grow.
He relaxed when he saw that Thorin uses a metal attack ability. But he became tense again when he saw that the ability could be used to track people.
He read many cases of people complaining about him on the forum. Apparently, Thorin had a bad rep. He was always forcing people to do things for him.
Thorin was likened to Blank Mantis, except he didn't give them any drugs or pleasure. He simply ripped people off by threatening to kill them if they didn't give him what he wanted.
Wrath said, "This must be the guy Pauli was talking about."
Kelvin nodded. "He should be the one. He is a good tracker. He never misses a target. So he will surely find me."
He slumped onto the couch and sighed.
He said, "You know, on one hand, I am frustrated that powerful people keep coming after me. But on the other hand, I am salivating at the prospect of gaining another Omega ability."
"I remember when I was looking for omega abilities but couldn't find them. Do you remember that time I was scammed out of 400 thousand dollars?"
Wrath replied, "I remember. You were pissed off."
He said, "I still blame you. You were the one that talked me into it."
Wrath said, "And look at where you are now! Surely, that decision had a part to play in leading you here."
He shook his head. "No, it did not."
"I beg to differ."
He snorted and continued. "Anyway, I was looking for them everywhere, but I couldn't find them. But I have already encountered two of them in the past few days. Now another one is on its way to me. What a dilemma."